Arg.

This is me.

I'm tired.

It's been a busy two months.

With four sets of grandparents and their accompanying children and grandchildren, the Christmas season is usually very interesting for us. And yes, it usually lasts two months. Just took the Christmas decorations down this weekend. lol

For those who have wanted me to update my blog, even during the Christmas chaos, I can't find the darn camera cords!! I have great pictures, good stories, fun things to tell ... and no way to get the visuals onto the computer. What is a great blog story without visuals, I tell ya?

*sigh *

I will re-scour the house soon, but for now I have to wait until the family is over this stomach bug. Poor Ember has been sick for two days, but her fever broke earlier today. Ah, well. Life with many kids - never a dull moment!

Ok, now I really got to go look like that kitty. Goodnight! ;)

A Little Ham With Your Spaghetti . . . ?

The sound appears to be faster than the video, but oh well! Hopefully that won't last. :)

Adventure on the High ... Pavement?

We decided to have a pirate adventure today. Spur of the moment thing. I'm kind of an unpredictable mother. lol Should have picked a better time - 5pm isn't that great for the light. But we got all garbed up, put on our pirate gear, grabbed some mateys from below, and we were off!

This be Admiral Smoke.

I was Admiral Smoke, Calista was Pirate Spark, Damek was Captain Sephiroth, Ian was Captain Cloud, Austin was Pirate Skeleton Gun, Logan was Pirate Spikes, and Ember was the Pixie Queen. (We had to keep her safe, or the mission was doomed!)

Thar be Pirate Spark ...

And the good Captain Sephiroth, with Spikes right behind 'im.

This be Captain Cloud, restin' after the adventure. He don't enjoy landlubber publicity.

All pirates aboard ship had to have tattoos, to prove their toughness and sign on with Smoke. Unity be heartily important when facing the worst of the worst.


See, the Skeleton King had stolen our treasure and burned our ship. Then he kidnapped the pixies and hid both the pixies and the treasure in different locations. So we needed to vanquish the skeleton king, find the pixies, and rescue the stolen treasure; all before dinner!

First we had to "commandeer" a ship, (the side of the barn) so we attacked the evil marauders and jumped aboard. That ship sprung a leak, so we ended up swimming to Skull Island. (The hill behind our place.) We had half of the map, and that's where it showed them going. So we got all the skeletons, but the King escaped! Not before we grabbed the second half of the map, though! (The pics of the map didn't turn out well - they were drawn with pencil.)

The map showed that he had hidden the pixies in the Shark Whirlpool (front porch) so we raced off to their rescue, sailing in the skeleton's boat, the Black Skull. (picnic table) Admiral Smoke, though, is scared of sharks, so the other pirates had to capture the pixies and hand them to the Pixie Queen, who would do her magic (clapping) and free them. Then they all killed the sharks, of course, including Monster Shark.

Next we put the halves of the map together and discovered that the Skeleton King had hidden the treasure inside Volcano Mountain, (our house) so up we went! (It was getting dark by then.) We ran from the Skeleton King, escaped avalanches and earthquakes, and finally made it to the heart of the volcano, (the oven) where our treasure was found by Skeleton Gun.

This be him, Skeleton Gun.

We made it out of the volcano just in time, as it erupted behind us! Racing ahead of the lava (back and forth across the house, yelling our piratey heads off) we finally made it back to the ship (dining room table) and dumped out the treasure to be sure it was all there - and it was! Enough for all!


We had ourselves a blast today! Quite literally. lol


The good admiral stayed behind on the ship to guard the treasure, the Pixie Queen, and procure the vittles, of course, while the rest of the crew set off to finally vanquish the Skeleton King, which they took the rest of the evening to accomplish. Returning victorious, the pirates ate well, and are still conversing about it at this very moment!

Long live the Carrollot Pirates!

