review of the holidays

this is always a hard post, because i can never sum up all the fun we had into one neat little paragraph. but here's my attempt.

the friday before christmas was our kids christmas morning. this was the most fun christmas yet, as the kids were really into the presents and santa claus and just the magic of the moment. it was wonderful.

on saturday, we headed down to cory's folks. six of the seven siblings spent the night that night, so there was a house FULL. i think we added it up that there were 13 adults and 11 children (under the age of 6), so you can imagine how that was. but it was so fun. all the grown-ups had fun talking and catching up and the kids had a ball. his parents arranged for a surpise visit from santa claus, who came in and held each child on his knee and put on a really great show. the next day we ate, opened presents, and just enjoyed one another's company.

late that night we headed up the highway to my folks. we did some last minute wrapping and stocking stuffing, but mostly enjoyed more catching up with my brothers. christmas morning dawned bright and early. and yes, there was MORE present opening. every gift was very thoughtful and personal. great job by everyone. that night we made and decorated gingerbread houses. elise caught the vision, decorating one she & cory made and two that papa made for her. each one had various success and drama, but in the end they looked wonderful. the week continued with lots of games nights, family time, and visits.

yesterday we packed up and came home, along with my family, to start the new years celebrations. so here we are. we packed everything we could into each activity. i don't think we could have gotten anything more done than what we did. a fun time was had by all....

whirlwind

i guess it started tuesday with getting ready for ethan to come in. he and i had collaborated and switched his plane ticket to come in earlier than planned and surprise mama and daddy. i picked him up late that night and finally crashed into bed sometime after 12:30. the next morning continued the craziness with adam flying in around 10am. i picked him up--late--but picked him up nonetheless. we spent a few hours doing some last minute shopping and ended up back at my house around 1pm to wait for mama, daddy and logan to show up. they pulled in roughly an hour later and after hugs and tears from mama, we were standing around visiting when ethan just casually walked into the room. ethan said mama's face registered surprise, confusion, and then shock. and then she screamed--loud! we had a fun day talking, reminiscing, laughing, catching up, relaxing, and telling a good poop story or two for good measure. this morning started off early again, as we are hosting a caroling party with the barnetts tonight. so the kids and i spent the morning baking cookies for tonight, the afternoon cleaning and straightening up. we're also doing "our" christmas tomorrow morning, which the kids don't know yet. so i've been trying to make sure all the presents were wrapped and organized. i'm so excited i can hardly wait. i think the kids will love the things we got for them, i just can't wait to see their faces. its so hard not to say anything to them. but i am sooooooo excited.

in other odds and ends, elise has been a super duper helper today. she has cheerfully and tirelessly helped me with whatever job i was doing. she helped cook, clean, organize--the whole bit. she's really good at it too. she amazes me. when she gets a little bigger she'll be unstoppable. its a good thing she got her cleaning genes from her daddy! she's so sweet and good.

ian says this funny thing that i've been meaning to write down. i'm pretty sure it got started by cory and i asking him "if his tummy was hungry" or "is your tummy telling you its full..." and so on. but its progressed to where his tummy tells him all kinds of things. like his tummy tells him he wants to watch "go, diego, go" on tv or his tummy tells him he wants to go pick up lisy, or his tummy tells him he wants to sleep in my bed. its so funny. this morning he said, "my tummy says it wants to open a present. and my tummy's telling me to do that. so i need to do that."

well, i've taken a long enough break writing the post. so i'd better jump back in the whirlwind!

random thoughts

i was out really early this morning and caught a little segment on the radio about christmas music and it got me thinking: what are the best and worst christmas songs out there? i have a short list--a couple of my favorites are "o holy night" and "rocking around the christmas tree". two that i absolutely hate are "simply having a wonderful christmas time" and "the christmas shoes". do you guys have any others?

cory and i subbed in nursery yesterday. there are aproximately 15 kids, 12 of them being boys. it was fast, loud, rough, and crazy. the testosterone in the room was almost overwhelming. but we enjoyed it. ian has only a couple of weeks left before moving up to sunbeams. YIKES!

i've been doing laundry today. a lot of laundry. while laundry is not one of my all-time favorite things to do, i love, no, make that adore, getting stains out of clothes. i'm not always great at it, but i love working on it. ian has this white shirt with a daschsand on it. i've gotten ketchup, macaroni and cheese, dirt, spaghetti, and other various and assorted grout and grime from it and as i look at it on him now, it looks as good as new.

there you have it. random.

merry christmas

You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch
Author: Dr. Seuss

You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch.
You really are a heel.
You're as cuddly as a cactus,
You're as charming as an eel,Mr. Grinch.

You're a bad banana
With a greasy black peel.

You're a monster, Mr. Grinch.
Your heart's an empty hole.
Your brain is full of spiders,
You've got garlic in your soul, Mr. Grinch.

I wouldn't touch you,
with a thirty-nine-and-a-half foot pole.

You're a vile one, Mr. Grinch.
You have termites in your smile.
You have all the tender sweetness
Of a seasick crocodile, Mr. Grinch.

Given the choice between the two of you
I'd take the seasick crockodile.

You're a foul one, Mr. Grinch.
You're a nasty, wasty skunk.
Your heart is full of unwashed socks
Your soul is full of gunk, Mr. Grinch.

The three words that best describe you,
are as follows, and I quote: "Stink. Stank. Stunk."

You're a rotter, Mr. Grinch.
You're the king of sinful sots.
Your heart's a dead tomato splot
With moldy purple spots, Mr. Grinch.

Your soul is an apalling dump heap
overflowingwith the most disgraceful assortment
of deplorablerubbish imaginable,
Mangled up in tangled up knots.

You nauseate me, Mr. Grinch,
With a nauseaus super-naus.
You're a crooked jerky jockey
And you drive a crooked horse, Mr. Grinch.

You're a three decker saurkraut and toadstool sandwich
With arsenic sauce.


are there any better poems that this one? my favorite stanza is, "you nauseate me, Mr. Grinch, With a nauseaus, super-naus. You're a crooked jerky jockey and you drive a crooked horse, Mr. Grinch." Anytime you can include these lines in a poem, its a good one! Dr. Seuss rocks.

christmas party

last night we had cory's office christmas party. it had been sort of a lot of work getting the time, place, and baby-sitting worked out, but by last night at 6:30 cory's mom and dad were baby-sitting seven of their grandchildren and we were sitting in the Outback.

there are only three people at his office: cory, neal (his brother), and jacob (his brother-in-law), and then us wives who also do side work for them as well. so it was almost more a family dinner, than an office dinner, but either way, we had a lot of fun. cory, surprisingly, kept us entertained throughout the night with his "awards" and "bonuses". for example, amanda and i won the "big spender" awards. it was hilarious. however, they did actually surprise us with gift certificates to our favorite spa and nail salon. there was such a feeling of kinship and friendship throughout the night as we talked, laughed, shared memories, and hopes for the future. it was such a fun, relaxing, companionable night, it was hard to see it end. it made me happy to be a part of such a great family and such a great company.

boys are made of...

