Mexico

I was reading miss accident prone's blog and was remembering when I got to go to a mission trip to Mexico. It was very exciting and cool. Also, it was very eye opening to see the poverty and simplicity there, yet they were very happy people. A lot of dirt floors in the homes. Many homes were built of grasses or straw and sticks. One of the churches we ministered in was a stick shelter. But some of the cool stuff I remember, was being able to pick limes right off the trees in the mountains. Drinking watermelon juice for breakfast at the hotel. We ate lots of fruit because it was fresh and available. We drank glass bottles of coke at the poorer towns (with no ice). There were huge Cacti. I'll have to see if I can find the pictures.
I think the worst thing was having to go to the "banyo" bathroom. We took our own toilet paper everywhere. At this one church service I had to go..... so two of us went together because there were guys standing around the bathrooms which were like little straw outhouses with a hole cut out of a board to sit on (talk about sanitary). I went into one and my friend went in the other and I sat down to go and felt something under my butt! I freaked out and screamed and stood up and it was a chicken sitting in the pot. Dumb thing must have been laying an egg or something. So I waited and went in the other one. After that, I checked every single one of those holes. The public restrooms at the stops on the way down the bumpy highways were a trip too.... most of them didn't have toilet seats. I think they had been stolen. So there were just bowls with water you had to squat over. On the way back we had to stop and let my friend out on the side of the road and two of us held up a blanket so the whole world couldn't see because she had the "Montezuma's revenge" from something she ate or drank down there. Luckily I didn't get it.

11 People on a rope

Since I don't feel like writing - here's a story for ya'll......

Eleven people were hanging on a rope under a helicopter, ten men and one woman. The rope was not strong enough to carry them all, so they decided that one had to leave, because otherwise they were all going to fall. They weren't able to name that person, until the woman gave a very touching speech.
She said that she would voluntarily let go of the rope, because, as a woman, she was used to giving up everything for her husband and kids, or for men in general, and was used to always making sacrifices with little in return. As soon as she finished her speech, all the men started clapping their hands.......

Security System

Needing a new security system? This was recommended by Southern Living.....

1. Go to a second-hand store and buy a pair of men's used size 14-16 work boots.
2. Place them on your front porch, along with a copy of Guns & Ammo magazine and your NRA magazines.
3. Put a few giant dog dishes next to the boots and magazine.
4. Leave a note on your door that reads:Hey Bubba, Big Jim, Duke and Slim, I went for more ammunition. Back in an hour. Don't mess with the pit bulls -- they attacked the mailman this morning and messed him up real bad. I don't think Killer took part in it but it was hard to tell from all the blood. Anyways, I locked all four of 'em in the house. Better wait outside.


I'll have to figure something better out for this part of the hood..... like Yo "G", Treshawn, Jiqwahn, and Big Daddy. Be back at the crib in a few.... Don't mess with the pit bulls -- they attacked the mailman this morning so I split in case the pigs show up. I locked them up in the house so you better hang outside.


Pray for me.... I have been sick since this weekend. I felt some sinus stuff coming on Friday night. Woke up Sat with a horrible headache and stuffed up. Went to work. Sunday I felt a little better but then it started going into my chest.... so now I have a stupid hacking cough. :(
My work called yesterday wanting me to pick up a shift for someone else who called in or something. Noway! I can hardly take care of myself right now- Let alone a bunch of pregnant women.
I did get school done with the kids, so I was proud of myself for doing that much. Ethan made meatloaf last night. It turned out really good but it wasn't as moist as usual because we were out of crackers and we had to use oatmeal. It soaked up all the liquid. I use milk in my recipe to make the meatloaf moist. I usually use milk, a little brown sugar, catsup or BBQ sauce or both, mustard, and worcestershire to make the sauce. I mix the meat with 1/2 the sauce and the other half goes on the top. Try it! You'll like it!
This morning we are working on school again. Ethan is almost finished with his reading book and will start another one. Yay! I am tired of this one. The next one looks more interesting. It seems like we have been working on this one forever because we stopped in the middle of it and started working on another reading series. Now we are back to this one again.
Ethan got a perfect score on his geography quiz yesterday. I was proud of him for that. It was a computer quiz and he loves messing with the computer. I suppose I should look into a computer
curriculum for him. Maybe he would enjoy it more.....

