Easter Weekend 2010

This Easter was one of the best Easters I’ve had in a long time! We always have good Easters, but this one really was a lot of fun!

Saturday started with my sister and a couple of other bridesmaids coming over to put together invitations. She brought some bagels and drinks and we got to work. I had to leave for a hair appointment, and while I was gone my other sister got into town. When I got back, we finished up the invitations and then just hung out the rest of the day. My parents were over off and on, and we played outside and watched some movies.

Kylie and I went out and spent a lot of time on the trampoline together. We had so much fun jumping and laughing together. After that we went over to my dad’s back patio where he was sitting and hung out with him. I really loved the individual time I got to spend with Kylie.

Saturday night we got some Chinese food and at a late dinner. Suzie helped give the kids baths and we got them all into bed. The adults settled on the couch and I filled Easter eggs while we watched TV. Suzie and I love watching Being Erica, which she doesn’t get up in Michigan, so it’s always expected that we’ll watch at least one episode I have taped while she’s here.

Sunday morning we woke up and got everyone ready for church. The sun was shining and it was beautiful out! The kids all looked adorable in their brightly-colored Easter outfits and we were all in good moods (well, except for John who was quickly losing his patience with us because we were running late).

Our church was held at a hotel because where we normally meet was not open on Easter. The hotel was gorgeous, and we quickly went in and set up the kids’ rooms with their toys and snacks and other items. The baby room was the coat closet!

I love the feeling at church on Easter Sunday. Everyone is happy and smiling. And did I mention the gorgeous weather? We don’t have many gorgeous Easters, so it was apparent that everyone was enjoying this day.

After church, we cleaned up all the kids’ rooms and headed home. Ryan fell asleep on the way, so once we got home I took Kylie and Josh outside to get some pictures. Once my family got to the house, we let the kids go look for their Easter baskets.

We had a great lunch of cut-up fruit and crackers and chips and dip. Ryan finally woke up and we all went outside for a family picture. I was afraid I was not going to get one again this year because of his nap, but thankfully, I made it just in time! Last year, by the time Ryan woke up, Josh had chocolate all over his shirt, and John had changed his clothes :)

We sent Kylie and Josh inside so that John and I could go and hide all of the Easter eggs outside. Then they came out and went hunting! This was Ryan’s first year and he did really well :) They were all so cute out there looking for their eggs! It’s funny, my kids just wanted to hunt, they never even opened up the eggs to see what was in them! And as everyone who knows my family jokes, most of the candy will still be around next Easter!

The rest of the day was spent playing outside. John’s parents came over for a visit and we all sat around and talked, jumped on the trampoline swung on the swings (or “weee” as Ryan calls it) and just enjoyed the absolutely gorgeous weather. It was so gorgeous that we decided to have our Easter dinner outside! We had a great dinner of ham, scalloped potatoes, broccoli and bread.

After dinner John’s parents left, and soon after that my dad, Cindy and big Josh left too. Then we played some baseball in the court with our neighbors. After that the kids all went back to the trampoline and we hung out with our neighbors.

Finally it was time to clean up and get ready for bed. It took a while, the house was a mess! But finally we had all kids in bed and most everything cleaned up, and John, Suzie and I sat on the couch to watch some TV. Suzie was leaving for vacation the next day, so it was a nice treat to have her with us on a Sunday afternoon. John opened his birthday presents from her and Cindy, and later on Darrin came in. We informed him that Kylie and Suzie were sleeping in the Buckeye room, and he and Josh were in the princess room…quite backwards!

So that was Easter weekend. Just writing about it brings back the good feelings and overall happiness I felt the whole time!

Last week was Kylie’s spring break. We had decided a while ago that we would not be going anywhere because the thought of trying to travel with Ryan right now makes my head spin. So John and I decided that we would take off Thursday and Friday and just hang out at home.

Unfortunately, leading up to those days off, John was working late every night. Twice he didn’t get home until after the kids were in bed. But it would all be worth it when we got to spend all that extra time together on Thursday and Friday, right? Maybe….

Thursday we decided to take the kids to COSI, which is a wonderful science museum we have in Columbus. We got there around lunch time, looked at a few exhibits, ate lunch, and then looked at more exibits. Kylie’s really getting into science, so she really had a good time. Ryan did really well…he would ride in the stroller and then I would get him out to run around when we were in areas that weren’t really busy. I had brought all of his “nap stuff” (real paci, elmo paci to hold, cookie monster paci to hold, and his mp3 player), and I would keep asking him “paci go nigh-night?” and he would emphatically shake his head and say “no.” Thankfully it really didn’t affect his mood…he did really well.

We ended the afternoon by getting Dippin Dots (my favorite) and just sitting and eating them. After that we dodged the rain drops and went home. The rest of the evening was relaxed and low-key while I made fried chicken for dinner and the kids played with John. We watched as it rained and then sleeted and then snowed all evening, very thankful that we didn’t have to go to work the next morning.

Friday we were awoken to John’s phone ringing. He finally got up and answered it and found out one of his clients was having a computer emergency. So he went into the office “for a couple of hours” (yeah right…I know what that means when he says it!), and the kids and I hung out all day. We had woken up to everything being covered with snow. No one had predicted this and the road crews certainly weren’t ready for it…it took John over an hour to get to work and it wasn’t even rush hour!

While the kids were napping (well, Ryan was, Kylie and Josh were “attempting to nap”), my neighbor came over and we discussed some recent events surrounding some recent events involving another neighbor, and then John finally came home!

That night was house church followed by the Buckeye basketball game. I had a lot of fun hanging out with everyone and we had some really good food to eat!

Saturday we went to a local market to get some cheap lunch meat and other goodies (like donuts, which Ryan of course loved), and then I took Kylie to gymnastics. It’s been a while since I’ve gotten to watch her, and I had so much fun seeing all of the new things she has learned! The rest of the day was spent with my sister getting her wedding invitations squared away. Some of her bridesmaids will be over this next Saturday to assemble all of them, so we wanted to make sure we had everything planned out.

Saturday evening Ryan started with a runny nose. I put him to bed, and at 10:00 he was up again, cranky. I started to get frustrated, but then I realized how lucky we had been this winter with no sickness, and I haven’t been up with Ryan in so long, so I really didn’t have a right to complain! I got him back to sleep, but he was up again around 12:00, and spent the rest of the night in our bed constantly waking up. At 6:00 AM he was up for good, so I took him down to the couch and we watched “choo-choos” (Thomas). Kylie and Josh came down at 6:30, which is so early for them, but with Ryan being so loud it was no surprise they couldn’t sleep! Josh told me as he climbed onto the couch that he just couldn’t fall asleep. I told him that was fine, he would just need to take a good nap that afternoon. Come to find out, he thought he had been up all night! He thought he had never fallen asleep at all!

Around 8:00 Ryan was ready to go back to sleep, so I laid him in his crib and I climbed into my bed. John took the other two kids to church, and Ryan and I were able to get some much needed sleep!

The rest of the day was spent doing laundry, playing, and wiping Ryan’s nose! He ended up taking three naps throughout the day and really was in a pretty good mood considering how sick he was.

John and I cleaned out our coat closets this weekend in hopes that by putting away all of the snow stuff we would be done with cold weather. I was a little worried because as evidenced this past weekend, you never know what the weather will do! But in seeing the weather reports, we’re supposed to get in the mid 70’s the second half of this week, with clear and sunny skies. I really hope that the warm weather is here to stay this time…I’m done with being cold!

Plans For The Weekend...

The last part of this week has been absolutely gorgeous! I have gone out for lunch (not really to eat, just to run errands) and it has been sunny and beautiful, and then when I get home from work, I run inside and change my clothes as fast as possible and head back outside until we’re all so hungry we have to go in to eat.

Last night our fantastic Bobcats played their hearts out and upset Georgetown, beating them 97 – 83. I am a die-hard Bobcat fan…we obviously have a huge history with that school, but I was expecting them to follow their normal path…get so close and blow it. I’m so glad that they didn’t, and now there are rumors about a possible Bobcat/Buckeye meeting…that would be a hard game to watch!

