A Day in the Life

Mediacom is at it again!!!!

bunniehop@mchsi.com — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 02:41:48 GMT

I can't believe that after being with Mediacom as a customer for as many years as I have, and also with all the previous troubles I've had and customer service reps telling me how SORRY they are and how much they want to make it right, here we are again!

For my service, I have cable (2 DVR boxes with all the channels), plus the phone, plus the internet. I pay A LOT of money every month for service. As a college student that attends school online, I depend on that service. It's valuable to me. I expect it to be better than good! If there are problems, I expect them fixed.

But once again, Mediacom has dropped the ball! I have had crappy phone service for over a week, no phone since yesterday, and now the internet is acting up! I'm paying for 6 Mbps of download and only receiving .50 Mbps. And forget asking about upload speeds because it is so slow that it errors instead of reading it! My husband called and spoke to a customer service rep yesterday and was told "sorry, nothing we can do until Monday." Then we called again today and are told the same thing. What happened to fixing outages? What happened to customer service? This whole thing started when one of their tech's came by the house earlier in the week and said that SOMEONE else was having problems and it was at OUR pole that the problem started. I'm sure THEY are running fine now.....with MY internet and phone lines because I don't have them!

I'm tired of the same song and dance when I call. Because I live an hour away from Des Moines, no one is on call. Which I find funny because I know the two guys that live in my town and they are ALWAYS on call!!

I'm mad and seriously thinking of telling Mediacom that our relationship is over. The ONLY reason I keep staying is because it would be a hassle to move my web pages. But honestly, I think we're even beyond that now. I think I'll start getting my stuff OFF their web space and find other places to put it! I'm tired of the same awful service and horrible customer service! I honestly don't think I've ever been treated so horribly by customer service as Mediacom has treated me. And after sticking with them for almost SEVEN years and paying as much as I do each month, I think I deserve better than having NO service for 3-4 days and crappy service for a week previous!!!!

Parents Night

bunniehop@mchsi.com — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 20:57:21 GMT

Last night was parents night at the home wrestling meet. It was such a mix of emotions for me. I felt so happy and sad all at the same time. Happy for my son the senior. Watching him grow up has been an honor. He makes me proud in so many ways.

When they announced us last night, Zach gave me a rose. I know it's tradition and every mom gets one. I also know I'm set to get a few more from Zach plus some from Kyle, AJ, and Veronika. But every time I get one I'll probably tear up! To me those roses say "I'm almost grown up mom." I look at those roses and see that my little boys and my little girl aren't so little anymore. When I look at them, I see young men and a young lady. But IF I look hard enough, I can still see the little boys and the little girl lurking beneath the surface. I can still see the boys who would climb the tree or the girl who played with dolls for hours. I'm guessing my parents have this ability as well, even at this stage of my life.

Here it is February. There is only four more months until Zach graduates. Time is flying by at this point. With my own school studies and Zach's as well, things are just going by too fast! I need to slow things down somehow and enjoy them more. I have to figure out how to do this. And then next year it starts all over again with Kyle while Zach is off to college. It's insane.

Hard Lesson Learned

bunniehop@mchsi.com — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 15:45:58 GMT

I learned a hard lesson this week. Always double check your attachments! I checked the title of the attachment but not the attachment itself. The titles were so close in name and I was so nervous, tired, and honestly relieved to be done that I thought I had it. I uploaded the wrong file and didn't think twice.

My professor emailed me to fix the problem, but unfortunately my Microsoft certificate was expired and I wasn't receiving email like I should have been. I didn't get the email until two days too late. I took a zero on the final project, but at least my grade was high enough in the class to average out with a "C". I really dislike the outcome because I went ahead and sent her the project out of morbid curiosity to see how I would have done. Boy am I a glutton for punishment! I aced the final! I'd have gotten an A+ in the class if I had just paid closer attention to details.

Hard to Let Go

bunniehop@mchsi.com — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 00:03:23 GMT

Well, Zach will be wrestling JV for probably the rest of the season this year. In what was probably a tough decision for both him as well as for Jim and I, he is going to wrestle at 171 in JV rather than wrestle at 215 in varsity, which is 45 pounds heavier than what he weighs. His coach disagrees with his decision, but in my opinion his coach doesn't know what he's doing either.

