a BIG thank you!

I want to give a shout out to Uncle Drew & Kathy and Mrs. Erickson.  We are so appreciative of your financial support of DYF.  You have been the first two to donate to the For Crying Out Loud's fundraising page!

My goal is $1000 this year.  It's a huge goal that I have set for myself, and I really hope more of my readers can help.  Even if you can give $5, that's $5 towards my goal and I will be eternally grateful for your support.  I really want to see this 3rd Annual Walk for Diabetes Youth Foundation be a huge success and bring about much more awareness for our children and families who deal with Type 1 Diabetes.

In case you missed my earlier post introducing you to DYF, you can read more about HERE

Then go HERE to donate!  Thanks, in advance!

Sky High

We made one of the best financial investments in a long time!  We decided to take some of our Christmas gift money to buy the kids a trampoline.  We have a little tiny backyard.  We like to hang out on the patio in the spring/summer/fall, but that's about all we do.  We've tried to level the area, plant grass seed, lay sod, nothing lasts and nothing makes it a fun area for the kids to be.

So we no longer have a back yard.  We have a patio and a trampoline!  

And it's the best thing for us! 

Is teaching making our teachers sick?

This article was shared with me tonight and I found it really intriguing.  Especially the last paragraph.  It's worth a read...if you're interested in the topic, that is!

Raising Children Who Love God

I so admire our senior pastor and his wife.  They are great models of Godly parents.  I try to glean as much as I can from the words he shares from the pulpit.  Parenting is by far the hardest job ever.  But it is THE most important job ever.

Each time I was pregnant, I purchased a journal for the baby.  I began writing prayers, dreams, my thoughts, everything in those journals.  One day I'll give the kids their journals.  I have no idea when.  I'll wait on God for that timing.  In the meantime, I will continue to write to them in this way.  I want them to know that I have been praying specifically for each of them since I knew they were to be a part of our world.  However, I have begun praying over them while they sleep at night.  I find it very comforting and I know, without a shadow of a doubt, my prayers and petitions for them are always heard and someday I will see the fruits of my prayers.  I can not imagine parenting without my God.  He is the one who gives me strength and wisdom on difficult days.

Anyway, Here's Pastor Francis' message last weekend titled Raising Children Who Love God.  My number one goal as a mother.

GUM

That's what we call it in the education world.  GUM...Grammar Usage and Mechanics.  I always struggled with grammar in grade school.  Trying to memorize all the usages and such.  I hated writing.  Despised it, actually.

I used to think that being an adult, I've grown to use grammar; in speech as well as text in a much more appropriate manner.  I always thought it was just something that happens as you become an adult.  Lately however, I don't think it has anything to do with becoming an adult.  It has everything to do with being aware of how you speak and write.  I think phones play a big part in this lack of proper usage as well.  BUT, I'll tell you when I use my phone to text or comment on something, I normally use proper grammar.  I hate to use text-speak.  You know, "u" vs you or "r" vs are.  Most phones now days have a button for each letter, making it simple to spell your words properly.  I highly recommend it.

I have grown more and more irritated with poor grammar.  I do not at all mind reading Kindergarten writing.  In fact, I'm pretty good and figuring out what a child is trying to say in a sentence that only contains 5 letters!  However, I refuse to have to decipher what an ADULT is trying to say in a sentence that is filled with gibberish.  I'm also a believer that when writing anything, you are representing yourself.  What kind of representation do you want to give of yourself?  A well spoken person who can hold a conversation in a normal adult manner, or someone who can't form a proper sentence and is hard to understand?  Something to think about anyway.

I'll step off my soap box now...

Valentine Vendor Giveaway

I stumbled upon this giveaway on a friend's Facebook page.  I love to support local and handmade companies.  Check these out and enter their FREE giveaway!!

Valentine's Day Giveaway

I'm pretty sure you'll find at least one vendor you love.  If you're like me, you'll love them all!

Ready....Set....GO!

I realized I never blogged our Christmas pics.  

So here are a few from Christmas with my parents.

It was difficult to capture the excitement.  They were moving too darn fast for me!  hehe

We took the Plasma Cars up the street a little and let the kids ride like crazy!  It was a blast!

Remember doing this as kids?  Yea, kids these days don't get to do it, but we were literally just going up the street.  We would have walked, but I'm Mrs. Gimpy, remember?

My dad, Mike, and Cal. I don't think I have a pic of just the three of them.  I like this one.  More pics of Christmas to come tomorrow....Stay tuned

A slow day

Yesterday I hurt.  A lot.  I often do on the days that I have physical therapy because he works out a lot of my knotted muscles.  Yesterday he worked on a knot that does not want to give.  At least he could work around it yesterday.  A few days prior I wouldn't let him go near it because it was so painful.  I was laying on my stomach and he was massaging my mid-back where the knot I didn't know about was.  He barely touched it and I twinged like I never have before!  He says, "Yikes, you have something serious there.  Maybe a rib out of place? maybe a huge knot?  I don't know, but it's not good."  Ya, think?

Yesterday's session was a little better.  He could gently touch it, but that was it.  Today...I wouldn't think I would be hurting like I do.  Every day is something different.  Could be my neck, could be my low back, could be my mid, could be a combination of any of those.  Today my low back is very painful.  With each step it screams in me.  So today, Cal and I are resting.  I'm going to blog and mess with pictures, while Cal is playing Club Penguin for a bit.  It's a day of a whole lot of nothing!  A day of ice/heat and Motrin...and plenty of snuggles for/from both Calvin and I.

DANCE OFF Time!!

It's no secret that Cal loves music.  If you walk into our house on any given day, you will hear music. It could be one of Cal's many cds, the girls playing piano, any one of Mike's itunes playlists, someone singing, anything really. 

A couple of days ago, Mike walked into Cal's room while Cal was singing along to "Jesus Freak" and he started dancing.  So the two of them started dancing!  Which initiated the "I can dance better than you, Daddy!"  To which Mike of course replied, "Oh, you've got nothin' on me Pal!"  So they danced like crazy!  It was then time to get the girls from school, so Calvin announced...."Dad, when we get back, we're going to have a Dance Off!"

He came home and began to go crazy practicing in his room to prepare for the Dance Off!  It was awesome.  I wish I had my video camera handy, but you know what happens after the first child is no longer the only child, right?  The video camera doesn't get as much use as it once did.  While I have dozens of tapes of Juliet just sitting in her bouncer cooing, there are hardly any of Calvin!  But that's another story...

I did however take plenty of pictures!  And fortunately, this surely won't be the only Dance Off in our house!

Are you a Follower?

I mean, on here.  This blog.  There is this little button on the lower part of the right hand sidebar that says Follow.  Go ahead.  Click it.  You know you want too....

It's fun to see who actually reads this craziness! ;)