GeoCache fun!

Have you ever been geocaching?

I LOVE it! It's exercise, being outdoors, having family time - and there is a treasure hunt!

We went "geocaching" on Sunday, and had such a great time. We were able to find the geocache - I was glad I had worn jeans since it was WAY under the bushes! The kids had fun looking through all the little treasures that people left.

It was beautiful! I really needed the fresh air and the real break from my computer. SnugBug ran and ran and ran and ran. We saw grass that wasn't manicured, cows, a green caterpillar burrowing into the dirt, ants making a feast of a beetle, butterflies and grasshoppers.

Have you ever been treasure-hunting?

Look at this give-away!

5 minutes for mom is giving away a big screen TV! From Best Buy!

WeaverDad might even begin to think that blogging is a good thing if I won us a big-screen TV. He he!

Why, thank you!

Penless gave me a very nice award this week - the Thoughtful Blogger award.

I researched a little bit, and this was started at Writer's Review and here is the description:

For those who answer blog comments, emails, and make their visitors feel at home on their blogs. For the people who take others feelings into consideration before speaking out and who are kind and courteous. Also for all of those bloggers who spend so much of their time helping others bloggers design, improve, and fix their sites. This award is for those generous bloggers who think of others.

Now I'm not usually an "award" sort of girl and I'm not saying that I can live up to this, but I can't think of a nicer thing for someone to say about me. Thanks!

I'd like to pass along the Thoughtful Blogger award to the following:

Momma Roar - she always leaves me comments and they are always super-sweet. (And I happen to know that she is one of those generous bloggers who helps others "fix-up" their sites)

DCRMom - she is so good about responding to comments - even though she gets a TON!

And Penless - I'd give you one, if someone else didn't beat me to it. You do always say such encouraging things.

Insects

Aaahhhhhh!


It's back to school!

The public school in our neighborhood uses the "track" system. The kids have 9 weeks on, 3 weeks off, and the school year rolls on the 1st Monday after the 4th of July. Since the neighborhood kids are back at school, and I've learned that when Neighbor Girl is off-track we don't get as much done around here - we are going with the "C" Track schedule this year and see how that works out for us.

Punkin is in the 1st grade! (How is that possible!?) and we are studying insects. One of our activities was to make a Mexican ant mask (.pdf file with directions on pg 10-14 here) Punkin loves it. I thought it turned out kinda scary - what do you think?

That's my boy!

Why oh Why did I not do this before?

Can I just say that Goo*g*le Reader is the greatest thing ever?? Why, oh why, did I not take the time to do this earlier?? I'm sure most of you have already discovered this great thing (or something like it) where you can check all your favorite blogs with one click!

Anyway, it's fabulous - and now I have more time to surf and find some more new friends! Even better :) Watch out, blogsphere. *wink*

100!

Well, I finally made it to 100 posts! I decided to participate in the "100 things about me" on my 100th post - mostly in honor of the fact that they are my favorite posts to read on other's sites. :)

So, here goes:
(And, for the record, I did try my very best to make this actual show NUMBERS! I went to Leigh Ann's cool site recommendation and learned the html and everything. Numbered lists is clicked in my compose screen, I added type="1" after the ordered list command just to be sure, the preview shows the numbers -- but when I actually publish it, the numbers go away and this funky symbol appears, and I can't figure out why. If you know why, please tell me so I can fix it. :) )

1. I was born in TN.
2. On Memorial Day (That's why I'm so memorable. **wink** I know: ha, ha, ha.)
   
3. It rained - a LOT on the day I was born. At least that's what I've been told.
   
4. My little brother is 16 months younger than I am and we were only a year apart in school.
   
5. I graduated from high school in the same town I was born in.
6. I'm 6 feet tall.
   
7. I'm the shortest of my immediate family.
8. I go by my middle name.
9. I was raised in a Christian family.
10. I've been a Christian as long as I can remember.
11. My mother teaches 10th grade English.
    
