Thanks!

Giving! He he he!

I love Thanksgiving and I have a lot to be thankful for. I have looked at my family and friends and realized, recently, that I have been truly blessed by God. I have not earned most of what I have and it is only by the grace of God that I have what I do. There have been many pitfalls and set-backs in my life. And most of the time I had no vision for the future or any kind of plan. I made seriously bad choices. And in marrying my husband I had not changed my ways at all. But he has changed me for the better and I thank God for him every day. We have so much love between us and for our kids and our extended family. I guess I'm just happy that so much has worked out so well for us. And I pray that things will work out for the best for all of my family.

We had dinner at our house on Thursday. It was the usual affair. Today we recreated it with just us and leftovers, much to the boys' delight. And tomorrow we are going to my Dad and Step-Mom's for traditional Tovaas Turkey Tacos and probably some rice crispie treats. :)

Old Dale Camping!

We're back! I wrote in our truck's "log" while we were out and I'm going to just write it here verbatim.

11/23/08 Sunday

Yay! We're back at Old Dale! We arrived last night at 9pm, set up camp, and went to bed. Dad was up first, as usual, this morning. I went for a thirty minute walk first thing when I got up. I love walking the desert alone in the early morning. Tom is complaining that Dad won't let him do fireworks, NOW! And Nikki is laying on the bench vegetating.

I made pancakes this morning! I found those bisquick bottles on sale, the ones you just add water to and shake up. The work great but I'm thinking I'll make my own instant pancake mix and put in a jar to shake next time.

We NEED better pans to cook with. These ones don't heat very evenly at all. And a measuring cup, spatula that doesn't melt, hmmmm, what else?

We found the jack rabbits grave from the last spring and dug it up! Yuck! I know! But it was awesome. The flesh was all gone but the dirt was clotted together with the fur and we found all the bones except the skull. We put it all together and reburied it so that we can dig it up again in the spring. The boys can't wait to see what is left of it then!

We had beans and hot dogs for lunch. Tom was pissed that there were no plain potato chips. Jake drank his whole soda first off and then wasn't hungry for anything else. Dad "helped" him eat his hot dog. Tom is complaining that Dad won't let him fire all the firecrackers right NOW! Nikki is absorbed in a book.

The boys flew the helicopter and lost it a couple times. We went for a walk and found a huge target someone had been shooting at. We all took turns shooting at it. We found two big piles of trash someone dumped. I can't understand why someone would do that. I mean, we all bring things out to shoot at, but this was just trash. All there information was in it too! It made me so mad!

We brought out the paper city that I made a while back and set it ablaze! It was great. I brought a bottle of dry coffee creamer and showed the boys some cool fireballs. We had chicken soup from Costco for dinner. The night is really beautiful. It was a pretty clear day and warm. It is only 50 degrees at night, so it is about perfect.

11/24/08 Monday

Last night I woke up to a rustling sound and laid there trying to figure out what it was for a long time. At first I thought it was the trash can being invaded, but then I recognized it, a chip bag! Dan had put the open bag of Doritos in a cardboard box with no lid and something was getting into it! I went out to investigate and found the bag open and pieces of it all around on the ground. I took the box inside the trailer and they didn't come back. I guess someone out there likes Nacho Cheese!

We went on a four mile hike to Lost Horse Mine in Joshua Tree today. We are all exhausted. It was getting cloudy and cool on the way back. Tom is blowing things up with firecrackers. Dan brought back a dresser he found on the road. We shall light it up this evening. Nikki is playing the guitar.

Funny of the evening, "Brainus!" That would be the part of someone with their head up their butt.

11/25/08 Tuesday

We woke up to cloudy skies. After breakfast it started raining a little. It was only sprinkling. We stayed inside reading "By the Great Horn Spoon".

We took a walk up to "the monument" and found that someone else had been there! Yay! I couldn't believe it! They signed our "guest book" and left a live shotgun shell in the bag. We built a bigger pile of rocks so that we can see it from camp. :)

The kids and Dan went up to the mines for awhile. I relaxed with a book! We built a trap for mice and we can't wait to see if we catch something! We flew kites and wandered around, played "Toss Up" and had dinner.

There was a BIG fire tonight!! :)

Funny of the day, "Pickled Llama Brainus!"

11/26/08 Wednesday

I was woken up around 2:30 this morning by the wind. It was driving me crazy because the trailer squeaks so bad in the wind. But then it started to rain, and HARD! At 4am it was still pouring. Dan got up to smoke and the boys took over his spot in our bed. Tom was afraid that we would be swept away by the water, but I reminded him that we camp on high ground just to stay out of that. He said it must have flooded at one time and it could do it again, even if it was a hundred years ago.

We woke up again at six and it had stopped. I took a walk and found PUDDLES! I especially liked the one at the front door to the trailer! Our trap only caught a stink bug thanks to the rain.

