Journaling

The other night we caught Lady Bug awake at 11:00 PM! She was just sitting on her bed writing in her journal (how sweet is that at 7 years old??!!) We asked her to put it away and go to sleep. Never thinking much of it because she loves to write and is always looking for opportunities to write a story or journal something!

Last night we had parent teacher conferences and the teachers were talking about her awesome writing skills and I told them that story of her staying up late. When we got home from the conference she brought me her journal and said "read this mom, this is what I wrote that night I stayed up late."

The image won't attach correctly so I will just write in here what she wrote (her typos included just as she jotted them in her journal):

I am the one who will praise God every day! I am the one that will do 

what my teachers and parents say the first time! I am the one who will read the Bible 

everi day. I am the one who will not spell and say bad words! 

I am the one who will preech about God! I will be 

like Martin Luther King when I grow up!

I was so touched and moved by this! I brought her journal with me so that I could copy that page and save it in her "box" (you know the BOX of cute stuff to save for the kiddos!) and I am so moved every time I read this!

To shower or not to shower...

I have had an ongoing battle with Spirit for a very long time. He hates to shower and brush his teeth. When he was 8 he showered nearly everyday and wanted to wear his dad's cologne, then he turned 9 and since then it's been a fight. Every.single.day.

Recently we've had discussions about why it is he dislikes showering and brushing his teeth... his response is that it takes too much time. So this morning I set the stop watch on my phone. From the time he shut the bathroom door until he exited the bathroom it took 5 minutes 23 seconds. His response to that "ya, see it took so long!".... He will just have to be mad at me when I tell him to bathe. I hate to fight with him over that issue but his hair was greasy this morning and his feet smelled like an old gym. Blech.

Mr. Man and I decided to have a family meeting this weekend. We will discuss a change in the chore responsibilities around the house and how there will be more expected of the kids with regard to helping around the house and also that part of the daily routine will include showering and brushing teeth and hair.

*sigh*

President's Day

Even though I work for an attorney and the courts will be closed on President's Day, our office is generally open for business. We actually set up quite a few client meetings because it is a convenient day for clients to come in. I have been with the current law firm for 5 years and we have worked every President's Day. BUT, today a strange thing happened. I got to work early and was busy working when my boss walks in and says "uhhhhh, what are you doing here? I thought the office was closed?" {He is the boss, he makes the rules, why is he asking ME?} I told him that he had not said anything to me about it last week so I assumed we were open. He went in his office and about 15 minutes later comes out and says "I checked my calendar and sure enough we are open. This is one of those holidays I have to check each year." So I half-jokingly said "Let's just make it easy then and close up. Call it good and call it a day!" After he stared at me for a moment or two he said "Let's not."

Hee hee. Ok, back to the client project I was working on!

Happy Valentine's Day

Since Mr. Man and I have our wedding anniversary 2 weeks before Valentine's Day we generally don't do any gifts for each other - BUT this year he surprised me. I woke up this morning and stumbled to the kitchen and saw 2 red glittery bags with pink tissue paper coming out the top. My watery eyes dried up and I rushed to the bags and one had my name and the other had Lady Bug's! When she got up we each opened our gifts. He gave me a book and a movie and the sweetest card ever! He made my day.

He didn't "make my day" because of the gift per say, but more because I have had a stressful last 5 days and have been fighting this bronchitis for over a month and am STILL not better. The gift will help but the fact that he showed how much he cares for me by taking time out of his hectic schedule to get something for me and write me a special card meant a lot to me! It meant he realizes how stressed I have been and how he cares about how that is affecting me.

I got each of the kids a small box of candy and a card. I also made heart-shaped cinnamon rolls for breakfast (which only looked like hearts until I smothered them in frosting, then they just looked like any other cinnamon roll.

On a side note, I did return to the doctor today only to be told I Still have bronchitis and that it may take more time. They gave me another antibiotic to fight off anything that may still be living in there, gave me a Lung Function Test and asked me to come back in 2 more weeks for a follow up. Yippee for me. I just want to stop coughing and stop having my head hurt. grrr.

A room fit for a princess

Lady Bug's room had wallpaper on one wall when we moved into this house 4 years ago. A very dated wallpaper too. She recently started asking her dad if he could take it down and paint her room. SO for her birthday we decided to do a very "on-a-tight-budget" room remodel. The wallpaper was on so well that we decided to just paint over it. We did three large stripes on the wall, two outer ones in a darker purpler and then center one a lighter shade. Then we did three large diamond shapes in the center in coordinating purples.

