I'm Back
11 years ago
I know. I've been horrible at posting and now you are getting two in one week. This is mostly because I have given up Facebook for a while. It sort of took over my life and became more important than anyone or anything else and I realized I needed to cut it out for a while and reevaluate.
Here's a little bit of what has been going on this week:
Miss Priss got an official "big girl" bed this weekend. I have been looking for a trundle bed for over a year now and finally found one. Those suckers are expensive!! I thought about begging my dad to build me one, but I realized it would still cost a pretty penny (instead of a pretty dollar like the stores charge) and he is just way too busy to bother him with that. My mom remembered I was looking and happened to spot this big beauty while in Costco last week. She sent me a text with a photo and I wrote back asking how much it was and you won't believe it.... $299. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!?! The trundle alone costs that much everywhere else and the beds start around $799. I called my in-laws the next day and asked them if they had plans for the weekend. When they said no, I said, "Great! You are taking me to buy a bed and then helping me put it together!" They are so awesome because they were more than happy to help and didn't run and hide. (It's not on sale online in case you look it up. Not sure why.) Sophie is very excited and I'm over the moon excited. Now we have a place for someone to sleep when we have a friend/cousin/brother who has to give up his bed for grandparents/friends/family.
Next on our list? Buy a mattress for the trundle.
I have been on a mission to find the best spaghetti sauce. I grew up on Ragu. It was fine, but then I moved out and got married to a man who lived for spices and the Ragu just didn't cut it. I tried adding spices to Ragu, but that didn't work. I tried the spaghetti packets and they are delicious, but I really want to get away from all the "extras" that are in such packets that aren't very good for you. When at my parents house a couple of weekends ago, I had some of their leftovers (not our leftovers, but my parents' from that week. Weird? Nah!) and the sauce I finished off was amazing! It had kick. It had flavor. And it made me forget that I was eating pasta filled with cheese. My mom couldn't remember what it was actually called, or maybe it was she couldn't pronounce it, but I guess I had asked them enough times that my dad just texted me a photo of it. It is called Arrabbiata sauce. When I was in Publix the other day I found two different brands and I can't wait to try them. Here they are:
Sophie and I went out running errands on Monday. She was extra grumpy. Actually both kids were, but one of them was at school so I had only half grumpy to deal with. We were going on day 3 of bad attitudes and they finally broke me. I'm not proud of it, but it happens. I wasn't up for fighting her again on clothes, so a dentistry shirt, denim skirt and tights we wore that day. She was happy after we ate lunch and even started running and sliding on her knees in Target. I got a video of it, because I'm not the mom that says, "Don't do that! Little girls don't slide on their knees." I'm the mom that says, "Wait! Let me get a video with my phone! Do it again!" Well, I can't get the video to load, so here's a photo of her passed out in the back of the van after our trip to Target. It was a glorious 30 minutes.
Christopher, poor thing, has continued our rough weekend into his week at school. Maybe I should say poor teacher instead. He really struggles with staying calm and not talking too much after they have lunch and rest time. (I can totally relate, because I was a hyper kid. Shocking, I know.) When I picked him up today I asked him if he stayed on green and when his answer starts with, "Wellllllllllllll...." you know he didn't. But this was the first time the whole class went to yellow. I have no idea what actually happened, but something like, the teacher had to step out to talk to another adult and when she came in everyone was talking (except Christopher, of course) and she said, "The whole class is going on yellow." Didn't phase my man, but it did make one of the girls cry. When we got home I opened up his folder to find, not 1, but 2 notes inside. We spent the next 30 minutes having quiet time in our room. We talked about what happened and I remained calm. And then I told Christopher that after his 30 minutes were up he was going to come downstairs and write a "sorry note" to his teacher and a "sorry note" to the little boy that he pushed. I go downstairs and about 10 minutes later I hear his sweet voice say, "Mommy? Can you come here please?" I went to see what he needed and he was standing there holding this note that he wrote all by himself for his teacher:
We have gone on a family walk and now we are fixing supper and the kids are getting along. I think God even had the angels get on their knees and pray for me. We already have weekend plans that I am pretty sure are going to be very awesome and we are super excited. See y'all soon!
