Home *sweet??* home

Admittedly, it was hard coming back to Castroville after such a fun week in Tennessee and even a fun day and 1/2 at my mom and dad's. My love affair with familiar things didn't diminish. It just made it harder to come back. But not coming back was not an option. Thankfully, the closer we got to Castroville, the more I was able to feel like maybe it was ok to come back. Even Jeremy said" Well, it's ALMOST like home". I agree. But our homecoming was a little less than sweet. Our beloved (I say that just to keep from growling!) goats made a mess of gigantic proportions on our front and back porch. I guess when the dog's away, the goats play!! There was stuff over turned and poop everywhere! Well, I thought, at least it's outside. Then I walked inside and smelled a wierd odor inside. Yuck! I sent my sniffer on a mission. This is certainly a time when I'm glad to not be pregnant and have the hypersensitive "bloodhoundesque" pregnancy nose. I would have been throwing up for sure. After hunting, we found out it was a combination of several noxious things. First, there were clothes in the dryer that didn't get totally dry and were left to mildew in the dryer. By the way, how much Downy CAN you put in the washer at one time??? Actually I dumped vinegar (probably more than I needed!) in the wash and was very thankful to not be using All Free and Clear. I certainly wanted something SCENTED!!!

Even after the laundry was done, the smell didn't go away. I could smell it in the laundry room, but also the pantry. I really thought maybe we had a mouse or something that had died in the pantry. Sick thought!! I very cautiously moved some things around in the pantry and then like a brave pioneer woman...sent my boys in to move other stuff around. Thankfully, no mouse or anything else dead. Meanwhile, Josiah's going a little Febreeze-happy. Thankfully I'd stocked up on it when I got it cheap a while back. And then yesterday after a trip to the grocery store, the mystery was solved. I opened up our back-up fridge that's in the laundry room and whoosh! the pungent aroma of spoiled chicken welcomed me. Just to add to the mix, there was a spoiled red pepper and a couple of grapefruits that were science experiment-y. Obviously, in my rush to leave on the Friday morning, I forgot to make sure THAT fridge was cleaned out. But it is now.

You know, it's funny how one little thing can stink up almost an entire house. And how just getting rid of it, makes things much more pleasant. There's a life lesson there!

guest post by celleste

Yesterday we went to Mike Rose to watch Katie play soccer. Unfortunately they lost but all the other kids had bunches of fun. We played football, soccer and walked. We got free candy from a lady. Then we went to Booya's and ate burritos. Jonathan and Jeremy got to have pop and Jeremy went bazooka. I got to spend the night at the Hagen's. It was a fun day. YAY!



Jeremy and Coach Kelley just hangin' out at the game.

Jeremy, Celleste, and Jonathan smiling :) Jeremy and Celleste. How cute!(jk jk)
Jonathan and Celleste. (if you notice Celleste's hair is messed up. ugh!)

Wii are having so much fun

The Hagens (who we're staying with) just bought a Wii right before we came into town. Everyone has had lots of fun playing on it. Let me tell you, this is no Atari from back in the day! They've played tennis, bowling, boxing, golf baseball, and some other games.


Jeffrey and Ellie playing tennis.
Michael playing baseball.
Jonathan and Jeremy playing tennis.
Josiah stepping up to the bat at baseball.
The team celebrating a victory.

As fun as it's been, know what I've figured out...you can get what our family calls "computer funk"-the bad attitudes, yelling, pouting when you don't get your way, the "selective listening" to mom, etc- on the Wii JUST LIKE on the computer, the Nintendo, the TV, the Gamecube, you name it. Which is why I stand by my strongly held stance that it's much better to have friends with those things than to bring them into my own house! So, boys (I know you'll read this blog) don't even ask for a Wii! :-)

Updates from Graceland and Beale Street

Ok, we didn't really do either, but we are having lots of fun here in the greater Memphis area. We drove in on Saturday and went to a soccer game and our favorite burrito place. Josiah crashed on Jeremy's lap on the way up. Isn't that so cute???!!

