Yahoooooo! I have a new niece today. My brother Luke and his girlfriend Bethany are now the proud parents of LaMya Shelby who came into this world this morning weighing 7lbs 12oz and at 20 inches. We are making a run to the hospital tonight so I will be sure to get some pics for you all to enjoy!

It is such a weird feeling to be able to get on the internet and not feel obligated to go to my novel blog and write. It is also very liberating! :) I have a few other book ideas swarming around in my head and I may just have to get a few of them started though.

WHERE IS EVERYBODY?????? My fellow bloggers all seemed to have dropped out of blog existence. Did you all drown in Turkey gravy or what?

Steve's Word Of The Day: Erlang

Monday Mayhem!

I love the people out in cyber space who send me wacko emails. For those of you who don't know, a few years ago I started transcribing cemeteries to get them online for my fellow genealogists. I have done three so far. Today I got an email from some wacky lady telling me I was disrupting the cemetery and her work. Apparently she considers it her job to keep the dead people, dead. Oh pullllleeeaaazzzz people!



Today is Monday. I am recovering from the four day weekend and sooo wishing we could do it all over again. I loved having my husband home for four whole days. I loved having the kids around to play with and spend time with. What could be better!? I had some more leftovers for lunch today. Mmmmmmm. We are about out of pie though. That could be bad! :)

This week we don't have much planned. Billy's Christmas party is on Friday but otherwise it is back to the same ole'. How about you all? I am getting my Christmas Cards ready to go out this week too. Hopefully I actually get them done this year. It seems I always get them ready but then they don't get to the mailbox. Sheessh.



Will the rest of you bloggers get in there and update your blogs today? I am so bored and have nothing new to read. Maybe a trip to the library is in order! :)

Yeah Baby! This is a very hard earned icon!

Applause please!

Here is a little something I just received after sending in my most precious creation yet:

"Dear Novelist,

It is our supreme pleasure to inform you that our internationally renowned team of word-counting robots have completed their judicious assessment of your manuscript, and have passed on this final, binding decision:

Winner.

Wow. You've really done it this time, writer. Where the vast majority of National Novel Writing Month participants abandoned ship at some point in the journey, you bravely persevered, continuing your literary quest in the face of ridiculously long odds.

In one month, you have written more fiction than most people create in a lifetime. You have dared to dream big, to throw long, to say: 'Enough of the self-critical crap, and the hemming and hawing. This time I'm going for it.'

And you pulled it off with aplomb. In just four weeks, you built vast worlds and set them in motion. You created characters; quirky, interesting, passionate souls with lives and loves and ambitions as great as yours.

And most admirably, you managed to find time to do it all while juggling the demands of work, school, friends and family. Most people barely have the strength to make it through dinner at the end of a tough day. You dug deep, and found the energy and resolve to make wild, deliciously imperfect art in the midst of a horribly hectic life.

It's an amazing accomplishment, and we're proud of you for seeing it through."

My acceptance speech:

Thank you to all of my fans who took the time to read my novel and leave comments even though some of you had no faith, you know who you are! Thanks to my husband and children who left the room everytime I said, "Mommy has to type." Thanks goes out to Blogger for hosting my 50,000 word novel for the last month. Where it goes from here is still unknown. And the biggest thanks goes out to the NaNoWriMo creative genius' who thought up this contest and advertised it so that a talented housewife and mother could find it and take on the most fun and rewarding challenging thus far.

We have snow! Okay so it is like a little dusting but it is the 27th of November and this is the FIRST time we have seen snow so far this year.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wow, I can't believe Thanksgiving is done and over with already.

I got up and 5:30 yesterday morning and baked some rolls and got that monster of a bird into it's pan and in the oven. I spent the rest of the morning preparing food and listening to this great satellite radio station they are letting us preview on my dish network satellite dish. I found a station there that plays all 80's music all the time and their are NO commercials. I am in love. I may have to upgrade to the top 120 channels just for that! :) (They also have other channels with other types of music, all with NO commercials!)

We ate Thanksgiving dinner at 12:30ish. Rana Banana and her hubby came to eat with us and so did Bob. It was delish if I do say so myself. We ate the leftovers all day yesterday and have a repeat dinner tonight. Yum!

