Archive for February, 2006
Need a photographer near Fayetteville, NC?
A dear friend of mine is an AMAZING photographer. This sounds unbelievable, but I have CRIED looking at her pictures.
Dh asked me once what makes a photographer a good one, and it was hard for me to explain. I simply told him, Sherri just seems to capture the essence of the people she is photographing.
Visit Sherri Winstead Photography and be sure to view her gallery. WOW.
Some unusual thoughts about Deal or No Deal
Last night the fam watched "Deal or No Deal" for the first time. I gotta admit, I can see what some of the hype is about. Hee hee.
Dude last night had his wife, 2 buddies, and his father-in-law there as his "team." He was cooking right along, and an offer came in for something like $199,000. He asked his wife what she thought, and she said, "Well, what do you think? That is a LOT of money." (Dh and I agreed that that really meant, STOP NOW. LOL) He kept on going.
The next offer came in at $289,000. She boldly said, "DEAL." One of the buddies said, "No deal!" The contestant guy himmed and hawed and finally said, "No deal."
Dh said, "For the sake of their marriage I hope he was wrong." My dh is so wise.
Ultimately the decision was up to the husband, of course. But the impression we were both getting from this guy was that he liked to live on the edge and gamble a bit. Meanwhile the wife is the practical one who would pick up the pieces and fix the scrapes he got them into. (I hope I'm wrong...I'm just guessing based on how they acted last night.) So while it was the husband's decision, he was foolish to not listen to his wife's opinion.
Dh also pointed out that it would have been different if the husband had said, "Honey, I hear you, but for some reason I think I need to say, 'No deal.'" Instead he ignored his wife, listened to his buddy, and said No Deal.
(Un)Fortunately, the dh won his gamble...he went on and ended up winning I think $387,000. But I say "un" because it probably reinforced a pattern in their home: The wife attempting to be a true helper to her husband and the husband completely ignoring her thoughts when it came to making a decision.
Of course, perhaps dh and I are just so conservative when it comes to gambles and the like that we both would have said Deal way earlier.
Related Tags: Biblical submission, help meet, marriage, Christian marriage
Of death, of life, and of slippery slopes
Charlotte Wyatt is a 2yo disabled girl in England. A judge has ruled that doctors may withhold life support, against her parents' wishes.
In a normal case when your baby is ill the hospital will step up efforts to help. But Charlotte is special, and instead doctors submitted an emergency application to the judge to get permission not to treat her. Yesturday Justice Hedley concurred with them, reversing his previous order. Apparently the baby was on a "downward rather than an upward trend" and therefore not worth saving.
Never mind the vast improvements she had made, the way she had always made stunning recoveries after each of her illnesses, how she had proven the doctors wrong each time. Never mind that she had shown herself a fighter, and with all the strength in her little body was battling for her chance at life.
After all, she was Charlotte, and Charlotte... Charlotte might always be disabled child. She might never be quite normal, and her joys might never be quite the same as ours. Disabled people aren't like the rest of us, and when they are sick...they have to be allowed to die.
Appalling. Yet, sadly, not surprising in the least.
(HT: Michelle Malkin)
What Donut Am I?
You Are a Jelly Donut 
So you're a little rounder than most folks - but it's only in the right places!
You maintain a clean exterior, even if you're all messy on the inside.
You think you're the best, and that's mostly true...
But remember, you're just an empty shell without your jelly!
Product Reviews - Yoplait Nouriche and Dannon Fusion
Barf-o-rama. Well, OK I guess I can't go quite that far, but I won't be buying it again. It's like drinking yogurt that has a vitamin mixed in. The problem is the added iron. Ya know that aftertaste of vitamins with iron in them? That's what this has. Ya swallow, and then that metallic flavor hits you. BLECH!!!