Jesse and Elizabeth playing in the fire while camping at Saylorville.

Another crazy week. Monday, Edgey's dad was supposed to come in to town with his motor home and spend the night and take the kids camping this week. They got to town towards evening so we did get school done for the day. Then we all went to Ryan's steakhouse for supper. They spent the night in the walmart parking lot then Edgey took the kids to meet them for breakfast and they went to find a camping spot up at Saylorville.
They stayed at Saylorville Tuesday and Wednesday night with the kids. They had a lot of fun. For all you fishermen.... Ethan caught a big old catfish. Edgey said it was at least 3 or 4 lbs but they didn't have anything to weigh it. Ethan got to learn how to skin it. He was semi grossed out. It was too dark to take a picture.
Wednesday: they all showed up at the door and I was trying to get things done since there were no kids supposed to be there. Grandpa E did some laundry and borrowed my van and drove around town.... very secretively. He wouldn't tell me where they were going. So, I just worked on the house and went to church. Edgey and the kids went back up to the campsite to hang out with Grandpa E.
Thursday: I slept in till 8 something and tried to work on some more house stuff. I was trying to get all the clothes switched over to warmer fall/winter stuff. The hard part is trying to decide what summer stuff to keep out since Iowa weather is so labile. Got rid of a bunch of "too small" clothes and realized I need to get some sweatshirts for Jesse Boy. His were all too little now. He has really grown this year. I ran errands and got a couple things for children's church. Nobbies has such cool stuff.
After Edgey got home, Grandpa E. took us to the southside of town to a trailer place and ended up buying us a little pop-up camper (reason why he was so secretive) so we can take the kids camping now. We are all very excited about this. We have looked for one off and on, but now we actually have one. Whoohoo!
Thursday night they went back up to the campsite and I went to the church to have worship practice. Thursday was a good day!
Friday: the kids were back home and I had to get them back on track with school and such... mainly attitudes. They seem to think they don't have to do anything after a vacation. We went to the library to get some more books, like I don't have enough for them at home. We watched a DVD about Johann Sebastian Bach and I got a couple of books about him since we are studying Bach right now. At least during the DVD, they recognized most of the music we have listened to.
Friday night Jesse and Ethan went to spend the night with Auntie and Elizabeth stayed home so she could go to a wedding with Daddy today. One of Edgey's pastor friends is getting married.

I am at work and I actually have a break at the moment.... so I am writing this so it at least looks like I am working. I woke up this a.m. with a serious sinus headache and am on pseudoephedrine. Sometimes that stuff makes me lulu - wired and tired all at the same time.

So that was our week. Edgey signed up for classes to get his ministers licensing. I still need to get my house clean and work on my own homework for college classes. Anybody want some kids for a week?

How Hot is Hell?

I sat down to write this a.m. and Elizabeth and Jesse both came down and started wanting things like help pouring milk and a cereal bowl, etc, etc.... So I gave up immediately and shut off the computer.
I have been trying to plan school lessons for next week. Edgey's dad may be coming either Sunday night or on Monday and they want to take the kids camping in their motor home for a few days. They miss the kids. Hmmmmm.... how aweful could that be? No kids for 2 or 3 days. I wonder how much I could get done around here?
We won't tell the kids about any of it until we see the whites of their eyes, however, because they will stay up and not be able to sleep for the rest of the week in expectancy. They take after their dad in that area. He gets excited about things and can't sleep. Me? I just can't sleep. Does that mean I'm getting old? I only sleep about 5 or 6 hours at a time and then I need to have a nap at some point. It really doesn't matter how long the nap is either. It can be a 15 minute power nap or sometimes 1/2 hour or an hour. My naptime wave comes over me around 3:30 or 4 in the afternoon, so I am sure Edgey thinks I do nothing all day because I am usually in my lazy boy when he walks in the door at night.
If I am sleeping, then the living room is a pit because the kids like to play right in front of me. Imagine that. Let's see if we can wake up mommy.... don't let her fall asleep or she might disappear into dreamland and never come back. Then who would make us dinner? It is irritating to wake up to spiderman (who feels like a bug) crawling across my feet and arms. They think it's rather funny until I turn into the same type of bear my husband is in the morning prior to his coffee. Most of the time I just mention that we will do some more school and they scatter to the farthest part of the house possible.

