Pet Peeves: No I Didn't, Yes I Did, What? A.K.A. I heard it through the grapevine and didn't read it in any way shape or form on your blog

Do you blog?

Well, you know that I do...I love blogging so much I have three of them!

Do you know what really peeves me about blogging?

What really flips my switches and gets my goat and puts flys in my honey is when I'm talking with someone--either a friend, or relative (who has never once left a comment on my blog)--casually drops a comment or a question in real life about something we've done or I've said without admitting that they read my blog even though there is no way on earth they ever could have found out UNLESS they read my blog!

You know, like,

Person Who Shall Remain Nameless (PWSRN): "So how did you like the children's museum?"

Me: "I never mentioned the children's mus.--how did you know we went?"

PWSRN: "Well, you have kids so I just assumed you went to the children's mus. and assumed that you might like it if you did."

Does this ever happen to anyone else?

I think, obviously you are reading my blog--and btw--I love nothing more than the fact that people read my blog so sharing this with me would be GOOD news--but I have come across so many people who have accidentally let slip something they read on my blog and then back track as if to say, i-know-you-have-a-blog-but-i-don't-really-read-it-peruse-it-really-and-this-question-is-purely-based-on-guesstimation-and-intuition.

I love my blog reader--I'd sing it from the rooftop if I had one of my own--I just love my blog readers more when they don't pretend not to read my blog =)

Ha!

Special of the Day

1. My new favorite book--just wait till you see what I created from the ugliest t shirt I've ever been in possession of =)


2. And if you have time, click here and read a sad tale.


3. It's hot out.

that is all.

Pros and Cons: Taking a New Job Version

Pros
extra $$$
3 mile commute
good/short hours
i love teaching
extra $$$
excellent program with caring teachers, low turnover
the program is a "blank slate" for me to write on
extra $$$

Cons
steve might have to leave work a few minutes early every day or we'd have to find someome to come to our house watch the girls for a few minutes each day
we'd get to see each other for 30 seconds between our jobs
less time with the girls
breastfeeding?
the program is brand new and would require a lot of prep time
no paid or unpaid sick or personal days
at risk students = challenging/mean etc.
nothing to work with (until orders arrive in october probably)
no sink (who ever heard of an art room with no sink?!?)

If you've ever doubted that God was in control--now's the time to be convinced otherwise...

As most of my closest friends now, I had a job interview today!

For some "strange" reason over the weekend I became increasingly panicked convinced that I needed a job.
I sat in front of the computer and searched through career builder, found two jobs immediately that were perfect and sent out my applications on Monday (even though I had already missed the application deadlines).

Tuesday I got called in for an interview for today!

I was so nervous alllll morning--couldn't eat, couldn't focus--stressed! I haven't had a real interview EVER! My first job all I did was sit down with the head teacher who thought I was so nice that she convinced the principal to hire me on the spot even though I was completely ill-qualified, my second real job the principal sought me out and offered me the job and asked merely,

"How much money do you want?'

I was so nervous today! (did I say that already?)

I had Mr. Wonderful come home early so that I could prepare, get the perfect outfit (a brown dress with killer accessories if you must know)....drove to the school (only 3 miles away) early and sat and waited...

and waited....

My heart was beating furiously! I was watching the seconds tick by and dying in that seat!

I knew I was perfect for the job--teaching art to at risk students--I've already done it! teaching from 3-:5:30 every day--which fits perfectly with my husband's teaching schedule so no babysitters required, or maybe, only a sitter for an hour sometimes, $40 an hour--it would be worth it for me to work for that much! We're not talking peanuts here people!

On the way out the door I was searching for paper to write down some questions on and I couldn't find anything! AHHHHH!

Just as I was about to go insane I remember that when I reorganized the toys two weeks ago that I had found an old journal--I found it easily on the bookshelf and took off.
So...here I am, still nervous--fast heart beating, sweating, dying in the chair, When I open the journal and found this written inside:

"When I feel alone or doubtful"

Does He who made the ear not hear?

Does He who formed the eye not see?

Does he who teaches man lack knowledge?

Unless the Lord had given me help, I would soon have dwelt in the silence of death. When I said, "My foot is slipping."

Your love, O Lord, supported me.

When anxiety was great within me your consolation brought joy to my soul."

Psalms 94:9,10, 17-19

I only wrote a couple of entries in the journal all the way when I moved to New Jersey with S to get married! I wrote about all my fears and worries about looking for a job but also about all the peace I had that I was in the right place (at that time, sitting at BHS subbing for teachers!)

Let me tell you, reading through these verses 10 times really did the trick.

I was calm.

I had peace.

I walked in, answered their questions, convinced them I knew what I was doing, it went really well!

