2009

It's New Year's Eve. I always think back to years we spent with friends, going out on the town and ringing in the New Year in cocktail dresses and blowing horns. Those years were fun, but very different from where we are now.

Ironically, the first New Year's Eve I had with a newborn baby, Eric had also taken over the youth group at our church. That started a different tradition and since then, we have celebrated New Year's Eve with many, many teenagers.

This year will be no different, so today I am enjoying the quietness of our home. I'm getting laundry caught up completely. (My grandmother had this thing about never having dirty laundry on New Year's Day and the idea has stuck. I'm afraid to now :)

Some things I'm thinking about ...

The best things about 2009....
Watching my girls grow and be happy.
Completed 2 in-depth bible studies on Esther and Daniel.
Watching Eric enjoy going to work each day.
Having a healthy family (after a few scares).
A beach trip with my parents and extended family.
Started running / exercising / ran in a 5K.
Scripture Memory Team with LPM.

Things I want to do in 2010....
Teach O to read.
Travel.
Go on bike rides with my girls (requires repairing my bike that I haven't been on in 10 years!)
Ride the Virginia Creeper (I have wanted to do this for years!!)
Run in another 5K (or 2 or 3).
Find the means for E to learn the foreign language she wants so much to learn.
Go on more date-nights with Eric.

Some things I would change if I could ...
I would slow down. Not get caught up in busyness that takes away from relationships and time with one another.

I would live with no regrets.

I have been caught saying, "If this happens, at least I can say I'll have no regrets." I've learned that I kid myself when I say such nonsense. Getting caught up in daily obligations and busyness puts me in a place of regret. Everyday.

I regret I couldn't talk to ______ longer. I regret I didn't take a moment to drop a card in the mail to ________. I regret I didn't spend a few more minutes playing with my children instead of sending them away to play by themselves. I was too busy ________. I regret not picking up the phone to call a friend instead of sending a quick text message. I regret not spending more time with my friend face-to-face before she was gone.

I'm asking God to show me areas in my life I need to change. I'm asking Him to give me wisdom to choose things wisely when it comes to filling our days. I'm asking Him for balance which I know is His will, so it will require my obedience.

"So teach us to number our days,

that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom."

Psalm 90:12

The noise level has kicked up a notch ...

and the sugar has kicked in!

I think if we played one more game, I could have won

The noise level isn't quite what I anticipated with my nieces here, but it's still a very active house. Five girls never want to do the same thing at the same time so there is always something going on in every room. They are having a blast! Last night, my friend Cathy and her girls came by for a visit. Cathy and I have been friends since 3rd grade and there probably isn't anyone else that knows me better than her. Now, having said that, she knows how much I love to win when playing games. But, she doesn't care.

We'd played 152 games of Banagrams last night - or, so it seems. See this face, she probably was saying something ugly ... like calling me a 'loser' or something like that. She didn't want me to take this picture and especially didn't want me to put it on my blog. I made her feel better by saying, "Get your own blog and you can post what you want!"

I am the sweetest friend ever.

In all fairness, she is the only person that can beat me at word games consistently. And it drives me absolutely crazy. We have played games since we were little and both of us are very competitive.

Add her 2 girls into the mix and we had SEVEN girls playing upstairs last night. FUN! I was shocked when I got them to sleep by 11:00 last night. I woke at 3:00 am to "Aunt Dee Dee, I may need to get in bed with you". :)

This morning, all the girls made me breakfast .... See that dessert with whipped cream? You may want the recipe. It's blueberries, raisins, chocolate syrup, whipped cream and sprinkles .... in the morning. Very rich. Ha! Oh, and that is TWO types of cereal in that bowl. Yum??

Then, I had some help in the kitchen when we decided to make another Cherry Cheese Danish. Every single morsel was eaten which gave them enough energy to play some more.

I have them all day! Good times!

Now, I must go because they are screaming about the toilet overflowing. Yikes!

