That one dude.....

One more visit to the subject of camp. Here is a snippet from a conversation with my youngest son.

"I liked that one God story. About the guy that died and came back to life....."

"Do you mean Jesus?"

"Yeah! That's the dude! That was a good story!"

Well someone must have told it to him differently so that it made quiet the impact. hehehe... I remember when I was watching the "Passion of the Christ" and was a bit paranoid because he was watching it too and I was concerned that it was too graphic for him. He simply said to me at the tender age of six, "Mom, isn't it cool what God's son did for all of us?"

Home from camp, safe and sound

My daughter made it back yesterday morning and I picked up my boys today. Everyone is safe and sound and all is well. I cried when the buses turned into the church lot heralding the arrival of my daughter. I got the tears in check, then she got off the bus and I started crying again. I missed her!

This morning I picked up my boys and as they came meandering along the sidewalk, the waterworks started again. I am just a sentimental fool.

This actually turned out to be a great week for them all to be at camp, as it happened, I had yet another medical procedure done on Wednesday after the youngest one left, and although the results were good, I ended up in a lot of pain and needed alone time. I snuck away to my sis's cottage at Wawasee and got a lot of quiet time and now the houligans are back and running me ragged!

We went to the Mermaid Festival Parade this afternoon and it really was quite a nice parade. Very long too....but nice. We MAY slip into Warsaw tonight and enjoy the Winona Lake fireworks, but then again, a nice lemonade out on the deck sounds mighty inviting too.

Off to camp.....

Whew, at 12:30 today I will be delivering the third child to camp! My daughter left on Saturday with her church youth group to go to camp Big Stuff in Florida. This is her third year and she loves it.

My oldest son left on Sunday afternoon to go to Camp Crosley on Tippecanoe Lake, this is his 7th year. My youngest son will be joining him there this afternoon for his second year of mini camp, he is liking it better.

So this is the week I plan for, the week I look forward to, when all three kids are at camp! Well....lemme see, the youngest one leaves today and the oldest one gets back at 7 a.m. Friday morning......hmmmm it really isn't quite the vacation I had anticipated. But what matters is they all have a great time and maybe come a little closer in their walk with God.

This is good for a laugh

SOUTHERN GRANDMOTHER ON THE WITNESS STAND


Lawyers should never ask a Southern grandma a question if they aren't prepared for the answer.

In a trial, a southern small-town prosecuting attorney called his first witness, a grandmotherly, elderly woman, to the stand. He approached her and asked, "Mrs. Jones, do you know me?"

She responded, "Why, yes, I do know you, Mr. Williams. I've known you since you were a young boy; and frankly, you've been a big disappointment to me. You lie, you cheat on your wife, and you manipulate people and talk about them behind their backs. You think you're a big shot when you haven't the brains to realize you never will amount to anything more than a two-bit paper pusher. Yes, I know you."

The lawyer was stunned! Not knowing what else to do, he pointed across the room and asked, "Mrs. Jones, do you know the defense attorney?"

She again replied, "Why, yes, I do. I've known Mr. Bradley since he was a youngster, too. He's lazy, bigoted, and he has a drinking problem. He can't build a normal relationship with anyone and his law practice is one of the worst in the entire state. Not to mention he cheated on his wife with three different women. One of them was your wife. Yes, I know him."

The defense attorney almost died.

The judge asked both counselors to approach the bench and, in a very quiet voice, said, "If either of you idiots asks her if she knows me, I'll send you to the electric chair."

Father's Day

So this is it, today is Father's Day. I hope all of you dads out there had a great day. I personally had one of the best Father's Day ever.

I got a text message on Thursday from my ex husband stating that he didn't want the kids this weekend because he had plans. If I wanted, I could take them to his mom's for the weekend. I responded that I would keep them with me.

The whole weekend was good, but today was great! We got up early this morning and went over to my mom's house, we all pitched in and made breakfast. I took fresh fruit, blueberries, grapes, strawberries, pineapple, cherries and melon.

