I just may eat fleas!

Surely they can't taste that bad. They are so tiny. But do know what they might contain? Tapeworm eggs! Do you know what tapeworms do? That's right - cause you to lose weight! I am so sick of being hungry. At least with a tapeworm I would be eating everything in sight and still losing weight, although I think you would most likely be hungry still. Did you know they used to sell diet pills with the eggs inside them? I don't guess the FDA liked that very much. But honestly that sounds better than eating fleas! And you know they make medicine to get rid of them, so what is there to lose? Mom was on a diet as long as I can remember. I guess I was lucky enough to inherit those genes! She joined Weight Watchers years ago and now I am following in those footsteps. I am slowly getting used to the hunger and it is actually working. So I really don't have too much to complain about, but I think worms would be easier.

Summer at last!

We are officially on summer break and boy are we glad! I got to sleep in just a bit this morning and it was wonderful! It is so irronic that the kids will continue to awaken fairly early like they are used to while I beg for them to roll over and go back to sleep. Then the week or two before going back to school in the fall guess what! They finally get the whole idea and begin to sleep in! I am just hoping that they will learn the lesson earlier this year!

So what is on tap for summer? Extra work for me:-( at least for this month. One of the offices I work in is closing. The owner is retiring and we are closing our doors. Lots of people are really sad about that and I am too. The other office will pick up the slack for me though. I am glad I have backup!

We are planning a weekend trip to Branson with some friends. I hope to get the kids in a VBS program since our church is not doing one this year. Sarah will probably attend a day camp or two and visit her aunt with horses. Hogan gets to go to grandmothers all by himself for a few days for the first time! Steve and I have a trip to Vegas later in the summer with his work.:-) Looking for sitters! Hint Hint! And I may (hopefully) am going to OK to volunteer for a few days at Voice of the Martyr!!!! This is really exciting for me since I have wanted to do this for years. A group of ladies from our church are planning a trip. It will be nice to meet these other ladies as well.

And the big one, Josh will marry at the end of this month! It is hard to believe it is just a few weeks away. The problem with being so much older than your sibling is you feel they are just a baby, when in fact he is older than I was when I got married! (I must have been so much more mature haha!) Anyway, we are very excited to welcome his fiancee into our family! She is so sweet and puts up with Josh! (Gotta love that huh!) They are already getting their apartment ready. I remember how exciting and scary that first house is. And they are in an apartment, so they will have neighbors to listen to all their first year "discussions"! Don't we know how those go! Even mild mannered Josh can get his dander up occassionally!

Well, that's all for now! The shower is calling!

Busy little beavers.

We seemed to have been so busy since April. I hope this is not a precedent for the summer. I hope it is just trying to squeeze everything into spring and nice weather! Steve and I have been very busy remodeling the "shop". It has served as an unfinished junk room for the last several years and we had begun to finish it out for mom's business. Well, when we moved here we began talking about what we wanted to do with the half finished "shop". We finally decided it would serve out family the best for now as a playroom. Steve takes Jui-Jitsu and has mats he wants to put in there to wrestle on. (Honestly, I think the mats are why we are making it the playroom!) But I will be glad to have a place to keep all the kids toys. It is not in the house but just off the kitchen. I think it will be a room where we sort of live. I plan on putting a couch and TV in there and maybe my scrap booking stuff. I think it will be a great hang out location. And it may serve as an escape when we begin the house remodel! I'll be sure to post pics when it is a little more finished. You won't believe the colors!

Then there is always the yard! Lots of it too! I am not doing to well keeping up with all the mowing right now. It keeps raining here! By the time it dries out it rains again! We also have to keep our other house's yard mowed. It is still on the market. We are praying it will sell soon. I hate that it is just sitting there. I hope someone will fall in love with it soon. It needs a family in it again. Right now I call it the most expensive bathroom in town! If I am out shopping and I need a potty break, I stop by and check on things, change and feed the baby, then go back to my errands. I will miss my private bathroom, but I will not miss the extra mowing!

Steve took Hogan on a special father son vacation last week. They went to the cabin and fished, hiked and hung out. They went to play minature golf and go cart riding. Sarah, Josiah and I all joined then several days later. I shopped just a little, and we hiked, fished and played for a few days. Steve's dad was able to join us for a couple of days as well. It was a great getaway.

