hmmm....

so what is going on in simple life land? let's see.

i have lost 7.4 lbs on WW in 3 weeks! yay me!! still trying to work the program and it gets easier all the time. and i saw a friend from high school at my meeting. pretty cool.

started going back to the gym. should help with the weight loss. started running again today after being stupid sick for 3 or 4 weeks. blech

caleb has finished his behind the wheel driving and is getting his permit this week. (pray for me) actually i have been letting him drive in the neighborhood and he is doing a great job! very proud of him. he just bought a pedal for his guitar. he is loud. that's all i can say!

mikey is more mikey than ever. just such a wonderful spirit and so easy going. you never really have to worry about him. unless he is walking out over a pool cover to step on the ice. yikes!

life groups started at church and i joined 2! wednesday with miranda confessions of a good Christian girl and thursday with jared and kip about the book of mark. the first group is all women and it's gonna be tough. really makes you think about the things you hide from others. and i have lots hidden. and i don't want to share. so i'm scared. the other one is a huge group which i like b/c there are lots of people in there i don't know. (which is weird since i have been going to NLC for over 4 years) but i'm looking forward to getting to know them all.

charlotte has been experiencing AMAZING weather this week. i'm in shorts right now with the windows open. in february! very exciting! however i'm hoping we do get some more winter before spring hits.

michael has some work and hopefully will be getting more as people get their tax returns. (pray for that)

so life is good. just not super exciting. and i'm ok with that!!

what a day!

usually when someone says "what a day" it's bad. right? well not today friends!! it's been a great day and it's only 3:00. i girded my loins and made the commitment to get myself healthy. i went to weight watchers and joined up! i have done WW before and even been a life time member. then mikey came along. not that i regret that one little bit! but i never was able to get back to where i wanted to be weight wise. so i'm doin' it now!!!! i have been very inspired by some of my friends who have lots lots of weight. i just have to bite the bullet and do it!

AND to make the day even better... i just found out that some friends of mine, whom i have been praying for for a veryyyy lonnngggg time, are PREGNANT!!!!! not just one set of friends, but TWO!!! i cried and cried. still a little bit shaky about the whole thing. that makes a total of 8 new babies that will be arriving in 2011 at next level church. there may be more i don't know about so i'll keep you updated. starting in march/april running thru aug/sept, the fun is on!!!! if you can't be pregnant yourself, having friends who are is the next best thing!! (not that i want to be pregnant but there is always a little part of me that would love to have had more kids) michael has informed me not to drink the water or the coffee at church. good thing i bring my own!

(well i spoke too soon! i plugged in my phone to get some pix from it and it wiped the whole thing out!! so enjoy these pix b/c i'm in for a long night of re-learning my blackberry!)

so yesterday at co-op our picture we were studying was by pieter bruegel the elder called children's games. our wonderful parent Aims went to a lot of trouble to have many of the games depicted in the picture at co-op for the kids to play with. it was AWESOME!!! she had them all layed out in the gym and just let them play. they had a fantastic time! here is the original.

and here is what she had for us...

she had hoops and sticks...





tug of war...



potato sack races, broom ball, stacking cups, blocks, marbles, dice and more. mikey actually said "thanks so much ms aims! i had a great time and learned to win at dice!" hahaha!





it was a super great day and those kids will never ever forget that picture or artist! :)


i ♥ homeschooling!

t's cheese stick

i felt very encouraged today by reading my friend teresa's blog over at t's turn. she had something odd but not over the top odd happen to her and she blogged about it. i think my problem with my blog is i feel like i have to have something exciting to write about or it's not worth it. so i'm taking a page from teresa and blogging about not much.

making caleb do school work is like pulling teeth. he's in his room with all his musical instruments and when he is supposed to be writting a paper or something i'll hear the sound of a ukulele coming from behind closed doors. i have kind of let him slide but not anymore! i'm going to be studying his subjects with him so i am sure of what he is getting out of it. i mean i already do it with mikey so i might as well learn more right???

and mikey. that boy. oh i love him so. the things he says make me laugh and laugh. he was playing with his corks (we save everything around here) and he said "this one is my particular favorite. i'm not sure what particular means but it sounds good"!!! and the fact that he plays with corks. come on. imaginative should be his middle name.





we have had some snow. or should i say 2 snows this year. and a birthday. i can't believe caleb is 15! and he had 20 kids at his party. and they were ALL taller than me. it was very very weird.


and here are some random pix of stuff that makes me smile. some of it is from our homeschool co-op which we love!!!