Don't you love when you are really struggling with something and you know that it is Satan just attacking you in your weakest point with your greatest weakness? Never happened to you? Consider yourself blessed! My weakness, anger, forgiveness, letting it go. Mostly when my kids refuse to listen (You know, the whole, "Stop. Stop. Stop. PLEASE stop! I said, STOOOOOP!!!!!" when they are hitting someone/something or talking too much or jumping on/off something...) and then get mad at me for getting on to them or when they yell at me because I asked them to do something (like get dressed for church.)
This morning we planned on going to early church so we would have more free time to play the day away and this pretty much fails every. single. time. Sophie REFUSES to wear anything normal to church and Christopher REFUSES to quit watching tv to get dressed for church. First, Sophie. Getting her dressed for church is like sticking knives in my eyes. Fighting with her to wear a normal outfit that matches for just 2 hours once a week is horrible. (Now you see why I posted her looking so pretty in the previous post. That was an easy morning!) She has worn that Snow White costume two days in a row and wanted to wear it to church. I told her no. She wanted a different princess dress. I told her no. I pull out 3 dresses and let her choose. She told me no. She picks out a summer dress that is too small. I told her no. (Are you as annoyed as I am yet?) She starts crying. I feel like crying. I refuse to let her win because remember, for 6 days and 22 hours a week she can wear whatever the heck she wants! After about 20 minutes we finally agree on a 4th dress and she matches and actually brushes her hair.
Christopher just kicks his blanket on the floor and acts like a spaz for a minute, I roll my eyes behind his back, tell him we are going early so he can play longer this afternoon and he finally realizes I'm thinking about him and gets dressed without another word. (He has also learned that he can sit with me in big church if he behaves.) I can't blame him for not wanting to go so early. He has to be somewhere by 8:00 5 days a week and was thrilled yesterday when he could stay in his pj's and play as long as he wanted.
Are you frustrated tired yet? It's barely an hour into my day.
We get to church and I am so worked up over getting everyone ready that I can't calm down. I'm so angry that I let these precious kiddos get to me and that I can't just let it go. I barely remember anything that was preached this morning and I'm pretty sure I needed to hear it. I want to be one of those moms that thinks everything is beautiful and glorious and blessed and act calm all the time and not let my kids see me annoyed or frustrated or that I even have buttons to dance on. But I am human and I will never have that much control every. single. time. Only God can help me do that.
Fast forward to later this afternoon. We are working in the yard and cutting things down and dragging them to the street and enjoying the most perfect weather (created by the most perfect God, I love Him for beautiful days!). I am dragging a load of branches to the street and the kids have decided to play on the boxes from Sophie's new bed that are at the top of the driveway. They are only about 2 inches thick and they are having fun pretending to slide on them. I smiled and said, "Have fun, but be careful."
How far do you think I got before someone starts screaming? The end of the driveway. I run to the kids and Sophie's crying and holding her head while Christopher is trying to hide in a box. I ask what happened and learn that they thought it would be a great idea if Sophie was to lie down in the box and Christopher jumped on it. SERIOUSLY PEOPLE?!?!?! Why in the world would this sound like a good idea? I know that when we were kids we used to wash our van and pour dish soap on the top of the van to make it slippery, but we never did things like jump on someone lying down. And apparently he landed on her head at one point. I was so mad, and freaked out, I didn't know what to do first. Once I saw that Sophie was fine, I got onto Christopher and told him he needed to check on his sister and give her a hug and tell her he is sorry. He did, but then when I tried to talk about his punishment, he flipped out. Really? HE'S going to flip out? Ugh.
I hate to admit it, but I had a really hard time forgiving him for this. (Just like it took me too long to forgive Sophie for her tantrum this morning.) I know he wasn't totally at fault because he didn't force his sister to lie in a box, she is crazier than he is when it comes to stunts! But I was so angry that they would do something so stupid and that they had no idea how serious this could have been.
Bedtime rolls around and the kids go to pick out their book. Sophie says, "I want THIS Bible book. I want the God Bible book and not the Kaitlyn Bible book." I stop for a second and right before I ask her what she's talking about, I start laughing. Here is the "Kaitlyn" Bible book:
This is our devotional book, or "Bible book" as the kids call it, that we read every night. It has a couple kids in it, one of them named Kaitlyn, and they help teach your kids more about the Bible and the things that God wants us to learn. It is fabulous! I guess Sophie didn't know how to differentiate between this "Bible book".....
