CAPTAIN'S LOG, STARDATE 5.29.09

We recently encountered an interesting and rather unusual life form. They are a bipedal humaniod species known as The Boiz. Although the universal translator had difficulties translating much of what was said, we did manage to glean enough from our contact with them to have some basic knowledge of their species. Our dealings with the Boiz have been primarily with two members of the species, but even so, I believe we have learned a lot about them.

The Boiz seem to enjoy being excessively loud. They talk loud, laugh loud, and especially enjoy making lots of loud {and sometimes rude} noises. Also, they are a mildly violent species and are known to initiate a form of physical contact similar to wrestling whenever they feel like it. Head-butting and full body tackling is also not uncommon, so one must remain on guard when in proximity to any Boiz!

While wandering the planet's surface, the younger Boiz discovered a pool of water that had formed due to the inclement weather of the previous few days. Evidently the soil's absorption rate is rather slow, thus the grassy vegetation was completely waterlogged. When Little Boiz saw this pool of water, he made a bee-line for it! Before I knew it, he was knee-deep in the puddle and grinning from ear to ear. And it wasn't long before Big Boiz had learned of his discovery and joined in the fun. The two of them continued splashing and wandering through the muddy water pool for at least a quarter of an hour. And although unconfirmed, I suspect Little Boiz may have used a form of telepathy to inform Big Boiz of the watery fun.

Speaking of communication, Little Boiz is especially difficult to understand. It seems even Big Boiz does not always understand his younger counterpart's speech patterns. And when Little Boiz is struggling to communicate, we've observed that he will eventually resort to crying and screaming until his needs {or wants} are met. It's a bit primitive, but I must admit, it can be effective! Big Boiz was a bit better at communicating with us. As I've already mentioned, we didn't understand each other perfectly, but I am fairly certain he was able to understand most of what we discussed with him. He is an intelligent being and learns quickly. I am confident that a continued relationship with The Boiz will benefit both our species.

A visual record of The Boiz.

trekkie alert!

what do you get when a trekkie watches multiple episodes of star trek: voyager every day for about a week?

a crazy who'd rather be a starfleet captain! and posts to her blog as though she is.

rum pum pum pum

we dug out a little toy drum that bubba had when he was younger.

now cj's just lovin' it!



don'tcha just love how he opens his mouth as wide as possible while drumming? it's so funny to watch! he's quite the character.

Win a free year of curriculum from Sonlight!

i just learned something really cool! {i only wish i qualified!}



Sonlight is giving away a free year of curriculum. all you have to do to enter is request a catalog! how easy is that?!

so if you've been thinking about home-schooling your children, or already home-school but haven't tried Sonlight yet, here's your chance to win a year's worth for FREE! here is the page where you can enter (by requesting your catalog) and see the official rules too!

btw, i just noticed that two drawings are gonna be held: the first will be for entries made in april & may and the second will be for entries made in june & august. so go request your catalog and maybe you'll be a winner!

"indentifying information"

adoption has been on my mind and heart a lot lately. it's evidently something i think about more often than i actually realize. i suppose it's partly due to the fact that i've experienced this miracle myself and partly because i know so many others who have also adopted and/or are currently in the adoption process. reading blogs by other adoptive parents is always such a blessing to me. and yes, more often than not, the tears flow freely when i learn of the joys and trials that other adoptive parents experience.

today's pondering:
it's interesting how the adoption experience has affected me in so many different ways i would not have guessed. take for example, how i blog. as a mom, i like to write about my kids and share the fun we have as a family, but i find that how i write my posts is directly affected by my adoptive experience. you see, even early in our adoption process, we were told to be careful not to share any "identifying information" {like in our picture profile} until the time came when an agreement would be made to make the adoption fully open. for us, that day never came. our baby's birthparents chose to keep our adoption closed--no identifying information would be shared and no contact would be made between us and them. when he turns 18, cj may choose to seek a meeting with his birthparents and our adoption agency will hopefully be able to facilitate that meeting if he desires it. in the meantime, i send scheduled updates to the agency per the agency's suggestion...just in case someday his birthparents want to see how he's doing. because of the adoption process and these updates, i have learned to be extra-careful with our names, location, and other information that might be clues as to who we are or where we live.

so when i started blogging, it was natural for me to not use my full name. i have chosen not to use my hubby's or kids' real names either. instead, i refer to them by their nicknames or initials. i know who i'm writing about and for me that's what really matters. early on, i had a comment about this--that the nicknames were just a tad confusing {written by an individual who knows and loves us}. i think perhaps that's why i'm writing about this today. i would like to feel comfortable using all our real names too, but i'm not, so i don't.

i have read many different blogs. and i see a whole realm of variety when it comes to the use of indentifying information. some people have no problem sharing everything--their full names, location, birthdates, or whatever! others prefer complete anonymity and work to write without any indentifiers. i think ultimately, it just depends on the blogger {their personality, circumstances, etc.} and their purpose in blogging {to share tidbits with family & friends, as an online journal, or a place to vent or speak out}.

for me, this blog is my online "journal" of sorts and my other blog is where i share with family and friends fun stuff that's happening or just whatever's on my mind at the time.

what if

heard this song on our way home tonight. was really listening to the words and really liked the message of it so i thought i'd share.