Today I awoke at the bright hour of 4 a.m. to accompany my shopaholic sister-in-law to Walmart for the early bird specials. I have never done this activity before and was rather intimitdated at the thought of *fighting* a bunch of other people for toys and electronic equipment. I worried for naught as there really weren't that many people there. I got almost all of my Christmas shopping done too. I got home at 10:00 and I haven't had a nap yet. I will probably be falling into bed come 10:00 p.m. though. LOL

As I was sitting at the dinner table tonight I realized how thankful I am for my wonderful family. My husband, although he has his bad points, is truly a wonderful person. I know he loves me, we have complete trust in each other, we have a security within each others arms, and we are still madly in love with each other after 11.5 years of marriage and five kids. Life has not been easy for us by any means but it has not been too difficult either. We both take things in stride and my husband is the most awesome support system any wife could ever hope for. I love my husband and I am so thankful for him. And my kids, there are not enough words in the dictionary to express how happy and grateful I am to have them. They truly are good kids who do wonderful things. They give me a reason to smile everyday, they keep me real, they keep me grounded, and best of all we share an unconditional love that no one can ever take away. I have a lot to be thankful for this year!

I bought some holiday decorations at Ace hardware this morning too after we left Walmart. I got the lighted reindeer yard ornaments for 9.99 each and they are soooo awesome. I laughed and told Billy hopefully none of our hunter/neighbors would mistake them for a deer as we don't have them plugged in just yet. (Silly me forgot an extension cord to go with all of my decorations.) I also got 6 spiral lighted trees for the yard. I will have a bright house this year. I love the holiday spirit. :)

Okay well, I have a novel to end, literally. I am 3000 words from the goal of 50,000 and I have to make an ending in just as many. Over 1000 people have already had their novel validated at NaNoWriMo so it looks like they are going to have a few winners this year. I will be adding my name to that list in a few days. Yipeeeeeee!

I hope you all had a great holiday feast and a great family get-togther! Until tomorrow...

Steve's Word Of The Day: perfidious

Jodi's Novel and Death Wish

I----caaaann't-----posssibbblllyyy-----squeeeeezeeee----onnnneee----moreeeee-----woooord----outttttt-----offf----myyyyy-----frrrieeedddd------braaaaiiinnn!


Owie! Owie! Owie! Owie!

Drowning

I am drowing in a sea of words, 50,000 to be exact. I am sooooo close but yet sooooo far away. Glub-glub-glub

If you don't hear from me in the next week, don't be surprised but if I don't resurface by December 1st, someone better come save me. Look under the pile of words, paragraphs, titles, and punctuation first! HEEEEELLLLLLPPPPPP!

I do...

Do you ever stop and think about how it came to be that you and your life partner found each other and made the relationship a go? I think about this a lot when it comes to Billy and I.

You see Billy and I were both born in Hot Springs. When we were each one year old, our parents up and moved us. My family moved to Wyoming in 1975 and Billy's family headed out to Bridgewater in 1976. Our families each went on their own journeys until I was 12 and my parents moved back to Hot Springs where my dad left and my parents divorced. Almost three years later, Billy's parents marriage had failed and they too divorced. Billy moved to Hot Springs with his dad and sisters. Not long after he started school we met and it took off from there.

There are so many little twists that could of, probably should have, happened that would have kept us apart. But fate was kind and we found each other. Billy and I dated for 3 years before we married. Those were not always perfect days but we were young and thankfully we learned fast! LOL The day of our wedding was a beautiful June evening. The sun was shining brightly (thank heavens as we were having an outdoor wedding) and so were Billy and I.

The day went off almost without a hitch and we left for our honeymoon. We spent the next three days driving through the Black Hills and playing tourist. It is one of my most treasured memories. I don't think anything could have hindered the love, passion, and excitement we had for each other and our life that was just beginning together.

Many days I sit back and look at my husband. I am truly amazed that God has given me such a wonderful person to spend the rest of my life with. He is kind, loving, supportive, friendly, humorous, and the adjectives go on. ;) I am so thankful we were allowed to be soul mates, best friends, and husband and wife.

As if!

Okay, I am done with reading my horrorscope from now on! Today it says: You're letting things slide. Fix what's broken. Pick up that pile of laundry. AS IF I NEED A REMINDER FROM A HOROSCOPE!

