Is this me?

I went to Andie's blog and found that she had written about a personality test that she found on her cousin's blog. I decided to give it a try....what do you think? Is it me? I kind of take exception to the wishy-washy part. I am usually pretty decisive about things.....but you know this if you "get me" The loves to show off is a bit overstated in my opinion also. I can't help it if I live a very colorful life full of drama and just love to let everyone know every little part of it. (If you want to see the burn on my stomach where I spilled a cup of scalding hot coffee on it just let me know!) Give the test a try, I included the link! Good night, I am going to bed now!

You Are An ENTP

The Visionary You are charming, outgoing, friendly. You make a good first impression.You possess good negotiating skills and can convince anyone of anything.Happy to be the center of attention, you love to tell stories and show off.You're very clever, but not disciplined enough to do well in structured environments. In love, you see everything as a grand adventure. You enjoy taking risks for love.And if things don't work out, you're usually not too much worse for the wear! You would make a great entrepreneur, marketing executive, or actor. At work, you need a lot of freedom to pursue your own path and vision. How you see yourself: Analytical, creative, and peaceful When other people don't get you, they see you as: Detached, wishy-washy, and superficial

What's" Your Personality Type?

Did I say 16?

In my previous post I wrote that there were 16 cousins on Dann's side of the family......Well, all that is about to change! We got an email from Dann's sister Deanna and her husband Jeff (parents to Brian, Thomas, Matthew and Natalie) they are adopting a child from Liberia! Their paperwork is complete and they are waiting on a match. They will probably be matched with a girl age 7-10. Please pray for them during this exciting time and I will keep you updated!

Back home again........

in Indiana......okay not for me but for Dann. Elijah and Dann sing the song (Back Home Again in Indiana) everytime we cross the bridge from Louisville into Indiana. We spent the New Year holiday with Dann's family. We met in the Indianapolis area where both of Dann's sisters live. His brother, his wife and 7 (yes 7) kids and Dann's mom and stepdad traveled down from Ft. Wayne. There are 16 cousins in all so my kids always have a fantastic time!

Our tradtional gift exchange is that everyone draws a name.....then you have to MAKE your gift. I'll admit that this used to freak me out a bit but over the years it has gotten easier. It is much easier now that my older kids can execute their own projects. We had an easy year because we made the same gift for three people. I had Aubrey, Sophie had Thomas and Elijah had Michael (all teens). The gift we made was a total rip off of what Jana did for Elijah this past year for his birthday. I am not too proud to steal! The gifts were paper mache boxes that each one of us decorated to fit the person's personality. Sophie even painted her box! After you decorate the box you then tape 10 one dollar bills together and then tape the first one to the lid. The result is when you open the box lid a long stream of money rolls out. Needless to say it was a big hit with the recipients! Dann painted a beautiful watercolor for his sister Brenda's new bedroom and Macklin made some great fun foam paper dolls for Veronica (she's 3). David (Dann's brother) and Michael (David's son) had Dann and Elijah. They made them each a really cool folding wooden tables and Michael made Elijah some goo also! Bridget (she's 1 so mom helped) made Sophie tubs of play dough scented and colored by dry Kool-Aid. Matthew had Macklin and he made her the best bunny slipper ever! Deanna (Dann's sister, Matthew's mom) reports that Matthew thought up the idea and made them all himself. Pretty awesome for a teenage boy! Brenda (Dann's baby sister) had my name and she made me some cute Christmas pillow shams for my bed. We stayed up late on New Years Eve eating Papa Murphy's pizza and other fun stuff. The kids all stayed up until the ball dropped and were asleep about five minutes after midnight! Sorry for the length of the post. If you read to the end thanks for staying and enjoy the photos!

Tender Tennessee Christmas

It is late coming but here are some photos from our East Tennessee Christmas. Despite illness we had a good time and Papa Ben and Grannie Annie went a little crazy (much to our children's delight) with the gift giving! We spent Christmas Eve at Sissy and Darryl's house but since my temp was 102.8 I only managed to snap a couple of photos. The worst part of being sick at Christmas is that I missed all of the once a year food. Patsy's broccoli casserole, Amanda's deviled eggs, Sissy's strawberry pretzel salad, Vern's potato salad and Daddy's ham. I guess the bright side of that is I saved a lot of calories. I gave Santa Claus permission to give the girls my childhood dollhouse. Many thanks to Santa's helper (Papa Ben) for the extreme makeover! (No more '70's wallpaper). They were very surprised and Santa brought them some neat furniture to play with. EBZ's big surprise was a V-Bot (a remote control car transformer thingy that I will admit is cool). Christmas afternoon we traveled to Knoxville to Amanda and Jeremy's house for more gift opening and eating. I will post about our Indiana adventures later!