This was a hard decision for Jim and I because it would be so easy for us to go up to the school and fight it. I'd love to go do just that, but Zach is a big boy now and he needs to make his own decisions. This is the way he has chosen to handle this situation. I can't fight his battles for him all his life and honestly I don't want to. Hopefully the school will wise up and realize that they've hired a moron and fix the situation, but until then, Zach will probably enjoy the season more at the JV level anyway. He'll be able to teach more, which is what he enjoys doing anyway. He likes to participate in the sport, but his greatest joy is when he is on the mat teaching the younger kids new moves. He said when he sees them do something he taught them and they do it well that makes him feel good.

As for the coach, he's more interested in winning than in what is best for his team. He doesn't care about the well being of his wrestlers but in making sure all the spots are filled. Putting a kid who weighs in at 171 into a spot meant for a kid that weighs 215 is insane! This coach needs his head examined and hopefully before someone gets seriously hurt!

Getting Things Done

bunniehop@mchsi.com — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 22:33:10 GMT

Over the past few weeks, we have finally been getting the upstairs to a live-able state. We're not completely done yet, but it's to a point where the kids can at least have their space back. Well, sort of.

Here's where we are so far. The boys rooms all need painted, trim work, and doors. I think they all might need a patch here and there as well, but nothing major. The big work is still needed in Roni's room. We have the framing up for the wall, the drywall just needs to be hung. The drywall in the hallway needs to be hung on the walls, but the ceiling is done. And there is one wall in the bathroom that needs finished. And then comes mudding and taping.....oh fun!

Getting the upstairs finished has been a slow process, but as it gets done, it's also been a rewarding one. And even once we get the upstairs done, there's still things we'll need to do downstairs. We'll probably still be fixing the house when we're old and gray!

Aside from fixing the house, I've been working on my school work. This week is finals for my Effective Essays class and Critical Thinking class. Next week I start Research Writing and Contemporary Issues in American Education. So far I have a 3.7 GPA and I'm happy with it, but I think I could do better and I'm working hard to do just that. My goal is to actually finish what I started here. I've always been one to quit when I get too busy or when things seem to get difficult. And I'll admit that things have gotten busy and difficult and they're only going to get worse. Zach is graduating this May, in fact he'll be graduating on my last day of finals for the year. That should be fun. I'm going to have to see about taking a week of break somewhere between classes to push that date back or something so that I will actually have finals a week later. I'll have to talk to my adviser and see how I can fix that. She's pretty cool about stuff. And if all else fails, I may be able to take my finals a couple days early. I'm sure it will all work out as God intends.

The kids are doing well. They're all happy to have some semblance of privacy in that they're at least sleeping upstairs again. Roni is actually sleeping in what will be Zach's room. Zach and Kyle are sharing a room for now, and A.J. has his room. They're all happy with this as a temporary arrangement. At least they aren't sleeping on the couch and floor anymore.

For extra curricular activities, this winter things have changed a bit. Zach is still wrestling, but Kyle switched to weight lifting this year. I can't quote his bench weight and all that fun stuff, but he's got some pretty impressive numbers. No he isn't on steroids or anything like that. I don't even let him drink any of those nasty protein shakes. I did one of my critical thinking arguments for finals on steroids and dietary supplements in the high schools and told the boys I didn't feel they needed them. I haven't had much argument about it from them either. A.J. is 15 now and wants to get a part time job. This is a possibility, but we'll see how things go. And Roni is a wrestling manager again this year. She'd like to be a mat beater, but they don't offer that in middle school. She said that her and the other managers sit around the mats keeping score and cheering for the wrestlers while beating on the mats. I'm told she's good at both. Next year she'll have to decide if she wants to cheer or if she wants to manage.

Health wise, Roni has another appointment in Iowa City in a couple weeks. They will do laser therapy on her bottom lip and also decide if she can get braces or not. Her dentist says she needs braces badly and quickly because he's afraid that with the position of her teeth right now she might bite down and chip them. I guess we'll see what her laser surgeon says about it. If they can work around it, then she can do both. I'll post updates as I get them.

My goal this year will be to post at least one update a week even if it's just to say "Hey, I'm still alive and nothing new is going on". I suppose that I've never been really good at staying in touch with people like I should. I get really short sighted and don't look at what else is going on around me. I think being in college is helping me to fix that. I'm learning to check in and keep track of things better. I have a handy dandy notebook that I call "my life" that keeps track of my assignments, my appointments, kids sporting events, and anything else going on. If it's in the book, it gets done. If it's not in the book, someone usually calls me and reminds me :)

Other plans for change this year are that I want to lose weight. I'm trying to stick to a low calorie diet. Jim and I went to see a dietitian at the hospital and she gave me some diet ideas to use. She told me exercise and a 1500 calorie daily diet would probably be best for me. So after finals this week, I'll work on the exercise part of it. I've already started on the 1500 calories part. Did you know that 17 mini pretzels have 110 calories?? They are now my favorite snack :) I figure if I can quit smoking and stay quit for two years, I can lose weight! I'm stubborn enough that I can do it. It just takes willpower and I have that. My problem is getting on a regular eating schedule. I'm a habitual snacker.

