November 29, 2006

long, long post

Has it really been 16 whole days since I posted? I keep meaning to but things keep coming up. And then with the holiday - well, it's been crazy around here. There is so much I want to tell you about...

CONFERENCE
Journey with me back a few weeks to my daughter's parent/teacher conference. I am always glad that my husband wants to go with me because I always forget everything they say. I also feel like it's some big test that I am taking and I'm sure I'll fail. Weird, I know. Anyway, we've been hearing about her lack of self-control for years now and we just keep working with her. At the conference this year, all we heard were positive things. They literally raved about her enthusiasm, her caring heart, and her effort. I was really happy to see everything finally clicking for her.

HEADACHE/HEARTACHE
On the subject of my daughter, I posted a few weeks ago about switching weekends and all the headaches that brings. I just wanted to add that after that weekend of her wanting to be here, we had her the next weekend. The following weekend (the one before Thanksgiving), she was supposed to go with her dad. He called and said he'd been invited to go hunting with his cousin and did he think she could just stay with us. Let me tell you that I was beyond livid. I could barely see straight. I couldn't even talk about it because the words just wouldn't come. And when the words won't come, I know the tears aren't far behind. And I refused to let him get me that worked up. So I thanked my lucky stars for the time with my daughter and moved on. I'll also add that I had her the following weekend for Thanksgiving which means I had her every weekend in November. Good for me but it really ticked me off that hunting came first. What else is new?

DINNER WITH A NEW FAMILY
Let me move right along before I get all fired up about it again...on to much happier subjects...Saturday before last, we went to dinner at my future sister-in-law's aunt's house. It was a "meet the families" event. All five of her aunts were there and her grandmother was there. It was a full house but they were really wonderful and made us feel welcome. We all had a great time. I can't wait until my brother-in-law gets married. What a great addition she is going to make to the family! :)

SURVEY SAYS
I registered with this consulting firm to test things. They pay me a bit of cash and I get to try new things. Cool stuff. The latest one is a home study. They gave me this air freshener thing and I put it in the house. For four weeks, I do a survey once a week. At the end, they'll pay me $30. Not a bad deal to me. And thank goodness, the air freshener actually smells really good. It's neat. It is a small plastic jar with little beads in it. They look like small bath beads. As the time has gone by, the beads are beginning to dissolve. I highly recommend this product if it comes on the market. I think they are going to call the scent "clean breeze". Good stuff!

DO YOU SMELL THAT?
On the Thursday before Thanksgiving, at 5 in the morning, my husband woke up and wandered downstairs. I couldn't figure out what he was doing. He said he smelled gas (no, not mine!). I didn't smell it. Then, the heat kicked on and I definitely smelled it. We called the gas & electric company and thankfully, they showed up in 45 minutes. It was not gas. It was carbon monoxide. Thank the Lord that my husband smelled it. Carbon monoxide is odorless. The heat exchanger in our furnace was cracked in three places. The way I understand it (and I could really be wrong), there was enough natural gas escaping from the cracks that when the heat kicked on, it took the natural gas and the carbon monoxide and sent it through the vents. That's why we smelled it upstairs. Please, if you don't have a carbon monoxide detector in your home, GET ONE! They are a little expensive but you may be able to get a free one from your local fire department. We ended up getting a new furnace (thankfully, we have a home warranty that covered the majority of it) but we spent one very cold weekend. The temperatures were mild but we definitely missed the heat. I was very thankful for making it to Thanksgiving and for the heat that we had on that day. And I was very aware of how God was watching over us in a lot of ways.

THANKSGIVING
I was glad we got our new furnace in time to have everyone here for Thanksgiving. We had 9 people, including our kids. We had turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, green bean casserole, Bob Evans rolls, cranberry sauce, this cranberry jello thing that's awesome, and other things I'm sure I'm forgetting. Then there was pie. And then six hours later, we did it again! Good, good food. Spending time with everyone was wonderful too. The next day, we left to go to my husband's grandmother's house about 6 hours from here. We spent the weekend. It was good to see her and the rest of the family. And turkey dinner again! Yummy! Unfortunately, I came down with a cold on Saturday (that I'm still fighting) and felt pretty crummy. At least the worst of it is over now. I just hope no one else gets it. My fingers are crossed!

AND THEN THERE WAS MY SICK CAR
On the way home from my mother-in-law's house on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, my car overheated. Now, I know there are things that need to be done to my car. I've kind of put them off because of the two houses (oh yes, we still have two houses...). Well, with it overheating, I had no choice but to take it in. After looking it over, they wanted to do lots of stuff for, well, lots of money. I did what I needed to get it on the road again, but let me tell you, it wasn't cheap. When it rains, it pours! I am very thankful though that I don't have a monthly car payment for my car. And I am thankful that it is reliable. Just please, no more big repairs like that again soon! (Who am I kidding? I still need to get 2 or 3 things done from this go round...) Oh, well, that's life...

SAVED THE BEST FOR LAST
You know that two house problem I mentioned earlier...Well, yesterday, I got a call from my daughter's friend's mom. Her co-worker had a fire at their house on Saturday. They need a place to stay for the next 3-5 months while their house is repaired. Would we be interested in renting our old house to them? Uh, YES! Of course it isn't a permanent fix and it may not even happen, but it would be such a blessing to us. Especially with Christmas right around the corner. My husband met with the co-worker's husband tonight. He was so gracious and kind. They have 4 kids and just want a place to be in time for Christmas. He's supposed to be talking to his wife tonight and they'll call tomorrow. Pray, people, pray! Oh, and if they do move in...the insurance company is furnishing it with all matching, nice furniture. We would be able to still have showings on the house and it would look all pretty. What luck! I'm trying not to get my hopes up because well, that's just where I am with the house right now. But it would be so nice... I'll let you know what happens.

