I love my son

You know I do...but he makes me afraid, very afraid. Not in an "I am afraid OF him" way, but in an "I am afraid FOR him" way.

Last Friday was opening day for the local sports association. Clark was basically in charge of everything and did a fantastic job, if I do say so. One of the things he organized was a skydiver to land on the field with a flag and the opening baseball. Cool, huh! It was pretty windy in our area that day and the poor guy missed the field and made the parking lot. He came down with the flag flowing behind him and different colored smoke which more than made up for it.

There were bounce houses, a parade of the teams, sno-cones, hot dogs, a playground, music and lots of other kids. My guys had a fabulous time and came home very late and way stinky. The first thing Alex said when I asked if he had fun was about the skydiver. It was so cool and neat and, and, and....... He is so going to do that! Of course, I said, Heck, NO!!

Clark, came to me the next day and said that Alex had said that he so wanted to jump out of the airplane but Mom said no, but he was going to do it anyway.

It is very comforting to know that my children listen to me....but then blow me off!

I have always said that Alex will be either a test pilot, stunt double or an astronaut, just something dangerous...

Pray for me..

WE ARE EMPLOYED!!!!!

Thanks be to God for He is Great! He also moves in mysterious ways.

For those of you who don't know, Clark has been out of work for over a year. He has been on so many interviews, so many job fairs, with so many disappointments. He was told that he was the second choice, he was overqualified, or that he was not a good risk because he would not stick around. He has "dumbed" down his resume and glossed over his 17 years of experience in Human Resources. He lessened his salary requirements and even signed up with temporary firms. I am not sure what else the man could have done to get someone to take a chance on him. Thank you, Recession!

Then, he went back to church... First, let me explain that we are two different faiths. I am Catholic and he is Disciples of Christ, so there is a great disparity. We have always given the other the respect and understanding with our faiths that we should. I never pushed him about not going to church and he supported raising our three in the Catholic faith. Well, about six months ago, his friend, Mitch, invited Clark to Mitch's church one Wednesday evening. Clark went and really enjoyed and seemed to connect with the pastor that night and has been every week since then. After one extremely frustrating week of interviews and rejections (you are too intelligent for this position...huh?), he was feeling really down. I suggested that he might want to talk to Pastor Scott about his feelings, just mildly suggested. He did and said that he felt better after the pep talk from Pastor Scott. End of story, right? But, NO!

The next day, Pastor Scott called and left a message for Clark to email his resume to a contact he had. Clark did and was called for an interview. Again, he was told that he was too qualified and could do the manager's job. He explained to her that he just wanted to work to support his family and suggested that she hire him and he could show her.

We received a call on Friday that there was a position available..hourly and a clerk's job. Did he want it? Was she kidding? Clark said yes, of course. It is basically starting over but with three kids. We can do this! Prayers have been answered, shout it from the rooftops! What I haven't told you yet is that Clark interviewed with Pastor Scott's mother who works for a reputable company that has been around for many years.

Follow me, here...If Clark had not gone back to church, if he had not put his faith in God and spoken to his pastor, we would not have this chance. God and His mysterious ways, again!

Praise be His Name, for He is Holy!

Clark starts Monday! He will work Monday thru Friday with weekends off. This means so much juggling, but now we know that with God, we can do anything!

Thank you for all your support and prayers, you are all a blessing to us!

Spring, how I miss you!

So Saturday was the first day of Spring. Here in Texas, of course, that means snow! Yes, I said it...snow!

Wet, rainy, cold snow...at night so no one can play in it, snow. I love spring break!

I really do love Spring here in Texas. It will last about a month and a half before vanishing into HEAT. What that means for me is allergies....a whole season's worth crammed into that one and a half month period. If I could just view spring thru a bubble, I would really love it so much more. Right now, I am a cold medicine commercial...sniffly, stuffy, congested with a killer headache.

Did I mention that there are two extra 14 year old boys in my house?