Ok, so that's a pretty big update for now. I'll update more after finals as to how those went and how the new classes are going. Hope the new year is going well for everyone.

Student Loan Fiasco!

bunniehop@mchsi.com — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 15:23:33 GMT

Ok, so years ago I went to college, got a student loan, defaulted on it, and really goofed up my life. Then last year, I got my act together, consolidated it, straightened everything out, and am now going back to school to get myself back on track. Here's the problem. When I consolidated, the NSLDS goofed up how they classified my student loans. They didn't put them all under the new consolidation. Two of them were marked off as released due to disability? Um, excuse me but I'm not disabled LOL! I've not had any student loans discharged due to disability. So because of this, I'm having issues with the current year of school. I can't get my current student loan released until I get a doctors note! So I get a doctors note. He writes it out saying what they want it to say "Cyndi has the ability to engage in gainful activity". I fax it in and call them today to make sure it's all good. NOPE! They say because it didn't say "Cyndi has the ability to engage in SUBSTANTIAL gainful activity" that it's not good enough. Um, that is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard in my life! And not just me, but my doctors office also!

So I called the doctors office and they are getting me the new note. And I called the financial aid center back and told them that the new note would be faxed no later than tomorrow, and that this had better be it. Because if it's not, I'm dropping out of their school and I will enroll back at Indian Hills where I was originally going to go. See, they had all my student loans done and ready to roll. I had decided to go to University of Phoenix for convenience. Being the mom of four teenagers, I figured it would just be easier to be able to do my classwork at home on my time. I guess there is a higher stressful price to pay instead. Guess I learned a more valuable lesson here! Sometimes easier isn't better!

Newsflash!

bunniehop@mchsi.com — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 13:33:56 GMT

Yay!!! We have a shower again! This is so exciting! Next we will get a floor and a toilet and a sink and walls! LOL I know it sounds so slow but actually it's going a lot faster than we thought it would! I'm just so happy to have a shower again :)

Clean Up

bunniehop@mchsi.com — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 17:45:13 GMT

Let me just say how thrilled I am with all the people who have helped out with fire clean up, starting with my kids! I mean they're kids so yeah we do hear a little complaining from the younger two, but the older two have dug in and just worked their tails off doing whatever needs to be done! My daughter has been a big help in washing walls and other stuff like furniture. The only place no one seems to want to touch is the kitchen. First off, it stinks in there with all the water and yuck in the ceiling and walls. Next it's just gross! Food went bad in the fridge and that's just nasty! We pulled up carpet in there the other day and that helped with some of the smell, but I really don't think it will go away until we do the walls and cupboards.

I've been going through the house throwing away plastics and foods that are boxed. Today the boys are loading up the trailer with all the debris that has been thrown out of the upstairs like boards and trim and other stuff and hauling out to a friend of Kyle's (Owen) grandparents house. They have a huge burn pile that will take care of it. Some of it we'll have to haul to the dump, and I have no idea how much that's gonna cost. *sigh* I really wish money grew on trees! We're also moving the Christmas tubs out of the closet in the dining room down to the basement so we can use that closet for other stuff. All of us living on the main floor is crowded!!! My dining room has turned into a make-shift dressing area for Zach and Kyle, complete with dresser that they're sharing for the time being. I need to move some of the chairs out of there for more room and also box up the board games. Jim got the back porch mostly cleaned off the other day so we can move Samson's kennel out there for now. I'm running the dishwasher empty today to clean it out and see if it's gonna work right or not. There's a good chance the microwave is toasted. Everytime we use it, it trips the breaker. I'm thinking thats a good sign.

Today I did break down and buy a double air matress. I figure I'll stick it in either the diningroom or the computer room for AJ to sleep on. This whole thing is messing up his schedule badly. I'll probably rotate Zach and Kyle between the other recliner and the couch. Roni's fine on the loveseat. She's happy there. I wish I had a couple twin air matresses instead. I guess I'll just be so much happier when their rooms are done and we can move them back into them. Roni's picking paint already and she doesn't even have walls yet LOL!!! She's funny.