After breakfast we all went out on the pontoon and went for a ride around the lake. Then my 8 year old wanted to show us all how well he can ski. He is quite the little showoff, crossing the wake, jumping waves, singing songs and watching and waving at other skiers. What a clown!

Once we all started to get a little crispy around the edges in all that sunshine, we came in and my sister and her husband and my kids all went out on the jet skis. I slept in the hammock. I am just not up to jet skis yet and its killing me!

This evening we went into town to "Something Funn" and the kids raced the go carts. They had a blast. I am sorry their dad chooses to miss out on days like this, but I will take all of them that I can get.

Happy Father's Day!

GRRRRR

Kids and cell phones! And Ring Tones. Grrrrr.

My 16 year old is driving me crazy. Oh yeah, and text messages too! The phone rings all of the time. And she has special ringtones programmed in for each person that calls. Most of them are current hippy hoppy hits.

The problem is, she likes the songs. So, when someone calls, she has to stop what she is doing and sing and dance to that song. Sometimes she goes on too long with this and has to call the person back because she missed the call.

I know, I know, shame on me for letting her have the dang thing, but it is the best way to keep track of her. And she babysits two kids through the week and they go to the beach and for bike rides, etc. I want her to be able to call for help if she needs to do so. Remember the days when we all survived without cell phones?

Is it just me, or do these articles bother you also?

I have been reading the newspaper headline stories this afternoon and am thoroughly sickened by the acts of these parents. There is nothing more precious to me than my children and I honestly cannot even begin to imagine what goes thru the heads of some people.

First off there is the woman who locked her 3 1/2 month old baby in the trunk of her car...

Then another who dangles a child over the edge of a balcony...

And a 15 year old and her stepfather shot to death.

I don't know about you, but I am going to hug each of my kids a little extra tight today.

Monkey Business?

Last week there were rumors flying around Warsaw like you would not believe. In a small town? Imagine that! My kids came home from school and told me that Warsaw Community Schools were being sued by the Fort Wayne Children's Zoo and all Warsaw classes were banned from the zoo. The rumor to back that up was that a student had thrown a sharpie marker into a monkey cage and a monkey had ate the marker and died. And then there was supposedly a penguin stolen. And some "high" students. And duck eggs destroyed. Three of the local radio stations owned by Talking Stick, an affiliate of Federated Media, reported the story as rumors, but unfortunately people only heard the story and didn't hear the words "rumor" or "unconfirmed". You can read the complete story here.

In another headline story last week, there was a fire in Warsaw that wreaked heavy damage on a local business, the SPECTACLE Shoppe. As one might discern from the name of the business, it was indeed a complete eye care business. But the Journal Gazette reported the story as a barber and beauty shop. See article here. Another independent Warsaw radio station picked up this news ditty from the Journal Gazette and reported it as a barbershop also, so much for the hometown station.

I know you have all seen my ongoing rants about the use of Kosciusko in the Journal Gazette as if it were a specific town, rather than a county. I am on this rant just to show how sloppy the media is getting in their reporting.

Back to another BIG story earlier this year involving a wrecked red hummer and a gentleman trying to check into the state police headquarters in search of a hotel room..... reporters forgot to dig a little deeper, they would have found this "drunk" to be the owner of a rather large used car lot in the "Kosciusko" area. Funny thing, the other day when I drove by one of his lots, you guessed it, a right sharp looking red hummer for sale. hmmmm.

Wanna go shopping?

School is out and June is picking up speed. My kids are all going to camp at the end of June. The boys are going to a nearby camp. My daughter is going to Camp BigStuf in Florida with the church youth group. They have lists of things they need for camp. Not too big of a deal for the boys.

My daughter is 16. The list is a big deal. She needs a new bathing suit (one piece) and she is in dire need of some new summer clothes. Problem is, she and I see eye to eye on absolutely nothing when it comes to clothing. The list from the church sees things as I do, girls need to be modest. This is where we start having our battles. My daughter is very buxomy and loves to strut her stuff. So somehow we have to add pieces to her wardrobe that are modest and fit into the guidelines from the church. And then she has to wear them. I am sooooooooo not looking forward to this shopping trip...

