Business

Have I ever let you know that I really dislike doing Knights job? I help him out on Saturdays at our mutually most hated store ever (sorry, I can't tell you who...you never know who may read this). Today I went and finished the work I normally do, and then I had to set up a demo at another account.

This did not make me happy.

Mainly because I had planned to bring my kids down to a birthday party and be available in case they needed or wanted help. He let me know the night before that I was needed at 11am for this demo.

Grrr!

So I worked at the icky place, picked up the kids, brought them to the party place (they were riding horses at a stables) run back into town and set up the demo, wait for the demo girl to get there.

And wait.

Um....

Nope, she didn't show. Talked to person at customer service. She hasn't seen the girl. Manager on duty? Nope, she didn't see her either.

Demo girl actually works for this customer as her main job.

I pack up and leave.

So glad I ran back wasted an extra 45 minutes driving for that.

She won't be hired by us again.

Great quote

I found a great quote through one of the blogs I read. It was on a completely different blog than that but I found it.

"People say public schools are bad, but that isn't true. They're very good at what they were designed for -- to create people who could work in factories. They teach you to arrive at a bell, go to lunch at a bell and leave at a bell. You learn to sit at a desk and do the same work everyone else is. These things don't really have anything to do with education.
People don't realize that these things aren't inborn. In the old days, people regulated their lives by the schedules of agriculture. It took public schools to teach people to show up to the factory on time."

I know this may offend some people. But one of the arguments I have thrown at me as a reason not to home school is that my kids need to live by a schedule so they will know how to get up and go to work on time everyday.

Maybe my kids won't want to punch a clock. My husband doesn't. Very few people that I know (that enjoy what they do) actually punch a clock. I know they will have to at some point in their life, but that is why I'm teaching them responsibility.

And for the record, I'm not against public schools. I know their are some benefits. But they are not for us at this point in our lives.

Ok, I'm done now. :)

I feel like I'm 5

My dad's birthday is today. His party is Sunday. Our parents are always hard to buy for since they generally have everything already or just go buy it if they want it. Quite a few years ago I gave my dad a birthday calandar. He loved it because he could remember the grandkids birthdays.

Then he moved to WI.

And lost it.

He has mentioned a couple times how he would like to have another one. So I went shopping.

Nothing.

Ok, not nothing. There was one, in book form. Very girly. Not that I think that would bother Dad. At all.

But not what I wanted to give him. So I did what any good daughter would do... I made him one.

Hope he likes it.

Who's stuff did you loose????

Last night we were one of the last families to leave the church. Knight was talking, kids were playing, I was talking to different people while trying to keep an eye on the kids. A typical Wednesday night.

Knight and I got into the car and drove over to the playground to pick up the kids. They started piling in and Rara was still walking across the grass carrying 2 of her babies. No big deal. They Desti asks, "Where are your shoes?"

That becomes the question of the night.

A couple of my kids volunteer to help her look. Then I make the rest of them look. They recruit their friends to help them. Still nothing.

How do you loose a pair of shoes you were wearing?

So I get out to look. And I ask which pair she wore to church.

The answer is "Your sandals."

What?!? You lost MY shoes??

In true mommy fashion I ended up finding them. Only took 10 people searching for 30 minutes.

Can't you see my Supermom cape through my robe?

Wordless Wednesday--Cannonball Aftermath

**On a side note, I have started a blog just for my pictures. I am hoping to post a new picture everyday. Since this is a family blog I will still share my family pictures here. The new blog is just for the art side of it. If you're interested you can check it out.

Update...

Knight has been working very hard lately. Very long days (12-16 hour days). On Friday I talked to him and knew he was really beat down. He was worn out to the core. I knew he needed to get away so I started to look for places that I could take him. Our first choice for a get a way was booked full so that was out.

Then I remembered that we had not ever let the kids play at the park inside MOA. So off I went to set it up, not telling Knight. A friend offered to take Allie. I found that the cities were pretty quiet since people were leaving town for the weekend. (well, quiet comparatively to when we have been there before. It always is a jarring reminder of "oh yeah. I forgot what a big city really is like)

So I talked to Knight Saturday morning while we were both working and told him we were leaving town, staying a couple of nights. He, not being the control freak I am, just said ok. Didn't need to know where we were staying and what we were doing. I told the kids that they needed to get the house done while I was working in the morning.

