Saturday Night

I feel renewed. Much better after getting out and then taking an invigorating shower.

I talked with one of my best friends, Amy, on the phone today. She is presently living in Ohio, attending law school. I love unexpected phone calls with people I love. Amy and I have been friends for 10 years. Anyway, she was like, "What are you doing August 7th?"....."Um, gee, Amy, I don't know. I don't think I have any plans as of yet!" She wanted to know if I would attend her wedding! She and Jeremiah broke up and now she is marrying someone else! She thought she had me on the shock meter until I informed her that I doubt Brian would be attending the nuptials. "YOU AND BRIAN BROKE UP?" Why this surprises her, I do not know. The more distant I get from the situation, the more I am surprised that we were even together as long as we were. Anyone who has endured a long depression and then come out on the other side, must know how I feel. It wasn't my depression, but I certainly lived it with him and I am just so glad to be away from all of the gloom. Even when he was in a good mood, I was always waiting for the other shoe to fall. Always walking on eggshells. It certainly wasn't all bad. There certainly were more good times than not, and I'll carry those precious memories with me till the day I die, but I will not miss the dark cloud that follows him everywhere.

Anyway, congratulations Amy! I miss you and I love you and I can't wait to see you soon! :)

I need to go blow dry my hair. Until tomorrow then!

Current Mood: very good
Current Music: Breathe Your Name.......Sixpence None the Richer

Saturday Afternoon

I'm not sure what it is about getting a goodnight's sleep that causes me to be drained the next day. It is 3:30 PM and I could lay down for a nap. I fell asleep last night around 10. I slept very well. Was awake by 8:30 AM. On the days that I have less sleep...say 10-6 for instance...I feel much more energized during the day.

I've even had two caffeine ladened beverages already to no avail. Methinks I should take the dog for a run. We're going stircrazy with all of this rain.

My room has been cleaned. I've read for almost 2 hours. I've watched two World Cup soccer games. That was torture, don't you know it! Watching beautifully-toned men racing up and down a soccer field.


Okay, off for my jog.

June 10, 2006

It is RAINING! Please make it stop!

Today's list of stuff to do:

Watching the World Cup...Paraguay vs. England (My aunt spent 2 years in the Peace Corps in Paraguay so I am kind of rooting for them, BUT on the England team there is David Beckham...he is such a fine looking man. His wife isn't too shabby either...Posh Spice aka Victoria)
Clean my room
Organize my room (bookshelves, desktop computer, dressers and wardrobe, various ski equipment, golf clubs, etc.)
Read
Tan
Go to Borders

MacBook Here I Come!

I love my iBook. I have loved it well. It is my entire life all rolled up in a little notebook size computer. It has my iTunes, which I load onto my iPod. It has all of my iPhotos and a video library of all of my iMovies that the kids make with the mini-DV camera and edit themselves on the iBook. It has my manucript and other various writings. It has my master calendar. It is my portable dvd player. It has my Bible loaded on in King James Version which is the version I PREFER. (I liken it to reading Shakespeare...it really isn't the same when you read the Cliff's Notes version.) It is the keeper of my all-time high SNOOD scores. It is much smaller and more stream-lined than any monster-sized laptop that is running Windows. And oh how I love my OS X operating system. BUT...I just found the newest love of my life. A brand new MacBook. It will be my newest gift to myself for me, from me. It presently runs OS X AND XP and should have no problem switching to Vista when it is ready. I get all excited when I think of all of the blogging, chatting and emailing we will do together.

6/9/06

I am so glad today is over. What a long day. I am so glad today is Friday. The kids and I are looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow.

The plan last weekend was to relax and I succeeded until Saturday night. I couldn't take it anymore so the kids and I went out to eat at Ruby's and apparently missed Erin and her family! :) We also did some shopping. This weekend, Carl and I decided, will be THE weekend to talk to my guy at church. Wish me luck.

I get to hold onto Zach for an extra week. His flight is now leaving on the 23rd instead of the 16th. One extra week! :) That makes me happy! We're leaving early that morning, spending the day at Old Orchard, then taking him to the airport, then the girls and I and two of their friends are going to spend some time at the Portland Mall! YIPPEE!