Jonathan was not feeling well still so a forced relaxation (as much as possible in the car) was a good thing for him. He's feeling a little better but he's going to the doctor today. We LOVE our pediatrician in Memphis so we feel really great about taking him to see the dr. here today. He was feeling better yesterday in spurts. We went to lots of soccer games, church and a birthday party for Katie and Celleste. They were so sweet to hold off their party for us! There was a totally fun scavenger hunt around town, which Celleste's team won. I was on that team-of course! :-)
Jeremy and Celleste at Ellie and Katie's soccer games. I met someone at Katie's game who grew up in Bryan, has known my mom and dad for years and was Celleste's fifth grade teachers assistant. It's a small world!
The birthday party, following the scavenger hunt.
Katie's team taking pictures as part of the scavenger hunt. The people in Target were in for a real surprise if they were expecting a quiet shopping trip on a Sunday evening.
The birthday "queens". As a part of the scavenger hunt, they had to wear the shirts and tiaras.

Jeffrey went home from church with a friend and so did Josiah. It's becoming quite a chore (but a happy one) to navigate and coordinate all these playdates. Jackson (the dog) even has someone asking him to come over and play! It's a good problem to have. We feel very loved!

Hello to "comfy jeans"

We're getting ready today for a trip back to Memphis. We're all excited and quickly scrambling this morning to try and get everything together before 12 b/c J&J have BBall and we're leaving right after that to head to Bryan/College Station to spend the night with my mom and dad and my sweet cousin who is living with them right now. I was telling my sister yesterday that going back to Memphis is like putting on your "comfy jeans". They may be old and worn out and not what you need to be wearing anymore, but man they are sure comfortable! Not that Memphis is old or worn out, but it's not where we are called to be right now. But it's so familiar. And I'm realizing how much that makes a difference. Not that familiar is always good, but it sure is...well, familiar. The funny thing is that for years, Michael and I would have this comfy jeans conversation when we were going TO Texas from Memphis. Now it's flipped. Funny how perspectives change.

Quick ball game update: In last night's game against Bracken Christian School (the toughest team on the schedule) the Patriots tied 13-13. Now it has to be decided what to do about the tie if neither team loses another game, which probably won't happen. Coach Harris said that it is supposed to be a coin flip to decide who goes to the Championship game, but he's going to talk to the Bracken coach and see if the boys can just play another game or at least two quarters. It was a very good game.

Also in another twist, the team they lost their season opener to got caught playing 5 ineligible players, 4 of which were starters on both sides of the ball. That team is having to forfeit the first two games and no longer play the players and I think they may even be on probation or something. A couple of the players were too old and all of them played JV baseball last year. The league rules state that once you play JV in any sport you are no longer eligible to play Middle school in any sport. So officially, the Patriots are now considered undefeated.

Back home

It's a day of being back home.
Our hurricane evacuees (aka Grandpa and Lois) headed back to La Marque (south of Houston) this morning. We had a nice time with them and were glad to have them here and know they were safe and sound. They may be back soon if the electricity doesn't come on in La Marque in the next day or so. They had things rotting in their freezer that needed to be attended to sooner rather than later.

Lois, Jeffrey, Jeremy, Josiah, Jonathan and Grandpa right before they left.

I have thoroughly enjoyed a day being a stay-at-home mom, literally. Over the last three days, I can count on one hand the number of daylight hours I've spent at home. Needless to say, I woke up this morning very anxious for a day of taking care of things at home. It's been a wonderful one! Naps, schoolwork, exercise, cleaning the house, laundry-it all got done today! I especially liked the naps part!

