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I didn’t make my new goal of 60 minutes of exercise for at three days a week. I did do two days of 60 minutes and the other days were only 30 minutes. I’m okay with that since it’s a new goal.

The above picture is my weekly weight. I’m pretty pleased with the results.

So if you have strange problems after manually updating wordpress to 2.6 and you’re using Dreamhost I suggest you comment out

define('DB_CHARSET', 'utf8');

in the wp-config.php that is located your blog’s root directory.

I was following along with the upgrade instructions from wordpress.org. After updating all the files, I went to this blog’s wp-admin dir where it is supposed to perform a database update. Instead I got a page full of errors. The first went something like this:

Warning: array_keys() [function.array-keys]: The first argument should be an array wp-includes/widgets.php on line 686

Commenting the line above (by adding // to the beginning of it) fixed the problem. Just fyi.

If you subscribe to my blog through RSS feeds you will need to resubscribe. I messed up my feeds and had to start all over. Someday I will figure out what I’m doing.

This week, the

Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing Bluegrass Peril
(Steeple Hill December 4, 2007)
by
Virginia SmithABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Virginia Smith left her job as a corporate director to become a full time writer and speaker in the summer of 2005. Since then she has contracted eight novels and numerous articles and short stories.She writes contemporary humorous novels for the Christian market, including her debut, Just As I Am (Kregel Publications, March 2006) and her new release, Murder by Mushroom (Steeple Hill, August 2007). Her short fiction has been anthologized, and her articles have been published in a variety of Christian magazines.An energetic speaker, Virginia loves to exemplify God’s truth by comparing real-life situations to well-known works of fiction, such as her popular talk, “Biblical Truths in Star Trek.”ABOUT THE BOOK: WHO KILLED HER BOSS?Local police had tagged single mom Becky Dennison as their prime suspect. But she’d only been in the wrong place at the wrong time…admittedly, with her boss’s lifeless body. Sure it looked bad, but Becky had no motive for killing…even if she had opportunity.When the director of the retirement farm for thoroughbred champions is murdered, Becky Dennison teams up with the handsome manager of a neighboring horse farm, Scott Lewis, to find her boss’s killer. Soon the amateur detective are hot on the trail of the murderer…even as their feelings for each other deepen.The amateur sleuths uncover a trail of clues that lead them into the intricate society of Kentucky’s elite thoroughbred breeding industry. They soon find themselves surrounded by the mint julep set - jealous southern belles and intensely competitive horse breeders - in a high-stakes game of danger, money, and that famous southern pride.And for Becky and Scott, this race on the Kentucky tracks has the greatest stakes of all: life or death!

Romantic Times awarded Bluegrass Peril
* * * * FOUR STARS! * * * *

My thoughts: This is the first book I have actually gotten to read during the blog tours. I’m normally not into romance or suspense but have to say I enjoyed Bluegrass Peril. It’s one I ended up loaning a friend to read and took all of her information so if the book isn’t returned soon I will have to go looking for her.

Yesterday my husband and I made one of the biggest decisions of our lives. We chose to remove our kiddos from their private school and enroll them in public school. It was a difficult decision and one that we have been debating for quite some time (you can read Quandary to get some background info).

I am still recovering from the emotional turmoil I have had for quite some time. I think it is very sad when I have to remove my kiddos from a private school and put them in public school just so they can be treated as people. I am trying hard to not be bitter (mostly I’m sad) at the way one of my kiddos was treated by his teacher and the principal. I am still reeling from the way the principal handled things (such as calling at 9:00 in the evening to tell me she has decided to suspend my kiddo). Tell me where is the professionalism in that? Is this normal practice for educational institutions?

That was the final straw. That next day I enrolled our kiddos in public school and withdrew them from their private school. It was an emotional day. I grieved the loss of our old school because we entrusted our kiddos to them and they failed us. We were not treated with the manner in which they pride themselves in.

I feel good about our decision. The school they will be attending will have the resources we need to help our kiddos especially the one that was suspended. Our old school isn’t equipped to handle children outside of the norm. In all actuality our kiddos will probably fare better at this new school.

I am thankful for being able to see God’s hand in all of this. From the moment we made the decision to move He found us a school and there is too much to list…God was definitely in the midst of my storm and helped me safely to the other side. Thank you Lord.

I do not expect this new school to be perfect however I do expect my kiddos to be nurtured, loved, and treat with dignity.

I have finally learned to knit. I am so happy and excited and can’t wait until kiddos go to sleep so I can get my knitting out. I love working the yarn and the needles. Who knew this could be so much fun. I love how I see instant results and the feeling I get when I realize I made this.

So far I am working on a scarf (of course) and am getting ready to start a hat for hubby. I found the pattern online and it looks easy enough for me to do. I will be doing a purl stitch and need to practice them some more. I was trying earlier and somehow messed up so I had to start all over. No big deal since I was only on my third row.

I need to go review Donna Kooler’s Encyclopedia of Knitting (Donna Kooler’s Series) and this website to make sure I’m doing right.

I hope this isn’t a one time thing I’m interested in for a little bit especially since I’ve always wanted to learn how to knit. I would like to eventually make a Bible cover. I saw the one Camy Tang made and have wanted one ever since.

