You know you're getting old when......

A person spends 4 hours trying to load music on an MP3 player they received as a gift. After 4 hours the helpmeet says let me take a look at it...and says "Honey...how did you turn ON your MP3 player?"....he turns and says "Well, there is an On/Off Switch on the side." Said helpmeet answers "babe, the on/off switch is to LOCK your mp3 player so you cant load anything on to it..." *sigh*

Another sign is when you try to tun on your daughters MP3 player (are we seeing a pattern here?) and it is not co-operating. You try and try to figure it out. Everything loaded fine, it just wont turn on. You get out your sons MP3 player which is Identical to the daughters only to discover that the battery that came with his has plastic around it. Note to self *when placing a battery in a MP3 player, remove plastic and it will work fine....

Looky Looky...

Tagged!

8 Tv Shows I watch (8???I am not even sure if I KNOW of 8!)
1. Survivor
2. The biggest loser
3. Heroes
4. Grey's Anatomy
5. My Own Worst Enemy
6. Rachael Ray
7. Batman
8. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (ok give me a break...I have a boy who loves his Saturday morning cartoons!)

8 favorite restaurants

1. The Texas Roadhouse
2. Joes Crab Shack
3. Kingfish
4. Mongolian BBQ
5. Chilis
6. Olive Garden
7. Los Compadres
8. The Downtowner
(note to the children, please notice that McDonalds is NOT on that list!)

8 things that happened to me today

1. I went to the gym.
2. My sister called me :)
3. I received a great email :)
4. My daughter gave me some encouraging words
5. I walked out of the gym in the freezing rain...and DIDN'T fall (that counts right?)
6. Was asking by the munchkins to play a game
7. I had children that actually DID their chores...
8. Had a little one crawl in my lap, give me a big ol kiss and say "I love you mommy"

8 things i look forward to

1. Watching the kids open their gifts on Christmas day
2. My Nephew coming home
3. Going to my sisters for Christmas.
4. Going to visit my friend in Tennessee
5. Paying off debt!
6. Sleeping in
7. The end of our school year
8. Buying more curriculum (I should be in a 12 step program for buying Curriculum...Hi my name is Angela and I am a curriculum junkie)

8 things i wish pray for

1. Christian children
2. Grandchildren
3. That Kyle and I not lose sight of each other as our kids grow older and then move out
4. Safety for my children
5. To be able to take the kids back to Haiti to "meet" their birthmoms
6. The salvation of their birthparents
7. To teach my children everything I can to help mold them into children of God
8. Sanity

8 People I tag

1. Terri
2. Connie
3. Michele
4. Cassie
5. Amanda
6. Melissa
7. Salt and light Mama
8. Whomever else wants to join!

Well.... I did it...

I was able to put on a pair of jeans from the "regular" sizes......you know....the ones that don't have a "w" after the number??? I may not be able to move or breathe...and I am pretty sure I broke a rib or two....and the entire world can see my panty lines...but by golly I was able to get them on....and zip them up.....without lying on the bed....y'all know what I am talking about lol

Breaking news...Batman and Spiderman are brothers....

Katharine (holding Spiderman): Let me see his brother.



Noah (holding Batman): They aren't brothers! They don't look anything alike!



Katharine: It doesn't matter...they were adopted

Like father like son....

Every Monday evening I take the girls to dance (we leave the house by 5 and we get home around 8:30) and Noah stays with his dad. He has had basketball practice lately but last night he didn't. He and dad had a little time to spend together last night....this is what they did :)

Why is it...

That whenever you go on a trip, your house has to be perfectly clean before you leave??? Don't get me wrong, I clean my house. When we leave to go on a trip however....it never feels right unless it is as close to "white glove perfect" as I can get it??? For real..who is going to be here to enjoy it anyway? The cat? Now I am off to clean, vacuum, and scrub the carpets of my car....where we will spend approx 12 hours over the next couple days trashing it.

