Simply Mel(Formerly Mama Monoblogs)

How Sweet It Is.....

 The table. Card for a special someone and candles

A love note in chalk...

The adoring wife....

The pink hat worn to cover bad hair day....

The music for the evening...

Hubby's favorite drink.....


The anniversary meal du jour...


Surprise treat from my hubby.....


In a special package


The loving husband.....

The special dessert....

 

Enjoying dessert

Chocolate covered cuteness

Watching our kiddos play in the yard while we chatted


Our little girl who took a sweet leap of faith in Jesus yesterday...

giving us a wonderful anniversary gift *

It was a sweet day!

 

*Katelyn gets a separate post about about how she came to accept Jesus into her heart yesterday.Coming soon!

Of Journals and Being Who God Created You To Be

 I took out one of my old journals last night and started reading it. When I say "old" I mean, from the end of 1993 to the beginning of 1995!!! I've kept journals all these years and it's fun, and sometimes, funny, sad, aggravating and embarrassing to go back and read them. This time it was sad and kind of embarrassing. This journal was from not long after I had started high school.  The reason I mention it is because in it, I had every slight, hurt, embarrassing moment and desperate teen age girl thought written in it. It brought back memories. And anger. 

There is a point to this post, other than talking about  my journal and high school years, and it may seem like I'm going to take a long time getting  it to it. I promise you I will. 

But first, let me tell you a story.......

As many of you may or may not know I was homeschooleduntil the 6th grade. Being missionaries in Brazil that was the best way for me to get my education at the time. Once I hit the 6th grade my parent's felt it was time to continue my education in a "real" school. I got a good education at home which is what allowed me to skip 7th and half 8th when I began attending Pan America Christian Academy, or PACA, a private, American, christian school in the city where I lived. I was sooo excited to be "going to school" and has all sorts of plans for myself when I got there. I dreamed of having a "normal" school life like the girls I saw on t.v and in the books that I read. I just knew I was going to go in make a couple of best friends and we'd walk around giggling and talking about boys. We'd walk arm in arm, write notes and have sleepovers. Speaking of boys, I would, of course, pick up a couple of boyfriends along the way. I'd would be popular and do all sorts of fun things and it would all be maahvelous. Before you all start groaning, remember, I had never been to school before and only had t.v and books to base my idea on what "real" school life was. And I wanted that. In the worst way. Before I started school I was a pretty happy-go-lucky girl who had a great social life at church with all my Brazilian friends. They all thought I was pretty great. It also helped that I was American. I wasn't super concerned with my looks and was happy with my permed, short hair ( I insisted on it.Think "Annie"), huge eye glasses and very  bright and colorful clothing. You can imagine my surprise and utter dismay when school was not what I had anticipated. In fact for my first two years there, it was, in my thirteen and fourteen year old mind, hell. I  looked different, was different, awkward,friendless,insecure, picked on, made fun of and the butt of cruel pranks. My parent's told me that they would take me out anytime I wanted them to if I didn't want to deal with it anymore. But, I didn't want out. I wanted to stay and I wanted to do whatever it took to be the person that everyone liked and thought was cool. Not only did I not have a boyfriend,boys didn't seem to notice me at all! I know it hurt my parents to see me hurting and they wanted to do all they could to help me out but I was stubborn and wanted to stay and continue on. My parent's continually told me that all that didn't matter and I shouldn't care what other people thought. That in the future, all of that would be irrelevant and so would the cruel people. They insisted I was special,fun, kind and pretty( go figure!!), that God loved me just the way I was, and all those insecurities I had were unfounded. People just needed to get to know me for who I was. And it was their loss if they didn't. (humph!) Eventually I "grew into myself" and gained more confidence.But when you're in high school that is your world and you can't see past it. By my tenth grade year I did  make those "best friends" and many others, in fact. Even boys became my friends! (But I  never did pick up those boyfriends!) School got much better for me and I had fun, got into sports,drama, discovered my singing ability and made lasting, good memories to go along with the bad ones. Wast it ever what I dreamed it would be? No.  Was it ever really easy for me? Nope.

And this is where I  start to get into the real reason for this post.

