Happy 2nd Birthday, My Sweet Ladybug!

Today is my sweet Ladybug's 2nd birthday. It almost doesn't seem possible that she is already 2 years old.. how did that happen?! ;)

She is such a joy & quite the little character. I love everything about her from the top of her head to tip of her little tickle toes! She definitely keeps us on our toes & has way more energy at 2 years old than both of our fireflies combined did at that age. There is almost nothing that she won't try to do by herself, too.

Today was all planned out for her special day, but God had other plans for all of us. Ladybug went to the pediatrician this morning for her 2 year exam & got a great report.. after that we were all going to meet up with my father-in-law & take all the kiddos to the St. Louis Zoo for Zoo Friend's Day to celebrate Ladybug's birthday. Well, last night big storms moved in to our area & are still here, so the zoo trip has been cancelled & we are trying to figure out something else that everyone would enjoy doing together. I suppose that instead of being gloomy about the crumby weather on Ladybug's birthday I should be thankful that we haven't had any damage from the storms.. others in our area have not been so fortunate.

So.. we're gonna put on a happy face & figure out something indoors to do for Ladybug's big day. Tomorrow evening we're all going out for dinner with the whole family to celebrate, too. :)

please pray

I received a phone call from a dear friend tonight... her husband's little brother & his wife delivered a tiny baby boy last week--14 weeks early. Baby Caleb weighed in at a mere 1lb 15oz.

Caleb has not been doing well.. his tiny body has been fighting hard, but he developed pneumonia on top of trying to beat the odds being born so very early. His parents received the news that no parent ever wants to hear this evening.. he has taken a turn for the worse & is not going to make it. They made the heart-wrenching decision to take his tiny body off of life support tonight.

Please lift them up in prayer.. their journey is just beginning. Anyone who has lost a baby or child knows all too well exactly what they are thinking & going through right at this moment. May God wrap His loving arms around them.

crumby..

After a very busy weekend of doing a two day garage sale & cleaning house.. I am truly worn out and most definitely feeling crumby.

Our garage sale was fairly successful, despite the cold & rainy day we had on Friday. And Saturday's warmer sunny weather brought a lot of customers, too. I was able to get rid of a lot of out-grown clothing & some odds-n-ends that have been cluttering up our place for quite some time, too. I am not sure that anyone ever makes as much money as they'd like to make when they have a garage sale.. but I did alright and now we have some extra $$ for Ladybug's birthday and my father-in-law's visit, too.

As far as the house cleaning goes.. it needs to be done--period! But, my husband's Dad is coming in from Arizona this week and obviously, we want it to look nice when he is here. My husband is on vacation for the next two weeks so that he can spend time with his Dad & our ladybug's 2nd birthday is this Friday, so we've got a big zoo adventure planned. He also mentioned that he wants me to make a list of projects that I would like to get done around the house while he's on said vacation.. after I make the list he says that he will look at it & then we can "discuss" it. I am hoping that we will be able to work together to get a lot accomplished while he's at home. :) I have to give him some major credit though... while I was busy at the garage sale yesterday, he swept & scrubbed my kitchen for me. What an amazing surprise.. I could have cried! :)

Now.. to the part where I gripe a bit(maybe a great deal!) about how crumby I have been feeling the past few days. ;) It started out as dust allergies run amok & has morphed, mutated.. what have you.. into a horribly annoying cough that makes my throat hurt. Probably didn't help things for me to be doing a garage sale on Friday when the temperature dropped 12 degrees in a 3 or so hour span and it was windy and rainy the whole day. I am hoping to be on the mend soon.. cuz I don't want to be sick on Ladybug's birthday and I have way too much to do(as usual) in prep for that and for my father-in-law's visit, too.

Well, I am off to check laundry, take more allergy medicine & some ibuprofen.. then it's off to bed. Hopefully I can get some much needed rest tonight.

please pray..

Please pray for precious Baby Stellan. He is just 5 months old & is scheduled to have a very risky heart surgery called an ablation, tomorrow morning at 7:30am(Boston time). The surgery will be done at Children's Hospital in Boston and he has an amazing team of doctors working on his behalf.

His parents are asking for prayer support & if you want to show your support in a more visible way.. wear some orange in honor of Stellan tomorrow, too! :) I am gonna dig some orange up from somewhere to show my support, too.. can't wait to see how much orange I see tomorrow!