Saturday we had our annual cemetery clean up day this weekend. We raked leaves and mowed grass and visited with family. It was really hot, but so nice to see everyone. We ate lunch afterwards and ended up having dinner with most everyone as well. Anna says when our generation is in charge we are going to hire the work done and have the reunion at the park!

Well, I can't think of much else right now. I'm kinda tired. So off to bed!

Rice, Cucumbers, and Orange Juice!!!!

You may wonder what in the world those three items may have in common. Well in my mind just about nothing, but to my dear husband and poor innocent son apparently they spell dinner! Yes that is what I said dinner... rice, cucumbers, and OJ. Nothing more, nothing less! Don't ask me how they arrived at this decision, I was not involved or consulted and thankfully did not have to partake! You see they are away on a father-son weekend. I have always wondered what these were like and after I got the menu, I knew I was very glad I was born female! They are not even roughing it! They are staying in a nice cabin in a busy town! They weren't even desperate and eating only what was available. They went to the grocery store and purchased the lovely combination of culinary refinement! I am still shaking my head and laughing. Makes my dinner of shredded wheat sound 5 star-ish!

My Dancing Queen

Last night was one of my favorite nights of the year. We go downtown to a big auditorium and watch my baby girl dance her little heart out. She has prepared all year for this night in the spotlight and she loves it! She loves the costume, make-up, hair, and attention. For the first time last night she was nervous. She has performed for the last 4 years and has never seemed nervous. But she was very brave once we prayed together and never missed a step! As I was watching her last night I was remembering all the other dances. The first year she was only 3 and her daddy had to play a horse for her! Poor guy had to be on his hands and knees on hard ground in front of hundreds of people. But she looked so cute sitting on top of his back blowing her kiss to the audience! Then the next year she was a cute ballerina in tu-tu and all. The third year she danced to "Achy Breaky Heart" which was right up her little cowgirl alley! Then this year it was "Dancing Queen"! I just laughed when I found out what their song was going to be! Not that I love the song, but it was from my time and the title so describes my daughter! She used to literally spend hours dancing in our living room for us. She loved the colors of her costume this year. I think the costumes in the past were cuter, but I think she thought this year's was more grown up! :-( Her daddy gave her a dozen long stemmed red roses after her performance as well. Once again reflecting on years past...the first year she danced, we ALL gave her flowers. She was so tiny standing there in her red cowgirl costume with an arm load of flowers! She was completely overwhelmed and for the life of her, she could not figure out why we were making her hold so many flowers while we took 2 million pictures! Last night we saw another bewildered little girl with an armload of flowers while about 15 adults stood around with flashing cameras and I just laughed to myself!

These dances require a lot from both mom and daughter. On Thursday we have rehearsal. I check her out of school just a little early and go get gas. I then have to run my car thought the car wash because we will see everyone we know! In the car wash I have her change into her costume! Then we race into town. Once at the auditorium we find a place to sit and wait. Once her class is called up they practice several times and we get last minute costume inspection and instruction. Then we have to wait at least 2 hours so we can practice the Finale! So we get to bed late this night. Then again the following day, I check her out just a little early and we head home for a bath and hair washing! We get her dressed up in a cute dress and apply heavy stage make-up by the very specific instructions, put her hair up still wet and practically glue it in place. Then we grab a snack and drink and head to town again! This time we go straight to the dressing room and change there (on performance night you can't wear any part of your costume in the general public!). We take several pictures and make last minute costume adjustments (I take needle and thread!) She is then taken with her class to wait in the wings and entire hour before the show begins! We then head to find seats (Grandmother is with me and helping me this year!) We meet daddy and the boys and everyone else coming to see our little DQ. She is about the 6th dance and after she is done, I run to the dressing room to meet her. More pictures. Change into cute dress taking even the ribbon out of her hair. She comes to out seats and sees everyone and watches a couple of dances with us then she and I head back to the dressing room and get back into costume. This year I watched 1 too many dances and we are the last one to change. Her whole little class is ready and yelling "hurry Sarah, hurry!" Never mind we have at least 9 more dances before finale. We get back into costume in record time and she joins them as they are going upstairs again to wait in the wings. I head back to our seats, finish the show and race once again back to the dressing room. We change back into the cute dress for the last time! We gather all our stuff and head back to the seats to rejoin everyone for more pictures. Finally we head to a restaurant to eat and rest!!!! I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!

