Peanut 6:28-29

And it came to pass in the 7th year of the new Millennium in the first month and 28th day that the Peanut cried out unto the Lord saying,

"Oh Lord! My heart is sad for my cat has been missing for days. Please, dear Lord, send my cat home that I might feed her and pet her and make her play with me in my room."

And that day the Lord heard the Peanut's prayer. And on the day of the 29th, as foretold by the Prophetess named Momma, when the Peanut returned to her home from a long day of school and after-school care the cat awaited her at the back door. And the Peanut did rejoice because the Lord had heard her prayers and sent the cat home.

ADD?

So, is it ADD when you have to tell your child 3 times in 2 minutes to brush their teeth or just their age? After eating breakfast I looked Peanut in the eye, told her to go brush her teeth and asked what she was suppose to do. But somehow between the kitchen and the bathroom she forgot and went to primp her hair. I was trying to gather my things in the living room but I knew there was no water running in the bathroom. I chased her out of her bedroom and into the bathroom where she grabbed her tooth brush and and toothpaste. I have a sensory aversion to watching people brush their teeth (I HATE TOOTHBRUSH COMMERCIALS!) so I went and started the car. I came back inside to check on her. She still wasn't brushing her teeth but checking them out in the mirror. I grabbed the tooth brush and put the paste on it and handed it back to her and went into her pit to find her coat. Before I made it to her closet door she hollered that she sang her ABC's very slowly and was done brushing her teeth. I told nope, do it again. Finally we got done. I'd probably get to work at 7:30 every morning if I didn't have to repeat myself so much.

Random Outburst

I'm looking forward to this weekend. It's not suppose to snow...much. I don't like winter. I don't like being cold. I don't like having my family couped up in the house for days on end! Nickel gets the winter blues and drives me crazy with his moodiness. Peanut's been sleeping on her floor, I don't get it either so don't ask me to explain. I'm ready for spring and summer. Nickel and Peanut pulled the motor out of my camaro last summer and I'm ready for them to go back to work on it. It would've come in handy to have it running yesterday when I couldn't get my new (but lovingly used) car to start and ended up walking Peanut to school. $233 dollars later I have a new ignition switch module and a new set of keys... but I have to keep the old ones for the doors.
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A couple of months ago I was given 4 tickets to go see the Hornets play on the 8th by a guy I know who has season tickets but can't go to all the games. I'm excited because I'm considering it an early birthday present (my birthday is Feb 11). Nickel's brother and his wife are going with us. Yesterday E, Nickel's brother, asked if were getting a sitter to keep Peanut all night so that we could stay the night in the City. We hadn't thought about it but now that he mentioned it, that does sound like a really nice idea! It'll be pretty late when the game is over and not getting home until midnight doesn't really sound like fun. So I'm going to be making some phone calls today and see who I can get to keep Peanut and if they'll take her to school that Friday morning. It might end up being a really nice early birthday present.
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I'm not Catholic but the last couple of years I've participated in Lent. During Lent (which begins on Ash Wednesday and runs 40 day and 6 Sundays to Easter) many people make a self sacrifice and "give something up". Every year that I've done it I've given up all soda. One year I gave up chocolate at the same time. That was very stupid...chocolate and coke at the same time.... I think you understand. And I've learned it's not so much as what you give up and to what you take on, using that extra time to get closer to God and focus what what His life really meant and still means today. All that to say that today I got a really cool free book in the mail today. It's called Journey to the Cross/40 days of discovery. Each week has a little devotion and so does each day. It has recommended reading and then space to write down any thoughts. The back of the book has several pages to write down prayer request. I'm very excited about it and am looking forward to digging in to study guide next month.
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Anyway, hope ya'll have a good weekend!

South Carolina

Peanut, as you know, has lots of wisdom to bestow on us mere mortals. The following is an actual conversation I had with her this morning.

Mom, I want to go to South Carolina.
Okay. Why do you want to go to South Carolina?To see the Penguins. Duh. I really should've known that!

To read more about penguins and other animals from Peanut you can go here to last May.

This is the way we brush our teeth...

The B&W one is baby Peanut. She took forever to grow her hair!!!

Thought for the day

Meet me half way...

...you need the exercise.