I will try to update on my blog as soon as I get an update from Stellan's blog. :)
Check it out at: http://www.mycharmingkids.net/

Thank you in advance for your prayers!

i'm still alive ;)

Never fear.. I am still alive. Nothing like taking another month & a half "vacation" from posting, eh?!

As I sit & ponder what to say in this post, I am enjoying looking out the window at the beautiful sunny day that God has blessed us with here. The forecast is for sunny skies & a high of around 75 today.. Hello, Spring!! :) My huge purple lilac is blooming to beat the band & is gorgeous to gaze at through the family room window. When the breeze blows just right it smells wonderful, too. Looking out my other window into the backyard.. our redbud(that we, incidentally, got as a seedling at an Arbor Day celebration 8 years ago) is loaded with pretty purple blooms right now.

This has been a busy week in our household.. our youngest firefly is all registered for Kindergarten now & has had his physical & dental exams in preparation for being a "big" school kid in the fall. My husband took the day off today so that he could go on the walking field trip to the fire station with firefly's preschool class. Preschool is about 4 or so blocks from one of the fire stations in our town & it's a tradition for them to walk to their field trip there every spring. I honestly don't think that they could've ordered better weather for their adventure today.

I am helping decorate for the spring book fair at our oldest firefly's school this afternoon. This evening is the kick-off for it.. Family Reading Night... spaghetti dinner.. and the Mini-Art festival--all rolled into one crazy evening! :) Actually, it should be a lot of fun. Everyone always looks forward to the spring book fair because it is the "buy one book & get one free" sale! :) I am helping this evening with it & I will be working three full days next week, too.

I've really missed being super involved with PTO stuff at school(I took a long break after having my Ladybug & for some other reasons).. so I'm really looking forward to getting back into the swing of things. I've felt for a long time that God is calling me to volunteer my time at my firefly's school(s).. there are so many kids that don't have positive influences in their lives & it always makes my heart smile to see their faces light up when I see them in the halls. I have always made a point to learn their names & say hello specifically to them, too. I know that for many of the kids.. the only hug they may have received on a given day may have been from me.

Well.. I need to get ready to head over to school, so I will close this first post since my birthday last month! Hopefully I can get back into the swing of several things in my life.. including posting on my blog again! :)

woo hoo.. it's my birthday

Actually.. it's not that exciting. Today is my birthday.. #34 to be exact, but it felt/feels very much like just another day.

It has been a bittersweet day for me for the last few years because my birthday was also my due date with my precious Elijah Thomas... he would've been 6 years old today. I wonder what he would've been like, what he would have been interested in.. how his sweet little voice & his giggles would sound, too. Would he look like his brothers & his cousins. All things that I won't have answers to here on earth.

Today I have done a pretty good job of focusing on enjoying my day, the beautiful 80 degree sunny weather & my ladybug & fireflies. Ladybug, my Mom & I went shopping for me this morning.. ok, so I did get some stuff for the kids, too.. but I found a couple of shirts for myself with the nice gift card that my Secret Sister gave me. I had hoped to find some new shoes for myself, but the selection at Kohls was kinda underwhelming to me.. perhaps somewhere else! :) Perhaps another shoe shopping excursion another day soon. My ladybug loves to look at shoes.. we may have a little monster on our hands one day really soon!

Right now I am supposed to be deciding where I would like to go for my birthday dinner.. my choice, although there is a budgeted amount that can be spent, so I have some guidelines and with the kiddos going, too.. that narrows the field a great deal. I am leaning heavily towards a nice mexican place that I have a buy one/get one free coupon for. :) Hey.. I've said it before.. I'm a cheap date!

Well, it sounds like my ladybug is awake again.. at least she got a little bit of a nap before we all go out this evening. ;)

prayer request...

Please pray for the Johnson family.

They are good friends of my parents--since high school days(all of them--except the niece--are in their 70s). Lloyd & his wife, Minnie, were in one car & his brother, Cyrus & his wife Charlotte were in another car with a sister, Mary & her daughter.

A car broad-sided Cyrus' car & he was killed.. his wife, sister & niece were seriously injured. They were in Mississippi headed to a family funeral. Please keep all of them in your thoughts & prayers. I will update as I hear more.

