Miscellaneous...Random Thoughts

1. I would rather be realistic with my children and tell them I will not be able to do an activity with them than give them false hope by telling them "maybe" and then the "maybe"s always end up being "no"s and disappointing them. That way I can work hard towards doing this activity with them and if I've told them that I will not be able to and then I make time to, the children will be surprised and appreciative, and if I am still not able to, the children already knew what to expect.

2. I don't like hand washing my children's clothes, but I know I have to do it if I'm going to have to pass on the clothes from one child to the next. I've tried stain removers, but I've found that on certain stains, if I don't hand wash them first, the stains don't come off, then they're set in. I've tried bibs, but bibs can only cover so much.

3. During her third trimester, it really is difficult for a pregnant woman to be at 100% physically which makes everything that much more difficult to do because there is just that heavy and protruding weight in the front, but I don't think husbands realize that.

4. Little toddlers (from about the time they start moving to about 2 1/2 years old) are a challenge to care for because they require almost 100% of your time to give them direction. Even if you try to give them direction so that you can do other things, like a house chore, their attention span is only about 15 minutes, and you have to stop what you're doing to change their activity. By the time you remember to get back to what you were doing, you find that it's time to do something else, like go out for an appointment or start dinner or snack time, and you have to stop what you were doing and continue it another time, whenever that is.

5. I wish my husband could read my mind because it just seems like we often misunderstand each other because we often are talking about 2 different pages in a book.

6. There's only 4 people living in this house, but why does it feel like there's 20 people living here by the amount of laundry that needs to be washed?

...More random thoughts will be posted as they come up...

Miscellaneous...I Need to Get Motivated Today

People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing - that’s why we recommend it daily.- Zig Ziglar

Miscellaneous...ANOTHER Bad Experience at Outback

We went through one of the worse dinner experiences tonight.

I had a $25 gift card to Outback and after a wonderful day with the family, we thought we'd enjoy a wonderful dinner. Thinking ahead, we got to the restaurant at 5:30pm. Well, even at 5:30pm, the wait was already at 60 to 75 minutes long. Apparently, you can call ahead to get your name in. I didn't know that. We do not eat out at Outback often. In fact, this was only our 2nd time there. My first experience was horrible too and I swore never to return. However, after a good friend raved about it, I decided to give Outback another chance.

After getting my name on the list I went back out to ask DearHubby what he thought we should do while we wait. Not wanting to give up a good parking space, because the lot was PACKED, and not wanting to miss our name being called, DearHubby suggested just waiting.

Our wait turned out to be 1 hour and 40 minutes...At the hour of our wait, I went back to the receptionist to make sure we weren't forgotten. He told me it would only be another 5 to 10 minutes. That 5 to 10 minutes turned into another 40 minutes. We finally got seated around 7:15pm. It took another 30 minutes before we got our food, around 7:45pm.

Imagine a 3 year old and a 1 year old waiting for over 2 hours just to eat!!!

To top off our WONDERFUL evening, my steak was really tough and fatty while DearHubby's steak was basically raw and the $25 gift card didn't even cover everything! The food at Outback is SOOOOOOO expensive. We went $12 over (including tip) and I just got water.

I tried to keep a positive outlook and the one thing I can be thankful for is that our stomachs were all full at the end of the evening.

I would never go back to Outback again and would never recommend anyone go there!!!

Home Life - Our Christmas Celebration

Well, it's December 22nd and our hustle and bustle is over...

Our family is traveling to California on Christmas Day and so we did our family Christmas here at home on Saturday. DearHubby and I were actually going to postpone our Christmas celebration until later in the day and had hoped to go to a memorial service for Little Lily, a little 5 day old baby who died of anecephaly, on Wednesday. However, we were unable to find childcare for our 2 little ones and when our babysitter contacted us to let us know that our girls couldn't be watched, we decided to just go ahead with our Christmas celebration.

