Don't kick the cheese!

Don't kick the cheese! How many times do you get to say that sentence? Well, Michael just said it. (What a way to start a blog entry. A blog entry of a new blog, albeit.) Don't ask.

So anyway, yeah, I was getting rather bored with my old blog. Like, I've had it for so long, and of course it's still there as my little time capsule to look back on things worth remembering, or not so much worth remembering, so no tears will be shed. I can say goodbye with a smile on my face. I owe many thanks to my friend Karl. He has just started a myspace page of his own, and I happened to talk to him today (we rarely talk because he's so busy with his education and stuff), and he told me about it, and so I thought "what the hey?" Something new! I'm always looking for something new, whether it's rearranging the living room, getting new clothes even though I have a closet stuffed full, which always manages to explode back into the chair in the bedroom or a new site on the web that tells people stuff about me, as if anyone CARES? But you know, as my headline says, who WOULDN'T want to know more about me?

Well, things may change if I get fed up with myspace, but I have sold out to a myspace account. There I have a profile, calendar, blog, and lots more blogging options. It's not the prettiest excuse for a blog yet, but I will make it beautiful later. Here's the link if you do so wish to continue to keep up with my goings and comings. What DON'T you want to know about me? I have already made my first entry.

Today is just a gorgeous day, but a little windy. What is the deal with the wind anyway? We headed outside to pay the electric bill, and the plan was to go to the park afterwards and go for a walk out on the nature trail (which by the way, the park in Horn Lake has THE best walking trail), and it felt so nice outside, where we could go without jackets, just long sleeves. As soon as we got to the park though, here came the wind, which was a little cold on the ears, brought forth runny noses, and made me wish I had brought jackets for all of us. We walked the whole length of the trail, which is a very good workout with all the hilly places, but I didn't let the kids play on the playground for that long because I really don't want to spend tomorrow at the doctor. While I was sitting on one of the benches, a black 90's model Suburban pulled up in the parking lot and out came what appeared to be 3 families of Mexicans! I kid you not, 3 adults and about 9 kids piled out of the vehicle, one of the moms being with child. Travis enjoyed playing "house" with them, and also several rounds of tag. Travis is such an outgoing kid in most social situations, and he almost never meets a stranger, which leads me to believe he will do great in school next year. He is super smart, and he's writing most of his letters and in the beginning stages of reading. Even though we had pulled him out of school, I was able to get his workbooks and I work with him at home, which I think has actually been better for him because he doesn't get bored going at the pace all the other students were going. As a matter of fact, we've been doing 2, sometimes 3 lessons a day. I am able to throw in some more challenging things that he wouldn't have gotten otherwise at school, and I think that will really help him when he starts Kindergarten at Shadow Oaks this fall. So anyway, after we left the park, we stopped at Sonic for some drinks, which from 2 to 4 they have their own "Happy Hour" where you can get half price drinks. Travis' favorite is Ocean Water, which he has always referred to as "blue Coke", and my favorite is their raspberry iced tea. I drained a large in about 3 minutes flat. It has to be the best drink on the planet, or at least my favorite on the planet. I suppose I must go figure out something for supper because that's always the million dollar question this time of day: "What's for supper?" One question before I go though, WHERE is January??

I am on such a roller coaster spiritually it's not even funny. Is this something every Christian goes through? Does everyone have weak moments just like I do? Everything happens in spurts with me, there's no consistency it seems like. For example, I can go a month reading my Bible every single day, and I know it really helps me and I benefit from it. But then I can get off track, forget to read just one day, and then I go like 2 months straight without reading it, and I do NOT benefit from that. I just want to have a good testimony, and I feel like all eyes are on me, and I've blown it on more than one occassion. I know God has already forgiven me, but it's a really hard thing to forgive myself. I am always happiest when I am living for Him, but somehow I always manage to get sidetracked and do things my way, or do things the way the world says you should do them, and that only leads to more problems, and I know it's wrong, so why do I let it happen? There's this song I've heard more than once called "This Blessed Old Book", and there's one line in the chorus that goes "Sin keeps me from it, and it keeps me from sin." I can't even begin to explain how true that actually is. The Bible is not just a history book or a book of heroes or a fairytale. That book is alive and it is truly powerful. I just need to get back to the basics and realize the world has nothing to offer. Anything I accomplish here will not mean anything, and the only things I can take with me one day are the things I did for God. I will have a lot of answering to do one day, that's for sure.

It's sort of strange, almost surreal the anniversaries that come close together. Yesterday marked 7 years that me and Michael have been together. That's more than twice as long as any other relationship I've been in. I guess that means I'm grown up or something. Imagine that!

The other anniversary, which is not so much on the happier scale, is the 20th anniversary of the Challenger explosion. Time is a funny thing, because I can honestly remember getting ready to go to my afternoon Kindergarten class, watching the story unfold on the breaking news with Dan Rather, huge crocodile tears forming in his eyes. The astronaut that sticks out the most in my mind is Christa McAuliffe, who would've been the first teacher in space. I think her story to be very much an inspirational one. I'm just having a hard time believing that it happened 20 YEARS ago.

It's late and I have a long day ahead tomorrow. Nite.

We are smack dab in the middle of the very basketball season all Tiger fans have been anxiously waiting on, and Coach Calipari has been promising. Today the new rankings came out, and we are now #3 in the nation...UConn's No. 1, Duke's No. 2, and MEMPHIS is No. 3!! Pinch me hard...am I dreaming? Are we making our own rendition of "Glory Road"? If I am dreaming, do not wake me! We took Travis on a 600-mile road trip Saturday to Hattiesburg, MS to see the Tigers take on the Golden Eagles of Southern Miss, and FINALLY the curse was broken. We finally observed a win in that little gym! The Tigers are now 17-2, our only losses being to the current No. 2 Duke, and the current No. 5 Texas. Here's to crossing my fingers and saying my prayers that we don't drop any stupid games to any of the mediocre unranked neanderthols called teams that are merely existing in our conference. Should I have just said that? Is that bad karma? Is that even how you spell neanderthols? My spellchecker isn't working for whatever reason.

