bonfires smell nice outside

we have a wood burning stove in our home. and we bought an unprecedented amount of wood in hopes of saving a little bit of mula this winter from high gas bills. now the plan was to burn only at night, so the house would stay heated during the day. yeah well it's not working that great. our windows are old and drafty. we did the good ole plastic on the windows deal, it might help a smidge, but not really. so we have been burning wood all day and night, and we're really not that warm! ha! and our huge wood pile has already diminished to nothing! what can you do? ha. oh well.

anyways i keep complaining to jon about how i think we smell like wood. and how its ok if your outside. but i really don't like the smell 24/7. and he keeps reassuring me that i don't smell like smoke... until the other night, he was proven wrong.

i ran into best buy real quick the other night while jon waited in the car with the boys. i was ready to check out and went up to the counter. the man at the register said it was a credit only line, and i was paying with cash. so i left the line and went to the one right next to it. in the mean time an employee came up to the first cashier counter that i was standing at. and the cashier says to his friend "hey, why does it smell like a bonfire in here? do you smell that?"
other employee, "yeah, that's weird".

immediately i knew. it was me. hoping maybe it wasn't, i nonchalantly waved my arm in front of my face as i stood there waiting to check out. crap. it was me. i knew it . i am the bonfire smell. i smell like a stinking bonfire. i hung my head in shame, and tried not to make eye contact with the two guys discussing my smell.

do i admit it and embarrass their calloused and rude remarks? i could say "what's wrong with bonfire smell? you can roast marshmallows or make smores. some people rather enjoy the aroma of burning wood. " or do i yell, "shut up you jerk faces, i don't care, you meany heads!" or calmly explain, "it's me, i smell like a bonfire, you got a problem with that?" or do i walk away leaving a smoking bonfire stench trailing behind me?

i chose to buy my item and walk away. quickly. quietly. and not turning back. and i yelled at jon when i got in the car. .... but he thought i smelled nice.

busy, busy

so, i am not doing the greatest job on keeping up this whole blog thing. as i have mentioned before, my computer time is limited due to the raising of the children. and as of two weeks ago we have a new addition in our home. NO - we are not expecting! don't even let your mind go there. ha.

i started babysitting a 6 month old little baby boy noah. he is super cute and probably one of the best babies ever (next to my kids anyway!) he is here monday through friday, and my big boys surprisingly love it. i thought they would be more like "are you kidding me, not another baby!" needless to say i have been a little bit more home bound than before. ( three kids to the grocery store is no big deal now! ha!) but that definitely doesn't mean i have more time now to sit on the computer! unless i wanted to put isaiah in charge- hmmm... no i don't think noah's mom would appreciate that too much. huh. and really it's not so bad, i love my boys and love being here with them. i really wouldn't have it any other way.

i do still go to story time at the library with them all, (beth is there to help, don't worry) and i've had several people say, "wow, i wouldn't ever leave the house with all those kids, wow you're brave". that's beyond me. i have to get out a little. it's really not that big of a deal. why does leaving your home require bravery? what's the worst that can happen? crying? screaming? running away? throwing a fit? making a scene??? eh, so what. you can always pack em up and bring em home. at least you had a change of scenery.

it's all good times. i just don't want to miss a minute of my boys growing up. don't get me wrong, i love to get out, alone. and fortunately i have a hubby who says - "go ahead, i got the boys!" what a guy! so if you're sitting at home during the day, and think i wonder if alana wants some company, the answer is YES. come join the madness. bring your friends, bring your kids! and i'll even let you hold a baby (or two) ;)

"make things happen"

we live in a decent neighborhood. it is just one large horseshoe with mostly ranches. the homes were built in the late 60's, and most of the people on our street have been here the entire time. so many of our neighbors are retired and have these beautifully manicured yards which they work on everyday. we talk to our surrounding neighbors and they have all been friendly thus far. one neighbor in particular enjoys "discussing" other neighbors "issues" with me. but i try not to get into it with her.

as many of you know we started remodeling our bathroom a couple months ago, which is just about done. so we've had our old bathtub and sinks outside by the side of our garage since they came out. eventually we were going to deal with them but you know life is busy and time goes by.

the other day i saw a note attached on my mailbox. so i went and got it. it was a hand written note which said:

