Ahh...payday. If only the money were not already spent! I swear, every payday you think "I can finally catch up" only to find that you have already borrowed from the newest check to make up for overspending the last pay period. Today is the day that every business is supposed to have all your tax information out to you. I am still waiting on two or three items...which I highly doubt will be in today's mail. But hopefully I am wrong. That wouldn't be so bad! :) We need our tax return. And we need it ASAP!!! We've got some debt to pay off from fixing our van in December and of course that consumeristic holiday called Christmas! Every year I think, "I want my kids to remember family and time spent together" and every year, in the last two weeks before Christmas, there are so many THINGS I want them to have. And really, for the kids' we didn't really go crazy. On each other however, that is a different story. And Kris has expensive tastes. He's all about quality. I'm all about quantity. You don't have to get me something expensive...just get me a bunch of cheap things! :) I guess we balance each other out that way, although because Kris' tastes are expensive, he carries that over in gifts that he wants me to have. Oh well.

We are still waiting patiently to see how God will provide for the kids to go to KCA next fall. $6000 doesn't magically appear on your doorstep, but God does make a way! And we believe that he wants them at KCA, so we are trusting that when the time is right, he will show us what he has in store. I personally am praying that Kris' bosses will be led to give him a raise that will cover tuition. In May, because Abbey will be going, in order for me to pay tuition with my job, I would need to be working at least 30 hours and I don't want to do that and I am pretty sure that God would rather me be home with the girls more. So we will wait. And we will see. And I will come back when the prayer has been answered and report!

I cleaned up the basement today. I know--exciting! Kris and the kids worked on the playroom last night and I went down there today and finished up. We are trying to get the house in order for our annual Super Bowl party. I'm very excited about it! Hopefully a lot of people will come and everyone will have a good time. Anyone reading this that lives nearby (and anyone that doesn't I suppose) please feel free to join us on Sunday at 4:30-whenever. Dinner is provided, thanks to some delicious BBQ beef from Sam's!

I'm trying a new recipe tonight. Kris got me this program last year called Big Oven...where you can file and collect recipes and all that and I just now paid for it and installed it! I am making Creamy Italian Chicken. Sounds good, and simple. For anyone who is interested:

Creamy Italian Chicken

Yields: 4 Servings posted as 157900

Ingredients
4 boneless chicken breast halves
1 envelope Italian salad dressing mix
1/2 cup water
1 pkg. Cream cheese (8oz) softened
1 can condensed cream of chicken soup undiluted
1 can Mushroom and peices drained (which I am choosing to leave out!)

Instructions:
Place chicken in bottom of crockpot. Combine salad dressing mix and water; pour over chicken. Cover and cook on low for 3 hours.
In a small mixing bowl, beat cream cheese and soup until blended. Stir in mushrooms.
Pour over chicken. Cook one hour longer, or until chicken juices run clear. Serve over rice or pasta.

Now I was wondering if it was some sort of copyright to put that on here, and if it is...hmm...well...sorry. I do know that the recipe is available at www.bigoven.com just in case I'm not supposed to have this on here.

Time to see why Olivia is crying.

I love Fernando Ortega. You put his incredible voice with the powerful hymns that we never seem to sing anymore and I am completely moved. Today I heard this song, reminding me of how deep God's love is for us.

I will sing of my Redeemer, And His wondrous love to me;
On the cruel cross He suffered, From the curse to set me free.
Sing, oh, sing of my Redeemer,
With His blood He purchased me,
On the cross He sealed my pardon,
Paid the debt, and made me free.
I will tell the wondrous story, How my lost estate to save,
In His boundless love and mercy, He the ransom freely gave.
I will praise my dear Redeemer, His triumphant pow'r I'll tell,
How the victory He giveth Over sin, and death, and hell.
I will sing of my Redeemer, And His heav'nly love to me;
He from death to life hath brought me, Son of God with Him to be.

