How we miss our old trainer, as I’m sure you could tell by previous posts. Today was lesson #1 with the new trainer and it went so-so. There were things I liked about her, and things I didn’t. I had to keep reminding myself she isn’t Jacque and that she isn’t going to do things like her.

Honestly, she worked Brie hard. In fact, we opted for a half hour private lesson to get back into the swing of things. I’m really glad we did. She works them a lot harder, and I noticed isn’t quite as interested in safety as Jacque was. For the record, she was never in any sort of danger, it was just not the “same” so to speak. I liked that Brie had a hard lesson today, because I think it reminded her about what riding is all about.

Her next lesson is next Friday, and I am so hoping it will go well. It is back to her one hour group lessons and she will probably be happy to be back with her friends.

She cried about Jacque almost all the way home tonight, so the pain is still very real to her. She also had a terrible migraine which I am quite sure the crying didn’t help. She told me she didn’t want to take lessons with the new trainer again, but I’m encouraging her to try a few more. Just like me, she has to keep reminding herself that we can try countless trainers and none will be Jacque. So we need to figure out who the best is, and right now the new trainer is pushing her - to me that’s as good as it gets.

We really wanted to sign the kids up for VBS (Visual Basic Script) this summer, but our two oldest are well….too old. They still want to go, but everyone thinks 13 is too old. I hate that.

Tonight we got invited to go to the final night of V.B.S. (Vacation Bible School) at our friends church, and she wanted all five of them to go. They had a blast and we found a new church. Yay!

It was fun, and the church has a great children’s ministry so I’m thrilled that the kids loved it and they want to go back. Sunday will be our first church service with just Mike and I and my two kiddos, and then we will return next Sunday with all the kids (they are at mom’s this weekend). After next week we will evaluate and see if everyone is happy with staying and I’m really hoping they are. It’s a bit closer (not by a lot) than where we go, but its also bigger, has its own building and has a reputable youth ministry. Three things I was wanting. I’ve been praying and as usual He answered in a way that was clear as day for me. Things are definitely looking up.

Oh, and V.B.S. rocked!

I am sure it doesn’t take a brain surgeon to figure out how all those things can combine to make one complete disaster. Yeah.

So I get this call yesterday from a number I didn’t recognize. I let the machine get it. I was surprised to hear my son’s voice since he is at camp, but they did tell us they let them call home whenever they want - it is the sponsors choice, and my son’s sponsor rocks!
First thing - I need to tell my son he needs to talk slower. I couldn’t actually get the phone on fast enough before he hung up. So I called right back. No answer. I continued calling for about two hours off and on, because I know the cell phones get bad receptions out there, so I was hoping the sponsor might at least look at his phone and see that some crazy lady had called his phone at least a half dozen times.

Finally my son called back. Now, first off - he was not the one that wanted to go to camp. If he could have sat in his bedroom and read books all summer he’d have been perfectly alright with that. Yeah. Not happening on my watch. So off to camp he went. I am happy to report that his teenage self is doing great and he is having fun. He actually has a couple of friends he is hanging with, and that in itself makes me smile and know I made the right choice.

However, he was calling with a mission. He got hit in the nose/eye/somewhere up there with a water balloon hard enough that it caused a bloody nose and his eye looks all red and puffy. Camp nurse informed him that he might end up with a black eye. I’m thinking probably not, but I’m glad they encouraged him to call home to tell me just so that I do know. Anyway, he was fine and was really talkative (which means he is having fun) and seems happy.

Guess what they ate for dinner last night? Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and spice cake. WHAT?!?!?! They ate better than us! I’m jealous. I asked how my step-daughter was making out there, but he said she’s ignoring him. Ahhh…sibling happiness. Just gotta love it. So I am assuming she is just fine, and I know he is just fine, so life is uhm….. almost normal.

Only three more days and they are back. Why couldn’t sleep away camp be longer than six days five nights? Why?!?!

It’s that time of year again, where everyone is spending time away from home visiting with friends and family. It is the perfect time for a holiday. However, taking the family with you can sometimes be a challenge. It’s important when taking family holidays to consider children in the big picture and not just thinking about what the adults want to do.

How many times have you gotten to your destination only to realize that the hotel you chose is not one of those family hotels, but is for those that are very obviously trying to get away from children? It is important to look for hotels that serve families well. If a hotel doesn’t appear as family friendly, it probably isn’t. There are usually proud to advertise this fact, so if it doesn’t - don’t go.

So, now you’ve chosen the perfect family hotel, but now what are you supposed to do? Planning family days out, is an important part of your trip or holiday. It is typically what makes your holiday memories. Make sure you keep your children in mind when planning your day out so they get plenty of time to do things they enjoy also. Try for family friendly things that mum and dad will enjoy right alongside with the kids.

