Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

13 Favorite memories of the past year
in no particular order
(okay, except maybe the first one!)

1. Bringing Kaedy home for the first time!!!!

2. Kaedra's first birthday

3. The groundbreaking at my church's new site

4. Coming home from San Antonio and seeing my kids and hubby after 3 1/2 weeks

5. Doing Ria's makeup for Halloween (and how pretty she looked!)

6. Chasing cows, two days in a row, at Paula's house. Herding a cow with my DH's Rodeo (aptly named SUV)

7. Getting our pool

8. Going to the Alamo with my mom

9. Stucco-ing the kitchen (and all the assorted mishaps that went along with it!)

10. Taking Kaedra outside for the first time

11. Going to visit Brittany at church camp and the baptisms that happened there in the lake

12. Kaedra standing up the first time, crawling the first time, walking the first time...all of Kaedy's firsts.

13. When the Zandi's moved in next door. (whoops, that hasn't happened yet, but I am looking forward to it!!!) :-)

Snow...and after......

This is what we woke up to this morning:















And this is what it looks like right now:




Brandi....do you think that is quick enough for Jim???? LOL!!

New Blog

Today is the DEBUT of my new Blogsite - Digital Mama.
I am creating this blog page to share with other mothers who

A. Already use their computer and/or PDA to help organize and schedule their family and selves and want new ideas and/or reviews of software

-OR-

B. Mothers that are interested in learning how to organize and schedule themselves with technology.

One of my favorite subjects is organizing and I love to use my computer and my palm pilot to organize my life, my kids' lives and our family life. I use them for everything from alarms reminding me when to do things to keeping my recipes with me at all times to setting up my pda to have my grocery list in order of the aisles at the store. The things I do are no different than I used to do without a computer and PDA, however, they are SO much easier with technology at our disposal.

So check it out everyday to see how I use technology to help run our daily life and get ideas for yourself!

Giant Flying Squids

My friend Melanie and I were discussing schedules and plans one day and came up with a wonderful mascot for Mothers....a giant flying squid. Now, wait, before you laugh too hard or turn away in disgust, not wanting to see yourself as slimy or having suckers, hear why we have created this wonderful emblem to be henceforth an insignia for mothers everywhere!

Let's take a look at one of the creatures...




The first thing you see is the "Stabilizing Fins." I think this is probably the most important part of mommies. We are the stabilizing forces in our homes, marriages, and children. When Mommy isn't home, or sick, everything is chaotic, right? When we are home and running our house, our family's have a stable life.

Secondly, we see the mantle. I am not sure what a "mantle" does for a squid, but I will liken it to moms anyway. A mantle is the hearthstone of a family. It is where we put the pictures of the children, our wedding, or the precious crafts that they make in proliferation. It is the heart and memory of the family, something a mom keeps unfailingly in her soul, to show each member how much they mean to both God and the other members. (It is also the ability to remember, when meeting your daughter's future spouse, exactly where the most embarrassing picture of your precious baby making her first "do-do" is)

Next is the siphon. This is especially important for me. This is our ability to weed out the junk the world wants to inflict upon our children and let in only the best. It is especially essential to those who think that God has given us the charge to protect our children and keep them from evil influences. The amount to which each mother uses the siphon is a personal matter and varies widely.

The parrot-like beak and mouth can be both our worst and our best trait. It is our worst when we sarcastically answer the question "Do we have to do school today?" with "Yes we have to do school today!" It is our best when we remember verses or truths from the bible and use them to train our children.

In my opinion, every mother will understand the want for 8 arms. Who hasn't wanted another arm to cuddle with or to soothe a child while on the phone, cooking dinner and giving spelling words? Eight arms would be great for getting the whole kitchen cleaned at once, doing grocery shopping four times as fast and grading 8 papers (as long as we also had 4 times the brain power - which should be no problem considering our HUGE head). The suckers would be wonderful for keeping track of toddlers in crowded malls or near stairways. They would also be great for picking up all the toys as we walked through the house, in one big sweep.

