What a Week!

What a week! Wednesday evening, while we were eating dinner, a big storm blew through. At first it was just sheets of rain. Then we heard a plunk. Then another. Soon it was more of a pelting, as marble-sized hail covered everything. So, we hung out in the basement a while until it passed. After a break, another storm blew threw. Then it went back to a regular old storm for a while.

Around 9:00, the phone rang. It was the plant calling for Lucas because the elevator broke, or something. What I got from his end of the conversation was this: 1) it was bad, 2) it was plant threatening, 3) it was going to take a LONG time to fix, and 4) he was going to be working in the highest part of the plant, maybe outside, in the middle of all these strong winds, rain and lightening. When I got up the next morning, he still wasn't home. In fact, he called me at 2:00 in the afternoon and told me he was just heading home and he was going to crash. So that was from 5:30 Wed. morning until 2:00 Thursday afternoon being up and working. That's a long time. I tried to cheer him up by telling him now he was like a crab fisherman, working 24 hours + without stopping. His response...'Yeah, but I don't make $80,000 in a week.' Valid point. I stopped trying to cheer him up after that.

Anyway, I found out Thursday that the tornado sirens had actually gone off in the south part of town, and two or three tornadoes had gone over our city. Nice. Today, the kids and I made a trip to a zoo about a half hour from here. We had a great time. It's not like Toledo's zoo - there are fewer animals and lots more walking. But it was still very enjoyable. I was bummed, though, because my camera battery died half way through the day, so I didn't get many pictures at all. At least I got a few! Also a bummer that Lucas couldn't go with us because work wouldn't stop calling. He was afraid if he went he would have to turn around and leave. So I think he just took it easy today (whenever he wasn't on the phone with the plant).

No plans tonight for the 4th. I have no idea if there are even any fireworks going on anywhere, but I know Lucas and the kids are all pretty tired, and it's not worth the effort of finding fireworks if everyone is too tired to enjoy them. So we'll just hang out and be together. Hope you all have a happy 4th of July!

One for Slow-Motion Replay

I have to tell you, yesterday morning I pulled a classic move! I was ready to leave for work, so we headed out the door. As we were walking over to Nicole's to drop the kids off, I realized that I had forgotten something in the house, so I told the kids to go on ahead and I would be there in just a second. I went back inside, grabbed what I needed, and headed out again.

Well, to catch up with the kids, I decided to pick up the pace a bit. Instead of walking, I opted for a slow jog. So, I'm jogging through the side yard, down the little hill, doing just fine...UNTIL...I get to the edge of the driveway, where Nicole has her yard toys for daycare lined up. This would have been that point that a wiser, more patient person would have slowed the pace and STEPPED carefully over or around the toys. But not me. I maintained my little jog thing I had going on, and I picked my leg up to hop/step over a plastic lawn mower. However, the toe of my flip flop caught on the mower...and that was the end of my upbeat jog.

I totally wiped out! I took a face dive straight into the car that was parked there, planting my left cheek straight into the rear quarter panel. And apparently I also put my right arm out to try to catch myself, because I took the hardest blow to the funny bone a person could ever imagine. My cheek bone was throbbing, and my entire right arm was tingling and paralyzed. I sat there for a second, alternating thoughts between, "I wonder if my arm is broken" and "I hope none of the neighbors saw that." After sitting there a moment to fight off the feeling of nausea that I often get with large spikes in pain levels, I got up and went into the house.

It was several minutes before my arm moved at all, and probably a few hours before it was back to functioning properly. I had a welt on my elbow for probably half of the day, but by mid-afternoon, the swelling had gone down, and I was left with only a bruise and a scrape...and a much more comic perspective than I had had on the whole event when it first happened.

While at first I was praying that no one saw, now I sort of wish someone had actually caught it on video so I could go back and watch it all. I wonder if it actually looked as funny as I imagine it did? At any rate, I bet that would be good for a belly laugh to watch that in slow motion!

Puddle Jumping

Last weekend, after the birthday party, Meagan spent quite a bit of time splashing in the puddle left behind by the downpour of rain. Being the picture-crazy person that I am, I of course, took a ton of pictures. Here are a few of them put together in a layout. I am going to put the rest of the pictures together on a 12 x 24 layout of just the pictures (kind of like the ND pictures I posted).

3 in a Tree

I told you I scrapped in the garage Saturday night (LOL). Here's the layout I did:

Journaling: I got a glimpse today - a glimpse into a world collaboratively imagined; a world that is ever-changing, moment-to-moment, shaped and formed by every new idea; a world of adventure, where a branch is a sword and a tree is a fort. What a privilege to see this world come to life; to watch the three of you play off of each other and respond to each others' ideas and actions. This is the beauty of childhood, the beauty of growing up as siblings and friends.

Weekend review

Well well well. Finally I have a free minute to sit down and post. It's been a busy five days or so. We left Thursday afternoon for Ohio. We to Lucas' parents' house around 5:30 or so - just in time for dinner!

Friday the kids and I went with Lucas' dad over to Luc's grandma's house. She was thrilled to have time with the kids, and to have visitors in general, I think. She is such a fun lady - she was telling me stories about plays she was in when she was younger. She was singing me the songs! Either she still remembers them quite well, or she's awfully good at making up lyrics on the spot! LOL!

While we were there, I got some good pictures of the kids climbing in her big tree in the back yard. What a perfect climbing tree! I wish we had a tree like that in our yard - I might be tempted to climb it myself! The kids were playing a game, along the lines of the imaginary world in the movie Bridge to Terabithia (not sure I spelled that right). They were having a great time making up a story and acting it out. It was way too cool to watch them, although I was completely in awe of how big they're getting to be able to play games like that...all three of them. :o(

Saturday was Sebastian's party. It's always nice to have the parties closer to family because more people are able to make it, so we actually get to see everyone. I got to see people I hadn't talked to in a LONG time! For some, it had been at least 2 years, others a year or so. It was good to see everyone. Sebastian and Isaac and Meagan loved having so many kids around to play with! They all were able to get in the pool - only for about 10 minutes because then it started storming, but they were happy to be able to get wet!

Saturday night, Shane and Lucas set up a tv and the wii in Guy & Jane's garage, and we all played wii until nearly midnight. But since there were five of us and only four controllers, I only played a little, and then broke out the laptop as my form of entertainment. So I sat in the garage and worked on a layout while Shane, Tina, Lucas and Guy played Boom Blox. I guess that's one way to spend a Saturday evening! Gotta love family time!

Sunday, before we headed home, we made a stop at my parents' house. We had lunch and the kids played for a bit. We got to see my mom's pictures from Israel, which was very cool. It was a short visit, but at least we got to spend a little time with them. I'd say we got back home just a few minutes before 6:00 Sunday evening. It was a good weekend.

The only bummer to the weekend was that, somewhere along the way, I misplaced my wedding ring. So please pray that it shows up again. I believe it will...you all remember my story about the movies! It's just a matter of time, faith and patience. But I would still appreciate the extra prayers. Thanks!

Overheard

While I was getting breakfast wrapped up today - you know, getting all the cereal boxes and milk jugs put away - I overheard the following conversation:

Isaac: "Sebastian, why did you say there's no Santa?"
Sebastian: "Because...Mom and Dad get the presents."

I asked Sebastian who had told him that, and he replied, "Me."

That didn't take long. Although, I remember as a kid that I had figured it out fairly early, too, and I went along with the whole Santa thing for fun really. So I guess I shouldn't be surprised that he has put 2 & 2 together.

I haven't decided yet how to handle the issue, since it still affects Isaac and Meagan. Still thinking about that one.

Home

We're home. I'm tired. I'll post more tomorrow (hopefully, if I get time...I'll try!)

Happy Birthday Sebastian!

We had way too much going on yesterday for me to be able to post yesterday for Sebastian's birthday. We got up and went to breakfast at a little local restaurant that has yummy skillet breakfasts...Sebastian got a candle in his pancakes!