We have recently gone to a voucher system for electronics here at our house. During Spring Break, each child had three hours of "vouchers" in 30 minute increments. This included Wii, PS2, DS, computer, etc. They have to turn in the vouchers before they started playing and when the vouchers were gone, electronic games ended.

Of course, there are opportunities to earn time back on a two for one scale. For every one hour they worked, they could earn a 30 minute voucher. So far, we have had no takers...hmm...
Also, vouchers could be taken away for poor choices. Hitting your siblings, rudeness, disrespect, and so forth.

Having said all that, today I am feeling really yucky, so today is a "voucher free" day. There are chances to earn other "voucher free" days as well.

It seems to be working so far. There are so many other things to do in this house that do not include electronics. We have board games, LEGOs by the thousands, playsets, action figures and books, to say the least.

I am not sure what will happen when we reduce the time to one and a half hours during the week when will school starts. I'll let you know.

This is fantastic!!

I received this on my school email account and thought everyone should see it. What a great job and message as well. Enjoy!!
http://www.schooltube.com/video/e9bd79d29b4d0e6a2345/Gotta-Keep-Reading--Ocoee-Middle-School

Lonely,oh so lonely!

I know my blog is lonely without me. It is hanging out just waiting for me to type something on it. Well...

When I was growing up, we had a piano in the house. It was my mother's from when she was young. She tried to teach us several times, but it never seemed to take. Its not that she was a bad teacher, because she wasn't. Its not that we didn't have any musical sense, because we did. For some reason we just weren't interested. Until she sat down to play herself, that is. Then we were all over it...wanting to play, have her teach us, or whatever.

My computer is MY piano. Every time I sit down to look at emails, check out the blogs I'm reading or, heaven forbid, actually type something, here come the kids. The only reason that I am sitting here now is that I have banished them to Lauren's room to play with her new Wii. This should be good for about ten minutes...we'll see.

Let's see how much we can get in....

The house is up for sale and we have had a lot of traffic, but no buyers. It seems that a leak in your roof is not a top selling point, go figure! But having all this traffic, does make it easy to keep the house clean..HA! I have become the toy nazi! It did not seem like the kids wanted to bring out as many LEGOS and stuff until we started showing the house. Oh, well, say a prayer...

Heather has been around a few times to see us and she looks VERY tired. We are a little worried. I hope she is taking care of herself.

Aaron has been started at first base on the high school team. YEAH!!! He has gotten permission form his school to take college algebra over the summer. Why, you ask? He wants to take pre-cal in high school and does not want to double up on maths during the year. That would mean that he would have to give up baseball and/or cross country. He is doing well in all his classes...straight "A"s We are very proud!

Lauren is doing well in her school. She is top of her class and is getting ready for the TAKS test coming up in April. Translation..bored!

Alex is doing well himself. His teacher is on maternity leave after having six pound twins! We could not have been luckier with the long term substitute we got. She just loves him and he says he has a nice voice. He just went on a water safety field trip to the Natatorium last week. Need I remind you that this is my daredevil son? I was very afraid of what might happen. I could just see the call.... Ma'am? I thought you said that your son could not swim. He was doing great until he jumped off of the high dive.... sigh. The night before as we were packing up his towels and change of clothes, he asked me.." Will I be dealing with professionals?" My husband had his back to us and I saw his shoulders shaking as he held in the laughter. I explained that he would be and he seemed fine with that. The next day he came in with all kinds of stories about his day. Did you know that if you do a cannonball, water goes up your nose? But he was fine. Next he wants to work on holding his breath for 30 minutes on the bottom of the pool... We'll see how that works for him.

Clark has had several promising interviews but nothing solid yet. we are hoping that things improve quickly..we are still waiting for the recession to end here at this house.

I am still working at the school and doing girl scouts. I have been taking a religion class that is really interesting. But I am feeling like a hermit. I spoke with a dear friend the other day and she had asked my if everything was okay since I have not been around as much lately. I explained that I was feeling rather insular. I am not sure if that is the right word but it does fit!

Wow, I have been on for a while! This must be a record! But now the kids have told me that they have had no lunch and the dryer has stopped, so I am off and running again!