Christmas Recap Part 1

So I'm about a gazillion days behind in posting my Christmas photos...so sorry. I've been relishing the times of snuggling with our little blessings and just letting the world pass by outside. But unfortunately it is back to the grind of daily life and that means that we are up and at em. Emma started preschool yesterday, Nick's back to work full swing, and I'm trying to get ready for a little boys birthday party! I can't believe my little baby is going to be three years old...wowwie! Well I'm going to post photos in the order of which they occured. I have no idea how many Christmas Recap Parts we'll have....hmmmm :)

Here we go:

This is Emma the first time in hot rollers. She likes to look at me like "are you serious with this?" and I guess she was right. After 45 minutes of doing over her like a pagaent mom her hair looked EXACTLY as it always does. I was doing her hair for her Christmas concert which if you can even fathom I have NO pictures of!!! I'm crushed...I took oodles but a) this one mom stood in front of Emma almost the entire time and b) our camera was being all wonky and I couldn't get a photo to save my life...too dark, too blurry, etc. The bean hopefully got some good ones for me :)

Here we are at the Concert praying...isn't this boy just so adorable? I kept my man-hand in there so you could see his little hands...so precious. See? I did get SOME pictures at the concert, just not of the concert :/ Anyway, this picture is cute but especially cute when you look at the next one...

He had this look as if to say "really mom? Really? You're taking pictures during PRAYER? Real classy...." I love his facial expressions. He's really getting those Daddy/Jim Halpert looks down :)

The last photos of the day is a glimpse into our every day. During the mornings in December this is what you would see in our house...wake up, come downstairs, throw on a Santa hat (sometimes antlers!) and watch a little boob-tube! I love it!

Well those are the pictures for today! Hope you enjoyed them. The children are growing so fast and I count it such a joy to be here experiencing it. Hope you all have a wonderful day! I am hoping to catch up with two wonderful ladies after they shop for tile :) Happy Tuesday!!!

The Old Schoolhouse Magazine

There is this amazing magazine that I am happy to tell you about! I've never taken out a subscription but think these deals are pretty sweet so I am excited to be getting one myself. Gazillions of my homeschool friends read this mag and highly recommend it. Check them out by clicking here. There are three options to choose from:

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c) finally their third option is $37.00. What do you get you ask? Well you get two-year subscription, a Cranberries and Cream tote, a Schoolhouse Planner of your choice, plus the e-book, Cranberry Christmas. Talk about a great deal!!!

You can click on the link at the bottom of the link to subscribe. Just click here.

Happy Friday!

Last night Emma had her Christmas concert and she did so, so good. My baby girl is growing so quickly and I could not be more proud of her.

Super excited it is Friday! Hooray! I've been super excited about this Friday because it is a lonely oasis of a day where we have nothing to do...nothing planned, no where to go, nada. It's surrounded by days filled to the brim of things to do...all day long, tasks, appointments, chore lists, and then obligations every evening. I know that that just comes with the territory of the holidays but come on people! This momma needs a break!

So tomorrow as I said I have the whole zip nada thing going on tomorrow except that Nick's mom asked if she could have the kids tomorrow. They love spending time at Anna's house so I said sure. I always miss them so much when they are gone, but admittedly I will get tons done with them not underfoot.

My plan is to get all of the Christmas presents wrapped and done! Tomorrow night we may have our first houseguest in and I think the house is pretty much ready for him. Cleaned and orderly is what I would call it, sans our bedrooms but I will get to those tomorrow. The guestroom is clean though so we are ready to go on that end.

Getting all of the presents wrapped will help out a lot as next week is go time. Tons of cooking and baking to do and I am so, so ready for it! Woo-hoo! Plus this weekend we are busy! Saturday we are going to Chicago and Sunday we have our neighborhood's Christmas party.

Have I told you about our neighborhood Christmas party? Well we live in a National registered historic neighborhood and at Christmas everyone lights luminaries and we go caroling. They also unveil our neighborhood Christmas ornament of the year, the chocolate cafe in the city brings hot cocoa, and there are horse drawn sleigh rides on the brick streets with Santa! How magical does all of that sound?

So anyway, just wanted to say Happy Friday!

The Past Week in Winter Wonderland

Here we get something called Lake Effect snow...the snow coming off Lake Michigan has tons of water in it so it is heavy and falls in thick huge flakes. I love it now that I am a Stay at home mom with no where to go. Ah, how I love our life.

The children were begging me to make a snowman so....
ta-da! Our first snowman! It wasn't three ballish as much as just a giant heap of snow. But we're happy!

