lizardblog ( the blog of liz creech

December 28, 2003
Whewwwwww.........

O.k., I guess "it" is officially over. I love Christmas, I just hate the feeling of pressure to do the things that the season requires. I do not like feeling like I have to decorate because "the kids will only be little once" or give a gift because someone gave me one, or bake or clean or any of it. This should be a time of rest, of being off and enjoying family. I do not like the fact that my kids look at the tons of stuff they get and say "is that all?". That makes me angry and sick that I have allowed my kids to grow up with a mentallity like that. One year, maybe next, I am going to have the kids give me their list, buy the 2 gifts we get them and then have them wrap them and go to a childs house where the walls have holes to the outside and no decorations at all and give them their so desired gifts. Maybe they will then see just how blessed they are. I don't know. When I make them really clean their rooms and then 10 kitchen garbage bags of trash and broken toys and spoiled food is thrown out, I see just how selfish and unappreciative they are. Very sad.

O.k., enough bitching I have some funny stories to tell. First, in the beginning of January, I lost my wedding and engagement rings. I couldn't begin to tell you where they might have been. I thought I had thrown them away. Well, remember me telling you I wasn't going to decorate? I didn't do it all myself but just a little total done by all. We were going through one of the many boxes of Christmas decorations and Meaghan stands up with something shiney in her hand and says "isn't this your ring mom?". I shouted because it was my engagement ring, I dug through to the bottom of the box and low and behold there was my wedding ring too. I cried, ask Alan. I cried hard. I just had to thank God for transporting those rings in there because I think all the decorations were put up by the time I "lost" those rings. I really don't remember and I was almost positive that I had thrown them away. It was a nice Christmas present.

Christmas Day...The kids get up and we let them open their stockings first. Meaghan says something about a gift in the garage and I assure her that there isn't anything in there. The reason she asked is because I wouldn't let her go in there since the 14th. She asked for a bike and because we only get the kids 2 gifts each I told her if we got her a bike that because of cost that would be her only gift. Meaghan loves Hummers and I had been telling her for about 2 weeks that I had bought her one. So at 9:24 I tell her that she needed to get her clothes on because they were going to be bringing her Hummer at 9:30. She, Alan and I get our coats and shoes on and I blindfold her. We walk her out to the street and then I set a spring action Hummer - larger than a Hot Wheels car - in the street with a bow on it. I tell her to open her eyes to see her Hummer. I aked her if she liked it and she did. I said "You thought I got you one of those big remote controlled Hummers, didn't you?". She said, "no, I thoght you got me a bike". While we went out Katey had put the bike in front of the fire place and as we walk back in everybody is laughing waiting for her to see the bike. She walked into the kitchen back around the couch and then sits, yes sits, right next to the bike. She even had to move a bit to miss hitting the peddle, AND SHE DOESN'T SEE THE BIKE! We are all just cracking up. Conor says "Meagh, look beside you". She turns, sees it and screams. It was hillarious! If I had had that on video we would have won 10 thousand dollars. Too, funny!

There is one more story but for the life of me I can't remember it. It will come back to me eventually and then I will tell it to you all. O.k. - I have to go get a Sunday paper to read and look at all the sale ads. I'm gonna make more coffee in my new French press coffee pot my wonderful Husband got for me. I am truly blessed and loved, I hope the same for you all.

posted by Liz at 11:13 AM - permalink - -

December 22, 2003
AAAhhhhhhh......

I am feeling good. It has been an awsome weekend. And now I am sitting here drinking coffee with the youngest of my children. I would never have imagined a child so young would beg for coffee almost every day. Of course it is more milk and sugar than coffee, you know "kids coffee".

Two whole weeks of "nothing" starting today. Well, if you don't count going to Alan's parents house on Christmas day that is. Getting back to the good weekend. Had the Beans at our house. I am very blessed to have such good friends. And what is even more amazing is that I have only known them since June, or there abouts. You know how you meet someone and you just hit it off? I love Mollie Bean. And, this is funny, any woman "best" friend I have ever had I call them by their full name, like Mollie Bean, Sandy Kelly, Tracy Rains, Linda Souza, Jodi Nixon and those who I know that have the potential to be best friends like Beth Keck, Trish Hiduck. I just think that is interesting or maybe I am just quirky. Ok, so back to the real trail here. We had a Christmas party on Friday and hung out until 4 a.m. Got up and watched a U.K. basket ball game on tv. I hate U.K. but I will watch something like that if I have friends around who enjoy it. Did a little bit of shopping and then headed off to Cincinatti to a Gathering at Vineyard Central. Good, Good times! Even getting up early to go to work Sunday was pretty cool and then we went and had our Christmas get together with my family in Frankfort. We try to meet half way and eat somewhere. They live in Louisville and Frankfort is as close to half way we can get where there is something decent to eat. Got home in time to watch "The Practice" which was a rerun so we flipped and then made the kids go to bed at midnight.

