Can you believe it? I think I need an award!!!

Ok, so most of you know that I have a terrible addiction to Diet Coke. I wake up in the morning and drink one, usually have another before lunch, another at lunch, another after lunch, one with dinner and possibly one in the evening. Yes, I do know how bad it is for me and I also know that most of you are probably thinking "how in the world can anyone drink so much soda in a day?" Well, diet coke to me is like coffee is to most others. It is a total addiction!!!!
The past two weeks I have been working really hard at reducing the number of sodas I have. I got down to about three a day and was feeling really good about myself. Today, I decided that I needed to see how long I could go without one. So, I woke up, drank water, lots of water. Got a huge headache that has lasted most of the day. Withdrawals? Yes, I think so.
Around 2pm I could barely stand it. My head hurt so bad, I almost caved in. But then Gordon suggested having a cup of coffee with creamer in it to get rid of the caffeine withdrawal head-ache. I don't do coffee!! Yuck! But I wanted to try it instead of caving in, so I put a cup of coffee together, got it luke warmish (I don't like really hot drinks), and then I chugged it. I wanted the head-ache to disappear. The coffee wasn't all that bad, but it was by no means great, either. The head-ache lessened, but didn't go away. At least it was tolerable. I am going to have a soda tonight. Gordon is so proud of me for sticking to my guns and not drinking soda all day, but he also doesn't want me to relapse. Hence, the soda tonight! I am like a kid on Christmas morning! I can't wait to open that shiny, cylindrical shaped present to get to what is inside!!!!
Tomorrow is another day. I will do it again. Maybe in a week or so, I won't think about my diet soda every waking second!!!!

Puppy Ultrasound

Today was a family field trip/life lesson day for us and the kids. Our breeder and co-owner of Faith, Diann, met us at our house at 10:30 this morning and we all piled into the Suburban and went on an adventure.

We drove up to Surrey, Canada to visit a vet office that specializes in reproduction of dogs and has an ultrasound machine to look at the puppies. The kids thought that they were going to see actual puppies, but we explained that they would probably just see black blobs. They asked why we were doing this then and we told them to see if we could count how many blobs and also to verify that Faith is actually pregnant. When Diann does a breeding, this is her life-long career. She puts 110% of herself into making sure we have a successful breeding and healthy puppies.

They took us into a room and we put Faith up on a table and the vet shaved a spot on her belly. Then we turned on the machine and WHALAA!!! This is what we saw:

The vet said she could count at least 6, but there are probably more. Faith is only into day 28 of 62, so there could be some still hidden that we didn't see. The second picture, if you look closely, you can see a white blob in the middle of the black. That is the puppy. On the machine you could actually see the outline of the fetus. It was extremely cool.

After we were done with the appointment, Diann took us to a little sandwich shop called "Java Hut". We had soup and sandwiches and the kids had pizza. While we were sitting there, it started to snow. Crazy! Since we have been back home, it has been snowing and blowing. We already have about 3 inches. But I don't care. I am all warm and fuzzy inside because I now know for sure that my little Faithy is pregnant!!! Yeah!

Ballet class

I am such a ding-dong. Tuesday afternoons Sierra has ballet class. I woke up this morning all excited for dance class because today is the day the kids get their costumes for their recital. I have been waiting for this day. Why you might ask?
Because I used to dance and I always thought it was so fun to get to dress up in these awesome costumes that the teacher took so much time to come up with. I know it sounds silly, but I really was excited.
So of course, Sierra complains that she doesn't want to go to dance. She always complains, but then loves it once she is there. I told her she got her costume today. Her response-"so".
Talk about deflation! She couldn't even summon up a little bit of excitement for me!
When we got to class, I could see the teacher sorting them all out. Yippee!! Sierra got excited as soon as she saw the costume, and just about freaked out when she found out they got to try them on and dance the routine with them. Yeah!! Now we are talking! Costumes and pretty little girls jumping around not having a clue what they are doing! So much fun for mommy.
Brings back a lot of memories for me....

Update with the broken window...

Ok, so according to Evan who had a long heart to heart with daddy last night, he never lied, he just never told the truth. This is the story according to Evan. I still haven't checked it against Jacob's story, but I don't have any reason to doubt Evan. He was very clearly told the consequence for not telling the truth.