12. My dad is retired, but he used to teach music appreciation, band & chorus to 6th, 7th & 8th graders.
    
13. The first night I spent at a hotel was in middle school. I was on a math team and we got to go to Nashville for a competition.
14. I was part of a close knit group of girls through middle school and high school. I still keep in touch with 2 of them.
15. My favorite movie in high school was "Dangerous Liaisons." I still think it is incredibly well written.
    
16. I loved Girl Scout Camp. I went for 13 years - 10 as a camper, 2 as a counselor, and 1 as a lifeguard for a special canoe trip.
    
17. I played flute in the band.
    
18. My hair was down to my waist. (This was the 80s people - and I've never had a perm!) My senior year of high school I had a small braid behind my right ear that I wore as a good luck charm for every band performance that season. I had a 2 measure piccolo solo. It would echo in the stadium, and I loved it.
19. I made a 31 on my ACT. My little brother made a 33. Yeah, he's crazy smart. :)
    
20. My first job was at a bridal store. They sold bridal gowns and I cleaned a lot of fine china.
21. I was in my senior play. I played the daughter of a rich woman, and I was trying to get my mother committed so I could have her money. In other words, I played a lovely person (Not!). My dad told me the next time I was in a play, he hoped my role would be as a maid. I guess I was bringing some of that unpleasantness home with me. he he.
    
22. I graduated high school 6th in my class of 240, but I was the last girl to receive my diploma because we were arranged by height. (And yes, my brother beat me - he graduated 3rd.)
    
23. My grandmother took me on a cruise to celebrate graduating from high school.
24. Getting to Florida to go on the cruise was the first time I was on an airplane. (The first time either of my parents flew on a commercial air flight was to come see Punkin when she was born.)
    
25. I went to college at Mississippi State. (and I loved it!)
    
26. I majored in business, and minored in drama
27. I was in a sorority (and I loved it!).
28. I wanted to be a manager of small stage theater or a wedding coordinator
29. One of my roommates was from Denmark
30. Two were from Mississippi.
31. One was from Alabama. She was my best friend in college, and I still keep in touch with her.
    
32. I once had a huge crush on a boy that was only 5'7".
33. I worked at DisneyWorld my sophomore year of college. I worked at a fast food restaurant in the Polynesian resort.
    
34. Disneyworld has an apartment complex especially for those on the College Program (as I was), and those that work in the International Pavilion at Epcot. So, my apartment-mates were from Norway, France and England. There was also one other American, and I still keep in touch with her.
    
35. I shared a room with the girl from France, but I think I only saw her awake twice in 3 months. She worked from 7-3 and I worked from 3-11. Since I spoke very little French and she spoke very little English - it was probably just as well.
    
36. I still have a tape of a French band that she gave me.
    
37. The girl from Norway was a complete neat freak.
    
38. For the co-op to count as college credit, you had to be part of a weekly seminar. My seminar was on "Managing Creativity." They talked extensively about the Disney culture and how you can run a business that gets things done, and foster an environment of creativity. It was fascinating.
39. I can still name the 7 dwarfs - Sleepy, Sneezy, Dopey, Doc, Happy, Bashful & Grumpy. (Two S's, Two D's and 3 emotions.)
    
40. I was only 19, and I learned a lot. I would do it again - but only once.
    
41. One semester I took 21 hours of classes, was in a play, stage managed a play, directed a play, and was treasurer of my sorority (which took an amazing amount of time. ) I slept 3 hours every other night for weeks. That was the semester I learned how to say "no".
    
42. I believe that God's presence feels very immediate on a beach at sunset.
43. I lived with my grandmother for 2 summers.
44. I worked at a bank for both summers.
45. One summer I was a fill-in teller.
46. And the other summer, I checked all the mortgage loan files to make sure there was current copy of the homeowner's insurance and that the bank was listed as lienholder on the policy. Don't you want to run right out and get that job?
    
47. I worked at Kroger my last year of college
48. I'm generally a night owl.
49. I learned to sew from my roommate's mother (from Alabama). She taught me that clothes always look better with a lining, if you are sewing with expensive material sew a muslin first, and always do exactly what the directions tell you to unless you really know what you are doing.
50. I love to sing.
51. I moved to Atlanta after I graduated from college.
52. I met WeaverDad the first week I was there. More here.
    
