I Like My Sleep

When I was a kid I would ask my mom if I could go take a nap.

When I was in highschool I always tried to get 8hrs of sleep and was sure that if I didn't I would be just completely exhausted the next day.

Also in highschool, on our youth spring break trip to the beach, I was given the "SLOTH" award because of my pension to not only sleep late in the morning, but to take a nap in the afternoon, and go to bed early at night.

So really, it should come as no surprise that the Saturday night each year we get to fall back and gain a whole hour for sleep just thrills me.

THRILLS ME.

I am starting to think that I can honestly say this is my favorite night of the whole year.

And because it is my favorite night of the whole year it would only stand to reason that the fateful night every year when we spring forward has to be my least favorite night of the whole year. I mean, seriously, what are they thinking taking away a whole hour of our sleep?

I know there has been some talk of just doing away completely with the time change. While this would remedy my least favorite night problem, I actually like the marked difference in day light that the time change creates. It just wouldn't feel right to eat Thanksgiving dinner while the sun was still up. Or Christmas dinner.

And it is rather fun to see who makes it to church early or late depending on the change each year. It has occasionally been us.

All this to say, I am so looking forward to my extra hour of sleep this weekend. Hope you are too!

Bridget

PS. my friend April helped me figure out how to do stirke through typing. Unfortunately, this blogger in draft thing either doesn't have or has hidden spell check and I can't figure out how to add a video. Sorry for misspelled words and not that I was going to post a video on this one, but you know, for future reference any help would be appreciated.

I'm in a bloggy mood

My husband wrote a poem.

I sure do love him.

Bridget

Are we seeing this in our day?

“A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.”

Alexander Tyler 1787

This is long but VERY informative. It shows the probable future consequences that could come from this election.

Bridget

NKOTB

This post is dedicated to Molly Beth.

Last weekend my SIL went to the New Kids On The Block concert in Dallas. From what I've heard, she loved it and is already asking for tickets to the next one. Molly was, no IS, a HUGE NKOTB fan. Bed spread, posters, t-shirts. I've actually seem some of it when I helped clean out her old closet.

And she is a MEGAHUGE Joey (Joe?) fan.

She has seen him on Broadway and has the picture with him to prove it.

I, however, was not as cool as Molly. My mother limited my exposure to the pop radio station and so I was never quite as in the loop as my friends. Also, most of my NKOTB memories are from 5th grade and I was pretty sure I would some day do gymnastics or cheerleading on some sort of professional level so that took up alot of my time. =)

But when it came up in discussion, I had a crush on Jon. I know, I know. I think I felt sorry for him being in the shadow of Jordan. (I seriously couldn't remember Jordan's name for a few minutes. I was starting to type "his brother" when it came to me)

I ran across this recap of the Houston concert and laughed out loud.

Molly, if you want to give us a recap of your concert experience we would love to hear it, you journalism major you.

Love you, sister.

Bridget

And just FYI, Molly and I will both be turning 30 in 2009!

And this is so unrelated, but how do you put a line through a word? I've seen people do it on other blogs and haven't figured it out. I would have totally loved to mark through was and type is but I had to be all not cool and put a comma with no IS instead. Help a girl, please.

Birthday Party

For Popeye and Princess's birthday party we went bowling! This first pic is of the whole group minus adults. The bowling pins in the middle of the table are something this bowling alley gives the birthday 'child' so their friends can sign it and they can always remember their birthday. Princess has been sleeping with hers. TamTam and Nana got to come to the party! A pic with Nana.

Princess bowling. Did you think she would use anything other than a pink ball?!?

For some reason I really like this picture of my boys.

Our sweet friend "V". Lovely as always and a kindred spirit for Princess because she has four older brothers. =)

Popeye and Daddy.

Mom and Dad with the birthday kids. Popeye got some big Hulk hands that make crashing noises when you hit things with them. Could any present be more perfect? Princess and her new necklace. Beautiful. They guys checking something out. I think it's a power ranger. TamTam reading Popeye his card.