BACK TO THE POINT...
After we read our other books, I asked Sophie which Bible story she wanted to read. (I had forgotten that when she picked this out she also said she wanted to read the "Satan story." Um, ok. ) We read the story of Adam and Eve. Then we get to the part where God gets upset. And it says that this is the part where most stories end, but not in this book. It tells you about how God loves us so much and wants the best for us and how He loves us no matter what and that He forgives us. Yup. I got it. God forgives me. For anything and everything I do that is wrong. I get so caught up in trying to teach my kids the difference between right and wrong and completely forget that I, me, myself, screw up ALL THE TIME! It took a little 4 year old girl, who forgave her brother for hurting her on accident and spend the rest of the night laughing her pretty little head off with him while I was steaming away about what happened hours earlier. And it takes a 6 year old to come and whisper in my ear, "Mom, just ignore her." when a little girl gets me so worked up and I want to scream.
God knows that I need constant reminders that He forgives me and He doesn't stay angry with me and He lets my sins go, so why should I do any different to my own children? Ouch. I know I'm not alone in this battle, but I wanted to record it on here for my own sake. So when I go back I can remind myself that I'm far, far, far from perfect and I constantly need God.
It's been a while since I've posted anything and it seems to get harder and harder to find time to post, but I figure if I at least start one I can just add to it when I have time and eventually a new post will be born. I feel like I could fill this with a lot of nothing or a lot of thoughts going on in my head and the latter could get boring, so I will stick with photos of the kids. Since that's what people really care about seeing anyway. (Sophie is already trying to cut fabric into a ghost, so you now see how far I made it on my first attempt!)
Ok, I'm back. Now both kids are home, so we will see how far I get this time. I'll just start adding photos because I realized I have a TON to show you. Here goes!
Christopher has become quite the artist! I think he finishes his work early and then they are allowed to draw and so we have about 2-4 pictures come home a day. I love it all, but this is one of his latest obsessions. Ever since we flew on a plane to go to Hawaii he is all about planes. Delta ones. Notice the red on the tail? Yup, the boys loves him some planes!
He also celebrated his 100th Day of School. Apparently this is a new thing. Everyone did this from what I hear. Why didn't we? I think we would have loved to have known that we were 100 days in too.
You can't tell from this photo (because they are all from my iphone), but Sophie is wearing a Belle dress that would have fit her better 2 years ago. If she stands still it's fine. But she doesn't like doing that so I think everyone saw her panties that day. We have since bought bloomers to wear with our dresses. Real dresses and pretend.
My friend Melissa and I take turns picking up the monkeys of the bunch from school. This allows us an extra hour without paying for it. I'm not sure where I had taken them that day, but I had to shove them in a grocery cart to grab something at the last minute.
Sophie and I went on base a couple weeks ago to get her shot form updated and found out she needed 4 shots. We went to the BX to pick up a little prize afterwards and then passed through the lemon lot when we were done and we found this little cutie! I told Sophie to stand like this and then I sent Brandon a picture that said, "Can I have this, pretty please???"
And of course I found something for me too. : )
We always forget that Home Depot has their kids workshop at the first of the month, but thankfully a friend reminded me. Sophie wore her new apron that my sister made her for her birthday and she was super excited! Christopher was his usual cool calm, "I got this, Mom" self.
I forced them to take a photo of their certificate and boxes when they were done and their faces are priceless! Christopher is totally mortified and Sophie is bursting with pride and ready to show everyone what she did. I love them.
If the weather is nice, we love to meet at a local park with the grandparents and the kids ride their bikes while we walk. I LOVE this park! Brandon and I hung out here a lot with our friends when we were dating and would have picnics and go rollerblading or even see a play. It brings back the best memories.
The day before our last visit it rained. A lot. There were puddles everywhere and Sophie decided to ride her bike through one. She got stuck. You can barely see in the first photo the mud flying out from behind her back tire. Here is Christopher trying to help her get out. They were m-u-d-d-y when they finally got her loose. But they loved it.