"this area of homes have been known for its clean and neat appearance. however we have a few neighbors who could improve in this category. such as - garbage cans in or near the front yard, garbage beside the house which can be seen from the street and overgrown grass and weeds. let's take pride in our homes and yards and return it to be neat and clean again. thank you!"
neighbors

it was written on a piece of note paper that on the bottom in big print says "Make Things Happen".

we have officially been labeled the "white trash" of the neighborhood. nice. first reaction i am infuriated, embarrassed, annoyed, and physically upset. they couldn't even sign who they really were. i do however have a good idea of who i think it was. come tell me to my face. we don't have a neighborhood association, we have broken no laws, this is our property, we pay for it every month!! just because we are as old as your grandchildren doesn't mean you can reprimand us like we are children. i will admit it i hate weeding. i don't do it. the inside of my house is clean, and right now that's all i want to focus on. and i am glad that when my husband (who works very hard and goes to school twice a week) comes home, he wants to play with our children. even now after reading this note again i am upset and want to lash out on someone.

but you know what, what will that do? even though instead of waving now, i want to wave obscene hand gestures (i'm just being real here, i wouldn't really do that), and even though i want to put the bathtub in the middle of my yard and plant weeds in it, i will choose to just take the criticism with dignity, and accept the fact that some people just leave mean notes on your mailbox, and i don't have to burn the note in the middle of the road.

jon and i have been taking the "growing kids God's way" study on wednesday nights, looking for direction on how to raise our kiddos. i didn't know how much it was going to be for me as an adult. it talks about teaching your children biblical morals for living. why do we do the things we do. or why do we talk the way we talk. and it has been a few days since we received "the note" and there are some things that keep running through my mind (thank you holy spirit) and some are from this parenting class. "be courteous to all men" (titus 3:2) "do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself" (leviticus 19:18) "love is not rude" (1 cor. 13:5b) they also have a whole chapter on respecting age. alright, alright, i get the picture.

i like to lean towards the verses in romans when it talks about treating your enemy kind "in doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head". yeah, burning coals. but that would be wrong motives in being nice. (crap) "love must be sincere" (romans 12:9a)

so yeah, it is incredibly annoying to receive such a note, and yeah, we should probably through the bathtub away, obviously it is upsetting the "neighbors", but the bottom line is - we cannot control what other people say or think, but we can control how we respond, especially in our case when we have little eyes and ears watching us.

vanessa saved my life

the other night vanessa went on a walk with me in my neighborhood (which is really just one block of houses that is a half a mile around- make sense?) it was dark outside, and vanessa asked if i walked alone in the dark. i casually replied, " yea, it's a safe neighborhood, well lit, and i usually carry my cell phone". so we proceeded to walk. it was good times as usual, we were finishing up our second mile when all of a sudden a small (maybe tiny, it was dark, minor detail) yet ferocious, barking beast of a dog came charging at us from someones house!! i held tight to my good friend like a frightened school girl, and squealed like a pig. eeeeekkkk..! we stopped dead in our tracks. then it happened. vanessa saved my life.

NO! NO! NO! vanessa calmly and firmly yelled and pointed at the dog which stopped the angry animal in its attempt to attack us! as we stood there and vanessa repeatedly yelled NO!NO! NO! the owners came out with a very large dog who started coming our way, but was deterred by the constant pointing and firm NO!NO! NO!'s.
finally the owners said, "gigi that's enough, gigi, gigi, that's enough, enough gigi".

we made a break for it and continued our walk back to my house. whew. fortunately it was dark enough for my neighbors not to see who i was because i was still screeching obnoxiously . (apparently i was frightened okay)

i am so glad i had vanessa there with me. she saved my life.., well at least maybe a dog maiming, or severe face scar, or a dog jumping up on my leg (yikes)..... who knows what the details of that night could of become. if i was there alone with my cell phone, what could i of done? thrown it at the dog? no - i now know if ever in danger again from rabid doggies - i need to call vanessa!!

thanks vanessa ! love ya girl!!!

jackpot winner

okay myspacers this is a repeat. this is the first blog ever for alana. it is from october 20, 2006. i just don't have any creative juices right now!! ha, so here ya go.....