Seems like there was more I wanted to say but I will quit here. Looking forward to Mayhem in January and getting together with some friends I haven't seen for awhile. May the force be with you.

posted by Liz at 10:46 AM - permalink - -

December 17, 2003
Pride

I have had a breakdown. I am fine now but some serious stuff has been happening with me. I also know the main reason for all this. Look at the word that starts all the previous sentences and there you go, "I". There is a serious pride issue going on with me. The house has to be perfectly clean because I want people to think highly of me and say "Wow, she has a clean house and she did it all herself". Even with the kids help I would have claimed it all for myself. I grew up with a mom who was constantly saying that the job I did wasn't good enough and that "If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself". Now, my mom loved me and was proud of me but she was also a perfectionist and there was always something else to do to make the house and yard look better. She was and is still a prideful woman. I realized this more when I was at her house this past weekend. So, I guess, the point is that I come by it through nurturing. I am working on getting better. Funny that sounded like I "have something". Beth Keck made a point in the last comments about having a peaceful household. I want that. I also want it clean, and tidy and the baseboards clean and no cobwebs and and and.... See, it is almost a sickness. Hi, my name is Liz, and I'm a ...... perfectionist.

All that was to tell you the most recent report on the house cleaning stuff. I had a list about as long as my arm. As the days went by I marked more and more off to not do because of time. I did not like that at all. Then on Monday, I lost it. Alan and I talk on instant messanger some days and man, I went off. Poor man. He, thankfully, came to my rescue and talked me back from the ledge. He is a good man. Sometimes I am amazed that he deals with me and my idiosyncracies. I am glad that he loves me. Of my list what I have "done" is the living room and kitchen are in good shape. That is it. But it is something, right?

posted by Liz at 8:21 AM - permalink - -

December 15, 2003
Just.....

It has been an interesting weekend. Only a little out of the ordinary. First I need to thank God for sending a friend to show me how to be humble and appreciative. I think I have mentioned before that I am somewhat prideful. A friend gave me a large sum of money. So, thank you God for making them willing to part with hard earned dollars.

Second, I went to Krispy Kreme donuts in Louisville on Sunday morning. I walked in the door and a gentleman working there handed me a fresh still warm donut. I told him I loved him. And at the moment I bit into that melt in your mouth confection, I did love that stranger!

I was in Louisville to go to a Christmas dinner theatre production thingy at my mom's church. It wasn't as cornball as I thought it would be. It wasn't stirring and magnificent, but very nice. They performed and served dinner all together. The people in the choir, that is. They started off with a couple of solo songs and monologues while you ate the jello salad appetizer. There was a little break as they brought out the actual dinner plates and then while you were eating pork tenderloin, green beans, and cheesy potatoes they performed more. Dessert was already on the tables, lemon and pecan pie. It was nice.

The cleaning isn't going as well as I had hoped. I thought that if I could just work and work and work it would get done. This is a monumental task. And I don't have very willing cleaning partners. I have to "loudly encourage" the kids to keep working. I lost it this past Wednesday when the washing machine broke and flooded my kitchen and it ran under the walls into my bathroom and bedroom closet, and I just quit. There was tons, litterally, of laundry from the kids rooms. I went out early Friday go get lay-a-ways out for Christmas but needed to be back by 12 so Alan could leave for a "30 Seconds Down" fishing/camping trip. You will have to go to his blog to read about that. Pretty funny. After the repairman came and fixed the washing machine and I got Alan off I had to go out and get the lay-a-ways that I didn't have time to get earlier in the day and then got movies, came home and proceeded to fold what laundry was clean and just watch movies. So, I have until Thursday night to get things in order. It will take all day Friday to put up the tree and then clean up from that and be ready by 7p.m. for our party guests. I am unrealistic in my goals. And I won't even mention what my house looks like at this moment. :-( Very discouraging. Right now I am just.....

Well, I am not getting anything accomplished at this moment or as long as I sit in front of this screen. Peas and carrots to you all.

posted by Liz at 9:00 AM - permalink - -

December 10, 2003
What would you do?

I don't know if you all noticed below what I said about Registerfly screwing us out of 300$. Somebody asked me about it and I wanted to expound on it and see what you all would do. I am a bit upset and rather mad about the whole situation.

Let me see if I can make it simple. I want everybody to know what they did.

Alan was using some of their space for one of his sites. He signed up for 5.95 a month payments. We randomly got charged 17.95 (3 month blocks) with no notice at all. At the beginning of this month after I had paid all the bills I saw that they had charged us one payment an luckily we had the money to do so. Then they proceeded to charge us for 18 months of hosting which we owed but there was no notice and of which we had no money for. Alan complained and it turned out that it was a computer glitch that allowed that to happen. We had enough money left in the account for gas and small things until I worked again but the damage had been done by overdraft fees. And before Alan knew this he had gotten gas once (10$) and lunch ($6) and we got charged overdraft fees for those too. We called the bank and explained what was going on and they said that because it wasn't a bank error they weren't responsible for the fees but Registerfly was. So we got back with Registerfly, this process taking weeks and all the while we are racking up overdraft fees and 6$ a day for being overdrawn. Registerfly did refund the payments. When they got back with us about the fees they said "it is our policy not to refund bank charges". So, needless to say we started the month off in the hole and it is Christmas. Not that we spend hundreds of dollars on the kids but 300$ bucks is a lot and we can't pay all of our bills this month. And it will take a good 3 months to get caught up on the late ones now. I am so mad that if I had the money I would hire a lawyer!

