A- Attached or single? Quite Attached!
B- Best friend? ML
C- Cake or pie? Mmmm. Depends on what kind of either and my mood. I enjoy warm homemade Apple pie with vanilla ice cream, blueberry sour cream pie (or BB cream cheese pie), pumpkin pie, homemade blackberry pie, coconut cream pie, you get the idea…then there’s cake…mostly cheesecake (and I have to agree with MIL Raspberry Lemon is probably the best…but again it’s hard to name all the ones I enjoy), but also chocolate cake, or pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting…I better stop. I’m really trying to be good and this isn’t helping!!
D- Day of Choice? FRIDAY!! It’s the last day I have to work and I know that I have Saturday, Sunday, and Monday ahead of me to enjoy as I please…well at least I can work on MY “To Do” list instead of somebody elses. :)
E- Essential Item? Ipod, dental floss, cell phone, lotion, lip gloss/chapstick…ok pretty much my purse.
F-Favorite color? Red, orange, yellow, green (I really love the fall!)
G- Gummy bears or worms? Bears, cinnamon
H- Hometown? South Jordan, I’ve really gone far!
I- Favorite Indulgence? Getting a massage, either at a spa or at home. :)
K- Kids? 2. BR (Who’s growing so fast I can’t believe it!! I keep looking at him and feeling shocked at how old he seems), and MC (Who’s also amazing me all of the time at the things she knows and how fast she seems to be growing up!!) :( Hoping for 3 this year. ;)
L- Life isn't complete without? My family, especially ML.
M- Marriage date? November 7
N- Number of brothers and sisters? 2 brothers, 6 sisters (unless you count Wanda, who’s my surrogate sister and considers us her family. She lived with us 8 years).
O- Oranges or apples? Both. I really love a crisp apple or a nice juicy, tangy orange at Christmas time!
P- Phobias or fears? Calling people on the phone. (I don’t really know when it started. I used to talk on the phone quite a bit in high school and my early years of college, but somewhere along there I decided I don’t care for it, especially me calling other people. It’s completely irrational!! I guess that’s why it’s a phobia. Y’all probably already know this but when I went to meet ML we’d never yet talked on the phone. My sister and I got to Wheat Ridge and it got to the point where I had to call him to arrange the details or go home. I nearly chose going home over making the call! My little sister (8 years my junior) told me that she was going to call him if I didn’t. I decided that I could bear my phobia of the phone more than the humiliation of my little sister doing it for me so I called. After I talked to him I almost chose going home as well because it just didn’t seem like he’d be somebody I’d like. :P I’m SO glad that I got over that one!! I’m happier every single day that I get to be with “My one and only”!!)
Q- Quote? “Trouble knocked on the door, but hearing laughter hurried away.” Benjamin Franklin
R- Reason to smile? A clean house. Little babies/toddlers.
S- Season of choice? Fall. (Spring is nice too…but it’s second best. Summer is too hot and winter is too snowy and cold…here anyway)
T- Tag three people who have to do this on their blog- Rob (maybe this will get him to acutally start his blog :P), Franzi, Allison
U- Unknown fact about me? When I was in 9th grade I noticed that the right side of my mouth was not going up when I’d smile, and then as I made faces at myself in the mirror I realized that my right eye wouldn’t close very well and my right eyebrow wouldn’t go up, and to the intense amusement to some of my friends, my right nostril wouldn’t flare up. My mom freaked out because she thought I was having a stroke, come to find out it was just a temporary case of Bells Palsey. So for about seven weeks my face looked a bit freakish. :)
V- Vegetable? Well this probably doesn’t count but I just LOVE a good, fresh salad!!
W- Worst habit? Overestimating what I can get done in any given amount of time and not feeding myself enough when I’m busy (which is always) so then my blood sugar gets low and I get grumpy (especially with my kids) :(
X- X-ray or ultrasound? Hmm I’ve had X-rays more than ultrasounds, but both for unpleasant things…I’d have to say ultrasounds are worse because you have to drink a whole bunch and then HOLD it while they press on your BLADDER and you think you’re going to die before they let you go relieve yourself! With an X-ray you just have to hold your breath for a second.
Y- Your favorite food? Is Chocolate a food? :p Well one of my favorite REAL foods is Bang Bang Chicken and Shrimp (and many other Thai dishes) or Avocado Eggrolls…oh yeah!!
