Liza's Non-blog Blog

Rosetta Stone Giveaway

2011-01-04T10:46:00.001-05:00

Now is the perfect time to give your child the gift of possibilities for the holidays with Rosetta Stone Homeschool — and you can WIN a Level 1 Homeschool program, language of your choice (valued at $249)!

Right now Rosetta Stone is having a special Holiday promotion on our Homeschool Edition program and we’d like you to help spread the word! Everyone can save up to $150 on Rosetta Stone Homeschool by visiting our website at http://www.RosettaStone.com/hsw1110.

By helping us spread the word you can win a Rosetta Stone Homeschool Edition Level 1 program, language of your choice, valued at $249.

This is a computer based curriculum and Rosetta Stone will also include a headset with microphone, and a supplementary “Audio Companion” CD so you can practice lessons in the car, on the go, or where-ever!

Students participate in life-like conversations and actually produce language to advance through the program. Rosetta Stone incorporates listening, reading, grammar, vocabulary and writing along with speaking and pronunciation lessons. For parents, the new Parent Administrative Tools are integrated into the program to allow parents to easily enroll up to ten students in any of 12 predetermined lesson plans, monitor student progress, grade completed work (the program grades the work automatically as the students progress), and you can view and print reports for transcripts. Homeschooling a lot of kids at your house? This program is designed to enroll and track up to ten students (five users on two computers) and will work for nearly all ages — from beginning readers up to college students.

To win this program, copy these paragraphs and post them in (or as) your next blog post, and/OR post about this contest on your facebook page. Then go to the original page at http://www.triviumpursuit.com/blog/2010/12/28/rosetta-stone-giveaway/
and leave a comment saying that you’ve posted about, or have linked to, the contest. Please make sure the link works to get back to the original contest page when you post, and good luck!

Rebecca Joie is here!

2009-07-07T17:07:00.010-04:00

I had about 9 hours of false labor overnight, July 2, which was consistently six minute contractions, but they stopped when I started my day. I was frustrated at having called the midwife at 5am for nothing. I had a young friend over that morning to keep the kids for me, thinking that was going to be the day, and Chris stayed home from work. We were both very tired from the lack of sleep, so it was wonderful to have some help, anyway.

Then again, early in the morning on July 4, I had a few more hours of the same kind of contractions, which were apparently not doing anything much. This time, I waited to see if they would change once I got up and going, and sure enough, they fizzled out again. I wondered if it was the baby's position that was preventing labor from progressing.

On my due date, Sunday, July 5, we went to church as usual, but came home directly afterward. I didn't want to go into labor there and have to bring home the lunch I'd prepared (a full crockpot of meatballs and a tray full of peanut butter and honey sandwiches would get old quickly). Still thinking baby's position was the issue, I planned to attempt to get her to turn around by using techniques from SpinningBabies.com. I first called my midwife to get her opinion. After talking with her a bit, I decided I'd like to have her come over and do a mini prenatal, and enlist her help with determining the baby's position and possibly trying to change it, if needed. The midwife was soon there, and palpated for how the baby was lying in my womb. From what she could determine, the baby was actually in the optimal position, head down, back almost directly in the front of my belly. I wondered what I'd been feeling to make me think otherwise. We decided to wrap my belly with a Rebozo scarf to help keep her where she needed to be, just in case she decided to move again.

