Life as I know it.

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas, ours was really nice. During the day on Christmas Eve, we got a few things done around the house and got my moms car unburied from all the snow. She hadn't touched it since it started snowing a week and a half ago. So Blue plowed out the alley way, including the 3 1/2' berm at the end of the alley. Then we hooked the car up to the 4 wheeler and after a few initial mishaps we got it pulled out and took it around to the front of the garage and put the chains on it. For Christmas eve we went to the early service at my church, it was very snowy out so all 5 of us rode in the truck (my mom, uncle, Blue, Bug and I), it was pretty hairy but we got there OK. Then we came home and cooked up the pizza and after dinner we opened our stockings. Bug got a bunch of books a new Wii game and a Leapster game and some movies, Blue got some movies, his annual new wallet, some little gadgets for skiing and a new Wii game and I got 2 new CD's, 2 new Wii gam...

Today I am thankful for the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. What a strange way to save the world. To send a baby to rescue us from our sins. I am so thankful that God cared about us enough to try. "For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that who so ever shall believe in him shall not perish but will have everlasting life". John 3:16

Merry Christmas Eve to all my friends and family who keep up with our life via this blog (or on Facebook). Today I am thankful to all of you who care enough to check out what we are up to, through the business of our lives. So I hope Santa brings you your hearts desire tonight and wraps it up in a pretty bow for you all. In our home we open our stockings on Christmas Eve and my Santa Blue was very nice to me, he got me 2 CD's (Pink and Lifehouse), 2 gift certificates for Starbucks and 1 for Borders, and 2 Wii games (Winter sports and and a fitness one with Julianne Michaels) and a really nice coffee cup. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

Today I am thankful for something kind of silly, it is modern conveniences. I don't mean like stoves and dishwashers, I mean the modern conveniences of my generation. Computers and cell phones mainly. I love to get on the computer and check my email or chat with friends, or even getting on here and dish the latest gossip, pour out my heart, or just chronicle the daily minutia of our life. I also could no longer imagine my life without my cell phone. My newest phone is a Blackberry Pearl, so I can keep my entire schedule on it, plus check my email where ever I am. It's hard to believe that before I met my hubby I had never been on a computer or the Internet or owned a cell phone. A cell phone was the 1st thing he ever gave me (probably just to keep tabs on me, I was a pretty much a wild child when we 1st started dating). So thank you Blue for introducing me to my 2 best friends, the cell phone and the Internet.

My poor little Bug, as I mentioned in an earlier post Bug was diagnosed with strep throat last Monday and got his 1st ever Rx for antibiotics. Well today when he and his buddy were getting dressed (he had his best friend E over for a sleepover) he kept saying he was itchy, but I didn't think that much of it. Later on he was still scratching his leg complaining about his mosquito bites, and I just figure he must have gotten a spider bite. So then we headed out to see the Tale of Despereaux and as he was getting out of the car I went to help him put on his jacket and noticed spots all over his neck. Come to find out the reason he was so itchy was he had some sort of rash everywhere. So I went over to Rite Aid to see what the pharmacist had to say and he said a possible allergic reaction to his meds. So I called the Dr and they said to give him Benadryl and bring him in after the movie and watch him for breathing issues in the meantime. So after the movie we headed over to the local u...

Today I am thankful for our friends Mike and Cheryl and their boys E & G. Mike and I went to high school together and have been friends ever since. We got married a few months apart in 2001. Bug and E are about 10 weeks apart in age, when Mike and Cheryl got pregnant with their 1st boy, Blue and I were debating about kids and decided to go for it. So Bug and E have been best friends basically since birth. When they bought property over here, we were looking to move this way. The 1st winter they owned their property they weren't ready to move over yet, so we rented it from them for 6 months until they moved over. They were our family around here until my mom moved over. They take our Bug when we need the help and we take their boys for them when they need it. Bug loves to have his buddy E over for sleepovers, but it can be hard with both of their schedules to plan one, especially now that E is in school. So with winter break we are having him over tonight. The boys have been pl...

