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[PamsPride]

OMG! OMG! OMG!!
One of my prayers was answered today in a big way! I have been praying for other large families to join our church.....well, today a guy came with NINE kids!!!! 6 boys and 3 girls! His oldest boy had to be right around the same age as my oldest or a little younger. His youngest two were in my 4 yo DD's class!
LOL! Pastor passes out cookies to visitors that come for the first time and Roger got the cookies and pastor mentioned that he had NINE kids! I was like Whoa doggie! I have got to find out who that is! I guess my DH turned to the sound guy next to him and said I am sure my wife is going to have to meet him! LOL! So when we got out of church DH was like I knew you were going to meet him...I was like stalk was more like it!! LOL! I looked for new kids on the nursery check out thing and found out his name, Roger, from his slip then saw him come out with his oldest carrying the box of cookies! Went right up and introduced myself!!! And OMG! He is eccentric! Kind of loud! LOVES kids! He came from a family of 11! He has one brother that lives in the next town over, 5 miles away, that has 5 kids...praying they will start coming to the church now too! His wife was at work so I did not get to meet her. He brought all 9 kids to church by himself this morning. 6 of his kids live with him....3 with his ex-wife....4 kids by first wife and 5 by the second wife but, he has full custody of his oldest.
The kids came out of children's church and said they LOVED it!! He said he is going to start coming to the church now! He moved from in town out to the country to get his children away from all of the stuff that goes on in the city. He only lives like 5 minutes from the church....just a few houses down from where we take the kids to TKD!
Haha! I was saying that I wanted more kids but my DH says no. Roger was joking around with my DH and telling him if it makes the wife happy and you get to have fun making her happy how can you say no??
Roger said he just loves kids and wishes he could of had 10 boys! Says he loves babies the most...except for all of the diapers!
I came home from church and told my mom about the conversation and she was like you found that all out in just a few minutes of talking to him? I was like YEAH! You get two talkative people with something as awesome as this in common it is easy to talk! LOL!
Oh, I am so excited!! I will have to invite them over for dinner so the kids can get to know each other!

 

[PamsPride]

Sigh! I am TIRED! The house is a MESS!! It is back to school time...way to soon!! But, thankfully it is back to work for DH!

7 yo DS cut two of his fingers last night...BAD!! 4 stiches in his pinky and one on his ring finger. He had just opened up a can of applesauce and it started to fall off of the counter and he tried to catch it. The lid caught two of his fingers! So I spent the evening in the ER yesterday! Of course the roads were terrible the whole way!
My DH TOTALLY FREAKED OUT when DS cut his fingers! I had to handle it all and calm him down too!

We are just buried in snow here! We have over a foot!

We were given a computer this past week! What a blessing from God that is! It has all of the bells and whistles on it! Stuff to do slide shows and dvd's and such! A friend of DH's gave it to us. He is a computer geek, went into the airforce, is getting shipped out soon, and can not take it with him!

I have been getting a little frustrated with 4 yo DD lately. She has been getting into the fridge and cupboard and wasting a LOT of food!! Today she dumped over the popcorn kernel container and wasted like 2 quart jars of popcorn kernels. I thought it got cleaned up....just to go into the bedroom where she had been playing to see that she had dumped about a quart of milk and the kernels into a hard had!! She had oodles of noodles for lunch...did not eat them! She is terrible about wasting milk, juice, and cereal!! I have now threatened her that she will be in big trouble if I see her getting into anything that is not her breakfast, lunch or dinner! I am so frustrated with her food wasting!

 

[TanksHill]

Great to hear about the computer. That is awesome!! Sorry about your sons fingers. My sil dropped a knife off the of counter once. It stuck in the top of her foot. Ouch!!!

Funny thing about your 4yo and her eating habits. My 4yo dd is kinda at the same stage. Maybe it has to do with growth spurts or something. My Sophia says to me "Hummm, Mom let me see whats in the fridge. I usually give her 2 or 3 options and tell her thats all I have. Decisions , decisions.

Any more news about the new family at church?? have you met his wife?? Just wondering.

Have a great day.

gina

 

[PamsPride]

They did not come yesterday! I am guessing it is because the roads were so bad. Attendance was really down yesterday.

I talked to my DH yesterday about our church habits changing because I am so frustrated with it. DH runs the sound system EVERY Sunday...for the last 5 or more years. 14 yo runs the camera. 10 yo runs the sound system in the childrens church. DH gets up and goes to both services taking 14 yo, 10, yo and 7 yo with him. I get up later and got to second service with 12 yo, 4 yo, and baby girl. We go separately and leave separately. He does not do anything to monitor the kids at all because he is running the sound system. Some of the kids want to leave church with him but he shuts down the sound system and if I don't stay that leaves the kids unsupervised for like 20 minutes while he is doing that...not like they would just sit next to him and wait! 14 yo is good but 7 yo likes to run around and I can't stand that.
I have told him that 14 yo is only allowed to run the camera every other Sunday from now on. No more going to both services. We get up and go to Sunday school and then second service as a family and leave as a family. I think I will be nice but firm this Sunday but after that if he gets up and goes without me I am NOT going to go! Just to get my point across! There are 8 people in my family and I feel like a single mom on Sunday morning and I sit all by myself! I was out most of the services this past Sunday because the baby did not want to stay in the nursery...but of course (according to the Pastor) I and my 14 yo are to be in services and the baby is supposed to be in the nursery...but it is ok for 14 yo to run the camera every Sunday! He has been doing it EVERY Sunday since the Pastor said something about him having the baby out in the hall. I feel like I am being such a whiner with all of my frustrations lately. SORRY!

 

[PamsPride]

Found some upcycled things I thought I would share just 'cause I think they are cool!! LOL!