I am busy preparing for Thanksgiving over here. I am making a food list so I can go out and buy what I need. I probably won't go into town until Wednesday so I hope the grocery stores have plenty of stuff on hand! We will be having the usual Thanksgiving spread: 28 POUND turkey, ham, mashed taters, sweet taters, rolls, fruit salad (maybe, I am thinking of cutting this one out), relish tray, olives, pickles, pie, etc. Sounds yummy! :) I think we are going to have 6 adults and 6 kids unless I can talk a couple of other people into coming over. he he he

I am sooo glad today is Friday. I live for Fridays! Tomorrow is Billy's birthday. We are planning to take him out to eat for dinner if he comes home from Bob's house on time. I won't be holding my breath. ;)

Steve's Word Of The Day: annals

a day in the life

**An excerpt from an evening in my life**

B: Mom, she touched me!
M: Mom! She is looking at me!
B: Mom! Mom! MOOOOOOMMMMM!
Me: Girls, knock it off!
B: *glares at M*
M: MOOOMMMMMM!

Ahhh, the joys of parenting! I can't wait until they are teenagers! :)

Last night after the girls got home from school we made a mad dash to Watertown because Megan's shoes were starting to fall apart (I was supposed to ignore the fact that she had picked at them all day at school until they had a large hole). We got to Watertown and stopped at Target. They had tons of great shoes so Megan picked out the Bratz pair. I also got some diapers for Mr. Bill. It wasn't soo bad taking all five kids and they all behaved pretty well. I think Marea is headed for a crash and burn episode though. All day yesterday she was trying to push my buttons and just doing everything she could that was naughty.

Billy's annual work Christmas Party is coming up on the third. I was hoping my SIL would babysit but I found out her husband's party is the same night. Billy and I have been scrounging for someone to watch the kids but can't think of anyone they know well enough that *I* would feel comfortable leaving them with. Rana are you busy on the third for like 6 hours? ;) They always give out prizes and stuff and the one year I didn't go Billy's name was drawn for a DVD player. I still don't think he has forgiven me. (Needless to say, he got a DVD player for Christmas that year).

I have stepped up my parenting skills a little since my last post about the topic. I think the kids are enjoying me more. Mr. Bill has become quite the challenge lately. I don't know if it is the age, the male factor, or his personality but he sure has a crappy attitude as of late. Yesterday I practically had to sit on him because he wouldn't let me put on his diaper. He screamed the entire time he was in the tub, getting dressed, and while I brushed his hair. I am not really sure how to stop this behavior.

I have given up on Dr. Phil. I never got a second email from the gal who emailed me about being on the show. I guess Billy wasn't interesting enough! Oh well. I love him whether he looks 15 or 30.

Oh! I almost forgot, the other day when we were dress shopping at the mall one of those sneaky sales ladies got me. I was walking by her "booth" in the center of the mall and she asked me if I wanted to try her lotion. While I desperately needed some at the time, I said no and kept walking. She yelled out (in some ethnic accent I could barely understand), "Can I ask you a quesiton?" Not wanting to be rude, I turned and said sure. My husband and kids all stopped and watched. She said, "Are those all your kids?" (I am not sure if she was referring to my husband as a kid or not) I said, "Yes, I have five kids." She rolled her eyes and said (at least I think she said-the accent threw me off), "How old are you?" I answered 30 and smiled. She said, "You don't look old enough to have that many kids!" I could have kissed here then but she continued on with her sales pitch. I had to smell each of her 7 lotions-one for each day of the week and she buffed my thumbnail (which I had just cut off earlier in the day and it looked horrible). She said she would sell me the buffer and lotion at half-price for 29.99. I explained that I needed to buy a bridesmaid dress and maybe I would come back after I found one. She then turned her selling skills on Billy. "You don't want to buy this for her?" Billy smiled and said, "Nah, I don't love her that much." THANKS HONEY! She turned back to me and said, "For you I will take off 10.00 more and give it to you for 19.99 today only." I said no again and finally she let me go. (I forgot to mention she had ahold of my thumb this entire conversation.) We walked away and vowed never to go back down that particular stretch of mall again!

Steve's Word Of The Day: factotum
Book I am currently reading: Ralph

Monster Bird

Heaven help me! Billy went to a school meeting last night and ended up winning the door prize, a 28 pound turkey! Holy shmooooly! I was thinking of getting a much much smaller one for Thanksgiving. Now I am online digging up cooking times and tips for this monster of a bird. Anyone need a place to go for Thanksgiving? I think we are going to have more than enough food! LOL

Just thinking....