NaNoWriMo loves me!

it says so right here in this email i got from them

"Well, you did it. You've gone and pledged your November to the pursuit of the month-long novel. Whether this is your first or twelfth NaNoWriMo, we're thrilled to have you writing with us."

uh. wait. did i just agree to write a novel? i'm insane. i can hardly write in my blog and i've decided to write a novel. ok. challenge taken. let's hope i can go thru with it!

anyone have any ideas for a 50,000 word novel? :0

actually i'm excited. i've always wanted to write a book. even tho i'm not nor have i ever been any kind of writer. (or speller for that matter!) so we will see what happens!!

mad mad mad!!!

some people make me soooo mad!!!!!!!!! i try really hard to follow the rules and when other people don't i could just bite their heads off. we had ladies night out friday night at church. i was really looking forward to it. i was a table leader and we were supposed encourage people to sit with someone they hadn't met. there are lots of women at my church who don't know anyone and this would be a great opportunity for them to meet other women and hopefully form some friendships. i do happen to know the majority of people there b/c i work in kid city so i felt like i wanted to have ladies i wasn't really "friends" with, just knew their names and kids names. anyway. i invited people to sit at my table that i kinda knew. great! there were 2 people there who were guests and so was glad to have them at my table. but did everyone do what i did??? OH FREAKIN' NO!!!!!!!!!!!! one girl (i call her that b/c she is so d*%n immature) had only the "popular" ladies at her table. all of her friends. not one new person or stranger was invited to sit at HER table. oh no. she is way tooo good for that. make sure everyone knows that she is so well liked that only the well know, pretty people sit at her table. i have since, deleted her from my facebook and my phone. i can't wait for her to try to talk to me. i'm so pissed off!!! i actually left the GNO early b/c i was so mad i was crying.

of course that kinda makes me immature too i suppose. but hey this is MY blog and i can write anything i want to right!?!!

stuff

so summer is over and bring on the cold! well not really b/c it's still hot out. poop. but school is back in full swing for everyone and so far so good. caleb started high school (i can't believe it!) and is really enjoying it. before it started we went to the school a few times so he could walk his class route so he wouldn't get lost. he is very lucky that all of his classes are super close together. and he is making friends. not that i'm surprised but i am happy about it. going into a school that large and only knowing 2 people is tough. and i was really worried about it. i mean i remember what it was like when i started high school and i knew tons of people. i would love to shelter him from all the bad stuff that life brings. *sigh* but i know i can't.

mikey has been going to a homeschool co-op for a month now. they meet once a week and we are there all day. he has science (with ms tammy!) then art, poetry, lunch (his favorite part) picture study (my favorite part) then history. the mom's are amazing and i get to help! but i don't have to do all the work. (which i love the most!) his bff denver is there and another boy named adam who is his age. they have the best time! after the first day i asked mikey how he liked it and he said "mommy i LOVE real school!!" i said honey that is not "real" school! we actually waited until after labor day to start doing other schooling at home. i am having him read out loud to me and boy he is doing great! all summer he has been reading the magic tree house books. i remember how much caleb loved them. but he reads them to himself so i don't know what he is really understanding. amazing! i love that he loves to read! hopefully we can keep that up!

and here's just an adorable picture of my boys in new hampshire.

maybe i'll get around to posting a chicken jam blog!

WHAT????!!!!

this is so scary i can hardly see straight!! yikes!! i think i'll stay away from whatever movie this is from.