Our Christmas celebration didn't turn out to be as I had hoped. I really wanted to get up and cook breakfast for my family, but DearHubby and I were up late on Friday evening tidying up the house and wrapping presents and I didn't get up early enough. So, DearHubby went to WaWa to grab us some breakfast sandwiches and donuts.

After breakfast, we read a story about Jesus' birthday and explained to our girls that we celebrate Christmas because we want to remember the day of our Savior's birth. I love that we started this tradition of telling the gospel story to our children before opening our Christmas gifts because now our girls know why we celebrate Christmas! DearDaughter1 will tell you that Christmas is all about Jesus. She doesn't even know who Santa is!

I used to dislike giving gifts on Christmas because I always felt the materialism of the gift giving got in the way of the true meaning of Christmas. However, I have changed my mind about gift giving, especially now that I have children. I spent most of last week preparing Christmas cards, cookies, and Christmas gifts to deliver to friends around us. As I prepared for all these things, DearDaughter1 always asked me who those gifts were for. It was neat to explain to DearDaughter1 that the gifts were for others because we want to express our love for them as well as send them joy. In addition, when we were purchasing gifts for others, it taught DearDaughter1 how to enjoy choosing gifts for her friends and enjoy giving gifts to her friends. It wasn't all about the getting for our girls, but about the giving!!!

We were sent money from my in-laws to purchase gifts and I purchased some gifts for the girls, however, I kept my girls' gifts to a minimum. They received a few toys, but the most important gifts I wanted them to receive were the books about God we gave to them. We gave DearDaughter1 "The Beginner's Bible" and I am excited to go through this with her. Earlier in the year I bought her "The Child's Story Bible" by Catherine Vos and though it's a wonderful story bible for children, it was a little too old for DearDaughter1. It didn't keep her interest because the stories were too long for a little 2 year old (at the time). I also bought DearDaughter1 "The Jesus Storybook Bible" which we have decided to save for next Christmas. I bought DearDaughter2 a series of 6 books called "Learning About God". It's a set of 6 board books with titles like "God is Faithful", "God Knows Everything", "God Never Changes".

After opening our presents and enjoying them, DearHubby took us on a fun adventure! He belongs to an internet forum called Adventure Riders and there's one thread that's like a scavenger hunt where people from New Jersey have posted historical sites they've been to and others on the forum need to find the site. There was a picture of a historical water tower near our house that DearHubby wanted to find and so off we went. Well, our drive turned into a wild goose chase...We went to a pre-Revolutionary war village and asked directions to this water tower. Either the historian we talked to didn't know what we were talking about or she decided to send us on a wild goose chase. We ended up deep in the pine barrens of New Jersey and spent most of our afternoon finding our way out. We finally got out of the woods right as the sun was setting. The irony of all this was our cell phone reception. We hardly have any bars at home, but deep in the woods, our reception was perfect! Go figure?

So, we ended up going to the mall for dinner. I actually wanted to go to Old Country Buffet to at least give us a home style cooking feel, but the line was so long that it was out the door. We decided to just go to the food court at the mall, which I didn't want to do because I knew the mall would be crowded with last minute shoppers. We ended up eating at my favorite Japanese "restaurant", but since I wasn't in the mood for it, it wasn't as enjoyable.

When we got home we let the girls play with their toys a little longer and then we put them to bed. So, that was our family Christmas celebration. It wasn't my ideal celebration, but it was wonderful because I was with my DearHubby and children.

We did Jesus' birthday cake the next day after church. We invited some friends over for dessert and they enjoyed the cake with us!

For the next 3 days I'll be focusing on just preparing for our trip. I do have a few more Christmas cards to send out, but we are mainly done with our hustle and bustle. I have a few preparations to make for the Christmas gifts we're giving to my family in California, like put together a scrap book for my mom in the next 2 days, but I hope that will not be a stressful project.

Happy birthday Jesus and a Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to you!