And when it comes to mealtime on holiday, making your children sit through a meal at some fancy restaurant is silly. You need to keep your eyes out for child friendly restaurants and that is where you need to go. Remember that children have a difficult time sitting still, they need foods that keep them happy and servers that are used to dealing with children.

If you do these things, you will have a fabulous holiday!

I’ve always been fascinated by Mood Rings, even though they mean a whole lot of nothing. This little blurb made me giggle though…

My husband, being unhappy with my mood swings, bought me a mood ring the other day so he would be able to monitor my moods. We’ve discovered that when I’m in a good mood, it turns green and when I’m in a bad mood, it leaves a big f**kin’ red mark on his forehead. Maybe next time he’ll buy me a diamond.

I guess it’s obvious that… I am a writer and that’s how I make my living. I have taken typing tests in the past; as a writer I tend to actually care how fast I type and with how many errors.

I found this on someone’s blog (sorry I cannot actually remember who, sorry). It was interesting to me.

I took the test twice. The first time I tended to type a bit slower (careful for errors), and I only typed 72 words for minute. So I figured I’d step it up a pace and see if I could get it any faster. Well….

87 words

Speedtest

And that was with a mere two errors total. YAY!

ETA: I thought I would include the other stuff they had on there.

345 points, so you achieved position 20252 of 440652 on the ranking list

You type 478 characters per minute
You have 87 correct words and
you have 2 wrong words

Just out of curiosity…does anyone know how you know you’d actually be good at this? Does one just sit down one day staring at a slinky and think ”Hey I can do that too - I’d make a great Human Slinky!”. *sigh* People are strange.

In 2001, total meat consumption (red meat, poultry, and fish) amounted to 194 pounds per person, 16 pounds above the level in 1970. Each American consumed an average of 21 pounds less red meat (mostly less beef) than in 1970, 34 pounds more poultry, and 3.4 pounds more fish.

Yikes. I think that information alone is enough to get me to quit eating so much red meat. I have really tried to cut down. I am so interested in eating healthier and losing weight, but its so hard to say goodbye to some of my favorite foods, and for that - it becomes a will power thing.

I am however, down about ten pounds and am very happy with that. I know with Spring here (and the activeness of Summer rapidly approaching) I’ll drop even more. But knowing all that creepy info about red meat makes me sick. I really had no idea that I might have eaten an average of a calf in one year. UGH!

Did you know that Missouri’s state instrument is a friggen’ fiddle? What the heck? Anyway - enjoy some more useless facts. OH and I also learned something cool about St. Louis. If you know what Imo’s is (and you would if you lived/visited/stayed in St. Louis for any period of time) you’ll find this kinda cool. Did you know the reason why Imo’s pizza is square is because Ed Imo (the founder) used to lay tile and was always cutting tile into squares so apparently it carried over into his pizza. Interesting odd fact!

• Missouri is known as the “Show Me State”.

• The ‘Show Me State’ expression may have began in 1899 when Congressman Willard Duncan Vandiver stated, “I’m from Missouri and you’ve got to show me.”

• The first successful parachute jump to be made from a moving airplane was made by Captain Berry at St. Louis, in 1912.

• The most destructive tornado on record occurred in Annapolis. In 3 hours, it tore through the town on March 18, 1925 leaving a 980-foot wide trail of demolished buildings, uprooted trees, and overturned cars. It left 823 people dead and almost 3,000 injured.

• At the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904, Richard Blechyden, served tea with ice and invented iced tea.

• Also, at the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904, the ice cream cone was invented. An ice cream vendor ran out of cups and asked a waffle vendor to help by rolling up waffles to hold ice cream.

• Missouri ties with Tennessee as the most neighborly state in the union, bordered by 8 states.

• The state animal is the Mule.

• St. Louis; is also called, “The Gateway to the West” and “Home of the Blues”.

• Warsaw holds the state record for the low temperature of -40 degrees on February 13, 1905.

• Warsaw holds the state record for the high temperature recorded, 118 degrees on July 14, 1954.

• State bird—native Bluebird March 30, 1927

• State insect—honey bee July 3, 1985

• Mozarkite was adopted as the official state rock on July 21, 1967, by the 74th General Assembly.

• On July 21, 1967, the mineral galena was adopted as the official mineral of Missouri.

• The crinoid became the state’s official fossil on June 16, 1989, after a group of Lee’s Summit school students worked through the legislative process to promote it as a state symbol.

• On June 20, 1955, the flowering dogwood (Cornus Florida L.) became Missouri’s official tree.