53. My first job was at a bridal store selling wedding dresses & formalwear.
54. I had a car accident on my way to my first day of work.
    
55. I lived in a basement apartment of a chiropractor and his wife. After living in the sorority house with 40 women, it was wonderful to have a place of my own.
56. I'm not a very good salesperson.
57. I had my second car accident on the way to a job interview.
58. I have a metal plate on my collar bone. Only once has it set off the metal detectors at the airport.
    
59. My second job was as the receptionist for an interior design firm that specialized in country clubs.
60. The night after WeaverDad asked me to marry him, a tree fell on my car.
61. The diamond fell out of my engagement ring when I was trying to get part of the tree off my car. I found it. I bought insurance for it that day. WeaverDad still wanted to marry me. :)
62. We got married in 2006. More here.
63. We came to Colorado for our honeymoon.
64. I got promoted to purchasing agent at the interior design firm.
65. I had a fender bender in a parking lot. The car behind me and I backed out at the same time.
    
66. WeaverDad worked for Delta so we had flight benefits.
    
67. One of my good friends is an opera singer and she had a contract with the Lyric Opera in Chicago. Once I got to go for the weekend and go to the opera, and a special fundraiser night which was sort of like a variety show. The opera singers sang things they liked. It was a fabulous night.
    
68. I would always pick chocolate over a salty snack.
69. I have hypothyroidism.
    
70. The first summer we were married, I had a bad car accident with a high school friend in the car with me. She was in the hospital for 2 weeks and missed 10 weeks of work. She was there to work at the Atlanta Olympics, but only got to go one day.
71. In case you were counting, yep - that was 5 car "incidents" in a year and a half. I have post-traumatic stress from car accidents. I would probably still not be driving, except WeaverDad said that I had to go to work and he wasn't taking me. Can you feel the love? Actually, it was loving - but in that "good for you" kind of way that "doesn't feel pleasant at the time." I'm so grateful now.
    
72. I've been accident free for 11 years today. (July 20)
73. I still don't like suicide lanes, parking lots, or any other situation where there are lots of cars and everyone is going different directions. I don't like driving in the snow. And I get very distressed when I see kids not in car seats.
74. We bought our first house in Atlanta after 1 year of marriage. I was only 25.
75. I love that house!
76. I changed jobs again, and became the administrative assistant to the Spiritual Life Director and the Personnel Director of a international mission sending agency. It was my favorite job ever and some days I still miss it.
77. Once, I helped organize a conference in Thailand. And I got to go!
    
78. Thailand is a beautiful country. One of the other staff members knew a missionary there, and he took several of us out to get a massage one night. It was a 2 hour massage, and even with a 100% tip it was only $14. They gave us outfits which were nice, but they were not designed for 6 foot tall women! I looked pretty funny. But, hey - I got a 2 hour massage for $14.00!
    
79. I'm a certified diver.
80. WeaverDad and I once got to go to Aruba. The food was outrageously expensive, but the diving was gorgeous. We got to do a night dive, which terrified me - but it was beautiful.
81. The first time I went skiing was in Utah. It was just a few months after my last accident and I was so scared. But, I loved it! I've only gotten to go once since we moved here but I'm hopeful now that we are done with the pregnant & nursing phase I might get to go this winter.
82. We moved to Colorado in 2000. First, we found a house, then WeaverDad found a job. We didn't know a soul. It was a great move for us!
83. We were apart for 5 weeks.
84. We like to mountain bike. We went mountain biking soon after we got here. We barely made it 3 miles because of the altitude! It was still fun, and the scenery was amazing. I have only been on my bike once since Punkin was born. How sad is that!?
    
85. I got a job as an administrative assistant for a Christian radio show.
    
86. I got pregnant with Punkin within weeks.
87. The place where I worked had only 7 people under the age of 35. I really struggled my first trimester because my body was making extra blood for the altitude and extra blood for the pregnancy. It was so tired sometimes I had to concentrate on sitting upright at my desk! The ladies I worked with thought I had some terrible sickness and would give me advice about eating right, etc... I remember being amazed that no one guessed. (I had been married 5 years and was 28 years old.) They all laughed when we announced.
    