I guess I should go do some actual housework now so that I can say I did something productive today. Yeah....rrrrright. TTFN!

Potty training can be so frustrating. I almost don't remember it being quite this hard with Travis. Jacob knows how to go raise the lid, take off his pull-up, and stand there, but he hasn't figured out how to actually GO. It just won't come out. He wants to go in there 15 times, trying over and over, so I guess that's a good thing. He has seen Travis go a million times, so maybe he knows what to do, we just don't time it just right. I need to be more consistant about taking him in there every 30 minutes on the dot, without fail. I keep telling myself he will finally get potty trained, shoot, just this past week Travis FINALLY decided to go to sleep in his very own bed without crying, without having to have someone lie down with him, without having to be rocked to sleep first, but of course he's now 4 and a half, and I'd kinda hate for Jacob to wait until he's 4 and a half to get outta diapers!!!!

In other news, we went to see "Glory Road" on Friday night. I almost hate to say this, but I enjoyed it better than "Walk the Line". The ending gave me chill bumps and got a little misty-eyed with a huge grin on my face. I could only sit there and imagine what that would feel like...a National Championship. The thing is, this year it's not so much out of our reach. But I know, I'm dreaming. At least I'm allowed that much. What was really neat was Saturday night when the Tigers played SMU, Coach Cal on the pre-game show talked about going to see the same movie on the same night we saw it, and he said he was sitting in the corner with his tissues, bawling like a baby. Even some of his players were crying. Basketball fan or no, go see it!

I guess for me now it's back to potty training, laundry and dishes. The joys of being a Mom! :-)

Sometimes I ask myself this question...why did God see fit to give me such GOOD KIDS? Even as wee little newborns, they never cried unless they were hungry, and once fed with a bottle, they were content as could be, just to lie in their crib, playpen, bouncer, etc., and just BE, at least while I did whatever I needed to get done. I guess it all goes back to the saying that God doesn't give you more than you can handle, and man, God sure knew what He was doing because I cannot handle a crying baby that doesn't have a quick fix! I am babysitting my niece's new baby girl, Abigail, and nothing I do seems to soothe her. I fed her about an hour and a half ago, I just changed her, she doesn't want her pacifier, she's not feverish like she's getting sick or anything like that. In all honesty, I think she's just darn sleepy. The little thing finally fussed herself to sleep, to which I was SHOCKED, and relieved. Normally she just keeps on fussing or just lies there awake without fussing just as long as you hold her, but I have 2 other little kids and a million other things to do, and I can't just sit and hold a baby for 4 hours while her Mom and Dad are out riding 4-wheelers. And then while Travis was watching Spiderman 2, it came to the part where Doc Ock crashes through the little bistro where Peter Parker and Mary Jane are, and it was so freaking loud and it WOKE HER UP! I actually believe my own children could sleep through a tornado, or maybe a small bomb going off, but no, one little boom on the TV, which by the way was NOT even turned up that loud, and she's awake again, crying, and WON'T STOP! I know, I'm such a MEAN AUNT! I don't mean to sound like WHATEVER, I'm just not a big fan of having my pleasant, comfy, Saturday afternoon turned upside down. I was blessed (and spoiled) with really, really well-tempered babies. I didn't have PLANS, per se, but I did have plans to do nothing. I can't say no to babysitting her, like ever, though for the one GOOD reason that me & Abigail's mommy now trade off babysitting time, which means we don't have to pay her anymore, and she's always willing to keep our kids. I guess I'm just coming off as a big jerk or something, I mean, I AM an experienced Mom, so I should be able to handle it, but I apparently didn't take the Crying Certification class when I earned my Bachelor's Degree in Motherhood! I bet no one that reads this will ever ask me to babysit their kids until their kids are 12 and fully self-sufficient.

How you know it's time to lose weight: You go shopping and 2 different people in 2 different stores refer to your being pregnant.

Yes, really stupid people saying really stupid things have finally pushed me over the edge, and I have to do something about it. It is SO HARD to start a weight loss program, but I've just got to buckle down and do it. I just HAVE to. Even if it means my husband has to move in with his Mother for awhile so I don't have to watch him eat whatever the heck he wants while I go on starvation, and so he doesn't have to put up with my witchiness. Trust me. When I can't eat what I want, and I get hungry? I am NOT a pleasant person to be around. So the first incident happened in JCPenney. A 50-something lady pushing her mother (I assume?) in a wheelchair asked me in passing how close in age my 2 boys are, and looked SO SHOCKED that I was having another one. Incident #2, we were leaving Kirkland's, my hands were full, and I was trying to get myself and both boys out the door without them running out the door and into the street. Some 30-something man held the door open for me and chuckled as he said, "Yeah, like you really need to have another one." In all honesty, I do NOT look pregnant, I'm just fat and I have a little bit of a pooch, and the shirt I chose to wear yesterday only accentuated said pooch. You know, one of those empire waist, hippy looking tops that sort of gather underneath the chest area, and then flares out? It's a really pretty shirt, aqua colored, with lots of beading at the neckline. But even Michael said he could see why some folks would assume I was pregnant because of the style shirt. Note to self: Don't wear maternity-looking shirt again. At least not until I have the words screenprinted across the front of it: "I'm not pregnant, I'm just fat!"

In other news, I have some stuff listed on Ebay, if anyone wants to check it out. Mostly some of my clothes, a few DVDs, and some Mississippi State stuff. I plan listing more stuff soon, so check back often.