After reading my journal, I got sad and wished I hadn't felt the way I felt and placed so much importance on the things that I did. I laughed at how dra-maahtic I was about my feelings and the huge words that I used. I snickered over the different boy I "fell in love with" every other day. But it hurt all over again to see the insecure and desperate- for- popularity girl I had become. I prayed to God that my girls would not have to go through what I went through in high school. That they would be happy with themselves, confident, easy going, kind, compassionate servants of the Lord. I also prayed that the Lord would give them good friends, great memories and great experiences in junior high and high school.  That, even if they chose to have a silly hairstyle or be quirky in some way they would do it proudly and with no apologies. One of the movies that has always hit home with me has been " Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion."  If you haven't seen it, it's about two best friends who were "outcasts" in high school but turned into party girls once they get into adulthood. They decide to go to their 10 year high school reunion with fake jobs and lives and make everyone believe they were way more successful than what they really were. Well, things didn't turn out well for them at the reunion and they ended up making fools of themselves because they are caught in their lie. They are then ridiculed and made fun of and Romy stomps off all upset and angry that all of those people still didn't see them any differently. Well, Michelle decides she's had enough of Romy's pouting and insecurities.

And here is my favorite part-

 Michelle lights into Romy and tells her she thought high school was a blast. She didn't know that they were considered dorks and outcasts. She had a great time because Romy was her best friend, they had fun together and they did what they wanted. It never occurred to her to be anything different than what she was.I'll spare you all the details but the movie ends wonderfully and everybody gets their just desserts. That my friends, is how I wish I had been and what I want for my girls.

***And now for the point of this post!!***

So it was a small surprise and blessing to read the chapter that I read in "The Power Of A Praying Parent" by Stormie Omartian this morning. It was titled "Being The Person God Created". Her words perfectly touched upon all the things I had been thinking last night. Here is what she said

" Not knowing who God made us to be, trying to be who we are not, or even just desiringto be someone else, can only lead to a life of misery, frustration, and unfulfillment."

".....We can pray that our children have ears to hear God's voice so such misery doesn't happen to them."

"Young girls compare themselves to other girls and see them as having prettier hair, nicer clothes, a better house, greater popularity, higher scholastic achievement, or more talent and beauty. (me in a nutshell in high school!!) Young boys look at other boys and see them as taller, better looking, greater athletes, having more friends, more hair, more possessions, or more skills and ability. This day after day comparing and falling short can attack the true identity of a child. I've known far too many young people who, by the time they reach their teens, long to be someone other than who they are. Instead of appreciating who God made them to be and spending their energies trying to be their  best at that, they strive and strain to be something they can't be, doing something that will never fulfill them. Our prayers can block this plan of the enemy and give our children a clear vision of themselves and their future."

"From the time my children were small I prayed for God to reveal to us what their gifts and talents were. Along with that I asked for wisdom as to how best encourage, nurture, develop and train them to be all God made them to be. Helping them to appreciate their strengths and not dwell on their weaknesses.....

"I know they will never fully understand who they are until they understand who God is."

This, my friends, is the whole point of this long post. Even though my children are young, and not even in kindergarten yet, I can begin to pray for their futures. Their elementary school years, junior high years, high school years and even college years. I can start to pray now for a confident yet humble, godly character, friends,experiences and choices when they hit high school. And pray hard that they make the best choices possible and be all that the Lord created them to be.

And even...

 their future boyfriends. (God help us!!)

What We've Been Up To

We seem to have gotten back to  a good routine since we've been back from Texas. As I mentioned before, my stay there was very refreshing and renewing so I've had a surge of energy and motivation to accomplish a lot of stuff around here. Many of you have asked how I've been doing with the whole not driving thing. I've actually done better than I thought. It's still been a pain to not be able to just go somewhere when I want but things have been working out just fine. My in laws have been quite helpful during the week and Mike and my friends have been driving me around on the weekends. I have three more months of not driving, so I'm halfway there. June seems like it's so far away still but I know it will be here before I know it. Spring is in the air! Even in Massachusetts! It's been so nice to have missed out on 6 weeks of snow. Mike's hours have not been as crazy as they were when I was in Texas. He's been getting home at the latest by 9:00 here lately(except for tonight, of course. It's 9:30 and I haven't heard from him at all today and he's not answering his phone) so that's been nice.

With my surge of energy I've been reorganizing, purging and "spiffing up" our house. I'm finally getting somewhere and it feels great. We bought some new end tables with big drawers for storage and storage cubes for the play room. Just those things have made such a huge different. Freecycle has been my best friend. Once I've finished by "spiffing" project in our downstairs I'll have some before and after pictures to post. Then I'm moving on to the upstairs.

In potty training news Katelyn is finally using this:

consistently! She is finally POTTY TRAINED! She is wearing underwear exclusively during the day and a pull up at night. She has been waking  up dry most mornings but I'll be keeping her in a pull up at night for awhile. She still has her occasional accidents but she's been doing so good and we're so proud of her.

She has also been eating these!

