Plans Change

I had planned to get up this morning and get the kids ready so we could head to the grocery store & stock up on some food but alas, we're still here at home. The kids have been having a blast playing house, barbies, and making a huge mess of rice chex all over the floor. They took the whole box & poured it onto the floor & then ate the cereal. I ended up vacuuming most of the crumbs though. Right now they are upstairs in the tents playing, perhaps even cleaning after the talk I just gave them when they got so much stuff out that they keep falling all over it & can't hardly even play. Don't know why they constantly do that but it happens quite often.

We should be eating lunch soon (rather late for us) but since everyone got up late I'm trying to go along with it. I got the checkbook balanced and paid some bills this morning but I still have to make a menu for the next week or so and the list to go along with it so we can shop either later today or tomorrow after church. Perhaps I'll take the time to organize a menu like I really want to. 2 kid friendly meals, 2 new meals, 2 favorite meals, and 1 must go night (leftovers). Obviously its going to need to be reworked fairly often to add the new meals and perhaps move some of the new meals to favorites but if I could get a system going for me in this area, I would be estatic and pleased that its all planned out. Now I've just got to make the time to do it.

Anyone else do menu plans and how do you like the way you have yours set up? Any ideas to share or do most of you just buy some usual stuff and put things together at the last minute?

Day of Reflections

Today is a day of reflections for me. Why? Mostly because it would have been the due date (7 years ago) for our angel baby Sydney. As I reflect on things of past I realize that I am right where God wants me to be. Even though things didn't happen quite as I would have planned them, they are all turning out just fine. My daily devotions yesterday reminded me to find contentment. So I sat down & wrote down a few things. I am finding contentment in God, the people I love, the things I have, all the beauty around me and all that I am.

One more week and Gabby & Braly will be done with school and on summer vacation. Woohoo!!! I am looking forward to the schedule getting a little more lax but being able to fill it with fun adventures for my 3 little troopers. I tried doing a campout or camp 'in' for Gabby & Brlay last night but after an hour of laying on the floor they threw in the towel & climbed in their beds to fall asleep. I set up a tent in Braly's room, they brought their pillows, a sleeping bag & some blankets to fill up the small tent. Their feet were actually sticking out the bottom of the tent.
Then I made a snack & turned out the lights to let them eat it in a nearly dark room and then we read stories in the tent before I tucked them in the 1st time and the next million and a half times after that. They didn't get to see Daddy all day since he had work & then went right to class and they won't see him till after 2 pm on Saturday. Only 2 more weekends like this and Adam is completely done with his college classes. I hear his name was in the paper for graduating with his Bachelor Degree. We'll be celebrating at our house as soon as he's done.

Organizing day

I spent the day organizing (something I really enjoy doing). My day started off a little late since my alarm didn't go off. Not sure why but I must have messed up resetting it after the power went off the other night. Hopefully I fixed it & it will ring in the morning. Even getting up late, I was able to get Braly off to school without a problem. Then time for the girls to get up & going. That wasn't so easy. Gabby was doggin' it quite a bit this morning. By the time I got her off to school Morgan was cranky & ready for her nap. She went down fairly easy and then it was time for me to break out some stuff to organize. I used an old hanging folder box & made it up for the kids' memorabilia according to grades. I dug through drawers & bins to find their stuff & file it in the proper folder. I even threw out several papers for my 1st run of paring down and cleared out 4 out of 6 bins of stuff that was all crazy. I reorganized the other 2 bins so now I'm ready to find a place for my stuff that is not 'together'. Braly was asleep when the bus dropped him off and I was unable to wake him for almost 3 hours so I worked for 3 hours of organizing without interuptions which was really nice but I'm "paying for it" now with all 3 of the kids still being awake and they are usually sleeping by 7:40pm every night & they don't get up until between 7:15 and 8:30. At least they've calmed down a little tonight.

