Christmas 2012

Christmas was wonderful.  Hands down, the best part was getting to go out as a family of four!  We took Lucy with us to our family events, and it was so great to dress her up and get her out!

Here are some of my favorite pics:

For the Tacky Christmas Sweater Party (obviously!)

Uncle Alex MADE this! Can you believe it???

Christmas Eve with Mommy - doesn't she look adorable in her Christmas dress? (Thanks Gigi!)

Christmas Eve with her cousins

Isn't she precious?

Finding and opening his gifts on Christmas morning!

Wake up!

The kiddos on Christmas morning, all in the Christmas jammies Grandma gave them at Thanksgiving.

My boy turned three.  Here he is with the book he got from Grandma and the stuffed"Cat the Hat" (as he calls it) from Gigi

Representing

Awwwww

Quiet Corral concert in KC - part of my Christmas gift to my husband :)

We had a wonderful Christmas and are so very grateful for the blessings of the Christmas season!

Grammar Lesson

(Warning: Severe Type A-ness follows)

Alright, folks, let's get one thing straight. We are all educated individuals. We are blessed to live in a country where we are taught how to read and write. Why, then, do we insist on doing it incorrectly? It's one thing to see it from a 7th grader, but quite another to see it from adults.  I pride myself in my ability to find mistakes and fix them.  And, if you know me, you know I enjoy doing it.

But I am also blessed to teach across the hall from the grammar Queen of the Universe. I get to stand in her presence nearly every day and regularly think about how I aspire to be as good as she.  If you could make a job out of finding mistakes in professional publications, I would apply (sounds like a DREAM), but Chelsea would too, and they would hire her.  They would be right to do so.  She is good.  She is better.  She is best.

I put this on her wall on Thursday, December 20th:

 

I was delighted to see this post from her on Thursday, December 27th:

She is so good.  So good.  I sometimes get confused with the last few - even have to look them up - but here she is spouting them off like the real professional.  I am posting this so you can bookmark them if you have trouble, too.

Props, Chelsea, props.

Snow Day...and Other Matters

Today, since it snowed, I took Charlie out to play.  He did NOT like it:

Please note that he refused to wear gloves.  I did everything I could think of to try to make him.

Oh well.  I get points for trying, right?

As I'm adjusting to life with two, I'm beginning to find my feet.  It helps that break is upon us (thank you Lord for the snow day!), but I'm going to make a supreme effort to continue my normal life routines:

• Cleaning.  I am having a TERRIBLE time keeping my house clean.  I have seriously cleaned it from top to bottom for the past few days and it is still a perpetual mess.  What gives???
• Menu planning.  I'm getting sick of running to the store or grabbing take out.  Gotta get this back under control
• Blogging.  I haven't been very good about this.  It's hard to get alone time with the good computer!
• Balancing my checkbook. My husband tells me I'm the only one on Earth who does this.  Maybe so, but I like knowing exactly how much $$ I have at any given time.  I used to do this once a week, but lately it's been more like once a month...

Hoping to get better about doing these things in 2013!

New Thing: Cyber Monday

(This post is a few weeks late...)

I am always at work on Cyber Monday.  They kind of frown on teachers spending all day at their computer scouring the Internet for good shopping deals, and as a result I have never participated in the Cyber Monday frenzy.

Until this year.

I started at 4:00 AM. (I have a newborn, folks.  My day starts early.)  Motherhood.com was having a sale on nursing bras - buy 3 get 1 free.  Since I have one good one that I just wash over and over again, I went for the deal.  My total came to $74.96 and shipping was free with a purchase of $75 or more (of course).  Shipping was $6, so I found a $6 item I didn't need but could definitely use, which effectively bumped my price up.  The total was $88.18.  A lot of money, but not too bad when you consider I got 4 good nursing bras.  Score!  And when they were delivered, they came with $20 off on a Shutterfly purchase.  Sweet.

 Next up was Amazon.  Kindle Fires were $129.  That's great, but I have a Nook.  Rick got me one last school year, and I do love it.  But I don't love the price of books.  If I had known better, I would have gotten an Kindle to start with because Amazon runs promos all the time - free books, discounted books, etc.  B&N does not do this. :(  But there was still no way I could justify getting a Kindle.  But a great deal, all the same!

Then I found a super-awesome freebie from Greencupboards.com - a free $10 credit + free 2 day shipping!  I scored two bottles of laundry detergent and two candles COMPLETELY FREE!  Whoohoo!  And they are all environmentally friendly and stuff.  Sweet.

