Tagged

I've been tagged by my friend Terri. So, here goes!

7 Things You Might Not Know About Me

1. I played the oboe for 6 years.
2. I was a stoplight one year for Halloween.
3. I named all of my dolls when I was a kid, and said goodbye to them by name as we drove away from our house. (Kimberly, Melinda, Danny, Gregory, Lorena, Jill, Kenny, Becca, Robyn...)
4. I'm most at home in the water.
5. My first job was at Hardee's. You learn a lot about people when you work in the drive-thru window.
6. I have 2 stamps in my passport--England and France.
7. I always wanted a son when playing the game of LIFE. Who knew how prophetic that would be?

Rachel and Tina--tag, you're it!

Thawing Out

-40 degree wind chills, high temps below zero. . .bye-bye. Hello warmer weather! When the temp climbed up to 49 degrees, it felt like 89 degrees. What a wonderful feeling. Even though we were back to school last week, the winter weather gave us an early dismissal and a late start. I'd like to think it helped ease us back into things, but it didn't. We're still up late and dragging in the morning. Even Aaron's having a hard time adjusting. Maybe our warmer weather will help everyone's internal clocks to reset?

Dance Praise--one of the many ways to stay entertained during the deep freeze

All 3 boys playing trucks--the day is coming when all 3 won't be doing this anymore :(

Even Ginger hung out inside to stay warm :)

Venturing out to play in the snow as soon as the warm-up began!

One casualty of this harsh, cold weather is Kaleb's face. He's had a sore in the corner of his mouth for 2 weeks, making it very difficult for him to open his mouth wide enough to eat. It looked pretty yucky too, which made Kaleb self-conscious at school. Nothing I tried would make it go away. Desperate to figure out what I was dealing with, I googled it. Turns out he has angular cheillitis. Huh? Since finding out what it was 2 days ago, I've known how to treat it and the sore is all but gone. YAYYY!!!! Oh, the things we take for granted. Like being able to open our mouths. :)

Our favorite fruit this winter is the cutie. Officially they're called clementines, small oranges no bigger than a tennis ball. But our brand of clementines come labeled as "cuties," so that's what they are. :) The skin is so easy to peel that Aaron can do it all by himself. He and Braylen each have one per day, and sometimes more than that. Kaleb detests them. Oh well--2 out of 3's not bad! Aaron even collects the stickers on the fruit, since they each say something cute and different. Sometimes it's the little things that get us through our day, isn't it?

Aaron and his little cutie

Speaking of getting through the day. . .today is Wednesday. Wednesdays are days I survive, and rarely enjoy. Today was no exception. A full day of rushing here and there, throwing supper on the table only to rush out the door again. Sigh. It's by far my least favorite day of the week. Even Aaron told me today was a bad day for him. He's been in a funk ever since I picked him up from preschool. Time for me to celebrate that today is over and done with. :)

2 funnies from yesterday to hopefully brighten up this post.

Braylen called me from school yesterday to ask me to bring him. . .new pants. Why? He happened to spill his milk all over himself at lunch, making it look like he wet his pants. Backing out of the garage to bring him clean pants, I tore my side mirror off my mini-van--not funny! But taking his pants to him and putting them on his desk brought a smile to my face. Why? There were only a few kids in the classroom at the time, and none of them knew why Braylen needed new pants. (He was still out at lunch recess.) I left the room hearing whispers of, "Why does Braylen need new pants?" As I passed Braylen in the hall, I told him his pants were on his desk. Ha ha ha! Now, before you think I was mean to my son, you have to realize how much Braylen loves this kind of attention. He hammed it up, exaggerating his embarrassment but clearly loving every minute of it. I could NEVER do that to Kaleb, but I take great delight in doing it to Braylen. He only has 1.5 years left in this elementary school utopia, and I'm loving every minute of it.

Aaron and I carried on a conversation like this at lunch:

A: Remember when I got stung by a bee? That bee died after it stung me--ha! And it didn't go to heaven when it died. Ha! It went to hell!

Me: I laughed. :)

A: What's above heaven? Is anything higher than it?

Me: I don't know Aaron. . .