Max's New Suit

Ruby wanted to have a fancy tea party with her friends. So she and Max needed to get dressed up. She went into Max's room and gave him a suit to put on. His phrase for this particular episode was "No suit!" Well, Ruby leaves (of course) and Max takes the suit, drops it on the floor outside his room and shuts the door. Ruby comes back and see it there and says "Oh Max!" So now Max takes the suit and hangs it outside on the clothes line. Ruby finds it because coincidentally she has to get napkins off of the line. She takes it back in. This time she helps Max put the suit on and tells him to hurry up because everyone will be there soon. Max makes this face, like he doesn't want to wear the suit and says "No suit!" So he takes it off and goes about playing in his room. Now, everyone is waiting downstairs on Max. Ruby goes up to check on him and tells him to put the suit on. He says "No suit!" and Ruby says "No suit? No cake." Max thinks about this and still has a look of disgust on his face about the suit. Ruby leaves the room and Max decides to put the suit on...but he puts it on all upside down and everything...so technically he isn't really wearing the suit. He goes downstairs and they all looked at him in shock. He says "Dress up" and then it's over. Ok...am I the only one that see how this communicates that you can disobey when you don't want to do something? I left before "Good Night Max" but I can pretty much tell you that Max is supposed to go to bed and keeps getting up and in the end, he will still not have to be obedient.

It is amazing to me how quickly time can go by when I am typing. I am so excited about what God is doing in my life lately. Through a good friend, God showed me that if I really wanted to spend some quality time talking to him, that the best way to do it was to 'blog' my prayers. Before, I used to really struggle with focusing and really spending some time in prayer. And now, I can sit down at the keyboard and type away, all the thoughts and concerns on my heart. And before I know it, I've spent more time with God that I ever thought I could do. It's exciting to be talking to him regularly again. I say again, but I'm not really sure I've been this consistent ever before. I guess God is ready to take me to a new level in my relationship with him and I am excited to see what happens.

I'm looking forward to this weekend. I am going to work for a few hours this evening and then there isn't really too much planned. We do need to get the house in order and the basement cleaned. That will not be a fun project--the basement. But it has to be done. We are hoping to run cable down to the basement for the super bowl party the following weekend. But I'm not about to let people down there to watch it with it being as trashed as it is. I hope that we can be productive and get the house to a point where it will not be difficult to keep up with throughout next week.

My birthday is next week. No bigs plans that I know of, which is fine. We do have plans for Valentine's day, but I don't know what they are. I think that is so cool. Kris has a really hard time (in the past anyway) keeping secrets from me with this kind of stuff...but he had mentioned that he had something in mind and I still have no clue what it is. This Valentine's day will mark 8 years for us...we had our first date 8 years ago on Valentine's day. Wow...almost a decade. I can't believe how fast time went by.

Max and Ruby will be on at 11am. After Abbey and I watch it and learn how to misbehave and not get disciplined for it, I will share the story line.

Max and Ruby. I'm appalled by this. Ok, well, not so much appalled as just kind of....I can't even think of a word to describe it. Allow me to explain.

For those of you who do not know, Max and Ruby is a cartoon that comes on at 11am on Nick Jr. Abbey absolutely loves this show. I have always wondered why she doesn't listen and why she does exactly what I tell her not to do. I am beginning to wonder if this little kids' cartoon might not have something to do with it.

Ok. Ruby is the older rabbit. She is sister to Max, the younger (obviously) brother. They live together in a house, alone. I'm not sure what happened to their parents, but their grandmother does live just down the road and checks in on them from time to time--I've only heard of or seen her in maybe 2 episodes.

Let me give you an example of what this is teaching today's children.

Ok...last week, one episode in particular made me just sort of shake my head. Max was trying to get into the refrigerator to get a snack but Ruby came up to him and said "It's time for a bath Max." So they go up and Ruby helps get Max in the tub. While she goes out of the room to go and get towels, Max goes downstairs and gets some sherbert out of the fridge. He takes it back up and into the bath and dumps it into the water. Ruby comes back in and says "Oh Max"--that is her typical phrase, used many times in each episode. She lets the water out and puts clean water back in. She tells Max to stay in and she leaves again to go and do something. Max, of course gets back up and goes back and gets a different color this time of sherbert but before he can get in the bathtub with it, Ruby stops him and sets it down on a stool near the tub. Then, (doesn't she seem a little stupid by now??) she leaves the room AGAIN! Max, of course, gets the sherbert and starts playing with it in the tub. It spills and the water instantly changes color. So this continues...maybe 2 or three more times....why Ruby doesn't just stay in the bathroom the entire time and just bathe Max I don't know! But that was it. There was no lesson at the end, or if there was I missed it. Max just kept doing what he was not supposed to and Ruby kept saying "Oh Max." Max also always has some key word that he uses all the time and that's all he says. I don't remember what the word was in this one...probably "snack" or "food" or something like that. In one episode, he kept saying "hockey." Anyway...

