Missy's Triumph!

For so long now, Missy has wanted to crochet!  EmBlem, Polly and I have been crocheting as much as possible lately to help a certain friend raise the fees needed to commit to the child they want to adopt, and Missy has felt rather left out.

Polly sat down with her again this last week and helped her try to hold the yarn and manage the hook correctly.  This time MISSY DID IT!! See the chain she is holding?  She did that all by herself!  She can even start the chain by making a slip knot by herself.

Missy even helped on her very first crochet project for Reece's Rainbow.  She made the foundation chain for this cute little guy:

He's up for grabs right now, for a very limited time.  Only eight entries are being accepted, at $10 each. Paypal dannovit@gmail.com if you want to participate!!  This should be the last time I send you to that paypal address.  My friend Colleen should be able to officially commit to her daughter this week and she'll then have a tax-deductible account to use!

Catch-Up Post

We've had so much going on lately that blogging has fallen by the wayside.  Therefore, a catch-up post in in order!

Of course, I have to include the family Easter picture.

My father-in-law, sister-in-law and all three cousins came for a visit!  While the guys went to the range to shoot a while, we went to The Dizzy Park, ran around and fed the ducks and geese.  What fun! My SIL and I also made Creamsicle Jam together.

My dear Oregon in-laws are coming for their annual visit later this month and we are beyond excited.  We love this special time of year!!  It's often the first hot streak of the year while they are here, but our weather has looked like this lately, so they might get lucky. The forecast is variable, calling for temps from the mid 60's, mid-70's to low 80's for their visit, with low chances of rain, even.

I've been working on our front yard landscaping.  It's been the same for ten years and the plants were getting pretty tired looking.  On a whim, I ripped everything out one morning and began anew.  I'm making a special little spot we're calling "Shady Grove" for the little  girls who love hidden places to read and do schoolwork.  It's coming together nicely and I should be finished this week.  I haven't taken any pictures yet, though.

I am collecting items for a Sidewalk Sale at church to benefit Abbott and a least one other Reece's Rainbow child.  The announcement was in the bulletin last Sunday. Please pray that we raise local awareness of the need and also lot of money to donate!

My Honey and I took our eldest daughter EmBlem and her friend R. to Six Flags last week to celebrate Em's 16th birthday.  We had a great time.  I sure do love roller coaster-ing. Colossus is still my favorite ride, with Ninja a close second, but I rode Scream for the first time and liked it, too.  The girls even rode the bigger rides like Tatsu and X-2.  Brave things!

I am making a cute retro granny square afghan to donate to a giveaway or auction, as the Lord leads.  It's working up fast and I really like how the colors look together.

We had a swarm of bees across the street in a neighbors bush on Easter Sunday afternoon.  We really didn't want them sprayed so we called all the bee collectors in the area.  Only one would come out that day.  He was something else.  He did collect the swarm.  We got to watch the process close up. One of my girls walked up to the swarm barefoot, though, and as we were saying, 'Go put on shoes!" she stepped on a bee in the yard and got stung.  This was her first sting. She is not allergic, so yay! Her remark?  "I thought it would hurt more than that to get stung."

All in all, it's been a great spring!  What have you been up to?

Nice Surprise

The other day a package was in the mailbox.  Inside was this Playmobil keychain, a glossy catalog and a letter.  It seems that I was a winner in a Playmobil Facebook contest!  What a nice little surprise!  The Naval Soldier now hangs on my keys, adventuring across Central California with me!

Baking Day

The Littles and I made Cranberry Bread! We read Cranberry Thanksgiving and we wanted to try Grandmother's secret bread recipe. There was measuring of flour and baking powder....

and zesting of the orange. Cutting in of butter....

and more. Later, after finishing the loaf, there was the washing of dishes....

Finally, after a long bake, there was delicious bread to eat!

We also made a dozen gluten free cupcakes so that Momma could enjoy some seasonal goodness, too. What great Lambies I have! I am so blessed to be able to spend each day with them.