Not sure why I put this one in there. A better picture of the chaos that was opening presents?

I love this scarf so much that I have decided it is not going to be a 'dress up' scarf but a real life, wear all the time, look so cute everywhere scarf.

Princess Belle doll. Also sleeping with her.

So very excited. Our friend "N". A great talker and so cute!

Waiting his turn. Guarding his ball.

Great shot of Bear. Bobo was too busy being a 'big' kid so I didn't get a good pic of him alone.

It was a great party. I broke my own rule of no parties on Sunday's because I value my nap more than a party, but my mom and nana were able to come and we kept it pretty short and sweet so we all got to go home and take a nap after. A great day!

Bridget

Baby Boy's 5th Birthday!

Today is Popeye's 5th birthday. That's right, folks. Two birthdays in a row. Popeye got a baby sister for his second birthday.

Daddy brought donuts this morning and Popeye and Daddy are out renting a movie for us to watch tonight. I am pretty sure they are getting the Hulk.=)

Baby boy, you are so precious. Your sweet spirit, generous heart, and wonderful giggle bless me so.

I love you bunches and I'm so glad God gave me you!

You're my favorite Popeye!

Mom

Baby Girl's 3rd Birthday!

Three years ago today at 7:06am God gave me a beautiful baby girl. Her name means "Who is like God?" and I believe that God was shouting "There is none like Me!" when He made her.

You rock my world, Baby Girl!

I LOVE YOU!

Mommy

p.s. the flower in the picture is the rose that her Daddy bought her for her birthday. =)

Criticism

This post is not about my criticism of something or someone else. It is actually about someone criticizing me and how I am dealing with it.

Not well.

For starters, criticism is hard to deal with anyway you get it. The criticism I was given was by someone that I know wants the best for me and for our church family. It was not harsh or hateful. It was however given at a completely inappropriate time. And it caught me off guard.

And what was the most difficult part to deal with was that the two things I was being criticized for, I had felt lead by the Holy Spirit to do. But what this did was cause me to even more quickly and fervently run to my Father and ask Him to help me lay it at His feet. This was very hard and took some time. I didn't want to let go of it. And for a little while I wasn't supposed to.

I had a lesson to learn. I'm actually still learning it because this just happened yesterday and so I am still currently dealing with it, but I am beginning to see some light and to see some things clearly.

But the light and the clarity didn't come without a battle.

Our Enemy does not fight fair. Hear me clearly: He WILL kick you while you are down. He is an opportunist and uses every opportunity he gets. That is why God tells us to be AWARE.

My first reaction to receiving the criticism was to completely withdraw. I'll just not do anything because I obviously can't do it right. All this reaction does is try to self preserve and it in no way glorifies God. I knew it was not an option.

My next reaction was to just slink back a little. Fine. I'll just shut up and sit still. This however is just a lesser version of the first reaction. And as I continued to pray this through I realized that it too was not an option.

My decision in the midst of criticism is to keep going. I am going to learn from my mistakes. I am going to keep what God has told me to keep and I am going to let go of what God has told me to let go of. And I am going to KEEP GOING.

God has confirmed that I indeed was following His leading in my decisions. Maybe they were meant to bring light to some other things our group needs to deal with. No way to know except to let this all play out.

I still have the knot in my stomach and I am still having to fight to not constantly think about it. But my decision is made.

I WILL KEEP GOING.

You should too.

Bridget

Hello, Sunshine!

Praise the Lord! The sun is shining and the skies are clear today!

Three days of gray skies and rain did not for a happy Bridget make. It's obviously a very good thing that God does not have me living up north.

Does no sun affect anyone else this way?

I really want to know.

I have some serious outside time scheduled for today. As soon as baby girl wakes up we are heading out. Just to our front yard, but still, OUT! Bikes, scooters, sand boxes, basketballs.

Yippee!!

Thank you, Lord, for your sunshine today!

Bridget

Forget it, old people, no more TV for you in 2009.

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A Family Poem

I have a little, 3 bedroom house

With a dog, a girl, 3 boys and a spouse.