What If by Nicole Nordeman

What if you're right?
And he was just another nice guy
What if you're right?
What if it's true?
They say the cross will only make a fool of you
And what if it's true?

What if he takes his place in history
With all the prophets and the kings
Who taught us love and came in peace
But then the story ends
What then?

But what if you're wrong?
What if there's more?
What if there's hope you never dreamed of hoping for?
What if you jump?
And just close your eyes?
What if the arms that catch you, catch you by surprise?
What if He's more than enough?
What if it's love?

What if you dig
Way down deeper than your simple-minded friends
What if you dig?
What if you find
A thousand more unanswered questions down inside
That's all you find?

What if you pick apart the logic
And begin to poke the holes
What if the crown of thorns is no more
Than folklore that must be told and retold?

You've been running as fast as you can
You've been looking for a place you can land for so long
But what if you're wrong?

o happy day!

yes! the circuit breaker was replaced this morning by a good friend and co-worker of my hubby's who just happens to be an electrician. [read: no worries of my hubby getting electrocuted while trying to fix this himself!] the stove and oven are back on and everything seems to be working well again. the soup was cooked...noodles too!...and ready to eat by lunchtime. and now i'm busy this afternoon getting bubba's Bible bee quiz cards cut apart and onto book rings so he can start studying for the 1st ever Bible bee which will be in september. we are so blessed to have a local contest to be able to enter him in. it's so exciting! if you haven't heard of Bible bee you can go here to learn all about it and see if there's a local contest near you still accepting contestants. {our local bee is already full! PTL!}

God is good...ALL the time!

a bad day

Because you had a bad day
You're taking one down
You sing a sad song just to turn it around
You say you don't know
You tell me don't lie
You work at a smile and you go for a ride
You had a bad day
The camera don't lie
You're coming back down and you really don't mind
You had a bad day
You had a bad day

pretty catchy song there by daniel powter. i've heard it off and on quite a bit...especially last year on tv during nascar. it's pretty appropriate at times!

today was kind of a bad day for me. not super-bad. just annoyingly bad. maybe you know what i mean.

first, i got up a little later than i planned. i wanted to make a batch of my chicken noodle soup for lunch, and this takes a bit of time and effort. and i didn't have quite enough time to get it done for lunch. so i made the decision at about 11am to make the meal i had planned for supper at lunchtime and then we'd just have soup for supper instead. not a bad plan. and basically, lunch worked out okay...a little later than usual, but it was do-able. i nearly burned the chicken, but it still tasted good anyways. so after washing a bunch of dishes, i went back to working on the soup.

i was nearly done. the only thing i hadn't added yet was the noodles. i had a little extra time before we would eat, so i decided to let the soup simmer for a bit and would add the noodles later. my beautiful kenmore stovetop has a "simmer select" button that you can use to make the temp even lower...it's supposed to be especially useful for simmering soups. so i decided to try it. i pushed the button. (my soup was already on low heat...#2 on the dial.) i barely...really hardly at all!...moved the dial up toward #3 and...POP!!!!

the stove's lights, clock, everything just quit.

oh great. that's just wonderful.

turns out the circuit breaker {in the big gray box on the wall of the basement} for the stove tripped. and won't reset. so we'll have to get it fixed tomorrow. thankfully, that's the only thing on that circuit breaker. if only i had cooked the noodles in my soup before that happened! then we could have just heated up bowls of soup in the microwave. but no. no soup for supper.

i was so hungry for that soup tonight too!

well, at least today wasn't a total loss. the soup is currently in the fridge awaiting a working stovetop to finish cooking it on. and my husband set up the basketball hoop for bubba after they both had a bowl of cereal for supper. i think bubba's been asking to be able to "shoot hoops" for at least a year now. as for me, i had popcorn for supper. and i even shared it with my boyz.

adventures in photo editing

Photo #1

before:

after:

Photo #2

before:

after:

i just learned a new trick with my photoshop elements v.6.

i cropped the images then used a layering technique to give these pics an old-fashioned, almost hand-painted look.

pretty nifty, huh?

thankful thursday

today i'm thankful for my husband.

not only is he my best friend and lover, he's my playmate, confidante, supporter, financial adviser, and cook! really the list of his amazing qualities goes on and on, but you get the idea. he's a great daddy. oh yeah, he even does dishes too! he's nothing short of amazing and i'm so blessed to be his wife! even after 11 years of marriage, it still amazes me how God brought us together. i can't see it ever happening without divine intervention. i'm so thankful that God orchestrated our lives so that we would meet when the time was right. T completes me. and his love for the Lord and faith in God strengthens my own.


i'm also thankful for prayer.
and since today was the National Day of Prayer, i thought i'd add that to today's thankful thursday post. what a blessing to live in a country where it's not a crime to pray in public. i think it's incredible that the Creator of the universe loves me and wants me to know Him personally! it's sometimes hard to believe that God really wants me to talk to him about what's going on in my life. the ups. the downs. the joys. the doubts. the concerns. and through it all He continues to reveal more of Himself to me and He shows me how much He loves me.