If my brain could keep up with my mouth, life would be better.

All four girls on the couch!

See how short they went! Wow!

The girls with their new short hair.

Who me?

I am here really I am. I felt like I haven't left the computer in days. I am feverishly writing away at this novel I volunteered myself to write. Somedays are better than others. Today I sat down and plunked out almost 3000 words. Whew! I am going to make an attempt at at least 1000 more before I hit they hay. I figure by the days I should be halfway done (25,000) and I am only at 18,000 so I have some catching up to do. he he he I have also been getting my dear sweet lovable hubby (who also an amazing artist) to draw some pics to go with my novel. He sketches them out in minutes. I forget how amazingly talented he really is sometimes.

Today was a cleaning day. I hardly got a start on laundry yesterday so it became today's chore. Yesterday I made several pillows for my newly covered couch. I still need to get some more material and slap a few more together but it is looking pretty good already.

My kids all came home in horrendous moods today. They said they had a good day at school but it sure didn't show. They were all moody and naughty and just downright mouthy. I am so looking forward to Friday.

Billy's birthday is Saturday the 20th. He will be 29. Boy is he old! :) I don't think we have any plans as of yet. Knowing him, he will spend it helping Bob work on his house. Men!

I am off to do some novel writing now! Is the 30th coming anytime soon? LOL

Visual Wave Art Show

You asked for pictures, you get pictures!

The wall opposite the one with Billy's stuff. The scoreboard pieces in the foreground of this picture are the first scoreboards Dak made way back when.

Notice the" t.v. screen" on the far wall? That is where most of Billy's animations were running. The tiger picture directly to the right of the screen is also his.

Billy and fellow Visual Wave Participants

Dresses, Dresses, and More Dresses...

We spent almost all day yesterday in Sioux Falls shopping. I tried on every single prom/evening/holiday dress available. I finally (four hours later) found one I liked and I tried really hard to ignore the price tag. You can't see it well in the pic but there are silver beads all around the top and they wrap around to the back and down to my feet. It is a beautiful dress. Here I am at 1 a.m. last night after trying on my new dress and shoes.

Price of one evening dress-$99.99
Price of dressy shoes-$12.99
Feeling like a true hot mama-priceless

Jodi in her bridesmaid dress

The back of the dress

I'm ALIVE!

No I am not having a religious experience! he he he

I can't believe how fast this week has gone. My kids didn't have school today thus my late late late post. Sorry goes out to my loyal daytime readers.

Today we did nothing but hang out. It was great! The kids played games, I got some much needed computer time in (searching for a bridesmaid dress takes time!) and we had an all around enjoyable day. I cut the girls' hair today too. For some reason they all decided to go short. Cassie and Megan are chin length now and Becca is just a tad longer. Marea's simply got a trim as super curly hair is just not cute at chin length. I took some pics which I will try to get posted after I get some much needed novel writing done tonight.

We had/have a plumbing disaster at our house too. Last night as Becca was flushing the toilet upstairs she pulled her toothbrush out of the cup that sits on the shelf above the toilet (you see where this is going don't you?) As she was pulling her toothbrush out, another came with it and fell in the toilet as it flushed. So now Cassie's toothbrush is stuck somewhere in the curves of the toilet and we are down to one. I have no idea how you go about getting a toothbrush out of a toilet. I hope Billy does. LOL

I got a thank-you card and a 20.00 gift card to Pizza Hut today. Earlier this week I did a little sewing for a friend of Billy's. He wore a tux at the art show and apparently had a few too many after the art show. When he got home his intoxicated fingers were unable to undo the vest buttons and in his drunken rage he ripped the thing off. He split it at the shoulder and down one side and popped off all five buttons. He was afraid to return it in that condition so he sent it home with Billy to see if I could fix it. Fortunately for him all the rips were on the seams so it was fairly simple to put back together. The buttons had been ripped off though and they left holes. I sewed them back as best I could and sent it back to work with Billy. Apparently it passed inspection at the store when he returned it. LOL See what alcohol gets you into?!

Okay, I have like five days of novel writing to do so I better get at it. What will Ralph do next?

One Hot Mama!

My oldest sister called last night (she never and I mean NEVER calls me). I was worried something had happened. I worried for naught.