Ravensburger Games

I scored six Ravensburger games, all but one unopened, for $2.50 at Just Between Friends. They are authentic, too. Most do not have English instructions!

Kinder Memory is easy, of course. In fact, Missy, Troubles and I have already played a game.

Halli Galli Extreme has English instructions, so it will be the next one we try. It seems to be the most complicated of the lot.

Lotti has been a little harder to find anything online. I found a video that shows how it's played, but it's in Spanish. It's helpful, though. I can halfway understand spoken Spanish. It's a color matching and memory type of game.

Packesel seems to be simple. I imagine you choose colors of sticks and see who can stack them on the donkey without knocking the pile over. So far I haven't found anything in English about it.

This is more like a puzzle than a game. You arrange the pieces so all the colors match and have to make it work in a honeycomb pattern. There's only on solution. This game reminds me of Scramble Squares, which we also enjoy.

The final game is Ligretto, the green set. There are several sets, in different colors, to allow more players in a game. The gist of this one is to stack all your cards in order as fast as possible. Each player plays are the same time as everyone else, so no one is sitting around being bored. It's also a very quick game, which I appreciate!

A Boy and His Board

Merry Christmas, Son! I'm writing this here, since I haven't seen much of you since Saturday. I've heard it will rain again soon, and I look forward to it, since it will mean you will be stuck inside again. See you soon!

A Meme

I was tagged by Ginger for "A Top Three" Meme. Here it goes....

My Top Three:

1. Favorite books: (SO very hard to narrow it down!)

The Bible
The Narnia series by C. S. Lewis
The Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind (currently listening to these, in Book 4)

2. Favorite desserts:

The caramel corn my daughter makes
A Big Hunk candy bar (a possible substitute?)
A Reimer's Honey Almond Nougat

3. Favorite ways to spend time:

With my family
At a library book sale
hiking in the mountains

Whom should I tag? I freely tag any who wish to play! Leave a comment and link so I can read your list!

The Crew went to Disneyland!

The Crew at Tom Sawyer's Island in Disneyland

We were so blessed to be able to participate in the Disney "Give a Day, Get a Day" promotion this year. We earned nine free tickets. The Lord provided for the rest of the funds and we were able to go this past week. We booked our hotel through Trips by Manny and were SO happy with it! It was a two bedroom suite with a living room, kitchen and two full bathrooms. We've never been in a hotel so nice. We didn't spend all the much time in the hotel, though.

When we arrived in SoCal, after checking into the hotel, we went toward downtown Disney. We were hungry and needed to eat fast, so we were looking for fast food that wouldn't give us too bad of tummyaches. We found a small burger joint called Al's Big Burger. The portions were HUGE and the food tasted good. No one was ill afterward which is a plus! They even included an ice cream in the very fair cost of the meal. We came back the next day for dinner again.

At Downtown Disney we headed straight for the Lego store. Too bad all three of our cameras were left in the hotel room! I snagged the pic of the giraffe above from the web. My very creative Lambies gathered all the brown Legos from the building areas and made an...a.... *ahem*.... pile to place under the giraffe. You should have seen the faces of the little kids that were planning to run under the giraffe, but noticed the pile. Noses wrinkled. One little kids even said that it smelled by the giraffe! LOL!

We bought two of the Lego games that we had never seen at Target. We were surprised to see that the prices at the Lego store were the same, or even a bit less than we'd seen at Target. They were quite a bit less than the prices on Amazon. We wandered the rest of Downtown Disney, enjoying the sites and smells (oh, the caramel corn!) till late. We watched the fireworks go off over Disneyland, then returned to the hotel. Some Lambies played one of the games with Dad, while some came with me to the hotel's gym. We used treadmills and elipticals, and I also got to visit with another guest that was vacationing from Australia.