Dryer pillow sheets made out of t-shirt sleeves (leftover from making t-shirt bags)
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=31154196

Corn hole bags! These just rock!
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=16698795

You could make your own undies out of recycled t-shirts: ( I know I am weird but I have really been wanting to make some!)
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.ph...ade&ga_page=&includes[]=tags&includes[]=title

A t-shirt lap quilt!
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.ph...de&ga_page=7&includes[]=tags&includes[]=title


I need to do some t-shirts like this and make nightgowns for DD!
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.ph...e&ga_page=12&includes[]=tags&includes[]=title


Wash cloth made out of t-shirts strips:
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.ph...de&ga_page=8&includes[]=tags&includes[]=title

 

[prairiegirl]

Thanks for sharing those links. Some neat things to make. My only problem is that by the time my DH's t-shirts are ready for recycling, there's nothing left to them - tears, so thin you can see through them, frayed neck. Yep, he gets his moneys worth out of clothes.

I read a bit of your previous posts and I hope you are feeling better with things. Thankfully, we can sit as a family at mass.
Sending a prayer for you and your family.

 

[ksalvagno]

I was just reading about the things in your church. It seems like that is everywhere. You have a few people who volunteer and then there is the rest. When you are the volunteer, then you get stuck because no one else will help. Sometimes you just have to take a step back and let others come forward. But you have to be firm about it. So they go without a camera one Sunday. I bet someone would volunteer then. I had to do that with cleaning the church. The pastor kept asking for volunteers to help me and no one would. I finally said that I quit. Voila, all the families in the church started helping out and taking turns with cleaning.

I also think it is the winter. Everyone is cooped up. Once spring comes and you can get those kids outside, it will be better. Just hang in there and vent when you have to.

 

[PamsPride]

Yes, thank you! Things are better! All of the kids and I went to church together...DH still went by himself. But, he did help with the kids after church because I was doing the gift card program for the M-Pact girls. We have now worked it out that 14 yo will only be running the camera every other Sunday and I will be firm about that!
They started a new class on Wednesday night...The Bait of Satan and I have really been enjoying that. I think a lot of my discontentment at church was from my dealings with the Pastor. I have really been praying about my feelings toward him and a lot of my anger has been released.
The gentleman with 9 kids has not been back to church again.

Today DH is going to pick up a 'new' single bed. I guess it is one of those posturopedic (???) beds. Vicki's, who was also coming to the quilting meetings, dad died a couple of weeks ago. He was living with her....it was his. (No, he did not die in it! He had a heart attack and fell down the steps. )

I see all of these wonderfully awesome upcycle sewing stuff and it makes me want to become a hoarder!! (More than I am already!! LOL!)

I did buy a whole bunch of stuff for a first aid kit yesterday as well as stocked up on some toiletries. The lady at the check out questioned my amount shaving cream I was getting. I told her "That is a sore subect in our house. 4 yo DD likes to empty the cans out everytime she takes a bath in my bathroom. Then when DH goes to shave he has none!" And that was not lying! LOL!

The boys are praying that the baby would start walking on her first birthday...Jan 24th. It seems like she has been standing FOREVER and walking around the furniture FOREVER but still not walking on her own. She is a very cautious child though.

I got my mom the long arm quilting thing for Christmas and she is actually planning on using it here in the next couple of weeks! Even if she makes just one quilt we will have have got our money's worth out of it.

The girls' birthdays are the 24th and 27th....of this month! I am hoping to get them a custom boutique cupcake outfit done for that! Here's hoping!!

The snow is finally starting to melt here...so we only have like 4 or 5 inches of snow on the ground now! LOL!

 

[TanksHill]

Great crafty up-cycling ideas. I was thinking about doing some rag rugs soon. I have lots of big old sheet stuff around.

My Dh b day is the 24th and my mom the 25th. It's a busy month for us as well.

Good luck on the cupcake outfits!!! Post pics when your done!!

gina

 

[PamsPride]

Had a Chickie Doo meeting yesterday. It went pretty good.
We canned pickled eggs. One kind had a beet and onion mix the other kind was a balsamic vinegar, onion and garlic mix. I haven't tried either kind. I told my mom her banty eggs would be perfect for pickled eggs because they are bite size.
It was actually one of our most procuctive meetings.
The leader said she had some 2 quart canning jars that she might be willing to trade me for wide mouth quart jars! I am hoping so!! I could totally use some 2 quart jars for potatoes or speghetti sauce!
The one thing that we did differently was 'bake' the canning jars in the oven to sterilize them...rather than water bath can them. That actually seemed to work very well!! We were able to have 10 jars ready and waiting to be filled at one time verse having to boil each jar separately. The way things were done though (a bit unorganized) the jars did not seal properly so we have to keep them in the 'fridge to marinate.

DD is 5 today!! We had the girls birthday party on Saturday. That went well. I got their boutique 'Cupcake' outfits done on Saturday evening.
I finally went and got the baby's picture professionally taken...for the first time! I know! I am a total slacker!!

DH and I are now seeing a professional marriage counselor. We are still meeting with our Pastor also. We met with our Pastor on Saturday (before the birthday party) and he set us up with the professional counselor, which we met with Monday evening. We are meeting with the Pastor again this evening and the professional again next Monday. For the first time in 12 years of marriage I feel like there is actually being progress made! I believe that 99% of my marriage problems have to do with my DH's anger issues. So I am hoping and praying he can get them resolved.

The boys and I went to an Iridoligist (sp?) / herbal person last week. It was very eye opening for me! She had a new gizmo thing this time that you put your hand on and then it ran a test and then told you what things...herbs/vitamins that your body was defficient in or needed to help itself heal. ALL of us showed up with major stress in our systems!

Baby girl is super close to walking!! She has been taking one step with a LOT of coaxing! She is just so super cautious!