Work got done, and we were off. All the kids knew was that we were not staying in WI. They figured out pretty quickly we were going to the cities. They played some travel games I printed off and had fun. We got to the hotel and let the kids play in the pool the first night.

They still were trying to guess what we had planned the next day and had their hopes up for the children's museum. We got to the mall and they were excited to find out we were going to buy them wrist bands for the park. We played ALL day and at the end of it everyone was wore out.

We came home yesterday and I crashed. I woke up last night to J-Bird telling us he had thrown up. I am thankful his sickness held off until we were back home to reality.

The last picture I have is for Cindy who has always wanted to go to the Mall of America. They were having a tap show in the middle of the mall. Just thought I'd share a picture of part of the mall. :-)

WHAT?!?!?

I received an email today asking me to leave feedback for something that I purchased on Amazon. I submitted my feedback and then my eyes fell to the "Recommended Based on Your Browsing History" section.

I have recently purchased some items for a friend of mine. Most of it was not things I have purchased, but it was all for her home schooling. Normal, educational books and items. These are the type of items I purchase from Amazon. Not a big deal at all.

So my list included...
Carson Micro Max Lighted Microscope (ok, I can totally see that.)

30x Jewelers FOLDING EYE LOUPE... (wow, didn't know they had something like that. Sounds kinda neat)

Scientific Explorer's Disgusting... (the kids would love this. This should be on my list for next years schooling)

Marijuana Horticulture: The Indoor/Outdoor Medical Grower's Bible (WHAT?!?!?)

And good news... if you buy the last book and the High Times Growers Series: Jorge Cervantes' Ultimate Grow DVD you can get a discount! (btw...I think the title is so funny!)

Do you think they have misjudged their recommendations just a tad?

Too funny

Wordless Wednesday--Sunset

Shutter bug

As most of you know I have been playing with my camera a lot lately. I printed out and hung the first collection of my pictures yesterday afternoon but I'm still taking pictures. This is a hobby I enjoy.

Last night we took the kids to Prince Caspian. Near the beginning of the movie when the kids get back into Narnia and they are playing in the water there is a beautiful beach scene. The water is blue-green and clear. There are some really neat boulders and other unique landscaping.

J-bird, seeing this, turns to Knight and says, "Mom would take a picture of that rock."

My kids know me so well.

College soapbox

**Warning, you may want to click off the blog now, as I am about to vent frustrations.**


*climbing onto my soapbox*


I am finishing my first class at the college and I will admit that I couldn't be happier. I have been frustrated at the lack of challenge this class has provided. I had expected it to be harder, something I would have to work at. The set up is each student has to post an answer to some questions each week. Then we have to reply to at least 2 other students during the week. This week is the last week and the subject is how you have improved your writing skills. A fellow classmate posted this...(copied without any editing)




"Improvin Writing Style
I need to work on all those areas my self , but u can do it we all can
i have determination and my 12 yr old son cheerin me on. I need to do well in
this class hopefully to get a better job that is were the typing skills come in
handy cause i am an administrative assistant ( office assistant) where most of
my job is typing.. The studin and note takin are an important part too because u
need to know how to wrtie note like for a letter.. Small brakes helps in
concentration u can learn more if everyhing is not so jumbled in my head, it
also give u time to rest and think about the next subject or topic.."

I just wanted to reply..."Seriously???"

I'm sorry but for 5 weeks I have listened to the professor ask the students not to use "u" for you, "i" for I, etc. I know I am less patient today, but each week it gets harder and harder to respond to posts like this.



And it bothers me that she will get full credit for it.



GRRR!



Ok, I'm done.



*climbs back off the soapbox*

Wordless Wednesday

Pictures

I've been playing with my camera lately. Here are some of my favorites taken locally.

Wordless Wednesday--The hope of Lilacs

My Hero

Anyone who truly knows me, knows that I love nature, animals, all that. I'm not really much of a camper but I love to see God's handiwork untouched by human hands.

Most of the time.

Today we took the kids to the park the next town over. We have had a lot of rain lately and our streams are still high from snow melt. I had my camera along and went to take a picture of the little man-made waterfall. The kids followed along hoping to make it into my pictures.

Then they spotted them.

Carp. Around 9 huge carp.