We've been drinking lots of hot cocoa...with a candy cane of course :)

And we've been playing army men a lot, excuse me "sarges" as Cal calls them. The aqua colored guy in the middle...he's an indian. Wrong group of guys but it works I guess :)

In other news we made it to the Nutcracker! We go to the Nutcracker every year. This was Cal's first year so we were a little anxious. We actually didn't know if we were going to get to go. First of all with Nick in the hospital we were holding our breath. I knew I could not handle two kids at the Nutcracker by myself. Secondly this is the first year that we were going to have to buy tickets. Where I used to work we used to get them for free and when I went to buy them I almost choked on my tongue they were so expensive. Yeesh. Luckily my amazing and sweet editor hooked me up with some tickies...me likey, hahaha!

Anywho here we are getting ready to leave. You would not believe the amount of people who stopped and gawked over the kids. It makes for one proud Momma, but as I realized when talking to another mom, people just don't dress their kids up anymore and that's sad. I guess the reality is that it's just too expensive to buy coats that they hardly ever wear...not to mention the hats, and muffs, and on and on. I am so glad it is important to my husband as well, that he gives me the green light to buy this stuff :).

Here we are at the show! The usher we had was so sweet! She offered to take our picture and then kept gushing over us, saying that we looked like we were models. Ha, ha! Dim lighting :) But seriously we have some adorable children!

Every year we go to the local Chocolate shop and get cocoa. This year we added Jordan almonds and the kids loved them...here's Emma showing us how much she loves them! Sorry about the gross picture!

Here are my guys. It was so very extra special to have Nick with us.

And what do you do when you don't want your brother to steal your Jordan almonds? You hide them under a coaster of course!

There was also a Santa Moose (or Caribou??) there that the kids loved. Apparently "stand next to the moose" means "hey you two work together to try to knock the thing over".

Please excuse the undergarments in the picture :/ In not so Christmasy news, Cal bit Emma on the back...hard. Here is the result. He bit her through her shirt on the back. She was screaming, Cal got in huge trouble with his father, it was a bad night.

And the kids already have Cabin fever as is illustrated here. This was them playing "climbing the mountain"??? . No idea. I just love how they play together. Fun times we are having here.

Well I will try to blog before Christmas but I am superbly busy so if not have a Merry Christmas!

Praising the Lord!

A lot of times when something bad has happened I have a tendency to kind of spiral out of control and just get into a dark hole. I'm considering it a part of Spiritual Maturity that I didn't do that this time. See I tend to blame God or wonder what I did wrong to deserve this. But God doesn't work that way, does He? Noper Doodle. 1 Peter 5:7 tells us to "Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you." So that's what I did. I committed to casting my cares upon the Lord. I know that His Will will be done. Here is what I am praising Him for now:

Healing: Nick is home out of the hospital and his condition is improving! I can't thank you all enough for your prayers through this time! I am so thankful also that he wasn't in any severe amount of pain during this. He never had to take pain medicine or anything. There is some discomfort but other than that he was fine.

Vacation time: Nick had a lot of vacation time left which has to be used by the year end. We were having a hard time figuring out when he was even going to be able to take time off. With him in the hospital he has used up exactly enough that he'll be able to take time off the week of Christmas and have his time off now covered. God is so good.



Love: I thought that I loved Nick and I do, don't get me wrong. But when you have a scary situation it makes you see things in a different light. I am so in love with Nick and Ihave such a deeper appreciation for him and our relationship and the love we share.



Nick: Most people are kind of the "woe is me" type folk but not my husband. All he talked about in the hospital was how he was sad that he didn't get to take me to his company's Christmas party. No biggie. He is such a caring man. I love seeing him leading our family. When the kids came to visit with him they were scared and he helped them through. We had family prayers on his hospital bed. He's such a testament to God and I'm honored that I get to be his wife :)

Friends and family: It's always amazing to me when people are willing to just drop everything. Some people said "let me know what I can do". There are some people who are just angels on earth. My mother in law cleared her schedule so she could help with the kids which I so appreciated, especially on the first day. My emotions were so raw that I was being a little testy with the children. My editor, neighbors, and dear friend Betsey all were relentless. They knew little details I would need. Do you need milk? Meals? Someone to watch the kids? Someone to let Lucy out? Need me to stay with you at night? Need me to pick Emma up from preschool? To everyone who offered to help, thank you. Even though I never needed anything it reminded me that I was not alone.

Nick Update

Sorry all of these photos have ships in the background. I'm trying to find pics of Nick I haven't used before and so you are getting photos from the Tall Ships Festival...nice, huh?

