Happy New Year

I just want to say 2007 has been such a blessed year with so many changes and I am Thankful for (almost) every one of them. I pray for 2008 to be as good as 2007. Especially the last week. I could die happy right now. Well.. that is a little dramatic, but this has been my week: Going to movies with friends, going to movies with hubby, getting together with family, reading to my hearts content, deep cleaning (don't love that, but love the result- the office is really starting to look good), playing on the computer, playing with the boys, staying up till midnight (which I don't think has happened for many years).

So those New Years resolutions?
I resolve to maintain thankfullness for my blessings.
I resolve to be more patient with the boys.
I resolve to eat better and excercise (I know it's cliche but I really do need it).
I resolve to take time for myself, my husband, and my family.
And tomorrow I resolve to finally go to work and get ready for Thursday. The Christmas decorations are still up and that will just not work for anyone.

May everyone have a beautiful new year.

Turning a Corner

We've had a fun couple of days. Daddy had to work so Mommy got to do work around the house {and lay around just a bit:)} Wednesday was cleaning and errands. We donated ten bags of toys to Goodwill so we could make room for the new stuff. We still need to take about ten more bags. I also got to go grocery shopping by myself since sis was here to watch the kids. Yesterday we went to lunch and Alvin and the Chipmunks with Sarah and Jackson. The kids loved it, and Ben and Sarah got some snuggle time. Last night Daddy went to the Menards to buy some office furniture/storage solutions. I spent an hour last night and several hours this morning putting together bookshelves and cabinets, then cleaning and organizing the office and my scrappin' area. It's really starting to look nice. I'll post pictures after it's all done. We still need a couple more shelves and Daddy needs to sort through his papers. We went for our Friday night dinner at Stockholm Inn with old friends and thier kids. Nobody was too naughty and the kiddos are sooo cute. After we got home the kids played by themselves in their toy area for a looong time without any fighting. They've been doing that more lately, so I hope we're turning a corner. I love watching them entertain themselves. They both love to pretend to be characters and go on rescue missions. The lines Ben chooses to quote from movies are hilarious! Today it was "fire in the hole" from Chipmunks.
Tomorrow my Dad is coming to celebrate Christmas, so I don't get to go to my monthly scrap night :( But the kids are really looking forward to seeing Grandpa Scott. Joey is actually excited for Grandpa to open his gift from us. Love the giving spirit.

A story from Christmas: One of the first gifts Ben opened from Grandma was a pair of fuzzy earmuffs. As he pulled them out of the package, he said in awe "I got Boobies!" {He calls my bras boobies.} We really did roll on the floor laughing. Of course I had to tell the story the rest of the day and embarrass him, so he started yelling at me each time "they're ear plugs!" He'll figure it out soon enough, but I love when the kids say things quirky. I was sad because he has started saying Jack Sparrow instead of Chicken Back Sparrow. At least Joey still says "constructions" for instructions.

Christmas Joy

Yesterday after cleaning the house all morning Joey and I went to the childrens' christmas eve service at church. Joey was great- really into Jesus' birthday this year. Then we came home for Daddy and Ben and headed out for our traditional Christmas eve party. This is my step-FIL's family who we just adore. They are very into tradition, though. For the last 30 years they have always done things the same way. Same menu, smae order, same guests (pretty much). So I found out last night that a new food item was introduced about 10 years ago, but since it is not part of the tradition a few people refuse to eat it! Now, I love that they have such strong traditions, but really the sandwiches are really good. So funny. The boys loved the presents they got over there and so did Daddy. Joey got a voice-changing Transformers mask that Daddy just had to try on. I have to admit it was pretty cool, but not meant for adults. Silly boy. Then we went home, got Santa's cookies and milk ready, boys to bed, and I headed out to the 10:30 service by myself.... except it started at 10. Whoops. I still stayed and enjoyed the beautiful service, came home, wrapped the Santa presents, and headed for bed. Oh yeah, and ate Santa's cookies and poured out the milk.

Here's what we've been waiting for! Santa came last night and left the boys one big present that they asked for. Joey got a remote control dragon and Ben got a dancing mat. They were both super excited about those and all the other presents they got today. Lots of Pirates, drawing and reading stuff, jammies, and movies. We all had a great Christmas! Oh- the kids had to wait to open presents until after we fixed breakfast- the most delicious whole-wheat cherry pancakes ever. They were very patient and didn't even mind that Uncle Michael was a little late. Then we headed up to Janesville and my Mom's, then back down to Cherry Valley for the in-laws. Now we are home playing with our toys. Joey actually just asked to do his writing practice. After plenty of roaming the house with the remote control dragon of course.

So Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night. I hope everyone had as good a time as we did.

Ahh Family

We had our family Christmas get-together on my Mom's side today. This is the family where everyone hates each other and talks about each other behind their backs. Then they turn fakey sweet when talking to people, and everyone competes for best kid/job/most money/worst health problem. It's just very stressful worrying about who's saying what about me or my kids. Fortunately the kids were absolute angels today. I could not have asked for better behavior. They played together with the one toy in the house for a long time while we visited. They found a couple of grown-up buddies in a couple who were visiting and wrestled with them for a while, then Joey colored a picture for Leigh before we left. Leigh is a beautiful young lady who is in the armed service. She just recently returned from Iraq and is going back the day after Christmas for another year. So brave. Thank-you for serving our country.

Oops. Daddy just walked in and caught me blogging. Apparently he thought that the last time he told me to get rid of it I listened to him. Nope, honey I sure didn't. Kinda like you didn't listen to me when I said no on the moniter. I love blogging. It's my chance to talk about stuff and not worry about if anyone cares. Blogspot cares. That's pretty much all I need. {It's nice that I have some friends who like to check on me, too.}

So anyway, more about that family party. My Mom hosted at my Grandpa's house. (He has a big house- as he said to that visiting couple, he's "loaded.") My two aunts who have always treated my Mom like crap came late, ate, and left before we even had dessert. They made sure to offend my uncle's wife before they left, so she was upset the rest of the time. It was a great time!

Christmas Eve tomorrow. Should be a lot more fun with the in-laws. And hopefully we can work in church somewhere in there. Merry Christmas!!!!!

The Best Laid Plans

Today was supposed to be a busy day with get-togethers w/ Dad and sister and then with FIL family. Well, Dad couldn't make because of the weather and then FIL cancelled on us too, so we had a free day. We used it to do some major rearranging. Guest bed went upstairs to Joey's old room. His old bed came down to the toyroom to be used as a toybox/trampoline. Lots of old toys and stuffed animals went out to the car to go to Salvation Army. Now we are going to get a second desk and some shelving for the office. Maybe now we can be organized like we always planned. Maybe not, but we'll have space for everything. While I was cleaning out the closet in Joey's old room I came across a box for a 22" monitor. I figured he just saved the box from our new one, but when I went to move it - it was still sealed. Hmm. I just told him last week that no, we couldn't afford to get another monitor right now. So I took it down to ask him. Hmmm. Apparently when I say no, that means please just go behind my back and hide it. Grrr. We have spent sooo much money lately. Of course, him working 60 hours a week doesn't hurt. But still.
So right now he's out shopping for that new desk. He still wants to get a newer model of DVD player. And I was really looking forward to trying to get away for a weekend. Please come visit us in the poor house.

5...

Yay! Vacation has begun. We had our three Christmas parties at school the last two days, and they were great. My little 3-year-olds sang their hearts out. And they have officially learned why it is we celebrate Christmas. I was blessed with many mugs of hot cocoa and some new ornaments for the tree, along with other wonderful gifts from so many families. I do just get the warm fuzzzies from being appreciated. Also when I got home today there was a Christmas card from one of my students at my old center. I was thrilled that are still thinking of me and miss me. I miss the family, too. And lots of other families that I don't get to see anymore. I hadn't let myself think about it too much, but it really hit me this afternoon what I had to leave in order to make the change to a new job. I hope I can go visit soon and have it be a good experience.

I have some prayers that need saying that could use some more power:
for Kari who just found out that her unborn baby has some health problems
for Kathie and Julie whose babies are recovering in the hospital
for all those who cannot buy presents for their children this year


The countdown is on for Christmas. I do not want to have to go to the store for any reason for the next 5 days. Unfortunately there is no food in the house. Ugh. Why didn't I think of this before Joey started his break. Now I have to find a way to lug both boys to the crazy crowded Walmart. Ugh. That's all I can say.

Getting Ready

Yesterday was pretty busy. It was Daddy's birthday so he got up early and went shopping - bought himself a new laptop after weeks of research. My sister came over to bake Christmas cookies so we spent the afternoon in the kitchen. The boys got to make a gingerbread house- hopefully a new tradition. It was kind of a fiasco - the pieces kept breaking and the kids couldn't get the candy to stick the way they wanted it, but they had fun and ate a bunch so it was fine. Then Daddy took the boys sledding. They were only gone for about 45 minutes, but they said they had fun. Meanwhile we made a whole bunch of different cookies and only burned one batch and one hand (mine). They look great and I can't wait to share them this weekend at our family Christmas parties. The one funny thing that happened was when we went to roll out the sugar cookies, we couldn't find a rolling pin. I swear I've used a rolling pin in my house before, but I can't actually remember needing it so we decided that no, I've never owned a rolling pin. We ended up using a drinking glass.

