the back door

yesterday 22 of us from our church headed into chicago to see my fair lady! it was mostly couples, but my dear hubby dreads any kind of musical!! knowing, he'd most likely go if i begged really hard (so okay, REALLY HARD) he was kind enough to suggest i take a friend and go. so at last minute i called a friend of mine and we headed to chicago with the rest of the gang! it was awesome!! i was so impressed. i love audrey hepburn and i admit to being a bit skeptical about miss eliza doolittle, but the actress was amazing. i love broadway so this was a dream day for me. there were several husbands along that weren't all that impressed. one came along for the dinner in china town after the play and i hear rumors he caught a nap during act 1. another husband that is atleast 6'3 was not at all interested in the musical or chinese food. the poor guy had to ride in the back seat of the van for 2 hours to chicago, then sit in very tight seats for another 3 hours. he was...

if you have followed my blog at all you will remember that our little town spent the fall cheering on 2 locals in the next great american band. DMHO made it to the final three bands. it was quite exciting since our only other claims to fame here are scott skiles(you might have to ask your husband who he is, although he was just recently in all the news again!) and 2 of the three stooges. this weekend my little town cheered on another local hero. nicole rash, miss indiana, was competing in the miss america contest. in all my years of watching miss america it was always someone from california or texas or south carolina or hawaii...miss indiana was always out in the first cuts. not this year..... miss indiana actually got first runner-up!!!! well, not only is she from indiana, she is from my home town!!! and just so you know how small this town is, she is related to hubby's uncle. small world huh? so congrats to the next local legend, miss america first runner-up, nicole rash....

a few weeks ago i decided to go to the dentist. it had been about 18 months so i was well past due. but it is just so expensive!!! anyways...today was the day. so while braving the cold and snow, princess and i ventured across town to see the dentist. i kindly declined x-rays unless necessary to save the money. she said, it has been a while but unless she sees something really bad okay. i said not much has changed in 18 months to which said, "um...more like 2 1/2 years!!" wow, i didn't know it had been that long. anways...as always it was a real pleasure to sit in the chair feeling stuff ooze all around your mouth and down your face all while princess kept asking why i had a bib on. (i wonder if we will have that conversation again in a different place in say 50 years?) when the doctor came in he looked around and smiled that always pleasant smile. then he sighed and said, "well..." oh boy here it comes. there was sticking in tooth 16. i translate th...

okay, most of you know that store is banned in our house! i'm not supposed to go there...but on friday hubby suggested we stop there. hmm??? we needed protein bars, camera batteries, picture frames, and yogurt. we head in there and hubby is acting all silly. i grab the cart and take off like a mad woman needing to get through walmart and on to the next thing in life. that is how i usually am there...a kid in tow and one ready to be picked up soon! so we get the protein bars....head to the yarn section b/c i want to make a new scarf. then we head to get batteries and peruse the frames. on the way we pass what appears to be an ffa group of boys minus the blue corduroy coats. then i breeze through the shoe aisle. hubby wants some long underwear...he waits patiently while an interesting man sorts through the pile. apparently he comments to hubby that everyone is stocking up for tomorrow. "(we are below 0 right now). i pick out some tights for chloe, although since the ...

...okay maybe a bit spoiled!! we had a great weekend around here! thursday my dear friend took princess home so hubby and i had a wonderful lunch out and dinner at my parents. on friday, my parents offered to take the kids to the basketball game. the kids were pumped, even more excited to be asked to spend the night! woo hoo!!! date night for us!! it was very exciting....jc penneys, bob evans, and walmart!! fun stuff!! saturday a lady from church offered to babysit the kids for the night for free!!! woo hoo again!!! this time it was off to carrabbas, kohls, and old navy!! lots of great deals and time all alone!! i love to be alone with my hubby. sunday of course was church and we were home all day...but now i'm looking forward to next weekend when the kids go to the other grandmas for the weekend.... God is truly so good to me!!

my last post was about some of my memories of birthday pasts. well, i neglected to include one of great importance. hubby was kind enough to leave me a comment. it had not been forgotten at all...i think it had more to do with remembering it along the lines of a different milestone in my/our life. when i turned 24 we also moved into our very first home. let me tell you how we bought this house we love to call "this old home." it was november of 98. we'd been married for a month and were quite content in our studio apartment. it was cheap, roomy, and very cool!! a house on the best street in town came up for auction and they were having an open house. we wandered down to take a look. liked it...but hey, we had no money to put down so walked away. a few weeks later a lady called hubby at work. she had been buying up old houses in town, fixing them up, then selling them. hubby did a lot of the architecture work for her. so anyways...she calls him one day and ask...

