Milo playing Soccer!

I am doing something wrong with photos lately... I can't get any to upload here. Bummer -- so -- here is a shaky, poor quality video for you to enjoy! Trust me... ya gotta wait until the very end for the exciting part. Ü

Yeah Milo, Go Comets!!

** ATTENTION IOWA VOTERS **

Did you realize that Harkin is up for re-election again this year?

Oh MAN oh MAN oh MAN... this election is an important one for Iowa in more ways than one! Besides the obvious McCain/Obama issue.

Go here

and here

and here!!

DON'T FORGET TO VOTE!!

Christopher Reed... name recognition is important. Spread the Word!! Talk, talk, talk.

Lest you forget -- Harkin said, "Put all the guns on a rusty boat and sink the boat." (some what) We need to shake his boat!!

Cold Stone Creamery

Do you live by a Cold Stone Creamery??

You Lucky Dawg!!

Friday -- September 25th -- YOU could go get some free ice cream. And it would be delicious ice cream!! I've had some -- trust me -- it's amazing!!

From 5:00 - 8:00 p.m., they will be giving away 3 oz of 2 new flavors...

• Jack's Creation - Marshmallow ice cream with OREO® Cookies, Chocolate Chips and Fudge
• Emily's Creation - Nutter Butter® ice cream with White Chocolate Chips, Kit Kat® and Yellow Cake

Jack and Emily are make a wish children. I think Emily has good taste -- what do you think? Which would you choose... if you could?

ENJOY!

(Think of poor old me while you are there... far, far away from a Cold Stone Creamery... in the boonies... suffering with no free ice cream!)

°Ü°

Wordless Wednesday - video style

Anti-Virus Protection

I'm not sure if I've blogged about this or not. My new fancy smancy computer -- it's SLOW!! It wasn't slow when we brought it home... and it wasn't slow when I loaded it up with a bunch of pictures... and it wasn't slow when my kiddos played games on here... and it wasn't slow when we took it out to test the wifi (don't tell... we stole Walmart's free wifi). But it sure is slow now. We think that happened when we started using CA Security. It's free you know... well... nothing is free, I guess. Free of $$, but it was robbing my time!! It slowed our fancy smancy computer WAAAAY down.

My dh was getting very irritable when ever he had to use this thing.

So -- he did some searching.

We've switched... now we are going to use BitDefender. Ever hear of it?

Well -- I did some searching of my own and found a coupon. We got this downloaded for $18.99. (regularly $29.95) One years worth. What do you think? Was it a smart move? We'll see. So far the computer is back up to speed. It says right there in black and white... "reduces the system load and...blah blah blah" so it shouldn't slow down the computer.

Here -- read it for yourself if ya want to.

===========================BitDefender Antivirus 2009===========================

BitDefender Antivirus 2009 provides
proactive state of the art protection against e-threats such as viruses, spyware
and phishing attacks which can lead to loss of personal files, identity theft
and slower system performance.

Services:----------Hassle – Free
Hourly Updates Your copy of BitDefender will be updated 24 times a day over the
Internet, directly or through a Proxy Server. The product is able to repair
itself, if necessary, by downloading the damaged or missing files from
BitDefender servers.
FREE 24/7 SupportOffered online by qualified support
representatives and by accessing an online database with answers to Frequently
Asked Questions.

Features:----------
ANTIVIRUS, ANTISPYWARE
& ANTIROOTKIT• Protects your PC in real time against known viruses, spyware
and other malware• Blocks unknown viruses using advanced proactive detection
techniques• Detects and removes hidden threats (rootkits)• Provides a smooth
gaming experience by reducing the system load to a minimum • Monitors and
prevents potential spyware threats in real-time
ANTI-PHISHING• Protects
against phishing attempts by filtering all accessed web pages• Reduces the
risk of identity theft by preventing personal information leaks via e-mail
or web.
PRIVACY CONTROL• Blocks attempted identity theft• Prevents personal
information from leaking via e-mail, web or instant messaging.
IM ENCRYPTION•
Keeps your IM traffic private and protected from eavesdropping• Keeps your
conversartions private on Yahoo! Messenger (version 8.1 or higher) and Windows
Live (MSN) Messenger (version 8.5 or higher)
FILE VAULT• Securely stores
personal information or sensitive files.
HOME MANAGEMENT• Manages the
security of your entire home network from a single, authorized station
GAME
MODE• Reduces the system load and avoids user interaction requests during
games.
LAPTOP MODE• Prolongs battery life by tuning all products settings in
order to save power consumption
VULNERABILITY• Verifies if crucial software
on your PC is up-to-date. • Checks passwords to Windows accounts against
security rules.