This summer Gigi bought Charlie a pair of crocs and they were everyone's favorite shoe - cute, comfy, and matched everything.  So when Crocs.com was having a sale, I jumped on it.  They were running a BOGO with free shipping so I ordered some shoes for Charlie for next year.  So stoked about these!  My total was $31.34.  Not what I would normally spend on shoes, but I was getting a little crazed.  I probably wouldn't do it again.

My last stop was Shutterfly.com.  Using some promotional codes and coupons, I scored 60 adorable photo Christmas cards for less than $15.  That's less than $.25/card.  Not as good as last year's deal, but still pretty good.  I did have to get two different styles, so I went with these two:

This deal wasn't as good as the one I scored last year, but I was happy with it.

And the best deal of the day: Rick decided to buy me a Kindle for Christmas.  I told him about the deal and he said it would be his Christmas gift to me.   I was ecstatic.  I was able to sell my Nook for $85 too!

Yay for Cyber Sales.

Project: Nurse's Gifts

After spending so much time in the hospital, I didn't feel like parting with a simple "Thank You" was enough.  More than 10 nurses cared for me during my five-day stint and nearly 30 for Lucy during her almost three weeks in NICU.  So I wanted to do something special.  I didn't really have any great ideas, even after scouring Pinterest.  Finally I remembered a super cute card I got from a student one time, and thought I would adapt it for the nurses.  So here's what I did:

Step 1: Gather materials

• Card stock
• Colorful markers
• Tape
• Ribbon
• Smarties
• 100 Grands
• Milky Ways

Step 2: Artwork
I wrote each of their names in fancy font and colors on the front of the card stock.  This was the most time-consuming part!

Step 3:  Message

I hand wrote (which also took a lot of time) the following on each card:

Thank you for using your (SMARTIES) to serve us!

(MILKY WAY) You are out of this world!

You deserve (100 GRAND)!

Thanks so much!

 

Step 4: Picture

These nurses see so many people that I was afraid they might not remember (or maybe even have known?) our last names.  So I ordered 40 prints of our family picture online  (FREE from York Photo for new customers - paid only $2.38 in shipping!) and then stapled it to the top and labeled it.

 Step 5: Tie it Up!
 I used a hole punch to punch a hole in the top and then secured it with ribbon.  The finish product was two grocery bags full of these:

 

We dropped them off and didn't get to see their reactions, but I hope the nurses enjoyed them. :)

Paint Therapy

 On the Friday before I returned to work, I went out with some friends to Paint Therapy Uncorked.  It's a painting place where people with zero artistic ability are miraculously able to produce works of art.  I convinced Kristin to go with me by assuring her she could do it, but to be honest I wasn't so sure this thing was for real.  I seriously have no artistic ability.  But check this out - you pick your picture.  You can pick the one she is doing for the group (most people did this) or you could pick another off her wall and she would help you individually.  I have a thing for trees so I picked a silver tree scene.  Here is my picture progression:

 Yep, that's right - I DID THIS.  I, who have no ability whatsoever.  This lady is a miracle worker.  Here's both our finished products:

 And here is our whole group.

This was seriously a blast.  A few things:

• It was kind of pricy - $40, plus you bring a snack (and a bottle of wine if you want to drink), but you are there for the evening and of course you get to keep the painting.  They do offer Family Days on weekends where you pay $20 for a smaller painting (and obviously, there is no wine).
• Margie, the lady who runs it, is super cool.  See the Santa Claus paintings above?  One of the girls brought her iPhone in with this picture on it from Pinterest.  Margie sat down with the picture, paint, and a blank canvas and had an amazing finished product within 15 minutes.  She then offered to teach this picture if anyone wanted it.  As you can see, three people picked this one!  Amazing.
• I think this would be so fun to do as a family.  I would love to get my parents, brother, and sister-in-law to do this.  Don't know what we'd do with our kids though...

Love love love this.  Can't wait to do it again!

Thanksgiving: Week 5

November 24: Thank you Lord for my mom, who watched the baby and cleaned my kitchen so I could get some shut-eye, and who does this kind of stuff all the time!

November 25: God, thank you for forgiveness. What a great message about Your forgiveness and forgiving others this morning!  If you want to take a listen, check it out here.  It was so good - I can't count how many times I've thought about it since.