it's my birthday!!! my dear friend has been asking me all week what i wanted to do and to be honest i couldn't come up with anything! our sleepy little town doesn't offer too much in the way of birthday fun. i really think it has something to do with just getting older! it used to be you couldn't wait for that big day...now it seems like it sneaks up on you. something about having responsibilites i guess:) i thought i'd share some of my favorite birthday memories with you all. i know this sounds a little um....self-indulgent, but hey..it is my birthday!! the first one i really remember was a strawberry shortcake party! my grandparents were there along with 3 friends! it was a rectangle cake with those hard candy things that were all strawbery shortcake! loved it!! there was my mcdonalds party complete with the talking tree and coffee stirrers dropped in the cup game! i think there were a lot of people there - even one i did not want to invite, but my mom m...

i spent a good part of my 4 years at college as some kind of english major. i have always loved reading and writing. in high school my senior english teacher assigned us each a british novel to read and write a paper on. i was given emma by jane austen. read the first 2 chapters and the last 2 chapters and wrote my paper. got an a! pretty good huh? i hated the book! i was so lost in the language, the cast of characters, and found it just odd. well, i had a couple of great college professors that loved brit lit! since i had to take 2 classes on brit lit i had no choice but to give it a try. i remember reading pride and prejudice. my roommate was reading it as well. she was flying through it and i was not. well...i stuck with it and at chapter 4 i was gone...i couldn't get through it fast enough, but this time because i was so into the story and characters!! that began my love affair with brit lit, especially jane austen. i have since read several others and seen sever...

UPDATE: so when the fix it guys showed up and pulled the pump out of the well....it was actually in 2 pieces. they looked at me and said, "i think we found your problem!" ya think??? so i know i mentioned a week ago that my little town had been taken over by a great flood! our neighborhood was underwater and several other places around town were. schools were closed and it was hard to get to the grocery store! but over the weekend the flood waters went down and life returned to normal! the kids all went to school on monday and even though we now have snow on the ground again they were back today! but for us...in our charming old house...we now have water rising in the basement! odd huh?? a week after the flood??? yesterday our pump kept running and running and running. it appears to be just about as ancient as our house, and like many other things, we aren't sure it is really hooked up quite right. anyways....it ran like crazy yesterday and by 10 last night sounded lik...

so it is said that God speaks in the gentle whisper....while my two adorable blessings are speaking in more of a rolling thunder on yet another day off from school (yes, we are closed today!) here are some things i hear God whispering to me: *rejoice, again i say rejoice *this is the day I have made, rejoice and be glad *do all things without complaining *your children are a blessing to you, a gift from me *love Me with all your heart, soul, mind *for I know the plans I have for you (funny....b/c i had all sorts of plans for myself today!) *I told you I had a great sense of humor!!! that is just a sampling of what i have heard God say to me in the past hour!! i guess He has so much to teach me through his great sense of humor!! honestly, i'm truly thankful that we have a dry house (mostly) and power on. i've never seen so many roads in my town shut down!! oh...how could i forget!??!? we think, THINK, the bat might be gone!!! praise God for that!!

so this was the week of back to school!! the christmas season was over and we could all return to normal! well, our little version of normal that is. so tuesday mapboy headed off to school. we had a great girls day at home. then comes the flood!! yes, folks, a week ago we had over a foot of snow and now, we have a foot of rain!! my little town has made the news for evacuations and road closings. and with that came the wonderful 2 hour delay!!! ARGHHSH! while i totally understand the need from them, princess does not. for her that means no school. she has been patiently waiting for the past 3 weeks to head back to school. after december where they missed more days than they went she couldn't wait. we had a friend over to play which helped. so last night, she prayed for God to take the flood away so she could have school. at 9:30 pm i got the call....another delay. she was heartbroke and i mean heartbroke!!! now we will have to wait and try again for next monday. but ...

so i guess last night was the championship of college football. we had no reason to watch it at our house....even if ohio state is a big ten team. there was way too much excitement at our house; football could not compete!!! it was monday, the last day before heading back to school. the kids and i spent the day playing with some friends. got home and i tried to get some work done. mapboy had lost most of his privlidges for the day so this was proving to be a bit difficult. hubby arrived home and after a brief confrontration from mapboy he was sent to his room without supper! i know, harsh, but totally needed last night. i thought to myself...this could be a long night!!!! after supper we got the dishes done and i headed off to the church meeting. always exciting!! pastor's daughter was leaving at 3:00 am this morning to fly to egypt so he was in a hurry to get through the meeting, get home to spend time with her, and of course to get some sleep before waking up in the mid...