I've decided to try a little experiment. Since all the children's nutrition experts say that you have to offer children foods you want them to eat many times before they'll actually start to eat them, I've decided to test this theory out. And track it. Since Katelyn and Madelyn have to be cajoled, bribed and threatened within an inch of their lives to eat vegetables, I'm trying to make meal times a more pleasant experience. I've bought some fun, large, plastic plates from Target and I'm still filling their plates with dabs of of several choices of healthy food. I'm also making Katelyn's "dessert" proportional to what she's eaten. Instead of fighting her to take more bites or else she get's no dessert, I let her have dessert that's equal to the amount of food she's eaten. I've gone as far as letting her only have a single bit of cookie because she barely ate any of her dinner. But, she was more than happy to have it! Sometimes she'll eat a few more bites of dinner so she can have more bites of dinner and sometime she's happy with that one bite. But, we're making progress. After two weeks straight of offering her baby carrots with dip at lunch(and sometimes dinner) she has started to eat the carrots on her own. She is even going as far as saying she likes them!

Carrots? Check!!

I'm still trying the carrot thing with Madelyn. She still won't eat them. But tonight, she ate a whole, large raw broccoli floret without prompting. I was, seriously, shocked! She's never done that. So we'll be doing the broccoli thing next with both girls too. I'm going to track how long it takes for them to start  eating broccoli on a regular basis. I've been really working at serving raw, cut veggies consistently, every day, for lunch.Needless to say, I've been eating a lot of veggies myself. Mike has even been choking down eating more vegetables. I watched him take several bites of mixed vegetables the other night and that has never been done by him. (He's part of my experiment too, but he doesn't know it-lol)

Speaking of Madelyn (weren't we?) our 25 lb 11 oz, 35 1/4 inch tall 19 month old has needed more discipline from us as of late. She seems to be hitting her terrible two's a little early. We are partly mostly ,ok, totally to blame for a lot of her behaviors since we've let her get away with stuff for a little too long. She's been the baby and we've thought a lot of what she's done was kinda....cute. But no more! We are putting our foot down. Especially now that she's started throwing little tantrums and outright disobeying us when we know she understands our directions. It really makes me want to do this:

(I don't think she's ugly. Just her behavior *wink*). Yes, we're heading into terrible two's territory. And she plainly acts like we're trespassing.

Another huge blessing for us recently has been the opportunity to pay off some huge debt. What a huge weight off our shoulders. We thank God for that.

So, that's what's been going on with us. Oh, and by the way, I just finished typing this(while watching "Castle"" and it's 10:44 pm. Mike is now on his way home. All is right in the world.

 

Katelyn Potty Mouth

I just wanted to share some of the jewels that Katelyn has shared with me the past few days. I'm sorry if you find some of them offensive. I thought they were funny. She is only 3 and at the height of potty humor.

Whenever Katelyn has a bowel movement in the potty she must call me and let me know that she's done it and for me to come and see it. Then we must talk about it and I must give her praise for the the hard work she has put into producing such works of bowel movement art. Today she says to me:

"Mama look at my poop that I did! They are a lot and very little. They are singing " Happy Birthday Poo-oop" and having a little poop birthday party and eating their birthday poop cake".

I kid you not.

Before she went potty she had been waiting for her hot chocolate to cool off(  a new obsession with her). She went to drink her hot chocolate when she remembered that she still had not put her pants on.  So she says to me " Mama, girls can't drink  hot chocolate without pants!!"

Well, silly me.

She also find flatulence funny and must announce it every time she has passed gas. And  if we, somehow, rudely missed it the first time she must rein-act it for our listening pleasure.

Let's not forget that any time Mike or I go to the bathroom Katelyn takes a huge interest in what we've  produced in the bathroom ourselves. We, of course, draw the line there.

 

Sending Out A Parenting SOS and Maybe Some Pictures

Ok, so I'm just going to say it- this little girl-

   Is going through the terrible, trying, three's right now. When we say "yes" she says "no". When we say " no" she says "yes". She doesn't want to eat, she doesn't want to go to bed, she doesn't want to clean up, she doesn't want to leave, she doesn't want to smile for pictures, she doesn't want to share, she pretty much doesn't want to do anything that mommy and daddy want her to do. The sassing and arguing is getting unbearable.She's an emotional basket case as well. One second she's lovey dovey and telling me how much she loves me, the next, she's screaming and crying over the smallest thing. She's disagreeable much of the time and very defiant. Sounds like PMS doesn't it? If chocolate would fix this problem I'd be giving it to her by the barrell. Chocolate is, in fact, something she demands all the time as of late but it only seems to make her behavior worse. Oh, and everything is negotiable in her mind .

Me, tonight at dinner: Katelyn, you need to eat at least half of your fajita before you get the little piece of chocolate Nana and Papa brought for you.