Present-opening was a highlight of the day! He got some Pokemon stuff from his brother and sister. He got Mariokart for wii from us. He immediately started putting his new cards in his card-holder book, and he carried the book everywhere with him for the rest of the day! After they got all of their things picked up, they were allowed to test out Mariokart while I did the packing (which, as I predicted, made me GRUMPY...I have quite an issue with packing that we won't go into right now).

At Grandma's he got to open up a few small things before his birthday party on Saturday. He got MORE Pokemon characters! He is just in heaven with all this Pokemon stuff! He's so funny!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BUDDY!

Going to Grandma's

Oh how I love that laptop! On our trip down to Ohio yesterday, I busted out the laptop and worked on a layout. The battery lasted for about 2 hours before I shut down. :0)

We got to Lucas' parents' house around 6:00, unpacked and headed out to dinner. Then we all hung out while the kids played and watched movies and got re-acclimated to Grandma & Grandpa's house. They talked Grandma into letting them put their feet in the pool for a while...their hoping for swimming today...we'll see. We also did haircuts last night - even Meagan. Grandma cut about an inch or so off of the end, and she looks so CUTE!

After haircuts, I got the laptop back up and running and started scrapping again. I finished the layout I had started in the van. I also did something a little different that I've never done before, although I've thought of it several times. There are lots of times that I take a TON of pictures and only use a few of those pictures on my layouts. Well, for the sake of not losing my pictures somewhere in the abyss of digital picture land, I decided to make a few layouts of just 4x6's of those 'other' pictures. I saw in Creating Keepsakes this month that several scrapbook album manufacturers are now making 12x12 sleeves that will hold six 4x6 pictures for this exact purpose. I figured, though, that rather than having to spend more money on special page inserts, I would just make a 12x12 layout that does the same thing and that will let me use the page covers I already have. Here's what I came up with:

8 Years Yesterday, 7 Years Tomorrow

As of yesterday, we've been married for 8 years! As of tomorrow morning, Sebastian will be 7.


For our anniversary, friends of ours offered to watch the kids for us yesterday evening so we could go out. Not just watch them for the evening, but keep them over night!!! Sweet! So, we dropped them off and headed out for a bit of a date night. We went and saw Indiana Jones (Indiananna Jones, lol!). Then this morning I got to sleep in a bit before I went to pick them up. What an awesome gift!

Tomorrow we are going to celebrate Sebastian's birthday. We're planning on going out for breakfast before I go to work (but I'm only working a little, so we can have the majority of the day open). Also, sometime tomorrow, we're going to pack and head to Ohio for the weekend (we're having his birthday party down there this year)...pray for me because I do NOT enjoy packing! It way stresses me out! LOL!

Altered Movie Titles

The latest blockbuster adventure, according to Isaac...Indian-anna Jones

And the childhood classic Christmas movie, according to Meagan...Rudolph Reindeer and the Red Nose

Funny stuff those kids come up with! LOL!

Worth the wait

Sebastian's ants came yesterday. He's happy now!

He ran to the mailbox as soon as the mailman came, sure that his ants would be there. Sure enough, he had a yellow envelope with his name on it. We waited for Lucas to get home (from power washing the Vaseline off of the screen from Tuesday's episode - he had to go to a car wash to clean it!) to put the ants in. I wasn't going to do it, because I didn't know if I needed to do anything besides dump them in...I couldn't find the instructions anywhere, and I thought, with as long as he waited for his ants, I surely wasn't going to be the one to kill them! LOL!

Yesterday they were a bit lethargic from their travels. This morning, however, they had started building their tunnels. Life is good.

Another layout. I've been on a girly streak lately, so I thought I should break it up and do a boy layout. These pictures are of Isaac playing in the stones at the playground at my Dad & Nancy's campground. They were taken in October 2005.

Encore Performance

Meagan strikes again with an encore presentation to follow her screen-painting performance on Tuesday. Again while I was attempting to fold laundry. Again with a nearly-impossible mess for me to clean. Again. AAAAHHH!

This morning, around 9:00 the kids wanted to watch a movie, and I needed to get some things done. My plan was that I would get all of the house work done before we had to leave at 11:00 for an appointment, and then we would have the afternoon to hang out and play and do whatever.

So, I put the movie in, and left the kids in the living room while I went upstairs to start folding clothes. In the amount of time it took me to put a load of clothes in the wash and fold a basket of towels and blankets, Meagan got into the refrigerator and took for herself a new quart of fresh strawberries. She brought them into the living room (because heaven forbid she miss any of the movie while she's snacking on the snack she didn't ask for). She went through all but five strawberries of the entire quart before I found her. One by one, she bit each strawberry in half, eating the bottom half and leaving a big chunk at the top where the stems were. What did she do with the uneaten portion? Put them on the light tan couch, of course. When I came down to check on the kids, there was a strawberry line-up all across one cushion, a few stragglers on the other, and a bit squished into the carpet on the floor in front of the couch.

I think I lost it for a second. I yelled at her. I yelled at Isaac (because instead of telling me, he decided to participate - which was evident by the strawberry juice all over the front of his shirt). I sent Meagan to her room to sit on the bed and Isaac to his room to start cleaning it. I then set to work on cleaning the couch. I went through all that was left of the 'special couch cleaning solution' that came with the couch, along with the apparently worthless stain guard that I paid an extra chunk of change for. The stain didn't budge. So I started phone calls. I called my queen-of-stain-removal mother-in-law, but couldn't get a hold of her. I then called my neighbor who brought a laundry treater over that she had luck with on her couch before. I think I went through at least half of the bottle of that, and two buckets of hot water (per instructions found on the Internet for removing strawberry & other assorted berry stains). Finally, I think it all came out. However, I only had time for couch scrubbing between 9:15 (when I found her) and 11:15 (when we had to leave). So nothing else got done - again. I guess I'll be doing my morning chores for the rest of the afternoon, while Meagan takes a mandatory nap!

I think I'm about to turn into Commando Mom. My kids don't know what they've gotten into.

Last Day

Sebastian left for his last day of first grade a few minutes ago.

Fine Art

WHY did I not learn my lesson a year or so ago?!!

Yesterday afternoon, after nap time, Meagan and I were in my room together while I folded laundry. I stopped what I was doing because it was time to make dinner. I sat her up with a movie in the boys' room, and I headed down to the kitchen to start dinner.

(Skipping some detail here...getting to the good stuff).

Just before Lucas came home, I had been slicing tomatoes for dinner. Meagan is the tomato queen, and she was eating one slice for every three that I cut. When I wiped her off, I noticed her arms were slimy, and I couldn't get her clean. So I took her upstairs and stuck her in the bath for a quick wash down. In her bathroom, there was slime on the sink and the wall - it looked like the nasty gelly hand soap that we have in there right now. I figured she had tried to wash her own hands and made a mess of things. Problem solved. Move on.

Until Lucas comes down a few minutes later and says, 'What did you let her do? Good luck getting that cleaned up!'

Huh?

So, back upstairs I go, to find what he's talking about. I went in our room. FOUND IT. A grand work of art, involving a jar of Vaseline (there's the part where I should have learned0, a jar of Vick's, a bottle of lotion and a makeup brush.

Odds & Ends

Nothing like staying up until 1:00 in the morning to watch a hockey game! To put it mildly, I did not want to get up this morning. But, at least I staid up for a good outcome...Pittsburgh won! Have I ever told you how much I LOVE HOCKEY?! I love hockey! I really do! If I could play, I'd be there!

Anyway, other than that, Cassie came over last night and colored my hair. So now I have fun hair again instead of boring plain brown.