J&J had basketball tryouts yesterday at FEAST, along with about 100 other boys. Good-bye church league sports!!! Jonathan's comment about it was "I guess I'm not as good at basketball as I thought I was! Either that or I really need to sharpen my skills". Actually one of the coaches (who is also their football coach) said they both did fine. They are excused from the camp tomorrow b/c there is a football game tomorrow afternoon (the toughest team of the league) and many of the BBall players are also FBall players. So, there's only one more day of basketball on Friday. I think they'll be putting together teams in the next couple of weeks. We have the option to play competitive or what they call "developmental" which is less competitive. It remains to be seen which level J&J will want to play on.

"I'll kill the old red rooster when she comes" OR "Please hit the snooze button on the chicken!"

We slept with the windows opened last night. It was so amazing. And it was 60 DEGREES this morning when I got up. Notice I said GOT up, not woke up...A little background, we have roosters about 1/2 a mile from our house that crow and squak all...day...long starting very early in the morning (like sometimes 3-4 am) and don't stop until it's late in the afternoon/early evening. Since Rowen (our hen) started "crowing" a month or so ago, I've been pleased to observe that she actually only crows when the sun is actually coming up, about 6:45 or 7:00am. I've mentally praised her intelligence and the excellence of her circadian rhythms, until this morning. It was late (like midnight) when I got to sleep last night...mental note, don't take vitamins after dinner!... but I was looking forward to sleeping well until about 7. Well, at 5:12 this morning, Rowen started crowing! What??!! Does she always do this and we just don't hear it b/c the windows are closed? And she didn't give a "Good morning" and stop, she kept going. About every 20 seconds. I covered my head with a pillow and could still hear it. I didn't want to close the window, because the weather was SOOO nice! I thought, she'll stop soon. Nobody's listening to her. (Usually the other hens get up and start clucking around when she crows). Michael got up at 5:30 and Rowen was still going. I asked him to please hit the snooze on the hen. He just laughed and took his shower. I realized that the reason that "We'll kill the old red rooster" when "She'll be comin' 'round the mountain" has nothing to do with the chicken and dumplings of the next verse. "She" probably has a young baby and just put the baby to sleep and doesn't want the rooster waking her up just as she's getting to sleep. Better to kill the chicken before she gets around than to leave it in the hands of a sleep deprived mom! Anyway, Rowen stopped crowing and then started up AGAIN about 6:15. I pressed on back to sleep. (I'm good at this by the way! :-) ) And then just before 7 something woke me up again. I listened. It wasn't the hen. It was a chirp, kinda like tennis shoes on a basketball gym. In a semi-regular pattern. One chirp every 30-45 seconds. Yep, it's the smoke detector. It needs a new battery. Of course this only happens when you're in bed, or in a rush out the door. I remembered that it started beeping yesterday while we were scrambling to get to co-op classes. And our ceilings are like 12 feet high, so grabbing a 9 volt and a chair is not an issue. Otherwise, I probably would have done it yesterday, even amid the scramble. So, I've sent Jeremy out to get a ladder to change the "chirp". And, I'm out of bed. And guess what, the sunrise was really beautiful! Worth getting up for!

Oh, what a beautiful mornin'...

I went outside this morning and let out my best Shirley Jones impression. Shirley Jones, not as Mama Partidge, but as what's her name in Oklahoma. What was her name??? Anyway, I didn't really sing because everyone was asleep, but I did hum it and think it in my head. Today marks one of my very favorite day of the year...the first cold front!! I REALLY LOVE cold fronts. Ok, so in south-central Texas a "cold front" means the humidity has dropped to below 60%, there's a breeze from the North and the low today is 70 and the high is only 85! But hey, I'll take what I can get. All the windows and doors are opened wide and the AC is OFF! In fact, I think I might just have to make a pumpkin pie...or snickerdoodles. This brisk air just makes me feel so great and refreshed. I'll definitely light the pumpkin candles and maybe even drag out the fall decorations. I'm going to curb my temptation to check the weather in Memphis or Tulsa or even Littlefield, TX, Portland, OR or certainly not sunny Southern California because I don't want to covet my neighbors' weather. I will just say "This is the day the Lord has made. I WILL rejoice and be glad in it!"

