So...of the things I'm known for, being anything like Martha Stewart is not one of them. It is a given in our family that I'm not real gifted in the home-making arena. Thank God my husband loves me anyway. Give me a large event with speakers, attendees, and activities to organize, I'm your woman. Give me a house and a kitchen to take care of...well...not so much.
But, it is my hearts desire to grow some in this area. I doubt I will ever be "that mom" that has all the perfect gifts bought and cookies baked and the decorations up for Christmas...but I do want to create a wonderful environment for my family to enjoy during the holidays...and all year round actually. And so, I have been picking certain very meaningful things that are important to our family and trying to learn how to do them.
Recently, I have had a few things turn out pretty good...and considering the track record of the woman who is attempting these activities...well...the mere fact that the house is still standing is reason for celebration.
I have the Christmas tree up and decorated.... ...I made a batch of Doug's favorite cookies.... ....and I learned how to make Gluten Free Coconut Cream Pie from Dolly McLallen! (This is a picture of my first solo attempt. I made that pie Christmas Eve...and I was VERY proud of it!) I recently announced to Doug that I am a domestic goddess. :) He laughed. But at this moment, I feel like one...because even if this may not seem like a lot to you, for me this is pretty doggone amazing!
This is another entry that is more for my kids than for you blog readers, so sorry. :)
Doug is just the most fantastic man...I know I say that a lot, but I mean it. :) I just couldn't be more grateful to be married to such a wonderful man. And he makes me laugh ALL THE TIME. I love that. If I were to think of the one overriding emotion that I have experienced since being married to him, it would be joy. Happiness, laughter, good stories, good friends, good kids, good church, good life...it all revolves around joy. Even in the midst of really bad yucky stuff, that man makes me laugh. And then it all seems manageable again.
About 3 1/2 years ago, we got cell phones with cameras for the first time. I was pregnant with Danika, and I received this text/picture message from my husband:
Subject: The father of your child Sound clip: (Doug's voice, dripping with schmooze) "You are the LUCKIEST woman in the world!" Photo: I about fell off my chair at work laughing. I love that man. :)
Here are a few more flattering and recent pictures of that fantastic father of my children. :)
There is a little town about an hour from Erie called Franklin, PA...and we LOVE to go there. It is a beautiful little place and holds fantastic little festivals and events. Doug and I both like going there because we get the hour ride in the car to talk and catch up, and the events are "small-town" fun that we both enjoy. The events there are always creative and well-planned enough for my enjoyment, and yet small and un-crowded enough for Doug's enjoyment.
The year I was hugely pregnant with Danika and just WAITING for her to finally show up, we decided to attend the Christmas parade in Franklin for the very first time. We had so much fun that we decided to make it a yearly tradition. So, this year we invited my parents to come out and go with us.
What a FANTASTIC fun event that parade is! The unique thing about this parade is that it starts after dark. That is super fun because every float is decorated in tons of christmas lights and all lit up. The parade is long and well-attended, and all the entries are great. And when the parade ends, the parade route closes in on itself and everyone walks down to the town square next to the courthouse. All the people who were standing on the sidelines are now standing in the middle of the blocked off street in front of the "grand-stand." And then the grand finale for this event begins. They set off fireworks from the town square, and they are all set to Christmas music that is playing over the grand-stand speakers. There are ground fire works, low-level fireworks, and traditional full-blown fireworks way up in the sky...all exploding and sparkling in perfect timing with music. It is SO MUCH FUN!
It always seems like the Christmas season is ready to begin after this wonderful "kick-off."
Here are a few pictures from this year's parade. I can hardly wait until next year!
Grandma Berniece Andrews, affectionately called "Gramma Berniss" in this house, turned 80 on Monday. Have I mentioned that she is absolutely amazing? She is.
So, Sunday we celebrated her birthday by going out to lunch and coming back to Dana's house for cake and ice cream. What a fun, wonderful day!
Happy Birthday, Grandma! I hope we get to celebrate at least 20 more!
All joking aside...I owe a GREAT BIG Thank You to both my Mom (aka: Nana) and Grandma (aka: Gramma Berniss) for all the help they gave as I went back to work from maternity leave. I was a nervous wreck. But- Mom came for the first two weeks and watched John here at my house so I wouldn't have to take him to daycare at 8wks old. Then Grandma came every single morning for 2 more weeks and basically held and rocked John until after lunch so I could get a full morning of work in without interruption. Those four weeks made a HUGE difference in being ready to take my little guy to daycare. The truth is I have the BEST daycare in the WORLD...but it is still hard that it isn't me that gets to hold him every day.