The only blessing in this tragedy is that they are all believers & Cyrus got to meet Jesus today!

worn out

Okay.. so I am officially worn out & ready to put both fireflies & my ladybug in bed right now--yeah, it's only 6:20pm. Ladybug is just busy all the time & feels the need to get into everything under-the-sun today! The fireflies had been playing in the backyard, under strict orders to not get all muddy.. yeah, like they listened to that commandment. ;)

At least I will get a little break from the fireflies this evening, my husband is responsible for the devotional lesson for the shut-ins at a nursing home in Bunker Hill(about a 1/2 hour to 45 minute drive from our house) and I already informed all the male folks in my household that they will be spending quality time together this evening. :) Most of the time, we all go as a family to the nursing homes & shut-in's houses to visit each month, but I don't have the energy to wrestle my ladybug this evening, so the girlies are stayin' home.

Oh yeah.. and it's National Pancake Day today.. so I am going to be baking some yummy bacon & making up a huge batch of homemade pancakes using my Grandma's "famous" recipe for consumption when all the men folk get home. :)

I have been busy this afternoon with laundry(yeah, big surprise there!).. de-cluttering our entry area & uncovering our dining room table. See, the dining table is the first big flat surface that you come to after walking through our entry area & it always gets piled sky high with junk mail & all sorts of other crap. Of course, at this point.. my stuff is cleared off the table(for the most part) & what is left would be my husband(& the fireflies') model rocket stuff. It is always my goal to keep it cleaned off after every time that I un-earth it.. so far, I haven't ever kept it up.. kinda pathetic, I know. Dare to dream, eh? ;)

I am so.. totally lookin' forward to some quiet time this evening--well, now only the oldest firefly is going with my husband to the nursing home. Yippy! Guess I spoke to soon.. such as life!

puking, the pink panther & other fun...

So.. this morning started way too early for me. At around 4:30am my little ladybug started crying and calling "Mommy.. Mommy!". I, barely awake, stumble across the hall to see what she needs.. hoping it was a bad dream. I turned on the bathroom light across the hall from her room to give a little light, but so as not to fully awaken her if at all possible. Well, she was already all the way awake & proclaimed to me "froggy ucky.. froggy ucky.. blankie ucky", it was at that point that I quickly flipped on her light & discovered that she wasn't tellin' me a story!! Sure enough.. she had puked all over her purple blanket, her crib sheet, her jammies & her (new) favorite froggy blankie, too! My husband got up to see what was going on and got ladybug stripped down & into a warm bath while I set about stripping her crib(again!) and starting a load of laundry. I got her bed all put back together, she was bathed & put back together herself and we were all ready to go back to bed by 5am. The kicker was that although she was still sleepy, she didn't want to have any part of sleeping in her crib. We let her crawl into our bed with us.. but that was not a comfortable proposition for ladybug & myself. I didn't sleep well at all and "woke-up" with a stiff neck & headache from our early morning "adventure", ladybug slept very fit-fully and ended up sleeping most of the morning at my folk's house while my youngest firefly & I went on our field trip.

The field trip was awesome this morning! We all had a blast at the hospital as we followed Pink Panther to get his broken tail x-rayed, have his blood drawn(turns out it's bright pink!) and then we got to tour the emergency room while he went into "surgery" to have his tail fixed. It seems that Pink Panther was having a bad morning, too.. he accidentally shut his tail in the car door & it broke. The kids were cute as they comforted him throughout the journey. One little boy even held his paw while they drew his "blood". My firefly wasn't too sure if he wanted to get real close to Pink Panther when we were first introduced to him in the hospital lobby as the public relations director wheeled him up to our group.. but he got over himself when I explained that it was actually a person dressed in a costume--kinda like it was Halloween. By the end of the morning my firefly was perfectly cool with standing next to Pink's wheelchair & even gave him a few high-fives, too! ;) All-in-all.. it was a great morning, despite my monster headache.

At one point, I thought that I was going to be needed to babysit my nieces again this afternoon for a little while, but my sister-in-law called and said that her other Grandma was available to watch her ladybugs while they took their afternoon nap. I was kinda glad that someone else was able to do it because I was still fighting my headache, so that was nice to hear. :)

Ladybug & I both had a quiet afternoon hanging out with my folks while my youngest firefly had a playday with my Aunt.. she even offered to pick up my oldest firefly from school and have both of them over to play at her house for a couple of hours afterschool. She's awesome!! :) Ladybug & I both ended up getting naps.. her's was longer than mine, but both were much needed after the craziness that we experienced in the wee hours of the morning. My Aunt even brought the fireflies back to our house for me this evening, too.. so I was able to get a few things accomplished at home--not as much as needs to be done mind you.. but it's a start!