Family Bonding?

The weather turned frightful early Friday. Small beads of ice started pouring from the sky but there was much to do. Reports had to be run but stuff for the reports had to be posted first. It was time to buckle down and just do it. Nike would have been proud. By noon I printed my reports and stared outside at the now white parking lot. There wasn't a car outside that didn't belong to an employee. That's ok, it meant I was able to do what I needed to do without interuption.

By two the decision to close the offices as soon as we were done with our work was made. I didn't have to be told twice, I don't like driving on ice. Nine years ago I was with three of my friends returning from an out of town trip. Hammer, the only boy in the car was driving, because that's what men do, right? He was trying very hard to impress the girl in the front seat but all he did was make me sick from the slipping and sliding. He took a corner too fast, started fish tailing and my head as soon next to a 50 or so year old tree, part way down the steep hill in the Ozark Mountains. I decided to go ahead and get Peanut then. They weren't going to close schools early but I didn't really want to be there an hour later with all the other parents in an icy parking lot.

As I left I realized that because it was sleet and not freezing rain (there is a difference) falling there was actually some traction. I picked up Peanut and we went to the movie store. We managed to pick up three movies, one for each of us even though two were cartoons. Made a quick drive thru at Starbucks for my last cup of goodness for several days and started home. I felt my car slip once and decided no more stops...except the Dollar Store to get some kitty litter. You never know when you're going to need kitty litter.

Saturday past with only one big fight. Seems the Peanut didn't want to go to bed and I was insisting. She gets unbearable when she's out of her routine so I insist on her going to bed within 30 minutes of her bedtime.

Sunday brought the last of the sleet and snow (mostly sleet). Peanut actually attempted to clean her room. I did several more loads of laundry and watched a couple of movies. I had forgotten how much I loved Sweet Home Alabama. That's such a good movie, ya'll. We even ventured out to the store. I had stocked up on non-parishables Thursday but didn't buy anymore meat so we braved the elements 7 blocks to the store. Peanut wanted lots of things like another bottle of juice, some Kool-Aid, jello, etc. Nickel wanted meat so I bough him a roast to cook tomorrow. I wanted a couple of magazines to look at. I should have bought a fountain coke there because Sonic was closed. I was sad.

Work has been called off for tomorrow. Peanut didn't have school because of the Federal holiday so at least this will be one snow day they won't have to make up. The weather forcast says it'll start warming up on Wednesday, above freezing for a few days.

I'm a little worried about my friends Aunt Jo and Uncle Joe, and their Jo daughters. They live in the part of the state that got hit the hardest. The weather company is reporting about 20,000 customers without power this evening, mostly around their side of the state. There's no doubt in my mind that they're ok, but I've seen 6 year olds when they can't watch tv.

My pastor is trying to get back home from a mission trip in Romania. He's not having an easy time and it's not all the weather's fault. Hopefully he will be home soon because he's very much missed.

Well, this is turning out to be a really long post and I didn't really intend that when I sat down today. I hope you all are well. Drop me a line in the comment box so I can have some emails to read, ok? Thanks!

Good night!

Busy busy

I hope you all can forgive me for lack of deep intersting posts. I also hope you're not sick of my childhood pictures but I'm really enjoying them and hey, they beat posting nothing!

As the finance girl January is my busyest month. Normal months are a little hectic for me as I live in last month and the current month for the first 10 or so days while I close out the last month. But January...well, there's years involved as well as months and everyone wants all their tax information.

So, unless the weatherman is right, which of course is possible even though none of the local ones can actually get close to agreeing, I might be stuck at home for the weekend giving me plenty of time to post something you all are use to, or not, but maybe at least I can get caught up on all your blogs!

Here's a picture of some winter weather we had in days past. I'm pretty sure we didn't have to go to school for like a week after that snow!

Land Run?

As you may or may not know, Oklahoma became a state in 1907. This year there will be lots of attention on the fact that Oklahoma is almost a hundred years old, at least here in Oklahoma there will be.

I'm not sure why I was dressed up like a prairie girl, but this picture makes me chuckle! That's my big brother in the picture trying for some reason not to laugh. Don't you love my bonnet? I loved wearing it when I was little!

This is true love!

