I have not posted since April 8, 2009:

I have not posted anything on my blog since April 8, but I do hope to make a fresh start. This blog will be mostly about every day things: viewpoints, thoughts, dreams, wishes, statuses, etc. I hope you enjoy spending a bit of time with me every day.
My youngest daughter, who is my third child, celebrated her 16th birthday yesterday! So hard to accept the fact that she's growing up! She's taller than me now and her feet are quite a bit longer, too. Before long, I might get to ask her if I can wear some of her clothes! LOL We went to Samurai Steak and Sushi restaurant to celebrate last night. Our friends, Jessica, Trinidad, and Melinda joined us there. There was 9 of us altogether. The chef made us laugh, several times in fact! Peyton and I wore dresses, as did her friend Jennifer, and the guys all wore dress pants and dress shirts! Wow! It was fun dressing up! And our friend Jessica brought her 16 pastel roses in a pretty purple vase. How special is that? I decorated the dining room with black, silver, and pink "Sweet 16" items that I found at Party City. Very cool! And she wanted a cheesecake instead of a "regular" cake, so that's what she got! Fun times and some great pics!

Project 365 ~ Day 63 (Wednesday, March 4, 2009)

Hunter's basketball team (Rockets of Clear Lake Boys' Basketball, age 10 Juniors) go to the play-offs tonight! Woo-hoo! His team is ranked second in his age division. They played well and the game was very exciting. They came in runners up. Right after the game, they received very nice large trophies. The winners received embroidered nylon sports jackets (which were actually way over-sized). TG3 came to watch the game with us and then we went to Star Fire Grill for a late snack (while TG3 had dinner). Thanks for the support by coming to Hunter's game, TG3! We love you!

Project 365 ~ Day 62 (Tuesday, March 3, 2009)

Wow! I have really gotten behind with my posting, but I am going to try (again) to catch up. The date of the posting will be later than the date that I am writing for it to be (clear as mud?).
In other words, today is actually April 7, but I am writing for March 3. I have a lot of things to say and reflect on, so it shouldn't be much of a problem to catch up! For example, after having taken the baseball scorekeeping class, I didn't realize how difficult it was until sitting in the scorekeeper's box! Yikes! Not only do I not know all of the baseball terminology (although by now I should), I also found that the umps are not always that cooperative when it comes to calling "ball" or "strike"! From now on, I would prefer sticking to pitch counts and/or announcing the players! Yikes!!

Project 365 ~ Day 61 (Monday, March 2, 2009)

Out of the mouths of babes: My son, Hunter (age 10), said to me the other day that he cannot wait until the year 2011. Of course, I asked him what he meant by that and he replied: "because I'll be a teenager then"! Not something I even want to think about, especially with having raised two through the teen years already and I have another one that is there now! As my dad would've said "may the saints preserve us"! :)

Project 365 ~ Day 65 (Friday, March 6, 2009)

Do you ever have random thoughts enter your head without provocation? Does it ever make you wonder why? I was once told that when a person pops into your head, it is the Holy Spirit's way of letting you know that that person needs prayer and maybe a helping hand. Maybe they could use a friendly phone call or a kind note. The next time you think of someone that you haven't thought of in a long time, stop and take a moment to pray for them and to ask God what you can do to help that person.

Project 365 ~ Day 64 (Thursday, March 5, 2009)

I went on the fourth grade field trip with Hunter's school today. We went to the San Jacinto Monument. I rode with a friend, Amy Schlauch, whose family we've known since we started attending the same church as they do. Amy (who happens to be from Thailand) and her husband, Art, have three wonderful children. The oldest, Wittiker, is the same age as my son Hunter and they get along beautifully. Wittiker and Hunter were on the same baseball team at Bay Area Texas Baseball for at least three seasons! The first two of those were coached by Wittiker's dad, Art. I'll post more about the field trip and the San Jacinto Monument at a later date.

Project 365 ~ Day 60 (Sunday, March 1, 2009)

I love our Church! There are so many wonderful friends that we have made there and our minister, Randy Hageman, preaches the Bible truths. Our lead singer, Betsy Burke, as well as the other singers of course, all have beautiful melodic voices and the instrumentalists are just as wonderful. We also have a church band called "The Resurrection Band" which is working on their second CD! Mike Lively, the youth leader, is well respected by my daughter and my 10 year-old enjoys the 11 a.m. Sunday School class (especially the Sundays that I help in there; ha)! There are many southern baptists that attend there, as well as "reformed catholics", etc. PLUS: we have the bonus of a real Starbuck's inside of the church!