Now I have to figure out what we're having for din-din. Last Sunday, I made homemade mac and cheese. The kids loved it. Lately we've been having pizza delivered on Fridays, but maybe I'll cook something.

Current Mood: a little happy, a little cranky from being tired
Current Music: I'm actually not listening to any right now.

6/9/06

I got the pictures yesterday, Tanya! :) The littlest one of the three of you is so sweet, but I like all of them and can't decide on a favorite. Tatyana is absolutely adorable. What a little beauty queen! She has gorgeous eyes! And of course, her little smile! That's what I love about kids the most at this age, their smiles are always genuine.

More Blogging

Two girls are home from school already. Hayley and her friend Sarah. The other three will be home shortly. They are taking the bus. Hayley and Sarah didn't want to stick around for the school award ceremony, so they called to be picked up early. Kayla and Shannon will be taking the high school bus and Zach is staying for the awards and will be taking the middle school bus.

One of my many pet peeves of mine...parents who whine about being a PARENT! I can understand if you had one child and realized, "Hey, this isn't really for me, so I'll stop with just this one and do my best for the next 18 years." This is directed at people who maybe didn't learn that lesson. I can't help but want to give them some contraceptive advice.

I'm not talking about the occasional bad day rant...I'm talking about people that are clearly not happy being parents, that have more than one child.

Baby Shiloh

I just saw the new pics. I'm not a big fan of the couple and I must be one of the few women for whom Brad does NOT do it for, but I am a sucker for babies. What a sweetie! It is only fitting that in American News, this story follows the news of Al-
Zarqawi.

Now when Viggo and I procreate...watch out!!! :)

I can't wait to see A Prairie Home Companion.

I have another amendment to a previous post. About the whale one. On further investigation of the article, I read that the reason why this was such a rare find and why it made it on the front page was because it was a Sperm whale. They are found all over the world, but because they are deep divers, they tend not to come terribly close to the coast. They suspect it died after a collision with a ship and was rotting in the harbor causing a terrible stench to permiate the sea breeze. YUM!

6/8/06

The last day of school for the kids. Too bad it is rainy. They only have a half day today. Next week, the weather is supposed to be beautiful.

Al-Zarqawi was killed in an air-raid. Too bad it wasn't Bin Laden. It is hard to get too excited about it. We can expect even more vicious retaliation. I'm sure there are many more waiting to fill his shoes. I still get chills when I see the video of Nick Berg.

Thanks!

I would like to thank my newest reader for posting in my comments about 5 posts down. Your compliments are very nice, thank you. I am always so surprised when people bother to read what I write and even more surprised when they take the time to comment. I'm very glad Tanya and Teresa stopped by and decided to stay! :)

Writing (and reading) for me is like breathing. What I find so satisfying about a blog is that my "journal" talks back. It lets me know when I am right on the mark and when I am being a little too sanctimonious. Be warned though, my writing is often an up close and personal view of my thought process and is often times a work in progress.

6/7/06

Wednesday is here. Wednesdays are my fun days. My "I don't have to run" days. I get to spend my morning relaxing, taking my time getting ready. I don't have to be anywhere I don't want to be until 2 PM when I go get the kids. I work at the center 3-5:30 and then church 6-7:30.

Let's see if I can say more than one word to my cute boy at church tonight. So far I've managed to say "Thanks" to him. Today I'd like to try, "Hi, my name is Jennifer." If I think too much about it though, I'll get nervous and then my palms will get sweaty and just thinking about it right now, my palms are getting sweaty.

Speaking of sweat...last night was so weird. I was reading my book in bed and Zach was in there watching a movie. He fell asleep and I was like, whatever, he's too big to carry upstairs, he's fine where he is. I looked over at him, thinking, he still has that little boy cuteness, but he's growing up fast. Literally, two minutes later, I looked back over to him because he was mumbling something. His head was soaked and he had sweat running down all over him. I tried to wake him up, but he wouldn't wake up. He stood up, turned on the fan, went upstairs into his sister's room and grabbed the phone away from her. She was talking to her boyfriend. He hung up the phone and went back downstairs, with Kayla chasing after him. We still could not wake him up at all. He laid back down on my bed, talking but not in English. Wasn't even mumbling. He clearly was speaking, but I couldn't recognize any words. He has no recollection of any of the events last night.