Candy Cane (on the left) and I thought it was lots of fun fixing my dad's hair when we were 4.

Peanut thought so too... 20 years later.

Life Story #76

Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should get used to the idea.

Idiot Driver

Despite the fact that I took the blame for my car accident last October I really am a good, safe driver. I don't like to pull out into traffic with the hopes that other people will stop or at least slow down for me. I always look before turning and look while turning as well. Well, tonight I met an idiot and I'm sad to report she was a woman. This is my story of the Idiot Driver.

The South Office (starbucks) is located just south of my home church. I was actually running a little ahead of time (instead of late) so I thought I'd take advantage of such an occasion and to grab me a grande Carmel Macciatio. Coffee doesn't prevent me from sleeping at night so drinking it at 6:30 pm would do no harm. I get my coffee and am on my happy way to church. So I go to leave the shopping center parking lot. I get to the place I will be exiting from and turn on my blinker to let the world know I wanted to make a right hand turn. Before I had a chance to really see what oncoming traffic was like in pulls a nice new white Trail Blazer and stops blocking my view of on coming traffic. Now, let me point out that the Blazer obviously sits higher then my Maxima so I cannot see anything except this Blazer. And the blazer sits there.

Blocking. My. View. For. Ever.

After a little bit I hear a honk, but it isn't coming from behind me and then a couple seconds later a red jeep drive past and from the sound of the motor was changing from a lower gear, I can only assume, but I think this jeep wanted some coffee too but this blazer was preventing anyone else from entering the shopping center parking lot by sitting there. I look in my mirror and there is now a guy sitting behind me. Probably wondering the same thing I was. What's this chick in the Blazer waiting on. He must've gave up because soon afterwards he went to a different exit. I checked her front end. Here headlights were on but her blinkers or emergency lights were not indicating to me that she was not having any car trouble. I rolled down my window thinking maybe she'd do the same so I could ask her what her deal was and why she was doing everything in her power to prevent me from moving. I shrugged my shoulder to her indicating that I didn't know what she was doing. I could see her inside her vehicle but she cared not to roll her window down to speak with me so I rolled mine back up. She sure didn't seem at all worried about the fact that I couldn't move until she did. I was starting to get a little irritated. Finally she pulled up a couple of inches allowing me to see partially around her. I pulled up just enough to not get my nose whacked off my a pickup. She pulled up a little further finally giving me the view I required to be able to make this turn without having to shopping for another car tomorrow.

After what seemed like eternity I was able to pull out to go to church. As I was driving away I looked in my rear view mirror just in time to see her making a sharp left turn into the Curves parking lot. Um, yeah. She wasted all that time , knowing I couldn't go until she moved but not wanting to move because it's not a large enough parking lot to pull in a little ways and turn around just to avoid blocking traffic for 10 minutes! Good grief manard!


Ok, just so this isn't just a total rant about stupid idiot women drivers of White Trail Blazers here's a picture of me being a good driver. See, I had my hat on, both hands on the wheel, and was NOT blocking the view of on coming traffic!

Hottie-Boom-A-Lottie

Nickel and his friend, J are coming up with a movie, starring themselves of course. It's based on at least one if not several of their favorite comic book characters.

Tonight, after playing a couple of rounds of Scene It Marvel Edition (which was the perfect Christmas present for my comic book loving husband) we came up with my character's name. An original character was needed for the movie and of course my husband can't create a movie without me. Me, the actress!

My name-

Hottie-Boom-A-Lottie

I'll have to get back to you on what my super powers are, but I'm sure with a name like Hottie-Boom-A-Lottie it's going to be something great! I wonder if I'll need the cape my mom made me when I was little still just a little hottie?

(I'm the short one if you couldn't tell.)

Goodbye 2006

Peanut tried to see me insurance today. I don't know when she found the time to get her insurance licence between being a teacher and part-time doctor. The insurance she was selling today was Light Insurance. You see, the insurance is free if you buy the light bulbs from her for $5.99 each. Now if I light goes out she'll replace them for just $5.99, the price of new insurance. Maybe she's on to something here.
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Ok, so one of the things I asked Santa for was some pictures of my childhood. Santa was very kind and my brother and I both got some CDs full of pictures. I'm having so much fun looking at them!

