Boys are easier................I don't think so!

Well, it's happening..........it's actually been coming for awhile now, I've just been in denial. My boy, my sweet, happy, fun loving, peace making, calm, caring boy, is turning into a moody, grumpy, sometimes angry, teenage boy. And he doesn't actually turn 13 for another 3 months! You know I've had so many people tell me how much easier boys are to raise than girls, because girls are so moody, etc. Well, I have have news for all of them! Seriously, Vance was my calmest, most loving, happy kid. I never thought I'd ever have to deal with the teenage attitude stuff with him. Oh boy! was I wrong! Boys are moody. They are temperamental, and they are whiny! So please, don't tell me again how girls are just so much more difficult than boys, because I don't believe it! (I didn't believe it before either, but anyway) Boys are just as frustrating as girls, just in a different way!
Ok, I'm going to go sit on my couch and face reality, now..........................

Bah-humbug...............

Now that Thanksgiving and Myshel's birthday are over, I should be concentrating on Christmas...should be.........I just haven't caught that Christmas bug, yet. I'm trying to catch it.....I did put my Christmas village out, but it mostly reminded me of how very little space we have in our house.........we've talked about putting up our tree, but yet again, we have nowhere to put it. Well, I guess we do have a small corner in the living room, but that also means that the tree is going to be about 1/2 the size it usually is. I suggested that we skip the tree altogether this year, but Chad was the only one who agreed.......I even put Christmas music on my blog page, but even that didn't help much. I'm hoping that as Christmas gets closer and I put up more decorations, that I'll caught that little holiday bug and feel excited about Christmas, but right now, we're leaning a little on the bah-humbug side!

Happy Bunny Revenge!

Myshel loves Happy Bunny---if you don't know what that is, it's this cute little bunny who says very snide, sarcastic things--typical teenager things. (Some are rude, some are very rude and Myshel knows those are off limits to her!) But she loves the some-what innocent ones. I have to admit, there are some that make me laugh.A friend gave Myshel about 10 Happy Bunny t-shirts, so that's about all you see her in most of the time. Chad and I have told her that we're tired of seeing them, but that hasn't changed her mind about them.........so, for her birthday, we thought we'd use the Happy Bunny against her. We knew she'd pretend to be offended, but really she'd think it was funny. Here's what we did with her birthday cake............
(In case you can't read it, it says----It's your birthday.............it's cute how you think we care!

We still wanted to wish her Happy Birthday...............
And let her know we love her!

She gave us her most offended look and then laugh and told us we were so mean! I think she loved it!

Myshel, here's to you!

15 years ago today, at about this time, my 32 hours of labor ended and I became a mother for the very first time. It wasn't until that very moment that they handed me that little, screaming baby with black hair, that I knew that something so small could fill my heart with such love and joy! I watched Chad hold her for the first time and I saw in his eyes, everything that I felt. We were so glad that she was here.

She was beautiful and she was our gift from the Lord, we knew that! And that just made her all the more special in our hearts. There were some people who thought we should have waited longer to start our family. Chad and I were both still in school trying to finish our degrees. But we knew without the slightest doubt that she was suppose to come join our family then. She was a great blessing to us then and she still is today.

Over the last 15 years, she's helped fill our home with love, joy, laughter, silliness, frustration, attitude, maddness, tears, but most of all love! I love having Myshel as my daughter! I love seeing and talking to her every day. And I love watching her grow and mature in life and in the gospel. I also love that she still calls me mommy!

She gave a talk in church yesterday and as I sat there watching her, I couldn't help but remember the day she was born and wonder where the time went, because there she was standing up in front of me, a beautiful young woman. I don't know how that happened.

It was Thanksgiving morning, 15 years ago, when she was born. I was so thankful for that new baby girl and I'm still extremely thankful for my 15 year old baby girl. I love you, Myshel, Happy Birthday!

Elf Yourself...............

I was at OfficeMax and look what I heard about..................

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9585302087 OR
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9585435408

It's just tooo fun!

Potholder Mania................

A month or so ago, my mom sent me some potholders that she had crocheted. I love them. They are so much nicer and thicker than the ones you buy in the store. When my mom visited me, I had her show me how to crochet them. So now, I've gone potholder happy!! I used up some of my exta yarn making the top 3 and then decided to make some for my visiting teaching sisters for Thanksgiving. The fall colored ones were 2 of the 5 I made for them. I loved how they turned out the best! Now, if I could just learn to crochet better, I could make something besides a potholder!