88. I'm a drug-free childbirth crazy lady. It was a great choice for me.
    
89. Punkin was born in 2001. More here.
    
90. I love being a stay-at-home mom.
91. I was on the pastor search committee for our church.
92. We had a miscarriage. It broke my heart.
93. We moved again in 2003. I was pregnant with SnugBug but didn't know it yet. I started feeling ill the Tuesday after we moved on Saturday. We had lots of boxes for a very long time. :)
    
94. SnugBug was born in 2004. More here. :)
    
95. We decided not to send Punkin to preschool. The neighbors thought we were strange.
96. We decided not to send Punkin to school, but homeschool instead. The neighbors think we are VERY strange.
    
97. We changed churches. It was a very hard change for me, but it was a good change for us.
    
98. I started my bookkeeping business in 2005. I've been amazed at its growth.
99. I loved the TV show Everwood. I still miss it.
    
100. I discovered blogging. And I love it!

Whew! You know what? I haven't thought about my "pre-kid" life in awhile. This was a fun trip down memory lane. :)

Susan's meme

Well, look what I found in my messages that was not published for some reason. Hm... I'm not one who saves drafts, so I'm not sure what happened.... but, well, here it is:

I was just tagged by Penless for this meme - So here goes another one!!!

INSTRUCTIONS: Remove the blog in the top spot from the following list and bump everyone up one place. Then add your blog to the bottom slot, like so.

Still See A Spark In You
walking through doors
Susie’s Space
Penless Writer
Learning to Weave

Next select five people to tag:

Leigh Ann
Heather in Canada
Jeanine at Roots
dcrmom
Devildogwife

Anyone else who wants to play is, of course, welcome!! (and no obligation if you don't feel like doing this either!)

Now ~ the questions:
"What were you doing 10 years ago?" Enjoying our first house - double income, no kids. We spent the entire summer pulling ivy off trees, trees and more trees in the back yard.

"What were you doing 1 year ago?" Same as this year I think. Taking care of the kids, taking care of the business, planning homeschooling, enjoying the pool.

Five snacks you enjoy: Fruit, cookies, ice cream, Andes chocolates, 1/2 peanut butter sandwiches

Five songs to which you know all the lyrics: Oh, this is a hard one for me. How about the songs I sing to my kids at bedtime: Create in me a clean heart, Seek ye first, Amazing Grace, O Lord you're beautiful, and a lullaby that I learned a long time ago. We call it the Moon Song. (At one time, I knew all the words to "Just a'Swinging", "Sweet Child of Mine", and "I've Got Friends in Low Places", but it's been so long since I've heard these songs - much less sung them - I have no idea if I still know them or not! :)

Five things you would do if you were a millionaire: Hire a financial planner, do what they say, travel, support causes I believe in, hire a cleaning company for as many days as it would take for me to not have to clean :),

Five bad habits: not getting up when my alarm goes off, eating really late at night, not listening, letting things slide with the kids that I shouldn't, not speaking up when something is bugging me.

Five things you like doing: (I'm going to assume this means things just for me not related to the family. :) ) : traveling, blogging, reading fiction just for fun, sewing, girl time

Five things you would never wear again: I'm way to young to say "never" - but here's my "highly unlikely" list: leg warmers, parachute pants, really big earrings, bulky sweaters, blue eyeshadow

Five Favorite toys: My mini-van, my computer, my hand held organizer, my sewing machine. And I don't have one of these (of course) but I love SkeeBall!
(I obviously did this before my I got my new MP3 player, so I have to add that!)

What is it!?

Today, WeaverDad brought home banana popsicles. Here is the scene that followed. Please say all Punkin and SnugBug's words with as much childhood glee and joy as you can muster.

Punkin: I want one!
SnugBug: I want one!
Repeat.
Repeat.
Repeat.
WeaverDad gets 3 out of the carton. "Ok, which one do you want?"
Punkin: The yellowest one!
SnugBug: The yellowest one!
Repeat.
Repeat "I want one" chant above.
WeaverDad gives Punkin one, and opens one for SnugBug.
SnugBug: "No, Dad, you take that one and I'll take the other one."
SnugBug takes his popsicle.