See how nasty her pink shoes are?
I'm totally digging Christopher's soccer socks here. I adore that boy and he really has no clue how crazy I am about him. After they got out of the puddle we became very distracted with the grown men that were flying little remote control places. Another man was trying to fly himself? He had this massive blown up parachute thingy and I know he was just trying to find a place to figure out how to use it, but we couldn't really figure out what it was supposed to do either. Oh well! It was all entertaining.
This is random, but I bought one of the fajita meals in a box (never get those, but they were BOGO) and when I opened the tortillas this is what I pulled out. Seriously???? It is smaller than my kitchen scissors and barely covers the middle of my SALAD plate! Yeah, I went out and bought something the next day that would actually hold the items that were supposed to go inside.
Sophie decided it would be fun to help my blow my hair dry one morning. Not sure how well my hair ended up looking (probably not any different than if I did it myself), but my eyes were definitely drier. Once I got her to quit looking at herself (she likes to do that) and listen, it was kind of nice to have both hands free to work on my hair.
A couple weekends ago we had friends spend the night. I don't have any photos from the night before, but there is always so much fun had when these kids get together. Even the littlest one was there for a couple hours before Mommy came to take him home. I had promised them we'd go get doughnuts for breakfast on Saturday and when I went upstairs to get ready the house got scary quiet. I went downstairs and this is what I found. They were so glued to Cat In The Hat you could have knocked one of them over and I don't think they would have even realized it. Hilarious! Only time they are this quiet is once they finally fall asleep.
Can't have Krispy Kreme without a cool hat!
Playing together back at home. They were all having so much fun that we kept them there until after lunch. I didn't care, I knew I'd have to come up with some way to entertain my kids (and deal with their whining) once their friends left, so why would I do that?)
They finally broke off into pairs. The big kids played Legos...
And the younger ones colored.
What else would they do?
Random photo of the kids riding the golf cart on the way to church. They looked SO nice that morning! That never happens. Someone always pitches a fit and I end up caving b/c I struggle with picking a fight to the death before going to church, ruining my attitude and whatever God planned on teaching me there. And yes, Sophie has straight hair. Only way I could get her to brush her hair and put a bow in it. I figure if your dress is ironed and your are wearing tights and actually match, your hair better be fixed too!
And this is how we typically look on a daily basis. Mismatched, out of season and a little sideways. But that's what I love about her.
They were both working on their valentines. It was so cute!! I adore these kids.
Another random photo. Just another morning of coloring.
I went on my first field trip with Christopher's class recently. They had been studying about Italy and one of the girls' families owns a pizza place so they invited the classes to come and learn how to make pizza and then they got to make their own. It was so fun and yummy too!
We had some boxes lying around and Christopher decided he and Sophie needed to make them into a Chessie train. So, they found a ribbon, cut it into strips, glued them to the boxes to connect them. Then they found some old envelopes and glued them across the top so they would have a cover for shade. It was precious! I love when they work together. Fills my heart with such joy.
Another night the little rascals were spending the night at their friends' house and I picked them up from school and took them over there. When sitting at a red light I told them to smile for me. Didn't work. Christopher said, "Ok everyone, funny faces!!" This is what I got. Such joy. My van may have been rocking side to side from all the giggling and silliness, but it just means we are having more fun than the cars that are sitting there with fights going on. Cause that NEVER happens to us!
This my friend is the latest obsession of Sophie's... my old Snow White costume. My mom made it for me when I was about 8 years old. We had a dance recital at the mall on Halloween and this was what I wanted to be. To be honest, I'm not sure how I came up with it. Princesses were not anywhere near the craze they are now. And I don't know too many 8 year old girls, now, that want to dress up like a princess, so my mom decided to give the dress a quick fix and shorten it so it could be enjoyed now. She has worn it for about 4 of the last 7 days, only because it took me three days to wash it.
Practicing our spelling words. He is getting much better about doing his homework. We have our moments, but they are getting better. I think because it's all starting to click and he's putting it together and realizing we aren't crazy after all.
Look! here it is again! Today she started out in this (after going through all the other ones to find it, explains the mess on the floor), then went to Rapunzel, then to a fairy, then back to Rapunzel. I adore her!
