Sorry I haven’t been blogging at all! I’ve just been so consumed with sleeping, trying not to throw up, trying to eat, and avoiding icky foods that I haven’t really felt like blogging at all! I’m doing fine, and little johnny appleseed is making my tummy bulge a little (or maybe that’s just bloat – who knows!) and Chris is getting really excited about this little one making its entrance in several months! I’m really excited too, but it’s hard to bond with a tummy bulge.. we’re about 10 weeks along, just holding out for the 2nd trimester to start!

Love you all,

Gma Audrey – I got your messages! I’ll try to call you back soon – I keep falling asleep as soon as I get home and not returning anyone’s calls! I’m not avoiding you, it’s just your great-grandbaby’s fault. hehe

~Lisa

Don’t you just hate it when you go tag surfing and think you’ve found something someone has written on the exact topic you’re looking for.  You enthusiastically click on the link only to find that someone is writing about their dog.  Or worse yet is when the dog owner impersonates the dog and writes in the blog what they think the dog would say, if it could blog. This is one of those posts about our family puppy.  Sorry.

I took Jamie to the vet yesterday for a fur-cut. For our blog fans out there who seem to keep reading our boring posts, Jamie is a five month old Lhasa Apso Miniature Poodle mix. Her hair was getting very long and we decided to take a chance on getting her clipped, even though it might mean that she would lose her dark color. As you can see, there is plenty of dark left, and I think it will come back as it grows out. Karla said I should be prepared to giggle when I first saw her. She was right–it was quite a change from the furry monster she had become, but I actually couldn’t help saying,

“Awwww! You look so cute!” I’m quite relieved to be rid of all her shagginess. Bath times will be so much easier, not to mention we’ll use less shampoo. I still can’t resist sinking my fingers into her silky soft fur and telling her how pretty she is every time I see her!

Hello Everyone! just wanted to let you all know that my play is the last thursday and friday in March. i believe that is the… 27th and 28th?? idk. lol. but yes. tickets will b for sale soon so if you can come and you  want tickets let me know. Adults are i believe $5. and children are $4. but i really dont’ think you will be buying tickets for little kids, (unless you guys steal some, lol.) so yea.. i hope you all can make it! especially you! (lisa and chris) but if you can’t that’s fine i understand) oh and of course gma and pa! havent’ seen you since like… CHRISTMAS????? has it really been that long?? ohmigosh!! lol. wow… well… i’ll talk to you all soon. i’m planning on calling you gma if i have time sometime. i’m so busy. play and stuff. =[=[

 byebye for now!

 **Jess**

If you want to skip over the movie version and get right to the meat of this post, you can go to the __ paragraph. I don’t know which paragraph that is yet because it hasn’t developed yet. I’ll let you know later.

The movie version with all the details follows:

Guess what was in our mailbox yesterday? Netflix sent us “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea”. Finally a “G” rated movie we can all watch with no inappropriate stuff in it, unless you consider Kirk Douglas giving three shakes of his tushy to be sick and wrong. Back in the day when this movie was made, I’m sure it caused some debate. This was my first to see the movie, and although we have the Great Illustrated Classic version of the book, I haven’t ever read it.

We started watching a little late for Caleb, our younger school boy. His bedtime is normally 8:30, but I just couldn’t make him tear himself away from the movie until 9:00. This morning, to make waking him up a little easier, I promised that if he was all ready for school early, we’d start the movie where he left off last night, and wait for the bus to come. With Chuck as a driver, you never know when he’ll be here. It’s usually 8:00, but lately, because of the bad country roads, and the buses only driving on hard surface roads, he’s been a little earlier. At 8:05 I began to wonder about him. We had been sitting in the living room the whole time with a good view of the bus stop. Could we have missed it? I called the next-door neighbor and didn’t get an answer, but Chris isn’t allowed to answer if his parents aren’t home. Next I tried the neighbors across the street and the dad confirmed that we had missed the bus. I was in no shape to be out in public, but I hustled to get presentable, in spite of this strep/bronchitis thing I’ve got going, and cheerfully drove my kiddies to school. Seriously, I didn’t mind at all. Being newly unemployed, or “retired” as we’ve been calling it, I’m just thankful to be here for my kids.