This is Sebastian's last day of school...tomorrow is field day, so I'm hoping for no rain tomorrow (although rain tonight would be fine, so we would be without soccer and t-ball practices). Then Thursday & Friday he has half days, and then he's done. Summer break is just around the corner! :)

Meagan has been very into looking like a princess lately. The other night I tucked her in, in pajamas. Before bed I had laid out an outfit for her to wear the next day - a skirt & a white top. When I checked on her later that night, she had ditched the pj's, put the skirt & shirt on, and climbed back in bed and went to sleep. For church on Sunday, Lucas had to do some convincing to get her to wear her Dora crocks. Only after he insisted that they were pink princess Dora shoes, would she put them on. What a goofy girl!

Isaac has it all planned out what he's going to get his brother for his birthday. He is looking forward to going to the store to pick it out. FYI, we've decided to have the party in Ohio, for anyone who was wondering.

Okay, that's about it. Not much is really happening around here today. Just life as usual - little odds & ends.

Pout

A new layout to share with you...


These pictures were taken on Meagan's birthday. I'm not sure she really even knew what she was pouting about!

ants

Still no ants. Poor guy. But Isaac's ants are hard working little critters. Their whole tunnel system is quite impressive. I admit, I kinda like the ants. (Did I just say that?)

The Favorites List

For a few months now, I've known that Sebastian has had an interest in a little girl at school. She was in his kindergarten class, and is now in his 1st grade class (and, incidentally, will also be in his 2nd grade class as of now). She's also been on his t-ball team 2 years in a row. So he spends a lot of time around her. She is an adorable little girl, and a very sweet, well-behaved little girl. Not a bad girl to be interested in, I suppose.

Up until recently, they've each admired the other, but the other was unaware. However, lately, they've discovered that the feelings are mutual, which opened up a whole new world of possibilities. Now, Sebastian says she is his girlfriend. And I guess that sometimes during story time in class, they will sit by each other and 'hold hands.' The little girl's mom helps in the classroom, and has seen this in action a few times. LOL. She and I talk pretty regularly at every t-ball practice, so she keeps me informed (since Sebastian is his father's son, and isn't about to open up and talk about something voluntarily).

Well, yesterday, her mom told me that she had a talk with Abbie and told her that she needs to take relationships slowly...that there's no rush, and it's important to get to know someone before you really decide how you feel about them, etc. The next day, Abbie came home with a list she had made...a list of 'what's your favorite___' questions that she had thought of. She asked Sebastian these questions - in interview form, I can only imagine - and recorded his answers. She took it home and proudly showed her mom, "Look, Mom, I'm getting to know him!"

Apparently, Sebastian has also documented Abbie's favorites. Sheesh!

A Lesson in Patience

One child is happy. The other has used up all of his patience (in his words).

For Christmas, Sebastian got two ant farms. Because he did not need two, he chose one to keep, and gave the other to Isaac so that they could both have pet ants (lovely). When the weather started to show signs of warming, we filled out the ant order forms for each of them (on the same day), and mailed them off to order the long-anticipated ants. Each form stated that we should expect to wait 2-6 weeks for our ants to arrive.

Well, yesterday at lunch, Lucas went out to get the mail. In it, there was a yellow-orange package with Isaac's name on it. Lucas helped him open it up, where, lo and behold, they found a tube of ants. Isaac was elated! His face was beaming, and he was so excited he could hardly contain himself (if you've ever seen Isaac get truly excited, you will understand exactly what I mean). I thought he was going to burst a seam all the way down in his toes he was so happy.

That was at lunch. Sebastian was at school. He didn't know.

When Sebastian got home from school, Isaac could hardly wait to share his excitement with his big brother. He rushed Sebastian downstairs into the basement to show him and to check on the ants' progress at building tunnels (which they had made a surprising amount of already). Sebastian was happy for his brother, and thought the ants were pretty cool to watch. But they weren't his ants. Where were his ants? How much longer? Will they be here tomorrow? The next day?

So, Sebastian did what he does when he needs a bit of therapeutic time. He got out a composition notebook and a pen, and he began to write a story. He wrote a non-fiction story, with dates and facts as accurate as possible, about the day his brother got ants in the mail and he didn't. The story goes as follows (copied exactly from Sebastian's notebook):

"Hello my name is Sebastian." Me and my brother Isaac ordered ants a long time ago. On May 27 2008 Isaac got his ants. That was on Tusday. I lost all my patienc I think. Isaacs ants are busy little succers. Thanks for listening to my non-fiction book of ants.

(followed by an illustrated diagram of the two ant farms - 'My ant farm' with an arrow to an empty box with gel in it; 'Isaac's ant farm' with an arrow to a box with gel and dots (being the ants) and a tunnel started in the corner)

He was quite a sport about it. He was as content as he could be to check in regularly on his brother's ants to see what kind of progress was being made, etc. But he said to me, "Mom, I think I used up all my patience. I think today I ran out, and I used up the last bit of it I had. I've been waiting and waiting, and I don't think I can wait any more."

Poor guy. I can attest, lessons in patience are some of the hardest to learn.

New Sand, New Garden, and a Bike Ride

Just checking in to wish you all a Happy Memorial Day! We've been having quite a nice weekend. Yesterday was a beautiful day, which we were happy to spend mostly outside. After church, and after lunch, in lieu of nap time, we headed to Meijer for some new play sand, some garden veggies to plant, and a few other odds and ends.

With new sand in the sandbox, the kids were set for quite a while. I took the free time to spruce up my sad little garden. I planted 2 different kinds of tomatoes this year, plus a cherry tomato plant. I also planted 2 colors of peppers, and (lol) some cat grass for Lilly. Plus, on the day of Meg's party, she and Keylee planted a TON of sunflower seeds. So this year's garden should be interesting - or maybe crowded is a better word!



We also took our first bike ride of the year yesterday. We rode to a school nearby and played for a few minutes on the playground. The kids weren't really into the whole playground thing though, for some reason. Isaac actually left the playground to go get back on his bike to ride around the empty parking lot. So, we cut the playground visit short and took a longer bike ride instead. We explored the roads that go behind the school that seemed to lead to nowhere. I was so glad to have the exercise - it's been a long sedentary winter.

I did another layout last night. Meg decided to take Bunny Rabbit into the sandbox with her. They were building a princess castle, you see, and a girl needs help when building such an important structure as a princess castle. At one point, Bunny was pretty much buried, with only her little head and floppy ears hanging out. That is one loved bunny.

Journaling: poor bunny...soft, clean bunny. as I watched you play with bunny - in the sandbox! -I couldn't help but think of the velveteen rabbit. if bunny could talk - if she could tell of this day - how would she feel about being covered in sand? it made me wonder...does it really pay to be the favorite?

Well, enjoy your holiday! Pray for my mom, as she is leaving for Israel today. She will be there until June 7th (?), I think. Keep her in mind please. Happy Memorial Day everyone! Love ya!

Just for fun

I started this layout this afternoon - just for fun. I think I mentioned in my last post that I bought a big digital kit to finish the last layout that I did. I figured I'd use a few more of the goodies in that kit just to play around a bit. I had some pictures of Meagan exploring in the 'woods' at Isaac's t-ball game. I've always liked the layouts that combine a few pictures to show a progression, if you know what I mean. So I figured I'd try it out. I still may do another layout with these pictures and take a completely different approach, but this one was fun to do.

Gotta go...I've got a hockey game to watch! Pittsburgh is currently down 1-0 (at the second intermission). We increased our dish network package today just so we could get the Verses channel so we could watch games 1 & 2! LOL! The bonus for getting the bigger package...we now get National Geographic again, so I can once again watch the Dog Whisperer (LOL!).

Bedtime Observations

I had the funniest bedtime story time with Meagan the other night. For her bedtime story, she chose 'Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What do You Hear?' A story I've ready countless times over the last six years. Never has any of us had quite the reaction to the story that Meagan had a few nights ago.

It starts out, Polar Bear, Polar Bear What do you hear?

