The Real Indiana Jones or should it be Illinois Jones?

I should have known when I heard the theme music being hummed.

Josh just told me, very excitedly, that while he and Seth were playing Indiana Jones in the basement Seth actually swung through the air.

WHAT?

Seth looking a tad embarrassed, told me that he had flung his "whip" over the beam in the basement, tied it and swung, but only a little, through the air.

No more Indiana Jones for them.

Kristen

Random Thoughts

Leaving on Friday. Mom Jones is doing better and should be home from the hospital today.

Mike's got busy couple of weeks coming up. Pray for him. The single-working-Dad-with-two- little-boys-adventure should be interesting. (But he rocks so he will do great!)

The kids are finishing up with the Roman Empire and reading Acts this week.

Home made split Pea soup for dinner with hot bread. Yes, it feels like winter again. Glad I didn't plant the veg. plants yet.

The pools open. No we won't be going yet.

Just added an 8-minute ab workout that is killing me.

Jasmine got her toenails painted pink yesterday.

Watched first two hours of Ben-Hur yesterday with the kids. Part two today.

Must finish 400+ pages of book I am reading, before I leave, because it is due while I am gone and I can't renew it.

The week after we return from Kentucky I am taking Faith and her best friend Sarah to Wicked for Faith's birthday.

Three days later the kids leave for AZ for two weeks.

That is everything in my brain right now.

Kristen

No Travel Yet

So we are still here.

Mike's mom had surgery on Friday. It was supposed to be less eventful than what it was. When they got in there they realized that there was more damage caused by the plastic piece rubbing on her brain, then they had originally thought. So the 2-3 day hospital stay has extended. She was still in ICU as of yesterday afternoon.

Mike's dad, understandably, is staying until she gets home, which is undecided, so the girls and I are on call.

The van is packed, the house is clean, the laundry is done, can it stay that way while we wait?

Praying for Mom Jones to start feeling considerably better and praying now, that the holiday weekend is over, maybe the doctor will be a little more attentive.

And because this is my blog I would like to say that, I maybe, a hospital snob, but I can't help to feel that she had a much better recovery process in AZ at the Mayo clinic than she has at the hospital in Bowling Green. I will refrain here from making any slanderous southern state remarks. Although I did live in the south for three years and the speed of things there nearly killed me. You can only go so slow before you just stop moving!!!!

I hate to bring this all back to me, but I am realizing through this that I am really not a very patient person. I don't like surprises and I like things to be planned out. I really like to know what is going to happen next. So maybe there is a lesson here for me.

Kristen

PUKE

Do you remember the first time you threw up in public?

I do.

Yesterday brought it all back. Poor Luke.

We went to lunch with the Mitchell family after church and Luke was looking a little weak.

He complained of his stomach and like good adults we told him to suck it up and he would be fine.

He wasn't.

Poor Luke.

I won't go into the details but we ended lunch early and went home.

Then I remembered. Second grade. I told the teacher I didn't feel good. She told me I was fine. I sat down at my desk to do my health worksheet on FOOD.

Oh yeah, I looked at about two pictures of food items and lost it. I ran but by that time it was too late. All over everything.

It is one of those things you never forget. So glad we were part of Lukey's.

Kristen

Won't You Be My Neighbor

Sorry folks this is going to be long.

Had a bad dog/kid/ neighbor experience this week, but was still too upset to write about it until today. Thanks, Joni for helping me to be able to laugh at it all a little.

So Jazzy is a great dog. We lover her very much. She is great with the kids, low maintenance, very protective of her house, super gentle with people that come over. She is a good dog. But she really, really, really loves to run. And be chased.

When we first moved here we had the kids taking her out on a leash because of our lack of a fence. She is pretty smart though, and realized that if Kylee took her out she could give one good yank and be out of here. This caused numerous problems but the biggest was with my dog HATING neighbor. We quickly put up a fence to avoid anymore problems but that also irritated my neighbor.

After the fence a whole new problem came about. We had to somehow teach the kids that if they were going to go out the front door the dog had to be in the yard. So the fence did cut down the running away, but it has not eliminated it.

(This is where any of you who train dogs, and would like to chime in and help a girl out, should feel free.)

So Jazzy runs away a couple times a year. Also, I have to say here that she doesn't love the cold so living here is to my advantage because as long as there is snow on the ground she pretty much stays home where it is warm.

But it is spring now.

