bedroom guest

for the past several weeks, the kids have been ending up in our room during the night. molly has been ending up in our room since she moved into her big girl bed; not my ideal, but we figure she'll outgrow it eventually. we just keep a pallet on the floor in there, and she wanders in at some point during the night and lays down and goes back to sleep.
a couple months ago colby started coming in during the night too. he doesn't come in as early as molly does, but when we wake up in the morning there's a kid on the floor on either side of the bed.
allen was putting colby to bed tonight and he said
colby: I should just start in your room since that's where I'm going to end up.
allen: this is a great bed! we paid a lot of money for this.
colby: but you and mommy get to be together in your room and im in here by myself. it doesn't make sense.
allen: you have your own room, and that's mine and mommys bedroom cause we're married. one day when you get married you and your wife will have your own room.
colby: oh, now it makes sense!

but whether it makes sense or not, he will still wake up on our bedroom floor.

threesixfive,days 9 thru 15

week 2 and going strong!

there are quite a few days this week where i'm having trouble deciding which picture to use; we've been busy!

day 9

this is brutus, my parents' dog. they've had him since he was a puppy and hes lived 15 (i think) good long years. hes really had a rough few months and a very quick decline this last week or so. mom called me saturday to tell me that they were going to have to have him put down monday morning, so i took the kids over sunday evening so we could say good bye to him. pretty sad, but we know its the best thing.

day 10

i go grocery shopping every monday, and this week was no different. however, my grocery store recently added curbside service and it was cold and drizzly enough this week that i took advantage of it!!

day 11

the kids had dentist appts this morning. colby was a champ. molly, not so much.



day 12

meet the newest member of the family; fred. some people in our church found him in one of their plants and brought him to us. allen went to the pet store and bought him some crickets. so far so good.

day 13

we woke up wednesday morning to find that one of my clothes rods had fallen off the wall in the middle of the night. our friend brandon came over thursday to help allen fix it, after which i got rid of some of the weight. ;-) brandon is a stay at home dad, so in order for him to hlp allen i had to watch his two boys, jaxon (4) and cannon (4 months). i got my baby fix!



day 14

allen left friday to go speak at an event in east texas, so my parents came over and hung out. mom and the kids put together some 'homeless bags' to keep in the car and hand out. we really want to be proactive this year about giving them opportunities to serve others.

day 15

today the kids went to their friends adlers birthday party. we got to take a tour of a fire station. the kids had a great time.

i dont know how the weather is where youre at, but its been cold and rainy here for a couple days. i wish we could just hole up and stay in our jammies, but life must go on.

stay warm and dry and have a blessed week!!

threesixfive, days 1 thru 8

i'm back on the project 365 bandwagon!

i participated faithfully in 2009, and even made some new blog friends along the way, but felt that my blog became more about that as the year went on , than me posting funny stories about the kids and whatnot.

well last year i didnt participate at all (after the first 2 weeks of the year), and my blog suffered becuase of it. i lost a lot of my readers and wasnt motivated to blog as much.

so im back, and hopefully will stick with it and be glad i did in approximately 357 days.

day 1:

the year begins with black-eyed peas! we eat them every year, but allen hates them, so this year i made cowboy caviar (a cold dip/salad) instead of just cooking a can of b.e.p.'s. super yummy, and allen approved.

day 2:

we went to lunch with the lamberts after church. this is colby and their son adler. and mojo in the background.

day 3:

we went to the library and molly wanted a stamp, so i had her stand in line by herself to get one (after i assured her i'd be "just right over there" where she'd be able to see me). i thought she looked like such a big girl.

day 4:

i had to go to the hospital early for a procedure (i've had crohns disease for 10 years; this was routine. no worries.) and when i went to change into the fashionable hospital garb, saw that i had put on two different flip-flops when i dressed that morning.



day 5:

i parked next to this car at the outlet mall on wednesday. i couldnt resist taking a picture. eyelashes? really?

day 6:

colbys been in swim school since september. he goes once a week and loves it! right now hes trying to master the backstroke. when he can do it for 20 yards, he gets to move to the next station. this ones been giving him some trouble, but i think he'll nail it soon.

day 7:

colby and i did some reading outside today while we were waiting for molly to get out of preschool. taking advantage of the beautiful weather before the supposed cold fron comes thru next week.

day 8:

a lazy saturday at home, complete with a fort in the living room.

have a great week!!!!