I’m only working a ½ day today…it’s going to be so gorgeous that I can’t stay inside another afternoon! John and I are also taking some time off next week since it’s spring break. We’re having a hard time with the fact that last year at this time we were in Florida, but I just can’t imagine traveling with Ryan, so while I miss the beach, I don’t miss the headache of trying to occupy an 18 month-old on a plane for hours :)

Tonight we have house church (yeah!), followed by the Buckeye game which will keep us up late and on the edge of our seats I’m sure. Tomorrow I have a brunch with some girls from church (we make omelets in a ziplock bag?), and then it’s going to be another gorgeous day, so I hope to spend the afternoon outside!

Sunday is John’s birthday! He hasn’t really told me what he wants to do yet, and I feel bad for him because it’s just us…everyone from our family is gone :( But I’ll cook him whatever he wants to eat, make him a cake, and we’ll give him his presents. No matter what, nothing can compare to spending his birthday at Disney like we did last year :(

Hopefully it will be a great weekend and we’ll get to enjoy the gorgeous weather as much as possible!

Spring is Coming!

Good-bye winter!

The last few days have been wonderful. Partly because it’s still light out at 7:30, and partly because we have had some warm weather.

Monday night John took Josh to their last CBJ game this season. They went early so they could watch them practice, at which, one of the players threw Joshie a practice puck! Actually, he threw it over to John who gave it to Joshie. It says “Official NHL Practice Puck” on it and Josh was so excited!

While they were at the game, Kylie and I ran to the store while my mom was with Ryan, who was taking a really late nap. I had a lot of fun going with just Kylie! What surprised me was that she wanted to ride in the racecar cart. I thought she’d be so embarrassed, but she wasn’t, and I certainly didn’t want to say anything to her, so off we went.

When we got home, she wanted to make us dinner. A long time ago she saw a “recipe” for a meal in her kids’ cookbook, and ever since then it’s been her signature dish. So she got out all the ingredients and made her peanut butter, jelly and banana sandwiches for everyone. Basically, she uses a hot dog bun, spreads peanut butter and jelly on each side, and then puts the banana in like a hot dog. For Ryan, we just spread peanut butter and jelly on a banana and cut it up for him. I was fully prepared to give him a bath right after dinner since it would be a messy, sticky dinner, but he refused to eat it with his hands! He made me give him a fork and he was almost perfectly clean after dinner – no bath needed! Granted, I had to help him get almost every piece on the fork, but after that he was fine.

After dinner, my mom, Kylie, Ryan and I went downstairs. Ryan wanted to go down in the basement because that’s where the trains are, and Kylie wanted to play in the playroom (her mat and beam were there and she wanted to do gymnastics). So I stood by the door watching Ryan, and helped Kylie with her back handsprings. She’s pretty much got them by herself, I’m so proud of her! Then Ryan came up and we all played on the mat and wrestled and chased each other. Ryan found one of Joshie’s old ambulances that makes the siren noise and then goes by itself and he was in heaven!

Then Kylie went up to bed, I put Ryan to bed, and my mom went home. I made myself some dessert and settled on the couch to watch one of my favorite shows (Being Erica) that I’m of course, way behind on (thank goodness for DVR – so cliché but it’s true). I heard the ambulance noises through the monitor, so I knew that Ryan was playing for a while before falling asleep. John and Josh got home around 10:00 and the three of us watched some TV together and ate some snacks. I left them and went upstairs to bed around 11:00.

Last night it was gorgeous out! I got home and the kids were all playing on the swingset. I changed my clothes quickly and headed out. I took Ryan on the trampoline for the first time and he loved it! It took him a while to figure out how to walk, and he really didn’t want me to hold him and jump…he just wanted to walk around. After that we all headed up to the front yard and I took turns playing tennis with each kid out in the court. Even Ryan! Although he was playing golf/hockey with his racket and ball. Our neighbors came out when they got home and the kids all played together while we talked. I can’t wait for summer…this is a nightly occurrence in the summer, and there’s no worry about it getting chilly like it eventually did last night. And I wouldn’t have to worry about going in and making dinner because we would be grilling out!

The rest of the night was spent eating dinner, talking to Kylie, playing with the boys, and then bedtime. After the Cavs game, Joshie came up and laid with me in bed. It’s so sad to think that these precious times will be ending soon. This summer Kylie won’t have a reason to have to go to bed early, and then next year Joshie will have to go to bed early since he’ll be in school. So I’m treasuring this special alone time John and I get with him each night.

Today is supposed to be even nicer than yesterday, so I’m sure that after work we will be playing outside again and enjoying the gorgeous sunshine!

A Relaxing Weekend...

This past weekend was so relaxing!

Friday night was house church, which as always was a lot of fun. That night my dad had all three kids spend the night. I think he’s crazy, but he swears he loves it.

Even without my little alarm clocks, I still woke up at 7:15 on Saturday, which stunk because I really wanted to sleep in. I was able to get a bunch of laundry done and most of our tax return done before heading out with my neighbor to a local farm market. John was supposed to go with me, but as sly as he could, suggested that I ask my neighbor if she would like to go instead, so that he and my neighbor’s husband and all the kids watch basketball. It was a great drive to the country and once we were there we had a great time getting a ton of great deals on lunch meats and cheeses, spices and tons of other cool things.

I came up with the great idea of grabbing a bunch of different things and having the kids make their own trail mix. So I grabbed a bag of min-marshmallows (like the size in hot chocolate but soft!), mini chocolate chips, mini butterscotch chips, mini m&m’s, honey roasted sesame sticks, dried bananas, oyster crackers, and ABC pretzels.

Once we got home we hung out the rest of the day while the guys watched basketball. The kids all played wonderfully in the playroom together! Around dinnertime we decided to order pizza and watch the end of the OU game. Our neighbors went home after that, and my dad took the kids over to his house again (without Kylie because her best friend had come over to spend the night). My sister called me and I ended up talking to her for almost 2 hours!

Sunday we got up and went to church. John and I were teaching and had a blast with the kids! It’s amazing how easy it can be to get away from what you love when you’re in charge of something. John and I spend a lot of time organizing the two kids’ rooms and making sure we get all the kids checked in, etc., and often we forget how much we love being in the room with the kids. We love teaching them and singing songs with them and playing games with them. And most importantly, we love knowing them. Thankfully, with house church (a large amount of the kids in our Sunday school room also come to our house church), and our personalities, we know these kids super well, and they mean a lot to us!

We came home from church and I made “gourmet” grilled cheese with the meat and cheese I had gotten the day before, and then we sent the kids up for naps. Just as we were settling on the couch to watch some TV, each kid came out of their room. First Ryan woke up from his nap, and then Kylie came out saying she couldn’t fall asleep, and then Joshie came out saying the same thing. So we nixed the naps and played. I did get a tiny little nap on the couch for a little bit, which was just enough to give me the energy needed to play with all the kiddos. My dad was over off and on, and then towards the end of the afternoon my mom came over too. After dinner the kids took showers and then Kylie’s hair salon opened. She brushed and colored my hair and I was in heaven! She finished my hair off with a braid – she’s really getting good at them! Then she went down and did my mom’s hair.

After that we packed up the kids and they headed over with my mom. She switched her days watching them and is watching them on Monday this week instead of Friday. So John and I were able to watch some TV together, which was the perfect ending to our wonderful weekend!

Recap of A Wonderful Weekend!

What a FABULOUS weekend!

Friday night started with house church. It was already scheduled to be game night, so when I was selected to host a house party for Arnold Sandwich Thins, I decided to incorporate it all in together.

Everyone brought some meat and cheese and some other snacks. We all made sandwiches and ate dinner. The sandwich thins were really, really good! After that the Wii was brought out and a bunch of people played that while the rest of us hung out and talked. It seemed like the night was winding down, but then Catch Phrase was brought out and we played girls against guys and had a ton of fun! We were laughing so hard we cried!