Blogspotlight on Jeffrey

I've realized lately that there are not as many posts about Jeffrey as there are about the other boys, so here's a spotlight on my sweet Jeffrey.

Of all my great boys, Jeffrey is most likely to think "outside the box". He loves inventing and building with legos or Lincoln logs. He likes to draw and take photos as well.

Isn't he goofy?? Again, thinking outside the box.
When Jeffrey was young, my dad told him, "Jeffrey, you have the most expressive eyebrows of anyone I know!" Here's a shot of his expressive eyebrows. Jeffrey has all sorts of faces and eye expressions that he uses in different situations. He amazes us by the things that he can get people to do, just by asking. And asking things that I would NEVER have the guts to ask!
Here's Jeffrey showing off another missing tooth. He's at the FEAST football game. Jeffrey loves sports and often is found organizing all the other younger siblings in games. He's calling plays and putting teams together. The funny thing is that the kids listen to him and don't challenge his leadership. He's certainly a leader.
One of the things I love most about Jeffrey is his smile. He's so friendly and does beautifully in social situations. Even at 10 years of age, he's great at making conversation even with adults.
Here's Jeffrey with his science experiment-a volcano. Jeffrey is currently putting together a field guide of trees around our house as part of his science curriculum. Jeffrey loves animals and reading. He amazes us at how much he can remember from the things that he reads.

We are so thankful for Jeffrey and for all that he adds to our family. God has great things planned for Jeffrey!

Bad weather (???) cancels soccer practice

Josiah's soccer practice was cancelled today because of the weather from the hurricane, supposedly. Here's the view from my front porch (not a bad view, huh?). Doesn't look too stormy here! I guess maybe its TOO sunny and nice.

So, while Jonathan and Jeremy are off on a "daddy date" to the movies, Josiah and Jeffrey decided to play lacrosse/hockey in the house. They think it's awesome to put on slippers (the great ones handmade by Granna) and slip/skate around on the tile floor.
Jeffrey named his team the San Antonio Armadillos. Notice the laundry basket goal.
Josiah's team was named the Houston Dragons.
Jeffrey's going for the goal.
It's nice to have lots of room to play, even indoors. The lacrosse/hockey ring was in our entry way and dining room. The final score was 4-2 Armadillos.

Sports updates from Dagerathland

Jeffrey: He started soccer on Monday. We got a call a couple of weeks ago from his coach who said that his team would be practicing on Mondays and Thursdays. Michael told him that we told the people at registration that there's no way we can make practice on Thursday (J&J football). The coach was going to ask around to see if there was another team that wasn't practicing on Thursday. He called back Monday to say that there wasn't. All teams were practicing on Thursdays. So, we kinda planned to not have Jeffrey play soccer. Then I called back his coach on Monday-about 5:30pm, practice is at 6:30-to ask if it was ok for Jeffrey to be on the team knowing that he would never be able to make practices on Thursday. The coach said that he really needs Jeffrey on the team. So, Jeffrey and I rushed around and got him to practice. He enjoyed it and it turns out that practice may change to Wednesdays b/c there are other boys on the team who have brothers that play JV football on Thursday nights. Their first game is around the first wknd of October.

Josiah: Even after his two week countdown and unbeliveable anticipation, believe it or not we were late to practice. Mom totally dropped the ball-no pun intended!- on this one. Since Jeffrey's practice was at 6:30, I had it in my head that Josiah's was as well. So I was just piddling around doing stuff around the house, continually answering Josiah's questions of "How many more minutes until we need to leave?" Well, for some reason, Josiah pulled out my daytimer, found the date and declared, "Mom this says soccer is at 6:00!" Since I remembered writing that down as soon as the coach called, I trusted it more than my own memory. So at 6:05 we scrambled out of the house. I was concerned that being late would totally throw Josiah off. He sometimes gets really intimidated in situations like that. I guess not when the event involves a ball! He jumped right in and had a great time. He's one of the tallest on his team. Jonathan and Jeremy said that his team looked like a four and five year old team. It didn't really, but he is one of the biggest. He has practice tomorrow morning if the hurricane doesn't bring tons or rain and wind before 10am tomorrow. His games start the same wknd as Jeffrey.