A forty or so ton whale washed up on the coast and made the front page today. A 40-ton carcass that has been rotting for a month. Great for people who like to enjoy their paper with their morning breakfast. I don't know why people find this so surprising. Maine has a good size coastline. Whales do live in the ocean. Whales do die in the ocean. It was bound to happen that one of them might get swept to shore in the tide current. Whales are pretty common in our waters. You can take a daily whalewatch trip right from Bar Harbor. They even guarantee the tickets. You either see a whale or they refund your money, or give you more tickets for another date at your convenience. Once a beluga whale swam upstream and got caught in the Penobscot in Bangor. That was surprising and exciting. You don't often see whales in a river. Maybe the surprising fact is that there should be MORE whales washing up on shore and it doesn't ever happen. Anyway, BIG news in Bangor today.


Current Mood: very good
Current Music: All Out of Love.............Air Supply

Still 06/06/06

It was a good night at the center. We had pizza for supper. I'm pretty tired, though. Zach is swimming in the pool right now. All of my kids enjoy their evening swims. They used to love it when they were younger and I would let them swim naked at night!

I have a quarterly report due June 10th. :( I have another one due in August.

Zach just came in and put on some sweats to warm up and turned around and asked, "Mom, do these make my butt look fat?" He is a weird little boy.

My friend Sean is relentless. I think the Afghanistanian heat is getting to him:

armyman2013: wish i could see you
jennluvsgable: probably not today you wouldn't...i'm exhausted
armyman2013: doesnt matter
armyman2013: want to see you so bad
armyman2013: keep thinking of coming home and what i want to do
armyman2013: want to see you

Okay, I need to go catch up on my reading if I want to be reading Galileo's Daughter by this weekend. Kayla is talking an unusual amount tonight. My 16 year old tends to run on the quiet side. I just asked her if she was on drugs. Zach says, "Yeah, the LOOOOOVE drug! Ever since she went to the prom with Ryan, you can't shut her up!" She is even being nice to her sister.

Current Mood: happy
Current Music: the kids are still playing their Aladdin SNES game. Last night, Zach and I played Scene It ESPN edition. He was amazed at how good I was. He still beat me, but he's proud his mother knows her sports!

Movie and Book Review Time

Where is everyone? Traffic outside is down to a minimum. I wish it was like this every day! Never can I make a tanning appointment for NOON, lunch hour time, and expect to get in without a wait, or to even get there on time because of lunch rush traffic.

Still nothing terribly exciting to blog about. I'll do a movie and book review update.

Little Manhattan -- what a sweet movie! My 12 year old son LOVES this movie! Great for the whole family.

Date Movie -- not for the whole family, but my kids are 12 and up, so for my family, it was okay. Zach thought it was a little perverted when I asked if he thought it was good or not (he'd seen it before), but he's 12 and the subject of kissing girls is still perverted to him. I asked him if he thought I'd like it and he said yes. I can't lie. Seeing Alyson Hannigan in a fat suit, singing "Milkshake" made me laugh out loud. If you like the Scary Movies, you'll like this one.

The Gospel of John--excellent. A great way to "read" the Gospel of John...I prefer the 3-hour extended version. It obviously didn't go terribly in depth of the crucifiction, like The Passion did, but gave a thorough overview of the events leading up to and after it. Incidently, Eric and I both saw The Passion together at the movies. I remember there was an older lady sitting in front of us that was sobbing very, very loudly.

Cheaper by the Dozen --okay. It was predictable, but sometimes you are just in the mood for a predictable happy ending kind of movie. A good family movie.

The Omen -- which opens tonight. Erin and I agree that it probably won't be as good as the first, but Eric and I both want to see it. I find this funny because most of us know that Eric was freaked out by The Ring. Erin turns the tv on static just to freak him out and I find that HILARIOUS!!! A girl after my own heart. More so, after I found out her family Pledged hardwood floors FOR FUN! :)

Onto books I've been reading lately.......

I am presently reading "Living Water" by Chuck Smith. Very good. It is about the power of the Holy Spirit in your life.

