Another Goodie and It's FREE

Do your kid's like the movies, well then you're in luck. Regal theaters are showing free movies on Tuesday and Wed. this summer, Detail below, Hope you enjoy!

When school's out, kids around the country visit selected Regal theatres for the Free Family Film Festival. It's a fun-filled nine weeks of movies for kids and parents. Since 1991, Regal has provided this service to the community, and best of all it's FREE!

Selected G & PG movies start at 10AM each Tuesday and Wednesday during the festival. First-come, first-served seating is limited to theatre capacity. The Free Family Film Festival is safe, lots of fun and a great way for kids to spend a weekday morning in the summer.

Click link for times and shows.... http://www.regmovies.com/nowshowing/freefamilyfilm.aspx

How About $50 To Shop

I told you that sometimes I would share good deals with you. Well I have one to share! If you are a blogger you can win $50.00 to spend at WonderBrains, and all you have to do is post. You can check out the contest using the attached link, and I wish you all and myself luck.

They Say It Comes In Three's

Have you ever had "ONE OF THOSE WEEK'S?" Well this was mine!
Last Saturday promised to be a relaxing fun filled day with just me and my girls. My 9 year old had been invited to her BFF at schools birthday party. It was going to be at a place at our local mall called Xtreme Play. They have all these blow up slides, bouncers, ball pits, video games. The girls had been begging to go since it opened about eight months ago. So I decided we would all go to the party, and just make a girls day out of it, we do that every month or two, we will go get our hair done, or go shopping, any fun thing just for us. So me, my 17, 10, 9 and 6 year old all headed to the mall. The girls were having a blast, and the ones who weren't invited to the party, got to eat cake, and everything with the party. My 17 yr. old and I waited until the party was winding down, and went across the hall to a BBQ rest. and had a set down lunch, while the other three got in a little more play. From where we were we could see the girls, and the door, so we knew they were safe. When we finished, I told her to go collect her sisters, that I would go on and get the explorer opened up. Well as I approached I saw the left of it looked funny, flat as a fritter, left front tire. I called my hubby and told him to bring our 14 yr old son and change the tire. Mean time here comes the 17 year old with no sisters. They wouldn't let her have them because her ID bracelet had a different number than the party bracelet. I said, just go back in and tell them to play until Dad gets here to change the flat. A few more minutes and the mall police,( yes we have mall police, they have an annex in our mall), stopped to see if I needed help, I said no, my hubby was on the way. He had no sooner walked off, hubby calls, he stopped to get gas, and his van wouldn't crank back up, I said maybe the battery was low, at 5MPG we don't drive it much, there was no one around with jumper cables, and ours were in my car. I said call AAA, well he tried to start it one more time and it cranked. Called me back said on my way. 5 minutes later, ring...Honey, I am broke down on 3, it is smoking and won't go anywhere, again call AAA I say. They won't come tow him, his tags expired. Mean time I go locate the kind policeman, sure he will help, let him get what he needs, ringgggg, "I am sorry but I have to go break up a fight, just hang in there, I will be right back," (Famous last words!) So I wait and wait, and wait some more. Finally the SGT. shows up, and I explain what has transpired, he will change it, no problem! (Remember the famous last words?) My tire iron won't work, he gets a 4 way, jacks it up, LOL because of where I am sitting, it won't go up far enough. He says he will go around to Sears and borrow a floor jack, Thanks be to God, I am thinking! Mean time my first rescuer comes back, he apologizes, says he broke up one fight, got called to another. Is that what they call Sat. night lights? Here comes Sarge, and between the two, they have it changed in about 3 minutes. So in I go to collect my kids, 4 hours later. They must have loved my kids, cause they didn't want to give them to me either, seems my bracelet had the same number as the 17 yr old. What happened was the BD party had one number, I paid the rest of our way in so was issued a different number, I was tempted to punish that rude woman, and leave all four of them, for her "pleasure", but I figured with my luck the kind policeman, would beat me home with them.

That was finally over, then comes Monday. I woke up and my leg was hurting so bad, I couldn't put weight on it. Been having problems with blood clots in the left one, this is the right, I am hoping they will dissolve before Monday, if not back to the Doctor.

