Saturday, December 29, 2012

Days like these

Today is a very special day in our household. An anniversary for Clynt is and I. And 5 years at that! In 2 weeks it will mark 7 years from meeting him. And today is also out oldests 4th birthday! Yes, that does mean we had him on our first anniversary. We have not ever gotten to celebrate our anniversary on our anniversary because I simply won't leave my son on his birthday. So we eat at chuckee cheese on our anniversary every year. Jealous?

Anyways, today, in my mind should be perfect but as of yet, we have never had a perfect December 29th. Last year Garrett has strep throat, rsv and double ear infections, this year he has double ear infections and is beyond cranky. And Corbin had a little cold and is cranky as hell. If one has not been crying, the other has. I want to cry half the time and am embarrassed by their behaviors the other half of the time. But here is the reality (that my sweet mother in law always reminds me of), this too will end. One day they won't even be around for their birthday and I won't be eating at chuckee cheese for my anniversary. One day, Corbin won't cry when he is touched just because he is tired. One day Garrett won't want to be held, standing up, every time he is sick. One day these things won't be my reality. So, I suppose, even though I cringe at the thought of how imprefect a seemingly perfect day is, I shall embrace it. And love these little boys for who they are and how old they are (bc, lets face it, that's half the problem!).

On a side note, it's absolutely impossible for me to imagine that it has been 4 years since giving birth to my big boy!

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Christmas crafts!

Some of the most fun times for me are spent doing crafts and stuff with my kids. I love love getting to do this with my kids bc I realize that they will be older one day and will not want to spend the time with me make random stuff. So this is something I love. And Christmas time just would not be the same with out it! Here are few things we have done the past couple of days. We did home made moon dough, a reindeer hand craft, a paper wreath, a Christmas tree with stickers, and ice painting with koolaid. Fun!!

Monday, December 17, 2012

Forgiveness

Have you ever heard the Mathew West song "forgiveness"? Its a sweet song but its even better when you see the video and meaning behind it. Please go here and watch it

http://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=WL66DGNX

Expect a few tears and expect to be changed. If a mother can forgive like this mother forgave, anyone can forgive! It gives some thought into why we should forgive people. It lets us know that our little problems are nothing compared to what some people go through. It's really an incredible video.

Another something that is important is to apologize. Whether or not someone is willing to forgive is up to them, however you can apologize. It doesn't matter how many years ago it was that you did wrong, apologize. It makes people feel good to know that you are considerate enough to think about it, and it will make you feel good to have it off your chest.

Anyways, watch the video :)

It's morning like this

After a long week last week and an even longer weekend with a 2 day trip for a funeral of someone I loved very much, I decided to take this morning and spend it doing fun stuff with my kids. That meant no school for Corbin (it's his first missed day all year). It also meant planning out a morning just for the kids. :). First stop, donuts holes! Yum! Next stop, playgroup! Corbin has missed our Monday morning playgroup since he started school, so his friends were excited to see him and he was excited to see them. :). It was a fun morning visiting friends (both for the kids and me!). After that we headed to bass pro shop. We saw Santa and then played with all the toys and picked out a few to bring home with us. We then went to the Islamorada Restaurant for some yummy food and time to visit with the boys. After 2 hours in bass pro shop, we headed home! Now they are napping. We had several people stop to tell us how well behaved the boys were and also to accept all the kisses Garrett was blowing.

The boys had a fantastic time and I enjoyed it more than them. Getting to spend my life raising my boys can be hard at times, but seeing those smiles on their faces every time we enjoy something together is simply amazing. I know that while I get frustrated at the occasional fit, these days are all days that I will never get back. They are days that I will only remember the good from. (Maybe an occasional bad, but you know). The truth is you never hear someone with teenagers say, I remember how terrible my kids were, and I remember every bad thing they ever did. More often you hear people who have teenagers, or grown adults, saying "my kids never did that", or "my kids were doing this or that by now". All the while you remember their kids and the bad things they did. Its just that moms have a way of suppressing the bad and holding on to all the good. It's the most amazing trait in the world. I don't want to remember every bad thing my kids ever do, but I most definitely want to remember the mornings like this morning. I pray I never forget all the good moments. They are so amazing and so worth any of the bad moments that you have along the way.

Friday, December 14, 2012

Being sick Is never convenient

Yesterday morning, while at stomping grounds with friends, within an hour of finding out about my grandfather, Corbin says he is tired. Tired? At 10:30? A child I can barely get to nap at 1:30? And we are at a giant indoor playground, and u want to sit here? What?? Not normal. Then we go to lunch with our friends at lupe tortilla, and he falls asleep in my lap. Poor guy!! He had gotten the flu mist the day before so I thought that it was probably the culprit. Then the 102 fever hit, the 4th nap happened, and the complaint of joints, head and stomach started. So I call the doctor, who says that those symptoms would not be that severe with the flu mist so off we go to the doctor.

