For the record

Twister took his first steps this morning.

**sigh**



So, I've been pondering lately. . . My dad was talking to me about a program he watched on TV about how changing parts of your diet can make a big difference in how you think. The strange thing is how much sense it seems to make to me. I've read about kids with autism who make drastic improvements when taken off gluten or casein (wheat and dairy). The thing is, its not a universal improvement for every person every time... What the doctor on this program suggests is that some people are allergic or sensitive to these foods and that the body reacts accordingly. It makes sense to me that perhaps some of the kids who have ADHD or autism (as they are often linked) might maybe be experiencing a response to an allergy or sensitivity to certain foods. He also has a bunch of other ideas for improving your health and mind... Go check this website if you want to read more. It looks quackish, I know, but the guy is an MD... I think he is in the business of selling books, but I think what he has to say is intriguing.

Anyway, the question I propose to you is: How much would you be willing to change your lifestyle to improve your quality of life? I'm tempted to investigate this doctors book, but at the same time, I wonder if I would be able to follow through. I've never been a dieter, so I don't have experience like that to relate to... but I did try to do flylady's program before. It was awesome, I felt better, more energetic, I loved having people come over to see my clean house, and I told everyone about it. But I sort of fell off the bandwagon after a few months and have been telling myself I want to do it ever since. How lame is that? Why don't we keep doing these good things? I don't want to do the same thing with this... find out that we all are much better off with certain dietary changes, then not follow through with it.


I'd love to hear what you think. . . I'll keep you posted on if I get the book...

toothless kids

Goose and Sweetie both lost one of their front teeth. Goose lost it months ago, and it is finally just starting to come in. Sweetie was brave enough to let her dad take a "look" at her tooth this morning. Funny how with dad, a quick look turned into a quick yank. :)


Isn't it beautiful!?! It must be one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. Its called Glory of the Snow and it is the first flower I see every spring. It starts of my season of gardening and pressing. It blooms looking like a star, it is just gorgeous! The flowers press to look like this:To me, they mean warmth and hope and SPRING!!!

As for our uninvited house guests... we're up to 5. Yuck.

Benson's job has been going fairly well. Better than the first day anyway :)... Its really hard hours. He's gone most nights and weekends, so we're adjusting. He has a phone interview this week for a job that is in his field... we're praying hard that it comes through, but trying not to get our hopes up too much.

So, that's the news of the week. :) Happy Spring to you and enjoy your day.

3 blind mice

I have the heebie-jeebies just thinking about this, so if you have a weak stomach, feel free to skip down to the picture of my house.



So, earlier this week, I was working on this:


I have an irish bride who wants these as gifts for her bridesmaids... Anyways, the flowers are pressed between two pieces of glass. Because of this, I usually wear latex gloves while working with the glass so that I don't get any fingerprints on it. I keep my latex gloves under my kitchen sink. So, imagine my horror when I see mice terds on the gloves I pulled out. EWWWWWWW!!!! Oh, it was so disgusting. Yuck, yuck yuck!

For the record, I know I have publicly complained about my husband when he is sick. Seriously, I must take back ANY not nice thing I have ever said about him. He is the bestest awesomest husband in the universe, and even if he is bad at being sick, I'll keep my mouth shut about it forever more.

My awesome husband bought some "blind" mouse traps. Its a box so that you don't have to see the mouse if you catch it. Lovely right? Ugh, there goes my stomach again. Anyway, he set up the trap, caught a mouse, set it up again, caught another mouse, set it up again... you get the picture. The best way I could describe my feelings to Benson was that I felt violated. Like my house had been broken into, and my security had been stolen. Yet somehow, I do feel somewhat safer NOW, knowing that they are gone, and the traps are still out for any friends who may be still around. (oh, AND that Benson will take care of the blind traps for me so I don't have to see ANY of it...)

I have no doubts that they got in during our construction project. Our crawl space is missing a window box, and I'm sure they snuck in our make shift boarding. Speaking of which, my house still looks like this:
My contractor has promised that he will resume our project in the next week or two. I cannot wait! It's been more than a little inconvenient... we can hardly pull into our driveway because of the pile of gravel, we have no power to the garage, oh, and we can't really use the garage anyway because all the tools and supplies are in there. Yea, that was really fun this winter with all the snow and ice storms. Anyway, it will all be worth it when its finished! He says it will probably take 2-3 weeks to finish up... So I'm counting on it taking at least a month. :)

And a quick story to top of the post.

Since Benson was going to be starting his new job, we had to go over to my parents house and retrieve his poor beat up car from their garage. The door on the drivers side doesn't function anymore. It doesn't close completely and it also doesn't open from the outside. So, since our garage was out of commission and we were'nt really using it anyway, we had it over there. While the car was sitting in idleness at my parents house, the registration came due. We let it lapse since we weren't driving it, and it seemed smarter to buy food than registration on a car we couldn't drive anyway. Well, we retrieved that car and Benson drove it to his new job on Monday. As he pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant, a cop pulled in behind him. Lovely, right. So, the story is the cop ran the plates and saw the car wasn't registered. Benson explained this was his first day back to work after not having a job (or driving the car) for the past 4 months, and that he had every intention of registering it ASAP. So, the cop asks for his license and proof of insurance. You guessed it, the insurance card was an expired one, we hadn't gotten the new card into the car while it sat in idleness. And to top it off, the cop says, " Um, your license expired on your birthday." For those who don't know, his birthday was LAST WEEK! Seriously?! What are the chances? The cop had to take him to the station! When Benson called me, all I could do was laugh. I'm pretty sure the first words out of my mouth were "That's AWESOME." I went online and the car was registered 2 minutes later. Amazingly, he made it to work on time despite all the fiasco. I hope that's not a sign of things to come.

Today feels a little wordless. SO....

The latest here...

Hello all,

I thought I should bring you all up to speed on whats going on here. The good news is that Benson has been offered a job, and accepted it. He will be a restaurant manager for Buffalo Wild Wings. We are glad to have something, but at the same time... this job is not enough to support our family. We both feel like working is better than not working, but we still need your prayers. Something else needs to come along. He wants to be working in financial analysis, so we are still hoping for that. In this economy though, we will take what we get, and we are grateful. It could be months or even years before the financial markets are actually able to start hiring . . . He still has one good lead he is wanting to come through, but we need some income somewhat desperately and can't wait to see if it comes through before we need the income. I know the Lord is aware of us, and I know many of you have been praying for us as well. Thank you so much! We are trying to be humble and grateful for the opportunity we have been given.

I think that does it.

What do you think? Finished?

Work in progress

It feels a little bare on the right side, but its nearing completion. I'm thinking maybe a walkway and part of the fountain. Debating a cloud or two... hmm....