This week has flown by

Wow, it is already September 10^th! Next thing you know it will be Christmas.. I managed to get both of my papers that were due done. I

 was sweating it for a while there. I also had a headache that I could not seem to get rid of for about 2 days.

We are watching Royal Pains right now. It is a rerun. This week is all reruns and then next week the new shows will start premiering.

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Sept. 14 Jay Leno is back!

I will be so glad when Jay Leno is back on the air!

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Get a Life...

Well we went to Seacoast in West Ashley this morning and it was pretty good. We seem to all enjoy it. This also includes the teenagers of our family. Kristina seems to like it a lot more than Justin but that is normal. Justin doesn’t like much of anything. The theme at Seacoast is GET A LIFE…this is so that we get a Life Group. Life Groups are small cell groups of people usually 10 to 12 people that come together once a week have fellowship, bible study and hopefully bond. Well James and I were all set to GET A LIFE tonight…but we called the Life Group Couple to make sure we could come. We never heard from them so we are thinking that because it is Labor Day weekend, they cancelled it. I am hoping that we will be able to get connected soon to a Life Group and meet other couples with the same interests.

  The past couple of months since we moved to Johns Island have been a hard transition for all of us. We have been so use to going to Grace Fellowship and seeing familiar faces of friends that it is hard to go to a new church. Grace Fellowship is special because there are several people there that remember Jessica. I didn’t have to explain about her they already knew her. When you speak of a love one that has gone to be with Jesus to a person you don’t know very well there is a certain silence that you get. This silence is because the other person doesn’t know what to say. It is ok to say.” I am sorry for your loss; I don’t know what else to say”. This is perfectly acceptable. I guess the reason I mention Jessica is because her birthday is going to be coming up on this coming Friday. She would have been 19 years old.

That day will also be 8 years since the Twin Towers got hit. That was the day that we saw the true face of terrorism.

As I think of Jessica on that day and what her life would have been like if she hadn’t gone to heaven so early, I will also pause and pray for the families that lost their loved ones on 911.

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Posterous is cool

This is awesome! I can post to all my blogs. James and I are fixing to go for a walk and then I will come back and blog some more.

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Christmas is over for another year

Well all is quiet right now in the Moffitt household. Only my bird, Peaches and I are awake. James and Justin were out late last night. Kristina had a friend come over and they stayed up late. I woke up as usual around 7. I have almost the whole place cleaned up from Christmas. I was never one to keep Christmas stuff up after the fact. I think I got that from my Mom. She always took down the tree either the day of Christmas or soon after. Most of the time it was because it was a live tree that had long since had better days by the time Christmas had come around.
Yesterday, James worked from home for a while from remote. I fixed breakfast and did some cleaning up. James then decided that we should go Geocaching. That seems to be our newest hobby this year. I really have not gotten into it as much as James and Justin have but I am getting there. We went to Kiawah Island to pick up his new glasses that were ready. Then we went Geocaching. If you are wondering what that is go to: www.geocaching.com and check it out.
It is like a treasure hunt but using technology. It is pretty cool actually. We only found 1 of the two we set out to look for yesterday. But we had fun looking. It was not too hot or too cold but a little cloudy out. While James and Justin were out doing their "thing", I got on the computer and logged all my finds from the geocaching I have done. I have only done about 10 so far compared to James, who has about 28. I think we will probably go Geocaching later on today. It is suppose to be nice today with the high in the 70's.
I am hoping this next year i will get better at blogging. I can get my weight down. I will be able to make it back to Texas to see my family there. I would also like to be able to make new recipes and be able to cook better meals for my family. I have been stuck in a rut for a while, making the same stuff over and over again and I know if i am tired of it that my family would be tired of it.
I did start making some new stuff lately: homemade brownies, homemade cornbread, homemade lasagna, and homemade chicken pot pie. The lasagna and the chicken pot pie were definite hits. Cornbread was too salty according to Kristina and brownies were ok but nothing to write home about.
Well guess that is it for now.

Merry Christmas 2008

Well, this is the day the Lord has made. We are to rejoice and be glad in it. Christmas 2008 has finally arrived. At this writing it is about 1 in the afternoon. James got us up (us being me and the kids) at about 8:30 i think it was. I got up earlier to put stuff in the stockings for the kids. I dozed in my chair for a while and then finally went back to bed about 7ish about the time that James decided to get up. hehe Well he got out of bed that is, he went and snored in his recliner for a while i am sure.
I fixed roast for lunch and later on we are going over to our friend Leah's house after all to eat Christmas dinner. Originally we were not going to do this because of the crowd factor, however it works out economically for us to just fix a couple of side dishes than for me to fix a big meal just for the 4 of us.
James went to see one of his dear friends to cheer her up for a couple of hours. She has to work at the hospital so he took her a Latte from Starbucks earlier and probably will be coming home soon. I ended up having to put the air conditioner on because it has gotten so hot outside. The thermometer in the living room was registering close to 80.
This is probably not one of the "better" Christmas' for the kids. We were not able to get a whole lot for them. As James has said before Money doesn't grow on trees and if it did then our tree must have gotten burned along time ago. "
I read his blog just a while ago and he mentioned Jessica and how he missed her so. Christmas has not been the same since our little girl went home to the Lord. She loved Christmas and she would sneak Christmas music on the CD player all year round. She loved to do that. I smile when i think about her doing that now. For the longest time I have not been able to remember her BEFORE she got sick. But slowly memories are returning that remind me how special she was during her lifetime.
Well it is about time to go peel potatoes and fix banana nut bread the dinner tonight.
Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year!
Katy

Two Days before Christmas!

