Not Me! Monday

Ha! Not Me! Monday is back...well, at least for me. My confession list is long and distinguished. (Quick: what movie is that line from?!?!?)

I did not stand at the nursery counter with my jaw on the ground when my 2 year old pelted my gut with his shoe. He was not totally angry with me for dropping him off in the church nursery. My child would never have a temper issue, and never throws anything- especially at his mommy. And if that did happen (which it totally didn't), I would have been prepared to handle such a situation. I am never unprepared. (And my first instinct was not to throw it back at him...nope! not me!).

I did not continue to watch iCarly after Adam went to bed. I do not enjoy juvenile television programs. Dave was not watching it with me. Nope! Our adult time is strictly that- adult time.

On that same note, I did not sing along to "The ABC Song", "Mary had a little lamb" and "The Wheels on the Bus" while driving my van to the grocery store. I did not get totally busted by the person stopped next to me doing the hand signals to the bus song. I did not look in my rear view mirror to realize that I had no kids in the van at the time. I do not waste adult tune time. And I totally don't know all the hand signals to the Wheels on the Bus. Nope. I'm way too cool for that.

I did not take Colin to a warehouse sale last week and forget to bring my stroller. And if I did forget my stroller, I certainly would have kept a better eye on him and would not have let him reorganize all the boxes and displays. I am never inattentive to my child...no matter how much money I'm saving. He is always my top priority, and I have never taken an eye off him.

Dave and I did not give Adam a "Boo" Ghost to hang in the window so he would feel included. Our son was not heartbroken every day when he did not get Boo'ed. We did not realize that it was all about the ghost sign in the window when we saw him drawing his own ghost sign. We did not find a copy off the Internet, print it out and hide it for him to find. Nope! Not us! Dave and I firmly believe in the school of hard knocks, and would never do anything fake to "keep up appearances" even if it warmed his little heart and put the biggest smile on his face. Nope! Not us!

And a few things I did not say this week:

• Oh, Adam...that's not Colin- he doesn't need a diaper change...mommy is trying to increase her fiber intake. Yea, sorry bout that.


• ADAM, STOP YELLING! YOU'RE HURTING MOMMY'S EARS!!!


• Sorry, boys...mommy left her ipod at home. I guess we're stuck with the grown up music from the radio on the way to school today. What? Oh no...that's not the tip of my ipod sticking out of my carefully concealed coat pocket. No, I'm not hiding it from you just so I can listen to my songs.


• Yes, Adam, we do have a new month with full envelopes. You're correct, I haven't done anything with my eyebrows yet......well, because I've been to lazy and it hurts. ........... Yes, mommy does a lot of stupid things to look pretty for daddy.

Honorary Philipino

Toward the end of this summer, our family was invited to the surprise 70th birthday party for one of our neighbors. She lives with her daughter and her husband- and their beautiful miracle baby girl.

It's been fun to get to know them better, and we were excited to share this day with the lady the boys refer to as "Aunt Ester."

Her kids told her that she was going to a funeral visitation/ dinner for the father of one of her co-workers. Poor lady! She's all somber and we yell "SURPRISE!" I thought "yeah, that's enough to stop her heart!" But, she was delighted and everyone had a great time.

In addition, I learned so much about their culture. They have the amazing ability to laugh at themselves, over feed the world, aspire to great things and encourage others coming from the Phillipians. Apparently, I asked so many questions, they decided to make me an "honorary Philippino" a title I was honored to have now that I have about 70 new Philippino friends. :)

My boys patiently waiting...and waiting...and waiting

SURPRISE!

The spread. Did you know that its a horrible faux pas to run out of food at a party? As a matter of fact, every Philippino BRINGS their own tupperware so they can bring home left overs. They actually told us to bring tupperware too, but we didn't (actually, we thought it was perhaps a funny hazing trick to see if the crazy white people would stand there with their empty tupperware- next time I'm totally bringing it!)

I asked a lot of questions as far as the food was concerned. They thought I was totally into it, but really I was trying to figure out what was safe for me to eat. Not much, but I did enjoy lumpia and did not get sick!

I didn't know this, but Philippino food is a cross between Mexican and Chinese. Fun fact of the day, right? Dave tried everything. Twice.

Our neighbor and her miracle baby, Hannah. I am now known to her as "Tita Sandy." Which means "Aunt Sandy" in Philippino.

Aunt Ester with her tres leches cake.

Everyone was drooling over the tres leches cake.

Must be good!

And of course, C left his mark everywhere we went. :)

Awesome site

Hello all,

We had a mentor mom panel at my MOPS this morning. This website was brought up. I had to search for it, but I found it and I LOVE IT!

You can subscribe to it via email- which means you'd have a nice little reminder about how to love your husband the way God wants you to.

Please check it out:

http://www.the-generous-wife.com/

There's one for the hubbys too (I actually signed Dave up for this!)

http://www.the-generous-husband.com/

Enjoy!

Funny

Christmas: on a budget

Yes, this post is about Christmas. I'm hearing Christmas music in the radio, and I'm seeing decorations up.

