Pixiemom

But not on purpose.

I have hijacked Jeremy’s laptop to post this. The laptop which I normally use is with the Freek Squad at Best Bug. You know what I mean. I’m just a little annoyed, but it wasn’t the laptop’s fault. It fell from a lap when a large kitten who is jealous of laptops when on laps jumped up to try and snuggle his way in. When it didn’t come back on, I totally freaked out and thought that I’d maybe lost all the pictures I’d taken this summer except for the ones on Flickr, but those aren’t full-size. We didn’t have our CDs to make back-ups until a few days ago and Jeremy’s been so busy that he hasn’t had time to do it. Also, I have no idea how to transfer the pictures from the laptop to a CD. Anyway, they said that the hard drive is okay, but they had to send off the laptop to find out what exactly is wrong. I’m going to miss it, but I’ll probably take over this one to check my e-mail on a daily basis. Until I am able to post again… goodbye.

with all five children!

Jeremy and I decided to try and take all the kids on into the city. We had to do grocery shopping in the morning, but decided on a family outing for the afternoon. We headed to the train station, happy to find parking where it was free, and took the South Shore line on in. We had first thought of going to Lincoln Park Zoo, but it was a bit chilly and rain was on it’s way, so we went up to the Magnificent Mile on Michigan Avenue instead. We made a rule. One adult walks in front and none of the kids are allowed to walk in front of them and the other adult walked a few feet behind and none of the kids were allowed to walk behind them. That way the kids could follow the first adult and the second one could make sure all of them were there. Noelle was in the stroller, so we didn’t have to worry about her. James went ahead a few times and assumed a few turns that we weren’t planning. If we hadn’t caught him in time, one would have caused some trouble. After that, we didn’t have anymore of him trying to lead. We went through the Hershey Store where I resisted buying any chocolate at all. (It helped that I’d already bought some dark chocolate earlier. It’s in my special no-kid spot.) Then we went to the Lego store. The kids had a lot of fun there. AnnaBeth and Noelle got some crowns to wear for the Harvest Festival at our church this next Wednesday while there. Then the older two girls had to look through the Sanrio shop. AnnaBeth got tired after a while and Jeremy carried her a bit there at the end. Once we were done there, it was starting to get dark, so we headed back toward the train station. We got there just a bit late for the 6 pm train and on the weekends, the trains run every other hour, so we got some drinks and snacks and just sat down and rested. The kids talked to one little social five year old who came over. She was just as friendly as any of my kids, so they all got along great. Then they made faces at a baby and laughed when she squealed at them. Finally, the last 15 minutes or so were used up by Jeremy pulling out his laptop that he’d brought along (he always has it) and played games like Connect Four and Othello. We got home a little late, made hot dogs (alas, we’d forgotten to buy bread earlier, so they were eaten without) and sent them off to bed. There wasn’t a single complaint. They all got ready and fell fast asleep. We were ready for fussy-ness since they had so much activity and only Noelle had napped, but they were all so good.

Hmmm, maybe they’ll still be good for us tomorrow morning while getting ready for church. We’ll see.

I maybe singing tomorrow, I may not. I don’t know. I was first asked to sing tomorrow, but then they remembered something else was scheduled for special music, so I was supposed to sing next week, but what was scheduled for tomorrow was pushed back a week, so I practiced in case they need me to sing this week instead. This new church is kind of relaxed in it’s scheduling and stuff which I’m not used to and don’t particularly like, but I’ll put up with it. I’m still not sure why God is wanting us here, but both Jeremy and I know that we’ve been brought to this church for some reason. Anyway, that’s off the topic of this specific post and maybe I’ll elaborate more in another post, but for now I’ll just sign off.

Yesterday, the kids got a break. We went to my aunt and uncle’s house about 2 hours away. My 11 year old cousin is off of school part of this week, so they invited us over. It was a really good time for all of us. The kids watched a movie, played with legos and lincoln logs, and went outside to run around. The adults (including another of my cousins who came over since he was off work) talked, played uno, talked some more, and played with the legos. It was a nice relaxing day and we all enjoyed it so much. Since they are so close and their youngest daughter is not much older than Amie than we’re hoping to be able to get together every once in a while. It helped me feel even better about moving up here.

I just got another 32 photos up at Flickr. Some from Amie’s birthday dinner at a Mexican restaurant, some from the visit to the Fire Station’s Open House, and a lot of just random pictures.

I am totally into music. It’s part of me. I grew up with it, singing with my parents in church. It’s just something that I have all the time. If I’m not playing any music, I still have it going on in my head. God has helped me weed out the types of music that would be harmful to my walk with him, songs about lust and sex, drinking and drugs. I listen almost completely to Christian or Classical music now. I love old musical movies. I sing with my music all the time. Jeremy once said that my life is like a musical because we’ll be talking about something and I’ll break into song about it or a circumstance will happen and I’ll start singing a song that has to do with it.

Anyway, all this is leading up to is the fact that I’ve discovered a new artist… to me, that is. She’s been around a little while since she was on a certain TV program which I don’t watch. It’s Mandisa. She has such a beautiful voice and I’ve really enjoyed listening to her. What bothers me about many Christian stations is that they hardly mention who sings what, so I don’t know who the artists are until they are featured on the top 20 or on a radio program. She was on Total Axxess one night with Wally and I was blown away by her testimony and singing. She is my new favorite artist. Jeremy had a bit of a hard time finding her CD for me for my birthday, so after a while he told me and I found it at Family Christian Bookstore. My favorite song of hers is “Voice of a Savior”.

The kids and I are back to doing schoolwork and have been for a few weeks now. It took us a while to get our school books from storage down near where we had moved from. James is enjoying learning the multiplication facts. Christine is going through her reading book at a fairly quick pace. I decided not to buy Amie a reader this year. Instead, I am getting her books from Borders or Amazon. I want interesting books that will teach her. We went and got her a book on Helen Keller and a book on Harriet Tubman yesterday. When she is done with each book, she will write a small book report on it. I want to see if I can find an interesting book for her age on the history of Chicago or Illinois.

Once we are all into the routine a bit more, I’d like to start AnnaBeth on her phonics and counting.

I joined Facebook. It’s much better than MySpace and I’m having lots of fun with it. I think my page is only viewable to my friends, but I know most of you are already friends here, so if you are on there, don’t hesitate to let me know and become my friend and pet my tiger.

Amie is TEN today! Where has the time gone? It doesn’t seem like it’s been that many years since I groggily held that little baby with a head full of black hair to me. She’s growing up too fast.

Happy Birthday, Beautiful Amie Michelle!

I put some of the pictures of her from this summer up on my Vox blog.

I will!!

Jeremy has caught the attention of someone from the New York DoubleClick office. It may be that he’s bringing up something at the correct time. They’re impressed with his work and want to talk to him about some stuff. As I’m confused as to whatever it is, I can’t tell you. He’s expecting to have a conference call with them sometime, I think. I’m proud of my hubby.

All I said was, “We are NOT moving to New York, if they offer it!!”

I have some silly kids.