I Am Thankful...

My little sister (over a decade younger than me) seems to have influence over me in many ways. Especially in the blogging world. She did a "thankful" post, so now I shall follow suit.

I am thankful for my husband.  It's not always an easy road, this marriage thing, but he is committed to me and his love for me is real.  I cannot imagine my life without him at the center of it.

My children.  Each child of mine is adored more than I can express.  Each is very different from the other yet still very much MY child.

A girl.  I have a girl.  It is an unbelievable experience that I thought I would never have.  It is a treasure.  She is a treasure.

My Mom.  She is incredible.  She is wise and strong and goofey and corny.  I take after her in the way of the latter two.  I have the best mom in the world.

My sisters.  Sherri, Michele, Jamie...  You have all made me a better person and loved and accepted me, no matter what.  Jamie helps me get through each and everyday, processing with me via text, the benign and the bunk.

My friends, specifially Karen & Tonya.  Always, always there for me.

I am thankful for people.  Dad.  I love my Dad.  He always makes time for me and his grandchildren.

Bob. (my stepdad) He's my big teddy bear.  I love being with him.

Dawn. (my stepmom)  My other mom.  There is so much love!!!!!!!!!


People.  And my cats.

Sappy Thanksgiving!!!!!!!!!!

Dody

The Best Mom in the Whole World

Happy Birthday Mom!

My kids tell me I’m the best mom in the whole world. I believe that they really think it is true, but I know the truth... My mom is the best mom in the whole world.

Starting from my earliest memory, my mom’s unconditional love has shone constant, like the sun on the brightest of days. She never backed down from discipline and always expected me to live up to the potential God instilled in me. She has modeled eternal priorities and has never been bashful about her true passion in life… Jesus.

We’ve endured things together. They’ve all been markedly harder for her than me, and I’ve watched her handle, with God’s strength and grace; betrayal & divorce, the early and unexpected death of her beloved father, court battles with my dad, financial hardship, job instability, the death of her first born daughter, the divorces of two other daughters… Yet she has never lost grasp of God’s joy in her.

She is my hero. Yes, she is a real person with many flaws and quirks, but she, aside from God, is most responsible for every good thing in me. My mom is the best mom in the whole world.

Happy Birthday Mom!

I love you with all my heart.

Dedo

Dinner or Leaf Pile?

(As previously required for me to express, sorry for major blogging drought. Party Foul!)

So, during the last two days, I was faced with the same decision, twice!  Dinner or leaf pile?  Both times, I chose leaf pile. 

We have a huge maple tree in our backyard that drops leaves a bit late in the season.  The kids wait and wait as they see nearly all the other leaves in our and surrounding counties succumb to the season and drop to the earth.  They wait, and they watch our maple.  In late October, it finally decides to let the leaves lighten to shades of yellow-ish green.  To be honest, our first fall in this house, I felt whamboozled that my glorious maple only kinda-sorta embraces the leaf changing phenomenon by barely, whimpily and subtlely altering leaf pigmentation, then clinging to it's leaves until the freezing weather comes forcing me to clean up it's massive shedding while I get chilled to the bone.  Talk about a party foul!

Anyway, I digress.  The leaves have finally, mostly fallen.  And, I guess I've unnecessarily complained about it being November when the leaves fall because it's actually been very mild here this year.  So, two days in a row I was faced with the choice of making dinner for my family, or playing with them in the massive leaf pile.  Both times I chose the later.  Was there really much of a choice?  I only really cook a dinner two or three a week if the family is lucky, once if they are not.  So frozen pizza and Burger King it was. 

But you see, who cares?  We got to do this...

 

and this... 

 

I think I made the right decision.

I rest my case.

The Girl Who Shopped

Once upon a time...

a girl went shopping.

She found a bag of really  

cool rubber-bandy thingies.

 She wanted them.

She wondered how much they cost.

 She was... SHOCKED!

Could this be right?

"I better check the other side," she thought.

 "Do you know how much these

rubber-bandy thingies cost?" She asked.

"I guess we're not buying them, huh?"

The End.

I'd Be Lost

I'd be lost without my handy dandy cell phone.  Truly lost.  

