Still

Still amazed: that my kids still love me even though I make lots of mistakes with them.
Still getting used to: being authentic.
Still loving: being a mom who stays home.
Still proud of: how hard Christopher works to make a good, comfortable life for his family.
Still not proud of: past friendships that crashed and burned.
Still hoping: I'll get a chance to amend those friendships and be at peace finally.
Still worried: that I'm either doing too much or not doing enough.
Still never going to: smoke cigarettes or get a tattoo.
Still pretending: that I’ll get in great shape again.
Still reading: parenting books.
Still wanting to read: a real book, from front to end, in one sitting without interruption.
Still interested in: losing weight and getting in shape.
Still not interested in: doing what it takes to lose weight and get in shape.
Still looking forward to: going to church every Sunday.
Still not looking forward to: a long, dreary, rainy winter.
Still failing: at cultivating deep friendships.
Still grateful for: my beautiful children.
Still praying: to believe without having to see
Still not believing in: diets of any kind.
Still believing in: miracles from God's own hand.

What are YOU still doing?

Food For Thought...

What do nine families from around the world eat in the course of one week? Check it out:


I noticed an awful lot more fresh produce than I ever see in one week around my house. Wow. I have always felt good about the salads, carrot sticks, and apple slices we nosh on around here, but I don't think if I piled it all on a table it would match anything like what I see. The boxed crackers, pretzels, and canned goods would probably be more dominant....
Hmmm. Definately food for thought.

Claire-A-Bell

Fractured Fairytails

Hello again its J I'm here to publish another Fractured Fairy tails!!!!!

Once upon a-HEY,HEY,HEY I'm the editor here and what I say goes. I'm sick of hearing every single fairytale start with once upon a time so how about we give it a little twist? Ahem, ahem. Twice upon a time, around 40,000 FT. ( fairytale time ) there lived three g- well four if you were counting the stepmother as a girl which I wouldn't, anyway there lived three girls and one very ugly stepmother. The first girl Flatulator, well her name says it all, the second girl, Itchy Ivy, and the last VEEERY beautiful girl, her name was cinder fella. ( before I go on I must say that just by reading the name of this post you can tell its going to get crazy so don't be alarmed if things get completely out of wack ) Cinder fella was very beautiful, the odd thing was that she hated it!!! She wished she could have been born ugly like her stepmother and two sisters. Oh how she envied them!!! But what made it worse was that she lived in a small town where everybody hated pretty people mostly because every single person in town was ugly and Cinder fella was the only pretty one. Her family only had one rule " if your not ugly your not one of us!!! " So cinder fella had to go live in a separate cottage away from her sisters. One day Cinder fella got a call saying that she was to go to the mayors house and speak to him. Boy, was she excited she thought she was going to get an award or something. BOY WAS SHE WRONG. Once she got to the mayors office, mayor Ethanator told her that she was a disgrace to the town and she must leave and never return so, she went home gathered her things and walked off into the forest where she was met by wolves and torn to pieces.

The End

Got the Christmas blues?

My mom passed this photo along and it was titled "Bah humbug". I liked the picture but wasn't inspired enough to write a clever post to go along with it. At least one that hasn't already been written about "Slow down at the holidays" and "Don't get caught up in the consumerism" and "Give the gift of yourself and not just gifts".
I'm sure some of you have gotten those forwarded emails, eh? Anyway, just take it as a silly photo or use it to reflect on some of those articles you read...

One thing I will comment on is the STRANGE Christmas-wear that pops out this time of year. Now I understand the sweaters with Christmas trees and 3D ornaments sewn on. I understand the knit vests with fireplace scenes and the reindeer flying around to the back of the vest. I got that. It's seasonal. It's festive. It gets people in the mood. (Note: Totally not for me)
But one garment I saw I completely did NOT understand: it was a turtleneck which had green cartoon-like reindeer all over it. But wait that's not it! They were red polka-dotted and were drawn in Simpson-like fashion. A green and red polka-dotted Homer Simpson reindeer turtleneck?!?!?!? Where would you even buy such a garment? Why would you buy such a garment? Who would give such a garment as a gift?