Polar Bear responds, I hear a lion (or some other animal...not sure of the exact order) roaring in my ear. Then, the next page moves on to the lion - 'Lion, lion what do you hear?' and so on.

When we got to the Flamingo page, I read, 'Flamingo, flamingo, what do you hear,' to which Meagan promptly replies, "He don't hab (have) any ears!" The same declaration was made when we got to the Boa Constrictor page. Observant little stinker (no, I didn't explain the difference in 'ears' that certain types of animals have...that would just open the door wide up for a silly argument with a stubborn 3-year-old).

The clock will strike midnight

My latest layout...This one took me a few days to complete. Finally last night I found a HUGE kit online called Enchanted Forest that had a bunch of elements I used to finish it up.

I am not usually one to use song lyrics for quotes, but this time I've broken away from my 'norm.' Since the first time I heard the song Cinderella by Steven Curtis Chapman, it has been one of my favorites. Truthfully, it's not even the type of music I generally gravitate towards, but the lyrics are beautiful and mean so much to me at this point in my life, especially considering that Meagan and I sometimes struggle with butting heads. This song seems to play over and over in my mind, at times when I feel myself getting frustrated, or when I feel 'too busy' to play with the kids.

One morning while I was getting ready for work, I was listening to satellite radio on tv, and this song came on. I happened to be in the process of doing my hair at that moment, and as I looked in the mirror, I saw Meagan behind me in the reflection. I turned around to look at her. She was playing in my room - making a mess, as usual - in a basket of not-yet-folded laundry. She had a few stuffed animals with her, and she was making castle mountains for each of them out of wadded up clothes. Then she tucked them in gently, covering them up with a shirt or a towel.

It was a pretty typical game for her to be playing, but as I watched her, I realized how quickly she would soon outgrow all of this - the make-believe, the babies and animals, the need for being close to her Momma. I stopped everything I was doing, and I just stood and watched her for what must have been two or three minutes. I was so glad to have had that moment to just be still and realize how amazing she is, and how special this time of her life is.

Journaling: I will dance with Cinderella while she is here in my arms, 'cause I know something the prince never knew. I will dance with Cinderella. I don't want to miss even one song. All too soon the clock will strike midnight, and she'll be gone.


Please keep Steven Curtis Chapman and his family in your prayers, as they are attending the funeral of their youngest daughter today. She was five years old.

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

I can't believe my baby girl is THREE! Where does the time go? She's getting so big so quickly! But thankfully she's still so little!

When I woke up this morning my first thoughts were of the day she was born. Three years ago at this exact time, I was feeling anxious, getting ready to leave for the hospital for our 8:00 check-in time. I was a bit nervous, and so excited to meet her. It was a bit bitter-sweet for me, because I knew it was the last time I would go through pregnancy and delivery (although I was a-okay with the delivery part!).

I remember laying on the table in the OR, waiting with anticipation for Lucas to come in and be with me, waiting for the doctors to start, wondering if everything was going to go as it should, praying that everything would go as it should, praying for peace in a high-anxiety situation. Then Lucas came in, sat beside me, held my strapped-down hand (LOL).

Not long after, we heard the sound of a first itty bitty baby cry, followed by several solid minutes of baby screaming. One of the doctors jokingly said, 'Oh, it sounds like you two are going to have your hands full with this little one." We had no idea how accurate that statement would be! Our baby girl came out making herself heard and letting her opinions be known, and it hasn't stopped since. She is such an amazing, strong person.

This past year has been probably the toughest year of parenthood for me. It seems like she and I have gone round after round, battling for 'I'm the boss' position. She is continually pushing and challenging to see what she can and cannot do. It seems, though, that in the past month or so, we've seen signs of progress. She is a little quicker to obey, a little less likely to defy her punishments...a little. But we all change a little at a time. We learn a little at a time. We move forward step by step. She is learning that every time she challenges, Lucas and I will stand our ground, time after time after time (which is quite exhausting sometimes, but necessary nonetheless). While our relationship is, for now, challenging at times, I am thankful that overall our relationship is more of a blessing than a battle.

Icky Sicky's

Well, it seems that every time Lucas goes somewhere, at least one of our children gets sick. This time is no exception. Lucas left Sunday evening, and Monday morning, around 4:00, Isaac started getting sick. We were up at 4:00, 5:30-ish, and again at 8:00-ish. Poor guy! All day he had no appetite, drank very little, and slept a lot. I obviously had to alter my work schedule, even though Monday's are always jam packed for me. Around 9:30, he was doing okay, so we packed up a blanket, pillow, and our Peter Pan movie and headed over to church long enough for me to do the bare necessities. Poor guy fell asleep in my office floor...he was really NOT feeling well.

By mid-afternoon, he seemed to be coming out of it. He even went outside and played for a while. He ate a minimal dinner - chicken noodle soup and some toast - which stayed down just fine. He did great for the rest of the evening. I figured he was back to normal.

However, this morning, we had a birthday breakfast for Meagan's birthday - she wanted breakfast pizza. Isaac didn't eat much of it, but he did eat a little. It seemed to be okay...for about an hour...at which point that all came back to visit us again. Yuck! Poor guy is having a rough time. Hopefully he's almost done with it. I feel so bad for him!

Birthday Party

Saturday we had Meagan's birthday party. It was a busy day, but we had a ton of fun. First a soccer game at 9:00, which they WON 5-1! Then a t-ball game at 9:30, which was pretty short-lived because they stopped the game so they could take team pictures (odd?). Then we headed home long enough to take a breath before we turned around and headed back to the ball fields for t-ball game #2 (which went a half-hour longer than it was supposed to because they decided to pitch NINE times to each player before bringing out the tee!). FINALLY, it was party time around 1:00. We were all hungry by then, so we went straight for the food! LOL!


Meagan had a great time at her Bug party...yes, BUGS. She picked it, not me! So we focused on the girlier bugs - lady bugs, bumble bees, butterflies, etc. Mostly bees and lady bugs I guess...and lots of PINK and green!

As for highlights of the party, there are several. For starters, we cracked up watching her attempt to blow out candles. I thought her head was going to pop, she huffed and puffed so hard...yet somehow managed to accomplish nothing! It was pretty cute! She, Sebastian and Isaac chowed on the lady bug cake...the rest of us ate the bee hive!

Gifts are always a highpoint for the birthday girl! She got some adorable clothes (which she actually likes - most kids toss clothes, but Meagan enjoys them). She got some princess-ish things, including a Cinderella polly pockets set (of which several shoes are already missing). She got a whole house full of furniture for her doll house (the boys spent a few hours yesterday helping her set up the house and playing with her - she was in heaven!). She got two sets of gardening tools, but they had different tools in each, so she used them both. She also got a bike and a new princess helmet. And a mustang convertible (what! LOL). Poor girl was overwhelmed with new things to try!

First things first - after driving the car through the living room a time or two, the car headed outside where it could be properly test driven. Since she had her car, the boys wanted their gray truck out, so our front yard quickly turned into a 4-lane highway! LOL!



After driving, Meagan and Keylee headed straight over to the garden to dig in the dirt and plant the seeds that came in one of Meagan's garden packs. It was quite the site seeing Meagan in her princess (halloween) dress, and her Notre Dame shoes, digging in dirt. She's such a mesh of girly and tom-boy, it's not even funny!



There was also a bubble wand bubble blowing event in the back yard. Both grandmas had brought big bubble wands - great minds think alike, I suppose!


After bubbles, I figured she would just about drop from being so worn out, but not Meagan! She hopped on her bike and headed out for a bike ride with Daddy. Actually, she was still going strong long after everyone left the party. It was probably 8:30 before we got them all herded in and settled down for bed. By 9:00, they were all crashed hard! It was a long day, but it was a good day!

