And the hits keep coming...

Peyton comes up to me in all seriousness this afternoon with a burning question. "Mom, when I grow up and play baseball for the cubs, can I use this bat?"

"It HAS the cubbies on it!"

The things kids say

So Peyton has a new owie on his pinkie, actually quite a big chunk of skin has been removed. Anyway, while doing a little first aid today Ronni asked Peyton why he was having a bandaid if there wasn't any blood anymore. I told her because it would help the skin heal faster. So she asked Peyton how long he would be wearing the bandaid and he said, "till summer" She apparently didn't think this was out of line at all and was satisfied with his answer. As soon as I got the bandaid on though, Peyton said, "I feel so bad for myself, Ronni do you feel bad for me?" R- "Yes, Peyton, I should have prayed for you and your pinkie at church, I would have said, please make peyton's finger better, we pray to the Lord, Lord Hear our Prayer!"

Wow, all the while I was thinking, do I put this on facebook or actually blog because I knew it was shareworthy!

The things kids pick up

As you may have heard, we are in another biggest loser competition. It is really great to see the changes it has made for our family. Forget the weight loss, I think it is great that my kids asked if McDonald's is healthy, to which I answered no, and then a week later when we ate at McDonald's they asked why we were eating there if it wasn't healthy. Also, I love that they ask all the time if this food or that food is healthy. However, what I heard today takes the cake. Ronni was talking on a pretend phone and said, "15 calories? You have to be kidding me!"
Here is a Peyton nugget- As we were leaving my parents house the other day Peyton almost fell down the stairs. My mom asked if he was okay and he said "Yeah, my guardian angel catched me".

A Sensitive Heart

No I am not talking about myself. Veronica has such a kind heart and apparently a sensitive one too. Today we were watching a movie and when it became apparent that the main character was sacrificing himself to save the world, we heard this odd noise. It was Veronica weeping, full fledged sobbing. Words can not express the way my heart felt when I heard her crying because she was sad that someone (an animated figure, no less) was getting hurt, I just wanted to reach out to her and try to make everything better for her. Thankfully Daddy jumped right up and cuddled her and we found out within a minute or two that he indeed lived! But for those few minutes, our little girl was heartbroken... so was I.

All I can think of now is being careful to guard her heart so as to not lose that sensitive nature that makes her so special. She can only watch so many movies with this kind of thing in it before she is desensitized. I look forward to Veronica growing up and seeing what kind of person she becomes, I pray she takes this compassion and love for others (animated or real) and does something great, I am sure she will!

I did it!

I was trying to go a whole month without blogging, and it is safe to say, I did it. It is also safe to say, it wasn't hard and I wasn't trying! Without even blinking February went by and now here we are in March. I have plans of doing a better job blogging, but then, I have said that before.

The problem wasn't that there wasn't anything to say, there was a lot going on in February. A very special little boy turned 4, we went to a hotel to celebrate. We were running this way or that way the entire month, which, for the month of February is good. Normally this is the month where I am most affected by the winter doldrums, that hasn't been the case this year, despite record amounts of snow fall and cold and days below 40 and days without the sunshine...

So here we are in March and things are going well. I have a few things I can update you with for the kids, pictures to come later.

Veronica, last week she had a couple of blog worthy moments. The first, we got a lot of candy from Tim's work and there are two types of suckers, blow pops with a gum center and tootsie pops with a chocolate center. I asked her if she wanted the tootsie pop and she said, "No thanks, I will have the other one because I am fast forwarding from chocolate." I was very impressed that she remembered that she wanted to fast from chocolate during lent, the second day of suckers in the house didn't fare as well! :) Also, she was holding Felicity and exclaimed. "Wow, you are a lot heavier than last week!"