(my inlaws were over for a bit)

After much crying and whining...

Katelyn: Ok mama, but I don't like this , and this, this, (and she proceeds to pull pretty much everything out of her fajita)

Me: You need to eat your fajita with the chicken and everything else in it

Katelyn(looking down at her mutilated half of fajita): But this one is brooooooken! I don't want to eat the broken one.

Me: ( Longsuffering sigh) OK,fine. Eat the other half that is not "broken".

Katelyn: Ok, so if I eat this little bit right here I can have the treat from nana and papa and my chocolate Santa.

Me: No, you need to eat more than that little bit and you can't have your chocolate Santa

Katelyn: Ok, I can take twoooo bites and then can I have my chocolate Santa?

Me: I said no

Katelyn:( Sobbing and whining sounds erupt. Then gagging sounds as she eats the half of the fajita I told her to).  I ate aaaall my dinner so now can I have my surprise from nana and papa aaaand my chocolate Santa?

Me: FINE! You can have your chocolate santa since you ate your dinner but you can only eat it 'til his shoulders. You have to save the rest for tomorrow.

See?

Everything has turned into a battle with her. Somedays, it just wears me down. Now don't get me wrong, she definitely has her cute and sweet moments but those seem to be few and far between  as of late. I get very frustrated and annoyed with her and seem to lose my patience quickly. Madelyn, on the other hand, is going through a really cute and fun stage and I think everything she does is adorable. I find myself gravitating  more towards Madelyn and putting up with more of her "naughty" antics because I think they are cute. But then I feel guilty becuase I don't want Katelyn to think I like Madelyn more than her or am playing favorites. I feel as if all I do all day is get on to Katelyn and hug and kiss on Madelyn.

Help!! Any suggestions on how to handle this? I'm really trying to have patience with Katelyn and go out of my way to praise her and make sure I'm hugging and kissing on her as much as Madelyn. But she is making that difficult where as Madelyn is making it easy. The guilt is eating me up!

 

Now that I got that out of the way, some pictures!

These are from our birthday party for Jesus a couple of weeks ago.

Katelyn is decorating the cake we had made earlier that day

 

The girls wanted to wear party hats. You can see the lit tea light candle I had on top of the cake. That's the only type of candle I could find!

 

Madelyn really got into the spirit of the celebration.

"Is it really Jesus' birthday?"

 

So that's all the picture's for now. I'm still editing all my Christmas ones. I'll be adding a Christmas album to my sidebar that you can peruse at your leisure. I'm still taking down and putting away all my Christmas decorations. Somehow it was a family event putting them up but it's a single, mommy event to put them away.Hmm, somehow that doesn't seem right. I'm also catching up on all your blogs. I am still your faithful reader( if I am, indeed, a reader of your blog) and you will be getting comments from me soon. I still welcome your new years resolutions! Bring 'em on!

Now I really need to go do the dishes..

   

Gettin' Ready To Partay

So, yesterday I was able to go shopping all day by myself which was a real treat. Our friend Jenn spent the night before with us and stayed all day and took care of K and M. I stopped first at Toys R Us and got my shopping done for K and M. I still may get some candy and trinkets to put in their stocking but for the  most part I am done with them. The cashier even let me use a $25 dollar off coupon and (shhh don't tell!) a $10 off coupon, totaling $35 off the total purchase amount. I was very grateful and thanked her profusely. She just shrugged and said "As long as the computer takes them I don't care". Then I was off to the mall to find myself a party dress(Ack!) and do some more shopping. After stopping at Lane Bryants(found nothing), JC Penney's(also nada) and Macy's I finally found a dress at Macy's. It's black,empire wasted and spaghetti strapped. Not to worry! It also has a sparkly shrug-like jacket to cover my almost bare shoulders. You'll get to see pictures. I also used a coupon on the dress because it was a tad more expensive that I planned on paying originally. The precendent for us at these work Christmas parties is that I have consistently been over dressed. I just hope that doesn't ring true for tomorrow-again. I then finished up Mike's Christmas shopping at Macy's. I just have to now shop for my MIL and parents. I had lunch at the food court and pulled out my borrowed copy of "Twilight" to get some uninterrupted reading in. I had also taken my stroller with me so I could put all my stuff in it and not carry it around. You would think no one had ever seen anyone do that!! I got so  many joking questions about " Where's the baby?" and " I hope your baby isn't under all that!!" Hardy har har.  Not only do you have to account for your actions with your kids in public to complete strangers, you now have to account for them even when they're not with you!! It was funny seeing all the smiling glances people gave to my stroller, expecting to see a child in it and then looking strangely at my cute,comfortable, overstuffed, Guess purse and  then up at me. I just smiled, nodded and went on my merry way. To each his own right?? If I want to push my purse around the mall I have every right. I hate being loaded down with stuff at the mall. I don't enjoy myself when I'm lugging a bunch of bags around. But I digress..