I went to SCC's website this evening to check on the Chapman family and was in tears reading everything from SCC's manager Jim Houser to all the loving comments left. It sounds like the memorial service was simply beautiful. Honored sweet Maria Sue as well as God and that tears at my heartstrings even more. An event so tragic turned around to glorify the Almighty One. Still praying for the Chapman family as well as those in her immediate life that are touched by her loss. Don't be surprised if this comes up again in my blog. Even though I don't know them personally, I feel as though I can somewhat relate and having small children close to Maria's age makes me want to kiss them one more time, give and get an extra hug, enjoy each of their smiles and the awesome laughter & their funny personalities.

On a lighter note, I have some pictures to share soon. I took them off the camera but they are currently only on Adam's computer. I have yet to move them onto my harddrive so I can share the ones I want. Wait till you see my attempt at decorating cupcakes. ROFL Gabby & I had a good laugh and thanfully she's young enough that she wasn't embarrased to share them with her friends. I had to suck up my pride & laugh at the whole thing & drop them off at the school. And I'm still going to attempt to make cupcakes for Gabby's birthday tea party next month. Maybe someone needs to talk a little sense into me...or maybe I'll get a little better at it each time. I might actually have to get some better tools and use more time to make them look like the magazine. Stay tuned for the photos of this adventure. LOL

Condolences to my favorite artist's family

My condolences go out to my favorite artist's family who just lost their youngest child. Steven Curtis & Mary Beth Chapman adopted sweet little Maria Sue a few years ago and just celebrated her 5th birthday 10 days ago. They had just finished celebrating the engagement of their oldest daughter Emily and were about to have a graduation party for their son Caleb, who had just graduated from high school when tragedy struck their family. Maria was playing outside & was hit in their driveway by one of her older brother's car. She ended up being airlifted to Vanderbilt Children's Hospital and died there due to her injuries. This saddens me so much, not just b/c I really enjoy Steven's music but b/c an accident like this can happen to any family.

My prayers for the Chapman family are that they find peace, comfort and love in our Heavenly Father. I also pray that the brother that was driving will not be blamed by others, nor by himself for this tragic accident. That forgiveness will abound in their family and that they will be able to grieve and move on as best they can while never forgetting their sweet Maria. And that they will remember that someday soon they'll see her in Heaven.

I've taken the following from SCC website.

If you’d like to meet Maria and express your condolences click here
By mail, send to PO Box 150156 Nashville, TN 37215.
In lieu of flowers, the Chapmans request any gifts be directed to Shaohannah’s Hope.

Picture This and proud momma

Last night Adam was laying on the couch & Morgan was laying in front of him. She glanced up at the pictures hanging on the wall and said, "Baby". I told her that baby was her when she was younger.
Adam: There's Lella
Morgan: Lella
A: and Braly
M: Braly (she is so cute when she says his name which only happened last week)
A: Mommy
M: Mommy
A: Daddy
M: Mommy
A: and Daddy
M: and Daddy
A: and Morgan
M: paused then said, No, No
A: and baby
M: baby...
Then they went through it again. I tried to get her saying Gabby & Braly's names last week but she'd only say Braly's name with the camera not in her face.

This girl can say well over 50 words I'm sure & she's putting 2-4 words together for sentences. She's amazing! Sure helps with so many teachers in the house I guess. At least she didn't get that baby syndrome when the youngest won't talk b/c everyone else talks for her. I'll try really hard to get a short video of her talking. She's so cute.


I had parent/teacher conferences yesterday for Gabby and the first thing her teacher said was,"WOW! Gabby has come a long way this year." I agreed and we talked about how she meets all the requirements for going to first grade next year. sigh! Gabby still needs to practice with her numbers a little just for speed and the only concern her teacher has (which is a valid one btw) is whether Gabby will be able to adjust to the faster pace & stay with the class b/c she is often known to dog it, lollygag, putz, whatever word you might use. Both her teacher this year & last year & I myself agree that this is part of her personality where she takes her sweet time & tries to get things perfect. So I'll be trying to get her moving a little faster this summer. But her teacher said that she'd put in Gabby's file for the 1st grade teacher, that if the teacher communicates with home (uh, mainly me :) ) that we will be sure to work on things to get her to achieve all her requirements.