She called to ask me if I would be a bridesmaid at her wedding. I was so surprised she asked me. I said sure! She told me I need to find a long black evening gown. I looked on ebay to see what they had there and found several potential dresses. Can I just brag and say I am going to be one HOT MAMA in these dresses! They have slits clear up to the thigh area and many of them are very very very low cut (of which I will NOT be wearing). I am looking for one with taste yet a little bit of sexy thrown in. Hopefully I will find one in my size. I have until December 29, as she is getting married on the 30th. Talk about short notice eh? So anyway CONGRATS ANGIE AND STEVE! I look forward to being in your wedding and watching you two enter into a very happy union.

My other sister Vonnie is possibly getting married in April (no specific date yet) too. What fun it will be around here in the next several months. Woooohooooo!

Our foster kids made a safe and swift exit last night around 7 p.m. I was glad to have my life back and so were the kids. The older foster kid and I just had a personality conflict. She didn't like me (the "this-lady-is-trying-to-replace-my-mom" syndrome). It makes it very tough to like them back when they do that. I just held my tongue and prayed for Wednesday. LOL

Well, I am off to get Mr. Bill into the tub. Have a great day everyone! It is a sunshiney one!

Lust and R-O-L-A-I-D-S

Did you see him! Hubba hubba! My secret fantasy singer won the Entertainer of the Year award last night on the CMA's! Woooohoooo!

How can you not like him?

I don't know what it is about him, but he definitely does something for me. He has the sexiest tushie I have ever seen though. :) Just don't tell my husband, k?

It is Wednesday and I won't be spelling relief r-o-l-a-i-d-s today. I will be spelling it f-o-s-t-e-r-k-i-d-s-g-o-i-n-g-h-o-m-e! My life will return to its regularly scheduled chaos at 6 p.m. tonight. I can't wait.

Billy's art show is over. They are tearing it all down tonight. He will be slaving away for the next three days I am sure as he and one other art show worker will be the only ones to show up to do the tear down, just as they were the only ones there to do the set up.

My novel is picking up nicely. I think I have figured out how to keep my interest and hopfully my readers as well. I make each 1500 words a mini-story about the characters and then move on to a new one at the end of the 1500 or so words. I am working to keep each story tied together but I think I will have to pick most of that up as I go back and proofread and edit. I already have almost 12,000 words so I think I am making pretty good progress. Oh the creativity!

Not much else excitement around here so I will get outta here for the day. One for the road:


Need I say more????

Random thoughts...

Apparently I have a universal problem. I received an email from the NaNoWriMo pep club that said most of the authors hit a brick wall by the second week and start having issues with their novel. There advice was to just keep writing until you smash through the brick wall. So if you are reading my novel and are bored to death bear with me as it may get worse before it gets better again. :) I am actually enjoying the writing process as I get to expel some creative juices each day.

Things are picking up around here now. I realized last night that we were going through the transitional period all foster kids experience. I was talking to Billy and remembered that we had dealt with these sorts of behaviors with other kids we had. (One girl slapped me as I layed her down to put her to bed the first night. She was 5 years old.) It has been so long since we have done this I forgot how tough the first few days can be. The bad thing is with these two they will be leaving just as they are getting settled. The joys of foster parenting. :)

Yesterday I didn't do much of anything. It takes most of my time to keep our two kids playing nicely. They are very possesive and not very nice to each other most of the time. We have already learned the art of time-out. I tackled the laundry but found it was best if I brought the baskets of laundry downstairs to fold them or take the kids upstairs with me as they would start fighting as soon as I left the living room. I was so happy to see my own kids get off the bus. It makes me appreciate them three-fold when I see how well behaved they are and more importantly how much they care about their siblings. I am so glad God gave me the gifts he did.

Today is much like yesterday. By tomorrow I could be a champion pig wrestler the way I have been chasing after these kids. The are on their way home tomorrow evening so look for more normal and sane posts from me. LOL

We have parent teacher conferences coming up this week. I am excited to talk to the girls teachers (although I have had at least one phone conversation with each of them already). I like to know how my kids are doing and I like the teachers to be aware of problems that I sense or am told about after school. So far we have had good experiences with the teachers. Becca brought home straight A's for the first quarter and Megan got straight S's as well. We sure made some smart kiddos!

Have any of you noticed that grape Tootsie Pops do not taste like grape? I was eating one yesterday out of our Halloween candy and realized they do not taste like grape at all. I wonder why that is?