Home Life...Taking a Break from the Hustle and Bustle

I have been working on Christmas cards, baking cookies, and delivering gifts all week! As a result, the house looked like a tornado ran right through it. I didn't think I'd have time today to get chores done, but providentially DearHubby left work late and his buddy, who was stranded on a bridge going home, called him for help. DearHubby and I had planned to exercise at the gym tonight, but his buddy's call for help gave me time to take a break from the hustle and bustle and get things tidied up here at home. Tonight was also my night to take a break from cooking and we went out for pizza. There's a local hoagie shop that sells upside down pizza, yummy, for 1/2 price on Thursdays. A large pizza, which will provide our family with 2 dinners, cost us less than $7 on 1/2 price night!!! What an awesome deal!!! So, I was able to get all the dishes done and not worry about any more getting dirty for the day. I feel so relieved because I can finally see my table top, counter top, couch, and floor again!

Some chores I need to get done still: bathroom cleaning and laundry. I hope I can get to them some time this weekend. Tomorrow I have a brunch with a local DearFriend whom I haven't seen in almost 6 months. It's so crazy...She lives only 10 minutes away from me and yet with our busy schedules, mosty because she went back to work, we have not been able to catch up (and every time we try to talk on the phone, the girls always seem to get into some sort of "trouble"). We're doing our family Christmas on Saturday because we are flying out to California on Christmas day. Then, on Sunday, I am hoping to have the V's over. We had planned to have them over for dessert last night, but that didn't work out as the lady of the household was sick. So, I am hoping to reschedule for Sunday as we do have some gifts to give to them...

I had an interesting talk to my chiropractor yesterday. He told me that he thought Christmas was a silly holiday. Then he asked me if I was the one that didn't celebrate Christmas. I told him that I was the one that does not do Santa Clause, but yes, we do celebrate Christmas. I told him that we tell our children that we celebrate Christmas because it's Jesus' birthday...Then, he changed the subject to Easter and how he thought that was a sillier holiday with the Easter bunny and all. I told him that we celebrate Easter as a time of remembering Jesus dying on the cross for our sins and being raised back up to life again. His comment, "Yeah, people have lost the true meaning of these holidays." It was an interesting conversation and though we didn't get to talk much, I hope that even the little words of truth I said will work in his heart.

Off to bed...

Crash

Today the girls and I went to the mall to get DearDaughter1's 3 year old pictures taken as well as the girls' Christmas pictures. The parking lot was crazy full, waiting for an accident to happen, and it did, to the girls and I.

As I was driving around looking for a parking space, I drove down an aisle where one car started to pull out. Opposite me was another car waiting for the space. I stopped to give both cars enough room to maneuver out of the parking space and in. While this "transaction" was taking place, the car I stopped behind started to back up. I saw the driver look left and right and hit her brakes and so I thought she saw me. A second later, the driver let off of her brakes and rammed her car right into mine. I really had no where to move. There was no room in front of me because of the 2 cars making their switch in and out of the parking spot and no room behind me because of the traffic. So, I just sat there and watched this lady backed her car into mine. I quickly honked my horn because even after impact, I don't think she still knew that she hit something.

We both got out and inspected our cars. There was no major damage to either of our cars. DearHubby hasn't really inspected the car yet to say whether there is or not. We decided not to call the police, but we did exchange insurance information.

I thank God that she pulled out slowly and didn't step on the acceleration when she thought everything was clear and I am grateful that no one got hurt! Despite annoying obstacle to my day, for some reason the only thing I can think about is how thankful I am for God's mercy in protecting all of us!

Home Life...The Unexpected and Chirstmas Shopping

We had another unexpected event last night. DearDaughter2 had a fever of 102 (degrees F), was breathing rapidly, and had a cough. These are 3 major symptoms for Pneumonia in infants and because DearHubby has Pneumonia, I too DearDaughter2 to the ER at midnight.