The principal had that look in his eye...you know, that look, like he wanted me to work for him! He actually worked for Arch*** where I got my start and even though my application had been sent in late he liked my experience and wanted to meet me. He said I knew exactly the type of approach he wanted a teacher to take with his students. He wanted to show me the classroom.

It was exactly like walking into Arch*** all those years ago--walking into a woodshop that would be converted to a classroom. No supplies. Nothing to work with. No tables, nothin!

BUT a budget, new computers and tables and A.C. on the way.

He sat me down and told me that he didn't want to play games and that I was perfect for the job, and that he had two names he was going to give the superintendant but that he was going to throw them away and only give him my name because I was perfect for the job.

God is good.

I'm fearful.

I don't know if I'm ready to start my own program again and go through that first year feeling again and leave my babies (I KNOW it's only two hours a day...but...) and all those other "what if's".

But I knew that when I sat in the conference room and opened that journal and read that verse that I was exactly, at this moment, EXACTLY where I was supposed to be.

God has a plan and I am right in the middle of it.

Glory be to God!

Now if only I could make a decision with peace--lot's of praying to do tonight!

Here a Moo! There a Moo! Everywhere a MUMU!

The other day I was walking through Target, with anniversary money in hand, and happened upon the cutest little summer dress in the pattern you see to the left. I loved it and just grabbed one in my size, didn't try it on and shoved in the cart with the rest of my Target-loot and assorted children. That night my husband wanted to go out for ice cream so I figured it was the perfect time to try on my new summer dress! I ripped the tags off threw it on...

When Lo!

and Behold!

I had unwittingly bought

A

MUMU!!!

Who knew you could find a mumu in the junior's section at Target?

How on earth could something so cute on a hanger be so large and billowy and weird shaped on a human body?!?

It's a mystery I'll oneday solve but until then me and my mumu will not part---for I've learned a valuable lesson through all of this--

Mumu's are comfortable.

The end.

p.s. too bad I didn't see the dress on the model--not looking good on a skinny chick is never a good indication to buy!

They'll never work in this town again!

Those anti-sister-shot girls of mine!

They're modeling jobs are going to dry up if they keep pulling photo shoots like this.

HA!

Wonder-full Web-stravaganza

The *W's*

We had a very nice time with our W family! We picnic-ed, swam, ate sand (Miss M did anyways), played kickball and pushed A on the swings. I'm so thankful for our Jersey family and so happy that we all were able to get together and catch up! We're also excited about the newest "W" appearing sometime early next year! Yay for cousins!

Weekly Rhymey Reader

Monday-- rain rain go away--we just lunched with Dad today
Tuesday--our first park play date in quite some time, we enjoyed it so much and had a smashing time!
Wednesday--impromptu nursery date with friends--found a free preschool for A to attend!
Thursday-2 mile walk to park to play--near death experience along the way...
Friday--our lovely friends asked us to swim--we can't wait to join them again!
Saturday--A picnic planned for the whole "W" clan, can't wait to swim and dig in the sand!

Happy Weekend!

Near Death Experience Numero Dos A.K.A. My Times Are In HIS Hands

I took the girls on a walk this morning to the park and made plans to lunch with Mr. Wonderful. We followed our usual route but on the way saw some strange things

--a gaggle of police cars and an ambulance outside one residence,

firetrucks racing out of the fire station as we passed,

a house with a gas leak...

just a lot going on for one morning in this sleepy town. After lunch with Mr. W we headed back home and had only walked about a block when I heard a loud

**BOOMSIZZLEBOOM**

I looked directly across the street from us and a LARGE power line had snapped and was draped across the entire sidewalk directly across the street! It stretched nearly a block and was laying on cars and bikes and trashcans--exactly where we would have been if I had crossed the street like I normally do.

It was strange because there was no wind, it's a nice warm but not boiling day--no limbs had snapped--NOTHIN!

It made me take a deep breath and say a prayer of thanks to God for keeping us safe--cherish every single moment today and every day that you are blessed with...cause you never know what's around the corner...or just down the sidewalk!

**SCORE** One for the Mama

I just found out that there is **FREE** preschool a few days a week for a short time during the fall and spring! Woot! I thought A might enjoy going somewhere for some slightly structured type learning but our town doesn't have traditional preschool and my husband's school doesn't have free preschool so I was beyond excited when I found out about this! I looked around at different preschools and they were all 2 or 3 hours a day and I just wasn't ready to lose out on my big-girl's company for that much time each day. Our town's highschool teaches a child development class where they take care of 3 - 5 yo kiddos as their class work! I think A will love it--especially if some of her little friends join! Yay! Just thought I'd share =)

Awkward Moments Define My Life: I can never go back to Wegmans Again...or at least, never again on a Tuesday morning around 10:30

Ah! Another awkward moments of my life--brought to you by A--I tell ya, she's just the gift that keeps on giving! And of course it had to happen at my favorite place of all time, my haven, my early morning coffee drinking lazy shopping without children or husband world--my Wegmans!