Turkey Snack

McKaylie's class at school has a little snack each day. On Friday the kids take turns bringing a snack in for the whole class. It has to be a healthy snack, too. They also asked us to try and be creative. Since it was McKaylie's turn last Friday, the last Friday before Thanksgiving, we decided to have a turkey, theme. This is what we came up with, turkey popcorn balls! The popcorn ball is made with marshmellows and popcorn, kind of like rice krispy treats (probably not all that nutritious, but it could be worse), the head is a dried apple, the eyes are a raisin and the beak is a craisin (dried cranberry) The tail feathers are pretzels wrapped in fruit roll-ups. They turned out pretty cute. McKaylie said her class and teacher loved them, so I'm happy!

WHAT???

McKaylie came home from school yesterday with a book that her whole class had written. There was a small paragraph from each student that stated what they were thankful for. McKaylie's was very sweet but the line that got me the most was, "I am thankful for my food, when my mom gives it to me"...............................

Yes, yes, I admit, I withhold food from my children!!! That way it lasts longer! NOT!!!!!

Mary Engelbreit Monday

Laughter translates into any language.
--Anonymous

Fair Winds and Following Seas...................

A friend of mine moved up here from Virginia just before we did. She was so wonderful and helpful and seem to have all the answers I needed to get settled up here. I was so grateful to have her already here when we moved. We live in the same housing and it's so nice just knowing that she is so close. She's just a sweetheart; she really is. But(you knew that had to be coming) she's moving! Yep, her hubby is getting out of they navy and they're moving back to Texas, possibly on to Utah. I am very sad to have them go! The movers are there packing them up right now and they'll be leaving the beginning of next week. It just came up too quick! Unfortuneatly that is navy life. There are always people/friends coming and going and sometimes it's hard to have them leave(or be the one leaving) I know she'll keep in touch and that's good. I wish them the best with their "new" life, but I sure will miss her!

In the navy, it's traditional to bid farewell to sailors/shipmates with the "naval blessing", "fair winds and following seas" because those are the ideal conditions while underway! I hope that my friend and her family have ideal conditions during their new adventures in life, so,

Fair winds and Following Seas, "D" Family..............

Grumble, Grumble

Noah has a thing about his clothes! He's very picky about what he wears. There is very little rhymn or reason to his preferences, though, which makes it very hard to please him. He'll wear a pair of pants one day and then not want to touch them again! It's very frustrating. (I know you're starting to laugh, Donna, but it's not funny!----I blame you for cursing me with this!)

I knew that getting him dressed for school was going to be a challenge some mornings. I expected it, so I wasn't surprised this morning at all when his "I'm not wearing that" attitude started. I was surprised at the magnitude of it, though. After deciding that he wasn't going to wear the clothes that we picked out the night before, he put on a pair of his favorite pants. They were just too small and they had some little holes in them, too (who knows where they came from) I just couldn't let him wear them and I told him he couldn't wear them. What followed was an ugly display of tears, anger and meltdowns. Basically he decided he wasn't wearing any other pants and that was that. I hate having these kinds of confrontations with him. I have to pick my battles with Noah and I hate it when it has to be over clothes. I kept trying to give him choices of things he could wear, but all all he would do is just get mad. I knew we were going to run out of time to get him to school. I told him he had to get dressed or we'd be late and his answer, "I don't want to go, anyway".

Oh, he frustrates me. Finally, after an hour and a half, he was dressed, and we were walking out the door.............and the phone rang. It was Noah's school. They were cancelling classes because all the teachers were sick with the flu......WHAT!!!!!!! I just spend an hour and a half getting my stubborn little boy dressed for school and they cancelled it! I couldn't believe it. When I told Noah that he wasn't having school today, he asked me if he could change his clothes. I told him he had to stay in them for awhile because of the fit he threw about getting dressed. Which led to another 20 minutes of anger and tears on his part. He has calmed down now and doesn't seem to care! Surely there must be a "how-to" manual on being a good mom--because I really need it!

Lobstah!

My dad couldn't come to Maine and not have lobster! I think that's half the reason he came to visit! My mom's actually allergic to shellfish, so she had fish instead. Here are the victims, awaiting their fate!

