Christmas memories

Another Christmas is in my past and as I sit back and listen to my kids play with all their new "toys" I can't help , but reflect on my own Christmas memories. There is within each one of us a special memory of our "best" Christmas.

Jacob fell asleep on the couch a few moments ago completely surrounded by his stuffed Yoshi dolls. He has a sweet smile on his face as he drifted off to slumber land surrounded by his little fuzzy pals. As I watched him sleeping there I started thinking about my own childhood and the presents that stand out in my mind the most.

My strongest memory is of a plastic black horse named "Thunder". Grandma Fry used to give us the JC Penny catalog on Thanksgiving and tell us to circle what we wanted. We toiled over that thick book for hours on end...dreaming of all the possibilities. I was about 11 years old and totally enthralled with horses. In the boys section of the toys there were Lone Ranger and other various cowboy dolls. They were the size of Barbie, but they had their own horses (sold separately of course). I carefully circled the Lone Ranger's horse, Silver and Tonto's horse (Scout). I dreamt about those horses for the next month...hoping that Grandma would get them for me. On Christmas Day she arrived with her usual car loaded full of presents. She brought so many bright boxes and mysterious packages with her each year. We sat back and marveled at how many trips Paul and Dad made to her car to carry in all those presents.

As she handed me my boxes I tore into them with visions of those horses in my head. My first gift was a Barbie doll. I sat back and tried to smile and hide my disappointment, certain that she didn't understand that I didn't want the dolls, but I wanted the horses. There I sat with a new Barbie and a Barbie jeep...barbie clothes...a new jewelry box...lots of nice stuff, but not what I was dreaming about for a month. Grandma looked at me and said, "Did you open your big box?". I didn't have another box, but we dug through the mountains of shredded paper and we found one last box for me. I tore into it and when I lifted the lid there were 3 horses staring back at me...Silver, Scout, and a black horse named Thunder. I didn't put them down for weeks on end. Their heads and legs moved and my Barbie's could sit on their backs. I played with those horses for years and years. I took them outside and wore them out...to the point that their heads used to pop off and I was very skilled in putting them back together. LOL My favorite horse was "Thunder"...I didn't even see that one in the catalog, but grandma must have noticed it and figured I'd like that one too. They were awesome!

As an adult I have other memorable Christmas's...that stand out in my mind for all time. The birth of my "Christmas baby" , Alex, is one that looms large in my mind. For some reason though, Micah is more of a Christmas baby to me. I think that I was to tired and worn out to realize it was Christmas with Alex. LOL Micah was 3 weeks old for Christmas day and I can still remember snuggling his warm fuzzy head while I watched the older kids open their presents.

There is nothing quite like holding your newborn baby on Christmas morning...you can never forget that feeling. :)

My 2 Christmas babies:

Christmas morning

It's actually 9pm right now ...on Christmas Day. The "men" are watching the Laker game and so I thought it was a good time to slip away and post a few pictures of our morning. There is a video clip of Christmas morning on the YouTube thing on the side.

Jacob woke me up at 8am. I know that isn't incredibly early, but I am fighting the flu and I'm feeling very "blah". Jake is sick too, but that little adrenaline rush that he felt pushed him through the morning. He crashed on the couch after he was done opening his presents and I had to give him Motrin for his headache.

Here is Jake sifting through his mountain of presents. He has had a "plan" for days on which order he was going to open his stuff. LOL

He was VERY happy with his Christmas presents. He got everything he asked for thanks to Amazon. He got his microwave , toy sushi, hot wheels cars, 8 different colored stuffed Yoshi dolls, and a few other things. He was unhappy with mom's choice to buy him the "Ants in the Pants" game, but a few hours later I put it together and showed him how to play and then he liked it...heehee.

I have a tradition in my house that my kids all watch each other open their presents. We go from the youngest to the oldest and each person takes a turn cleaning up the wrapping paper for their sibling. That is why you see someone behind the "main" person in each picture. LOL I like to watch them open everything and it feels more "special" this way. Micah is wearing his new shoes in this picture. Alex bought him new indoor soccer shoes and he loves them. We got him a VCR for his room, 2 videos, 1 Wii game, 1 DS game, and an 8 Gig Ipod Monochrome (engraved with his name). He definitely had a good Christmas!