November 26: Thank you Lord that my little girl is doing so well! The doctor said today that we can begin to treat her like a "normal" baby! What a blessing!

November 27: I heard a sermon a few years ago in Lawrence about how Christians are called to be good stewards of that which we are given, and that includes our earth. I've always considered myself pretty environmentally conscious - I recycle, I try to reduce uses of water and energy when possible, etc. but had never thought about it quite like that.  When we moved to Topeka, we found that curbside recycling was QUADRUPLE the price of what it was in Lawrence.  The city of Topeka has changed this, and we got our recycling bin today!  Thank you City of Topeka for making it so convenient!

November 28: Thank you God for my beautiful boy. He is so smart and funny, and continually causes me to stop and be in awe of Who You are. Thank you for choosing me to be his mommy.

November 29: We enrolled Charlie in Puggles (Awana for toddlers) this year, and I have been amazed at how quickly he is learning.  God, thank you that our son is taking to heart the things he is learning about You. Tonight in the car, out of the blue, he started listing things you have made - namely zebras, flowers, and chicken nuggets. :)

November 30: Thank you God for loving me.  I am consistently proving myself undeserving, but You in your mercy count me as Yours.  There are no words to explain love like this.

Bring on the Christmas

Growing up, the day after Thanksgiving was reserved for shopping and decorating for Christmas.  My dad was a huge stickler about giving Thanksgiving its due - there was no Christmas talk, music, or decorations until this day.  As a result, we got pretty excited about decorating for Christmas.  I have continued this tradition with my family, but my son has yet to be excited about this process.  Maybe it was the tree.  Here's a picture from a past Christmas to give you an idea of what we were dealing with:

It was fine, but there were lots of holes and, well, we just thought we needed an upgrade.  We are artificial-tree people.  Ever since my mom scratched her cornea on the sprig of a real tree while trying to get it in the door of our house when I was four, we have had an artificial tree.  And since they are so easy and convenient, and we are easy and convenient kinds of folks, we're sticking with the artificial.  So Charlie and I went to Walmart and found this tree.  Rick put it up while I showed Charlie a Christmas episode of Thomas the Train where Thomas puts up a Christmas tree (but he doesn't really...no hands, you know).  I was really hoping it would help him get excited about the Christmas tree.  It worked!  He started talking about HIS Christmas tree.  I broke out the decorations and we started in.

Daddy helped him put the topper on the tree.  You can't see it very well in this picture, but that tree topper is made out of cardboard, glitter, match sticks, and glue.  My parents made one like this their first Christmas together and they still top the tree with it every year.  We decided to make one our first Christmas too.  It's completely awful, but it makes for a nice story. :)

I saw a picture of a friend's tree on Facebook, and it was amazing.  Perfectly symmetrical, orderly, and only with freshly store-bought ornaments.  You won't find that at our house.  About half of our ornaments are old, homemade, or both.  Growing up, my grandparents gave us an ornament every year with the date.  Often, the ornaments coordinated, but they were never exactly the same.  Like one year, I got this one:

My cousins and brother got the partridge, the turtle doves, and the french hens.  Unfortunately, the year has rubbed off and I'm not sure which Christmas this was.  But when we left home, we had 18 ornaments with which to start our own collection.  This one is one of my very favorites:

For my second Christmas.  It makes me smile.

Anyway, the end product turned out something like this:

Perfect. :)

Thanksgiving: Week 4

November 17: A huge thank you to Kim Geer (whose website you can view here) for taking such amazing pictures of our family.  This is such a special time and we are so excited to have these memories preserved in such beautiful pictures.  Here's a peek:

November 18: Thank you Lord for doctors and modern medicine. Thank you that my son, with his 104 temperature, got in to see the doctor immediately and is now being treated for an ear infection. And thank you for his snuggles :)

November 19: God, thank you for my marriage. Thank you for commitment that runs deeper than feelings and love that goes beyond my imperfections. I am so immeasurably blessed.

November 20: I am so grateful to God for the friends he has placed in our lives.  We are blessed with wonderful people who love us and whom we have the opportunity to love!

November 21: I'm thankful for visits from my dad - Charlie and Lucy love their Pepa!

November 22: It's Thanksgiving Day and we have so very much to be thankful for, but above it all, I am so thankful for God's grace. It is because of His grace that all things good in my life exist at all.

November 23: Thank you God for precious memories.