As Corbin is nearly asleep on the table, she walks in and says he has the flu. She was certain of it because of how miserable he looked. The rapid test came back a few minutes later and it was negative! So was the strep test. So she runs bloodwork and it was all pretty normal. 1 number indication he was fighting something off but nothing major. So off we went with our sick little guy.

The problem? We are heading to my grandpa's funeral and leaving the boys for the first time ever! I'm already depressed about my grandpa and freaking out about leaving our boys, and now, he's sick and miserable! How does that happen? Pretty sure, it's God saying "I'm in control, you are not.". So I pray. And here we are today. Corbin is doing better. Fever is low, and he is a little achy but nothing like yesterday. So I'm feeling a little better. Of course I have a bag with tons of meds and list on what to do and when and so on and so on, but my in laws are wonderful and I trust they will take care of them. It's not that I don't trust people it's that I really don't do well not seeing my boys everyday all day. I love there smiles and I love getting to be a part of their accomplishments and just all the little 'ah-ha' moments in their lives.

Anyways, being sick always happens when it's not convenient. I'm convinced that is for a reason. It's been a hard couple of days around here. Do you ever cry so much that you get migraines? That's me the past 2 days. I don't handle change and stress very well, so I'm just sad, and sick. It will be fine and I know God has a plan with turns of events.

The other thing which is not about being sick, but just because I need to give a couple shout outs. I'm pretty certain that clynt and I have the best friends and family of all time. Immediately upon finding out, I had people offering to help watch our kids, and bring dinner over just because I was emotional. We ended up in the doctor last minute with corbin and so clynt decided to take me out to eat. on the way home our best friends called and wanted to bring over food and so i told them where we were and they just us there. Our besties (yes i did say that) bought our dinner just because and are watching our house and dogs while we are gone.

Anyways, what a fantastic family and set of friends we have. I love all of u!

Thursday, December 13, 2012

My grandpa

My grandpa was an amazing amazing man.  He was Godly and loved the Lord with all his heart, so I know that he is a better place right now.  I wish that we had gotten to see him one last time before this happened, but I guess that God wanted to see him first.  I know that we will get to see him again one day.  He loved my boys and I so so much even though we didnt get to see him very often.  They live about 5 hours from us so we just didnt make it there very often.  We had seen him 2-3 times in the past year and I am so so grateful for that time we had together.   My grandpa was like a giant teddy bear. He was a big man with a huge heart and was always up for a big hug from us.  He loved life so much.

Many tears are falling for you today.  I hope you know that you are missed and are so so so loved.

I love you Grandpa and I know I will see you again one day.



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The future.

Do you ever sit and dream what your life will be like in 10, 15, 20, or even 30 years? Do you wonder what your kids are going to be when they get older or even what they are going to be like, or who they will marry, and what kind of job they will have? I often wonder if I am giving my kids the basics of what they need to be happy, successful, CHRISTIAN men when they grow up. I mean, am I teaching them enough about Christ and am I being a good example? I definitely do no think I do enough, and that needs to change. Now. I also wonder if I am giving the building stones needed to be successful men . I mean am I teaching them and challenging them enough to learn and grow to their capabilities. I like to think I do with Corbin but I don't think I put enough time into it with Garrett, which again needs to change.

I so often wonder if they will be more like me or more like Clynt, or neither. I believe with all my heart that Corbin will be like clynt. I believe he will travel the engineering road (or something with numbers and precise ness). I believe he will be a very smart man (he is an incredibly smart little boy). I believe he will try his hardest at everything he does like his dad does. That is all what I believe though. Will any of that come true? I guess that the part that I think about the most. Will he be what I think he will be or something completely different. Sometimes I wonder what he will be like in school, a cool kid, a jock, a fork, etc. and then I remember that it doesn't matter at all!! What groups they are in in high school doesn't make them in the real world at all. It doesn't matter how good at sports they were (unless they are going to the pros, which, lets face, doesn't happen as much as parents believe!), it doesn't matter if his girlfriends are the most popular, or really anything else. All that matters is that he is a Christian, honest, respectful, and happy boy that can lead him on the bigger and better things in life.

And Garrett, at this point I just wonder what he will be like in preschool. Is he going to be like Corbin? Very active and busy but very smart? Who knows. And he definitely has my more social personality, so maybe he will be something where he is around people more often? Maybe a doctor? Or a pastor? Who knows what he will be yet. All I know is that to be the best mom I can be and have no regrets, I need to teach them the building blocks they need.