After dropping everyone off with the traditional, “Bye, I love you, have a good day”, I was driving back home thinking about all the phone calls I needed to make (first on the list being a doctor appointment, since I haven’t been able to kick this on my own). When I came to Highway 63, where the crossing guards usually are, I saw a very little girl standing on the other side, needing to cross. By this time it was probably 8:15, this little girl was going to be late for school, and there were no crossing guards anymore. What to do? I knew it would be inappropriate to offer her a ride because I’m a “stranger”, but my heart was crying for this little girl. “Who is she? Where are her parents? Why is she walking alone? Who would turn her loose knowing she was going to be late, with no other walkers around to provide some safety?” I parked my car on the side street and quickly walked toward her. I asked if she was going to cross the street and she quickly accepted my help. As we were crossing, I asked her a couple questions, including her name, and then sent her off with a cheerful, “Have a good day!” When I got in my car to drive away, I just couldn’t go home not knowing if she made it to school or not. I drove to the next block, turned my van around, and slowly drove to the school. I passed “Bailey” who didn’t seem to care that she was late. I knew what I had to do and went on to the school. The office was full of other students who were late, so I went to the nurse’s office. When I was explaining what had just happened, I couldn’t help but cry. It broke my heart. I don’t know this little girl or her family, but I do know that she shouldn’t be alone on the streets. Who would send their beautiful little daughter off to school late, alone to cross the busy highway, without any supervision, and not even care if she made it to school or not?

When I came out of the school to go to my van, she was just coming up the front walk. I cheerfully said, “You made it!”, and commented on her red nose. She said she wasn’t that cold, and headed inside for another day of learning.

As I drove out of the school parking lot I cried again and said, “Thank you, Lord. I always ask you to guide me, to put me in the right place at the right time.” It had happened. It may not have been a huge thing, but I was able to reach out to a sweet little girl because today I wasn’t too busy or selfish to take a few minutes. I don’t know what the nurse will do with the information I gave her, but maybe someone can make a difference in her life. I’d gladly take her to school every day if she needed it. Should I write about the people God put in my life when I was that little girl?

Bye, I love you, have a good day! (Now which was better, the movie version, or just the facts?)

and loving it! Where did I ever find time to go to a job 5 hours a day? I’ve been home two days and I’m wiped out just from doing paperwork. I’ve replied to two insurance companies and visited a third one, paid every bill in sight, (including real estate taxes…ugh…), balanced two bank accounts, analyzed the PMC Scholarship Fund accounts to come up with a future plan, talked to my sister twice, and Lisa once, ran kids to violin, piano, gymnastics, band concert practice, home from play practice, back to the actual band concert which was an hour longer than expected. That’s just today’s schedule!

It feels so good to be accomplishing so much. Unemployment is the way to go if you can pull it off! Retired at 45. Awesome!

so i left for KC this last saturday @ 3 in the morning… with no nap beforehand… but i made it through and am very happy that i went. the show was amazing. completely amazing. my friends and i had a good ride down and a very quick ride back (2 hours and 45 minutes)… the thing is about the quick ride is that i went 75 in the 70 and 60 in the 55… and how in the crap did i make it back so fast?… no idea. none of us know. my speedometer must be a little off. i’m gonna get that checked out when i go in to have the dude give me the title and put the trunk back together. so we made it back around 3:30 and i slept until 3 on sunday to be officially disgusted because the teen center where i had been storing my drums was locked up and i was unable to get them for practice tonight… but that turned out to be ok… i needed some rest and i have now gotten it. i’m ready to start another week of school and work and straight up thuggin.

peace.

well… it’s officially March! get ready to set ur clocks forward!! … that is this month isn’t it? I’m really not too sure. so how is everyone? we really missed you on Saturday grandma. wish you could’ve been here.

 i had a good/lousy weekend. i was sick w/ the flu or something like it on Friday, so i could barely stand up w/out feeling like i had to run to the bathroom (:P) not something i like to do. but i think it was probably because i was up till 1:30 waiting for LISA and SONYA to get here!! (that IS how u spell her name, right Lisa?)

So i was better on Saturday (thank goodness!) so i could party w/ the girls!

But like now i have a really bad cough. so i think i’m gunna go take something for it! i love you alls!

 **/Jess\**

I see gmaudie has an ID picture now, but who is that mysterious ezekiel guy?

Could this be him?