We rolled into bed late, late, late, and got up about 6:30. We enjoyed the hotel's complimentary breakfast. It has been decided that we need a hotel quality waffle maker. Off we went to Disney proper. We did have to stand in line to exchange our Give a Day, Get a Day vouchers for actual tickets, but other than that, it was a smooth entry.

We were able to fit in every ride that we wanted to enjoy. Here's an incomplete rundown: Matterhorn was first. The entire Crew enjoyed the ride, with Troubles deciding that rollercoasters were not really his thing this time around. He didn't cry or anything, but he didn't want to go again. After that, I took most of the Lambies to Space Mountain. Poppa took Troubles to Buzz Lightyear's AstroBlasters and Nemo's Submarine ride. We all thought Space Mountain was the BEST! Even Missy enjoyed it.

We went to the left side of Disneyland next and enjoyed Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (Troubles thought this one better than the Matterhorn) and Splash Mountain (not Troubles, but the other Lambies went twice, once with Mom, once with Dad). Troubles enjoyed Winnie the Pooh a couple of times along with seeing Pooh, Tiggar and Eeyore characters. He didn't want to sit with them, but he did enjoy seeing them.

We spent a good amount of time playing on Tom Sawyers Island. The treehouse and the caves were so much fun! Good resting time for Momma and Poppa, too.

When we returned to the main areas, we grabbed a fastpass for Indiana Jones and went back to Space Mountain. We watched the Captain EO Tribute then did the rollercoaster. Troubles and Poppa went on Buzz again, then they took the train ride around the park. While Poppa took most of the Lambies on Indiana Jones, Troubles and I explored Tarzan's Treehouse. What a workout! We went up and around s.e.v.e.n. times.

We walked through Main Street and enjoyed the snowfall. We left during the fireworks, by popular demand. The Lambies said they'd seen them y'day at Downtown Disney, so they wanted to go. Getting out was a bear, even though we left at the beginning of the rush. Next time I think we'll stay for an hour after the fireworks and see if it's better. ;)

I'm so thankful for the time we got to spend making memories and enjoying each other. Thanks again, Manny, for the great rooms, and to Mr. Disney for making his dream come true and creating all the jobs and opportunities for the families of America.

Just For Fun

I read this list over at Rural Revolution. F.u.n.n.y!

1. I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.

2. Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.

3. I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.

4. There is great need for a sarcasm font.

5. How the heck are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

6. Was learning cursive really necessary?

7. Map Quest really needs to start their directions on #5. I'm pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

8. Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.

9. I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.

10. Bad decisions make good stories.

11. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you know that you just aren't going to do anything productive for the rest of the day.

12. Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blue Ray? I don't want to have to restart my collection...again.

13. I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten-page technical report that I swear I did not make any changes to.

14. I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

15. I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

16. I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lite than Kay.

17. I wish Google Maps had an "Avoid Ghetto" routing option.

18. I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

19. How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear or understand a word they said?

20. I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars team up to prevent a jerk from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers and sisters!

21. Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.

22. Sometimes I'll look down at my watch three consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

23. Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, finding their cell phone, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey - but I'd bet everyone can find and push the snooze button from three feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time, every time!

24. The first testicular guard, the "cup," was used in hockey in 1874 and the first helmet was used in 1974. That means it only took 100 years for men to realize that their brain is also important.

The Costumed Crew

Here's the Crew in costume for Halloween. What a great bunch of loonies!

Wascally Wabbit!

Troubles decided he wanted to pretend to be a rabbit this afternoon. He drew, colored and cut out wabbit ears, whiskers and a cute nose/mouth combo. He put the ears on with his sister's headband and taped the whiskers and nose to his face. He hopped about for a half an hour or so before he tired of his game.

Fall Birthdays: Part One

My dear GirlofGod recently celebrated her 13th birthday! On the thirteenth birthday, in addition to hosting a sleepover, the birthday child gets to have a date with Dad and Mom. She chose to go miniature golfing and go cart driving. Isn't she beautiful?!