Today I am thankful for being able to home school my son. Although it can be very frustrating, I truly love the fact that I can home school Bug. I appreciate that they have not taken this basic right away from us as parents. I love watching my son learn new things, seeing that Aha moment is just incredible. It is nice that I have a real working knowledge of what my son knows. What he is good at and what he is struggling with. I don't have to wait for parent teacher conferences, or anybody else to tell me how my boy is doing. I love choosing what to teach him, and what subjects we want to work on each day. Some days we do a well rounded curriculum and other days we concentrate on one subject. We can get started 1st thing in the morning and be done by lunch, or go do something fun in the morning and work in the afternoon. I love that flexibility. It is one of the great loves of my life to home school my son.

Today I am thankful for wrapped gifts. I don't mean the actual gifts, just the wrappings they come in. I am thankful for 2 reasons, the 1st is that I am done wrapping my gifts, which is always such a load off my mind. Usually I have them all wrapped and under the tree around the 1st of the month. But this year I kept procrastinating, which just stressed me out. I kept feeling like I needed to do more shopping and that I hadn't gotten enough gifts for everyone. SO then I would go shopping and then remember gifts that I already had at home. So now that I have everything wrapped, I can see that I have enough gifts and that surprise, surprise, I have over bought for Bug again. Oh well isn't that why they have Valentines right after Christmas, if gives you an excuse to give them all the extra gifts. Secondly I am thankful for all the wonderful wrapping papers, boxes and bags that they have these days. I am not very artistic about wrapping gifts, not big into bows and ribbons. Bu...

Today I am thankful for snow and the ability to stay home in it. Here is a pic of the snow, (see how it is up to the belly of the snow bear). It started snowing around here yesterday and just never seemed to stop. We got around 22 inches in about 15 hours. I love snow, nothing makes it feel more like winter and Christmas to me. From the looks of it we should have no problem having a White Christmas. I didn't have any clients today and Blue didn't work until around 1:00 so we all spent the morning enjoying and shoveling the snow. Blue got a new ATV this fall and bought a plow for the front of it, so he has been out plowing away at all this snow. The only down side so far is we are quickly running out of places to push the snow to. This big lump is my car completely buried in snow. Here is Bug helping to dig out my car, see I told you there was a car under all that snow :0) Here is Bug trying to find the front walk to shovel it. Here's what happens when you sit down, we alm...

Today I am thankful for traditions. We moved around a lot when I was growing up, but no matter how many places we lived in my mom was good at always keeping up traditions. I suppose this time of year more than any other makes us think of traditions. Some of the traditions we had when I was growing up were: goodies at Xmas (see day 16), especially sugar cookies that my mom would individually decorate, we would read "Jest for Christmas I'm as good as I can be." We would go out for Chinese food for New Year's eve, we would always go see the fireworks show where ever we were. My mom always made us homemade birthday cakes that she decorated to go with our theme and for everything there were pictures, pictures and more pictures. I hope my son will look back from his adulthood and remember all the traditions that make our lives special. Like stockings on Christmas eve, and Christmas brunch, pictures every year for his birthday, going to Seattle for Halloween every year and I...

Today I am thankful for Christmas goodies. I signed up to do 2 different cookie exchanges, the 1st was tonight and the 2nd one is in the morning. I decided to make rocky road, since it is fairly easy and no one else is making it, also it is my husband's favorite goodie. I needed to make about 72 pieces for each exchange, so I ended up making 5 batches of it. Tonight there were 10 of us at the exchange and 2 others who had dropped stuff off. It was nice spending time visiting with friends and snacking away, also my friend Laurie makes the best St Nick's (even though a few others thought they were to strong, mine was fabulous). I ended up getting 11 new goodies to take home. I can't wait till tomorrow to see what else I get. Some of my fondest memories of Christmas's when I was little revolve around the goodies, (including the year I got banned from the goodies 3 days before Christmas). It is nice to have such a variety of goodies without going through the hassle of makin...