Caleb was a little disappointed because he didn't get Rock Band 2 for the Wii, but I couldn't find it in time. By the time it hit the store shelves I had already bought him most of the OTHER things on his wish list...so there you go, LOL. He got this lovely LA Dodger shirt, a portable hard drive for his lap top, a Wii game, and a bunch of assorted other things. Alex got a Nintendo DS for her birthday 2 days ago, so I got her a few accessories to go with that for Christmas. She also got a portable hard drive, some Christmas ornaments, and clothes. In this picture she and Caleb are holding up their tape measures. LOL Tilden got them nice 25 foot Craftsman tape measures and utility knives. He said that it was time to start supplying them with tools for their future "on their own" lives. They were pretty thrilled with the utility knives...hahaha. It's a good idea :) I make all the kids their own personalized calendar each year too...they love those.

Now that Alex and Caleb have good jobs they buy everyone really NICE presents. All their gifts added a lot to our morning...it was fun to watch them give each other their gifts. Even Jacob got into the gift buying spirit and he got all of us something HYSTERICAL. For example: he got Caleb Super Mario boxer shorts and when Caleb opened them Jake said, " I got you those because you always walk to the bathroom in your underpants". hahahahaa He got me a tiny deer statue with a pine tree and he told me to put them on my table by my bed. hahaha...it was so fun!!

And finally, this is our annual "after the presents" picture. The kids hold
up their favorite gift for a group shot. Notice that Alex is holding her utility knife...hahaha. Silly girl.

busy hands

I woke up this morning to a "Merry Christmas" art display from Jake. He spent a LONG time working on these "Fat mouth Jacob" pictures for the dining room wall. He also hung them on the living room wall. I had to take a picture of it all so that everyone else could enjoy it with me. LOL

He was very proud of himself as you can tell by this picture. Silly child!!

Just in case you don't know Jake...or you've forgotten, he created a Mii character on the Wii that he calls "Fat mouth Jacob". It simply has 2 eyes and a long line as it's mouth (no nose). He LOVES this Mii person and draws it on everything he sees.

Here are a few close -ups. Enjoy!

Christmas is coming...

" The goose is getting fat. Pleased to put a penny in the old man's hat..."

Oh, sorry...just some old Raffi song running through my head. LOL

When you are an adult everything goes by so fast. You "dread" putting up the decorations because you know that they will need to come back down shortly and you just don't don't want the extra work. The days rush by so quickly in a flurry of chores and every day task. Suddenly, it's Christmas Eve and you are wrapping that last present and filling the stockings...again..while you get the feeling of de'javu because you've done this so many times before. There are years when I am not so thrilled about Christmas and this is one of them. It's hard to stay upbeat when your husband has been given a lay off notice. It's difficult to be cheery when the Wii breaks 10 days before Christmas and you've bought several presents that directly relate to that Wii working. :(



But then God sends you a 5 year old who is filled with enough excitement to keep this entire house afloat. You have to smile when he walks into your room each morning with his big smile ( and missing tooth ) giving you a huge hug and saying " 11 more days and it's CHRISTMAS!".

This is a typical day with Jake:

He wakes up very early and runs to the advent calendar to hang the days ornament. Then he counts all the boxes that are left and rushes through the house giving everything that moves a hug and a report on how many more days are left before Christmas. Throughout the day we will all receive several reminders on this count down...followed by this statement given on tippy toes with folded hands, "and I'm sooooo EXCITED!". Even the cat has to sit through his hourly reports. LOL

I've been wrapping 1-3 presents a day and letting Jake put them under the tree. He will spread all the presents around and count them in several different ways -- how many are his, how many are red, how many there are total, ect. Often he will walk up to people and tell them how many presents they have in comparison with him. (he has the most). In the evening he runs through the house and turns off every single light, but plugs in the Christmas tree, fireplace lights and mini snowman tree. Then he does what we like to call, "the parade of presents". He will march past us with one present at a time and as he is passing by he says, "this one is dad's" or "this one is Jake from Alex". We don't do the Santa thing at our house and we never have. This year as Jacob was celebrating the presents I started flashing back to Caleb and Micah doing the same thing and I realized that the Santa believers are missing out on this fun tradition of embracing allllll those mysterious presents and imagining what each box holds.

Last night as I was sitting at the PC near the tree, Jake walked up to me and said, "Hey , we don't have one of those throwing holes where Santa tosses the presents to the tree". LOL LOL I pointed out the fireplace and he quickly ran to it and had a good look and then said, "Oh, well this is probably to far from the tree. If Santa comes here he is going to be lost and he won't know which pile of presents are mine." . I asked him how he knew about Santa and he said, "Haliegh told me that he's bringing all her presents and that he needs a throwing hole". Then I had to tell him that all his presents are already here because mom and dad buy them for him and Santa doesn't come here. He bit a big piece off his candy cane and said, "good , because I don't like him and I don't want him throwing my presents".