So on Wednesday June 4th we will be watching our petite little girl graduate from kindergarten & I'm sure I'll be crying. I'm so proud of all that she's accomplished, not only for her class like reading, writing, learning so much math stuff but for her growing as a person, sticking up for herself (b/c mom & dad won't be right with her all the time now), and for her being compassionate & kind to others. Definitely a proud momma I am. (sorry, couldn't help a little Yoda speech, kinda hear it a lot with the Star Wars fans we have here in this house.)

An Hour of Quiet

Adam was planning to take Braly & Gabby to the 'BIG' park after church today but since it rained a little and is really windy & cold (Adam & I always joke that this is really the Windy City & Chicago just gets that name b/c its a little bigger than Escanaba lol) he changed plans & brought them to the mall. They always enjoy going to the bookstore and walking around looking at people & checking out the toy section at Shopko. Morgan is down for a nap and I finished the dishes about 15 minutes after they left so now I'm catching up on emails, blogs, etc... I don't know what it is about being able to stay at the house & just have some quiet time. It has been a crazy week with us all getting used to Adam's full time work schedule & he had school for several hours on Fri & Sat.

Gabby wrapped up her last Golf class last week and her last Soccer class on Saturday. She really gave me a hard time about playing but one of the coaches was able to get her to go into the gym while Braly, Morgan, & I left to walk around the college campus. I had actually planned on watching her play but that all changed when she was 'in a mood' and threw a few temper tantrums. Kinda wondered if others thought I was being mean to my child but really, I was just trying to get her to complete her program. She is the one who wanted to sign up for the program & I believe it is important to finish things that one starts. Here's the really crazy thing, she was really excited that she participated in the last class AND then when it was time to leave, she didn't want to go. Go figure right? I was able to sneak back to the gym & watch her almost score a goal when they were playing as teams at the very end. And while Braly, Morgan, & I were walking, we put some dandylions on Daddy's car window and then ended up seeing him sitting in his class & waved to him. Braly thought that was really neat and was doing great following directions. He was pretty sad that he couldn't play soccer and when I told him he can play next year when he's 4 he was happy again. They better still have this program next year or I'm going to be in trouble.

Well instead of spending my entire quiet time on the computer, I'm going to work on reorganizing my photos into Stacy Julian's Library of Memories (LOM). I'm going to slowly change over to her system b/c it seems like it will work so nicely to be able to scrapbook more memories rather than just b/c I feel like I should. I'm really excited about it and will probably be sharing more as I get into it more. I have to take it slowly b/c there are many parts to her system & the components, although essential in my opinion, are costly and I'm trying not to spend tons of money right now.

I just realized. I mentioned it above but never properly told about it on here. Adam was promoted from his part time supervisor position to the On Car Supervisor which is a full time position. He has to wear dress shirts, ties, & dress pants to work & I love seeing him all decked out. ;) And in about a month he'll be done with his last college course and will have a Bachelor degree in Business Administration. I'm so proud of him for all of his accomplishments. God has truly blessed him in many ways & we look forward to the day he doesn't have to 'go to class' anymore. This week the kids have been asking me, "Is Daddy at work or at class?" "Where is Daddy?" I feel bad that they aren't used to not seeing him & missing him but we will adjust.