Z- Zodiac sign? Some say Capricorn and some say Sagittarius, who knows? who cares?
Monday, January 14, 2008
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Okay, Just one more, and then I'm REALLY going to bed!
I just have to say that I have the sweetest husband ever!! This morning I unplugged my ipod before I left to go take the kids to school and then head to my client's house to clean. The ipod was working fine when I left but when I was on my way I tried to turn it on and it was completely dead! not a spark of life in it. I texted ML quite disconsolately and he volunteered buying me a new one, syncing it and driving it out to me. I ended up meeting him at the store whereupon he saved my day! :) (I quite depend on my silly little ipod to keep me sane in my days of endless toil....it's really not that bad, I just really, really, really like it much better with the ipod!) :P
So now I'm staying up late syncing new stuff to my ipod and being rather foolish since I've got another cleaning engagement early tomorrow. But how can I not play with my new toy?!?! (Any excuse will do for staying up late.)
So now I'm staying up late syncing new stuff to my ipod and being rather foolish since I've got another cleaning engagement early tomorrow. But how can I not play with my new toy?!?! (Any excuse will do for staying up late.)
You wanna know something else???
Well, maybe you do and maybe you don't...but I'm gonna tell you anyway.
Whenever I read a blog and I comment, I always check the box that requests any comments to be sent to my email account because I don't want to miss out on something somebody says... Well the funny thing is that I logged onto my email account tonight and I had about 61 unread emails, and many of them were comments that I'd already read because I check everybody's blog far more frequently than I check my own email! :P
Moral of the story: If you want me to know something or want to ask me something, post it on somebody's blog. :D
Whenever I read a blog and I comment, I always check the box that requests any comments to be sent to my email account because I don't want to miss out on something somebody says... Well the funny thing is that I logged onto my email account tonight and I had about 61 unread emails, and many of them were comments that I'd already read because I check everybody's blog far more frequently than I check my own email! :P
Moral of the story: If you want me to know something or want to ask me something, post it on somebody's blog. :D
A bit distracted...
As Serin so aptly put it in her comment on my last post, "Apparently that really wore you out - you haven't posted since!" Tis sad but true. I feel that my brain is a bit mush lately. Sorry to disappoint. :) And I know how it must be such a let down for I love checking everybody's blog and it's always a delight when I find new reading material posted. In fact that's part of the problem. You all post so darn much that all the spare time I find to sit down to blogging (which is more than I really have...as you can tell by the time that I'm once again burning my candle at the wrong end) I spend in reading, relishing and chuckling at all y'alls witty posts and darling pictures/videos. Hence my blog has all but dried up. But hey keep up the good work everybody else!! I'm highly entertained, and it's all about me right?!!? :P
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Happy New Year Everybody!!
This year bodes many good things, I can just feel it! ;) So many things happened this past year that I wouldn't even have been able to guess at last New Years!!
One great thing was that my parents invited us on a cruise to the Mediterranean! It was the one I was hoping to do, my absolute dream cruise, but I never thought it would happen...it seemed far too unrealistic to hope for. I planned, pondered, wondered and searched the Internet for hours in preparation for that cruise...probably far longer than the 17 days we were gone. ;) And I must say, it was incredible! I was ecstatic to just leave our continent first of all, but then after the thrill of crossing the ocean for the first time and setting foot on European soil, many more amazing things followed. (Sorry, can't give a travel-log here though.)
Another super-great event was that BR got his name drawn in a lottery for a FANTASTIC charter school and I didn't have to home school anymore (if you listen really hard you might hear 3...maybe even 4 "whew"s after that)! It was Ben's idea to apply to the charter schools ;) and we had no idea which ones were any good at the time but it just so happens (you may call it coincidence, but I think not!) that it's the best one in the area (no bias here). :P
MC (and all of us) was thrilled when her first girl cousin on ML's side of the family arrived and we got to go meet her and attend her blessing. We've all loved to see her grow...really to see her any chance we get. ;)
In addition to that our wonderful PAWS met a fantastic man on LDS singles (great site) ;) and we got to hear all about him when she'd clean with us every week. It was so great to hear her talk about a good guy for a change, well let me amend that, a guy who appreciated her and saw in her the wonderful things that those other guys were too blind to see. Then...well, then we lost our dear PAWS. She moved to Phoenix. Sad for us but happy for her and her "LOML". :) We couldn't be happier about it though, cuz if she's happy, we're happy!
