Catching up

So, I have not posted in well over a year. In a year a lot has happened. We have moved across the country with the military. My daughter has mainly recovered from the attack last year. We continue to homeschool. I continue to be addicted to coffee. I continue to read and love children's books. Last night I read two actually, more on that later.

Does anyone read blogs anymore? I am calling out into the darkness! Everyone is always on facebook and so am I. I do sometimes have things that I don't want to post to facebook, or are just too long to post etc.

I keep thinking about posting here more, but good intentions just don't always cut it.

I often think that perhaps I should use this as mainly a children's book review blog with some of my other things thrown in for good measure. Time will tell.

Notice how I make no promises here? So sad.

Well, I have children to school and cats who obviously need more attention judging from the sudden need I have to sit cockeyed so I can see the monitor past the large cat sitting on the desk.

Have a great day blog world.

new letter from brayan-- my compassion international child

I wanted to share this letter with you...

Dear Anna *******,

Beloved, it is a great pleasure wishing that our God fill you with blessings. The tutor Mary ****** writes you because Brayan still doesn't do it. He finds very well and he sends you thanks for everything and for being a blessing for him. He tells you that his dad is restoring the house and it is looking like very pretty. His granny was operated of a hernia, but now thanks to God he is fine. At school he is doing well and he will learn to read and to write the letter soon by himself. Brayan wants to hear: how is your home? Do you have garden? I ask you that you pray for him. He says goodbye with kisses. May God bless you.

Brayan ************

He drew me another sweet picture on the back of the letter. It is translated from Columbian Spanish to English and so there are obviously some translation issues, but really they are minor. I am always SO excited to hear from my little Brayan and since some of you had expressed interest in the sponsorship program I wanted to share this letter with you. I look forward to getting new pictures of Brayan soon. He reminds me quite a bit of my own little boy and I really have such fun sending him letter and pictures and things like that.

I am going to try to resurrect this blog and start writing again. We had an insane fall with so much going on, but I think now things may hopefully slow down slightly and I am hoping that I will have more time to post.

If you would like to sponsor a child, please go to this link and look at the needy children. If you have any questions please let me know and I will do my best to answer them.

