Just a Quickie

For those of you who are checking in fairly regularly to see if I have updated I have, but this is a request of sorts. We are supposed to celebrate Jacob's birthday this Saturday with our family and a few friends. The weather is not supposed to cooperate for this. I am asking that you pray that it does. He has asked for this for several years and this is the first year I have caved and allowed him to have a party at the farm. He wants to be able to ride horses with his new saddle and to play with everyone. If it does rain we are going to go to McDonald's in Calhoun, but it won't have the effect for him. I believe that if we pray God will bless us with a break in the rain. I am asking God for no rain Saturday and that it dries out a little bit from the rain on Friday. Thank you for your help and your prayers.

New Car

It has been a little while since I posted and there is much to tell, but the BIG thing for today is.....I bought a new car. I no longer am driving a minivan. I loved my minivan because I was able to transport everyone and their brother where ever they needed to go, but with all of my travels to Chattanooga for school and the farm for the horses we made the decision to downsize a little. At least get a vehicle with better gas mileage.

I got a 2008 Ford Edge. I will take a picture when it is light outside and post it. I was up at 5 this morning and haven't really stopped since then. In fact, as soon as I am done posting here I am going to shut this thing down and go watch a little TV. Then I am going to bed.

Tomorrow is BUSY, BUSY, BUSY. I have a class at the gym for butt, thighs, and abs. Haven't done that before so I will let you know how that goes. Bikini Isle here I come. (I HOPE) HA HA HA HA HA. I also have school tomorrow evening and I have to meet a couple different people in Chattanooga either before class or during dinner time. Man how time flies when you are having fun. WOOHOO!!!

Well I hope all is well with everyone.

Sniffle, Sniffle, Cough, Cough, AAAACCCHHHOOOO

Obviously if you happen to see the time on this you know that I am up in the wee hours of Saturday morning. For some reason I cannot sleep and here I am blogging to you.

The kids are on winter break until Tuesday when they return to school. I took them to the Tellus Planetarium and Weinman Mineral museum today. It was really cool. We got to see a show in the planetarium about all the different planets in the solar system. Now I get to explain to my kids how the "creation" theory that they used there was WRONG!!! I had to laugh a couple times during the show when the "ding dong" narrator kept saying that our sun "a relatively small star" was formed from clouds of dust particles...that it just formed on its own and appeared. HA HA HA HA And how new stars are formed from clouds of space dust and ice. People really believe that too... Well I believe in the Big Bang Theory...GOD SPOKE AND BANG THERE IT WAS. The mineral museum was really cool. We saw lots of quartz and some gold. There were several other things that were absolutely beautiful (but I can't remember the names of them). I also saw a periodic table and had cold chills down my spine. If you took science any time in high school you remember having to memorize that thing. Man...what a nightmare. Then we saw "Science in Motion". It had several replicas of old modes of transportation. The kids got to stand in an astronaut suit. I got pictures, but as usual I don't have my camera with me right now as I post. It will be up soon though. We panned for minerals and dug for fossils and then we played in the backyard (that was indoors). There was some type of magnet exhibit, an electrical current exhibit, a thing on sounds, and WOW so many things that I can't remember them all. The kids loved it and can't wait to go back.

We start our very busy Saturday in a few hours and I can't wait to go see my four legged baby. I have missed him. Maybe I will get something accomplished with him tomorrow. As it stands...I am starting to get sick. I am sneezing, my nose is running, and every now and then I cough. Sounds almost like a cold, but I think it is my allergies. It is only February...is stuff pollinating all ready???

Randomness

It has been a while since I posted anything. I don't really have anything specific to share with you, but I do have time to just share different things that are going on in our lives. I will start with Jacob and Cassie since most of you reading this always ask about them first.

Let's see:

The kids, Jacob and Cassie, are very busy these days. They are in school Monday thru Friday (of course) and are loving it. There are days that I hear..."Do I have to do today?", but who as a parent hasn't hear this or as a child said it? It is quite funny to hear it come out of their mouths followed by the grunt and whine when I say "Yes and Get out of bed." Tuesday's they take tumbling at DevilRays (which is a cheerleading gym here in Cartersville). This was their choice over Baseball and Softball this spring. I actually am excited about it because it is only one hour a week as opposed to 3-4 days a week with an hour or more of practice.

Is it bad that I am thinking of my schedule and time?