After 4 hours and an X-ray, it was confirmed that DearDaughter2 DOES NOT have Pneumonia. Praise the Lord. Yet, the trip to the ER was a long one and we didn't get home until 4am. I was scheduled to meet some friends at our local Chick-Fil-A at 8am. DearHubby was nice enough to go into work late to let me get a few hours of sleep, but "few" is such an understatement. I think I only got 2 and I was such a drag!

With this unexpected event, I was quite ineffective in everything today. I didn't make one meal and so we spent about $23 today on take out. There goes my goal in trying to be a miserly homekeeper. In addition, none of my chores got done today and so some things are in disarray.

One goal I did accomplish tonight was ordering all my online Christmas gifts. This year we are going to California to spend Christmas with my family. This too was an unexpected event in the beginning of the year and I hadn't planned on doing many Christmas gifts. However, it's been a few years since DearHubby has had a true vacation and he really needed a break. Being at home doesn't help him get much rest as he's always tempted to work on our house renovations and so we decided to go to California. As a result, I added my family to my Christmas gift list.

I am quite pleased with my shopping. My goal at the beginning of the year was to keep all gifts at least $10 or under. If I average out the cost of each gift, I met my goal of $10! There are a couple of gifts over the $10 mark, but I purchased other gifts at such a low cost that I was able to spend that extra money. I kept my gifts to 3 main categories, clothing, book, and gift card. I thought these 3 categories would be the most practical and cost effective.

Anyway, I just have a trip to Target to make some time before Christmas to purchase a few gift cards and the shopping will be done! I must say setting a goal, shopping throughout the year, and doing a bit of planning made this year of giving stress "free". The next step is wrapping the gifts and getting some local gifts delivered. Next week I hope to get my Christmas cards sent out.

Home Life...

Last week was trying and we especially had a trying weekend.

It started off with me feeling nauseated last Sunday. I thought it was due to my pregnancy and it surprised me as I was already 19 weeks along. It turned out that my nausea was caused by a "bug" in my tummy and I had a bad case of diarrhea last Monday.

Well, DearDaughter2 also felt bad last Monday evening and threw up for 4 hours straight. She had never been that sick before, but she was a trooper. Her bout of this "bug" ended on Tuesday on the toilet with diarrhea also.

Then, DearHubby was feeling sick all week long, since the Saturday before Thanksgiving, and on Thanksgiving morning he wasn't feeling all that great. However, he took Advil and felt better in time to go to our friends' house, the V's, for Thanksgiving dinner (lunch). On Friday, DearHubby couldn't breathe and wanted to go to our Family Doctor, but they were closed and so he thought he'd just wait it out. Saturday morning, DearHubby gave his pulmonologist a call and the doctor recommended that he go to the ER. It turned out that DearHubby has Pneumonia, again!

In the meanwhile, I was bleeding Saturday morning, like a menstrual period. After DearHubby left for the ER, I passed a good sized blood clot and I was so scared that I was having another miscarriage (my first pregnancy was a miscarriage). So, I called my OB and she told me to wait it out until 4pm before going to the ER. She recommended that I just lay down and put my feet up until then. I called my DearFriend Patti crying because I didn't know how I was going to care for DearDaughter1 and DearDaughter2 while thinking I was going through a miscarriage and so I asked if she could take the girls. DearFriend Patti was here in 11 minutes! She helped me pack up my stuff and took me to her house so that I could rest in her mom's room while her daughter watched the girls. (At this stage in my pregnancy, I feel false contractions called Braxton Hicks and I was feeling them throughout the day on Saturday, which is why I was really concerned that it was a miscarriage.)

Well, DearHubby was discharged from the ER on Saturday afternoon and was given antibiotics and the orders to REST. So, we stayed home from church on Sunday to REST.

All was going well until the afternoon when DearHubby went out to check our heating oil and we were almost out. So, he had to go out and find some Diesel fuel.