We've got quite a lot going on this weekend.. tomorrow morning my husband is going to surprise our youngest firefly with a trip(just the two of them) to a model train show here in town, then tomorrow evening our fireflies & ladybug get to have dinner and hang out at my folk's while we go to a church meeting. Sunday will be crazy, there is a guy trying-out to be the new minister for our congregation and we have a potluck luncheon after morning services & then a dessert fellowship after evening services!! I am making my homemade spaghetti & meatballs along with a red velvet cake with cream cheese icing for Sunday morning's festivities and chocolate chip cookies for the dessert fellowship. :) I'll be a crazy cookin' woman tomorrow preparing for Sunday!

ok.. so perhaps i'm a laundry snob

Today has been another long day for me! I've been super busy doing all kinds of things for everyone with the exception of myself today(of course.. that sorta somes up most of my days.. but anywho!).

My sister-in-law's Grandma is very sick.. in fact, she is near death & has been placed on hospice care at the hospital. She is 95 years old and her body is simply worn out--her mind has been slowly fading away for several years as well. My Mom and I watched my nieces today so that my sister-in-law could be at the hospital with her Grandma Bertha.. to say good-bye and spend a little more time with her so she wouldn't have any regrets. My nieces are some feisty little ladybugs with a ton of energy.. combine that with my youngest firefly & my ladybug and let the "fun" begin! ;)

Overall, they were all good.. no major issues ensued the entire afternoon and all three of the ladybugs did eventually take naps. :) While the kiddos played in the finished basement, I took it upon myself to help out with the laundry room mess. My brother & sister-in-law have a little(okay, a hugely) different approach to how laundry is done at their house.. and I suppose I am a bit of a laundry snob when it comes to how particular I am about how things should be seperated, etc. So.. although it took me several hours, I was able to get all the clean clothes that were literally wadded & piled on the counter across from the washer & dryer all folded. I ran out of laundry baskets to put the folded clothing, towels, bedding.. you name it into. I then took it upon myself to sort down all of the dirty stuff that was piled on the floor of said laundry room into neatly organized piles(adult darks, towels, quilts, dark girls, whites).. you get the picture. I was also able to get 3 more loads washed & mostly dried before she got back home from the hospital. Of course, as usual.. no good deed goes unpunished.. I ended up getting bleach on one of my favorite shirts & my black cardigan, too. ;( (story of my life!)

Although all the hard work that I did today will quite possibly be destroyed in a matter of hours, I am proud of my accomplishment. I feel weird just sitting around not doing anything--especially when the kids are napping, so I made myself useful. My sister-in-law thanked me for what I had done and then this evening my brother called me to say thank you, too. :) It was nice to have my hardwork acknowledged.. sometimes the mundane things of life that nobody thinks much about (until you haven't done them).. go pretty much un-noticed.

Tomorrow morning my youngest firefly & I are going on a special field trip with his preschool to one of our local hospitals. They have what they call "Pink Panther" tours, basically kids(with their group from school or preschool) get to follow Pink Panther on his journey through the hospital to get his broken tail x-rayed & treated. The goal of the tour program is to help kids understand that hospitals aren't as scary as they might think. We are both looking forward to our hospital adventure. :)

rude awakening.. of sorts

It's a drizzly, gloomy-ish day here today & I was moving somewhat slow this morning as I was trying to get myself out of bed and in gear making lunches for the boys. My oldest firefly came down to the kitchen to inform me that he had just gone in to say "good morning" to our little ladybug & discovered that she had puked all over herself & almost everything in her crib. LOVELY!! Thus, the title of my post for today!

She is fine now & you would never know that she had puked early this morning.. happily singing and playing now. :) Needless to say, my morning routine was instantly transformed into see if you can get two lunches made, feed two fireflies breakfast, get everyone dressed, put ladybug in the bathtub(making sure to comb all the puke out of her hair!) and get the oldest firefly to school by the 8:15am bell... keeping in mind that the clock is now reading 10 minutes until 8am! Luckily, we live a couple of minutes from our oldest firefly's school and my husband started a new routine of working 9am to 5:30pm and was able to help get the bath water running & take our oldest to school before his own carpool left. Somehow we got it all done.. but I am positive that if he hadn't been home for us to work as a team, I may have completely lost my mind!

