New McCain campaign slogan

For those of you who hate politics, this post is not for you.
I, personally, like it to a point. By November, I will be ready to get the election behind me as the negativity and ads will get to me by then.
You also know that I am a Republican by choice. My first allegience is to God and those things that are Biblically sound -- such as pro life and pro marriage between one male and one female. My pocketbook comes in also as I do not like to pay high taxes and I am in one of the highest taxed states here. I also like to choose my own healthcare program and do not need the government telling me that I can't own a gun. That is usually the political party that stands behind all of those things. I also have to vote my conscience in what I believe that would best honor God.

I am also not an Obama kool-aid drinker. He believes in nothing more than a Communist Utopia. He wants everyone equal even though he owns a multi million dollar home that he had to have help buying. He wants higher taxes for what he calls the rich (if you make over 150,000 --does that include himself and many of his colleauges in Congress). Apparently in his lack of experience he fails to realize that it is the rich who pay the most taxes in this country.
He is also very extreme in his abortion beliefs -- abortion after the baby is born by letting it die.
He has no experience and has done nothing for the state of Illinois. There is no such thing as the Land of Lincoln.
Because of the Republican party he can stand where he stands today as a presidential candidate. It was the Republican party under the great Abraham Lincoln that freed the slaves in 1862 and 1863.

After hearing Hillary's speech last night. I got all fired up. Here is the new campaign slogan.
NO WAY, NO HOW, NO BAMA. Go McCain. Never thought I would hear myself say that one. I want the bumper sticker.

New Lifestyle

As some of you know (okay, maybe only one), I have been trying to figure out for the past few weeks what was causing the eczema and coughing of one of my children. A friend suggested that it could be allergies (I had never thought of that) and she suggested that I take her off of milk for a couple of weeks and see what happens. She left me with a couple pints of rice milk to try.

Lo and behold, suddenly my child does not cough all night, something that she has not done in several weeks. Her coughing had kept us all up for nights on end and it was nice to finally get a night sleep. For almost two weeks this went on and when I would allow her to indulge in cheese, ice cream etc... she would then cough at night. Her eczema started clearing up also.

Things then got out of control after we re-introduced dairy and I did not know what to do next so I called the doctor and he suggested the blood test.
We finally had a blood test last Friday and we found out that sure enough, she is allergic to milk and egg whites. Now life will get easier for us as now we know what not to give her. It is a mild allergy, so having either of those two items will not kill her, but she will just get the uncomfort that comes with it. It does not mean that she cannot have ice cream with Grandma, but it means that if sherbet or sorbet is an option, she should have that instead.

The egg whites is going to be a little harder to do as there are eggs in a lot of things. There will be some lifestyle changes that will need to be made feeding my allergic child and I may need some guidance on that one.

Update on the Update.

We finally got the infamous car home. He picked it up on Saturday morning and got it as far as a mechanic about half way to the house from the dealership.
He looked at it over Monday and found it to only be a cadyllic converter flush was needed (that dumb eco friendly unnecessary part anyway). Cost us a measly $58.00. Thankfully, after my husband talked them down at the dealership $200 on the price of the car and we still came out ahead.
Now that the car runs well, and my husband made it the 25 miles one way to work, we priced it on Kelley Blue Book and it is valued over twice what we paid.
I definitely think that car dealership knew it had a problem and didn't want to fix it and wanted it off their lot. They could have made a lot more on it if they would have just fixed it up. How much more time, effort, and money would that have truly taken. And, they would have made their customers happy and kept their reputation in tact.
If it lasts a few months, or even a year, this hassle will be but a happy memory as we tootle along in our new van-- that hopefully won't be a hassle as this little car was.
If I could drive it, I would show it off to my two readers, but since it is a manual transmission, I have to just look at it from a distance (until my husband has the patience to put up with me behind the wheel so I can practice on it).

Update on car

As I said in the previous post, I HATE buying a car.
We went to bring the car home on Wednesday and it still would not run as expected. I know it is a 4 cylinder 5 speed manual, but it is supposed to go over 35 mph. It shuddered and made a funny hissing noise, which he said was not there before (he probably had the "great" stereo so loud that he didn't notice). We have spent so much time and gas going to and from this dealership that we just want to be done with it.
We are hoping now that either a good hearted dealership manager (who is obviously crooked) or the threat of bad publicity will get him to reconsider the previous "no" to taking the car back completely and letting us walk away from it as though no sale ever occurred.
If we do have to bring the car home, the newspapers, news medias, and better business bureau (that one will find out anyway) will know about as well as all of our friends.
My husband told the sales person that the car should not have even been on the lot and the sales person agreed and said that he should not have sold it to him. I know that we cannot trust that particular dealership (of which I will mention if we do not get this resolved our way--customer is always right?) to buy a car from them in the future.
There are so many more reputable dearlerships that we can buy from and take our business to those places.