After all that we went to Daddy's Christmas party for his work at the Discovery Center. We only stayed long enough to see santa and play for a few minutes because we still needed to eat dinner. Oh, and they gave the boys each $10 gift cards for Toys R Us. That was nice. So then we drove over to Chili's for dinner. {I forgot to mention we were doing all this in the middle of a pretty good snowstorm.} Daddy was super excited to get to use the 4 wheel drive in his truck while we all hung on for dear life.

This morning we got up and started doing some major cleaning in the basement in preparation for the new TV coming in. Our office area is just despicable, but I got some of that cleaned and the TV area organized. Daddy went out for some containers, I thought, but was gone for four hours. My sister helped clear the driveway that we hadn't shoveled yet this season, and then she helped me carry the old entertainment center up to the garage. She certainly earned her keep this weekend, I'm sure she was very excited about getting to sleep in at our peaceful house this morning :).

I have two more days of school before the Holidays- and three Christmas parties. I'm looking forward to them, though, because the kids are just so excited. Tomorrow I have to get some gifts for just in case someone forgets about the gift exchange.

Okay- funnies: Ben said "Mommy, I can speak Spanish. Listen." He leaned in to whisper in my ear: "Ssspanish."

Joey was thinking about where all the helium balloons have gone that they have lost to the sky. He said: "maybe they went up to the planet that has rings around it and when the planet spun around it popped them. Or maybe they flew all the way to Pluto!"

A Regular Thursday

I'm sitting here staring at the blank blogger because I don't know what to write about, so I'll write about nothing. I don't want to write about how I've been feeling because I'm tired of whining. Hopefully soon I can just write about how much better I'm doing. I don't want to write about how busy we've been because I think we're all pretty busy with the holidays. I will say that I had my final at school tonight and am glad that's done. I don't want to write about finishing up Christmas shopping because ugghh I don't even want to think about it. I know. I'll work on my grateful list.
I am grateful for beautiful Christmas music, religious, secular, country, Manhattan Steamroller, all of it.
I am grateful for Christmas parties. For that time to get together with people who we don't get to see very often.
I am grateful for snow. It helps when there is not much sun to brighten up the world.
I am grateful for the story of Jesus' birth. Isn't it the most beautiful story? I have been teaching it to 45 three year olds for the last few weeks and I've got that baby down. We have read so many great books about the nativity.
I am grateful to get to teach the Christmas story to 45 three year olds.
I am grateful for people who are always happy. They show me what I want to be.
I am grateful for being invited to a scrapbook weekend. I am sooo looking forward to getting away for a whole weekend.
I am grateful for friendly strangers.
I am grateful for book sales. I love books!
I am grateful for blogs. What would I do if I couldn't do this?
I am grateful for the weak ice storm we had- beautiful trees, not scary streets.
I am grateful for having so many things to be grateful for. There is nothing to be sad about!

L-A-Z-Y

Recovering from the laziest weekend ever today. Saturday the boys and I never even left the house. I think I took three different naps. Accomplished nothing. Sunday I at least went to the grocery store, and got myself one present- a scrapbooking tote filled with goodies. And when I got home we got our Christmas picture done. We managed to all be in it this year thanks to the handy timer on my new camera. Have I mentioned that I love my new camera? Today neither Ben or I is feeling the best. Ben woke up croup-y again. Poor thing has the cutest little hoarse voice, though. And me, well let's just say I have a Dr appt. on Thursday. We'll go from there.

I called Parker Center about getting Ben screened today. They can't even screen him until June, so obviously no spot for him this year. If anyone has a solution for me, I'd love to hear it.

I'm almost done Christmas shopping- just gift cards and some stocking stuffers left, yay!

If anyone is interested in Once Upon A Family for Christmas, I'm putting in an order tomorrow. I'm offering free shipping, and there are several things on sale. Just let me know if you want anything. Thanks so much.

Ice storm tomorrow- we are really having quite a winter already! Be safe.

Changes

Yesterday I had to do a group presentation in my class, and I actually was hardly nervous at all! If I had done that a year ago I would have been sick to my stomach. I have made so many changes this year and stepped outside my comfort zone in so many ways that I almost feel like I could do anything right now. Almost. Still not really about confrontation and would rather not jump off a tall building, but other than that...

