I'm baaaaaaaacccckkkkk!!!!

Didn't even know I was gone, did ya?!

We were sure our computer had completely died, but it only almost died. A very nice man from our church help revive it with minimal costs (as part of his ministry he doesn't charge for his labor, only the parts) and lots of new upgrades - what a blessing :)

So after being without my computer for over a week, I was in major withdrawal. I felt I was on a deserted island and I didn't even get to take my three things with me! It was almost like being on the outside of that clic you so wanted to be a part of but they never had time for someone like you - so glad I'm no longer in jr high, by the way! I was very excited to get back in touch and "hear" everybody's news - thanx again y'all for sharing.

And, now, I can post some more pix of my cute, cute kids and lil nephew, too. A friend of mine takes pictures on the side and took these pix of our sweet kiddos last summer.

If only my scanner would take the hint and follow suit, I could share some of my trip to India last Spring. That is my next goal - well, one of my many next goals - well, it's on my list, anyways :)

I just have to shout a lil here today. In fact, imagine IHC and the guy who always grabbed the flower pot, put it on his head and took off running - that's how I feel! We have had such wonderful blessings this week and just like God with his fabulous timing, they could not have come at a better time. Let's just say things have been a bit dry at the Miller well recently and God has just poured and poured His sweet rain down on us and now it it overflowing! My prayer is that this overflowing spills right over onto everyone around us. I want it known that Jesus is the source of this wealth and nothing I have done on my own. I want to remain thankful to Him for the blessings He provides us everyday - those things we find ourselves taking for granted - but, I also find the need to share in the great things God has brought our way. For me, sharing blessings has been somewhat of a hard thing to do, in that I felt like I would be bragging or drawing the focus on me. But, isn't it just like satan to try and squash our joy any absolute way he can? Well, I wanna squash him right back - PRAISE BE TO JESUS FOR HIS WONDERFUL SPIRIT THAT LIVES IN ME :)

Lots of Love to all my blogger friends out there in Blogger Land!

our almost teenager

our lovely ladybug

our comic relief aka mini me of Derek

what wonderful kiddos

my cute nephew included



boys being sweet

and not so sweet

But I don't wanna be it!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, you guessed it - I have been tagged! In the sense of fairness, unfortunately, I feel I must adhere to the rules of the game. The problem lies therein - I do not know that many blogging friends as I am a newbie to the game (which brings up a point I will address later!) and most everyone I do know has already been tagged. So either I am it for a very long time without the possibility of even retiring to the mush pot or someone new shows up for me to tag. (Hint! Hint! Someone send me a link!)

Now back to a previous statement.........I feel there should be somewhat of an option out clause for those new to the game or maybe even a length of time appropriate for being in the blog playground before getting attacked by a tagger. I strongly recommend that this should be discussed at the next town meeting and such said rules should be voted on as amendments to The Articles Of Tagging Laws.

So without further ado - drum roll, please......
the 7 Random Facts of Queen Essie :)

1. I found this out when my infant daughter had thrush. My tongue was white and splotchy; I thot, oh no I have it too. But, nooo, I was medically diagnosed with a Geographic tongue. "What in the world?", you may say - well, read on for more info!

Definition from a medical journal: Geographic tongue is common and unimportant. The tongue develops smooth or rough areas that fluctuate, producing patterns that look like world maps, if you have a vivid imagination. Cause is unknown. Symptoms range from none to mild burning; some have noticed an increase in symptoms after certain foods or fruit juices. (If you feel the need to gather more data, just Google "geographic tongue")

BONUS: I can use this Geographic tongue to touch my nose!

2. I am actually officially allergic to pantyhose (probably most accurate is nylon!)! Why this most important fact could not have been discovered while I was still a student at Bible College where such attire was required every day, I do not know. However, I am very thankful for such a revelation as it is very hard to explain why you are scratching and clawing at the backs of your legs, not to mention squirming in your seat during church or school - oh, it is also, incredibly UN-ladylike!

3. I was pregnant at the same time as my mother-in-law! And have a sister-in-law younger than my oldest child! Totally weird, I'll tell ya!

4. I had a wreck when I was in high school delivering a cookies n cream Oreo Blizzard to my sick best friend. It was raining, I slid, I over-compensated, and I ended up in the ditch - apparently after flying thru the air at some point in time because of an impression on a telephone wire pole. I don't remember this part since I was knocked out briefly by a head bump on the window. Further adding to this emotional trauma: the blizzard plastered all over my car, me and my extremely long and thick hair - same hair that got velcroed into the head bumpers placed around me when I was strapped to the body board - same hair (and face) that got snuff juice dripped in/on by one of the volunteer firemen carrying me up out of that ditch. Thankfully, I was not majorally injured and my car was totalled, as it would have been a further nightmare trying to clean up ALL that blizzard goop that was EVERYWHERE in my car!

Technically, this may be have been enough info to qualify for more than one fact, however, after checking Article 2, Section 3b, no such definition is supplied of fact powers thereby giving way to free interpretation of fact lengthage. (Another issue that may need new proposals discussed at the town meeting, should you feel the length of said fact has violated the previously mentioned Articles Of Tagging Laws)

5. My Mom was an English major, so she constantly corrected us (without even thinking) and strictly taught and enforced the usage of proper grammar. Therefore, at age 3 I knew what an adverb was and would readily pass this info on if I heard someone using one incorrectly. Also, "ain't" was considered a bad word in our house and, even if it was in the dictionary, really wasn't even a word.