We are all up now, except the boys are still in my bed argueing, playing, and being loud. It's raining again.

During breaks in the rain, we packed up and put away the trailer. We left camp at 9am and got home around 12:30. We can't wait to go again!!

Time Flies!

I didn't realize how many days it has been since I entered anything! It has been pretty uneventful here this week. We have all recovered from our colds. I have gotten all the shopping I need to do for the weekend and Thanksgiving. That was a feat! Tomorrow, we have Nikki's counseling appointment, pick up Ann from the airport, and then we are packing up and heading to Old Dale for a couple days. We will come back and get ready for a Thanksgiving dinner at our house! Yay! I love turkey! I was going to bring the computer and blog while I was out there, but Nikki reminded me that it was cheating to bring electronics camping. So you will all have to wait until we get back! Ha! I'm sure we will have lots of fun. I haven't been out there since Spring, so I'm excited to see the place again.

I'm sick!

Dan and I both have a cold! Yuck! I hate the sniffles. It is expected though, since the boys had a bad cold the past week.

I sanded the stair railing and put two coats of primer on! Yay for me! And I made dinner. :)

We didn't go skating tonight. So sad. I know that Nikki was disappointed, but I just don't feel well and I don't want to sit in the rink with the loud music when my head is so stuffy and achey.

The boys played on the computer most of the day. Dad was supposed to cut out their wooden shields, but he isn't feeling well either. Maybe we can get it done tomorrow.

Thanks to Jenn! I checked out SparkPeople and like it. Hopefully it will help me get an edge on this weight loss thing. I really need to lose some. I'm tired of working out on the Wii and having it say I'm obese! Makes me want to go eat a big bowl of ice cream. :(

The Smokey Time of Year

Cough cough...gag..sniffle...Those are the sounds around here! There were fires north of here earlier this week, but this morning we woke up to strong dry winds as is typical and a couple hours later the smell of smoke filled the air and the familiar rain of ash followed. Just after I noticed the smoke, I left to go to the hardware store. Up the street a couple blocks there was no smoke at all. I could see where the smoke was coming from though and the trail of it through the wind across my neighborhood. It is so strange how those winds run across the area. When I got home I checked the local news for "Fire Watch!" but it is "Firestorm 2008!" this time. Wow! Houses are burning down! When the Santa Ana winds blow, usually there are huge brush fires and a house or two on the edge of the rural areas gets in the way. But this was different. I have many friends and family that live in that area and I'm still praying that more houses don't go up in flames. I can't imagine the loss. It is just sad. Now, do you think if just my garage went up I could blame it on those fires? Just kidding!

On a happier note, I finished taking the paint of the stair railing today! Yay!! I started that project months ago but burned my hands so badly with the stipper (even with gloves) that I just didn't want to go back to it. I got some non-toxic stuff to finish up with and it worked out ok. I wouldn't want to have started with it though. It just didn't eat all that paint off as well as the really yucky kind. Tomorrow I'm going to sand it down. If I have enough time, I'll get a coat of paint on it too. And then the rest of the room will look like hell and I'll have to start sanding and painting that.

I'm going to complain here. I'm pretty discouraged with this weight-loss. I eat a decent amount of calories and work out. I lose a pound or two. Then I eat a bit more than I should and gain it back. This goes over and over. I've lost 10 pounds, but I need to lose WAY more and I'm just getting frustrated. I love working out though and I feel stronger. I don't quit that. It is the eating that is causing me grief. I don't even want to know how many calories I consumed at Cabo's tonight! Yikes!

Wednesday

Nikki went back to school today. Back to the old grindstone. :(

The boys and I went to Knott's. The Dragon Swing makes me totally sick and I will NOT ride it again. And I am scared to death watching the boys on the swing. So I'm officially old.

I spent most of my time perfecting the look of my blog and I'm still not happy with it. I do like the quote from the book I'm reading, but I don't like the way it is written there. Hmmm...

And the winner is.....

Dad and Nikki! They were way behind last night, but decided to merge and beat us all. By a stroke of luck they got Park Place and Broadway and it was over. Tom was annoyed and swears he will never allow a merger again. But it was fun!

Not much of a report today. Nikki and I got her homework all sorted out and she has a list of what she needs to catch up on. We'll see if we can stay on top of it all. Tomorrow she is going in early to take a make-up test in French.

Tom has a cold and refused to leave his pj's today. He didn't do much of anything all day. He seems fine now, but he is doing his bounce around the room act because he has all this bottled energy. Jake is doing it too.

I got the livingroom vacuum and sort of dusted. I'll finish it tomorrow.

And that is it. Happy Veteran's Day!

The Blogging Time!

