Hello ! Happy New Year ! ! ! I am sorry that I haven 't written in a while , I needed to stop and concentrate on Christmas . I hope that you have had a good 2007 and will have a wonderful 2008 . I am filling out the Christmas cards tonight . I had cards that were bought earlier in the year , but at the last minute , I misplaced them . I really didn 't want to re - buy something that I already had , so I put off re - buying them . Finally , they never turned up , and I am just starting to address the cards . I really like to mail the cards about a week after Thanksgiving . We got our family pictures in the mail last week . They look good . We had wanted a picture of all of us before William went away to college . It is a relief that the picture is done . We had our first winter storm last weekend . There was snow and ice and rain . It was messy . I ended up staying home . There is a small amount of painting that needs done on the house . William 's shelves for his closet need done and the heater in the bathroom needs some rust - o - lium . Maybe this week would be a good time to do it . Then I could quit thinking about painting . We decided to put up the Christmas decorations next Saturday . We had wanted to put them up sooner , but we wanted to make sure that we had enough time to put them up . We had thought about putting them up on a Friday night , but thought that if we started in the morning when we weren 't tired and had a full day open , it would feel fun and not rushed . We have an artificial tree . We also have a lot of decorations . We started out with some decorations . Each year the kids make some at school , and each year we make ornaments as a family , and a few years ago when my grandmother passed away , we got some of her decorations . I like to take down a few pictures off of the wall and cover the picture with wrapping paper and put a bow on it . When we hang it back up , It looks like there is a present on the wall . There are a few plants around the yard that I really care about . There are some hastas from my grandparent 's farm and also some rhubarb that came from the farm . There are the snow drop bulbs , the hastas from the neighbors down the street and the strawberries from my mom . If we move in the spring when the ground is still frozen , these plants won 't be able to come with us . A few months ago I bought some flower pots . Saturday I took some of each of these plants and put them into the pots and put them into the garage . Now I can quit worrying about moving without them . I have two more plants that I care a lot about , my great - grandparents roses . I have brought seven cuttings of both of them in the house to root . All of great - grandpas sprouted . None of great - grandmas have . There is only one of great grandmas rose bushes outside , I didn 't want to put it into the garage , for fear that it would die . The cuttings are still alive , maybe they will sprout . Our refrigator quit working last night . Its never a good time to buy a major appliance . I went to the store today to get a used fridge . They will deliver it tomrrow morning at about 11 : 00 am . This sounds so simple . . . fridge quits . . . bought new one . . . new one ( new - to - me ) gets delivered tomorrow before lunch . In reality , we still have four hungery people at home who are ready to eat dinner , and who will want breakfast in the morning . I didn 't think that this would be a problem , we have food in the cupboard . Everything needed milk to cook it . We ended up having macronni and cheese , from a box so that the cheese was in a pouch in the box , canned fruit , canned vegetable , and baked beans . For breakfast we have some instant oatmeal . The kids still like it without milk . I need to get some foods that only require water or that are already ready , like canned spagetti . Something that we could just heat up . Also . . . do the stores sell powdered milk in packets that make one gallon of milk at a time ? How long would the powdered milk keep for in the pouches ? We need to have a few ' ' easy to prepare ' ' foods for emergencies . The tree in front of our house was cut down this last summer . The city had to take it down before they fixed a broken pipe in the street . They were concearned that the roots would be cut when the street was worked on and the tree would fall . The city came back yesterday and ground up the stump . The did a really nice job . I have to say that they have really done an excellent job with our tree and street . I wonder if they will come back next summer and plant a new tree ? We decorated the church for Christmas tonight . It was fun . We helped decorate two trees and sang Christmas songs . There were twenty to forty people decorating . The first tree had a long . . . white . . . veil type ( see through ) piece of material that we draped around the tree first . Next we put on green plastic leaves and big bows . It looked very elegent . The second tree , in another room , had some ornament art work from the kids Sunday School class . . After the ornaments were up we took strips of paper and stapled them into a chain to put on the tree . We had about ten kids and three staplers . We were at a round table so we ended up having the kids staple one link to their chain and pass the stapler to the left . When we all had to go the kids stapled their individual chains together to make a long chain . We made