It's November...Yes...Christmas is around the corner!

Being debt free...

and living on a shoestring budget

makes people ask me not "how do you do it?"

but "how do you do Christmas?"

Ok...this is how we 'do' Christmas.

1. Establish boundaries!!! Not everyone needs a gift! Friends will understand if you just want to get together for lunch or a craft, etc.
2. Establish limits. We do a gift exchange for our small bible group. We establish the limit at $15. Manageable if you budget for it (or find things on clearance throughout the year).
3. Don't be afraid to re-gift. Yes, I am a regifter! I don't burn candles, and I don't use many lotions. Therefore, when I receive one of these, it goes into a regift bin. They are great generic female presents.
4. Name exchanges. For larger families, its great to enjoy each other's company and only have to bring one or two gifts for your named individual.
5. Have an idea of what you want to purchase for someone before you go shopping. By having a game plan, you don't aimlessly wander through a store and pick up 'stuff' that someone may or may not need. If you put thought into what you purchase before you buy it, it shows as a thoughtful gift- not a "hey, I saw this on a rack somewhere and figured maybe you could use it."
6. Try to make some gifts. Photo albums and picture frames are affordable can be personalized easily.
7. Start early. Like the day after Christmas sales. Cards and wrapping paper, bows, etc. are cheapest then. If you pick them up and store them for a year, it won't cut into your Christmas budget later.
8. Have a game plan for a budget, get an envelope with cash and STICK TO IT! Dave and I sit down at the beginning of each year and allocate funds to each big purchase- Christmas being one of them. We make a list of each person we need to purchase gifts for and how much we are willing to spend (don't forget to budget for possible shipping fees for those that live far away).
9. Give with your heart. If you can't be a cheerful giver, don't bother.
10. Don't forget the real meaning of Christmas.

These are a few of my favorite things

This is quite possibly one of my most favorite foods of all time.

It's gluten free, natural eating yummy goodness.

Mmmmmm

Garlic Expressions

I'm going to give you a moment to bask in the greeny glow of the bottle.

But, in all honesty, it really is great stuff. It's a combination of vinegar, oil, peppers, and garlic. At the end of every bottle, about 4-5 cloves of garlic spill out (which make a great rub for garlic bread!) This dressing is a little pricey at $4.59 per bottle, but really, its basic ingredients, no high fructose corn syrup, sugar, or stuff I can't pronounce.

Some put it on salads- which I do as well, but my favorite way to eat it is on top of some cut up cucumbers. The hothouse cucs work the best since the skin on them is thin. If you use regular cucs, you may want to cut a few strips of peel off giving the cucumber a striped look- then its easier to eat.

And if you want to get all fancy schmancy, you can haul out your Pampered Chef Crinkle Cutter (that you just found after being in storage for 4 1/2 years) and cut the cucumbers that way!

Enjoy!

Halloween 2009 and remembering Natalie

This Halloween was a lot of fun. Colin really got into it, and Adam started to strategize that if he ran (the.entire.night) he would hit the jackpot of candy. Colin tuckered out quickly, so Dave stayed with Adam and I took Colin back to our friends' house.

Here's the boys posing with the pumpkins on the front porch.

Our fire department has a Halloween party where the kids can get more candy (like a huge bag full!), meet a clown, get a balloon animal, and enjoy donuts and cider (like they needed any more sugar that night!-- but I digress). Coffee for the parents.

Then we all got to climb on the fire engines. We met some of our bible study friends there. The kiddos were really excited to enjoy Halloween together- it was fun for us adults too!

Lions, and lions and bear, oh my!

Adam was in his element too.

Right before embarking on freezing temps, wind and occasional sprinkling, we snapped a family pic.

All in all it was a great night!

_____________________________________

Halloween is always a bittersweet holiday for me. 11 years ago, I was finishing up a shift at work with my best friend. I was going to go with her and her fiance to take their kids trick-or-treating. We received a frantic call before leaving which sent us flying to the hospital. Their daughter, Natalie, had fallen and became unresponsive. Turns out that she fell just right giving her a heart arrhythmia.

She was transferred from a smaller hospital to a larger one where they got a pulse back- but only for a short time. Natalie was called Home that night. She was 2 1/2.

That night has both haunted me and blessed me at the same time.

It's horrible to hear that sound a mother makes when she's given the news that her child is gone. Or that look on their face when they sign away organs and tissues. Or when they return from saying good-bye to her.

But for some reason God had me there- with them- that night. Whether it was to help explain to her 4 year old brother about Jesus and Heaven or whether it was to just sit and silently pray for God to bring them to him during their time of grieving...I don't know.

I have been blessed by that night too. My walk with God was pretty loosey goosey back then, and I found myself jumping into His arms simply because I could not understand it myself. I've also realized not to take one second for granted- because in an instant He can call us Home.

Natalie would have been 13 this year. Her mother and I are no longer as close as we once were- but still very close in other ways. She has seen more heartbreak in her life than I can shake a stick at. But she continues on, and I continue to pray for her and her kids.