It is 7:30pm..."The Blogging Time". I try to get the boys in the tub every other day. It isn't that they don't want to bathe, it is just that giving them a bath one right after the other is a pain and I tend to forget bath time until just before bed AND rushing them through a bath is not a pleasant experience. So we came up with taking a bath at 7:30 every other day. The cool part is that I have time to blog! Yay!

Tonight we played Monopoly. It is a "Coca-Cola" Monopoly that I bought about 10 years ago. We didn't finish, of course, and now the game sits on the dinner table waiting for tomorrow. Maybe we can get Dad to come out of his office and play for a bit tomorrow. I'm not sure how long the game will last on the dinner table!

Last night we played our "Pirates of the Carribean" LIFE. We got that a couple years ago for Christmas and only played it once. It was just the boys and I because Dad fell asleep on the couch and Nikki was working on some homework.

Dan and I talked a lot about the boys and their online game addiction. I have to say here that I have the best "unschooling" husband in the world! I don't like these games. There is a lot of very questionable material on there and the Lord only knows where they go on there, searching for new games. I talked about telling them they couldn't do it anymore. Dan said that won't last because they will drive me crazy. I have to admit that I like having more free time because they sit glued to the computer. He said we have to find something more fun to distract them. That night, I went upstairs and started to get out the box of Star Wars guys. I started sorting through them and called Jake to help. He was happy to unglue himself and see what I was up to. Sorting through them, I found that we have quite a few duplicates. I set them up as an army against the dark side! Jake got out several different sized of the Millinium Falcon and we had ourselves a war. Tom heard the commotion and came up to investigate. That is where the fun began. Now there is a army of military men and tanks set up against the Star Wars guys. We put them all over with a clear path through the room so that we didn't have to put them away and played again in the morning.

Now, I have to admit something else. I loved playing with my babies, but playing with my school age guys is a little boring for me. I'm not much into pretending and I tend to get antsy about house work when I'm playing. I tend to see how badly I need to vacuum and dust when I am sitting on the floor setting up the cowboys and indians! But I realize that I need to play with them more if I don't want them to sit and stare at the screen for days.

And now, if you are clear on the unschooling philosophy, you are thinking, "What if that is what they want to do? I'm sure they are getting something they need from the games." And I totally agree. That is the glory of it. If I started playing with the toys and they were more interested in the game, I would have left it at that. But they don't. They really would rather do something else, but play the computer games because they are bored. I really have begun to like playing. They are just so happy!

My Poor Nikki!

We went to the doctor again today. The guy had to drain it and it was extremely painful for her. She was very brave. It was just about the most disgusting wound I have ever seen. Seriously! It looks like a bullet wound. You know those scenes in old war movies where they have to dig a bullet out of someone? That was the scene! Except Nikki had nothing to bite on and she didn't even get a shot of whiskey! After it was all cleaned out and dressed, the nurse came in and gave her a huge antibiotic shot in the thigh. THAT was when she screamed out loud! It was pretty darn terrible. We have to bring her back on Monday afternoon to recheck it. The school won't let her back to class until a doctor clears it.

Our camping trip had to be cancelled due to Nikki's injury. The boys are going to go tomorrow and spend one night there with Dad. Dan rescheduled his vacation days for the two days before Thanksgiving and we are going to go all together then instead. I'm kinda glad because I didn't really want to bring the dogs with us, especially the little one. Grandma is flying out to see Ken tomorrow morning, so we would have had to take the dogs with us. I had nightmares last night about Kiara getting mauled by coyotes!

Update Update Update

Well this week has turned out to be a barrel of monkeys! Poor Nikki complained of a itchy bug bite on Monday and I put some neosporen on it and a bandaid. On Wednesday, she went to the school nurse because it was bleeding. The nurse said it looked like a staph infection and they had already had a few cases of it this year. You gotta love public schools. Anyway, Dan took her to the doctor on the way home from school and he gave her some antibiotics and told her how to take care of it. She came in limping from that. She is home from school again today and tomorrow. She can't go back to school until a doctor clears it. I worry about her and the stress of trying to catch up. I wish we could just ditch the whole going in to school thing. But sadly, that is not an option right now. We are going back to the doctor tomorrow to have them look at it. It is pretty darn gross, that is for sure.

The boys have been seriously addicted to "addictinggames.com" the past couple weeks. I've been pretty concerned about tearing them away from the computer but then I realized that it may just be up to me to take their attention away from it for awhile. I thinking this because I tend to get really stuck on those games as well and when I do, I try to force myself to do something else, get out of the house, clean, anything. Once I'm away from it for a bit, I don't feel the pull to sit down at the computer as badly. I'm hoping this will help them as well. If were a game on the Wii or some other thing, I wouldn't be so worried about it. These games are on the internet and are serious time stealers. I know it because I play them too. Besides, there are all kinds of very strange things on those sites, mostly ads and inappropriate stuff for kids.