Tuesday rolls around Hubby is gonna have a sleep study done at the VA. He will be spending the night. I hear my son ask, "what is that noise?" I am half asleep, in so much pain, with the leg, that I can't sleep. The 17 year old says, oh just the water heater filling up, so I didn't think anymore about it. Hubby left around five, about seven, I go to the kitchen, and my 10 yr. old is in there too, she says, "Mom whys water all over the floor here, I look and a big puddle of water is coming from under the pantry door, "Oh SH>>" I knew what was happening, since we had had another hose burst right after we moved in last year. Seems the lady we bought the house froms hubby had plumbed the water heater, and did a slip shod job. To get to the water heater, I had to take all the food out of pantry, take down 4 shelves, remove a wall panel. By the time I got done, I said it looked like a rerun of "I love Lucy. I was soaked from my head to my feet, I got the spigots turned off going to the heater, water was still gushing, couldn't get hubby on his cell, to find out what the next step was, by then I was adding to the flood, I was crying so hard. My brother finally got there, a half hour later, went under the house and turned off the spigot under the house. Well you can imagine, it looked like the flood was coming, and me in it up to my eyeballs. We used the shop vac, and carpet shampooer to suck up as much of the water as we could, hubby finally called back, after I got done, wouldn't you know it? Well I called the insurance company and reported what happened, told them I was gonna wait until everything dried out then let them send an adjuster out. I in the mean time am trying to keep a praise report on my lips and in my heart. I keep saying well I wanted to change over to wood looking floors anyway, this may be God's way of me being able to afford to do it, wouldn't that be nice? Woohoo! Some more small things have happened, like when we got the hoses fixed, we had trouble getting water to the toilet again, we still have one not filling, any ideas? I hope this run of bad luck has ended I am so ready for a nice quiet couple of days. Keep us in your prayers, and I will keep you in mine.

Now talk to my heart, tell me how your week was, and any bad luck you've had, but also tell me something funny, I could use a good laugh about now.

Just A Little Something For The Family

With the cost of gas, groceries and everything else going up daily, I will try to find free or cheap entertainment to share with you. Our family will be sticking close to home this year, and this is the perfect site to find something to entertain the kids.
www.free-attractions.com/



I don't know about your city, but 2 of the parks in my area are doing free movies. We took advantage of this for the past two years. The movies are basically aimed towards the kids, the last one we saw was "The Bee Movie", but they are just about all new or fairly current releases, so very enjoyable. One of the parks does this every other Friday, until school starts back. The other one will only show 4 over the summer.
Also check with you County Parks and Recreation site online, ours is having all kinds of free activities this summer, like nature walks, scavenger hunts, etc. worth checking.

Subscribe to your cities web site, you will receive a newsletter monthly, that lets you know what is going on in your town.

Talk to my heart, tell me what plans you have for fun this summer.

The First Cooking Lesson

My Mom could never be accused of being in the run for Ms. Susie Home Maker. She was not much of a cleaner, or cook when we were growing up, my sister and I did all the house work, mom worked full time. When she did cook, she thought everything had to be well done. Now her Idea of well done was black as charcoal. When I moved to SC , and would come home to visit, my hubby and my favorite joke was, "we didn't need an alarm clock to tell us it was time to get up, mom's smoke detector would wake us up." (True story).
So it was left to my Dad, and when I married my ex hubby, his Mom, to teach me how to cook, thank goodness, they were both excellent good old country cooks.
I am not a chef by any means but, people love to eat my cooking, my children come home, just to get mom's food, and my friends and other family members have always come to my house to eat. I do the Holiday dinners for our big family, and all of them can't wait for Thanksgiving and Christmas to come around, because I always try to make one favorite for everyone who comes.
Between my hubby and myself we have taught all our children who wanted to learn how to cook. So now my five adopted have decided they all want to learn how. I promised them that when school was out we would start their lessons. So Sunday was our start day. I asked who wanted to be first, and my 9 year old, Ariel Yelled the loudest, so on to the lesson.
Ariel is a bright girl, she learns fast, and retains things well, so I knew she would do well. I had already decided to do Country Style Steak, but I let her decide what sides to make along with it.
I got a notebook and put her name, the date etc. Then I told her to write out her menu.
She had the steak of course, rice and the gravy from the steak, corn on cob, black eyed peas, and biscuits....Yummy.
We started with the basics, she put her hair back, and washed her hands with soap and water, put on her apron that I had just received from a freebie. Mom is a stickler for cleanliness in the kitchen, no one will ever be afraid to eat something I cook.
I taught her to boil the meat to make it tender, then roll in flour and fry, all the steps to make the best Country steak ever. After each step I had her make notes, so she could go back to her notes anytime, or her siblings could, to recreate the meal.
I taught her what to cook first until last, so it would all come together at the same time. I was so proud of her, she was diligent from first to last, breading the steak, adding the ingredients for the delicious gravy, measuring the water and rice, adding a pinch of sugar to bring out the sweetness of the corn. She was awesome!
Now to plate and table, you should have heard the oohs and aahs, her brother said, "When I grow up I'm always gonna come to your house to eat, everyone ate until they were stuffed.
Was that the important thing in the cooking lesson? I say an absolute NO WAY!
The important things were, the time we got to spend bonding together, the pride she gained from seeing she could do it, the accomplishment, of starting something and finishing it, most important of all, THE MEMORIES, she will have.
I was so glad that Ariel was the first one to have a cooking lesson. All foster children have some sort of baggage they carry, hers is never feeling like what she does is good enough. She can make straight A's and still feel inadequate, tell her she is beautiful, and she doesn't see it, she did good at this, or that, no she could have done better. Not this time! Her chest stuck out, a big smile on her face, she was proud, and as her Mom and teacher, so was I.
Talk to my heart, tell me something memorable in your life, I would love to read your story.....