After everyone left we cleaned up the house and packed up our stuff because early the next morning John and I were headed to the slopes! The kids all spent the night with my mom so that we could leave early and not worry about getting them over there and saying “good-bye” in the morning. John and I didn’t get to bed until about 1:00 AM, and we had originally planned on leaving by 7:00. We decided that was still the best plan, and while it was hard getting up, I’m so glad we got out of there early!

We ended up leaving the house around 7:30 AM, and we had a wonderful 2 hour drive up to Akron/Cleveland. We talked the whole time and the drive went by very quickly! We went to the hotel first because they had our lift tickets. We walked into the hotel and it was old and just didn’t look very nice. Then we saw a sign on the desk that said “hot tub closed for maintenance until further notice.” We decided right then that we were cancelling our reservation and finding somewhere else! When we were cancelling it, the lady asked us why, and we told her because the hot tub was broken and we knew after a day of skiing that we would want a hot tub! Her response? “But that’s the only thing that’s broken.” What??? What else would there be? Anyway, we cancelled and moved on!

As we drove to the ski place, we drove through a little town that I had driven through millions of times when I was little. I had grown up (age 9 through age 16) in a town between Cleveland and Akron that was about 10 – 15 minutes away from the ski place, so as we drove through this area, I was bombarding John with all of my memories :) I showed him the road that my dad had me drive on when I was only 14, I showed him a restaurant that we loved to go to after gymnastics sometimes, and of course there was the library that we went to all the time to rent movies. The trip down memory lane was awesome!

We got to the ski place and went and bought our tickets and registered for ski school. This process was interesting…I’m not used to doing something when both of us have no idea what’s going on. I remember skiing when I was little, and we had my uncle and his family who skied all the time, telling us how to do things. This was the blind leading the blind! Thankfully someone lent us skis for me, so we only had to rent John’s. We figured out how to get everything on and headed out for ski school.
We were a little late, and when we got there, it was John and I, and three little kids :) But our instructor was great and we had a lot of fun! Skiing really came back to me, and John caught on really quickly! By the end of school, we only had to go down the bunny hill one more time and then we were ready to move up!

We found a hill (blue) that was a little harder and more fun! It took us a while to gain confidence, but after a few runs, we were flying down the hill! There was a little boy in our class at ski school on that hill with his dad…he was doing so well, and we would learn throughout the day that all of us would be progressing through the hills around the same time.

Around lunch time, we decided to head to the lodge and grab some food. At the top of the hill, we saw our instructor and another teacher and chatted with them for a while. They gave us some more pointers, and led us back to the lodge. At the lodge we had a great lunch and I called the kids for the first time. I talked to Josh and Ryan, and they were both having a lot of fun. Josh was following my dad on a map as he was making his way up from Athens. Kylie had gone ice skating with a friend.

After lunch we headed back to that same hill (because John was afraid he had forgotten how to do it), and after one run, we realized we were ready to move on. We headed to the complete opposite side of the mountain and found a hill that had some jumps on it! It also had a straight, flat part, so we started on that and gradually started going on the jump hills – slowly at first and gaining confidence each time, until finally, we were getting some air!

The last 4 runs or so were very frustrating for me…there were little kids (I mean little – around age 4 or 5) going down this hill, and they were not going very fast. The hill was narrow, so it was super hard to pass them, and I spent the whole time going down the hill worried about hitting them and not being able to hit the jumps because they were in the way. Their parents were right there with them and really didn’t care that they were holding people up. The last time I told John and I was done and was too frustrated to keep skiing. So we went up one last time so that we could take a different route and ski easily back to the lodge. On our way up we saw our little friend from ski school skiing down the hill with his dad. His dad was in front and about halfway down the hill, the kid fell. He was fine, but his skis came off and his dad had no idea until he was at the bottom of the hill. The kid was able to move off to the side, and John and I skied down as fast as we could to help him out. We stopped and helped him get his skis back on, and then the three of us skied down to his dad. John and I decided we were tired and ready to go home (we had skied from 10:30 – 3:30!). The kid’s dad was really thankful and it felt so good ending the day with helping him out. It’s so obvious how much John and I enjoy kids – other than being frustrated with them slowing me down on the hill, we have such patience and love for all kids!

We packed everything up and left the slopes not knowing exactly where we were going. We decided to heat back to the town I grew up in so that I could show John around and see if we could find a place to sit and look up hotel rooms online. I showed John the McDonald’s that my sisters and I used to ride our bikes to everyday in the summer to get chicken nuggets to eat while we watched Days of Our Lives. I showed John my old house, and the woods I used to play in and the lake I swam in everyday. I had so much fun remembering all of the good times I had had as a kid in that little town.

We found a Panera and got a drink and looked up hotels. My mom had reminded me about a place that was in Akron that had lots of little shops and had a hotel attached. I loved that place so I was excited to see the prices were reasonable. We headed over there and went in to check on a room. They informed us that there were no King rooms left, only double beds, and the hot tub was broken. We decided to keep looking.

We decided to stay at a hotel that my family had stayed at when they came to visit us when we were younger. We checked in and immediately went to the hot tub! We had the whole pool room to ourselves for a while, and it was so nice to relax our sore muscles! As we were getting out, a large number of kids came in to the pool area and ended up getting in the hot tub. I was glad we were leaving!

Our room was a gorgeous suite with a king size bed in its own bedroom, and a pull-out couch and desk and TV in another room. We showered and got ready for dinner, and sat and watched some TV.

We decided to go to dinner at the hotel restaurant that overlooked the river. We had a table right by the windows and the ambiance was perfect! The food was amazing…we had the best lobster bisque that we have ever had!

Then we went and crashed! The early start to the day along with the skiing had finally hit us!

I slept in until about 9:30, which of course is unheard of for me! I got up, and John and I watched some super cheesy movies on TV, and then we headed out for lunch and our trip home. I called Kylie and updated her as we passed major intersections so she could follow us home on a map (Dad’s idea of course and a really good one!). We ended up getting home around 2:30.

When we got home the kids were so happy to see us! I could tell my parents looked a little worn out (though they would never admit it), so I scooped up the kids and took them home so that my parents could rest. John took Josh and Kylie outside for a while, and Kylie rode her bike, and then they played baseball with the neighbor kids. Ryan took a nap, and then when Kylie came in, we painted our nails.

We ended the day with a dinner of turkey and stuffing and mashed potato leftovers from my mom’s dinner the night before, and then we all played Uno Attack (even Ry-Ry!) and drank milkshakes. The kids headed to bed afterwards and John and I watched a little TV before going to bed.

The weekend was one of the best in a long, long time. I can’t remember the last time that John and I went away together, alone. I’m so grateful for my parents and their generosity in watching the kids. I’m so glad that they know how important it is for John and I to get some time together. Every time I tried to thank them they kept telling me that they should be thanking me, that they love watching the kids and that we need to get away more often.

They are right…I can’t describe how much better I feel today…even though it’s Monday I feel so refreshed and so happy!

A Fun Weekend Ahead!

Last night was a very refreshing night for me…I go to go to my monthly dinner with some friends. It’s been a while since we’ve had dinner together, and it felt so good to get together. We went to Applebee’s for their happy hour specials, ordered drinks right away, and stayed for almost 3 hours!

When I got home, John had already taken the kids over to my mom’s, so I went over there to kiss them goodnight, and then John and I settled on the couch to watch “our show” (The Mentalist).

Tonight we have house church, and it’s going to be extra fun because it’s game night. I’m hosting another house party, this time for Sandwich Thins, so we’ll have sandwiches and snacks for dinner, and then we’ll bring out the games and hopefully have a fun night.

Tomorrow John and I are headed 2 hours north to go skiing. Of course we’re going on the Saturday that it’s supposed to be in the mid-40’s, but I’ve heard that it will not be that warm up where we’re going. I bought John a gift certificate for Christmas a year ago – he’s never been skiing. We didn’t use it last year because our weekends were so busy. With January and February being my busy time, it’s hard to carve out a weekend.