Everyone cooperated fairly well, so things went more smoothly than originally expected when I was told that ladybug was covered in puke first thing this morning. Never a dull moment around here folks! ;) My youngest firefly had a little trouble staying focused on getting himself dressed this morning.. seems that this morning's episode of Diego was way more exciting than putting on his outfit for preschool. We got it all together though & ladybug and I dropped him off at preschool right on time. Today is "Q" day.. they had to take a picture in of something that starts with that letter. After some thought & asking my husband via google chat what I should search for to print out.. we came up with "Quail". The moment he typed "quail" into the chat window I felt somewhat dumb.. however, it had been a crazy morning.. so I suppose I should cut myself a tad bit of slack.

Hopefully the rest of the day will be much less "exciting"! Ladybug & I are having lunch with my Dad today.. my Mom's Sunday school class ladies are having their monthly luncheon. I look forward to getting to have our lunch date with my Dad.. my ladybug adores him(well, actually.. the feeling is mutual, they are buddies). :) We always tease my Mom about the fact that we're going to "crash" their luncheon.. but haven't ever actually followed through with our threat. ;) However.. today it's tempting because they're going to Amarillo Tex.. a great steakhouse here in town. So.. ya never know!

Lovely.. ladybug just announced to me "shoe off off".. I looked down to see that not only her shoe is off, but she has conveniently removed her sock, too! SWEET! Like I said before.. never a dull moment!

Well.. perhaps I should close this post before she decides to try her hand at taking off her pants(which is a new trick in her bag of fun these days). She definitely keeps us on our toes!

yes.. i am still alive!

So... it's been over 2 months since I've written a post on my blog.. kinda pathetic, eh? Many reasons for my "vacation" from blog posting.. stomach flu, colds, ear infections, all the holiday craziness.. a general funk(yet again)! I have continued to keep up with all of the blogs that I read every day, just haven't felt like posting on my own.

Hopefully I will do a better job with this endeavor in the days & weeks to come. I've been doing a lot of re-evaluating of areas of my life and working on improving at least one thing(in some cases many things) in each aspect.

Marriage is one area that is getting some detailed look & work these days. My folks pre-bought me a copy of the movie "Fireproof" for Christmas & it released last month. If you haven't seen it yet.. GO GET A COPY of it!! It's awesome & really hit home for my husband & I on several levels. There are a lot of churches in our area(and across the United States) that are holding free movie nights along with marriage themed Bible study classes. There is a great devotional book that goes along with the movie called "The Love Dare".. it's a 40 day challenge for husbands & wives complete with activities & scripture passages.

Our congregation is hosting an event on Saturday, February 28th at 6:30pm... Vaughn Hill church of Christ in Wood River, IL(on Rte. 111 just up from Walmart).. FREE babysitting is provided that night, too! We will also be doing a series of Sunday morning adult Bible study classes about marriage during the month of March. If you'd like more information please call: (618)259-2100

a dreary, soggy day...

Today has been a dreary, soggy day in our little part of the world. As I sit & type this, the rain has been pouring down for over an hour. The forecast is calling for temperatures to start steadily dropping into the evening, so tomorrow's commute to work & school ought to prove interesting.

I've been busy trying to get some things accomplished today. I helped my folk's prep their living room to make room for their Christmas tree & drug the big tub that contained it up from their basement. That felt great on my shoulder that I hurt yesterday morning when I was taking our dog outside. Our back steps were icy & treacherous.. but I held on tight to the hand-rail and was fine. It was once I placed my foot on the sloping driveway that I was up-ended! It happened really fast & all of a sudden I was on my right hip with my arm sorta twisted under me. ;) (no, Grace isn't my middle name!).

Anywho.. back to the holiday prep at my folks house! My ladybug "helped" me put the tree up for them. I already told my little brother than he "gets" to put the lights on it. Lights are not me favorite part of the decorating process anyway & with my arm/shoulder aching.. it would be very not fun. Hopefully we'll get the ornaments on it in the next few days, too. My older brother is coming to town for early Christmas festivities this coming Monday.. so we've got to get busy making my folk's house look Christmas-y! :)

I was also successful in getting my folk's Christmas letter all copied for them. I had typed it for them the other day & they had given me some pretty paper to run it on. Several months ago, I scored a xerox copier & cabinet for FREE from a friend of a friend, so I told them I would just run them this year. They usually get their letter all ready & then take their paper to a local printer to have them run them on the paper they purchased seperately... I told them that I would take care of it at our house this year--and hey! I'm only charging them a nominal fee! ;) Just kidding! They do so very much for us, it's the least that I could do for them.

