Guess What I just won.

I am totally stoked. I was jumping around my blogs and just reading, and guess what...... I won a $100 gift card to Ann Taylor Loft Maternity. I think I already know what I am going to get too. A new dress. It is very pretty. I am going to go get a picture, Be right back. Okay, I am back. Click here to see the dress I might get. There is also on for $15.00 I just saw that I like also. Well we will have to wait and see. I am totally stoked.

Win a new Oreck Vaccum

5 Minutes For Mom is giving away an Oreck vaccum. Click the link and go enter to win. You have until Feb. 28th. Go quickly, GO, GO, GO!!!

My blogger would not let me put the pics. on the right post but here are her pics. Just below is the first cut.

Then here is how much they cut off, about 10 inches
Wow, she loves it.

He said YES!!!

My oldest daughter has been wanting to cut her hair for some time now, and daddy finally said yes. Now it is a little shorter than what he wanted, it looked longer when they were cutting it, but then it dried and it is a little shroter, but it will grow in a couple of months. Anyway, she is stoked. She has been brushing it and putting it in ponytails and talking non stop about how easy it is going to be to take care of it now. Mama is pretty happy about that part too, because now she will definately be able to take care of it all on her own, unless she asks for my help for a special do or something. Here are some pics., she wanted to donate to "Locks of Love." So that is why it is ponied up like it is, have a looksie!!!

What do you do?

What do you do when everything you do or say seems to be wrong? I cannot ever seem to say the right thing or do enough, now do not get me wrong, I do neglect things. But I also try to do the right thing. I am not good at being a good wife, mother, or friend right now. I do not know how to turn this around. I do not read my bible as much as I should, mostly every other night when it is my turn to read to the girls. I have also been trying to do daily devotions with the girls in the morning, so far we have done it 3-4 days in the last 2 weeks. I am disorganized both externally and internally. How do you turn it around? How do I become that great wife, mother, and friend? I just wonder if I am truly doing all I can. I am soooo tired and stressed almost all the time. I really do not have a great desire to do all the things I am supposed to. I think I try, but I guess I do not. Alright, well enough ranting. Maybe I will shut-up and pray. That is one thing I do well, I am always taking things to God. Trust me, I do it A LOT!!!!! I am going to add that I guess I am bothered most by the fact that a lot of people I know (and read) seem to handle the same things that I have on my plate so easily, what is sooo different about me? Why am I not happy about everything like that? When it comes right down to it, I am pretty happy, but I have a lot of stressful days, and unhappy, grumpy moments. I guess I am on the down side of my "emotional roller coaster" today. I will start going back up soon, I am sure!

Mercy Me has a blog.

Okay, I am totally stoked about a new blog. It is Mercy Me. They have a blog, I think it is awesome. They are the first Christian band I ever started listening to and they are still my favorite. So hop on over, link to their site is on the left, check it out. If you want, you do not have to of course, but if you like them as much as I do, go, go now!!!

My 4th grader, Great Girl!!

My 4th grader participated in a Spelling Bee today. She had a personal goal to be in the top 3 so she could go on to the school wide bee. Well out of 23 kids she was in 10th. Not bad at all. Of course she was disappointed, but she handled it so well. A few tears and she was okay. She is a little of a perfectionist, and it is very hard to lift her spirits when she gets disappointed. She gets that from her daddy. (luv ya honey!!!) I think it helped that our bestest "Pow" was there to give her a good hug, and daddy too. (Mama had to go to the restroom and that is where I was when she missed her word, ugh.) Her word was Fossil, and she spelled it fossel. Then sat in her chair spelling all the rest of the words right and she kept saying "I can spell that one." She did great. Next year will be her year!!!

5 Minutes for Mom car giveaway.

Did that get your attention. Thought so!! 5 Minutes for mom is giving away a pedal car for the kids. It is a '65 Mustang, my dream car by the way. Hop on over and leave your comment to be entered, and maybe your kids, or grand kids, will get my dream car before me!!! Good Luck.