Oh - and the help I get from this guy isn't half bad either. :) THANK YOU!!!!!!!
You see, I have zero coordination. This is not news to any of you who have spent time with me. But on Sunday, Nov 8th, it manifested in a very scary moment for both Mommy and son.
Doug was preaching all three services at the Edinboro campus for church, so we had decided that we would attend Saturday evening together, and then I would stay home with the kids Sunday morning. This would work out well because we were going to be celebrating Grandma Andrew's 80th birthday for lunch on Sunday, and if I stayed home with the kids, I could get everyone ready, fed, and packed for the babysitter.
In case we haven't mentioned it before...John is a barfer. He barfs on us all the time. The poor little man has acid reflux, and just in general he spits up non-stop. It is a given that you don't put any clothes on that you actually intend to wear out of the house until seconds before departure because otherwise John will ruin your clothes.
So...picture it....I'm home alone on Sunday morning trying to get both children fed and dressed and packed for the day...and then John hits me with a 1-2 punch. First he drowns his outfit in barf, then before I can even get him changed, he poops up his back and down his legs and in between his toes...well...it's ugly. As I attempt to change his diaper, it becomes clear that this is a mess that will require a bath. So I finish wiping him up and then I take the cute little naked man into the bathroom and lay him on the floor on a towel so that I can run the bath water in the tub.
I reach up to grab our shower head (which is the kind that is on a hose) in order to rinse out the tub before filling it, and I bobble it and it starts to fall. My immediate response is to grab it before it falls and hits John. As my arms shoot up above my head to catch it, my elbow hits a medium sized wooden shelf that hangs on the wall and knocks it off. As my arms are going UP, the shelf is now coming DOWN, along with all the jars and bottles that were displayed on it. My brain recognizes what is happening a split second too late as my eyes drop to see the shelf land on John's head and face and the large ceramic jar hit the floor a foot away from him and explode into a million pieces. I scream as I see it happen.
John lets out a blood-curdling scream. His eyebrow instantly starts to bleed and swell.
There are now tiny little ceramic shards covering the entire bathroom like a powder, and larger sharp chunks and slivers lying everywhere. The tub is filled with them. John is covered in what looks like powder there are so many on him. I can't wipe them off...they will cut him. I can't put him in the tub to rinse him off...it is filled with more. I am shaking...John is crying...and less than 2 seconds have passed since this all began.
I scoop him up and run into the kitchen. I pull the dishes out of the sink that I had begun washing and I put his chubby little naked body in there and begin rinsing him with plenty of warm water. In a few seconds I have established that his eye is okay and that he is only cut in a few tiny places. Other than that, he is mostly scared. Now Mommy is scared. I take a deep breath and try to figure out what to do next. What if he has a head injury? How do you know on a 3-month old baby?
I call our amazing pediatrician, Dr. Russo...she answers her on-call cell phone and I start to sob. I LOVE Dr. Russo...and she is so amazing. She calms me down and I walk her thru what happened and she walks me thru the different things she needs me to look for. She tells me that she thinks he is fine, but gives me a list of things to watch for as the day progresses. And then she says this, "I think baby is going to be okay, but I think this was harder on mommy than it was on him. You call me back if you have any questions...any questions at all...even if you just need to talk, okay?"
Seriously....how did I get such a wonderful pediatrician for my kids???? She is fantastic. And poor John...he survived just fine. After his sink-bath and some warm clothes, he was back to smiling and cooing. I took some pictures of the swollen eye. Poor kid. First shiner at 3 months old...and he got it from his mom.
We managed to pull ourselves together and make it to Grandma's lunch on time. But I can do without that kind of excitement, just for the record. I prefer normal, boring mornings over that any day!
When I started writing this blog, I was just going to "try" it. I thought it might be fun. It has turned out even better than that...the truth is, I love writing this blog...and I love that you read it. But you are #3 on my list of reasons that I write it. :)
Reasons I blog: #4 - My creative outlet. I NEED a creative outlet...but with two kids, I need one that is fast, does not require small parts a child can eat, can be done in small sections as I find time, and ultimately is rewarding on some level deeper than just something to "do". I have found that this blog is perfect. It truly is one of the few things I do that I know I am doing in large part just because it is fun for me, but also accomplishes worthy goals like documenting our family adventures. :) I like to write. I enjoy crafting stories out of our "every-day" experiences. It has been a great outlet for me and a fun way to interpret our lives and decisions.