A Car Story

One thing I despise is shopping for cars. I don't like dealing with the dealers, used car issues, and all that goes with it. I have never owned a brand new car and I probably never will. I would be happy with horse and buggy and just feeding the horse and oiling the buggy (not really but sometimes it sounds cheaper and easier -- the Amish have it made when it comes to gas and hassles).

My husband has a 1994 Saturn that we both just really like, but it has started having some major problems of late. It has started making very loud (okay, has been making loud noises for a long time now) noises and running very rough. He took the car in to a shop and they told him that he needs the water pump and some other thing replaced. Well, one of those two items is going to cost too much more than it was worth for us, so on Saturday we decided to put it up for sale (it will appear on Craig's list soon) and look around for something to replace it. Hopefully we can find someone who knows what they are doing and can fix it themselves. To make a long story a little shorter, he found something he really liked (he kept raving about the stereo -- he likes that loud). He ended up buying a 5 speed Kia Sephia. Well, he did not even make it home. A little over half way from the dealership his clutch went out.

Thankfully the dealer was willing to work with him and told him that he basically had two options (because he had signed on the dotted line for a car that is "as is"), those were: they would pay for half of the repair work and we pay the other half; or we can use the full amount of what we payed for the car as a down payment on something else on the lot. We thought the deal was more than fair. They could have said, "too bad, so sad, your loss".

We tried the second option first and a couple of things looked appealing (one being a cadillac catera --never thought I would like a cadillac, and a camero --gas hog). He test drove another Saturn, but the price said it all. There was so much wrong with it that it would not have been worth it. We were just not comfortable with anything from that lot, so we will just be paying for the repairs on his little car and bringing it home (hopefully it will make it this time).

What we have decided to do is this:
1. sell the Saturn SL1 (anyone like cars and knows how to fix them by themselves enjoy) and apply to payment of Kia.
2. sell the old Oldsmobile that is rotting in the garage and apply to payment of Kia.
--meanwhile making a couple of extra payments on it to get it paid off sooner.
3. sell minivan -- Pontiac Montana -- and replace it with newer model (if we are going to have payments, we might as well have payments on our family vehicle.
4. Money from van, go towards down payment (or full payment) of new car for husband. Then of course, sell Kia and apply towards one of the two "new" cars.
We just figured that this was the wiser choice. It is amazing when the options have been considered through prayer, peace is found.
Hopefully all this will all go through in the next few months as I would LOVE to drive a new van to Disney World in the Spring.
Anyone want to buy a Saturn? okay, how about a 1978 Oldsmobile? no? Okay, how about a Pontiac Montana, loaded?

Swimsuits (girls only)

I was checking out swimsuits online and after a discussion about them with some other ladies, a website was brought to my attention. I will post it later in this entry.
I am trying hard to be an example of modesty to my girls. I am trying to teach them by my own actions and clothing what is modest. They are quick to point out other ladies' immodesty with pointed fingers and have to be reminded that we are not to judge other people, but only concentrate on what we wear to be honoring to God.
I am looking for a new 2 piece swimsuit --don't worry, I am not going to show my fat belly to the world. It is a tankini, not a bikini. The top that I ordered is a little lower than it appeared in the pictures on the store website so I am debating of sending it back and getting a different one or keeping it and trying the style on me. I am going to let my husband be the judge to see if he would be comfortable with me wearing it in public.
This has always been a hard spot for me because of my Independent Fundamental Baptist (you might as well call it Amish) background. Sometimes the rebellious roots come out in my new found liberation from the legalistic oppression and I could not resist. Our shirts could not be lower than 4 fingers from the base of the neck (which is not a bad standard to have -- but extremely hard to find in this day and age). We also wore coulottes ( I have seen them illustrated extremely as "sugar britches" --Ann Marie posted about those a couple of months back) that had to be 36 inches around each leg. Here is where the double standard falls. Why did it matter what a girls' swimsuit looks like if we were not to "mix bathe"? Of course, I never went mixed "bathing" until I was married. Do they mean mixed swimming? If it was all girls, why was skinny dipping not okay? If there is any lusting going on with all girls, then there are other issues that need to be addressed.
Anyway, to the subject in point. A friend of mine mentioned the burquini (for the modern muslim woman), which is not bad, but a little extreme for me. Definitely hides all those flaws, flab, and cellulite though.
One that really got my attention is the Fundamental Baptist Swimwear . (this is the title that I gave it) If you type Amish swimwear in the subject line this is what comes up. Too funny, actually sad to think that parents would put their kids in these and that full grown adult women would actually wear them. I loved the line in one of the blogs that said that the husbands can pick out swim clothes for their wives that would be modest. Of course you know that in that culture, the woman has no say anyway.
Another line said (this one was against the swimwear) that there is nothing about what was modest for men to wear (what about women against speedos, yuck!) What about suits for the modest man (gunnysacks and burlap bag clothes lines). I think women should start selling modest swimsuits for men.
One of the comments used the verse Deuteronomy 22:5 Read the comment for yourself. I can't tell you how many times I heard that verse has been taken out of context and construed to make it say what the person in the pulpit wanted it to say.
My husband and I jsut had a discussion about this verse last night. We have come to the conclusion that it is referring to cross dressers and others who get their jollys by looking like the opposite sex. Our conclusion is backed up by people like R.C. Sproul who says in his notes in the Reformation Study Bible (ESV)that verse should be translated as people who wear the clothes of the opposite sex for religious purposes, such as bestiality and homosexuality. It was meant for the culture of the time. John MacArthur says in his study Bible that it was referring to cross dressers and transvestites.
Oh wait, did I say NKJV and ESV? It is the version that is my problem. I didn't use the KJV. Oh, oops that is for another post.