a lot of memories tonight . We needed a television series on DVD to watch at home . I wanted something that I had watched as a kid , so that the content would be ok for my kids . I first thought of " Little House on the Prarie " but there were so few boys on the show . Their brother came in years after the show started . The series that we chose needed to have boys and men so that William would be interested in it too . I also liked " My three Sons " , but I can 't find it on DVD or VHS . It has all men and one of the boys , is young , one is just starting to date , and one is . . I don 't know maybe high school . I remember watching it as a child and thinking that the oldest son was really old . My third choice was " The Waltons " . It had lots of boys and men , good values and a lot going on in each episode . My kids love it . William tries not to show that he likes it . Now and then when the show is on William will be walking through the room and he will stop to watch it before he realizes it , he is enjoying the show . We have now watched years one and two . I didn 't realize it when I bought the set that John - Boy is the same age as William . They are both finishing high school . The kids have almost finished the Thanksgiving left - overs . We will be back to non - holiday foods tomorrow . That 's OK . It was fun . We may put the tree up on Sunday . I had wanted to start filling out my Christmas cards , putting on their addresses one night , signing them another . . . but now I can 't find them . I saw the cards last week , I must have moved them . William wanted to go to the bookstore at the mall today , and Beth had money from her birthday to spend . I don 't go to the mall very often . I enjoy buying groceries , I just don 't enjoy shopping at the mall . While we were there we saw two little girls on a ride . It was a roller coaster ride . The kids sit in the seat and the view on the screen is what you would see if you were riding on a coaster . It was a ride for little kids . The girls were about three of four years old . Their parents were standing close by . As the screen changed from going up hill to down hill the seat where the girls sat moved so that the riders feel like they are moving on the ride . The little girls were so excited , hanging onto the handle and cheering . I remember when I was young and everything that happened was so exciting . Beth bought dolly clothes with her money . We played outside today . I raked up the dead leaves from the hasta plants and only found three of the kids toys under them . The mums have started to bloom . It is so exciting to have some color in the yard . We celebrated Thanksgiving today . First the kids helped me to clean he house up . We vacuumed and put the odds and ends away . Then we made the meal . William finished the deviled eggs . Maggie mashed the potatoes . Beth stirred everything . Every year I say to myself that we should learn to make stuffing from scratch . . . and every year we don 't do it . We wrote what we were thankful for on the muslin cloth . . . I put it on the buffet so that we wouldn 't spill on it . We all wrote ' ' friends and family ' ' on the cloth . I will put it away for next year tomorrow when it has dried . I need to put a note on next years calender where I am putting it , so that I can find it . Happy Thanksgiving ! ! ! We started getting ready for Thanksgiving tonight . We have a tradition of all four of us pealing the potatoes together . We started it years ago . The first year the kids weren 't able to peal many potatoes , but they wanted to try . The next year they were excited to be able to try again . We all sat around the table and the kids all talked about how difficult pealing the potatoes was last year , and how much easier it was this year . Now the kids are old enough to help make another dish for the meal . It is nice to get to teach them to cook and they feel good at the meal that they contributed to helping make it . Tonight William started the deviled eggs . He cooked and shelled them . The kids are very excited about having a whole day dedicated to eating . We are starting a new tradition this year . I heard about this from a friend at church . . . They got a piece of muslin cloth and some cloth pens . Before the Thanksgiving meal they took turns writing on the cloth what they were thankful for , their name and the date . Then the next year they do this again on the same cloth . They said that it is nice to see what each person writes , how the hand writing of the children changes from year to year , and if a relative passes away it is nice to have what they wrote with them at the holiday . It is like having a part of their deceased relative with them . We are going to start this tradition this year . I like all of the holidays . It bothers me that Thanksgiving is now being pushed aside . The kids are now old enough to like all of the Thanksgiving foods . When they were young they wouldn 't eat mashed potatoes or turkey . Now they like it . Years ago I told the kids that we won 't start decorating for Christmas until all of the Thanksgiving leftovers have been eaten . . . not the left - over turkey that I froze , just what was in the refrigerator . It gives us a chance to think about this thankful holiday for a day or two . This morning in the car Maggie asked ' ' What if we finish all of the left - overs at lunch on Friday , could we put the tree up that same day ? ' ' The kids are really anxious for Christmas to get here this year . I wonder how fast they will eat the left overs ? I need to explain to the kids again that my goal is not to have the left - overs eaten quickly , but to enjoy Thanksgiving . We will see how it goes . Beth asked me the other day if it was possible to dye her jeans pink . I said that I didn 't have any idea . She wanted her jeans to match her shirt . We have never dyed anything before . I said that we could get some dye and see if it was possible . On Saturday we went to the Salvation Army store and bought Beth a pair of jeans for $ 4 . 