Let the Goodtimes Roll

Tonight Eli is having a sleepover at his cousins, Layla and The Man are going on a date, and Isabelle is having Jailie over for a late night movie: One Night with the King. The babies will go to bed early-ish, and I will snuggle up with a terrible book (required reading for my Humanities class.) I will talk more on that book later. For now, I am going to try not to get too excited over what life will be like when my kids go in many directions regularly. I am sure I will miss these times, but that sure is a pretty light at the end of the tunnel.

The Man

Today is The Man's 32nd birthday. He has to work, and he never reads my blog, but I thought I should "ode" to him anyway. As much as it hurts to be attached with someone when they go through growing times, I am grateful to have been part of the process of who my husband has become since we met in high school. Cause, remember when we used to sneak into the dark room together during photography class? Those were some good times. We have made some funny memories:
*Cahooting and actually making our photography teacher retire (she put our names on her resignation paper!)
*dating behind my best friend/your girlfriend's back (not our proudest moment)
*sneaking into the Jimmy Buffet after party
*being the only people under 40 at the Bad Company concert in Hollywood
*Me cracking up at you for not understanding Free Tattoos was the name of the band, not a free perk of the concert (sorry for mocking you so,but seriously YOU WERE WIDE OPEN FOR THAT ONE!)
*going on so many movie dates we actually had to wait for Hollywood to produce more before there was something new to watch
*New Year's kisses under the fire works and Disneyland
*Eating a silly amount of funnel cakes
*the time you told your grandmother I was suffering from nipple soreness (special)
*your willingness to pick up and move to Reno
*when you proposed and I nearly did cartwheels down my dorm hallway

These are a few of my favorite things. Happy Birthday, Babe.

Flat Stanley

I know I should be putting this on my homeschooling blog, and I will, but I wanted to see if anyone throughout the United States wanted to participate in our Flat Stanley/Flat Sydney project. We will be sending out our travelers near the end of the week. If you are interested, you only have to take one of our flat friends with you around town and take some pictures with hi during your adventures. You can either print out the pictures and tell us a little about the trip, or simply email us. We have local Reno friends, Vegas friends, Florida friends, and Auntie Mel doesn't know it yet, but the boys are our Virginia friends. Let me know. Thanks :)

Feeling Great in 2008

Week off- well, not really, but I am using this week to rework any resolutions that haven't been working for me. I am still in bed by ten o'clock and up on time. I have been sticking to a few good ones, but my exercising is seriously lacking. Feel free to pray. Bowling made me exhausted. Clearly I have issues with stamina lol.

Don't go Changin'

I am hoping you sang along heh heh. Anyhoo, as so many things have been changing lately, I find myself looking for stability. I feel like I have been in the middle of a long transitional day (almost like Groundhogs Day only without all the repetition). Of course life seems to continue to move with the kids' birthdays all happening, The Man turns another year older, and people post updates on their own blogs. The weird thing is, I feel like I am watching it all through a snow globe. I am not the one doing the shaking, but for different reasons, I am affected. I am working at changing my perspective. The longer I keep this focus, I fear I will find more things that feel out of whack. Instead, I am choosing God's peace. I want to be purposeful with my thoughts, so I am choosing to meet with God each day (as many times as necessary) until he restores my peace. I don't want to miss this time of year. I tend to get a little hectic because I want each of the kids to have a meaningful birthday, plus The Man, plus or anniversary, plus Easter which means a lot around here. I want to be the mom who remembers all those funny stories about her kids. To do that, I need to be available. To be available, I have to be focused. To be focused, I need God's peace. To know God's peace, I need to pray and read my bible. To pray and read my bible, I need to choose. Baby steps onto the elevator. I am IN the elevator. AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!

Catching up Through Pictures

Here are a couple that I was unable to post while they were new. Enjoy.