Jacob and Evan were kicking the soccer ball around. Jacob decided to throw rocks at a tree trunk. One of the rocks deflected off of the tree and hit the Jeep window. They heard it hit, but didn't realize that the window actually broke. They continued to play soccer. When the ball went up by the car, Evan ran to get it, saw the window and told Jacob to come see. At that moment Jacob said, "oh man, I am busted!" Evan said,
"let's go tell your mom", and Jacob said no. They continued to play until Jenn noticed her window. At that time, she questioned the boys and Jacob started saying it wasn't them. When Jenn asked Evan, he told her that Jacob was throwing rocks at the tree, but one deflected off the tree and hit the window but they didn't know that it broke. When Bill separated them and questioned them (such a cop!), Evan stuck to his story.
Now, remember, this is Evan's story and we haven't completely verified it yet, so it could be a little off, but we did give him the chance to make sure he was telling all of the truth.
His punishment for not saying anything about it is as follows.
He is grounded for a week. He can't play with his slot car track (which happens to be his favorite thing to do right now), no Hot Wheels on the computer, limited TV watching, and he had the choice of talking to Bill and Jenn directly and telling them how sorry he is, or to right a letter to them. He chose to write the letter, so that is what he will do during his free time. He has all this week to think about what he wants to write and to get it done in legible writing with correct punctuation and spelling. A life lesson and a school lesson rolled into one.
Anyways, that is the current update.

Who understands the mind of a seven year old?

Evan has a best friend. His name is Jacob. Jacob and Evan met when they both started playing soccer in preschool. They found out that they would be at the same school, in the same class and they became best friends. They are always together at school, they have the same interests and they think they should be brothers.
If there is an early release Wednesday at school, the boys have made it known that they need to go to one or the others house to play for the day. They love to have sleep-overs on the weekend and they spend hours together playing on Jacob's trampoline or in Evan's room playing with cars and tracks. Basically, they just love being together.

Today, Jacob called at 8:15am wondering if Evan was on his way up to his house yet. So, we got the kids ready and took them up for a play date. Sierra plays with Jacob's sister, Anna, so it works out that no one is left out when there is a play date.
Anyways, the plan was for them to play at Jacob's house and then Bill and Jenn would bring the kids all here for a sleep-over so that they could go on date night. Just a few minutes ago, Jenn brought my two kids home but there was no Jacob, no Anna, and no Bill.
Turns out, Bill told Jenn to bring my kids home because Jacob and Evan were a little too rambunctious and Jacob threw a rock through their Jeep window. Now, granted, that is bad enough, but what really got them all in trouble was the fact that they pretended it didn't happen and went about their playing and never told anyone. Yikes!! Then to top it off, they tried to come up with an excuse and say they don't know how it happened. Double Yikes!!
Needless to say, Jacob is in big trouble at his house, and Evan is in big trouble at our house. Why can't kids understand that if they just tell an adult when something bad happens, they are in less trouble than not saying anything at all or flat out lying about it?
Evan is very in to getting money and having it in his wallet. Maybe a good punishment would be to give Bill what he has in there to pay for a new window? What do you all think?

So, here is my problem...

Why is it that when I am ignoring my studying and doing housework and farm things instead, I feel guilty about not studying?

Why is it that when I am ignoring housework and farm things and studying instead, I feel guilty about not doing housework and farm things?

Why is it that when I am doing studying, housework, and farm chores, I think about all my favorite reality shows that I am missing?

Why is it that when I finally catch up on my favorite reality shows, I feel guilty about sitting on my bum and not studying, doing housework or farm chores?

Not to mention taking care of my family all at the same time.

Why can't we have more hours in the day?

Then again, I wouldn't be able to stay awake long enough to get everything done. Whew! I am exhausted just thinking about it.

Oh yeah; and now I am working two nights a week cleaning a huge vet clinic, so I am feeling guilty about not being home to be with my family and help put kids to bed.

I sure glad that I am a woman! I can accomplish all of these things. If I was a guy, I would be a puddle of mush by now!!

"I can do all things through Christ, who strenthens me." Phillipians 4:13

Things I have learned already this morning...

#1. If you forget to put pellets in the stove at night, your house will be very cold when you get up.

#2. When you don't turn on the light in the laundry room before you walk in to put the dogs out, chances are you will slip on a dog toy. Yep, a tennis ball. Ouch!

#3. If you forget to change the batteries in your smoke detectors at the first of the year, one close to your bedroom will beep all night.

#4. You can put too much bleach in a load of dirty dog blankets.

#5. When you go to bed and your house is dirty, it will be dirty in the morning. Believing in the tooth fairy is one thing; a house-cleaning fairy is just crazy!

#6. When you fold laundry at 9:30pm and leave it on the couch to put away the next day, it will still be there in the morning.

#7. When you have a pregnant dog, she will have very stinky toots!!!!!!

#8. When you go out to feed chickens and see if there are any eggs yet this morning, big grouchy momma chicken will peck your hand and hiss at you if you get near her nesting box!

#9. When your son tells you that he can go out to the bus by himself and he doesn't need you to walk with him, don't call your husband at work, crying, to tell him you are sad because your child is growing up. It will freak out husband and they don't like to be freaked out first thing in the morning!!!

#10. It is going to be a loooooonnnnnngggggg day!!!!!!