#3 - My friends. I think it is fun to hear from all of you and to give you a glimpse of life in our world in return. It has been really entertaining to get input and comments from all over the place. Truly, I never know who is going to respond to something I write, and I find it very enjoyable to interact in this way with people from all different stages and places in my life. Thanks for being one of those people who makes this worth doing!
#2 - My parents. They don't live near us. My Mom loves to see the pictures and hear the stories and it has been a fun way to keep them, as well as my other family members, "caught up" on our lives and kids and fun happenings. It has really been awesome to feel connected in this way, and so that is a REALLY big reason I do it.
But the #1 reason I do this blog:
#1 - MY KIDS. Let me confess something to you: I am not a scrapbooker. I am not a photo-album mom. I am not even a "let's save this picture you colored" mom. I wish I was...but I'm not. But I like computers, I like to write, I love to take pictures...and I can type pretty fast. :) So...blogging is our family scrapbook. This is as close as my kids are going to get to a photo album from me. This blog is the "memory album" that I want to give to them of things they accomplished, events that were significant to our family, funny stories that we continue to re-tell...the things that shaped us and happened to us along the way. This is the place that they will find all that stuff and more...from me...thier mom...in my words. I hope someday they enjoy reading it...learning about themselves...getting a glimpse into who their parents are and what we were like at different stages of our life. If they get even a little bit of those things out of it, it's totally worth it.
So, that brings me to this little explanation: I am going to be adding a bunch of "old" stories and entries from the last several months. I missed a lot when I dropped off the blogging radar after John was born. I will be writing these and back-dating them and putting them in the order that they "should" have been in had I not been slacking off. I thought about skipping all these things...but they are stories that I want Danika and John to have...stories and pictures and events that I want to record. And so, I'm going to do it. But that means that there will be random posts appearing on Facebook that are "old"...and that if you read this on the actual blog page, several entries that will be added over the next few weeks will be showing up in past months. So...I just wanted to explain why. When I print this year's blog into a book, those entries will be in the right places and tell the stories for those months that I wanted told. It's not really so much for you...it's for me and for them. :)
My little princess loves Ariel, the Little Mermaid. And since both of them have red hair, I kind of capitalized on it and used it to my advantage... to persuade her to help me wash her hair. :) I told her that when she lays in the water, her hair swirls around her and she looks like Ariel. Now when she takes a bath, all I have to say is: "It's time to look like Ariel," and she puts her head in the water with no fight. I sometimes bring the mirror over so she can see what she looks like. :)
It's pretty similar don't you think??? :) Every once in a while I stumble on a good idea. :) She just cracks me up.
Those were the words I heard. This is the image I saw.
Boredom causes strange behavior. That's what I'm blaming it on. She has been home sick and stuck in the house Sat, Sun, Mon and Tues. That's a long time for a 2 year old. :)
If you live in the Erie area and you are interested:
Doug will be preaching this weekend for all 3 services at the Edinboro campus at McLane Church. He is wrapping up the Nehemiah series we've been doing. He refuses to give me a preview - he likes it when I experience it for the first time with the rest of the audience. I'm pretty excited to hear what he has to say!
He also will be preaching Nov 29th at the Union City campus at 11am and 7pm at Church In A Bar. He is scheduled to preach at the Boro again January 16 & 17th.
If you don't live around Erie but still want to hear Doug, they will post his sermon to the website a few days after the sermon...you can check it out there.
Our little girl has some quirks that just crack me up. And part of what cracks me up the most is how "normal" these things have become at our house. Is it true that anything can become normal if you are exposed to it long enough?
Doesn't everyone where patent leather dress shoes with jeans???? on the wrong feet????
Don't you put every sticker you receive immediately on your face????
And band aids...everywhere....all the time. EVERY injury requires a band-aid if you ask Danika.
And to be honest...those poor little knees take such a beating, sometimes I prefer she just keep them bandaged up....they get hurt less when she falls!
My poor little girl. It is yet to be seen if she truly inherited my clumsiness or Doug's incredible eye-hand coordination...but one thing is FOR SURE. She falls down a LOT. I don't think those poor little knees were without band aids all summer long.
