I'm back...

Kt you just got back from Ethiopia---what are you gonna do? Go to Disneyland! NO! Take a run of course! lol

I woke up this morning quite a bit earlier than my family....(jet lag will do that to you---Ethiopia is 10 hours ahead of CA) so I took a warm-up mile walk, mile run then cool down mile. It was nice. Let me clear my head a bit & adjust to life back @ home, in America, CA....ect.

Ethiopia was A.MA.ZING, to say the least. I'll be spending the next few days uploading my pix & blogging about it on my Ethiopia blog.

Glad to be back...but I believe I left my heart in Africa!

The adventure starts NOW

I'll be back in about 2 weeks.

We have to be @ the airport by 1:30 pm & are scheduled to leave @ 4:30 pm.

Pray for us.

ps: Happy Father's day!

GASP!

I was driving tonight & a big black dog ran towards the car @ full speed into the street towards my car.

If I had slowed down or braked, it might have hit the BACK of my car.
It was running full speed towards us, I passed it, then it just STOPPED in the middle of the street.

Then it turned around, again @ full speed & ran back to where ever it came from.

Oddly, oldest ds (& the rest of the ktbunch in the car) did NOT see it!

It scared the heck out of me & I gasped & ds was perplexed as to why. He didn't see a thing.
Weird. ????

It's not just America!

Photos of protesters around the world

We're ALL feeling the pinch...if you can call it a pinch. More like a wallet choke. Gas prices are unbelieveable & now food. What can be considered 2 main necessities in America. We use gas to drive our cars to work to make money to buy food. Sure we can try public transportation but do you know how long it takes to commute on the bus? It could be hours. Or in the case of my dh line of work, he must drive his own car to various locations, so using public transportation is not an option.

The reason this is such a major problem is that incomes are not rising in comparison to this inflation.

As Americans, in the 'land of plenty', what I don't get is why we are complaining. We CAN change what we do to accomodate this current situation. We can stop driving around so much, how bout ONLY to work & church? or walk to church? I know we certainly live close enough to most everything, I have no excuse.

I think the real problem is that we DON'T WANT to change our habits, our consumerism or materialism. We're mad because our budgets are tighter & we can't do everything we WANT to do. Maybe we NEED this financial crisis to BREAK some of these bad habits. Maybe we need to be brought down.

If you can now ONLY afford to go to work AND buy food. So what? Is that so bad?
How bout if we spent family time relating to each other instead of in front of the tv ? That would lower our energy bill. What if we spent time riding our bikes to the park instead of buying movie tickets?

Is it so bad if you can ONLY afford to drive to work & buy food?
How affected are you really?
Is it so bad if you aren't buying a new shirt once a month? Do we really need new shoes?

I'm serious. I'm not joking.

In other countries, I can only suspect, that they actually do live more of a need based life & therefore, if food prices go up, that means they are eating LESS FOOD. I believe in America, when food prices go up...we are forced to be less materialistic. Forced to prioritize! Do we need to throw giant birthday parties for our children every year? Do we need to spend so much on birthday gifts anyway, for others? And if so, there are cheaper ways to accomplish ANYthing! ;-)

Can we show more of our love instead of trying to buy it?

This crisis means we need to reevaluate what we held as important. Stop whining! Start clipping coupons! Stop paying for over priced movie tickets! Stop going to the mall...for what? Stop going to drive-thru & start teaching our children how to cook thier own food.

Better yet, how bout teaching them to GROW thier own food!
Introduce yourself to your neighbors who have fruit trees. There is way more fruit on that tree than is able to feed one family---it's just wasting away. And share what you have.

I know prices are noticeably going up on food...but hey, there are ways around that. Last 5 times I've gone grocery shopping....I've found BREAD for .35 CENTS a loaf, on clearance. An entire RACK full! I bought out nearly the entire rack, stuffed my freezer & then gave some away to a friend in need. I also noticed the package of 60 count eggs was $2 less than usual.

What are you buying?
Go for the edges of the store, that's where all the fresh produce & least processed food are.
Stay home & out of other stores. You won't even notice.
Examine WHY you feel you are missing out....what exactly are you feeling the pinch over? Are you using shopping/spending as a means to fulfill some empty part of you? Are you really going w/o needs being met?

Stay home. Drive less, walk more. Or ride a bike, use roller blades ect.
Hey if we all started to actually LIVE this way, we'd never have to 'work-out' again! lol

I burned the cinnamon roll biscuits

I WANTED to be ANGRY!I WANTED to blame SOMEONE ELSE....& my kids were the onlies here....I WANTED to LASH out @ them....