Handsome Boys

Finally I had a chance to scrapbook again! It came at the cost of not cleaning my bathrooms, but it was a price I was willing to pay (fyi, I did clean one bathroom yesterday, only 2 more to go). Tomorrow is another day - a day without motor development or library or swimming or any other pre-arranged outing. I think we are all looking forward to that kind of day! And I have a bit of straightening up to do, as well as a menu & a grocery list to make, and birthday gifts to buy. That should pretty much take care of the day.


So about the layout...it seems that lately I've liked a cleaner, simpler style of layouts. I think Simple Scrapooks magazine is wearing off on me. These pictures were taken last July at the park. I know you've probably seen them before (at least some of them), but I'm just now getting around to doing anything with them for my album.


I love looking at all of the different shots next to each other. All their different expressions and body languages...it's so cool to see all of their different sides coming out in each of them, as well as the contrast between the two boys. At the time that I took these pictures, I was just trying to get one good picture to put in a frame. I sort of discounted all of the shots I didn't deem frame-worthy. Lesson learned - there is definitely a great deal of value in taking (and not deleting) a series of pictures like this. 99.9% of them will never see a frame, and won't hang on a wall, but I can look back at them years from now and remember how very serious Sebastian could be, and just how ornery Isaac's grin was at times; how Sebastian fake smiled when he posed for pictures, and how Isaac was only a hair shorter than his brother...and gaining quickly.

Isaac's 1st T-Ball Game...

Anyone want to clean my bathrooms for me?! (Just thought I'd ask). I'm taking a break...I mean, letting the cleaner soak....for a minute. Thought I'd take a minute to blog a bit.

I put together 2 more picture slide shows from this past Saturday - Isaac's first t-ball game. He did great, had a good time, and staid pretty focused through the whole game. He swings the ever-livin' out of the bat every time he's up to bat. Very funny.

While the game was going on, Meagan decided to 'explore' in the 'woods' (which consisted of trees about 15 feet deep separating the ball fields from an access drive). She was lost in her own world of adventure, though, and had quite a good time. When she wasn't in the trees, she was kicking the fuzzy fluff off of dandelions. LOL.

More games this weekend - soccer and t-ball - along with a birthday party for Miss Meagan...hard to believe three is just around the corner!

Flips and fun!

Wow, what an interesting couple of days we have had! Some good moments, some not-so-good! Friday, I had tons of things to get done for a banquet we had coming up on Saturday, and I was hoping / planning to be able to use nap time on Friday to get it done. Instead, we left the house at 9:30 in the morning, and didn't get back until 4:30 in the afternoon. It was a crazy day full of go go go, and I will admit, I didn't exactly behave my best (maybe a slight loss of temper on occasion...or maybe every 20 minutes or so???), but we made it through.

The highlight of the day Friday was definitely motor development in the morning. It was our last day of MD for the year, so we took a field trip to a gymnastics center nearby. It was a directed open-gym structure. First, they had an obstacle course set up on the floor, and they led the kids through all kind of fundamentals, including somersaults, cartwheels, and even back walk-overs. The kids had a blast! They also did the parachute game, which is always a hit!

Then they moved on to the bars, where they had another obstacle course of sorts. They were working on fundamentals without even knowing it was happening. They used a rocking mat to practice hollow bodies. They worked on pull-overs (with help, of course) and pulling themselves up and supporting themselves on the bar. It was a great time. And of course, what visit to the gymnastics center would be complete without jumping in the pit! Very fun!

Don't let the bed bugs bite

Tonight at dinner, Isaac said, "Mom, the nights when I don't sleep very good, those nights are when I have a nightmare."

"Oh yeah?" I asked. Then Lucas said, "What is a nightmare, Buddy?"

With a puzzled look of contemplation, Isaac said, "I think its little bugs that come in your bed at night."

"What do they look like? Have you ever seen one of these bugs?"

"No," he said, "because I think they sneak into our beds when we're asleep."

Here comes Sebastian's 2 cents: "Well, I would guess that a nightmare is a bad dream."

LOL!! How funny! So Lucas went on to explain that nightmares are dreams that make us feel scared, and the boys proceeded to tell us dreams that they'd had (which, we could clearly tell they were making them up on the spot. Isaac's dream was about meteors falling and he was trying not to let one fall on his head. LOL).

After dinner, we turned on Alvin & the Chipmunks for a little down time (they've been cranked and crazy today...it is definitely an early bedtime night!), and it happened to be the part where Theodore has a nightmare and can't sleep, so he goes into Dave's room to sleep in his bed. Aaaah! So now I at least know what brought the subject up...but I just thought it was funny that Isaac thought nightmares are sneaky bed bugs.

******

WOOOO HOOOOO! My Penguins made it to the next round of the playoffs!! I am super excited...especially since we actually got to watch the game on TV this weekend. I really miss the days when hockey was actually televised on normal stations at normal times. Anyway... So they have Philly next round. All Pennsylvania series. Very fun! Go Pens!

Besides that, I'm feeling really guilty because tomorrow is Lucas' birthday, and instead of being able to take it easy and celebrate it, we are going to be running around like crazy people trying to manage our silly ol' sports schedule. This whole week, actually is just a week of go go go for me. Still tonight I have to get the kids bathed and in bed, go to the grocery, then come home and make decorations for a banquet we're having on Saturday. LOVE IT!

Tomorrow we have story hour, then our second week of swim classes (for which I will be prepared with my bathing suit!). Then we have to run some errands, get naps in somewhere in the afternoon, and then soccer and t-ball in the evening (plus probably more decoration-making). I am definitely praying for God's hand in my day, so that I can keep my patience and positive attitude and not get frustrated...I don't generally do spectacularly when I have a lot going on...I'm kind of a simple girl when it comes to scheduling.

So anyway, just wanted to get in a quick post before I called the herd in from outdoors. Meagan is playing garden at the moment, which consists of digging a giant pit in our actual garden, generally throwing the dirt over her shoulder into the grass...which means at some point I am going to have to buy another bag of top soil to replace the dirt she has tossed out. But she's having fun digging out the weeds, and finding earthworms. She's filthy dirty from head to toe, but I don't mind. I remember digging for worms in Dad & Nancy's garden when I was little...that was the best! I loved getting my hands dirty, so I can't be upset with her for doing the exact same thing.

Okay, time to round up the troops for baths. Later.

Sports Update

I'm not cut out for this! I think I'm just too competitive to be a soccer coach! I thought this morning I was going to scream my voice right out of my head trying to get the kids to follow instructions, but it's like they have ear muffs on! AAAAAHHHH! Truthfully, they played much much better this weekend than they did last weekend. They are starting to understand (a little, at least) the concept of positioning on the field...which is hopeful. But how do you teach kids to be aggressive? I just don't know. It's like they're afraid to break up plays, or take the ball. They all just stand back and give the other team all the room they need to do whatever they want to do. ??? Hmmm...there's still plenty for us to work on, but they're doing well.

T-ball is going really well. I guess Isaac is doing great (although I still haven't been able to watch him play). Lucas says the 'cattle' are being trained well, and they're all starting to get the hang of it. Isaac is doing a great job hitting and playing certain positions. And he's been encouraging others on his team when they need a lift...how awesome is that! And this week, Sebastian had a moment part way through practice when it was as though, all of a sudden, his hand-eye coordination just clicked. He started catching balls, fielding grounders, and hitting pitches...just all of a sudden. He was so cute - the coach was pitching to him, and he had hit a few fouls, and a few that dropped between home and pitcher's mound. The coach said, 'Okay Sebastian, next hit, I want you to run the bases.' When the next pitch was thrown, Sebastian hit it, and it went flying in between 2nd & 3rd and into the outfield. His eyes lit up, he was so excited that he had hit it so far. He forgot to run! LOL! It was a great moment...so fun watching them develop a sense of their abilities, strengths and weaknesses. Very cool.