Quiet

My house is unusually quiet. My girls are still with their grandparents and this morning I slept until 9:30. I know. I am shocked myself, but not ashamed. Oh, how I needed to sleep in!

I just had a cup of hot tea, had my quiet time and now I'm getting ready to climb the stairs to tackle the pit-o-toys which used to resemble E's room. It looks tragic and needs some serious intervention. Eric and I bought a few pieces last night to help me organize it, so I will probably spend the next few hours finishing that.

Just in time for my 3 nieces to show up to spend the night. This house will be off-the-hook noisy and I can't wait! I LOVE having them here. One of them (A) has put in a request for chocolate chip brownie cupcakes, so I have to get them going as well.

Believe it or not, I'm starting to miss these little boogers ....

Funny how we need some time apart, but feel incomplete until we're all back together.

Who Needs Candy?

I finally went to the doctor today after dealing with some sinus/cough issues for 2 weeks. Turns out I have a viral infection. As in 'there's nothing we can really do' viral infection. Ugh!

So what do you do when you cart your two restless daughters to the doctor's office only to wait in the waiting room for almost an hour?

You entertain them by taking pictures.

They are getting ready to spend the night with their grandparents tonight. Yippeee!!!

This is when I told O I did NOT want her to eat a lot of candy at her grandmother's.

She answered by saying, "Are you going to be there watching me?"

"No, but I need to be able to trust you."

"Okay, Mom. Now take some pictures of my tonsils."

Then she said, "Mom, what are tonsils?" Ha!

These were taken right before E started using O's braided pigtails as reigns while O galloped through the lobby.

Imagine what candy does to them.

Is it any wonder as soon as their grandparents pull out of our driveway with my darling angels, I have BIG plans to take a nap?

Yay - A Home Video

Eric surprised me this year with an UltraFlip HD Camcorder. I love it! It will store up to 2 hours of video, so I plan to record the girls more often as it fits in my purse.

This video is one of the first I took on Christmas Eve. Eric's Mom asked E to read Luke 2 from the Bible before dinner. She decided to just recite it instead.


Love my girl! She makes me so proud!

Some Christmas Stuff

The very first thing I do the day after Christmas is take the tree down! I love seeing all the Christmas decorations, but I'm always so ready to put them all away and get my house back in order. We're halfway there.

Some pictures from Christmas Eve and Christmas Day ....

This is my friend Kurt who came by Thursday morning. (Don't we look like brother and sister?)

We've been friends since 3rd grade. I only get to see him a couple of times a year when he comes in town to visit his parents. I made him take a picture with me this year because I said 'you never know when something will happen to one of us' ... which is always a great thing to say to lift one's spirits - ha! It's just where I am right now. I said that a lot over Christmas. You'll see ....

(I have no idea why my camera was taking such awful pictures - it drove me crazy!)

Eric and I visit both sides of our families on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. It's worth it. We see different people (extended family and friends) at each gathering, so it makes it fun.

Here we are at Eric's parents.

I never get a picture with my family. Ever. I told them all I wanted pictures and the moaning and groaning started. So I said, "Please. You never know who won't be here next Christmas". I have a very sarcastic family, so the joke of the night was "Eat while you can. You may not be here much longer" or "This is it for you ... enjoy."

Whatever. I got my pictures .

Here are 2 of my favorite people on the planet ... my older brother, Todd and my little brother, John Patrick.

And now with Eric and my sister-in-law, April. See what Todd is doing in this picture? He and April are laughing because of the Santa Todd has beside my dad's ear ...

Okay, now the right one ...

Another one of my favorite people .... my cute husband.

And a total blog-worthy photo ....

My Cherry Cheese Danish.

My Mom has made this for years on Christmas morning. Instead of my traditional Baked French Toast I usually make, Eric asked for this instead. My girls loved it and asked if I could bake it everyday. You can make it with any kind of fruit - really easy - and good.

E and me. Yuck - I'm sick of this sweater. If I knew I was going to take so many pictures, I would have planned for a wardrobe change - ha!