A "wee" bit sore........

Well I FINALLY got the call I have been waiting for! I had put myself on a sign up list last summer to participate in our local gym's free program. If you work for 2 hours/week in their childcare room you get a free gym membership, free classes, and free childcare for my munchkins! They called me up last Wednesday, I went in for my orientation last Friday, and I made my 1st gym visit on Saturday. I really had a great time. I was alone and I wasn't the only fat plump hefty overweight person there (whew). I was able to get in a couple miles on the treadmill and about 5 miles on the stationary bike. Since I walk on the treadmill at home, it really wasn't all THAT different. I did, however, hop up on some of their weight machines to do some strength training. Ok.Ow.My shoulders hurt lol. But its a good hurt....I am looking forward to heading back tomorrow and working in the childcare center then taking an hour to do more cardio (hopefully I will get brave enough to tackle the elliptical....pretty bad when you see a woman in her 70's going to town on the machine and I am cowering in the corner like a little girl) and more strength training. According to the peeps at sparkpeople....strength training should be every other day so I am going to give it a shot.....I will probably do the same machines I did before as....well....I can't figure the others out ROFL! I am going to try and keep my eyes open and "spy" on people to see how they do the machines...........





On a funny note.....I saw people carrying these huge weights and doing walking lunges around the gym with the weights over their head. They were groaning pretty load...I was thinking to myself that I could not fit in there as I would have to use the 2 pound weight over my head.....while simultaneously falling on the floor and grunting....oh its a good thing I am not in Bob or Jillian's hands...I am such a wimp LOL

WFMW- DONE Being the Fat girl.....

While I am sure many of your are familiar with Sparkpeople (a free online weight loss tool), many people have a hard time finding the encouragement and "camaraderie" that they need to help stay focused...well I have found it! I re-joined sparks a couple weeks ago and found the name of a group I thought sounded "cool"..it is called "Done being the fat girl."



So true! How many of us want to just be DONE???? They constantly have challenges and competitions that you are held accountable for. I constantly have a message in my sparkpeople email box about

birthdays, encouragement, or even posts on my spark blog offering encouragement or some other characteristic that goes with their "Go get 'um attitude." It has really helped/pushed me so far the past couple weeks to start shedding the pound again (See weight loss tracker above). I know that with all the challenges and support this group offers I will meet my goals!

For more WFMW posts check out Shannon's blog!

If you don't know the Heimlich.....

Learn fast! The kids were sitting down eating lunch (bread, lunchmeat, cheese, corn, and a fruit of their choice). Noah and I grabbed a pear while the girls grabbed tangerines. Noah and I finished ours and the girls were finishing up. I was logging my food in to sparks when I heard Katharine coughing. I looked at her for a 2nd (it almost sounded like that asthmatic cough...and yep...you get a winner!) and then she turned and looked at me pushing herself away from the table. I asked if she was ok and she didn't answer me..she just kept gagging. I ran over and flipped her onto the table and before I knew it my hands were on her stomach and the little piece of tangerine came sputtering out of her mouth. Point being...you never know when or where you may need it....it is best to KNOW it and NEVER need it...than to NEED it and never KNOW it!

Menu Planning Monday

Welcome to another exciting week of "How frugal can the Caswells eat?" aka Menu planning Monday......

Sunday- Baked Oatmeal, Chili, and yet more chili

Monday- Leftover Baked Oatmeal, Lunchmeat & Cheese sandwiches w/ celery & ranch dressing, Pasta salad w/ homemade bread

Tuesday- toast & peanut butter, "build your own" baked potato, Bean soup w/ cornbread

Wednesday- Grits w/butter, Peanut butter & (homemade) apple jelly sandwiches w/carrots & dressing, Roast w/ broccoli and potatoes

Thursday- Bagels &cream cheese, Tuna salad w/ homemade bread and carrots, Grilled cheese and tomato soup (YUM YUM!)