a few days ago the kids and i were in the car. out of the blue ian said, "when i ate that chicken, i thought i was going to throw up. but i not throw up." a little confused about what chicken or when he ate it, i asked him a couple of questions, first: "when did you eat some chicken?", to which he replied, "right now." this is where i start to become alarmed, because i know we have not gotten chicken nuggets today, and honestly can't remember the last time we might have had chicken nuggets in the car. so my next question was, "where did you find it?" apparently, he found an old chicken nugget hiding in some crevice in the car or his booster seat and ate it. the very thought of it makes my stomach turn. so then i wonder if i need to take some kind of action--i mean, what happens to you if you eat an ancient chicken nugget? that can't be good for you. the upshot is, he ate the nugget on monday, and all is still well. i noticed no ill effects at all, much to my relief. so we can add a new catchphrase to the old saying, "boys are made of snakes and snails and puppy dog tails." they're also made of old chicken nuggets. ;)

self-esteem....

elise was so funny this morning. she picked out one of her sunday dresses to wear to school, her shoes, a wide pink headband, and a white blazer for her jacket. i was helping ian with something in the bathroom when elise walked in, climbed up on the stool and looked at herself in the mirror and says, "Wow!!! I look adorable! This is the cutest outfit ever!". She continued to grin and admire herself for a couple more minutes. She knew she looked good!

it reminds me of a story i heard growing up about a couple in our ward. when they were teenagers, he had come to her house to pick her up for one of their first dates. as he was walking to the bathroom, he realized she was in there, getting ready. he waited outside the door for just a moment when he heard her look at herself in the mirror and say, "Jenny Bowman*, you beautiful thing, don't you ever die!!!" He said that was the moment he fell in love.

I love it that elise can think she looks beautiful when she looks in the mirror. I certainly think she is. However, there is such a culture of looks, beauty, and physical appearance in our society, that I don't want her to get sucked into the trap of never feeling 'enough'--whether its her face, her size, her shape, her feet, her bellybutton, or whatever else there might be. I hope that she can feel good about who she is and realize that that is enough. There is a wonderful story told by President Monson that sums up my feelings very well. He says, "Many years ago, at a Church magazine awards banquet, we sat with President and Sister Harold B. Lee. President Lee said to our teenage daughter, Ann: “The Lord has blessed you with a beautiful face and body. Keep the inside just as beautiful as the outside, and you will be blessed with true happiness.” This master teacher left with Ann an inspired guide to the celestial kingdom of our Heavenly Father."

That is the message of beauty I want to instill in Elise.

*name has been changed.

updating

first, an update: the not eating sweets is not going so well. i think going cold turkey might be a little much for me. but i have cut back. i don't like feeling like i want to eat sweets every minute of every day. but i love desserts. so i'm doing sweets in moderation. that's working pretty well. for example, i would normally eat dessert after at least lunch and supper. on my new plan, i only eat it after supper. so we'll see how it goes.

elise is so cute. she makes up songs all the time--just words describing what she is currently doing or thinking about set to music. the other night she was eating some pepperonis (one of her favorite snacks), all the while singing along. i was sort of in and out of paying attention to what she was singing about, when all of a sudden i caught this snippet, "pepperonis--i'm sorry that i ate your friends..." i still giggle when i hear the tune to that line in my head.

our cat, maria, has created some drama around here this week. she (well, he) is a really nice cat, and we like having him around. but he's strictly an outdoor cat and roams around quite a bit. we only see him from time to time as he comes to eat his food. our neighbors across the road are quite taken with him, having fed him sometimes when we're out of town. they've even started feeding him when we're here and made a bed for him on their front porch on these cold nights. needless to say, maria spends a good deal of time with them. on monday, our neighbor came over and said that maria had gotten hurt--probably from a fight with another tomcat--and wasn't walking on his back leg. she also thought he was running a fever. she thought he should probably be seen by the vet. cory & i had a slightly different take on it, and weren't a big hurry to rush off to the vet. we thought we'd give it a couple of days and see how she did. well, on wednesday, our neighbor came back over and now really thought maria needed a doctor's attention. i had been dreading her coming back over, knowing that we had differing views on when a pet should be taken to the vet. i just didn't really want to deal with her about it. i was kind of hoping she would just mind her own business. but when she came over, instead of an awkward situation or a confrontation, she offered to take maria to the vet and pay for her dr. bill. i was overwhelmed with her kindness. here i had been hoping to avoid this woman, who ended up doing an extremely generous thing for us and little maria. it was a true christmas gift. there was only one minor catch to the whole scenario: maria did indeed need anitbiotics and would have to be kept inside for a week. did you catch the part earlier about how maria was strictly an outdoor cat? but cory & i did not want this kind lady's generousness go to waste or in any way seem ungrateful by us letting maria roam free. so maria has been in our laundry room for 24 hours. as i type this, however, cory is in the process of organizing the garage so maria can have a home in there for the next 6 days. we are definitely not cut out to have a cat in the house.

in other news, merry grace is crawling very well and has started what we have dubbed the "crab crawl". she moves along, but instead of crawling on her knees, she gets up on her feet. its very cute. but pretty much everything she does is cute. =)

ian is getting more "boy" by the day. sometimes the testoterone just overwhelms me. he's so cute, though. his new favorite activity is playing in the "sandbox" in the driveway. technically its just a spot that is more dirt than gravel. but he takes this green rake out there and digs and digs. he makes slides for his cars and trucks to drive on and adventures for spiderman and stingray. even though its pretty cold out, he still loves playing out there.

all in all, life is pretty good around the barnett house...

here and there

okay. my sweets addiction is out of control. i love sweets and like to have a "sweet bite" after every meal. life is just wonderful with sweets around. but today i decided to take a break. i'm going to go one week without sweets. i'm scared. i love sugar. but i know i will be healthier. i don't want to go without them forever, but i would like to have some moderation with them i'll let you know how it goes. a week is a long time. i even threw out two halves of pie. a half of a chocolate chip pie and half of a cherry pie. that is committment. a couple of times i've thought of going to the trashcan and digging them out, but have decided against it. just too many germs....;)

i burned my arm this week. i cooked spaghetti on monday night and at some point i reached over the front burner with the pot of sauce to the back burner. a drop of sauce splashed up on my arm and burned a spot on me. it was instant pain and and i jerked my arm back. i saw the sauce drop, so i quickly wiped it off with my other hand. when i did i wiped off the top layer of skin on that one spot. YIKES! it hurt pretty bad and it looks gross. all i can think about is people who are severly burned and wonder how they make it.

ian and i made a potpourri christmas tree. it is very cute and we had fun making it. ian got burned on the hot glue. not badly at all, but just enough to hurt. after he did he wanted to get off a piece of our aloe vera plant to put on it. only he called it the "planet". he pushed his chair over to the cabinet and said, "i need to get some of that planet where i got burned." it was so cute.

lisa, you will appreciate this. you know that weird burping thing we do? do you still do that? i do sometimes, although i don't think its as much as i used to, or maybe i'm just not as self-concious about it. anyway, tonight elise was sitting beside me and i heard her make that noise. she just looked at me and goes, "i always burp like a frog." i thought i would die laughing. i guess its hereditary. ;) i told her sometimes i burp like a frog too. i wonder which ancestor we have to thank for that?