He goes to bed early every night on his own because he wants to wake back up and do the next day of the advent calendar. He gives me a big hug and says, "I love you mom....tomorrow are you gonna wrap another present?". heeheee



So....it's really hard to be a "scrooge" when you have a little ball of Christmas cheer living in your house.

shopping shopping...

I have all of my Christmas shopping done!! Well, at least I think that I do, but I am sure that when I wrap all these presents I will notice that someone has less than the rest and I will have to go even out the loot. LOL

I let Jake pick out whatever he wanted to buy for Alex's birthday. He is so funny! Last year he got her one of those bike license plates that says "Alex" on it and he was certain that it was a Wal-Mart gift card. We laughed so hard when he gave it to her. Hey, he was being sincere...heehee. However, he does not have the "spirit of giving" because he is all about himself when we go shopping. I guess that will come in time.

Micah has Christmas money to spend this year. I've taken him shopping twice and it's like taking a card board cut out of Micah to the store. He says nothing, he makes no expressions, and he has no opinions. I get exhausted from the constant..."Micah, what do you WANT to buy?" dialog. He always shrugs his shoulders and says nothing. I forced Tilden and Micah to come with me to kraynak's yesterday because I wanted to buy stocking stuffers and I knew that Micah still needed to get gifts for most of his siblings. It was super crowded there and I suddenly realized something... Micah is exactly like his dad when it comes to shopping!! They both hovered close to me as if I was their guide in a foreign land. Neither of them had any advice or opinions, but if I asked them to specifically look for something they were helpful. At one point I actually had to ask them to STEP BACK because they were hovering so close to me that I couldn't even see the stuff on the shelves. Tilden could only say a few phrases while we were there and I heard them over and over. "People are crazy", "why is it so crowded?" and "are you almost done?".
We went to Quaker Steak and Lube afterwards and the many tv sets were playing the Sunday football games. Suddenly , Micah and Tilden became extremely interested in their surroundings and could carry on a lengthy conversation. However, those conversations were all football based. Who is injured, who is going to win today, who is getting the best draft pick. They were all smiles and chipper. NOTHING like the 2 "men" who just went shopping with me. I am convinced that all stores have some type of force surrounding them that sucks the willpower and the brain from the male human. They can't think or react while in the store, but once they leave their full powers of thought are restored.

I MISS ALEX!!! I am not a real 'girl" when it comes to shopping. I don't delight in the whole process nor do I care to browse and stay longer than needed, but at least my brain works. LOL I go with a mission in mind and I follow through with that mission...even if it means hitting 3 or 4 stores to find the item I was looking for. I don't think that I will make the boys go shopping with me anymore. In fact, I am going to make Tilden take Micah Christmas shopping. It won't frustrate me and they will both be happier, LOL.

Thanksgiving with the Tatebe's

Before I begin...there are 2 new video's to watch in my youtube bar. One of them was taken immediately after Jake lost his first tooth. It's pretty short. The other are my 4 kids playing Rock Band together while waiting for dinner on Thanksgiving day.

Almost everyone took part in helping cook dinner this year. Alex chopped up all the onions and celery for the stuffing, Micah made pumpkin pies, Caleb chopped up the veggies and Jake helped in whatever way he could. I let him dump the stuffing bags into the big bowl and peel an onion. LOL

Caleb felt that it was imperative to use his latex gloves from work because "squash and zucchini are deadly". Hey, those are HIS exact words. He made a wonderful light dish of broiled zucchini and yellow squash. We were trying to think of a new vegetable to serve this year and he suggested making that. I loved it!

Several years ago I found Indian and Pilgrim hats in a dollar store. We get them out every Thanksgiving and everyone will take a turn wearing them at some point throughout the day. It's just silly fun!! Here is Alex showing off her "style" as she prepares to baste the turkey.

Micah wore his Indian feathers while he played Rock Band. He must be part of the Village People. LOL Now that I think about it...most of the time they pick the Indian feathers over the Pilgrim hat. tsk tsk

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....dinner was finally done and we all gathered around our fancy table and enjoyed a wonderfully delicious feast. We stuffed ourselves and then fought over the couches so we could lay down and moan about eating to much.