So I am a Jackpot Winner. No seriously, I scratched off a flyer thingy in the mail and I am - a Jackpot Winner. Now, as you would guess, I was quite excited. I've never really won anything before, except a $1 raffle drawing for a sweatshirt, but there were 30 tickets for 31 sweatshirts, so I don't know if that counts? Anyway - I looked at Jon in amazement, "Jon! I'm a Jackpot Winner!!" In reply he says, "What did you win?!" Now that was an interesting question. The flyer was for a car dealership about 20 miles away, and they were having a big sale and all kinds of prizes were being given away, but only for a couple days and during certain hours. Now, when I scratched my thingy it was the last day and I only had 2 hours to go!! If I was going to do something I would have to hurry. So before I was going to go all the way out there I called. I told the man on the phone " I'm a Jackpot Winner!! What do I win?!!" He told me to just "come on down and recieve my valid prize." ~click~ Valid prize, what the crap does that mean? So the babies were napping, and Jon wanted to watch the Tigers game, I thought, "EH, it's probably a scam anyway." But - Jon encouraged me to go for my Jackpot Prize, "What if it's a plasma tv?! just go!, it's only 20 minutes away." hmmm. So I made the drive.

Now at this point of my story I am sure you have already speculated on what the outcome will be, and are thinking; silly Alana, you should of known better, why are you such an idiot? Please - don't be so quick to judge - have you ever been a jackpot winner?
I get to the dealership to claim my coveted Jackpot Prize. I eagerly find a salesman. ( which I find most car salesmen rather creepy, but I was brave) I say "Hey I'm a Jackpot Winner, here's my flyer, what do I win?" "Alright, that's great, but before you get your prize I get to try to sell you a new car!" says Creeypy. Unfortunately for him we had just recently purchased a new car and don't need another one. And I think that may have upset Creepy, but really, I was just there for my Jackpot Prize. So he took me in the building, had me sit down at a table in a room full of people and said he'd come back with my prize. YESSS!, the moment I drove all the way for, the moment of truth. What could the great valid prize be?

Creepy came back and handed me a pamphlet and said, "Read the information in here, fill out the sheet, and send it in, have a great day." As he walked away I said, "Excuse me, but, what is it?" He annoyingly replied, "read - the - pamphlet." Ok, he should of been fired because I could of been a real customer, and right then I felt like he was being RUDE, after all I was the dang Jackpot Winner. I said, "Um, you mean you don't even know what your Jackpot Prize is?" Creepy, "no." - "Well that's just ridiculous!" ( I really got him on that one - take that)
So anyway my free two nights stay at a Ramada Inn in Florida or Hawaii scheduled no sooner that 60 days and no later than 90 days between numerous black dates after I send in my $50 "refundable" fee to hold my room and pay my own airfare, food, rental car, fees, taxes, and surcharges - is going to be great!

Too bad I threw away my only Jackpot Prize .

At least I can always say, "Once, I was a Jackpot Winner"

disciplining imaginary friends

for those of you with myspace you may have already read this blog, but i thought i would transfer it. it is originally from january 27th 2007. so isaiah was almost three then....

So Isaiah has been watching Toy Story 2 almost everyday for the past two weeks, and now when he plays he is Buzz Lightyear. And earlier this week he had an imaginary friend with him as well, who is Jessie the cowgirl from the movie. Now I don't care, it's fun, it's normal to pretend play and most kids have an imaginary friend at some point in life. (so I'm told) Anyway day 2 of "Jessie" playing at our house, I heard Isaiah being nasty to Lincoln telling him, Jessie didn't want him to play with them and he had to go away and he knocked him down. So I stepped in and told "Jessie" if she wanted to play here she had to be nice or she would have to go home. And Isaiah said, "Mom, Jessie dosen't LIKE it when you LELL (yell) at her!!" So I replied, "You know what, it's time for Jessie to go home, since it's time for lunch and then nap anyway." So apparently she went home. And then when I put Isaiah to bed for nap (which really hasn't been going good lately, I think he may be out growing them, but still needs them, if you know what I mean) I told him, if he didn't take a nap then Jessie couldn't come back over to play. And of course he failed to take a nap, so Jessie has not returned.
Now, am I completely surpressing his imagination and need of creative expressive play? - no . I'm just letting him know this is my house and my rules (yeah right ha) - At least untill he figures out he can play with an imaginary friend anytime HE imagines it.