The gift certificate expires 2 years after purchase, and since we don’t get much snow before Christmas, that meant that we had to use it this winter. No problem! We scheduled a weekend in February – had my parents all set up to watch the kids and the hotel room booked, and then a church thing that John was a part of got pushed back a week, so we had to reschedule…to this weekend :)

I used to ski a lot when I was younger, but that was 15 years ago. Each day I’m getting more and more nervous. It’s amazing how fearless you are as a kid…I never thought anything about skiing down a big hill, but now, the bunny hill scares me :) I’m sure I’ll be fine once I get back out there, and luckily John is very adventurous, so I’m sure as soon as we have our lessons, he’ll be ready to tackle the big hills too!

We haven’t decided if we’re going to spend the night yet or not. With having to bring all the kids’ stuff for church and the fact that my parents will have the kids for so many days, I feel bad trying to spend the night, but we’ll see. Either way, it will be so much fun to get away with John. We used to do fun activities all the time when we were dating and early in our marriage. But with kids, of course, it’s harder to do that stuff. So I’m really looking forward to this! I just hope we don’t break our legs…or our necks!

13 Years Ago...

13 years ago today John and I started “going out.” I really feel old when I realize that I have been out of high school for nearly 13 years now :)

It’s amazing to think that the person your son or daughter brings home in high school could end up being their husband or wife down the road.

I’ll never forget March 3, 1997…John and I had been talking a little bit in school, and he knew that I liked him. That Monday I realized that John was not in school. This was very unusual for him, but I went about my day.

A few periods later, someone came up to me and asked me if I had heard about John’s house and seen the paper. I had not, and when they showed me I was stunned, yet I did laugh a little. There on the front page of the Athens News was John, picking up debris from his front yard. His house had flooded with the recent rain.

I know John went to basketball practice after school (that will play into more of the story later). The details of the night are a little fuzzy after 13 years, but I think I remember the important parts :) I think John called me after practice to see if I wanted to do something. I of course said “yes,” and he picked me up in his old red truck. There were a lot of towels on the seats because his truck had been flooded, so the seats were wet. He needed something at his house, so we went over there. Not only did I see his house and yard a crazy mess, I got to meet his parents for the first time (I’m sure they were super thrilled to be meeting what they though at the time was some girlfriend of John’s when they were in the middle of a family disaster). Then we had to go over to the OU basketball game because some guys from John’s basketball team were there and he had left his wallet at practice (pretty hard to take a girl out on a date when you don’t have your wallet to pay for it). We spent a long time walking through the convo trying to find these guys (because John’s a guy, and why would he find out where they were ahead of time?) and while John was cutting edge and had a cell phone, most other kids did not.

Now remember, John and I had only been talking at school for a week or so…all of this craziness should have been red flags for me to run! This was crazy…a dude whose bed was “floating down the creek” and who couldn’t keep track of his money! But he was adorable, and such a nice guy that I just smiled and stood by his side as we searched for the guys.

I can’t remember if they guys had his wallet or not. I’m guessing they did because we then went to Dairy Queen (for some reason I don’t remember paying, and knowing John’s personality, there’s no way we would have been able to go have fun knowing he had no idea where his wallet was). We got ice cream and headed to Stroud’s Run, which was the huge lake/picnic area in our town. I remember the moon was bright, and I thought I remembered it being warm, but considering it was March 3rd, and seeing snow on the ground outside my window right now, that memory might be a little fuzzy.

John took me home and once in the driveway he “asked me out.” For my kids reading this years in the future, that meant that we were officially boyfriend and girlfriend. He walked me to my door and while we were talking his truck rolled down the driveway. Neither of us will forget that moment, ever. He yelled that he would see me at school the next day as he ran to stop his truck (which thankfully didn’t hit anything!).

13 years, 3 kids, millions of smiles and tears and several family floods later, I’m still here, smiling and standing right beside him.

A CBJ Date Night...

Last night Joshie and I had a date night. John had a meeting and was going to the OSU basketball game, so my mom came up and watched Kylie and Ryan so that Josh would still get to go to the CBJ game.

I loaded him up and we headed downtown to the CBJ game. It sounds silly, but I was a little nervous heading down there by myself and trying to find a place to park and everything. It’s silly because I used to work downtown, and had to park and walk every single day. But with not being down there by myself in over six years, it was a tiny bit intimidating. I was also worried about Joshie walking all the way from the car to the arena…normally John carries him on his shoulders the whole way, and I knew there was no way I could do that, at least not the whole way.

But I went ahead and Joshie and I had no problems getting there, parked and in to watch warm-ups. Joshie walked the whole way without a single problem or complaint! After warm-ups we headed up to our seats and listened to both National Anthems (because we were playing Vancuver) and cheered as they announced all of the players that had played on Olympic teams.

The first period lasted an hour! They stopped that clock so many times! At intermission, Joshie and I headed down to get hot chocolate and dippin dots. Then we watched the rest of the second period, and then he said he wanted to head out so that he could play in the game that was going on at home (CBJ vs. San Jose). I was so proud of Joshie because yet again, he walked the whole way with no problems (he actually ran a lot of the way pretending he was Mario).

When we left, CBJ was ahead 3 to 2, which means that we get free Chili from Wendy’s today (whenever CJB scores 3 goals, you can take your ticket into Wendy’s the next day for free chili), but then ended up losing in OT.

The night ended with CBJ winning in Joshie’s game, and him climbing into bed with me and me scratching his back while he fell asleep.

CBJ Game from Debbie on Vimeo.

Monday Night Recap

Last night John took Josh and Ryan over to his sister’s house for hair cuts. While he did this, I got dinner ready, and then Kylie and I sat on the couch and watched Days of Our Lives.

Kylie first started watching Days of Our Lives over Christmas break when my sister and I had it on. At first I tried to shield her from it, but then my sister and I were remembering that my youngest sister was not much older than Kylie when she started watching it. I make sure that she does not see any inappropriate scenes, so outside of those, it’s more kid-friendly than most commercials for shows like CSI. I even tried to change the channel last night and she got mad…I can’t figure out why she likes to watch it; but then again, why do I like to watch it?

When the boys got home from their haircuts I was shocked…Ryan looked like such a big boy! He had his Thomas shirt on with some jeans, and his new big-boy haircut, and he just looked so old…where did my baby go?

After dinner I gave Ryan a bath and then we played and played. Kylie and Josh played “real Super Mario Brothers” and then Josh did some math and reading with John while Kylie read some books.

After Kylie and Ryan were in bed, I went through my pictures and ordered some new ones, and John and Josh played with Joshie’s DSi.

The night actually felt really long and that was nice. I got to watch a little TV, read a couple of chapters in a book while Ry-Ry took his bath, and had an overall good night.

Tonight Joshie and I are going to the CBJ game by ourselves! It’s sad, I don’t think Joshie and I have ever done anything alone together, so I’m really looking forward to tonight!

It's Been a Long Time...

I can’t believe how long it’s been since I’ve written…so unlike me!

Last week ended my busy time with the filing of my 10-K. This past weekend was my first “normal” weekend in a long time, and it’s been nice to have my evenings back to be able to do whatever I want!

Here is what has been going on over the past couple of months with everyone:

Kylie: Kylie has been busy with school, friends (mainly Isabella, her BFF) and gymnastics. She has been doing wonderfully in school – her teacher has put her in a couple of “challenge” groups for math and reading. She and her little group work on some harder things than what the class as a whole is working on. The stuff that she comes home and “teaches” me is amazing! Of course being homeschooled I was never on a normal schedule when it came to what I learned when, but even talking to others it’s amazing how early kids learn things these days. I’m also so amazed at her reading ability. There is absolutely nothing that I can’t give her to read. Yesterday we worked on a school project where she had to research a famous person on the internet, so we printed out the page and I handed it to her to read. She did it without a problem! The only area she needs to work on is remembering/understanding what she is reading. She can fly through a book, but sometimes if you ask her what it was about, she won’t remember.

She and Isabella have sleepovers/play dates just about every weekend. The two of them are so cute together! And while if they’ve been together for too long they can definitely get irritated with each other, 99% of the time they play perfectly together and do a good job of including Josh and Ryan in their games.

