Personal Blogs

The internet is filled with a lot of sites. Sites to shop. Sites for news. Sites for this and for that. And there's personal sites, such as this blog, or many others like it.

And while I enjoy and frequent a lot of those other sites, my most favorite are the personal web sites and blogs, the windows into a persons life, their family, their ups and their downs.

In the world of blogging, there are familiar and well known bloggers. For example, almost everyone who reads personal websites and blogs knows the name "Pioneer Woman." While others recognize the blog names of Rocks in My Dryer, BooMama, and the countless hundreds of other blogs.

It's almost like a little society where people know about each other and their blogs. It's because authors of such sites do open up and through their writing make you feel as though you know them in real life (IRL). So when something happens to one of these bloggers, the word spreads like a wildfire.

Last week, as I was making it down the list of bookmarked blogs I read, Leah over at South Breeze Farm, shared that Joanne from The Simple WIfe, had suffered a stroke while walking the treadmill that morning, she was found laying beside the treadmill, in a heap, by one of her daughters. Joanne is only 38 years old. 38 years old and she is in critical condition, deep in a coma. Her husband and best friend are keeping her blog updated. Her husband keeps people informed through his status updates on Facebook. It is such a sad, sad situation. The girls, who've been home schooled the last year and a half were put into a private Christian school and they started this morning. Their little world has been rocked up side down.

Pray for Joanne. For her husband, and for her children. For their entire family.

Made a List or Two

Once again a new year has arrived and with it comes resolutions, goals, and lists.

About a week ago, I sat and made a list of all the things I wanted to accomplish in the form of "Spring Cleaning". I know Spring is still a few months off, but deep cleaning really can take place any time of the year, and what better time to start than now, the beginning of a new year.

So far I have three lists. One for the family room, the kitchen, and the living/dinning room.

When I first made the lists, in my head I thought I needed to get one room done before moving on to the next, but I've come to the conclusion that is not the case. My goal is to cross off three to five things from the three lists every couple of days. Having just come off the weekend, I got nothing done on the lists, but with the beautiful weather that is anticipated today, I hope to open up the windows and get a few things scratched off the list.

And with that, it's time to get going...

Wasn't that Bad Afterall!

Monday morning wasn't as bad as I thought it would be! Steven got up early, and therefore I was awake earlier and knew I couldn't really roll over and go back to a deep sleep. After reading emails and checking Facebook from the warmth and comfort of my bed, thanks to my iPhone, I was up shortly before 6:30 and got moving.

When Hannah's alarm didn't go off at 6:25, I went in there to see why it was it didn't go off. Turns out her alarm had been turned off sometime between me turning it on when she went to bed and this morning. My first thought was that she turned it off last night after I'd left the room. LOL. But no, it did go off, and she did get up out of bed to turn it off. Only thing is it went off at 12:00am! We had some power outages last month and I forgot about them, until Hannah told me her alarm went off at midnight! Oops!! LOL. Neither Steven or myself heard the alarm go off, which is surprising, because it has an annoying sound. But she did get up when I woke her up, as did Rachel, and it was a good morning overall.

I worked my usual Monday morning in Rachel's classroom and it was fun to hear the kids share what they'd gotten for Christmas and what they did over our three week break. I've gotten a few things done (call to insurance, glasses fixed, etc, etc) and now it's time to think about packing things for Rachel's Post Op appointment this afternoon. We never know how long we'll have to wait, so we go prepared - ie, laptop, iPad, snacks, etc.

The End is Near...

The girls' three week school vacation is quickly coming to an end. And all I can say is Monday morning is going to be TOUGH!

The last three weeks have found us totally off schedule, staying up late, and sleeping in.

Monday morning it'll be back the grind of getting up and out the door by 7:30.

Back to the grind of homework, reading, and bedtime routines.

Thankfully next weekend is a three day weekend, thanks to Martin Luther King!

Baby, It's Cold Outside!

Two days ago I said rain or shine, no matter what me and the girls were going to Disneyland today. When I did my research as to what time the park opened today, the hours were holiday hours (8:00-midnight), which translated to me, they were still treating today as a holiday, which also translated to me, it could be BUSY!

So we stayed home. It rained most of the morning. And it is stinkin cold! And when I say it's cold, I don't mean it's in the low 60's. My friend Karen who lives where it's really cold (Pennsylvania) laughs at us Californian's when we say it's cold at 62 degrees.

It's cold here in Southern California today and when I say cold, I mean it's not gotten above 50 degrees today! The clouds are now parting and the sun is making a late afternoon appearance. Soon it'll be dusk, and then dark, which means it'll only get colder...

1-1-11

So how can I not blog on the coolest date of 2011?? LOL.

We spent New Years' Eve at the home of friends from church playing games, eating, and seeing the New Year in. Hannah opted for staying at Gramma and Papa's house and played cards with them and some of their friends that were over for the evening. Rachel, on the other hand, our little party girl, she opted to go with us and not only stayed awake the entire evening and saw the New Year in, but stayed awake for the five mile drive home, AND said she wanted to watch a movie when we got home after 12:30am. LOL. She put her jammies on, crawled into bed, and within 15 minutes of her movie on, she was out! And slept in until close to 9:00. Which has to be a record for her!

I also slept in until close to 9:00. I woke up feeling absolutely horrible. Mid morning, I discovered why. I had overdosed on antihistamines last night in an attempt to ward off any allergic reaction I might have had to the friends nine dogs and two cats wandering about the house.

So today, was pretty much a wash as far as getting anything done around here. I'm just now starting to not feel wiped out and drugged out. But then we're approaching the 24 hour mark of the first antihistamine I took! LOL.

We have one more day before Steven returns to work after being off for eleven days! And while the rest of the surrounding school districts prepare to go back to school on Monday, my girls are off for one more week!!! And no matter what, come rain or shine, whether I have to dawn oversized trash bags and endure the rain, we are going to Disneyland on Monday!! And perhaps another day before the week is up! LOL.