Yesterday was interesting as well. But Olivia is calling, so stay tuned for the next installment of "Ruby and Max".

Abbey is funny, which I say over and over again. She's been using phrases like "How 'bout this" and "How 'bout that" recently. Like she will say, "How 'bout I get dressed?" "How 'bout I go outside?" So this morning, she added a new phrase. I decided that today was the day I was going to be disciplined about potty training (which didn't last long because she is sick and I keep having to change diapers--after going through 2 pullups in 20 minutes I went to the diapers). Anyway....
So I was having her try to go potty and she took her jammies off and so I felt her diaper because a lot of times she has gone right before I take her diaper off. When I felt it, I could tell she had just gone, so I asked her if she had gone pee in her diaper and at first she didn't answer me so I asked her again and told her she needed to tell me if she went potty. She said very matter-of-fact, "I guess so". It was weird but funny. And then she got up there and tried to go and said "How 'bout I try later." She's three and half the time she uses phrases that I use and it's funny to hear.

Funny Abbey story. I'm not sure where she heard it, but we were getting ready to go outside today and I got her all ready then took her to the door and she went outside. She suddenly turned to me and said "This is my lucky day!" I just laughed and she went merrily along. So she came inside a little while later with a piece of paper and said "A present for me. This my lucky day!" Apparently some kid had dropped some homework paper and she found it and thought that it was a present for her, because after all, this is her lucky day! It was so cute.

Kaleb is so sweet with Olivia. He loves to hold her and be around her, but not (for the most part) in the annoying grabby way that the others are. And today he keeps asking to hold her and I've been trying to do this or that, so he's only been able to hold her once. So I was in the living room earlier in my pink chair (which I absolutely love and hope I never have to get rid of), and I was holding Olivia. Kaleb comes up to me and says, "Mommy I can hold Olivia if you need to go and do something." Made me smile.

Olivia is sick...this cold of hers is NOT fun...I'm sure it's not fun for her either. She's been better today though...kind of fussy but not as bad as yesterday. She didn't have a great night, but it could have (and has been) worse. We bought her a new walker the other day which she really enjoys when she is in a good mood. Right now she is just laying on the floor, kicking her feet and cooing.

Well, it seems like I should put something in here about Katherine....since the others are mentioned. Hmm....well...to get out of a nap today she volunteered to clean Abbey's room. That was interesting, not to mention clever. So the others thought they would make the same offer...a few minutes later Katherine came to me and said the others weren't helping. But she was just in there cleaning away. It's still not clean, of course...but it's better than it was. Also...at KCA she was the Kingdom Kid a couple of weeks ago...so they put a little 'blurb' about her in their little newsletter. It was your normal average everyday stuff...she likes to color and play....and then at the end....something strange. Something to the effect of: "Katherine even started a small group to pick up trash at recess. She hates littering!" How cool is that??

My Italian Herb bread is done baking now...so I'd better finish up dinner. I love baking bread....my house smells REALLY good!

It's nice to be home. I feel like I've been so busy--probably because I have been! But today I am home, catching up on some laundry. There's not enough time in the day to get it all done...so hopefully come Monday I will still have the motivation to do it.

We are supposed to be going to Chicago this weekend. Cindy and Dean were going to drive out tonight with Katherine and Kaleb...and we were going to take the other girls in the morning. We have a meeting tonight. It's snowing here though and it is supposed to snow in Chicago too. It would be nice to visit with Kris' relatives, but it would also be really nice to just be able to stay home this weekend. Is it bad that part of me hopes it does snow this weekend, too much for us to go?? I'm just tired and I want to catch up on some much needed rest. But chances are, we will end up going. Although if Cindy and Dean leave without talking to me, I'm not sure we can go anyway--because I don't know Carol's address or phone number. I have an email address...I guess I could try that and that might possibly yield some answers before we leave, if they check it. Nevermind that idea. I don't have an email address. Hmm.....

This is pretty boring huh? It's boring me! No sense in sitting here racking my brain for something clever or funny....it just has to happen.