Nothing much happened after that until I went to bed. I had a few pesky contractions overnight, but I started to notice a pattern to them, which woke me up around 4am. They were consistent again, most 7 or 8 minutes apart. When I got up around 7am, they slowed down a bit and became more irregular, but I was so grateful they didn't seem to be stopping. I called my midwife I think around midday to alert her, but to say that I'd call back later when things were moving along a little better. Chris came home from work for lunch and I had him take the kids to our scheduled chiropractor appointment, as I didn't feel like being in a car while contracting. That's one of my big reasons for homebirth, so I don't have to do that! After dropping them back off at home, Chris went back to work to finish up a few things. He called to check on me around 3 or so, at which time I asked that he come home to help with the kids. The contractions were becoming more intense, and I couldn't focus well while dealing with the children. When he got home, I headed up to bed to try to take a nap. I napped from about 4-5pm, and my contractions slowed to 10 minutes apart, but were quite intense. After getting up, I called my midwife and let her know that I'd like for her to come over. Even though things were slower, I thought they could pick up at any moment. I'm glad I did, because it turned out I was right. The midwife arrived around 5:45, and I had been in the pool for about 10-20 minutes. At 6:23, I had a contraction that was soon a push. The contraction continued until her head was all the way out, about three minutes. I had about a 30 second breather, while I wondered aloud what I was feeling against her head, thinking it might be the cord. Turned out it was an ear, which made me laugh. Then the rest of her began to come, but she didn't shoot out like Isaac had. After a couple of minutes, I realized she wasn't moving out, so I asked the midwife to see if she needed some help out. Turns out she had her left hand up next to her left cheek which meant her elbow was making things difficult. The midwife tried to free her hand, but it wasn't moving, so she pushed on one of her shoulders to make the other pop free. What a relief! Once her shoulders were clear, I was able to sit forward, and pull her the rest of the way out at 6:29. I let her float in the water for a few more seconds, admiring her beauty, before pulling her up to my chest. The midwife was ready with a warm receiving blanket to drape over her. It wasn't until I had her wrapped up and just below the water that I realized I hadn't checked to make sure she was a girl. I felt and happily announced that I didn't feel a penis. :D It was then that I noticed how big she looked to me. The midwife noted a double chin, and yes, she was quite chubby!

The children all admired the baby, and Peter especially was enamored with her. They had all been in the room when she was born, except for Isaac, who was in the next room with Aunt Sarah. Peter asked lots of questions and made lots of funny comments about the birth and the baby and the "doctor" taking the baby out of my bottom. We caught everything on video, except for Chloe cutting the cord. The children all took part, videotaping and taking pictures. Kyle decided to sit just outside the room during the actual birth, and my guess is he didn't care to see me hurting at all. He almost wasn't there at all, since he'd been up the street at a friend's house.

The midwife and her assistants cleaned everything up and checked out the baby. The midwife wouldn't tell anyone the baby's weight until she told me first. I came from the bathroom to hear, and she announced that it was 9 lbs. 2.5 ozs! I said, "No way!" I was shocked. No wonder she felt so huge! My second biggest baby was Peter, at 8 lbs. & half an ounce. She was 21 inches long and checked out healthy. The midwife asked the name for her records, and we said "Rebecca." "Middle name?" "We haven't decided yet." Later in the evening, when we were alone as a family, Chris, Chloe and I decided on Rebecca Joie (pronounced Joy), though we had also considered Rebecca Claire.

Chris heated up some dinner, which I had thawed from the freezer that morning. All the children had chances to hold Rebecca and love on her before heading to bed. Chris and I stayed up until midnight, sending out announcements by email and online.

Sweet Becca is much loved by everyone, and so far, Isaac is very loving toward her, showering her with kisses (along with the occasional too-hard love-pat). She nurses well and is very quiet. Even her cry is pleasant, like Isaac's was. She sleeps a lot right now, and even slept 5 hours straight the first night. I'm working through some pretty serious after pains, but I hope that will fade out tomorrow sometime.

We have truly been blessed, yet again. Praise God!

Obama the Builder

2008-12-16T09:45:00.001-05:00

Create your own FACEinHOLE

Catching up on the pics

2008-09-09T00:29:00.012-04:00

These are from back in May:

June pics:

July pics:

August pics:

September pics:

For the Moms

2008-04-25T17:08:00.000-04:00

My little chili pepper - 4 months old

2008-04-16T22:41:00.004-04:00

The Cuteness Continues!

2008-03-29T11:44:00.006-04:00

Here are the most recent JCP pics of Isaac at 3 months, as well as Kyle's 12-year pics. Enjoy!

