Prayers

My niece Hanna is ill at the moment, so please forgive me if I'm not updating as much -- my mind is on worrying about my brother's family.

Catch Up for My New Readers

Got a comment a few days back questioning something I said. Since I know I've gotten some new readers, let me "catch you up". My husband Charles & I have been married for 9 years, and we have two children, Duncan (9), and Connor (almost 5). We've been having some issues over the past few years, and have even been to counseling. Charles has bipolar disease, and we've had a rough summer with him as he had a major episode in June. Since then we are balancing getting his meds straightened out, finding the right therapist, and dealing with stress issues with both kids. If you truly want to know more than that, email me at cfodel@triad.rr.com and I'll fill you in.

Blog About Yourself Poll

OK, Brianna had this on her blog, and said she expected us to do it as well. Here ya go lady!

1. What is your dream occupation? Working in theatre as a professional stage manager

2. What color is your underwear? It varies -- todays is a pink/purple floral

3. What are you listening to right now? Connor playing on the stairs behind me

4. What was the last thing you ate? A flavored tootsie roll

5. Do you wish on stars? yes

6. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Green

7. How is the weather right now? sunny, warm

8. Last person you spoke to on the phone? my friend Penny

10. How old are you today? 40

11. Favorite drink? Diet Coke

12. Favorite sport to watch? figure skating

13. Have you ever dyed your hair? Only wash out color

14. Do you wear contacts or glasses? glasses

15. Pets? Fish

16. Favorite month? October

17. Favorite food? Steak

18. What was the last movie you watched? March of the Penguins

19. Favorite day of the year? Christmas

20. What do you do to vent anger? yell, kill electronic blips in video games

21. What was your favorite toy as a child? not sure

22. Fall or Spring? Fall

23. Hugs or kisses? hugs

24. Cherry or Blueberry? yuck, neither =)

28. Living arrangements ? Own my home, live with my husband & two children

29. When was the last time you cried? about two days ago

30. What is on the floor of your closet? lots of junk

31. Who is the friend you have had the longest? Missy -- been friends since college (1983)

32. What did you do last night? Read the cubscout handbook

33. Favorite smell? lately? eucalyptus/spearmint

34. What inspires you? people who can move me with their stories

35. What are you afraid of? snakes

36. Plain, cheese or spicy hamburgers? Cheese

37. Favorite car? not sure

38. Favorite type of dog? mutts

39. Number of keys on your key ring? 4

40. How many years at your current job? 15

41. Favorite day of the week? Saturday

42. How many states have you lived in? 6 - Maryland, Virginia, Ohio, Michigan, Texas, North Carolina

43. How many cities have you lived in? 9 - Baltimore, MD, California, MD, Mechanicsville, MD, Lynchburg, VA, Concord, VA, Youngstown, OH, Plano, TX, Flint, MI, Winston-Salem, NC

The Bobcat Trail

I started working with Duncan tonite on his 8 achievements to get his Bobcat badge. The first one is to learn the cub scout promise. Any experienced moms of cub scouts out there? I'm just wondering how long it takes for these things... he's about to explode about "getting a badge", and it's not registering that this takes work rather than simply desire.

Anyhoo.... hope this finds everyone well!

A New Cub Scout

Please do check out the photo blog -- we now have a cub scout in our family! Duncan officially joined the cub scouts on Friday night at the pack meeting (Pack 752), and we got his uniform over the weekend and he had his first den meeting last night. They listed to the Lewisville librarian give them a history of the town, and she gave them a chance to pan for "gold", and then made friendship bracelets. His classmate Comfort is also in his pack. He's really excited about this, except we're having trouble explaining that you don't just "get" badges, you have to earn them. First step on the bobcat trail is learning the cub scout promise -- we start on that tonite!

Connor continues to go to his MMO program and he's having a great time. I gotta run to work now, we're hiring another teammate and we have a candidate in today for interviews so I gotta get there.

Bye!

Quotes from Oprah, and Apologies

I got the stomach flu this week, and have been kinda out for the count, or at least severely limited. Sorry! I want to share a lovely quote I found on another blog:

"every day, passion speaks to us through our feelings. that's why when you allow yourself to become anesthetized by what others think, you literally block yourself from living the life you were called to live. i promise you that if you make a choice that doesn't please your mate, your friends, your mother, or whoever, the world will not fall apart -- the people who truly love you want you to love yourself. and as you become clearer about who you really are, you'll be better able to decide what is best for you -- the first time around." ~Oprah Winfrey

To me, this is what blogging is about, our passions, our thoughts -- and the freedom to express it. Some of the nonsense that prompted her to use this (getting blasted for NOT commenting on Katrina) made me glad I'm not a "popular" blogger. This is about ME. I'm thrilled if others get something from it, but it's about what I need to express.