Welcome Eden Marie!

Jana and Brad welcomed their second baby girl into the world last night at 9:26! She was born after a frustrating day for mom and dad. Jana began having contractions at 9:00 that morning and sometime after 10 they decided it was time! They got in the car and Brad asked Jana to tell him when the next contraction began. She said she just sat there and sat there! Once in the hospital she had a few more then they hooked her up and she just sat there again! Finally they decided to let her go but felt she would be back soon. Sure enough just 4 hours later she was back and she was serious! Less than 5 hours later little ( ummm, big) Eden made what seemed to be an almost effortless entry! (At least effortless on my part- heehee!) She weighed in at 9# 4.8 ounces!! and over 21 inches long! She is adorable and seems to have a very mild mannered personality, but we all know time will tell the truth on that one! Emily was very excited to see her new baby sister. She was so gentle with her. I took tons of pictures, but mostly with Jana's camera. I will post one soon with her permission.

Our Easter Egg Experiment

Sorry it has been so long since I last posted. March has been difficult this year. But I finally thought, life is too short to feel so down all the time. My sadness won't change anything for the better anyway. That's not to say that I was under the covers all month, but I certainly did not feel like blogging or talking about it. I had picked out a nice blog to post on mom's site and never did. Maybe I will still do that but for now it is not there. We did go to her grave and took some daffodils from the yard. I don't go there very often even though it is just practically next door. I don't know why, maybe it is because I have three kids and had rather play with them. But it was nice to go with my family. We still have not ordered her headstone and I have been beating myself up over that one. I want it to be perfect and have not decided EXACTLY what I want to put on it. But I think it is time to decide and get that done too. We will have a family get together soon where lots of extended family come and we clean up the cemetery and I want the headstone in place before that. (Don't want everyone to think we are neglectful!)

Anyway that is just a little reason why I have avoided this spot for a while. Now on to fun stuff! See the eggs. Take 3 guesses as to how I got them so red!!! Yes they were plan old white eggs from the store. Are you ready for this! Onions! Did you guess right? I took the skins of 15 yellow onions, boiled them then steeped them for about 30 minutes then brought it to room temperature and boiled my eggs in the strained liquid! They were absolutely beautiful! We learned that the Greek tradition is to dye eggs red to remind them of Christ's blood and the egg represents new life. So we took this little basket to guys who run our wonderful local Greek restaurant. It was a great experiment and good lesson for the kids.

New adventure!

People look at my plate and think it is overflowing on all sides. I guess that is one way to see it, but I look at it and see all the wonderful things in my life. I think I love almost every activity in it. I do complain some about being tired or too busy but I guess I am strictly a type A personality. I love projects and challenges. I love to keep my mind and body active. I hope the only casualty of my busy life is a clean house.

So are you dying to know what I got myself into now? I have just recently signed up to be a Southern Living at Home consultant. yeah yeah yeah, I know it is direct sales, but I am really excited. I went to a party just because it is the polite thing to do. While there I got interrupted by a small "emergency" and left with a quick order and a catalogue. I agreed to host a catalogue party to help out my friend that gave the party. I must have looked at the poor catalogue a thousand times. Every day I changed what I wanted. My list only grew longer the more I looked at it! I feel in love with everything they have! So I am going to try this. I haven't sold anything other than books at my book fair fundraisers since I was in high school selling ice cream at the mall. At the fundraisers I always enjoy meeting people and talking to them. I think that will be one of the real perks about this new adventure.

So, if you get an invitation for a party, just know I am only trying to share one of the new interests in my life with you. I promise not to be pushy or sneaky. Just excited! Oh, and if you want to host a party (wink, wink) I'll be thrilled!

You may check out my web page at www.southernlivingathome.com/angietitus
You can actually browse the latest catalogue and order online from my homepage! Just click on the "Our Products" link on the left. The entire catalogue will come up and you can browse each wonderful page!
Happy shopping!