Christmas time

One night this week we finally broke out the Christmas tree and decorations. It was lot of fun for all of us. I think the older the kids get, the more fun it becomes for us grown-ups, too. Merry Grace and Ian played in the Christmas tree box for a long time. Ian would hide and surprise Merry Grace and she would laugh and laugh. It was so cute!
Elise found the Santa hat and tried in on. She loves unpacking all the Christmas decorations.
Cory got a good start on the tree. He loves those Santa oranaments that Mama & Daddy shared with us our first Christmas when we didn't have any ornaments. He's also hanging up on of the stars that Grandma Delia made. Those are special ones.
Elise decorating the tree. She's very meticulous. 

The finished products

Here was our Christmas tree with everything on it. It looks so pretty. It may be the best one yet.
Here is our mantle with FIVE christmas stockings. We're starting to fill it up. It looks so nice. The stockings are made by Grandma Jarrell and are the prettiest ones I've ever seen. 

Thanksgiving

Aunt Kristie with (l-r) Marleigh (4), Ericka (5), Elise (5), Ian (3), and Kyleigh (6)
We went to Cory’s folks for Thanksgiving. On Wednesday afternoon, we met his parents and sister’s family at the movies and watched “Happy Feet”. Actually, Ian did less watching and more running up and down the stadium seating aisles. Afterwards, we went back to the Barnett’s and enjoyed hanging out with two of his brothers and two of his sisters and their families. It was quite the crowd, but it was fun.
Ian and Marleigh are best friends. They are so sweet together and love playing together. Marleigh calls Ian her boyfriend or her husband because they got married and kissed in the “cabbage”. She actually means the cabins at camp singletary where we went on vacation. Some of the older cousins pretended to marry them and then they kissed. They are so cute!
Ericka, Elise, & Kyleigh
The girls found plenty of time for silliness. They played with these mardi gras beads that Grandma had brought back from a trip to see Aunt Lynetta in Louisiana. Ericka is wearing hers, but they also served them on a plate, let people pick ones to wear, and got all fancy in them, too.

After a not so restful night’s sleep on Wednesday night, we all got up bright and early on Thursday. After some cooking and cleaning we went to Cory’s grandma’s (his dad’s mom) for lunch. Then that night we ate again with Cory’s mom’s side of the family. I think the final total of guest for that get-together was 51. It was crazy and crowded, but a fun night of visiting!
We left that evening and headed up to my parents house where we got even less sleep and then got up very early to do our Christmas shopping. Mama & Daddy were great to baby-sit the kids so we could get so much shopping done. Cory and I had so much fun. We think of it as a date and look forward to it every year. As soon as we got home, we at dinner with both my grandmas and had more yummy food. Saturday we spent most of the day decorating for Christmas, before we left to come back home. It was hectic and hurried, but it was also really nice to see almost everyone we wanted for Thanksgiving. We really felt like we had much to be thankful for.

an interesting thought on "work"

our lesson in relief society was on work and i heard the most interesting comment from one of the sisters. we had been talking about how the temple can be a pattern for how our homes and lives should be. often we think that doing laundry and dishes and changing diapers are sort of menial tasks. but imagine how it would be to go to the temple and realize that no one had cleaned the toilets. if no one ever did, how would that influence your experience while there? the cleanliness & orderliness of the temples create an atmosphere that allow us to be receptive to the spirit and do the Lord's work. so if our homes are like that, we will be more able to have the spirit in our homes. that really made me think about the emphasis i place on those menial tasks. how would it change my attitude toward those tasks if i thought of them as a way to help keep the spirit in my home? and then a sister explained that it was the work we do in our homes, even the daily chores, that makes our homes like the temple. in the temple, we are all equal & the social or financial status we have (or don't have) is gone. she said that it is our work within the home that makes us equals. you have a mother and a daughter doing dishes together or a father and son mowing the yard. through work, some of the barriers of age & family position are broken down as we work side by side. and we are equals.

i guess i had never thought of work in exactly those terms and in that context. i felt like i had an "ah ha" moment as i saw the principle of "work" in a whole new light. i was really grateful for the ideas that the sisters expressed today.

My Family Rocks!

This week has been pretty chaotic. It started with Elise getting sick Friday night, at the start of what was supposed to be a really busy weekend. Things continued Monday morning with Cory leaving on a business trip and a hundred and one errands I needed to run. Elise seemed to be feeling better, and we even went to her dance class that afternoon. Afterwards we went with some friends to Bojangles for dinner. I noticed Ian wasn’t eating very much and was doing a LOT of this gross spitting thing he does when he smells something yucky. I just got a feeling something wasn’t right. Sure enough, as soon as he was buckled in, he began saying he needed to throw up. He made it home, but was up sick several times that night. Tuesday morning dawned with elise sicker than the day before, Ian still recovering and me trying to do a mountain of laundry. It quickly became apparent that this was not my lucky day. The washer (yes, the less than three month old washer) broke. It filled up, agitated, but wouldn’t drain out or spin. After a call to GE to see what could be done, they informed me it sounded like a pump problem and that they would be happy to repair it. They would be out first thing Monday morning. “MONDAY MORNING!!!!!”, I exclaimed in disbelief. I was sure they must have missed the part where I explained that I had a washer full of clothes and water. Unfortunately, they sympathized, but that was all they could do. That is where the “my family rocks” comes in. My Daddy came down yesterday afternoon with a new washer pump and became the Maytag man extraordinaire. He siphoned the water out of the washer, took it apart and solved my washer woes. He spent the night and even kept the laundry moving so that by mid-afternoon today all the laundry was done. He even got up this morning and cooked breakfast for all of us—bacon and omelets. Of course mama and Logan were great, too. Because I know how much Mama hates it when Daddy leaves and she had a menagerie of animals to care for and there was a bad storm last night. But she was so sweet to share. And I heard Logan was a big help at home. So a big “Thank you very much!”, to everyone who helped make my week a little bit easier and smoother. I sure love you guys!

our house...

The kids have had a virus of some sorts. Elise began running a fever on friday night. after a rough day saturday, she seemed some better sunday and yesterday. today, she seems worse again. poor girl.
here were the sick kids this morning. they've been resting and watching cartoons. being sick isn't all bad sometimes.
ian hasn't had much of an apetite, but he hasn't slowed down on his juice drinking.
elise didn't sleep well last night, so on top of being sick, she was exhausted.
merry grace is (knock on wood) fine so far. she felt well enough to dump out all the baby wipes and look quite proud of herself. ;)

ian's issues

ian has started becoming very offended by smells. this is a fairly recent occurance. i first noticed it about a week or so ago when he smelled a candle i have. i think it was a vanilla scent, so it smelled good, but was pretty strong. anyway, he put the candle right up to his nose & when he smelled it, he began gagging. i figured he was coming down with a bug or something, but he kept saying the candle had made him do it. a few days later, we were in the store and there was something that smelled like potpourri--a cinnamon, spicey, clove sort of smell. he started to gag in the shopping cart. today, he was in the garage with cory and when cory opened the big garbage can, he started to gag again. it happened a couple more times while he was out there with cory. its so disgusting. cory thinks he's just trying to figure out what to do with smells and stuff. i'm not sure. i can't imagine what would bring it on. whatever the case may be, its gross. most of you probably know of my revulsion to the stomach bug and things like that, so this is sooooooo not my cup of tea. i've tried to have him cover his nose so he can't smell things, and it seems to help if he has something to drink. i hate that things smell that badly to him. i'm just not sure if there is anything i can do to help him. any ideas?

gratitude

i am so grateful for cory.