99 . Then we went to the Dollar Store and bought a container with a lid that was big enough to dye jeans in . Neither of these stores sold dye . . . so we went to a third store . This store had dye , but no pink dye . They had ' ' faded white " , brown , black , yellow and purple . Beth chose purple . We came home and dyed the jeans . They are drying right now . The inside tag and the inside of the pockets are purple . We think that the jeans are purple , but we can 't tell if they are purple , or if it is just wishfull thinking on our part . Beth was so excited to do this , I hope that they turn out . William has always wanted to go to college . A few years ago I was saying that he should go to the community college . It has smaller class sizes and might be a good place to start . He said ' ' no ' ' he wants to go to the local four year college . I finally started to agree with him that he was ready for larger class sizes . The other day William mentioned that we were almost out of toothpaste . I went to show him again which cupboard the toothpaste was kept in but he said ' ' no ' ' he would be leaving to go away to college soon and he really didn 't need to know where anything was kept . I said ' ' away ' ' to college ? He has now decided that he would prefer to go away to college . I have always told the kids that anything is possible , as long as you work hard for it . I hadn 't thought that they were listining to me . We were all talking a few days later and William mentioned that he would be gone in about six months . He said that after he finishes high school he will be filling out his college paperwork and leaving . I have never seen so much enthusium in him . ( Where did my little boy who wanted to stay at home go ? ) I tried to explain that most freshmen classes started in the fall quarter and he may be with us all summer . He is so excited about college , which is cool , and he does truely believe that he can start college the day after he graduates from high school . I do wish that he wanted to go to a local college , and live with us . We will miss him so much , but I don 't want to take away any of his excitement and drive . There are some hobbies that I would like to have if I had some free time . Here are a few of them : I would like to buy a sewing machine that embroiders cute pictures on jeans , like hearts or birds . I could buy jeans at garage sales cheaply and put the designs on them . They could be re - sold at my garage sale for more money . I think that the sewing machine could be programmed by someone else and I would just need to put the correct thread into it . The problem is that the machine will probably cost a lot , and I would have to sell a lot of jeans just to break even . My second idea is making sock dolls . I got a book on making these , and have made one . It took about one evening . The doll is about six inches tall , and really cute . Then I decided to move and didn 't have time to do any more . When I am at the store there are so many cute sox that it is hard to say ' ' move first then get more sox ' ' . Maggie turned twelve this year . She collects rocks with the neighbor boy . Her birthday present was a rock tumbler . It looked like a nice , low maintence gift . It came with a small base that has a small motor in it and a container with a lid to put the rocks in . There were also three kinds of grit to put in to make the rocks progressively smoother . We had a tererible time getting the container to seal closed . The directions said to put a small ammount of vegetable oil between the container and the lid to get a good seal . It kept leaking . After about ten tries we got it sealed . The problem is that the container sits on it 's side in the base as it spins . After we got it sealed we put it in the dining room by the frogs . We needed an open spot by an electrical outlet . When it was turned on it was the loudest thing in the house . We couldn 't talk on the phone or hear the TV , and I am sure that the frogs didn 't like the noise . We moved it to the living room . That was on Friday night . When we went outside we turned it on . . . and back off when we came in . It is now in the kitchen , away from the frogs , the phone and the TV . Maggie really likes the gift and is glad that we found a place for it . We went to the Zoo over the summer . We havn 't gone in ta few years . It was fun to go back again . The reason that we went is because the Zoo had a butterfly exibit . We wanted to see what that was like , all of those graceful , fragile creatures flying around us . When we got there the exibit was a room that was warm with a lot of flowers and plants in it . They also had some bowls with sponges in them . In the bowls was a red liquid . I asked the Zoo person that