This celebration makes me sad though...

Almost 5 months ago a dear friend of ours passed away after his long battle with stomach cancer. Today is his birthday. His wife and kids baked him a cake and are celebrating his life, even though he is gone from this world. It makes me so sad to think we have to celebrate this BIRTH day when he is gone.
I miss the smile that he always seemed to wear and how he had just the right things to say - even when he was suffering he would ask me how I was doing - as if that mattered, I wasn't the one fighting for my life. I suppose he is having a grand celebration in heaven and THAT makes me smile.

Happy Birthday Tom!








Here is a picture taken a few weeks ago of his beautiful wife and children.

Working from home ... or working AT home

I happen to have a fantastic boss. When kids are sick, he allows me to work from home and he will email me assignments and such. It has worked out wonderfully so many times! The other day a lady asked me if I worked outside the home and I told her "sometimes!" then I explained that I work a reduced schedule of 29 hours per week and some of that my boss has allowed me to do from home even. I am so thankful for my job! Yes, my boss has some annoying habits and he can really get to me on some days, but overall he is a great person to work for and I couldn't ask for more!

One that note, I have spent 2 weeks trying to complete a small project my boss gave me. It is one of those things where you really need uninterrupted time and I was struggling to find it. So last night I loaded it up and took it home with me. I went in my bedroom after dinner was cleaned up and kids were settling down and I spread the project out on the bed and got it done. DONE! Only took me about an hour to get it all done! I was so relieved. I think I may have even slept a little more soundly last night because of that. When I came to the office I told my boss what I did, taking it home to get it done and he said he would compensate me for the time! Even better news!

So sometimes I get to "work from home" and other times I "work at home" to catch up - either way it all works out nicely in the end!

Love my boss and my job!

Create a renewed spirit in me....

I sat on the couch this morning, sipping my coffee and watching the sun come up. I love those peaceful times in the mornings when it is just me. The "me time" I need when no one else in the house is awake (except maybe the mouse we think is living in the garage, but I try to avoid to him and am thankful he avoids me as well!). It is when I read my Bible, when I read other books (time permitting) and when I reflect on things.

This morning as I was staring out the front window, sipping that delicious cup of coffee (nothing is as good as my first sip of the day!) I started to reflect on some things that I did over the weekend that were weighing heavily on my mind. Decisions I made that I wish I had made differently - nothing earth shattering or anything like that, but some simple decisions that were not the best of choices. It was good reflecting and I made some new decisions as to how I can change what I already did and how to not make the bad choices again. I rely too much on myself sometimes - sometimes I think I don't need anyone else to help - not my husband's help, not God's help, not the help of friends and/or family. I can handle it all. I realized today I can't do it all alone. There are times that asking for help or relying on others opinions and advice is necessary. I think after all these years I am finally ready to accept that.

Even though it seems as though my morning time this morning was depressing it really was a good thing and I feel quite refreshed and renewed this morning!

Off to continue this glorious day (it helps that the sun is brightly shining and the birds were chirping outside the window!)

Happy Anniversary to me...

January 29, 2000 I married my best friend. Sure we've had some ups and downs but we are still best friends!

This past weekend we celebrated our 12 year anniversary! Saturday night we dropped the kids off at the babysitting co-op (see explanation below) and then headed to dinner at the Olive Garden restaurant. When we got to the restaurant the wait time was over an hour so we decided to go next door to On the Border which only had a 25-30 minute wait. We enjoyed good food and conversation and then headed back to pick up the kids. When we got to the babysitting co-op hosts house we were asked if the kids could spend the night - we allowed it and returned Sunday morning for pick up! We had a nice weekend relaxing and being with each other. It was a very nice anniversary celebration!

