Memorial Weekend

Saturday, Mom, Casi, Austin, Devon and I went to the cemeteries and put flowers on the graves and to make sure that the graves of our vets have flags on them. Locally we have relatives that go back to the Civil War. I found one of our more recent losses that did not have a flag, however I could not find anyone in the office to tell. Saturday afternoon, the boys went out to Kristina's to visit with Rachel since Ashley was at a friends house playing and spending the night. Saturday night Rachel spent the night with us as I decided to let her go to the 500 instead of me. Sunday rolled around and up at 5 AM grandpa, Austin and Rachel headed out to meet up with Lara and Chris for the races. Austin told me that the cars were going so fast he couldn't count them. He said that they tried to video them and you couldn't even see them on the screen. Rachel informed me the fastest car went 245 miles per hour. Well that is a little faster than they went when I was a youngster. On Monday we all met at Lara and Chris' new home to help them move, Casi, Devon and I went and picked up Ashley and headed north. Rain, Rain and more rain. Lara and Chris are all moved in and 4 of their 8 nieces and nephews have been to visit them already. After helping Lara and Chris, I took Casi, the boys and the girls to Casi's home. Austin actually has school tomorrow. We are not sure how long he has to go to school, so I guess going to the genealogy library might not happen...
I have not seen any of the pictures from this weekend yet, so if they are good I will post them later.

Hoarders

I have been watching the show hoarders. I feel great stress watching it. I know that this is a problem. Frances was our family's hoarder. However unless you understand OCD, you do not understand the emotions that are involved. I wish there was an easier way to help these people, but I know there's not. So many of the times you find out that they had some kind of trauma in their life. Sometimes it is death, some times it is childhood molestation, sometimes it is being bullied and other times it is an emotional need not being met. The emotional ties are so great. I listen to them and my heart aches for them.
The shows clean house and clean sweep are the same. The emotional ties to things is so great. You can see the ache, the pain, the emotions when they are trying to talk them into giving things up.
I have a tendency to throw or give away things. Sometimes I wish I hadn't. Don't get me wrong, I have some OCD tendencies, I believe everyone does. I for example hold on to shirts that I have gotten for participation in something.
On one of the shows they showed the following in someones home...

10 Commandments of Clutter by Stephanie Culp

1. Stop procrastinating. Decide what you are going to do with the next piece of clutter you pick up.

2. Quit making excuses. You are only fooling yourself.

3. Use it or lose it. If you're not going to use it, get rid of it. Period.

4. Learn to let go. For every square foot of space filled with clutter, there is one square foot of living space in your home that is lost.

5. Be a giver. Poor, needy, friends, relatives--everyone benefits more from a giving person than a pack rat.

6. Set limits on the amount of space allocated to any kind of clutter. Limit closets, bookcases, and filing cabinets. When one space fills up it doesn't mean you should buy more space ( another house).

7. Use the In and Out inventory rule. When something comes in, something goes out.

8. Less is more. Less = more time, money and energy. Also = less stress.

9. Keep everything in its place. For example, the blender doesn't belong in the bedroom or the mail in the bathroom.

10. Compromise. Stop letting perfectionism keep you from doing what needs to be done, or from letting someone help you dispense with your clutter.
Functioning efficiently is better than functioning perfectly.

So if you know a hoarder, show sympathy and try to help them. It may be a slow process, but let it be!

Can't believe

I can't believe this school year is about to end. Seniors are gone and I only have a few students. The ones I have are all great kids. We have been enjoying watching movies covering various things we have discussed and studied this school year. We watched My Sisters Keeper. What a tear jerker. Even big strong Kody cried. Then we watched Radio. Great movie. We watched Hoot, since we read the book. So the summer is about to start, and then it will be another school year. Time sure does fly by.