Then we found out that our dear PAWS decided to get married in the Chicago Temple AND that we would be able to go AND that we'd be able to participate in the sealing of several special ancestors to ML and his family. (It was a once in a lifetime experience and we wouldn't have traded any of it for the world...well except for the part when we made Serin miss her flight, but that too was serindipitous for us because we got to hang out with her for the evening). :P
As all of this is happening ML gets encouraged to apply, and hired to a new position at the credit union. Well, I don't know if he would count this as one of the great things of 2007 but I have a feeling that someday we'll be able to look back and see past all of the heartache and trials that have accompanied this position, and we'll be able to again see the Hand of God guiding his path. I believe that it will yet be another stepping stone for him to ultimately have the perfect career for him. (However, perhaps in his mind, he just left behind the perfect career...almost).
One blessing that definitely came from his promotion at the CU was that it led to the next momentous blessing in our lives! We decided to start looking at buying a house. Well, there were several factors that led to the fulfilment of that dream but through ML's promotion, the market changing to a buyer's market, and ML's parents wanting a place that they could call "home in Utah" (as opposed to their "home in Colorado") :P we were able to buy a home that is a dream!! Before this actually happened I was continually holding to the idea that we would get a home after ML finished school, and that it would be nuts to even think about buying a home before that...well there's no saying that we're not nuts, but I'm still in awe, every day, that we have this beautiful house, and that it's our home.
And finally as the icing on the cake, we got to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas in our new home with ML's parents. It was a really great holiday. And it was really special to be able to have "Grandma and Grandpa" to spend it with! I was about to tell about those two days, which I haven't done yet. :O But I decided it would be better to save that for another post altogether.
There are SO many events (and I've probably missed some) that happened this year that I held only as distant daydreams....so I daresay, this year holds at least one dream-come-true.... don't you?
One great thing was that my parents invited us on a cruise to the Mediterranean! It was the one I was hoping to do, my absolute dream cruise, but I never thought it would happen...it seemed far too unrealistic to hope for. I planned, pondered, wondered and searched the Internet for hours in preparation for that cruise...probably far longer than the 17 days we were gone. ;) And I must say, it was incredible! I was ecstatic to just leave our continent first of all, but then after the thrill of crossing the ocean for the first time and setting foot on European soil, many more amazing things followed. (Sorry, can't give a travel-log here though.)
Another super-great event was that BR got his name drawn in a lottery for a FANTASTIC charter school and I didn't have to home school anymore (if you listen really hard you might hear 3...maybe even 4 "whew"s after that)! It was Ben's idea to apply to the charter schools ;) and we had no idea which ones were any good at the time but it just so happens (you may call it coincidence, but I think not!) that it's the best one in the area (no bias here). :P
MC (and all of us) was thrilled when her first girl cousin on ML's side of the family arrived and we got to go meet her and attend her blessing. We've all loved to see her grow...really to see her any chance we get. ;)
In addition to that our wonderful PAWS met a fantastic man on LDS singles (great site) ;) and we got to hear all about him when she'd clean with us every week. It was so great to hear her talk about a good guy for a change, well let me amend that, a guy who appreciated her and saw in her the wonderful things that those other guys were too blind to see. Then...well, then we lost our dear PAWS. She moved to Phoenix. Sad for us but happy for her and her "LOML". :) We couldn't be happier about it though, cuz if she's happy, we're happy!
Then we found out that our dear PAWS decided to get married in the Chicago Temple AND that we would be able to go AND that we'd be able to participate in the sealing of several special ancestors to ML and his family. (It was a once in a lifetime experience and we wouldn't have traded any of it for the world...well except for the part when we made Serin miss her flight, but that too was serindipitous for us because we got to hang out with her for the evening). :P
As all of this is happening ML gets encouraged to apply, and hired to a new position at the credit union. Well, I don't know if he would count this as one of the great things of 2007 but I have a feeling that someday we'll be able to look back and see past all of the heartache and trials that have accompanied this position, and we'll be able to again see the Hand of God guiding his path. I believe that it will yet be another stepping stone for him to ultimately have the perfect career for him. (However, perhaps in his mind, he just left behind the perfect career...almost).