earlier this year he bought season tickets to the UNC football games. today was the homecoming game. it was also a day where we have two birthday parties, a baby shower and a food storage canning day at the church. i know how important the tarheels are to cory and how much he wanted to go to the game.

instead, he decided to stay home with us and miss not only the football game, but a basketball game that started after the football game that he would've LOVED to attend. elise got sick with a fever/headache last night and continued into today. she's still not feeling well. cory tended to her during the night when she felt sick to her stomach, because he knows how much i hate the stomach bug. this morning he left early to go can the food storage we had ordered. he's such a great man.

i know he could have made a good case for going to the game and that would have been fine too. but that he chose to be with us and help us out today, makes me more grateful than i have words to express. i'm so glad he's going to be here with us just because i enjoy being around him, but today would have been diffucult on my on.

what a great guy! that's just the kind of man i married.

and the emmy goes to...

we had a couple of guys from the ward come and put some pinestraw around our house today. they were out working in the yard and the kids were completely fascinated by it. they opened the window and sat on the edge of my bed, looking out. one man had on a white shirt and the other an orange one. as i was doing some housework, i heard ian and elise yelling, "orange man! hey! orange man!" as i came from where i had been working i heard them say, "you're strong, orange man!" the other guy was dubbed, "white man" by the kids and they would yell, "white man, where'd you go? i can't see you white man..." i didn't want elise and ian to aggravate them while they were working, but it was so funny to hear them yelling out the window. and they sat there, completely enthralled for nearly an hour and a half. i'm sure brother deaver & lynn didn't realize they would have an adoring fan base when they came to work. the kids were entertained by the yard work and i was pretty entertained by their reaction to it, so it made for a pretty fun morning all the way around!

Celebrity Look Alikes

i thought this was pretty funny.

I love a bargain!!!

I went to Old Navy this morning and got tons of great deals for the kids. i just have to tell you how great it was. I spent $136.00 (rounded up to the nearest dollar). i know it sounds like a lot. but i figured up how much it would have cost me if i had paid regular price for everything. $726.50--before tax!!!!!!! wow. i only paid more than $5.00 for one item, and it was still less than $10.00. i just LOVE a bargain!

funnies

i was just thinking about something funny elise said in the car the other day. we were having a normal conversation when it took a humorous turn.

me: elise, when we get home you're going to have to clean up all your barbies.
elise: you're not the boss of me.
me: (trying to hide my giggles) um...actually i am the boss of you and you will have to pick up your barbies.
elise: not you're not. (pause) you and daddy are the bosses of me.
me: silence

what made this funny is that she didn't understand the rudeness of the "you're not the boss of me" phrase. i suspect one of her friends has said this to her or someone else, so she knew how to use it, but not didn't "get" that saying it to your mom was not a good idea. and after having a good chuckle over it, we did have a discussion about appropriate ways to talk to your mom.

i told my friend susan about this on her blog. one day last week i had to make cupcakes for elise's class, but only needed to send 12, so i had 12 leftover. as i was getting hers ready to take to school, ian kept coming over and asking for a cupcake. i kept reiterating that cupcakes were not for breakfast. at some point i left the room for a few minutes only to come back in and find ian sitting at the table eating a cupcake. in a little sing-song voice he goes, "daddy gave me a cupcake."

sometimes you just get no respect ;)

Sunday situations

Elise is taking tap and ballet this year at a really nice dance studio. She absolutely loves it. And her teacher is really nice and thinks Elise is pretty great. The only problem is that their recital is on a Sunday. Obviously, its not until springtime, but costume payments are already due. Elise is in a class with her cousins Emmy and Kyleigh, and we all had decided not to participate in the recital since it was on Sunday. We were bummed, but knew it was the right decision. Then last week after class I saw her teacher and she came up to me and mentioned how sad she was that Elise was not in the recital. She said she, along with her cousins, were the best ones in the class and that she had planned the whole routine and costumes around the girls. Now she would have to change everything because the other girls wouldn’t be able to do the things she had planned for our girls. My first reaction was sadness or disappointment that Elise wouldn’t be able to have this experience. But quickly I thought about how well Elise had responded to the situation. I reflected back on when I had told her about the timing of the recital. She was bitterly disappointed, as she had been wanting to get flowers at her recital like her friend Halle. But she was not upset that she couldn’t participate. She was upset that the teacher would schedule it on Sunday. She said, "Why did my teachers do that? Why would they put my recital on Sunday. Jesus needs to teach them about that." I was so proud of her. So even though I was sad that my little girl wouldn’t be a part of her first recital, I was even happier that she was learning an important lesson about the Sabbath. And she was doing it because she knew it was right and not just because her parents made her. And that is infinitely more important than the flowers she was hoping to receive.

Happy Halloween

Here are the pumpkins we carved. The top one is Elise's and is a cat. The middle one is Ian's and is Scooby Do. (it was really hard.) The bottom one is Merry Grace's. They all thought it was cool to have their own jack o'lantern.
This year we simplified the Trick or Treating a little bit. We put down the seats in the back of Cory's truck and all the kids and a few grown ups piled in. We only went around the neighborhood, so we felt like it was pretty safe. And it was much easier.
Elise and Emmy both dressed up as Ariel this year. Here they are at our ward Halloween party.
Merry Grace was an angel at the church party. Here she & I are.

halloween at its best

Elise went as Ariel this year. And boy, did she think she was fancy.
Ian went as (are you ready for this one?)...Spiderman. Spiderman slippers completed the outfit.
Ian, Marleigh, and Elise were on the porch, waiting for Trick-or-Treaters to show up. Elise is totally striking a pose.
Elise, Merry Grace, Emmy, Ian, Kyleigh, and Charles Allen were all dressed and ready before we went out for Trick or Treating. (Marleigh came too, but was still getting ready when we took this picture.) 

more kidstuff

ok, so my blog is quickly becoming a kid stuff blog. But, then again, that is my life these days. As you know daylight saving time ended this past weekend, so I had explained it to Elise and told her how it would get dark earlier in the day and so on. A day or so after I talked to her about it, she said a prayer and said, “and we’re so thankful for daylights savings. We’re so thankful that Jesus created daylights savings for us to have.” It was so sweet. She made it sound like daylight saving time was our greatest blessing. And she was so sweet and sincere, which made it even cuter.
She’s also started reading. She’s been right on the verge as she’s been sounding out words and realizing how letters sounds next to one another and how it all fits together. You could almost see the puzzle coming together for her. But she’s really getting the hang of it now and its so fun to watch. She always likes to read us stories and then turn the book around and show us the pictures like they do at school. I always tease her because she shows the pictures at warp speed. I can barely get a glimpse of the picture before she’s spun it back around. =)
Our primary sacrament meeting program was yesterday and I was so proud to see Elise up there. She was so great. She had learned her songs so well, even the second verses on most of them and sang out is such a strong voice. She said her part perfectly and I thought I would cry. It was just great. it was funny, too, because her cousin, Emmy, was sitting beside her and they made me smile so much. I wasn’t sure if they would be able to sing the words to the songs because they were so busy waving at all their adoring fans. =) but somehow they managed to do both. One of the funniest things was the closing hymn which was “Dearest Children, God is Near You.” They sang the first verse in English and then again in Spanish. When they started singing the Spanish verse, Elise and Emmy looked at each other like, “what in the world is this?” and Elise just shrugged her shoulders. They just kept looking at each other and at the director, like, “I have no idea what these people are singing.” Its hard to describe, but just imagining it make me laugh out loud. Girls are so sweet.

