Don't laugh...but I've went crazy

Oh my...I was actually giddy to receive my package yesterday from the UPS driver. I have fell in love with the most awesome thing in the world. It is flexible, colorful, easy to use, goes wherever I place it and says what I want it to. Post It made these wonderful Sortable Cards. Post It Sortable Index Cards!!! Don't laugh at me. It's getting older, I think, but the simplier things in life make me all gooey inside. I do love these little cards. They are really making my books expand. I can make notes as I read and stick it on the page in the book and then when I want to study I can take them out and use them. I'm kind of funny though, I always put them back in the book when I'm done.

Ms. A told us to buy some colored plastic clips to mark our books. I've hunted and hunted. Like the Post It cards I couldn't find them anywhere in town. I finally found a catalog office store in North Carolina that had them. Now my books are all colorful. They now have highlighting, clips, Post Its and wee little Post It flags everywhere. A young girl that sets by me in Anatomy told me that she had never seen anyone but teachers have such heavily marked and tagged books. I'm taking it as a compliment. I wasn't sure how I was supposed to take it but...

I'm still so proud of my little accessories. I've showed them to everybody that's dropped by today. And I just wanted to share them on here too.

The Mom Song....Did they write this for me?

Can you believe some "Mom" must have took the time to write a song about us? I seen it and I had to share. I love the Lone Ranger music, too. It's just what I needed today. Hope you enjoy.

I'm declaring war!!

It's time to eat!! This is my favorite meal. I love cashew chicken, egg rolls and crab rangoon. I spent the afternoon making this a few weeks ago. The boys think that the "Green Stuff" doesn't go with the rest of it. I just rolled my eyes.

I've declared war on my midsection this week. As soon as I did, Steve went on a shopping spree at the day old bread store in Sedalia. I have a table loaded down with bread, cinnamon rolls, apple danish, fig type cookies and donuts. I have been doing well and not eating them. I turn my head as I pass and suck some more water down.

Colton has sprouted up and slimmed down lately. He rides his bike all the time. He got a new Mongoose from Santa this year that was silver and blue. It's a 21 speed and he's getting the hang of shifting gears. It's also an off road bike so he rides it all over these 120 acres. I think I'm going to have him dig my bike out and air the tires up and maybe I'll start off and ride with him. I'm not sure I can go as far as he does but anything is better than nothing.

You know in the 'good ole days' when I wasn't on the backside of thirty I could eat Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and Dr. Pepper and survive. Now...not so much. If I even look at a Reese's I go up a pant size. Of course in those days most of my meals were...Isadora's buy a drink get a steak and potato... Ladies night all the pizza and beer you could consume... You know those healthy days? Okay, maybe not but we thought so at the time.

Well, it's time to get back in shape. After all, summer is upon us and if I even want to consider shorts I need to lose some weight. Wish me luck...Here I go!!!

There's a bite in the air...

When I got out of class today I was expecting it to be cold outside. It really wasn't bad. When I got home, which is 45 minutes away, it was cold. I wouldn't say bitterly cold because I think of that as teens but the bite of winter was back in the air. Ole Jack Frost had decided to not let winter slip away so quick. I opened my back door and my new Gooseberry Patch cookbook had arrived. When I walked out to the mailbox after walking next door to retrieve Paden I also had received my heirloom seed catalog. It's time to start thinking about that. I'm going to plant a seperate little garden of my own this year. Actually, I'm calling it Colton and Paden's garden just so mom won't have a fit when I plant it seperate from the massive 3 gardens that we already plant. I'm thinking about making this little heirloom garden a kind of raised bed garden.

When Steve and I lived in our duplex in Republic we had the best little garden right out the backdoor. I planted a couple tomato plants, a squash plant, a few hills of corn, and a couple pepper plants. It may not have been a big garden but it was a HUGE producer. I think all the love and caring that we put into it had something to do with it, too. We would go outside nightly and set by the little garden and Steve would sneak out and weed it constantly. We've had numerous gardens since then but I think because of the size we've never took the time or gave it the love that we did that first garden.

So while the bite may be in the air, dreams of warmer weather are in the heart. It's time to go curl up on the couch with my cuddly John Deere blanket, my cookbook and my seed catalog and a nice cup of hot chocolate.

Have a good evening everyone.