Kylie and I have such sweet moments together. She still tells me just about everything, and while she definitely has her own opinions and can be very strong-willed, she is still my sweet little princess. She has become a huge help at home – she frequently sets the table for dinner (with Josh’s help when he’s around), she helps me take her clothes up after the laundry is done, and she’s really good about cleaning and organizing her room when I tell her to do it. And she is still the most caring sister I have ever seen! She loves playing with Joshie, and she is such an adoring sister to Ryan. If I need to go and do something, I can tell her to watch him and not worry. Making dinner at night has gotten so much easier because I can have Kylie watch Ryan in the playroom while I cook and not worry about him!

Joshie: Joshie is my buddy. He is currently obsessed with video games. We now have to limit his time with them because he would sit and play Super Mario Brothers on his DSi all day if we didn’t watch him. Unfortunately this has led to him not playing as many hockey games, which I have to admit, I really miss. Everything now revolves around Super Mario Brothers. At least he and Kylie (and me when I get roped into it) have started playing “Super Mario Brothers real people,” which means that he is Mario, Kylie is princess Daisy (or whoever that is) and I try to be Luigi but he wants me to be princess peach. At least this involves running around the house and fighting bad guys.

Joshie still doesn’t eat a lot, and I feel like we have tried everything! It’s not that he’s picky, he just doesn’t eat much, and in turn, he’s a skinny little nothing! It will be interesting to see what the doctor says at his five-year check-up. Maybe it’s normal, but right now he’s lighter for me to carry than his little brother is!

The biggest thing we’re gearing up for with Joshie is Kindergarten next year! I registered him a couple of weeks ago, and he’s been working really hard on reading and math. He can now read the easy-reader books that we started with Kylie, and we’ve been working on Kylie’s old sight words with him. I’m really impressed with how well he’s doing! And in math, he’s doing basic addition and subtraction. My dad has come up with a deal with him…every minute he works on school stuff is an extra minute that he gets to play his DSi. He does really well with this and understands the concept of earning more play time.

This spring Joshie will be playing football and t-ball. Football doesn’t start until April, but he’s so excited about it and gets to play with one of his friends from church. I’m excited because hopefully the games will be nice and warm, instead of worrying about the weather each week (although we did get so lucky last fall with each Sunday being really “gorgeous” (for October) for his games.

We still get some great time alone with Joshie at night. He does everything from watch sports with John on the couch, to come up with me in my scrap room and color pictures and make tickets for his games.

Ry-Ry: My little man! This little (and I don’t mean that literally, the kid is so heavy and does not appear to be losing any of his baby fat now that he’s walking) guy is developing such a personality! He plays with you, teases you and always has a smile on his face. He is a great walker now, and has made some attempts at running. Thankfully he’s not a climber and he really doesn’t get into anything.

He is talking like crazy now! He will repeat everything you say, and even if what he’s saying does not sound anything like the real word, we have learned what it means (he has a word for “pop tart” and “Guess Who” that sounds nothing like those words, but we know what he means!). He can say all of our names very clearly (although he won’t say “Kylie,” just “sissy”). The funniest thing with him is he won’t say “yes,” he’ll just get a big smile on his face and say “aahhh” with his mouth open wide!

He is following in the footsteps of his brother and just about every other little boy out there and is now obsessed with trains, and loves Thomas. He calls them Choo-Choos, and sleeps with at least one, if not two trains every night. When we’re by a TV he points to it and says either “Choo-Choo” or “Amis” (Thomas), meaning he wants to watch Thomas. I can’t believe how I have forgotten how cute this obsession is. Some of it is coming back to me (Joshie was so obsessed with Thomas and trains…I remember promising him a new one of he gave up his paci). My poor dad…every time Ryan sees him he says “Pappaw, choo-choo.” My parents have a big train set up at their house next door, and Ryan loves it! My poor dad never gets a break! But he says he’s enjoying it because he thinks Joshie is pulling away from him a little bit, so it’s nice to have Ryan there wanting attention from him.

Ryan is also playing so well with Kylie and Josh. Just last night John and I were cleaning up after dinner, and we watched and listened to the three of them run around and play their game. It was usually Josh and Kylie and then Ryan tagging along behind them trying to keep up, laughing the whole time. This is the age that makes up for the 12 months of hard times we had with him. Babies are hard and make you question whether you’ll ever have another child, but at 17 months he’s a dream and watching the three of them together makes me forget about all of the sleepless nights and desperately trying to get him to stop crying!

Ryan is definitely our stubborn one, even more than Kylie. Just last night we had a 10 minute battle with him about throwing his train on the ground. He was made that I made him leave the room while Kylie was reading her school book, so he threw his train down in a temper-tantrum. We sat there for 10 minutes while he was crying telling him he had to pick his train back up. Finally he did and life went on, but things like that show me his determination and his will and what we have in store for us :) He definitely knows what he wants when he wants it. We got home from the grocery store one day and as we were putting the groceries away, Ryan went in the pantry because he wanted a pop tart. I told him “no,” but as I was putting things away, he got out a package of pop tarts. But then he decided that wasn’t enough, and brought out the whole box to me and kept telling me “pop tart” (only it was his special word for pop tart). He did the same thing with juice one time…he went in the pantry and brought me the big thing of juice!

Ryan loves milkshakes (which we've gotten in the habit of making most nights). And for a while, the minute I would walk in the door, he would get excited, go to the cupboard where we keep the cups, get out the "milkshake cup," go and get a straw, hand them to me and say "milkshake" (except it does not sound anything like "milkshake," but we know what he's saying :) ). It's so adorable!

So that’s a quick update of the kiddos. They are growing up so fast that John and I are desperately trying to slow down and enjoy every minute. They are all so fun and I can’t even imagine what it’s going to be like when we don’t have little ones running around the house yelling…so I’m not going to think about it – I’m just going to enjoy my time with them right now!

Kids Riding in Laundry Basket from Debbie on Vimeo.

Snow, More Snow, and Even More Snow!

The snow continues! Over the past two weeks, our offices have closed early three times. This NEVER happens! Today, as has been the trend lately, the roads have been perfectly clear going to work, and I sit in my office and occasionally look out the window every hour or so and all of a sudden it will be snowing like crazy. Today it came on really quickly and added up fast! Our office closed at 3:00, and it took me an hour to get home. Thankfully, John drove over to my office and switched me cars because my car is horrible in the snow.

Once I got home I played with Ryan and then got some work done. Kylie’s school is already closed for tomorrow. I really hope the roads aren’t too bad for my drive in tomorrow :)

Valentine's Weekend...

This Valentine’s weekend started with Kylie’s class party Friday afternoon. John and I took Josh over there and it was so much fun! It was relaxed and it was so neat seeing all of the Valentine’s boxes. John and I helped Kylie make a Nintendo DSi box, and I think she had the best box by far! She was so proud because she had helped so much with the cutting and gluing and painting.

After her party I worked from home until it was time to get ready for our dinner out. Our house church had decided that for Valentine’s day we would all go out to dinner together, instead of having our normal meeting. So we still had the baby-sitter come over, and everyone came and dropped their kids off, and then we all headed to the restaurant. We had a great dinner! It has been a long time since John and I had been out with friends with no kids. Friday night all of the kids spent the night at my parents’, and the house was eerily quiet!

Saturday we watched my nephew, so all the kids had a lot of fun playing together. I took Kylie to gymnastics, which gave me some time to get some work done which was nice. The rest of the day was spent doing miscellaneous chores and keeping the kids fed and cleaned up :) My dad took Josh and Ryan to a train show which they loved! Ryan is really into “choo-choos” right now, so he especially loved the trip.

Saturday night John and I took Kylie and her BFF Isabella out to run some errands and then to Subway for dinner (their choice :) ). It was a lot of fun hanging out with just the older girls.

Sunday was a busy church morning, followed by laundry and relaxing. Throughout the day the kids opened different Valentine’s Day presents – first from my parents, then from John’s parents and then from me. I got Kylie some of her own acrylic stamps and blocks (because she always uses mine), for Joshie I got some envelopes and sports stickers, and I got Ry-Ry a Thomas coloring book and crayons. All of the kids got some candy too :) The day ended with Kylie and I scrapbooking and then snuggling and watching Supernanny.