BABYSITTING CO-OP: There are 4 couples from my church and we take turns watching the kids. We have it set up that each Saturday is assigned to a family, the other 3 families can take their kids over about 6-ish and then the parents go off to do something fun and return about 10 or 11. It works out great! 3 out of 4 Saturday nights we can have date night if we choose to and then one Saturday each month we host at our house and have all the kids there. In total there are 11 kids in this co-op! That's a lot of kids - and yet it works out because they all get along so well together! This first month of the co-op was terrific. We didn't go out one of the evenings because of sick kids but the other 2 Saturdays we did go out and then we hosted once at our house. I have to say that this has been so wonderful for the kids too, they are enjoying being with their friends and playing, watching movies, crafting and cooking together! It has been a great thing for our family!

The results are in....

Finally broke down and went to the doctor yesterday. I have bronchitis and an ear infection. I told the doctor I was afraid I would go in and they would tell me it was a simple cold and I just needed to wait it out - she told me had I waited much longer it would have turned to pneumonia so boy oh boy am I glad I went in! I have an inhaler (something very new to me!) and some antibiotics and last night I slept almost a full night without coughing - almost a full night. It certainly was better than in the nights past! YAY for meds!

So hopefully no one else in the house gets sick - especially my husband since we are supposed to go out to dinner for our anniversary Saturday night! *fingers crossed!*

Happy Wednesday!

Lady Bug caught a cold last week and I stayed home from work with her. When I returned to work the whole office was coughing and sneezing and blowing their noses. Last Thursday I woke up with the crud. I headed on to the office because I didn't feel sick enough to stay home, but not really well enough to work either. Friday I actually felt better - then came Saturday. I got worse. I have been going downhill ever since. Yesterday I left work early and went home to try to sleep, but as soon as I lay down I cough and cough. I tried medicine. I tried honey. I tried hot water. I tried Vicks on my feet. Nothing seems to work. I even stood in a steamy shower. Nothing helps. I eventually went to couch at midnight last night and propped myself up to catch a little sleep. I slept until 6 this morning but then woke up hacking again. I just want to sleep and feel better - is that too much to ask?

Having said that, my 12th wedding anniversary is this weekend and I was planning to make a nice cake for my husband and work on some valentine crafts..... hopefully I can do that and maybe even post some pictures here!?

Here's to getting well and feeling good enough to craft and bake this weekend! *cheers*

It's been awhile - let's see if I can figure this out!

I haven't posted here in a LOOOOOOONNNNNGGGGG time. Mostly for lack of anything worth posting about, but I'm here to try it out again! I am being encouraged by several friends and family to start this blog back  up. We'll see how this turns out. If I hear you all snoring I know I am boring and need to stop posting here! ;-)

I won't try to do a "catch-you-up" blog post since it has been 5 months since I posted anything! So let's just start with the here and now!

Spirit will be in the District Spelling Bee in February. Both boys were in the school spelling bee a couple weeks ago. Spirit didn't practice as hard as Lefty because he was convinced he would be eliminated right away anyway. Lefty made it down to the last 6-7 kids and Spirit got 2nd place! (Not bad for a kid who thought he'd be eliminated right away!) So now he is pretty determined to study harder. Apparently for the district spelling bee he will be taking a written test and if he scores high enough (not sure what the "high enough" is) then he will go on to the oral part later in the day. We spell as often as we can: while I am cooking dinner, while he is getting dressed, while I am folding laundry...we are taking every opportunity to practice!

Lefty was in a "Math Challenge" in December which was similar to a spelling bee in that the kids were given oral math problems they had to solve. It was a tough thing for him but he faired pretty well! He says he won't do it again - he was a physical mess before the Math Challenge. He was so stressed he was sick to his stomach for weeks and could hardly sleep!

Lady Bug has joined Girl Scouts - just in time to sell cookies. She is enjoying the "girl" company. Being with brothers all day every day can get old! It has been good for her to hang out with girls and be able to talk about girly things! I have to admit though, I hope she doesn't want to stick this out very long because I do not make a good Girl Scout mom.

That is the quick update for now. More to come!