Happy Mother’s Day! I Love You.

Revolution Money Exchange - Update

Just wanted to let you know, I had the date wrong. This offer is good until May 15th!

Has anyone else heard of Revolution Money Exchange? It appears to be a free alternative to PayPal. The main difference I see is that you can only accept payments from other members of Revolution Money Exchange. Until May 15th they are running a promotional to get people to sign up. If you sign up, they will give you $25.00! Yep, that’s it. You can have it transfered to your bank account for free, or they will send you a check for $22.50 (the other $2.50 pays the check request fee). You can also participate in their referral program and receive $10.00 for everyone who signs up through your invitation. (Up to $500) So here’s my invitation! To sign up click here. For more information, visit Crystal’s post and the comments with it. Don’t wait too long if this is something you are interested in, the offer is only good until May 15th.

Spring!

We are soooo glad warm weather is finally here. Yes, I know, it might snow this weekend. Why are we like that? The last few days have been absolutely perfect! On Sunday, my dad said that every, yes every, person to whom he said, “Isn’t it a beautiful day?”, said, “Yes, but it’s supposed to rain tomorrow.” Well, it may storm tonight and snow Sunday, but after all, it is April, and these April showers are bringing May flowers right? Speaking of flowers, look what I have in my yard.

I am on my way to a daffodil bed like my mom has.

We are moving our garden this year. Well, actually Peter has done all the work so far. He tills, puts up fences, builds trellises, etc… and then I get to do the planting. Our former garden spot doesn’t get enough sun once the leaves are on the trees. Yes, we tried trimming the tree…let’s just say 212 people, along with Indianapolis Power and Light, appreciate our decision to move the garden instead of taking any more limbs down. Anyway, there’s nothing boys love more than fresh dirt.

Just trying it out.

I think this one should have been named Pigpen. It’s like he tries to see how dirty he can get.

Like the rest of us, Eleora is happy it’s spring!

Well, this last picture is something I never thought I would see. We left the supper mess for later and headed back outside after the meal to make the most of the daylight that was left. After all dried rice is much easier to sweep up than that sticky wet stuff. The screen door was left open and when I walked back inside, I found this….

This city girl may have come a long way, but…well, I’ll be more careful to shut the screen door from now on.

Easter

Wow, when I started this blog, I never dreamed I would find it so challenging to keep up with it. I am always thinking, I should put this on the blog, but then finding time to sit down and do it is another thing. Usually when I do find time to sit at the computer, it is while I am nursing Eleora, so I end up reading, but not typing. Right now she is on my lap and is trying to help me type and kicking the keyboard tray. Here are a few pictures from Easter.

I made the rolls for Easter at my parents’ house and left them on the counter. Peter was sweet enough to run home and get them, so we didn’t manage to get a family picture. Aaron had fallen asleep in the car and was quite a grump, so I felt lucky to get these done before we changed their clothes for dinner.

Ayden spent most of his time finding eggs for everyone else. “This is little, it’s for Aaron.” “I have two blue ones, so I’ll give this to Evan.” “This egg has flowers on it for you, Mommy.” When he found two green eggs on the gate to the creek, he saved one for Evan to find.

Aaron tried a couple different angles before he managed to get this egg.

Hope you had a great Easter too!

Attention Fellow Hoosiers!

Valentine’s Day

As the country of Italy is known for it’s romance, it seems only fitting that this would be the home of the first Valentine, or as he was known, Father Valentino. Valentino was a priest in the city of Rome during the third century. Valentino was unfortunate enough to live under the rule of Emperor Claudius II, otherwise known as Claudius the Cruel, a terrible persecutor of Christians. Another reason for his being known as Claudius the Cruel, were his bloody military campaigns. The military was having a difficult time recruiting new soldiers, for these crusades. Claudius decided this was because the men did not want to leave their wives and families. His solution to the problem was to outlaw marriage.

Valentino was convinced that marriage was instituted by God, and no man-made law could do away with it. He continued to perform marriages, but always in secret. Then the inevitable happened. One of their clandestine ceremonies was discovered. The newly married couple escaped, but Valentino was caught, cast into prison and sentenced to death.

Several interesting things occurred during Valentino’s imprisonment. People would come to the prison to show their support for the priest. When they were not allowed to see him, they resorted to throwing notes and flowers through a window of the prison.
A young woman was in charge of bringing Valentino’s meals. He soon discovered that she was the blind daughter of the jailer. During his time in prison, Valentino witnessed to her continually, and prayed for her healing. God miraculously restored her site, which caused the jailer, Asterius, to plead for Claudius to spare Valentino’s life. Alas, it was to no avail. Valentino had been sentenced to be clubbed, stoned, and beheaded. His execution was carried out on February 14, 269. It is said that Valentino left a farewell note to the jailer’s daughter, which he signed, “From your Valentine.”

