SpiderMan..SpiderMan..Does Whatever a Spider Can!

Spins a web..any size...Catches criminals..just like flies!

Okay scarey, huh! I know the song! This blog is dedicated to my sweet 4year old. With Halloween upon us I think maybe we might retire the spidey costume and explore other options. As of now, he wants to be a MUMMY!! oooh scarey! It HAS to be scarey! So what...do I wrap him in toilet paper? I will have to think about this one.

I have to tell a funny Connor story. The other day he did something that made me REALLY mad. He does this so often that I cannot even remember what it was. Anyway we were in the car and I told him when we got home he was going to have to go to time out. He said "mom, that was just the BAD Connor that said that so you can only put the BAD Connor in time out!" I kind of ignored him and as soon as we got home I went to put him in time out and he said "No, I am the NICE Connor so you can't put me in time out!" I said, "where is the BAD Connor?" He said "He's not here anymore it's only ME the NICE Connor!" Nice try, huh!

By the way, he insisted on wearing his costume (mask and all) to the primary program practice last week. We were in the chapel and here he is sitting up on the stand in his costume! It was pretty funny I must admit!

Chiroptophobia aka Fear of Bats!!!

Many of us have developed phobias over they years. I have a small fear of heights but not enough to consider it a phobia. I do however have a fear of BATS! Let me explain where this fear originated from. Growing up in Michigan, we lived in several different homes. My mom apparently had a "phobia" of staying in the same house too long. Well, we finally settled down in an old and rather large home set on a wonderful street that was just two blocks from town. I especially liked it because it was only a few houses down from my boyfriend's house. Well, this quickly became another home remodeling project as did most of our previous homes. My mom has an incredible talent of turning anything into something beautiful. This home actually had a lot of potential and it wasn't long before it became an amazing place to live. (except for the bats that is!) There were four stories to this house and the 4th consisted of two bedrooms and a large attic type storage room. (if I remember correctly). Tara and I quickly turned this level of the home into our own "private quarters". We each had a darling room with a little nook where we put our beds. Well, these little "nooks" soon became my place of terror. I spent night after night lying in bed hearing bats fluttering and screeching in my wall behind my bed. My parents finally took action and hired an exterminator. He found hundreds of them in the attic hanging like clusters of grapes. (am I exaggerating Tara? I don't think so!) He got rid of them. However, several of them were forced into the rest of the house and it wan't uncommon to have a bat dart above your head every now and again. So tell me this, do I have reason to have "Chiroptophobia"?

I Need to go to Bloggers Anonymous!

I have decided I have a serious problem. I have become addicted to blogging. I am no longer in denial..it is out in the open. It's all my sister's fault..afterall she got me started. I am in a slump. I am only getting the bare necessities done. I now have 3 hours each day in which I have a completely quiet house with NO ONE bugging me and I am wasting my time. Now I know blogging is not a WASTE of time but there are much more productive things I could be doing especially because most of the people I blog with I pretty much talk to almost everyday anyway. What is it about blogging that is so appealing? (to me anyway)

Please help me! Do I need a life? Maybe so. I keep thinking of all the things I could be doing with my "spare time" and quickly think, "who cares if my storage room is cleaned out or not?" or "do I really need to go around and dust all my light fixtures?"

The laundry is usually done, the house shouldn't be condemned, most evenings I have a hot meal on the table (even if it is tomato soup and grilled cheese) and most of the beds get made. Is there really any more that HAS to be done? Nobody really cares but me. The kids could care less. My hubby never complains as long as he has clean "g's" and pants to wear to work. So why am I feeling guilty?

Should I take a "blogging leave of absence" or would you miss me? I am setting myself up with that question, huh?

Thank Goodness for Pools

I just returned from visiting Tara in Arizona. All I can say is thanks goodness she has a pool because IT WAS HOT! The little kids literally swam all day long. They were little fish! It was so fun to watch them. It was about the only activity that didn't cause "gender issues" between C and E. The rest of the time they were arguing about "girl" things and "boys" for example according to E bees "only sting boys" which of course put C in an uproar. E finally convinced C to play barbie.com but it did't last long. They would move on to playing house and C insisted on being "Alan" and E wanted to be "Tara". Well I informed them that it wasn't the most appropriate idea so Emma agreed to become "Kristen". Tara and I were laughing at them. They were so cute. A pretty much followed them around trying to keep her bangs out of eyes. She told Tara that hair was "broken". I had a great time and at times like this am glad my sisters live out of state because then I get to go visit them! I love you Tara!