She golfs and drives pretty well, too. I was blessed to be able to play the role of passenger in the car. I was only a little white-knuckled.



This is my favorite picture of the day!



Happy birthday, Dear One!

The Sequoias in August, Part Two

After getting our fill of the cave, we walked up the river for a short while. We came to the swimming hole, but there were other people there, so we just waded around for a while. It's almost as much fun as swimming!



Vic really was enjoying himself, despite his glum appearance in this picture. He didn't wade, but perched himself up on this boulder to take in the scenery and breathe the fresh air.



The younger Lambies made all sorts of castles out of the rich, silty mud in the river.



What a man! Thanks, Honey, for taking us to the forest! I sure do like it up there with everyone!

And, oh!, the BBQ dinner really tasted good after all that climbing around! I'm sure glad God turned it into a salad on the way down. ;)

The Sequoias in August, Part One

We went to the Sequoias for a daytrip last weekend. That's one of the best ways I can think of spending a day! We began the day in "our" cave. The water is pretty low this time of year, so we could get WAY in and explore places we can't other times of the year. We spied a young, 2 ft. long rattlesnake as we approached. He slithered off under a rock. I tried to get a picture of him, but he eluded my lens. We showed the Lambies his hiding place; some saw his tail before he pulled it in all the way. That area was off limits, just in case he decided to come out and play rather than hide away.



Fourteen year old EmBlem in the main cave. That 'roof rock' is indescribably enormous. Inside the cave are several boulders that were shattered when the big one came down. It's really incredible!



Jack, Polly, Trixie and Missy all enjoying the coolness of the cave.



Jack REALLY enjoying the coolness of the cave!

Troubles and Missy showing off Troubles' brand new backpack. He carried his own water, snacks and flashlight, as did all the other Lambies.

Good News Club

I blogged a few weeks ago about the Good News Club that my 11 and under set attended this summer. I have finally uploaded the pictures that I took. Most have other children in them, so I won't post them here. I didn't think to ask their parents for permission!

One day Troubles was asked to assist in the Memory Verse portion of the lesson. He still talks about being chosen and how he knew the verse already because it was *his* verse from school. He's memorizing The Romans Road and this is the third step.



I am so grateful that my friend Jenni hosted The Good News Club. My Lambies got so much out of it.

The ABC's of My Computer

Here's a fun little meme from my friend MotherHen. Post your favorite links that begin with each letter of the alphabet.
A – amazon.com/
B - buildabearville.com/index.html
C - chickensintheroad.com/blog/
D - drudgereport.com/
E – earlyamerica.com/
F – facebook.com/
G – generationcedar.com/main/
H – harvesteating.com/
I - instructables.com/
J - jihadwatch.org/
K – kombu.de/english.htm
L - livestrong.com/myplate/
M – motherearthnews.com/Organic-Gardening/What-To-Plant-Now.aspx
N – netflix.com/
O - onlineconversion.com/grade_point_average.htm
P – preparednesspro.com/blog/
Q - nothing for this one
R – raisinggodlytomatoes.com
S – swagbucks.com (the easiest way I have found to earn real money doing nothing!)
T – tammysrecipes.com/
U – uga.edu/nchfp/index.html (food preservation site)
V – valerieslivingbooks.info/
W – woodpilereport.com/
X – nothing for this letter, either
Z - not surprisingly, nothing for 'z'.
Please leave a note and a link if you play along!

Physician's Warranty of Vaccine Safety

Wouldn't it be interesting to take a copy of this to your pediatrician and see if they would sign it?