6. My body refused to go into labor by itself and I had to endure a Pitocin-induced labor with all 3 of my children's births. Due to the extremely painful, rapid and continuous contractions associated with Pitocin - plus, I'm a major wimp when it comes to pain -I proudly requested epidurals at the earliest convenience & when they worked, I enjoyed lovely birthing experiences! Thru these whole epidural experiences I found out I actually have a very small epidural place - which probably was why the 2 epidurals given by a new med student never took and by then my baby girl was crowning and I was almost dying - bringing up another reason I'm extremely thankful for the epidurals when they did work!

7. Probably the best one of all - I was extremely blessed and privileged to go to India with my church on a mission trip in March 2006. If you are familiar with Indian culture, they do not eat beef because cows are considered holy or sacred in accordance of their beliefs in reincarnation. Not even Christians will partake because of it interfering with their witness to people about the one true God. So, we ate alot of fruits, rice, chicken, and goat. At one meal we were given the opportunity to taste an India delicacy. I figured while in Rome.....(do as the Romans do) and besides when would I ever get this same opportunity, so I said, "Yes, I will try it!"
I then made the mistake of telling our host that it was actually pretty good, whereby he told the servers to give me a second portion! Oh, my! I was only trying to be polite!
But, once you got past the slimy, almost jellied texture, the taste of the goat BRAINS were actually not bad!
And, no, it didn't taste like chicken!


Hope you enjoyed these glimpses of randomness in my life :)
TTFN

Today, as always, We Remember

Where's the Fall weather?

Hello Friends :)

I have REALLY enjoyed my first few dayz in the blogging world! It was very exciting to check and see the new comments. I was rather surprised at how many comments I did get - guess I am more popular than I thot!

I was able to go out of town this weekend with my children to my aunt's house in Ohio. She doesn't have children of her own, so she always spoiled my sister and I growing up. Now, she passes that on to my children, which is so very cool. She lives close to Cincy, OH and about a 1/2 hour away from King's Island. She used to take us there when we were younger and continued the tradition when my kids got old enough. She buys my kids season passes every year for Christmas - which is such an awesome present - and allows us to crash at her house whenever we go up. It really fits into the budget so much better when you only have to come up with gas money and food money. Anyways, so that is where we got to go this weekend. During the off-season they are only open on Saturdays and Sundays - except for the spooky scary stuff that goes on after it gets dark, which we totally are not interested in. They have family friendly stuff during the day til about 5 or 6. During the summer it is so hot that we usually spend most of our time soaking in the many wonderful things at the water park, so it is fun to go and just ride rides a couple days. Even if it was so blistering hot! Which finally gets me to my title, where's the Fall weather? It was above 90 degrees both days, and we were almost miserable. I also had forgotten my cups which can be refilled for a fraction of the cost to get a drink or they can be filled with ice water for free - yeah for free! I usually take the Kool-aid singles and add to the water to help save $$ - yes, you guessed it - I forgot those too! So we kept getting these miniature free cups of water that would last about 3 or 4 big gulps and then devour the ice cubes in a hurry. There was only 1 water ride open, due to the fact we are usually in hoodies and blue jeans this time of year, so that line was incredibly long & none of us particularly care for the ride anyways. Austin & I finally broke down on Sunday and rode it, just for the water's sake & boy it did feel good.

This latest trip did make me realize I am getting a wee bit older - well let me preface that by giving an overview of my last several weeks. Since I started teaching this year (last week of August) and I have never been this extremely busy so early in the year, I have worked every day but 3. Granted for those of you used to working every day will think, "What a wimp!" and I sorta would agree with you, but if you have never been a substitute teacher, I will tell you - some of these classes leave you physically and emotionally drained at the end of the day. One of these classes I taught for 3 1/2 weeks in a row because the teacher had back surgery & I did get really attached to those kids, but man, those 8th graders wear me out!

So, after working all these days in a row and working at my house, I am also on the PTO at my youngest two kids school - where we had a school carnival the day before I went out of town. I helped set up booths, run errands, find equipment, move said equipment, individually bag 216 cookies (I did have help with 12 of them!), bag peanuts, popcorn, and cotton candy, organized silent auction baskets, ran home, changed clothes, got kids, came back and proceeded to help run the carnival until the much needed rain hit in a furious way, and then stayed to help clean up - only about 12 hours of work. The next day, the kids and I cleaned house in a big way since alot of things had fallen by the wayside with me working so much - I really hated to leave Derek ad mist the mess. I finally got out of town close to 9 pm that evening after all our stuff got done and we ate dinner at mom's house. I arrived at my aunt's house about 1 am and we all fell into bed.

Okay, so I am already major tired, but as a mom of 3, rarely do I ever let that stop me - off to King's Island we go in 90 + degree weather for some roller coaster excitement! I have toned down a bit on my coaster riding, as after having kids my body reacts to fear and heights in different ways. But I am a fun Momma, so will ride most of everything the kids want to get on. Thus part of the reason as to why I MAY be getting a wee bit older: after all this work at school, at carnival, at home, driving 4 hours late at night, two fun filled HOT days of coaster riding at KI, and a 4 hour trip home - me n Aleve are REALLY good buddies right now! I may even have to go visit my chiropractor tomorrow & I know he will give me a lecture about those coasters I was on!

Before anyone asks, no I don't have any fun pix to share. My digital camera got broken when I was in India and I have yet to get it looked at, as I'm afraid it will cost more to repair than it is worth. If my scanner would straighten up and work right, I'd get more other photos on here, but that hasn't happened yet. So, until then, enjoy this ramblin post!

Cheers to Fall Break - Xtra time with kids & time off from school! Yeah to both!