What would you all do? What is the possiblity of getting our money back? I mean to some people 300$ is nothing but when I am in danger of getting the heat turned off and creditors start calling wanting their money, that Registerfly caused us not to have, what do I do? It is an awkward thing to explain. So, tell me what you think.

posted by Liz at 9:02 AM - permalink - -

December 09, 2003
A little update

I just thought I would give you an update on what got done yesterday. We, Meaghan, Conor, McKenzie and Myself, got the bathroom picked up, the hallway picked up, still have to clean the walls and vacuum again. I vacuumed the air intake and the ceiling fan. Also got all the dust from the walls that the ceiling fan caused. The girls worked on their room and Con on his and I started cleaning and organizing the guest room. I also vacuumed the baseboards and around the perimeter of the carpet. I had found the attachments to the good sweeper and then they were gone yesterday, so I improvised and taped the dusting attachment from the other sweeper to the good one. Funny, huh? We worked until lunch time, 12:50 or so and then we ate lunch and that was all I got done. It is a big start but I figure it will take the rest of this week to get all of upstairs done.

Have you all ever seen Clean Sweep on the Learning Channel? I was ready to email and beg then to come help me. Or Rally Round the House? I like that one too. I guess I have little chance of that but I was desperate. So, me and the kids will get it done. I hope to take all of next week and get my room done. It will take that long. I will get it done, though. If I have to be a demon from hell it will get done! I have been thinking of just saving up a little money after Christmas and paying someone to come finish this wall in the back yard for me. I will never get to it and it looks like Sanford and Son in my back yard. Embarassing, really. With all the grass from the summer gone and the cinderblocks stacked back there and crap all over the deck, I am surprised we haven't gotten some horrible letter from a neighbor or something. I just want it done.

I was thinking, again, about how I only write about the everyday kind of stuff on here. And how others seem to have something "Spiritual" to say. Well, don't know what to think about that at the moment, it just entered my head. Sometimes I feel lame about it and other times I really don't care. I guess that is normal. Being spritual is a normal everyday occurance and sometimes I just don't "think" about it, it just happens. It is interesting to see some traditional churches on cable access and I am so glad to be removed from that show. I don't think I need to be doing something to make the spirit come on me. I think it is there all the time and I don't need a special occasion to have it manifest. I just does, and not in some big showy way. Does that make sense?

Well, the day is almost upon me and I have some cleaning to do. I will keep you posted on my progress and hopefully that will keep me accountable.

posted by Liz at 8:50 AM - permalink - -

December 08, 2003
Update on the lip

Blue Tapp Scheffer asked how my lip was. It is very good. I don't think there will be as much of a scar as I originally thought. I am a bit relieved, even though Alan said it would be cute.

Got a "plan". I have to tell you I am a lot like Jodi Nixon, in that I like to make lists and dates to finish things and check them off when I am done. It gives me a sense of accomplishment. So, counting today I have 11 days to get my house in proper order for our Christmas party on the 19th. Everybody is invited! It is pot-luck, as it is Christmas time, we got screwed out of 300$ by Registerfly, and we in general always spend too much money when we trow a party any way. It takes a bit of the stress off and allows for a lot of different things to come and go. The Thompsons are coming from Michigan. I am pretty stoked about that! It is going to be fun and all the cool people who are anybody should come.

So, this is my plan. Me and the kids are going to clean a room at a time until it is all done. It might take 2 for the girls and my room, but it will get done. If I get the bedrooms done and the Christmas tree up then I am going to paint. We will just have to wait and see on that.

Not much else to say. Got a lot to do today, so Peace to you!

posted by Liz at 9:29 AM - permalink - -

spiritual

> vine & branches
> vineyard central

blogs

> Garden Escapades
> Trish Hiduk
> Maryann
> Alan Creech
> The Vine
> Little Houses
> Amber Bishop
> Jody Nixon
> Laura Ogle
> Debi Warford
> Jason & Brooke Evans
> Eric Keck
> Beth Keck
> Pete Matthews
> Trudi Matthews
> Brian Phillips
> Bryan Sherwood
> Malie
> Kim Johnson

Homeschool

> vegsource homeschool
> discovery school channel
> saxon math and phonics

general interest

> john rosemond's affermative parenting
> lisa welchel
> thunderstruck
> Homestar Runner

gardening

> Kids Gardening

books i like

Here are some books I suggests if you are looking to homeschool or just for information. I gleaned a lot from them. Our church gets credit if you buy through these links.

In their Own Way
by Thomas Armstrong

Seven Times Smarter
by Laurel Schmidt

How to Talk So Kids Can Learn
by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish

Teen Proofing
by John Rosemond