For the most part, my house looks like it blew up. There is stuff everywhere and it's frustrating me. I'm by no means the worlds greatest house keeper, but I at least like an organized mess LOL! I'm going to have to get it organized before it drives me bonkers! I suppose I should start at the top of my list and work my way down. Yay fun NOT!

House Fire

bunniehop@mchsi.com — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 02:24:17 GMT

Monday morning, I woke up around 6:00am to get the kids ready for school. I woke Roni and AJ up first so they could shower. Around 6:30, I woke Zach up. Zach and I were talking about the previous day we had at the lake boating, swimming, and tubing when Kyle burst into the room and yelled that the house was on fire. I asked him where and he told me upstairs in the laundry room. I ran up the stairs and saw the fire and called 911 right away. I swear I probably sounded hysterical on the phone, and the first responder was a volunteer fireman who lives across the street from us. He ran in the front door as I was shooing the kids and dogs out. He asked if anyone else was in the house and then took off up the stairs to see what was going on.

Next thing that happened was all kind of a blur. I remember lots of people from church showing up. First was Tracy and Charlie, who are great friends of ours. They kept us calm throughout the whole ordeal. Next was Jake and Amanda. Amanda left to get us breakfast, since no one had had the opportunity to eat. Next to arrive was Mindy, Pastor Eric, and Janet. Pastor prayed for us, Mindy consoled us, and Janet took me to her house to get socks. It was just insane how things happened.

Once the fire was out, we had several people from church show up to help clean up. Tina, Amanda, Sarah, Val, and Wanda all helped with clean up, providing lunch, and washing all the clothes to get the smoke smell out of them. Charlie and Todd showed up to help Jim gut the upstairs bathroom and laundry room. Of course we had Zach and Kyle home since they had ran out of the house in their sleeping shorts and didn't have anything to wear to school. After school let out, some of their friends came to help also. Ian, Owen, Tony, and Jena all worked really hard tearing down trim and moving furniture out. Kirk came over to bring a trailer and then haul the furniture to the church for storage. Charles let us borrow his trailer and Bob loaned us a generator to make things easier.

The ladies from church have been bringing us meals. Monday night Tami ordered us pizza. Tuesday night, Trinna brought us chicken catchetori. I've never had that before and found it really tasty :) Wednesday night, Mindy brought us beef burgers. Tonight Laurie brought us bar-b-que beef sandwiches. Mary told me this morning at ladies Bible study that her and her husband plan to take us out for pizza on Sunday. It's really so overwhelming how much our church family has been doing to help us through this time. The dinners are awesome because we don't have to stop and try to figure out what to eat when we're working.

God is working at our house. We have no house insurance. I know, it's dumb, but we were broke and needed groceries. It happens to the best of us. The churches and community have been extremely supportive. Lockridge, the local lumber yard donated $500 worth of materials to help us fix the upstairs. Pamida (a local retail store) donated a whole bunch of cleaning supplies. Dollar General donated some toothbrushes and shampoo. HyVee gave us a $20 gift card. Our church gave us $50 in quarters to do laundry plus a $200 gift card to HyVee. Grace Baptist Church is donating a washer and dryer to replace ours. AJ's old baseball coach is giving us a couple mattresses for the boys beds. Two out of four of the frames are good, the other two fell apart and all of the mattresses were smoke damaged. The Red Cross gave us $800 on a mastercard to buy things we needed and also put us in a hotel for three nights.

As of tonight, we're back home. I don't know that this is where we're supposed to be or not, but God is in control. If this isn't where we belong, He'll move us. We're sitting here waiting prayerfully and patiently for whatever He wants us to do next. While we wait, we're thankful.

My First A

bunniehop@mchsi.com — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 04:57:06 GMT

The week ended well for me. The papers that I turned in all got A's :) I was so excited! I actually am doing well at school! I've never been very good at studying and getting the good grades. But here I am doing well! I think prayers are honestly being answered about this because I'm doing 100% better than I expected :) I'm very thankful!

First Week of College

bunniehop@mchsi.com — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:50:43 GMT

The only thought that comes to my head it WOW! First, I forgot how intense college can be! Rushed reading, assignments due everyday, final projects to plan. It's fun and overwhelming all at the same time!

Also I tend to feel kinda dumb compared to other people in the class. They have these nice, long, informative answers, where mine are really straight forward and short. I'm lucky to get a paragraph sometimes while others have many paragraphs. I'm just not long winded like that I guess. Ask me a question, I'll give you as direct an answer as I can.