widgets

~~~Update~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So, I figured out how to do it, cause I am really smart and I know how to use Google. See how special I am!

So, these are the instructions for changing your template without losing your widgets.

Does anyone else think that "widgets" almost sounds like a naughty word? Please tell me I am not the only one.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So, blogland, I have a dilemma. I really enjoy messing around with my template and changing it and I was all set to do so, and hit save and guess what? It informed me that I would lose all my widgets, even ones I thought I wouldn't. Those of you who are my Follow Me space? It said I would lose that.

Now, I really thought I would only lose those widgets from outside of Blogger, my widget from Compassion and my widget from the little tracker thingie that I can't remember the name of right now. BUT that isn't true. I will lose even the followers that I have now and so, I didn't change my template. There has to be a way to do it.

Can anyone tell me how? Do any of you know?

Please help me... I really wanted to put up a fun Christmas template.

bloggy bluggy give aways

I have this problem. I keep entering blog giveaways and I never, ever win anything. I also think it is pathetic that I keep trying, cause well, some of them have thousands and thousands of entries, and yet, I put my comment on there and hope for the best. THEN the saddest part?! I am actually slightly disappointed when I do not win anything.

I think that above paragraph could make me certifiably weird. I mean really.

So, once again, here I am. Entering a Blog give away. This one requires me to post about it here on my blog and there are very few things that I would do this for. I am not even sure that I would do it for a Kitchenaid Mixer... and I did recently hope and hope I would win one of those and of course I did not. Nope. This blog give away is for something that I hold even more dear... Don't giggle... I am sure that you wouldn't realize this in a million years... The give away is for...

BOOKS!!! She is giving away books.

So, if you like books, and if you have been reading here for long you will know that I have an obsessive personality problem with books, then head on over to Owlhaven and check out what she is giving away.

She is my hero and she doesn't even know it.

my first tag! should I cry or cheer?

So, I have been tagged and I decided to go ahead and take the plunge! My wonderful friend M at Faith, Hope and Love tagged me. The process was rather amusing to me, as I had watched this tag float around a few blogs I read and finally it came to rest here on me. I really thought I had dodged the bullet, but the bullet has come home to rest.



The Rules: In order to accept this Bloggy Award/Tag, you must do the following.....

1. Write a post showing it, together with the name and link of who has given it to you.
2. Choose a minimum of 7 blogs that you find brilliant in their content or design.
3. Show their names and links and leave them a comment informing they were prized with ‘Honest Weblog’.
4. List [if you can and/or dare] at least ten honest things about yourself. And then, pass it on.

10 Honest Things About Me! (does it get more egocentric than this?)

1.I love the smell of babies. I think that the smell is second only to the smell of coffee. No, really, I don't know anything better then the smell of babies. Actually, I don't think there is anything better then that baby smell. I will be down visiting my friend again soon and I will be frantically sniffing that baby every chance I get. My friend will have to beat me off with a wet burp rag.

2. I am pretty good at many things, but I don't feel that I am VERY good at too many things. I feel that while I can do art and I can do a bit of writing and I can do a bit of speech stuff and I can do a bit of decorating and a bit of gardening, I don't feel that I have any one area that I am stellar in. I am not complaining... I just feel like I am good at many things, but not amazing at any of them. I am content with this.

Isn't he a cutie!!!

3. I love my husband more then I probably should. He is my rock and I stand amazed by him everyday. He is strong and patient and loving and kind. He has a very common sense outlook on life and he sees things for what they are. He is able to be to the kids what I cannot be. He relates to them in ways that I cannot. One of my favorite things is watching him play with the kids and watching him read to them or watching them and their love for their daddy. He balances me and I do need that. I can be very artistic and spontaneous and flighty and forgetful and he is able to bring balance to my force... sorta like Anakin Skywalker.

HA! He would be so proud of my Star Wars reference!

4. I do not eat breakfast unless I actually cook something and I certainly do not cook breakfast everyday. I do however drink coffee. Everyday. Without fail.

5. I love my life as an Air Force wife. I am very proud of my husband and I enjoy being a military spouse.

John in Iraq.

I like talking to people about the military and what is is like being part of that culture.

The garage door decorated for a homecoming from Iraq.

I remember what is it like being civilian looking in and I understand the questions that people have. I have no problem answering them, actually I welcome them because if anything, the military needs more people to understand what is going on now in our little culture bubble. We need people to understand how to help military families as our spouses are deployed again and again.

You see my kitty keeps trying to grab me in this picture. She likes me too!

6. I like animals a lot. If I had my way I would have a small zoo here. Fortunately, like my earlier post stated, John keeps me in check. He allows me to have the one beautiful puppy and the one sweet kitty and the one boring sucker fish. If it were up to me, I would have another 4 or 5 pets. Then I would start going crazy cause I can't bring balance to the force of the litter boxes and the tanks and whatnot. It would get scary people and that is why we have Anakin... er... I mean, John here.

7. I have this really weird tendency. I talk for things. Things like animals but also things like tea kettles. My tea kettle doesn't just whistle it yells. No kidding. The tea kettle will be whistling away on top of the stove and my kids will yell at me to let me know, cause obviously I cannot hear the screaming tea kettle in the room with me and I will start talking for the tea pot, "HEY! I'M HOT!!! TURN IT OFF! TURN IT OFF! I AM HOT!!!" I will also speak for animals that are in videos or pictures or just out. I am afraid it is a sickness. I will talk for our pets. For example, the dog will be looking at me and her eyebrows are dancing and I will be saying something like, "Are they talking about going for a walk? I can't tell cause they have learned to use that code word. Maybe they are! I would love to take a walk, but then again, I would love to snuggle them. I love everything cause I am a goofy Lab and I just love life! I love my pillow and I love my dog dish and well... I love my toy! Yippie! Mommy is getting out Peanut Butter! My favorite!" Do you see how this is a disease?! The problem is when I do not feel like doing this and the kids really think I should. They ask me constantly, "Mom, what is that bird saying?" If I am tired of it I will reply, "Nothing. The bird is saying nothing." They beg. They just know that the bird is saying something SO funny in their momma's head.

"Nope, I don't hear the train coming, but I may or may not hear a herd of buffalo."

7. My husband is helping me out here, so for this one, he says that I need to put down that I talk in a very "theatrical way." He says that I sound like I am narrating a play when I talk all the time. Maybe I should ask him what that means? Does he like this? He has never mentioned it before? Does it grate on his nerves and he feels like he finally got the chance to tell me? Who knows... I am not going to risk asking him. He will just have to deal with the narrator's voice for the rest of his life, cause I do not think I can change that.

8. I love my coffee. I have teased you all here in the past about me quitting my addiction, but I do not think it is going to happen anytime soon. I have even bought that Teechino stuff and I have not brewed ANY of it. It is supposed to help me break my coffee addiction and it was expensive. It is still sitting on the shelf in my kitchen. I have contemplated brewing some in the evening for a nice warm drink, but I haven't even thought seriously about brewing it in the morning. That is crazy! I stumble into the kitchen and start my coffee making and I have never contemplated brewing Teechino for my morning brew because at that point my body needs only one thing. Caffeine. My body needs it bad. I know my whole house will be happier if I just have my caffeine, SO I just have my caffeine. Ah well. Anyone want a full bag of Teechino?

9. I am Obsessive about things. I am not OCD... I am just obsessive about things. When I get interested in something, I get REALLY interested in something. When I want start learning about something new, I mull it over in my head constantly. I dream about it, I watch information on it. I read about it. I check out books from the Library on it. My friends have to listen to me talk about it constantly. I am sure it is a chore for them, but they must be good friends cause they are still around. My poor friend Kristen has seen me through many of these obsessive times with me. I am sure she was ready to pull her hair out during the WoW faze. I am sorry Kristen. What can I say? My husband was deployed?! I don't know. I am hanging my head in shame. Honest.

K10 and K26 checking out a brand new egg!

When I was going through a Bald Eagle Obsessive time, we were watching the Bald Eagle web cams and reading up on Eagles and we went on a field trip to a Birds of Prey sanctuary and one morning My Girl came in to ask me a question when I was stil mostly asleep. She asked, "Momma, who are Doodle's parents?" I replied in my sleepy stupor, "K10 and K26 of course." Then I stopped and paused and woke up slightly and said, "No, they aren't. K10 and K26 are EAGLES and Doodles is a cat. We don't know Doodles parents." My daughter went away confused. Poor girl.

10. Sometimes I take really, really random pictures.

It is sorta scary,

but you never know when you are going to get a really great shot.

Right? You just never know.



Now, I am supposed to tag 7 people. Are you worried? Oh, come on, this is fun!

Anyone and everyone who reads this blog is tagged. That should be about seven! hehe... Now, all of you, go out and type up ten true things and hit publish on your blog. If you don't have a blog, make one. If nothing else, it is therapeutic and a great way to waste time on the computer!

My "other" Blog

Shhh... don't tell this blog, but I am cheating! I have started a private blog for my close family and friends. My "other" blog is almost all pictures. You may notice, I don't post children pictures here on this blog. I am just weird that way... so if I missed you and you are horribly offended please let me know so that I can apologize profusely and then move on and invite you. ;)