And for us (clynt and I), what will our lives be like? Well, clynt thinks I should be working somewhere, but don't. In my mind, my life will consist of lots of picking the kids up from school and taking them places, volunteering at the church during the day and having lots of lunch dates with the kids. 20 years from now, I hope that clynt will be retired and we will have been good enough with our money to be able to afford a gorgeous home in the middle of no where and a home on the beach in Belize. (Hey- this is a dream, right?) I vision our kids being married with kids and us all going down there to have a week together. I invision family, fun and excitement.


Do u ever think about your future? It's kind of fun, right?

Here are a couple pictures Corbin wanted me to show. One thing I know is they will be some pretty good looking men!

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Christmas decor

So, continued with the home talk and the Christmas talk, I wanted to share that I did final get my home decorated. Well, the inside. We bought the outside lights in hopes that our lawn guy (who also will do Christmas lights) would have some last minute time to do it. But he did not, and clynt doesn't have time (nor does he like to get up to the top of our two story house) to do it. So yet again, the outside will likely not get done. Oh well.

However the inside looks pretty. In a pretty simple girl. I like simple with a hint of glam. I like to spruce simple things up with a little sparkle! So my house is not super super decorated, and it's definitely not the traditional green and red. I prefer silver to gold generally but Christmas time is different. I prefer gold. Maybe is because our annual ornaments from the Danbury Mint are gold so I always do gold and red on the tree, but either way, that's what I like. I also so the white lights and white stuff around as well. But we like and Corbin and Garrett just love the tree, which is what it's all about. They got to pick it, so of course it was huge (which is okay because I love huge trees!). The picking of the Christmas tree was always a family tradition growing up and so I like to do the same for our boys. We all go, and I take pictures of the boys picking it out. It's so much fun! Then we get lunch, come home and the boys watch as we bring it in and then they help decorate a couple things and I finish it all while the kids sleep or nap. Anyways, we all love the real trees and plan to keep that tradition a live for a long time. Here are some pictures of little decorations around. Then I would like for you to tell me some of your traditions!!

Monday, December 10, 2012

Our home

We have lived in our home for almost 6 years now. When we bought it, we loved it and I honestly couldn't have told you anything I wanted changed. However , now that we had been here a while, we began making a list of changes and updates we wanted. Some cosmetic, so functionality , and some just making things more 'us'! I'm not sure why it just hit us all at once but we have really put an effort into making this house of ours, ours! The majors things were the floors and the back patio. And since then, with everything looking so nice, we wanted to update other things! New paint and touching up other paint, crown moulding, some stencilling, some new furniture (mostly made by clynt), some shelves for my ubseen number of pictures, a new faucet in the kitchen, new hardware in the kitchen, and several other things. We love love it. But everything we do brings more things we want to know. For instance clynt built a new bench for our dining room and now I want new furniture in there and I wanted some shelves for pictures. It's a snowball... One prime example of snowball was having the floors done and baseboards looking bad, so having the baseboards painted and the walls look bad, so having the walls painted and it looks bland, so putting in crown moulding, and deciding we need more accents, so stencilling around the fire place and figuring the whole living room looks great, so we should refinish the tables to go with it! Sigh.. It's has happened In all the rooms.

It's been fun seeing the changes, but that means lots of unfinished products while its all being done. It is amazing to have one of the most handy husbands ever, or all of this may not be possible. I'm not sure anyone else I would hire would understand my visions the way clynt does. I tell him an idea and he makes it happen and it's always amazing. No half butt jobs around here. Here are a few pictures of updates :). The fireplace one is dark so u can't see the stencilling, but you can see the crown moulding :)

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Christmas slacker

I've been a total slacker this year with decor and Corbin is finally to the age where he wants to have a decorated house and yard. He asks every time he sees light or a tree why we dont have anything at our house. :/. So I'm hoping this weekend, I can get things together enough to decorate and get the tree up. I'm having new stockings made with a natural tone. The new green we have in our living room wouldn't go with the tradition red and green. So I'm doing more red and natural tones. I got a banner that says believe that I already put up and that's all that is up. Hopefully this weekend I'll have some pictures of a decorated home to show you.

I did however get around to taking some pictures of the boys and designing us a card. The card should be here today and they will mailed out quickly! The card is simple, which I love. But I did order it on metallic paper to give it a little bling (bc I need that! ). I hope y'all love it :)

Work work work

My sweet husband does a lot for this family of ours. He's pretty awesome, but here it is... He's an engineer. For those of you who are married to or know an engineer very well, you know what that means. I have heard there are the occasional 'normal' engineer but all of the engineers that I know and have known are a different breed of person. He is anal, a perfectionist, needs control, and lots more. I am farrrrrrrr from any of these things (well, maybe not the needing control part ;) ) . And I guess it's true that opposites attract. Here is an example of our extremes: I put a cross on the cross wall. I put a nail up by eyeballing it and then put the cross up. Clynt puts a cross on the cross wall. He needs a laser level, a regular level, a stud finder, a measuring tape, and 5 other tools that mean nothing. This is how our lives are. I under achieve, and he over achieves. It's humorous and we both laugh at each other often. The perk to being like clynt is that clynt can do ANYTHING, and I mean anything. He can build stuff with wood, weld stuff with metal, fix electrical problems on anything, fix gas problems, fix vehicles, rebuild vehicles, solve any kind of problem consisting of numbers, tell you all about any animal or any other random fact that you would ever want to know, and so on. He is absolutely incredibly smart. And I LOVE that so so much! But there are times when I just wish something could get done in 5 minutes instead of 5 hours.