kids are cool

elise learned to tie her shoes yesterday. i'm so proud of her. i'm ashamed to admit that i had never before even talked to her about tying them, much less actually showed her how. but yesterday we got her her first pair of "real" tennis shoes. so, literally, in five minutes time, she had figured it out. i was really impressed that she caught on so quickly.

ian calls noodles "noo-nulls", which is what he ate for lunch. it was a campbell's chicken noodle soup packet and the noodles were small and quite numerous. as he scarfed them down he turned to me and goes, "the noo-nulls are falling down my mouth. they're going all the way to my legs." he's so cute. when he ate his first helping, i brought the now-cooled down pot over to the table to give him some more. he stuck his tummy out until it touched the pot and said, "see mommy. i can touch it. i brave of this pot!" he makes me smile.

merry grace is in to everything, but is still pretty mild. her favorite form of destruction is max's dogfood and water. when she's in the kitchen with me when i'm cooking, she crawls right over to the dogfood & gets handfuls of it out, until its all scattered around her. then she tried to eat a piece or two. after i've pulled her away a time or two, she likes to move on to the water dish and splash around and get her clothes soaked and the floor a mess. we are using a high chair we've had since elise & it no longer has buckles in it. this hasn't been a problem until now. now she has mastered the art of twisting around and grabbing onto the back of the seat and pulling up to a standing position. handy. this morning she was sitting in it while we were all there eating breakfast. i had a few toys on the tray that i thought would entertain her, one of them being elise's lunchbox. somehow she managed to open it and get out a partially eaten bag of gummies from elise's lunch yesterday and get one in her mouth. she totally got choked on it. when i realized she was choking and on what i began pounding her on her back. i was just before doing the heimlich when she got it down and seemed okay again. whew. i was a nervous wreck. kids can do that to you.

but aren't they cool?

kindergarden drama

elise has a friend in her class named jordan, and in recent weeks we have heard lots of drama about her. the first time elise told us a story about her, her face so sad and her demeanor completely melancholy, as she recounted how her mother and brother had moved to florida when she was two and left her all alone. now she didn't have anyone and was a foster child. and she didn't even have a bed to sleep in. i wasn't sure what to make of it. i was pretty sure it wasn't just some pretend game elise was playing, because i didn't think she knew the word "foster child".

the next time we heard about jordan, she lived with poor people and slept in hay because she didn't have a bed. she used to live in the desert and slept in a tent and now she slept in a barn with animals and hay. when i suggested that jordan might be joking with her about some of this stuff, elise insisted that it was 100% true and was devastated for jordan and the life she was living. she wanted to know if we could have jordan live with us, since she didn't have a family.

the next jordan installment came when elise asked me what a robber was. i explained it to her and she said, "well, that is what happened to jordan. robbers came and stole all her money and all her things and that is why she lives with poor people." the last straw came when elise told us how she had met jordan's mom in the office one time when she had to walk up there with jordan. cory & i said, "elise, i thought jordan didn't have a mom." she thought for a minute and said, "well, it was actually her grandma and then she died the very next day." it was all i could not to burst out laughing. who knew there was this much drama in kindergarden?

miscommunication

we were in the car yesterday driving up the highway to visit my parents for the weekend and the kids were talking in the backseat. the actual topic of conversation escapes me, but whatever it was that ian was talking about, elise was unimpressed. so it went like this:

elise: i don't believe you.
ian: yeah! i am.
elise: no!!! you're lying!!!
ian: yeah. i'm a lion. (holds hands up in attack position) ROARRRRR!
elise: (laughing)

its so funny to listen to kids when they talk to each other. how quickly the conversation can turn & us grown ups are just left shaking our heads and smiling.

newly groomed max

max got groomed earlier in the week and looks so handsome!

how cute is he just sitting here?

and here is a picture taken by elise...

max loves giving sugar and it makes the kids laugh. =) 

heroes

cory and i don't watch a lot of tv shows, mainly house, without a trace or a law and order when we have a little down time. but we saw a preview for a new show on NBC called "Heroes", that looked really interesting. the first episode had already come on, so we recorded the second one. saturday night we decided we'd give it a try and see if we liked it. it was one of the worst shows i've ever seen. the preview was very deceptive. the show was dark and violent and quite graphic. we actually didn't even finish watching it because it was so bad. maybe it was redeeming at the end, but from what i saw, it was horrible and not even worth finding out if there were something better somewhere in it. we were both just disgusted with it. needless to say, we will not be watching that one again.

our evening walk

The weather this week has been phenomonal, especially in the evening. the humidity is down, and the temperatures are perfect. so it makes a stroll around the neighborhood wonderful!!!

here the kids are booking it down the street.

here is spiderman and his magnificent bicycle.

merry grace enjoyed her stroll too.

we're quite the troop, but we have a great time.

 

when she talks, you'd better listen!

this week while the weather has been so glorious, we've all been playing outside after supper. several evenings ago the kids were playing on the swingset, when maria (the jungle cat) climbed up the poplar tree and launched herself onto the canopy over the slide landing. it tore a little bit, but she didn't seem to mind and just settled into to her little nest. cory wasn't happy about her being up there, especially since she'd messed it up a little. so he reached up underneath the canopy and semi-gently prodded her to move. elise, our animal lover through and through, goes, "daddy (in her most authoratative tone)! don't you know that she is a living creature?" she never fails to crack us up.

my year in review--yes, its a survey ;)

What did you do in 2006?
JANUARY
1. Did you go out for New Years? i don't think so...
2. Who kissed you at midnight? cory would have, but i'm not sure if we made it to midnight. you know, january was a long time ago!
3. Does it snow where you live? Not as much as I'd like!!!
4. Do you like hot chocolate? oh yeah.
5. Have you ever been to Times Square to watch the ball drop? No and i don't think that's something i'd like to experience. the crowds and the chaos is just not my thing. (and neither is being up late.)

FEBRUARY
1. Who was your valentine? cory
2. When you were little, did you buy valentines for your whole class? Yes. that was so fun.
3. Do you care if the groundhog sees its shadow or not? yes. and usually i'm ready for spring...unless it will mean six more weeks of SNOW!

MARCH
1. Are you Irish? no
2. Do you wear green on St. Patty's Day? yeah. and i make sure everyone in my family does too. i'm a holiday nut.
3. What did you do for St. Patty's Day in 2006? i fixed green shamrock pancakes for breakfast.
4. Are you happy when winter is pretty much over? i like snow, but usually i'm ready for the warm weather and more sunshine.

APRIL
1. Do you like the rain? I do when I can stay at home and snuggle up with a good book or movie or if its warm enough to go outside and play in it and splash in puddles.
2. Did you play an April fool's joke on anyone this year? no. i always feel bad if i really trick someone.
3. Do you get tons of candy on easter? yes. if you count leftovers from the kids hunts & baskets. cory always gets me my fair share, too. did you read the part about me loving chocolate.
4. Do you celebrate 4-20? I would tell you if I new what happened on 4-20.