Going...Staying...Going...Staying...Going...GONE!

We had the privilege of going to the airport on Sunday to see Seth off to Malaysia. It was dicey for a while but he got to go. Amy retells the story on her blog. We are so proud of him and cannot wait to hear of his adventures! He made it safely to Malaysia but his luggage did not. Seth is keeping a blog also so we are all waiting to hear if his luggage ever shows up! It is said that nothing worth having ever comes easy.....I guess this is proof! Keep the Hoods (the international one and the stateside ones) in your prayers!

Holiday Highlights

Okay, I'm better......the official diagnosis was scarlet fever and strep throat. Sophie only had strep so that is good! I hope everyone had a great Christmas. Our season was fun filled. Sophie was an angel in the CLC Christmas play and Elijah's school did the play Santa, You've Got Mail. It explored all of the holidays in December so we learned a little more about Kwanza and Hannukah too! The photo of Sophie and Addie should be funny when they are teenagers! The babies and toddlers at CLC begin the play by walking thru the auditorium. I was happy to get a smile from Jadyn since I had just corrected her nap hair! I will post more later on our travels!

FA LA LA LA BLAH!

I hope everyone is having a Merry Christmas! Sadly, Sophie and I have celebrated Christmas from a horizontal position! Don't know what it is but I wish it would leave! Fever, cough, sore throat, headache, oh my! All in all we are having a very merry and next year this might even be funny! I will post photos of the festivities later, needless to say I will not be appearing in many holiday photos! Have a great rest of the day!

Thankful

I hope everyone is having a great Thanksgiving weekend! We did not travel out of town for the first time in our almost 13 years of marriage. We were blessed to get to spend the day and eat lots of good food with the Hoods and Goens. It was a fun and relaxing time! The pictures are from Sophie's CLC Thanksgiving and from Thanksgiving day. I like the one of the two little turkeys laying on the rug!

Brilliance

Really.....what's the point of having a blog if you don't brag on your kids? Elijah and Macklin came home today with perfect report cards. Elijah had straight A's again! The kid's really smart! Macklin had straight E's (1st grade A's) in all of the academics. She had an I (improving) on handwriting and talking so she clearly favors her Mother. I thought it was interesting that Macklin's teacher's comment was "She (Macklin) is such a neat person. I just love Mack!" I appreciate the fact that her teacher appreciates her and her unique personality.

While I am bragging, I was pleased to learn from Elijah's teacher the other day that he was the featured author from his class. His work is posted on the writing wall in the hallway outside of the cafeteria for the whole school to see. When I was in Macklin's class helping the other day I went to see Elijah's writing. I was curious who the featured writer was from Mrs. Smith's class and discovered that it was Macklin! Elijah's story was about a one dollar bill named Savuh Buck (they give them the topic) and Macklin's story was if she could be any mammal (besides human) she would be a monkey so that she could swing from trees and because it starts with M like her name! Pretty proud moments.....maybe we are doing some things right!

Gobble, Gobble, HO HO HO!

The assignment was entitled Turkey Dressing and the challenge was to disguise a turkey so that he would not be eaten for Thanksgiving dinner. With the help of some spiffy scrapbook paper from Jana (his suit is velvety), I think Macklin's result (with a little help from Mom) was GREAT. Her teacher loved it!

SASSY SOPHIE

Life with a two year old can be quite an adventure! All of these images except the one with Bubba teeth was captured this evening. Nothing like a little Nancy Sinatra, a feather boa and a little blue paint to make and evening complete! Be sure to check out the video below.

A Fest of Fun!

Our Fall Fest was today at church. Our small group sponsored a bake sale with the proceeds going to Operation Christmas Child. We had a good time making the goodies and we almost sold out. Each family took home a couple of things. The kids had a great time and Dann was a good sport to take them to all of the booths and games. Thanks to Ruth. Alan and crew for a well organized, fun event!

The Little Mermaid(s), The Jedi and a Biker Chick

Happy Halloween! We had a good time tonight. We went to the Gibson's house and trick or treated with Collin and Eric (does two years in a row count as a tradition?) and then we went to Pat and Amy's house. Too much candy but lots of cute photos!