We had an early morning playdate today but I HAD to pick up a few necessities and so headed out to Weggie's early this morning before our playdate (so that we could have a nice relaxing nap filled afternoon of course!). I woke Mavis up from her morning nap a little early, packed up the girls and headed out. It usually takes me about 7 minutes to get to W's but today of course, I got every weird traffic light and stuck behind every strange slow old person and it took about 20 minutes to get there! I dashed into the store and quickly got all of my items including my favorite Wegman's splurge--a chicken Cesar salad--DELISH!

We made it to the check out in record time and I started placing our items on the conveyor belt when A said, "oops Mommy! It's ok..." And I looked and saw she had "accidentally" opened the salad and dumped it's contents all over the inside of our cart, her clothes and the floor in the check out lane.....URgh...

Luckily there was a manager nearby who helped me scoop up the remains and he was able to call for a cleanup on "Aisle 2!" It wouldn't have been too bad except for the whole time I was scooping lettuce up he was yelling, "Everyone! Look out for the CROUTONS!!!!"

Urgh.

I chucked all my items back into my cart, including the strange floor salad and high-tailed it out of there to go BACK and get a NEW salad b/c after all this stress I NEEDED a new salad b/c they are so delicious I just couldn't face the rest of the day without one. So, I went back and tried to hide the floor salad but the employee who made the salad saw me so I pretended to be rearranging my cart and went and asked for a new salad to which he responded....

"Oh, I'm glad you came back. Come as often as you like to get a salad from me--I encourage it!"

So now, not only did I have a floor salad, I also had an employee who thought I was hitting on him by coming back for another salad!

Urgh.

I went back through the store again this time to hide the floor salad but there were so many people at W's that I had a hard time finding a good "hiding" spot....I eventually picked the baby food aisle--I know, this makes me a horrible person but I just couldn't face anyone else with my floor salad and I was not going to pay $6 for it!

We did eventually make it out of the store with an intact salad and boy, am I glad I went back b/c it was delicious and almost made me forget about how annoying and embarrassing it was to procure it....Seriously, am I the only person that this stuff happens to??!?

Sigh...and to top it all off--there was no toddler napping today so it's pretty much been the longest day ever....but they are all sleepiong peacefully now so there is a silver lining to this rain cloud =)

The End.

Friends In French Places

The babies and I were just watching a new Dora video we absconded from the library and it features Dora's French Friend--Amelie.

Just thought I'd share =)

Near Death Experience Numero Uno

In my younger years I had a serious sweet tooth-

-the kind of serious sweet tooth that required constant sugar consumption in the specific forms of: pixy stix, fun dip, tootsie rolls, and especially gum of any kind.

{I can't even begin to imagine how much of my hard earned allowance money was spent on candy--it would boggle the mind to know!}

Nothing really killed my love affair with all things sweet until I had to have two root canals

-(and after spending $3000 to fix your teeth--tooth rotting treats lose their appeal)-

Not even my near death experience with gum was enough to assuage my sugary snack intake.

It all happened when I was in the neighborhood of 7 years old and was sporting a major chain-chewing gum problem.

I'm not sure of the exact turn of events but I was chewing a few large pieces of gum and suddenly started to choke!

This was before the days of 911 so my Mom called the doctor and I remember specifically that I was rolling around on the yellow tile floor of our bathroom, unable to breathe, having a panic attack while the nurse instructed my Mom to tell me to,

"Relax."

Um, sure, let me get right on that relaxing thing while I can't breathe...

yeah, GREAT advice!

This was also before the days of the Heimlich maneuver so I was in a heap of trouble!

So, I continued to roll around on the ground unable to breathe while my Mom continued to stay on the phone

(you know, the ones with the 20 foot long cord b/c it was before cordless phones)

saying, "Just relax Michelle. Just relax."

And then, I don't know what happened, but probably my guardian angel knocked that gum loose and miraculously I was able to breathe again.

Or maybe it was the thrashing, it definitely wasn't because I "relaxed" in any way

--but whatever it was, I'm thankful it happened and that I'm here to tell you about it today.

I'm also seriously thankful that my eulogy didn't include anything about a girl choking to death on Hubba Bubba.
Because that's just plain embarrassing.

Well, now you know about the first time I almost saw the light =)

Just *Don't* Do It

Don't eat here. Seriously. Just don't. Even if a student gives your husband a sizeable gift card and the food is free and all you have to do is drive there to pick it up don't do it. Don't go. Bleck. Eek. Barf. Gag.