Thank you so much for your prayers for this amazing man! Today the doctor came in and said he is looking better. The infection has not spread more and the spots all over are not as red as they were. So this morning the doctor took him off of the IV antibiotics and switched him to pill form. When I left him tonight his leg no longer felt fevered and the swelling had gone down some.

If he continues to improve then the doctor will release him tomorrow afternoon. I am counting him to be out of the hospital tomorrow and we are so excited to have him home!

So thank you for your prayers and please continue to pray for him to recover. The doctor said he will have the redness and swollenness for a while while the infection is going away so we are on a bit of a journey here. Thanks!

Please Pray for Nick

I posted a little before about this in my previous post. This past weekend Nick had some weird foot thing occur. First he thought it was a blister, then maybe Athlete's foot (I know, totally gross), then he thought it was an infected splinter. By the end of the weekend his foot had swollen and he could barely get a shoe on or walk.

Monday he went to a doctor who diagnosed him with a Staff Infection and was started on some antibiotics. Tuesday the infection was climbing up his calf and it was swollen and red. The doctor started another kind of antibiotics with the hope that two strong antibiotics together would stop it. This morning Nick woke up and its traveled up his thigh.

So I took him to the Emergency room where they basically looked at it and immediately admitted him to the hospital. Not good.

Tonight he is still there and it looks like he is looking at a 2 night stay. They have him on an IV of antibiotics and they've taken cultures and ultrasounds in which we are still waiting on the results.

Please pray for a speedy recovery. I know it is just an infection but truthfully I am terrified this is one of those things in which he never comes home or something insane like that. So please, please pray. My brain has just been mush today; I am just not myself without my other half. I truly do feel as though I am missing part of myself. The kids are a wreck. They sobbed when I put them in bed tonight because they missed their Daddy. That was really, really hard to deal with.

I guess specifically pray for Nick's healing, for me to have a calm spirit that I may get done what needs to be done and be good with the children, and please pray for the kids that their little hearts will not be troubled with this. Especially Emma as she worries so about things.

I am starting to feel a little overwhelmed and really with just small things, such as tomorrow is my bill paying day and quite frankly my little heart just isn't into doing day by day things. My awesome in-laws are also carrying me through this. Nick's mom had the kids all day today so I could be with Nick and her and the ladies in their family rescheduled plans so she can take the kids tomorrow. Nick's sister is also coming up tomorrow too. She always can get under my layers so I'll probably start crying when I see her.

I'm very glad I get to be with Nick tomorrow because the nurse's are driving me crazy! Nick was taken up to his room from the E.R. at about noon. The nurse wouldn't order him lunch. I went out two times for food and then items for him and when I came back it was 4:30 and no one had done anything for him. Why does he need to be in the hospital if noone is going to do anything? Ugh. So I was the witchy wife down at the Nurse's station demanding that they page the doctor. Something tells me that I am going to have to be witchy tomorrow and I don't care...I want my husband at home sooner rather than later. Hospitals drive me insane because the lack of initiative or care that these people exert. I know there's a huge complicated background and series of events that happen behind the scenes, but for me it is just maddening.

I guess I can't be too much of a witch though as today I was getting "don't I know you from somewhere?" Oh! You're a writer! Nick was laughing at me "look at my local celebrity of a wife". I don't know about that but I guess I shouldn't raise too much of a stink in the hospital...people know where to find me. I'll have another incident of someone going on and on about my business. Yoink.

Anyway, sorry this is so long. I just have no one to talk to at midnight so blogging is the next best thing, I guess. Thank you for your prayers. The good news is that other than an owie foot, Nick's not in any pain. What a mighty God we serve!

Having a Hard Time Making the Call

Last week I received a call from a lady named Julie. I was on the phone with someone for work so I had to let it go to my voicemail. Turns out Julie was calling to set up an evaluation for Calvin.

I cannot find it in me to call this woman back. Poor Julie.

Don't get me wrong. I will. Everyday though I find it at the bottom of my to-do list and as the day rushes by it gets swept off the bottom to the next day. See Cal's evaluation is for Special Needs Preschool.

Nick thinks I am insane with this not being able to call her back (or just not wanting to call her back) but it is hard. I know that we are doing this because it is the best thing for Cal and I know that it needs done, but for me, setting all of this up is facing our reality: therapy that I thought would be done before he ever turned 3 is now looking like it is just starting. It's kind of like staring into a black hole and having to will yourself to jump in. It won't be that bad. It's what's best. See this last therapy session ended at 3. I knew that...there was an end.