I then got a cute call from Katelyn telling me she had "pee-peed" and "poo-pooed" on the potty and was dry. So I told her I would bring her a special cookie from "Auntie Anne's". Turns out AA was totally out of the way for me so I stopped at Dunkin' Donuts to get two very special, uh......donuts. I got some Christmas-y frosted ones and figured the girls would be thrilled. I had a Chiro appointment on my way home from the mall so I didn't see the girls until after that, which was close to dinner time at this point. I got home and Katelyn was dying for her "special cookie". So, against my best judgement, let them devour their donuts right before dinner. I explained to Katelyn that I didn't get her a cookie but a special donut. She seemed to be completely fine with it. After she had snarfed it down, green frosting all over her face and all, she came to me demanding to know where her special cookie was. I somewhat patiently explained, again, to her that the donut had taken the place of the cookie. End of story. After telling me she didn't want a story she demanded her cookie again. She said she didn't want the donut and wanted a special cookie. I told her there was NO COOKIE. She impatiently explained to me in a tone that implied she thought I was less than intelligent that she would have the cookie tomorrow. I told her in no uncertain terms that THERE WAS NO COOKIE AND THERE WOULD BE NO COOKIE NOT NOW OR TOMORROW OR EVER FOR THAT MATTER!!! And if she kept acting like an ungrateful brat she would never get another treat again. She seemed pretty happy with the donut after that.

So, due to the busy couple of days ahead of us I won't be blogging probably until Sunday or Monday. Please contain the emotion. I know it's a hard blow to take. I'll be back, whenever that is, with a ton of pictures to share about our two parties. I shall leave you with some of the things I got the girls for Christmas this year:

 

Both girls are getting this

Katelyn is getting this

For my Maddy

 

For Maddy but I'm sure both girls will fight play with it

Both girls are getting one of these

 

Madelyn is getting Quincy. He will round out the group since we have or will be getting the rest of the group from the grandmas.

I so think Katelyn will love this game

For my little singing Diva, Katelyn

For both my Dora lovers

 

Katelyn has specifically been asking for the Candy Land castle. I don't think she quite knows what to do with it but it should be fun.

 

For Katelyn as well but I'm sure Maddy will play with it too.

 

Hope you enjoyed a peak into our Christmas list this year. Be back soon! Oh, and I still haven't uploaded the pictures to the Dec. album. Maybe tomorrow? Keep checking. They'll be there soon, I promise!

 

 

December Dibs and Dabs

 

***Updated***

Wow, I'm updating already and this post is not even two hours old!! I forgot to mention a  couple of other things below that we are doing

-I cut out a picture of my parents faces and laminated it for Katelyn's calendar. I have a huge calendar used for preschool circle time(more on this in later post) that I do with Katelyn frequently throughout the week so she can learn days of the week, counting, and all sorts of other things. Anyway, I put the pictre of my parents on the day they are arriving in a few weeks so Katelyn can have a visual count down of how many days it will be before they get here. We also have a special calendar cut out for Christmas day that she can cound down to as well.

-Our church is going Christmas Caroling on the 14th. I'm curious to see how that turn out! We are planning on taking the girls in our double stroller and just REALLY bundleing them up.

-As I mentioned before, I would like to make a "birthday cake" for Jesus this year.

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It's my favorite time of the year!! I don't know about you but although the Christmas season is full of fun it's also one of the busiest. I've been reading a lot of blogs that are stressing "simplifying Christmas" and cutting out a lot of things so you and your family aren't running around like crazy during the Christmas season. While I see the merit of this I also tend to see things a little differently too. When Christmas times comes I want to do do do as much that is Christmas-y as possible. I want to bake with Katelyn, I want to bake for other people, I want to make Christmas crafts with the girls, decorate, start a new family traditions, carol, go to parties, have parties, listen to Christmas music, shop, go to our Christmas eve service, spoil my  kids rotten with a ton of loot on Christmas morning and take part in any other event that would involve Christmas at all. I want to do this because you only get one month each year to do any of that. Because I'm all about making memories. While I understand about not over doing it and being more stressed than cheery on Christmas,I think you can have a balance between focusing on Christmas related things and letting "other" things go for the month of December. Many people choose to only focus on Jesus during Christmas and buy only one or two gifts for their kids. That is fine. I want  my children to learn to appreciate what they have and not only focus on getting presents. But I think we also have to remember that children are children. They are going to focus on the presents no matter how many times you read about Jesus' birth or how many presents you get them, be it two or twenty. I do think that December is the  month you should " go all out" as much as possible. Spend as much time with friends and family and take your kids to see lights, Santa, a nativity play or whatever else floats your boat. Unless it's really what you want to do I don't think you should  just narrow it down to one or two events all in the name of simplifying so you can dust, clean your windows,  and follow some other rigid schedule you had set before December. I think you can focus on Jesus during Christmas and have fun "going all out" at Christmas time. Does this make sense? Anyway, enough pontificating. I had several little things to write about so I figured I'd just  do a Christmas dribs and drabs post-