MAY
1. What's your favorite kind of flower? I love most flowers--but i'm partial to bulb flowers (tulips, lilies, gladiolas, etc), roses, lilacs, & peonies
2. Do you like the spring? Yes!
3. Finish the phrase "April showers"... "Bring May flowers".
4. What is the first color you think of when you think of Spring? "spring" green

JUNE
1.What day was the best in June? one of my favorite things was our camping vacation. but it was a whole week...
2. Did you go on any vacations last June? i can't remember back to '05, but yes in '06.
3. Did you realize nothing special happens in June? Who said nothing happens in June? What happened to Father's Day??? what about birthdays?

JULY
1. What did you do on the 4th of July? a picnic in the park & a cookout w/ family
2. Did you go on any vacations during this month? yes. to myrtle beach
3. Do you blast the A/C all day? no blasting, but keeping us cool.

AUGUST
1. Did you do anything special at the end of your summer? just a couple of day trips to the beach
2. What was your favorite summer memory of '06? I don't think I have on favorite, to many good things happened.
3. Did you get a sunburn? a little bit one time when i didn't get good sunblock coverage on my back.
4. Did you go to the beach a lot? not as much as some summers, but we made several trips.

SEPTEMBER
1. Did you attend school/college in '06? just the school of life.
2. Who is/was your favorite teacher? i loved my piano teachers, mrs. robertson & dottie. i also loved my sunbeam teacher. i loved my aide in first grade, mrs. clarke. i liked mrs. taylor in the seventh grade, my young women leaders, and mrs. eanes & mr. bretz in high school. (and last, but not least, my mom.)

OCTOBER
1. What is your favorite halloween costume? i liked when i went as a jar of jellybeans.
2. What's your favorite candy? Snickers, reese's, twix...
3. What will/did you dress up like this year? i probably will not dress up. it's usually enough work to get three children dressed up! but i might put on some fake eyelashes and a witches hat or something, just to be festive.

NOVEMBER
1. Whose house did/will you go to for thanksgiving? probably cory's mom or grandma. they usually do a big thanksgiving. but sometimes we go to my folks too.
2. Do you love stuffing? it's okay.
3. What are you thankful for? Everything, the gospel, my testimony, family, friends, life in general

DECEMBER
1. Do you celebrate Christmas? Absolutely. i can't emphasize the importance enough.
2. If not, what would you celebrate? N/A.
3. Have you ever been kissed under mistletoe? Yes. we hang mistletoe in our house every year. i try to get caught there often. ;)
4. Get anything special last year? i get special things every year.
5. What do you want this year? i don't know. it takes me a while to think of something.
6. Do you like cold weather? yes. i even like it when a cold wind is blowing if i'm bundled up. and i love snow. i don't like to FEEL cold, so i just have to bundle up.

insomniac

ok, saying i have insomnia might be carrying it too far. but i haven't been sleeping as well/as much as i would like. i have trouble settling down at night and have been waking up around 4:30am and am not able to go back to sleep. i'm not sure what time i'm falling asleep--10pm is my best estimate, which gives me 6 1/2 hours if my math is correct. i'm not feeling exhausted, but not exactly rested either. i'm not sure what is causing this, except that maybe i don't feel like i have enough time to get everything i need to done. there is always, always more to do. but i don't feel an unusual amount of pressure to get things done--no more than is always there. so i don't know what the deal is. even just one more hour would make a huge difference. at least in my head. 4:30 is just earlier than i want to see daylight....

what were they thinking?

this is what i think about the bishopric calling me to be the choir pianist--what were they thinking? today i had the first run-through of music for the christmas program & i feel out of my league. the music is beautiful & not terribly difficult in some aspects. but there is a lot of music and some of it is hard. i just feel like there are so many more talented people than me who could/should be doing this. i feel very inadequate. but even as i typed this, i realized that it wasn't actually the bishopric who called me, but the Lord. and i'm not sure the question i posed at the beginning would be the best one i could ask him....although i'm tempted. so i guess i'll just practice more and harder and maybe in two weeks when we go at it again, things will be better. fingers crossed?

ian's birthday

today i am remembering feeling your first kick inside my tummy. i am remembering a moment in the evening, three years ago when i first saw your dark hair and heard your cry as you entered the world. i can see your tiny fingers grasped around one of mine. i can feel your feet and legs tucked into a ball as you snuggled next to me. i think if i breathe in deeply enough, i will be able to smell that sweet baby scent.

today i am remembering your bright smile, your ready laugh, you long, baby blonde hair almost touching your eyes. i am remembering your little legs as you toddled around the house. i am also remembering the nights you snuggled up next to me as you slept and i held you close.

today i think about your excitement over turning three, your love of spiderman and the simple pleasure of a green cake. i am thinking of your cute expressions, your hugs and your kisses.

today i am thinking of you--who you are, who you were, and who you will yet be. i love you.

funny

my friend susan wrote the other day about kids saying funny things and i thought of a couple of funny things my kids have said recently that i don't want to forget.

ian calls belts "seat belts". i think its a funny play on words.

elise said the funniest thing last night. i don't know if the humor in it will translate well through cyberspace, but it makes me chuckle. she was pooping in the bathroom and i was brushing teeth, washing my face, etc. right outside the door. she opened it and makes this really loud pooting sound with her mouth. the she said, "you know what mama? instead of saying that nasty word "poopy", when we need to poopy we just go, "brrrhgrrrhhhrrrr" (tooting sound). that would sound much more nicer." then she just shut the door back & i cracked up. what a funny kid.

and he makes a mad dash...

my calling in the ward is choir pianist. this means that i have to be at church 1 hour and 15 minutes early and, of course, play for all performances. this past sunday the choir sang a number we'd been working of for a month or so. it's been coming along nicely and everyone was ready to perform. cory happened to be out of town this weekend on business and i was concerned about how to manage my calling and three little ones on my own. so, when all else fails, ask your mom. they graciously agreed to come help out and everything was going as smoothly as anything ever goes. after the second speaker, i headed up with the rest of the choir members, leaving mama & daddy and merry grace at one end of the pew, logan at the other end, and elise, ian, and their cousins kyleigh and marleigh in the middle. about a third of the way through the song, out of the corner of my eye, i see ian coming up onto the stand and proceed to climb up on the piano bench beside me and begin talking about how white the keys are. after a few minutes, he hopped down and took off running down the church aisle. a few minutes later, about 3/4 of the way through the performance, he came back at full speed and was back at my side. he stayed there through the end, talking very loudly about how fast he could run, but wanted to run back to my folks and since i wouldn't let him, had to carry him off the stage and out the door in a mini-tantrum. it was really funny. i should have warned my parents because the last time the choir sang, he did the same thing. but now we definitely have a pattern. what a rascal.

what the kids are up to.

merry grace has had quite the week. she is crawling well--not fast--but well. she's also pulling up onto everything in sight and standing up like a big girl. and she cut her first tooth!!! plus she has her first really bad cold, but is surviving it with her usual cheerfulness. she only screams when you wipe her nose. ;) so she's had many milestones this week.

ian is revving up for his birthday this weekend. he tells everyone he'll be three on his birthday and its so cute to watch him manuever the three fingers up. that ring finger can be quite tricky. i'm struggling with what to get him as his present from us. i'm thinking something spiderman, but i'm not sure exactly what to get him. maybe i'll be inspired at target.

elise continues to brave the world of kindergarden each day. cory ate lunch with her yesterday & she loved that. she's also been taking ballet and tap with kyleigh & emmy, her two cousins who live up here. i think she prefers tap becuase she likes the tappy tap sound. its pretty cute. they look adorable out there.