Well.. I better close my post & get my fireflies & ladybug all ready to go to dinner for our youngest firefly's birthday this evening. He's been super excited about it all day long. :)

happy 5th birthday, firefly!

Today is my youngest firefly's 5th birthday! It truly is hard to believe that it has already been 5 years since we welcomed him into our little family.

My doctor induced me a week ahead of my due date because in the last week of my pregnancy I had gained 3lbs in water! We arrived at the hospital bright and early that Monday morning in 2003 & excitedly awaited his arrival. My doctor had estimated that our firefly would be about 7 1/2 pounds.. I thought to myself, ok.. that is do-able, a nice size.. not too big. (my oldest firefly came into the world at 6lbs 11oz). They started the iv with all the fun drugs & as soon as my doctor broke my water I was ready for that amazing epidural! ;) After my water was broken, it only took about an hour or two for me to know that it was time to deliver my baby. With all of my children I have been fortunate to only have to push for about 1/2 hour at the most to deliver them.

Then, at 1:45pm he made is debut into our lives! I remember thinking to myself when I first saw my son, he is beautiful & he's huge.. how did I deliver a baby that big!?! ;) It was only after they put him the scale & it read, "8lbs 14.1oz" & measured him at 21" tall, that I was even more amazed! I am only 5' 2" tall and although, I am heavier than I'd like to be.. I'm not that big. I still tease my doctor about his 7 1/2 pound prediction for my almost 9lb firefly! ;) (incidentally, he was better with his guess on our ladybug's weight).

I remember those first few days with our firefly like they were yesterday.. the smell of his tiny little head, the look & feel of his tiny hands & feet. And what an amazing boy he has grown to be.. at 5 years old he already has quite the sense of humor, is on the verge of reading on his own, can write letters & numbers like nobody's business... there are so many amazing things about him, I can't list them all in this post. He's a funny little guy who at times struggles to find his place in our family.. he's a "big" kid, but still isn't totally sure that he wants to relinquish the role of "baby" to his little sister. He is very thoughtful & gives me lots of hugs & kisses, too.

Happy Birthday, My Sweet Firefly! Mommy & Daddy are so very proud of you & we love you to the moon & back! :)

happy weekend

Happy Weekend! ;)

Actually, it's been a roller coaster weekend for our corner of the world. We got a call from my husband's mother on Thursday afternoon saying that her Aunt(whom she had gotten herself appointed as "power of attorney" for about 2 1/2 years ago) was not doing well & not expected to live much longer than 24 hours.

So, Thursday evening we all went to see her for the last time at the nursing home.. she was unresponsive & didn't know that anyone had visited her. She passed away around 12:30am Friday morning.. just a few short hours after we had been there. Aunt Vera was 90 years old and was my husband's Great Aunt.. so, she was a Great-Great Aunt to my fireflies & ladybug. The kids were great & squeezed her hand, told her that they loved her, etc. My ladybug waved to her(Vera's eyes were closed, but it was precious to watch), said "bye-bye" and then she blew her a final kiss. It was as if our ladybug knew or could sense that Vera was getting ready to meet Jesus. How glorious it must have been to wake up in God's presence and not be sick or in pain anymore.

My mother-in-law has always had a knack for being over-dramatic, but she is understandably upset over Aunt Vera's passing. I've been trying to help her with phone calls, etc. over the past couple of days & my husband is going to be one of the pall bearers for the funeral that is going to be this coming Thursday. We all knew that this day would come & with each visit that we paid to Vera at the nursing home, it was more clear that she was slipping away from this life, so we are all at peace with her passing.