-I love getting and giving Christmas cards. It's a thing with me. I anxiously check the mail every day to see who sent me Christmas cards. Then I happily hang them up. As of today I've only received 3. Are people sending them out late this year?? I myself am not completely done yet either. I've been sending out 5 or 6 each day and trying to pace myself. If you send me a card, you'll get one from me. If I don't get a card from you then I'll remember it for next year and your name is crossed off my list! (muah, ha ha ha) :o) It's a cut throat event with me, this sending Christmas cards thing. (Just kidding folks, just kidding! Or am I...?)

-It took us three days to finish decorating our tree but it's as done as it's going to be this year. We have yet to put out our lights so  I hope Mike gets on top of that soon. Madelyn loves playing " Pull The Ornaments Off the Tree , Put Them In My Mouth and Show Mom" so I have to keep an eye on her. Since Madelyn keeps taking ornaments off the tree Katelyn thinks it's a free for all as well. The tree gets redecorated several times a day. They are both obsessed with the Dora decorations we have so I am constantly finding them all over the place and putting them back on the tree.

- I love Christmas music. I've recently become enamored with " I Want  A Hippopotamus For Christmas". It's stuck in my head and Katelyn also walks around singing it.

-This Friday and Saturday we have two work Christmas parties that I am excited about. The first one is Mike's Lonza party. It's starts at 7:00 on Friday night and goes until 1:00 am. It's at the New England Center in Durham, NH. I have no idea what the NEC is or what we are going to do there. All I know is that it's semi formal and I have to go shopping for a new dress for it. Which, at this point in my weight, I am not very excited about. Mike was then invited by his old boss to attend his old job's Christmas party which is at the Boston Museum Of Science. We can take our kids and everything there is free for us. We signed up to see The Butterfly Garden, The 3D show about Dinosaurs and a "Fly Me To The Moon" show in their planetarium. It's an all day thing and they serve breakfast, lunch and dessert. I am soo excited about that. I think the girls will love it. The girls will be sleeping over at my inlaws Friday night since it's going to be a late nigh for us. We're going to stay in a hotel and then come back and pick up the girls Saturday morning and head straight to Boston with them. Sounds stressful but fun at the same time.

-Mike's current job had a Christmas party of sorts for the children of the employees of Lonza this past weekend. They rented out a whole theater so the children could watch "Bolt". Only one parent was allowed to go with the children so Mike got to take Katelyn to see it. It was her first time ever in a movie theater. They also offered a light lunch to everyone while they were there. I thought that was a cute idea. I just wished I had gotten the chance to go to. She did pretty good although Mike said she did ask to go home halfway through the movie and then needed to sit in his lap for most of it. I figured she would get pretty antsy since sitting for a long time is not her thing. She is a half hour show kind a girl. And even when she is watching Dora or something else she's up and dancing and running around for most of it. Mike bought her a stuffed " Bolt" and "Rhino" before the show so she would know what he looked like.

-I also forgot to mention last week(horrid mother that I am!) that Madelyn had her last bottle on Tuesday, Dec 2. Sniff!! She now has one of those Nuby cups at night before she goes to bed. She did fine with the transition. As long as she gets something she's fine with it.

- My Ladies Christmas Tea this past weekend was a blast and went great. We had a great turn out and several ladies brought guests. We had more food than we knew what to do with. We played Christmas pictionary and each had a part to sing and act out in our "12 Days Of Christmas" game. We revealed who our Secret Sisters were and exchanged gifts. There was a lot of laughing and fellowshipping. We did a couple of other activities to round out our night. I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

 

Well, I was going to post several more pictures but this post has already gotten way too long. So, I guess my next post will be more pictures from our Christmas tree trimming and some from our ladies tea.

Introducing Diego!!

   

This is our new shelf elf! Have you ever heard of a Shelf Elf?