I did update the photo blog today after taking a few days off. We are supposed to have our (mostly) weekly "date" with our friends at their church playground tomorrow for supper if Ophelia lets us. Friday brings our first cub scout meeting with Duncan -- I hope he likes the folks there and wants to join. Connor has been busy doing pages in the workbook Grandma sent him, and having a large time at "school".

Since I've been home sick for a few days, I've, well, been home. I'm worried about Charles -- he sure isn't doing much. I know alot of it he blames on me -- *I* make him sad. Oh, well. I wish I could use that excuse at work and still get paid, KWIM??? I've still got very sore ribcage muscles from vomiting earlier in the week, so I haven't been doing much physical even as I've started to feel better. Our friend Roger came over tonite for the first time in weeks and shared our spaghetti supper with us. It was nice to see him, but I worry about him too -- he's unemployed (again) and very negative at the moment. Don't get me wrong -- he's entitled to be negative, but I worry that it will impede him getting another job.

Anyways, it's way too late, let me try to sleep again.

Saturday

Ahhh, the weekend -- too bad my kids still get up at like 6am! I feel very domestic this morning, I made them scrambled eggs, bacon & toast for breakfast. Normally we do muffins, cold cereal or frozen waffles for breakfast.

I'm doing some scrapbooking today -- my favorite online site, Scrap Addict, is having an anniversary cyber crop. There are some pretty amazing prizes, so I'll be cropping today, as well as playing bingo.

I am so enjoying the fall weather -- the crisp, cool mornings are so nice to sleep in during! It still gets humid and warm in the late afternoons, but otherwise I consider this almost perfect weather!

Blog Spammers

OK, I've turned on word verification for comments -- tired of getting blog spam, I get enough in my email. If anyone DOESN"T know how to do it, send me an email and I'll explain.

Fall

Ahhh, what wonderful weather we are having -- this is my favorite season. It's still a little humid in the late afternoon/early evening, but we have opened the windows and broken out the fans. It's delightful in the mornings.

Connor has started a "mother's morning out" program 4 days a week to get him over the potty training hump (and hopefully into "real" preschool in October). He has come home happy and tired both days. Charles hasn't gotten a huge amount done around the house, but I'm trying not to be judgemental til he's on this schedule a week or so. Duncan has started homework again -- yesterday he had to write a "movie plot" using his spelling words! His teacher tells me it will only get tougher as the year goes on. He has 3rd grade "pre-testing" next week; they test at the beginning of a year to establish a benchmark for the end-of-grade testing in May.

I'm having fun with some photo challenges over at Scrap Addict; you see the results in my photo blog from the Photo-A-Day one, and now we are doing a scavenger hunt one as well. I really need to work on the lighting on my inside photos, sheesh!

BackPacks, Girls Night Out, and Other Stuff

Hurray for holiday weekends! It's so nice to know I don't have to go to work tomorrow! I'm actually going to a free scrapbook crop tomorrow from 10-2.

We had company Friday -- my friend Stacy is out east visiting family, and came to see us with her friend Laura. The "girls" went out to Texas Roadhouse for dinner, then off to the mall to help Laura spend a gift card at Hecht's. Stacy brought her dog Thunder -- the kids really enjoyed his visit.

Saturday I headed out for a round of secret shopping ( a fast food one) then Charles & I put the kids at Kid Spot so we could run some errands. We found gas again for $2.99, and topped off the tank. We hit Target and got a deal -- both kids needed backpacks. I guess I didn't realize how much Connor was ready for some of the "trappings" of big-boy-ness. When I tried his backpack on him, he sighed, got a serious face, and announced "I need some homework!" He carried the backpack everywhere with him the rest of the evening, including to bed. He had filled it with toys and books -- he took a book out of it for me to read to him at bedtime, and then told me he had to put it away in his backpack!

I also went shopping for a new accordian file to put Duncan's school paperwork in this year -- didn't find what I wanted, so I'll empty and old one and reuse. I can already see from his homework so far that's he's digressed in his handwriting -- this will be the first year he hasn't had OT at school so hopefully practice will get him going again!

We still haven't gotten Connor enrolled in a "real" preschool, (due to the potty issues), but I think we have something figured out for September that is a transitional thing. He'll start four days a week on Tuesday.