Project 365 ~ Day 59 (Saturday, February 28, 2009)

Today is Little League Opening Day! All of the teams of the Nasa Area Little League lined up on decorated floats for a 9 a.m. parade. And...all the team players had bubble gum and/or candy to throw-out to the parade viewers! The boys (team players) have as much fun, if not more, than the siblings trying to catch the candy that they are tossing to them from the floats! A funny thing happened with our float, however (and I am sure it was not funny to the dads at the time). One of the team player's dad's made some awesome large wooden Astro's stars to put on the flat bed to decorate the sides and back of our team's float. They were scurrying in an attempt to hurry to get all nailed in place by the time the parade headed out of the parking lot. Well, as soon as they got to the end of the parking lot, they were stuck! It seems that the beautifully made wooden stars were too tall to fit through the height limit at the parking lot entrances! Not only did they hold up the floats following behind them, but they had to quickly dismantle the wooden stars even more quickly than they had nailed them up! And the parking lot entrance was only a few yards from where the float had started. After all of that, everything turned out to be a beautiful day! The boys teams were all announced on the major ball park diamond and then they all enjoyed a rock climbing wall, inflatables, cake walk (my son won TWO cakes!), hair painting (my son had an Astro's red and black star spray painted on the top of his head), pitching game, tug of war, etc., not to mention all the food provided by Chick-Fil-A. (BTW, Chick-Fil-A is another fast food restaurant that I had not heard of before moving to Texas)!

Project 365 ~ Day 58 (February 27, 2009)

Girl Scouting: We are a "scouting" family. My youngest, Hunter, was a cub scout in first grade. Had things gone more smoothly that year, I am sure that he would still be a boy scout! My daughters, Courtney and Peyton, were both in scouting (and Peyton still is). Courtney was in girl scouts in elementary school. Peyton started in scouts in fifth grade in Texas. I would have put her in a troop in Ohio, but there was not enough interest at her elementary school for a troop to be formed. The troop she is in here has been the same one, with the same leader and same girls (except for the addition of a couple and the leaving of a few girls), since she was in fifth grade. Peyton's leader's name is Kim and her "fellow" girl scouters are Sarah, Nikki, Caroline, Summer and Maddie. This is a great group of girls! No problems whatsoever. And they are now considered "senior" scouts! Peyton is working on her silver award now. One of the troop members has a very ill parent and the girls are going to cook a meal for that parent (and family) this week. This is also teaching them the christian principle of reaching out to others in need. And as Mother Theresa would say: "Even if they don't want help, you help them anyway".

Project 365 ~ Day 57 (February 26, 2009)

My 10 year-old son's baseball team, the "Astro's", have their first practice game of the season tonight. If I am not mistaken (imagine that! LOL), Little League's Spring season started a month earlier this year. We're still finishing up basketball and yet baseball games are starting. We've been having baseball practice since January! I don't recall it being this early in the past. Or maybe I am just more tired than usual? Go 'Stro's! (And after the practice game tonight, I am taking a scorekeeper's class)!

Project 365 ~ Day 56 (February 25, 2009)

The kids and I saw 'Coraline' a few days ago. It is directed by Tim Burton's "Nightmare Before Christmas". The movie is based on a 2002 fantasy/horror novella written by Neil Gaiman. I believe that Peyton (my 15 yo) enjoyed the movie to an extent, but my 10 yo son thought it was scary in parts, especially when Coraline's "other mother" wants to sew buttons over Coraline's eyes. She escapes but not without severing the hand of her "other mother" which comes to haunt her by trying to steal the key to the hidden door and allowing the "other mother" to visit. After Coraline has escaped, she finds that her real parents are missing. Hence, there are some scenes that are terrifying to young children. I would recommend the movie for those over the age of 11 at least.

Project 365 ~ Day 55 (February 24, 2009)

Today is International Pancake Day! Mmmm.... love those pancakes! My mother used to make what she called "sand dollar pancakes" which were in fact the size of the larger sand dollars (only about 3 to 4 inches in diameter). I miss those days of my mother cooking when I was growing up. But my favorite pancakes as an adult are the cinnamon pancakes found only at Bob Evans restaurants. We had one back home but they don't exist in Texas (the Bob Evans restaurants that is). Oh, if only I could have another Bob Evans' cinnamon pancake!!!