BUT I told them to just NOT talk to me...so it was a few moments of silence around here, as I 'scraped' away.Oldest ds tried to console me by saying I could just set out chips.He made the glaze & I poured it on & set them all in my lovely, fresh out of the box glass cake platter.Suddenly it didn't seem TOO bad, so I went to take a shower.

I felt better, grabbed a pretty pink dish & put trail mix in it. Then a lovely pink bowl & filled it w/ cheez-its, another lovely pink flowery bowl w/ the rest of the cheezits.
I TM DH to get some salsa, oh & then cups & ice.I set out the lovely blue flowery dessert plates that match the lovely flowery pink bowls.

All seemed well & I sat down w/ DD & began to SEW some dolls for a birthday party tomorrow. She chose the fabric, I sewed & she stuffed...a friend came over to pick something up & I BRAGGED to her how HARD my kiddos had worked to clean up our home today...then guests began to arrive.

Kiddos went to the room to play video games.
THen DH arrived w the salsa, cups, ice AND more chips, queso, chocolate chip cookies, veggie platter, wings & paper plates.He's a VERY generous host.

I'm glad I did NOT blame my kiddos. I'm glad I did NOT lash out @ them.
I'm glad that I CHOSE to do RIGHT today.

OH! & Dh said the cinnamon rolls were good & ate quite a few!

I'll be able to see soon.

Had an eye appointment yesterday. I guess we finally have some good coverage because I was able to get 2 pairs for $106 & some change.

Ok, I admit it, I couldn't decide, so I just ordered BOTH of them. lol I can't wait to get them. The assistant asked me if I knew what style I was looking for & I replied, yes, rectangular & cheap. But she was pretty good @ her job & kept steering me towards the 'name brand' eyewear, as I kept moving my way down the wall towards the 'cheaper' brands. Still not much cheaper than the name brand ones but like I said, our ins. covered pretty good.

The optometrist had just put some stinging drops in my eyes to activate them to 'dilate' & warned me I would not be able to see anything close up but distance would be fine. Nice. I could see myself trying on the glasses in the mirrors BUT trying to sign paperwork was a joke!

I hoped that the assistant was honest because I really, truly could NOT see a thing.

I do love the 2 pairs I picked out though & can't wait to get them. It was odd though, because they looked small until I would put them on then they looked huge in the mirror. I figured since I waited 4 YEARS to get them replaced, I could get 2 pair. You never know if/when you might break, lose or leave them in Ethiopia! ;-)

I got a rectangular pair like I wanted, then a bit 'funkier' pair that are a bit 'cat eye' in shape. I only need them to see farther, aka: I am near sighted. So it comes in handy when I am driving in a unfamiliar area & need to see street names, driving @ night, watching movies or tv. lol

Ethiopia has been relocated!

All future posts about this Mission to Mars--I mean Ethiopia, will be posted in my new 'Ethiopian Adventure' Blog. I have this 'thing' about compartmentalizing, I guess....in case you never noticed, on the right side of my blog, is a list of blogs.

All mine, each very different & separate categories. lol Crafts in one blog, school stuff in another & now Ethiopia too. Don't ask me why....it seemed like a good idea @ the time.

Maybe one day I will merge all my personalities, I mean blogs, into one. :-) But not today.

Calling the Shots...

Yikesabee! The travel department of my health insurance finally called me back (blahblahblah). The girl on the phone said I needed 9 shots! what? My 'teammates' all told me it was 4 or 5.

I got to my appointment & my 'orders' were not there. The nurse made a phone call & then got orders for only 4 shots....ok? It wasn't so bad. I had my 2 not-so-littles w/ me & aren't they witty? Birdy kept telling me to just take deeeeeep breathes (like I always tell them), then S says: all you need to do is wash your face & take a drink of water & you'll be fine. Again, what I tell them for everything! lolololololol

I questioned the order for only 4 shots & the nurse assured me that was what she was told...w/ the disclaimer that if it was incorrect, she would call me & that 4 was enough for one day anyway. Sure enough, by the time I got home later, there was a message waiting for me to call the travel department again. sigh. I think I need 3 more diff ones.

~*~*~*~*~*~
On another note, S had his first T-ball practice. He was asking about it every.single.day! Seriously. First thing this morning he began asking me what time it was because he knew practice was @ 5:30. lol He had a great time. The coaches seem nice.

The Team