Wanna see a cute picture? Well, too bad, here it is anyway.

I don't remember why my mom was taking a picture of my dad but I knew that I wanted to hug him at that moment so I ran up to him and grabbed his leg.
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Goodbye 2006, year of our Lord. You were very intersting to say the least.

Vacation time!

Christmas was wonderful, of course. Baby Jesus made it safely into the world and that's always a good thing. There were lots of toys from Santa and his elves. That's bonus. Here's a picture of one of the presents Santa left for me and Nickel (but he thinks it's his). Nickel's brother worked for Dell and was able to get lots of stuff cheap!
We're having a lot of fun trying to figure it out. One thing we have determined. If we're going to be doing a lot of writing (like blogging) it makes more sense to just use our PCs. I also got a couple of new necklaces. One from my mommy and one from my Peanut, both dragonflies. You know what they say about great minds and all. Nickel got me some chocolate. He's a good man. Cheap, but good.

This week I've been trying to put my house in order, even though it doesn't look like it. Right now it looks like a crowded mess but I'm not making any plans for tomorrow or Friday so hopefully I'll be able to bring a sense of normalcy back to my house. One of the benefits of being a Church Chick is getting the week between Christmas and New Year's off, with pay, without using vacation time! I've had to go in twice this week, but I didn't mind because it was my choice. We got a new Xerox for the office and I wanted to be there when they delivered it and then I left, even though I knew it was basically unusable by the girl who needed it to print out stuff for the bulletin. I went in today to talk to Tech Support to get it on the server and usable for at least me and her, everyone else will have to wait until next Wednesday!

We haven't had as many problems with Peanut lately...well, until this week. She was very disappointed after having 4 Christmases to find that Santa only left one present for her under the tree. It didn't even matter that it was a Penguin. We explained to her the reason there were normally more presents was because all of the presents from us were in there too and that Santa has only left one present, unwrapped, every year. We knew that after doing Christmas with three grandmas in two days that she would be exhausted so we let her open all her presents from us on Saturday before the grandma(and Papa)-fest. Peanut got lots of penguin stuff including 3 of the penguins from Happy Feet, a Happy Feet calendar, and a knitted penguin. She got other cool stuff too, and would you believe the only clothing type items she got was a scarf, hat, and gloves? I was amazed. Of course we didn't buy her any clothes because she has plenty, but none of the grandmas did either and they ususally buy one outfit each. I'm not complaining, it was just intersting to me.

Well, I hope you're enjoying your last week of 2006. If you're not then you can soon put this year behind you and start over with a new year!

Well, until we pass this way again, may the Lord bless you and keep you that you may grow in His love and know His peace.

A Christmas Blessing

Oh Lord, bless this Christmas season with peace and joy,
Grant that each visitor to this page may reflect on Your goodness.
Rid each heart of fear and distress, loneliness and pain, leaving only
The serenity and security of resting in Your everlasting love.
In the precious name of Your Son, we pray, Amen.

Things to do

1. Clean off desk to look presentable and organized

2. Pay all the bills that are sitting there looking at me.

3. File.

4. Eat cookies in break room.


Somehow I don't see me getting much done today.

All church-y stuff

Ok, so last Sunday night we took Peanut to our live Nativity and Hanging of the Green ceremony. It was Peanut's year to play Mary but she really wanted to be an Angel instead. Either of the characters would be a stretch for her but they let her play an angel. So the actors come out of the youth house all dressed up and JD started reading the Christmas story. In walks Mary and Joseph. Mary takes a seat on the hay and when it gets to part where she gives birth...well, Mary reaches around back and whips out a baby from her back pocket.

I couldn't help it. I guffawed! Then the angels were announced. There Peanut stood in all her 45 inches with wings that dragged the ground standing next to the other angel who was head and shoulders (and wings) taller then her. I guffawed again.

Next walked in the three Wise Men Guys. They gave their gifts to the baby and stood there. They had enough gold tinsle "bling bling" to make a rapper jealous. I, and others, laughed so hard but God bless JD, he didn't stop reading the story. I kept waiting for the wise guys to bust a move, but they behaved themselves!