Our younger firefly's 5th birthday is Monday!! :) We celebrated with some good friends this evening after going to a children's play and having dinner at Pantera's pizza. I baked him a cake and decorated it with a dinosaur and "happy birthday". He really enjoyed it and our friends gave him a "totally cool" Star Wars action figure. ;) I also baked 3 dozen dinosaur shaped sugar cookies for his birthday. He is taking treats to his Sunday school class tomorrow morning & birthday treats for his preschool class on Monday. Tuesday evening we are all getting together as a family to celebrate his birthday with dinner out at Casa Guillardo--he has a free kid's meal postcard from the birthday club to use! :) Yummy.. I can't wait! ;)

Well, it's getting late & now that I look at the clock, it's actually already technically Sunday morning... so I better get my little self upstairs & tucked into bed! :) Good night & hopefully another post tomorrow(I mean.. later today!).

happy thursday

Happy Thursday! First, I need to update you on Ladybug's eye.. just a scratch under her eye.. luckily she didn't end up with a big black eye or any other bruising from the encounter with the stocking holder! ;)

Despite all the weather forecasts to the contrary, we merely got a dusting of snow last night. Our yard looks a bit like a big frosted mini-wheat with the grass & leaves poking through the thin blanket of snow. It was pretty to watch it coming down last night & is certainly helping things feel more & more like Christmas.

Today will be busy(as usual).. ladybug & I have Play Pals this morning, then we'll get together with my folks & my youngest firefly for lunch and a few errands. I have some more Christmas gifts to pick up. I am hoping to be able to get another shirt or two for my husband.. the style that he wants was clearanced at one store location(great deal, but they didn't have his size!), so we're going to search for his size at another location today. Hopefully we'll be successful in our endeavor & I can get him a couple to replace the ones that are worn out. :)

Well.. the shower is beckoning me & my youngest firefly & ladybug are busy wathing Diego right now, so I better grab my opportunity for a few minutes of "mommy time" and run with it. ;)

starting to look a lot like christmas..

Well, it's starting to look a lot like Christmas around our house. My two fireflies & my little ladybug "helped" put our tree up & get the lights on it afterschool yesterday. After wrestling with the lights and repeating "please move back so Mommy can put the pretty lights on" about 10 trillion times.. I was done in for the day. So, this evening we've been decorating the tree with ornaments, a process that is going fairly smoothly considering the ages of my helpers. ;)

Last night was Bunco for me(YEAH!!), so I made sure that my husband and kiddos had what they needed for their turkey burgers & I headed out to meet some of the Bunco girls & carpool to our friend's house that is about a 1/2 hour drive for most of us. As always, it was a refreshing evening of adult conversation.. although almost all of us have at least one kiddo & we end up talking about mommy stuff. It was especially neat last night because my friend Carrie brought her 2 month old daughter with her & my friend Melissa brought her 2 week old son with her. Oh, how precious they are... how quickly they all grow up, too! Kristi, our host, made the most wonderful sandwiches & potato soup for our dinner. Yummy! :) She is going to email all of us the soup recipe.. I can't wait!

Tonight was supposed to be a potluck at our PTO meeting at school.. I hope that it will be successful, but I just couldn't do it tonight. It's been a longish day, it's cold outside & well, I needed/wanted to just be at home & spend time doing Christmas stuff with my kiddos. I want to have lots of wonderful holiday memories with my kiddos.. and I don't want their only memories to be of us always rushing about. The fireflies & my ladybug all enjoy helping make and decorate cookies(& especially eating the cookies!). I look forward to doing things like that with them that I hope will become cherished childhood memories for them in the future.

Well.. the kiddos are beckoning to finish the tree decorations, so I better close this & make sure nothing gets inadvertantly broken. Currently, my younger firefly and my ladybug are totally fascinated with their stockings & are busy jabbering about them. Until... they managed to knock down one of the stocking holders & it cracked my poor little ladybug in the face! :( I am praying(as she holds "get better bear" fresh from the freezer, on her face) that she won't get a big black eye to go along with the scratch that the stocking holder made under her eye on it's way to the floor! There truly is never a dull moment in our household! ;)

P.S. I'll let you know how her little eye looks in the morning!

i'm still here...

Wow! I knew that I had been in a non-blogging slump for quite awhile.. I just realized that it's been almost 2 months since my last entry! Geez! I didn't realize that I'd been hiding out for that long.

I have been in a funk for a long time & just haven't really felt like posting anything. Health issues with my mother-in-law in October & just other "life" stuff have been holding me down on many levels and I haven't felt like posting anything that anyone would really want to read(not that more than say 3 or 4 people even look at this).

