Mary Engelbreit Monday

Myshel's Little Surprises.....................

Surprise #1

Ok, let me give you a little background info before I share Myshel's comments..........



About 10 years ago I started collecting birdhouses. As all collections do, it's grown and grown over the years, to the point that I've stopped adding to the collection unless it's just too amazing to pass up. My in-laws made these great shelves for me to keep them all on. They barely fit...................Some of my birdhouses aren't even painted yet, but I just love them all!



I think that I've told you that the housing that we just moved into is small, I mean, it's SMALL! especially compared to what we got used to in Virginia. (Just to compare, we've had to take everything from 3 rooms in Virginia-the computer room, living room, and dining room-and put them into a space about the size of just our living room in Virginia. It's small and crowded, livable, but crowded)



Ok, I also have a much smaller collection of sand and seashells. Chad and my sisters have helped me collect sand and seashells from lots of different places (Virginia, North Carolina, Maine, Florida, California, Hawaii, Guam, Spain, Dubai, Greece, Croatia and a few more, I think) It's amazing to me that the sand is all different colors and shades and textures and even the sea shells have different looks and feel to them. It's a fun collection, that I also love and am not willing to part with.



I have all my shelves with the birdhouses up on the walls, but the sand/seashell collection has outgrown it's shelves and so I gave them to Vance. In Virginia I bought and stained a new shelf for them, but when we moved here it needed to be used for something else. (This is getting to be a lot of background I know, but hang in there, the point of my post is coming soon, I promise) So, my sand/seashell collection has an empty place on the walls for it, but no shelves to sit on.............................



Which brings me to the point of this post, I was sitting on the couch trying to decide what birdhouses I could/would take down and pack away for the next 3 years, so that I could use one of the set of shelves for the sand/seashells. I was having a hard time deciding, I just wanted them all to stay. Myshel came in and I decided to enlist her help. This is how the conversation went.



Myshel: "What are you doing?"

Me: "I'm trying to decide what birdhouses to take down and pack away so that I can use the shelves for my seashell bottles."

Myshel: "Why would you do that?"

Me: "The birdhouse collection is kind of big for this space and I need the shelves for the sand/seashells. So, help me decide what birdhouses to take down."

Myshel, most indignantly: "You can't take any of them down!"

Me, a little taken aback: "Why??"

Myshel: "You have to keep them up. That's what makes this home. They remind me of you and it makes it feel like home. You can't take them down!"

Me, completely surprised at what she said: "I'm just thinking about taking one set of shelves down, so it's only some of the birdhouses.........."

Myshel, interrupting me: "NO! they all have to stay! They make it home!"



I was completely surprised that she even cared at all about the birdhouses. Sometimes, the kids will sit at the table while they eat (the birdhouses are usually in the dining room) and play "if you were tiny and could live in any birdhouse, which one would you choose". And then they discuss which one they would want to live in and why. I always thought it was cute and enjoyed hearing their answers, but never really thought much about it. Maybe they really enjoy them as much as I do. Maybe they do remind them of me and it makes our house feel like home. I don't know, but I do know that I was also completely surprised that my teenager was willing to express her feelings about my collection to me! And it really made me feel so good and loved! Needless to say, ALL the birdhouses are still on the wall.............



Surprise #2
Ok, Myshel was very upset about moving. It was hard on her. She left some great friends and that's hard when you're a teenager. She blames the navy (which it really is their fault), but since she can't take out her frustration on the navy, she tends to take it out on her dad, since he's the one in the navy. Chad seems to understand this and takes it all pretty well most of the time. There have been times when we've had to tell her that her angry is misplaced and she needs to show more respect for her dad and what he does. She may not like it, but the navy puts food on her table and a roof over her head!



That being said, Myshel is a typical teenager and can get very moody and grumpy, especially with me, since I am the one that's around the most. When Chad was deployed there were times when I really wondered whether she liked me at all. On the other hand, I think that Myshel and I have a pretty good mother/teenage daughter relationship and actually I think she has a pretty good relationship with her dad all things considered.



Chad and Myshel and I were talking at the table the other day. I don't even remember what we were talking about, but Chad had joked something about how Myshel would just be lost without him. This was Myshel's answer to him.................