Becca has been getting some small bumps on her face that I figured were zits. I told her as much when she complained about them. She was half excited and half disappointed that they were zits. I told her she needs to start washing her face daily to avoid getting more. Billy and I both had severe acne as teenagers (although his kicked in much later in his teens). Mine started at 12 years old and I still have hugs scars from them. My mom finally took me to a dermatologist at 16 and I was soooo happy to finally have "normal" skin. It took several pills and several topical creams to get my skin that way though. I decided before we had kids that I would take my kids to the dermatologist asap if they started developing severe acne like I dealt with. It was such a huge blow to my self-esteem that I do not want my kids to suffer the same. I hope this is a temporary hormone flux for Becca because at almost 9 years old, she is too YOUNG to have zits already!

Do you have any idea how difficult it is to keep track of what your family watches on t.v. in 15 minute intervals?! I volunteered to do this t.v. survey and I have to write what channel, what time, and who was watching. My kids do not always sit still for the whole 15 minutes and they frequently change channels during commercials. The survey will not be 100% accurate but it will be as close as I can get it. LOL

Steve's Word Of The Day: enervated

It didn't stop.....

It just got faster! ;)

This weekend was insane! Our foster kids showed up at 3 p.m. and their current foster mom just shoved them in the door and said goodbye. She didn't even come in. I was not impressed. I gave the kids a tour of the house and by the time we were done my girls were home from school. We ran through homework and papers and loaded everyone into the van so we could get to Billy's Art show. I got there right as it started at 4:30. Billy was all snazzy in his tux. He went into the art show at 5 to listen to the speaker. Fortunately they had wired the room so that the people in the hallway could hear as well. The kids (all 7 of them) and I sat and listened too. Becca made about 10 trips back and forth to the food table to get something for each of the kids to eat. She was such a big help to me this weekend. Toward the end of the art show Billy's three sisters and his mom showed up with all of their kids (11 in all). I took mine outside to play and wear off some energy then. I am sooo glad I left as apparently two of his sisters made no attempt at controlling their kids and they were all over everything. How embarrassing. After the show everyone wanted to go out to eat. I was too insane trying to watch my 7 kids and everyone else's so I declined. Billy took the older two girls and rode with Krisitina. They got home about 10 p.m. and we all went to bed.

Saturday we were up at 6 a.m. so we could go see the Hobo Day Parade. It started at 9:30 and we got there at 9:00. It was a good parade. It was such a beautiful day too. We hit 70 and it is the beginning of November! Can you believe it!? Cassie woke up Saturday morning throwing up and it continued throughout the day. The poor thing just laid in her seat and watched the parade go by. We got home later in the afternoon and Kristina and Lance stayed for a couple of hours before they packed up and went home.

Sunday we used to recuperate and deal with our two new children. The older one is quite a handful and challenges me about everything. She will not do what she is told and frequently does things she is not supposed too. She does not play well with the other kids either. She can be quite hostile if an adult is not looking. I am sure it is mostly from being passed around from family to family but it does not make my job any easier. My blog entries will have to be done during naptime (thank heavens she still takes one) and my novel entries will be after bedtime. I just can't leave her sight for 2 seconds without her trying something. I will be very happy to see Wednesday come around this week. Billy and I decided that being foster parents when we already have five kids of our own is a bit too much. I am glad we got some short term kids first so we could figure this out now. I think I may just allow our license to expire this year.

So what were you all up to this weekend?

Steve's Word Of The Day:ballyhoo

STOP THE WORLD....

I WANT OFF!

Holy moly this week is ending with a bang. Billy has his art show tonight at the Ritz Gallery, I have two foster kids due to show up in a few hours, Krisitna and Lance are coming to spend the weekend with us, we are meeting more of Billy's family in Brookings at the art show tonight and tomorrow we are running off to the Hobo Day Parade.

I have spent all day today cleaning house. The kind of cleaning that involves putting everything that has wandered out of its spot, back in its spot. I have swept, mopped, dusted, vacuumed and generally given every single room in my house a once over (and some got a twice over). It is nice to look around and see the clean. :) I still have dishes to do but I figured I would wait until after lunch so I can wash all the dishes at the same time. Someday someone will invent an true "automatic" dishwasher right? One that takes them out of the sink, puts them in the dishwasher, turns on the dishwasher, and then puts them away when they are clean? Right? Right? ;) I am still hoping for someone to rip the kitchen off my house and putting a Burger King there instead.