Redeemed & Restored.....wrtitten by Calvary Chapel Pastors' Wives...It is the stories of 12 ordinary women whose lives were transformed by God's extraordinary power. I read this in 2 days. I was able to meet Rosemary Gallatin, who is one of the 12. My 16 year old is reading it now. She is really enjoying it, as well. She is also reading Anne Rice's "Blood and Gold". I'll have to ask her how she is liking that one. I think it is humorous that most of us have similar reading "phases". I had a Beverly Cleary phase, a Judy Blume phase (I'm not sure that one was a phase for me...more like a life choice, I still read her and love her), a V.C. Andrews phase, an Anne Rice phase...you get my drift.

A book I can't wait to get to, which is next on my list: Galileo's Daughter by Dava Sobel...I should get to this one by this weekend. It is being touted as a "historical memoir of science, faith and love."

Freakonomics...still reading. It is very well written. I am enjoying it and I am taking it slow. I love how he views things "outside of the box."

I am also re-reading The Chronicles of Narnia outloud to the kids. Yes, I know they are 16, 14, and 12! Yes, I know they can read! But sometimes they just like to cuddle and be read to and of course, I LOVE IT when they do! Those moments are the most precious to me. Their favorite moments with me, they've told me, are when we shut off the tv and the lights and just have candles burning and we sit around while I tell them stories about when I was little or even when I make up stories for them. I started doing this for my little brother, who is now 6'5 and is 28 years old. Doesn't he get mad when he walks in and I'm telling one of "his" stories to the kids. All of his stories had his name in them and he gets possessive if I change the names, like his favorite "Adam and the Spaceship"...he walked in on me telling Zach about "Zach and the Spaceship"...Adam was like, "What are you doing? That is my story and its rightful title is Adam and the Spaceship!" He was like 22 years old when that happened! What a kid! He was my first baby as I was 6 when he was born and I was his protector from our other two siblings, and he never lets me forget it! :)

I have literally 30 or 40 more books that I've bought over the last year or two, that I have yet to get to. Tanya thinks my DVD fetish is bad...my book buying habit exceeds it! :) My kids love going to Borders or even Goodwill, to get books, which is one of the million things I love about them. We like the library, too, but there is something about the smell of new and vintage books that I love. I don't feel so free sniffing library books! Plus, my bedroom has 4 floor-ceiling bookshelves that I am in the process of filling. I can't wait to have my very own library room in my house someday. It will be where I read and blog and write and sit by a cozy fireplace with my dog and my tea, with a very cozy warm couch that I can be comfortable falling asleep on, on the nights that I am so into reading or writing, that I can just stay right there in the magic of it all.

06/06/06

I slept in a little this morning. Hayley has the day off from school. It is move up day for the rest of the middle schoolers, but the 8th graders got today off. They already had their day at the high school, so I guess this is a little 8th grade graduation present from the school district.

The kids are done for the summer on Thursday.

The center is getting whipped into shape. I spent Friday cleaning over there and yesterday, I had a volunteer over there from 8:30-2 PM organizing the craft closet and the computer room.

I'm off to get my latte and I'll blog when something exciting happens.

Monday

Today was a busy day at work. Thanks to everyone who commented on my last post. I do like conversations like these, and thank you Holly by not saying anything like "And Dan Brown says..."

I do hope you appreciate my point of people using this or even the movie Stigmata (which coincidently, I also love) as a basis for their arguments. I don't mind being wrong, I don't mind having someone be smarter about things that I am just learning about, and I commend and appreciate anyone that can back up what they speak.

I feel like I need to say again, I loved the book, though I preferred Angels & Demons. I never meant to offend anyone other than the people it was intended. To me, citing Dan Brown in a theological discussion would be like citing E.B White on arachnid habits at a science fair. I also support and encourage anyone to question their spiritual lives and to grow in that area. Thoughts and ideas that I have change all the time. So if a book encourages people to READ and to QUESTION their realities, then as an English teacher, I am all for it! I will forever fight censorship in our schools, which is precisely why I choose to teach in the public school realm, as opposed to private or Christian schools, not that book banning does not exist in our public schools, too, but the practice is certainly more limited than in our Christian schools. I will support and defend the freedom of speech out of respect for others' thoughts and ideas.