elise's standards

elise is big on standards and what is right & wrong. we've been talking about modesty and it has made a big impression. one of the first days of school she was telling me about who all brought applesauce for their lunches. she goes, "i had applesauce, abigail had applesauce, and immodest girl had applesauce." the way she said it made it sound like "immodest girl" was some sort of superhero (or maybe super villian, as the case would be). it was so funny. but i was proud of her for paying attention.

she also told me that her teacher's aide has two earrings in each ear. she wondered why she did that since president hinckly said it was wrong. i told her that she'd probably not heard of president hinckley and so she didn't know it was wrong. so elise said, "well, i'll have to tell her about him so she'll know. then she can take her earrings out." it was just so matter of fact for her.

cory has instituted a "turn it off" policy. if there is ever something bad on tv the rule is to turn it off right then. the same goes for the internet. or if you are around something bad, you are supposed to walk away. kind of how joseph ran from potiphar's wife. anyway, this has left a lasting impression with elise and she talks about it frequently. the other weekend cory's parents were here and had the tv on. elise walked by while a commercial was on. apparently she saw something immodest on it. just to be fair, the show they were watching was totally appropriate, but there was something immodest on one of the commercials. you know how they like to slip things in...and if there is something immodest or inappropriate, elise will catch it. it could be a sleeveless shirt and she will see it. we affectionately call her our morality monitor.

the other thing elise is fiercely against is "smoke". this means cigars, cigarettes, pipes...whatever. they are all called "smoke". she will not even step on one that has fallen on the ground. some workers had come to our house the other day and had smoked in the yard and left the butts in the driveway. elise spotted them right off and was furious. we had to get paper towels and pick them up to throw them away. but even that was a challenge, as she wanted no part of them, even at that range. the other morning she saw one across the road from her school where we had parked to walk her in. cory stepped on it and elise let him know it. you would have thought he had stepped on a rattlesnake. it was really funny and cute.

so, in some ways, she might have taken things a step too far. but i have to say, i'm glad she has. i want her to understand what is right and what is wrong and not be afraid to stand up for what she believes in. so far, she seems to be on the right track. maybe we all could stand to be a little more like that at times or regarding certain things. she's definitely made me think about where i stand on things.

life in these parts

life is moving along at a fast clip around our house. i don't know how you other mothers feel now that school has started, but i feel like our little world has just sped up. elise is loving kindergarden which makes us all happy. i love going to pick her up every afternoon and see her little self standing outside waiting with her little backpack on. she looks so small and yet so grown up all at the same time. mostly, sending her off hasn't been as sad as i thought it would be. not that i don't miss it, but she loves school & seems to enjoy her time there. and ian & gracie and i have fun at home. but i have moments where it hits me. on friday i just sat down on the floor in merry grace's room with she and ian and felt all blue that elise wasn't there, too. i just wanted to hug her. but when i start pondering on it too much it makes me too melancholy. and that's no fun. so i just try to enjoy the goodness of it.

we went to the ice cream place after school on friday & had a blast. we all branched out (well, except for ian) and tried some new flavors. elise got a scoop of cookies and cream and a scoop of banana pudding. cory got blueberry and i got a scoop each of cake batter & pumpkin pie. ian went with his staple of cotten candy. its actually a pale blue color, but its borderline green and he calls it green which is his favorite color. so that's all he'll eat. (we kind of tricked him into this because he wanted the mint chocolate chip b/c it was green, but he didn't like the sample. so we conned him into the cotten candy....) anyway, it was lots of fun.

then we bought a movie off of cable, the chronicles of narnia. i thought it was great, really well done. i thought it was a little grown-up, though. ian was a little nervous about it before he fell asleep, as was elise, although not as much as ian. and they typically don't get scared by stuff like that. i think some of it was that we had all the lights off and the music was intense. the mood really affected how you felt about what was happening. even i jumped a time of two. cory made his famous homemade popcorn (mainly for elise who loves it when he does that.) it was a fun night. plus, elise came and slept in our bed last night which i loved. its such a sweet snuggly thing & i miss her doing that. so i was glad she wandered in.

cory went to the unc vs. VA tech game which his heels lost. but he had fun. any UNC game is fun for him. i spent the day "boring organizing" as elise put it. i've been cleaning, throwing out, and straigtening up our closets. i've finished elise's and gracie's and am about 90% done with mine. it feels so good to have it neat and in order. i love it.

after cory came home, we went out in the yard and played for a while. elise practiced cartwheels, ian rode the tricycle, we jumped on the trampoline, played on the swingset, and even did a little tball and kickball before heading inside for baths. elise also went across the monkey bars all by herself several times & was quite pleased with herself. as well she should be!!!

so life is going fast, but we're happy and loving it. so you can't ask for much else.

our adventure

tonight we decided to take the family for a walk. elise was in from school, we'd had supper and it seemed a nice evening to be outdoors. so we trekked out with merry grace in the double stroller, elise in her tennis shoes, ian in his spiderman bedroom slippers, max on his leash and of course cory & i. we called it our adventure and we found what elise called "clues" along the way. everything from wildflowers to pine needles to the driveway rocks that ian & elise threw and chased after. the neatest thing we discovered were the mushrooms all along the road. i guess the recent rains and the humidity and everything had caused them to grow quite well. elise and ian were slightly intimidated by the first ones because they felt kind of weird. but after a while they were picking them right and left. we had such a fun evening together and everyone had a good time. the walk was about 1.3 miles and probably took us 30 or 40 minutes by the time all the discovering, stopping for cars to pass and the general adventure of five people and a puppy out and about was said and done. the funniest part was that when we were about .2 of a mile from our front porch--within sight of the house--the bottom fell out. i mean it started pouring rain and we got drenched. our neighbors across the street who were sitting on their porch had a good laugh as we ran our hardest the last leg of the trip. they gamely called out, "you almost made it" and so on and so forth. but we did have a great time together. my little bunch is just fun to be around!

elise's first day of school pictures

now that is a backpack! it's half her size!
she is all set and ready to go in the outfit she picked out all by herself.

she's so sweet.ian gave her a big "bye" hug.

 

buckling into the car...
walking into school
elise's nice teacher
playing in her classroom

 

red-letter days

yesterday was elise's first day of kindergarden. we had prepped and prepared her for the big day. we had gone school shopping with her cousins and their mom's, she had every school supply known to man, she'd had her immunizations, her health check, her orientation, and a partridge in a pear tree. the night before, cory gave elise & ian father's blessings. it was a sweet tender moment for all of us. that night, i felt the sadness of sending elise off into the lone and dreary wilderness. we were going to miss her being gone for 6 1/2 hours every day. she does so much around the house and is just fun to be with that i knew we would feel a loss with her gone. that night, as i went from room to room checking on the little ones, i was overwhelmed with the weight of the responsibility entrusted to me. i couldn't believe that three lives were completely given to me for me to nurture and care for. and then i couldn't believe that so much of it had passed already. so i had myself a good cry and except for a somewhat sleepless night, i was ready for the day ahead. we all felt a little excitement as elise put on her school outfit, packed her backpack and got ready. i thought she seemed so grown up and yet sooooo small as we walked her to her classroom. she was a little nervous and felt a little sad, but she was so brave and i was so proud of her. we had read the scripture in josua that morning, chapter one verse nine that refers to being strong and of a good courage. and i think that's what she was. i think it was an important moment in her life, to overcome the aprehension and realize she would be okay. and she was! when we picked her up at the end of the day, she had had a great time. she really liked school as we knew she would. ian missed her a lot too. every little bit he wanted to go pick her up. i think he had a good day with us, but he felt the difference with her not there. afterwards, we we went to our favorite ice cream place and everyone got cups of homemade ice cream. it was certainly a red letter day for all of us. to top it all off, last night everyone slept in their own beds all night. i think this is the first night in five years that cory and i have had the bed to ourselves. amazing! i was proud of all three kids for doing so well, but a part of me was sad that they weren't there with me. i love snuggling with them and i felt a twinge of "they don't need me to help them sleep anymore." it was another sign that they are growing up so fast and spreading their own wings. being a parent is the most wonderful, difficult thing i could have ever imagined. but i wouldn't trade being one for anything!