This Should Never Happen In America

I try to keep things light, I am not a dooms sayer, and I usually think of the glass as half full. The article I want to share with you goes completely against "Usual". My favorite saying as a Foster/Adoptive parent is ; "You can make a difference in the life of a child." I believe this with all my heart and soul. So why then; didn't someone make a difference in the life of the child you will be reading about? Friends after you read this, I hope you determine to never again look the other way. No matter if it is a family member, friend, or your own spouse. Report child abuse, to your local Department of Children's Services, your police or sheriffs department, call 911 even, but don't close your eyes and say. "Someone else will do it." Click the link below, read and then share this blog with everyone you know. Be the person who makes that child safe. Talk to my heart, tell me what difference you plan to make........

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080620/ap_on_re_us/boy_torture&printer=1;_ylt=AqHYH.Ujtnq8XtjzfDF9R.RH2ocA

What's In A Name

Do you remember when you first found out you were going to be a parent? What was one of the first things you thought about? Well if you were like me; it was what are we going to name the baby?

The bible says in Proverbs 22:1 "A good name is to be chosen, rather than great riches." Wow! The name we choose must be very important, for God to want it mentioned in the bible.
With both of my natural born sons I kept that verse in my heart. With my oldest I read the baby name book for weeks. I knew I wanted his name to contain his dads name somewhere, which was Scott, (ex by the way), but what could we put with it that would be a "Good Name?"
We finally decided on Jason, which means Healer. The name was so appropriate to me because my husband had MS, and we both believed, and still believe that God could and would heal him.

Well twelve years later, I found myself single and dating, then I met my present husband Larry. I only had Jason. I had been diagnosed with endometreosis, and was told I would never have any more children, that was a heart breaker for me because I had always wanted a large family, (In another installment I will tell you about a dream, remind me if I forget!) Larry had 3 children, and I was thrilled, I finally had my large family, well Surprise! Surprise! Within a month I was pregnant. I had two miscarriage's and we found out I was pregnant again, we decided if I lost the baby this time, that would be it, because it was so hard on me emotionally and physically. This time I carried the baby full term, actually more than full term, he was what the Dr. called a floater, he would go down in the birth canal then float back up, and he's been stubborn like that all his life, (I still love you son.) I had no doubt what I wanted to name this one, my precious father had passed away when Jason was 2, and I wanted this one to be his name sake, whether it was a boy or a girl. Thus Jonathon which means.....NOW GET THIS! God has given. Can you see how this name thing works? His middle name came from someone who was just as important to Larry, his maternal grandfather Adam.