Anyway, they are learning so much. In a matter of three weeks they have learned how to almost do a complete backbend. They can walk backwards down the wall with their hands. Gotta love the handprints. I am sure I will treasure them later. We have managed to get a handle on keeping their rooms clean for more than 12 hours. Hopefully we can manage that for a week. Not quite there yet, but getting there. As far as our horses and the kids....Well, Jacob is riding by himself on Joy. He is doing a great job. He took a spill off of her a couple weeks ago, but got right back on. I am so proud of him. Cassie is....well...not quite there yet. She rides with me on Lady and will ride Pilgrim as long as I am leading and I have ridden him for at least an hour first so he is tired. HA HA HA. She will get more comfortable with it soon.

Jacob turns 9 next week. My baby has almost hit double digits. BOO HOO!! Actually, it is great. I am excited that they are getting big enough that we can do bigger things together. In fact, the kids started winter break today and we are going to the planetarium here in town tomorrow. I think they are going to LOVE IT!!! Luke and I went a couple weeks ago for a Leadership summit with our church. It was AWESOME!!! You sit in these chairs that recline and they turn off the lights and start showing you the stars, constellations, and planets. It was really cool when Luke and I were there because the band from church was set up and we listened to praise songs and choruses. It was neat to see all of God's creations and listen to praise and worship songs while looking at them. It was inspiring and really peaceful.

Honestly, as far as the kids go that is about it. They are growing like weeds and are definitely showing their....dare I say...independent personalities. They love each other, but they do tend to square off quite a bit. It is amusing to see them conflict with each other.

Luke is staying really busy with Pangean. He has been out of town for 5 weeks in a row. He comes home for the weekends and is then gone Monday thru Thursday or Tuesday thru Thursday or Friday. It really stinks. I am trying to adjust, but I hate it when he is gone. I have really gotten used to him being home. I don't sleep as well when he isn't here. He seems to be liking what he is doing and he is really good at it. He is heavily relied upon by his boss and therefore he is called upon to do almost EVERYTHING. I am proud that he is an asset to his company, especially since the economy is steadily declining.

Luke has made plans to build a barn for the horses (and me). He has managed to find a way to have logs cut by his brother transformed into siding for the barn for 1/3 of the cost of purchasing it outright. I found a way to get telephone/power poles for free and Luke is going to make the stall fronts for the 7 stalls we are putting in it. The measurements, if I remember correctly, are going to be 34 feet wide by 60 feet long. I can't wait. I have wanted a barn of my own for sooooo long. We have really started putting our heart and soul into this farm/horse thing. It is important to us. We both love it. The kids love it too. I guess that is about all for Luke...Oh, wait, he has FINALLY ordered the parts to fix our tractor. It has been "in pieces" for about 3-4 months now. Matthew (Luke's brother) forgot to put oil in it and ran it. For those of you who know...that is a BAD thing. Well, it cost us a crank shaft (which is what makes the engine go). Gotta love it!!! I have actually tried to keep a positive outlook on this. Which is a lot for me to do. I could easily be a little UGLY about the whole thing.

Mentioning me....well, I am still in nursing school. I have a B average so far or at least I finished my last two semesters with a B as a final grade. I have managed to figure out that I don't want to work on a Medical-Surgical/general sickness floor as a job. As we have progressed so far I like the cardiac stuff, but I LOVE NICU. Which in a way doesn't make any sense to me. I love kids and NICU is full of very sick babies. Some of which die and that is sad. But I have had the opportunity to spend some hours in NICU for clinical and I really like it. I have also spent hours in Labor and Delivery. That was really cool too. Just the process of labor and delivery is a miracle in itself. I love watching the miracle of birth and helping mom's through it. I even stayed an extra hour and a half to help a mom deliver last week at clinical. Made for a really late night/morning since I didn't get home till 2 a.m. and Tuesday was....well....long to say the least. We aren't done with all of the different areas yet, but I know Psych isn't my thing. I am crazy enough without hanging out with psychologically challenged patients all day long. HA HA HA I just hope they don't want to keep me when we have clinical there. HA HA HA

My heart is doing OK these days. I haven't had any recurrences since last Wednesday (2/4/09). I am in the process of wearing an event monitor all day for 2 weeks. YEA!!! If I feel like I am in a-fib then I push a button and it is supposed to record the event along with a minute before and a minute after. We will see what the doc says when I am done. I have sent in a couple recordings due to a high heart rate and a weird feeling of sorts. It is hard to describe what the feeling is at times.

I am loving my horse and the farm more and more every time we are there. It is relaxing to me to be there. Pilgrim and I have hit new milestones and are working well together. We have some ground to recover and review, but I think we will get there soon.

Well, I think that is enough rambling for now. I hope you all have a great day and I hope to post pictures from this upcoming weekend later. Obviously, I don't have any taken yet. We will be at the farm and there will be good pictures to be taken.