I am still plugging away at my novel but I have hit the point I always do a few days into a book. I begin to wonder if it is any good, if I am rambling and boring the readers to death, and I begin to lose interest in the story line myself. I had contemplated doing a "collection of short works" for my novel as I seem to write about 1500 words very well but beyond that I lose interest. I may do a format change in my story line too to see if that can perk it up a bit. This should be an interesting novel in the end. LOL So far I have almost 5000 words. Not too bad considering we are only into day 5. 45,000 more to go! I encourage and welcome all constructive critisism on my novel by the way. Just be nice! :)


Book Currently Reading: Ramona and Her Mother by Beverly Cleary

Steve's Word of the Day: hale

Life is good! I am having one of those weeks where everything seems to fall into place. My kids are growing so fast and are getting so smart, it is amazing to watch them every day. I thought I would use today's blogger to give a little update on each one of them.

Becca is in 3rd grade this year. She has to write everything in cursive but seems to enjoy it. She has social studies and english and math. She is very good at spelling and usually only has to go through her spelling list for the first two days of the week. Becca's favorite subject is Art. She loves to do arts and crafts projects and to be creative. It is so hard to believe my 'baby' will be turning nine in just over a month. Becca is really into Bratz dolls and care bears too. She spends a lot of her spare time playing in her room with these.

Megan is in 2nd grade this year. She is smart as a whip but seems to have a hard time paying attention in school. She is amazingly good at drawing (got that from her daddy) and loves to read and write. She can usually be found drawing or writing letters when she has some free time. Megan also likes to play with Bratz and Care Bears. Megan is also very musically inclined. She loves to sing Karaoke and she often walks around the house singing the words to songs she just learned. She is amazing.

Marea is in Kindergarten this year. She loves school and gets very excited to go each day. She really enjoys the days when she gets homework. Her teacher has been great in helping her learn the routine. Marea still struggles with her writing but her name is coming along nicely.

Cassie is still in Preschool this year. She loves being a second-year preschooler. She knows all the rules and routines and thrives in this atmosphere. She is really good at drawing, like Megan. She enjoys playing games that involve her imagination. She has quite a collection of stuffed Care Bears and loves to add to it.

Mr. Bill is hitting the 2's. He has a very definite opinion on things now. It is fun to watch and listen to his vocabulary grow by leaps and bounds. He is the stage now where he wants to watch a movie over and over and over again. His current favorite is The Big Comfy Couch.

Well I have a million things to do and I am running out of time. TTFN!

Ugh!

Well, obviously I am disappointed that Bush has been re-elected. I really was hoping for someone, ANYONE but him to get into office. He better show his thanks by improving this mess he created over the next four years. Enough politics.....

Happy Hump Day! This is my husband's favorite day of the week. LOL I am glad the week is half over too. Nothing special is going on at the Sides household this week. I am looking forward to some free time this weekend.

Today I spent all morning cleaning house. I hauled the vacuum upstairs and cleaned all the rooms up there. I really need to buy a vacuum for upstairs so I don't have to haul the other one around. I scrubbed the bathrooms down and now everything is clean and shiny. I also undecorated from halloween and took it all up to the attic. That was a chore and a half. I moved Mr. Bill's bed into my room in hopes that we can get him to sleep in it during the night. He naps in his own bed in his own room just fine but he will not sleep in it at night. I had him sleeping in his own bed right before Billy left for Greece but it only lasted until dad left and then he would not sleep in his bed anymore. So we are on round two! :) Wish me luck!

Last night I took some Nyquil in the hopes that it would help get rid of this cough I have been developing. I felt like someone was standing on my chest last night. Fortunately the nyquil seemed to help as I am feeling somewhat better today. I never get upper respitory/cough type of illnesses and I don't want to start now!

Well, I have a novel to write (Literally!) so I best get Mr. Bill down for his nap and get typing. TTFN!

Novel Idea

I just wanted to share with a few of you who are avid readers of my blog that I have begun my Novel that is supposed to be written in 30 days as a part of the NaNoWriMo Contest. I am just doing it for fun but I thought some of my readers here may get a kick out of it so go check it out at Jodi's Novel Idea.

I voted bright and early this a.m. I hope the rest of you can say the same. From what I have heard on the news we are having a major turnout for the election and that is AWESOME! We should all care who gets into that oval office and cast our vote.