Speaking of growth, I signed up my second new consultant today! I'm very excited to be building a team and hopefully this will help motivate me to get my own sales going.

In the not so good department, Ben has been having a really hard time in preschool with me as his teacher (at least that's what I tell myself). I think my next step is to get him screened at Parker Center and see if we can get him into an every day class where there is no Mommy around. It's kind of unbelievable to me that I actually want something to be wrong enough to get him into a special needs school {ooh it hurts me to put that into words}, but right now I feel like he needs more than I can give him.
So I'll update on that dilemma as I have news- I haven't even told hubby about my thoughts yet. Of course we're not really speaking right now so that will be difficult...
But that's a whole nother story for a different mood.

More snow this weekend, more snow Tuesday. Yippee.

Cont...

Ok here we are. I managed to get Joey out in the snow for a few minutes before dark, and I took a pic of new cam with old cam. Joey sure did throw snow right down my shirt. That was pretty much the end of that.

Camera Details

I guess I need to take a picture of my new camera with my old camera. It is Kodak ZD710 with 10x optical zoom and 7.2 megapixels. It was on sale at Walmart after Thanksgiving for $149. I just can't convince myself to do anything other than Kodak because I've had good luck with them (aside from gettting one stolen). I want to take the kids out in the snow and take pics, but Ben is sleeping right now. Look for those soon, since the snow is apparently not going away. 2-4 more inches tomorrow night on top of the 5 or 6 from last night. I was the one that said I wanted a good snow storm.

New Camera

Got my new camera today so I just snapped some shots of the boys. The pics are so clear! Love my present:) {The one of Ben he is telling me "No!" because he doesn't want his picture taken. Joey wanted me to take about 30 more of him.}

On another note, tonight was supposed to be bunco night, but I got snowed in. I'm so sad to have missed my girls night out. Everyone else was braving it, but Poplar Grove was a bit far for my slightly not adventerous self.

Shopping

I'm finally getting some Christmas shopping done. I made a list and there are only 23 people on it this year. We've cut back:) So today I went on the Discovery Channel Store website and ordered all the kids and my Dad's gifts. {He's a kid at heart} I love toys that are at least a little bit educational. Joey has been asking for a remote control dragon, so Santa got him that. And Ben is getting a dance/jump mat with music. I'm hoping for a little energy burn. Now I have to go find webkinz for Cousin Julia and something for all the grownups. I'm thinking about trying to make jars again this year. A couple years ago I made cookie jars. This year maybe dips. Now that I have scrapping supplies I can even dress them up a little better.
I also did some cleaning today- scrubbed the top of the stove (not the burners, that shelf up there) because it was really dusty. Laundry is caught up, the kids straightened up their room, and the TV area downstairs is neat.
Now I need to go make dinner. We've been experimenting since hubby started his diet and discovered that pesto chicken is yummy, and diced tomatoes with whole wheat pasta isn't so bad either. Better than frozen pizzas and TV dinners.

Gotta go. Later.

Let it Snow

Is everyone enjoying the weather? It is just awful out there. If you're not here in town, it started snowing at about 11, changed to sleet/ice by about 1, and is now just pouring freezing rain. The TV has gone out a few times and now they are saying that power outages are a distinct possibility. Yuch! I like a good snowstorm, but this is not it.

Have I mentioned that I finally set up an ebay account? Not a good idea! I first set it up to try to get Brad Paisley tickets, but now I've discovered many fun things. I won a Dad's garage scrapbook set, and I got a musical instrument for school. I can spend hours shopping, mostly for stuff I do not need! How 'bout some shoes? Or kid's clothes? Or maybe books? It's not even that good of deals. Especially after shipping. Oh well, it's fun. Like those new commercials.

This new diet is killing me. Hubby is losing weight and I'm gaining! Maybe because I fall off the wagon every time he is not around. Come on! No french fries, no bread, no sweets, lots of meat and veggies. I think pretty much everyone who knows me knows I hate veggies. Gag. So I really need to get back to working out. But I don't wanna (insert whiny voice here). I just have had no motivation, and I hate waiting 2 months before I see any results.

Tomorrow is Ben's fun fair at school. He is very excited that we are going to his school and not Joey's for this. He asked me several times. "Is it at Joey's school?"

"Nope, your school."

"Does Joey get to come?"

"Yes"

"At Joey's school?"

"No, your school."

"Me and Joey and Mommy and Daddy?"

"Yes"

"Going to Joey's school?"

And on and on. I think he finally got it, but it was rally something to see him try to wrap his head around it.

Okay, I'm going to try to do some reading tonight. Hope the weather gets better and everyone gets through it safe and sound.