Found on Deo Veolente

Some years ago, I walked into my office after a Sunday morning service to find a sandwich bag on my desk containing three chocolate brownies. Some thoughtful and anonymous person who knew my love for chocolate had placed them there, along with a piece of paper that had a short story written on it. I immediately sat down and began eating the first brownie as I read the following story:
Two teenagers asked their father if they could go to the theater to watch a movie that all their friends had seen. After reading some reviews about the movie on the Internet, he denied their request.
"Aw dad, why not?" they complained. "It's rated PG-13, and we're both older than thirteen!"
Dad replied, "Because that movie contains nudity and portrays immorality as being normal and acceptable behavior."
"But dad, those are just very small parts of the movie! That's what our friends who've seen it have told us. The movie is two hours long and those scenes are just a few minutes of the total film! It's based on a true story, and good triumphs over evil, and there are other redeeming themes like courage and self-sacrifice. Even the movie review websites say that!"
"My answer is 'no,' and that is my final answer. You are welcome to stay home tonight, invite some of your friends over, and watch one of the good videos we have in our home collection. But you will not go and watch that film. End of discussion."
The two teenagers walked dejectedly into the family room and slumped down on the couch. As they sulked, they were surprised to hear the sounds of their father preparing something in the kitchen. They soon recognized the wonderful aroma of brownies baking in the oven, and one of the teenagers said to the other, "Dad must be feeling guilty, and now he's going to try to make it up to us with some fresh brownies. Maybe we can soften him with lots of praise when he brings them out to us and persuade him to let us go to that movie after all."
About that time I began eating the second brownie from the sandwich bag and wondered if there was some connection to the brownies I was eating and the brownies in the story. I kept reading...
The teens were not disappointed. Soon their father appeared with a plate of warm brownies which he offered to his kids. They each took one. Then, their father said, "Before you eat, I want to tell you something: I love you both so much."
The teenagers smiled at each other with knowing glances. Dad was softening. "That is why I've made these brownies with the very best ingredients. I've made them from scratch. Most of the ingredients are even organic. The best organic flour. The best free-range eggs. The best organic sugar. Premium vanilla and chocolate." The brownies looked mouth watering, and the teens began to become a little impatient with their dad's long speech. "But I want to be perfectly honest with you. There is one ingredient I added that is not usually found in brownies. I got that ingredient from our own back yard. But you needn't worry, because I only added the tiniest bit of that ingredient to your brownies. The amount of the portion is practically insignificant. So go ahead, take a bite and let me know what you think."
"Dad, would you mind telling us what that mystery ingredient is before we eat?"
"Why? The portion I added was so small. Just a teaspoonful. You won't even taste it."
"Come on, Dad! Just tell us what that ingredient is."
"Don't worry! It is organic, just like the other ingredients."
"Dad!"
"Well, OK, if you insist. That secret ingredient is organic...dog poop."
I immediately stopped chewing that second brownie and I spit it out into the waste basket by my desk. I continued reading, now fearful of the paragraphs that still remained.
Both teens instantly dropped their brownies back on the plate and began inspecting their fingers with horror.
"DAD! Why did you do that? You've tortured us by making us smell those brownies cooking for the last half hour, and now you tell us that you added dog poop! We can't eat these brownies!"
"Why not? The amount of dog poop is very small compared to the rest of the ingredients. It won't hurt you. It's been cooked right along with the other ingredients. You won't even taste it. It has the same consistency as the brownies. Go ahead and eat!"
"No, Dad...NEVER!"
"And that is the same reason I won't allow you to go watch that movie. You won't tolerate a little dog poop in your brownies, so why should you tolerate a little immorality in your movies? We pray that God will not lead us unto temptation, so how can we in good conscience entertain ourselves with something that will imprint a sinful image in our minds that will lead us into temptation long after we first see it?"
I discarded what remained of the second brownie as well as the entire untouched third brownie. What had been irresistible a minute ago had become detestable. And only because of the very slim chance that what I was eating was slightly polluted. (Surely it wasn't...but I couldn't convince myself.) What a good lesson about purity! Why do we tolerate any sin? On the day of the Passover, the Israelites were commanded to remove every bit of leaven from their homes. Sin is like leaven - a little bit leavens the whole lump (1 Corinthians 5:6-7) faith and sin, don't mix.
--Anonymous

Pretty good analogy, don't ya' think?!?

Here is another contest. Sassy Frazz is giving away a Boon toddler dish. Just hop on over and check out her blog, then check out Boon. They are awesome. I really like the flo.

Work out Mommy is holding a contest for a brita faucet filter and a water bottle filter. The down side is it ends Tuesday, Jan 15th, so hop on over and quickly comment. Maybe you will win.

Do you want to know?

Most everyone who reads my blog already knows this, but for those of you who I do not speak to on the telephone, might like to know that we are going to have ANOTHER GIRL!!! That will make 4 beautiful, lovely little girls. I know, I am probably biased, but my girls are very cute!!! I really look forward to having another, although I was really hoping for that BOY. Gods will, not mine. You know this first 5-6 months has gone pretty quick, the worst part is how tired I am. All I want is sleep. Now in another 3 months, I will be tired for a different reason altogether. But I will have another little baby to cuddle with while I am tired. Nice!!! We have a name already picked out too. She will be Cassidhe Ann. And she is going to have 3 big sissy's always fighting over her, until she can walk and start getting into all their things, and playing with their toys, and then it will be all about her leaving them alone, hee, hee. Isn't funny how easy they forget they were so excited about the new baby. That is what we are going through right now with the 2 year old. Sisters were so excited about her, and now they just want her to stop messing everything up. Hah, Hah, and now they are excited about our little Cassy, and in another year they will be the same way with her. Wow, when they are adults and they are friends and aunts, they won't remember to much of this silliness, will they?

Another first from the baby.