Good Morning, I realized today that I have not blogged in ages. I was looking at my daughter's myspace and James' myspace and read their blogs. I then went to mine and realized I have not written anything on here since the summer of 2007. YIKES!!
It is Chrstmas break for the kids. Kristina spent the night over her friend, Barbra's last night and hasn't come home yet. Justin is on the other computer playing one of his many online games. James set a computer up for me to use, free from having to share with the kids. It is nice to have my own computer again. I am hoping that I can work on our web site and get it updated. I have not worked on it in over a year. There was a time when i would change it weekly if not daily. Those days are gone but i hope to get it updated with new photoes of the kids. I also have new recipes i want to add to my cookbook I have on line.
I need to get off of here and clean the kitchen and go to the store for last minute shopping and get my Christmas dinner supplies. We were going to a friend's house for Christmas dinner until James discovered they were going to have 40 people over there. Well, we might drop in to go see them but neither one of us do well with large crowds, especially James. You would think that he is an extravert in most things because he is pretty out going, however when it comes to crowds and idle chit chat you can forget it. hehe I actually do better with groups when it comes to that.
This has been a year of change for us in many ways. I am still struggling to find a full time job or to get into school to get my master's. The government is not handing out financial aid like they were last year so it is harder to get money to go to school. James started a new job with Resortquest in September and really likes it. He is their IT Manager, it keeps him busy.
In October we moved away from the double wide trailer that we knew as home for the past 7 1/2 years. that was the longest we had been anyway in our marriage. It has alot of good and bad memories there. That was the first place we moved to when Jessica was going through her treatments and that was where she past away in 2001. We had 3 dogs, 6 cats and 4 birds while in that place. When we moved we had to give up 3 of our animals. We found homes for Ginger our dog, KC and Oliver the two cats. We kept Angel, who is now 7 years old and my cockatiel, Peaches, who i have had for 8 years now. Although I love our new place and all the benefits it has, I miss having the kids at the schools that they liked. Kristina moved to a different high school and is having a hard time making the switch. Justin has adapted but that is because he knew some kids at the new school and that has helped. The kids recently acquired two guinea pigs from someone at one of the schools i substitute at. Kristina got the boy and his name is Nevil and Justin got the girl and her name is Luna. Both names come from the Harry Potter sequil. They are actually quite sweet and I have held them a couple of times.
I know there are probably more things I want to talk about but can't think of them right now. Maybe I will be able to blog some more later on.

Sometimes silence is Golden!

The other night, James and I went to a get together at a restaurant with some of the area bloggers. There were about 10 people that came to the gathering. We actually have more people but some could not make it that particular night. James blogs alot more than I do so i always feel funny about going since I don't blog as much as everyone else that was there.

One particular person, has a strong interest in politics. He made a generalized statement about medicaid and food stamps. Well, one of the ladies there took offense to what he said. They said they were not "arguing" but you could have fooled me. I kept my mouth shut.

If someone had asked me what i thought...well then of course i would have told them. If i remember my history right, medicaid and food stamps came from the Johnson era. I went and did some research on the origin of medicaid and this is what I found:

The federal government's involvement with this issue began in earnest in 1934. [6] In that year President Franklin Roosevelt established the Committee on Economic Security (CES) and charged it with drafting a Social Security bill. Although the original CES report on Social Security stated with Roosevelt's approval that a "health insurance plan would be forthcoming," the CES statement caused such a stir that Roosevelt decided to postpone the health insurance issue, fearing that it jeopardized passage of the Social Security bill (Corning 1969: 38). Accordingly, the provision in the original Social Security bill proposing a "Social Insurance Board" and authorizing study of health insurance was changed so as to delete all reference to health and rechristen the board as the "Social Security Board" (Chapman and Talmadge 1970: 342). President Roosevelt had decided that "health insurance should not be injected into the debate at that point, nor should the final report on health be made public as long as the social security bill was still in the legislative mill." Indeed, as of 1969 the final CES report on health still had not been made public (Corning 1969: 40, n. 17). You can read the full article by going to this URL: http://www.cato.org/pubs/journal/cj16n3-3.html

Anyway, i found it interesting that indeed Roosevelt actually started the health insurance issue and started the Social Insurance Board. This eventually developed into the Social Security Administration.

I think that when the administration at the time of creating medicaid and food stamps were thinking that it was going to be a temporary solution to the economic problem of that era.

I do not think they wanted medicaid or food stamps to be used indefinitely.

We have generations of families that used medicaid and food stamps like it is their "right" to have it.

Ok, i will get off that soap box now.



