taking a break

ok. i decided it was time to take a break from blogging, at least for a little while. i had an "oopsie" occur when posting from snapfish to my homeschooling blog, and it freaked me out a bit. i tried posting a pic from snapfish to the blog and it automatically titled it with my full name! i tried deleting the post, but it is still showing up in readers! i should have just changed the title, and maybe that would have made a difference, but i thought deleting the post would solve the problem.

i know, probably not a huge deal. it isn't like i had a huge following on it. but i started thinking about the possibility of absolute strangers having my full name (and my daughter's name, btw) and it really creeped me out.

so i think i need to take a step back and really evaluate why i am blogging. there is a safety in the anonymity, but then again, there isn't. i mean, i love knowing that someone from across the world wanted to read the words i wrote. there is something very satisfying in that. maybe a little too much pride in it. am i really posting simply to have a record of my thoughts and to share my a-ha moments in Christianity with others? am i sharing my thoughts to encourage others? or am i sharing my thoughts so that i can gain sympathy and share my 'knowledge?' (ha!)

*sigh* i think God has little cleaning house to do in my heart. i fear i have gotten a little ahead of myself in the whole 'blogging' world. i don't know what path God will take me on next in the cyber world, but i know that if i seek Him and His will for me, then it will be the right path!

Dear Mom...

i plugged in some stuff into a search engine the other day and realized that THIS blog will pop up quite readily. i never really thought about it before, but this might actually pose a problem. i have 3 blogs. one for family. one for homeschooling. and one for me. the family one is even on a different platform. i did this so my family wouldn't have any knowledge of THIS blog. because i wanted the freedom to write whatever i wanted without worrying about censoring it from prying family eyes. namely that of my mom, sister and MIL. ummm. i guess if they were curious, they could find this pretty easily. scary thought. i don't think i have slammed them, per se, but i know i haven't minced words. i thought about cleaning up the blog some and deleting posts, but then...why should i? i shouldn't be ashamed of anything i have thought or written, as long as i have been honest and fair in my assessments, right? i did a little back reading and discovered that most of the things i have said are things i wish i could say face-to-face.

so, mom, sis and ma-in-law...if you are offended by what i have written, i am sorry that you see it that way. i don't mean to hurt you by what i have said. i am not going to apologize for my thoughts, however. they are true to how i feel. one day i may even get the courage to speak them to you directly.

i hope this has remained a family-free blog, but if it hasn't, well. that is just the way it goes. i do not plan to change what i write or how i write it. i want to be able to talk about my relationship with Christ and my trials without watering anything down. that is what i started this blog for. i hope that in the coming months, that my love for Christ is what shines through. i want to share what He is doing in our lives (quite a bit, lately) and how we are getting through it. He is working in us and doing a lot of refining right now, and even though it is painful, we are trying to persevere with faith. it is sometimes a minute by minute walk.

and, mom, sis and MIL...if you are reading this, i hope you take it at face value and don't pass any judgments on me for thinking out loud. i love you regardless. and i hope you love me despite me.

my dad would be shakin' his head...

i (we) did something really stupid the other day.

it actually took place over several days. i thought about whether or not to blog about it because it is, well, embarrassing.

a pregnant moment, if you will.

at least, that is what i am blaming it on. my husband cannot use that excuse.

it started at around 2 am on a friday night.

chirp.

chirp.

honey..did you hear that? didn't we just change that battery?

honey?...

ok. fine, i will get it. grumble, grumble, stomp down the stairs, get the 9 volt battery, listen for the chirp again (like watching water come to a boil), get the chair, replace the battery....

ahhhhh silence.

2 hours later?

chirp.

chirp.

seriously?

ok. now on to dismantle the thing. they are electrically wired in our house. and the darned thing kept chirping.

every 3-4 hours it would chirp 4-6 times in 30 second intervals.

i changed ALL the smoke detector batteries (5 of them) in the house over the course of the day.

saturday night...10 o'clock.

chirp.

no!

chirp.

augh!!!!

2 am, we totally disconnect the one where the sound is emanating from.

this is getting ridiculous. i even called the fire department (non-emergent line) to see if they could help me.

apparently, ours are just old and need replaced. ok, no biggie, right?

HA!

$80 later and five new smoke detectors from home depot. sheesh!

i installed them myself (rather proud of that).

surely we will have a good night's sleep.

9 pm.

chirp.

now, i am not a swearing woman, but i was definitely saying a few choice words under my breath. i mean, really. we have to get up in the morning at 4:30. this is getting silly! we disconnect the culprit again. silence.