Helpless. Gasping. Some already just a body. Some still fighting to live.

They were now stranded mostly out of the water that had just receded.

I begged my Knight to be my hero and put the ones still alive back into deep water, thus saving their lives. (There were only 3 that were still living enough to hopefully save.) I'm not a princess but I am kinda girly. I'm not touching a fish unless I have to.

He graciously complied with my wishes.

Remember they were huge. (He estimates around 20-25 pounds each.)

He picked them up from the ground by his feet and put them in the water on the other side of the wall.

They swam away.

I don't know if they will live, but we did our part.

*The dark stick looking thing by Knights right hand is the tail of one of them. Sorry the photo is b&w but that was the setting my camera was on when we found the fish*

knights amazement

Today I met someone I look up to. He doesn't play football, He doesn't even want to be looked up to, He just looks at his life as a job God gave him to do. He doesn't brag he just tells what God is using him for. I decided not to even give his name because in one case a person from another religion hacked into the computer system and screwed it all up and then posted that jihad had begun. I will just call him Mr S. One of my kids said he is fearless, So I asked him do you have any Fears. He said all the time, then he quoted scripture and said a spirit of fear doesn't come from God. This year God has sent him to a country that is 91% Muslim. What amazed me was how they view women.
On my route last week one of my customers was having a problem with vender's because a manager would give them a display and then say no I didn't say that. So the guy that checks me in came up with a form that vendor and manager would sign and eliminate the confusion. It had a spot for salesman's signature and a female vendor threw a fit because it didn't say salesperson so she went to the management and got him in trouble when all he was trying to do is help all of us vender's. In comparison I was amazed that in this Muslim country their view about women is that they don't have souls. So that is where evil spirits come from. The women their are not allowed to pray in church and at funerals they participate by washing the body. That way the men will not be defiled by touching the dead body. But the women are not allowed to go to the funeral it has something to do with their tears are bad, Ill have to listen to this guy on tape are church tapes everything. Also when a girl is born to them they look at it as a curse and boy is a blessing and when a boy reaches the age of 7 he then becomes smarter than his mother because he is a boy and he is only to receive instruction from his father. Mr S has had his marriage become a witness to the people because they will ask him why do you love your wife? They don't understand shes more then property to him. He tells them about the God of the Bible that commands him to love her.

Mr S witnessed to and saw over thirty people get saved over their in just a few months. The differences between over here and over their is over here we will ask if you have gotten saved or asked Jesus to come into your heart and have a personal relationship with him. Most people would say yes or I'm a Christian. Over their if you tell anyone you excepted Christ you lose your job, and your family disowns you and in some cases your family kills you and says its for jihad. Also the government will keep track of what you do and try to find out where you are getting money to live on in order to get rid of that source. So to except Jesus and turn your life over to him is not easy. Mr S said God has put it on his heart that the people over their just lost and going to hell and God has sent him to show them how they can get to heaven. That's where I look up to Mr S my first instinct is to worry about protecting me and my family. I use to think of those people as just nuts. But after hearing him I just see them as needing a savior and trying to find what I have found. His love for those people is amazing. He believes this is where God has told him to go. I cant imagine having the guts to go where other people have told them about Christ,been captured had their fingers and toes chopped off then their wrist and ankles chopped off then stabbed 168 times before having their throat cut and the government looking at it as a good thing. Sometimes I struggle with deciding which video game to play on the we today. Oh what a rough life I have. God has sure blessed us with freedom and wealth, maybe not according to Americas standards but definitely according to Gods.

Knghts first post

Today was a huge blessing, I had j-bell with me on the route and we almost sold double what our goal is. She is starting to surprise me because she works so hard. We worked a twelve hour day. We have had to tighten our belts a little because of some set backs. But god is providing. These days I have been thankful just to have a job the way the economy is going. Also when I got home we played a board game and rara was so funny, we just sat and cheered after each move. I hope she gets into comedy some day. Sometimes it seems like the less we have the more fun we have.
Good night all
Knight

Dinner, homeschool style

I have heard it said that you should turn the tv off during dinner. That way a family can share what went on during the day. Our little home school family knows what went on that day. We were together. But we don't have a TV in the dining room, and we no longer have our dish hooked up, we don't have cable, and we have not hooked up an antenna to the main tv. So our kids improvise.