SnugBug: "What is it?"

Look at that gap!

Punkin lost her first top tooth! She is SO excited! She thinks it is quite the privilege to have her corn cut off the cob for her.

She lost it a few days ago. She was very proud to have lost her tooth and wanted to tell everyone, so we made phone calls. That evening after she had changed into her pajamas, she came downstairs and said, "Mommy, could you send the tooth fairy an email and ask her not to come for a few days? I'm not ready to give her my tooth yet."

Well, ok, then. I'm not sure what cracked me up more - that she wanted to keep her tooth or that she just assumed the tooth fairy has email!?

But, of course, I said I would be happy to. And, the tooth fairy must check her email - because she waited until Punkin was ready.

On the night Punkin was finally ready to give up her tooth, LOTS of kids must have lost a tooth - because the tooth fairy was LATE. She didn't get here until Punkin was eating breakfast. Luckily, WeaverDad caught the tooth fairy in the act, so he and Punkin snuck upstairs to see if she was still there. She was already gone, but WeaverDad told Punkin all about seeing the tooth fairy.

Then, WeaverDad went to work.

Whereupon, Punkin was inconsolable for 30 minutes, crying her little heart out because she didn't get to see the tooth fairy.

Hey, we tried, right?

Hammer nicely?

I was talking to a friend one day about the challenges of homeschooling Punkin while still making the time for SnugBug to get the attention he deserves. Our curriculum is hands-on enough that he could do many of the activities with us, but he is such a loner that he usually prefers to just play cars in the floor. Which is wonderful, but sometimes I feel guilty about how much he plays by himself.

She is a former schoolteacher, and she gave me a great idea for a new activity for my "all boy" boy. (I seriously despised this phrase before SnugBug came along - but I am telling you, there is no other description for that boy of mine. But, again, I digress...) She said in her classroom they had a piece of insulation foam, golf tees and a hammer and the kids would pound the golf tees into the foam. It makes a very satisfying sound since golf tees are made of wood. Well, I rightly guessed that SnugBug would LOVE it! And he does! (It's even worth the mess, I tell ya.)

Yesterday morning, WeaverDad and SnugBug were enjoying a rare moment of snuggletime in the morning, when SnugBug gets up.

WeaverDad: Where you going?
SnugBug: To get my hammer.
WeaverDad: Why?
SnugBug: I want to hammer on you - very nicely.
WeaverDad: Um.... NO!

Evidentially, if you are an "all boy" boy, you hammer the things you love.

I got a new toy!

I got a new toy! I can't remember ever being this excited about a little electronic gadget before, but I am totally psyched about this one. (Did I just date myself again? Oh, well - I'm still "psyched." )
I'm a fan of BooMama's and one time she talked about grabbing her IPod an going for a walk. For some reason, it struck me as ... well, fun? Could it be? Exercise has been one of those things that I know I need to do, but fitting it in is a whole different challenge. But I'm changing that. (See, I'm telling you, so now I'm kinda stuck with that statement.) I'm walking in the mornings. And I would love to run a 5K before the year is out without completely embarrassing myself.

And all those exercise junkies who tell you that your whole day goes better when you do - as much as it loathes me to admit, 100% true.

And, when searching for the motivation to actually get out of bed - I previously failed to consider the beautiful, beautiful alone time that comes with going out on a walk ALONE.

So, I'm adding praise songs to my new gadget - and then it becomes wonderful alone time, praising God, exercising and being able to think an entire sentence without being interrupted.

I may have just found my new bliss. (of course, check back in a few weeks and we'll see how that getting up before the sun works out! he he)

So, please share you favorite songs to get me started. Because I'm as behind on the music of the day as I am the music players and cultural lingo, so I need some serious help.

More gender studies

While playing in the sandbox:

Punkin: (running) AHHHHH! Big spider!
SnugBug: Where is it, sister? I want to see the big spider!