What you been up to?!?

While on the way to Aldi today with Josh, I made an executive decision to take Josh to Braums.   I spent Tuesday grocery shopping with Elaina, Wednesday with Emma, Elaina and their friends at the movie theater.  Thursday, Jake went out with his friends.   Josh was the only one who hadn’t left the house at ALL this week.  Pretty sad I thought, so I made him go with me today.    Anyways, Josh has this habit of wearing  his jacket or coat EVERYWHERE he goes, no matter what the weather is like outside.  Seeing how it’s 80 degrees out today, it was a bit odd for him to wear his jacket while we were out and about.   I didn’t think too much about it until we were leaving Braums and I put two and two together.  Josh was very timid while making his order.  That is just his personality.  I know that, but the people at the store didn’t.  Then the whole time, he was thanking me for the food and being his usual polite self.  Actually it amazes me that he is so thankful.  I wish the other kids would pick up on it a little more.  :) It was hard to get him to open up and talk, but that is nothing new.  As we were leaving Braums, I noticed everyone giving me weird looks.  Once in the car, it was as if the heavens opened and I was able to see what others were seeing.  A meek child, constantly thanking for every BIT of food, wearing long sleeves in the hot weather, Josh suddenly looked like a little abused boy in my eyes!  I started laughing SO hard.   Once I filled Josh in, we had such a good laugh together all the way to Aldi.  The whole situation helped Josh open up and talk more than he has in a LONG time.  That boy is just too quiet some times.   : )

What's your fortune?

 

Today, I took Josh with me to Aldi.    As a side note, if you don’t have an Aldi near by, I’m sorry.  You are missing out on one of the greatest stores.  Alright.  Maybe “greatest” is a bit much.  They do seem to have a good supply of canned vegetables for $.49 or less with other staples much cheaper than normal grocery stores.  Milk was $.99 up until this week!  It went up to $1.19.  Still MUCH cheaper than Walmart.  Anyways, I digress…   

 While in Aldi, Josh talked me into a box of fortune cookies.  He is always asking for some fortune cookies and I’m always saying, “no”, until today anyways.  haha    Well, the kids got their “fortunes” and I was quite shocked at how they fit each person today.   It’s fun when that happens. 

 Josh’s said, “The social scene can be fun today”.  Quite appropriate considering Jake and Josh have friends coming over today.   

Emma’s said, “Rely on long time friends to give you advice with your present question.”  I’ll be honest.  I don’t know how that one fits yet, but I know that I will be answering one of her many questions before the day is out.  haha

Elaina’s said, “Your magnetic personality will draw people to you this month.”  Do I really even need to explain this one?  That girl has never met a stranger.  Haha

Mine said, “This year your highest priority will be your family.”  All I could say was “DUH!”  haha

Jake didn’t want one, but it would have been interesting to see what he got.  :)  Mike didn’t get one either, seeing how he is at work still.  Haha  I figure his would say something about miracles happening since he is getting off work @ 5:30 instead of midnight as has been the norm this week!  :) 

I'm a slacker

I realized this morning, that I use the few moments I get alone during the day to look at blogs.  I have a variety of ones I like.  Ones that are all about food, which make me hungry all the time.  Ones that are about crafts, which I know in my heart I will NEVER attempt.   I even have one bookmarked of a guy who writes hilarious comments about his take on life. Anyway, while looking at my friends' blog this morning, I realized I have let my little blog lag a bit.  I am quite busy with kids and such, but I need to try to find time to update this thing more often.  I can only look at the same picture SO  many times before it's annoying.  haha  I made a promise to myself this morning that I would try to write more often.  See, I'm not silly enough to say once a day or anything like that.  I know I'm a slacker and will continue to be one.  I'm just hoping to update more than once a month.  Let me warn you now.  This doesn't mean you will be excited with every post.  It takes a lot of effort to make my life sound interesting as it is.  I have plenty of material to work with, but unfortunately little brain space to remember it all!  haha   Truth be told, I will probably forget about this promise to myself and let it be another two months before I write another one.  haha

What we're dealing with in Dallas Part 2

So, last night it started snowing.  It was supposed to stop @ noon.  It finally stopped @ 3.  :)  The kids have been enjoying this very much.  It is light and fluffy snow.  The best kind to play with.   The sun is out for the first time in days and it looks like the snow and ice will melt a bit just in time for it to get cold again tonight.  :)    Here are some pictures of the fun going on around here. 

 Here is what greets us when we walk out of the house.  Very welcoming, don't ya think?  :)

 You see that garbage on the street?  This is the first time I can think of that the garbage men haven't come on Thursday.  Even holidays they show up.  This storm has stopped them while holidays can't!  Although, I have noticed that the mail still arrives daily.   haha

 

 Yep.  Someone ordered Dominos Pizza.  haha   I had to get a picture of that!  :)

 Do you think our onions that Mike planted Monday will survive? 