I personally voted for Kerry. (Don't send me nasty emails, this is America!) I would rather see anyone other than Bush in that office for the next four years. There were three other candidates listed on the ballot, only one I have ever heard of and not one of them put even one little teeny tiny ad anywhere that I ever saw. How are we supposed to vote for these people when we don't even know they are running I ask!? I was half tempted to pick Ralph Nader just because he wasn't Kerry or Bush but I didn't. LOL

I just finished a Girl Scout meeting and all went well. It is fun to shape these 2nd and 3rd graders minds.

Billy is off to help Bob on his house tonight. He is supposed to stop in Bruce and vote (he is still registered in Brookings County) I really hope he does. I had to call the court house to find out if he was in fact registered and where he voted at. I hope it was worth my time.

I am making homemade chicken noodle soup with homemade egg noodles for dinner tonight. Mmmmmm. I am using the leftovers of the new rotisserie chickens we can now buy at our Super Walmart. I paid 7 bucks for two fully cooked chickens which fed all 7 of us last night and I had enough left to make soup today. I cooked the carcasses in water to make broth last night. Today I threw it all in the crock pot and added the appropriate veges and spices. Mmmm mmmm good! :)

I found out today we are getting two foster kids for about 5 days. They will arrive here on Friday and depart on Wednesday. Their current foster family are going on vacation and so the two children are going to stay with us. I am nervous as we haven't had any foster kids for a few years. I hope Marea doesn't crash and burn afterwards. Wish us luck! :)

We are going to the annual Hobo Day Parade in Brookings on Saturday. We will be freezing our tushies off I am sure. Last year we were all sooooo cold. This year I am taking some cappuchino or hot chocolate for sure! I enjoy watching all the floats go by. It should be interesting to see what political ones we have in the parade after the election is over eh?

Well I best get back to my soup. TTFN!

Get out and VOTE!

It is 9 a.m. Have you voted yet?

I have, and it is really important that we all get our hineys into those voting booths and let the goverment know who WE want in charge. SO GO VOTE!

Halloween Fun!

Well we headed off to Brookings to go trick-or-treating at about 2 p.m. We stopped at Walmart to buy the girls some black tights to go with their Cheetah Girl Costumes. We started the girls off at a row of houses on the south side of town at 5:00 p.m. After about 15-20 houses, their bags were full! Fortunately it was a fairly warm night (for October anyway) at 43F so we were pretty comfortable while trick-or-treating! The girls didn't even wear their coats.


The Cheetah Girls

Mr. Bill the Builder (Because he is NOT Bob The Builder, duh!)

We dumped the bags out in a plastic shopping bag and headed off to the haunted house. I sent Bob and Billy through first to make sure it wasn't too scary for the kids. They decided it wasn't and so we took all the kids through. It was basically a maze with black walls and stuff hanging in your face. Many times I felt someting drag across my face and I was unable to brush it away since Becca wouldn't let go of my hands. Ewwwwww! It really wasn't scary until the end when a guy jumped out at me. Then I screamed! Cassie got scared by the guy in the gorilla suit and Mr. Bill hugged his daddy tight and screamed "Daddy, I want outta here!" the whole time. LOL


After the haunted house we decided to hit a few more streets to get some more candy. We filled the girl's bags a second time and then we headed home. The girls dug into their candy and ate to their heart's (or stomach's) content! The girls were all exhausted by then and fell asleep on the way home. All the way home Mr. Bill kept telling us about the big monkey and how it sat on our heads! His eyes would get huge as he retold the story. He has quite the imagination! LOL

Needless to say, Megan threw up one more time yesterday but was feeling fine by the late afternoon. She ran with the rest of the girls and eventually was leading the pack during the trick-or-treating. She devoured just as much candy as everyone else too so whatever it was must be gone now! :)

This morning I put all the candy in my biggest glass bowl and it was still overflowing! Five kids sure can obtain a large quantity of candy can't they? :)

Marea has joined the ranks of the toothless around here. She lost her first tooth this weekend. The tooth fairy is going to be broke after visiting my house over the next few years!

I took some pics of the bush outside our back door. It is astounding this year with its varied colors. I don't remember it being so pretty in years past but maybe this is the first year the leaves haven't blown off right away. LOL The blue hues in the pic come from our siding. It is amazing how the leaves pick up the color in the pic! What do you think?


Close...


Closer....


Whoa! Back up! :)


Steve's Word Of The Day: pretermission