• The “Missouri Waltz” became the state song under an act adopted by the General Assembly on June 30, 1949

• The present Capitol completed in 1917 and occupied the following year is the third Capitol in Jefferson City and the sixth in Missouri history. The first seat of state government was housed in the Mansion House, Third and Vine Streets, St. Louis; the second was in the Missouri Hotel, Maine and Morgan Streets, also in St. Louis. St. Charles was designated as temporary capital of the state in 1821 and remained the seat of government until 1826 when Jefferson City became the permanent capital city.

• The first Capitol in Jefferson City burned in 1837 and a second structure completed in 1840 burned when the dome was struck by lightning on February 5, 1911.

• Kansas City has more miles of boulevards than Paris and more fountains than any city except Rome.

• Kansas City has more miles of freeway per capita than any metro area with more than 1 million residents.

• Jefferson National Expansion Memorial consists of the Gateway Arch, the Museum of Westward Expansion, and St. Louis’ Old Courthouse. During a nationwide competition in 1947-48, architect Eero Saarinen’s inspired design for a 630-foot stainless steel arch was chosen as a perfect monument to the spirit of the western pioneers. Construction of the Arch began in 1963 and was completed on October 28, 1965. The Arch has foundations sunken 60 feet into the ground, and is built to withstand earthquakes and high winds. It sways up to one inch in a 20 mph wind, and is built to sway up to 18 inches.

• Saint Louis University received a formal charter from the state of Missouri in 1832, making it the oldest University west of the Mississippi.

• In 1889, Aunt Jemima pancake flour, invented at St. Joseph, Missouri, was the first self-rising flour for pancakes and the first ready-mix food ever to be introduced commercially.

• The tallest man in documented medical history was Robert Pershing Wadlow from St. Louis. He was 8 feet, 11.1 inches tall

• Creve Coeur’s name means broken heart in French, comes from nearby Creve Coeur Lake. Legend has it that an Indian princess fell in love with a French fur trapper, but the love was not returned. According to the story, she then leapt from a ledge overlooking Creve Coeur Lake; the lake then formed itself into a broken heart.

• The most powerful earthquake to strike the United States occurred in 1811, centered in New Madrid, Missouri. The quake shook more than one million square miles, and was felt as far as 1,000 miles away.

• Anheuser-Busch brewery in St. Louis, Missouri is the largest beer producing plant in the nation.

• During Abraham Lincoln’s campaign for the presidency, a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat named Valentine Tapley from Pike County, Missouri, swore that he would never shave again if Abe were elected. Tapley kept his word and his chin whiskers went unshorn from November 1860 until he died in 1910, attaining a length of twelve feet six inches.

• President Harry S. Truman was born in Lamar, May 8, 1884.

• The first train of the Atlantic-Pacific Railway, which became the St.Louis-San Francisco Railway, or “Frisco,” arrived in 1870.

• Callaway County was organized on November 25, 1820 and named for Captain James Callaway who was killed in a fight with Indians near Loutre Creek.

• Missouri was named after a tribe called Missouri Indians; meaning “town of the large canoes”

• Situated within a day’s drive of 50% of the U.S. population, Branson and the Tri-Lakes area serves up to 65,000 visitors daily. Branson has been a “rubber tire” destination with the vast majority of tourists arriving by vehicles, RVs and tour buses. Branson has also become one of America’s top motor coach vacation destinations with an estimated 4,000 buses arriving each year.

• Charleston holds the Dogwood-Azalea Festival annually on the 3rd weekend of April. “Charleston becomes a blooming wonderland.”

• Jefferson City, Missouri, the state’s capital, was named for Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States.

• Missouri’s oldest community, Saint Genevieve, was founded as early as 1735.

• In 1812 Missouri was organized as a territory and later admitted the 24th state of the Union on August 10, 1821.

• In 1865 Missouri became the first slave state to free its slaves.

• Hermann, Missouri is a storybook German village with a rich wine-making and riverboat history that is proudly displayed in area museums. Built in 1836 as the “New Fatherland” for German settlers, the town has achieved national recognition because of its quality wines and distinctive heritage.

• Auguste Chouteau founded Saint Louis in 1764.

• Laura Elizabeth Ingalls, writer of Little House on the Prairie grew up in Missouri.

• “Madonna of the Trail” monument in Lexington tells the story of the brave women who helped conquer the west and is one of 12 placed in every state crossed by the National Old Trails Road, the route of early settlers from Maryland to California.

• Soybeans bring in the most cash for Missourians as a crop.

• Missouri Day is the third Wednesday in October.

• On Sucker Day in Nixa, Missouri, school closes officially and the little town swells to a throng of 15,000 hungry folks. All craving a taste of the much maligned but delicious bottom dweller fish loathed by almost everyone else.

• Point of highest elevation: Taum Sauk Mountain, 540 meters (1,772 feet)

• State folk dance: square dance

• State musical instrument: fiddle