seasonal sadness

colby and i were on our way home from his swim lesson yesterday afternoon and i happened to glance back at him. he was looking out the window and his eyes were pretty misty, verging on tears.
me: colby, whats wrong bud?
colby: i'm sad because pumpkin scones are only seasonal.
me: ....what?
colby: the pumpkin scones at starbucks? they dont have them all the time, just at christmas, and now christmas is over and i wont get another pumpkin scone for all year!!
(and now hes crying. hard.)
me: well, you know, that means when you do get them they'll be that much better!
colby: but that just makes me so sad!
me: i bet i could make some! if you want pumpkin scones in the middle of summer, i can get the stuff to make them, and you can have them any time you want. ok?
colby: (shakes his head) its not the same.
me: i'm sorry. i dont know what else to tell you.
colby: i just need one. i need a pumpkin scone right now.
me: well, buddy, it would ruin your dinner if you had one right now anyway. hey, i know! maybe daddy can run up to starbucks when he gets home and get you one to have after dinner tonight. would that be ok?
colby: (big grin. i take that as a yes.)

allen got home with molly from dance class and immediately colby comes over to me and says
colby: ask him. remember? remember what you said? about the scone?

so i told allen what had transpired on the car ride home, and he suggested that i take him the next morning. every friday before allen takes molly to preschool the two of them have a daddy daughter date at dunkin donuts. they call it 5D day; daddy daughter dunkin donut day. so allen said
allen: why dont you go in the morning before co-op? molly and i can have our 5D day and you and colby can have you mommy colby starbucks day.
me: thats a great idea! colby can we do that? go in the morning?
colby: (big grin. i take that as a yes.)

and so it went. and wouldnt you know it. we got to starbucks, and there in the pastry case, in all its pumpkin-y orange glory, sat the last delicious pumpkin scone, which colby promptly walked up to the counter and ordered, lest anyone else get the same idea.

now we just have to see if that sustains him for the next....9 or so months.

getting older

i dont know if this is normal for kids or if its just mine, but the do not want to get older!
it used to bring colby to tears when we'd say things to him like, "when you grow up", or "one day when you're big." he would cry and say
colby: i dont want to get older! i want to stay 5!! (or 4 or whatever age he happened to be at the time).
since he turned 6 in october he doesnt seem to be as bothered by it, but now mollys jumped on the anti-aging bandwagon.
allen had sent her to her room the other day for something and when he went to talk to her about it he said something along the lines of
allen: we punish you, molly, because we love you and we want you to grow up to be a godly yound lady.
molly: well, i'm not going to grow up. i'm going to stay 4.

he also told me that he was putting her to bed a few nights ago and she said
molly: daddy, i dont want to be 5. can you ask God to let me stay 4.
allen: molly, i cant do that. it doesnt work that way.
molly: but you know him!!

she also told my mom last week
molly: grammie, i dont want to have any more birthdays. i want to stay 4, but God keeps giving me all these birthdays! i'm going to have to have a talk with him about that.

so, i dont know how shes going to do it, but that girl is bound and determined to stay 4.

last one

not forever; just of 2010.

the kids and i made a last minute trip down to houston monday night, and then on to galveston the next day. a sweet family at our church had 4 tickets to moody gardens that included every attraction at the place, but they had to be used by january 1st.
monday evening we drove down, went to bed, then drove to galveston (about an hour and change...when i drive) the next morning. it was a great day! we went to the aquarium, the discovery museum, a 4D movie, went to lunch at the rainforest cafe, and stayed into the evening for the festival of lights.
as always on a frans outing (especially when allen is not accompanying us; he had to stay and work) there were a few memorable events to brighten the day....
our tickets included a 3D film of our choice (there were several showing), and a ride on the colonel (one of those old timey paddle wheel boats). however, the boat ride was only offered twice that day and we had missed the first one. the second one fell at the same time as the film colby had picked to see which only showed one time that day. the solution; i took molly on the boat an mimi took colby to the film. we got on the boat and there was a concession stand inside. i thought i would be a fabulous mommy and get molly a 'treat'. she wanted orange juice. i got up to the counter and saw a sign that said 'irish coffee'. well, that sounded delicious! it was chilly and i love coffee. and ireland. what i didnt know, because i dont drink and because i'm an idiot, is that what makes the coffee irish, is the liquor. i thought 'irish' just meant it had mint in it or something. imagine my surprise when i took my first drink, and it was a drink; i'm not a sipper. holy nightmare, batman! it was strong! or maybe it wasnt, but it was strong to me because i'm not used to it, and i wasnt expecting it. so then i was faced with a dilemma. what do i do with it?
i was telling allen about it on the phone later that evening....
me: so, i had an adult beverage this afternoon.
allen: WHAT?!?
me: i didnt mean to!
allen: how do you accidentally drink something?
me: (proceed to tell him what happened)
allen: so you drank it?
me: like half of it.
allen: WHAT?!?
me: well, i didnt want to waste it. it cost me six bucks!
allen: you got buzzed!
me: i did not!
allen: you did. and now you're driving drunk around galveston with our kids in the car. you're putting our children in danger.
i assure you he was only giving me a hard time, and i also assure you i was not driving 'buzzed'.
but, hey, lesson learned. irish coffee is not minty.

