People all over the world today are praying AGAINST CHRISTIANS.

You Have to See This!

I WIll RISE WHEN HE CALLS MY NAME

Wrap Me in Your Arms Lord

I Can Only Imagine

Come quickly, Lord

My Jesus

IF YOU WERE A LITTLE GIRL IN THE 1970'S......

You had that Fisher Price Doctor's Kit with a stethoscope that actually worked.


You owned a bicycle with a banana seat and a plastic basket with flowers on it.


You learned to skate with actual skates (not roller blades) that had metal wheels.


You thought Gopher from Love Boat was cute (admit it!)


You had nightmares after watching Fantasy Island .


You had either a 'bowl cut' or 'pixie', not to mention the 'Dorothy Hamill'.
People sometimes thought you were a boy.


You had rubber boots for rainy days and Moon boots for snowy days. YEAH! You owned a 'Slip-n-Slide', on which you injured yourself on a sprinkler head more than once.


You owned 'Klick-Klacks' and smacked yourself in the face more than once !


Your Holly Hobbie sleeping bag was your most prized possession.


You wore a poncho, gauchos, and knickers.


You begged Santa for the electronic game, Simon.


You had the Donnie and Marie dolls with those pink and purple satiny shredded outfits, or the sunshine family

You spent hours in your backyard on your metal swing set with the trapeze.
The swing set tipped over at least once.

You had homemade ribbon barrettes in every imaginable color. (Oh yeah!)

You had a pair of Doctor Scholl's sandals (the ones with hard sole & the buckle). You also had a pair of salt-water sandals.



You wanted to be Laura Ingalls Wilder really bad; you wore that Little House on the
Prairie-inspired plaid, ruffle shirt with the high neck in at least one school picture;
and you despised Nellie Oleson!



You wanted your first kiss to be at a roller rink!

PONG! ('video tennis' ) was the most remarkable futuristic game you've ever heard of !

Your hairstyle was described as having 'wings' or 'feathers' and you kept it 'pretty'
with the comb you kept in your back pocket.
When you walked, the 'wings' flapped up and down, looked like you were gonna 'take off'

You know who Strawberry Shortcake is, as well as her friends, Blueberry Muffin and Huckleberry Pie.

You carried a Muppets lunch box to school and it was metal, not plastic.
With the thermos inside some were glass inside and broke the first time you dropped them.



You and your girlfriends would fight over which of the Dukes of Hazzard was your boyfriend.


YOU had Star Wars action figures, too!


It was a big event in your household each year when the 'Wizard of Oz' would come on TV.
Your mom would break out the popcorn and sleeping bags!


You often asked your Magic-8 ball the question: 'Who will I marry.
Shaun Cassidy, Leif Garrett, or David Cassidy?'


You completely wore out your Grease, Saturday Night Fever, and Fame soundtrack record album.


You tried to do lots of arts and crafts, like yarn and Popsicle-stick God's eyes, decoupage,
or those weird potholders made on a plastic loom.


You made Shrinky-Dinks and put iron-on kittens on your t-shirts!

You used to tape record songs off the radio by holding your portable tape player up to the speaker.


You had subscriptions to Dynamite and Tiger Beat.


You learned everything you needed to know about girl issues from Judy Blume books.
(Are you there God, It's Me, Margaret.)


You thought Olivia Newton John's song 'Physical' was about aerobics. (?? its not??)


You wore friendship pins on your tennis shoes, or shoelaces with heart orrainbow designs.

You wanted to be a Solid Gold dancer.


You drowned yourself in Love's Baby Soft - which was the first 'real' perfume you ever owned.


You glopped your lips in Strawberry Roll-on lip-gloss till it almost dripped off.

Let there be light...or dark...or light...or dark...

I know ya'll have been sitting on pins and needles waiting for my next post in the continuing storm saga. If you didn't read the previous post you might want to catch up. And again I must issue a winter whine warning.

Friday-6am wake up to see if kids have school. They don't. Decide to go get blood drawn for a Wellness program. I've waited till the deadline and now risk my life, traveling on bad roads and high winds to make it into town. I get to the health center and am told that they have extended the deadline by two weeks. I could have stayed safe at home. Oh well, I can't think of anything better to do than to have a needle stuck in my arm at 6:30 in the morning, anyway.

7Am- since I'm already in town, I decide to get groceries. I fear revolt if my family is forced to eat pizza one more time this week. Have you ever pushed a grocery cart across a slush and ice pond? I have.

9AM- I haven't brought the groceries in from the car yet which is a good thing because - you guessed it- our electricity flickers and then goes out AGAIN!

9:30- the z-man is bored. He has over 100 degree temperature and hasn't felt well for 5 days now. We have no tv or videogames to keep him entertained. It's going to be a very long day.

2pm- the girls leave for basketball games. THis is a pet peeve of mine. I think all sports and extracurricular activities should be cancelled when school is cancelled due to weather. But then again, I'm a slacker mom. I cheer when any extracurricular activity is cancelled.
My oldest makes plans to leave the Amish island that is now our home and stay the night with a friend who actually has electricity. I'm stuck home with fever boy.