Friday- Fried eggs and toast (from homemade bread), noodle soup w/ carrots, Pancakes w/fried apples (homemade)

Saturday- Waffles, Peanut butter w/homemade apple jelly on homemade bread w/celery and cream cheese, Pumpkin and black bean soup

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATHARINE!

Yesterday my "baby" girl turned 9! For months she has been reading the American Girl stories and decided last summer that she really wanted an American Girl doll. After finishing all the stories she decided that she liked Samantha the best. She has continually asked for her for MONTHS and if you know her, you know she never asks for ANYTHING! My other 2 I take into the store and its "I want this" or " I want that." She is not that way...she never asks for something unless she REALLY wants it. We even told her that if this is what she wanted...she was going to get the doll ONLY...no going out to dinner for her birthday or any other gifts..just this doll. She said that was more than fine with her. That just cemented that YES she REALLY wanted the doll! Well moms, you know how it goes, you really want your kiddos birthday to be special.....So on Saturday I took the trio and met several other moms from her dance class and we all went to lunch and to see High School Musical 3. They absolutely loved it! Several of us moms looked at each other when the movie was over and said "wow...that was actually good" LOL. In our opinion, it was MUCH better than the 1st two...of course the kids think they are all cool!

Here are a couple pics of my girl who woke up at 6:30 (am!!) to open her gifts (I say that with shock as we have never ever had an early Christmas morning.....every year we have gone in and woke the kids up at 8:00 LOL they just like to sleep)

Reminder...

Doing schoolwork with a boy after having a shot of proventil is..such.a.dumb.idea.

Where have I been???

Going crazy would be my 1st answer! Last Friday Kyle and I went to Sellersburg to pick up a heater from Free cycle (yeah for freecycle!). On our way down a friend of mine called and said that she was as tired of her kids as I was of mine had couple free tickets to Little Nashville to go see the house band and wanted to know if I wanted to go with her. I was jumping out of the car and running home without my feet hitting the floor saying TAKE ME PLEASE! TAKE ME PLEASE! I said "ok, sounds good." We headed out that night and it was SO much fun. It was Eastern star night so I think we were the youngest ones in the crown by about 40 years, but that's ok..it was fun anyway!



Saturday was Noah's football championships...he won! his team won for the whole division...exciting day! I was ashamed I didn't get that posted sooner :( great job little man!



This week we have been trying to stay on schedule/ahead of schedule with our school work being as we area headed out to Myrtle Beach in just 2 weeks (yeah!). If Noah keeps up his pace he should be finished with his phonics and reading by the time we leave and only have to work on math for a couple weeks when we return. Katharine has been trying to stay at least 2 days ahead of schedule...if they keep up this pace we should be able to break at Thanksgiving and then start again January 5.....how. I. long. for. that. break................

A day in the life of a Homeschoolin Hot-rodder....

Maddie did her math lesson today and then played a game of "tornado." For those of you who are not familiar with math-U-See, each one of those blocks you see stand for part of a place value "equation." The green guys are units (ones), the blue are tens, and the reds are hundreds. MUS makes it easy for a kiddo to learn place value as each guy (green, blues, reds) all live in little houses on decimal street...only 9 guys are allowed to live in each house...the green guys house is all the way on the right, the blue guys house is in the middle, and the hundred guys house is on the left. In the game of "tornado" we place all the guys in the correct houses...and then a big "tornado" comes through and splatters the guys all over "decimal street." It then becomes her job to put them back in their own home (therefore learning the "place" of ones, tens, and hundreds)

Here is my Noah boy giving a big smile while doing his handwriting (brought to you courtesy of Rod and Staff curriculum)....

Isn't his handwriting NEAT???? I am so proud...he is only in 1st grade but I think he is finally learning to SLOW DOWN................

Yep here is Ms. Katharine doing her Language Arts ( Learning Language Arts Through Literature).........................