New Additions to the Family

Aren't they the CUTEST?? Sorry the pics are so fuzzy. :(

The turtle is a baby snapping turtle that we rescued from the library's sidewalk. His name is Booker the Turtle Washington, AKA "Books." Books is a feisty guy, so we are only planning to keep him until late spring. It's a little dangerous to release him now, because he's not nourished enough to survive hibernation. Indoor turtles don't need to hibernate, though. But we ARE going to release him! Believe me, we don't have the money for the 50 - 100 gallon tank it would take to house this potentially 60 lb. 50 year old turtle!! Though it's going to be very hard. I get so attached to animals, and he is SO cute.

The tiger salamander is definitely a keeper, though! Her name is Tiger Lilly, AKA Tielle (TL). I had newts and anoles as a kid, so I know how to care for lizards. We've had Books for a while, (10 days? Something like that.) but Chris found Tielle in the parking lot of Piggly Wiggly just this morning. Poor thing was dry (which is bad) and scared to death. She's curled up in that plastic pot, and hasn't come out. Exhausted, most likely. Plus, salamanders are nocturnal. So we'll see.

Fyzh ("fish," our cat) has been fascinated by the turtle, of course, but wouldn't hurt him. She won't even kill flies that she catches. She just plays with them. How do we know she won't for sure? Because she didn't last night. We accidentally left the lid unsealed to Books' "tank," and she got him out and was playing with him, apparently, since the poor thing was on the floor this morning, hiding. I hope he bit her! lol He's fine, though. Not a scratch on him. Probably traumatized for life, but hey. That's what we get for now having THREE primarily nocturnal animals!! (Yes, for those who didn't know, that is why cats sleep a lot during the day.)



So, we have the beginnings of a little zoo, because of course the kids and I had to catch grasshoppers and crickets and worms to feed the little carnivore. Books can have veggies as well as bugs, but prefers the meat. We're going to stop by the pet store today and find out how much the food options are there, so that we can get some for the winter months, in case our backyard "jar critters" don't breed. We're going to at least keep the two for the winter, and we'll see how we're doing in the spring. We'd like to eventually hatch Monarch butterflies and have an ant farm, and maybe do a frog life cycle - there's so much you can do with little animals and science! So much they can learn, about the animals, about God's design, about responsibility ... pets are just good things. But we will see how long we keep them. Releasing animals to the wild has its lessons, too. Even if they end up dying, as hard as that would be, it would still be a good life lesson for the kids. I'm prepared for whatever comes with them. :)

So those are our new additions and we are loving them!

Adventures in Eating

Ok. I don't normally do really, really long stuff like this unless I'm bored, and today I'm actually not. But this was so interesting! I'm not a food person, per se, but I love variety, so it was fun looking up what some of these actually are.

Anyway.

This guy on a blog called Very Good Taste made a list of 100 varied foods he thought everyone ought to try. (Thanks, Rachel!) So here's what you do: Copy this list into your blog, including these instructions. Bold all items you've eaten. Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.

Here's mine, and I am not very adventurous!

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare (I draw the line at raw meat.)
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht (Eew.)
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. Peanut butter and jelly sandwich
14. Aloo gobi (I would try it, but I don’t handle spicy very well.)
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl (I’ve had it w/o the bowl)
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut (Eew.)
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a big fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects (That was on accident – one flew in my mouth. They’re very bitter.)
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini (Martinis are gross.)
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain (Gross, but I’ve had it.)
70. Chitterlings or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum (With chicken, yes. Prawns, no.)
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox (Bagel, yes. Never had lox.)
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

Ok, so I used to say I'd try anything palatable once ... but now I've found there are a few things I will not touch on principle, for safety reasons, or because they're insanely spicy. I still consider myself fairly open-minded when it comes to food. I would do a whole different list myself, like:

1. Brown Rice
2. Whole Wheat French Toast
3. Karen L.'s water

Yeah. Those are just three foods I cannot do without. hee hee

So try the list! Wikipedia has most of them, if you don't know what it is. Happy virtual tasting!

Confessions of An Overly-Active Imagination, Part One

I'm secretly a spy. Yup. I work for the Association for the Prevention of Tiredness. (Very apt title, no?) I subtly insert comments into as many conversations as possible, trying to discover how everyone else stays awake . . . OR NOT!

Mwahahahahahahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

Just kidding. Of course. :D

I'm actually *drum roll * a student at M-TEC! That would be Medical Transcription Education Center. It's based out of Ohio, technically, but the program is online and home-based, because you work towards a career as a Medical Transcriptionist, otherwise known as a Medical Language Specialist, and it is a very technology-based career. Something like 80% of those in this career work from home, and that is my goal.

Is it a scam? No. There are plenty of MT scams out there - programs with substandard training, who take your money and then leave you to find a job when you have no real clue what you are doing. But I did the research, and chose MTEC for many reasons! (All of them good.)

Their website is: www.mtecinc.com if you'd like more info. Otherwise check out AHDI (Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity) at www.ahdionline.org.

So THAT is why I have been so busy! I am a wife and mother, and I've been planning for the coming homeschooling year, plus keeping up with the house and with friends, and now I'm also a student and in about a year I'll be a part-time home career woman. Whew! Good to have a full life, though.

My grammar is horrible today - you'll have to excuse that. I've been getting up at 5:30 each morning to be with DH before work, and the alarm decided to go loco on us this morning and go off at 4:45 instead. *rolls eyes *

SO ANYWAY! Feel free to ask any questions and check out the above websites.

And let me know how you're combating that lethargy that comes after eating a big meal . . . What IS your secret???

Want To See Some Shoes?

Lol ... We couldn't pass this up, Rachel! Chris was in on it too - he kept me honest. ;)

Picture Blog Tag.
The rules are you have to take ten pictures of the following things. And you have to do it right away. No straightening, cleaning or wiping your child's nose. Then you tag five others.

1. The Fridge - Ok, I have kids who make their own breakfasts and most days, their own lunches as well. lol So, YES it's always messy like this, though we usually have more food in it. :)



2. The Closet - This is our living room closet, where we put coats for winter, golf clubs for summer, huge music cases, the vacuum, and all those magazines that I never get around to going through, and end up being collage-makers for the kids.



3. A Self Portrait - Here I am! Aren't I a great artist? lololololol (Playing around with my camera's photo shop-type program.) HEE HEE! (Too bad ya didn't think of this one!)



4. Your Favorite Room - This is my dining room, seen from just above the end of the table. Homeschooling books in one corner, computer and MTEC books in the other. Lol! Always cluttered but clean, I love this room because of all the memories it holds.



5. The Kitchen Sink - Here is the worst thing about my house, almost: The color of the kitchen. *dies * But yeah. There's absolutely nothing I can do to doctor up this pic to make it look good. It's a horrible sink. And I just cleaned out the fridge of leftovers about an hour ago (BEFORE taking the pictures!) so all the containers are waiting to be washed. *sigh * I WILL have a better kitchen one day. I will.



6. The Laundry Room - Ok, no way was I going to go all the way downstairs (42 stairs!!) just to take a pic of the laundry room. Sorry. :) So here's the laundry basket waiting to be folded. (The yellow is a dress of Ember's. Cute, isn't it?)



7. The Toilet - Here's strong evidence, yet again, that I have children. They mess around with bathroom things all the time. And I usually flip the calendar every day, but didn't get around to it today. lol Also again, no point doctoring this one!


8. What Are Your Kids Doing Right Now? - Well, here's the typical mess that the two boys make about four times a day, during the summer. lol

And here's Ember playing with Calista.



9. Your Dream Vacation - HAWAII!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



10. Your Favorite Shoes - I don't normally like shoes, but I LOVE these ones! Unfortunately, I don't get many occasions to wear them. And sometimes when you're dressing up, brown just doesn't cut it. But I still love these shoes. I believe they're the only pair I've ever loved in my entire life - I normally just tolerate shoes in general! lol But these are my "dream shoes" (hence the effects) and I actually own them. :)


Hmm, I don't know five blogging people to tag, yet! I'm new to the whole blogging world! So Sara and Sarah, since you're the only other bloggers that I know, consider yourself tagged!!