Previous Cuteness

2008-03-05T22:56:00.002-05:00

Isaac at one month.

Isaac's two-month pics from JCP

2008-02-25T00:30:00.004-05:00

Here are the latest pics of our cutie-pie!

More layouts

2008-01-27T23:02:00.000-05:00

I've finally gotten around to doing a couple more layouts and thought I'd share them here. The first one is for a challenge I found online here. Rarely do I ever do challenges, but the prize for this one was so beautiful, I had to at least attempt something! I'm very pleased with the results, too. It's of Joe holding Peter maybe an hour or two after he was born.

This one is of Kyle holding Isaac at one month. The background paper is from the kit I got for participating in that challenge. Isn't it gorgeous? Everything in both of these layouts is created by Lazy Kitty, who put on the challenge (with the exception of one tag, which was by LHill.

Click on either layout to enlarge.

And finally, the most recent pictures of the kids:

Psalm 23

2008-01-10T13:37:00.000-05:00

I think I've seen this before, but it is so cute and worth watching again. I found it because I was searching for the lyrics to a song by Michael Olson, called Psalm 23. It's a beautiful song, if you get a chance to hear it. I bought it from iTunes.

He's Here!

2007-12-12T09:45:00.000-05:00

I'll post the whole story soon, but for now, here is the story in brief:
After laboring off and on for four and a half days, including all night Tuesday night, December 4 into December 5, I awoke at 3:51am, realizing that my body had gone into "pushing mode." You know, you can't stop it at that point. I cried out to Chris, "This baby's coming NOW!" He jumped out of bed and called our midwife. While I worked through the next few contractions on the toilet, praying that I wouldn't have him right there, Chris set up the video camera and started to fill the birth pool. I didn't want to miss out on catching SOMETHING on video, and I figured if I didn't make it into the pool for the birth, at least I could sit in it afterward with the baby. Well, with Chris' help, I managed to make it into the pool before the last contraction. Ahhh, what relief! I broke my bag of waters to relieve some of the pressure, and then there was the top of his head. I said, "Chris, do you see the cord?" "No, just head!" Then, WHOOSH! Out came his whole body in one motion. I scooped up my baby into my arms and he began to cry lustily right away. I realized it was probably from the shock of coming out of that warm water, so I put his body back under the water, which calmed him down some. He pinked up very quickly. The midwife's assistant got there about four minutes after the birth, and the midwife just a couple minutes after that. All was fine, and we are loving having a new little one around. We named him Isaac James, and he weighed 7 lbs. 4 ozs. and was 19.5 inches long. He was born at 4:16am on Wednesday, December 5, 2007.

Well, you're probably thinking, "Whew! That was the short version?" Guess I got a little carried away. Hee-hee! Click on the pictures above for a closer look.

More pictures:

Big sister Chloe

Jack's turn

Kyle helps weigh Isaac

Peter checks the baby's heartbeat

Joseph's tender kisses

Big yawn for Kyle...or is he hungry?

Very cool video

2007-08-26T23:16:00.000-04:00

A friend sent me a link to this video, which I thought was so cool. It was done using white gloves and ultraviolet lights.

Funny eBay sale from mom of six

2007-08-22T12:49:00.000-04:00

At the time I saw this auction on eBay, it was up to 44 bids for a total of $103.50. Soooo funny! http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130144061675
Liza

Please note: I did not write this hilarious episode. I merely copied it from eBay. (If only I had as great a sense of humor about my kids.)
_________________________________________________________________________________

LOT OF POKEMON CARDS THAT MY KIDS TRIED TO SNEAK BY ME Item number: 130144061675

I'm selling a bunch of Pokemon cards. Why? Because my kids sneaked them into my shopping cart while at the grocery store and I ended up buying them because I didn't notice they were there until we got home. How could I have possibly not noticed they were in my cart, you ask? Let me explain.