The other thing about his job is that he works A LOT! Now that's not necessarily an engineer thing because at his last company he did not work any over time at all. However since I am blogging about his work, this has to come up. It has to do with his personality of over achieving and spending forever to make sure everything is perfect. It is not mandatory that he be at work a lot but in order for him to be able to do his job at the quality that he likes to do it, that is the way it goes. His determination at work has paid off and things have been really good to him (and us).

I appreciate my husband and how perfect he can be, anal-ness and all.

My dreams..

When I was little, I wanted to be an attorney. Up through my sophomore year In college I wanted to be an attorney. I did not want kids (or at least not more than1), I never wanted to cook, clean or do anything domestic. I just wanted to be a successful business attorney and meet a doctor, lawyer, or engineer (by that i was just thinking some one with a serious career to match my attorney-hood) that was big on his profession also. Then, I met Clynt.. I was still in college and still had dreams of having a very successful career and Clynt was soon graduating with his engineering degree, so part of my plans was coming to life (remember the marry an engineer part?). We soon were engaged and living together while planning our wedding. He was able to pay for our living and I was working at the neighborhood center, our church, and going to school full time for my business degree. We got married while I was still in college And were pregnant a few months later. We were soooo excited, but we both had different plans. I wanted to graduate, get a good job, and send my kid to daycare and wrack up a bank account and debt to live the American dream. He wanted me to not get a job once I had my degree and be a housewife and mom. Hahaha. I was NOT doing that! Ever!! So I got my job and was working and sending Corbin to day care. A few months into I realized that was not the life I wanted. At all!! But now we had debt and a lifestyle that simply worked better with our two incomes. Sooo we had to back track our lives a little. And pay off the debt and change our life styles and lower our bills a lot. So when Corbin was 15 months I quit my job. To have a life that I NEVER wanted. NOW, I would not change it for the world. I love all things domestic. i cook, i clean, i do bills, i do crafts, i do it all and i love it! (well, most of the time!). NOW, my dreams are to never work another day in my life. And clynt's hopes for me are now different. He wants me to go back to work when the kids are in school. I wonder who will win that battle?

Next blog I hope to write today will be about being married to an engineer. And sigh.

Friday, November 30, 2012

Nights off

I have a serious case of anxiety every time I leave my kids for more than just a trip to the store. I know they are in safe hands, and I know they have what they need, however I just can't but think that they will think I'm abandoning them, or that I will miss something. I have this feeling like my fun should not come before theirs. And I truthfully feel like I will have TONS of nights to my self when they are grown and out of the house. And that is a fact. I don't want to miss all the little things now for my own personal enjoyment. They are my kids, right?

However, with that being said , next weekend is Clynt's company Christmas party and I find myself more excited than ever to leave my kids with their grandparents. I mean I have a reason to dress up really nice, get to know Clynt's bosses (who asked us to sit at their table!), and to spend the night at the Hilton downtown where the party is at. I'm very proud of clynt and everything he has accomplished at his company and I feel like I know nothing about the people he works with and I am actually very excited (and nervous) to meet these people and be able to put a face with the names. I knew people at his last company but since he moved to this one, I know no one. So anyways!! I'm excited to have a night off and be in a pretty dress, fantastic new Stella and dot jewelry, and have my hubs in a sports coat and tie to match :)

But back to what I was talking about. I'm not one of those moms who leave their kids with grandparents every weekend to just go out, but I am trying to recognize that I do need a night off every once in a while. I'm on the clock 24/7, so a night a month off can't be bad for me, or the kids, right?

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Imperfections

It's so easy with the world of Facebook and blogs to think that people are perfect and you are not. I know I see people that I think are perfect based on the posts on FB and/or their blog posts. I'm sure that people look at mine and think the same. However I and everyone else are not perfect, in fact, I am far from it.

The reality is that people (including me) don't run to Facebook and post everything bad or imperfect that they do. I sure as heck don't get on and post 'I just yelled at my kid for doing something wrong', or 'I actually sat on the bench instead of playing with Corbin at the park, because I was tired'. Those are just things that don't make it's way to my FB or my blog on a daily basis. I talk about the exciting and fun parts of my life, which is the other part of the time, like today, where the boys and I played chase for an hour at the park, or the days where I find my patience doing well and I don't have to get on to my kids at all.