Now.. that Christmas season is upon us again. The fireflies & my ladybug are all getting very excited & can hardly wait to help me put the tree up & decorate it after they get home from school today. Traditionally, I put the tree & decorations up the day after Thanksgiving, but this year it's not happening until several days after. That is because the room that our tree goes in has been the playroom(otherwise known as "the pit of despair") and I have spent 3 days(working off & on) picking up 400 trillion Lego & bionicle pieces and chucking tons of broken &/or cheesy kid's meal toys. Yesterday afternoon I got it all done!! :) I also swept & swiffered the entire room in prep for putting up all the decorations & the tree this afternoon.

My Mom & I went shopping the day after Thanksgiving & got some great deals on stuff for most of the folks who are on our list this year. My youngest firefly's birthday is a week from today.. hard to believe he is already going to be 5 years old! Where does the time go?! I was able to get the radio controlled 4 wheeler toy that he wants for his birthday at 50% off, too! :)

I have lots to do to get ready for the big birthday & Christmas, so I better close my comeback post. My goal is to get back in the swing of things and write more on my blog in the days & weeks to come. :)

another long week

This week has been very long... it started with my "over-doing" last weekend when I got busy cleaning out a ton of brush & trimming bushes in our yard & working on digging all kinds of junk out of our basement, too. From time to time our basement gets wet & unfortunately so did a great deal of stuff in the basement.. digging out wet, moldy stuff is always lots of fun. ;) The job is by no means "done".. but certainly is a lot better than it had been & fortunately the garbage men took all the bags & assorted other crap that I piled at the curb this past week.

My "reward" for being so.. industrious last weekend was to feel crumby all week long. The right side of the back of my head & neck have been killing me for the better part of the week.. downing the maximum amount of ibuprofen that is recommended on the bottle has been the rule of thumb for me. Today finally brought relief.. although I am not sure what made today the magic day! I have a sneaking suspicion that my headaches & neck pain have not been entirely related to my over-doing things... I think that it started as that in the beginning, but also had a great deal of help with the stress level I've been feeling lately.

Yesterday & today, I had another garage sale with my brother & sister-in-law.. beautiful weather both days & I did make some money off of it--not as much as the last one, but it's extra & will absolutely help out.

Monday is Columbus Day & both my fireflies have the day off from school & preschool. They are going to have a surprise sleepover at my Aunt's house tomorrow evening after we go to church & then at least a partial "play day" at her house on Monday. It will be a short week for both of them because my oldest has an in-service day on Friday & subsequently another day off from school. We have also decided to keep the younger firefly home from preschool that day since his brother will be home, his Daddy is taking the day off & his Grandpa will be in town from Mesa, Arizona!! :) We're all very excited about Grandpa's visit.. as I mentioned in my last post, he has not ever met our ladybug in person & she just turned 17 months this week!

As I type this tonight, my fireflies & ladybug are all snug as bugs in their beds upstairs and my husband is watching a movie based on a book he read... not my cup of tea, but I am sorta keeping him company. Although.. my pillows sure all calling my name! :)

long time.. no post

Wow! It's been a very long time since my last post. Life has, as usual, been busy with all sorts of things--big & small.

Heritage Days was wonderful this year. Everyone enjoyed the new location on the Lewis & Clark campus' front lawn. The shade and the smaller area made it really feel like a vibrant little village this year. I have heard tons of great feedback about how things went that weekend. :)

Things are starting to get busier with my fireflies at their respective schools now that fall is officially upon us. Our preschool firefly got to go on a field trip to the apple orchard with his Daddy last week & we have a family campfire evening at the Nature Institute, as well as a field trip to the pumpkin patch scheduled with his preschool buddies for October.

Fundraiser pick-up night is this Thursday at our older firefly's school, PTO meeting tomorrow evening & next week is our Fall Festival--my husband & I are running the duck pond station for the evening.

Our ladybug keeps us on our toes.. she is very busy all the time! ;) We're all excited & can't wait for October 16th to arrive... my husband's Dad is coming up from Mesa, AZ for a brief visit. Grandpa hasn't gotten to meet our ladybug in person yet.. just lots of pictures emailed (& snail-mailed) to him. Ladybug will be 17 months old on October 8th.. time sure flies!

Well.. it feels as though this post rambles a bit, but there.. I've posted something in October & hope to get back in the swing of things on a more regular basis! :) Gotta get busy and make apple dumplings to take to Bunco tonight!