A Tag

Tracy tagged me for this fun meme:

Four, Four, Four, Four.....

A. Four places that I go to over and over:

1. grocery store
2. church
3. Target
4. My mom's house

B. Four people who email me regularly:

I hardly get any personal emails :( I do get frequent ones from the following:
1. Steve (from work)
2. my kid's school
3. Lion Brand Yarn
4. Borders books

C. My favorite 4 places to eat:

1. Ruby's
2. Super Mex
3. Red Lobster
4. Souplantation
D. Four places I would rather be right now:

1. a cabin in the mountains
2. a beach house
3. Hawaii
4. colonial Williamsburg

E. Four people I think will respond:

1. SuzyQ
2. GrandmaK
3. Mitzi
4. Kimberly

F. Four TV shows I watch all the time:

1. Lost
2. The Next Food Network Star
3. Supernanny
4. Mass on EWTN

G. Four words that describe you:

1. shy
2. considerate
3. non-confrontational
4. pensive

H. Four favorite "old school" Hollywood actors/actresses:

1. Frank Sinatra
2. Jimmy Stewart
3. Spencer Tracy
4. Bing Crosby

I. Four favorite "old school" television game shows:

1. Press Your Luck
2. Concentration
3. Let's Make a Deal
4. Password

J. Four favorite "old school" television shows:

1. I Love Lucy
2. Dick Van Dyke Show
3. Twilight Zone
4. The Brady Bunch

K. List four things you liked best about Christmas when you were a child:

1. scent of the tree
2. family get together
3. Christmas music
4. Christmas TV specials

L. List four things you liked best about Halloween when you were a child:

1. cheap costumes from Savon
2. candy
3. trick or treating
4. my dad scaring kids at the door

M. List four things you did not like about growing up:

1. strict parents not allowing me to do many social activities w/friends
2. feeling left out
3. having to take the bus to school
4. feeling dorky

N. List 4 events that impacted your life:

1. having an Evangelical witness to me in college (caused me to search further in the Catholic faith)
2. my marriage
3. birth of my children
4. death of my father

I tag those listed in letter E.

History of Religion

I've been busy doing things around the house, shuttling kids to games and practices, and just plain trying to keep my head above water. So I'll just post this until I get a chance to do a longer one.

This is a very interesting map.





H/T Steve Ray

My Son Wants to Be A Zookeeper??

Ryan has such a strong interest in all kinds of animals. He reads all kinds of books about them, loves watching Animal Planet, and plays with all kinds of animal toys. He wants to be a zookeeper when he grows up.

So, we recently got him the Zoo Tycoon computer game. I'm not too sure how it goes, but the gist of it is that you get to build your own zoo, complete with animals, attractions, concession stands, etc.etc. You get money to construct buildings and buy the animals and make sure you provide the right kind of environment for your animals. You make sure they are fed, have room to roam, play and whatever else you need to do to make them happy. You also need to make the zoo enjoyable for people to visit so you can make some money. The more the merrier, I guess.

I really haven't had the time to sit with him and go through all the directions so he pretty much is experimenting and I'm around if he needs some help.

So, I went off to do something and after a long while, he comes looking for me to show me what he did. He decided to buy 54 elephants! He wanted to see what they would do. The area that he put them in was too small for that amount of elephants and apparently the fence was too low. The elephants started to break out of the enclosure and attack the guests! Oh my goodness! They started swinging at them with their trunks. Apparently the guests took off because there were then something like 19 guests in the whole zoo. After a while the computer froze - too much action going on perhaps.

Obviously, Ryan is a little young for this game. He's still too young to figure out all the complexities of running a zoo, but he has lots of fun just bringing in the different animals and providing a proper environment for them. He likes to see them walk around, eat, or just roll around in the dirt. He doesn't care when a message comes up saying the guests are upset that there are not enough restrooms, the soda cart has broken down, or that the giraffes are getting sick and dying. He just loves playing around with anything that has to do with animals. His curiosity is amazing to watch.

I'll leave with this picture of Ryan (along with Emily, who insisted on being in the picture). He's also a heart stealer!

I Survived!

Today was the first day of summer vacation and I SURVIVED! I had to referee a few arguments but overall, we kept our cool.