Then we went inside to do a little singing and "hang the green" or decorate the tree. The instructions were that a couple people should come up, hang up their decorations, sit down, and a couple more come up. Well, in less then 2 minutes all the decorations were on the tree. I think I need to hire these kids to decorate my tree next year, it took me three days!!!

Ok, now skip ahead to Wednesday night choir practice. We have a lot of fun and crack a lot of jokes. But we were working very hard on a piece we were trying to get ready for Sunday morning. It's a beautiful piece that starts out with the Sapranos and Altos singing "Veni Veni Remptdor" after singing it through I gave Doc a puzzled look and told him there was a misprint in my book. He looked at me puzzled and I said, "Isn't it suppose to say Venti Venti Macchiato?" He gave me the baby cow in a hail storm look(rolled his eyes back into his head) then we proceeded to sing it again until he was satisified it was ready for Sunday morning. The coffee girl sitting next to me laughed, that was good enough for me.

SWC

No, Uncle Joe, that title of today's post does not mean 'Single White Cow' or 'Solid While Cold' or even 'Seen With Catwoman'. But thanks for asking.

Actually SWC means Strong-Willed-Child. I have one of these said children. Have you ever met a strong willed child? I have. I know one quite well. If there were a picture in the dictionary next to Strong Will Child here is what it would be.

Strong willed children are very intersting. A prime example would go something like this.

Once upon a time there was a strong willed child. She loved playing with her baby dolls, her friends, and her dog. One day the strong willed child was playing with a baby doll when her beautiful mother told her it was time to do her homework. The little girl did not want to do her homework because she wanted to play with her doll instead. After the third time of telling the strong willed child to do her homework the beautiful mother took the doll and stroller away. The strong willed child was quite upset and began throwing a fit. She screamed. She yelled and she stomped through the house. The beautiful mother tried to talk calmly to the strong willed child to get her to calm down but the strong willed little girl could think of nothing except playing with her doll and not doing her homework. Time went on and the screams got louder, the yelling got longer, and stomping became hitting and kicking. The beautiful mother held the little girl until the patient father could stand no more and put the strong willed child into the shower. The water was cool and not what the strong willed child wanted. After a few moments the patient father turned the water off and the beautiful mother and patient father walked into the other room. The strong willed child was still focused on getting her doll and not doing her homework. The parents of the strong willed child finshed up fixing supper and ate their meal. The strong willed child was offered her supper but she refused. The lights went out and the strong willed child went to bed. The homework was not done, but she did not get the doll back either. But have no fear, the beautiful mother and the patient father still have her homework and it will be done tonight because even though the mother is quite beautiful, she also has quite the strong will herself. The End.

So, do you have strong willed children in your life? Are you a strong willed person yourself? How do you deal?

And fun was had by all?

Well, I don't know that I'd go far as to say fun was had by ALL. Last night was my staff Christmas party. I picked up the babysitter around 6 and dropped her off at an empty house. Peanut was out at a Christmas party of her own but was to shortly be delivered. As Nickel and I pulled out of the drive way I told him that I had a headache. It didn't get any better. In fact as the evening went by it got worse and worse almost to point where I felt like throwing up every time I stood up. We played an intersting game of Chutes and Ladders. See, the church bought each of us a $20 gift card to somewhere. There were lots of cool ones like Starbucks, Davincis (another coffee place) Chili's, Applebees, etc. Then there were the not so cool ones like the grocery store and Walmart, but hey free money is free money. But as we landed on our number we had to exchange our card with whatever the instructions said (like who you'd least like to see in hot pink lipstick or three to your left or office closest to yours or your spouses). Well, seeing how there were 13 of us the game took forever. Not good for my already pounding headache. I tried not to let it get the best of me though and did pretty well at ignorning it pounding. After what seemed like 3 hours we were all pretty tired of playing the game. Several people came close to winning but they'd end up going down a chute causing the game to go on and on. Finally I was just 6 spaces from the end and E rolled a 6 and gave it to me. The last instruction was to get whatever card I wanted and the rest of them were frozen. So what did I get?

Starbucks, of course! Gotta feed this Carmel Macchiato obsession!

Headache still here this morning, but it's almost gone. I'm sure after I take a nap this afternoon I'll feel much better!!!