Onto another super busy week…only 1 ½ more weeks to go!!

It's Wednesday Night...Really?

This week is flying by…surprise, surprise!

I can’t believe it’s Wednesday night already. I feel like it was just the weekend…

Our nights have been spent making dinner, eating dinner, baths, playing (lots of Wii and DSis) and then bed. Lather, rinse repeat for each day. I swear by the time I think I might have a second to catch my breath and relax for a minute, I realize it’s 9:40 and I really should get myself to bed (although at that point I find something else that needs to be done and then I don’t get to bed before 11:00).

Last night was nice because we found out that schools were closed around 9:00, so Kylie got to get out of bed and come snuggle with me and watch Supernanny. I haven’t been able to do that with her for a while, so it was nice. Each night Kylie and John have been working to get her Valentine box ready for her party on Friday…they’re making a DSi box :)

I’m super busy at work…we file in a couple of weeks. I have been working tonight after Ryan and Kylie went to bed. I can’t wait until this craziness is over and I can take a day off!

John and I were supposed to go skiing this weekend, but because of something at church, we’ve postponed our trip. I’m bummed, but at the same time it will be nice to get some things done that need to be done…John and I need to look at washers and dryers and we need to pick up a new Sunday school lesson plan.

OK, off to bed now…or at least try to make my way up there :)

Fun, Wintery Weekend!

This weekend started off VERY, VERY snowy!

We knew a huge storm was coming Friday...the news people had been talking about it all week. So at work on Friday, I kept watching out my window for it to start snowing, and when it did, I watched to see how traffic was moving, because I knew as soon as it started looking bad, I was going to head home and finish working from home.

Thankfully, my boss told all of us that we could finish working from home. So I packed up and headed out. When I got home, all the neighbors in the court that were home, and John, were shoveling the driveways. It was really snowing hard! I went in and finished working and then finished up my Valentine's cards for my family because everyone was going to be here this weekend for my sister's birthday.

We cancelled house church because of the snow, and we spent the evening just hanging out in the house and watching the snow fall. My sister came in from Michigan (luckily the snow was a north-moving storm, so she didn't hit any snow until just north of us), and we had a very relaxing evening!

Saturday we got up and I made a huge breakfast. Afterwards we all went out the play in the snow. It was fun being out there and acting like a kid again! And it was nice to touch base with some neighbors that we haven't seen in a while. After that we came inside and hung out for a while. That night we went to dinner for my sister's birthday. I was worried because we don't eat out much because of Ryan...he's just such a handful! But he was so good that night!

When we got home we watched the CBJ game and ate cake and ice cream and hung out some more. Ryan was in such a good mood! He hadn't eaten very much at the restaurant, so I opened a jar of baby food (I have not known any other 16 1/2 month-old that still likes to eat baby food), only this time he decided he was going to completely feed himself. He held the spoon AND he dipped the spoon in the jar AND he brought the spoon to his mouth to eat. He was so adorable I just couldn't be mad at the gigantic mess he made :)

Sunday we got up and went to church. Afterwards was a quick trip to the grocery store, followed by a long and relaxing day at home. My sister and dad headed out fairly early, so the rest of the day we just hung out and played. Josh is obsessed with the new Mario Brothers game on the Wii (I HIGHLY recommend this game to anyone that likes the Super Mario Brothers games), and Ryan is also obsessed with Wii (he really thinks he's playing and really does play the baseball game on Wii Sports). Kylie and I played school :)

Now everyone (except Josh of course) is in bed. I have a busy week at work ahead of me (actually worked for about 3 hours this evening). Right now I'm going to climb into bed and watch some shows that I have DVRd :)

Two Years Ago...

This busy time of year brings back so many memories for me…it was this time of year two years ago that was the hardest two months of my life so far.

Two years ago in December my boss quit. It was such a crazy time…trying to figure out who would take her work and hiring a replacement for her. I was not ready for her job…I was definitely in training to take it on at some time, but this was not the time. However, we had a 10-K to file and there was no way we could hire someone in time to file it (and a 10-K is our hardest document of all the filings). So my interim boss and I dove in to try to get the work done.

In the middle of January I found out I was pregnant. I was super excited, but right away I could feel how tired and worn out I was going to be trying to take care of the other two kids on top of being pregnant.

It was also during this time that our childcare situation blew up in our face. The kids were rushed first to my parents’ and then to daycare. John and I spent hours agonizing on what we were going to do and who would watch the kids.

The stress in my life was horrendous. I lived each and every day with a gigantic knot in my stomach (which didn’t go away until a couple of days after I filed the 10-K). I was so worried that my stress was going to hurt the baby, and was amazed each time I went to the doctor and he was fine. I worked until 7:00 each night and worked a ton each and every weekend. The process was so new to me…there was so much I didn’t know, but was expected to know (in a good way…I learned so much during this time).

And then I got through that…I filed the 10-K, we found a nanny for the kids, and I entered my second trimester and started feeling better. And after all that, my interim boss decided that it was silly to hire someone to do what I just did, and promoted me to the position.

And even though I got through those two months, I can still feel the pit in my stomach when I think back to that time. I can vividly remember working all those hours and barely being able to have time to breathe. But working through those months has made me a much better person…I’m better at my job, and I’m living proof that stress does not kill a baby.

So last year I went through this time with a new baby. I was so worried that I would be working like crazy again and never be home. But that wasn’t the case…I got through those months with flying colors and worked barely any overtime…just a few hours here and there at home. It was amazing how much I had learned in that year…it made the 10-K such an easier process!

And this year is following the same path. I keep questioning myself because things are going so smoothly. I have been able to go to the gym a few nights a week, and I am seeing and playing with the kids just as much as normal. My work-life balance is amazing!

So I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the month of February works out to be just as “easy” as January has been. We file at the end of February, and after that it’s time for spring to get here and for new projects and adventures. And I’m truly thankful for that “hell” year that I had to go through…the discipline it taught me and knowing that I got through the work by myself has given me the confidence I have needed to do my job over the last two years.

Weekend Recap...

This past weekend was a ton of fun! Friday night started with our house church, but it was a special house church because I was picked to participate in a Digiorno House Party, which meant I got a bunch of free pizzas, beads for everyone to wear, a pot holder, a pizza cutter, and a bunch of great coupons to give out to everyone. The pizza was awesome and I had a lot of fun participating in a House Party.

Saturday started off with some cleaning up, and then I went to the gym for the first time in about 2 months. After that, John and Josh headed down to an OU basketball game, and my dad took Kylie to gymnastics for me so that I didn’t have to worry about trying to entertain Ryan while watching her. It was great because that’s around Ryan’s nap time, so he went to sleep, and I was able to clean up my scrap room and finally get everything put away from my scrap weekend. My sister was coming over to work on wedding invitations, so I knew I wanted it to be all cleaned up.

Around 2:00 my sister came over and we went to work…my parents watched Ryan for me so that I didn’t have to worry about him getting into stuff :) We worked for about 3 hours and finally came up with two gorgeous options, just a little different from each other. Thankfully, my sister had come over with a catalog of professional invitations, so she picked her favorite and we copied it. And I have to say, ours looked almost identical to the professional one! We just added a couple of “extras” to ours. She was going to take both options home and see which one Big Josh liked (we just couldn’t decide which one we liked better).

After that we headed over to the mall to eat dinner and look at some flower girl dresses. We were going to Cantina Laredo, and the wait was about an hour, so we went to look at dresses. Unfortunately, Kylie wore shoes she had never worn before, and by the time we got to the dress store, she had a gigantic blister on her foot. I knew I couldn’t carry her the whole way back, so we bought her some new shoes (ugghhh! $68 I was not planning on spending! But they had a BOGO ½ off deal, so I couldn’t pass it up).

Dinner was absolutely wonderful! The food was so good! After that we were all beat, so we headed home to bed.