Internet Safety

Last week we had a youth fireside for parents and youth on Internet Safety. We had a woman Linda Criddle speak to us. She has a written a book called Look Both Ways. I know a few of you are already doing some of these things but for some of us who are new to the blogging world I thought I would post a few of her cautionary suggestions.

1. Avoid using specific names on your blogs especially your childrens. Don't make reference to your last name either. It takes only seconds for people to do a search and come up with a name, address and phone#.
2. Be careful of the pictures you post. Make sure they don't have a lot of personal information on them (ie. house number in background-if it's your home, school team names, street names, license plates, etc.)
3. Be careful of information we talk about on our blogs. (ie. kids schedules, school names, when we are out of town, when our fellow bloggers are out of town, etc.)
4. Avoid posting "online quizzes" on your blogs. Often they give out way too much personal information.
5. Consider only letting a "restricted" set of people to view your blogs.
6. Remember "a friend of a friend" is a STRANGER to us. Everyone knows a criminal. We just may not know they are a criminal.
7. Avoid using public information as password for accounts, etc. (ie. marriage date, high school graduation date, birthdates, maiden names, etc.) Especially for the password memory refresher questions.

These are just a few of the key ideas that I jotted down during the fireside. This woman is basically hired to "act like a predator" in finding information on people from their websites, blogs, etc. She has actually called some of the people who's blogs have been too "public" and relayed all the information that she had gathered about their lives and it freaked many of them out. She especially mentioned "My Space" and other websites like it.

She pointed out that she didn't want to scare people away from the internet but just wanted people to take these things into consideration. There are predators out there who are specifically looking for people to scam, take advantage of and even worse. It was sure an eye opener to me. I think it's especially important for us to think about when we get to the stage where our children may "chat" with their friends or even have "innocent" blogs themselves.

Her website is http://www.look-both-ways.com/

Are you like me and whenever you see a recipe that calls for white wine you skip right over it no matter how good it looks? For some reason the idea of having to make a trip to the liquor store seems quite intimidating and a little scarey. Call me sheltered if you will but I don't even know where the nearest liquor store is let alone what kind of "white wine" to buy for cooking purposes. Today I was emailed by a good friend from back home in Michigan. She sent me a (what appears to be) a yummy recipe for chicken that she makes quite often. It seems I have heard that cooking wine is not the same thing and will not give you what you are hoping to achieve in a recipe. I checked on the internet and one site said to try white grape juice. Does anyone have any suggestions for me?

Yes..I'm Lovin' It!!!

I must admit, for the past year and a half people have been asking me "So what's it like having a girl? Is she different than your boys?" and I pretty much have told everyone that same thing. "She's not that much different yet..I just get to dress her a lot cuter. "

Well, I can say with a surety now that SHE IS DIFFERENT!! She has turned WAY GIRLY on me and I have to say I'm lovin' it! She discovered these cowboy boots in her closet a few weeks ago and wants to wear them ALL THE TIME! She FREAKS out if I don't put them on. I'm talking throw herself down and have a major hissy fit until she gets her way. Anytime I pull out an outfit she hasn't seen yet she says "Cuuuute!" and wants to put it on. This is why she is wearing a sweatshirt with her cowboy boots when it's pushing 100 degrees outside. I could go on and on and on about all the girly things she does but I am sure no one will find them as cute as I do..so all I can say is "YES...I am lovin' it!"

and her brother sure loves her too!

Football For Dummies!

Okay, one of my worst fears has come true. One of my children has taken up a sport that I know NOTHING about. I have never understood football, have never even liked football and now I look like an idiot parent! N had his first game on Saturday and I had a few different moms ask me what position he played and I'm like "I don't really know" (what positions ARE there?) Crap until Saturday I didn't even realize what number he was. For the record in case I forget..it's 41. We will be spending the next 9 Saturdays at games so I better get a crash course on the game. Maybe we could read this for our next book club??

Here is a picture of him from his game. Notice the nice sweaty-do! He's pretty cute though!