The two long feeding tentacles have many uses. When we have babies, it would be great to be able to nurse them at the same time as being able to make a pb&j for our toddler. With the older children, what mom wouldn't want to be able to cut everyone's food at once! We could also feed toddler while being able to eat at the same time. AAAAHHHHHH pure luxury!!! And just think......for the mom who has quadruplets........

I already mentioned the huge head, but I will just re-iterate what every 4 year old will tell you....Mom knows everything. Therefore, we need the big head. :-)

And the eye, ah yes, the all-knowing eye. This is the eye that gets us the response "how did you know that?" or "how did you see that?" It is the "eye in the back of the head" or the eye that helps us see through walls. It is the eye that can detect a lie and see into every child's heart. It is also the eye that lets us see when our children need some mommy time or just need some fun time (and so we have a huge pillow/tickle fight which of course we win because we have 8 arms!)

The wings should also be self explanatory to any mother. For the new mother, when her first baby makes those beautiful little mewing cries that are quickly becoming screams of epic proportions from the bedroom across the house (heard over the monitor), she will just about fly over furniture, stairs, and visitors to get to her baby. For the older mother, who is feeding a toddler at the highchair and her older child gets up in a tree, wings would be a lot easier than calling the fire department. (and a lot less embarrassing) If our wings could go fast enough, we would nearly be in two places at once, which mothers (who are natural multi-taskers and constantly strive for more) would probably abuse and try to increase to three or four places at once.

I know by this time you are all convinced that the squid IS the perfect mascot for mothers everywhere. I expect I will be getting a lot of phone calls and requests for t-shirts and hats and book bags. Until I actually manifest 8 arms, however, I will not be able to fill those requests. So, alas, you will have to make your own. I will salute you (with one of my two arms) when I pass you, though, and we can wink that all-knowing eye at each other.

Thirteen things about my name

Thirteen Things about my name:"Kahri" 1. My parents made the name up 2. They got the idea from a Norwegian movie called "The Windjammer" which had a girl named "Kari" 3. They thought that by putting an "h" in it, Americans would be more likely to say it correctly. They were wrong! LOL 4. My middle name was made up in honor of my Mother's dad...Edgar. (My middle name is Edra) Michael usually calls me "Ed" or "dra" 5. Strangers usually call me Carey, Corey or Kahari 6. In school, I was called the Sa-kahri Dessert 7. When running for Class Treasurer, I used the slogan "Don't be sorry, vote for Kahri" 8. I tell people my name rhymes with starry 9. I used to tell people to imagine a car putting on it's breaks suddenly...car-eeee 10. There is a little girl (born around the same time as Kaedra) named Kahri Lynn (although Lynn is her middle name, not last) (They found me on the internet and they pronounce her name the same as mine.) 11. Michael can usually tell when people are calling me, if they are a friend or stranger. My friends say my name correctly! 12. My name in Hawaiian is Kali 13. Kali is a hindu goddess, so I don't much care for my Hawaiian name!

Thirteen Things about my kid's names 1. My husband and I came up with Brittany's name by writing down our favorite girls names individually first. Brittany was the only name on both lists. 2. We kept going between Brittany Morgan and Morgan Brittany. I wish we had picked Morgan Brittany just because Brittany is such a popular name. 3. Brittany prefers Brittany as her first name. :-) 4. Michael and I had no girl name ideas for Emily. 5. Brittany picked her name while watching "Little Bear." 6. We thought it was nice and old-fashioned and wasn't too popular. HAHAHAHA 7. Her middle name, Daryn, come from Michael's middle name, Darren. 8. We got the idea for the spelling from an anchor on CNN. 9. Jacob's name was picked out before I even knew Michael. He always wanted a little boy named Jake. 10. Kaedra's name is made up. I took my first and middle name and squished them together. 11. Her middle name, Noelle, is a hybrid of my Maiden name, Noll. I wanted a Jr. LOL! 12. Our future kids are already named: Samantha and Layton. 13. Layton will actually be: Phil Layton Lynn II, but we will call him Layton. Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. Brandi's 13 Boy names And her kids' picks too!