One blessing that definitely came from his promotion at the CU was that it led to the next momentous blessing in our lives! We decided to start looking at buying a house. Well, there were several factors that led to the fulfilment of that dream but through ML's promotion, the market changing to a buyer's market, and ML's parents wanting a place that they could call "home in Utah" (as opposed to their "home in Colorado") :P we were able to buy a home that is a dream!! Before this actually happened I was continually holding to the idea that we would get a home after ML finished school, and that it would be nuts to even think about buying a home before that...well there's no saying that we're not nuts, but I'm still in awe, every day, that we have this beautiful house, and that it's our home.
And finally as the icing on the cake, we got to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas in our new home with ML's parents. It was a really great holiday. And it was really special to be able to have "Grandma and Grandpa" to spend it with! I was about to tell about those two days, which I haven't done yet. :O But I decided it would be better to save that for another post altogether.
There are SO many events (and I've probably missed some) that happened this year that I held only as distant daydreams....so I daresay, this year holds at least one dream-come-true.... don't you?
Monday, December 31, 2007
Making Progress
Thanks to all of you who gave me advice for our birth parent letter. It gave me the inspiration I needed to get it rolling! Yesterday ML and I sat down and wrote down some thoughts and ideas which provided a rough outline for the letter. BR and MC got in the spirit and threw out tidbits of their feelings about adopting a new baby. They are excited. (But BR is mostly only excited if it turns out to be a boy :P). MC even wrote down some of her thoughts on paper in her cute phonetic way of spelling things. :) She brought me a paper while ML and I were brainstorming yesterday that said, "I love babys bckes thay are sow kot. I like to play with my flamly eveday evin the dedy" Cute huh? (Translation in case some of it isn't obvious: I love babies because they are so cute. I like to play with my family everyday even the baby. ).
And then as I sat down to write the letter today Ben wrote his own letter to the baby. This is what it said:
"Dear Baby,
I would love you as a new brother [or sister] to play with. (I could use an extra set of hands) I would like [you] to play the wii with me and help me with shoveling the snow. I mean to have fun with [you]. I wonder what your birthday is. I could share my Legoes when you are 10 years old (like on 2007 for me). If you like one kind of lego product tell me what it is, okay.
Your brother,
Ben."
(I had to ask BR if we could add "or sister" into his letter and he was game as long as he didn't have to do it himself.) lol
And MC brought me a drawing of our family with the baby titled, "On that day I love the bady (baby), the dady wil hvv a famly (the baby will have a family)". Precious huh?
So, any of you who are interested in giving me feedback on our letter let me know and I'll email you a copy. (I'm too shy to post it for all to read...but not too shy to post my children's letters) ;)
And then as I sat down to write the letter today Ben wrote his own letter to the baby. This is what it said:
"Dear Baby,
I would love you as a new brother [or sister] to play with. (I could use an extra set of hands) I would like [you] to play the wii with me and help me with shoveling the snow. I mean to have fun with [you]. I wonder what your birthday is. I could share my Legoes when you are 10 years old (like on 2007 for me). If you like one kind of lego product tell me what it is, okay.
Your brother,
Ben."
(I had to ask BR if we could add "or sister" into his letter and he was game as long as he didn't have to do it himself.) lol
And MC brought me a drawing of our family with the baby titled, "On that day I love the bady (baby), the dady wil hvv a famly (the baby will have a family)". Precious huh?
So, any of you who are interested in giving me feedback on our letter let me know and I'll email you a copy. (I'm too shy to post it for all to read...but not too shy to post my children's letters) ;)
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Back to Christmas 2007:
Warning: All the lists are not highly entertaining...mostly for journaling purposes, but pictures are always fun. :)
We started out the morning with opening our stockings:
MC’s:• a baby ballerina doll that MIL
got because it looked just like her
• scrapbook paper (cut into various smaller sheets/to make small pages)
• glue
• scrapbook kit (embellishments and paper)
• card making kit
• a paint your own mini tea set
• chapstick
• chocolate bar
• mini embosser
• mini stamp set with four color stamp pad
• lotion
• angel necklace
• mechanical pencils
• gel pens
BR’s:
• book on how to draw dc comics with markers, pencils, eraser
and drawing pages
• chocolate bar
• chapstick
• a paint your own race car night light
(it sounds too immature for him…but it was free when I got MC’s paint your own tea set…he liked it well enough) :P
• mechanical pencils
• gel pens
• wii steering wheel
ML’s:
• brass collar stays
• 1 pair smart wool socks
• chocolate bar
• chapstick
• drawing pencil set
• 2 DVD’s (Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and 3)
• tooth brush heads for his sonicare tooth brush
• massage lotion
Mine:• love spell lotion
• 2 other lotions (massage)
• chocolate bar
• Mac makeup
MIL’s:• coconut bar
• Mac makeup
• 2 pairs of Christmas socks
FIL’s:
• cashews
• mandarin oranges
• chocolate bar
• Benchmade knife sharpener
• Handkerchiefs
• I'm not sure what else...MIL and I kind of had fun finding random things and sticking them in. :P
Then we moved on to opening gifts. We start with one person (I can’t remember who it was this time) and then that person gets to pick the next gift from under the tree for the next person.