Where is the end to this?

So please pray for me...maybe today I'll have the willpower to jump in and call Julie back.

Our Weekend was a Very, Very, Very Fine Weekend

What a wonderful weekend we had! And the best part is that we really didn't do anything :) In the business of the holiday time it was really nice to not have anything planned. The picture above is from our City's tree lighting ceremony. We attended that Friday night and were treated to the local chocolate shop's hot cocoa. We also strolled through some new stores, had some chestnuts roasted on an open fire, and perused the gingerbread village competition for ideas. It was a lovely evening and the kids had so much fun. It was kind of funny though that the kids met Santa (didn't go too hot). Santa gave them each a candy cane as he was walking around meeting kids and then in some weird moment Calvin got kind of pushed over or fell. Poor guy. But anyway he stands up and starts screaming "santa broke my candy cane!" over and over. Funny guy. We looked like we were on the verge of a major meltdown but it quickly subsided when we went to the Gingerbread village...whew!
Here we are...I see Em still has a bit of hot cocoa on her face, God love her :)

Saturday mornin we all went out for a snowball fight. I love that about our little family...we're all out pounding one another with snowballs and it's fun! The kids were so excited about the 1/2" of snow we got...they are so precious I could just eat them up :) The photo above is Nick pelting Cal with a snowball. My sister says he looks like he's doing a souja boy move whatever that means ;)

This is Emma's face after she creamed her Daddy...ha!

Sunday we went to church and then just came home! Nick has the fireplace area ALMOST done. I am itching to take pictures of it but will wait until it's done. It's done enough that I was able to decorate the mantle and Nick got our stocking up. We now all finally have matching stockings so I was anxious to see how the new ones look. I think they look really nice!

Saturday Nick was complaining of an itchy sore foot and thought he might have some weird foot problem (ew, ew gross, I know). We aren't foot problem people so this seemed odd. Yesterday his toes and foot were REALLY swollen and red. This morning he said the pain is still there and now it hurts up his shin. He insisted on going to work but is going to be trying to get into a doctor's appointment today. Please be praying for him....I am so worried about my darling.

Happy Monday! I have two articles due today and last night our internet stopped working...network failure is what Comcast's message said, grrr. So I am up super early finishing them up. Have a great day in the Lord!

Things I am excited about

Snow

A Day alone today...Nick's mom is taking the kids so they can help decorate her tree...isn't that nice of her? She is always thinking of them that way and they love helping her :) So far my day alone is consisting of conducting an interview (gag), visiting our rental place to place our Christmas order, and cleaning. Doesn't sound like the most fun day for me but at least I'll be able to say I got a lot accomplished, right?

Wrapping Christmas gifts!!! At least the first 5...then it gets kind of boring

Christmas Day...we are having gobs of people over and I LOVE it!

Emma's Christmas performance...love watching that little girl sing :)

Getting our fireplace/media area finished! Nick has had his newly made shelves down to paint and tonight I think we get to put them up and get everything organized! I cannot tell you how excited I am about that part since everything has been strewn all over my dining room for the past month. It is driving me insane to have it cluttery around here! Plus one of Calvin's favorite things is to dump DVD's so I pick those up...a lot!

*Snow!* I think Imentioned that but it is snowing and I LOVE snow! Emma does too. As I was putting her to bed last night she said so matter-of-factly "it's going to snow tonight, Daddy told me." Love.that.girl.

Happy Wednesday!

Updates

Around here in our home there are always things going on. It seems like my children have their own lives then their lives together, then our lives with us. So I thought I would touch base on how everyone is doing...you know, because you must be obsessed with us if you are reading this :).
Nick:
Nick is amazing, as always. He is such a hard worker at work and when he comes home he kicks it into high gear to work around the house getting projects done. He is also super great with the kids. He is such a great husband too. He always seems to know when I need some encouragement.

Me:
I am doing fantastic! I love staying home and I love our kids and our house and I love our husband. I am just so in love. I am in love with God and all that He has blessed us with. Wow, I just have so much to be thankful for. I am freelance writing and loving it! I am still writing my column and loving that as well. God continues to open doors for me to be able to work from home and not have to do too much of it, so I will definitely be walking through those doors. Christmas is my favorite time of year and I am happy to say that I almost done with Christmas shopping and decorating! Next comes the even more favorite tasks of baking and gift wrapping...yippee!