Now I will get to the point of why I chose this subject for the post today, about time huh?
When I was trying to think of what to call my blog, again the bible verse was in my heart. I had several idea's bouncing around. I knew what I wanted the premise of the blog to be from the start, but had no idea what to call it. As I was thinking about the content, and how I would communicate my feelings, I knew one thing for sure, I almost always speak not only what is in my head, but mainly what is in my heart. Some of you who know me well may dispute this next statement, but here goes; I consider myself an intelligent woman. I don't have a college education, most of everything I know, and what I will write on this blog comes from the good old fashioned "School of hard knocks." You can believe me when I tell you I have a wealth of knowledge that comes with that degree. My life has been a learning experience in many different areas, some good, some bad, and some devastating but guess what I found out early on; no matter what I have gone through in my life, God has put someone in my path who needed the knowledge and strength I gained from the experience. I have always believed that you can look at someone all day long and say, I know how you feel, but unless you have walked in those shoes, you are full of bull.

As we begin our relationship together on this blog you will find out why I chose the name. The post I write, the advice I give you, the feelings I express, the friendship we develop will for the most part not come from a book, though if what you need is advice that has to be "legal", I will research it out for you, but for the most part it will be you, "Talking To My Heart." I can't wait to get started, can you?

HOW TO BECOME A FOSTER PARENT

I am asked all the time, "Why did you become a Foster Parent?" A short and sweet answer to that question for me is "That's my calling in life." Some people become Lawyers, Doctors, Teachers, and Ditch Diggers, I was meant to be a parent. Oh believe me I have had many jobs in my life, some good, some nightmares, but none have ever been as fulfilling to me as becoming a parent. If you have read my profile, you see we have 10 children, 5 of those are Natural born, His, Mine, Ours, and our baby is 21 now, and is getting ready to become a Daddy himself. 5 are Adopted. Whenmy 21 year old was in high school, and all our other children were grown and gone, I got empty nest syndrome. For those of you who don't know what that is, let me explain.....I was going crazy with no kids to have to cook for, pick up behind, and wipe their snotty noses. You may say it, I say it to myself sometimes, "ARE YOU CRAZY?"
Since I was a child, I always wanted to help children, we were poor, didn't even know if we would eat sometimes, but I would have given my last scrap of food to another child if I knew they needed it. So, many years later here I am with no one to wet nurse, could not have any children of my own, my children wouldn't let me keep my Grandchildren forever, no matter how much I begged, and they begged, so what was the solution? It came in the form of trying to help a friend of my sons, who came home one day to find his whole family gone, electricity turned off, no food, nothing, and no idea where his Mom and Step dad had gone. Since he practically lived at my house anyway, he came to the only place he knew he would be taken care of, Momma Marilyn's.
In the process of trying to get him registered in our school district, (though he only lived a few blocks from us, he was in a different district), medicaid, so I could get him checked out, and other things, I found out that in our state the only way to legally get him any help was to become Licensed Foster Parents. We had to take 10 weeks of classes, have background checks, fingerprints and all sorts of what I felt at the time were invasive things, later on though I came to realize, it was all for the safety of the children. Thus began the best and worst 5 years of my life. The best because I have been able to help over 20 children in that time, the worst because I get so close to these wonderful children who ask only to be safe and loved, and when it is time for them to leave to go back to their Biological parent(s), or Adoptive homes, it is hard to let go, but then I see how much I have accomplished with them, and them with me, and I can smile and say bring on the next one. So how about you? Thinking about becoming a Foster Parent? Need to add some meaning to your life, and the life of a child? Want to fill that empty nest? Here what you need to do.....
Contact your local Department of Children's Services, they should be listed in the white pages of your phone book, or the county government section.
For more information on Fostering you can go to your states foster and adoptive parent association, just put the initials for your state , like mine is NCFAPA.ORG, NC for North Carolina, this is a group of Foster and Adoptive parents all over your state who help answer questions and advocate for Foster parents/children at a state and national level. If you become a FP please join your local association if your area has one, if not start one of your own.

That is it for today, I will leave you with this bit of wisdom: "Tell your children you love them everyday, even when they have gotten on your last nerve you don't think you do, tomorrow will be a new day ."

My Very First Bog

Have you ever felt proud of yourself for an accomplishment? Well I do today. When I was first asked about doing a Blog, I thought, "Oh My Goodness, how am I going to do that, I know nothing about blogging, except reading what other people write, and making comments, well that was a no brainer, easy to do right? But how in the world would I do a blog of my own? I have poked and prodded and changed everything a zillion times, and guess what! I finally did it! I hope you like the finished product, and I also hope that you become daily readers, and posters to "Talk To My Heart". We will have fun in this adventure, learn new things, help each other with our daily issues, and become fast friends.
I thought about what my first topic should be and decided it would be , Drum roll please..................