Sunday, after church, we just stayed home and played. It was rainy and yucky outside (which stunk because it was supposed to be 55 degrees, which of course feels like summer to us). Kylie’s best friend came over, and we all just hung out. That night, after the kids were ready for bed, we all played the new Super Mario Brothers game on the Wii. I’m not a video game person – I never had a system growing up, but I definitely have fun with this game because we all play together, and if one dies (usually me), the others can bring you back to life. The funny thing is that Ryan is obsessed with the Wii. He walks around with a remote every time he is in the playroom, and he will walk over to the TV, point at it, and say “iiiii” emphatically (he just doesn’t have the “w” down yet :) ). He turns on the TV if you’re not paying attention to him, because he wants to watch someone play Wii. And don’t even try to take his remote away from him! He knows which remote he likes (some of them are rechargeable, and he doesn’t like the backing on those, and he remembers if the one he is holding has the string or not). He will scream and cry if you take his remote away – scream like he is hurt.

And then last night was a packed night as I took the kids to the mall and got Ryan new shoes. Last evening was a perfect example of one of the many reasons I love having a nanny. The mall is on my way home from work, so I would have had to go home, load the kids up, and head back out. But instead, I just asked Jen to meet me at the mall with the kids (it’s also on her way home). So I saved myself a good 45 minutes, and was able to run in and get Ryan’s shoes, and then John met us at the gym and we got to work out, and then he took the kids home for baths while I ran to the grocery store really quickly. We ate a quick dinner when I got home, and then Kylie and I started reading a really great book…The Magic School Bus and the Senses, I think it’s called. Anyway, it’s a really good book about senses and how our eyes work. In 20 minutes we only got about 1/3 of the way through it (and I was the one reading!). We were trying all of the “eye” experiments and having a lot of fun.

Then Kylie went up to bed, and Josh and Ryan and I went downstairs to play some Wii. First Super Mario Brothers, and then some tennis. Then Josh and John watched the basketball game and Ryan went to bed.

It really was a wonderfully Monday night, even though it was so busy!

Dinner, With a "Hockey Game" On The Side...

So last night we ventured out for the second night in a row for dinner. We don’t eat out much anymore, mostly to save money, but also because it really is hard with Ryan. He is not happy sitting in a high chair and not having his food immediately (like he does at home). But the kids were all in great moods, and we didn’t feel like making dinner or cleaning up, so we headed to Olive Garden because Kylie and Josh love that place.

They gave us a huge table in the corner, which was awesome because Ryan had his own little “area.” And Ryan did great! We were constantly trying to entertain him – John played with him while I took turns playing tic-tac-toe with Kylie and Josh. Joshie is getting really good at playing that now!

Our food was really good and I was so happy when we left…a little exhausted from entertaining Ryan, but happy. After that we went and picked up my bridesmaid dress for my sister’s wedding that has been in for a while, and then we headed home.

Once home, the kids got ready for bed, played a little, and Kylie and Ryan went to sleep. John and I were supposed to plan out our Friday house church, but after he was done reading his chapter, he suggested we watch “our show” (The Mentalist), and do our house church thing another time. So we left Joshie down playing his hockey game, and we watched our show. About half-way through the show Joshie came up with a sad look on his face and said “I thought you were going to come to my hockey game.” I told him that mommy and daddy were watching TV. He then said “well here’s a ticket in case you want to come.” He handed me one of his homemade tickets that said “CBJ vs. Nashville Predators 8:00.” I told him that we would come down as soon as our show was over.

When the show ended, John and I went downstairs to watch the last 6 minutes of his hockey game. There were a couple of minutes that we watched nothing because he put himself in the penalty box for a 2:00 penalty. After that was over, he went back to playing the game, and CBJ beat Nashville 10 to 4 with a last second goal by Klessler. I am always amazed at how his games are so real. He shoots goals and then quickly runs and blocks them, he has fights and puts himself in the penalty box and he shoots penalty shots against chicken Elmo (the goalie during his penalty shots).

After his game was over, John pulled out one of the programs and asked him player numbers. My amazing son knew just about all of the CBJ players’ numbers. How does he know that? He’s just such an amazing kid! And I love having these times where we can spend some time with just him, because I know it’s easy for the middle child to “get lost in the shuffle of life.”

Staying Connected...

I have learned, over the past few months, how so very easy it is for couples to drift apart when they have kids. Beginning with pre-marital counseling, and in every marriage conference we’ve ever been to, we have been warned about going through life and waking up one day when the kids are gone and not recognizing who is in bed with you. Both John and I both knew that was not what we wanted, and that we were going to do everything we could to make sure that didn’t happen.

But let me tell you…it’s HARD! For the past few months I feel like John and I haven’t had much time together. I feel like we’re missing a connection. We’ve tried talking about it, but unfortunately, there’s no easy fix. Our days and nights are in such a busy routine, and we’re not sure how to deviate from it.

On a normal day we’ll get home from work, eat dinner, play with the kids, do homework, Kylie and Ryan go to bed, John and Josh sit on the couch to watch sports, I go up to my room to watch TV, and we all fall asleep. So obviously our first try was to *try* to get Josh to bed, and then John and I can watch TV. But the problem was we were so tired, we would just fall asleep. It’s not that we are running around all over the place and need to slow down really, it’s just trying to figure out something for us to do. In the summer it’s easy…we’re all outside the whole night, and the kids are usually off playing with their friends, so John and I can sit and talk, or work on something together. But being inside is hard…there’s not a whole lot to do.

And it would be so easy for us to just continue living life the way it is…nothing is wrong. But, I know that if we continued down this path, we would wake up one day not really knowing who each other is, and that would suck.

So John and I decided that we need to come up with an activity for us to do. We both really look forward to Wednesday nights when we get together and plan what we’re going to talk about at house church on Friday. So at least we’ll have that tonight. But tomorrow night, or this weekend, we’re going to brainstorm some things for us to do together on another night. Some ideas that we had were: I have my wine kit that John got me for Christmas a few years ago that has never been opened, so we’d like to make some wine; work on some house projects together…there are some corners in the basement that REALLY need organized, and even though it’s work, I really have fun doing projects like that with John; or maybe start a Bible study together.

If anyone out there has any other suggestions of what we could do together for an hour each night, I would really appreciate the input! I just want us to live our lives like we’re in love and have fun with each other, not like we’re roommates!

2 @ CBJ Game, 4 @ Home...

Last night, the two oldest boys of the house headed out to a CBJ game. They both looked adorable in their CBJ jerseys :)

Kylie’s BFF Isabella was spending the night (there’s a teacher in-service day today), so they played a lot while Ryan and I played. I had so much fun watching him jump from one thing to the other in the basement…first we put up the bowling pins and then knocked them down, and then we played cars and trains, and then I pushed him around on the tricycle. While the kids were eating dinner, I made a batch of cookies, which I haven’t done in a while and tasted so good!

I gave Ryan a bath, and the girls came in and sat on the outside of the tub and played with him. He loved the attention, and the girls liked playing with all of the bath toys without actually taking a bath.

Then I put Ryan to bed, and the girls watch Home Alone 2 while I started reading our waffles and spaghetti book (for house church). John and Josh came home around 10:00, and for some reason, Joshie fell asleep in our bed…not quite sure how that happened.

It was a good night that seemed to last a long time. But it will be nice to get back to our normal routine since Ky will be back in school tomorrow…I think she and Isabella need a break from each other…they have spent 2 of the last 3 nights together, and all day yesterday and maybe today. Now I know why my parents would say I needed breaks from my friends!

Scrapbooking Weekend Recap...

What a weekend!

Thursday night I went to learn about making wedding invitations with my mom, sister, and her fiancé. I was worried about getting home late and not being able to see the kids, because the next day I would be going away for my scrap weekend, and since I leave right from work, I would see them until Sunday. I ended up getting home around 9:00, and I was able to give Joshie a kiss while he was walking over to my dad’s house to go to bed. I was able to spend a few minutes with Kylie before she went to sleep. But unfortunately, Ryan was already asleep, so I didn’t get to spend any time with him :(

But fortunately (only in this one time case though), Ryan woke up around 12:00 and was up for a couple hours. I brought him into bed with me and snuggled for a little bit, and then he started talking to me :) I made myself put him back to bed so that I could get some sleep, but I was so happy to have been able to see him before my long weekend away!