Have you ever watched kids playing on a merry go round or listened to the rain lapping on the ground? Ever followed a butter fly's erratic flight or gazed at the sun into the fading night? Do you run through each day on the fly? When you ask ' How are you?' Do you hear the reply? When the day is done, do you lie in your bed with the next hundred chores running through your head? Ever told your child, 'We'll do it tomorrow.' And in your haste, not see his sorrow? Ever lost touch? Let a good friendship die? Just call to say 'Hi? When you worry and hurry through your day, it is like an unopened gift....Thrown away..... Life is not a race Take it slower. Hear the music before the song is over.


I received this in an email this morning. Let's all have a wonderful day and call someone up that we've let get away.

Enjoy your day.

Valentine's Day

Well Heart Day has come and gone. My honey went to Sonic and bought me a Route 44 Cherry, Vanilla Dr. Pepper and I fixed him a t-bone steak and onion rings.

I don't care for roses that much. I don't like idea of spending all that money of flowers that are half as much through the year then them dieing in a couple of weeks. There was a time that I expected roses but age has made me wiser.

I don't like going out to eat on Valentine's either. The restaurants are usually packed and my husband isn't one to have the patience for lines. Instead I like staying home and cooking for him and the boys. That way ALL my sweethearts and I can enjoy our evening together.

After dinner we all cuddled on the couch and watched Open Season 2 and Space Buddies. Thumbs up on both of them. The boys really enjoyed them.

I hope that everybody enjoyed their Valentine's Day however you spent it. Don't gorge on all those chocolates and enjoy your roses if you got them.

BOYS ARE PIGS!!!

I live with a bunch of slobs. I'm not perfect but I can clean this house top to bottom and...BOOM!!! BOOM!!! BOOM!!! BOYS ARE PIGS!!! My Anatomy teacher told my class the other day, "It's the way they are programmed." Well, I want to find that program and reinstall a "cleaner" program.

I woke up this morning and thought when I walked into the living room that a monster must have came to my house in the middle of the night and threw up in it. TOYS, SOCKS, PILLOWS FROM THE COUCH...everywhere. "But Mom, I've been checking off my chore chart." "Really?", I say. "Is that why there are not any marks by Clean the Living Room, Vaccuum the Living Room?"

My preteens answer, "I kept my room clean all week." Now I know why the sudden interest in only going to HIS room only at bedtime. It keeps him and little brother OUT of his room so the "cleaning" part is much easier. I have also discovered after a trip to little brother's room where all the things are that I have asked to be put up are...THREW IN THE DOORWAY! "Well, he don't play in there that much. Can't we just store his stuff in there." A small trail that an ant could follow leads in the doorway and across the room. I was so proud the last time I cleaned this room, it only took two days, guess I'll have to work faster this time.

My husband has misplaced a box of tax papers in the storage shed. Like a bumbling idiot I had the hair brained idea I would go down there and find them. See I spent the greater part of a week sorting this shed and organizing it last summer so I knew that it would surely be easy enough to find. Right? Another bomb, only slightly larger, has reached my shed!! As I opened the door I truly had tears form. What has happened? It looks like a break in gone wrong. Instead of ransacking and taking, it's just been ransacked. "Oh, I'm going to go through that shed myself and you're going to start hauling all that stuff to Goodwill." Hmmm....I'm going to haul it to Goodwill and he's going to go through it. I really don't see that happening. First of all, there would be nothing left in the shed and second, I don't want to make that many trips.

I believe Spring cleaning is going to start today at the Rader house. Maybe I should use Colton's example. I'll only let everybody in the house when it's time for bed. Surely then my house will stay clean. Somehow though, I don't see that plan working. Instead I guess I'll just do like always and CLEAN, CLEAN, CLEAN.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Wow! Where is the year going?

Why is it the older I get the faster the years go? I can not believe the it's already February. It's almost Valentine's Day. It's almost Paden's 4th birthday. Steve's another year older. I'll be another year older right before Paden. AND I am starting my 5th week of college. I'm still thinking it's surreal that I'm even there and we're almost to mid terms.

Spring is just around the corner. That's a good thing. I'm not much on winter. I like to have the windows open and breeze blowing through the house. At night sometimes you can hear the coyotes yipping down at the bluff on the river. It's that time of year that you can hear the baby calves calling to their mommas when they get lost. The birds singing. I love it when the whippoorwill comes. The smell of lilac's as the breeze blows softly at night. Rain. I'm not much on storm's but I do like rain. The way it patters on the tin roof.