Emma:
What is there to say about Emma? SO MUCH! She is starting hockey back up next month and is excited about that. She is starting another round of gymnastics also. She is starting to read. Last week she read her first book and she is 4! I'm so proud of her! Her Christmas performance is coming up and I am so thrilled to get to see her sing again! Discipline wise she is so even keeled and she very rarely gets into trouble. That said yesterday she got into the linen closet (after being told not to again and again and again and again and...) and of all of the things in there she thought that razors looked like fun to play with. The poor thing slit her finger and she didn't want to tell me so there is blood ALL over her room. I fixed her up and I think the whole slicing her finger thing was lesson enough. She loves playing computer games and doing worksheets and lessons.

Calvin:
Wow he is turning 3 next month! I cannot believe it!!! He is talking up a storm including yelling "suck it mommy!" when he doesn't like something...not cool dude. He is still having issues so I met with a Psychologist with him last week. Its been interesting and we are definitely going to have a long road ahead of us. Poor little guy. He loves trucks, and trains, and firemen...he loves pretending. Everything is a gun or a sword or some type of weapon as he runs through the house.

Well that is what's going on around here :)

Merry Christmas!

Full Of Love Christmas 5x7 folded card

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O Christmas Tree

The day after Thanksgiving we always go and get our Christmas tree. This year we found ourselves back at the place we got our first tree after we bought our house, so it was fun to walk down memory lane :)

Here we are with our tree :). It took us all of about 5 minutes to find our tree which was wonderful, because...

As you can see Calvin was miserable. He was freezing. So I took hiim back to the car and we just sat there looking at Black Friday ads...the kid is so easily pleased. "Hey do you want to go look at pictures of toys?" sure mom.

Here we are decorating the tree. Aren't they so cute? Love them!


This was Cal's first year to put the star on the tree...he was very excited! This is our only picture because our tree is so big Nick had to put the star on, so TECHNICALLY this was Cal's first year to hold the star

And here it is folks, our finished tree. I have to tell you I think this is the biggest tree we've ever had...it is eating our living room! Don't tell Nick that though...shhh, I keep telling him it's not too big. (he reads this by the way). :)

Christmas has started here in our household and we are so, so excited!

Get to Target!!!

Thanks Moms by Heart!

Today is the last day for the Target toy coupons so if you are wanting to snag yourself some bargains, you'd better run on over. Here are some of things things we found:

50% off Thomas the Train starter sets...$12.49, regularly $24.99

50% off Disney Princess select items. Emma wanted a Princess Baby and we got it for $4.99, regularly $9.99

50% off wyb 2 of littlest pet shop, Strawberry Shortcake, or Ponies...we got Emma a remote control car, regularly $17.99 for $8.99, and a Littlest Pet Shop Clinic, regularly $19.99 for $9.99.

They also have the Little People Nativity for half off. We already have this and I highly recommend it!

There are tons more coupons so be sure to check it out! Don't have a Target ad? You can go to their website to print them off by clicking here. Also they have a boat load of coupons in their Toy Book and if you are super lame and didn't keep that either they have displays of them in the store for you to pick up...easy-peasy!

Read to Da Baby!

Having a baby is a wonderful thing! But one of the things that people don't know or understand is that babies have a huge capacity to learn when they are born. Which is why you should read to your child...often. All of the time.

It pains me when I see parents who don't read to their children because you are basically dumbing your child down from their potential. Reading to babies improves their communication skills, builds listening and memorizing skills, as well as really growing their vocabulary. Even kids chewing on books shows a love for them. Having books around makes reading a familiar and comfortable thing...something they will just do and love doing because they've done it from the beginning.

When our children were in the womb we read to them...long books. That is one of my best memories because Nick would read to my tummy and do funny voices and make me laugh.

When the children were born I used to read to them ANYTHING. I even read to them my college textbooks. Yep, my children were learning stocks, bonds, american history, vietnam war strategies...the works. Because the more words they hear in the first months the smarter they will be. That's why I had the daughter who at her 1st birthday party was saying "I appreciate it" and my son who just "knows" his alphabet without being taught.

I don't really know that thatis why our kids did/do those things. And I know I don't do everything right but the facts are out there...reading to your infants from right out of the womb makes them some pretty smart people!

Christmas Cards

This is the card Emma has chosen, super cute!

Have any of my readers ordered from Shutterfly? This is the first year that we have ordered Christmas cards from Shutterfly and I am so, so excited about it! Perhaps even a little too excited, but I digress.





Anyway, I've ordered my Christmas cards from other places before but this year I am so excited to have found Shuttefly's Christmas cards! They are super cute and fun, which I think describes our family to a tee too! We've had a doosy of a year so I was looking for some cards that would be extra special to showcase our extra special time during this year. I just love these cards!!!