In the same way that I don't understand how Santa delivers all those gifts on one night and fits down the chimney, this too shall remain one of the mysteries of the season.

A Christmas Song from Audrey

Fornoreason

Hi guys this is Julian and I was just being bored so I decided to write these couple of sentences. Well I geuss Ill say hi to Alesia and my friend Lisa and everybody that reads my blog.

Feliz Navidad Amigos!

Julian receives an award at his Monday school...

(Claire also received the Student of the Month award the following month, but I wasn't able to attend. See future posts for Claire's other videos of her many talents!)

Hurricane Ginger, with Storm Dayton

"Storm Dayton, reporting live at the scene of the disaster". "As you can see on your right, hurricane Ginger was one of the worst hurricanes of the century". "On your left you will see the homeowners standing next to the house but surprisingly the owners are smiling"!!! "The homeowners didnt have a comment to share, but I did overhear the husband laughing on how much their gonna make when the sue the EXTREME HOME MAKEOVER people", ( see last post. ) "Well I think its time to say good bye and- wait hold on here comes the homeowner now with a comment". Yes-uhh huh- OF COURSE, well folks the homeowners comment was that he remembers "Tye the gingerbread guy" saying that the house was as good as new and that it was strong enough to withstand a HURRICANE I geuss he was wrong." "Well folks I believe its time to sign off now, until next time, back to you Marsha."

Julian Dayton, Critic of the year: Happily, never after

Hi folks! This is Julian Dayton, here to give you the scoop on the new movie, Happily Never After. Now your kids may be saying its a great movie, but how can they know by an advertisement or two? That's why I'm here, Julian Dayton of Seattle, Washington where its always cold and--wait what am I saying, lets try to stay focused here!! As I was saying, I'm here to give you the scoop on all those new movies coming out. One of the reasons I voted two thumbs WAAAAY down ( of course ) was because it wasn't exactly '' Fairytale mischief ''. It was more like SICK HUMOR. If you had watched you would know what I'm talking about. These guys were using inappropriate language, gross humor, girlfriend\boyfriend stuff. I mean horrible, horrible stuff and to top it all off: IT WAS BORING. Oh sure, there was a plot and you know an evil villain trying to take over the world...but it didn't have any overall fun in it. It was all about the girl wanting to marry someone else and the boy wanting to '' get '' her not someone else. Also, the characters had terrible voices for the roles they played, such as Patrick Warburton playing a dumb-looking-stuck-up-looking, PIG type thing!!! Well folks, I believe its time to say goodbye and farewell until the next crummy movie, this is Julian Dayton signing off.

tenthingstuesday!

Ten Favorite Things to Complain About:

1. Rude, self-centered drivers. The streets don't have your name in the little green rectangles.
2. People who are on the cell phones in public but think they're at home alone, so they curse loudly
3. Movies that are rated G, but should've been rated PG-13
4. How expensive gas is
5. When it's rained for 5 days in a row and I'm ready for a break
6. Not enough quality time to spend with each of my children individually
7. When people don't RSVP to an invitation...It didn't say "Open House", people.
8. The line at the post office when I've waited too long to mail the holiday gifts
9. Doing laundry and unnamed culprits have left their garments inside-out and balled up. Guess what? That's the way I'm washin' em.
10. No relatives in the area to regularly share holidays, dinners, and memories with.

My, this list was easy to compile. How fast would I be able to write a grateful list? Hmmm...

EXTREME HOME MAKEOVER: Gingerbread Edition

On this one Julian is holding up the roof, waiting the the glue/icing to set. For the second time.

We also tried to use one of the Gingerbread Family to prop up the house, jack-style. Didn't work.

This angle shows the lean-to gingerbread

shanty, thus explaining why we need Extreme

Home Makeover to come to the rescue! Gets

awful drafty in the winter for the Gingerbread

Family.

Where are you Ty?!?!?!