 

I've been reading about this Christmas tradition on a few blogs and mentioned it to MIL and she went out and got me one.(I'm so spoiled!) If you haven't heard about the Shelf Elf tradition this is the short version:

The elf is supposed to be a scout for Santa. When you get your elf you have to promptly name him. Katelyn named ours Diego. The book that came with our elf is really cute and explains the whole story. On the last page we write his name and when he came to us. So the scout elf keeps an eye on the kids and reports back to Santa every night. The next morning he shows back up in your house in a different place. The children will have a good time each day until Christmas trying to find out where the elf will be next. The only two rule is that there is no touching of the elf by the children. They may tell the elf their secrets they just can't touch him. On Christmas day the elf goes back to be with Santa unitl the next year. You can check out the Shelf Elf website for more info-www.theelfontheshelf.com. You can register your elf and get a letter from Santa to print out with your elf's name in it. You can also print out an adoption certificate.The website also lets you "tour" the North Pole. Cute!!

I thought this was  a cute tradition to start with my kids. Although I've made sure to tell Katelyn that Santa is just pretend I think they will have fun finding Diego every morning in a new spot. It will become a competition of sorts in the future. We've decided to not let our kids grow up thinking Santa is real. We really want to focus on the real meaning of Christmas but we don't want to leave Santa out completely.

Some other traditions I have started is doing a countdown calendar to Christmas with Katelyn. I guess it's sort of like an Advent calender. I got it off the One Step Ahead website.(which now I can't find so I don't know if they stopped selling it!) It's a Christmas tree that you velcro an ornament on from the first day of Christmas until Christmad eve. It's really cute.

We also do the usual baking together and I have some cute crafts I like doing with Katelyn for Christmas. We're going to make a birthday cake for Jesus for the first time this year. I had heard of that idea in the past and I thought it was cute.

What are some of the Christmas traditions you guys do with your families?

 

This is Diego's scouting spot for tonight. Who knows where he'll show up tomorrow??

 

The Love Dare

So, I'm sitting here blogging on the couch at 9:30 am.Katelyn is snuggled next to me watching "Wonder Pets" and Madelyn is just walking around making mischief. I managed to develop a fever last night and had it through the night. I don't think I have it today but I'm just very lethargic and winded. Katelyn was acting pretty sickly herself this morning. She got in bed with me and just laid with me for a while. I had to dress her on my bed because she wouldn't get up. We then came downstairs for breaksfast and she's been laying on the couch and snuggled up against me all morning. I think she is still very weak from not eating anything for several days. She keeps saying "I"m still sick". I think my fever was brought on partly by a virus going around but I think my stress level the past couple of weeks has not helped. So, I'm blogging and looking around at the disaster my house is. I have not been able to completely catch up with cleaning and organizing since everyone got sick on Thanksgiving.  That's stressing me out too. I need to let it go.

Anyway, ont o the point of this post. Have you guys heard of the book "The Love Dare" based on the movie "Fireproof"? That's the first gift I got for Mike. They had it on sale the other night at Sam's and it looks very interesting. Here is an excerpt from the back cover:

"The Love Dare is a 40-day challenge for husbands and wives to understand and practice unconditional love. Whether your marriage is hanging by a thread or healthy and strong. The Love Dare is a journey you need to take. It's to learn the keys to finding a true intimacy and developing a dynamic marriage. Take the dare!"

Sounds interesting doesn't it? From what I can tell there's a "dare" you have to do each day for 40 days then you check it off in the book once you're done. There's a little devotional each day before the dare and then a spot where you can journal your reactions to the dare afterward. I don't think the "dares" are anything risque like showing up at your husband's work with nothing on except a raincoat and high heels.(lol) They are smaller things that I know I struggle with  myself. Just daily acts of kindness that get lost in the shuffle of a comfortable marriage, kids and responsibilities. I bought one for myself too and hope we can start the new year with this book. Anyone else care to join us on this? I'd love to hear what other couples think of this book and the dares. I'm sure I'll be posting my feelings on this book here once we start it.

I'm going to be very surprised if this book is a complete surprise to Mike thanks to the Sam's employees. They were certainly working against my effort to keep what I bought a surprise that's for sure! Mike closed his eyes when I put the books in our cart under a couple of other purchases. He then said he would take Madelyn away from the register so he wouldn't see the stuff being bought. The book is not very big. You'd think the cashier would just scan it and move on. Nope! She stopped, picked it up, read the title LOUDLY within Mike's earshot, started thumbing through it, and then started asking me all sorts of questions about it. I tried to politely and discreetly answer her questions and get her to put the book away before Mike heard everything we were talking about. You know how Sam's always has an employee that checks your receipt and your purchases before you leave? We've NEVER been questioned about anything in our cart before. They always look at the receipt and highlight it and let us be on our merry way. This particular night we didn't even have that much stuff in our cart. I had a couple of Christmas CD's, a large sled and the two books. Well, the little old lady checking our receipt looked everything over and then LOUDLY(what is it with these people??)said-

" THE LOVE DARE. WHAT IS THAT???  A BOOK??"  (Yes lady!! yes it is!!!!)