Furnace problems: Wednesday was a beautiful sunny day in the 70's. The kids and I were running around at the last minute, getting it together for church, and our heater kicked on. I thought maybe one of the kids had messed with the temp box in the living room so I went and turned it down to 45 degrees. Then we left the house to go to church. Edgey has been working in Newton lately so he was really running late and had me meet him with a clean shirt and deoderant at a Menards on the way to church. Church was fine and dandy and then we went to go check out another job he will be working on shortly. When we got home, the entire first floor was 97 degrees because the furnace had never turned off. Talk about hot!! I thought hell had opened a doorway in the basement. Edgey ran downstairs and flicked the off switch and we opened every window and turned on every fan possible to clear out the heat. Luckily by the time we came down this morning it was back down to about 70. Now we have to figure out why the dumb thing did that. It was Hot!!! What a waste of money that was for 5 hours of gas for nothing. Grrrrr. And you know how the first smell of the furnace is when it kicks on...cough-cough-cough-gag...

I'm sure there will be more drama later....

-KP

Post Labor Day

First of all, I must say that the new building is like a hotel, but it is non-functional for nurses. They want us to work without gloves in the bathrooms. Hello!!! Why would we need gloves in the bathroom? Because there are disgusting bodily fluids and solids that end up in the bathroom maybe? Isn't this a no brainer? No... Instead we must reach over the head of the patients' bed and ask the family member who is visiting to move out of the way so we can reach the glove box. You would think, with all the millions they spent on the new building, they would have figured out the functional part of this without compromising the "hotel look". We have to walk all the way down the hall to find a syringe that should be next to the medication drawer.

Ok, I am done with this rant.

The weekend was difficult for me, mainly because I was spending a lot of time trying to find things that we needed to work efficiently. Plus I felt overloaded because of the amount of patients that I was caring for. Sunday was better, but then I didn't have but 1 patient that I was caring for because the new way they are working things is really whacked! Sorry. I forgot I was done ranting.

My husband and children ran off and left me for the weekend. They got to take a nice little vacation to Kansas without me. They went to see Edgey's other Aunt that lives down there. So, it was just me and Amie here all weekend. She spent most of her time trying to stay out of the rain. Edgey and the kids went with Auntie in Ankeny and left on Friday afternoon to go down there. I went to dinner with my mommy at Bennigans and had some chicken strips. They are my absolute favorite. I worked on Sat & Sun then got up early on Monday so I wouldn't waste my entire day sleeping or something. I did watch a movie that I enjoyed. It was all in Hebrew so there were subtitles but it was a good movie about faith. It was called Ushpizin. As a matter of fact, I may just have to buy this one. I read the Sunday paper and also went through Elizabeth and Ethan's wardrobes to get rid of clothes that were too small and the ones I get tired of seeing all of the time.
My mom came over again on Monday afternoon and we went shopping for a little bit and then I introduced her to the Popeye's Chicken experience which wasn't the greatest that day. The lady behind the counter said something like, "I thought everyone was supposed to be going to picnics on Labor Day" if that tells you anything. It was so busy inside that we waited over 1/2 hour for chicken. Now, if I had gone through the drive through, however, it would probably have only been 10 minutes. That place was really messed up. I think mom liked the food though.

