Which of these 100 things have you done?

I stole this from Wendy. I'm not going to tag anyone, but feel free to do it if you want to.

Items 11, 54, 64, and 65 were missing, so I searched around and found a few different versions of them. I used the ones here. Just for the record, I'm absolutely amazed at how many bloggers copied and pasted the list and answered the survey without realizing there were only 96 statements instead of 100. :)

RULES: There are 100 statements and you bold / change the colors of the ones you have done. Grab it and play for yourself!! When you post this on your own blog, come back and link me to your post! and tag four friends while you're at it :o)

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1. Started your own blog

2. Slept under the stars

3. Played in a band (orchestra)--only if the church worship team counts.

4. Visited Hawaii

5. Watched a meteor shower

6. Given more than you can afford to charity --Not sure how to answer this one. It seems that the more one gives, the more God provides even when it didn't seem feasible on paper. We've never suffered for it, and God has always more than provided for our needs.

7. Been to Disneyland

8. Climbed a mountain.

9. Held a praying mantis

10. Sang a solo

11. Had stitches

12. Visited Paris

13. Watched a lightning storm at sea

14. Taught yourself an art from scratch

15. Adopted a child

16. Had food poisoning

17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty

18. Grown your own vegetables

19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France

20. Slept in an overnight train

21. Had a pillow fight

22. Hitchhiked

23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill

24. Built a snow fort

25. Held a lamb --I think I have held a lamb at the fair. I know I've petted lambs. I've held baby goats a number of times.

26. Gone skinny dipping --Only in a recurrent nightmare. You know, that one where you're in a crowded swimming pool and look down and realize you forgot your swimsuit.

27. Run a marathon

28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice

29. Seen a total eclipse (solar)

30. Watched a sunrise or sunset

31. Hit a home run --Only playing ball as a kid, not in a real game.

32. Been on a cruise

33. Seen Niagara Falls in person

34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors

35. Seen an Amish community --I don't think I've done this in person, but I've had Mennonite friends.

36. Taught yourself a new language

37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied --I don't think it's really money or the lack of it that determines someone's level of contentment.

38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person

39. Gone rock climbing --I've climbed up rocky hills and big rocks in wilderness areas, but never the type that actually requires special equipment.

40. Seen Michelangelo’s David

41. Sung karaoke

42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt

43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant --I don't think I've done it in a restaurant, unless you count giving away a fast food gift certificate to someone who asked for money. But I carry pre-prepared meals in my van to hand out to panhandlers.

44. Visited Africa

45. Walked on a beach by moonlight

46. Been transported in an ambulance

47. Had your portrait painted --Actually, it's a pencil drawing, but my SIL did a great job making a wedding portrait of us. I might have had my portrait painted in high school (homeschool co-op) and university art classes, too. I know there have been plenty of sketches! When you're in art class, you get to be the subject and get stiff siting still in turn with everyone else. :)

48. Gone deep sea fishing --And we pulled in half a barracuda, along with the whole ones!

49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person

50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris

51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling

52. Kissed in the rain

53. Played in the mud

54. Gotten a speeding ticket. (One version says gotten OUT of a speeding ticket, and that I would have to bold. --I did get stopped for speeding once. I was going 58 in a 55MPH zone, and the officer asked me if I knew I was speeding, and why I was speeding. I said that I just wasn't paying enough attention and I was very sorry, I was just in a hurry to get home. DH insists that the reason I got only a warning and no ticket because I was 9 months pregnant at the time. That could possibly have contributed, but I maintain it was because (1) I was honest and respectful, (2) It was my first offense, and (3) I was only going THREE MPH over the speed limit. I mean, really, do you think it's incomprehensible that I would get only a warning under those circumstances even if I wasn't pregnant? I ask you. But DH thinks it's an example of how pregnant women get special treatment, and therefore the unfairness of life. LOL.)

55. Been in a movie --I don't think home videos count. :)

56. Visited the Great Wall of China

57. Started a business

58. Taken a martial arts class

59. Visited Russia

60. Served at a soup kitchen

61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies

62. Gone whale watching

63. Got flowers for no reason

64. Stayed the night in jail

65. Cried so hard you threw up --I've never done this (at least as an adult), but I have been in so much pain that it caused me to lose my stomach contents. When asked to rank pain on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 as the worst I've ever been in, I figure if I'm not passing out or throwing up or flat-out screaming yet (as opposed to crying, groaning, writhing, etc.), it can't be a 10. My lovely head/jaw pain last week reached only an 8 or 9.

66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp

67. Bounced a check

68. Flown in a helicopter --But I've gotten to take the controls of an airplane!

69. Saved a favorite childhood toy

70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial

71. Eaten caviar.

72. Pieced a quilt --Only individual squares and doll quilts.

73. Stood in Times Square

74. Toured the Everglades

75. Been fired from a job --Not sure if it counts, but my boss the veterinarian decided to find a replacement for me when I asked about the possibility of working fewer hours on days when not all the employees were needed, due to my health issues.

76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London

77. Broken a bone

78. Been on a speeding motorcycle --Don't know if it was speeding or not, but I've been on motorcyles a few times with someone else driving, and drove a dirt bike once as a kid.