Then, Christmas morning ...

The girls were so excited. The highlight was the McDonald's kitchen, which is really a drive-thru. How much does it say about how often I cook that my baby wanted a McDonald's drive-thru from Santa?

Don't answer that.

Hope you had a Merry Christmas!

Emmanuel - God With Us

The WORD made flesh!
Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve Eve

"Can I refill your eggnog for you?

Get you something to eat?

Drive you out to the middle of nowhere

and leave you for dead?"

Name that movie ....

E keeps reminding us today is Christmas Eve Eve. My girls are out of control excited about tomorrow. We're staying in today making a gingerbread house and baking goodies.

And ....

Looking through some old Christmas pictures ....







Are you ready for Christmas?

The Real Santa

I love that Christmas is on Friday this year. That gives us the entire week off from school to get things done before the big day.

We should also have a few days of sleeping in, but my girls DO NOT know the meaning of it. Ugh!

Here's what I found at SIX THIRTY this morning ....

E painting her nails.

"It's never too early for glamour", she says.

True.

We have our shopping finished and presents are wrapped and under the tree. I only remembered today that we have failed to visit Santa. (Well, unless you count Santa Cow .... and I don't).

So, we took care of that tonight.

The girls are applying 'lipstick' while waiting in line.

See E with her cell phone?

Yea, that's not real. But, for some reason, and only when we go to the mall, she pulls it out and pretends to talk. Drives Eric crazy.

After taking this, I asked O to plllleeeeeaaasssseeee smile ... This is what I got.

The girl pushes my buttons :)

E told O she didn't have to tell everything she wanted since they wrote Santa a letter as well.

O didn't listen. She named all thirteen or so toys she wanted.

We capped off the night with some gourmet food from the food court ...

Now we can stay in 'til Christmas :-)

It was a little more than two rooms

Today was a good day!

We fulfilled one of E's dreams and took her to the Biltmore House.

She woke at 6:30 this morning SO EXCITED. I have wanted to take her for awhile, but wondered if she was too little to take it all in.

I was wrong.

We got her the 'audio tour' with headphones that explain each room in detail and she was mesmerized for the entire 2 hours.

Typical to her personality, she said "Mom, what's your favorite room". I answered, "I love the Library because there are lots and lots of books. What's yours?" She says, "I can't decide because almost every room has paintings from different impressionists and artists and I haven't decided which one's work is my favorite yet".

Okay, then.

So, I came back with something intelligent like, "Well, I liked the kitchen, too because it has a yummy gingerbread house."

It's like we're from two different planets. I am not as deep as my 8 year old :( Will we even be able to hold a conversation in 10 years?

I debated whether to take O, not knowing how she would handle all the walking. Her main concerns were "Can we chew gum here?" (which totally reminds me of this - evidently she thinks chewing gum isn't for fancy places) and "All these rooms look the same. When do we leave?"

O is a ninety-year old trapped in a 4-year old body.

She did try to hide her excitement just a tad when we got home and she said, "Whew! I was hoping the Biltmore House wasn't going to be that fancy. I was hoping for one or two rooms."

We're raising thoroughbreds, y'all.

We had a fun day with Eric's parents. The snow made it all the more beautiful.

Now, we're ready for Christmas :)

Multi-purpose Snowman

Is it just me?

Or, does this snowman's face look a little ..... odd?

Real, even?

I couldn't put my finger on it, but then decided it was because of the eyebrows .... and the blue eyes.

Sheetrock sinkers for snowman eyes.

Who knew?

I don't think we've ever had snow before Christmas

The concert was canceled last night. I was pretty bummed, but in all honesty have been fighting some weird virus/cold/sinus infection thing for over a week and my voice was almost gone. The reason I don't know exactly what to call my sickness is because I haven't been to the doctor. No reason. I just didn't want to go.

So, with the snow falling, I thought it would be an excellent time to rest. I haven't done much of that lately.