Our library, like most libraries, had a summer reading program.
For every 5 books they read (or in their case, I read to them), they got a prize. There were sports drinking bottles, balls, blowup balls, stickers, coupons for fun stuff like pizza and ice cream, etc... . My kids reached every prize and then some. You got a total of 30 books which resulted in 6 prizes plus the invitation to Magic Waters water park for the program finishers party.
That was held on Friday, August 8th. We decided to go and a good time was had by all. Initially my plan was to keep the baby home and just let Daddy take the other two so I didn't have to show myself in my pesky swimsuit. I will use any excuse to not have to use that thing. I ordered a new one, but until that one comes, I have this other one.
Anyway, Brookelyn (the baby) "earned" her tickets too, so we decided that she would probably enjoy the evening as well. So all 5 of us made our way to the waterpark, while I was trying to figure out how to work it so that I can keep my cover-up on.
Then I thought "okay, I am going, I will just stay in my swimsuit cover-up and just stay with Brookelyn and he can take them to the slides." I looked around and saw people that are bigger than me and decided "what is the big deal. No one is looking at me anyway. I have looked worse at the Dells before" and decided to go ahead and go with them. My husband offered to keep Brookelyn for the first part and I took them on some of the slides, then he took them in the lazy river and I took Brookelyn on a tube as well.
We ended up on the big slides with the girls not wanting to leave, slowly trying bigger slides throughout the night. I kept telling them that "this is the last one". And they would go down and ask for one more time.
Finally at about 8:45 and it was starting to get chilly, we did call it a night.
Thank you public library for a great party. My 5 year olds loved it.

Success

Raccoon update

The raccoons have left the building. Thankfully they left on their own without the expense of a trapper.
That happened last time too, except we still had the trapper come in that case.
Since the raccoons left, we had a roofer friend of ours come and patch the place where the raccoons lived for that short time.
Good riddance coons.

Well, another year has come and gone. Another birthday has past.
Not really a big deal, right? Nothing wrong with 32, right? It doesn't seem possible, but it is.

My family was so sweet. 5 year olds are funny about birthdays. My husband was trying to keep everything as secret and quiet as possible. While I went to a mom's night out, he took them to the store to buy my birthday gifts.
On the morning of my birthday, daddy was away at his accountablity group, one of my 5 year olds walked up to me and said, "mommy, daddy hid your birthday gifts in his closet."
I replied, "he did, huh?". So I wouldn't ruin his fun, I did not look in his closet.
Later, one of them said, "don't look behind the 'cucumbers'," while pointing to the romaine lettuce.
I said, "we don't have any cucumbers". I looked behind the lettuce and there was a cake in a bag. OOps.
After my husband returned, one of them told me "mom, we went to Target and got your gift."
I told my husband that if we keep going here, they are going to tell me what I am getting and ruin the fun.

We did open my birthday gifts later that afternoon and I got a couple of nice things from the girls and a Target gift card which I will SOOOO use.

That night he had arranged for "Uncle Jeremy and Aunt Anouk" to come over to babysit the kids while he took me out to the suburbs of Chicago for dinner.
He had pre arranged for a dinner at Ruth's Chris steakhouse at 5:30 that night.
That was the best steak I had ever had. There was free valet parking which we did not do because my husband's reasoning was he was not going to have someone else park our messy minivan.
The servers were in suits and ties and once you were seated, you had personal service from your server. They did not serve anyone else the entire time you were there. It was great.
I wish I would have taken a picture of our steaks. We did take a picture outside the restaurant which I will post later (along with the raccoons that I promised a few days ago).
To top off the evening, my husband put up with a walk through IKEA.