Tea Party

I'm a little slow at posting about this...since it happened around Easter time. You may remember that a while ago, Meagan and Lucas had a pretend tea party in her Tinkerbell tent. Well, when Grandma & Grandpa H. came up to visit for Easter, Grandma brought some real tea party goodies with her - iced tea and mini cookies (chocolate chip & sugar). Meagan was the tea party princess. She served tea to everyone with her own little tea pot, and she gave everyone cookies on her tea party plates. She was quite the little hostess, and she had the time of her life!

Journaling: You are cordially invited to my very girly princess tea party. Teeny tiny cookies and real tea will be served (in cups that have holes in the sides of them). I will serve everyone all by myself using my pretty princess tea set that Big Grandma & Grandpa Hoying gave me.

New Form of Cat Torture

The boys have invented a new and creative way to torture and torment poor Lilly (as if she didn't already go through enough living in our house!). Last weekend, you might remember that I mentioned that Sebastian bought some stretchy sticky bugs at the dollar store. Well, today, Isaac sling-shot the bugs up to the living room ceiling, where they stuck indefinitely. Two of the bugs are stuck together and are dangling down from the ceiling. For about 2 hours or so now, Lilly has been pacing the floor, climbing the furniture, and meowing incessantly, trying to figure out a way to get to the bugs and get them down. A little bit ago, I found her sitting directly under them, staring straight up at them, willing them to fall (apparently she still needs to sharpen her Jedi mind trick skills, because they didn't budge).

Time for a change

I realized the other day that my blog picture is about a year & a half old. I thought it was time to update. LOL! I'm torturing poor Lilly by making her sit on my lap like she's a person. Poor baby girl...she puts up with a lot from us!

Schedule me this, and Schedule me that

Today was a very schedule-driven day. I knew from the start it was going to be busy, and I would have to keep on top of things to stay on schedule. Even still, the day threw me a few curve balls. All in all, it went off without a hitch...(with the exception of a mad house-wide search for Sebastian's shin guards for soccer...we found them in the bottom of a toy basket in the living room...???).

First library story hour. We got there on time, but I ended up having to drop Isaac off, leaving a friend in charge to cover for me (just in case) while Meagan and I ran to Meijer to buy her a new bathing suit. Why a bathing suit during story hour? Because after story hour was the first day of swimming lessons...for both Meagan and Isaac. Why didn't we use a bathing suit she already had? Because she only has one that fits, and we could only find one piece of it!! LOL!

As we were leaving Meijer, I overheard someone say that gas was going to jump 30 cents today to $3.73. So, although we were on a time crunch, and Lucas had just put a few gallons in the van yesterday, I decided to put a few gallons in to finish out the week. (I paid $3.44. This afternoon it was up to $3.72. I'm glad I sidetracked.)

After library, before swimming, we had to make a pit stop at Sebastian's school. He had forgotten his lunch at home, and was in a panic at the thought of having to eat a school hamburger. Poor guy, I don't blame him. He's never been one for burgers anyway, let alone school food burgers. So, I took him his lunch.

Swimming was a BIG HIT! Meagan LOVED it! She swam with her teacher, because I was unaware that I was supposed to bring my suit and get in with her. Next week...
The only thing she wasn't happy about was that Isaac couldn't get into the pool with her. His class was after hers, so he sat with me and watched. He did great in his class...much better than the last attempt at swimming class we did with him a few years ago. Back then, I had to basically bribe him to put a toe in the water. This time, he hopped right in, and was just about the last to get out at the end. Both are looking forward to next week when they get to go back

The rest of the day was spent running as well. After swimming, the computer repair guy came to fix the laptop (long story short, it stopped working Sunday because it wasn't getting power...the guy replaced the motherboard...now it's working). Then we left to go get Sebastian from school so that we would have time to eat before we had to leave for the chiropractor. We had to be on time for that appointment so we could leave in time to get back for soccer and t-ball. Needless to say, it was a bit of a relief when we got home and were done with our scheduled events for the day.

Nothing planned for tomorrow until 7:30, when a friend of mine and I have plans to hang out and have girl-time for a while. At this point, an unscheduled day sounds very inviting!

"This was a very fun day, indeed"

What a day! After Sebastian's soccer game, we all (including Keylee, who also went to the soccer game with us this morning) went to Great Clips so Meagan and I could get hair cuts. My hair was getting way too long and out of control. I just had the very ends of Meagan's hair trimmed to clean it up a bit. (BAD MOM! FORGOT THE CAMERA!) She did a pretty good job, although I wouldn't describe her as 'still' in the chair. She was enjoying watching herself in the mirror way too much to sit still! LOL! She kept making her cape float, and thought that was just the greatest thing ever! She's funny stuff!

At some point later in the afternoon, we had to make a Wal-Mart run. While we were over there, we made a stop at the dollar store. The boys wanted to spend some of their dollars they've earned from the whole penny deal. Well, besides some glittery bugs (Isaac's), some stretchy wall-sticking bugs (Sebastian's), and a pink plastic piggy bank (Meagan's), we each got a can of silly string! We headed home, and went straight out into the back yard for a good old-fashioned silly string fight! It was a ton of fun, although we were all bummed to run out of string faster than we had expected. The only one who, quite surprisingly, wasn't thrilled with the whole idea was Meagan. The first spray of string that landed on her, she flipped! "You're making me all messy!! Stop it!!" And she ran away. Keylee was able to get her back into it a little bit later on, but she wasn't nearly as excited about it as the boys were! The smiles on their faces were enormous! I love it!


Tonight, as we were winding down our day, we were all looking at the silly string pictures on the computer. Sebastian stood beside me, and in his very Sebastian style, he said, "Today was a good day. This was a very fun day, indeed."

I couldn't agree more.

Are you serious!!!???

Okay, it has been BEAUTIFUL weather all week. So what's up with freezing our fingers and toes off this morning for Sebastian's first soccer game?! Brrr! I think it took us a solid 45 minutes to thaw.

Can I just tell you how very funny the whole soccer coaching experience is? Ignore for a moment the fact that I know NOTHING about the sport - as in, Tuesday was our first practice, so Tuesday afternoon I looked up 'how to play soccer' online...LOL. This game was a bit of a train wreck today! In a cute way, that is! The boys all did their best, but clearly there are some fundamentals to be established still. For example, the defensive players, who aren't supposed to cross center field were all over in front of the net at the other end of the field trying to score, while the offensive players seemed afraid to leave center field...??? Some of the wreckage was my own fault, I will very readily admit. I thought I was prepared for the line-up rotations, but I had only planned on switching players at the change of each period. Since it was so cold, though, I switched them twice a period to keep everyone from getting too cold. It seemed to keep their attention and keep them moving pretty well, but it threw in a whole element of chaos that I was NOT ready for. Oh well. We had the typical game-stoppage for untied shoes, and one kid totally disappeared for a potty break for a few minutes. Two or three times when we changed the line-up, we ended up with either six or four players on the field rather than five. LOL. It was definitely good for a laugh! And still, somehow, at the end of it all, several of the parents told me they thought I did a great job, and they liked the rotations. Hmmm...okay. (We lost 2-1, in case you were wondering).

Divide and Conquer

Yesterday was the first night of soccer for Sebastian & tee-ball for Isaac. Of course, since I'm 'coaching' I went with Sebastian to his practice. Lucas took Isaac to tee-ball.

The parents' meeting went fairly well for soccer - all of the dates are covered (meaning at least one adult has agreed to supervise the practices/games), so we should be able to continue on with our season. We talked for the first half-hour, though, so practice itself was pretty short.

The best part of this whole day was the fact that Lucas - quiet, blend into the crowd, observe and don't say anything, Lucas - ended up helping to coach the tee-ball practice - a co-ed team of four & five-year-olds! LOL! He said it was a lot like herding cattle (has he ever herded cattle? I don't know?) But it seems that, although it was way outside his comfort zone, he seems to have rather enjoyed himself. I'm quite proud of him (shh, don't tell him I said that, though!)