Here's what the snow looked like at 12:00 when the concert was canceled.

Seems unjust, doesn't it?

I'm imagining Kim and Meredith cracking up right now, but in all fairness, in NC everything shuts down at the first flake. Also, the concert was an hour away and in the mountains where there was a lot more snow.

Don't get me wrong. I LOVE snow. We rarely get it here and it's even more rare to see it before Christmas. I wanted it to snow for my girls' sakes. They were thrilled.

We bundled them up to play and I did what any good Mom would do ..... I took pictures while standing at the back door in my pajamas. :)

Remember? I have a virus/cold/sinus infection?

O would not stop eating it. Would not. All those warnings about not eating the first snow (why is that, anyway)? Yeah, she didn't care. She thought it was delicious.

The problem with planning for months for you and your husband to go out of town while your kids go stay with grandparents is your kids don't understand when plans change. All they wanted to do was get to my parents' house. I was not happy about them getting snowed in. Not happy at all. But, Eric took them anyway.

Now, they're snowed in at my parents' and Eric is trying to figure out a way to get them back. He's shoveling the driveway now with plans to have them home in a few hours. Before the next round of snow starts .....

God has a way of making us slow down, doesn't he?

What a difference a day makes!

Eric finally made it home last night after another week away.

I know. This month has been crazy with his travel schedule and I started having a breakdown on Wednesday. I feel like a single parent right now. I realize there are women that do it all the time and do a great job, but I guess I'm not one of those women. On Wednesday, I would cry at the drop of a hat. On Wednesday, I lost my temper more than a few times with my children.

But, Thursday I could see the light. The little ray of hope that comes with a text message from my husband that says, "Boarding plane. See you in a few hours!"

Bliss.

I am just so glad to have him here.

This morning, I will head out one final time to finish some Christmas shopping. I will get my girls out of school at 12:00 and we'll meet Eric for lunch. I'll drop my girls off at my parents house for the night. And, then ....

And, then ....

Eric and I will head to The Cove to see Travis Cottrell.

I've had my tickets since July and could not have anticipated how much I would need a night like this.

We are expecting a lot of snow in our area. I wouldn't be sad at all if Eric and I were snowed in. I've told my mom we'll see them (and the girls) on Christmas Eve. Ha! I know that won't happen, but I would still be happy with atleast one night away.

Come to think of it, I don't think Eric and I have had a night away in two years (or more).

Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!

On that note, check out this cutie-patooty snowman ornament O made at school ....

I mean, snowGIRL. I can never get that right :)

Edited to add: The concert was canceled. :-( I'll be snowed in with my family now which I don't guess is a bad alternative.

Frosty the SnowGIRL

I have been informed there is such a thing as Frosty the SnowGIRL. O made this cute snowgirl yesterday.

She gets downright irritated if someone calls it a snowman.

Girl Power!

My generous baby brought home a cookie for the family. She said she made 2 cookies in class, but she ate one.

She wanted to bring the other one home for E, her daddy and me to share.

A few seconds later, she said she would just go ahead and eat it and tell us how it tastes.

We're still working on sharing.

Another favorite

I should have included these in my favorites ...

We are BIG Charlie Brown and Snoopy fans in our house. This part of the Christmas movie is my absolute favorite ....



It reminds me of when E was 5 years old. Eric and I were having our basement finished and just before the carpet was installed, we wrote Scripture on the concrete. E wanted to help, so she wrote what she had memorized on the floor. No bible, just memory.

It's Luke 2:8-11 ...

And there were in the same country shepherds
abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them,
and the glory of the Lord shone round about them:
and they were sore afraid.

And the angel said unto them, Fear not:
for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy,
which shall be to all people.

For unto you is born this day in the city of
David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

E - age 5

Favorites

Some favorite things ...

** Peppermint tea.

A friend at work made me a cup of this last week when I wasn't feeling well. It was SO good. She knows I am deeply southern (sorry, Barbara), so I can't do tea without sugar. It was delicious and I have had a cup every day since.