My kids are not perfect or prodigies either, however I'm sure I don't say that very often on Facebook. And I don't see people post about how terrible their kids are very often either. In fact, every day on FB I see pictures and posts about kids doing phenomenal things that most kids their age don't do. I mean, they are our kids, so we have a tendency to brag and to have a bias. Which, why not? We love them! However, I do not have child prodigies and probably not many (or at all) of my friend's kids are either. So, I have to remember not to compare my kids to people's kids on FB. They are just kids !! Sweet, gorgeous ones, but kids all the same!

I find it so hard to look at other people's posts and not think how wonderful and perfect they are. It's really hard for me to realize that they are humans with real lives and real problems of their own. And I hope that none of my friends think that I am perfect either! Because, the reality is, that I am not. I lose my temper, I get into arguments with my husband, I yell at my kids at times, I allow too many electronics on days that I just don't feel like being on my 'a' game, and I don't always have my make up and fancy clothes on!

However, the reality is that it's my life, and I will always try to do better, but I know I will never be perfect. I love my life, and wouldn't change the people in it for the world. My husband can work to much and loose his tempter, my kids throw fits and don't always listen, and my family has drama. It's just life! So when things are going good, I will continue to share, and I still will not put all my drama and bad moments on FB however, you can know that I am not perfect and would never claim to be. And I will continue to try to remember to not compare my life and kids with those other people who have the same tendency to only post the perfect moments.

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Well, it's over.

It has been a long few months for people that were passionate about the presidential election. I am not going to sit here and say that I was not one of those people. I have a Romney Ryan sign in my yard, I voted my RR ticket the first day of early voting and I have watched very closely And hopeful. And he did not win, period. I have lots of friends on Facebook that have said some really crazy things and have bashed either side. It's just ludicrous.

Do I think that the right decision for the state of this country was made? No, I honestly don't believe that we would continue in the same path that we have been going when it hasn't gotten us far. However, the president is our president and bashing him as a person is not Christian or moral. And the same goes for Romney. Do I think he would have been the solution to all of our problems? No, but I think that we need a change in the White House and having someone who has been successful with his own money and could help with the 16+ TRILLION dollar debt wouldn't be a bad thing. However, either way, people that bash him as a person are just wrong. And to do it on FB? What in the world goes through people's head. Here is another thing that I simply do not understand, why their are so many people talking crap about Romney on his FB page. I mean they would have to had to go and 'like' his page solely for the purpose of trash talking. Really?? I'm sure it's the same thing on Obama's page but since I am not a supporter of his I have not 'liked' his page and cannot see it.

I do not need to get into all the reasons why I do not think America made the right decision last night, but I will say that I am a Christian mother of two boys. I have Christian beliefs that I feel would have been (MUCH) better aligned with Gov. Romney and I also feel like my children stood a better chance at not being in a socialist society when they grow older.

I fear for our country, but I also pray for this country. It has mountains to climb no matter who won so I pray that we can work together to make stuff happen and turn this country back into the best country in the world.

Friday, November 2, 2012

Oh Halloween!

Woohoo! It's over! Lol. Only kidding. My boys had a fantastic Halloween season. As I mentioned before I had a spiderman and a spider. I am going to totally over dose you on photos and since I'm on my iPad they will be in no particular order and can't have captions. Blogger should really fix that in their app. Any ways, the first set will be a few photos from the pumpkin patch! The boys always love love that. It's so sweet watching them pick out pumpkins and this year was extra fun bc we picked up almost 30 pumpkins! Which leads to more pictures that will be here. I'm Corbin's class mom and decided to decorate pumpkins with glitter and glue at his Halloween party. There are pictures of the decorating, eating cupcakes and reading books. May I just say I have no idea what his teacher's trick is but alllll 10 kids sat and listened to the book and sat in their chairs the whole time. I need to her hang out at my house a while for sure! And then the rest of the pictures of are from trick or treating. We had all 10 of the boys cousins here at the house for a little party and had a lot of fun visiting and walking around. Garrett leaked out of his diaper so he ended the night as a doctor instead of the spider. He and his cousin Sadie hung out in the wagon most of the night and Corbin participated in trick or treating. I was very pleasantly pleased in how well it went. He held my hand and would let go to walk up to the door, say trick or treat, and then get his candy and then said thank and came back to hold my hands and walk to the next house. It was a perfect night.

Hopefully all of that will give you an idea of what these pictures are all of!

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Hour by hour

I'm sure some of you could care less about the busyness of my week, so you can ignore this blog post. I simply need to write it so I can come back to it when my sweet husband wants to know what I do all day. At the start of this week, I was in the process of planning 6 parties, yes 6. All of which are in the next two months. So, my brain started as mush because I'm having a very hard time planning everything and remembering to do anything. So on top of a mushy brain, my days are packed by the hour of to dos.