Whatever happens, it seems this sporting season is, without doubt, going to require a divide and conquer mind-set. (I'm really hoping to make it to at least one of Isaac's practices and games without soccer interfering...we'll see how that goes).

BLUE and GOLD

For us, this day started around 6:45, when I rolled out of bed and jumped in the shower. Trust me, I'm not usually up and getting ready any time before 7:00 on a Saturday (and not before 8:00 if I can help it), but today we were on a mission...leave by 8:30. Why? Because today was the Blue and Gold festival at Notre Dame, and we had tickets. We had plans to meet Shane and Tina on campus as soon as we got there and spend the afternoon hanging out and watching a little football.

We managed to leave our house at 8:35 (only 5 minutes off target...phenominal...slightly less impressive when you take into consideration the fact that we got down the road and around the corner, only to realize that we forgot something...so we re-left our house at about 8:40. Still, 10 minutes is GREAT when the plans involve 3 kids on Saturday morning before 9:00. We didn't actually get out of town until closer to 9:00, since we had to stop at the bank and then stop to get gas.)


For the early part of the day, it spit a little rain, and we wondered how the weather would hold for the football game. I am pleased to say, though, that the weather was perfect while we were in the stadium, and it didn't start raining until we got in our car to leave campus.


As far as campus events, we had lunch at the Student Union (pizza), then we walked around the main courtyard area. We went in the Basilica - Isaac was worried we were going to church, and we would miss the game (LOL). We saw the golden dome, and 'Touchdown Jesus.' We went through the rec center, and I took a pit stop at the Varsity Shop to get a couple ND shirts for myself (since everyone was decked out in ND jerseys, and I no longer have any ND clothes that aren't stained or torn...or way stretched out from wearing them while I was pregnant!!).


The kids did pretty well during the game - they got a bit antsy at times, but they did okay. They definitely provided a few moments of comedy throughout the day...like when Meagan took her jersey off and then put it pack on upside down - head through the head hole, head hole down around her waist, arms through the arm hole, and head sticking out of the bottom opening of the shirt...what a goofball!) It was a long day for them, and they were pretty tired by the time we got back in the van to head home. The boys watched a movie the whole way home. Meagan fell asleep before we ever got back to the turnpike.


We had an interesting little incident on the turnpike on the way home. We were buzzing along, cruise set on 70 - which is the speed limit - and we just were talking. The radio station was fuzzy, so I was messing with the radio, trying to find a better station. The next thing I knew, Lucas was slowing down, and we were driving over the rumble strips. I looked up, then I looked in the mirror...state trooper lights were flashing right on our tail. My first question was, 'Were you speeding?' He said that he had cruise set at 70 the whole time, which I remember noticing (because I was feeling like we were going kind of slow...I'm used to Michigan driving, I guess...no comments, all you Ohio people!!) So, the trooper walks over to my side of the van, asks for license & registration. Asks me if I'm Rebecca. I said yes. Asks me if I've had my seat belt on the whole time. I said yes. He said, 'Oh, okay. When you were leaning forward earlier (I guess when I was changing the radio station), it didn't look like you were wearing it. I just wanted to check. Have a nice day.' And he walked off. Okay. That was different. Not sure what that was about really, but I'm thankful it was that easy!


Anyway, I put together a collage of some of the pictures we took today, so I could use it as my background on the laptop. I thought I'd share it with you. I must say, after being away from campus for so long, it felt really nice to be back there, even for just a short time. I would love to go back maybe once more this summer and take it easy, at a little slower pace. We stayed at the stadium end of campus today, and we missed out on a lot of my favorite things I remember about being on campus...the lakes; the most beautiful tree God ever created; the grotto; the main bookstore; my old dorms; the open courtyard area...lots of stuff!



Okay, it's late. I'm thinking I might go soak in the tub and unwind for a bit. Have a wonderful evening! I'll check back with you soon!

The Big Green Machine

Just want to take a second and share my excitement...I GOT MY LAPTOP YESTERDAY! I didn't have to wait nearly as long as I had expected! It came around 2:30 yesterday afternoon. It's so pretty and GREEN! And it's gigantic...I guess that's what happens when you get a 17" screen! I LOVE IT! I've been working on getting my files moved over and my contacts, favorites, etc. set up. Pretty soon it should have everything on it that I need, and I'll be up and running!

Okay, that's that for now. I'm off to pick up the house a bit. It really needs to be cleaned - you know, scrubbed with lots of disinfecting stuff - but all I really have time for at the moment is picking up the stuff that's out of place. (Maybe if I hadn't been on the laptop all afternoon I could have gotten more accomplished...although nap time boot camp with Meagan sort of put a kink in things anyway...I won, in case you're wondering, and she's sound asleep at the moment). Maybe Friday afternoon I'll get around to actually cleaning. ??? Maybe.

Have a great afternoon!

Bummer of a Break

My first day of not working, so I was hoping to do something fun with the kids for spring break. However, they are all barking like dogs and have goop oozing from all the holes in their faces, so we passed on anything too exciting. Instead we went to the bank (which is about an hour and ten minutes round-trip), then picked Lucas up for lunch and went to the Pizza Hut buffet. After that, the boys played wii while Meagan took a (non-sleeping) nap.

I was hoping that today would be a more exciting day, but still no one is feeling very well. So, we've passed on anything adventurous for today as well. The boys, however, earned another five pennies by helping me and having good behavior, so they're playing wii again for nap time today. I am really hoping Meagan actually sleeps at nap today. After she gets up, I think we'll head outside for some fresh air.

Tomorrow we're gonna try to hit up the free family movie nearby. They're showing The Bee Movie tomorrow. Friends of ours (Hayden and Julia and their mom to be exact) are going to meet us there. Hopefully it won't be sold out this time. Other than seeing that movie, we've not done much of anything for Sebastian's spring break. It's been a bit of a bummer!

I heart my Laptop...I mean, Husband!

Have I ever told you how much I love my husband?! If not, let me tell you...He's the BEST! I love that he does way over the top stuff for me sometimes just because. (That's not the only reason I love him, of course, LOL!) Last week he got online and 'built' a laptop that would work for my scrapbooking so that I can be a little more mobile with it. He told me if I wanted it, to go ahead and get it.

WHAT! I was severely tempted to jump at the offer, but I felt held back - kind of like a gut check in the pit of my stomach. So I sat down and figured out all of the stuff we would have to cover (monetarily speaking) from now until the beginning of next year, and compared that to what we have available to cover it. We were about $600 short of getting the laptop without cutting it too close or having to dip into savings. So I decided to wait and start saving a little each week until I could make up the $600.

Well, this week, we received a check in the mail that more than covered the amount I was short for the laptop. GOD IS GOOD! So, Wednesday, Lucas rebuilt the computer for me, and we ordered it! I'm so excited I'm almost giddy!!! It's a green one even! (Actually the green was probably the majority of the reason I picked the one I picked...yes, I'm a silly girl who cares about color over performance! The fact that it's green, along with the fact that it came with Adobe Premier for home videos was what swayed my decision!)

It is 'in production' as of right now. It's scheduled to ship next Thursday I think. So now I just have to hang on and exercise a bit of patience until it gets here! I CAN HARDLY WAIT!!!

Tuesday

Tuesday morning I went into work for the sole purpose of figuring out some issues I've been having with financial statements. For weeks, I've been trying to figure out why things weren't working right. I kept thinking I must have done something wrong, classified something wrong, whatever. Tuesday morning I was able to narrow my problems down to one particular thing - checks that we'd written weren't decreasing cash on the balance sheet. So it looked like we had way more cash than we do, plus the balance sheets weren't balancing.