Family:
From IMITIMUINC: Wonderful
and soft knitted throw that everybody loves to cuddle up with
From my parents: A game called "LIEbrary" it's like balderdash except you have to make up the first line of real books and try to sound convincing all the while trying to determine which one is the real first line. (I got duped every time!!)
From "Santa":
• Portable DVD player
• Game called “Pop Belly”. You have to try NOT to pop the belly of various pigs as you fill them up with discs piggybank style.
MC:
From us:
• ½ a bike
• pants
From MIL and FIL:
• ballerina outfit
• create your own ballerina doll
From Grandpa and Grandma in AZ:
• the other ½ of the bike :P (in case anyone is like Amelia Bedelia and needs clarification: The bike was not really in 2 pieces, it was just from 2 parties.) ;)
• Christmas tree ornament
• some books
From my parents:
• Tinkerbell watch
• calendar
• CYO hoola hoop
BR:
From us:
• Mater National Championship wii game
• 2 lego sets
From MIL and FIL:
• 2 MORE lego sets :P
From Grandpa and Grandma in AZ:
• VTech game system
• some games for VTech
• books
• Christmas tree ornament
From my parents:
• Superman watch
• calendar
• noise making slime
• CYO character hat
ML:
From me:
• Patagonia long underwear (top and bottom)
• tie
• sweater and dress pants
• tracing paper
• 2 pair dress smart wool socks
From the kids:
• $50 megaplex gift card
From MIL and FIL (his parents):
• the latest and greatest titanium Leatherman
From my parents:
• calendar
• cruise/trip to the Mediterranean!! :P
Me:
From ML:
• new quilt for the new king size bed!! Yay
• king size sheet set (I got to open it early though because I got the bed on the 21st) :P
From MIL and FIL:
• blender
From my parents:
• calendar
• CRUISE!!
MIL:
From FIL:
• crystal Eiffel Tower
From us:
• red sweater
FIL:
From MIL:
• vehicle back up camera
• noise canceling headphones
From us:
• 5.11 tactical pants
• knee pads to go in tactical pants
After the melee of gift opening
was over MIL and I made a brunch and the kids and ML and FIL played Mater National Championship for several hours!!
(Breaking, of course, to eat!) After the brunch, MIL and I went up to her room and did ear candles in her ear that 
gives her troubles once in a while. It all went well until we set off the fire alarm. :P 
BR and FIL played more "Mater National Championship on the wii while MC and ML made MC's CYO Ballerina that she got from MIL and FIL (whew, is that enough acronyms for one sentence??!!?)
Then ML, my kids and I went over to my parent’s house, opened gifts and ate leftovers (we missed the main Christmas dinner). :P I and my kids also got to talk to my little brother on his mission in CT. ;)
We started out the morning with opening our stockings:
MC’s:• a baby ballerina doll that MIL
got because it looked just like her• scrapbook paper (cut into various smaller sheets/to make small pages)
• glue
• scrapbook kit (embellishments and paper)
• card making kit
• a paint your own mini tea set
• chapstick
• chocolate bar
• mini embosser
• mini stamp set with four color stamp pad
• lotion
• angel necklace
• mechanical pencils
• gel pens
BR’s:
• book on how to draw dc comics with markers, pencils, eraser
and drawing pages
• chocolate bar
• chapstick
• a paint your own race car night light
(it sounds too immature for him…but it was free when I got MC’s paint your own tea set…he liked it well enough) :P
• mechanical pencils
• gel pens
• wii steering wheel
ML’s:
• brass collar stays
• 1 pair smart wool socks
• chocolate bar
• chapstick
• drawing pencil set
• 2 DVD’s (Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and 3)
• tooth brush heads for his sonicare tooth brush
• massage lotion
Mine:• love spell lotion
• 2 other lotions (massage)
• chocolate bar
• Mac makeup
MIL’s:• coconut bar
• Mac makeup
• 2 pairs of Christmas socks
FIL’s:
• cashews
• mandarin oranges
• chocolate bar
• Benchmade knife sharpener
• Handkerchiefs
• I'm not sure what else...MIL and I kind of had fun finding random things and sticking them in. :P
Then we moved on to opening gifts. We start with one person (I can’t remember who it was this time) and then that person gets to pick the next gift from under the tree for the next person.
