what a fabulous day!

yeah, april fool's...on me. i spent today cold and shivering at recess duty today...oh and i brought 4 kids with me. one of these kids (my own of course) peed in his pants. oh the joys of volunteering! granted, zack is only 2, and has only been going on the potty for a few weeks, but COME ON! i mean, i'm stuck out on the playground (i was the only adult amidst the 60 or so kidlets), i can't just leave the 2nd thru 4th grades out there by themselves. then, since today is my hubby's day off, i have haley call him from the office to come and get the boy (or all the kids i brought up, i wasn't going to be picky)...twenty minutes later, i just left. i told the office i was leaving, my husband hadn't shown up yet, and i had been holding very wet pants for the last 20 minutes. they were very understanding, they usually are.

yesterday we had so much rain, the pond overflowed! we had record setting rainfall for the month of march. more than 8 inches! the creek overflowed it's banks (it usually does) and got close to covering the road, but was about 2 inches shy. it was almost 70 yesterday, today it is so very very cold. if we get much more rain anytime soon, it may end up covering the road.

my hubby is going to the cardinal's game tonight. my stepmom had a "procedure" done on her foot today, so she won't be able to go. she was there yesterday. he is usually pretty excited about going to the games, but he wasn't today. i guess it's just too cold and wet to enjoy. that and the fact he is going in to work today for a few hours before the game. they are going to teach him how to do financing. he'll be able to sell you the car and a warranty, and finance it too. he's excited about it. sort of.

i had a great sunday. we went out for dinner. hubby had gotten $250 in gift cards from a friend he helped to get a really good deal on a new car (from a dealership he didn't work for anymore) and the guy gave him all these gift cards, and wouldn't take no for an answer. (funny thing is, hubby ended up making more than the salesman did! it was a $75 mini deal for the sales guy)
i had chapel hour at 6pm, so they dropped me off. i got to spent a whole hour quietly with God. our chapel is a perpetual adoration chapel. there is someone there every hour of every day. you can drop off prayer requests, and people pray for who ever needs it. it is really awesome. you feel the power as soon as you walk in the room. i like to go and crochet. i know that may seem like something you shouldn't do, but i like to. i am usually making a baby blanket, and i like to pray for the baby that my blankets are going to. crocheting is like meditating to me. my hands do one thing, my mind is somewhere else. it was so good!

i have been up to...

one week from tomorrow and we (meaning the hubby and i) are leaving for new orleans. then the following day, we leave on our cruise. let the countdown commence!

yesterday, (being friday) alex had a tournament basketball game at 9 pm against one of the other teams from his class. (there are actually 3 teams) tomorrow at 6pm, he plays against the other team from his class. this one for the championship. it's pretty cool seeing how competative these boys are on the court (and before the game), but after the game's over it's like all of the competativeness was left on the court. in fact 3 boys from our team went home with 3 boys from the other team. oh yeah, we had to play them again this morning. we lost that game.

grace played goalie in soccer today. atleast for the first half. well, playing goalie is what i like to call it...what she actually did was play in the net, twirled around, and danced a little. her team won. i think she may have touched the ball once as goalie. the second half she was out running the field.

haley has been a huge help with her younger sibs. she watched them for me most of the games. that way i can actually watch the games. she starts her games soon i think.

josh woke up this morning having one of his "it's not asthma" attacks. i had to give him a breathing treatment, and it cleared up pretty well. last time i took him into the dr's office, she told me it was croup. (not my dr, one of her partners) it's not. i know it's not. although, i'm not really wanting them to call it asthma either. he's fine now.

zack was running a low grade fever last night. it never went above 100.2. he never complained about anything. he just felt warm to me. i hope that's all it ends up being.

the hubby has sold 5 cars so far this month. for those who don't have husbands that sell cars, that is really good. really really good. especially when said hubby will be out of town for a week.

i have been keeping up with my cleaning. i seem to hit it every other day. i don't know why. i guess i just need to get into the swing of things first.

*rachel, with my kids, i always wiped for them. when they learn as young as 2 or young 3, it's hard for them to get themselves clean enough. atleast their behinds. that, and the fact my kids all have very chubby bottoms, and that makes it even harder for them to do a good job. usually around older 3 to 4 years is when they start doing for themselves all the time. atleast that's been my experience. i will let them try first, but usually they just make a bigger mess.

what is the answer?

this is something i have been thinking of lately, mostly after i talked to a man about a pig...yes, i know how that sounds.
what is the fuel source answer? all you hear about on the news is how corn and soybean based fuels are the answer. really? my problems with those answers are:
a) what about when the corn and soybean crops are ruined by floods, drought, insects, basically any natural disaster? what do we do then?
b)what about the rise in food costs? i don't just mean the food stuffs that include corn or soybeans in their ingredients (and that's just about any food produced and packaged). what about the meat animals that eat corn and soybeans. what about the products that come from these animals that eat corn and soybeans? if you really think about it, you won't be able to afford the cereal, or the milk to go on it. and don't even think about bacon and eggs! (this is what i started thinking about when i talked to the man about the pig)

a friend of ours went to australia a couple of weeks ago. he is using a hybrid over there that uses hydrogen and gas. gas is around $3 a litre, and hydrogen is like $.50 a litre. you can use either fuel by it's self. it seems to work pretty well. why aren't we trying this? is there some downside that australia and other countries just don't care about? these cars are made by Chrysler, so it's not like it's some foreign company making these...it's our own companies. why haven't they made more of a big deal about these options? would they work for a huge 12 passenger van? right now my van gets around 12 miles per gallon. the tank holds around 30 gallons. if you fill the tank up, starting at close to empty, it costs me almost $100. i don't drive much, just to get kids from school everyday, and maybe to the grocery store, but i go through a tank a week. if i could get away with paying half that...i'd do it.

i will add that i don't know much about this subject. i am going by how this would effect my family. you know, feeding my family, getting them to where they need to go, pig feed, these all matter in my little corner.

me and wally? yeah we hang out...