We keep the dog outside

Where she likes to bark at all she can find.

But the dog is lame when it comes to sound

When compared with others that are around.

The girl likes to scream and giggle;

Oh, the sight when she starts to wriggle!

Music can really make her go,

And when she dances, she puts on a show!

The boys are older and far more advanced,

But still get grins when they start to dance.

And, oh, the symphony of noise

That comes from a girl and 3 boys!

It's quite a sound you can't ignore,

Even when you close the door.

But when it comes time for bed,

And I get to kiss each little head,

The joy of my family

Resounds throughout eternity!

At last, a word about my spouse:

She is the sweetest sound in all the house!

Throwing My Hat Into the Political Ring

I'm not as passionate about politics as some. I do strongly feel that we need to exercise our right to vote, but I usually delete political emails and bypass rants and raves.

However, due to our economic crisis I have been reading alot more articles and listening to alot more opinions and facts. This video tells alot but very quickly. You can do a google search and find all the info contained in it or just pause the video at the things you want to check out more.

I don't hate Obama. I don't think he is the antichrist. I do think that he was part of this economic problem and now he is blaming everyone else. That bugs me. But he's not the only one. And I don't think that John McCain is perfect. I just agree with him on more of the issues.

I must note that I did the Obama / McCain questionnaire here and agreed with McCain on 11 of the thirteen questions. Unfortunately, I agreed with Obama on the two economy questions. I obviously have alot to learn. side note: I took the questionnaire before reading about the reasons for our current economic problems. I'm still not sure that would have changed my answers, though, because you don't know who said what while you are answering. You just chose the statement you most agree with.

Any of you Obama supporters please don't hate me. I just don't want our nation to make this mistake again so we need to look into how it happened in the first place and deal with it.

Burning Down The House - What Caused Our Economic Crisis ?
Uploaded by Ibn-Khaldun

Our Weekend

We just got home from church and RC is on his way to McDonald's to get us some lunch. I thought that I would give you a little update about our weekend while I waited.

Thursday evening after work RC left with a friend to drive to Lake Thunderbird for our church's Men's Retreat. He was very excited and I was very excited for him.

The Men's Retreat went great from what I've been told. I help with the children's ministry on Sunday mornings so I don't hear the sermon till later and so I don't yet know what was said this morning. But God did give RC and Toby a song while at the retreat that they sang for us this morning during offering. It's great and I think we are going to add it to the worship set next week. Very cool.

The kids and I had a good weekend. The wife of RC's (and my) friend that rode with him to the retreat came over Friday night and we ate dinner together and stayed up talking till 1:30am. It was so much fun. Then the men got home Saturday afternoon.

I just thought of a lesson I'm learning and so I will post about that soon. I realize I haven't finished my five lessons. Sorry.

I'm gonna eat some lunch and then take a really great (and needed) nap!

Bridget

A Couple More

I forgot some. Enjoy. The whole gang.

Bridget

Pumpkin Patch Pictures!

I set the pictures on the smallest setting because I am posting quite a few. Just click on one to see it bigger. We had a great timeThis was after about 10 pictures. He was ready to be done. Popeye looks so old in this picture. Hard to believe he is almost 5.The shadows are pretty harsh in this one but his smile is great.

Bobo and Emma. Friends forever.

The humour of a ten yr. old.

I was trying to get a picture of his natural smile as opposed to his picture smile so I was making him do silly things like put antlers on his head. Silly picture but great smile.

The Bobo and Emma Express.

I didn't take the time to hide the sprinkler before taking the pictures and now I'm really regretting it.

I love this little outfit. The sweater is so cute and the little black ballet flats. I could eat her up.

This picture was completely by chance because the little stinker kept refusing to look at the camera.

Silly face. I love her little nose.

I love the colors in this picture. The blue sky, green tree, and orange car. Very cool.

The Babione boys.

My friend, Jenni, has some more pics of our day posted at her photography blog.

Bridget

I don't know what to title this post...

Hello all.

It is 9:49pm.

Some of you are wondering what I am doing still awake.