Today I am thankful for Western Medicine. If you know me at all you know I am not a big user of western medicine. Our family's primary Dr. is a Chiropractor, we all get adjustment and take supplements and Bug and I rarely take medicine. Anyways after my massage & adjustment today I was just getting into my car when I got a call from the school saying Bug was sick with a fever and a headache and needed to be picked up. When I got there he was obviously sick and started crying as soon as he saw me. So I asked him if he wanted to go to a medical Dr. or go see Dr. Bond (our Chiropractor), he said a medical Dr. So we headed off to our local urgent care clinic, on the way he started telling me his neck hurt when he swallowed, so I had a pretty good guess of what they would decide. We got there and they took his temp and did the throat swab and put us in a room. Where he proceeded to lay on the table with a blanket on and a cold towel on his head. The Dr. came in and confirmed what I ...

Today I am thankful for my nice warm home and my family inside it (for now). It has been in the single digits most of today, very icy and cold out, no new snow. So I am very thankful for the fact that we are able to own our own home (us and the bank, that it). With the hard financial times that people are going through right now, it is nice to be warm and snug in our own home, not worrying about where the next mortgage payment will be coming from. Shortly Bug and I will headed out in to the cold to be townspeople of Bethlehem for our church's Living Nativity and my hubby will be heading to the fire dept for his shift. So for this moment I am really appreciating the warmth of our own home.

Today I am thankful for Christmas Carols. Today Bug and his cub scout troop went caroling at a local nursing home. It was fun to see all the boys caroling and handing out ornaments to the residents. Some of the residents seemed to really enjoy it, but many others did not even know we were there. Hopefully we brought some holiday cheer at least a few. So thanks for Christmas carols and the fact that small children can learn them and use them to bring joy to others.

I am thankful today for the four seasons. That is actually part of the reason we moved to this area, is that is has 4 distinct seasons. We used to live is the Seattle area where the seasons are: foggy & rainy, warm and cloudy, or warmer and less clody, with lots of drizzle thrown in for good measure throughout the year. Here we have nice warm & wet Springs, hot & sunny Summers, cool & nice Falls and here we are in the cold & snowy Winters. We are supposed to be having a winter storm coming in this weekend with tempatures in the single digit and below. So it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas......

Today I am thankful for my mother. As many of you know my mother lives with us. I know for many that would be a recipe for disaster, but I couldn't imagine my life any other way. She is always there for us when we need her. Picking Bug up from the babysitter, watching him for us, helping with his schooling, taking him to do fun things or just participating and helping him with all the creative ideas in his head. Last night is a perfect example of why I appreciate her so much. Blue was supposed to bring Bug to church to meet me last night before he headed out to a movie with his friends. At the last minute he called me to say that I could just come pick Bug up from the restaurant where they were eating dinner. Well I was barely going to make it to the church on time as it was and there was no way I could pick up Bug at this restaurant without being 20 min late. So I told him he would just have to keep Bug with him and miss the movie. Instead Blue went home and there was grandma perf...

Today I am thankful for owning my own business and for my faithful clients. I enjoy living a hectic lifestyle, I really dislike sameness, scheduling and regularity. I think this is the nicest thing about owning my own business is that to a large degree I can set my work schedule around the other things that I am doing in my life. Like tonight I need to be at my church at 6:45 so I will be leaving work at 6:25, when normally I work until 7 or 8 :30. If I want to take a trip or days off I can. On the flip side of all that, I am so thankful for my wonderful and faithful clients. Without them I would not be able to pursue all the wonderful opportunities in my life. Not only do they allow me to make the money that I need to make in my life, but they also work with me on the schedule and accommodate their lives around times that I am unable to be there. In exchange I try to do the same for them. So thank you, thank you, thank you to all my fabulous clients out there for not only letting me t...

Today I am thankful for beautiful music and how it can touch your heart. We are watching a special on Alan Jackson today and I just love his song "Remember When." It gives me goose bumps and reminds me of all the beautiful songs out there and how hearing a certain song can take you back to a certain time or place in your life.

Today I am thankful for photographs. If you have ever been to my house you know we have pictures of our family and friends everywhere. I love pictures. I was just going through some of the older ones on my computer looking for one in particular. I think there is nothing else that shows how fast time is flying then looking at pictures of your not so little ones when they really were little. I have lots of pics of Bug with his friends or cousins and it is hard to believe they were ever that little and with such angelic little faces. Pictures are my own personal time machine. I could spend hours just looking back in time and remembering. Of course the present always comes in (usually with a "hi mom"), to bring me back to today. But it also puts today in a pretty good light knowing that one day I will be looking back on today's pictures with fondness.