Physician’s Warranty of Vaccine Safety

I (Physician’s name, degree)___________________

______, _____ am a physician licensed to practice medicine in the State of ________________ . My State license number is _______________ , and my DEA number is _______________. My medical specialty is ________________________
I have a thorough understanding of the risks and benefits of all the medications that I prescribe for or administer to my patients. In the case of (Patient’s name) ___________________________ ,
age _________ , whom I have examined, I find that certain risk factors exist that justify the recommended vaccinations. The following is a list of said risk factors and the vaccinations that will protect against them:
Risk Factor Vaccination
_____________________________________________________ _______________________________
_____________________________________________________ _______________________________
_____________________________________________________ _______________________________
_____________________________________________________ _______________________________
_____________________________________________________ _______________________________
_____________________________________________________ _______________________________
_____________________________________________________ _______________________________
_____________________________________________________ _______________________________
I am aware that vaccines typically contain many of the following fillers:
• aluminum hydroxide
• aluminum phosphate
• ammonium sulfate
• amphotericin B
• animal tissues: pig blood, horse blood, rabbit brain,
• dog kidney, monkey kidney,
• chick embryo, chicken egg, duck egg
• calf (bovine) serum
• betapropiolactone
• fetal bovine serum
• formaldehyde
• formalin
• gelatin
• glycerol
• human diploid cells (originating from human aborted fetal tissue)
• hydrolized gelatin
• mercury thimerosol (thimerosal, Merthiolate®)
• monosodium glutamate (MSG)
• neomycin
• neomycin sulfate
• phenol red indicator
• phenoxyethanol (antifreeze)
• potassium diphosphate
• potassium monophosphate
• polymyxin B
• polysorbate 20
• polysorbate 80
• porcine (pig) pancreatic hydrolysate of casein
• residual MRC5 proteins
• sorbitol
• tri(n)butylphosphate,
• VERO cells, a continuous line of monkey kidney cells, and
• washed sheep red blood
www.wellnessshow.blogspot.com, http://www.909shot.com/, http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/204991.aspx
www.novaccine.com www.childhoodshots.com
and, hereby, warrant that these ingredients are safe for injection into the body of my patient. I have researched reports to the contrary, such as reports that mercury thimerosal causes severe neurological and immunological damage, and find that they are not credible.
I am aware that some vaccines have been found to have been contaminated with Simian Virus 40 (SV 40) and that SV 40 is causally linked by some researchers to non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and mesotheliomas in humans as well as in experimental animals. I hereby warrant that the vaccines I employ in my practice do not contain SV 40 or any other live viruses. (Alternately, I hereby warrant that said SV-40 virus or other viruses pose no substantive risk to my patient.)
I hereby warrant that the vaccines I am recommending for the care of (Patient’s name) _______________ _______________________ do not contain any tissue from aborted human babies (also known as “fetuses” or Human Diploid Tissue).
In order to protect my patient’s well being, I have taken the following steps to guarantee that the vaccines I will use will contain no damaging contaminants.
STEPS TAKEN: ____________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________

I have personally investigated the reports made to the VAERS (Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System) and state that it is my professional opinion that the vaccines I am recommending are safe for administration to a child under the age of 5 years.
The bases for my opinion are itemized on Exhibit A , attached hereto, – “Physician’s Bases for Professional Opinion of Vaccine Safety.” (Please itemize each recommended vaccine separately along with the bases for arriving at the conclusion that the vaccine is safe for administration to a child under the age of 5 years.)
The professional journal articles I have relied upon in the issuance of this Physician’s Warranty of Vaccine Safety are itemized on Exhibit B , attached hereto, – “Scientific Articles in Support of Physician’s Warranty of Vaccine Safety.”
The professional journal articles that I have read which contain opinions adverse to my opinion are itemized on Exhibit C , attached hereto, – “Scientific Articles Contrary to Physician’s Opinion of Vaccine Safety.”
The reasons for my determining that the articles in Exhibit C were invalid are delineated in Attachment D , attached hereto, – “Physician’s Reasons for Determining the Invalidity of Adverse Scientific Opinions.”
Hepatitis B
I understand that 60% of patients who are vaccinated for Hepatitis B will lose detectable antibodies to Hepatitis B within 12 years.
I understand that in 1996 only 54 cases of Hepatitis B were reported to the CDC in the 0-1 year age group.
I understand that in the VAERS, there were 1,080 total reports of adverse reactions from Hepatitis B vaccine in 1996 in the 0-1 year age group, with 47 deaths reported.
I understand that 50% of patients who contract Hepatitis B develop no symptoms after exposure.
I understand that 30% will develop only flu-like symptoms and will have lifetime immunity.
I understand that 20% will develop the symptoms of the disease, but that 95% will fully recover and have lifetime immunity.
I understand that 5% of the patients who are exposed to Hepatitis B will become chronic carriers of the disease.
I understand that 75% of the chronic carriers will live with an asymptomatic infection and that only 25% of the chronic carriers will develop chronic liver disease or liver cancer, 10-30 years after the acute infection.
The following scientific studies have been performed to demonstrate the safety of the Hepatitis B vaccine in children under the age of 5 years.
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________