Austin Ready to Blog

Austin wants to blog. He has an email now... woohoo... Casi let him have an email account... I purchased a journal for him because his mother journals and he thinks it is great. Now he is writing one. SO the next step is blogging... NO FACEBOOK! Of course his will be by invite only. We plan to do this as soon as school is out. We are looking for the perfect picture for his profile, and he is practicing his writing skills! He took pictures this weekend so he can add them to his blog. He and Devon love looking at the pictures. Casi.... remember he wants to BLOG!

Trains, trains and more trains and then the Celtic Fest!

Kristina went home early sick. The girls stayed with us. We were trying to decide what to do. LegoLand seemed to be a good place, but then we decided we needed to take the boys too. So we drove over to the metro station and hopped on the northbound to Chicago. We went to the Celtic Fest. I joined a Welsh heritage group. I was fortunate enough to met and talk to folks from Wales that now live in the states. One man was from the same area as my original family. His last name was Owens. Probably related. We plan to do the genealogy later on this fact. Here are our pictures for the day.
We rode four different metro trains to get to the Celtic Fest. At the fest we enjoyed a $4.00 Chicago Dog, great Celtic Music, Story telling, and meeting many new people. The girls loved the Irish and Scottish dancing. The Welsh dancing reminded me of our traditional square dancing. We walked many miles and the girls enjoyed the free activities they offered for the kids. Rachel may be 11 years old, but she still enjoys the bounce rooms and miniature golf.

Chicago Skyline for the folks in Wales

Here are some pictures I took Sunday of the Chicago area. Enjoy!

Saturday of Mother's Day weekend

We headed to Chicago area. Off we go grandpa, Rachel, Ashley and me. We arrived and met up with Kristina and Dustin at the hotel. Then we all went to eat. After eating we met up with Lara and Chris at the Allstate Arena ~ Smuckers's on Ice. We headed back to the hotel where Chris gave all of us gifts, games, craftsman tools, calculators and pens... Then off to bed... a TV in each room of the suite.
I didn't take pictures of the skaters. I was enjoying watching them perform.

The start of Mother's Day Weekend

We started the Mother's Day weekend with a dinner at church, put on by the men of the church. They had a wonderful program for us. Our first picture is of mother... We decided this was her 66th Mother's Day;if my sister Judy were still alive she would be 66 years old this summer. Dinner was ham, with popovers, green peas, sweet potato or white potato, Rachel, Ashley, Marianne and I chose sweet, the rest of our group chose white, and cupcakes. The youth group did a hip-hop dance, while our guest speaker came over from Champaign. It was a great evening with family and friends. Michelle and Blaike were there to help celebrate. Rachel loved holding her as did Ashley. One of the funniest things was the prize drawing. First person received a jar of bit-o-honey candies, then Kristina won one of the bag prizes; tea bags, beautiful mug, some honey, a candle and some candy. The next number drawn the person won candy, then Rachel won a bag with the same type stuff as Kristina; the fifth person also won candy in a jar and then Marianne won a bag like Kristina and Rachel.... The laugh was... you need to sit in their row if you want to win. The evening ended with me taking the girls for new shoes. Rachel is wearing a size 9 1/2... Big feet!

Mother's Day

I will tell you about the great Mother's Day Weekend later today. We arrived back home around 9:30 last nite and I just didn't have time to write and upload pictures. I will do this after school. We had a great time. Smucker's on Ice, Celtic Fest, riding the Metro and just fun.

Indiana Beach Sunday May 3rd 2010

Sunday came and the boys and I prepared for our journey of the day. We were heading to Indiana Beach. We first went out to feed the fish in the pond, only to see that the toads have found it again this spring. Invasion of the little toads is not far off now. We ran to the gas station, doughnut shop and head northward. On the way there Austin spotted the windmills. Hundreds of them. We finally arrived at the park. The new procedure at Indiana Beach to get season passes, is like Kings Island, picture ID. We were in line for 2 hours waiting. Finally we were done. Off we go... we rode two rides when Casi and Shane finally got there. We had a great Sunday. Not too hot, Not too cold. No rain, but cloudy. All in all wow what a great spring day.