Grocery Shopping

As you know, I recently had yet another surgery. During my recovery it was my desire to stay in my own home and be as independent as possible. Unfortunately, I hit a snag and had almost three weeks of not being able to drive. During this time my mother would take my kids into town to run errands for me.

One evening I made up a grocery list, tallied up approximately how much money I thought it would cost, built in some extra padding for extras I knew they would "sneak" in and sent the two oldest to the grocery store with my mom. My son is 14 and my daughter is 16.

My mother had some of her own shopping to do, so she sent those two on their own to fill the order. She lagged behind and kept an eye on them. She said the whole venture was quite precious. My daughter made her brother push the cart. And they really concentrated on what they were purchasing and "value" shopped. My mom said they would get into some pretty deep discussions over which brand to buy. They looked like a little old couple. When they returned home, much to my surprise, they had only gone over about $12 in their purchases, teenage staples were added to the list you see, oreos, ice cream, fruit snacks and gum!

After listening to my mom tell the story, I so would have loved to have watched this particular shopping trip!

Summer is close by

School ended for the summer last week. The boys spent a long weekend with their dad, and now they are back with me until this Friday when they go for Father's Day weekend and then all of next week. Today will be the worst day for them as everyone has to clean and organize their bedrooms and other areas of the house. For the boys that includes their "special areas" in the basement.

The youngest one has a large area with multi-colored mats and storage cabinets where we try very hard to keep all of his toys. Today we will be moving their computer down there and setting up a little study corner too.

My oldest son has a workshop corner with the "industrial gray" mats and many storage cabinets and workbench and a lot of his tools. He has an electric scooter in pieces and parts all across the workbench. I think after a year its time to either repair it or pitch it.

They also have a game area with the fooseball and air hockey table and dart board. I would like to move the leather couch down sometime before fall along with the tv in my bedroom and hook up their play station down there, maybe carpet that area so they can be more inclined to spend rainy days and winter evenings in their own little corner of the world. (Hey a mom can dream, can't she?)

They also have most of the games on shelves and two "retired" kitchen tables for their use, heck, the more I think about it, maybe I should move to the basement! Well that is after my youngest son organizes his toys again.

So anyhow, today shall be a day of sorting and organizing. My oldest son is also going to need to straighten up the garage, with his lawn mowing business he has going he has pretty much crowded me out of the garage, I can still get my vehicle in there, but its getting to be a tight squeeze. I suspect this week's trash cans will be overflowing, but that's good!

I am sure we will take a break this afternoon and head down to the beach for a bit, we all need some sunshine you know! My kids and myself too, are anxiously awaiting my full (or almost full) recovery so we can start riding the jet skis. But quite honestly, that would at this time be an excruciately painful adventure for me until I heal a bit more.

My daughter's room is her own monster to deal with, teenage girls and their "stuff"! She also has promised to finish helping my mom clean out her kitchen cupboards. Well as you can see, we all have a busy day ahead and I need to go roll the two oldest troops out of bed and get them started on their glorious day!

FAS, Sheri and Bush

Sometimes I find the most amazing things perusing the blogs of others. I stumbled across this little ditty on Sheri's blog. I am sure if you are familiar with her blog this will astound you. I have spent the last year reading her blog and feeling her pain and sympathizing for the things she deals with raising an FAS child in her home. Her life is no bowl of cherries and I have long respected her and her husband for their love, patience and understanding for this child. It breaks my heart when she explains the level of the child's comprehension and the things they go thru on a daily basis.

I am sure if you are familiar with her blog, you have felt the same. That is why I was horrified that she has a post on her blog identifying characteristics of FAS and then comparing it to the President of the United States. Those of you who know me, know I have zero tolerance for president bashing. I believe he was put in office by the people of America. Our votes were tallied and he received the nod. Once in office, he deserves the respect and support of all of the voters.

All that aside....I pray as her children grow older and use the computer more and more that they do not find this post by their mother, making fun of someone who has characteristics that resemble FAS. I can't imagine what they may think or feel if they find this.