In addition to the recommended vaccinations as protections against the above cited risk factors, I have recommended other non-vaccine measures to protect the health of my patient and have enumerated said non-vaccine measures on Exhibit D , attached hereto, “Non-vaccine Measures to Protect Against Risk Factors.”
I am issuing this Physician’s Warranty of Vaccine Safety in my professional capacity as the attending physician to (Patient’s name) ________________________________. Regardless of the legal entity under which I normally practice medicine, I am issuing this statement in both my business and individual capacities and hereby waive any statutory, Common Law, Constitutional, UCC, international treaty, and any other legal immunities from liability lawsuits in the instant case.
I issue this document of my own free will after consultation with competent legal counsel whose name is _____________________________, an attorney admitted to the Bar in the State of __________________

__________________________________ (Name of Attending Physician)


__________________________________ L.S. (Signature of Attending Physician)


Signed on this _______ day of ______________ A.D. ________

Witness: ___________________________________ Date: ________________________

Notary Public: ______________________________ Date: ________________________

The Good News Club

We are busy attending The Good News Club this week. I brought my camera the first day, but forgot to use it. I forgot to bring it the next morning. I finally remembered to bring AND use it, so tomorrow I hope to get post some pictures.

The Good News Club is a ministry of Child Evangelism Fellowship. I remember attending during grade school when I was a little girl. Once a week, several children, including myself, would bring a sack lunch, get aboard a little bus and travel a few blocks away to a little Baptist church. We enjoyed our lunch while hearing the Gospel preached. We sang songs and competed in Bible memory competitions. I don't remember anything more specific, but I do know the Word doesn't go out void. It was a good use of our time and I am thankful that our school participated.

Thanks, Jenni, for hosting this special little Club!

Trouble, Missy and Jack have learned the little songs quite quickly. I can hear them singing throughout the day. The learned:

One, two, three, Jesus loves me. One, two, Jesus loves you. Three, four, He loves you more than you've ever been loved before. Five, six, seven, we're going to heav'n. Eight, nine, a mansion is mine. Nine, ten, it's time to end; but instead we'll sing it again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Good news to all the world! Good news to all who hear! Good news to everyone- Lets tell the message loud and clear! Believe that Jesus died, and that He rose again. He wants to live in you and be your Savior and your friend!

He'll help us do what's right, and learn of things above. Let's sing and share and have some fun and do it all in love! He'll show us how to grow, and ways that we can serve. We want to know His perfect plan by following His word!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus; What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh! Precious is the flow that keeps me white as snow;
No other fount I know, Nothing but the blood of Jesus."

THE FIRST EGG!

It's finally happened! One of these lovely ladies made themselves worthwhile!



Was it you?



Or you?



Whoever it was, I am happy!

Here's the first ever egg produced by the Crew's chickens! Here's the $600 egg (on the left):




Cute little thing, isn't it! I love its dark reddish brown color. I hope they stay that dark! It weighed in at one and a quarter ounces and measured about an inch and a half long. It's in the fridge now, waiting for Poppa to come home and admire it. He worked hard last spring for this moment!

Wordless Wednesday