Anyway, I love the ease of using the Shutterfly site and they have such cute designs. You can check them out by clicking here. I think I am also getting Cal's Birthday invitations through them...you can check those out here.Let me know what you think about them! You can even edit and crop on the website which helps a lot to get the wonky people out of the background of our photo!

I've even been tossing around the idea of getting our calendars through Shutterfly. You'll have to let me know what you think about them because I LOVE their designs. You can see them here.

Gobble Gobble

I found this picture of Emma and just had to share it with you. Isn't it just adorable??? She was only 1 chowing down on corn. I just love her so much!

Goodbye Barn Wood

Consider this a sneak peek of the living room remodel please! Obviously we are far from done... :/
If you have been to our house you can see that the barnwood that was behind the television has been covered! I am soooo excited for this to be done! This is the color that is going to be in the fireplace little alcove...it is a darker green than is in the rest of the living room. I am so ready for this to be done and I cannot wait to see the end result.

It was awkward and wonky to get everything done and its been a huge pain to have all of our electronics lying everywhere. It just seems silly it took so long to get covered as the drywall piece was $4.00. That's right, $4.00 has changed the entire look of our living room (in my opinion). We are also replacing all of the shelved around the fireplace. The fireplace inspector and chimney sweep are coming in two weeks. It is all coming together. After that then we will be finishing the fireplace with a new mantle and glass tile. So excited to have this done and to see the end result.

By the way Nick has done all of this and he is just such a rockstar when it comes to this stuff. I am continually amazed at his abilities. If he doesn't know how to do something he looks it up, he talks to friends, he makes sure it gets done. I'm just really proud of him and the work that has been done. :)

Ah, Bake Sale Drama

This weekend I have a bakesale to attend. And not just attend but coordinate, bake for, and run. Sounds fun, huh? Well its me and another mother that have to do everything and I am having the world's hardest time getting along with this woman...does anyone else feel my pain in these things?

I wish I had the ability to just keep quiet and not let things bother me, but oh, oh how they bother me. This mother is one of those one's that doesn't want to make a decision but the first thing she does when I make a decision is to change it.

Today we priced the baked goods and at one point she was going behind me as I worked and changing the prices I had written. Seriously? Who does that? This is a cotton pickin' bake sale for a preschool. Who cares if we only make $25.00?

In these situations I try to come up with the reasoning behind the crazies in my world...here are my two reasons. 1) everyone has these people and they somehow, miraculously, ignore them or see past their weirdo-ness or 2) I somehow have some type of magnetic force field for attracting the weirdest people.

I know it doesn't sound like much on here, but its just mind numbing the way this woman was turning things around on me and the loops and dips she was taking me on in conversations. Again...bake sale! I don't need to spend 15 minutes deliberating with you on how much a dozen cookies should cost. And please don't get me wrong, I wasn't doing anything without her consent. but here's how it went:

Mom: hey how much should these cookies be?
Me: I don't know, what do you think?
Mom: I don't know what do you think?
Me: I really don't know, they're just cookies. What do you think?
Mom: I don't know, maybe 75 cents or a dollar?
Me: Let's do a dollar...less change to deal with
Mom: okay.

fastforward to 10 minutes later where she's changing all of the prices because $1.00 is too low and now she's going behind me to change them to $3.00. That's wonky in my book :/.

And this doesn't really matter except I realized as I'm delving into all of this on the phone with Nick, how silly this is. I thanked him for listening to my preschool room parent drama. He somehow always manages to seem interested which is mind boggling to me...I think I'd be playing solitaire on the computer if you started talking all this stuff with me...your doing it now, aren't you? I see you there, playing solitaire!

Nick's solutions are always funny to me. They always seem like something out of a wrestling ring. He always says something like "if that mom shows up again you should flip the table over, grab some cookies, and leave, but make sure you get your tablecloth back". Nice. He always SOUNDS serious, but then I always wonder if he actually expects me to do that? At least he's sensible and reminds me to get my tablecloth back from under the table I've flipped over in the middle of the church craft bazaar....always prudent that boy.

Thanks for listening...feel free to post any comments :)

Shaky the Moyle

Shaky the Moyle for those of you climbing out from under a sizeable rock was a character on Seinfeld. During vacation I was on a busy street corner trying to take a picture of someone across the street (Nick's picture is above) and kept missing, completely. Nick came to my rescue laughing and said "give me that camera, Shaky the Moyle". Could.Not.Stop.Laughing.