79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person

80. Published a book

81. Visited the Vatican

82. Bought a brand new car

83. Walked in Jerusalem

84. Had your picture in the newspaper

85. Read the entire Bible

86. Visited the White House

87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating

88. Had chicken pox

89. Saved someone’s life

90. Sat on a jury

91. Met someone famous

92. Joined a book club

93. Lost a loved one

94. Had a baby

95. Seen the Alamo in person

96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake

97. Been involved in a lawsuit

98. Owned a cell phone

99. Been stung by a bee

100. Read an entire book in one day --I do this all the time . . . I have a hard time putting down a book once I start it. That's part of the reason I haven't done a whole lot of reading lately. :)

So much for the angst . . .

I set the timer for 10 minutes and told AJ that if she finished her last 2 math problems before it went off, she could have the remaining time to play. (She's been often taking 15 minutes to do one problem the last few days.)

She spent her extra 8 minutes of play time making this:



It says, "Math can be fun, if you do it fast!"

I also taught the girls how to use the washing machine and dryer today. Ebee still needs lots of help, of course, but the older two can handle starting a load pretty much by themselves after some instruction. They're so thrilled with their new skills.

AJ asked me if I could please teach her everything I know, so she can know how to do everything that needs to be done. I said I'd be happy to do that, and that I plan to have taught her everything she needs to know in order to take care of a household by the time she's a teenager. She thought that was a great idea.

A little later, she found a baby name book and asked me if she could take it with her when she grew up, to choose names for her children.

Of course I said yes. :)

High Criticism--But I Take it as Praise. :)

I was standing over AJ's desk, talking her through her math in bright cheery tones, trying to get her to do it quickly instead of dragging over it.

"Come on, quick! What's 10 - 6? See how fast you can do it. Great! Now the next column. How fast can you carry the 1 and figure out the tens?"

Suddenly she moaned, "But, Mo-ooom! You're making it sound FUN!" Her tone was one of accusation.

"Is that a problem?"

"Yes! Because I don't LIKE math--you're not supposed to make it seem fun!"

Oh, right, then. I guess I didn't get that memo. ;-)

2008 went out with a bang

It's been a very interesting few weeks. We had a snow and ice storm that pretty much kept us home except for emergencies. DH and the kids made a delicious double chocolate cake on my birthday, and my family sent flowers.

For Christmas, I made matching nightgowns for the girls and their dolls. After an initial tantrum from Ebee saying that she "hated" her nightgown and was "scared of it because it has mean ladybugs on it" (fabric she had picked out), things settled down and all three girls have been wanting to wear their nightgowns all the time. I might have to make them each a second set just so they'll let us have them long enough to launder them.

A highlight of the season was seeing the girls act out the Lord's birthday story with their wooden nativity set as DH read aloud from the Bible. We had a cozy holiday time together as a family.

The not-cozy parts were Snowflake's tail getting badly injured (someone--either canine or child--apparently grabbed it through the wire of the cage) and then getting her to the vet in the snowstorm (she is going to be OK, though she'll have a shorter and funny-looking tail), the branch which crashed through our roof (and is still sticking out of the ceiling as I type), and the days-long excruciating pain in my head which canceled our New Year's festivities and took me to the Urgent Care Clinic, where the diagnosis was a badly inflamed TMJ problem.

The bunnies have been relocated to the garage, where they have more space and will be safer, the branch is at least so tightly wedged in that it's not letting rain through, and my jaw is finally starting to feel better (which is a good thing, since I had an allergic reaction to one of the pain and/or anti-inflammatory medicines the doctor had me taking to try to control the pain).

We had a lovely time with DH's family on Monday, after the family Christmas party was rescheduled because of the weather. Today, we're grieving with our nephew and his wife and family as they mourn the loss of their unborn baby, the one we chatted happily about just a few days ago.

A couple of slightly newsworthy things to note:

A couple of days after getting the bunnies, we traded Bun-Bun the girl back to the breeder for her brother with the same coloring, who is now Bun-Bun the boy. The primary reason for this was finding out that it costs about 10 times as much to get a female rabbit spayed as it does to get a boy neutered.

The bunnies are completely charming, and amazingly enough Snowflake is still friendly and bold even after suffering through a tail injury and daily treatments. Gingersnap is quite the character--we were joking today that we should have named him Socks, because he likes to follow me around and nibble on my socks. Bun-Bun the boy is apparently older than the other two (and older than we were told) and is still a little shy, but we're hoping he will relax and warm up to us soon.

Mira and I had our first session with the trainer from the owner-trained service dog program. Initially she had said she wasn't sure if she would accept us or not, but would work with us for a month (or 4 sessions) before deciding for sure. But after our initial evaluation and then our session working on public access skills at a mall, she said that she had decided she would like to work with us. She thinks we show real potential as a team. So that's exciting! Of course, there's still no guarantee that we will be able to complete the program and pass all the tests, but for now we're in.

AJ, MM and Ebee have been having great fun playing with their dolls and their new toys, and have mostly been playing well together. This coming week the challenge will be getting back into a routine with our homeschooling after taking some time off for the holidays.

In the past few weeks, I've found myself increasingly thankful that we are all together, safe, and warm. Our needs are being provided for, and more. I'm thankful that we are held in the hollow of the hand of the One who knows the number of hairs on our heads, and doesn't miss the fall of a sparrow.

May 2009 be a full, peaceful, healthy, joy-filled and blessed year for all.