The Olympics & Our National Anthem

As I've already admitted, I am an Olympics junky! Love watching just about every single sport, and think that I even understand Curling a little better after this year!

Like many other Americans, I really LOVE it when a U.S. Olympian wins GOLD & love to hear our National Anthem. I will sometimes even stand, place my hand over my heart, sing & be extremely proud of this Olympian, their hard work, & sometimes find myself crying with the Olympian for their accomplishments! Am I the only one that does this???

What interests me, though, is the different responses to the playing of the National Anthem, The Star Spangled Banner! Some athletes stand with their hand over their heart. Some will sing the words along with the music. Some just stand there & soak it all in. So, my question is, if you were a gold medal winning Olympian, what would you do when they play The Star Spangled Banner?

By the way, I'm realizing that my children do not know the words to Our National Anthem. So, if this is the case for anyone else, I thought that I'd share them with you!

Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

And congratulations to Canada & their amazing 14 Gold medals. Thanks to them I now know most of the words to their anthem too. Before, all I knew was "Oh! Canada!"

Heater in October...

...really?!?! The weather in Texas this fall has been very unusual, to say the least. We've had so much rain that I've lost count of the # of days or the # of inches! I'm kind of wondering if we're close to hitting the record for rainfall?!?!

So, today's weather, of course, was rainy & chilly. I think the high was in the low to mid-50s, but also a little windy! However, my biggest surprise was that the thermostat in our home reads 70 degrees, usually, very comfortable to the Kemper Clan. Ironically though, I found myself cold & soon cuddling on the couch with Colin (I'll take that anytime though). Colin's arms & hands felt cold, and he admitted that he was cold and asked to cuddle under the blanket with me, never mind the fact that he had a short sleeve shirt on & refused to put a long sleeve one on!

For a moment, I thought about turning on our heater. But WAIT! It's only October! To me, this is way too early to turn on the heater! In fact, I'm pretty sure that we usually don't turn on the heater until close to Thanksgiving or into early December. Also, the house temperature was 70 degrees! During the winter, we set our thermostat at 68 degrees. So, the house isn't even cold enough for the heater to come on! Are you kidding me, Sarah? (Is what I told myself!) So, I quickly stopped wimping out, put on my fleece jacket, put a portable space heater by our kitchen table for dinner time, and REFUSED to turn on the house heater! I think that I'm the only crazy person here, and am pretty sure that Greg will turn on the heater as soon as he gets home in the morning!

One of my friends commented on Facebook that it's cheaper to heat the home versus the cooling costs and couldn't understand what the big deal is about turning on the heater. I do LOVE the milder temperatures in Texas while they last, and October is supposed to have milder temperatures! I love how the milder temps don't require the use of either a heater or air conditioning! However, I must admit (not surprising to many of you) that I'm a cheapskate, penny pincher, tight wad, etc, etc! I was raised to work hard for every penny and was taught almost 4 years ago to make every penny work hard for me! So, I like to make good use of every penny that God has blessed us with...and also, yes, I am cheap and would love to make good use of the milder temps to help me out with my cause! So, I still refuse to turn on the heater!

Well, sort of! I won't make my children suffer! So, yes, I turned on the heater upstairs where their rooms are...but I still have my fleece jacket on and will just add an extra blanket to my bed instead and pray that the milder temps and no rain conditions will quickly return to Texas!!!

Happy Valentine's Day 2009

We wanted to wish everyone a Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope that your Valentine's Day is better than ours! Originally, Greg's parents were supposed to come visit this weekend and let Greg & I go on a Valentine's date. However, the flu hit our home at the beginning of this week. So, we told Greg's parents to not come. Greg was still sick this morning, Colin has an off & on fever, Sheridan is finally well after missing 4 days of school, and I seem to have missed this round of sickness (knock on wood!).

Instead, we made the best of our situation. I made the kids heart shaped peanut butter sandwiches for lunch. Greg is well enough to make a nice dinner for the two of us, and we'll probably watch a movie tonight.

The talk of sickness brings something to mind: why is Valentine's Day in February? Isn't February usually the peak month for the flu & cold season? After this week, I vote to move it to September!

In any case, hope you have a wonderful Valentine's Day! We love you all!