Happy Thanksgiving!! This picture is priceless...I can't believe Tilden let me take it. heeheee

Pumpkin Pie

Another classic Jake moment...
I made 4 pumpkin pies on Wednesday. Two for us and two for my parents. Traditionally we cut them on Thanksgiving morning and eat pie w hile we watch the parade. I had them on the kitchen table cooling and Jake kept asking me when he could eat a pumpkin pie. I told him to wait until tomorrow morning when the parade was on and he could eat some for breakfast. Frankly, I was tired from cooking most of the day and my feet hurt so I didn't want to deal with all his demands. Well, I went into the kitchen later and the center of a pie was eaten away with his little grubby finger prints all over the place! I called him into the kitchen and he said, "that wasn't ME!". Little liar! LOL Know what I did? I cut the pie up and gave him a piece. What was the point in punishing him? His eyes were huge as I got the knife to cut the pie and he said, "WHAT are you gonna do with that?". As if I were Freddy Kruger or some other crazy person, LOL. He had to smell those pies all day long and he just couldn't stand it...the damage was done already. No sense in getting into a fight over something a 5 year old did. I DID yell at him a little bit and told him to NEVER do that again. He said, "I'll try mom, but they are to good to just smell". HAHAHAHA. After he ate his pie I said, "Jake you better never destroy a pie like that again. That was very naughty." He looked at me with his tiny innocent face and said, "it wasn't me!". Man! He is going to be TROUBLE when he's a teenager.

Ambazone

If you haven't spoken to Jake in the past few weeks, you are missing out on his Christmas list.
I can NOT get him to change his mind ..so basically he will be really disappointed on Christmas morning. This is his list...in order of importance to him:
1. A microwave for his room ( real one)
2. A big TV and a cable box...for his room
3. A refrigerator...for his room
4. A Wii for his big tv in his room.
5. A kids rake
6. A box full of hot wheels and matchbox cars

He obviously has a lot of influence from his college siblings living in dorms. He would love to turn his room into a dorm. He can be featured on MTV "Cribs". The newest installment "middle class little kid Cribs".

In my attempt to change his mind and find SOMETHING that I can get him for Christmas that will make him happy we turned to Amazon. He sat on my lap and we typed in different things that he is interested in to see what we could come up with for his wish list. First, we tried the TOY microwave and a list of about 10 different models popped up. He actually like one of them because it was green and came with a hamburger. Apparently, those are 2 criteria when you are shopping for a toy microwave. We promptly added that to his list. Then I typed in his other love..."Nintendo DS" and a bunch of stuffed Nintendo characters popped up mixed with the games. Ohhhh he was all over that!! They apparently make 8 different colored Yoshi's and he MUST have them all. Yoshi is his favorite person on Nintendo...okay, so it's not a person, but a dinosaur. He decided that he needed the stuffed star and mushrooms and Mario, but NOT Luigi.
As we finished his list he slid off my lap and got the telephone. He handed it to me and said, "call Caleb and Alex for me. I need to tell them about my Ambazone list". He did tell them...and they both went on his wish list and ordered him some items for Christmas.
Of course, that makes those items disappear and when he looked at the list the next day he was panicked to find them missing. I showed him how to hit "show all" to bring them back and he was peaceful once more. He looks at his little Ambazone list at least 20 times a day and then he tells me, "don't forget to buy me all the stuff I know on my list". He even has wrapping paper picked out for each item. He brings me the rolls of wrapping paper every day with a new command. "Mom, wrap all my Yoshi's in this one and wrap my microwave in the striped one". LOL
I guess I better buckle down and actually buy him some of those things on his wish list. heeheee

The repairs...

I took these pictures a week or so ago , just to show you all what the "repairs" look like in my yard. I HATE how my yard looks without that big old maple tree and I am beyond frustrated with all the pieces of tree strewn about. My hubby quickly goes blind to anything of this nature though and he could care less about it. ... sigh

Here is the remnants of the tree:

Side view of the garage....and where they left most of the branch that fell down. You also can see the mound of dirt from the trench that was dug to the garage from our house for the electricity.

And last, but not least...the new roof! I don't have any complaints about this, that's for sure. LOL It matches the house roof exactly. They put the light off to the side instead of in the middle so that it will light up our back door and steps. It does a mighty fine job of lighting our back yard too. It's so bright that I had to go buy room darkening curtains for Caleb's room. That new light is practically even with his window.

Micah misses the basketball hoop. :)

Micah's week

Micah has had an interesting week. I thought I would share my "mom moments" on my middle child.