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Ketchup

Sorry it has been so long since I posted.....I got the flu, my parents came to visit, the rest of the family got the flu, our internet wasn't properly connected and then we had a very busy week (and I had gotten used to not being online during that week of no internet!) Anyway, we are back and we are all good! Everyone is healthy and everything is going very well.

Our pool will be delivered on Tuesday (barring weather), we take Kaedy to the hospital on Friday for a nasal swab to make sure she doesn't have RSV (which she doesn't) and then we go to San Antonio next Sunday. I fought our doctor to keep her out of the hospital for the two days before our trip and I, finally, won. I couldn't understand taking a perfectly healthy 16 month old and putting her in the hospital for two days. She would have needed full time nursing in the hospital or Michael and/or I to keep her occupied. You can't just put her in a crib and expect her to be happy for 2 days!!!! Anyway, I will get off that soapbox, it is taken care of.....Hallelujah!

We have been really enjoying studying Egypt again. We have been doing some different projects than we did last time and learning different things. We have been studying history from the Bible, anyway, which puts a different emphasis on our information. I love the curriculum we are using....From Adam to the Messiah, in fact, we are going to take one more semester to finish it than I had originally planned on. It is just too good to go through quickly. We will just squish Medieval into 6 months and do it more completely next time around. We also started Latin again last week, using Latina Christiana. We love it. We love the fact that it has prayers and songs to learn right away and I like the way the teacher's manual is set up better than Latin Primer. Brittany is doing great in Math, she is halfway through her 5th grade book, which she only started in January. She really took off on it. The ironic thing is that she doesn't realize she is good in it and she still gets frustrated very easily. I need to make her realize how good she really is. Spelling is even getting better with the new book (which was finally found in Kaedra's room on her bookshelf).

Emily is doing great in school right now, too. We are doing 100 Easy Lessons... to learn reading and she is doing wonderfully. She is much easier to teach reading to than Brittany was. Brittany didn't like the rhyming part, but Emmy picked right up on that. Emmy is also practicing letters and numbers everyday, reading a bible story and learning a bible verse. I am very proud of both girls and how well school is going right now!

Kaedra is also doing wonderfully! She is completely healthy (Praise God), she is pulling herself up in the crib constantly, she will walk with us just holding her hands, she is trying to crawl (although she goes backwards) and she can get anywhere she wants to, as long as her circuits are long enough. Dr. Carey agreed with us that her circuits needed to be longer since she is getting more independent. After her surgery we are getting 12' circuits! YEAH!!! She is putting food in her mouth on her own initiative now, too, which is a HUGE leap. She started out by putting it on her tongue to tease us, but now she will regularly put the food in her mouth and roll it around. As far as swallowing, though, it has only happened as an accident so far. She is learning more and more everyday and has a wonderful sense of humor and is very quick to pick things up. Our physical therapist came on Wednesday and we were "bragging" about how well Kaedy was doing. We said the only problem was that she had stopped using signs to communicate. Almost as soon as the PT left, she started using signs again and has been, ever since. She is down to 8 breaths a minute and is on 3/8 of a liter of oxygen.

Shooky Doo is a bit of a challenge. I was not prepared for a puppy and I constantly am having to deal with him. He drives me crazy.

Our church is getting closer and closer to getting done, which is very exciting. You can go to www.ourfinesthourchurch.org to see the wonderful pics! I am hoping Kaedra will be able to go consistently around the time the new church is ready! I really miss going as much as I was. I can't wait until we can all go on a regular basis!

Okay, I better get busy doing something productive!
Mel - I am still working on the squid post! :-)

FREEDOM!