Kathryn told me she needs a new bathing suit. I just bought her one last year and it was a little big, so I told her to try it on. It fit fine. Then Emily asked to try hers on. Hers is getting tight so she will need one. Well, since they had their suits on, they wanted to go in the pool. It needs to be inflated and since it would take a while, I told them they could go in the sprinkler. That worked out great and they had a good time, except the three times Kathryn ran back in the house because of the bee that was flying around. By the third time, I told her she better just stay in the house. The others decided to stay in as well, so that was the end of that.

I'll try to get the pool pumped up this weekend.

Tonight we went to the Angels game. Tickets were $5 each so that was an unbelievable price. The Angels lost but we had fun. I had to get up and walk with Emily a couple of times but she lasted for almost 9 innings.

Tomorrow, I have my hair appointment so I'll be taking the kids to my mom's so she can watch them. We'll also have lunch with her. Then it's basketball practice for Ryan.

In between, I'll clean and cook. The usual.

Blessings to everyone!

RIP Tim Russert

I was saddened to hear the news about the death of Tim Russert. Although I don't watch much of the Sunday talk shows, I would occasionally watch Meet the Press, especially when Mary Matalin and James Carville would be on together. I was always impressed with his fairness and his style. He didn't get me angry like some others are wont to do. I guess I just plain liked him.

I would like to read the book he wrote about his father, Big Russ and Me: Father and Son: Lessons of Life. I see that it's number one on the Amazon list.

May he rest in peace.

Random

The week so far has been spent doing lots of yard work, getting rid of overgrown plants and pulling weeds. Also, we're getting a new screen door for the front, so I cleaned the front porch area. I know entrances look nicer without one, but we love to have our front door open in the summer, especially in the evening time when the cool breezes come. But we don't want the mosquitoes and other bugs to come in with it!

I didn't get around to doing another menu plan this week because I'm still following the one from last week. The Chicken with Orzo came out great and so did the Pizza Noodle Bake. Unfortunately, I didn't take pictures of them because I didn't think of it. I'm not used to taking pictures of my meals. I guess because everyone knows what chicken nuggets, spaghetti, and tacos look like (frequent meals around here)! LOL!

Summer vacation is right around the corner - next Tuesday as a matter of fact. I'm looking forward to getting to sleep in a little bit longer - not too much longer, though, as I like to start my day with some quiet time while everyone is still sleeping. Ryan and Kathryn have both started basketball this summer. I'm not too thrilled, but I won't get into that!:)

I got some gas this morning for 4.35 a gallon. That was the best I could find and that was at Costco. The lines there are so long, at times, six or seven deep! It reminds me of the lines back in the 70's (I know, I'm dating myself)! The gas station closest to me was already at 4.59! I don't know how much more of an increase we can take! I wish I had a smaller car but we need the space that my minivan offers.

Well, I think I'll take out my knitting and have a go at it!

Meme

I was tagged by Cathy from A Bit of the Blarney to do this fun meme. It looked easy, but once I got to thinking, it was a little bit hard to come up with ten people.

Ten people I'd like to spend ten minutes with (in no particular order):

---Pope Benedict XVI
---Clarence Thomas
---Frank Sinatra
---President Bush
---Mother Angelica
---David Eckstein (shortstop for Toronto Blue Jays)
---Jim Caviezel
---Blessed Mother
---Archbishop Chaput
---Paula Deen

And number 11 would have to be all my blogging pals. I'd love to meet all of you and have a little chat!

Menu Plan Monday

Yea! I finally got organized enough to plan my menu again! It's been quite a while and I've just been flying by the seat of my pants in regards to planning my menu- as in, I haven't been doing it. So now, it's the start of a new month and here is my planned menu:

Monday: Ryan's baseball team has a pizza party so no cooking today! Just some good pizza at the parlor.

Tuesday: Tacos, Spanish rice and beans

Wednesday: Pizza Noodle Bake with Cornbread

Thursday: Chicken with Orzo

Friday: Spaghetti with French bread and a salad

Saturday: Homemade Chili with cornbread

Sunday: Sole Fillets, rice, steamed vegetables

For dessert this week, I plan to make some chocolate chip walnut cookies. Also, I have some bags of frozen blueberries to use up so I plan to make Blueberry Oat muffins and some blueberry shortcake.

To see other menu plans, visit Laura at I'm an Organizing Junkie!