Kids are funny. Katherine drew this picture, of a boy and a girl with hearts all around and they were holding hands. On the front (it was made to be a card) it said "Katherine Bishop Jacob Holiday". Cindy and I were talking to Katherine about it and she said she was going to marry Jacob Holiday. I asked her, "What about Isaac Lankford" because she always used to say she was going to marry him. And she said that he was going to marry Kadi (Wilkinson) and so he wouldn't marry her. Anyway, we were talking to Jamie Lankford at church yesterday and he was saying how Isaac always tells them that he is going to marry Katherine. Katherine told Cindy she had made the card for Jacob and when she tried to give it to him, he didn't want it, so she decided she wasn't going to marry him. Instead, she would marry Kaleb Lankford, Isaac's younger brother. When Kris asked her tonight why she was going to marry Kaleb and not Isaac we found out the real reason. Ok...so here's how it went down! :)

Isaac, according to Katherine, promised her that he would marry her. But Kadi told Katherine that Isaac would not marry her because he was going to marry Kadi. So Katherine, being the kind hearted girl that she is, stepped aside and set her sights on Kaleb Lankford...maybe so she could still be close to Isaac??? :) Taking it a step further, Katherine asked Kris why Isaac couldn't have 2 wives and Kris told her to come and ask me. So she did, and I told her to tell Daddy that it was because he was a Christian and not Mormon, so that is exactly what she told him. It was cute.

Abbey is playing with these little dishes that Ken and Melanie actually got for Olivia, but I let her open them because Olivia is way too little. So anyway, I was sitting in the living room and Abbey kept bringing me something to drink. Finally, she brought me some milk and I asked her to put some strawberry syrup in it. She said, very matter-of-fact, "I don't have strawberry syrup." I said ok and then she asked if I wanted food. She was holding a fork and spoon and plate, so I reached for it, and kind of in a sing-song voice she said "Not yet!" Then she said "I need to cook it Mommy. I need to cut the turkey." Then she sat down with the plate and knife and started saying "Cut cut cut. Cut cut cut. Cut cut cut." Then she brought it to me to eat and I took a couple of bites then she shoved the cup in my face and asked if I needed a drink. So I took one then told her I was done and handed her the plate back. She looked at the plate and said I had to eat something--whatever it was that was left on the plate. I couldn't understand what she was telling me to eat, but she stuck the fork up to my mouth so I finished it. Then she went off happily saying "Now I wash dishes." And off she went to her sink (the other couch) saying "Wash wash wash. Wash wash wash."

It's after 11pm. I'm still awake. That's not going to help this whole 'get up at 6:30am' thing I am trying! Olivia pretends she is asleep...and then when you lay her down....she conveniently wakes up. Grr....so, I'm not going to fool myself into thinking she will stay asleep, while I am praying at the same time she will. Do those cancel one another out?

Abbey has been without her little blanket for almost a month. She left it at Kat and Jason's house when I had my tubal and we never got it back. Well, tonight she went over there--well, Kris took them over there; she didn't go on her own. And while there, apparently she saw her blanket and started saying "My blankie, my blankie!" Then she hugged it and said "I love my blankie!" Well, I'm not sure that is exactly how it happened (that's how I picture it in my mind)....because I wasn't there....but if it is incorrect....it's got to be close. Anyway, that made me feel really good because I made each of the kids these blankets when they were little. And it's nothing fancy. A piece of material with some light weight batting in it...and some pretty crooked stitching. But Abbey, ever since she was little (guess she's still little) carries that thing around and used to 'need' it to go to sleep. Well...when we left it at Jason and Kat's....she didn't have too much of a rough time without it, which saddened me a little but was nice because at least she wasn't screaming for it every night. But it made me feel good...happy....that she was so excited to reunite with it.

If you are trying to become a morning person, does it count if you get up at 7am but then take a nap at 10am? Kris was preaching at North County Christian School today so I took Kat and Kaleb to school, then came back so he could go over there. So, I was up early...and it didn't help that Olivia didn't go to sleep until after midnight and then woke up at 2:15, needed to eat at 3am and then didn't go back to sleep until almost 4am. And I actually got a few things accomplished this morning before the little nap. Let's see....
Fed Abbey (that's always a good thing) and I ate breakfast. Also fed Olivia and got her back to sleep.
Changed Abbey's diaper and got her and Olivia dressed. In case anyone wonders...yes I changed Olivia's too!
Spent about 30 minutes praying--which is huge since I rarely do that!! It's time to get back on track! "Blogging" my prayers is really helpful to me...it's like journaling, except online, so I just created my own blog for it and two days in a row (I know it's pitiful) I've gotten on there to 'pray'.
I've done 3 loads of laundry.
Read 3 books to Abbey and helped her play on her leappad.

