P.S. Arielle and Nolan trade off playing with Stacia and Zander so that I can work independently with each of them. Stacia showed up dressed in one of Arielle’s “costumes”. We bought this years ago from Yvonne when she was doing the box specials. Stacia was hamming in up – but this is the only picture that we got. She seems to be saying, “My, but it’s hard to be a socialite”.


I forgot to mention below that I was up at 3 a.m. because of Zander “going straight to bed” last night. LOL He filled up the last few tickets on his chart today and earned Play Station time. Earlier in the week he had glued a ticket on the last slot and tried to convince me it should work. Poor kid was so tired that this is the sight that greeted me when I peeked from the kitchen. {best photo won't load} Notice what he's doing in his sleep.
I also forgot to say that Jamin heard back from the Christians Writer’s Guild. Now he is trying to decide if he wants to edit his book alone and try to shop it around to publishers, or if he wants to work through their program. They recommend that he begins the Squire program. They would pair him with an established Christian Author who would mentor him. He would have 10 assignments a year to finish. He would email work to the mentor and the mentor would respond back. This group is founded by Jerry Jenkins and they put on writer’s conferences etc. They have a big one coming up in February in Colorado Springs. They were very encouraging about the dream being possible with some mentoring and hard work….He sort of wanted to do the TOG writing and work on polishing his book…but he does see the benefit of having a mentor work on his writing with him. Before you faint from sticker shock….with the discounted price it is only $49 a month….and last time we did piano lessons over 4 years ago it was $60 a month. In other words his dream is to WRITE, to be an author….if I would pay $60 a month for piano lessons or $30 a month for football (which we did) then why not writing lessons? If anyone has personal experience with the guild we’d love to hear what you thought. I’m wondering if I should let him out of the TOG writing if he goes this route….but then the TOG writing integrates the facts he’s learning from so many sources…..I wish I'd known of this place myself about 20 years ago. LOL At this point in my life, I don't think that I could find time to write more than the blog. I have kicked around the idea of writing all my grams' stories up....it would be cool for the family to have it down...but I don't remember them all. Waaa....

Secret of Productivity!

It’s amazing how productive you can be if you wake up at 3 a.m. and go to bed at midnight! :::snort:::

School went well today. I was thrilled that we seemed to have figured out the secret of schooling with two roving toddlers….UNTIL the police called. It seems that Stacia dialed 911. She used the phone that doesn’t work. THEN when they called I tried to answer on that phone and it “doesn’t work” so he was worried that something really was up at our house. We’ll fine tune the plan tomorrow.

I’d appreciate any tips on helping a boy hold a pencil. YES – he’s my 4th boy to school but he’s 7 and I’m sure the others were holding the pencil by now. I’ve tried everything I know. It’s torture for him to write – but he’s going to have to write this year sometime.

Josiah went to work for 4 hours today. We planned HIS meal choice for dinner. He got called back in. LOL He had Chicken Divan at 10:30 p.m. Debbie, I’ll post the recipe tomorrow or the next day.

After school Arielle and I broke away to mail packages to Mike and the girls. Then we zipped to the grocery store to get everything we need for this week’s menu. I was blessed that whole chickens were on sale at HEB for $.49 a lb. AND I found some wonderful tasting organic Ritz like crackers! It was a good day. :::snort::::

I came home and assembled Divan, boiled 4 chickens, made Grams’ Italian Salad Dressing, Balsamic Vinaigrette, and Catalina, made halibut salad and chicken salad….I felt very productive.

I even :::drum roll::: remembered to pay the bills! I also got to talk to Mom and Dad tonight.

It really is late – so that’s enough for tonight.

Gram's Hawaiian chicken

Debbie - I see that you are looking for Gram's recipe. You can click on the recipe link at the end of this entry (I'll label it recipe) and then scroll down to find it...or go to May 31 or maybe 13 May 2006.

De'Etta

Prayer for my Dad:

Background - many will remember he is a retired missionary who was trucking to finish out his time until "social security age" - though he hoped to work until 70.

Feb/March he fell from the truck and broke/shattered/pulverized his hip. He had surgery. He was in rehab. He was progressing quickly. THEN the long screw they had installed pushed through the ball joint of his hip and he had to have the surgery totally redone.

He had that second surgery in maybe July? He did the whole rehab thing again. This time the docs have had him go much slower at trying to walk etc. He saw the doc on Friday and they expected that he'd be able to finally put full pressure on the leg. There is evidence of bone regrowth. Two screws had been placed in a V shape into the new plate and ball joint in his leg/hip. The screws are now uncrossed and one of them has snapped. He has NOT been walking without a walker etc. He's been very careful to follow all instructions. He has a CAT scan on Tuesday. The screw has not worked it's way through the ball joint again but it can't be good to have the screw broken. Mom says the top broke off "like a matchstick". Obviously, they have not discussed with the doctor yet if this will need to be fixed surgically, but Dad is saying no more surgery. This is an incredibly painful surgery from all the doctors and nurses say. It makes me sick that this is happening again. Please pray for good information from the CAT scan.

Dad has not worked since the accident. At first his company and workman's comp were being very fair. This has been complicated as Mom and Dad live in OR and Dad worked in WA. They were given bad or different info in OR and this affected some of their benefits. IE in OR they advised Dad to begin taking Social Security and said it would not affect workmen's comp...when Dad did that the state of WA's workmen comp DID lower their monthly amount. My parents had to begin paying back what they said was an "overpayment". THEN Dad's company complained and said he didn't really make what they first reported...and they lowered it again. This has happened twice. They have lowered their workman's comp from $3k a month to $1K a month. Obviously, this wreaks havoc with a budget. They just received a letter saying that if they don't immediately repay all that they were "overpaid" the state or workman's comp or someone is putting lien on their home and starting proceedings.....They are in the market for an ethical, competent lawyer in WA who understands the WA worker's comp system. They are NOT trying to milk the system but this WAS an on the job accident, Dad did work more than his company is reporting and they have been making bi-monthly payments as requested by the Workmen's Comp.

Prayer on all fronts is appreciated.