My first homework assignment in Business Communications was to read a 9 page blog about blogging and then answer discussion questions about it. I felt it was funny to read a blog about blogging, but then again the content of the blog was informative, if I were a business owner or manager.

I'm supposed to be thinking about what I want to do for my final projects. In one class I have to present a service that would be beneficial to an office building. In the other I have to write a handbook about survival skills for college students. Oh joy. I guess to write the survival skills book wouldn't be a bad thing, especially with Zach going away to college next year. He might find some of what I'm learning to be valuable information. Then again, he'll probably do like most 18 year olds and chuck it out the window thinking that he knows everything LOL!

Mediacom Troubles AGAIN!

bunniehop@mchsi.com — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 01:46:19 GMT

Last I wrote about Mediacom was how a guy in the office got on the ball and fixed my cable really fast! Well, now we're back to square one again. It has become a daily problem for our cable to start tiling, pausing, and just in general being crappy. They send people out to fix it, it works for a few days, and then same problems all over again. And the tech's that come out tell us the same thing everytime. They tell us "if it starts doing it again, call and we'll get someone out here right away". So now it's been doing this whole tiling thing again for almost a month. My husband and I have been calling just about everyday and no tech has shown up yet!

Last night when he called, he asked the girl if there was a service order in for our account and instead of answering the question, she did a digital hit on our boxes! When he first called in, the very first thing he said was "don't hit the boxes, thats not the problem". Did she listen? Nope! For those who don't know what a digital hit does, it totally resets your box and you have nothing. You can't check the guide or see what's on for at least 6 hours. He asked the girl for a supervisor, she hung up on him.

To be honest, we're now seriously looking into Direct TV or Dish Network, if for no other reason than the customer service we've been getting from Mediacom has been horrible! I've tried being patient with the company, I've tried to just deal with the tiling. But when I'm paying as much a month for cable, internet, and phone as I am, I expect at least semi-good service and I'm not even getting mediocre service!

Getting Ready For School

bunniehop@mchsi.com — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 01:25:36 GMT

Well, I've done the orientation, straightened out my financial aid, and got the supplies I need for the first set of classes I have to take. I got my syllabus today YAY!!! The first couple classes I'll be taking are Contemporary Business Communication and College Skills. Boy am I excited! *hysterical laughter*

I'm set to start my first class on Monday morning, and I'm still so excited, nervous, tickled, etc. Today I picked up a notebook for note taking, some new pens and pencils, and a dictionary. I mean I won't always be at the computer when I might need to spell a word :) Not to mention I think students today rely entirely too much on spell check.

So my next project is to clean off the book shelf next to my desk, get some drawers set up by my desk for miscellaneous stuff, and move all the books on the shelves on my desk to the shelves next to my desk. Right now I'm overly cluttered and I need to give myself some space. I have three file cabinets along the wall on the other side of the room that I really need to start using. I'm horrible about that! I just let it pile up on my desk instead. So I'm learning to organize LOL!

Also I purchased all the kids school supplies. Boy are they getting expensive! All four of them needed scientific calculators this year for math. I wish they'd have held on to last years! I don't know why when the school year ends they toss everything in the garbage! They must think that tree in the back yard is going to sprout money one of these days. Silly kids!

Thursday we have a staffing for AJ at his new school. I'm happy to be getting him out of the Chariton district. He'll get a fresh start without all the drama that has followed him so far. What he does with his fresh start will be up to him. I'm praying he does well.

I still can't believe that Zach is a senior this year! And by the time I get used to this fact, he will be graduated and Kyle will be a senior! They grow up so fast! Zach is looking at Hannibal LaGrange for college. We'll be heading down to Missouri to check it out probably after football season but before wrestling season LOL So there is a two week gap in October and November that we'll check into. I think it would be a good spot for him honestly!

Well, we have company over for ice cream cones, so time to go enjoy!

Financial Aid Pain in the Butt!!!!

bunniehop@mchsi.com — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 18:34:44 GMT

I am forming a very strong dislike for financial aid and the people who work in the financial aid offices! They send me an email asking for my taxes and I fax it back to them. Then they call me and tell me that it's not good enough because it's not signed. DUH!!! My tax lady files my taxes online, which I had told them already, it doesn't need to be signed! Why the heck would you sign it when it's filed online?

The best/worst thing about this whole situation is I get to go through it all again next year when Zach goes to college. Except it will be worse because his father doesn't pay child support or file taxes. I've already had financial aid tell me what a headache that's going to be!