Family:
From IMITIMUINC: Wonderful
and soft knitted throw that everybody loves to cuddle up withFrom my parents: A game called "LIEbrary" it's like balderdash except you have to make up the first line of real books and try to sound convincing all the while trying to determine which one is the real first line. (I got duped every time!!)
From "Santa":
• Portable DVD player
• Game called “Pop Belly”. You have to try NOT to pop the belly of various pigs as you fill them up with discs piggybank style.
MC:
From us:
• ½ a bike
• pants
From MIL and FIL:• ballerina outfit
• create your own ballerina doll
From Grandpa and Grandma in AZ:
• the other ½ of the bike :P (in case anyone is like Amelia Bedelia and needs clarification: The bike was not really in 2 pieces, it was just from 2 parties.) ;)
• Christmas tree ornament
• some books
From my parents:
• Tinkerbell watch
• calendar
• CYO hoola hoop
BR:
From us:
• Mater National Championship wii game
• 2 lego sets
From MIL and FIL:
• 2 MORE lego sets :P
From Grandpa and Grandma in AZ:
• VTech game system
• some games for VTech
• books
• Christmas tree ornament
From my parents:
• Superman watch
• calendar
• noise making slime
• CYO character hat
ML:
From me:
• Patagonia long underwear (top and bottom)
• tie
• sweater and dress pants
• tracing paper
• 2 pair dress smart wool socks
From the kids:
• $50 megaplex gift card
From MIL and FIL (his parents):
• the latest and greatest titanium Leatherman
From my parents:
• calendar
• cruise/trip to the Mediterranean!! :P
Me:
From ML:
• new quilt for the new king size bed!! Yay • king size sheet set (I got to open it early though because I got the bed on the 21st) :P
From MIL and FIL:
• blender
From my parents:
• calendar
• CRUISE!!
MIL:
From FIL:
• crystal Eiffel Tower
From us:
• red sweater
FIL:
From MIL:
• vehicle back up camera
• noise canceling headphones
From us:
• 5.11 tactical pants
• knee pads to go in tactical pants
After the melee of gift opening
was over MIL and I made a brunch and the kids and ML and FIL played Mater National Championship for several hours!! 
(Breaking, of course, to eat!) After the brunch, MIL and I went up to her room and did ear candles in her ear that 
gives her troubles once in a while. It all went well until we set off the fire alarm. :P 
BR and FIL played more "Mater National Championship on the wii while MC and ML made MC's CYO Ballerina that she got from MIL and FIL (whew, is that enough acronyms for one sentence??!!?)
Then ML, my kids and I went over to my parent’s house, opened gifts and ate leftovers (we missed the main Christmas dinner). :P I and my kids also got to talk to my little brother on his mission in CT. ;)
Friday, December 28, 2007
Christmas Eve ...It's about time
I feel like my brain is mush lately. As I go about my day I'll think of things to write about but then as I sit down at the computer for a few seconds everything escapes me... so I've decided rather than write anything current I'll just tell you about Christmas Eve. :P I know, I know I've been quite the slacker blogger lately, oh well. C'est la vie.
So here's our Christmas Eve: We started out the day, well let me amend that, ML and BR started out the day by going sledding. I got to sleep in, (which I quite enjoy, refer to previous post: "Late Night Addictions", nope still haven't gotten over that one...maybe this year.) After sledding ML went with his dad to a shooting range and got to try out some "really cool, big guns!" I'm not sure if I got the quote right, but you should have seen the grins on their faces and the sparkle in their eyes when they got back and told us all about it. While they were gone the kids played on the wii, of course, and ML's mom and I worked on dinner and we took MC and ran a few quick errands. We had a nice turkey dinner when we were all back home. We'd thought about taking tracks downtown in the evening after dinner but as we looked outside at the terribly blizzardy weather, we decided that it was a perfect night to stay at home and cuddle up in front of....the TV. So we watched Mr. Kruegar's Christmas, read the Christmas story, opened pajamas, and then watched The Polar Express. It was a great evening, well spent!