Our Perfectly Petite Girl

Gabby has always been small for her age, I think she's only in the 5th percentile on the growth chart for girls her age but that's actually up from when she was a baby & early toddlerhood where she was making her own growth curve well below the real one. She's been playing soccer on Sat monrnings for a few weeks now and has 2 more but she recently started up 4 sessions of golf. This girl had a hard time connecting the club with the ball at first but she's improved quite nicely. On Monday she brought her new golf clubs to the class and said they were heavy to carry so a mom of one of the other kids helped her carry them. Gabby told her "I'm just a perfectly petite girl is all." I laughed when the mom told me that she said that. I've been grooming her to know that even though she's small, or petite, she's just how God intended her to be and that's perfectly ok. I adjusted her strap on the golf bag & she was able to carry it herself the whole time yesterday.

That same mom told me yesterday that Mr. John took the kids over to the sand trap to let them hit a few balls. They were all laying in the sand & writing their names & he got a total kick out of it. The mom said that it was so cute seeing all of them laying in the sand. I laughed but a part of me was sad that I missed it. It isn't that the teacher minds that parents watch but Gabby seems to pay attention & do much better if I am not around while a class is going on that she's participating in. It's like she sees me and gets all shy. So like a momma bird pushes her baby out of the nest in order to learn to fly, I push Gabby a little in order for her to 'fly' on her own. Like I said, this letting go stuff is a little hard.

Oh and Gabby has a new nickname. I've called her Muffin for a long time & sometimes add Sweet Muffin but now she's my Noodle Muffin. Her teacher gave each of the kids a golf ball and hers says Noodle on it. She was so excited when she was telling me after class. I said, sounds like we need to call you Noodle Muffin now. She laughed & thought that was funny.

On a side note, I have the best family! My parents came over early to my house to help me out with picking Gabby up from school & then watching Braly & Morgan while I took Gabby to golf class & even finished making dinner. And then Auntie Nat watched Gabby & Braly while I took Morgan to my LLL meeting. Thank you so much for helping me out. I really appreciate it.

I think it's Spring

The calendar says that it is Spring but when I go outside or look outside it reminds me of fall. We still don't have green on our trees (just small buds forming) and the wind is whipping around like crazy. It actually hit 60 today so that was nice but the wind makes it feel cooler than it is.

Here's a really old poem I wrote. Keep in mind I was in 5th or 6th grade when I wrote this. Now don't ask me what kind of poem it is, I can't remember that but I thought I'd share it. Not even sure if this was the 'whole' poem but its all I can recall.

Spring:

Spring is so slushy

I like the sweet sound.

I must say that our spring didn't seem as slushy as it usually does. Maybe for some but it really wasn't bad here at our new house. How long can one use the term 'new' anyway? At the end of this month it will have been a year since we signed the papers for our 'new' house. We're definitely still lovin' it too. Wish I could work on getting some of this outdated wallpaper to disappear but I'm being told to put it on hold. Now would be a good time to do it though, not too cold, not too hot for the steamer & all the scraping, washing, & then painting.

La Lou

This phrase was coined when Gabby was just a little one & learning to say "I Love You". It actually made its way down the line and was used by Braly and now by Morgan. And Morgan sure is using it to make her momma's heart melt. About 40 minutes ago I took Morgan up to her room to read her a story (10 Little Ladybugs), sing to her, and lay her down for her nap. She is so adorable that I nearly started crying (I know I'm a big sap, I can't help but enjoy my sweet baby). While I sing to her, she often puts her face really close to me so we are cheek to cheek or her cheek is very close to my mouth as I sing. Well she also does this cute thing & pushes that sweet cheek to my mouth so I will kiss her and then she keeps doing it throughout the songs that I sing. She has the biggest, grandest smile on her face while she is doing it & her giggle makes me laugh as she enjoys momma's kisses. Sometimes she pauses for a little bit so I actually make it through part of the song before she smooshes that cheek up for kisses again. I totally love putting her down for naps now. The special time with her is so meaningful to me.

