*Peek-a-Boo!*

No, it’s not an illusion. It’s really me!

I’ve been trying to find time to get on here & blog about this or that for some time now, but there just hasn’t been a moment that seemed free enough to do so, that or when it did come about, I was too exhausted to care about getting on the computer for any sort of leisure activity.

I must admit, too, that I get a LOT more accomplished when I don’t allow myself to get caught up in MySpace. It really does consume you if you’re not careful... in quite an addictive manner. It’s amazing how much time can be wasted while searching for new layouts, graphics, songs, etc. What seems like 20 minutes can actually have been 2 hours that have passed you by. Besides, my whole point for having a MySpace account is to keep in better touch with distant friends. So, I have been really cutting back on making changes to my page, and mostly just concentrating on personal messages, occasional comments & getting to bed earlier. I highly recommend it! *wink* As far as this for Blogger,.. it's just been trying to find time to write, and I suppose more so,.. feeling like it. I have these spells from time to time and disappear, but I will try to keep those to a minimum.

We’ve been keeping quite busy with a number of things. One of which most everyone is familiar with, Tax Season. For us, it not only pertains to us personally, but also our company, and there is so much more involved in business taxes. So January is a very tedious month for me in juggling all of that. That coupled with the fact that the girls & I were sick with that nasty flu-bug that had been going around,... it clung to us for just about the entire month. And it certainly didn’t help my brain on configuring numbers! LOL

About the same time, we got back involved in a favorite pass time, the hobby of keeping fish. And although I truly do LOVE them, dear hubby got a little bit carried away with his bargain hunting on craigslist.com! He already had a 10 gal. in his office at the shop, and then found a 20 gal. at a local store so he has both of those for his enjoyment there, which is nice for him. Fish are incredibly soothing. For the house though, he got a bit crazy as we now have THREE (3) 55 gallon aquariums, not counting a couple of other smaller ones. I’ve joked about how I’m going to have to start charging admission to our home, LOL! I’m not complaining because I do adore having them, but anyone who knows anything about keeping fish KNOWS how much work it is! I know this as I have some previous experience,..... hubby however, did not realize this. Regardless though, I am thoroughly enjoying having fish in our home again (I will try to post some pics soon when I have time to twiddle). They really do set a peaceful atmosphere, and it has been an excellent learning experience for the kids, including caring for expectant live bearers & the babies! Courtney especially as she is constantly researching new information on the various species we have, and has become plentiful in information I did not already know,.. which is awesome! I LOVE learning things from my children! Isn’t it incredible to teach your children critical information & provide them the tools to continue cultivating their knowledge to the point that they in turn teach you?? We have spent many hours researching & enjoying our hobby, and still have not missed the darn TV one little bit! Okay, all except the latest American idol,.. We did miss getting to start the new season.

For those that didn’t already know, yes, we did away with TV! No, not the actual televisions themselves, but rather the service. No satellite, no cable, no antennae..... the only use of the TV for the past 4 months has been by means of DVD or Wii games. We watch a DVD a few times a week. It has been fun to introduce my children to some great films they hadn’t yet experienced, including many classics. And the nostalgia it provides for Scott & me, LOL! The Wii only gets played once or twice a week, and I like that so many of the Wii games require physical activity so that when the kids are playing them, they’re not just sitting on their bums & twiddling their thumbs. I have to say, I am thoroughly relieved from not having our home polluted with all the crap that is on TV these days, and I honestly did not realize just how often the darn thing came on for no good reason until we got rid of the service! How often I turned it on just for background noise while cleaning the house even! Instead, we now listen to our favorite radio station, enjoy watching our fish, play more board games together, and go on long walks around the neighborhood, to the parks & the river... Aaaaahh, freedom from the addiction of television is very liberating!!

We’ve been getting along pretty well in Carol’s absence... I have been surprised by it because it is very strange to not have her in our daily lives the way she was. We all still experience sad days, but for some reason I think we are still feeling relief that her great suffering is over, and that really is comforting. Scott & I have both had moments of startle when unexpectedly hearing her voice..... For those who don’t recall, during the time that she was in the hospital last June, I got the girls each their own Build-a-Bear “cow” (Grandma’s fav animal that she collected), and included the voice module chips in them of which Grandma recorded a special message to each of them. When you squeeze the appropriate spot, the recorded message plays, and you hear her voice. On a couple of occasions now, one has been bumped just right & without realizing, and gave quite a shock to our systems............. at first, you think you’re mind is playing tricks on you!

On the subject of Scott’s parents,... Last month, on the 17th of February, it would have been their 40th wedding anniversary. Dad opted to spend most of the day to himself as I imagine most people would & do. That evening, he went to the restaurant they always went to every year for their anniversary, and he dined alone. Right now, he’s on a little jont around the country visiting family & friends.

I have excellent news for my dear friend Barbara C. Awhile back, I told you about her & requested that you pray hard for her as she had been diagnosed to with an extremely aggressive cancer that had invaded her breast and her spine... to the point that her back literally broke & she required surgery to cement it back in place after a vertebra collapsed. Her initial doctor had ignored her for a year before she was taken seriously that something was wrong. Had she been listened to at the beginning, she would have had a 90-something % chance of recovering, however at the stage that she was finally diagnosed, she essentially had 0% chance at recovering, and the main objective was just to control the spread of the cancer and try to provide her as much time as possible. Well, put another notch in your Prayer Warrior belts because testing & scans have come back with NO TRACE of cancer!!! Yes, the impossible is possible, and I tell you once again, BELIEVE in the POWER of PRAYER!!

Let’s see what else,... Well, Scott, Courtney & I are flying to Chicago next month. Scott has a training convention to go to with one of our lead vendors, and Courtney & I are tagging along to go sight-seeing so we are pretty excited about that. While we’re there, we are going to a Cubs game, and in fact, our tickets arrived just today by FedEx!

This post is getting too long so I’ll close with this... We have finally decided it’s the right time to sell the house & relocate back up near the business. We have an excellent realtor in place, and already have half the house packed up & in storage. Still working on the rest with the intent to only keep out what is essential to actually still living here, and then have some winter clean-up to do on the back yard, some painting to do inside, and so forth. Our plan is to hopefully be ready to put it on the market within the month. There are just some things we want to do first. We’ve already got another realtor in place up north keeping an eye open for prospective homes we might be interested in, however, we don’t really plan to start serious “house-hunting” until we have this one on the market.

If I’ve left anything out, I guess I can put it in the next update,.... which hopefully will not be even remotely as far spaced as the last one!

*toodles!* xoxo