My Mom came to visit us for the afternoon. That was fun. We went out to have lunch at the new Shakey's down the street. It is a pretty nice restaurant. I forgot how good Shakey's pizza is. :) The kids liked it, even Nik came along. They played some video games and Jake charmed the girl at the counter to give him a toy that cost more than the tickets he won. It was pretty cute to watch from afar.

Now, I'm just waiting for Tom to get out of the tub. We are going to hit the hay a little early tonight. I'm tired and so is Dan. He likes to read to the boys before bed, but lately he has been too tired to read much at all.

An Attempt at Serious Writing

First of all, I haven't watched the news since this morning. I came in and told my husband and MIL that I was going to take the whole pill in the morning instead of be tortured bit by bit all day today. So far I am unaware of how the election has panned out but I have my feelings on what will happen.

My thoughts on this whole Proposition 8 Marriage bill? Well, why don't we just abolish state sanctified rituals of marriage and allow whoever wishes to enter into a civil union do so? Marriage is a religious ritual, isn't it? And since we have the separation of church and state thing, which is a whole other post in itself, why is any type of marriage sactified by the state? It really doesn't matter anyway if your religion doesn't forbid it. There are many things that are perfectly legal that are against my own religion and many more for others. I believe that the state needs some sort of record of civil unions for statistics, insurance, and other legal matters, but marriage is a whole other thing. If you want to be married by a particular organization, then you have to follow the rules of that organization. Marriage is only a religious ritual and changes with each religion and through each age. What does it matter (legally) who you are married to? It also has nothing to do with sex. There are many heterosexual couples who don't have sex anymore for whatevery reason. It has to do with a pair of humans raising children to adulthood and taking care of each other throughout there lives. Personally, I would like to see more couples staying together for life, whether they are same sex or not. I would like to see more people keep whatever family they have together not just for the sake of the children they have but their grandchildren, great-grandchildren, daughter and son-in-laws, too.

And now we move on to taxes. Hmmm, where to start.

If we take $1 from everyone for taxes, everyone has an equal stake in what our state or country uses that money for. But the poor man is hit harder by losing his dollar than the rich man and I think everyone agrees that isn't right.


If we take more from the rich than we do from the poor, like we do now, then the rich man has less and less incentive to work and earn the more we take. The government has less and less income each year. And the poor man has an equal vote in what the government pays for and buys. The poor man has no monetary stake in what he votes for. He may vote for things that may be nice but not necessary since he isn't the one who will pay for it. It is essentially taxation without representation for the rich since they are far fewer than the poor, forcing him to pay for services that the poor decide they need.

If we take the same percentage from everyone who earns a living, and allow only those who are earning some kind of living to vote, then we are giving everyone a equal stake in what services out government renders. The poor voter really thinks about the services he is voting for since the more services the government gives, the higher the percentage of taxes come from his paycheck.

As a final note to this, there are fixes for the situation that our country sits in right now. The only problem is that no politician is going to risk his career on fixing them. The fixes need an educated public that will understand and vote on that understanding instead of personal needs and emotional attachment. Our government has taken decent education away from its people and replaced it with trivial information that cannot help them be productive citizens. It has been so long since the schools have taught real economics, history, and politics that few people have the background to understand what is happening. I bet that politicians do understand. I bet that they have read the history of civilisations. I bet the fully comprehend the differences between democratic, republic, communistic, and socialistic governments. It is just that the general public does not and the politicians just don't want to lose their jobs by doing what is right instead of what is popular.

Halloween Hangover

Halloween is special here. It is the one time a year that we meet all our neighbors. We have an excuse to come to people's door all over the neighborhood. I love sitting on our front porch and handing out candy to all the kids. The come in the cutest costumes, especially the little ones. I love the new Mom's with the babies trick or treating. I did that when Tom was new! He was only 3 weeks old the first time we went trick or treating. I got lots of good candy! :)

Nikki was at school all day and then Dan dropped her off at a friends party on the way home. The boys and I carved pumpkins and decorated the front porch. I decorate for Fall at the beginning of October and then put up the Halloween spooks for the night and take down again the next day. This week, three complete strangers walked by and stopped to tell me that my decorations were so nice and they loved seeing them. It was as if God was trying to tell me to be happy with what I have. Sometimes I can be pretty ungrateful. :( Last night, several people told us that they look forward to trick or treating at our house every year. Ahh!!! How sweet! Next year we have to have more candy. And Dan says he is going to buy little copies of the Constitution to hand out. I think handing out some homeschooling cards would be cool too! ;)

Anyway, the kids had a great time. Nikki really enjoyed her party. The boys said that it was the best Halloween ever! I think we did well. Next year, some of my family and friends need to join us. Pizza, trick or treating, harassing the neighbors, what could be better?!