Flashback December 2006

I was just looking through pictures and found these.
I do not enjoy winter or snow,
but if it must snow this is the way to do it.
I think in this particular storm we got over 3 ft of snow.
After shoveling the snow off of the drive way
the piles of snow on the side of the driveway
was well over their kids heads.
I wouldn't mind getting another storm
like this
but
then
it's time for
SPRING!

Today was cold

and gray

and I spent the day thinking of where I'd rather be.

Maybe the beach,

maybe back in Africa.

But tonight as I lay in bed

next to my baby

with my arms wrapped around

his sweet little body

there was no where else I'd rather be.

After his bath his head smells like watermelon.

Tonight he did not have a bath

and his head smelled like sweaty little boy.

I breathed it in and committed it to memory.

I listened to him breath

in and out

the slow steady breathing

of a peacefully sleeping baby.

and I thought about how lucky I was to be his mom.

Before he drifted off to sleep I told him how lucky I was to be his mom.

He just smiled.

I asked him if he wanted me to sing him a song

He said

yeah, the song from Umizoomi about bread and pickles.

I said, I don't know that one

how about "you are my sunshine"

He said

okay.

Then I watched him sleeping

and thanked God

for the privilege of being his mom.

Then as I slid my arm out from under his head

he started to snore.

Sweet dreams my baby.

Sorry it's not a great photo, but you get the idea.

This is by Gracie.

It says:

"My favorite Place

is hom (home) it is

byodfool (beautiful) I love it."

and I love that you love it, Gracie.

and I love you!!!

My Wedding Dress

I remember trying on my moms wedding dress when I was a little girl. I felt so special and grown up. I love my moms wedding dress. I'm pretty sure that her sister made it for her. It is very unique. I wish I had a picture of me wearing it when I was little. The other day I was felling nostalgic and I got my wedding dress out of it's bag in my closet. The girls wanted to try it on. It brought back fun memories of trying on my moms dress. Maybe next time we are visiting my parents I'll get pictures of the girls in my mom's dress just for fun.

Sweetheart Ball

McKay will do something naughty,

like tearing up someone else's picture

or taking their toy

or hitting them

or pinching them

or making messes

or breaking things

and when I say,

"Why did you do that?"

He says

"Behaus, I like doing that"

Well ,okay then.

If you like doing that

I guess that's all that matters.

I walked into my bedroom tonight and found a familiar sight.

A sight that makes me crazy if I spend any time at all thinking about it.

Which is why,

for the sake of my marriage,

I do my best to ignore it.

Tonight it was hard to ignore,

so I started to clean it up,

but then I decided to take pictures of it first.

What is it, you ask?

It is

Blue.

Plastic.

Cups.

Blue, Plastic, Cups?

Yes

Blue. Plastic. Cups.

There are currently 18

Blue, plastic, cups

in my bedroom.

Why?

I'll tell you why.

Because my husband is crazy.

I love him,

but

he.

is.

crazy!

These are the cups of water that he brings to bed with him

every

night.

and never throws away.

He doesn't use regular cups.

He's afraid that they don't get clean enough.

So he uses disposable cups.

They don't have to be blue.

He's not that crazy.

Sometimes they are red.

Some are empty

Some are still full.

Some are half full

or

Half empty

Depending on weather your are

an

optimist

or

a

pessimist.

They usually stay confined to his dresser,

but as you can see

they have overflowed

onto the

ironing board.

I shouldn't care,

I don't iron,

But I do have to look at them

and it drives me

crazy.

Is there a name for this disorder?

(I'm sure it's a disorder)

Do you think it can be managed with a pill?

Therapy perhaps?

Maybe we can find some celebrities to do a telethon

to raise awareness

and money,

for research

or at least to help pay for

all

of

the

disposable

CUPS!

Flashback to February 2004

Nate's 5th BirthdayAbby almost 2, Nate 5, Bryce 3 1/2.

I'm on the phone with Sam and his phone goes dead.

Me-Hello, Hello.

Abby-Did he hang up on you?

Me- (joking) Ya, I think he did. He's fired.

Gracie- Fired from what?

Me- From our family.

Gracie- Can I have his spot in your bed?

addiction

out of the blue-

McKay-"I will bring you a coke mommy"

How did he know?

Another Daddy Daughter Ball

McKay was wishing that he was a daddy or a daughter.

The girls look forward to this night all year.

so does their awesome daddy.

They got all dressed up and pretty

then they went to dinner at Red Robbin.

Then to the dance.

The Daddy Daughter Ball is a big event put on by

the Town of Castle Rock.

It's always crowded and lots of fun.

Gracie's favorite part was dancing with daddy to the Hokey Pokey.

Abby's favorite part was fast dancing with dad.

Dad is very anti-fast dancing, so I would have liked to have seen that.

Gracie's least favorite part was falling down twice on the hard floor.

Super Bowl!

Today for lunch/dinner we are having a buffet of

disgusting goodness.

Nachos,

pigs in a blanket,

little smokies,

buffalo wings,

chips and salsa,

donuts,

m&ms,

and oreos.

I know, so gross, but so good.

And because I am only interested in the Super Bowl food and not the Super Bowl itself I am going to go have a Buffalo wing and then go take a nap.

I'm a runner regardless of what my calfs have to say about it.

My mind is saying "You can do this!"

My heart is saying "You can do this!

My lungs are saying "You can do this!

My knees are saying "Ouch! But you can do this!