The End.

Redecoration Situation

I just redecorated my bathroom in a slightly over

the top, romantic, dramatic, extravagant palette (to reflect my favorite sensibilities of course) and was incredulous that anyone could call this a toothbrush holder. Obviously this "toothbrush holder" was never invented to actually hold a toothbrush but to sit on your vanity looking pretty. Maybe I could shove washcloths in the holes...any ideas? Anyway, back to the drawing board!

Camping Extravaganza A.K.A. Badger Attack A.K.A. Noah's Flood's Got Nothin' On This A.K.A. I only took 6 pitiful pictures of the whole too short event

We're back from camping! Yay!

It was *wonderful* event to be sure but was cut unfortunately short due to downpours! Bleck!

We headed up to Lancaster Thursday night and set up our tents and got cooking on the open fire and tasted our first hobo pies (pizza style). Luckily one of the few pictures I took was of Sarah eating the hobo pie that my husband made--yes, it really IS black and she really was just hungry enough to get it that way =)

Judah and A invented some fun chasing games and got along delightfully well! Besides chasing each other they had a ball playing at the indoor water park which I can't believe I forgot my camera for--fun times! Mr. Wonderful even tricked me into going on the waterslide even though I am terrified of them (another story for another day) and even though Mavis was completely terrified of the water we eventually got her to splash her feet in it.

The babies all turned into bed around 9 and (our generous friends let us use the large tent with enough room for a pack and play! that made things much easier) and the babies slept well (even if the adults spent the night listening to fireworks and roosters crowing =-). A and Judah had so much fun together--they really were perfect for camping! M isn't quite ready to be loving the camping life but I think next year she'll definitely be more enthused (the fact that she's getting 3 teeth right now didn't help much--not to mention that it isn't fun to crawl twigs and leaves ).

We had planned to stay all day Friday and spend time at the countless outdoor activities at the campground--but it started raining in the early morning hours and just got heavier and heavier and more and more depressing. We decided to pack everything up b/c there wasn't much use in hanging around all day being wet =( So, it was sad that we had to leave early but I'm really glad we tried it and would love to do it again, I think I'll just check the weather report more carefully next time! ha!

While Mr. Wonderful and our friends were packing up all the tents--I sat in the car with the babies and tried to entertain them. I'm pretty sure I got the short end of the stick on that one =) Here is a picture of A and Judah entertaining each other.

Here's a picture of M and I wet and sticky and thrilled about being in the car.
So, the rain put a damper on our day but it was still a good thing and I can't wait to do it again real soon.

I would like to get a written statement from the scary badger who was rummaging in our food shelter that he won't be back next time I go. It can really age a girl to come back from a nice shower at 5 in the morning, all ready to settle down with a chocolate donut, pepsi and a trashy celeb magazine when all of the sudden a huge dog sized forest dwelling creature comes crashing out of said food tent with a hot dog roll in it's mouth. I probably won't ever be the same and my hair will probably always be just a little curlier from standing on end...

Fin.

We're going camping now we're on our way....

we're gonna climb up a mountain and jump and skip and play!

(Psalty the Singing Psalter anyone?)

Happy 4th!

Because

goofy pictures of me and my babies make me smile.

Urgh Stupid Ebay--Our love affair has ended

Seriously, do not sell your items on Ebay b/c they have recently come up with the "clever" idea that a seller cannot leave negative feedback for a buyer--even though the buyer may still leave negative feedback.

So say you have a buyer who won one of your auctions and then decides they don't want it after they've won and they ask if they can just pretend they never won the auction and you say "no" b/c bidding is the equivalent of a contract on ebay and so they go ahead and pay for the item and then leave negative feedback that you wouldn't let them "unbuy" the item just to screw you over and when you write ebay and tell them what happened they say--"oh sorry, there is nothing we can do to help you" and your feedback is forever marred b/c an evil vindictive person is out there in the world.

It is unfair and wrong.

The moral of the story is--do not sell on ebay.

Just stick to buying.

Or, maybe, just give it up all together.

The End.

*North*South*East*West*

I love going home.

Part of the reason I love it so much is the view from my Parent's home--you can look in any directions and only see trees, meadows and...well, that's pretty much it!

As soon as I stumbled out of the car I laid down on the front lawn and buried my nose in the grass.

I miss the smell of the country.

I listened to the birds and crickets and bull frogs.

I miss the sound of the country.

It's in my blood and it's so hard to live without but I am thankful that I at least get to go back once in a while to soak it all in.....

So, until next time--here's a few pictures---one from each direction---of what's around my home.