You haven’t lived until you’ve gone grocery shopping with six kids in tow. I would rather swim, covered in bait, through the English Channel, be a contestant on Fear Factor when they’re having pig brains for lunch, or do fourth grade math than to take my six kids to the grocery store. Because I absolutely detest grocery shopping, I tend to put it off as long as possible. There comes a time, however, when you’re peering into your fridge and thinking, ‘Hmmm, what can I make with ketchup, Italian dressing, and half an onion,’ that you decide you cannot avoid going to the grocery store any longer. Before beginning this most treacherous mission, I gather all the kids together and give them “The Lecture“.

“The Lecture“ goes like this…

MOM: “We have to go to the grocery store.”

KIDS: “Whine whine whine whine whine.“

MOM: “Hey, I don’t want to go either, but it’s either that or we’re eating cream of onion-ketchup soup and drinking Italian dressing for dinner tonight.”

KIDS: “Whine whine whine whine whine.“

MOM: “Now here are the rules: do not ask me for anything, do not poke the packages of meat in the butcher section, do not test the laws of physics and try to take out the bottom can in the pyramid shaped display, do not play baseball with oranges in the produce section, and most importantly, do not try to leave your brother at the store. Again.”

OK, the kids have been briefed. Time to go.

Once at the store, we grab not one, but two shopping carts. I wear the baby in a sling and the two little children sit in the carts while I push one cart and my oldest son pushes the other one. My oldest daughter is not allowed to push a cart. Ever. Why? Because the last time I let her push the cart, she smashed into my ankles so many times, my feet had to be amputated by the end of our shopping trip. This is not a good thing. You try running after a toddler with no feet sometime.

At this point, a woman looks at our two carts and asks me, “Are they all yours?” I answer good naturedly, “Yep!

“Oh my, you have your hands full.”

“Yes, I do, but it‘s fun!” I say smiling. I’ve heard all this before. In fact, I hear it every time I go anywhere with my brood.

We begin in the produce section where all these wonderfully, artistically arranged pyramids of fruit stand. There is something so irresistibly appealing about the apple on the bottom of the pile, that a child cannot help but try to touch it. Much like a bug to a zapper, the child is drawn to this piece of fruit. I turn around to the sounds of apples cascading down the display and onto the floor. Like Indiana Jones, there stands my son holding the all-consuming treasure that he just HAD to get and gazing at me with this dumbfounded look as if to say, “Did you see that??? Wow! I never thought that would happen!”

I give the offending child an exasperated sigh and say, “Didn’t I tell you, before we left, that I didn’t want you taking stuff from the bottom of the pile???”

“No. You said that you didn’t want us to take a can from the bottom of the pile. You didn’t say anything about apples.”

With superhuman effort, I resist the urge to send my child to the moon and instead focus on the positive - my child actually listened to me and remembered what I said!!! I make a mental note to be a little more specific the next time I give the kids The Grocery Store Lecture.

A little old man looks at all of us and says, “Are all of those your kids?”

Thinking about the apple incident, I reply, “Nope. They just started following me. I’ve never seen them before in my life.”

OK, now onto the bakery section where everything smells so good, I’m tempted to fill my cart with cookies and call it a day. Being on a perpetual diet, I try to hurry past the assortment of pies, cakes, breads, and pastries that have my children drooling. At this point the chorus of “Can we gets” begins.

“Can we get donuts?”

“No.”

“Can we get cupcakes?”

“No.”

“Can we get muffins?”

“No.”

“Can we get pie?”

“No.”

You’d think they’d catch on by this point, but no, they’re just getting started.

In the bakery, they’re giving away free samples of coffee cake and of course, my kids all take one. The toddler decides he doesn’t like it and proceeds to spit it out in my hand. (That’s what moms do. We put our hands in front of our children’s mouths so they can spit stuff into them. We’d rather carry around a handful of chewed up coffee cake, than to have the child spit it out onto the floor. I’m not sure why this is, but ask any mom and she’ll tell you the same.) Of course, there’s no garbage can around, so I continue shopping one-handed while searching for someplace to dispose of the regurgitated mess in my hand.