So, as you can see, I've been so busy. Some days I don't know if I am coming or going. But I enjoy being busy and life actually goes smoother for me then. I've missed my bloggity friends though. I am almost caught up on my readings. I've been lurking at lots of blogs for a while now. Maybe I'll even delurk *gasp* and comment for the first time in ages...

Thanks for reading my marathon length post. :)

November 13, 2006

30 and a sing show

It was brought to my attention (twice) that I haven't blogged in a while. It's been a little busy around here. But because it's been busy, I have things to share...

30
Most importantly, my wonderful husband had a birthday this past week. He turned 3-0. Lucky for me, he can stop teasing me about my age now. I turned 30 in March and he hasn't let me forget it! We had a nice family birthday party. It was fun.

Here's a picture of the cake I made for him. Our tradition is to have a homemade cake for each birthday. I usually volunteer to make it. I have found that I enjoy baking. Surprise, surprise! This cake is decorated with mini M&Ms that I "borrowed" from my son's Halloween stash (shh! don't tell!). I use colored icing or red hots or Reese's pieces to decorate in the past too. (And do you see that sweet little boy hand that made it into the picture?)

Sing Show
I love to sing. My daughter loves to sing. My husband hates to sing. But my son, my son absolutely thrives on singing. He sings his answers to my questions, he sings his movements across a room, he sings his favorite toys, he is always singing! And he only needs to hear a song once or twice and he's humming it for days. He knows more names of people singing on the radio than I do. Okay, well, maybe not more but it is a bit amazing. I fully intend to see him in front of a large crowd, singing someday. The sweetest sound is when he sings a song he heard at
church. So anyway, the other day, I put him down for a nap. I went back to check on him and heard him singing up a storm. I told him to be quiet and he said he was having a sing show. I opened his door and he had all his stuffed animals lined up in a circle around him. And he was singing to them. I took his picture (below) and then bent down and whispered that he needed to take a nap. Without missing a word or beat in his song (during the picture or my comment), he nodded at me and continued his "show". I couldn't believe it. And I waited outside the door and he said "the end" and put them all to bed. What a cutie!


November 3, 2006

flip flop

I got a call from my daughter's father yesterday and he informed me that he has to go out of town next weekend. That is supposed to be my daughter's weekend with him (we do every other weekend). So, I bit my tongue (but you know I wanted to say that his daughter never seems to be a priority and she's going to be so upset - those are the milder things that came to mind...but things happen and again I'll give him the benefit of the doubt...) and started the process of switching weekends around so it's fair. What's fair when you are talking about sharing time with your child? Not one thing. But it has been years now and I've learned to just get a little numb about it. You know, like it's scheduling a doctor's or dentist appointment, not scheduling time away from my daughter. I don't know if it's healthy but it helps. Anyway, we got it all worked out...the schedule pretty much flipped completely because there's the whole holiday thing coming up soon. I went to tell my daughter about it and she wasn't happy at all. Bless her little heart - she tried so hard to be obedient about it. I could just tell by her face that she wasn't at all pleased. I gave her the option to talk about it and she complained that she was looking forward to being here this weekend. I can't say that I blame her. I know I'm biased but I try to put myself in her shoes. I mean, would you like someone to tell you that every other weekend you have to go away for three days? Okay, yes, sometimes I would, but that's beside the point. :) We're talking control here. We're talking being ten and wanting to be with your friends. We're talking trying to fit into two very different families. My heart aches that she goes through this. And I don't know how to handle it. I'm trying my best. But what if my best isn't good enough? (Isn't that a song?)

I told her that she could call her dad and talk to him about it. I was trying to make her feel more in control. Instead, I felt like I was lining her up with the firing squad. I said a quick prayer that he would listen to her and not be angry with her. I guess he did because he said she could stay this weekend. I have no idea if the other plans we made still stand but I don't think I'm going to worry about that for today. Sometimes I wish the next eight years will go faster so I can stop dealing with this. Then I am immediately overcome with guilt because that is wishing away my precious daughter's childhood. And that's not what I want to do. I just wish there was a magic button or secret formula that I could use to prevent her from being hurt. I guess we all feel that way about our children. I just feel it all the time with this one. Especially now that those hormones have decided they want to host their party at my daughter's. But that's a whole different topic.

Ugh...what a headache!

November 1, 2006

reach for the stars

It's been one of those days. For just a snapshot of my day, I'll tell you what the little man is doing at this moment. He's standing at the back door, jumping over and over. When he started whining, I asked him what was wrong.

"I'm trying to reach the sky, Mom."

"You're too short. So am I. So is Daddy. So is Sissy."

"I want to reach the sky."

What do you say? Which is why he is still standing at the door, whining and jumping. Any ideas on how to reach the sky? My brain is fried and even if it wasn't, the sky? Good luck!

halloween costumes


Introducing....Sleeping Beauty! I was going to block out her whole face, like I did below (because the interweb is so, well, out there), but she has such a gorgeous smile in this picture! I just had to share it!

And every Sleeping Beauty needs a Dinosaur, right? Okay, maybe that's not how the fairy tale goes but you should have seen this guy's tail. It was hilarious. For some strange reason, I have no pictures of that funny tail. I'll have to see if my mom got one on her camera. If so, I'll share it soon. Because I know you are DYING to see it, right? :)

 
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