And that is what I love about my husband. We've been married over 7 years...I've known him for 10 and he still makes me laugh so hard I can't breathe. He never ceases to amaze me or to come up with new material. :)

In my defense I was standing kind of crooked on a ramp thingy and someone had bought me some wine for my birthday, and I was trying to dodge people as they walked by but, yes you can now call me Shaky. Well not really but I'll let the hubs :)

The Creative Bug

Ihave been dying to get creative...does this every happen to anyone else or is it just me? Creativitiy seems to hit me in waves where one minute I'll be hanging out fine with everything in our home and the next minute I want to be able to use words like "pizazz" and "bedazzle" to describe things around here.

I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. See, I read this blog called Under the Sycamore and she makes me feel inspired every day. Hmmm....except our house looks wildly uncreative...so.not.cool.house.

Then there's this lady named Auntie Bev. She keeps giving me stuff. Seriously. She's just too much. I don't know what I did to deserve her, but she makes my heart smile. First she gave us a piano. Did you hear that one guys? A piano...yep, that's the lady. She's pretty awesome. Then she gave us a beautiful antique mirror. Well last month she gave me a sewing machine as I was a loser and didn't have one. Know how to use it I do not but this past weekend she gave us an entire box of vintage fabric and the bug to sew SOMETHING is eating away at me. And we ate at a little cafe last week where they had the cutest stinkin' curtains in the world. Nothing wrong with any of my curtains (except my dressing room...those are janked up, but that's a whole other issue...) but now I want new kitchen curtains. Like yesterday. On top of the fabric box of creativity, she gave me this adorable mirror which also has feet on the bottom and I know that sounds weird but you can't judge me that I can't describe things. Nope ya can't because God says not to. Anywho...now I want to lay it somewhere and put wildly cute things on it as a tray, but again, can't think of what to do, where to do it. Grrrr.

So if you have any suggestions for me or maybe know the lingo to teach someone of about 7 how to use a sewing machine, I'm all ears. Seriously with the sewing machine, you could tell me it was a giant toaster and I would ask you where to put the bread...that's how sewing machine-irific I am. Yep.

For now my creativity will be used towards making gobs, and gobs, and gobs, and gobs of things for Emma's bake sale this weekend which I am also coordinating, and manning the booth...doesn't this all sound wildly exciting to you? I know you are using this blog to live vicariously through me because it's all so exciting you can just hardly stand it. But anyway, LAST year I made sugar cookies, and boy howdy I made sugar cookies. This year not so much. Shaky the moyle's not doing that this year.

I'll have to explain the Shaky the Moyle thing another time.... :)

29

This past weekend I celebrated my 29th birthday (my first 29th birthday, haha). I usually have a hard time with birthdays. I have this very real fear of death and birthdays always seem like a silent reminder that I'm just getting closer to death.

But this year those feelings aren't here. They've left this place, hopefully for good. I am just happy to be 29 and be where I am: I am married to the man that God made perfectly for me. We have created two fantastic, precious children who we give back to God every day. We have a beautiful home that I get to stay at with our children. I am a Christian, a blessed then could ever deserve Christian, and when I do die, I will go to the Promised Land and one day get to be with my family forever, how amazing!

For my birthday this year we were on vacation and it was the best time. The best time, the best Jerry. I experienced every facet of perfectness I could ever hope for: the silent walks through the woods, feeling God's love, looking at the majesty of an open nights sky filled with stars, I bit into the best dessert I've ever tasted, I laughed until I cried, and lastly, I looked over the table at everyone around and my eyes brimmed with tears as I realized how truly blessed and loved I am.

I come home with a rested body, a content heart, and an inspired soul: all things that combine to make the best Birthday gift of all...peace.

Happy Saint's Day!

Here we are before hitting the town last night for some Trick or Treating. This is going to sound ridiculous but last night was the first night the kids have gone trick or treating! Honest to goodness going to someone's door and begging for candy. Usually we just visit Grandparents and I think maybe twice we went to the mall to get Candy.

Even as a kid I didn't go trick or treating right. We lived on a very busy street and so my dad would shuttle us in as kids to someone else's neighborhood.

But last night was amazing. We stopped at the mayor's house (who by the way gave out peanuts) and talked to them as the first lady loves our children and they adore her. Then to Miss Kathy's house who has the infamous black cat, who let the adults share in some of her Almond Joy love :). Then on and on we went to people who we knew. Everyone loved the children's costumes. I loved the neighborly feel and the classical-ness of it all. We live in a historic district and walking through the streets in the haze of nightfall with the streetlights ticking on, it was very romantic. It might have been 50 years ago and you wouldn't have known it, save from my digital camera!