*disclaimer* this is something that has been on my mind for a while. it may or may not be correct. i don't claim to be completely informed on these subjects. these are just MY thoughts on these subjects *disclaimer*



ok, i know everyone and their brother is walmart bashing now, but i still shop there...alot. i know they aren't letting their employees unionize, but you know what? k-mart isn't union, i don't think target is either. most of those stores are not union. why is it ok to be totally against walmart for this, but these other stores get a free pass? i have heard that they don't give good enough benefits, aren't there alot of jobs that don't have great benefits? do we protest them too? these people who work at walmart are free to find other employment. they choose to work there. walmart has been good about hiring "undesirables". (meaning the elderly, mentally handicapped, physically handicapped) when you walk in the door, you see a huge wall full of pictures of missing persons. i don't know too many other stores that do that.
i don't work for walmart, and i don't hold stock either...but i do have a family member that has worked for walmart for many years. he has always been treated fairly as far as i know. if he hadn't, he would have found another job.
i am not condoning everything they do. the use of illegal aliens was wrong. but i think that was an isolated incident. if it wasn't, i hope someone rats them out on it.
as for raising minimum wage. all i see it doing is raising prices for everything. i know, i am uneducated on the subject. i am, i admit it. but the money comes from somewhere. i don't see why minimum wage should be a "living wage". i don't know about any of you, but even when i was 16 and working for hardee's, i was making more than minimum wage (min wage was $4.25 and i made $4.75). this is a base wage, a starter wage. why would you pay a teenager a "living wage"? (now, believe me when i say this, i am going by my own experiences here.) if we are talking adults, well, even fast food restaurants pay more for adults. if you can work during the day, you get paid much much more. in fact, i know of one mcdonald's that pays more than $10 an hour if you can work during the day. they have a tough time getting workers, so they pay more.
i know i am uneducated on both these subject. i am going by just my experiences. i am letting my wallet dictate my decisions. i can't help it. i am a stay at home mother of 5 kids. i live on a budget. raising of min wage doesn't change the size of my husband's check, but it does change the amount everything costs. at least that's how i see it.

disney curse

i have decided that i will not be letting my kids become disney stars. it seems that those kids end up going a little bonkers. of course i am thinking of brittany, and christina, and now brittany's little sister. alex asked me if they were going to have zoey be pregnant on zoey 101. i told him they were most likely going to cancel the show.

teen pregnancy does happen to be a topic near and dear to my heart. i was a senior in high school when i found out i was pregnant with my oldest. i turned 18 thirty days before my son was born. it wasn't exactly the easiest time of my life. i started college on my due date. i went a week and a half past it. i was one of the lucky girls. my husband was right there with me the whole time. i went to the local middle schools for a couple of years to talk about teen pregnancy and abstinence. so many of the girls i met were single moms. most of them, the fathers left when they found out she was pregnant. my hubby and i had only known each other for 6 months when i got pregnant. it was pretty difficult, dealing with pressure to get married right away, or have an abortion, and we were still getting to know each other. we got married when our son was 9 mos old. i finished the first semester of college, but didn't go back. i didn't want to be anything but a wife and mother. i don't regret that. i am planning on returning to school soon, but it has to be on my terms. i am a mother, and a wife. those come first.

ranting and raving

maybe it is because i now have 3 kids home sick out of 5. granted, i didn't even watch the program this came from, i heard about it on the radio. rosie odonell is a, well i don't even know what to call her. for her to say terrorists are mothers and fathers, i say, that's your opinion. after all, she is a parent. anyone can be a parent. it doesn't make them good people, and it definitely doesn't mean the decisions they make are ok. john wayne gacy was a parent. he murdered lots of young men. does being a parent mean you are given a pass when it comes to acts of terrorism? no, sorry, it doesn't. as for the other comment i heard about, we have more convicted felons in our armed forces now than ever? what is that? where do you get off lady? these people give their lives for our country and you come out with that? just because you can write a check with several zeros in it, does not give you license to say what ever comes thru your (with lack of a better word) mind! i am so tired of famous people giving there $.o2. i don't care what you people think! just because you pretended to be a soldier in some movie you were in, doesn't mean you know what they are going thru or what the people who care about them are going thru. i don't know what they are going thru. i have friends who are military families, but being that i don't have a husband or son/daughter in the military, i wouldn't even dream of thinking i would know what must be going thru their minds. all i can offer is prayers for a safe return, prayers of hope that we are making a positive difference over there. i would be proud of my kids if they end up in the military. i considered joining my senior year. god had other plans for me.

i am sorry if i offended any person (rachel, i think you are the only person who reads this), but i had to get this off of my chest.

the kids are doing ok. haley came home from school with a fever. zack and josh seem to be doing better. it's amazing what vanilla pudding can do for a kid. grace and alex have games tonight. or at least they are supposed to. grace has had at least half of her practices rained out, and now it's looking like her first game will be too. hopefully haley is better by thursday, she has a game that night and so does alex. next week we have the big grudge match between haley's team (my sister in law dawn coaches it) and my niece dani's team (my sister in law debbie coaches it). i feel sorry for dani's team. they are in 1st grade and playing haley's 2nd grade team. believe me, it's not just the age difference, haley's team is undefeated so far...and they have played some tough teams too. alex's team is undefeated too, i think. they play some tough teams. we have been pretty lucky with coaches. alex and haley both have some pretty phenomenal coaches.
anyway, that's what is going on here.