Needless to say, I've faxed my paperwork in AGAIN and now we'll just wait and see what road blocks they throw up this time!

Roni's Birthmark

bunniehop@mchsi.com — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 01:41:10 GMT

For the last few years, Roni has been going through some pretty extensive laser treatments to try to remove a port wine stain birthmark. Even with all the efforts of the doctors though, her bottom lip is still about 3 to 4 times the size of her top lip and it's a purplish color. So the plastic surgeon she was seeing decided to get a second opinion on it. Then the second opinion decided to just send her on over to Iowa City for a consultation. Her appointment was today.

After meeting the specialists that are now handling her case, I'm pretty impressed! The first thing they did was introduce themselves to Roni, not Jim and I. They want her opinions and her feelings on this whole situation and she's happy to give them. Previous doctors have talked over her head and not really cared how what they were doing affected her. So I'm thrilled that the doctors put her first (as she should be in this matter).

Now we wait for the team of specialists to figure out what the next course of action will be. They're very much keeping us in the loop though.

Text Messaging

bunniehop@mchsi.com — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 15:01:44 GMT

In todays world of electronics, I think people seem to have lost that personable feeling. Take my oldest son for example. He was dating this girl for almost a year. They talked on the phone often. They text messaged each other constantly. They really didn't SEE each other very often though. Then a couple days ago, she text messages him that she's breaking up. But wait! The message didn't go through! It was eaten by the cell phone towers as a power snack. So for two days, Zach is still texting her looking like a moron who can't accept reality. He then asks the important question..."is something wrong?"

So my opinion of text messaging is that it's good for short messages, but don't send life's important messages through it. They'll get lost and end up more hurtful than intended.

Snotty Little Drama Queens! (Just blowing off steam)

bunniehop@mchsi.com — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 20:01:47 GMT

Nothing ticks me off more than teenage girls who think the world revolves around them. Especially the ones who act like you should feel privileged just to breathe the same air that they do. My daughter has (I'd love to say had as in past tense) a friend who really gets under my skin. Roni has been spending time with her for various reasons, but mainly because she'd like to get this girl to go to church. The girl claims to be a practicing wiccan but used to go to church with Roni back when they were in 3rd grade. The whole wiccan thing is new.

Anyway, Roni and this girl have been in classes together and best friends since 1st grade. She comes to all Roni's birthday parties, lives at my house during the summer, and has even went on day trips to Des Moines with our family. We do everything we can to include her because IMO she has a horrible home life. Her mom is usually at work or out with a new boyfriend/husband/whatever and doesn't really spend much time with her. She also has two older sisters who don't treat her real well either. She usually shows up at our door about the time her and her mom have had a huge fight and she needs some type of motherly support.

So anyway, this past year, Roni and this girl have had a few disagreements, mainly over the fact that Roni is a Christian and tries to encourage her to share her faith. Around the times that Roni has shared her testimony with this girl, within a day or two the girl is "mad" at Roni and not speaking to her. That would be ok except this girl takes it further by telling other friends of Roni's lies about why she's mad such as saying that Roni spread a rumor about one of the other girls and that this girl is mad at Roni for the other friend. Another example is that she'll tell everyone that Roni took something from her house last time she was over there. I told Roni the easiest way to beat that one was not to go to this girls house anymore. Not that this would stop her, but at least she could say she hadn't been there. And anyone who's ever been around teenage girls knows how mean they can be. Roni is very sensitive about all this and spends a lot of time in tears wondering what she did wrong.

So today Roni went and picked up her projects from 4-H. This girl was in 4-H with her and one of her sisters was one of the leaders. Her sister had given Roni the material to make her a blanket that would be used as a project at the fair. After Roni picked up her projects, she called the older sister and asked her when would be a good time to drop off the blanket for her. The sister told her that anytime was good, she wasn't worried about it. So Roni was going to take the blanket to her when she got home from taking Zach's other sister Mikayla home. After Roni left, maybe five minutes later this girl calls telling me that her sister wants Roni to bring the blanket over right now. I told her that Roni had just talked to her sister and that she'd said no rush. Then she changed her story (but not her attitude) and said that she was out and about so she'd just pick it up. When I met her at the front door she made a snide comment about how now she could stop complaining about it. I handed her the blanket, smiled and said "here ya go" then walked back into the house and shut the door.