In the meat department, a mother with one small baby asks me, “Wow! Are all six yours?”

I answer her, “Yes, but I’m thinking of selling a couple of them.”

(Still searching for a garbage can at this point.)

Ok, after the meat department, my kids’ attention spans are spent. They’re done shopping at this point, but we aren’t even halfway through the store. This is about the time they like to start having shopping cart races. And who may I thank for teaching them this fun pastime? My seventh “child”, also known as my husband. While I’m picking out loaves of bread, the kids are running down the aisle behind the carts in an effort to get us kicked out of the store. I put to stop to that just as my son is about to crash head on into a giant cardboard cut-out of a Keebler elf stacked with packages of cookies.

Ah! Yes! I find a small trash can by the coffee machine in the cereal aisle and finally dump out the squishy contents of my hand. After standing in the cereal aisle for an hour and a half while the kids perused the various cereals, comparing the marshmallow and cheap, plastic toy content of each box, I broke down and let them each pick out a box. At any given time, we have twenty open boxes of cereal in my house.

As this is going on, my toddler is playing Houdini and maneuvering his little body out of the seat belt in an attempt to stand up in the cart. I’m amazed the kid made it to his second birthday without suffering a brain damaging head injury. In between trying to flip himself out of the cart, he sucks on the metal bars of the shopping cart. Mmmm, can you say “influenza”?

The shopping trip continues much like this. I break up fights between the kids now and then and stoop down to pick up items that the toddler has flung out of the cart. I desperately try to get everything on my list without adding too many other goodies to the carts.

Somehow I manage to complete my shopping in under four hours and head for the check-outs where my kids start in on a chorus of, “Can we have candy?” What evil minded person decided it would be a good idea to put a display of candy in the check-out lanes, right at a child’s eye level? Obviously someone who has never been shopping with children.

As I unload the carts, I notice many extra items that my kids have sneaked in the carts unbeknownst to me. I remove a box of Twinkies, a package of cupcakes, a bag of candy, and a can of cat food (we don’t even have a cat!). I somehow missed the box of Pokemon cards however and ended up purchasing them unbeknownst to me. As I pay for my purchases, the clerk looks at me, indicates my kids, and asks, “Are they all yours?”

Frustrated, exhausted from my trip, sick to my stomach from writing out a check for $289.53, dreading unloading all the groceries and putting them away and tired of hearing that question, I look at the clerk and answer her in my most sarcastic voice, “No. They’re not mine. I just go around the neighborhood gathering up kids to take to the grocery store because it’s so much more fun that way.”

So, up for auction is an opened (they ripped open the box on the way home from the store) package of Pokemon cards. There are 44 cards total. They're in perfect condition, as I took them away from the kiddos as soon as we got home from the store. Many of them say "Energy". I tried carrying them around with me, but they didn't work. I definitely didn't have any more energy than usual. One of them is shiny. There are a few creature-like things on many of them. One is called Pupitar. Hee hee hee Pupitar! (Oh no! My kids' sense of humor is rubbing off on me!) Anyway, I don't there's anything special about any of these cards, but I'm very much not an authority on Pokemon cards. I just know that I'm not letting my kids keep these as a reward for their sneakiness.

Shipping is FREE on this item. Insurance is optional, but once I drop the package at the post office, it is no longer my responsibility. For example, if my son decides to pour a bottle of glue into the envelope, or my daughter spills a glass of juice on the package, that’s my responsibility and I will fully refund your money. If, however, I take the envelope to the post office and a disgruntled mail carrier sets fire to it, a pack of wild dogs rip into it, or a mail sorting machine shreds it, it’s out of my hands, so you may want to add insurance. I will leave feedback for you as soon as I’ve received your payment. I will be happy to combine shipping on multiple items won within three days. This comes from a smoke-free, pet-free, child-filled home. Please ask me any questions before placing your bid. Happy bidding! :)

Family Portrait

2007-06-21T13:30:00.001-04:00

Taken June 2007.