It's not always been like this but naps have always been better than betime but now both times for bed are looking good and maybe that's why I am reveling in all the 'loves'. Oh and this little girl keeps telling her momma, I La Lou, I La Lou, over and over and over again. I don't think I could tire of hearing that. It's too bad she won't stay this little for much longer. Sometimes I think time should just stand still so I can enjoy every moment more and more. I think the hardest part of being a mom is not the picking up after, the putting away, or the disciplining but rather the letting go and always moving forward. Maybe that's why I enjoy scrapbooking so much. It gives me a chance to mull over the memories a little longer as I watch my sweet 3 grow.

Braly is funny

I've been having some challenges with Braly the last 2 weeks and it just dawned on me that on top of me going on my scrapbooking weekend & him coming down with a cold, he's been without his head teacher at school for the last 2 weeks while she's been on vacation in India. I didn't think that it would have affected him the way it has since he's only in school 2 half days a week but I am beginning to think that was all the wrong thinking.

Braly is like most boys I know, full of inquiring thoughts and a little bit of mischievousness. Add that to the things I've listed above & you've got a recipe to drive a mom to the nut house. I've been trying to be patient with him but its one thing after another where he's getting himself into trouble or making a mess. I've told him many times to leave the toilet bowl brush & plunger alone in the bathroom b/c for one, I don't need things broken and for two, its kinda gross to go into the bathroom & have to clean the seat off from all the gross toilet water that's dripped all over it. The other day Gabby got her sock wet & when I asked how I didn't expect to have her respond with the toilet water all over the floor. I then found that not only was there a mess but the toilet bowl brush holder was in pieces on the floor. I'll give ya one guess how that happened....so Braly ended up having to buy me another one since I'm tired of things being broken and him not learning a lesson. He's going to count the money out of his piggy bank to see how much it takes and maybe that will help.

Then while at the store, I took just him with me, he went & stood behind the register, right next to the cashier. When I went around to get him, he took off running away from me laughing. I ran, that was probably a funny sight, and caught him & put him in the seat of the cart & finished loading the belt with my stuff. He stood up & jumped out of the cart onto the conveyor belt until I grabbed him & buckled my almost 4 yr old into the shopping cart until we were finished. whew..the shopping was finally done.

So here is what I think to be the funniest part of the whole story. I can't remember if it happened before or after the trip to the store (I think it was before), Braly was upset with me for putting him in timeout for the 100th time in the last few weeks and told me that he thought I should go back to scrapbooking. I paused for a minute and said, that would be nice wouldn't it. You still have to go in time out & make better choices.

This little boy is sweet as pie, is very loving, & full of energy & intelligence. I think he may have needed a break from me & me from him so I arranged for him to have a mini vacation with Grammy, Papa, & puppy Sasha for a few days. Before he left he packed his suitcase all on his own. He asked if he was going to church with Grammy & Papa & when I told him no he'd be coming home before then he said, well I packed church clothes. I told him I repacked & took them out but he could wear them on Sunday from home if he wanted. He also told me he wanted to go for 3 days, then upped it to 5 and then to 10. Do you know what he said when he called today? He wanted to come home. This is his first time being without Mommy, Daddy, or Gabby. His best bud Gabs, is usually always with him when he goes to stay somewhere so this is new territory for him. I think he'll do just fine and perhaps have enough time away from home for me to get these messes cleaned up & for him to enjoy everyone (mainly mommy) when he gets back. And if not, maybe I should head somewhere to scrapbook for another day. LOL

I won, I won!!!

If you haven't figured it out by now, I really enjoy all things scrapbooking. I love the paper, the embellishments, the pictures, the journaling to tell the stories and the scrapbooks themselves. Well I often read several scrapbookers' blogs and they've had some contests/drawings for some of the new books and kits that have been coming out lately. Well I answered a trivia question correctly and won a really neat looking kit. I'll take some pics when I get it but here is the site that I won it off of. http://www.lisabearnson.com/blog/ Really cool isn't it? The kit I won is the CKU in a box kit. http://www.lisabearnson.com/products/item.ihtml?idx=754 I've never had the opportunity to sign up for CKU (Creating Keepsakes University) so this will be a little taste of it. Yipee!!!