Monday-
8:45- drop Corbin off at school
9:00 drop Garrett of at dad's
9:15-11:15- Newborn photography session
11:30- pick up Garrett
11:40-1:40 put him down for nap and edit pictures from said newborn session
2:00 pick Corbin up from school
2:15-3:30 park time
3:30-5:15 pumpkin carving party with friends
5:30- come home, feed kids and entertain them until 8:00 when dad gets home. Then it's bed time.

Tuesday-
8:45- drop Corbin off
9:00- store to pick up stuff for Halloween party
10:30- go to Corbin's school to do his Halloween party (you guessed it, this mom is room mom!)
12:00- come home and let Garrett nap
12:00-1:30- cook dinner for a sweet friend who just had a baby.
2:00- take dinner to said friend. Then go to Walmart for more Halloween supplies
2:30- OT for Corbin
3:30- playgroup Halloween party
5:00- drop Corbin off for a movie date with clynt.
Come home- cook, clean, feed Garrett, laundry, cook and clean some more.

Wednesday-
Wake boys up, give baths
9:30- head to tumbling
10:45- SAMs club for yet again more Halloween stuff
11:30- lunch with lots of friends at Gringos
1:00- home, nap time for boys. Cleaning time for me.

Depending on the time my boys wake up, we have a couple more things to do before we host Clynt's family's Halloween party tonight! Then the rest of the week is a little more calm.

For a stay at home mom, staying at home is on the bottom of the list.

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Mom's night out!

When I first became a stay at home mom, it was was far from entertaining. I've been in many moms groups since in order to meet other moms and kids for us to hang out with. It has been so much fun!

I have many moms that I can now call my friends. And many of them are people that I have so so much fun spending time with. It's like having co workers turned friends. You know, those people you see every day for a common interest and then you begin to become friends and go get lunch together and spend time together outside of work. That's what this is like. So last night, we all had sweet sweet husbands that hung out with our kiddos and out we went! What a fantastic night we had.

We went to a little burger place and sat there and immediately were talking about our children and how they would like this place. And then afterwards we headed to the new outlet mall in League City! Boy was it a fantastic night to be outside. It was stinking gorgeous! We all did a little shopping. I got some shirts at jcrew, a fantastic pair of grey boots, and some clothes for Corbin. (I know, it was a night out and I'm shopping for my kids.. Shame on me, but I couldn't resist!!). It was so much fun visiting and sharing and learning about each other without chasing kids around. Then we decided on coffee and walked into Starbucks, and while waiting in line decided that a drink at a sit down place would be much more enjoyable! So off to BJ's we went. I learned so much about the people that I see on a sometimes daily basis. One of the best parts is that we all have different views on politics, mothering styles, lifestyles and so much else but none of us judge anyone and we all love to hear about why and what others do (or at least I do!).

I feel so incredibly blessed to have met so many amazing people who have one main thing in common, WE LOVE OUR CHILDREN!! And I also feel so blessed to have a sweet husband who understands me needing a girls night out sometimes. I mean not to go clubbing or anything, but to enjoy time with other friends.

That will be a night I remember for a long time. Thank you ladies for always making times fantastic!!

Friday, October 26, 2012

Budget

It's is so hard to make a budget and live by it. We struggle so hard trying to make smart financial decisions. When I was a working mom, we really didn't have many fears in the world, but we did have debt. Credit cards, vehicles, medical bills and so on. Then we decided that being a working mom was not for me and so we started doing a financial peace study with our old small group. This study was very rewarding for us. We were able to become debt free within a few months and so I was able to quit my job and stay at home. However, then, we didn't make enough money to afford all of our bills and much fun. So it was all about our budget in order for us to make it happen as a one income family. I remember having to tell people that I couldn't go places because I had a gas budget and I really had to follow it. I am glad that we have been beyond blessed since then and things are not like that anymore. But still, even with a larger income, it's still important to budget and know what our money is going.

It's hard to not go buy everything that I want or a new car even though we probably can afford it. It hard to want to save vs spend. Spending seems so fun. Having shiny new things is fun. Dressing in the most stylish things is fun. Driving a new fancy car is fun. Unfortunately, if I have all of these things, then Im not saving all that money and one day will be disappointed. My children will need money when it's time for them to drive, go to college and move out of my house. Clynt and I will need money when we decide to retire, build our forever home, and so on. The now things are not going to do us any good in the future. But boy is it tempting!!

Even though income changes, it doesn't mean that expenses need to. This is what I'm trying to learn slowly and surely.

I'm so not writing this because I am good at saving, I'm writing what's on my mind and what I'm trying to teach myself! Budgeting is so important!

