Getting to Know You

Just read this on Keely's blog and thought it would be fun.

Join in if you would like. Just copy and paste these questions and answer them for yourself and link up at Keely's website

1. How old are you?
2. Where are you from and where do you live now?
3. What music have you been diggin' lately?
4. Favorite food(s)?
5. Single, married, divorced?
6. Kids? If so, how many and how old?
7. What are 3 blogs you read daily?
8. What is your favorite Christmas/Holiday tradition?
9. Lastly, if you're a blogger, how long have you been blogging and if you don't have one...how long have you been reading blogs?
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1. I am 35 years old.
2. I grew up on a farm near a very small town in Northern Saskatchewan that no one reading this will have ever heard of and I currently live in a city very near my home - in fact I was born here.
3. I have really been loving the music coming out of World Revival Church in KC, Mo and Christ for Nations and some Christmas music.
4. Um, That would make this a pretty long blog post but I guess my tops right now would be greek chicken pitas and pepper strips, raw radishes (yummo) and, I think that's it.
5. I am married. This is my second marriage and it is, like, way better than the first was! Wahoo!
6. We have 7 children. His, Hers and Ours. They are 23, 21, 16, 15, 12, 9 and 6.
7. I read more than 3 on a daily basis so I don't think I can answer that question.
8. Favorite Christmas tradition? I like so many things about Christmas. It would be so hard to just narrow it down to one. I really love spending time with loved ones (family/friends)
9. I have been blogging for quite a few years but have just started this one in August as I wanted a venue to speak openly and sort through things without family reading about it.

You demanded asked for it

Well, if you want to get me on a technicality, Cheryl was the only one to ask but I was still asked and I still aim to please when I can.

Without further delay allow me to present to you the recipe for the Honey Garlic Sauce I will be making (to freeze) for my meatballs on Saturday.

Cheryl, and anyone else who wants it, here it is.

Um, your welcome.  What can I say?  I do what I can for the people I love....{GRIN}

Love You Forever

Well, not you guys. 

I mean, I like you a lot.

 It's not you; it's me. 

Really.  Can't we just be friends?

Sorry, I haven't even started and I'm all ready off course and silly.

Tonight, as I was getting the kids ready for bed, Bug asked me if there was time to read a story.  Yup, there was time so I asked him to pick one out.  He thumbed through his stacks of books, on a mission and found the book he wanted to read.

Voila.

This is the book! I love this book.  Bug loves this book and so does Jellybean.  I bought a beautiful hard cover version of this book for my dad one year (he is my hero after all).

My heart never ceases to get so big reading this story to my son, not only because of how much I love him but because of the moment we get to share while reading it - a special moment just for us where I am looking in his eyes and he is looking in mine, where we say in unison:

I'll love you forever

I'll like you for always

As long as I'm living

My baby you'll be (your baby I'll be - um that's Bug's part)

Tonight was the first time I have read this book since Rush ran away from home and it was a little difficult to read over the lump in my throat and a little hard to see the words through the tears in my eyes but it gave Bug and I an even bigger bonding moment as he looked at me, wiped a tear that had escaped, snuggled into me just a little closer and whispered, "It will be otay, Mama."

Yes, buddy, it will be "otay".  It will be "otay" because I have you and Jellybean and your daddy and God and Rush and Lil B and PB &J and Tuff and BabyK and because I know that one day our entire family will be restored and it will be bigger and better than it was when it was busted up!  I love your faith, your compassion, your empathy, your boldness, your passion, your heart, your zest for life.  You and Jellybean, both.  You are a dynamic duo and I love you to pieces and I'm not just saying that (since, well, you have no idea that this blog exists and who knows if you ever will...)

A pinch of this and a smidge of that

Um, anyone wanna tell me where I was supposed to fit in this "let's sleep with mom so she's not lonely tonight" equation?

That's what I thought too.  So, I had to do a bit of wiggling and using a bit of gentle persuasion to get a certain child a little more centered and a lot less sprawled.

Speaking of that child.  This...

just happened to be his last night in the orange cast!  Yeppers, folks, he got that puppy off today!

Checking out the difference from one arm to the other.

The orthopedic surgeon says there is still a slight deformation which you can see in the picture but that it should "straighten itself out" with time; he is, after all, 6 years old and his young bones heal quickly. He does have limited mobility trying to turn his palm from facing down to facing up so we will be doing "at home" physio to help strengthen him up in that area again.

When I asked him how it felt to have the cast off he said, "Mom, it reminds me of that song we sing.  'Freedom'. You know "I wanna lift my hands higher than before.  I wanna dance freer than before.  Free-eeedom.  Freedom." Just like that."

Once we got home and went to pick Jellybean up from school we packed up the 4 more bags of "crap" and one more box and took them to Value Village as well.

Don't judge (grin) but I know there is more stuff that will be leaving this house in the next few days.  How much crap did we have?  I mean, seriously?  I have 2 bags, same size as the above picture, of garbage to take out to the garbage can as well.  We, ok, I will be getting this ouse ship-shape in no time, about time!