We decided as a family when we were done that it was the most fun and we would definitely be trick or treating next year :)

Happy Eve of Saint's Day!

Hope you all are having a fantastic Halloween! We are having a splendid time with our little Woody and Buzz. How cute are these two? Because I am super cheap we try to find costumes that can be used for more than just halloween. Their outfits are actually pajamas and they are super excited that they get to wear them to bed! Emma's boots are from Gymboree and look adorable with skirts :) and her handkerchief we already had...her hat's from the Dollar Store. I made Cal's wings and he loves them which makes me so happy to have kids who are happy with simple things. I know they will probably say "I wanted ones from the store!" when they are older but for now they are happy with the simple things.

Anyway tonight we are going to go trick or treating on one street in our neighborhood and then we are going to my Grandma's...hope you all have a wonderful night! BOO!

on and on and on

So sorry I haven't been on here recently. I'll try to write soon, I promise. Things here have been a little nutty around here. Em wrapped up hockey, we had a field trip this last week, before that the two kids have been sick. We are looking at getting Cal tested for PDD-NOS which is on the Autism Spectrum (which even typing just makes me refuse to think about...lalalala), I've recently spoken out about Cal's problems with my work blog and it is kind of overwhelming with being so out there and open and also the response. We also have been remodeling in our living room, we are leaving for vacation in 10 days, I had to donate silent auction items, plan a fall party, and make the kids halloween costumes. To say we've been busy feels a bit like an understatement. Also Emma had her tongue clipped which seems like no big deal but it's gotten incredibly infected to the point she couldn't eat or drink. So we're now on round 2 of antibiotics and she says her tongue still hurts. On top of all of that, after a 4 hour appointment with an allergist we found out that Cal is allergic to so many things, it kind of baffled the doctor. So far he's allergic to grass, ragweed, two types of mold, peanuts, soy, and eggs. The tests were so long that he didn't want to test him for more but he said since he's allergic to ragweed he'll need to be tested with other things they only test adults for. Weird fact I learned was that most little kids don't even have the capacity to be allergic to ragweed. Yep, that's my kid! And did you know that soy is in practically everything. So making homemade bread, crackers, anything basically has been added to my list of things to do. We're hoping once all of these things which are toxic to his little body are out that he'll be sweet and kind and won't have raging eczema and he won't make his momma's heart stop when we have an asthma attack.

So that's what's been going on with us. There are some days I just feel consumed by all of this. It feels like we can never catch a break. Even when I do get a break I am so stressed and worried. But I know God is with me because when I look in the rearview mirror and see two little kids...that's what makes me smile. How blessed am I that I get to be their mommy? I love it. I love our life. This weekend Cal kept asking me "make Mommy happy?" and my eyes just fill with tears as I answer him over and over and over and over "yes bud you make Mommy very, very happy." All of this...I love and it makes me very happy. :)

Fall Loveliness

I thought I would share with your some of my favorite Fall decorations...you know, since we don't have people over much. Here we go...
Love the silliness of this...gotta have sideway candy corn with googly eyes, right?

Everyone's favorite mums!!! They are my Birthday flower so of course I have 5 pots of them right now :)

Let your freak flag fly...

This wreath was a gift to me by my Grandma...love.her. For those of you who don't know the woman makes a wreath for everyone for every door, for every occasion. Ha, and you think I am exagerating! When we moved back home she wanted to make me a wreath and I suggested something a little more, um, not purple rose-ish. So I showed her what I wanted and this is what she made me....love.it :)

Apothecary jars are my game :)

For some stupid reason I forget about this plaque until I pull it out of storage and every year I am so happy about it...I think I got it from Hallmark one year for about $.75 and that included the stand

Here's our foyer

Why hello foyer door...

Alright this is super boring but I changed our GREEN candles for PURPLE candles...see how daring I am?

Pumpkin Em made in school...love her homemade decorations

Here's our centerpiece.

Here's my very large candle that get's filled with randomness for every holiday...last Christmas it was green split peas with a red candle...oh yes and a foam deer adorns the bottom

Well that concludes our tour...any questions?

As I write Nick has dismantled our fireplace...gee I don't think it can look any worse than it does right now :/ I don't mind the project as long as its done by the holiday! I think it will be...he's drywalled the sides of the fireplace to make little cubbies for our electronics and for media storage...we are glass tileing the mantle and fancying up above...I'll post pictures when its done

Hope ya'll had a great weekend :)