Bitdefender -- found at CitationSoft.

Back up to speed... praise the Lord -- maybe I'll blog more now.

2008 LADIES RETREAT

Did I tell you I got to attend ladies retreat? My church blessed Dan and I with retreats this year. Thank You church family!

You know what happens at retreats? You get to KNOW one another.
°Ü°

I brought along my game C.O.D.A. Some ladies learned that I'M COMPETITIVE. I never just LET someone win. So they soon were cheering on the other team to beat me!! Can you believe it? ha ha haaa... it was funny. F.U.N. and we laughed a LOT!

Connie and Sarah... very seriously trying to beat me at my own game. :giggle:



Connie and Penny

These first photos are all LATE at night. I started yawning at 9:30 p.m. Well -- probably 9:00 actually. I stayed up WAAAY past my bed time.
Me and my friend Debra. :hi Deb!:


More friends... Naomi and Carol


Oh... look at this. Care to take a guess what this is?

First you strap yourself into a harness...

Then you climb all these stairs. ALL of them.

Then you clip this teeny tiny little metal clip on this itsy bitsy wire here... and ZIP down to the end on that other hill. Only the insane will do the ZIP LINE a 2nd time. When my pastor's wife was done she asked, "Want to go down again?" LOL OK -- I did NOT just call my pastor's wife crazy... did I? I'm sorry Connie... well -- you know... you are crazy is a fun sort of way. :giggle:

Here is Carol -- she is the ham of the bunch. Hamming it up with some of her friends... putting on a skit.


This is who we listened to the whole week-end. She was hiding behind the mics... couldn't get a good photo that time. Didn't think of it the other times. Mrs. Tonya. Help me out here ladies -- what is her name?


Oh WHAT A BUNCH OF LOONS... well -- actually - you can pick out the loons of the bunch. Can't you. LOL

Here -- this photo is better... remember you can click on it to enlarge it. 11 of us went retreating! But we came back. Refreshed spiritually... (not physically). Some of us snore... shhh... that's not lady like, is it?

Sarah, Naomi, Debra, Carol, Connie, Beth, Beth (I'm not stuttering), ME, Toni, Anita and Penny

I'll tell you what... that Iowa Regular Baptist Camp Ground in Clear Lake is awesome! If you ever have a chance to go there... TAKE IT!

sigh... it may be too late...sigh

It may be too late -- but do you want to have to say, "I did nothing, I didn't even try." ??

I'm going to send you to a blog that I found to be interesting this morning -- Mike Morgan writes about King Henry. Do you think you know all about King Henry? Well -- go over there and see how he writes about him.

Just read a bit of this and see what you think.

This is directly from the draft he sent to Washington.

Sec. 8. Review. Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.

I added that red attention drawer. CRAZY AIN'T IT? Do something -- don't sit on your hands... at least let the powers that be know that we are paying attention!!

I've already written my servants this morning... have you?

Cat Walk

Oh Gracious -- My kiddos thought it would be fun to dress the poor kitties up in doll clothes.


She really knows how to work that dress... doesn't she?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Danielle's Turn. HAPPY BIRTHDAY DANIELLE!


Now she is 5.

Here is Danielle with her card from her family.


Here is her birthday cake. Do you see a resemblance? Maybe if you squint a little. LOL I used the card as a... model. LOL It's SUPPOSED to look like a 5 year old drew it, I think.


Well -- anyway... at least it was flat and not tall. OK -- it wasn't really flat. But the icing on top was flat. In fact... the cake was a little concave. If you were lucky enough to get a piece out of the middle... it has an equal amount of cake and frosting. For some reason -- the cake took a nose dive in the middle. So I had to even it out a little with the frosting. You know... so it had the appearance of a perfect cake. Be sure your sins will find you out. Once some of the kids noticed the amount of frosting on their cake they went on and on about it... I had to confess... I said, "Notice the pieces that are on the edge... not quite as much frosting is there." Oops... So -- I'm learning. My piece of cake was realllly yummy. Extra yummy.

And the words on the bottom 2 rows... they look a little extra funny... Well -- someone threw away all my frosting bags. :sigh: They thought ALL bags were disposable... not just the disposable ones. So I got out some freezer quart size bags. All went fine... for a while. They SPLAT the black blew a gasket. 2 chunks of black frosting went all over the words I just wrote. So I quick grabbed one chunk of frosting off the cake... couldn't find a place to put it -- so I stuck it in my mouth and grabbed the next chunk off the cake. Up came the words with it... only 1/2 of the words. Not 1/2 of the words I'd written... partial pieces of the words came up. So I had to play connect the dots on some of them. Talk about stress. Even a FLAT cake gave me hives. Who suggested I start making my own cakes? Oh shut up -- it sounded like a good idea at the time!!