was in the room what the liquid was . She said that it was red Gatoraid . It attracks the butterflies . We went late in the summer , so there weren 't a huge number of butterflies , but there were a lot . Some did fly onto us . Whe we left there we went and saw the fish and the monkey exibits . It takes us a long time to go through each area , so we don 't see many exibits . The kid 's don 't bring home any homework . At their school they have study hall the last class of the day . Their school set this up so that they can do their homework at school where the teachers can help them if they need it . My kids do need help with hand writing . . . I used to have them keep a journal . Most nights after school , while I am making dinner , they write a few sentences . I have them put the date on it also . They can write about their day , or their favorite toy . . . or anything . Any writing is good . It all helps their handwriting . The journal was only fun for the kids for a while . Now I have them send postcards to their cousins . A postcard only needs about two sentences . This made the kids happy , Their cousins have started writing back . It is cheaper to send a postcard then to send a letter . The stamps are cheaper . Also . . . the Post Office only requires that the postcard be the correct size , not have any folds in it , and be sturdy . It doesn 't make any difference to the Post Office if you make or but the post card . I bought one post card to get the correct size . Then I took some cereal boxes and began tracing and cutting them out . I did need to draw the line on the postcard and tell the kids to only write on the left side of it . If they cross the line there isn 't enough room for the address . They like writing fewer sentences and also getting mail from their cousins . I 'm glad that if they make a mistake and want to throw it away to start over , it 's ok because it was free . About a month ago I started looking for winter jackets for the kids . William has not grown in the last two years and his jacket is still in great shape , so he didn 't need a new one . Maggie and Beth still fit last years jacket , but the jackets will be outgrown before winter is over . I started going to the re - sale shops last month . . . I knew that it was too early , but ' ' the early bird catches the worm ' ' . I was hoping to find jackets their size . It didn 't happen . We need jackets with attached hoods . Not hats that snap on or zip on , but are part of the jacket , permanently sewn on . The kids always end up loosing their hats and on cold days the kids don 't have their ' ' jacket hat ' ' to go over their separate hat . So . . . I kept looking at the shops for jackets in the correct size , with connecting hats and non - frilly for Maggie and frilly for Beth . These types of jackets never came in . We finally went out last Friday to other stores to look for jackets . Before we left we had William try on his gloves to see how big they were so that I could get him gloves that were large enough . I explained to the girls that we needed to find jackets with connecting hats . Off we went . At store one . . . the only jacket that we found that the girls like was not on sale and was out of my price range . At store two , we found a jacket for Maggie . She was wearing a thin fall shirt , so we couldn 't tell if the jacket would fit in the winter over sweaters . She tried on two sweaters and then put the jacket on to check the size . It fit . We also got her a hat and gloves . At the third store . . . ok , I was tired now . I don 't like to shop and was willing to change my mind on the ' ' connecting hat ' ' idea just to let us go home . . . Beth couldn 't find a jacket . She said that none of the ones that she liked had connecting hats . I wanted to tell her that I had changed my mind , but they had listened to my directions so I didn 't want to say anything . At the fourth store , Beth found a jacket . She also tried on two sweaters with it . . They can still wear last years jackets for a Posted by We bought pumpkins . It took a while to find ones that had a smooth side . We usually carve the pumpkins on the kitchen floor . The mess ends up on the floor any way , so we might as well start there . First , we put down newspaper . I keep a bag of old newspapers in the basement , but because everything was moved to paint the basement walls , we couldn 't find them . We put down un - opened garbage bags instead . William wanted us to get him a pumpkin , but he didn 't want to carve it . The girls drew faces on their pumpkins with a pen , and then I cut the faces out . They had a great time stirring the bowl of seeds . Maggie did a cat and Beth did a princess . I bought candy that same day . The kids wanted ' ' kid ' ' candy , so I bought candy that adults wouldn 't eat . We don 't have any Hershey 's with Almonds or M & M 's . I have been buying mulch now and then to put in the yard just before the house is listed . If the bags of mulch at the store are broken , a lot of times the stores will sell them for half price . The stores will put the broken bag into another bag so that the mulch won 't spill out into the customers car . I get the same ammount of mulch for half the price . I was buying whatever mulch bags were broken . The problem is that I wound up with red mulch between mine and my neighbors garage , black mulch along the house and brown mulch in