** I made these for my girls' classmates at school using the first letter in each person's name.

Photo: Let's Explore!

They turned out great and the kids loved them.

** These crackers. Pretzels on one side, cheese on the other. Delicious!

** This book.

This particular book is all 5 of Francine River's stories of Grace. I love reading the one about Mary during this season. It makes me feel like I have an insight to what she was thinking and experiencing. My friend, Pam would have loved this book.

** This CD.


Ofcourse, I play this year-round, but it's especially good during the Christmas season. I am thrilled to be able to go see him this Friday night. Can't wait.

** Vanilla Bean Noel. I have a long-standing relationship with this fragrance. If Bath & Body ever decides to stop carrying it, we will have to break up forever. I buy enough at Christmas to last me all year. It's the only fragrance I wear. I know, boring. But, I love it.

** This sign from Dayspring.

It's the only decoration I bought this year and I love it.

Santa Cow?

I had this great idea. I wanted to do something special for E, so I invited her best friend to come home with us from school today, hang out, eat dinner and go to a movie.

I know.

I could be Mom of the Year.

I finally have my girls in the bed and I am pooped. My head is spinning from today, although nothing was bad (except for that moment of panic when I realized I forgot I had agreed to participate in a cookie exchange with all the other teacher assistants. I remembered when goodies kept accumulating on my desk throughout the morning. I felt like an idiot. So, guess what I'm doing on my day off tomorrow? I'm making SEVEN DOZEN cookies!! Lest you are one of those delusional people that perceive I have it all together, please hear me say NOT AT ALL!)
Anyway ....

We ended up having a nice afternoon. I took the girls and E's friend to Chik-fil-A for dinner (their choice) and hurried them through the meal so we wouldn't miss the movie. I forgot it was Kid's Night. Lots and lots of kids. But look who else was there ....


Santa Cow!

Ha! Although I am a fan of CFA, somehow I can't wrap my mind around this. O actually wanted to tell him what she wanted for Christmas and I had to remind her Mama WOULD take her to see the real Santa before Christmas because a cow would not be bringing her toys to our house.

I know, don't judge me. I know real Santa isn't either. I just feel better about squashing any notion of a cow.

We left there and went to see the Princess and the Frog. I wouldn't recommend this movie. I usually read reviews before I go to a movie, but failed to do so with this one. I had big problems with the majority of the movie. I won't go into it, but you can google reviews and read what I'm talking about. E was very disappointed and scared. It doesn't take much to scare her, but it was a little disturbing.

The sweetest part of the whole night was on the way to eat. When leaving the house, I noticed E had 3 Bibles in her hand. I didn't give it much thought, but realized in the car what they were for. She gave her friend and O one each and then proceeded to have bible study.

I'm not kidding.

She said, "Turn to Luke 2 ... " After reading scripture, she stopped and asked her friend, "how does that make you feel? Doesn't that scripture give you chills?"

Hahahaha ... cracks me up, I love it.

She then went to Revelation because she said she wanted to share with them what happens to satan.

The girl loves her some bible study.

Daily Peek: Sugar Rush

On our way home from school, E said, "Mom, did you know Krispy Kreme has Christmas doughnuts?"

I did know. We had them in our class for a birthday party. (By the way, do you have any idea what doughnuts with icing will do to 9 Preschoolers .... especially when they have 2 each? - WILD MORNING!)


Within seconds of E talking about the doughnuts, I did a u-turn to pick up an afternoon treat to lift my girls' spirits.


They did just the trick!

Tea Sets

My baby, O is obsessed with tea sets. She has asked for a tea set every Christmas and birthday since she was two years old. She adores them.

This year she is asking for this one because she said it's the most beautiful tea set she has ever seen (she says that about all of them).

She also told me she is a collector.

So, I should not have been surprised when I found this filled with water and set before her baby dolls having a fancy tea party .....

That's my Neti-pot.

I have no other words.