She then went digging for it in our cart. 

Sigh. 

I'm going to be  very surprised if Mike doesn't have a small inkling about what I bought him that night at Sam's. Thanks Sam's employees. Thanks A LOT. 

Doctor Mom Is In And All About Our Sick Thanksgiving Weekend

**UPDATE**

I forgot to mention that I did take some pictures of our Thanksgiving and will post them on this post soon. I need to upload them first. There wasn't much occasion to take pictures. Oh, and we still aren't done decorating our tree! We'll finish soon and I'll post the pictures once it's fuly decorated in all it's glory.

Happy Sunday!

 

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ORIGINAL POST

 Since Friday Katelyn and Mike have been very sick with a  vicious stomach virus( and all that that entails. And I do mean ALL) The stomach thing then turned into chills, fatigue and fever. They seem to be doing better today but we still stayed home from church. Feels weird not being there today!!

 My poor Mother-in-law(henceforth to be known as MIL) contracted this vicious virus the night before Thanksgiving so she stayed put in her room all Thanksgiving day. She had been able to do most of the cooking  and setting the table before she got sick so there was very little left to do Thanksgiving day. It was very funny to see my brother in law(BIL) and father in law(FIL)rushing around trying to take care of the last minute cooking. I helped with the veggies while BIL stirred the gravy and baked the rolls. FIL carved the turkey. My job this year was dessert. I made my very first apple pie, pumpkin bread and brownies. So, we had our Thanksgiving meal without my MIL for the first time. The food was still delicious and we had a good time. Katelyn ate next to nothing but was somehow starving for dessert. We then watched a movie and relaxed the rest of the day. My BIL gave Katelyn her belated birthday present from him which she was and still is enamored with. He gave her a Dora Vanity Table that is really cute. Dora's head sits on top of the vanity(kinda creepy) and it comes with a pretend blow dryer and other assorted hair accessories. Katelyn loves to sit on the little stool that came with it and comb Dora's hair and fix her up. She will also fix herself up too.

Friday Mike decided to clean out our sunroom/office as it was literally a DISASTER. It was pretty much a junk room and an embarrassment. We had TWO desks in there! Who needs two desks?!! We freecycled the cheap one and now my laptop,office stuff etc is on the nice desk that was supposed to Mike's.  So he reorganized and cleaned it out so we could move some of the toys in the living room in there to make way for our Christmas tree. But, before we decorated the tree we decided to do a little Black Friday shopping. We left Katelyn at my inlaws house for a few hours(which was probably not a good idea with my MIL still recovering. She was feeling a lot better and we dropped K off at her insistence) We didn't really do that much shopping and apparently went at a good time. We left to go shopping about 4:00 pm. There was no traffic on the main shopping drag in the town we went to go shopping in. And the MALL was on this road! Gasp!! By this point I wasn't really in a huge shopping mood so I didn't feel like going to too many places. We went to Casual Mal Big and Tall so Mike could get some dress shirts. This store is usually very expensive but we were able to get some good deals there. We then went to Sam's(I know, of all places right? This is exciting stuff, people) to see if they had any end tables for sale. Nope. Nothing exciting going on there. I did, however, find my first gift for Mike. And since I know he doesn't really read my blog I'll share with you what I got him...in my next post. It deserves one all of it's own :o) Anyway, we then went to pick up Katelyn and get home to decorate our tree.

 I wish I could tell you we had the festive,jolly evening I had planned with Christmas music  playing and me taking cute pictures of the girls as they gazed in excitement, awe and wonder at our tree. But that's not quite how it happened. That's when the "you know what" hit the "you know what".  Katelyn was laying all over the floor and not quite as excited about the tree as I had hoped. She was interested in hanging a couple of ornaments but in general was just laying around. She had also mentioned that she wasn't feeling good. The she erupted all over our floor. She did this about 3 or 4 times.  The Christmas tree decorating was put on hold for a bit. We put Katelyn to bed and then a couple of hours later Mike started getting sick with the stomach virus. So he was up all night with it. Thankfully Katelyn only woke twice throwing up before we even went to bed and then slept soundly the rest of the night. Yesterday they both just mellowed for awhile and then got fever last night. Katelyn slept well even with her fever. Mike had an ok night. This morning they are both a lot better.  So far, neither Madelyn or I have gotten anything. Yet. But I'm standing guard!