Now, part of the problem is because I tried it after I had tried the Dannon Fusion. Yummmmmmmmmmmm! Sure it doesn't have all the fancy stuff that the Nouriche does, but when it comes to something tasting good, SOMETIMES THAT'S A GOOD THING. I'm somewhat of a smoothie snob, and the strawberry-banana flavor tastes EXACTLY like what it's supposed to.
The texture is right too (for both brands). I was expecting them to be yogurt-flavored but very thin and runny. Yuck! But they both were pleasantly thick. Had they been semi-frozen they would have been the perfect texture. I don't have any more strawberry-banana Fusions, but I do have 2 berry mixture ones. They shouldn't be too bad - strawberry, blackberry, and raspberry. Mmmmmmmm.
I have one more of the Nouriche to drink. Hope I can choke it down!
How Well Do You Know Me?
http://kevan.org/johari?name=razorbackmama
Some funnies from my kiddos :-)
(This is somewhat of an old one LOL.) We were sitting down to lunch, and I was back and forth, back and forth between the kitchen and the table (as usual). I was finally finished and sat down. Immediately I remembered something else, so I jumped back up. C (age 7.5) said, "Wow, she is one busy lady!"
Tonight I was watching a Thomas the Tank Engine video with J (almost 4). James was "cross." J looked at me and said, "Mom, look at James. He's angry." (This coming from J is huge because J is usually angry/having a fit about SOMETHING - ugh.)
Also tonight I was playing Little People with S (almost 17 months). She was having everyone go "night night." Evidently I was putting everyone in their beds incorrectly though. She flipped all the Little People face down and announced, "Night night." That is how she sleeps too.
Oh I’m rolling on the floor!!!
A year already???
One year ago I started my blog. LOL I guess it would be much more exciting had I actually been blogging recently!
It seems that I'm just too busy to either sit down and write or to even THINK about what I WANT to sit down and write!But thanks for putting up with me anyway.
So on this momentous occasion, I'd like to have a mish-mash post of sorts.
Dh and I are in a Sunday School class that is going through the book of Acts. It's been quite neat! One thing the teacher suggested is to read through the book of Acts and then as Paul gets to the different cities/churches to whom he has written letters that are Scripture, to then read those books. I thought this was a neat idea, and I'm looking forward to it! (So far I'm just up to his first missionary journey, and he hasn't gone anywhere that has a letter I can read yet LOL!) I think it will help me get a better perspective on what the people in that particular church were dealing with, what was going on in the community, etc.
Which reminds me...have y'all ever heard of the That the World May Know series by Focus on the Family? WOW WOW WOW. We have a couple of the videos, and they are just phenomenal. Teacher and historian Ray Vander Laan takes us to the different locations where different events in the Bible occurred and then teaches us about the culture, politics, etc. of the day, to give us more insight and better understanding of just what these events/parables/etc. MEANT. For example, I had no idea until these videos that to the people waving the palm branches as Jesus entered Jerusalem, it was just like waving an American flag. I always thought that the palm branches had some sort of spiritual significance, but really the people thought that Jesus was a POLITICAL leader, and the palm branches were a political symbol. WOW! That just opens up a whole new realm of understanding what was going on at that time!
Anyway! They have a new series that is about to come out. I think dh and I are going to use some of our tax refund money to get some more of the DVDs.
Speaking of tax refund money, ours is going to be way too big. Yes, I'm thankful for having a large chunk of change to apply toward bills and such, but it kills me that the government has been using it all year interest-free. I knew dh's withholding amounts needed to be changed, but GOODNESS! They REALLY needed to be changed!!! The IRS Withholding Calculator helped me calculate just how many exemptions dh needs to claim on his W-4. We still took fewer exemptions than this calculator said to, since we'd rather err on the side of a refund than OWING money, but our refund won't be as large next year. Plus it increased his net pay by almost $100 every 2 weeks! We definitely could use that money now!