Proof that my parents were really at my house!

Noah was brave this time and actually picked one up by himself! Nutmeg's just not sure what to make of these weird little creatures that were crawling around on the floor!

We forgot to take pictures of them after we cooked them. I guess we were just in too big of hurry to eat them! They were yummy!

Happy Birthday again...............

Noah had another birthday present to open when Grandma Jo and Grandpa got here.It is so cute!


And more when his other grandparents package arrived!




It's a remote control tarantula. He LOVES it!


There's nothing like celebrating your birthday for 3 or 4 days, is there!

Preschool*!?!*---It's a good thing?!?

I've always thought that it would be good for Noah to have a half day preschool to get him ready for kindergarten next year. I didn't really look into it that closely, though, because I think he would be fine without it, too. (I don't know if that makes sense) Anyway, I had an opportunity basically fall into my lap and so I signed him up for preschool and we were put on a waiting list. They made it sound like it would be months if at all for him to get in. 2 weeks later they called and said they had an opening for him! I was excited and nervous and bewildered and..........................so many things all at once!

It felt good, though. It was kind of a fluke that we even qualified for it in the first place and then the manager told us that he'd never seen such a fast turn-over time. So, we're thinking/feeling that this was really ment to be for Noah. We visited with the teachers and took a tour of the classroom. I was very impressed. It looks like a big red schoolhouse which is so cute and there's just lots of fun things for him. His teachers seem wonderful and they really are great with him. We're excited and we're nervous..........................

He actually started last Monday. He goes from 8:30-12:30, Monday thru Thursday. I think it will be a great way to get him used to school and being apart from mom. He did really great the first 2 days (I cried all the way home the first day). Dad took him the next 2 days and he didn't do so well, but the teachers told me that happens a lot when dad brings them. I took him again this morning and he fought back tears and went into his class. He's a tough, brave little guy! I'm really proud of him. I think he likes it there and he's proud of himself for going, but he's still a little nervous about it. I think he's going to do great!

Today is the first morning since he started that I've been home completely by myself. My parents were here last week to keep me company. I know a lot of mom's would be so excited to have the morning with no kids, but I hardly know what to do with myself. I can think of a thousand things to do, but I've only managed to get on the computer so far. It's so quiet, I had to turn the TV on for noise, even though I'm not even watching it. I'm sure that I'll get used to having the mornings to myself, but I don't think I'll ever be excited about it. I know this is a good thing, but it's not an easy one for me!

They were here, but now they're gone..............

Hey, I'm back! It's been a crazy couple of weeks, with so much going on. I'll try to fill you in on everything!



My parents left bright and early Saturday morning. Their flight left at 6AM and, of course, they needed to be there early, so we had to get up at 3:30AM! We were hoping that when we came back the kids would still be in bed, but no luck! They were all up but Myshel. We went back to bed anyway and managed to get a couple more hours of sleep.



The house was very quiet all weekend. It always is when company leaves. I guess that's the bitter-sweet part of having family come to visit. You have to say good-bye again!



We had such a good time with them. We didn't get to do half the things that we would have liked to do, but we so enjoyed just having them here. I love seeing my kids with their grandparents. They are just so happy and excited and want to tell them everything and I loved having my parents here to visit with and try and share everything that I could with them. I wish we were closer to them and could see them more often! I started missing them, before they were even gone!



So, this week is back to normal, if you can call it that. But there are things that have changed with that too, so the "normal", isn't feeling exactly "normal" yet!

It's November---Turkey Month!

Life is Funny.......

When we were at the airport to pick up my parents, I ran into a lady I knew from church. We were there to pick up my parents and she was there to send her grown daughter back home. The funny part is-- my parents had just left Highlands Ranch, Colorado (where my brother lives) and flew out of Denver to Portland, Maine. Her daughter was leaving Portland, Maine and flying to the Denver airport, because she lives in Highlands Ranch, Colorado! It's a small world isn't it!

Visitors!!!!!!

Hello, I haven't forgotten my blog, yet! My parents flew out to visit us! It was rather unexpected, but we're really happy that they're here. They flew in on Tuesday and will leave in about 11 days. The kids are so excited to have them here. Noah even gave them hugs and kisses at the airport! We don't get to see them nearly as often as we'd like to!---So, I'll try to keep up on my blog, but I'm not making any promises!