29 November 2010

whose universe?

The news was on as the boys were getting ready for school this morning. During a commercial break, the "solar system" Jimmy Dean commercial came on.

From the dining room, C pipes up "Mom, why are all the other guys going around the sun guy?"

"Haven't you learned anything about the solar system? All the planets revolve around the sun." I told him.

Grinning from ear to ear, M quips, "That's because the son is special."

Of course, my boy. Of course.

24 November 2010

My ABC's of Thanks!

Finding Joy  The ABC's of Thanks
I thought I'd link up for the ABC's of Thanks on this snowy Thanksgiving Eve eve.
a) Animals. As family pets.
b) books. I always love having new books to read
c) coffee creamer. I look forward to the abundance of new seasonal flavors this time of year
d) Diet Coke. Enough said
e) examples. My Mom and Dad for sure.
f) friends. I don't know what I'd do without mine
g) gravy. Goes great with mashed potatoes
h) husband. He's far from perfect, but perfect for me
i) ice cream. Yep.
j) jobs. It's great to be employed
k) kids. all kids; they're our future
l) love. God's love for me. Amazing.
m) music. I've always loved music.
n) november. which reminds us that we're all greatly blessed
o) optimism. I'm not very good at this, but I'm trying
p) plumbers. available as soon as we call. Yay.
q) quiet. especially on my day off
r) restful evenings. when my husband has everything taken care of when I get home
s) Starbucks. double yep
t) teachers. they work SO hard to teach our kids. be thankful if your kid gets a good one!
u) umbrellas. kept us dry at the end of soccer season
v) vacations. whether with the kids or not, it's nice to get away.
w) water. clean drinking water is so essential
x) x-tra capacity washer which makes laundry easier
y) you, my readers and friends
z) zany life, but we wouldn't change it
"Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. His love endures forever!"

16 November 2010

we tried

and I'd say for the most part were successful at getting a great pic of the boys for the Christmas card this year.

Getting a picture of Jon and I was another story entirely.

We started out with M taking it and there were many problems. Not the least of which being that we were indoors so the lighting was awful. Then there's the added issue of Jon wearing the same color as the background; even shooting in black and white, that didn't work.

After almost forty five minutes of trying and failing to get something decent, we just stopped trying.

Jon did say something about waiting until we visit my parents and getting a picture then. I'm not a patient person and I sometimes quite often get a "burr in my saddle" and kinda want it done NOW...but ultimately to get what I want, I guess I'll have to wait.

Good thing Walgreens photo can get them done same day.

So, I leave you with some outtakes from my shoot with the boys yesterday. After more than a dozen posed shots, things started to get out of control. It tends to happen.

And it's okay.






12 November 2010

kids say the darndest things

I came home from work last night to discover that M was telling C that he needed to stay upstairs. When I asked what was going on, M told me that C hadn't been staying seated on the bus in the afternoon.

Um, okay. Where's the problem? Right here.

When M told C that he needed to spend some time upstairs, C's response was quite abnormal and VERY unacceptable.

It involved the word that starts with the sixth letter of the alphabet and rhymes with "luck".

I told C that if I EVER catch him saying anything like that again, he was gonna wind up with a blistered butt. That I didn't care who says it and gets away with it, he was NOT to be even thinking things like that. And if I heard that he did, he was going to be able to experience what Lever 2000 soap tastes like.

Kids.

05 November 2010

sometimes it's better not to know

My mom always said "you don't know if you don't ask". And that has come in handy for me several times over the last couple of months at work. If I'm doing something new and ask about procedure or policy or whatnot, most everyone is happy to give me the information that I seek.

It helps me to know.

But there are cases where it's better not to know. And it serves me right if I asked because I think that "if you don't want to know, don't ask" could apply sometimes too.

A couple of nights ago, there was an older gentleman leaving the store carrying a bag from the pharmacy. He looked kind of sad as I smiled at him and told him to have a good night.

That's when he proceded to tell me that he'd just had his third radiation treatment earlier that day. But he guessed that the bright side was that he only had two more treatments to go.

I'll admit that my brain kinda froze here. Most of the time when people launch stories at me it's just to complain that our store "didn't have what [I] was looking for". And in those cases, I make the situation right as best I can; either by running to an aisle or the stockroom for product or paging management for assistance.

I couldn't fix this one and it really bothered me.

When the customer left the store, Nathaniel and I just looked at each other and didn't say a word. While I don't in any way regret my interaction with that customer, I was just again reminded that I have to be prepared to hear whatever may come.

03 November 2010

blah, blah, blah

To tell you that we had a wonderful weekend celebrating our anniversary wouldn't cut it. Not even close. We went to the museum, visited a beautiful park and a furniture store all on the same day and there were no little voices saying "are we done yet? I'm tired" Or hungry or whatever the case may be.


Blissful.


And it's really too bad that we still have too many bills and not enough money because I can tell you that if the situation were reversed, the first thing that we'd do is pay off the mortgage with the next thing being that very same day we'd call about getting a whirlpool tub installed in our home. But only if we could also soundproof the bathroom so we couldn't hear incessant knocking and requests for "ice cream in a bowl" from the other side.


Yep.


And when I get tired and frustrated with my work schedule and the hours that I'm forced to keep, I just have to continually bear in mind that such an anniversary weekend would have never been even close to possible without my income. And that makes it better.


We're taking a long weekend this month to go visit my family. Again, if my work schedule is generously accommodating. And I can't wait. That means that we're home for Turkey Day, but I'm working 9-1 that day anyway, so it's okay. Hopefully our invite for dinner still works out...


C went on a field trip to "the caves". I asked him if he saw any bats and he said yes, but that his teacher told the kids to not shine a flashlight at them as they are starting hibernation. Eeew. Jon was pretty pleased with that C was one of the "cleanest boys to get off that bus"; crawling through "muddy" caves all day is what we'd been told they'd be doing so we were pretty unsure of what to expect. That was a pleasant surprise.

M has a "Rock and Roll" concert this week. We missed him playing "Amazing Grace" on the trumpet on Sunday morning. When I mentioned that to Jon he said "It's okay, we live with him; we can ask him to play whenever we want."

Wise words.

At some point over the weekend, C's coat disappeared. And he only had one coat. Something about some little boy may have mistaken it for his and taken it home sometime on Sunday, but no such luck in finding it. So as of yesterday, C has had four winter coats in 5 years due to things like broken zippers and cases of mistaken identity.

The tags are still on the new one in the event that the less-than-a-year-old one remembers where it lives and returns home, but we don't hold out much hope.

To balance all of the coat buying out, we did realize that the last new winter coat that M had was just as he'd started fourth grade, but it's still completely frustrating since boxelder trees do not grow money.

That's all folks.