J&J: The FEAST patriots got a win yesterday 45-14 over the Shepherd Hills Lutheran School Rams yesterday afternoon. The drama of the game room fiasco played out during the week, but was taken care of by game time. All the boys in the game room had to run extra "gassers" and laps and the starters had to run double the amt. All but one of the starters had finished his PT requirements so they were allowed to start. Jonathan recovered a fumble, had a QB sack and a couple of other good tackles. He and Jeremy are both on first team special teams (like kickoffs) which means they got a fair amount of playing time. Jeremy made some good blocks on special teams. He felt better about his game than last week. Michael thinks they are both still hesitating a little too much when it comes to playing, but that should improve with time and experience. Next week, to add a little to the mix, is BASKETBALL try-out camp. So, in addition to the two+ hours of football on Mon, Tues, Thurs and Fri (from 4-6:30), there will also be 2 hours of Bball skills drills to try out for basketball (from 12-2). It'll be a FEASTy kind of week. We may just take schoolwork up there and do it in between times. It's abt 30-35 min from home, so it wouldn't make much sense to drive back and forth four times. Jeremy's so excited about basketball. Coach Harris from football will also be a coach for bball, and so will Michael. So, it's a good thing. Just makes things a little busier than it's been lately. Jeffrey is still a year too young for playing bball. That's really eating at him. So, hopefully soccer will fill in the gaps for him. He's really enjoyed playing with all the younger brothers (and organizing teams for whatever is being played) of football players, so I'm sure there will be plenty of that during bball season as well.

The paths we're on

The not so great path: We look to be in path of Hurricane Ike. We're 150-200 miles in from the coast, so I think we'll get a lot of wind and rain, but nothing devestating. I'm praying we don't have power outages b/c I've got LOTS of meat in my freezer! At least our stove is gas and so is our grill. But it could get hot and stuffy quickly w/out AC. We are probably going to have some guests up from Houston. So, that will be fun. So today's plan includes not only school and a football game at 5pm, but also, "Quick clean up the house, we're having company!" These are days when it totally pays off to have trained the boys to work!

The beautiful path: We're smack dab in the path of a butterfly migration. Over the last week, we've had thousands of butterflies around our house and in the air driving around the road to Castroville. They are really pretty yellow and some orange colors. It's a neat thing to walk outside and be surrounded by symbols of new life. Very awesome!

The new path: Last weekend marked one year from the time that we decided to move to Texas. It's so hard to believe that it's already been a year. Michael and I were talking a couple of nights ago that this has probably been the most difficult year that we've ever faced as a family. And to be honest, that's a blessing! I know that there are many families who would look at our year and laugh at us calling this a difficult year. We're really trying to make an effort in the middle of all the change to be thankful and count our blessings. And here's one...at least when we left TN, we knew that we'd see those people that we love again. I'm reading a book to the boys for Texas history about a family that moved from Germany to Texas. When they left, they left knowing that they would most likely NEVER see their families again. Same thing when people went west in the US. I had to try hard not to start crying when I read the story. (Which is not an uncommon occurence, books and movies/TV shows can make me cry pretty easily. I cry in almost every episode of "Touched by an Angel"!) I'm just so thankful to be able to keep in touch with and see so many of our family and friends that we love dearly!

Fall garden-take 2

We're trying again, but this time we started with plants, no more seeds. We got some peppers (bell and jalapeno), tomotoes and eggplant. I think the boys are really hoping the goats find their way to the eggplant plants. They have bad memories of eggplant pizza when we were doing what the boys considered a two week culinary prison camp, a.k.a. the yeast free, diet for Josiah's skin. The eggplant pizza wasn't that great, but not the worst thing we had to eat during those two weeks that ruined the boys on lots of great foods! Anyway, here's the garden.