So last week Joshi was outside riding his bike with his brother and sisters. And as the good mother that I am I had no idea that they were riding bikes out front. I did know they were outside. I also didn't know that my neighbor had just had her drive way seal coated. I am in the house Josh opens the door the wind blows the door all the way open and out goes Jaz. I run out right after her, but she is gone! I mean gone. Then I hear the yelling.

I look over and there is my neighbor. Yelling at me. Yes, yelling. She is very angry and shouting something about my son, and how he ran his bike over her newly seal coated driveway. Oh my gosh. Of all the things. Of all the people. I look at Josh, who is standing by his bike and say, "Joshi we told you not to go in OTHER people's drive ways." Okay really, we have just told him not to go in her drive way.

But she is not appeased. Joshi is saying something about how he didn't drive in her driveway and she is screaming that he did and she saw him. And she is very upset because his bike got some tar on her bricks that line her drive way.

I apologized. But she just continued on, then got on her cell phone and began yelling at who ever is on the phone about the damage.

Meanwhile, I am upset and really mad at the dog. That is when she says it. "I really hope your dog doesn't come back and run all over my driveway too!"

Okay I can't remain calm any more. I was nice. I said I was sorry. At this point I was afraid to go over there because I didn't know if I could maintain my Christ-follower attitude. So I walked in the house to get my keys to go and look for the dog.

When I walked in I heard my very angry neighbor speed away in her car. I walked back out and went to look at the damage. Okay folks, here is what happened. Joshi was riding down the sidewalk and being a five year old on two wheels probably lost control right around the corner of my neighbors driveway and swerved a little. There was, literally, a twelve inch tire mark on her driveway. A tiny bit of tar on the brick.

I was pretty mad at this point. This is where I would like to stop and apologize to some of my unfortunate friends who happened to call during this time. Terri, Mike, Paula, I would like to say I am sorry for the things I said.

Okay, I feel better.

So I got in the car and drove around looking for Jaz. After two rounds of the neighborhood, and my friend up the street deciding she was going to go and look too, here comes Jaz up the street on a leash with Seth and some little girls.

Seth had found her three entire neighborhoods over and these girls had helped him get her on a leash and walk her home.

I have to say the hardest part had to be the kids witnessing the whole thing and me maintaining composure and teaching through it. I just kept telling them that we needed to be kind to this lady and understand that she must have a lot of unhappiness in her life to get so upset. We talked about loving our neighbors, even the ones who hate us. This was all very hard especially when I was so upset that day, but I also know that the kids pick up on my anger and would mimic it if I wasn't careful.

Mike came home and saw the "damage" and waited for the husband to come home. He has always been very reasonable.

And he was this time too. We offered to have the "damage" fixed and he assured us that the problem was not our tire mark but the bad job the seal coating company had done.

So, she was mad about the lame job the seal coaters had done and not so much about the Joshi mark. But decided to take out her anger on me and my son.

Oh, and one more thing I am also sorry that I hoped for it to rain that night. Which it did.

Kristen

36!!!!

Mike is 36 today!!!! The kids and I have a special evening planned for him.

When I asked him what kind of cake, or pudding (I have been known to make him his own bowl of home made chocolate pudding), he wanted he said he wanted a chocolate meringue pie.

Okay.

I have never made a chocolate meringue pie but found a recipe that looks yummy so I am going to try it. I will post the recipe if it is worth it.

I have been marinating beef for fajitas since yesterday and preparation for the big night is in full swing.

I can't say what his big surprise is tonight but it is going to be HUGE!!!

I can't wait!

Kristen

Hair Dresser

I have the coolest hair dresser! She totally rocks. Not only is she completely and totally talented but she is a blast to be around.

I went yesterday to get my hair cut. She actually works in a nice salon, but does my hair out of her home on her days she is not at the salon. Paula has been having her do her hair for years and is the one who set us up.

Anyways, yesterday while she was doing my hair we were having fun and I realized that Paula and her and I need to go out and have a night out together. So I asked her to join us for some girl time and she said she would love it.

All was going fine until I was driving home and realized the implications of this.

Now follow me here. I started to think about going out and then realized that I would have to make my hair look like it does when she does it. What if I can't make it look the way she does, or I am having a bad hair day? Would she be disappointed in me if it didn't look as good as when she does it?

I mean, really, when do you ever see your hair dresser out in public? When I go see her it is usually way over do and it is up in a pony tail.

Yes, this is the kind of thing I think about.

