Tales from a stay at home mom

Words of Wisdom...from Lily

2005-08-17T15:03:00.000-07:00

"God can take away monsters....and that's the truth."

"I am serious Mommy, ants are stinky"

"Bugs poop"

"It's okay if it does not match." talking about her clothes

The Challenge

2005-08-17T14:52:00.000-07:00

The girls and I left for Indiana yesterday to spend some time with my parents and nephews before school starts. Ben has been really busy recently and it is going to be nuts for him this week too. I told him that since he was going to be so busy that I would not call him at all while we are gone (until Saturday). He and Andy (his brother) bet that I would not even make it to Indiana before I called him. I am a VERY competitive person and to me this was a challenge. I am determined to show them that I can do this. See, I usually call him all the time and drive him crazy, so this time I am going to show him and NOT call him at all:) I have decided to not even email him because I am sure that he would say that I did not complete the mission because I kind of talked to him through email. So, I decided not to do that either. I figured I was safe to blog because I think that I am the only person besides my parents that read this. I don't think he reads my blog that much so this won't count as contacting him. I told him that if I was able to do this, he would have to take me out to dinner and a movie. I think I am going to hold out for more...a Cardinals game and night in St. Louis. We will see how it goes and hopefully I will be in St. Louis with him sometime before the end of the season:)

Changes

2005-08-09T13:02:00.000-07:00

School is starting soon and I am having mixed emotions about it. I am excited about getting my family into a routine again and also about haivng new kids coming to my home daycare. I am excited about seeing Ben's room. He always does awesome theme rooms each year. I am excited about KJHS basketball starting because I enjoy seeing how much better a ball team can become over the season with 3 great coaches who care not just about winning but in making an impact in junior high boys lives. I am excited about taking Hannah for the first time to the school doors to see who her teacher is and who is in her class (even though we already know who she will have). Through all this excitement I see changes on the horizon. Lily is starting preschool and going to have to learn to be away from mommy . I am having to let go of our oldest, Hannah, and trust that what we have taught her as parents will shine through when she is away from us at school. She has always been with me, never in daycare, and I am heartbroken to let her go. I know that I have to, but it is so hard. I pray that she will learn lots and grow from her experiences. I hope she learns to love and accept everyone for who they are and not how they look or what they have done wrong in the past. I hope she learns that we are all very different but all important to our Father. I hope she learns that failure is not the end of the world but a lesson that we can learn from and make ourselves better people because of it. I hope she learns that life is not easy and sometimes we get hurt but we can recover from that hurt even stronger. I just wish I could be there to hold her hand through all of this but I know she has to do it on her own and will be fine because her daddy and I will be here for her no matter what.

It has been a while...

2005-08-05T19:48:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since my last post... we have moved to a new house, had soccer games and practice, taken many trips to the pool, played outside LOTS, went to Chicago with Janelle for a wonderful weekend (and got my belly button pierced), just been really busy.

It has been a while since the Cardinals have been out of first place...these guys rock my world (especially jimmy:) It is pretty sad when I think the ultimate date with Ben would be to go to St. Louis and hang out at a ball game together watching the Cards. I am sure my constant questions are bothersome at times but I love going to ball games with him. He is very patient with me:)

It has been a while since I slowed down and thanked God for the little things in life that always get looked over... Our 3 year old, Lily, is the queen of taking her time to do EVERYTHING. When you are wanting to go somewhere and need to get there by van you can usually count on it taking her 10 times as long to get from the house into the van and buckled into the car seat. It drives us CRAZY!!! She will stop and examine every bug or what appears to be a bug on the way to the van. She will crouch down with her hands on her knees and get as close as she can and blow on it or pick it up. Then tries to figure out if it is a "biting bug" or just a regular bug. She moves slowly taking in everything that is in her sight. ..picking flowers whenever she sees them, finding huge worms to carry around, etc. The whole time she is doing these, I am yelling "get in the van!! we have to go!!!". Let me say that saying that usually makes her move even slower. Anyway, I was thinking about that today. I have had some struggles this week and realized that maybe if I slowed down like our daughter and took the time to gave thanks for the people and things in my life that get overlooked daily that the "huge" things would not be so "huge". I always thought I was the ones teaching them things, but i guess it goes both ways. In my daughter's words "Peace out!!"

Tales from the weekend

2005-03-13T15:19:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple of funny things my girls have said this weekend:

On Friday I thought I would do some exercises to get back into shape:) While I was doing them I thought our 5 year old was busy playing computer games and not paying attention to me. Boy was I wrong...As I was busy doing my thing, I heard her saying "I see London, I see France, I see Mommy's underpants". The sad part is, she was right, my pants had come down enough to show my underpants:)

On a bike ride today my 3 year old was having trouble steering her bike (LOTS of trouble). She finally looked back at me and said "mommy, these wheels are not cooperating!!"

My kid's favorite movie right now is Napoleon Dynamite. They quote it all the time. Today on our bike ride our 5 year old thought we should go to mamaw's house to "show her our riding skills." Only people who have seen the movie will appreciate that:)

Today I overheard our 3 year old chanting "Go Lily, it's your birthday, shake your booty, yeah yeah yeah!!!"

First Post

2005-03-09T11:14:00.000-08:00

This is my first post. I figured this would be a good way for me to share "words of wisdom" from my girls, funny stories, the occasional venting of frustrations...okay, maybe I should say daily venting:), and of course tales from the bathroom.

I think that is where I will start...lately our 3 year old is not going number 2 in the toilet. Her goal is usually to wait until my husband and I have just fallen fast alseep and are in dreamland to do her business. She slowly opens her bedroom door and tiptoes into our room to whisper "mommy, I poopied". I jolt up out of bed and out of my nice and happy dreamland and go and change pullup #1. See you have to know that she does not just wear her pullup and pajamas to bed, but also the occasional bunny hat that is always on backwards AND tights!! Trying to get tights on and off in the middle of the night is not an easy job. A usual night consists of a couple of pullup changes so there is lots of time to practice putting tights on and taking them off in the dark...I think I have almost perfected it.