So, I guess that's not too bad before 10am. So anyway, I was going to just 'rest' in the pink chair with Abbey while she watched cartoons....but she kept asking me things and she's so hard to understand sometimes! So I decided I would lay in my bed, which I did....and I was able to 'doze' in between Abbey going back and forth asking me this and that. So...all that to say, I feel much better...not so sluggish...and am ready to tackle the rest of the day. So, can I still say I was a 'morning person' today? :)

Feels good to get back on track with Weight Watchers too. Holidays are over--no more excuses. I had actually expected and accepted that I would gain a few pounds, but as it turns out...I lost 2. Weird. I really did not eat according to the 'plan' and I ate WAY too much sweet GOOD stuff. But I'm not complaining!

One funny, if not a little crude, story. So one of my brothers got the guys in the family this "Anti Monkey Butt Powder"....apparently it is supposed to absorb sweat and fight friction. I know...sorry. I wouldn't even have mentioned it, except that Abbey was in my room this morning and this was sitting on Kris' nightstand. At first I wasn't sure what she was saying and once I was able to figure it out, I realized she was saying "I want my butt be red." Just like the monkey on the label. Now, why she would want her butt to be red I don't know...but it was definitely an interesting comment.

I feel like it has been a while since I was on here. I guess that's just because so much seems to have happened. New Year's Eve was proceeding like any other evening, when suddenly I started hearing Katherine screaming at the top of her lungs. I ran into the room she was in, to find that she had fallen from the top bunk (at the back--near the wall, not off the front) to the bottom. At first I thought she was just hurting...but then I saw the blood. It seemed like it was everyone! So, having the difficulty I do with these things, I just started screaming. I was able to see that the blood was coming from her chin, but I was scared to look. Someone came with a washcloth and Cindy and Dean kind of took over. I had to just go in the other room. I was a mess. I probably scared her more than the fall did. We weren't sure if we would end up in the emergency room...but once the bleeding stopped they (not me) put a butterfly bandaid on there and she seemed to be ok. She even got up and started playing about a half hour after it happened. So we looked at it yesterday, and it looks like (besides the bruise) she has a cut that is only about 1/4 of an inch long. Katherine was upset....yeah because it hurt....but she was upset because she got blood on grandma's blankets. She seemed more concerned about that than anything else once all was said and done. But she is doing well...and I am doing better! I hate stuff like that. I don't know if I just panic and don't know what to do, or what it is, but I'm very fortunate that someone else has always been there when these things happen. I'm not sure how I would react if I were alone. I would hope that I could deal with it and be calm...but I'm not really sure I would.

So that was the New Year's eve drama. The funny (not ha ha, but more ironic) thing is that probably less than an hour before it happened I was talking to Jenn Reedy about how we made it through a year without any drama on the holidays....referring to the Christmas eve emergency room visit last year when Abbey broke her collar bone. But...I guess I was wrong!

We saw the new year in at Cindy's and then drove home and went to bed. We went to church and then to Cindy's. Kris and I took Katherine and Kaleb to see Chronicles of Narnia. They liked it--they did get scared in a couple of places, as we expected...but for the most part they did well. Yesterday we went out to St. James to see Kris' dad and that was a good visit. I'm glad the holidays are over though. Not because I don't enjoy them...just because I was ready to just get on with some sort of 'normal' schedule. The kids go back to school tomorrow and while it hasn't been horrible having them home, I am ready for it. I think they probably are too...it will probably take a couple of days to get them back on some sort of bedtime schedule though.

I came across a strange site last night. Kris was shutting the refrigerator and out of the corner of my eye I thought I saw something 'odd'. I told Kris to open the fridge and sure enough, I had seen what I thought I had. Take a look. I can only guess that Abbey was the culprit...but it kind of makes sense when you look at the title of the book. Kris and I were amused. If you can't see what it says, it says "Bear Loves Food." We aren't sure why the book was put there, except to say that because it was about 'food' that according to Abbey was the most logical place for it!