Peyton turned four on February 17th, Ash Wednesday, so we celebrated his birthday early. Thanks to my sister in law, Sarah, I found a great deal on priceline for a hotel, we went and had a marvelous time. It was nice to have something to break up the monotony of winter. I think it may be a yearly tradition for our family. Peyton has all kinds of Peyton-isms, his most recent, 'that is rediculous". And he says it in the most matter of fact way, that is impossible not to laugh. He also says, that is weird- all the time, I am afraid he offended someone at our church because he called him weird, really the guy was very funny and the kids all loved him but "You are weird", didn't quite convey that message. We have since tried to curb the "weird" statements.

Felicity, OH BUG! She is crazy right now. I think she is teething four teeth and is just having a terrible time. Just ask my mom, dad, grandma, my aunt Diane, my cousin Kimmy or any other poor soul that had to be around her these past few days! She just is having a rough time. I don't ever remember this with my other children, but they all have teeth, so either I got really lucky or it is a passing thing that I will forget someday!

As for Tim and I we are great. You can count us among the millions of people that would say that the Biggest Loser (the TV show) has changed our lives. We are in a new and improved weight loss competition with 14 other people, and both of us are really changing our lives. We both get in about 3 hours of exercise each week and are really trying to watch what we eat. So far since the week before the competition, I have lost 28 lbs and tim has lost nearly 15 (over 25 pounds since our first biggest loser competition last year!). Tim is back into the pant size he wore in college (wish we wouldn't have gotten rid of those clothes!) and I am in a size I have NEVER worn before, not even in high school. We both feel so much better and I am hoping for a really active spring/summer!

9 Years on the 19th

Today should be a good day, my mother turns the ripe old age of... yeah right like I am actually going to publish that on the blogosphere! But it is her birthday and that is exciting.

Also, 9 years ago today was the first day Tim and I started dating, and 8 years ago today he proposed. It has been a wild ride at times, but wonderful. Tim is a great man, and I am a lucky (read that blessed) woman! Thank you Tim for the past nine years I look forward to 90 more, er... who knows? I guess I will take what I can get and be thankful!

Laundry Day

So today was spent watching movies (2 and still counting!) and doing laundry (5 and still counting), doing school and spending way too much time on facebook. It was an absolutely awesome day! The kids were wonderful, waking up after 8:30 (which always helps) and rarely argued. It is days like these that makes me think that winter isn't so bad... we will see how long that lasts! Anyway, I was very surprised that I could do school and laundry in the same day. I am very happy that worked out though because we take fridays off every week and I would not like to spend my day off every week doing laundry! Oh yeah, and it is pajama day! It doesn't get much better than this!

One sad bit of news I found out while on facebook a girl that went to my highschool's baby has passed away. What a tragedy and I wanted to offer up my prayers for her and her family! As well as all of the people suffering because of the earthquake in Haiti.

"Write your sorrows in the sand and your blessings in stone!"

I love...

That my children chose to eat Raisin Bran and Smart Start for breakfast this morning.
That Felicity can use a spoon to eat Rice Krispies from a bowl!
That Ronni loves math.
The movie Ever After.
The picture Ronni drew me of a scene from Ever After.
That my children love the movie the Sound of Music as much as I do.
The scene from sound of music where Leesel and Rolph are dancing in the Gazebo.
The fact that I ate pizza for lunch and didn't have to dip it in ranch!
That my children ate pizza for lunch and didn't even ask for ranch!
That Felicity carried her plate and fork to the dishwasher and put both in the proper spot and then pushed the bottome shelf in and then closed the door!
That my children sat and listened to the Little House on the Prarie.
That Ronni said she was going to love this book because there were Indians in it.
That Peyton can talk on the phone with Daddy and make some sort of sense.
That Peyton giggles and says things are wierd all the time.
That I get a nice break in the middle of the day where I can do what I want to do!
Everything about this day.
It has just been, since this morning when the children woke up, a delightful day. School went very smoothly and the kids (for the most part) have played very nicely together. This is quite a difference from a week ago and for that I am truly thankful!

Goals for 2010!