iron "wo"man - well not really

a few weeks ago i watched the iron man triathlon on tv. now the iron man is the most challenging, intense, grueling thing i have ever heard of. it is a triathlon in hawaii that consists of a 2 mile swim (in the ocean) 104 mile bike ride, and a 27 mile run (a marathon!!). - now don't quote me on those numbers cause i'm not sure exactly but they are pretty stinkin close - insane in the membrain. and of course they have to show all the heart wrenching stories of the athletes who are competing and i sit there and cry. very moving. especially the father who pulls around his adult son who has MS. ugh... my eyes are misting.

so i thought to myself - "self, you need to get out there and do something active, you should do a triathlon." now i'm not talking any where near an iron man, because well.. because that's a bit much for this mamma. why a triathlon you say? what about a 5k? what about any physical activity what so ever? (HA) why not. back in the day ... i was a swimmer for 10 years, and did some biking tours with my fam, and i was a soccer player for 10 years, (i would run to and from practice!). now the important key words there are was, was, did and would. because those things were done well over a decade ago. yikes.

BUT a mini triathlon is 500 yds swimming, 14 miles biking, and 3 miles running. so i'm going for it! there is a ladies triathlon in slyvania next june. which gives me plenty of time to get in shape. right?! right. i have my good friend tami, who has graciously agreed to take on this challenge and be my partner in training. (and she's really smart and has all the books about it and the know how- tami you're awesome, you can be my yoda) it's going to be great!! yes.

i really am getting excited. we are going to start "training" on wednesday, and it will be amazing. i do have a few obstacles, like i need a free pool to swim in, and the three kids will be a little bit tricky to train with (hmm..), and i hate running, and i need a new bike, and i hate running, and i don't have a gym membership, and did i mention i hate running? yet those are things that can be remedied. i will succeed, i will perservere, i will not just be a huge trash talker, i will try not to procrastinate and wait untill the month of may to get serious and then possibly have a stroke in june during the triathlon because i failed to get in shape and felt like i should go through with it anyway because i don't want to be a wuss and back out, i will be a triathlete!!!

...well, that's the plan anyway.

3543740004000

i received my phone bill this month and i noticed it was a little bit higher than usual. and i thought, "that's weird, i didn't make any more long distance phone calls than normal, what's the deal." so i looked over my bill and there was a phone call placed to 3543740004000 which is in - ICELAND!

apparently my sweet lincoln who always plays with the phone, dialed the random numbers of 354740004000, which happen to be not so random and is someones phone number in iceland. fortunately the call only last one minute. because it cost $11.14!

i want to call the phone company and tell them to please take the charges off, because i don't know anyone in iceland! the closest i can get to iceland is my dad is 1/8 Finish (from finland people) but that really isn't even that close! and i can't figure out a way of not lying to verizon because apparently we really did call there.

i don't know. but lincoln is grounded.




UPDATE - THANK YOU VERIZON!
i called verizon and explained to them what happened and we had a good laugh and they took the charges off my bill :)

bathrooms

apparently we as in my husband and i, like to purchase homes with rotting bathroom floors. absolutely love it. house number two, bathroom remodel number two.

now, the last remodel from start to finish lasted approximately one year. i was pregnant with isaiah and had to pee in a bucket. nice. even after the bathroom was pretty much done, for some reason we failed to replace the door for quite sometime. (remember bible study with a sheet on the door - sorry ladies)

hopefully this remodel will not take as long. my dear, dear husband, (whom i love, cherish, and respect) has really learned a lot in the last few years and is much more competent when it comes to home projects. yet it has been two weeks since the beginning of this project and i have had a full shower with walls in my entry way to my front door for over a week. although i do have a new functioning toliet - bonus.

this weekend the new shower should be going in. needless to say, i am leaving for the weekend. taking all the children and will not be present for the demolishing, exposing the lovely mold and rot that we have discovered around the current shower. foul.

i cannot not wait for a new bathroom and really am thankful that however long it takes, i know jonny boy is saving us a ton of money by graciously taking on the enormous task despite his hectic schedule. aw... thanks jon.

moral of the story - home inspections work for you not against you.

blogs

ok, so i really just set up this account to spy on other peoples (mainly vanessa's ;) )blogs. i have a myspace account (~gasp~) yes it's true, and i blog there occasionally. so with my limited computer usage due to the fact that i have three babies, i do not feel like there is enough time to manage two accounts of - anything.