However, in a theological discusssion I will not be defending Dan Brown. I will defend my Lord and Savior.

Current Mood: excellent
Current Music: Enter Sandman.......Metallica.......I don't just like Christian music.

Amendment

This is an amendment to my thoughts on The Da Vinci Code. This will be all I will ever say about the subject again, because quite frankly, I am getting bored of Dan Brown and the surrounding controversy.

I still maintain the following:
Yes, I read the book and I loved it.
Yes, the book is cleverly written and Dan deserves kudos for that.
Yes, the book is FICTION. **

** This is where I make my amendments....

Most historical fiction novels are written with a backdrop of fact. For example, there are lots of Civil War and WWII historical fiction novels. While the characters may or may not be fictitious, the South always loses, as do the Nazis. In order for Dan Brown's book to "work" he had to blur the facts a little. He geniously confuses the reader as to what the real facts are. Now, if we're all still reading this book for fun, and we all know it is fiction, then I have no problem, but DO NOT come to me and present your entire new "faith" or lack of faith on FICTION! Give me facts to support your cause. An example of a fact that Brown blurs is the infamous Dead Sea Scrolls...aka...the Gnostic Gospels. First, look up the word Gnostic in the dictionary. Second, check the date the scrolls were authored. 100 PLUS years after the Apostles lived. The 4 Gospels that made it into the New Testament were written or orally dictated by the FOUR themselves. It is the only eye witness account we have. Why should the church add gospels dated 100 years after the original 4? Both liberal and conservative Christians agree on this one and you know it must be true if they both can agree on something. And please spare me the feminist agenda about the "Goddess" being taken out of the Bible by omitting the Gnostic gospels. Want to know the last sentence in the actual Gnostic Gospel of Thomas? It says something along the lines of "For a woman to be saved, she must become a man." Dan Brown leaves that part out of his book when his fictional characters talk about the patriarchy of the Church. There are also Leonardo facts that are amiss in the book, but I'll leave that up to you to find those yourself. Read a book on Leonardo or even better, an art book on the Messianic period. Religious art during this period often depicted John as more feminine than the other apostles because he was younger. In addition, The Last Supper is not a "fresco" as called repeatedly in Dan Brown's novel, but an experimental medium of tempera on stone which caused it to deteriorate shortly after completion. There have been several restoration attempts, the last completed in 1999. But I digress. That is neither here nor there. Just another example of how facts can be misconstrued and didn't influence my enjoyment of the novel. Whether or not Jesus was married, I could really give a crap. Brown and any other author can make anything up they want. Fiction is my favorite genre. Oh yeah, and Opus Dei is real, but they have no monks.

Soooo, if you want to talk theology, great. Want to talk about fiction? Fabulous!!! Politics? Depends on the mood I am in, but do not use fiction to back up your theological or political views.


Current Mood: amazed at the stupidity of certain people
Current Music: Desperate Housewives theme music...............Dan Brown and I are gonna summer on Wisteria Lane and be friends with Brie and Lynette and the other girls before heading off to Hogwarts in the Fall.

Sunday

So this morning was a very, very rainy morning and I ran through the parking lot into church and my cute boy there held the door open for me. I actually found the words to finally speak! I said, "Thanks!" :)

Then..............let me start out by giving a description of our church auditorium. There are cushioned bleachers against each side and there is a center row of seating, with an aisle on each side and then a section of seating on each adjacent side of the center row, with aisles on the other sides between them and the bleachers. The auditorium easily could seat two or three thousand people, though our parking wouldn't allow it, hence why we have three separate services each Sunday. Anyway, so cute boy walks up the aisle nearest me and then back down the aisle nearest me.
Zach was like, "He's checking you out!"
"Well, I DID finally talk to him!" I replied.
"What did you say?" asked Zach?
"Thanks!" I said.
"Oh wow, Mom! I said more than that to him today!" said Zach sarcastically. "What is his name?"
"This I do not know," I said.