I'm so annoyed with this girl maybe because she walks around with this attitude that she is better than everyone and I just can't stand that! And over the past couple weeks that Roni hasn't been hanging around with her, her attitude has improved. I've since told Roni that I know her heart is in the right place, but she needs to just stay away from this girl. It just ticks me off when teenage girls act so snotty!

Roni's 4-H Fair Entries

bunniehop@mchsi.com — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 18:33:15 GMT

This year Roni decided she wanted to join 4-H. Of course I'm all for activities that teach kids good stuff so I said yes. Throughout the year she has been doing little projects here and there like making a couple of no-sew blankets, sewing a set of pillow cases, making a set of coasters, and taking a couple of pictures of flowers which she matted and framed. It has kept her busy!

Yesterday was the judging and I'm proud to say that Roni got all blue ribbons :) Not bad for a first year! She didn't get fair consideration, but now she's seen the type of stuff that does get considered and the quality of it. With that knowledge, I feel she'll do great next year because she now knows what to expect of herself.

Surpirse Company

bunniehop@mchsi.com — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 01:25:09 GMT

Imagine my surprise when this afternoon Zach's father showed up with his other siblings! They came to the house to see Zach, which I've always told them they're welcome anytime. But instead of his father coming in to visit, he sat out in his vehicle and slept while the kids came in and played Wii. After a couple of hours, he text messaged them that it was time to go, at which time the girls asked if they could stay longer. So he took Andrew and left Midori and Mikayla here to hang out with Zach. Then Roni got home and went to work at the 4-H fair with them. It's so nice when all the kids get along :)

A Quiet Night

bunniehop@mchsi.com — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 14:40:20 GMT

Last night, Jim and I had a taste of what the house will be like once all the kids move out. Three of them went on an overnight retreat with the church, and the 4th one had to work until 2am. So all evening, it was just Jim and I. We made dinner together, watched a movie, and just hung out. At one point he was watching something on tv that didn't interest me so I went to go read for awhile. It was SO quiet!! I'm sure the kids will make up for this when they get home. You know parents aren't supposed to enjoy peace and quiet LOL!

School starts in less than a month!

bunniehop@mchsi.com — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 17:11:02 GMT

I'm really starting to get excited and nervous about my upcoming entrance into college! I'm taking all of my classes on-line, so I'll be busy at home but saving gas. I guess this gives "home-school" a new definition. I would love to go TO college and learn in a classroom setting, but doing it this way will be so much better. I can close myself in a room all by myself and do my classwork. I'm really super ecstatic about this whole thing!

Do Hard Things

bunniehop@mchsi.com — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 02:35:28 GMT

Yesterday I went to a conference at Grace Church in Des Moines with our church youth group. Talk about phenomenal! I was so impressed with he twin 19 year old brothers who taught at the conference. The message they brought was one of setting high expectations for yourself. They talked about how the youth of today are stuck in a rut of low expectations and how teenagers are expected to survive but not thrive. They talked about how doing hard things is God's plan for growth and that we don't please Him when settle for mediocrity.

Jim and I took A.J. and Roni. Zach and Kyle had to work, so I went ahead and purchased the DVD so that they could watch it. I'm sure they'll get the opportunity to watch it this week. Zach's schedule changed back to a three day schedule and Kyle is working weekends. So most likely tomorrow when we all wake up, we'll start watching it.

While at this conference, I also bought a book called "Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends - How to fight th GOOD fight at home!" I've started reading it and I really think it will be a good book for the whole family to go through together. I'm looking forward to it, but I'm sure I'll meet some opposition. Hopefully after a chapter or two the defiant ones will start to enjoy the family time together. I'll update on how this goes :)

College Here I Come!!!!

bunniehop@mchsi.com — Mon, 19 May 2008 17:55:40 GMT

Well, here I am getting ready to finally further my education. This is something I should have done years ago, but I had a family instead. Now is the right time for me though. I'm ready for school I just hope school is ready for me :)

It's horrible of me to try to figure out what I want to do. I think the closest thing to what I want would be to teach school. I don't really want to teach though, I'd rather be a school counselor or administrator, but I think you have to start at the bottom. I'll be taking classes to accommodate both areas. I also want to work in Hospice, but not be a nurse. A grief counselor would be a good job for me also. Not that there is anything wrong with being a nurse. It's a rewarding career if you can handle blood and other bodily functions. I'm not real good with those areas though. Heck I have trouble cleaning out my fridge sometimes :)

Anyway, I've now applied for this fall at the local community college. Some of the courses I can take online, others I'll have to go to the school for. I'm trying to do as much of it online as possible to save gas. Either that or maybe take the classes at the local extension. Not sure what my class schedule is going to be yet. I think that's the next step. This is going to be an interesting experience for me though. I haven't been to school (other than parent teacher conferences) for 20 years! I mean I enrolled in college 13 years ago, went for a few weeks, found that I could juggle being full time mom to children under 5 and student and quit. Being a mom was more important. Now I have all this extra time because being a full time mom is less demanding. The kids are growing up and don't need me as much as they used to. I'm still here, just ready to do something new.