the front yard . The yard did look better than it did before the mulch , but it still looked bad . The next time that I went to the store I looked at all of the kinds of mulch . More of them were black then any other color . So now I only buy black or or very dark mulch . The origional multi - color mulch has faded . We are now ready to add more mulch to the yard . I have an assortment of mulches that I have bought over the months , all dark colors . Between the garages I have schreded bark . Along the house and in the front yard there are what looks like bigger chuncks of bark . The yard looks better now that it is all one color . I did get two yellow mums for the front yard . They were so pretty in the store . They have been planted on each side of the front steps . About two days after they were planted all of the blooms started to turn brown . I began to pinch the blooms off . I don 't want the plant 's energy to go into dying blooms . After about a week , all of the blooms had turned brown and were pinched off . Underneath are the new blooms that arn 't ready to open . I planted these two flowers about a month ago . I don 't know if it is too late for the new blooms . The leaves still look healthy . Maybe they will wait and bloom next year . The kids went trick - or - treating tonight . William said that he didn 't want to go and he didn 't want to share their candy . He wasn 't upset . . . he just wasn 't interested . When it was time to go trick - or - treating I asked William if he wanted to go with us , just up and down our street . I knew that he had already said ' ' no ' ' but I wanted to make sure that he felt welcome . He said ' ' yes ' ' . I was so suprised . He put his shoes and jacket right on and went outside . There were four houses on our street with lights on . After we went to those houses , he said that he wanted to go along . . . just to watch . . . and maybe he could bring a bag . Horray ! ! ! I am always so glad when William chooses to go with us . He ran into the house to get a bag . It is so different now that he is eighteen years old . He needs and can handle some time alone . . . but we miss him . We have always been a close family , and it is odd . . . different . . . strange . . . not to have him with us . Our record for candy is five , gallon size , ziplock bags . This year we only got four . But four is still a lot of candy . We went trick - or - treating last Saturday night at a local park . William didn 't want to go with us . I took the girls . We did have fun , but the girls and I miss William . The park has a small lake in the center of it . There were tables all around the lake with people at them giving out candy . We must have stopped at thirty tables . Maggie went in an armed forces uniform , and Beth went as a cowgirl . The park supplied all of the candy and local groups or churches had people at the tables in costume to hand out the candy . When we left the house to go to the park I had the girls put on winter coats and hats . . . because I 'm always cold , I think that everyone else is cold too . When we stepped out of the house it was nice out , no hat needed and jackets could be unzipped . I didn 't say anything about the weather and we left for the park . When we got to the park it was still warm out , lots of the other kids didn 't have any jackets . . . but my kids looked like they were ready for winter . After we were there for about fifteen minutes , the wind started to blow and it got cold . Then I wished that we had brought gloves . The most popular costume was the cat . Big kids and small kids were cats . I saw a lot of witches too . The most unique ones that I saw was a McDonalds Coca - Cola cup and a giant chicken . I enjoyed tha walk around the lake . We bought and carved our pumpkins tonight . As long as we get our good memories in before the holiday , I think that we are still OK We celebrated William 's birthday on Saturday . It went well . My mom and brother came over to celebrate . The lunch was at 2 : 00 . That gave us plenty of time to pick up the house , do the laundry and make sandwiches for next weeks lunches . . . peanut butter and jelly and bologna and cheese freeze well and are still OK after one week of being frozen . After lunch we measured William on the measuring stick . He is about the same height that he was last year . William wanted to move his computer from the dining room to his room . He does not have access to the internet or any games that I wouldn 't approve of . . . so I said OK . He wanted it moved so that at night when he went to his room , he could still play on it . William got the whole computer moved and he and I moved the desk , then he realized that he has a three prong plug and two prong outlets . I never thought to look at his outlets before the computer was moved . I felt so bad that the computer couldn 't be used . William didn 't want to move the computer back to the dining room so I will buy him an extension cord to plug it in in the bathroom . How long can the cord be ? Is 10 - 15 feet too long ? We are celebrating William 's birthday tomorrow . He will be 18 . His birthday is next week , but it is more relaxing to celebrate on weekends . We have dinner . . or lunch . . then have cake . . . or pie . . . and ice cream . Next we measure the birthday child on the measuring stick . Last is the presents . We tried having the presents earlier , but