My calfs are saying "Cramp! Cramp! Must. Stop. Running!"

So, I will eat some bananas,

drink more water,

STRETCH,

and see what my calfs have to say tomorrow.

I found the key.

I found it before but then I lost it and now I remember again.

The key to staying happy is staying busy, really, really busy.

Really!

Yesterday was great and today feels like it will be too, and I've been really busy.

Most of the stuff that I've been busy with is stuff that I want to do not so much stuff that I need to do, but what ever.

Also, another key, challenging myself.

I've blogged all about the "I'm a runner"challenge.

Last night I started another challenge.

I'll blog about that later.

It's going to be awesome.

Yesterday I went to aerobice then to lunch with my wonderful husband,

then I made this for Heather.

Merry very late Christmas Heather!!!!

Today I cleaned up the house, McKay helped.

Then my awesome friend Shay is coming over for lunch.

Then I'm watching another friends kids while she helps out at the school.

Then I'm off to the rec center to run with another friend.

Then going out to dinner.

Another key,

Friends.

Another Key

Gratitude.

Yap, I'll going to tell you what I'm grateful for again.

-My new totally awesome Cricut

-A full 20 min in a hot shower

-Shay coming over for lunch, and bringing the lunch!

-The Gospel of Jesus Christ

-Gracie's squishy kisses.

Still Grateful

Today I am grateful for

-the little boy (McKay) running naked through my house.

-Kids who got up and got ready for school in time to walk to the bus.

-My desire to go to aerobics.

-finding old friends on Face Book.

-conversations with a 3 year old.

I'm not going to post on here what I'm grateful for everyday, but this morning just feels like a good morning so I wanted to share.

McKay- "Can we go see the chickens?"

(referring to the Nuggets, as in the Denver Nuggets, our pro basket ball team.)

At dinner we go around the table and share what was our best and worse part or our day.

Me- "Nate, what was your best and worst?"

Nate- "Well my worst was getting kneed in the stomach by a girl at school. "

*Laughing*

"Then she got sent to the principals office."

"Actually, that was my best."

Speaking of dinner.

Sam made burritos.

They were good.

He rocks!

Indeed, there are times when the only way the path can be followed is on one's knees.

~Niel A. Maxwell

My new favorite quote!

I saw it here.

Do you follow Natalie Norton's Blog?

If you're a mom or a woman or a photographer or you have ever lost someone close to you or if you have a pulse, you should read her blog.

So inspirational!

You can also read her here .

I don't know her personally but I think she is amazing.

You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll be inspired.

By the way ,in case you wondering.

And I know you were.

Today I am grateful for

-Hot cocoa after a cold morning walk

-A real best friend

-Snuggling with my husband

-Natalie Norton's blog

-Healthy Children

On my camera, when I am in Auto Focus, if I move the camera just slightly one way or the other the camera will change what it is focusing on therefor changing the look of the entire picture.

I have a lot to be stressed out about.

Some of those things you all know about because I rant about them right here on my blog.

Then there are other things that only my closest friends know about

and then some things that no one in this world knows that I'm struggling with.

All of these things have been my main focus for too long.

I've decided to move myself just a little to the side and change my focus.

Because for everything that I have to be stressed about I have a hundred things to be grateful for.

Right now

I am grateful for the burning I still have in my throat because it reminds me that I did something that was hard for me.

I am grateful for hot water in the bath tub.

I am grateful for clean PJs to put on.

I am grateful for spell check on the computer

I am grateful for my legs, because even though they hurt they still work.

The picture looks different already.

I'm a runner-week 3 cont.

Right after my last post,

I'm a runner-week 3,

I felt inspired to go run.

So I did.

This was my first time since I started my program that I was not running on the treadmill.

I started with the 3 minute walk then started the 4 minute run, of which I completed 3 minutes.

Then I walked for 3 more minutes then ran for 1 whole minute before I needed to walk again.

I walked 1 minute then ran 1 more then walk 3 minutes and called it a day.

As I was walking home my lungs were burning and I had that burning/blood taste at the back of my throat and I was feeling a bit deflated.

The conversation in my head went something like this.

"Maybe you're not a runner.

Maybe you're just a walker.

Maybe you really can't do this.

Maybe there's no way you are going to be able to run a whole 5K in March and 10K in May."

Then I thought

"When was the last time in my adult life that I ran outside for 3 whole minutes?

Maybe never!"

Then I started talking to God and I said something like

"Please help me succeed at this.

You know how badly I want/need this."

Then I had the thought that He knows even more than I do how badly I want it and He knows how much I need it, and maybe He knows that I don't need to run a whole 10K as badly as I think I need it and maybe it's more about the journey than the destination.

Does that make any sense?

So today, outside in the cold air, on the not totally flat ground, I ran for 3 whole minutes, and my lungs are still burning and I can't stop coughing, and tomorrow I'll get up and do it again, because I'm a runner and that's what runners do! And I'm sitting here crying while I type, but that's okay because sometimes runners do that too.

I'M A RUNNER! week 3

I'm at the beginning of week 3 and I'm a little concerned because week 3 is significantly more difficult that week 2.

Week two was:

walk 5 min. run 2 min

repeat 3 times

3 days out of the week.

Week three is:

walk 3 min run 4min

repeat 4 times

4 days out of the week.

It is now more running than walking.

But, whatever. I can do this.

I'm going to do this!

I'm going to see it through all the way to the end,

cuz that's what runners do.