Tonight I gave my soon to be 2 year old, Her birthday is in 10 days and she will be 2, a bath. After bath I said "Meggy, sit on your potty," and I grabbed her pull up and lotion. I just thought she would sit there like always, but this time she got up and bent over her potty and I caught her hand just in time. She actually went potty while she was sitting there. Now this is what I have been waiting for. I know it was a fluke, but sometimes that is what needs to happen for baby to fully grasp the whole potty chair thing. Trust me I am not rushing her or anything, no pressure. But I ask her all the time to sit on the potty, and tonight it just worked out the way it did. She can do all the taking off and putting on of the pull up, all be it it is most the time backwards, she tells me if she is wet or yucky, so she is showing a lot of the signs. I was pretty excited. Also, another thing our family is looking forward to is Jan. 7th I will get my ultrasound that says if the growing baby is a boy or a girl. So stick around and I will tell you soon.

So my friend over at The Powells wrote about her 5 year old asking for more violence in her cartoons and such, and I just did not get, it I guess? Well I had a small episode of that myself. I am trying to get my 5 year old to remember what the lowercase "f" looks like and told her to try and remember a fish hook for Fish, and it looks like an upside down fish hook. She told me "It is also like Captain Hooks hand," and for the crossing she said as she is drawing "he has caught Tinkerbell, and he is stabbing her." "Oh," I said, "that is just sad." All the while her oldest sister is just laughing. Talk about violence!!!

A first for me.

Today we had a special day. Daddys' job rented out the Ariels Gymnastics, and had Santa, face painting, treats, and a band to play while everybody else played on the Gym things. With my 2 oldest daughters anytime we took them, when they were little, to see Santa they would cry and not want to sit with him. But the baby today, when it was her turn she walked right up to him with arms open wide and gave him a great big hug. I was shocked. We had a good time, the girls got their pictures on their face, and I think we will not hear teh end of it until they get to do gymnastics.

Insomnia

I do not like insomnia, and with this baby I am having that bad. Then all I want to do is sleep during the day. With 3 kids and homeschooling and keeping what house I can you can guess that does not work out so well. Then when I take meds. to help me sleep, I am drowsy all day the next day. Oh well, I guess I just need to deal. Stop complaining about it and just deal with it. I will talk to my doc. on Monday, baby was sick so I rescheduled my appt. from today til Monday, "Pow" says maybe it is low iron. So maybe it will get better.

The funny thing is I do not remember being this tired with any of the girls. I have not had morning sickness. So maybe it is the boy we are wanting. Everything is different. Jan 7th I am going to have an ultrasound, and definately should be able to find out if the baby is a boy or a girl.

Christmas Decor.

Now when I first started thinking about this post I was going to say that this was our first Christmas Decoration, but it is not. It is our third for the season. My mother made us a new wreath for our front door, and my niece made me an ornament for our tree when we get that put up this weekend, just wait "til you see a picture of that :) So this is our third decoration, and the girls and I made it. I think I might change the ribbon, but right now that is the only one I had. I used one of my old vases and we went for a walk and gathered all the things for it. Red wood chips, pine cones, and then the green pine needles. The pic. I saw that gave me the idea looked a little better, but ours turned out preety good, and the girls had fun helping. When we finally get our tree up, I will take pics of that too.

A Contest for free Amazon, woo-hoo.

This website, teeny manalo is holding a contest for two chances to win a $50 Amazon gift card and one grand prize of $150 Amazon gift card. Hustle over and leave a comment and they will put your name in the drawing for one of them. So far there are not very many entries. Good Luck.

Happy Thanksgiving. We had a great time fixing all our food. My girls did a great job helping. Here is our spread. Quite a lot, for the 5 of us. Ooooh, but it was good. And I am looking forward to BBQ Turkey sandwichs, and cold Turkey Sandwichs. So how was your Thanksgiving. I hope it was great!!!
edited to add: I need to learn how to flip my pictures before I upload them. Sorry about the sideways looks.


My girls, great helpers.
Bella, the new gravy queen
Brisa, and the deviled eggs. Is that how you spell that?
Sharing the wisk.
Our fancy dessert. The girls wanted to use the wine glasses, cute huh?
Bella catching some relaxing time, :)
Yummy, Yummy Turkey. Good color!
Bellas picture of our spread.
Bella showing off our spread.
Mamas shot of our spread. Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Pa Pow and Pow

I love my Pastor and his wife. They are great teachers and listeners. My favorite thing with my kids and them is every single one of them, when they were little at least, would just v-line it straight for them and give them the biggest hugs everytime they saw the Powells. Now that my 2 oldest are just that, older, they do not give as many hugs and as excitedly as when they were little, but they still do give hugs. Now my youngest is not even 2 yet and she has a fondness for the Pows as well. That is not a typo, that is what she calls my Pastor and his wife, they are Pa Pow and Pow. Everytime we see them she shouts, "Pow" for Mrs. Powell and "Pa Pow" for Pastor Powell. It is very funny to walk into church and hear her shouting, "POW." Just imagine this little thing, I say little but she is far from little, shouting. I laugh everytime and I am not the only one, Mrs. Powell I think has taken a liking to it too. Now here is the kicker. Everytime we leave the house now, even if it is to go outside to play, Meaghan shouts "Pow" and she thinks we are going to see them. This means one of two things, either we see an awful lot of the Powells, and we really do not see them that often, just the stuff we do revolves around church. I like that. It is Bible Study and church and every once in awhile a play day with other ladies. But really just Bible Study and Church. And of course we see the "Pows" there. Very funny.