Hopefully, this one will work. Our pumpkins are looking a little weak in the front pot. I'm thinking I should transfer them to the ground in the garden. I don't know if they don't like the heat or the sun. Though most of the people reading this blog are enjoying the way autumn is SUPPOSED to feel, we're still enjoying (or not) temps around 90-95 degrees. Any ideas on help for the pumpkins??

The goats are doing well and much to my delight eating tall grass and weeds around. BTW, since these goats are all males, there's no milk. I've decided that's a good thing, because half of the time we don't know where they are and ALL of the time, they STINK!! I wouldn't want to have to sit still and milk one of those stinkpots. (I guess that's when I would/should enlist one of the men from my "army" to do the job!) They (the goats, not the boys) are so goofy as they hang around together. (Actually that statement would be true of the boys as well.) It's sometimes a trick trying to get out of the driveway. If they're in the road, they don't move over, they just run faster down the road. And if I honk the horn, they look back and then run even faster. It adds to the giggles on the farm! :-)

Josiah has soccer tonight and Jeffrey started Monday. J&J have another football game tomorrow night. Stay tuned for updates and pictures!

Live it up!!

One of my favorite quotes of all time is by Jim Elliot, "Wherever you are, be all there. Live to the hilt every situation you know to be the will of God for your life". Well, we know God's will for us right now is to be here in Castroville living in the country. So, we've been trying to live it up here. We've done crazy things we'd never do in the city...kittens, hens, and now...goats. Yep, we did it! Michael went to the store this morning to get some milk, and saw an ad on the community bulletin board about someone giving away 4 pygmie goats. He came home and had Jeffrey google them to find out about them. And then a couple of hours and a trip to the Uhaul to get a trailer later, Michael, the boys and Katie went to pick them up. They had a fun time wrestling them at the guy's house where we got them. They brought them home and let them go out on the property. We'll see if they stick around. The boys said that Michael said that if they start butting the old cars that are on our property, then we'll have to get rid of them. I REALLY hope they leave the cars alone, for lots of reasons. They are really cute, but they do stink. They go everywhere together. Kinda like Jonathan and Jeremy do when Katie and Celleste are around! :-) Their names are Goliath, Jeb, Jesse and Billy. Right now the goats are in the front yard eating the tall grass!! Yippee!!!
Jonathan, Jeffrey and Jeremy getting Goliath into the trailer.
The boys loading more goats on the trailer.
Here's the guys on the trailer when they got home. From L-R: Billy, Jesse, Jeb and Goliath
Here they are heading out toward the grass in our front yard.


It's such a hoot! I still can't believe we have GOATS!! What's next??!!

Patriots and Pinheads

Ok, if you don't watch Bill O'Reilley you don't know what I'm talking about. At the end of his show, he does a "Patriot and Pinhead" segment where he tells about someone who did something great and someone who had a less than stellar moment. So, today's Patriot accolate goes to...The Patriots. The FEAST Patriots had their first game today. Jonathan (#25) and Jeremy (#23) played 1st team special teams (and there were lots of kickoffs) and 2nd team defense. Jonathan recovered two fumbles and almost ran one back for a touchdown. The Patriots didn't win, but they scored three touchdowns. This game was a non-conference game, so it didn't count for their standings. Thursday starts conference play. They can't lose any more and make it to the playoffs. One game at a time. Here's some pics of the boys.

Ready for the kick off. Jonathan's left and Jeremy's right.


Kissing Granna. Granna and Pop (my mom and dad) drove over for the game.

Jonathan (L) and Jeremy after the game.