Kyle is 11, Chloe is almost 10, Jack is 6.5, Joseph is 3.5, Peter is 18 mos., Chris is 39.5 and I am 38. :)

A different look at the same template

2007-04-17T23:52:00.000-04:00

This is the same Kissed Studio Template but used for a Bren Boone Color Challenge. This picture of Chloe was taken back in 2002 when she was only five. Wow, time flies!

Credits: Template by Kissed Studio, paper by Kirsty Wiseman called Chili Pepper Blossoms, metal alpha by Stacy Kluczny (can you tell I like that one?), Beaded Brads by Bren Boone (say that five times fast), swirls by KariQ, and the fonts are China Cat, Budmo Jiggler and Saeculum.

I love Joseph

2007-04-15T23:21:00.000-04:00

Of course, I love all of my children. That's just the name of my latest layout.

Credits: template by Kissed Studio, papers (slightly recolored) and some page elements by Miss Vivi from the Kit Denim, gold stiches from the A Second Story to Tell Kit by Meryl Bartho at Digital Scrapbook Place, Chrome Brad by Anna Benjamin at Paper Moons (from her Cozy Kitchen Kit), metal alpha by Stacy Kluczny at 3scrapateers.com. Fonts: I hate Comic Sans and Destroy (do I detect a theme?)

I really had fun with this layout!

New layout

2007-04-12T11:43:00.000-04:00

I was finally able to put together a layout for Nancy Comelab's blog challenge. The idea for this came in the wee hours of this morning.

Credits: Paper is Little Lamb by Jen Wilson, photo frame by Katie Pertiet, photo (recolored) by Woodsy from Stock.Xchng, tape by IOD, font is Jane Austen, floral overlay behind photo is a recolored stamp called Majestic Floral by Lisa Whitney. Scraplifted from the last layout on Nancy's blog challenge.

Super Jack

2007-04-06T09:20:00.000-04:00

Thought I'd post a few of the recent layouts I've done. I used another of the kissedstudio templates for this one. I hadn't done a layout just for Jack yet, so I thought I would this time. We went bowling for the first time as a family back in January and took Chris' new camera. Jack enjoyed coming up with some fun poses for us. Since it was a flash shot, I thought I'd have the shadows in the layout look like they were from flash lighting. The layout's a little busier than I think I like, but I like the lighting effect.

Credits:
Papers and elements: True Colors Kit by Lori Wiley, Be My Valentine Kit by Lisa Whitney, Beautiful Mess Kit by Lisa Whitney, Spring Arrows by Agnieszka (slightly recolored)
Fonts: Calvin & Hobbes, Bowl-a-Rama, Lauren C. Brown
Template: www.kissedstudio.blogspot.com

And a couple more recent layouts I've done. These two of Chloe were done for a challenge posted on Pink Poodle Studios.

Credits

Credits

And, lastly, I'm posting this layout of Peter I did about a month ago after I did my first photo extraction using Paint.net, a free program similar to PhotoShop. Photo cluster by Nancy Comelab at My Digital Muse. Fonts: Porcelain, Artistamp Medium

Well, that's about all for now. Enjoy! :)

First layout for my new blog

2007-03-29T15:07:00.000-04:00

The gals at kissedstudio.blogspot.com have been so sweet to start providing FotoFusion templates for us FotoFusers. This is my first attempt at using one.

I'll come back later and add the credits. I'm out of time right now.

Updated: Credits

There's a party goin' on

2007-03-29T09:10:00.000-04:00

I have joined the party! Click below to join it, too!

Join the Party! Click Here!

It won't last much longer, though--just through March 31. Get in on it now! :)

My first freebie!

2007-03-29T00:24:00.000-04:00

These are some papers I came up with while trying out a technique described by Misty Cato. I hope someone can use these. As everyone else says, I'd love to see a how you used them. Send me a link to your layout! I welcome constructive criticism. Please let me know if the link doesn't work, too.

UPDATE: I think I have fixed the link to the papers. Sharp learning curve here, folks. :) Let me know if it still doesn't work.