after we got off the boat we met mimi and colby at the playscape and let the kids play for a little bit. molly got caught up in doing something and (as always must happen when i'm traveling with the kids sans allen) she peed all over herself. i mean all. over. herself. the good thing is she was standing in the dirt...make that mud, so there wasnt really anything for me to clean up other than her of course, and we passed a target just a couple miles outside the park. we were quite a ways from the car, so she had to waddle for a while. we got to the car and i stripped her down to just her shirt. skirt,leggings, socks, shoes and of course underwear all came off. she rode to target like that, and i was able (thankfully!!) to leave her in the car with colby and mimi while i ran in and bought her new stuff to wear.
never a dull moment.

a few days ago she was singing frosty the snowman, and she asked
molly: mommy, when is it going to snow here?
me: i dont know, mo. it doesnt really snow here where we live. well, sometimes it snows in febuary.
molly: can we go to febuary, then?
me: febuary isnt a place, love. its a month.
molly: but i want to go there!
me: ok. we'll go in about 6 weeks.
molly: ok.
problem solved. now i just have to pray for some snow in febuary, or at least a good ice storm.

i'm looking forward to new years eve as always. this will be our seventh year in a row to spend in with our best friends the lamberts and the barners. we go to dinner and then go to someones house (this year its ours) and play games till midnight when we toast the new year and go home! there will be lots off desserts and coffee to be had by all, and i can promise you it wont be irish!

happy new year!!!

ugh

seriously.
6 weeks?
thats about how long its been since i blogged. i'm a disgrace to consistent bloggers everywhere. i'm no longer fit to call myself a blogger. i have a blog. i dont update it anymore. i dont want to get rid of it in case something hilarious happens, or one of my kids does something ridiculously brilliant that i must document immediately.
i've actually have had moments of 'i need to blog about that' over the last few weeks, but as you can see, i didnt. and now i cant remember what any of thse moments were.
thats what i get i suppose. serves me right. maybe i'll be better in 2011......
i dont know that i even have enough entries on here to do a book this year. i think my grand total is 34 counting this one. i might get one more in before the year is over, making it a nice round 35. thats almost three entries a month, though. not too bad, really, when you look at it that way. maybe i will do a book. it will just be a very very small one.
allen wants me to do the picture-a-day thing again. i definitely blogged more when i was taking a picture a day and posting them each week, but at the time i felt like that was keeping me from blogging on a more regular basis. now it seems the opposite is true.

i hope this season is bringing you joy and lots of time with family and friends. we've been so, so busy; busier than i ever remember being before with just life stuff. i mean, i was doing ANNIE last year through the christmas season, and that was a bit crazy, but this year its just been different parties, and get togethers, and drs appointments, and event after event. all fun though, well except the drs appts.
colby is having his adnoids and tonsils out next wednesday. i week from today. 3 days before christmas. the thought i that the excitement of the big day and he gifts and whatnot will distract him from the pain. that, of course, remains to be seen. i hope i'm right. his adnoids are causing an 80% blockage in his nasal passage. no wonder the kid cant breathe!! as weird as it sounds, i'm looking forward to this surgery. i want my little boy to know what its like to breathe normally! merry christmas, colby! we give you the gift of an unrestricted airway. hahaha. or should i say hohoho. :-)

i went back to africa in november, right before thanksgiving, to work with the kids and missionaries at rafiki. my dad and i went two years ago, and i wanted to go back one more time before the missionaries that we know come back home (in febuary). an old friend of mine went with me, actually, i went with her, and we got to do some great stuff with the kids over there.
one afternoon we were playing a game with the 5th graders (5th grade is their level of education, nt necessarily their age. some of them are 14 and 15 yrs old). the object was to pick a category and start a rythm, then to go around the circle saying things in that category without throwing off the beat. we had done animals, colors, and types of food (which is interesting when you have two cultures that eat completely different things). we were trying to think of another category, and one of the boys said, "madam, please, diseases!!!" melinda and i looked at each other, then back at him, and i said, "o....k...." so he started the beat...
malaria...typhoid...flu (that was me)...gonorrhea...syphillis...strep throat(melinda)...AIDS...etc, etc.
they're saying this stuff as though its no big deal, and to them it wasnt. melinda and i still laugh about it, because it was funny to hear these kids yelling the names of these diseases out loud and proud. but it was sobering to realize that that is their reality. melinda and i are thinking of stuff like the common cold and laryngitis. they're throwing out typhoid and AIDS. wow.
we did have a great time with them, though. i got to do some drama activities with them and some scrapbooking with the mamas there on the village. i was blessed to get to go back a second time.

merry christmas to all of you!! may your days be merry and bright! :-)