And finally, this is her favorite place to sit and her favorite way to sit in this chair. Love that kid.
Hope you have a great weekend! We plan on relaxing a little and taking advantage of the sunshine (even if it's going to be colder) and putting the desire to do chores to good use. : )
I can't believe that I'm posting about Sophie's birthday so late, but I guess I've been a little busy. We actually flew home from Hawaii on her birthday and then it took a week just to recover from our trip and then another week to get adjusted to life after our trip and so there's my excuse. Plus I didn't know if the photos were automatically downloaded or not. (Updated my iphone lately and found out that it sends my pics to my computer through the air! You have no idea how much easier that has made my life!) Since I still haven't had time to find the battery charger for my camera my phone is all I have.
I have to be honest, I wasn't planning on having a party for Sophie, only because I knew we wouldn't be in town and, this is really sad, I wasn't sure who we would invite, other than the grandparents and our friends, the Khans. (When you move to a town for just a year you don't really expect to make a gazillion friends, not to be negative, but you barely want to unpack much less put down serious roots.) So, I figured we'd just get together with my family after our trip since we'd just spent over a week with my inlaws and celebrated in Hawaii.
Well, before Christmas, my awesome friend Melissa approached me about doing a little party for her son Joshua and Sophie together. They are best buddies, only 2 1/2 weeks apart and in mom's day out together so they have made some of the same friends. I realized THIS I could do! So we brainstormed for a little while and decided that since J & S love to "craft" so much we should have a painting party. We both love to keep things simple (one of the 4,835 reasons we are friends) and so we had pizza, made cupcakes and bought some paint and little 8x10 canvases and invited several of the little people over. Somehow the party was set to be at their house, probably b/c I didn't volunteer mine, but then again I was in packing and unpacking mode right up until the party and she knows the kids and moms better than I do anyway. (See, Burt! I didn't volunteer your house, I just didn't volunteer mine.)
The weather was absolutely GORGEOUS that day!!! And since the Khans have the awesomest back yard ever, we had to practically drag the party goers inside to paint, again for food and we pretty much gave up on opening presents, until Joshua decided he didn't care and went for it anyway. Everyone had a wonderful time and I am so glad that she suggested we do this. Now, on to the few pics I have:
Sophie and her sweet little friend Avery Jean painting away. They are adorable together! I love that she has little girls for friends b/c for almost 3 years it was just boys!
The rest of the gang painting away. They were all so serious and there was not a single mess made. We were expecting it to be a little chaotic, but they were all so focused on what they were doing.
The two older knuckle heads painting outside. Now these two are hilarious together! We pray for their teacher all the time. She needs it. Whew! They are the bestest friends. Their birthdays are coming up soon. Hard to believe they are going to be 6. Seems like we were all dating and getting married last year. Focus! Sorry...
I made a little "smash" size cake for the birthday kids. Can you guess what their favorite things are? I love that the whole family was involved in decorating Joshua's. I was not alone in making Sophie's, she made sure I did what she said. Including add a mouth to Hello Kitty the next morning. It still wasn't good enough. She wanted a big mouth with lots of teeth. Her picture she drew looked more like Jaws from a James Bond movie. Or maybe more like those whales that have all those "lines" for teeth to catch things like fish or whatever is floating by. I didn't want to scare anyone, so I made a line and told Sophie there wasn't any room for anything other than that.
Yeah, this is only half the backyard. And that back fence is farther back than you think.
The awesomest back yard E.V.E.R! (No dog poop either b/c no dog!)
Eating pizza and making silly faces. Sophie's are usually more scary than silly.
Joshua picked out their balloons. He is so sweet! I love that kid!
Sophie enjoying the attention and making sure Joshua is too.
Yeah, not liking it as much are you lil' man?
It's ok, Sophie enjoys it enough for everyone!
And the birthday song. Can you tell we rehearsed? I'm expecting my phone to ring from recording contracts and not from the insane number of telemarketers that are still calling even though I'm on the "no call" list.
Happy birthday to our wonderful, hilarious, spunky, adorable, strong, daring, awesome little girl!!!
We love you more each year!!!!
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