Hero of the Week

My friend Katie does a Hero of the week on her blog each Monday. I have been wanting to do this one since she started this. My hero in my life is my dad. I have yet to meet anyone with more patience in life than my father. Also, in his fight with cancer, I have not heard a single complaint from him. Really, not one. I have been so blessed to grow up with my dad for a father. I can only remember one spanking while I was growing up. My father heard me swear at my mother. I deserved it.

My dad was always there to listen when I had a question for him, and he is always good about really listening. He gets through to the heart of the problem. He also never lets others treat him unkindly either. He has found the balance. So, here's to my dad. This is short because I am planning on writing him a hand written letter, and I don't want to forget something important in it.

Comment At Your Own Risk

Lucky you! I saw this on my sister-in-law's and cousins' blog and wanted her to make me something bad enough to post the same offer here. Here's how it works! The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you. This offer does, however, have some restrictions and limitations...

1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
2. What I create will be just for you.
3. It'll be done this year.
4. You will have no clue what it's going to be. It may be a story. It may be poetry or maybe even some creation I haven't even invented yet (but Heaven knows it will most likely be totally fabulous and creative... :). I may draw or paint something. I may bake you something and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure! (I know you're all hoping I'll paint you a picture or write you a poem. Too bad... you can't make requests!)
5. I reserve the right to do something extremely strange. (Not intentionally strange, but you may label it that way)The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must re-post this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog. The first 5 people to do so (and leave a comment telling me they did) win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me! (If you don't have a blog, you can still leave a comment and win... we'll work something out. Maybe you'll just have to give all 5 of your homemade gifts to me! Sounds fair, right?)Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it!

Missed my blogversary and my birthday

What with one thing and another, I just realized today that I missed my blogversary. It was in February, and since we were on our trip out west, it completely escaped my mind. Then, :yesterday was my birthday. It was a very busy day.

Just a note: Don't ever start out your birthday with a visit to the Dentist.

First, I got up late. Jackie has to be to school by 8, but no one in our house woke up until 7:50. I woke up at 7:50, realized that Jackie had to go to school, and I needed to be at the dentist's office at 8:15, and then got going. I woke Jackie up, found her some clothes, and then found some for me. It was 8:00 by the time we were out the door. I'm actually pretty proud of that. Jackie even had some cereal to eat on the way. . . Four minutes of dry cereal does not a breakfast make, but it was the best we could do under the circumstances. I ran her into her classroom and then ran back out to the car. I pulled into the dentist's office at 8:17. So, I found out something interesting. Did you know that stomach acid can tear apart dental filling composit? Appearantly, when I was pregnant with Daniel, my morning sickness tore apart the fillings I already had in my mouth. So, now, I have 14 cavities to have filled. 14! Do you know what that costs without dental insurance? 14 cavities!!!!!!! $2,212 and some change. So, Happy Birthday to me. However, I did get two birthday celebrations yesterday, so by the time I had eaten cake at story time and fondue at supper, I felt much better about my B-day. A little chocolate fondue makes me feel lots better. Chocolate fondue with marshmallows, strawberries, bananas, rice crispy treats, and cheesecake to dip in it. YUMMY! Anyway, I feel much better today after a night's sleep on a stomach filled by The Melting Pot. If you ever have a very special occasion that gets ruined in the morning. A meal at The Melting Pot is the way to fix it.

Hot Diggity Dog

I have to post a great big sorry to my faithful readers for not posting for more than two full weeks. However, I was out west for most of that, and I did have a great trip. I hope to post all about the trip sometime this week. However, I have a TON of catching up to do on grading papers for my two online algebra classes, so please cut me some slack.

On our way home from our trip, we stopped at a mall food court to eat lunch. I think this one was maybe in Albuquerque, NM? (The question mark is not for how to spell Albuquerque, it's more a question of where the stops were. After 60+ hours in the car, stops all sort of run together.)

We were sitting in the food court eating lunch, and Jackie pointed to the store and said, "Hot dog! That store says hot dog!" We had ordered Jackie a lemonade from this store, but at the same time, I had not told her what the store was called. She is starting to understand the idea that letters stand for sounds and those sounds make up the words. She knows which sound each letter makes, but as a whole she does not 'sound out' words. In this case though, she had sounded out the words and had an epiphany. She is right on the verge of completely opening up and reading, and I'm very excited for her. Here is a picture of the store.