By starting college this fall though, I should graduate with my associates in 2010. Kyle and I could have a graduation party together :) Then a couple more years for my masters where AJ and I could celebrate together. Then again, I may take it slow so I don't overburden my old brain. We'll see how it goes.

Camp Inlow 2008!

bunniehop@mchsi.com — Wed, 07 May 2008 19:13:56 GMT

I'm so excited! The church my husband and I go to has a church camp that they take the teens to every year around the end of June down in Missouri. This year is the first year that all four of my kids are going! The house will be so quiet! But that's not all. Jim and I are going also! We've been asked by the church to accompany the kids down and be the camp cooks for the week :) This is just an awesome opportunity for us and I really can't wait til the end of June :)

AJ has a death wish!

bunniehop@mchsi.com — Tue, 06 May 2008 19:22:02 GMT

Over this past weekend, we realized more than ever that AJ has a death wish! How did we figure this out you ask? Well simple. See, every Sunday, we go to church. It's not always the whole family, but someone goes. I am there every Sunday (unless I'm out of town) and Jim usually is too but he has some trouble getting around since he broke his ankle (surgery is Monday yay!)

Anyway, this past Sunday, AJ decided to stay home. This was fine since he had had a friend stay the night Saturday night and they had been up most of the night playing video games. Zach and Kyle also stayed home to sleep since Kyle was up playing games with AJ, his friend, and Owen, plus a couple other boys stopped by at some point during the night. Zach had worked Saturday night until around 3am. (I'm getting there, just laying the groundwork.)

Ok, so Roni goes to church with us since she usually works in the nursery, which she did this past Sunday. So if you've ever been to church, you know it starts out with singing, then sermon. During the singing part, my phone rings. I always set it to vibrate and never turn it off especially if the kids aren't there with us. So Jim goes back to the restroom area to call and make sure things are ok. He comes back and tells me that it was AJ and that he had gotten a little burn on his hand from a steamer that him and his friend had found and were goofing around with. It just didn't sit easy with me, so I asked him if he would want to run home and check it out, and he agreed. He told me to stay put though cuz Roni was there still.

So we get done singing and start the sermon part and my phone goes off again. This time it's a text message from Jim saying "Omw 2 hosp" I freaked! So I texted back and asked how bad and which hand. Sure enough, my left handed boy hurt his left hand and Jim said it was pretty bad. So the doctor worked on his hand, put some ointment stuff on it and wrapped it up. Jim got back to church with AJ about the time church was done. We have a great ER :)

So Jim looks at me and says "Ask AJ what REALLY happened" and I'm thinking "oh boy!" I ask and AJ tells me that he and his buddy (Jared) were playing with static guard and a lighter. What they had done is taken one of those 5 gallon water cooler bottled and filled it full of combustible material (Static guard) and then while AJ held it out, they lit it. AJ said it took off like a rocket and of course he's laughing about it. As for his hand, he has 2nd and 3rd degree burns. He has blisters the size of quarters! There are parts of his hand where the skin is literally falling off it it. It's totally gross!!!! Jim has to change his dressing cuz I about get sick!

And we're not done yet. After he gets home from the hospital with his hand all bandaged up, he asks if he can still play baseball!!! Doctor told him no, but he was trying to anyway! So he goes to his game but doesn't play. Instead, he helps with other stuff and gets his hand totally trashed! By the time he gets home, the gauze is falling off and his hand looks like hamburger! So Jim wraps it up again and tells him to stay out of stuff. Then yesterday, he went out with a couple buddies and ended up mowing someones lawn and running the weed eater!!! Again he came home with his hand gross and uncovered. I point blank asked him if he liked his hand because if he didn't keep it up and clean, it could get infected and he'd lose it! Still not phasing him though!

So my son is a knucklehead! Kyle told him when playing with explosives, always use a fuse. Nice big brother advice there! I told Kyle to NOT give him any ideas!

So anyway, this is why I think AJ has a death with. He about blew himself up!