Friday evening I left work and headed straight to a city that’s about 45 minutes away. All of my friends were already there, so I quickly set my stuff up and got to work. There were a little over 50 people at this crop, but the room is set up so nicely that we all have plenty of space (each person has a gigantic table all to themselves), and there is lots of room between the tables.

After a little bit we headed to our favorite restaurant and had a fantastic dinner. After dinner we came back and scrapped until around midnight. There were 4 of us sharing a room, but none of us like to share a bed, so we had two air mattresses set up. The problem we had this year was that two of us are always cold, and the other two are always hot. So Friday night I didn’t get hardly any sleep because I was freezing! I had socks on and my robe the whole night and I was still shivering!

We got up the next morning around 7:30 and went down to breakfast. Then we scrapped until around 1:30 and then headed out for some scrapbook store shopping and a late lunch/early dinner at another favorite restaurant. After we ate, we came back and got back to work.

Around 10:00 we stopped and ate some pizza, and then scrapped until about midnight again. I slept a little better because the room was warmer (the other two girls were dying because it was scorching to them!). I got up around 8:30 on Sunday and went down for breakfast and more scrapping. We stopped for lunch around 2:00 and then I wrapped up what I was working on and headed home. I ended up getting 4 pages of Kylie done, 4 pages of Ryan done, and 5 pages of Joshie done.

I got home at 4:30 and played with the kids. It was so amazing how with two nights of not-so-great sleep, I still had a ton of energy to play with the kiddos. My mom made us a wonderful dinner, and right after that Kylie went over to her BFF’s for a sleepover (since there’s no school today). Ryan and Joshie and Pappaw and I went down and played hockey in the playroom – Ryan was so cute because he had his hockey stick and was trying to play standing up, which is a new thing for him!
My dad had to go home, so we said “good-bye” to him, and then I gave Ryan a bath. We played a little more, and then he went to bed, while John, Josh and I curled up on the couch to watch Polar Express. I showed John the three kids’ scrapbooks, and then he fell asleep watching the movie.

It was a fabulous weekend! I got a lot of work done, and still had a good evening with my family to end it all. Now it’s time to plan my annual scrapbooking weekend at my house in the spring :)

Time Is Flying By...

I know it’s redundant, but yet again, days are passing me by and I can’t slow down. I can’t believe two days have passed since my last post…where did they go?

Tuesday night John had a church dinner to go to, so I was home with the kids myself. Normally that would make the night fly by, but actually, the night was long…a good long. I just heated leftovers for dinner, which helped because I didn’t spend a ton of time cooking. But the kids are done with leftovers…after dinner they asked “we can we be done eating this stuff?” :)

We played a lot that night…the kids were all fantastic, and we were even able to get in 20 minutes of reading for Kylie. Josh didn’t take a nap that day, so at 9:00 I had all of the kids in bed and was ready to relax when John came home. This brought out our feisty little four year-old who didn’t end up going to sleep until 11:00! So obviously the no-nap thing did not work.

Last night was pretty much the same, only John was there and Kylie was playing at her best friend’s house. After dinner John and Josh picked Kylie up while I gave Ryan a bath. Then we played in the playroom where Josh, Kylie and I tried to play Chutes and Ladders, but Ryan wanted to play, so we tried to let him play, but then he just wanted the pieces…you know why? Because we were playing the Sesame Street Chutes and Ladders, and Ryan wanted “bi bir” (Big Bird), “cookie” (Cookie Monster), and “Emo” (Elmo). So our pieces kept coming off the game board and we couldn’t remember where they were supposed to go. Kylie and I then read (she’s reading both American Girl books “Meet Kit” and “Meet Molly.”

Tonight after work I’m heading to Archiver’s with my sister, my mom, and my sister’s fiancé to learn about making your own wedding invitations. We’ll have a quick dinner first and then head over there – it will be a lot of fun…I hope! I’m a little intimidated about making wedding invitations, but I can handle it, right?

Then this weekend is my semi-annual scrap weekend. While I will definitely miss the family, I’m really looking forward to getting away with my friends and getting some scrapbooking done! The only downside is that being away will cause me to be behind on some things at home (i.e. laundry), which will be a little hectic to catch up on when I get back. I’m also a little worried about John…don’t get me wrong, he’s an amazing father and can handle anything, but with Ryan’s latest attachment to him and not letting him put him down, it can be exhausting! My parents will be around though, so hopefully they can help him out and give him some breaks (not that he would ever admit to needing them…I just know that I get exhausted and I have a little more tolerance and patience than he does).

So that’s what’s going on in my life…I’m trying super hard to remind myself to slow down and enjoy the moment, but sometimes the moment has passed me by before I remember to do that!

Trying to Calm the Stress...

Life seems to be so busy, and I hate it. I don’t think it’s actually any busier, but I have more stress right now, which makes it feel busier, I think.

I’m in my busy time at work. From now until the end of February I will be busy and stressed and working more. Ryan is going through a phase right now where all he wants is “dadda.” He wants dadda to carry him…all the time. I can usually play with him and distract him, but you can tell the minute he remembers – “DADDA!”

Last night was a good night to relax…we had a great family dinner and then I scrapbooked with Kylie (translation: I helped her make some paper dolls), while John played with Josh and Ryan in the playroom. Around 8:00 I told Kylie to go and read, so she sat and read her book to John while I went down in the playroom with the boys. Josh had a hockey game going on and Ryan and I played a little before I could tell he was super tired and took him up to bed.

Kylie did some math on her DS, and finally at 9:00 I made her go up to bed. John and I were both tired, but we have no idea why. So we watched some TV while Joshie continued with his hockey game. We have the problem that Josh still needs a nap during the day, but when he takes one, he is up super late (he’s laid in bed for 1 ½ hours before because he just can’t fall asleep). So finally at 10:00 I had him come up and watch TV with me, and then at 10:30 I turned the TV off and we both fell asleep. Today I told Jen that he should not take a nap, and we’ll put him to bed with Kylie. We’ll see how that goes :)

This weekend I’m going away with some friends to scrapbook and relax. I really hope that I’m able to catch up on some sleep and just chill. I’m really looking forward to getting away and scrapbooking!

Weekend Recap...

What a relaxing weekend!

Friday night we had house church. It had been a while since we had gotten together due to Christmas, New Year’s and people being sick. It was great to talk to everyone!

Saturday morning I had a hair appointment at 7:15 AM. While it was really early, it was nice to be out and about so early…it made the day feel really long. Afterwards we put the Christmas stuff away, and then took everyone to the mall to play. Kylie had her best friend spend the night, so my dad watched them and Joshie play while John and I went to pick up some things that had come in (I finally got my knife block John had given me for Christmas and I got my jeans that I had altered). After we got home from the mall, Joshie, Ryan and I took a nap!

After our naps I made homemade spaghetti and meatballs. I had already made the pasta, so that was in the freezer, but I made the sauce and meatballs for the first time, and they turned out awesome! After dinner my dad and I played down in the playroom with all of the kids…it was chaotic and crazy, but a ton of fun! Then my dad took Joshie over to his house for bed, and I set the girls up with a movie. I went up and cleaned up my scraproom and filled one of those collage picture frames full of recent pictures of the kiddos. It was a lot of work, but it feels so good to have it done!

Sunday we got up and went to church, and then Kylie and I went grocery shopping. She was a huge help (besides all of her “mommy we really need this” shouts). After that we ate lunch and played for a while. Then I took a tiny nap, which was really needed :) After that it was dinner time, homework time, and then we had “Sunday Sundae Night.” Kylie and I had gotten some special ice cream, so the kids made their own sundaes, and we ate them while watching “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs,” which I had never seen before. We had a really good time hanging out as a family!

Then Kylie and Ryan went to bed, John and Josh watched the rest of the CBJ game, and I organized some more scrapbooking stuff. I’m going away this weekend to scrap, so I’m trying to get all of my stuff packed up early!

It was a really nice and relaxing weekend…but of course it went by way too fast :)