Then school will be out for Colton and it will be hay season. Colton's gonna do the raking again this year. One thing will be different though. He won't have to wait on Papa to get home. Dad has officially retired now so the hay won't have to wait on him. I can't believe my oldest will be a teenager at the end of the year. He's grew up so fast and sometimes I wonder where it has went.

Garden time. The garden will be growing and we should be getting our first delicious morsels from the plants.

Summer will be in full swing and then we will be loading up for our road trip to Raton, New Mexico. Colton is on a state YHEC (Youth Hunter Education Contest) team that will be going to Nationals the last week of July. Any extra time is dedicated to studying the NRA Hunter's guide, practicing archery, shotgun and muzzle loading. We'll get back from Nationals and then it will be time for the state 4-H shoot. School will be starting for both of us too.

Fall....apple picking. The smell of a fresh baked Apple Crisp. MMM...MMM. Then we'll be raking the yard and Paden will be scattering the leaves as fast as Colton rakes. Colton will be getting ready to leave on his first out of state hunting trip. I will be a nervous wreck until he gets back. It will be time to start planning the holiday feast.

Turkey season. Chilly mornings in the blind communing with nature. Waiting. Listening to the deer as the come ambling by completely unaware. The squirrels as they harvest the fallen acorns.

Christmas shopping...hustle and bustle. Decorating the tree and the house.

Then we will back to the cold of winter...

But until then, I just have to stop and smell the roses and take the days one at a time. Today....I think it will be swinging with my boys and smelling the rain from the storm that is moving in.

I Think I Bombed my Test

Well, I don't think I did so well on my Anatomy test. I know that I got the essay questions right. I was doing those in my sleep all night last night. I studied, I really did but everything that I thought would be on the test was not what was on it. I also think I may have got some of the historical figures mixed up. I knew I hated these first three chapters basically because cytology, history and histology have never intrigued me. I didn't feel good either and that didn't help things out. I've spent the past two days blowing my nose and sneezing. I know now that I shouldn't go out in 11 degree weather with wet hair. Even if Colton thinks it's funny when I have ice in my hair.

On the brighter side of things...I know that I should do well on my Algebra test that's coming up Monday.

The weather was wonderful outside today. The temperature climbed into the 60's here. We had a southerly breeze and it was gorgeous outside. I played outside with the boys when I got home for a little while. Paden is getting into swinging.

I'm going to bed. We're off to see Spiderman tomorrow at the Autofest in Springfield. I'm sure Colton will have to build a model car. But the little man is only interested in SPIDERMAN!!! It will probably turn out like the Santa Claus thing. He'll make it almost there and back out.

Guess we'll see tomorrow.

Cleaning, Washing, Studying

Well here it is 10 in the morning and I'm supposed to have the house cleaned where I could devote the majority of my afternoon to studying for my Anatomy test tomorrow. I hate cleaning and so I'm in slow motion. I wonder sometimes how a house gets so dirty. I can work so hard to get everything perfect and then BOOM it's back to the way it was. I bought a new desk on Monday afternoon and Colton and I went and picked it up on Tuesday. Now my living room is a total disaster because I had to move everything to get the desk in. It's a very pretty rolltop though. I figure me and it will spend loads of hours together over the next 6 years.

Laundry and stuff is piling up again. I just got the laundry completly done. I was so proud cause I didn't think there was a dirty sock or anything else left in this house. Then here comes Colton..."Mom, I forgot to bring you my laundry." AAAAUUUUGGGHHHH!!! I bet there is another three loads of just his stuff now. I think my pre-teen has more clothes than I do. Scratch that...I know he does.

I measured Paden this morning. He's grown three and one half inches since last February. My baby is getting so big. I have to measure Colton this afternoon when he gets home. If he's grown up as much as his feet have grown out then he'll be three sizes bigger too. He's losing all his little chunk around the middle from all that bike riding he does, too. Now his jeans are getting too big and he thinks we need to go dig out his smaller ones.

Well, guess I better get back to the grind. OH YEAH...I forgot. I don't work at Cox anymore. I quit so I could devote my full attention to studying. I know that what lies ahead is not going to be easy and I want to be the best, as usual. Steve said, "I expect nothing less than an "A" average." Hmmm....Well, lets hope I don't let him down.