On this Valentine’s Day, let us remember men, like Valentino, who agreed with Acts 5:29 and said, “We ought to obey God rather than men.” We face a problem very similar to that of the Romans in 269. If America changes her definition of marriage, she may as well do away with it altogether. So far Congress has decided to leave this issue at the state level.

In Indiana, Senate Joint Resolution 7 has been passed out of committee and will now go before the full Senate. The proposed amendment states:
“(a) Marriage in Indiana consists only of the union of one man and one
woman.
(b) This Constitution or any other Indiana law may not be construed to
require that marital status or the legal incidents of marriage be
conferred upon unmarried couples or groups.”

Please call your state senator and House Speaker Pat Bauer and give them this message:
“Please vote in favor of Senate Joint Resolution 7. Give citizens in
Indiana an opportunity to have their voices heard in support of
preserving traditional marriage.”

In case you don’t already know who your state senator is, you can find that information here .

Another trip to the Statehouse

Wow, it seems we were just there, but duty called, so down we went again. Wouldn’t you know, it was the coldest day yet of the ‘07-’08 winter! Thankfully, we found a spot and parked almost as close as possible and at a meter, so we didn’t have to pay those horrible garage fees.

The rally to support our midwives was supposed to last until 1:30, but when we arrived at 12:00, things had already wrapped up and the representatives were out to lunch. We were able to see some friends and then the boys were thrilled because we took them through the tunnel to Circle Center Mall. They begged to go through one last time, but we didn’t have time. CCM has a beautiful Arts Garden where local musicians play. We spent some time listening to this guy while we waited for the Representatives to return to session.

Isn’t that an amazing instrument? He was very talented. We made it back through the tunnel to the statehouse and were able to meet with our State Representative. Evan and Ayden did a great job shaking hands and talking to him. On the way out a photographer took a bunch of pictures of us for the IndyStar, but the story on the rally didn’t end up making the paper because the House got the Property Tax reform through that day. We tried to tell the boys that what they were talking about on the radio is what those men behind the glass were doing while we were there, but I’m not sure they understand much of that at 3 and 5.

Eleora with the “Born at Home” sticker Peter made her.

The next day, we went to a Roller Skating rink with some other homeschool families. It was the first time any of the boys had been. They really took to it and decided they wanted to live there.

We just got a “new” camera and are still learning to use it. Considering how dark the rink was, I think these turned out pretty well.

We’re Still Here…But Busy!

Just a note to let you know we will be posting more soon. We have been busy with holidays, design jobs, and family pictures. Here is a picture from our photo shoot!          Talk to you soon.

Christmas comings and goings

So, we finally got the tree decorated, as you can see. The hazy look in this picture is all the smoke in the house because of the Christmas candy that fell into my oven and burned. Isn’t the smell of burning sugar AWFUL?

I love the look on Aaron’s face in this next picture. I knew it was too quiet in the other room, and sure enough I found him sneaking a candy cane off the tree. What can a mother do, except take a picture? Oh, and then take the cellophane off the candy cane.

Another thing we did this week was make Cinnamon Christmas ornaments. After worrying that they wouldn’t be dry soon enough, and where to keep them safe, we remembered we have a dehydrator! Duh! So, here they are on the dehydrator trays.

One of our other family adventures this week was Evan’s trip to the dentist. He has had his teeth cleaned several times, but this time he had to have two tiny cavities filled. They were so small, the dentist didn’t even numb him. Peter stayed with him the entire time and the dentist said he was the best patient she had had all day!

Our church Christmas party was Wednesday. And you’ll soon be able to see some video at www.cbwconline.com. Something happened to the microphone, but you can just imagine how loud it was!

Today we paid a visit to the Capitol Building downtown to hear the Union Bible College Choir sing . In spite the fact that their keyboard quit and they had to sing all their songs with a soundtrack, they did a great job. We thought the singing was from 11:00-12:00, but it didn’t start until 12:00, so we were able to tour the building and talk to the boys about how our laws are made. As basic as their understanding may be, they were really interested. The Capitol Building is BEAUTIFUL. Unfortunately, I forgot about taking pictures when we were in the Senate and House Galleries. Here are a couple though. Have you ever seen such a fancy phone booth? It even had its own light, and an exhaust fan. Peter said the fan was probably more for privacy than anything.

I’ll close with this last picture. The other morning I was in the kitchen when I heard a noise in the bedroom. When I checked, this is how I found Aaron and Eleora, pacifier to pacifier, both fast asleep.

Me @ My Screen! V-Blog #2

You asked (Jon Earls), we answered! Here is another video blog. Comment with a subject you would like discussed by Me@ My Screen.

My New Webcam!

I now have a webcam. It is supposed to be a Christmas gift, but I am just trying it out. As you can see, I was playing with it a little. So fun!!! I am more of a visual person than Alicia. SOOOOOOO, my posts will mostly be video post.  Sit back, relax, and enjoy the show.