I am headed to NY today, then will return with the girls on Wednesday July 5th to finish their two weeks here with Matthew and I.
This is my favorite times, having the girls with us here during the two weeks that are mine, this is when I get the best of both worlds.

I will be passing through areas that have been affected by the flooding, it saddens me to think how many suffered recently. We shall be forming disaster relief teams to send there soon through Hope Unites.
If your church or organization is interested in doing such work, look us up on the web hopeunites.org. If you do decide to take a team to a disaster area site, please get involved with an organization such as ours, that teaches you how to help and be a solution, not a hindrance. Many load a vehicle of willing volunteers who arrive empty handed with full sprits and end up living off of supplies meant for the people there and not able to help because case management hasn't been done yet. These steps are important for people to get their insurance claims and FEMA money. We will send you to prepared sites who have case managed already and are waiting for help to arrive to serve our neighbors.
We need to help the present situation without forgetting the gulf as they are still rebuilding.
Your Prayers are needed as well.
God Bless.

Okay People, I am not the type to antagonize my neighborhood food places, but I found this audio/video and thought it was quite funny. You need to listen to it in it's entirety to truly enjoy it!
My child referred it to me and I could not help but share it here.


Get this video and more at MySpace.com

I am joining the realm, as Polar started this and it has caught on to be the thing to do among many of the bloggers here. When I peaked at Belle's today, she had this challenge up, so I put in my answers and loaded it here.
(Be sure to check hers out at http://innersanctum.blogstream.com/)

1.What is your voice mail greeting?

Hi, if you recognize the voice, you reached the right number so leave a message.

2.Last time you ate a homegrown tomato?

This week.

3.Free movies for a year or free CD'S for life?

CD’s It’s the year to life ratio that makes it too easy.

4.Ralph Lauren or Tommy Hilfiger?

Khols

5.New York or LA?

New York along with tickets to see the 'Late Night with Letterman show!'

BONUS:

Choose a band/or artist and answer only in song TITLES by that band:

My Choice: Faith Hill

Are you female or male: Female
Describe yourself: Take Me as I am
How do some people feel about you: I Got This Friend
How do you feel about yourself: I would be Stronger than That
Describe your ex girlfriend/boyfriend: Keep Walkin On
Describe your current girlfriend/boyfriend: (hubby) The Way You Love Me
Describe where you want to be: My Wild Fronteir
Describe what you want to be: The Secret Of Life
Describe how you live: There will Come a Day
Describe how you love: If My Heart had Wings
Share a few words of wisdom: Cherish the Day

Thanks!

"The reward of a thing well done is to have done it. "
--Ralph Waldo Emerson

True enough, my first born has graduated.
She, and her group of girls, have migrated to my home over the 6 years as one whole lump or individual meanderings. I have watch them go from cute children, awkward teens, to beautiful women. Some have traveled and vacationed with us. They have had minor disagreements over the years but work them out. They accept each other's shortcomings and praise each other's accomplishments. They have embraced all of their classmates and judge none. They are as diverse as life itself and glory in it.
I am proud of this wonderful creative and talented group. They will always have strong memories together.
All of the girls in this groups are enrolled in college for this fall, 4 of which my daughter is included, are renting an apartment together and are attending the same college.
Graduation day itself was just perfect. My daughter even had an extra surprise as she was awarded both drama and music awards offered by the school. This was an amazing achievement. It was a heart warming surprise since she was involved in Chorus, musicals and plays because of her love for theatrics.
The pose in this picture is a story in it's own since the group have played a game called 'painting', where they strike a pose when someone yells painting, then the picture is taken, this is what they came up with in a few seconds. What a great team!

(my daughter Sarah, aka Toasty, is fourth over from left to right in the back row)
By Nickname: L - R
Case, Ika, 6, Toasty, Mizu, and squatting is Starry.

May Your Dreams Come True!

Slumbering in a restful and much needed sleep, I was abruptly awakened by my oldest child calling to me, her voice felt tight and although she maintained her volume, I could hear how frantic she really felt.
My feet hit the floor and I stepped the short distance from my room to hers in our small apartment when I saw a stealth fighter careen past me nearly sideswiping the side of my face.
I yelped and ducked, my own voice struggling as the enemy banked and came back right at us and darted to the left swooping just above my other two sleeping babies.
The evil doer made another maneuver and came right back at me in intimidation and it worked, I dashed for cover, when it followed me to Sarah's room, we made our way quickly out and closed the door.
Gaining some time for actual thought, and the slumber definitely gone from my mind, eyes, limbs now replaced with adrenaline, we formed a plan.



Plan A: Call Matthew. This was discussed only because it was the first formed thought I had and since it was 2 am and he was 9 hours away, it was dismissed.
Plan B: Call the police. Well, the last two months we had to call the police twice. Once when drunk decided to use my car as his latrine, and another when at 10 pm to 1 am, a group of teens decided to play ding-dong-dash at my and my neighbor's doorbell. (prior to this we have lived here 2 years with no police calls)So since we didn't want to become the type of people to call consistently to the town police, we axed this as well. Plus, we weren't sure if they would be able to help.
"Yes hello...this is the gal who had the pee car and the door bell rung, well now I have a bat in the house. Can you come arrest it for trespassing?"
Plan C: Call a pest control. This is a possibility, but since it was the middle of the night AND we felt in control of our destinies, we opted to save our money and remove the airborne beast ourselves.
Final Plan: Look up instructions on how to remove a bat from your home.
We found a site and followed the directions.
They said to leave the lights on, get the bat located in one room, contain them there with one open window and it will finally fly out the window.
What they didn’t realize was we were not brave super heroes. We originally thought we were, but we weren’t, we were broom wielding, sheet covered girls who screamed and flopped to the floor imagining the fanged creature gripping and biting us repeatedly.
I will admit, when it landed our hearts left our throat and we actually seen that the hamster we have for a pet was bigger than this flying mouse.



Our caper finally ended when the bat, after forty minutes of terrorizing us, found the window and flew out. My masked, well sheeted girl, closed the window and told me it was safe to crawl out from under the table. Where I had took residence for the time we had company.