Then, at bedtime, DearDaughter1 started throwing up AGAIN like last Monday. DearHubby and I looked at the common denominator and the only thing we could think of was being at the V's. Both times before DearDaughter1 got sick we were at the V's and both times meatballs were served and both times DearDaughter1 got sick. On Sunday, DearDaughter1 threw up continuously until midnight and the last of it was a run to the toilet with diarrhea. In the meanwhile, DearDaughter2 was also struggling with tummy aches throughout Sunday as she had diarrhea too. Her diarrhea is so bad that her private area is raw and she dreads the thought of being changed. She still had diarrhea through yesterday, Monday.

I was feeling better yesterday and was only spotting a little so I spent the morning just trying to get the house in order after this weekend. I had the oil guy fill our tank in the morning, I scheduled an OB appointment for the afternoon, and I picked up the house as everything was really in such disarray. As I scheduled my OB appointment for Monday, DearHubby scheduled his pulmonologist appointment too. His appointment was at 1pm and mine was at 2:45pm. Getting that to work out was a challenge too, but it did.

Anyway, I think things have settled down a bit now. I gave DearDaughter1 and DearDaughter2 the BRAT (Bananas, Rice, Apples, and Toast) diet yesterday and in the evening their appetites were back and DearDaughter1 didn't complain about wanting to throw up. DearHubby was concerned that this bout of Pneumonia was a reoccurence of his fungal infection back in March which would not have been good because he was told that a reoccurence would probably mean another measure of treatment other than anti fungal medication...not good. Well, his pulmonologist does not think it's a reoccurence of the fungal infection and that it is a general case of Pneumonia. It's still not good, but it is treatable with antibiotics. In addition, my OB wasn't concerned about my bleeding. I was blessed that I had an ultrasound done last week because it showed that everything was normal with the placenta and cervix. It was thought that I might have an infection, but she did an internal and everything looked fine and my cervix felt long, so she wasn't concerned about pre-term labor or a miscarriage, especially since we heard a normal heartbeat from the baby.

So, that was our trying weekend. Anyway, I, especially failed in many ways, but I thank God that He is faithful!

9th Wedding Anniversary

Picture hosted by www.holdthatpic.com

Happy 9th Anniversary Daddy and Mommy!

2008 Olympics Garden Sculptures

These garden sculptures were created for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

6 Unspectacular Quirks of Myself

Trish, over at Beneath the Couch Cushions, tagged me on Monday, and the rules are as follows:


1. Link back to the person who tagged you
2. Mention the rules on your blog
3. Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours
4. Tag 6 following bloggers by linking them
5. Leave a comment on each of the tagged blogger’s blogs letting them know they've been tagged.

Unfortunately, I don't read 6 blogs frequently enough to comfortably tag someone...Therefore, if you are visiting and would like to join in, please feel free to do so...

6 Unspectacular Quirks of Myself:
1. Blue is my favorite color. Blue has always been my favorite color since I was a little girl. I was so glad when I got out of the US Coast Guard Academy because the Coast Guard colors are blue and while I was at the academy, I began to dislike the color and it took several years to recuperate. While blue was not my favorite color, I really liked orange (which happens to be blue's complementary color).
2. I have too many online accounts...(Blogger, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, Comcast, Juno...I may have more and have just forgotten about them).
3. I like to start books, but have difficulty finishing them. Blessedly, I do finish some when I determine to.
4. I like Coke. I was so glad that our Wal-Mart started carrying Caffeine Free Coke when I was pregnant with DearDaughter2 because while I was pregnant with DearDaughter1, I stayed away from Coke for the whole 9 months. That was hard and the first drink DearHubby got for me after DearDaughter1 was born was a can of Coke. DearHubby and I drink enough Coke to have gotten us several Blockbuster Family Night coupons through My Coke Rewards!
5. My greatest pet peeve used to be people leaving carts in the middle of the parking lot. It is no longer my greatest pet peeve, but my greatest blessing with 2 kids.
6. I like wearing baseball caps.