North Texas Weathermen

OK...I just need to vent a little. I'm kind of sick of North Texas Weathermen and their end of the world type of attitudes! All I heard today were forecasts for Horrible, SEVERE thunderstorms with STRONG chances of tornadoes. They made it sound like this would be the storm of all storms, which completely FREAKED Colin out when he heard these forecasts!

Sorry...in my area, it rained, thundered a little and was mildly windy for about 20 minutes, then died down to NOTHING! I guess the thunder wasn't loud enough to bother my son because the boy stayed in bed! Two nights ago, the winds were so much worse. In fact, those winds were so much stronger & harder on our house that Colin thought it was thunder and came scrambling out of his room. He said that he came out and called for me, but I couldn't hear him over the wind. He, also, said that he realized it wasn't thunder, so he went back to bed. And where were the forecasts for that?!?! Keep in mind too, I grew up scared of thunder (and still am). I was more scared of the wind 2 nights ago than tonight's "thunderstorm."

Then, let's take last month's ice storm. Forecasts for freezing rain and treacherous icy road possibilities were so bad that school was closed on a day where NO ICE was to be seen. Now granted, later that night, freezing rain came, roads were iced everywhere the next day & school was canceled again; so, they were finally right there.

I guess my point is that they sensationalize everything to the point that I don't know if and when to believe them. Thankfully, I am married to my own severe weather "junky" who keeps me informed with more reliable forecasts! Thanks Honey!

Happy New Year 2009

We wanted to wish everyone a HAPPY NEW YEAR for 2009. We hope that your 2008 ended wonderfully and that you will enjoy many blessings in the new year.

I'm just curious if anyone still makes New Year's Resolutions? It seems that most of the resolutions I hear of are something like, "I'm starting this," or "I'm not going to do that." My resolutions seem to be more progressive. For example, for 2009, I'd like to work on getting my home cleaned up, organized, and to keep it that way. I've had enough with the chaos, but I know that this is something that I can't just snap my fingers and make happen. I need to figure out a system, and I need to get my family to help me with the system too.

My other resolution is to figure out a good workout schedule and to get back into a routine. I'd prefer to find something that doesn't involve me getting up every morning at 5:30 BUT one that my son will allow me to keep. I haven't been inside the gym since prior to school starting in the fall. I had planned to go 2-3 times a week, but Colin refuses to go to the gym's childcare by himself. This obstacle has left me with the only option of going back to getting up at 5:30, which obviously hasn't happened. Again, going to take some time and commitment to figure this one out!

So, now that 2009 has started, it is time to start problem solving and some creative thinking. Hopefully, in a couple of weeks, I will be able to report some progress!

Noah's Ark?!?!

Recently, on a Sunday, we found ourselves staying home from church, both a combo of oversleeping and keeping Colin home during an asthma flair up!

Greg decided to act out a devotional time about Noah's Ark. The kids seemed to enjoy it!

We were able to talk about how Noah obeyed God, even when his friends made fun of him. We talked about being patient while on the boat and being thankful to God for saving us and giving us everything we need. We, also, talked about the importance of not fighting with each other because it would just make everyone miserable and to work together! It really was fun!

Canton Shopping

OK...since it's been almost four weeks since we posted anything, I thought that I'd do a quick catch up posting!

About 6 weeks ago or so, I spent a day shopping in Canton with some friends and had a wonderful time! A BIG Thank You to my husband who stepped up and played me for a day!! (He took Sheridan to school, did our grocery shopping, and did my afternoon of carpool duty!!) I was finally able to find some pieces to decorate our house...yes, it's been almost 5 1/2 years to do this! I went to Canton on a Friday, and Greg & I spent the following morning hanging it ALL up!

So I thought that I'd share my wonderful finds!

Dining Room Decor, best VALUE decor!!! Mirror...FREE and repainted (was given to me over a year ago at a FREE Garage Sale). Metal artwork was marked down to $17 each from $50!!! Still looking for something RED to add color to the wall.

I'm not crazy about the cross, sign, picture arrangement in our bedroom. For now, it will do. I'm not exactly sure how I want it to look.

Apparently, First Monday Trade Days is open on New Year's Day!!! Since I'm not interested in watching a bunch of college football (especially since my team will probably not be playing), my sister and I are planning a shopping trip on this day. Anyone else want to join us??? Let's see what other bargains and inspirations we can find!!!!