During service, I couldn't find him and I told Zach to look for him. I soon got engrossed in the sermon and forgot about cute boy. Zach bumped me and said, "Your boyfriend is up there watching you." My eyes moved to where he was looking. In the back of the auditorium, upstairs, there are three rooms with very large glass windows. The one my boyfriend was in, was the the coffee shop/book store. The center one houses the studio control, where they control the two big projection screens for the people that can't see the stage, as well as other various audio and computer gadgets. The third window is for nursing mothers. He had been up there watching me! I looked over at him and our eyes met and then he made it look like he was just up there getting coffee. I continued on, listening to the service, leaving Zach to watch out for my boyfriend. I knew he was still watching me because all of a sudden, Zach's arm went around my shoulder and he stayed that way the entire service. I know my son and, with the exception of Brian, he is very careful with me. For instance, recently when I was dating Flint, Zach would either try to sit between us, or when we were at the theater or something, Flint would reach for my hand, and Zach would put his hand in between mine and Flint's. Zach has always been nice and polite to anyone I've dated, but he's made it very clear that he comes first.

So we'll see what happens at church tonight! :)

Current Mood: happy
Current Music: Footloose..........Kenny Loggins

Stuff

Tanya called today! It was so nice talking to her!

Right now, the house is clean, my laundry is getting done, I have candles burning and we're just hanging out relaxing. I haven't taken a day to just do NOTHING in a long time. Do nothing as in, just staying in and having no plans.

This has been the nicest rainy day in a long time!

Current Mood: happy
Current Music: a jazz mix that I have

Rainy Day

Sometimes I love rainy days and today is one of them. I like the really warm rainy days, like today, so you can still keep the windows open a little and smell the rain and flowers and cut grass. Plus, it gives me a reason to stay inside and CLEAN a little! When the weather is nice, I feel like I need to be outside to enjoy it.

Today I need to buy dog food and other assorted pet products. I need to get my latte! :) I want to squeeze in some tanning time. I want to buy some new shirts. Seems like I always want to buy some new shirts, but the last few times I've gone, I either haven't found any I like, or I just pick up one or two, like the two I got from Old Navy. Maybe today will be clean the wardrobe day! And then turn into add more new clothes to the wardrobe day! :)

My daughter is going to yet another prom tonight. Tonight is the Senior Prom, as opposed to the regular old prom. This makes formal dance number four for her and she is only a freshman. She had the Christmas Ball, the military ball, the regular prom and now she has been invited to the Senior Prom by Ryan, who is a guy she met at the military ball, while she was there with another date. By the time her senior prom rolls around, I will definitely be lacking in enthusiasm!

Now it is coffee time. Sierra is waiting at the door with her leash. She knows it is coffee time, too. She has already used the outdoor facilities, but she knows that after her potty time and my blog time, we go for a ride to Ampersands so I can have my daily dose of sanity and she loves to ride.

Slowly Unwinding

I can't believe how emotionally exhausted I am. Instead of a 4-day week, it feels like I've worked overtime! The kids and I are hanging out tonight. Our Friday night ritual lately. I've been so burned out come Friday evening. I'll perk up tomorrow! :) Or maybe after I blog for a little bit. This is how my brain relaxes.

We rented movies! YIPPEE!!! Incredibly bad horrible movies (I hope!) as those always tend to become my favorites! We got Little Manhattan, Cheaper by the Dozen 2, Date Movie, Motorhome Massacre (I can't wait for this one!) and Daltry Calhoun.

I have a tanning appointment in a half hour, then we're ordering pizza and I may take a dip in the pool. It is a very warm and humid 80 degrees right now.

I just love my doggie. She is curled up next to me, her head on my lap, watching me blog. What a sweet pea! She has quickly become my best friend. Actually, she has quickly become the "neighborhood dog". I feel like we're on Mister Roger's Neighborhood! We went to the bank yesterday and she got FOUR dog bisquits! My next-door neighbors on each side of me, say hello to her every morning. She gets doughnuts at Dunkin Donuts and bisquits when I go to fill up my car.

I cleaned the learning center today. I swept and mopped the floors, vacuumed the rugs and washed the tables and chairs. I cleaned the toilet and the bathroom sink. Changed all the trash bags. Lysoled all of the light switches and doorknobs. We had a great year regarding germs. No major colds or flus going around the center this year. I think I've made the kids neurotic about hand sanitizing! :) It seems to have paid off, though! No bird flu for us!