She is learning cursive this year....my little perfectionist is hard at work. At the beginning of each line you see the 1st "word" that is pre-written in the book, the rest on the line are hers! I can't tell the difference in most of them!

Look who's back on track!

Yep my sis is back to bloggin' again.... head over and say "hi"!

sēē mē rēēd

I am a mom who is all for doing whats best for your kids....even if its not "your cup of tea." This one however....is. Here are some pics of my 4yo daughter reading her 1st story yesterday! She was so proud of herself! How did she do this? By using Teach Your Child to Read in 100 easy Lessons. We used it to teach my oldest how to read, and then we made it through 1/2 of it with my 2nd (He catches on to things VERY easily and he was getting bored with it), and now we are using it for my youngest. She is having a ball learning how to read and thinks that it is too cool that she is starting to be "Big" like bubba and sissy :) The lessons take about 20-30 minutes a day and are very smooth flowing. Pay no attention to the weirdness in the letters ...it actually helps them later on (yes I was one who bought this curriculum thinking "I am NEVER going to like this!"). What else is good about this program you ask??? It will cost you less than $20! This is a great idea for people who are just getting their feet wet in homeschooling or for those who are seasoned and looking for a simple program to use! We love it and that is what worked for me!

Maddie Reading her 1st story yesterday

She's not proud at all..ya think???

Check out Shannon's for more WFMW posts!

Pancake house!

So now as the blog police have alerted me of my crime....





The pancake house...oh my....dream come true if your world revolves around pancakes (as it does to Maddie). Her most favorite....favorite...FAVORITE thing in the whole wide world is....yep...pancakes...



We have a new restaurant open here in town called "The Pancake House." They not only serve breakfast all day (one of my favorites but one of Kyle's pet peeves) but they also serve a wide range of sandwiches and dinners. We try to not eat out all that often, but it is pretty much guaranteed that we will eat out on grocery day (which falls every other Wednesday). A couple weeks ago we had said we would go to "The Pancake house" oops......we kind of....well...forgot.... We have not been able to live that one down *sigh* so needless to say today was the day to go to *yikes*! "The Pancake House!" As soon as Maddie's eyes popped open today it was "We get to go to the pancake house today!" Before I knew it...I was washing dishes and the youngin' was dancing around in her underwear singing " we are going to the PANcake house today! The PAN cake house! I am going to have PANcakes today!" All this while doing little twirls...and dancing on her toes...We go to pick up Kyle's check to deposit in our account and as we leave Maddie says "Papa! We get to go to the PANcake house today!" No joke...everyone we ran into before lunch knew we were going to the PANcake house lol. I brought my camera but forgot to take pictures...oh well..I would of had to of been pretty fast anyway as my little darling ate 6! whole pancakes before I had finished my sandwich!

A sample of Hubby's work :)

Here is a pic of the Oh Boy! Oberto/Miss Madison boat headed back into town the other day (courtesy of the Madison Courier). See the black cover on the blower? The cover that has "eyes" on it? Yeah, my husband did that :) All of it was custom work...Isn't he talented??

Been MIA~

Sorry I have been MIA for so long everyone....back on the 14th we had a horrible wind storm that went through our county and left us without power for 8 days. Fun. yeah. to say the least. It could of been much worse and it was FAR from being completely devastating (although MANY homes, vehicles and such) were damaged. We were blessed in the fact that we only lost about 1/4 of our roof (not completely blown away, just had some shingles and tar to be fixed) and the trees that DID fall down were on the back of our property (40ft tall pine trees) so they didn't land on anything but the ground :) If the same trees at the front of our property would have fallen that way, it would of gone straight through the kids rooms. We praise God for saving us from that! Our neighbor, on the other hand had an oak tree completely uprooted and dropped on his truck...*ouch* Many of the trees around here were not even "torn", they were just completely uprooted. I am going to try and head out to get some pics of our area where there are still some trees down.

Hopefully we are now *back* on track!