So the Pinhead award goes to...some of the Patriots. After the game, some of the team members went to Mr. Gatti's pizza. Coach Harris had specifically told the boys in person and in emails NOT to visit the arcades when the team goes out to dinner after games, so that the team can focus on hanging together and enjoying each others' company. Well, even knowing this rule, supposedly (we weren't there) 10-11 of the boys went to the gameroom and were playing video games. Now Coach Harris has a tough decision (Michael says it's not tough at all) about what to do. Do you make the tough decisions that confirm what's been said about character being more important than football, which most likely will mean that those who were in the game room won't be playing on Thursday night? The thing is, many of the boys in the gameroom were starters, even some of the team captains, and one loss will mean no playoffs. Michael says it's a "no-brainer"...don 't let them play. It'll be a lesson that none of the boys will forget. Stay tuned!

Homeschool perks

One of the definite perks of homeschooling is the flexibility to do (or not do) in the house schoolwork when it's convenient. Today it was absolutely convenient NOT to do schoolwork because we had company. Coach Kelley (I think now she's more like Aunt Kelley!) came in last night and brought Katie as a surprise guest. So, we had a field trip today. We went to the movies. We saw "The Longshot" about the first female quarterback for Pop Warner League. We felt it was very appropriate since the boys have their first football game tomorrow. So, we'll call it additional physical education research. Yeah, it counts as school!! And we had a private showing. We went at 10:00am because the tickets are only $4 for the first showing. There was no one else in the theatre. Awesome! Then we studied mulitcultural cuisine...We ate at Panda Express.


Here's a picture of Katie, Jonathan and Jeremy there.

After a short nap for everone, we went to football practice and then out to eat supper. Roll call is super early tomorrow. The van pulls out at 6:30am tomorrow morning. Stay tuned for some details on the big season opener!

A funny thing happened on my way to the mailbox...

Jackson (the dog) and I go walking to our mailbox every morning (it's about a mile round trip) to get the newspaper. The boys are here at the house, usually (supposed to be) doing their schoolwork. This morning when I got in, I heard very funny goings on. Jeffrey was on the karaoke machine microphone and Jonathan and Jeremy were on the couch asking questions. Turns out this was a pretend political question and answer question. Jeffrey was pretending to be the Republican nominee for President and J&J were asking him the "tough" questions.

J&J :"What would you do about the energy crisis?"
Jeffrey: "Well, we currently get only about 10% of our energy from our own soil. The answer is simple, let's add a zero to that number! Let's use our own wind, gas, oil, solar, nuclear power and quit using stuff from other countries. After all, if China called in all of our debts that we owe them, we'd be bankrupt. And that's just China. Let's get out of debt. Trillions of dollars is ridiculous!"
(Not bad for a 10 year old!)

Then it was Jonathan's turn. He was going to be the Democratic nominee.

Jeremy and Jeffrey: "What do you propose to do about the troops in Iraq?"
Jonathan: "Well, we need to still have some troops in Iraq, but let's bring them home as soon as they finish what they're there to do. Wait, that's probably not what a Democrat would say. Forget it, I can't be a Democrat."

*Mom's note: We aren't Fox News: We don't even pretend to be Fair and Balanced here!

Jeremy gets up.
"Ok, I'll be the Democrat"
Jonathan: "What do you propose as a plan for future space exploration?"
Jeremy: "Um...um....space exploration? Well, I would spend millions out of my own pocket to fund the space exploration because it's important."
Mom (from the other room) "A democract would NOT say that!!"
Jeremy: "Well, I'm going to be like Ronald Regan. He was a Republican but was close enough to the middle where a lot of Democrats liked him too."


Wow, they WERE listening when we talked about this stuff!

I've been "tagged"

I was informed today that I've been "tagged". I guess it's a sorta chain letter-type thing where you are supposed to tell 6 things about yourself. 6 unremarkable things, that is. And then you're supposed to "tag" more bloggers who are supposed to tell 6 unremarkable things about themselves. Then I guess we find out..what...that we are unremarkable. Or maybe that we ARE remarkable. That the things that people consider unremarkable, especially about themselves, are really the things that not only make us unique but are the things that wouldn't normally come up in a conversation, but that are really cool and fun to know. So here are the rules: (just in case you end up getting tagged)


1. Post the name of the tagger (Sonya tagged me)
2. Tell 6 things about yourself
3. Tag 6 (or about) other bloggers
4. Leave a comment on their blog to let them know they've been tagged.