Well, I'm updating my blog.

duh.

Sorry. I'm not very funny at 9:50pm.

I'm trying to decide if I can stay awake long enough to color my hair tonight.

Yes, I color my own hair. The color I use is very similar to my natural color. The reason I have to color my hair is because I'm already going gray.

Seriously.

And I'm not even thirty yet.

Also, because I can't afford to pay someone $65.00 every six weeks to do it for me. I mean, that's $564.00 a year. Yes, my mom's a math teacher. (and I totally used the calculator on my computer, sorry mom)

And tomorrow I am taking the kiddos to a really cute pumpkin patch to buy pumpkins and take pictures. I might be in some of the pictures so I was thinking I should try to look my best.

Hmmm.

Really I'm just wasting time on the computer because I really don't want to color my hair.

Ok.

I'm gonna go color my hair now.

And if you're looking for a good movie to watch I recommend Penelope. It's really cute.

Peace out,
Bridget

Our afternoon

The past couple of weeks the weather has been beautiful.

I love fall. It is my favorite season.

So, I made the children play outside in the back yard today. Usually we play in the front where they ride bikes and scooters and play in the sand box, but I couldn't go outside with them today so they had to stay in the back yard.

After about 5 minutes of playing outside I looked out the window and saw this. After about 10 more minutes Bear and Popeye came back inside. Bobo stayed out of the mud puddle, but he stayed outside with Princess. Princess, however, got right in the middle of it.

And this is what it was in the end. At least she had fun.

And Bobo is still outside.

Bridget

Happy Birthday, Kara Bear!!

My youngest sister turns 20 today.

Mom and Dad, can you believe that all your children are adults? WOW.

Kara Bear (our nickname for her, her middle name is Elaine not Bear) you are so AWESOME! You are funny, smart, super cute, strong, enjoyable, and a gazillion other wonderful things! I seriously couldn't have asked for a better baby sister!

I'm sorry I didn't actually remember it was your birthday until the day was almost over, but please know that this day is very important to me because it is the day that God gave us you. (And I got wear a very cute outfit to the hospital. Or so I thought at the time)=)

I love you, sister!

You're the BEST! (and, really, you should be because, like Dad said, you got to learn from watching me and Andrea);-)

Bridge

I Didn't Know My Own Strength

This morning I broke a window with my bare hand.

At the time I didn't think I was reacting in anger. I was trying to get my daughter's attention because she was outside making a mud puddle with the running water hose.

At 8:15 am.

The boys had finished feeding and watering the dogs and they forgot to bring their sister in with them.

I have knocked on this window MANY times in the past to get the children's attention. But this morning was the fateful day. I guess there was some anger in my reaction and I knocked harder than usual because, tap, tap, tap...tap, tap, break. And to be completely honest, right before the tap that did me in the thought that I could possibly break the window flew through my mind. But my hand was already in motion.

I didn't think to take pictures till after my father-in-law had removed the rest of the glass so I had Bobo pose for a picture so you could better see the window with no glass. (no, I don't know why all of this is underlined.)

Of course, Bear wanted his picture taken too.
My father-in-law working his magic.

I did sustain a couple of small injuries. Nothing serious and the big bandage is only because of where the cut is. The regular bandaids wouldn't stay on well.

My father-in-law happened to have a piece of glass the exact size needed and was able to fix the window right away. Good as new.

Thank you so much, Ronny, for coming over quickly and for not making me feel any more stupid than I already did. I love you.

Bridget

Ok.

Last night we had dinner with some friends. Four couples total. We grilled out and played a really fun/funny board game. (RC and I won!)

Something I noticed during the night, however, was how my children NEVER came to RC and me if they wanted something. They went to ANYONE else. And the ANYONE else usually gave them whatever they asked for.=)

So while Popeye was standing next to the dining table (where the adults were playing their game) and waiting for one of the Anyone's to get him another cookie, one of the other mom's asked him a question and this is the conversation that ensued.

mom: "Baby, do you need to go potty?"

Popeye: "No, I like chocolate."

Ok.