Annoying Survey

I got a survey from a friend. It has 63 questions which is entirely too many for even a survey junkie like me. But I thought I would occasionally post a few of the entries in a blog post. So here are the first 10.

1. Song that always makes you sad? It’s a Christmas song…maybe by Alabama. I think the name is “red shoes” or something like that. Its supposed to be sweet, but I think its so horrible it should never have been written.

2. Last thing you bought? Ice cream after Elise’s first day of school. (I had chocolate turtle and brownie batter. the turtle was not that great. shocking, i know. the brownie batter was YUMMY. I sampled several different flavors--pumpkin pie and apple pie. the pumpkin pie was really good. i would like to get a cup of it sometime...if i could ever get away from my chocolate addiction.)

3. Last person you argued with? Probably Cory. But I don’t think it was a big argument.

4. Do you put Butter before putting the peanut butter on? No. But Grandma Delia does. She makes a Peanut Butter and Butter sandwich. There's a story that once we were going to a family reunion or something right after church and grandma had packed a PB&B sandwich to eat afterward. When she went in the church kitchen to get it out of the fridge, she found it there with one bite taken out of it. I guess someone wasn't familiar with this type of sandwich.)

5. One of your stuffed animals' names as a kid? Bubbles. It was a stuffed St. Bernard. Elise has her now.

6. Did you ever own at one time a Barenaked Ladies Cd? No. I own very few CDs. I have lots of downloaded music, so i may have a song of theirs, but i can't recall right off.

7. Favorite day of the week? Probably Friday. I love the anticipation of the weekend. Friday night is the best.

8. Favorite Sundae topping? Chocolate and caramel. It has to be both.

9. Did you take Piano lessons? Yes.

10. Most frequent song played? If this means on the piano, its probably the pieces I’m practicing for choir. If it means on CD….I don’t have something I play repeatedly.

men are great to have around

this is not a new concept to me, but yesterday i was reminded again how grateful i am to have cory around. the kids and i spent the day at the beach yesterday and had the best time ever. the weather was perfect, the waves were perfect, the kids were wonderful....an all-around good time. since we didn't get home until around 7:30 or so, cory had worked a little late and then gone out to eat with his brother (whose wife & kids were at the beach with us) before heading home. he brought with him half of a french dip sandwich from logan's roadhouse. i had just snacked at the beach all day and hadn't had a real meal, so i was thrilled that he brought me his leftovers. the sandwich was delicious and filled my tummy and warmed my heart that he thought of me.

our trash pickup is on mondays, so cory brought the trashcan back down the driveway when he got home. sometime later that evening he mentioned that he was going to wash out the trashcan because there were bugs (maybe maggots) down in it. pretty gross. let me just say, that if i knew there were bugs down in that garbage can, and it were left up to me, they could have eaten through the daggone plastic before i would taken it around back to wash it out. not interested, no thanks! so, i was so thankful that cory was around to take care of us and take care of those manly details. what a great guy!

the santa complex

elise believes in santa claus. as a little background, i never believed in santa claus, even as a child, while cory's family were strict adherers to the santa code. he has good memories of believing. so yesterday elise asked me, "does santa claus go to sleep?" then she asked about the elves and then said, "and i know those reindeer go to sleep!" its been bothering me ever since. i realize that its august, not christmas eve, so that there isn't an iminent concern here. but since its in the genes, i might as well start worrying about it now. i feel like i'm lying to her. maybe that's too strong, but its close. in legal terms, i feel like i'm perpetrating a fraud on my sweet little girl. i think i'm afraid that once she's in school, someone will tell her that santa isn't real and she'll say, "yes he his. my mama & daddy said he is." and then i'll feel like dirt and she won't trust me. so my dilema now is, what do i do about this. should i just keep on letting her believe in her childhood magic and figure that it will resolve itself somehow. or should i do something to break the news to her? and if so, how? i thought maybe i could tell her about the real saint nicholas and the history of christmas (in short, simple, 5-year old terms) and then tell her that santa lives on when we are giving....or something slightly more eloquent when i've had time to think more about it. i'm just not sure. did you believe in santa when you were little? and did believing or not affect you in any way? and what should i do? any thoughts?

eat your veggies!

as the head chef in our family, i had the most rewarding moment last night. too often the well-planned menus, the creative and diverse dishes, and the love and effort put into them go quite unappreciated by the small fry in our house. frequently there are comments such as, "that's disgusting", "i'm not eating that", "what is that red thing", or "does this have mushrooms in it?" heard round the dinner table. i assumed that last night would be no different. i prepared a chicken stir-fry with fresh cabbage, zuccini, and squash, along with some frozen peppers and onions. the teryiaki seasoning just finished it off. i thought it was delicious, but thought that the vegetables might overwhelm the kids. i couldn't have been more wrong. i'm not exactly sure how or why it happened, but they couldn't get enough of the zuccini and squash, and a little cabbage. they ate all the squash and zuccini out of the dish and then asked me to cook more. they even ate them again for lunch today and thought they were great. ian even ventured into the onions and declared that he loved them. i was so excited over the whole thing i could hardly contain myself. it was the biggest thrill. elise told me today that Jesus thought yesterday was the healthiest day ever. i couldn't agree more!

its only a test....

You Passed the US Citizenship Test

Congratulations - you got 9 out of 10 correct!

Could You Pass the US Citizenship Test?

my only question now is, "which one did i miss?"

Our New Puppy

After the loss of Milo, we felt lost without a puppy to love. So we have a new addition to our family--a yorkiepoo named Max. He's the sweetest little guy and we just love him to pieces. I think Elise said it best. After Milo passed away, we began talking about getting another puppy and how even if we got another puppy, Milo would always have a special place in our hearts. Elise pointed to three spots on her chest and said, "These are the spots for Milo." Then she pointed to another spot on her chest and said, "And this would be the spot for the new puppy." She's so right and expressed better than i did. So Welcome Home, little Max.

I really think he thinks he's a baby. Somewhere along the line, somebody forgot to tell him he was a puppy.
Elise and Ian love the little guy. They are so good at taking care of him and giving him lots of love.
If Merry Grace is one the floor, Max is determined to be right beside her. Another sign he thinks he's a baby.
And here's proof positive. He really did this and did it on his own. We were all playing in the floor when Cory goes, "Hey! Look what Max is doing!" And there is was with a passy in his mouth! So cute.