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Helping others

I posted a story from this morning on FB and within an hour had over 30 likes. The story was simply that I went to sonic this morning (like every morning). The person in the intercom told me to hold on a second. I held on for about 8 minutes and drove away. I thought that was weird and ridiculous. About 15 minutes later when I got to the galleria area to meet Clynt for lunch, there was a homeless man. Something just told me to give that man the $2 that i did not spend at sonic to the man for lunch. It was most definitely a God thing. He knew what the plan was when I was ignored at sonic!

Sometimes it is so hard to forgot about the fact that a lot of panhandlers are frauds and it is even more difficult to give away hard earned money to people that, we assume, aren't even trying. However, I often times have to remind myself that it is not for us to judge. We are just supposed to love like God loves us. Do we deserve everything Christ has done for us? Absolutely not!

John 15:12 ESV
“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you."

Helping people is not just about giving money to homeless people. It's about doing things just because for people. For friends, family, strangers and anyone. Helping is a lot of things. Just going out of your way for people. Cooking meals, praying for people, watching people's kids, going grocery shopping, taking someone out to eat, really ANYTHING that has you go out of you way to do something that someone else needs or even just wants.

Help people, love people, and treat people right. If we all did good for each other, wouldn't this world run a whole lot more smoothly?

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Tball

Watching 3-4 year olds play tball is one of the cutest things in the world.  Most of them have no idea what's going on and the majority of them have a really hard time making it through a full game (which is only 45 mins).  Most games are a tie bc they get the run rule every inning since no one ever gets outs.  Corbin's coach puts kids at different positions every inning so that they all can play and get the ball as much as others.  He is really good with them.  Corbin is in instructional tball so parents are on the field guiding the kids and it is not a competitive thing.  There are, however, outs.  No strike outs, but out if a team somehow is able to get an actual out on the field.  

Corbin is an average player and has a lot of fun.  He actually goes for the ball more than a lot of kids on his team but mainly bc he cannot sit still and getting the ball seems fun.  Even if he plays outfield he still runs up to try to get the ball the was only hit 2 feet off the tee.  It's cute.  He can hit the ball well (for a 3 year old), but other than that its just a lot of fun.  A few weeks ago, it was Corbin's turn to play pitcher.  He actually managed to get three outs in a row.  It was sooooo cute to watch.  Here is a video of him.  He is on the pitchers mound, and there is a guy on third running into home.   It's so fun to watch him learn things.  He looks like a pro. Lol.  Love that stinker.



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Clean

Does anyone else haveintense anxiety when everything is dirty? I would not by any stretch consider myself the cleanest person around, however when my house and car are dirty I feel like my life is in shambles! I have little kids so the reality is that there will be toys thrown across the floor in every direction, and there are often time Cheerios in corners and my car has snacks and toys everywhere. My friends and I talk often about how before we had kids, we swore that would never be the case. Ha!

But, even though these things happen often, it still makes me cringe! When I see milk spots on my cabinets, I want to cry. When I see dirt all over my baseboards, I want to curl up in a ball, and when I see Cheerios stopped on in my car, I just want to go buy a new one and never see this one again. However, obviously none of that will do me any good. So I clean, clean, and clean some more. With two kids running behind me continuing to make a mess, sometimes the deep stuff just doesn't have time to get done. So I am blessed enough to have a husband who understands (and quite honestly can't stand any kind of mess), so he lets me have a once a month cleaning lady. She is able to do the stuff that I simply cannot get to on a daily or weekly basis. This very much helps in the anxiety so that my baseboards, bathrooms, cabinets and stairs stay clean.

However it is only once a month, and I the mean time, it takes a toll on me to keep the house how Clynt an I like it. It's not just about Having a clean house it's about the fact that we are both just more happy and relaxed when things stay done. So, I clean (or pick up) stuff a lot. I'm also quick to throw stuff away when it isn't used in a while so that we don't have stuff collect. If we don't collect stuff there is less stuff to clean. Which helps a lot! Another thing I try to do to keep stuff easy is that I pick up several times a day in order to keep from having a huge mess at any one point.

Do you have tips for keeping things easy to clean??

Monday, October 22, 2012

Busy Busy Weekend

This weekend was very very busy.  But the boys and I all had a great time.  Friday night we had dinner with great friends at Santa Barbaras French Bistro which is one of my favorite places.  Then Saturday morning Clynt had to work.  We love Clynt's job, but he seems to be very good at what he does and therefore gets asked to do a lot of things.  Meaning, he needs to be there more than we'd like him to be.  So this Saturday was one of the Saturdays that he needed to work.  However when he is working, the boys and I actually go do things instead of sitting around lazy on Saturday morning, which is good.  So we mossyed over to my sister's house to hang out a while, and then headed to the carnival at my brother's school, which is where Corbin got to play in one of those big hamster ball things..
You should have seen my wild boy in this thing.  Instead of running in it the whole time like all the other kids (who, mind you are at least 3 years older than corbin), he decided to get in a flip position and seriosly flip the entire time.  He would flip, bang, bang, flip, bang , bang, well, you get the point.  All the kids watching were ooing and ahing over corbin's mad flipping skills and all the parents watching were going "I dont believe that kid isnt freaking out", and was he... NO!  That boy has no fear.  Clynt thinks he will drive Nascar, Id like to believe he'd just play football or something. but he had a blast and it was so fun to watch.

