Two of my children are lucky to be alive ....

I have not had the time to blog because two of my children were in an accident.  There was not another vehicle.  I was an icy, curvy, country road and a telephone pole.  My son was okay, but his sister went to a second hospital for surgery.  Her jaw was broken in 3 places.  Here is the van.  My daughter's seat belt failed, and both air bags did not deploy.   My daughter's jaw hit the dash and her forehead his the windshield, cracking it.  Thankfully, she does not have spinal injury nor a head injury.  She is recovering pretty well considering.

The second photo is taken from the inside of the van.  It's where my daughter's chin cracked the dash and where her head cracked the windshield.

Dinner Time Talk ~ or Should I Say Dance?

Right after dinner the kids turned on the radio for some light talk.  Soon we were all doing the wave at the table, with our bellies full no less.  Of course my husband was not home yet.  He he he!  That's when my 15 year-old daughter announced that her friend wanted to come live with us for a week because we were so much fun.  She proceeded to tell me that she showed her friend a video of them chasing me around the backyard with a frog or toad!  I cannot stand those ugly boogers.  I couldn't believe she showed her friend that video!  Oh, and for the record, there was no frog! 

With my mouth open wide and my eyeballs about to pop, another daughter (10 years old) spoke up.

"Yeah, my friend says that our family is better than cable!" she exclaims.

I suddenly wondered if I should be happy to hear all of this.   Everyone thinks we are boat loads of fun.  And all of their friends want to meet their Uncle.  Oh the stories I could blog!  So much fun!  Hearing this sure made all the bad stuff seem not so bad anymore.

I love my kids and my crazy brother who still wants to have a wheelchair race in the Cleveland Clinic's tunnel!  We may just have to do it yet!  As long as frogs are not involved.

Christmas Classroom Parties ~ It's a Tradition to Make a Treat and Ornament

I volunteered to bring the candy treat for my 2nd grader's class.  It took a while to figure out what I would make.  I have made a lot over the years and did not really want to do the same things I have done in the past.  So far, I have about 17 snowman treat containers started.  Enlisting the help from the other kids has helped.  However, we do have to have them done by next week.  Eeeeek! 

Every child has been blessed with a hand crafted ornament for each of their classmates.  I've done this for all of the kids, and many times for each one.  Each Christmas I make, and hand wrap, a handmade ornament and make a creative treat container filled with goodies.  It's been a tradition of mine and now I only have one child in elementary.   I sure hope they like it.

I've been busy with a family member's health situation, and have been gone a lot.  I'm running out of time to get ready for Christmas.   The pets have even missed me.  I came home to find that one dog had stolen one of my slippers, and we still cannot find it.  He usually gives it back the same day.  He must be really mad at me.  I guess I have some schmoozing to do. 

Last Paper for English Class

I'm a currently putting the final touches on the last writing assignment for my college English class.  In doing so, I realized it's been 21 years since I took my the prerequisite for this class. I am striving for an even higher grade than the one I received on the previous assignment.

I have also found a very inspirational book at the library, in regards to writing fiction.  It was printed back in the 90's, but it was just what I needed to focus on daily writing.  If you get a chance to visit your library, look for the book titled,  The 38 Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes and How to Avoid Them, written by Jack M. Bickham (© 1992).  My library does not have this book, however I was able to inter loan it from one (and only one) area library.

Crocheted Dish Scrubbie ~ Christmas 2009

This is my current project for additional Christmas presents.  I am thrilled with the pattern I found in 

Christmas Gift Projects ~ Wrist Warmers

I found a super simple pattern on the Internet for these cute wrist warmers.  They are actually called fingerless mittens on the pattern.  I plan to make more sets with the yarn left over from making slippers.  If I can locate the exact link to the pattern, I will add it to this post.  I think I will make longer ones for the older girls. 

Finding Muse

I had to laugh when I found out a little tidbit regarding my 15 year-old daughter.  We were all sitting in the kitchen talking about pencils.  We all have our favorite brand of mechanical pencils.  The weird thing was that all of the kids were at the table drawing in their "Doodle" journals.  They each took a spiral notebook and their choice of markers or colored pencils.  Each of them were doodling random drawings for fun.  It was kind of cute to see them all chatting nicely and doodling about nothing in particular.

I found these nice and thick spiral notebooks on clearance for $.50 each.  The covers are pretty neat too.  When I mentioned that it looked like a lot of fun, my 13 year-old daughter went to the storage area and gave me one too. 

"Here Mom you can do one too" she said to me.

Then we started talking about pencils when I asked whose packet of mechanical pencils were on the table. I mentioned my favorite brand, and the one that used to be their favorite too.  It's the Paper Mate Clearpoint Click pencil.  My 13 year-old daughter said she can get through a school year with just two of those pencils and refill leads.  My 15 year-old, who loved them for years, surprised me.

"I don't like those anymore.  I like the other kind and I like to use a different colored pencil every day," she said.

That's when I laughed.  I thought I was weird when I wrote, but hearing her really made me laugh.  I don't think either one of us would feel normal without a pen or pencil in our hands.  So in order to find her muse, she uses a different colored mechanical pencil every day.