Today I am thankful for my church's Pastor (Terry). I am a fairly new Christian and a lot of what the bible says is either confusing or very contradictory sounding to me. He always does a fabulous job of making it all make sense. He does his sermons by choosing a book and going through it very slowly. Sometimes just one or two verses at a time. By the time he is done, I always feel like I really get it. So I am thankful to God for putting this man in my life who helps me to really get what He is trying to tell me.

Today I am thankful for fun activities to do. Today we went on a Santa cruise, with some of the families in my MOMS club. It was very cute, you get on a boat and they take you out to the "north pole" a little island with Santa's workshop and lots of lights. Then Santa comes out and says Hi and calls out all the kids names that are on the boat. Bug totally didn't understand the whole point of it but he had a good time hanging out with his buddies. I love taking Bug to do new activities, you never know what his reaction will be.

Today I am thankful for other people's perspectives. I have truly learned in the last few years that life is about perspectives. There is no one way to do things or look at things or even to remember things. Everybody looks at life through their own perspective and the way 2 people look at or remember the same situation can be so totally different. Anyways yesterday I hosted a potluck lunch at my house for my MOMS club, 4 woman and their kids showed up and we had a blast. We started talking about giving "the talk" to our kids, sex, marriage, relationships. What age you should start and how different things are from when we grew up. My friend Kayla-Sue gave some examples of how she talks to her sons about sex and marriage and I thought they were wonderful. It was very moralistic, without being at all preachy or even religious. I just thought that was such a neat perspective to have when talking to your kids. So thank you to all the wonderful people in my life that are wil...

Today I am thankful for my son's inquisitive mind and willingness to ask questions. Recently they had a Mork and Mindy marathon on TV, so we recorded it and Bug and I have been watching them together. Well the 1st season was very innocent, with lots of prat falls and plays on words. The one we watched yesterday was a little more mature. it was about a woman who thinks Mork is rich and sets out to seduce him to get his money. Of course Mork is totally oblivious to the advances she is trying to make on him and there is a whole scene of her coming on to him and him totally not getting it. This was filmed in front of a live studio audience so there are laughs all around. Bug was kind of laughing along and then he turned to me and said "why is this supposed to be funny." Anyways I just briefly explained that she wanted him to be her boyfriend and Mork totally did not understand that. But what struck me most was that he was willing to admit right then and there that he didn...

Today I am thankful for my husband Blue, he can be such a wonderful husband and father and I know I don't appreciate him nearly enough. Last night he took Bug and I out to dinner and a movie, we went and saw Bolt which was such a thrill for Bug. We don't usually see a lot of kids movies in the Theatre since I am pretty picky about what he can see. But Blue came home last week and suggested taking him figuring he would really enjoy it. He does lots of subtle little thoughtful things for us, which generally pass right over my head since I have the subtly of a drag queen. He tends to notice the little things that I just overlook, our son is very emotional and although I know that frustrates Blue sometimes I also know that Bug gets that from him. Along with the emotions comes a sweetness and thoughtfulness that could have only come from Blue. So thank you Blue for all the little and big things you do. I love you.

Today I am thankful for Holiday decorations. I love decorating my house at this time of year. All my decorations are bear themed and most of them have some special meaning to me. With the size of our house and tree I had to cut back somewhat on decorating. So it was fun to go through all of my boxes (12 large bins in all) and decide what to put out. My tree looks ready to fall over and has way too many ornaments on it but I love them all and had to have them on. I actually now have enough ornaments to decorate 2 trees, so some day when we move to a bigger house I will have to make sure it has room for 2 trees in it. Also alot of my decorations were gifts or items i picked up on my various travels, so it is extra fun to look at each one and remember the person or place that it came from, they are almost better than pictures.

I have seen this on a couple of the other blogs that I read and I thought the month of December leading up to Jesus's Birthday would be a great time to do it. Today I am thankful for all my friends and family, we had Thanksgiving here at our home and it was such a blessing to have so many people here warming our home and celebrating the holiday with us. We ended up with 14 in all with both a mix of my family, Blue's family and our friends. The food was good and the company was even better.