Winter Break Fun (When does school start again?)

Well, the kids are driving me crazy. They fight all the time and keep doing things like bouncing my body ball, which they know they're not supposed to do. The body ball just landed on the desk a few minutes ago, knocking a bunch of stuff down. Ugh! Jeremiah spent his money from his Wal-Mart gift card the day after Christmas. He got a nerf gun and a remote control car. A starter piece for a Tech Dek build a park set, and some extra darts for his nerf gun. He promised he wouldn't shoot his sisters with the nerf gun, cause I knew that would cause fights, but apparently Chloe likes being hunted, so she asks him to shoot her with his nerf gun, while she runs from him! LOL. She is so funny! Jeremiah is now squishing a bunch of little marshmallows together to make a big marshmellow for his hot cocoa. He is so strange! I certainly can't accuse my kids of not having imaginations!

Christmas Presents and All That Drama

For Christmas Angela and Chloe got new Webkinz and they both screamed, at the same time, because they both happened to open them at the same time. One's called The Pucker Fish and it is Chloe's and the other is called the Clown Fish, named Nemo, which if you hadn't noticed is what almost every clown fish is called since a certain movie came out! And Jeremiah got Tech Deks. They're small finger boards and they have tiny little bolts. Josh got a new coat and he pulled the strings and covered his face. He looked really funny sitting there. I got a Scentsy warmer and a few scents to go with it. I was thrilled about that. I've been wanting one for a long time, but never could justify the expense. I must have mentioned that to my mother at some point, cause she got me lots of Scentsy stuff. Angela and Chloe got Snuggies For Kids. They wear them while they're playing on the computer and making puzzles. They like to cut and make puzzles. Angela got roller blades and kept roller blading all over my mom's house and she would go too fast and crash into things. Angela also got a Discovery Kids video camera, which I am afraid she might use to blackmail some people since she was recording all the time. Chloe got a new coat that is very cute and fuzzy. She looks adorable in it. Angela wanted one, too, but Uncle Dave (my brother) has a thing about kids getting clothes and/or books for Christmas, because he didn't like it when he got those things. So he wouldn't let Aunt Sheila (his wife) buy one for Angela, too. He didn't even want her to buy the one for Chloe. She also got a book about baseball for Jeremiah tha he had a fit about, but he got it anyway and he loves it.

Those are not all the things we got, but they are the main things. The kids had a good Christmas, other than Chloe's allergies.

This was mostly Angela's post, as she was telling me what to type, but I added my own commentaries in a few places, so I will say it was authored by

Angela and Shellie Paparazzo

itunes

Hey, I found my itunes gift card I had lost last year, so now I have a playlist on my computer! Only 12 songs, but we all have to start somewhere right! I discovered that my ipod no longer works, so I lost all the songs my husband had put on that, but oh,well. Now, I can put my favorites from my computer onto my new ipod, when I get one (if I get one). I only got this one because my daughter misbehaved for the last time and got her ipod taken from her. I never had one, really. So, the songs he put on there were for her. Otherwise I'd be more upset about losing them. As it is, they weren't my favorite songs to begin with. They were convenient that's all. Not the one's I would have picked. Considering how long it took me to figure out how itunes works, it will be a miracle if I figure out how to get the music from my computer to an ipod, if I ever get one, anyway.

Our Christmas Turmoil

Well, Christmas went fairly well. Chloe again had problems with her allergies while at my parents house. I don't know whether we'll ever be able to go to their house. Between her and I, we are allergic to every animal they have. I am allergic to both cats and dogs and who knows what else. I survive at Josh's mom's house, because I am only there for brief periods of time and I have prescription allergy meds that cost us a lot of money, that I have to take a ton of when I'm at my mom's. I give Chloe lots of her over the counter stuff, but it barely touches it. She's always so miserable down there with all there adorable long-haired cats that she can't resist. Of course, my extremely rude sister got on my case about having a cat when my daughter's allergic to them. Never mind that she never has this problem at home, except on the very rare occasion that Jewel sheds and Chloe packs her around. If she leaves her alone, she's fine. And Jewel's so big, she's hard to carry, so Chloe never does. Why does she think we were leaving mom's house to go to our own house with our own cat? Because our cat doesn't cause her problems. Maybe Jill should get rid of her dogs, so I don't have to pay so much money to go see her! Anyway, we headed back yesterday, partly because I was sick of everyone's judgmental jerkiness (sometimes I wish I was an orphan), but mostly because of Chloe's allergies.

A Need For Interaction

Okay, I know it's Christmas and everything, but some comments would be nice! I'm going to be leaving in a little bit. I'll be back Saturday and I expect to see some comments. I'm a social person. I require interaction in everything I do. Sorry about that, but it's a need that I have!

Genesis 1:26

Genesis 1:26

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."

Now, many of the policies in this country are trying to put animals in a position they don't belong in. They are treating them as either equals, or in some cases as higher than humans, but they're not! We are to rule over them. Now, does that give us the right to abuse them? Certainly not! I'm just against abusing animals as much as anyone else, but I don't think they should be as valuable or more valuable then humans. If my cat got a terminal disease I'd probably just have her put down. But I wouldn't do that if it was one of my children. I would look at and weigh all of our options and choose a good, aggressive treatment plan for him/her. What's the difference? I'm not going to make my family suffer financially over a cat, but my children are worth it. They are a higher value than my cat. I love my cat very much and I feed her and water her and I give her love and attention, just not at the expense of my children. If it came to that I would find another home for her. I would not neglect her or make her suffer further in any way. If I can't take care of her, I'll find someone who can. If she's ill and is probably going to die anyway, I believe putting her down is the most merciful thing I could do for her.

Now, this will probably be my last post in Genesis before the new year, since this is the last day of school for my kids, before break. I'll probably be on here a few times to update you on the holiday happenings, but no more in Genesis for now. We'll pick it back up in January.

Lord, help us to keep the right balance in knowing how far to go in caring for animals. In Jesus' Name. Amen.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Love,
The Paparazzo's (Shellie, Josh, Jeremiah, Angela, Chloe, and Jewel...the cat)

A Busy Week of Christmas Celebrations

It's been a good week, so far, other than Chloe throwing up last night. She stayed home today, even though she was fine. I just wanted to be sure and was worried about her being tired since she didn't get a lot of sleep. I didn't have any trouble getting her to go to bed tonight, let me tell you! Anyway, Tuesday was sort of a nice lazy day at home. Wednesday was Jeremiah's AWANA Christmas program, which was fun and had lots of yummy food afterwards, mostly cookies. That morning I also had a cookie exchange sort of a thing at my bible study, so I enjoyed that and then went and looked at the thrift stores to see if they might still have some stuff I could get for my kids for Christmas, since we're really broke this year. They have a few things. Hope they still have them this weekend, the next time I'll probably be able to shop, after I take my kids tomorrow to show me what sorts of things they are even interested in. I also went to the food bank to get a few things. Oh, yes, and I baked cookies Tuesday night for my bible study, and decorated them. That is very unusual for me. I never bake! I usually just buy cookies for these sorts of things. Today, we went to a friends to sing carols and eat more cookies. (I'm starting to sense a theme here. No wonder Chloe got sick!) We'll see how tomorrow goes, with our window shopping adventure after school and then Celebrate Recovery.