 

 

 Don't I have some of the cutest kids around?  Jake didn't let me get a picture of him.  Sneaky thing!  :)  

Oh well.  We are having fun here! :)

What we're dealing with in Dallas Part 1

Tuesday night, I took these pictures.  It is mostly ice.  Not snow.  Yes. There is some snow, but don't go getting all excited.  It's mostly ICE!    :)

We stayed hunkered down in the house for TWO whole days!  You know.  Two days doesn't seem like a long time, but staying in the house for TWO days can become quite old rather quickly.  The first day wasn't so bad.  The kids played on the Wii and watched Netflix.   They were so excited to be out of school.  They played in the single digit temperatures gladly.  Ok.  The boys didn't, but I had a hard time keeping the girls in the house.  The second day, our bubble burst.  We were blessed with rolling power outages.  It was single digits outside.  We were lucky to have double digits inside (it was @ 40 inside according to the temperature on the central air programmer thingy).  Thank heavens Mike brought some wood inside and started a fire before he left for work.  The power was off more than it was on up until mid afternoon. We all kept our jackets on with blankets wrapped around us all morning.  The kids played board games and I couldn't tell you what I did.  It's all a blur now.  haha  Finally, Wednesday night Mike took us for a ride to Walgreens to pick up a prescription.  You would have thought we were going to Six Flags or something.  Most of the kids hurried to get their coats on (the power was back on by the time Mike got home).  Josh decided to stay since his computer time had been seriously compromised during the power outages.  haha

 Yep.  That's Mike.  In shorts!  He got a bit upset I took this picture, but I needed proof that he's crazy!  haha  Oh well.  He may be crazy, but I'm very thankful for him.  He takes us to Walgreens just so we can walk around somewhere other than our house for a couple of minutes during an ice storm.  :) 

  The following day (Thursday) Jake was about as stir-crazy as you can get.  He had tried and tried to get me to take him to his friends house Wednesday.  By Thursday, I foolishly gave in thinking I could do it if Mike did it the night before.   The roads didn't look that bad when he took us to the store.  Man did I learn my lesson!   We (the girls came with me) got stuck twice on the way home.  Thank heavens no one was around, so we were able to back up and escape our situations.  We slid too many times to count and I developed a true fear of driving on sheets of ice.  :)  I think the girls are as afraid of going anywhere as I am (unless our superhero Dad is around).  Elaina told Mike about 5 times how we got stuck and "almost died".  haha

Old? Me?

On my way to the bathroom for what seems like the 5th time in the last hour, Josh casually made the comment, "Man.  Old people sure pee a lot."  I of course told him that wasn't so.  I'm not old!  I started naming people I know my age or older to prove to him that "old people" don't pee more than "young people".  I started with Mike.  Dang. Not a good example.  He goes a lot.  Grandma.  Nope, she pees frequently too.  Grandad, Nope.  No winners here.  After naming at least 5 older people, I finally had to tell Josh I agree with him.  Old people DO pee a lot!  :)

Is it Christmas yet?!?

I have been in a Christmas kind of mood lately. I enjoy Thanksgiving and appreciate the gesture, but I am in the mood for Christmas! No. Not the gift giving. I’m not in the mood for that. I’m actually dreading that. I am ready to listen to Christmas music nonstop, bake yummy smelling goods (and give them away), and have Christ be the center of our home instead of his sitting patiently on the sidelines while we bustle around. No. We don’t hide him away the other 11 months of the year. Life just seems to slow down a bit even with all the extra bustling that goes on during the Christmas holiday.  We make more time to notice the small blessings and gifts that our Savior gives us.  Even normal things take on a life all their own.  Hidden special meanings are brought to light during Christmas.  There is just something magical about having the Christmas tree with all the twinkling lights shining thru the dark cool nights. The nativity scene that Jake got me years ago made from olive wood from the Holy Land proudly reminding us to be a little more Christ centered as a family. A special feeling that Christ is watching our actions ever so slightly more than usual.

Christmas is a time of reflecting for me. I get to reflect on Christmas’s past and see how the kids have grown. I get to reflect on Christ a little more than usual. The sacrifices he made for all of us so we can go thru this thing called life. I get to look back over the year and see just how far we have come as a family (or stayed stagnant some years). So many things to reflect on.

Last year was a hard Christmas for me. I couldn’t tell you why. I just never “felt” Christmas. I tried, but everything I did just felt empty. This year I think it is going to be different. As soon as the stores started putting Christmas decorations out (yes, I know that was before Halloween), I started wanting to put up lights. I haven’t done it yet out of respect of Thanksgiving, but I have a feeling I will be going into the garage soon and pulling out everything Christmas related. I haven’t done that in a long time. I usually just put up the tree and let the kids put their ornaments on. This year, (Mike be warned now…) I want to decorate the house! I want the spirit of Christmas! Maybe when Mother comes next Saturday to help with Thanksgiving, we will get out the Christmas things and decorate. We can just call them decorations for Elaina’s baptism, right? ;)