So here's our Christmas Eve: We started out the day, well let me amend that, ML and BR started out the day by going sledding. I got to sleep in, (which I quite enjoy, refer to previous post: "Late Night Addictions", nope still haven't gotten over that one...maybe this year.) After sledding ML went with his dad to a shooting range and got to try out some "really cool, big guns!" I'm not sure if I got the quote right, but you should have seen the grins on their faces and the sparkle in their eyes when they got back and told us all about it. While they were gone the kids played on the wii, of course, and ML's mom and I worked on dinner and we took MC and ran a few quick errands. We had a nice turkey dinner when we were all back home. We'd thought about taking tracks downtown in the evening after dinner but as we looked outside at the terribly blizzardy weather, we decided that it was a perfect night to stay at home and cuddle up in front of....the TV. So we watched Mr. Kruegar's Christmas, read the Christmas story, opened pajamas, and then watched The Polar Express. It was a great evening, well spent!
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Survey...
We have to write a "birth parent letter" that will be posted online on itsaboutlove.com for any potential birth parents that may look at our profile. From reading our birth parent letter and reading about us and our family they can decide if we might be a family they would like to consider. This idea of writing to an unknown birth parent, and saying the right thing, has really stumped me and I've been sitting on it for quite some time. I thought I'd survey all of you, petitioning for any ideas or advice about what you would write....Thank you all ahead of time for your input!! :)
Monday, December 24, 2007
Christmas is torture :(
Due to various reasons:
*My lack of being prepared ahead of time
*My family of origin's tradition of waiting until Christmas Eve (after the kids are in bed) to put out the gifts
*My kids' former belief in Santa (they found out last year)
We have waited, for the most part, until Christmas Eve to put out any presents. Well, for some reason (partly because they know about Santa), this year, I decided to put out presents as we wrap them or as they got sent to us. So for weeks now there have been presents under our tree and slowly accumulating more. After the first few were there BR comes to me and asks if they can open their presents. I tell him that we are going to wait for Christmas just like we always do and he proceeds to get all teary eyed, with the trembling lip and all. Similarly, MC has spent hours looking at the presents, shaking the presents, speculating which ones are legos for BR (which she's determined to be most of them, even the ones that are clothes or books), wondering which presents are hers (we don't have labels on most of our presents) and bemoaning the fact that she wishes they could open them now or that Christmas would hurry up. These behaviors, which were very unexpected (I somehow forgot that we'd never done it this way before and expected my kids to think it completely normal), has sparked conversations about different traditions/practices. My MIL mentioned how she never put names on her presents either and how she figured it added to the excitement, wonder and anticipation for her kids. We decided to find out what ML thought of it when he was a kid. He said it was pure torture.
*My lack of being prepared ahead of time
*My family of origin's tradition of waiting until Christmas Eve (after the kids are in bed) to put out the gifts
*My kids' former belief in Santa (they found out last year)
We have waited, for the most part, until Christmas Eve to put out any presents. Well, for some reason (partly because they know about Santa), this year, I decided to put out presents as we wrap them or as they got sent to us. So for weeks now there have been presents under our tree and slowly accumulating more. After the first few were there BR comes to me and asks if they can open their presents. I tell him that we are going to wait for Christmas just like we always do and he proceeds to get all teary eyed, with the trembling lip and all. Similarly, MC has spent hours looking at the presents, shaking the presents, speculating which ones are legos for BR (which she's determined to be most of them, even the ones that are clothes or books), wondering which presents are hers (we don't have labels on most of our presents) and bemoaning the fact that she wishes they could open them now or that Christmas would hurry up. These behaviors, which were very unexpected (I somehow forgot that we'd never done it this way before and expected my kids to think it completely normal), has sparked conversations about different traditions/practices. My MIL mentioned how she never put names on her presents either and how she figured it added to the excitement, wonder and anticipation for her kids. We decided to find out what ML thought of it when he was a kid. He said it was pure torture.
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