I did 4 loads of laundry today! I had it all done and they came home and piled 4 days worth of laundry in the bathroom..... So I am 1 load short of being done again. It's amazing how little I have to do when I am the only one in the house.
We did most of our school and now we are taking a break and the kids are watching Cyberspace. Then later we will work on some botany plant stuff and read some history.

Jesse lost his first tooth! He's not happy or anything....

Jealousy

Definition of jealousy = 1. That passion of peculiar uneasiness which arises from the fear that a rival may rob us of the affection of one whom we love, or the suspicion that he has already done it; or it is the uneasiness which arises from the fear that another does or will enjoy some advantage which we desire for ourselves.

Okay. So why am I writing about this? My children are displaying signs of jealousy when Mr. Edgey and I kiss or give each other a hug.

It's been going on for some time now, but seems to be escalating recently. Edge usually gives me a hug in the kitchen and if the kids (Elizabeth & Jesse) see us, they race in there because they want a hug too.... like a big family hug. That's all fine and dandy.

Well, about a week-or so-ago, we were riding in the van and I was dropping off the kids at grandma's. Elizabeth asked me what I was going to do and I told them that daddy & I were going on a date.... and she made a "hmpf" kind of sound. So, trying to see what kind of rise I would get out of her, I said, "Or maybe we will just stay home and kiss each other." Not only did I get a "hmpf" sound several times but I received a projectile rubber toy in the back of my shoulder..... surprisingly good aim for the girl, I might add.

Now when we kiss or hug in the kitchen (and they seem to know exactly when this takes place like a homing device or something), Jesse & Elizabeth run in and Elizabeth pretends to beat me up and spank my behind and Jesse starts pretending to beat up Edgey and get in between us. At first it was somewhat funny and we played it up even more.... but NOW it is getting annoying. I am not sure what we are going to do about it. If anyone has any suggestions, please do so.
It's not like we don't spend time with the kids or don't hug them or take them out on dates..... I know this is the time when they are supposed to be more possessive of the opposite sex parent, but I didn't quite expect this all the time.
Edgey sits by me in church too and the past two services Elizabeth has tried to sit next to him and he has told her no because I sit there..... and then we get the "you don't love me any more" guilt trip whine and she even wrote it on a piece of paper because she is learning how to spell. Oh man! What's up with that? I didn't think I was going to have to deal with this emotional stuff till she hit the teenage years.

Big moment this morning: Jesse boy lost his first tooth. I had to take a picture since he is my third child and I have few pictures of my third child. You know how there are a zillion pictures of the first one and then we have another one and they are less because you don't have quite as much time or money. I tried hard to take ones with both of them together and besides she is the only girl so we want girl pictures. Then the third one comes along and you can't find the camera (this was prior to camera phones) or you are so tired and busy you don't even remember you are supposed to take pictures anymore. Well, this is kind of what happened with us. I have very few pictures of my youngest. I have been taking more since I have my camera phone. I always have that with me.

My mom watched the kids for a while yesterday. I was tired and came home and took a nap in the peace and quiet of the empty house. That was nice. Then I ran a couple of errands and went to a goodwill to piddle around. I found a pair of jeans for Ethan for 99 cents (why don't they have a cent sign on my keyboard?) and a pair of black hills gold earrings for 59 cents. It cost less than my potato ole's at lunch. Yes, I have a Taco John's weakness..... sorry, I must confess. Ethan had karate and the little kids and I came home and waited around for Layne to come over to eat with us...... He never showed up! Thanks!!!Layne!!! hope you had fun working. :) He was supposed to do a split shift and come have a snack and hang out and watch the neighbors. And yes, they were out makin' noise last night. So Layne totally missed out on the hood experience. Well, maybe not completely since he was only working 3 blocks away.
Elizabeth read an episode of Little Bear to Jesse and me while we were sitting around. She is getting pretty good at her reading.

This will be my first weekend at the new building (take a virtual tour). I don't think I am looking forward to everything new. Oh well. I guess I will pretend I am a temp nurse on some other floor. I just hope it won't be too busy so I have time to find everything I need easily. Have a great weekend! It's a long one!

Blessings,
-KP