A: Does heaven have a ceiling?

How do you answer that? Again, I told him I didn't know. Then he asked me for something else to eat and that was that. I love the occasional glimpse he gives me of what goes on in that head of his. And I'm REALLY glad that tomorrow is Thursday. :)

Christmas at Home

We sure did love having my parents here

This Christmas was our Christmas at home, and my parents came out to join us. Winter weather brought them to us a day early. Yay! Mom and I did lots of baking, with not much help from the boys, I might add. Aaron frosted a few cookies, and Kaleb frosted a few less. He was actually quite grumpy while frosting cookies. So much for that idea! My dad and Derek ran cable and phone lines from our computer to our tv. It took several days, they made quite a mess, the mess made me grumpy, but they cleaned it all up and life was good again. :) Braylen followed Grampy all over the place, always asking to use Grampy's netbook. It must be more fun than our computer.

Can you tell that Kaleb looks less than thrilled?

A Christmas blizzard made it hard to see across the street, but made us feel warm and cozy in our home. We braved the weather for the Christmas Eve service, and again for Christmas dinner by candlelight at my in-laws' house. During the week, Mom and I played 3 Scrabble games (I won 2 out of 3). Braylen and Grampy played Monopoly, we all played the Wii, and the boys wrestled my poor dad in the snow. Ginger enjoyed her homemade peanut butter treats from Grammy. My mom did plenty of knitting with Aaron, completing the blanket he asked for last fall. I even got a few new coasters and dish cloth this time.

The big news of the week was my Christmas gift from my parents...a CRUISE! Yowza! Mom and I will be getting away this fall for our Florida-Mexico cruise, giving me lots to look forward to this year. :) I feel incredibly blessed with this gift of time to spend with my mom. We did mother-daughter outings when I was growing up--a weekend at Embassy Suites, banquets at church, shopping trips and hair appointments, and eventually, wedding planning. This trip will be more precious time together, continuing our journey together as mother and daughter.


This was the Star Wars Christmas for Aaron, the GI Joe and Philadelphia Eagles Christmas for Kaleb, and the clothing/iPod stereo Christmas for Braylen. Nobody got the DSi they wanted, but we blamed Santa for that. :)

Another surprise of the week--my dad went turkey hunting with my husband! Derek, Dad, Braylen, Shawn, and Derek's dad went out together and came back with 3 birds. Derek, his dad, and Shawn were the only ones shooting, but Dad and Braylen had just as much fun. Braylen even lost a tooth. How fun to see my dad enjoy spending time with my husband and son. The rest of us stayed home and slept in. :) The kids always wake up Grammy and Grampy while they're here, and every time they seem to get them up later and later. But isn't that what vacation is for?

Kaleb and Aaron went along on hunting trip #2 of the week. My husband is amazing!

Mom and I went out for lunch, shopping, and coffee one day. Now that they're gone, I see our memories all over town and it makes me miss them more. I know God has us where we need to be, but it's still hard to live apart. My brother spent the holiday at his in-laws' house states away from us; hopefully we don't let an entire year go by before we see each other again. He did send me a case of Dublin Dr. Pepper for Christmas, so I can think of him every time I take a sip. :) What a guy!

New Year's Eve brought a funny from Aaron:

Kids and adults sipped on sparkling grape juice--adults from tiny crystal goblets, kids from large plastic margarita glasses. Quite a while later, we re-filled glasses and Aaron asked, "Can I have some more beer?" Wow, I'm SO glad I knew we needed to straighten this out for Aaron's understanding. He thought we were passing around alcoholic drinks for all to share--kids and adults. Yikes! :)

I think Kaleb's had a few too many :)

Yesterday was our first day back to normal; kids back in school and me back at Walmart to buy groceries. After preschool Aaron said, "Can I put my footy jammies back on now Mommy?" Can you tell he enjoyed wearing his new jammies a LOT during Christmas break? Oh, if we could only wear footy jammies and cozy up under a blanket all winter long...we could hibernate like bears. Sounds good to me. :)

Trying Something New

Make a Smilebox slideshow

A Christmas slideshow of our fun times together. :) What great memories I have of Christmas 2009!