At least now I knew what the issue was, I just didn't know how to fix it. So I called the manufacturer of our accounting software. I was on the phone for an hour and a half. At first, I tried to explain what I was having trouble with, but the guy just couldn't comprehend what I was talking about. So then we went a step further, and I gave him access to view my screen as I was working. That helped. But I could tell he was in no way familiar with accounting, because he was just simply CONFUSED. Finally, after nearly an hour on the phone, we had a break through, and HE GOT IT! So for the next half hour, we tried troubleshooting. At one point he actually said to me, 'Um, okay, I think I need a break to go take some headache medicine. I'll be back' and he put me on hold. That was a first! A funny one at that! Poor guy! Ultimately, it was determined that the program is just not designed to do what I want it to do, and I will have to find a way to work around it. Okay. Well, that sort of felt like a lot of time wasted. At least I know that it's not something I've done horribly wrong, and I can stop trying to fix it! That's something, I suppose.

Tuesday night, the kids and I went to small group and let Lucas have the house to himself after his rough day with very little sleep. Hayden and Julia (some of the boys' friends, and Isaac's girlfriend *LOL*) were there, so they all got to play together. However, Sebastian had made up a game of house / work, and Julia had decided she was going to play that game. Isaac, on the other hand, wouldn't play it for who-knows-what reason. The bulk of the night, Isaac sat and watched the girl of his dreams (lol) give all of her attention to his brother. At the end of the night, he said to me in the saddest Isaac voice, 'Mom, I think Julia likes Sebastian more than she likes me now.' My first thought was, 'Oh my goodness! Is this really starting already?!' I explained to him that Julia is his friend and Sebastian's, and that everyone can be friends together. Blah blah blah, standard Mommy talk. But he felt better and picked his chin up a bit, so I guess it worked. That's what moms are for!

Wii Play (and other odds & ends)

I know I haven't been posting much, but things have been relatively quiet around here lately. No funny stories to share. No embarrassing moments to recount. Just life as usual. This weekend was beautiful, so we spent the better part of Saturday & Sunday outside playing. That was nice! And the kids have been sleeping GREAT from all the fresh air and exercise!

It's so funny to me, though...yesterday I asked the boys what they had been playing outside all day. They said 'Super-Smash Brothers' (which is a wii game that they're obsessed with). I asked again, thinking they had misunderstood me, but I got the same answer again. It seems that even when they're not playing wii, they're still playing it by acting it out. I overheard a portion of their play time later in the evening, and it was pretty funny. They were having a Pokemon training camp for all of the Pokemon characters to learn to battle against other characters who have a different fighting style. Wow! They were very detailed in their roll-play. I mean, they were getting in-depth, strategizing on how to deal with juggling characters (characters who can pick you up and keep hitting you back up into the air so you can't do anything against them...LOL...I would NEVER know this if I didn't have boys!) and so on. I was actually pretty impressed with how well they were communicating with each other, taking turns making decisions in the game (which is HUGE for Sebastian to not be the only one calling the shots), and playing off of each other. It was pretty cool. It's just funny to me that it was about wii. Oh well, boys will be boys!

Another thing about this weekend...Sunday our pastor asked me to tell a story for the introduction to the service. He taught on knowing God's voice, and wanted me to share a funny thing that had happened between he and I with a phone conversation a while back. You can listen to it here if you want (knowing it's Him). He had called me one day, and I didn't recognize his voice. Because I thought it was someone else, I got the conversation all turned around and confused. It ended up being pretty funny, and apparently made for a funny story to tell so that everyone could get a chuckle at my expense (just kidding - I really don't mind at all. It takes a lot more than that to embarrass me!). But it was pretty fun to be able to share that. I'm coming to realize that I really enjoy public speaking (I know, I'm kind of on my own on that one!), and I really do like it when I get a chance to do it. Something about it is very satisfying to me.

Anyway...

Oh! Another thing I wanted to share with you...Last weekend Sebastian had a story published in our weekly news publication. It was a story he had written in kindergarten - not really sure why they're just now getting around to publishing it??? Anyway, his response was, 'Mom, now I'm famous! I've been in the newspaper!' Too cute! His story was about a frog who eats bugs with his long sticky tongue. I was so proud of him, he's such a smart little guy!

One last note for now...Lucas found my camera power cord...right where it belongs, of all the places! I swear I looked there - more than once - but I clearly overlooked it? I'm not sure how, though, because I even swept my arm across the shelf, thinking I just couldn't see it because of shadows. I would have sworn there was nothing there, but that's where he ended up finding it anyway. (Kinda like Isaac's movie wasn't under the tree, but we found it there? Who knows!) Anyhow, I'm glad it's not missing anymore, and I can take pictures again! I'm lost without my camera!

I'm going to go take it easy this evening. I am looking forward to some quiet time. It's been a hectic day. Poor Lucas has to go back into work tonight because a transformer blew up today & took down all of their compressors. So it's just me and the sleeping critters here tonight. Sounds like a good night for some reading.

Colorful Easter

Getting caught up on posts...I figured I'd start by sharing my other Easter layout I've gotten done (besides the one I just posted). This layout was for a challenge, and it proved to be much more time-consuming and difficult than I expected. I extracted the Easter baskets from a picture I had taken, and set them against a 'paper' backdrop. The shadows were t.r.i.c.k.y.!!! Took me quite a while, and truthfully, they still don't look quite right to me. But I'm leaving it alone for now. Probably for good. It's way too involved to try to make any more changes to it. Anyway...here it is.

Coloring Eggs '08

I have always struggled to scrap holidays, mostly because the pictures look the same every year. But when I really think about it, although the nature of the events don't change from one year to the next, there are little details about each year that are unique to that year. That's what I focused on for this layout - the little details of '08 that made our egg-coloring special.

Journaling: This year.......Grandma & Grandpa H. came up for Easter; Grandma helped us color eggs; Isaac didn't suck his dye-stained thumb; Meagan was old enough to color eggs with the boys; Sebastian mixed every one of his eggs in at least three colors; We left a mini basket of salad for the Easter Bunny to snack on.

You might have noticed that the style isn't as busy as I normally do. I bought an 'Simple Scrapbooks' last week at the grocery, and I was feeling inspired to try to simplify a bit. It still seemed like it took just as long as when I make it messy. ??? Go figure!

Spring Break

Today was the 1st day of Spring Break for Sebastian. It's funny how the dynamics change around the house by just having three kids home instead of two. Very interesting.

This morning we were invited to go to McDonald's with Nicole and Keylee and Cam (Nicole's nephew). We met there at 11:00 and let the kids play for a while before we got lunch. My friend Kim also met us there with her granddaughter, who is Meagan's age. We ended up hanging out and letting them play until about 1:00.

Tonight we had a family date. We went out to eat at Chili's. I was going to make something here at home, but Lucas seemed like he needed a night out. So that's what we did.

Tonight the kids are watching movies for bedtime - the boys in their room watching Transformers; Meagan in the living room watching Cinderella (for the 2nd time in a row...back to back). She's had a bit of a cough for a couple of days, since the weather can't make up its mind what it's going to do (Today it was cool and rainy. Tomorrow it's supposed to be around 70. ??? Anyway...) Tonight, about 20 minutes ago, I noticed she was also actually running a bit of a fever - between 101.5 and 102, depending on which reading in which ear you look at. So, Motrin and Triamenic for bedtime tonight. Hopefully she'll get some good restorative sleep and will feel better in the morning. We'll see how it goes.

As for the rest of Spring Break, I'm not sure what we'll do. I'm working Monday & Wednesday, and maybe a bit on Tuesday. Maybe not. I guess it depends on the weather. If it's going to be rainy and yucky, we may have to head to the dinosaur museum or something indoors. If it's going to be warm, maybe we can find something fun outside to do. We may have to start breaking out the bikes and soccer balls and tee balls and such. Maybe a trip to one of the parks...I could use some outdoorsy spring pictures (although I still haven't found my camera charger?). Whatever it is, we'll think of something to do to enjoy Sebastian's week off of school. I just hope everyone is feeling better soon so we can ALL enjoy it.