"No, you leave all the time. You're ok, but I'd be lost without mom! She is my rock. When I need some one to be there for me, it's her, not you. Mom is the one that's here when you leave. We've gotten used to you being gone. But mom is the one who has to be here, she's my rock! She's the one I'd be lost without!"



Chad and I were both speechless and Myshel left the room after she finished. We didn't even know what to say. Later I apologized to Chad that she had said that, because I felt like it probably hurt him for her to say that and I knew she didn't mean all of what she said. I also told him that I liked hearing her say that I was her rock, but that it's hard to believe it completely because she was just trying to be indignant to him. He said, "no, I don't think that's completely true, I think what she said about you is true. I think she really does feel that way. I think you are her rock and that's good". I'm not sure how much of what she said genuinely came from her heart and how much was teenage attitude, but I think that at least a little of what she said was heartfelt and again, that openness completely shocks me, but also fills my heart! Maybe my teenage daughter doesn't hate me after all!

5 Senses Saturday

• 
• Sight:
• Big puddles from the rain water
• A messy house changed to a clean one
• Grumpy children
• A squirrel run out of Vance's tent set up in our backyard
• Grey, cloudy skies
  

Sound:

• The rain hitting the ground and trees
• cartoons on my TV while I was still trying to sleep
• children wrestling and laughing with their dad
• the dog's tennis ball bouncing down the stairs, over and over again
• McKaylie saying, "I wish the rain would stop"

Touch:

• The dog laying on my legs
• Chad's unshaven face on my cheek
• Soapy suds on my hands while I washed dishes
• Noah's "I love you, mom" hug
• Cool breeze blowing in the window

Smell:

• Cleaners
• Wet dirt from the rain (do you notice a theme, here??)
• Blueberry bagels being toasted
• Wet dog
• BBQing from the neighbors

Taste:

• Blueberry bagels
• leftover chicken
• cold, cold water
• icy cold milk
• fruit snacks

One Last Cook-out.........

At our "summer" house in Litchfield we could build a fire in our back yard. Vance dug us a fire pit and every so often we'd go out and enjoy a fire. It was a lot of fun and the kids loved it. It was good practice for Vance's fire building skills, too. We would usually just roast marshmellows but this was our last fire before we moved, though. So we decided to roast hot dogs and marshmellows and some apples, too. It was also our family home evening that night. We stayed out there until there was only glowing coals left. It was so dark that we had to turn the blazer's headlights on to put out the fire completely. It was a really fun night with our family. It was quiet except for our own voices and laughter.......no TV, no ipod, no computer, no fighting. It was so nice. We joked around with each other. We talked and told stories. We just enjoyed each others company. I hope that some day my kids will look back and remember moments like those and it will fill their hearts with love and happiness, like it does mine; and they'll know they were loved by the people who matter the most!

A Bit of Maine............

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

First day of school 2007

I think I'll start by posting back to school photos, since that is the newest "thing" we're dealing with right now. The first day of school was September 4 for Vance and McKaylie and September 5 for Myshel. Our easy going-laid back mornings are a thing of the past! Sniff, sniff, I'll miss them!Here's Myshel. She was , shall we say, extremely, nervous about her first day of high school. Myshel also started early morning seminary on September 6th. She has to be up at 5:30AM (it starts at 6:15AM). Yikes! That's early for her and me. Thankfully, her dad drops her off on his way to work and I just have to pick her up.

Vance on the other hand was extremely excited about his first day of 7th grade. I think it's because the middle schoolers get a laptop to use for the year. We also live close enough to the school for him to ride his bike, which he really likes. In Virginia we lived a long ways from his middle school.

McKaylie was excited and nervous about her first day of 2nd grade. Once she met her teacher and saw her classroom, though, she didn't seem too nervous and was more than willing to have me leave. She gets to ride the school bus for the first time this year and she thinks that is really great! In Virginia, she had to walk with mom!

Noah didn't want to be left out, of course. His birthday is in late October and he misses the deadline for kindergarten this year. I think that he needs the extra year, though. He'll be at home with me for one more year and we'll work on school stuff here. I think he likes the one-on-one time. I know I do.

Hello...........

I bet you're all thinking that I just dropped off the face of the earth, but not to worry, I'm still around. This move has been a little crazy and getting our internet hooked back up even crazier (I'll explain another time) I don't have time for much right now, but at least you know I will be updating soon. :)