Daddy and Curious Sam at Halloween






Isabelle's artwork

A Boo Hoo Hoo

Why does getting an iPod have to be difficult? Sigh. My dad gave me his first generation iPod Nano, sweet! Only he lost the charger chord. Only, they don't sell them anymore as they are obsolete and before you mention eBay, I tried it all. We all did. I can't find a charger for that guy anywhere. SOO feeling badly, my dad took me to Circuit City to suprise me in buying me another, working iPod. They were out, but the man assured us the Sony MP3 player would be simple to use and compatible with the bazillion hours of iTunes music I have stored on my computer. Yah, well, he is a liar and if I were still in Las Vegas, I would tell him so. That big haired fruit cake. He just made stuff up to make the sale. BUT remember when he doesn't actually work on commission? Why does he care enough to make a sale to lie about the performance of a product? Stupid. SO, now I am waiting for George Dahir to find the receipt, so I can AGAIN purchase an iPod. For now, I must making Sam go to bed. I can tell he is tired as he will not stop making the yummy sound from Young Frankenstein.

Feeling Great in 2008

Baby steps and grace- I have had a lot of these lately. This week my goal seems simple enough, but I feel it will make a huge difference in my husband's disposition. Because he has "acts of service" as his love language, he likes me to clean. Because I think cleaning is overly tiresome, I struggle with fulfilling him in this way. So, I thought soley of him when I made this next resolution.

Make bed each morning, clean room for five minutes before heading downstairs to start my day.

See, I am a giver.

I Rule, You Drool!

http://www.virtualapple.org/oregontraildisk.html
Remember the game Oregon Trail? Yah, well, tonight I was online trying to find my kids some new computer games (one my genius son hasn't completely finished) and i came across this website that actually lets you play the old school Oregon Trail free online!! What!!?? I KNOW. I think you should all try it. The first round (yes, I played twice) I died from cholera, Auntie Mel died from the measels after getting lost and causing our trip to be delayed, Sam and Isabelle were poisoned by wild fruit, and Mike made it almost 1/4 of the way on the trail before being taken by the dysentery. shudder. I was able to etch something on his tombstone. I chose Mike, loved to fish. The SECOND time, i got to put my name in the hall of winners as contestent number four. OH YAH!! How do you like me now! This find almost makes me want to put a bunch of early 90s music on my selection over there. almost.

The Wise Words of Sam I Am

Dr. Seuss' bday is coming up. I believe he would have been about 104. Somewhere close to there anyway. Target is doing a reading of Horton Hears a Who and the bookstores always have greatness happening. The movie, of course, is due out soon as well. Because I love Steve Carrell and also enjoy Jim Carrey, we will be seeing that one. Here is our tribute to Dr. Seuss; this is our list of words Samuel Fisher can now say:

Mommy
Daddy
Layla
Bubba
Elijah
Isabelle
Doggy
Whoa
no no
and pretty, which actually comes out as titty, so we are discouraging that one until a little later.

GRRRR

I have to stop yelling so much. I yell when I am angry. Then, yelling makes me angry. Do you feel my vicious cycle? sigh

Feeling Great in 2008

I know I am a little tardy on getting this week's goal out there, but throw me a bone. My week seems to be getting more painful as the minutes tick by. I feel the prayers though; I haven't totally lost it. I am seriously looking forward to my friend, Erin, massaging me this weekend. I hope that still works out.

Here is the latest installment of Feeling Great in 2008:

Scrapbook once/week

You don't actually have to copy my hobby (although, why wouldn't you?). Fill in your favorite pass time and run with it. I love scrapping oh so much. Even if I only get one page done, I feel like I have accomplished something. I love the therapy scrapbooking provides for me. Nothing is better than displaying favorite or meaningful memories. I especially love when my pages make my husband cry. Good times.

Gotta Love it!

I am using this poster as a prop for my speech tonight. I thought it was awesome. My talk is about anti- antibiotics. The poster depicts the need for the drugs during World War II. I am just saying, you can never be too careful.