Project 365 ~ Day 54 (February 23, 2009)

Bunco! I love Bunco! I had never heard of it before moving to Texas, however. Here it seems to be almost as addictive as scrapbooking amongst the women. The first time I played it was during a Girl Scout Mother-Daughter Mother's Day event with my daughter, Peyton. Then not very long ago, a dear scrapbooking friend (Suzanne) asked me if I would like to fill in as a bunco player at her house one evening. I had a blast! I even won a prize (although I don't remember what the prize was for LOL). And the food was wonderful! Tons of it! I am now going to play with them every month (there's about 12 women in this group that get together once a month to play bunco). Bring on the dice! I call BUNCO!

Project 365 ~ Day 53 (February 22, 2009)

Woo-hoo! My little boy's basketball team, aka "Rockets", is going to the play-offs! Their semi-final game is on March 2 and if they win that one, they'll go to the finals on March 4. Only the top two teams of both the east and the west divisions go to the play-offs. They then have tournaments starting on March 7. All teams go to the tournaments. Those playing in the all-star games will have those after the tournaments are over. The league that my son plays in is Clear Lake Boys Basketball. He had to try out to get a place on the team! Let's go, Rockets! Win, win, win!!!

Project 365 ~ Day 52 (February 21, 2009)

I cannot help but wonder what's going on with our country that we are slowly losing our freedoms. This is happening right under our noses and we are so oblivious to what's going on or is it that we just don't care? Why can't we speak up and let our voices be heard? Our country is turning into a country of socialism; we are losing our freedom as individuals. With the plans to make health insurance a government choice and not an individual's choice, we are slowly beginning to fade. If a procedure is needed to prolong life, the government will have a say as to whether or not it is worth it according to how long that person's life will be prolonged and so on. We won't have the choice of paying out of pocket as europeans do because the government won't allow those who have the most money to pay for the best care. We also depend on imports and exports and when other countries get wind of us becoming socialists, they won't want to trade with us and we'll be doomed. And once our government takes away our freedoms to choose our own healthcare, there will be no turning back as we won't have any other option open to us. What is happening to our freedom of choice? Somehow, someway, we need to let our voices be heard!

Project 365 ~ Day 51 (February 20, 2009) Friday

TGIF! I love Fridays. I believe that started when I was working at Honda and would look forward to Friday nights. Our shift at Honda started a half an hour earlier on Friday evenings, meaning we would get out of there by 12:30 a.m. instead of at 1 a.m.! That half an hour seemed to make a world of difference. Now that I have been off work (for approx. six years now), my Friday nights are still my favorites. For me, it is a night of relaxing, enjoying my free time, and watching television late into the night. Sometimes in the past, I would light candles and drink a glass of wine while watching a movie on TV. All by myself. I felt so loved by me. There's nothing wrong with pampering yourself and everyone should do something like that for themselves from time to time. Something that is relaxing and makes you feel happy and warm all over. Something for just you.

Project 365 ~ Day 50 (February 19, 2009) Thursday

Today is the 50th day of the year. Not sure why I mentioned that! LOL On my mind today, however, is something sad. A dear lady that worked in the childcare department at our church passed away unexpectedly. She was only a couple or so years older than me! She had gotten pneumonia and finally ended up in the hospital a couple of weeks later. She died that weekend. Peyton worked with her on Monday nights and at other times at church. We didn't go to the funeral as it was during school hours and I thought it best that she remember Rachael the way she was and not what she looked like at the funeral home. The sad part though is that Peyton didn't get to say her good-byes to her at the viewing. We had wanted to go to that, but things happened that prevented us from doing so. I really regret not getting her there even though I physically couldn't. I will be touching base with Peyton and I will ask her how she feels about Rachael's passing.

Project 365 ~ Day 49 (February 18, 2009)

Today is Wednesday the 18th. I have been concentrating this morning on things that I need to get caught up on: phone calls, bill paying, finishing recipes for a recipe swap (scrapbooking group), etc. I procrastinate way too much! I have asked God to help me be better about getting things done on time and not waiting to the last minute to do so. Be careful for what you ask God to help you with! Be ready for what happens when He begins to teach you a lesson! Because I procrastinated, all kinds of things happened (a chain of events) that would not have happened had I not put things off to the last minute. Wow! I could see God teaching me a lesson in every step of the way! I am very aware now of consequences to our actions, late and otherwise.

Project 365 ~ Day 48 (February 17, 2009) Tuesday

Today is the 17th of the month already. Time sure is flying by. I think that the older I get, the more it seems to evaporate.

Project 365 ~ Day 47 (February 16, 2009) Monday

Peyton's back in her school today although I am not sure she's very happy about it?! Hmm....not sure why but I will be trying to find out. Her high school is very over-crowded and students get lost in the shuffle of things. It can be very overwhelming for a student with ADD.