Then we went home and the boys napped (or Garrett did, or Corbin pretended to), and Clynt was home so He and I put together the boys new trampoline.  Corbin starred out his window watching in excitement.  So when it was done we let him out to jump.  The kid had a BLAST for HOURS.. Though, in his attempts to make everything more adventurous  he jumps and reaches to the top of the net and brings his legs up to hang upside down from the top.  We obviously are trying to keep him from doing this so that the net doesnt get destroyed too fast.  

Both boys are loving their new toy though and that's great news for us=)

Saturday night we went out to eat with my sister, bro in law, and a friend and then headed to our church to watch Barnes and Minor.  Its a husbadn and wife comedy team, and they were absolutely hilarious!!! Im pretty sure that I havent laughed that much in years.  Fantastic night!!  And the boys were in the same building hanging out with a babysitter.  It could not have been better!

Sunday, meaning TEXANS GAME!!   
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Our best friends got tickets a while back for the game yesterday.  We were both very excited to go to an NFL game.  Ive been to several but Clynt had only been to one other, so it was very exciting.  And it was a great game to be at!!  We had a great time there!  But we were definitively exhausted when we got home.

Even though we were pooped after the game, my sister had invited us over for dinner, so off to league city we went.  So calculating the eatting out of the weekend, I DIDNT COOK AT ALL!!!  Thats a miracle around here, so it definitely deserves to be noted.  =)

Anyways it was another great night, and great weekend!  Thanks to everyone around us for always allow us to have fun!!


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Saturday, October 20, 2012

Jumping away!

At tumbling, jumping is one of Corbin's favorite things to do, and it really helps wear off some of that energy that he has oh so very much of. He loves jumping and to be quite honest (and without going into it too much) he NEEDS to spend time each day jumping, among other things. Clynt and I both agree that large trampolines are dangerous and the amount of people that breaks things on trampolines is crazy. So we decided to buy a smaller version of a large trampoline. It is only about 18 inches off the ground and really can only hold 2-3 kids inside it and the netting around it is very secure also.

It says it is for ages 3-10 so I think it will last a while. I know Corbin is going to love it, so I'm excited for it to be put together today for him to juMp on. Garrett, I'm sure, will get lots of use out of this thing and now that its fall we hope to get lots of outdoor time.

Although, (on a side not) we are considering getting rid of the pool table in our game room and turning that space into a big kids gym (maybe rock wall, trapeze bar, trampoline, etc). It's just a fun thought we are throwing around bc that space is huge and we don't use the pool table at all so if we take it out, we want to fill the space with lots of fun stuff for the boys to do (and with no electronics, for now!). There will be a time for a pool table and videos game but for now lots of opportunities to exercise and wear off energy seems like such a better idea!

Anyways here is a picture of our news outdoor toy! :).

Friday, October 19, 2012

Halloween fun!

I'm sure in the next two weeks you will see several posts on Halloween things. I am lead class mom for Corbin's class and have to plan their party, with the help of a couple other mommas in the class. I'm sure you will see a blog about how that goes and then of course a blog about the actual holiday.

But today it's about playgroup!! I hosted a craft party today for a Gould of our friends. We made these little glow balls that were made from a ping pong ball and a battery operated tea light. I thought it would be a simple thing to make but turns out clynt had to use his drill gun to drill the holes in the bottoms of the ping pong balls. I'm so thankful clynt loves me and my wacky need to have so much fun with our guys. Every time I host a party for Corbin's friends, he sits up the night before and helps me get everything together. He LOVES that our boys get to enjoy all these things, and I LOVe that he loves it! :)

Any ways, there is a picture of Clynt's ball below. They all turned out so cute! Corbin even slept with the one clynt made last night. Clynt made his an eyeball. I did a ghost, and other moms made Frankenstein, a bat, and other faces. So cute.

We also had a stamp area with Halloween stamps for the kiddos to have something to do on their own. And of course lots and lots of toys!!

And then the snacks!! Everyone knows I love to cook and maybe cool things is so much fun to be. Yet again clynt helped with making the faces on the pudding cups. Here are pictures of everything I made.


I have so so much fun with all my momma friends and Corbin and Garrett love all their friends so much too. So it was a great morning :)