I got to do a nice sized batch of once a month cooking (oamc) as well.  Check it out.

The two in the back are lasagnas, there is a bag of a dozen mini meatloaves, the margarine container has porcupine meatballs, and the other two containers are regular ol' meatballs. I am hoping to finish this all off by cooking up a honey garlic sauce for the meatballs to freeze as well but I may have to wait to do that until Saturday.

Hooray!  So much done! Feeling all accomplished or something.  Quick!  Someone get me a hero cookie before I lose momentum! {Grin}

My Dad

He's my hero and not just because he rescued us. I know I have mentioned that before. I am a HUGE daddy's girl. I once lived 6 hours away from my dad and ended up begging my husband to move us back home. I cried for hours every time I talked to him on the phone - it was bad.

My dad was a single parent to us 3 kids and he was a darn good one. I never thought so at that point but he was. I left my dad when I was 16. Sound familiar? Yep, I did the same thing to my dad as Rush did to us - only I did it openly and my dad knew exactly when and where I was moving. It took a while for tings to get back to where they were - to where they are now (this is why I have so much hope, that and that God is in control of the entire situation - if He's not worried why should I be?)

My dad and I are very close again and tonight the kids and I got to spend a couple hours with him and Nanook (the dog); we all had so much fun.

I had initially gone over there to give my dad this picture.

This is my dad and his 4 remaining sisters at my brother's wedding in September. My one aunt passed away a few years ago and there was one more auntie who died when she was 24 hours old. We are sending this picture to my uncle who lives WAY up north (in fact, he moved to an Inuit community); he has had some kind of medical anomoly happen to him that no one has been able to explain. So far it has been described as possibly a stroke, MS, Lupus or "we just have no idea" and he is getting worse and worse as each week passes. My dad and uncle have been estranged for quite some time but this has put a desperation in my dad to get this picture sent to him so Uncle can see his brother and sisters one last time.

The visit turned into a lot of laughter and fun for all of us.

Bug getting kisses from Nook (Nanook) and thinking it was hil-ar-i-ous!
Cuddling with Pa.

Bug pretending he is going to eat "grandpa candy". He has tried it once, just as I have; we both puked. We were both around 4 years old.

Jellybean and Nook enjoying some quiet snuggle time. Nook recently hurt his back and has just been able to start walking around so the kids need to make the time to have quiet time with him or he just goes beserk trying to play with them.

Pa and Nook standing in the window to say goodbye as we left. This has been something our family does since I can remember. Even when I was a little kid and we lived in the same yard as my grandma, when we left her house she would stand in her big kitched window to wave to us and we always looked back to see if she was waving. Now, I look back to see if my dad is there, and he always is. My rock.

Interuption

I am interupting the blog slacker series to share a little something with you.

I have been in the process of purging crap out of our house. As some of you know, I am also in the process of moving our bedroom to where Rush's was and Jellybean up to our room. Common sense would then dictate that the majority of the stuff I took to Goodwill was Rush's.

I felt good about getting it out of the house. Looking at the bags of stuff to leave (70 pounds I am sure) made me feel so much lighter, emotionally and physically; I felt free or something.

This morning I packed these bags and box into my car and headed to get rid of it - feeling pretty good about myself. I dropped them off, got back in my car and...

...burst into tears and bawled like a baby. I can honestly tell you that I never expected a reaction like that from myself. I guess it just made it seem all the more final. Now, all Rush's stuff* has been boxed up and tucked away for a day that she may want it (keepsakes, special things), given to friends, thrown out or donated. (*Stuff meaning the things she didn't care enough to take with her.)

But now it's time for healing, time to move on... I just really find that reaction bizzare.

Slacker!!! Part Two

Yes there is more, perhaps nothing else quite as funny as PART ONE, but more just the same to excuse my disappearing act as of late.

I helped a friend to plan his wife's (and my friend) 40th birthday.  There was lots of texting, lots of getting my husband to talk to her husband so she wouldn't suspect why I was talking to him when she wasn't there.  I couldn't talk to her or look her in the eye for 2 weeks because I was afraid to open my mouth near her - thinking that the moment I did this verbal diarrhea of invitations, cakes, foods and presents would spew from my mouth.

She is with me on the worship team and we had decided to have a cake for her after practice with the team - the perfect ruse to make her think her husband had planned the lamest 40th birtday bash ever!  It was perfect!  Except at the last minute they needed me to get the cake and get the party somewhat organized...on the same day as the original party! 

The. Same. Day!

2 hours away from each other!

Apparently I am totally capable of doing that because, well, I did!

Party #1 ( at 1:00 p.m.)

Party #2 (at 3:00 p.m.)

Mmmm Chocolate..

Some of the yummy sandwiches.

Delicious punch (if I do say so myself)

Veggie tray!

The invitations.

The surprise!  We pulled it off! We ate.  We laughed. We ate.  I said that right? And then I was so tired from getting it all made, planned and together that I went home and napped for 2 hours.

See.  No where near as funny but very, very time consuming.  Oh and now, that the party is over, I can talk to both of my friends again.  Whew!