I think for now I will stick with my scarf and figuring out the hat.

I am on a quest to get some decent Christmas music. You see I love Christmas music. It’s a tradition in my home to play Christmas music while we are putting up the Christmas tree and decorating it. So far I own Kenny Chesney’s All I Want for Christmas is a Real Good Tan. It’s a great CD however I am tired of it.

Every year I decide I am going to buy Christmas music and every year I am faced with so many options (this year being the year I’m faced with so few) that I go home without purchasing anything. I’m afraid I’ll buy a CD, get home, play it and absolutely hate it.

This year I was I was determined I wasn’t leaving the store until I had a CD. It was definitely hard to decide and I finally chose Disney Channel’s Holiday CD. I knew hubby wouldn’t like it but I wasn’t buying it for hubby, I was buying it for me and the kiddos.

I love this CD. It is so much fun and so bubble-gum pop! The kiddos and I sing and dance around the house being silly and having fun.

This post was written as a part of a blog giveaway at OhAmanda on what puts me in the Christmas spirit.

1. What is my passion?
2. What drives me?
3. What do I want to accomplish?
4. Which goals are ones to strive for and which ones are frivolous?
5. Why at the age of thirty-something do I keep switching back and forth from what interests me?
6. How can I be so absorbed in one thing and then a week later (or less) be completely not interested?
7. How does one go about finding oneself?
8. I know who I am in Christ but who am I outside of Him?
9. Surely there is something more than just rearing my kiddos but what is it?
10. What is my purpose? (Do not tell me to read The Purpose Driven Life or I will puke.)
11. Who am I?

Let’s see if I can answer any of these questions…

1. I like to read but what can I do with that?
2. Not sure.
3. Not sure at the moment…ask me tomorrow because I might have changed my mind.
4. Not sure.
5. Because I am indecisive.
6. Because I get bored easily.
7. Still trying to figure that one out.
8. Still don’t know the answer to that one.
9. Not sure.
10. Don’t know.
11. I don’t know who I am.

I wasn’t able to answer very many of the questions but I didn’t really expect to have any answers. These are questions I have had for quite some time and don’t ever want to voice them because then it seems like I am depressed or don’t like where I am in life. That’s hardly the case at all however I know there is more to me than what I am seeing right now. I want to do things but don’t know what I want to do. I’ve been praying for quite some time and still don’t have the answers but I have had God tell me some things are ‘no’ and some things are ‘not right now’.

Am I going through a mid-life crisis? What exactly is a mid-life crisis and if it were mid-life shouldn’t it be happening much later in life? How does one get out of a mid-life crisis if one were in one? Can’t I just get a sports car and my answers and be done with this?

I want a Mustang preferably one of the newer ones…like 2005 and up. I also want it in orange. If I going to get the car for the crisis I might as well get it in my happy color.

I check my email this evening and find out that the next Oprah Book Club book is The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. I am ecstatic so much so that I took a flashlight into my kiddo’s room so I could look on the bookshelf to see if the book was still there. I was hoping that I hadn’t given it away in some freak I have no idea what I’m doing moment. I absolutely love this book, not because it’s good or anything but because of the memories I have of this book.

You see I was tricked into meeting the man who is now my husband. Some acquaintances of ours wanted us to meet. Since I knew her taste in men I wanted no part of this whatsoever. I like my men handsome, intelligent, employed and have a vehicle that they own amongst other things like honesty, integrity and so on. So…I end up on this date with a guy I didn’t want to meet so I’m acting like a ditz because I want to make sure he’s not interested in me. Plus, I was in a car accident earlier in the week and was on some pretty good pain medication. I’m at this place having to listen to the three talk about computers (blah, blah, blah…have I mentioned I didn’t care about computers and didn’t like people who obsessed about them?) I’m bored out of my mind but like looking at the cute guy I’m being set up with (at least I have some eye candy if I have to listen to their boring talk). At some point in their conversation my ears perked up when I heard the word ‘book’. (I have a radar for books since they are my passion.)

I don’t really recall how he and I started talking about books because I was doped up at the time (and I’m doped up on cold medicine now so this will be interesting). Anyway, I find out he reads like actual books. Real books with words on the pages and not pictures. I mention how I just finished reading The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett and he tells me how he’s also read it. I was hooked. I didn’t care that he was a computer geek. He’s cute, he reads and he’s read a book that I’ve read and liked it. There you go. I couldn’t let this guy get away and eight months later we were married. All because he had read The Pillars of the Earth.

When my grandmother passed away I was allowed to go through her books and take what I wanted. I found Pillars and took it because of the memories behind it. This was the book that made me fall in love with my husband. Whenever I looked at that book I thought of my grandma and my husband.

Jump to eight years later…I find out my husband has never read Pillars of the Earth and has no idea what book he was thinking about. Imagine that. Oh well…it makes me want to tell him that the only reason I even read Pillars is because an ex-boyfriend loaned it to me because I was bored and didn’t have anything to read. But then again, he can read it on my blog. (I love you hubby!)

It’s still a good book and I will be reading it again just so I can relive the memories of falling in love with my husband and because I enjoyed reading it the first time.