Dazed and Confused

melancholy

adjective
1. characterized by or causing or expressing sadness; "growing more melancholy every hour"; "her melancholic smile"; "we acquainted him with the melancholy truth"
2. grave or even gloomy in character; "solemn and mournful music"; "a suit of somber black"; "a somber mood" [syn: somber]

noun
1. a feeling of thoughtful sadness
2. a constitutional tendency to be gloomy and depressed



Do you ever have those times when things seem to keep going wrong and you don't know which emotion to act upon so you just sit in a dazed and confused state? That is me today and most of the week. I have been dealt layers of heavy news in the past couple of weeks, and I think my mind is rejecting the next stage of processesing. I keep sitting down to deal with it all, but that doesn't seem to work. I am in limbo; I am not really wanting to deal with any of it, yet I can't seem to concentrate on anything else. Then, I keep feeling like I want to talk to someone, but I don't really have anything to say. I am ready to move on from this season.

Feeling Great in 2008

Okay, we are starting a new week. I think I can, I think I can! Last week's goal proved a little challenging. I started off really well with going to bed at 10. I even got in a little light reading. Any of you in college know that almost never happens as there is far too much required reading to turn to fluff when we get a free minute. ( Free minute? What's that?) Getting up in the morning has been ridiculous only because I wake up an hour or so before my alarm. Don't be confused. I am not waking so early because of all the sleep. My body seems to be rebelling and waking three or four times each night. No reason, just to look at the dark room. Sigh.
This week, with my cold on the down slope, I am hoping getting back to exercising will give me the stress release and the exhaustion to keep me asleep. I don't feel these are large requests.
Anyhoo, this week's goal: dishes before bed, read Love Languages of Children and work on responding this way to my kids.
You may have some other chore you procrastinate at such as laying out your clothes, making lunches, or straightening the living room before bed. Just fill in your own slacker chore. Also, any book that will make you a new, better, and stronger you as long as it is not a diet book. I do not condone them. Just eat balanced, REAL food, drink your water, and move. Just give it a try.
Anyway, anyone have an update?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOOOOU!

Happy Birthday Melaroo!
For those of you who don't know Melissa, she is my sister. Because you don't know her, you won't be able to pick her out of this picture anyway. Those of you who do know her- I didn't actually have a picture of her and I didn't want to steal Jessie's from her blog. Plus, a lot of people think all black people look alike anyway so I just found a fake Melissa. In fact, I titled the picture "The Fake Melissa" when I saved the image to my computer. Anyway, I thought if I was using a fake Melissa, I would give her some fake accomplishments as well. Congratulataion on your graduation!! You look real smart!

*I totally stole this post from a speckley bird.
**The first time I posted this, I accidentally did so on David's blog. Sorry about that. It was even weirder to see that ethnic family on your blog, David. I was cracking myself right up!

I am Ready for Summer

Miss Layla- a beauty even when she is ruffin it

Mike getting in on some nice hot schmoes!


Eli- he is just too big. He was totally in his element!


These pictures are just a glimpse into the goodtimes!


Normally, I try to just enjoy the seasons as they take place. This year, while the snow hasn't been too deep, it is coming too frequently. For about ten days or so the snowshowers have just been on and off, continuously. While I love all the white, as much as I love waking up every morning and snuggling in front of my new fire place, and as much as I love watching my dog go crazy with love in our snow filled backyard, I am tired of being cold. I feel frumpy in my seven layers, and I think I would look slimmer if I could just go out in one shirt at a time. Here are some pictures from last summer's camping trip with our great friends, the Ridges, and our new friends Patrick (or Patlick as Addison called him) and LeAnn. We already have plans to repeat the trip this summer. The best part of it all is this lake is 20 minutes from our house! We can see the mountain every morning when we wake up in our new house. Mo and Jo...get your butts up here! Reno needs you.