Blog Challenge Day 5

A song that means a lot to you.

just one? why not ten? or a dozen? I like lots of songs. so many of them touch me. but the one I have been singing the last few days is a song about a father dancing with his daughter(Cinderella) when she is a little girl pretending to to go to a ball. then as she gets older she comes to him to practice her dancing again and again through the stages of her childhood into adulthood. and all the while he is thinking I dont want to miss a moment. I dont want to miss a chance to dance with cinderella because before you know it she will be all grown up and gone. My kids are growing up SO FAST! I cant stand it! I would like to take away their birthdays and keep them 8 and 7. Natasha is going to turn 9 on Monday. Maia turned 7 a few weeks ago. I dont want them to grow up! Ethan will be 9 in June. wasnt he just a little stinker of a 4 year old? Wasnt he just finding things for he and Maia to get into? and now he is almost NINE? I have 3 7 year olds and 3 8 year olds right now. and time is flying by and before you know it I will have a bunch of teenagers! wishing my little guys and girls could stay my little guys and girls a while longer. just like the song, I danced with Cinderella I dont wanna miss even one song. Before you know it the clock will strike midnight and she'll be gone.

Blog Challenge day 4

Wierd Hobby or Collection

I do have a collection of toenails. lol ok I dont. But my friend used to call me Tojam because my name is Tammy Jo. Tammy Jo became TamJo which morphed into Tojam. but thats a whole nother story!

so my collections arent really strange or wierd but I do have some collections. I love Elvis and I also love thimbles and coca cola memorabilia. My thimble collection started with 5 or 6 thimbles I rescued from my Grandpa's belongings when he died. they have morphed into over a hundred! some were gifts from others travels, some were from my travels. SOme were from antique stores and I just loved them. I dont buy just any old thimble I see. I have to like it. I have one from the Bolshoy theater that I LOOOOVE. I have ones from various places I have visited. I also have a bunch of disney thimbles I just HAD to have one time. They are cute but they dont mean nearly as much to me as some of the others I picked up in my travels. I managed to end up with some duplicates because other people were giving me them as well. I set those aside along with some gifted ones that I didnt love as much as some others. They are for Chrysta to start her own collection. she has a shelf to put them on and everything but we didnt get the shelf hung and now we are moving so they will have to wait for her. Perhaps later I will take a photo of my collection. Some are sentimental, all are special.

My Elvis collection is not as large. It is only a few things but I LOVE ELVIS! I even have an elvis thimble! Coca Cola is my other collection. again not a lot but a few items that some day I would like to display. If I ever have a curio cabinet to display them I have many of my grandmother's avon bottles. I remember fondly looking in her cabinet at them as a child. as yet I have never had a curio cabinet because I have rambunctious boys who will put their head through the glass no doubt.

Day 3 Post a picture from your wedding

We have a love affair with Lake Superior. We met on the lake, we courted along the lake and hiked along the lake many times. We got engaged on the lake and it was only fitting we get married on the lake. We love Gooseberry Falls State Park. We rented a small shelter house there for 50 bucks, ordered a cake, sent out invites(that I made on the computer) and got hitched with the shores of Lake Superior in the background. we even put our feet in the lake after the ceremony. Then we went to our other favorite place, India Palace and had dinner with our family. It was a beautiful summer day. Not too hot not too cold. Sunny. and bright. All my favorite people were there. It wasnt a huge wedding. but it was very us. and we look back on it very fondly. sometimes we even remember our wedding anniversary! haha. Most years Eric remembers the wrong date. its ok though, at least he remembers. People often asked where we went for our honeymoon. I tell them we went to Mason City Iowa. We liked it so much we stayed 3 years. The reason I say that is because we moved to Mason City for Eric's residency a week after we married. we did get a trip to mexico several years later. This June we will have been married 9 years. Little did we know, that somewhere else in the world a baby was born that would become ours. He was born the same week we married.

blog challenge day 2

post a random photo from your day. I initially had a problem getting a random photo. I overthink things. random would be start snapping away at various things. I am always looking for "the PERFECT photo" so I found the perfect photo but decided it wasnt really random. instead there is a pic I took of Ben and the dog looking out the window while the other boys are out there playing. this is a sight I see often as Ben is often left behind due to his limited mobility at the moment. I added the other for fun too. It is a coke can with the words in Russian. I have russian and ukrainian kids and have spent time in both countries. I keep this can on the back of my stove where I see it all the time. I also love coca cola and collect things with the coca cola label on it. I dont collect everything I see just like to see the coke label around. to me it says Americana. It says refreshing on a hot summer day. It says camping as a child. It says trips to the movie theater. so there is my randomness for the day.