Financial:
1. Emergency fund of $1000.
We recently have found the magic of Dave Ramsey, and his Financial Peace University. We haven't taken the class, maybe that would have motivated us a bit more, but we are happy with the way things have gone thus far. We have payed off both of our cars and have no credit card debt. Now we we need to build up an emergency fund and then make sure we don't tap into it unless it is an ACTUAL emergency!
2. Pay off Genny’s two smaller school loans.
FYI- school loans are debt!! Ours seem like such a mountain to climb that up until a few months ago I didn't even want to try. But we are breaking them up into smaller amounts and hopefully after a while we will be able to see actual progress. Baby steps up a mountain...
3. Save for special events; Kaela’s wedding, Colorado trip, cash only.
This is a big one for us because we never really paid much attention to Dave Ramsey's rule about cash only, we have put things on interest free credit cards and paid them off as soon as we could, tv, snowblower to name a few recent things. We never really saw it as a big deal until now. We know we have some pricey things we want to do in 2010 and for once we are going to try to do it without accruing any debt. I am sure we will spend our cash on hand more wisely with the idea that we can't do things we want to do if we don't have the money to do it. What a concept!
4. Start saving for a 20% down payment on future house by paying extra money to our current home loan.
Ever since we had Veronica's fifth birthday party in our house it has been clear to us that this house doesn't meet all of our wants. It fits our needs ok, but we like to throw parties and I like to be able to send the kids to a play room when they have friends over or I just need a break. Our home will work for us for now while we really try to pay off some school loans and save for a big down payment, but this is definitely a goal I would like to work toward more seriously.

House:
1. Finish all misc projects, before any new projects can start.
2. New shelving units in the basement.
If we are going to live here for any extended amount of time we need to have a place to put things. My new motto, a place for everything and everything in it's place! It has worked pretty well in our new bedroom but the stockpile of coupon items seems to be taking over the basement- we need to do something to manage this better!
3. Move Veronica and Felicity into same room and Peyton into his own.
4. New Shelves in closets.
The kids are starting to really grow into their own interests. Some of them are (like momma and daddy) board games and computer games, and we just need a place to put them all!
5. Seriously consider insulation in attic and back room.
The other night after a shower in the freezing cold basement, I went into our bedroom and the temp said 45 degrees, that is just too COLD! This goal needs to be moved to the top of the list!

Personal
1. Eat healthier meals
During our first biggest loser competition (we are currently in our second- and hopefully the message will resonate a bit better and this will be our last) my sister and her husband and our family would get together for Healthy Mondays! This really helped get our week started out on the right foot and we really enjoyed this time together. My husband got me a Biggest Loser cookbook for Christmas so hopefully we can start this tradition again and I won't have to search nearly as much for some healthy recipes!
2. Start a regular exercise routine, time to tone!
It doesn't do a person much good to lose weight if they are still really flabby and aren't seeing much difference in their waistline. I really hope to rectify this in the coming months!
3. Swim in a triathlon.
My cousin and I are talking about teaming up with another friend and doing a team triathalon, where one persona rides the bike one person swims and the other person runs. I think this would be a lot of fun and a good way to acheive some goals- such as becoming a more fit person!

Familial:
1. Family Date nights!!!
We have done this a few times and each time we do we enjoy it. I don't know why we don't do it more often, probably just laziness and a lack of a routine. If I were to really rate my goals, this would be number two, right below the part where I talk about not freezing to death in my room at night!
2. Home school 4 days a week.
We have started this already and so far so good.
3. More family prayer time.
I have a plan to incorporate this more into our daily life. It seems to me the things that are best for us are the things we are most willing to brush aside. I know God's promises, and I believe them, still it is hard to give up what I want to do for what HE wants me to do, even though in my heart I know I will be better off!


My friend published goals of hers last year and then did an update midyear. I was amazed to see all she accomplished with the passing of (not very much) time! This blog post isn't really for any of my faithful readers (do I still have faithful readers after two posts in the last six months?) it is for me, something where I can see what I have said is a goal and then in a couple of months come back with an update and (hopefully) see tangible results!