I am glad that September is nearly over. August and September are hard months for our family. August 5, 2001 was the date when Jessica went to be with the Lord. So each year when August 5 comes around, we remember Jessica. Then on Sept. 11th, not only do we remember the terrorist attack but in our house we remember Jessica. Jessica would have been 18 this year.

I tend to think of all the things we missed out on with her. We missed her learning how to drive, her first babysitting job, Jessica going to public school and all the other teenage type stuff.

We are experiencing alot of the "firsts" with Kristina because Jessica is not around. Our family dynamics changed. We are no longer complete. Kristina is no longer the middle child but has taken on the characteristics of the oldest child. I think in someways she has had to grow up faster because of what has happened to our family.

Well guess that is it for now. I am trying to get supper finished up. It is taking forever tonight getting the baked chicken baked!
later

Memories....

OH something that happened today that was cool...
James and I went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast. When we were checking out they had stuff around the counter you can buy. I happened to pick up a box that had candy from the 60's. One of the candies was Red Hots. Now you are probably think and your point is? hehe
Well when I was about 11 or 12, one of my best friends Melinda and I would have a contest to see who could put the most red hots in their mouth without choking on them. They are a very hot cinnamon type candy. Anyway, when i was at Cracker Barrel I saw a box that had this type of candy in it and it brought back some fun memories of what 2 11yr olds would do for entertainment back in the 70's. hehe
Course you gotta remember this was before internet, cell phones, computers etc. So we didn't have that much to entertain us with. We had to make our own entertainment. hehe
James and I also went to the Flea market today and while he was looking at something else. I spotted the Pfalsgraff pattern that we had for our wedding plates. I made a mistake of selling them back when we moved from Texas to Georgia. sigh...hind sight is 20/20.
We sold alot of stuff that I wish we would have kept. But at the time we were trying to move to Ga.

It has been too long ....

Wow...it has been since March the last time I blogged. That is way too long!
I will try to recap what has happened since March...
I went to the Mom's Sleepover with Courageous Kidz Mom's. That was probably my last blog that i wrote in March. I have some pictures that maybe i will be able to post from my camera phone.
From Feb to June I worked at the middle school as an teacher assistant in a special education classroom. These children have a mixture of disabilities which include severe autism to mental retardation. This was definitely a learning experience and made me want to go back to school and get my Master's in Special Education.
In June, I enrolled online with University Phoenix and started my first class with them. It was a communication class. I did well in there since it has been a while that I have taken courses and since it was only 3 weeks long. There was alot of work to get done in that time frame.
The last week before i was fixing to be finished with my first class I was informed that I didn't qualify for financial aid after all. Why you ask? Well, as much as i hate to admit it, it is my own fault. When I was in UT and going to school to get my Bachelor's back in the mid 80's. My grades were horrible. Some classes were better than others but over all my gpa SUCKED. lol I was not really a serious student and I didn't have any clue as to what i wanted to do back then.
Now when i was in the alternative certification program a year or so ago, I was able to get in with no problem. For the longest time i thought i would not be able to get my certificate because of my gpa. If you take the over all gpa from my jr. college and my UT classes I have a high enough gpa to get into the University of Phoenix and to be able to get financial aid. Anyway, I had to write an appeal letter back at the end of June. I have been waiting ever so patiently to find out the results of the appeal. I know there are other colleges out there but I feel that if UOP will not take me that most likely the other colleges will be the same way.
i should find out this next week if i will continue with University of Phoenix or not.

I have been trying to get a full time job for sometime now. However, i am running into something I have not experienced until now...because i am nearly 50 (choke). I am considered too old for some jobs. It doesn't matter if i have more experience or education than anyone that they hire. Most jobs it seems want young and perky. GRRRRRR
Sorry I am neither young or perky anymore...

Another fun thing that has been going on since March is that Kristina got her learner's permit.
I have been teaching her to drive. She actually has been doing pretty well. I started out with my old car i had in March. I had a 93 Ford Escort. Started with the parking lot and then progressed to a secluded street by our house and then the main road in our town. Well in May, we got a new car, my first new car ever. WOO HOO!! It is a Honda Accord 2008 Silver. Well once we got the new car, I was having a hard time relinquishing control of it to our 16 year old. Finally in August I decided that I needed Kristina to get back behind the wheel so she could get use to the new car.
I would also get use to her driving. This is our first experience when it comes to our kids driving. We missed out on when Jeremy learned how to drive since he lived in Texas.

Kristina and Justin started back to school this past Monday. Kristina is taking drivers ed this semester. So i am figuring by Christmas she should have her license. Lord help us! lol
Both kids are promising to make better grades this year. Last year was not a very good year for either one of them because they didn't try. But I think they realized that NOT trying doesn't get them anywhere.

Our dog Ginger, looks like she is going to have puppies. She looks like a dachsaund/terrior mix. This will be her first litter. She is 2 1/2. The father is our landlord's sheltie. So they should make for some interesting looking dogs.
I will try to post pictures when the blessed event happens.

Well guess that is it for now. I need to go an finish up supper.