Then we bought a beaded chandelier at Ikea and a bed net at Ikea for a total of $40. We also bought 2 wall flower lights and a wall bug light. Although the bug light didn't necessarily go with the rest of the room Lady Bug was insisting we put it up.

For about $140 we remodeled  slightly and she is so excited. We can't even get her out of there now!

Here is the room BEFORE:

Here is the AFTER pictures:

Happy Birthday to a sweet girl!

My darling little Lady Bug turns 7 today! She is growing up so fast. She is the sparkle of my eye and brings me so much joy and happiness!

She makes me laugh with her silliness. She has such a sweet heart and a kind spirit. For example, just the other day she had some candy in her hand and Mr. Man jokingly went to take it from her saying he was going to eat it all and she calmly replied "Well, ummm, I was going to give it to my brothers." and she looked a little sad. She is constantly thinking of others. Another time, she got a snack from class and asked the teacher if she could get 2 more so she could share with her brothers. How sweet is that?!

I constantly find notes on my bed from her where she is telling me how much she  loves me. I just can't get enough of that sweet little girl.

Don't get me wrong, she has an ugly side too, but thankfully the sweet side is visible more often than not!

We woke her up this morning by singing "Happy Birthday To You!" and then she requested cinnamon rolls for breakfast so all 5 of us sat down together and had cinnamon rolls (which is unusual for all 5 of us to be at the table at the same time on a school/work morning!) Mr. Man has a tradition of "BirthdayNapping" his kids on their birthday and he takes the day off from work and pulls them out of school and spends the whole day just the 2 of them. Each kid really looks forward to these days with their dad. Today Mr. Man and Lady Bug will pick me up from work at noon to have lunch, then Lady Bug will go see her cousin who cuts hair for a hair cut she so desperately needs, then tonight we will be eating her requested dinner which is, of all things, Shepherds Pie.

Has anyone ever heard of a "Golden Birthday"? Lady Bug just informed me that today is her Golden Birthday. I Googled it and the Golden Birthday corresponds with the date and your age. SO for instance, my birthday is on the 17th day of the month so my Golden Birthday was when I turned 17. Today is the 7th and Lady Bug is turning 7 so this is her Golden Birthday! Great, and I didn't plan big enough for this golden one! Maybe we can add some flair to the dinner party?? eekk. The pressure is on!

What a weekend

The weather people were telling us last Thursday that a blizzard was coming - 20" predicted and it was going to snow Thursday through Saturday. At noon on Thursday it was spring-like weather outside with bright sunshine, no need for a coat so of course I was skeptical about the blizzard. They were saying the blizzard warning was going into effect at 2:00 pm. Sure. Whatever. I have no coat on, there is no blizzard on its way! Pretty soon they moved the blizzard warning to 4:00 pm. Still no snow. About 6:00 pm we started to see some flurries. It wasn't really sticking to ground yet, but at 8:30 pm the school district called to say school was cancelled for Friday! Seriously??? Where we live we deal with snow all winter long, we know how to deal with it and drive in it and we have city equipment that gets out there early with plows, etc. How can they close school?

WELL, woke up Friday morning to 12 or so inches which had drifted up against my front door so we couldn't even open it. My husband's office closed at noon. I called my boss and told him I was staying home. We hunkered inside and thankfully my husband had gone out to the store on Thursday and stocked up on several things, however he wasn't the only one so items were pretty cleaned out. He said there was no ground beef. There was no sugar. There were no eggs. No milk. You get it, all the staples were cleaned out. But we managed to get some things so that we able to eat while stuck inside. It snowed until about 10:00 am on Saturday! We have SO much snow and the roads are terrible, even today, Monday!

The kids went sledding with some neighbors and so of course my front entry was soon filled with tons of wet, snowy clothes and boots, gloves, hats, etc. and everyone begging for hot cocoa with marshmallows! We had a nice family weekend!

This morning the kids were actually ready to get back to school and I, too, was ready for them to go back to school!

**P.S. I tried to find a picture of the snow, but I didn't take any and couldn't find any good ones online. That's what happens when you have not been blogging for a while, you forget that you need lots and lots of pictures! Next time folks!

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!