Sunday, January 29, 2006

Oops, I've been neglecting my posting duties

Not much is going on here, other than fighting with my laptop. Chris installed an updated version of Norton and now I can barely get my email, and even more rarely send any out. It's frustrating, so I have been avoiding it altogether. We are going to look for a new ISP, as we suspect that is the real problem.

Troyer is away on a campout this weekend, with his Pathfinders group. He's up in the mountains, so I hope there is some snow for him to play in. The boys have been really disappointed at our mild winter (I, however, LOVE IT!) and whine about no snow. They still have 2 months or so left of winter, so they may yet get their wish.

Today was so nice we drove over to MILs just for a visit, and while there FIL asked if two of the boys could stay for the week. I agreed, as long as Noah would do the school work I assigned him (he has to research snakes online and draw me a diagram of snake guts - we had been having a discussion about it earlier in the day) and read a book and write me a report. Homeschooling is so nice! It's no big deal to just adjust the work when we need to so they can go have fun!

Ok, that is about it, just wanted you all to know that I'm still around!

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

I'm Weird

Ok, since I've been tagged twice, I guess I'd better do this meme LOL

Five weird habits of yourself:

“The first player of this game starts with the topic ‘five weird habits of yourself,’ and people who get tagged need to write an entry about their five weird habits as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose the next five people to be tagged and link to their web journals. Don’t forget to leave a comment in their blog or journal that says ‘You are tagged’ (assuming they take comments) and tell them to read yours.”

1. I hate taking showers. I do it, so don't worry about getting too close to me, I keep clean; but I hate it. It's not the getting wet part, I don't mind that at all. I like the hot water warming up my cold hands and feet. It's the getting out part I hate. I hate having to dry off. I hate when my wet hair drips down my back and gets my shirt wet. I hate being cold again as soon as I open the shower curtain. I hate having to choose something to wear, when I hate all the clothes I own.

2. I eat icing from the can. In particular, Duncan Hines Buttercream. I don't like chocolate frosting.

3. I wish I could have 6 more kids. *Some* people don't think that's weird, but most do, so I'll include it.

4. I have selective OCD. I can let most things go, but there are some things that I do compulsively. For example, I always hang up my towel the same way, with the fold to the left and with the tag at the back. I also fold my sheets a certain way every time (actually this is because it makes it easier to put them on the bed when I get them out of the cupboard.)

5. I hate to throw up. I will swallow bile for hours trying to avoid it. I've never thrown up with morning sickness in 7 pregnancies, and I think there have been a total of 4 times in the last 20 years that I have tossed my cookies.


There you go. It took me over 2 days to come up with 5 things. I think of myself as a generally weird person, but I guess that's an overall weird, and not anything specific.

I don't have anyone to tag who hasn't already been tagged. If you feel like you're a pretty weird person, go ahead and do this one!

Monday, January 09, 2006

OK, I've finally got pictures to post!

We had a good Christmas. I think my efforts to make it fun did help; I hope next year will be even better. (I still have some cookies to bake, lol) The boys were happy with everything; they got lots of Legos, Ninja Turtle themed stuff, and the youngers got Thomas and Hot Wheels. Note the lack of anything pink ;-) (a short aside - some have been complaining about how cheap Barbie stuff is and how it breaks and gets lost; well, I think it might be a nice change here to lose or break something pink instead of the usual! Hot Wheels and Ninja Turtle and yes, even Legos, break and get lost too!) No new Muppets this year, but Troyer did get to add to his Herbie/VW collection, plus we restrung a guitar for him and got him an instruction kit with a book and audio CD. He's been begging for guitar lessons for a few years. Chris got some movies from me and an ornament for the tree. His parents were very generous to "us" - they spent a few hundred $ taking his riding mower in to get serviced, and bought him a new recliner. They also gave us a gift card to WalMart. I got a cheese knife. In fact, the cheese knife was the only thing I got to unwrap. Chris gave me a new keyboard for the laptop he passed on to me, but since I knew it was coming, he didn't wrap it. He didn't get the boys anything to give me. Not even a card.

I'll admit, this time of year is hardest for me because his family all gathers and there is lots of laughing and lots of gifts flying and oohing and ahhing, but I sat there with a cheese knife. It is not totally MIL's fault; she doesn't know me well enough to be able to shop and just find things that she knows I would love. She did try in past years, but nothing was ever "right." So I don't blame her for the gift card. But if I still had my mother, we would still go do a family thing at her house (my dad stayed hiding out in Florida, sent up $25 for each of us and called himself done) and she would have found some cute little knicknacks and silly things that I would have loved. She might also have offered to take me out to eat alone, w/o kids or something like that. MIL took Chris out to see the Narnia movie. She didn't ask if I wanted to go. Of course, he is her son, and it is natural for her to favor him over me. But it still hurts to know that I don't have anyone anymore to love me the way she loves him. My Dad behaves toward me and my sisters more like an uncle than a dad. That's the way he is, and I accept him that way, but it still means that at Christmas time the lonliness gets rubbed in.

Here are the pictures:
Christmas Breakfast
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Levi's Breakfast
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Boys Waiting
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A Full Tree
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Levi Unwrapping
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A Budding Star
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Happy Boys
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Monday, January 02, 2006

Everything Old Is New Again

For Christmas, Chris got himself a new laptop computer. He actually got it a few weeks ago, and has been spending his time transfering his files and settings from his old one. So for Christmas, I got a laptop! (Yeah, just a hand-me-down; the boys aren't the only ones in this house who suffer this fate) This means that I am spending loads of time transfering files and settings. We have also been moving files from the kids' computer onto my old one, which meant I had to wait my turn to move my stuff over onto the laptop. All this has meant that I haven't been blogging, or even loading up Christmas pictures from my camera, so I haven't been able to post. We're just about done with everything, so hopefully I'll get some pictures of Christmas morning up here soon!