it was hard to get the kids to have cake or get measured after they had the gift in their hands . We use a measuring stick . It is a piece of wood from the lumber yard that is 6 feet long and smooth on all sides . This was chosen when the kids were little , because we were in an apartment , and I wanted the stick to move with us . It has worked really well except for the year that it wasn 't put flat on the floor and it warped . For the next few years , the measurements were a bit off because the board was curved . Now it is almost straight again and the measurements are closer to reality . Yesterday 's posting said that I want to move but the house needed painted . The closet , the deck and the bedroom could never have that ' ' all over ' ' ' ' just - about - to be - sold - look ' ' . The basement had been painted by a previous owner . One of the walls still looked clean and white . The other three had paint pealing off of them . I don 't have water problems with my walls , but it looked like I did . The realitor said that everyone would assume that the basement has water problems . Scraping the basement was the worst . Everything had to be moved away from the walls . The washer and dryer couldn 't be used until the paint behind them was dry . I painted behind them first . The worst part was scraping and painting under the stairs . I was going to skip that area , but with the rest of the basement looking so clean , that area really stuck out . I painted it . I have now finished painting , except for one small unused heater that I would like to put rustoleum on . We now need to get things to storage . I have been going to Kroger ( grocery store ) to get boxes . But . . . the problem now is that it is getting colder . I have two rooms that were added on to the house . I don 't think that any insulation was added . Also . . . the windows now need plastic on them . Will the house sell with two cold rooms and plastic on the windows ? Lots of people have plastic on their windows , they just don 't sell their house with plastic on the windows . I would like to insulate the two rooms before we move . Especially if we stay here another winter . I want to move to a different house , to get the kids into better schools . I had looked in other areas when I bought this house , but I couldn 't wait long enough for a house in my price range to come onto the market . I started painting the inside of this house last year . I painted the chair - rail in the dining room , around the living room windows and the wood around the living room outside door a blue gray . It is mostly blue and not bright at all . The kitchen ceiling and walls also got painted . Then I called the realitor this summer to list the house and was told that one of the upstairs closets needed painted , one of the bedrooms needed painted , the back porch ( deck ) needed painted and also the basement . All of these rooms did need paint , and I am glad that I have finished them . I still have not listed the house There has always been a small puddle in the street in front of my house . One day the water started flowing out of the crack in the street . The city came and put an orange cone by it . A few days later , when we came home the city workers were in front of my house taking away the last part of the huge tree that stood between the sidewalk and the street . They had two huge double dump trucks ( one dump truck pulling another ) . All four trucks were full . They said that when they start to cut open the street to repair the leak , they couldn 't risk cutting a root and hurting the tree . If the tree had fallen on my house , it would have destroyed most of my house . I was glad that they were being careful , but sad to see the tree go . The gas company had also come and marked where their lines were . A few days later another group came and cut open the street . When the repair work was done , they said that it was a large pipe that took all of the water from the neighborhood by us . They were able to put bands around the pipe and not replace it . He said that if it had not been fixed there would have been enough water pressure to take out the front of my house . They put a black - top patch over the road ( this was at the end of last fall ) When they cut the area of the road , they also took out the curb . I was glad that it was fixed , but it looked awful . The man said that it was too cold to put cement in , it wouldn 't dry . They would come back in the spring to fix it correctly . I was upset . I was starting to think about moving my family to a new house and the road in front of my house was all patched up . I decided not to panic . They might come back and repair it before we moved . I still needed to do a lot of painting inside , and take items to storage . . . so that we didn 't look so cluttered . The City people came back in the spring , fixed the street and the curb . There was still a ditch between the yard and the new curb . After the curb dried they came back and filled in the ditch with dirt and seeded it . It settled . They came back again and added moPosted by Hello , I 'm back . I can 't get into my previous blog ' ' joycerowley . blogspot . com ' ' , so I had to start a new one . If I can figure out how , I will get all of the posts onto one blog . The kids and I went to get a family picture today . I needed one before my son William goes off to college . It went well .