When I tried to explain it to Mike he just looked at me with a blank expression. What does he know though, he's bald and I am his hairdresser!!

So the question is.... am I the only one who thinks this way?

Kristen

Mom's Day

Well I didn't throw up, faint or have some sort of attack while on stage this weekend!

And I have to say it was totally worth the anxiety! I feel completely honored and blessed to have been included in the mother's day panel for "That's What She Said" this weekend at the Orchard. Man, those women were awesome and there is so much to learn from their stories and life experience.

I don't know if what I had to say was as life changing as the other women but I am so glad to have been included. I have felt a passion for ministering to moms for a long time, but haven't really heard God's voice on how He wanted me to do that. So although speaking in front of a room full of people, three times, was very scary for me, and definitely not my plan, I was so excited to get an opportunity to do what I have felt I have been called to do for quite some time.

What I do know is that I love being a mom! And I have had all kinds of experiences in these last 11 (almost 12!) years of momhood. I hope that some of my passion came out and that I can maybe be a help to other moms who maybe struggling with some of the same things I have struggled with.

I am thinking about posting some of the questions we were asked on the questionnaire, in preparation for this last weekend, and my answers.

Hope you had a great Mom's day weekend!

Kristen

New Recipe

I haven't posted a recipe here in a while but I found two good ones last night. The first was for a marinade for chicken fajitas. The only change I made was I doubled the ingredients. Soaked the chicken all day then grilled it last night along with some green bell peppers brushed with olive oil and coarse salt. It was really good. The kids and Mike all raved.

The next one is a big deal for me. I love baking. I think most things taste better from scratch, but I have to admit brownies are not one of them. I have tried several brownie recipes and none taste as good as the Ghirardelli box brownies you can buy. Why go through the trouble when the box tastes better?

Well, I found this recipe last night and made these. Oh man!! They are soooo good. The only change I made to these was I sprinkled a handful of butterscotch chips in to the batter right before I put them in the oven. I am converted. I will make these from now on!

Kristen

Lots Going On

Where do I start?

A few years ago Mike's mom had surgery on her...brain. She did really great after the surgery and really hasn't had too many problems.

Until recently and now they are pretty sure she needs to have surgery to fix something they did the first time. I don't really know all the details but I do know that sometime next week she will most likely be going into surgery again. The girls and I are going to drive down to Kentucky and take care of her for a few days. I am looking forward to seeing her and making sure she is okay. The girls can't wait to go and take care of their granny.

I am going to be on a panel of women (talking about being a mom) for the three services this weekend at church. I am a little nervous and hope that I can say what God wants me to say.

I am a little behind in my school schedule which doesn't make sense to me because we should be ahead, since we have taken very few days off. But we did start later than the schools here so maybe that is why it feels like we are behind. Anyways I was hoping to be finished with the main curriculum the week before the kids leave for Az but it looks like we will still have three weeks to go. I was stressing but now I am not. I think we will just finish it up when they come back and start our summer math/science unit after that.

The kids all leave for AZ in 6 weeks. They will be gone for two weeks!

I have decided to give Faith a standardized test. I have never done it and gone back and forth on reasons to do it and reasons not. The not has always won. But this year I am looking at it from a new perspective. Feel free to correct me.

I think that Faith really needs the practice taking a standardized test. She will have to eventually. Whether it is to get into college or to take a class at the high school she will have to test. So it isn't because I don't think she is at or above grade level, because I know she is, and not to compare her to other children, because I don't need to do that, but to give her the experience of taking one of these tests in a friendly comfortable atmosphere.

Chicken Pharaoh is coming out of his salt captivity today. I hope he doesn't smell.

Josh has learned to snap. He is driving Seth crazy because he can't.

And it's going to be 80 today so we are going to the park!

I think that is it. For now

Kristen

Winslow Homer

Tomorrow we are going on a field trip to Chicago to go to the Chicago Art Institute. We have had this trip planned for quite some time. And I was blessed with some tickets to the Winslow Homer exhibit that is there right now.

Funny that I was a Humanities major in college, studied art history and all, and I really didn't know a lot about Winslow Homer. I wasn't much into the early American Artists. But, Faith and I did some research on him today and found out that he did many, many drawings for Harpers Weekly during the civil war!

See the whole Lincoln tie. I am pretty excited about that.

Last week I tied the visit to the capitol into us studying Rome- you know the whole democracy thing and now here we have an artist who spent time drawing Lincoln and the Civil War.

I love it when things come together.

Kristen