1 am.

chirp. chirp. chirp. chirp.

i am going to kill someone or something. this is outrageous.

next day, i am searching for the chirp. i have taken all of the newly installed smoke detectors down one by one to hopefully eliminate the one that is the cause. i am imagining large bills to an electrician to come fix our system. i am imagining fires raging through the house and destroying us because we won't have any warning. it is awful.

but, wait...is it the doorbell? nah...couldn't be! but, i feel it on the wall during the next cycle of chirping and it vibrates with each chirp.

really? ok. i don't like the doorbell anyway. the KISA can just disconnect it when he gets home.

he does.

chirp. AUGH!!!!!

the really stupid part?

we have a carbon monoxide detector that resides in the electrical outlet directly below the doorbell and the supposed defective smoke detector.

it was blocked by 4 large bags of clothing we were donating. i couldn't see the darned thing, and i forgot we had it.

changed the battery.

the LOB on the display was a dead giveaway.

silence. no chirping. peace.

and utter embarrassment.

lessons learned?

don't let your bags of clothing reside in your hallway for any extended period of time.

be able to laugh at yourself...and your husband...

update on Mr DTV

a while ago i wrote a thank you letter to the powers that be for helping me get rid of the TV. if you want to read it, go here. i will wait. i am listening to "The Father's Love" on Sovereign Grace's new cd, Sons and Daughters, and i want to dance around a bit anyway.

ok. are you up to speed? did you pay attention to all the things i was going to do in lieu of watching television? i have managed to do several of the things on the list. working on my bible study, reading more books (i am in the chronicles of narnia right now, book 6), and playing games with my husband (wink, and no wink). and you know what happened?

well (blush)...

we got pregnant.

yup.

#4 is on the way and due in april 2010.

that is what happens when you free up your evenings!

the thing that happened at the playground....

Tell us about that time at the playground when that thing happened.

i chose the number 5 prompt at Mama's Losin' It: Your assignment. Mama Kat's got some fun prompts to get you creative juices stirring...head on over to check them out, then blog away!

this one is pretty easy for me...as it just happened a few months ago!

well. on a beautiful day in february we (tic-tac, bonobo, stinkerbell and me) decided to take a walk after lunch. it was a pretty comfortable 73 degrees, and the sky was just perfect. we took a walk on this bike path we had just discovered that takes us over the freeway (the boys love crossing 8 lanes of traffic on a bridge...*shudder*)..i had stinkerbell in my backpacker (the ergo, highly recommend it!) and the boys were holding my hands. we made it across without incident, and then the boys wanted to hop a small white fence to play in a neighborhood playground (we don't live in this neighborhood, so i am fairly certain we broke a rule or two...although we know several people who live there...does that count?) only one other girl was playing there, so i figured it was okay..and i needed a break..i was actually sweating after walking for 20 minutes with a 25 pounder on my back!

so, there we are..playing on the "tot lot" which stinkerbell was having so much fun on. and then i see bonobo climbing up the slide..the wrong way, of course! just as i am about to tell him "slides are for going down, not up!" he slips at the top and then immediately begins to cry. i figured he bit his tongue, cuz he hit the deck with his chin pretty hard, but, no. instead, he finally looks up at me and BLOOD is streaming down his shirt!!!!! all my nursing skills go out the window! thankfully, they returned quickly, and i got him down and tried to staunch the bleeding with his shirt (his favorite shirt, by the way). he really doesn't like me holding pressure, so he starts screaming, which brings the grandmother of the other little girl running...of course, stinkerbell is now toddling off the playground in search of the "birdie?" and tic-tac is panicking behind me "is he bleeding? MOMMY...IS HE BLEEDING?????" ahhh, my sensitive one!

i can now get a pretty good look at the damage, and yup...gonna need stitches. my bet is at least three. and i have no cell phone. no diaper bag. nada. ugh. and then the kind grandmother asks..do you live close by? to which i (shamefully) answer...we live over the freeway...i think she seriously contemplated calling the HOA police, but figured out that i had been punished enough. now i have to gather everyone quickly (remember stinkerbell?) and try to navigate the 3/4 mile to our house half dragging my kids by the hand (tic-tac) and wrist (bonobo-he was quite bloody!) i can only imagine the sight we were. oh, well...

final suture count..4...bonobo actually held perfectly still for the suturing. he didn't like the bandaid much...he really dislikes adhesives being removed from his person. other than that, he was a perfect gentleman! i think tic-tac had a harder time with the needle and suturing than bonobo did. oh, and did i mention that it was stinkerbell's naptime? augh...

the good news...i got out all the blood from his shirt with my miracle detergent...yippee!

ouch

i am not up to blogging at the moment. i am still sore/stiff from our recent rear end collision at a horrific speed...we were at a complete stop on the interstate at the tail end of commute traffic when a minivan decided to attempt lane changing instead of braking and ended up slamming into the back of my saturn vue. a paid for vehicle, thank you. one that is 6 years old and won't give us very much to work with when it comes to replacing it. see, when the van hit us, it propelled us into the highlander in front of us (also stopped) causing our air bags to deploy (yikes!) and propelling him into the truck in front of him. the good news? everyone walked away...some even drove away. thank the Lord for 5 pt harnesses for child seats. all 3 of my precious ones were in the car freaking out over the crash, the air bags, and that darned horn that wouldn't shut up!!! anyway. i am sore. and cranky. and looking at the computer hurts my neck. i hope to feel better soon...