Dani got a doll for her birthday -- eventually. It took her daddy and 3 young men to get it out of the box. WHY do they do that?? Who grabs the dolls out of the box and runs out of the store and leaves the empty box? No one?? Why are they strapped in so tight? Crazy...


She loves her Gotz doll. Remember getting that mom? I've had it in my cedar chest this whole time. I asked Danielle if she liked her new dollies perfume. :snort:

The store Tuesday Morning had them on sale years ago. Not realizing I had a Tuesday Morning close to me... OK -- not close... but in Des Moines... I had my mother go to a Tuesday Morning in Louisiana and buy me a Gotz doll for Danielle. :snort: I'm a little directionally challenged. Hey mom... Did I ever pay for that?

She loves it! She carried it around all stinking day long!! Challice -- she was so excited that she got new clothes to go with her dollie. GREAT!! They were a hit.

Now -- I've got one more birthday to go this year... and then maybe I'll accidently throw away my non disposable EVERYTHING REALTED TO CAKE DECORATING in the house.

Oh now... I'm just kidding. (maybe not)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MANSEL!

Now he is 9.

Like his cake? I made it -- first ever... ok... not ever.. but the first NICELY decorated - it looks like something - cake. Can you tell what it is?

It took forever -- I had to photograph it... it may be the last. No one told me it took forever and a day to do all those STARS!! Good grief. Next time -- a cake in a pan... no more tall cakes. LOL

Tori's First Meet

I promise -- I won't make you look at photos of EVERY meet. LOL This experience was a first for me. I've never been to a cross country meet before. Let me walk you through. They run on a 1 1/4 mile loop at this meet. Sometimes it's longer. So -- we all start here at the beginning... yes WE. They start the race... we stand here and cheer them on. She is supposed to be stretching before the race... she prefers to just stand there and look pretty -- she's a beginner... give her time. She'll catch on.


OK -- she's off. The runner in gold on the left. The one on her the right is her encourager. Ü Another home schooled girl.

Then -- after they take off... the parents run as fast as they can... lugging cameras and coolers, and stop watches and children with short legs to the part of the race across the field. Not quite 1/2 way, but probably close. It is VERY comical to see us all waddling around there. We see them coming -- so we start hollaring!! Some guys are veterans and start counting the runners... then when their girl gets there they say "14 -- you are in 14th -- go catch that group ahead." Ahh... I get it... I had no idea what number Tori was -- but I yelled anyway... and she glared at me. I hollared... "If you have enough energy to glare -- you aren't running fast enough." LOL

OK -- I didn't either yell that. But see her encourager there on the left? They like to run to gether in practice too. :giggle:

Now we, the parents, run back across the field to the finish line and jockey around for a space up close! I'm so excited about cheering her on that all I get is her back AGAIN, at the finish line.

Hooray Tori!! She did it. She had set a goal of finishing in less than 10 minutes... she met her goal. I'm so proud!!

She came in 44th out of 70 some. 7th and 8th grade girls ran together. Not too bad for her first ever cross country race.

A friend from church was there -- he has experience... he got out a business card and wrote down her time for us. YEAH!! He could tell I was chattering so much that I had no clue what her time was. Next time I'll know. Keep your mouth shut and watch!! Count. Encourage... hand her the gatorade. Ü

What fun.

I'm now a cross country mom. I wear many hats. LOL

Followers

Did you know you can list your followers?

I found out I HAD followers -- before I knew about the gadget. Pretty cool. What fun...

I think I'll go follow some of you.

Oh My...

Please do not watch this with children in the room.

If you are on the fence about whom to vote for -- you DO need to watch this.



Abominable. Horrific.

So very important that we be informed before we vote November 4th. And it's VERY IMPORTANT that we do vote.

If you do not agree with every issue on the one side... we need to agree AGAINST the other side. We NEED to.

We also need to fall upon our faces before God and plead for forgiveness as a nation for allowing these terrifying deeds to go on right under our noses. We must stand up and fight for those who are defenseless.

Not Blogging Much

Here's why.

We've started school. Ü Today is my REST DAY from exercising... so I thought I'd jump on here really quick. But normally I have to wait until 7:00 p.m. to get on the computer... and 7:00 p.m. has been filling up each day... I have to sacrifice my computer time. Bummer.

This week-end, a normal blogging time for me, I'll be at ladies retreat. Pray for Tori. LOL I'm Just Kidding!! She will be taking up some of the slack... but will you pray for me? I need a spiritual refreshing!

Hopefully I'll be able to blog about it when I get home. Ü

I think I'll take my camera -- is that a good idea Carol? Beth?