I finally got some "doors" on my schoolroom. Actually, after talking to my dad about installing doors and the different options I had, I decided on putting curtains in the doorways instead. I got sheer curtains with silky stripes. The one in my kitchen is a dark red (to match the chilies) and the one in the living room is a mossy green (to match my eventually-to-be garden room). They work wonderfully. I now have freedom to leave the schoolroom in a bit of disarray without it being an eyesore to the rest of the house. Sometimes we have a big project or a science experiment going on, or something, and you used to be able to see straight into my school room as soon as you walked in the house. Now I have a bit of privacy, when I need it. So far I like the look on the kitchen side, better, with the deep red, but I think the mossy green will look great once I get the living room looking like I want it to. I also picked out some paint colors that will fit what I want. :-) I got a mossy green and a light yellow that coordinate. I am going to stripe them, probably, and then I found a lovely wallpaper for another wall. Eventually I want to put a wicker rocker and a wicker table in there along with a bird cage and a lot of plants. I want to try to bring the look of a closed in patio, into the room. Eventually I will actually have a beautiful patio and I will already have the furnishings for it! :-)

Just talked to my mom on the phone. Emily had accidentally spilled the secret about Shooky Doo and so my mom was asking what she was talking about. She said "Does Emily want a little dog?" I told her "Yes" and she said "that is ALL you need." LOL. As I said.....

Well Kaedra is up now, so I am going to go hang out with her. See you later alligators!

Trying not to "crash" again!

Tonight I am having an Usborne Party at my house. Just my homeschool group. I didn't think I was going to sell Usborne anymore (because nobody has bought in about a year) but at the recent seminar my friends mentioned it during their speech, so I did get some "bites." I am having tonight's party to see if there is still enough interest to sell. I spend about $20 every 6 months to keep my business running and if I am not making any money, there isn't any point! I am really not interested in a busy party schedule so I have to rely on word of mouth for me to sell. And repeat customers! I am going to make yummy gooey brownies and some other snacks and I am just excited to have my friends over! LOL. As you can see, selling isn't my forte!

Renee (one of our nurses) is training a new nurse tomorrow. The new nurse has a patient in the hospital, so she will not be working here regularly...she will just be here when her patient doesn't need her and as a backup for our nurses. She is going to be working this Saturday, which will probably be actually more of a training session than a free day for me! LOL I wish I could move our nursing hours around the way I want them. I would love to have nursing care ALL day Sunday (so Michael and I could both go to church), ALL day Wednesday (so I could do school in the morning and still go to church at night) and have Friday and Saturday without daytime nursing. Maybe just a nurse coming in earlier on Friday and Saturday nights. Okay, scrap the whole idea, I just want her off the vent!!!! That would make it SOOO much easier. But we would have to keep Linda and Tarry...Linda because we adopted her into the family and Tarry because she quit her job to come help us and I like seeing her so much. So we will keep them, somehow!

Speaking of Tarry, she lent me a spelling book by Mcgraw Hill that looks really good. Brittany is perusing it right now. (yes, I did well on the vocabulary part of the ACT) I am praying about using that or Sequential Spelling or Spelling Power. Brittany just decided she wants to try the McGraw Hill book, but I am still praying. Well, not at the moment...but in general. ;-)

I had BIIIIG plans for everything I was going to get done today. ROFL I was going to do a "crash laundry" day and I ran out of detergent. I was going to do a "crash freezer cooking day" and Michael asked me to wait until he could be here too, to help. (awwwwwwww) I was going to do a "crash scheduling day" and I crashed. I REALLY needed that nap though. :-) I stayed up WAAAY too late last night reading. Remind me not to do that again. Read, I mean. I always get caught up in books! LOL. Some people have their soap operas (although I don't personally know any), some have their Survivor (are you reading this Denise????), some people have their wrestling (yes, honey, I am talking about you) but I have my books....aaaaah, my books. Just thinking about reading makes me dreamy. zzzzzzzzzzzzzz No wait, that is lack of sleep.

Okay, off to get ready for my party and find caffeine. heeheehee

Fellow rib-kid

This is a news story about a little boy named Collin. Collin's mommy, Sarah, and I have been chatting online for about a year. I just wanted to share this story...they are such a sweet family.

http://www.news-leader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060117/LIFE04/601170311/1035