It's smudged and chipped.  It's been through many falls.  It almost landed in the lake three weeks ago.  Oh my gosh! I would have died.

(My wallpaper is Grover in a chrysalis. Not a scarf, a chrysalis, as so beautifully done by my 4-year-old God-daughter who recently had her own caterpillars transform into butterflies.)

It's been said that every time a woman has a baby, she loses a quarter of her brain.  I have four kids. Do the math.

Actually, I must be pretty smart to use my phone to compensate for my brain degeneration, though I would argue my brain is just fine and it is the pure chaos of my life that leaves me mentally challenged.

My phone has a calendar.  Each event on the calendar can have a reminder alarm.  I use this on every event in my life.  (To think my calendar used to serve more as a record of the past since I never forgot my appointments.) As an extreme precaution, I even use it for my set work schedule.  When the alarm sounds, my husband will say, "What's that beeping for?" I usually say, "I don't know. I have to check."  It could be anything from "I have to go to work now" to "remember to wash your children's sports uniforms."  

This phone also wakes me up every morning.  I'm all for consolidating gadgets because we have so many possessions in our house with six people living here.  Alarm clock was acting funny. Tossed it.  Use the phone.

My little sister and I  hate talking on the phone, but love sharing random daily happenings from the benign to the intense to the strange.  We text... a lot.  It's how we stay connected and close.  I love my phone for this!

My phone takes crappy pictures.  But, hey, it takes pictures.  You see, I have four kids.  They are adorable and there are always things to take pictures of.  However, I have yet to set an alarm on my phone to remind me to take my camera with me when we go out, so I don't usually have it.  At least I have my phone.

Did I mention it is also my mp3 player?

I'd be lost without my LG.  I love it!

Coloring: Rated E for Everyone

My baby loves to color.  She likes to see the color appear as she strokes the crayon on the paper. And, she likes to see how many crayons she can hold in her miniature, pudgy hands, then let them drop to the table and roll to the floor.  That's a very fun game.  And sometimes we'll catch her chewing on a non-toxic Crayola. (Bad baby!  Ok, not really.  She's an angel. I could never call her bad.)

And her mommy loves to color too!  (That's me.)  I just can't seem to help myself from coloring on the pages with her.  My favorite art is the mix of toddler scratches and creative coloring/shading on the pages of a coloring book.  Maybe I'll frame some one of these days.  "The Mommy/Baby Art Collaborations," I could call them.  Maybe I could put them on display at some free and innovative art gallery.  I can see it now.... the flash bulbs of reporters, the interviews, the national coverage...   Oh. Ach hem.

Anyway, I'm just saying... I love to color with my baby.

The 8 Question Query (from my baby sis)

My sister recently responded to an 8 question blog request from a friend. She extended the challenge to me, so here goes:

1. What are your top 2 cities in the world? (It's okay if you've never been there!)

London

Moscow

I've been to both cities. Well, mostly London, which I LOVED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  My Moscow experience was the airport, a cab ride on the freeway past IKEA to McDonald's, and back to the airport. Does that count?  I want to really see Moscow though.  I am fascinated by Russia and it's history. Such an interesting, artistic culture mixed with success, oppression, pain and brilliance.

2. Are you doing what you love or doing what you have to?
 Yes and no.  I love being a mom and I love my job.  One of my biggest passions lies in worship ministry, which I am not doing.  I have to trust God's timing on that one.  I miss it.

3. Coffee or tea?
Yes!  See T is for Tea.

4. Describe the moment in your life when you felt the most loved.
This question is a little too deep for my generally light-hearted blog.  My God makes me feel the most loved, usually through rough times and intimate moments.  My mom, hubby, sister and children make me feel most loved too.  

5. Who do you think had the single biggest impact on your life so far?
The death of my sister.

6. What song lyrics say exactly what you're feeling right now?
"I hate that stupid old pick-up truck..."

7. Pro sports or college ball?
Dude.  Pro all the way.  Go Packers!

8. What book do you really, really want to see made into a movie?
Hmmm.....   Hmmmm.....  I never really get to the good books until they've already been made into a movie.  I'd love to see The Shack as movie, but it would be impossible to capture.  It would dumb it down to our visual limitations.  Not acceptable.  I guess I'll wait until Heaven...