5:30pm- I spot the electrice truck! I pray HARD that the electric guy can fix the problem.

5:45- Do you hear that? The sound of angels singing? That's the sound I hear as the electricity is restored to our home. I think about running out and giving the electric guy a big kiss - who am I kidding - it's COLD out there. I pray that he'll keep safe. Prayers are better than kisses any day.

5:46 - Sponge Bob is blaring on the TV. Life is back to normal.

Did I mention that my husband has been at a conference in Columbus since Thursday night? Yep, he's had two whole nights alone in a nice, quiet hotel. The Z-man takes advantage of the opening in my bed. I got to sleep two whole nights with the germinator.

Sleet, Snow, Rain, Hail, Fire, Blood

Ok, so we didn't have the hail, fire or blood - but it still wasn't pretty. We joined the 1 million people who lost power with this storm. Having lost it for several days last fall, we decided to go to a hotel till the power came on.

WHINE WARNING!!!!! If you don't like whining, just stop here and enjoy the photos. For the rest of you who find humor in other people's calamities, read on!

So this is what my life has been like since Tuesday morning.

Tuesday:6am- school is officially closed. We've already had snow and ice but the worst is yet to come.

8am-z-man wakes up, he doesn't feel well.

9 pm- Zane throws up, then he throws up again. Yippee! I'm going to be stuck at home with four kids and a big germ.

9:30 pm - school is cancelled for the morning too.

Wednesday - 9AM- Sounds like shots are being fired outside - it's the sound of branches and trees snapping.

9:30- lights flicker. this can't be good. Call every decent hotel to make a reservation just in case the electricity goes. Every place is already book. End up staying at the "Rest Inn". Never hear of it? Me neither

10:30 - it's starting to snow hard. The flakes are huge and gorgeous.
10:35- the lights flicker and then go off. Sighh

11:30 - The power company tells us we'll probably get the electric back on by Friday. Friday???????? But...it's only Wednesday.

12:00- Decide to go ahead and leave for hotel before we're snowed in. I can't help but think about the movie "The Shining". I love Jack Nicholson, but I never want to meet him in person.

12:15 -a white knuckle drive into Lancaster ( about 10 miles away). Visibility is bad, the roads are slick. We pray as a family that we'll make it to the hotel ok.

1:15 - we made it! The 60 minute drive should have only taken 30 minutes, but I'm just glad we're not off in a ditch somewhere.

1:20 -try to pay for room. I can't find my driver's license. They won't take my credit card without my license. I tell them I have four kids out in the car and one is sick. The lady won't budge. I thought people were supposed to be nice during storms, I was wrong.

1:45- hubby shows up to check us in. He's had to leave work just so we can check in.

1:55- finally have room keys. They don't work

2:00 try new keys. They work.

2:01 - We have two rooms because we are breeding overachievers and all of us can't fit in one room. Discover that our second room is being used for storage!

2:03- Inform lovely desk clerk that our second room is storage. Oh my! she says- someone must have forgotten to put this room on the unavailable list. Kinda like I forgot my driver's license, don't ya think. I'm still be very polite and extremely understanding. Maybe God will add on a sunroom to my mansion in heaven.

2:10 - finally have rooms. They were supposed to be connected, but instead are 11 rooms apart. They smell like smoke. The cable's out. The bed's are really uncomfortable. I now know the difference between a forty dollar room and a 90 dollar room. I prefer the latter. ( I know, I should be glad to be warm, right? - try to readjust attitude.)

5:00pm - school's cancelled for tomorrow too.

Thursday - we have electricity!!!!! It's a winter miracle. We decide to take advantage of the free continental breakfast before we leave.

Note- $40 dollar rooms don't have good continental breakfasts. We have our choice of stale powdered doughnuts or white toast.

7:00 pm- will there be school tomorrow? The kids don't have school on Monday or Tuesday due to a scheduled teacher inservice. I consider homeschooling, but I love my kids too much to subject them to my evil tyranny.


stay tuned

Porch magazine

I recently discoverd Porch magazine. My first issue arrived a couple of days ago and what a treat it was! If you like wonderful photography and have embraced the world of blogging, than you must get a subscription!

According to Porch magazine editor, Polly Hood, "Porch Magazine was created for the sole purpose of promoting bloggers and their businesses."

Oh, and BTW, I am thrilled to have one of my soldered ornies photographed so beautifully in Porch, in the Romantic Metals section.

Porch Magazine is available for purchase at www.porch-magazine.blogspot.com.

Amish living sounds good about right now

We have three printers. None of them are working. I spent one hour on the phone with customer support for one of the printers only to be told to take it in to be repaired. I finally went downstairs this morning to walk on my treadmill and It's not working ( and it's nearly brand new!). We have subarctic temperatures and our gas fireplace won't work. We just spent our retirement savings to replace our water heater ( teenagers get really whiny when forced to take luke warm showers). I blew out a tire this week and am waiting to get all four tires replaced.

We have a small Amish community outside our town. It's weeks like this that I think they may be on to something...