Thanks to The Grocery Game I have averaged about $325/month for food the last 3 months. We feed SEVEN people on that! They have recently expanded to several different areas, so be sure to check and see if they are now in your area, ESPECIALLY if your coupon section is decent. Our coupon section STINKS, and I'm still able to save that much. Prior to the GG, my monthly average was $550, and that was with the standard advice of creating a meal plan, shopping to my meal plan, and sticking to my meal plan. If you do try the GG, please let them know that razorbackmama AT hotmail DOT com referred you!
Another thing that has saved me money in shopping recently is PAYING IN CASH. We have been doing somewhat of a My Total Money Makeover thing, and I've been using Dave Ramsey's worksheets to budget and allocate the money dh earns. Dh's income is sort of strange in that he earns a salary, but it goes toward pretty much all bills. He travels a lot too, and his travel reimbursements are what pay for the other things we need (once they cover his travel expenses, of course!). So I've had to finagle Dave's method to work for our situation, but they are helping a lot. The cash is sort of a pain to work with, but our spending has decreased SIGNIFICANTLY since I started this new method. Thanks Dave!!!
Little S is almost 17 months old now. It is hard to believe that this is how old G was when C was born. G seemed like such a big boy at the time, but now I see he was just a BABY! Boo hoo!!! S talks all the time, and she is actually COMMUNICATING with us! She can say the following words (and mean them, and we can understand what she means!): Daddy, Mommy, J (his name), baby, Barbie (she calls all Little People type dolls Barbie too LOL), cup, juice, night-night, bye, cracker, please, go (this is usually said YELLING and pushing someone away LOL), no, mine, shoe, sock, and there is probably more that she can say that I'm just forgetting. She sings and dances, and she gives great kisses: "mmmmmmm-AH." She is just SO FUNNY!!!
It has been so warm here lately, and winter has been sort of a bummer. I moved here expecting it to be WINTRY LOL! We had a long, cold spell in November, but since then it's been in the upper 30s/low 40s. Blech! But FINALLY the last couple of days it's been in the single digits and night and still below freezing during the day. It's only supposed to last about a week though. Sigh. I sure hope we can get some snow - I just bought the kids new sleds this winter!
We received a neat blessing yesterday. A friend of mine moved recently. She uses HomeSat for homeschooling also, so while she moved I recorded a couple of classes for her. As a thank you she sent us a digital camera/camcorder!!! I told dh maybe I need to record ALL her classes for her! LOL!!! So I may be able to post some more pictures of interesting things from time to time now. Bwahahahahahaha.
Now that I have a digital camera, I can sell the stuff on ebay that I've been needing to. It's getting to be that time of year: CURRICULUM BUYING TIME!!!
Well, sorry for the disjointed post...told ya it'd be mish-mash. Thanks for sticking with me this past year!
Which Peanuts Character Am I?
You are Linus!Which Peanuts Character are You?
brought to you by Quizilla
WOO HOO Lieutenant Dan!!!
Actor Gary Sinise: Positive Support for Iraq
It's about time some people started sticking up for the troops!!!
In Christ Alone
In Christ alone my hope is found
He is my light, my strength, my song
This Cornerstone, this solid ground
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm
What heights of love, what depths of peace
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease
My Comforter, my All in All
Here in the love of Christ I standIn Christ alone, who took on flesh
Fullness of God in helpless babe
This gift of love and righteousness
Scorned by the ones He came to save
‘Til on that cross as Jesus died
The wrath of God was satisfied
For every sin on Him laid
Here in the death of Christ I liveThere in the ground His body lay
Light of the world by darkness slain
Then bursting forth in glorious Day
Up from the grave He rose again
And as He stands in victory
Sin’s curse has lost its grip on me
For I am His and He is mine
Bought with the precious blood of ChristNo guilt of life, no fear of death
This is the power of Christ in me
From life’s first cry to final breath
Jesus commands my destiny
No power of hell, no scheme of man
Can ever pluck me from His hand
‘Til He returns or calls me home
Here in the power of Christ I’ll standBy Keith Getty, Stuart Townend