Ok for 6 things about me.

1. I was once a member of the National Council Against the Misuse of Pesticides (a very left/liberal organization) and the American Family Association (a very right/conservative organization) at the same time. That made for some very interesting junk mail! It's all about the yen and the yang, right! I am now not a member of either, though I am FAR from being a moderate in social or political issues.

2. I taught myself how to french braid hair one Friday after Thanksgiving ( I think I was in 8th grade) during the A&M vs. Univ. of Texas football game. Though this is the biggest day of the year in the life of Aggies, I still would choose to be shopping with my sister amid the mass of humanity than be watching the game. My sister and I go Christmas shopping together every year, either right after Thanksgiving if we're together, or I fly to her house sometime in Dec. to shop. It's one of MY favorite days of the year! 7-8 hours flys by in a moment!

3. I'm finding myself to be very competitive. This is something that I didn't know was a driver to me unti the last few years. I don't even have to be competing against someone, most times it's just myself. For example, I almost always set a timer to unload the dishwasher, clean the bathrooms, clean the kitchen, mop the floor, iron Michael's shirts, (insert tedious, mundane task) and try my best to "beat the clock". It really gets me moving.

4. I have 20/20 vision, thanks to LASIK. Until 10 years ago, next month, I'd worn glasses or contacts since I was in the 6th grade. One time I even lost a contact on the football field during band practice-and found it! That was a miracle. But now I LOVE being able to see in the shower, read the clock at night, be able to see without contacts at the swimming pool, at the beach, at night. My eyes don't get dry and painful because I fell asleep with my contacts in or anything like that. I've NEVER regretted having the surgery. It was awesome!

5. I enjoy game shows, especially the old ones- Supermarket Sweep (love it!!), Card Sharks, Tic Tac Dough, Password (those Game Show Network types of shows), but also Price is Right and Wheel of Fortune. On our honeymoon, Michael and I went to a taping of Let's Make a Deal at Universal Studios and were even picked to wear costumes (we were a doctor and a patient), but we didn't get picked to make a deal. My sister and I came very close to going out to California to be contestants on Supermarket Sweep. I KNOW we would have been picked, who could resist a beautiful set of twins as contestants! :-) But sanity prevailed and we stayed home.

6. I love the mountains. Summer, winter, spring, fall. I'd love to vacation in the mountains at any time. I'm not sure I'd want to live there year round, but my retreat of choice would always be to the mountains. I'm married to a seashore lover. His retreat would always be the ocean.

OK, now I tag
Cheryl
Diane
Jennifer

That's it. That's all the blogs that I read of people who know me.

In the right place at the right time

Michael had the day off today, YEAH! So we all headed out after everyone finished their schoolwork (Dagerath Academy was open today!) to Chick-Fil-A. They were giving out free chicken strips today when you wore the logo for your favorite football team. For once, I was glad that we have so many t-shirts with athletic team logos on them! I KNOW these multiply in the t-shirt drawer. I don't know where they all come from. But, anyway, we all got free chicken strips and had a great time. And as if that's not cool enough, while we were on our way to C-F-A, we saw Air Force One (the President's airplane) right after it took off from Lackland AFB, which is about 15 miles straight down the highway from our house. They are staging evacuation shelters not far from there and President Bush was coming to inspect the facilities and make sure everything was ready. (I'm sure everything was spic and span. We know how to do things right in Texas!! :-) )And WE got to see the plane that had the President on it. Very cool! Josiah wanted to know if we could ride in the plane with him. Too bad it had already taken off because I'm sure he and Jeffrey would have been able to talk and smile their way onto the plane! BTW, I would have gotten a pic of the plane, but I was driving.