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.