blog challenge day 1

once someone told me I was a good egg. I am also a good egg that enjoys adventure. Adventure doesnt have to be wild and exciting it could be a hike in a state forest where I have never been. It could be a trip to a state park museum that intrigues me. It might be a trip to the lake with kids who have never before been allowed to swim, or just watching the sun set over the ocean in Mexico. All of these are my adventures. I used to keep a book of our adventures. I would include souveniers like brochures of the places we visited. or our entrance tickets. As we added children and traveled less the book sort of went by the wayside. but the enbergadventures continue. every day is a new adventure. and my kids are really all good eggs. they have moments sure when I would like to hang them by their toenails and throw peanuts at them but for the most part they are a good bunch. they are loving and sweet. they are good to their little sister when she needs help. They delight in teaching her new things. or helping her to find her own way to get into trouble with them. They do well in school, they try hard. they help at home some voluntarily some when asked all when there is money to be earned. They are good eggs. since there are 12 of us in this house(although the kids would like that to be more like 15 or 16, they often suggest we adopt again)that makes a dozen. a dozen good eggs. and this is the blog of our adventures. some days they are little adventures like a child learning to crawl some days they are big adventures like moving to a new city. but we are a dozen good eggs, and these are our adventures.

A day late and a dollar short

Dad always used to say that. I am slow in keeping up with blogs. slow in keeping up my own blog. so a day late I found a challenge. so I will start today. thanks 1mom. here is the blog challenge. watch for new posts!

Day 0: The 30 Day Challenge Explanation and Description
Day 1: Meaning behind your blog name
Day 2: Take a photo of a random part of your day and tell us about it
Day 3: Photos from your wedding
Day 4: A weird hobby or collection
Day 5: A song that means a lot to you
Day 6: A random picture that makes you happy
Day 7: Favorite books
Day 8: A place you've traveled to
Day 9: Your favorite quote
Day 10: Something you're afraid of
Day 11: TV shows that your currently addicted to
Day 12: Something you don't leave the house without
Day 13: A photo that makes you laugh
Day 14: A website you love to visit
Day 15: Share a Bible verse
Day 16: Describe your dream house
Day 17: What’s in your purse?
Day 18: Photos from around your town
Day 19: Something you miss
Day 20: Nicknames
Day 21: Favorite Movies
Day 22: Share the oldest photo that’s saved on your computer
Day 23: Something you fear
Day 24: A photo of somewhere beautiful
Day 25: 3 things you hope to accomplish by the end of the year
Day 26: Something that stresses you out
Day 27: Your favorite poem
Day 28: A photo of the inside of your car
Day 29: 5 things you are thankful for
Day 30: a picture from today

should I stay or should I go now? If I stay there will be trouble! If I go it will be double!

we are not having an easy time finding a new home or property to build on. We have seen just about everything we can find. we have lowered our expectations from large acreage to 40 then lowered to 20. now to 10 and to 5. as yet we have found nothing that would work for us. Everything is overpriced. it is a down market who can afford a 400K house? we really cant because we still have this house to pay on. and since this one needs work which costs money and isnt likely to fly off the market given the area. We cant find land that isnt swamp. or its 30 miles away. we cant find a house that isnt gonna be a money suck (or its 30 miles away) we are feeling very burdoned right now. we wanted to move and have an easier lifestyle. and yet we are starting to think we will have little more than we have here, although probably less when you consider the energy status of any house we might buy. we flip flop with the idea of even staying put. that isnt ideal either. so as of now we are caught between a rock and hard place. no easy decisions. time to build is running short. soon it will be summer and we will be hard pressed to get a house built in time for school in the fall. but again its so expensive we arent sure we can even afford it, given that the cost of land(swamp) will drive up the overall cost of the build. we NEED to garden and raise chickens just in order to feed this crew. it isnt a want, a desire but a real need. we have the dogs who need space to run a bit and not bother neighbors with their barking. we need a place that has room for kids to play and ride bikes. and we just cant find a place like that. and did I mention with a child who doesnt walk we really NEED a mainfloor bedroom and bath. Miss Priss is not getting any lighter and we dont want to have to carry her to the bathroom and to bed. staying here includes a less than challenging curriculum, bullying kids, kids who start other kids hair on fire and still get to ride the bus, kids who ask little kids about their private parts, life alone, rounding every single freaking day, driving hours to get anything or see dentist. so if we stay it would still suck, if we go it seems like it will suck because we are NOT finding the perfect place.