Pinewood Derby

Last night was Jaden's first pinewood derby with the cub scouts. He has been working hard on his car, enlisting all sorts of help not only from mom and dad but also the grandparents. After perusing car design ideas on-line he decided what shape he wanted for the batmobile that he wanted to create. It been a fun process that I think he really enjoyed.
Yesterday I was too sick with a stomach bug to go to the race, but Joshua took the boys and they had a great time. Jaden won several races and ended up coming in 3rd place! He was very excited, especially when he got a trophy for his 3rd place finish. And now that he's done this once, who konws what sort of design he'll come up with for next year. 80)

Places to go. . .

I've been dreaming of traveling lately. . . ok, I know I often dream of traveling, but the big has hit even harder lately. So I decided to write down my top places I'd like to visit before I die. (In no specific order)
1. St Petersburg, Russia (Moscow as well)
2. Great Wall of China, and the rest of China
3. Taj Mahal, India
4. Myunmar
5. Egypt
6. the Fjords of Norway
7. Denmark
8. Austria
9. Italy (Rome, Pompeii, Venice, Naples, Florence)
10. Malta
11. Portugal
12. Morocco
13. Singapore
14. Hong Kong
15. Japan (I've only been to the airport)
16. Hawaii (I've been here, but was too young to really remember)
17. Greece
18. England
19. Turkey
20. New Zealand
21. Machu Pichu, Peru
22. Crater lake, Oregon
23. New York City
24. Prince Edward Island, Canada
25. Scotland
26. Ireland
hmm. . . I know there is a lot more than that, but it's a starter list. Any suggestions of great places that I'm missing?

The state of things

Ok, not really sure why I picked that title as this is mainly more ramblings. . .
First, I have to acknowledge the big day tomorrow. I freely admit that I didn't vote for Obama (based on policy stuff as I'm a lot more conservative/capitalistic than he is, but I did like him personally better than that other guy on the ticket), anyway I am really proud of our country reaching this point. When I returned to the States after growing up overseas, I remember being shocked that race was still an issue on people's minds. I guess growing up reading the history books I thought that everything happened sooooo long ago that no one remembered things except in the history books. I remember being surprised that anyone even cared what color a person's skin was. Then I quickly became tired of the discussion from both sides. In my naivete not understanding why people couldn't just forget about it and move on. But I must say, I am proud that we have reached a point where an African American can be freely elected the leader of the country. It is a big day for our country, to show ourselves and the world that we have reached this point. It's definitely a day that I am proud to see arrive.
Second, In my blog readings I came across a blog of a young family in need of prayer. It hit home as their first child was born, immediately had problems, and was rushed away to a Children's hospital and put on a list to possibly need ECMO. For those of you not familiar with ECMO and Jaden's story go back to the beginning of my blog entries in last March-one entitled "The Big One" and you can catch up on why this is especially heart wrenching for me. (on a side note I was using middle names at that point instead of our first names, but you can figure it out). Anyway if you are interested here's her blog http://www.kellyskornerblog.com/ and you can keep updated on Baby Harper and put her in your prayers.
Other happenings in our lives. . . nothing to crazy. With the weather last week being so cold we had "cold" days both Thursday and Friday so the kids have had a 5 day weekend this week. While normally I would relish this extra time at home together, I had a migrane thursday-saturday, and it was by far the worst I've had in years so I was feeling desperate to have the house quiet, dark, and not to have to move at all. I was so thankful when Lisa showed up Friday morning and whisked all 3 kids away to her house for the day, they came home at the same time as Joshua that night. Friends are such a blessing! Not sure why this one was so bad, they have been getting worse the past year, but this one was far beyond. Joshua is wondering if maybe the Truvia had some effect on it, but I'm really hoping that isn't the case.

ramblings

There has been no big "events" in the past week, just normal life. Which is kind of nice. So since I have nothing monumental to say I'll ramble for a few minutes. . .
Truvia, I am so happy to have this product in normal markets now! It's the latest zero calorie sugar substitute, but unlike all of it's predecessors this is made from completely natural products, has no chemicals, or reasons why my husband would disapprove of it's use. For those of you that don't know my husband, he doesn't allow any of the other sugar substitutes, MSG, and a variety of other chemicals and additives in the house (this is a side effect of too much schooling to become a Chiropractic Neurologist). So Truvia is the hope of my new "diet" as I can put it in the gallons of tea I am currently drinking in an effort to curb my munching craziness. Look for it at a store near you.
I'm making progress on organization. . . after saying all last semester that I was going to start the phonics reading program with Colten, I finally dug it out over the weekend, and we started it today. It went great! He's so excited to be learning (I hope that continues!), and it brought back that love of teaching feeling from me. Maybe I should homeschool just so I can teach again. *smile*
I also managed to drag out my scrapbooking stuff so that hopefully I can get started on those final 3 months I need to put in Ashtyn's first year scrapbook and get that done. I'm wanting to finish that so I can get to putting together the digital scrapbooks I'd like to make next.
Hope you all are having a great week!

Resolutions

Well, it is once again a new year. I know it's cliche but I really can't believe how quickly the year has flown by.
Someone asked me about resolutions this week so here is my one resolution: to finish all my resolutions from last year as I didn't complete any of them, but they are still things that I would like to do.
So I guess that actually gives me a couple of resolutions. The first is to drop 20lbs plus whatever weight I've put on over this holiday season, second to finish Ashtyn's first year scrapbook (I did make progress on this this year, but I still have a few months left in order to be finished with it). More obscure resolutions that I had this year that I made progress on but that I'd like to make even more progress on: first do better with everyday expenses to cut the budget, don't know how to cut further but there has to be a way and I need to find it, and not give in to little desires. Being better organized at dividing my time between home, kids, Joshua, work and me-I think I've been doing better here but still needs work. So there it is, nothing new, but reconvictions to finish what I started a year ago now. Hopefully this time I'll feel like I accomplish all of it by year's end.
What resolutions have you all set? Hope you had a Happy New Year!