He decided to try out for the 7th grade basketball team at school last week. They had a week of conditioning and a week of try-outs. There were 30 boys trying out for 13 slots. Now, in my own mind I felt that he would not make the team because he is to short and he's only done 2 years of rec. basketball. These other kids play all the time. All of his friends were trying out as well and they are a tight knit little group of boys. The difference is that most of his friends are first born kids and he's the middle child. He's a fighter...really competitive and has this inborn desire to be first at everything. He will run until he throws up if it means he'll be first. His friends have decent ball handling skills, but they don't have that competitive urge driving them forward. They are in that "I don't want to make a mistake" mode still. Micah is " I will run you over and dance on your grave to cross the finish line ahead of you" . LOL

So, the team was posted on Tuesday and I was at the school to watch Micah's band concert. (he's first chair sax, btw) I asked the secretary where the list was and she directed me to it...I read it twice...there was his name "Micah Tatebe". I went back to the cafeteria to take him home from school and said, "hey, you made the team! Great job". His eyes got as big and they could possibly get and he said, "WHAT? Where is the list? I couldn't find it today!" hahahaaa The sad news was that he was the only boy from his group of friends to make that team...in fact he was the only white boy on the team. Well, if you can call him white.

He likes the kids on the team and he's friends with a few of them so it's not an issue. His long time pals are a wee bit bitter and Micah is dealing with their shock over being cut, and trying to act like it's no big deal that he's on the team. He's definitely not going to start, but we are hoping that they will play him at least. Woohoo for Micah!!

He is also trying out to be on the Olympic Development team for soccer. He wants to make the Ohio team this year and has gotten through the first round of cuts. He has 5 more try outs up in Cleveland before they make more cuts. He did very well at the first try out on Sunday, but we didn't commit to allow him to go to Europe this summer and that may stand in his way of making the team. We shall see.

AND he brought his report card home yesterday and got straight A's!! He's in all the accelerated classes and has been so busy with soccer and basketball stuff, but still got a 4.0. He's a "smarty" like his big brother and sister, I guess.

What else can I tell you about Micah...

Ohhhh yeah....they let different kids do the announcements each week at school. He did them in early October and the principal liked how he read and his attitude so much that she's having him do the announcements every day now! LOL He no longer has an excuse for not knowing what is going on since he is in charge of reading all that stuff each morning. heehee

He was also picked to be on the Challenge 24 (math) team and is captain of the 7-8th grade Prep Bowl team (brain power). He is a busy busy boy.

Here is his new school picture. He looked at it and shaved off his "stash" the day after he brought it home. LOL

" A 3 hour tour"

Seriously, this was a solid 3 hour block of my life today that I feel the need to share. I just know that one of my sisters will say, "oh I had a day like that too". :) It's more fun to tell it to you in first person...so delve into my mind and off we go!

Hmmm...it's only noon and I've got time to start wedding soup and suprise Tilden. It's a big process if you follow this recipe and short cutting steps results in the soup tasting "off". This won't be to bad, Jake is eating his lunch and Micah doesn't need picked up for 4 more hours. So, I gather up all my ingredients and I get the stock started. Fill up the big big pot with lots of water toss in an onion, several whole carrots and a few whole stalks of celery. Lalalalalala...see this is going to be breezy. Maybe I should get the recipe out just in case I forgot something. Here it is! Chicken? Oh , yeah, how could I forget to throw the chicken in there?
I look in the freezer and I see no chicken. That's strange, maybe it's behind something else. I dig and dig an still...no chicken. I descend to the beloved basement freezer and open it, but the light is burnt out and I can't see a thing. Shoot, now I have to go back up the stairs and get the flashlight from the kitchen. Get the flashlight and go back down...I hate those stairs!! YAY, I found chicken!!! I take it upstairs and open the bag to discover that the freezer must have been open at some point this month and then pushed back shut. Just long enough for the chicken to slightly thaw and then freeze again as one giant clump of chicken parts. I get out a knife and use it as an ice pick to whack chicken breast off the clump o'chicken and then I drop them into the pot.
Look at me I am so productive. I should peel all the carrots and chop up the celery for later. I have an hour or so before I need to put them into the soup, but if I do it now I won't have to do it later...makes sense to me! Peel peel peel the carrots. A whole giant bag of carrots peeled and chopped up. Scrub up the dirty celery...honestly, that is the direst vegetable! Chop chop chop all the celery. Wow, that is a big bowl of veggies. Now, remember this garbage disposal is so weird about carrot peelings. I don't want it to clog so I have to trickle the carrot peelings into the hole.
There...now I just have to wash the counters down and I can go vacuum the living room. WHAT THE HECK?! Stupid garbage disposal backed up again? I was so careful this time. I hate that thing ...I swear that it's allergic to carrots. Well, I watched Tilden do this a hundred times and I am sure I can do this myself. Plus, I need the sink to finish this soup.
I suppose that I need to clear out the cupboard under the sink first. Why on earth did I buy more Dawn? I have 2 under here already, dude, I wonder how old this one is? Do they even make this bottle anymore? Oh crap, I need to get the bucket from the basement to catch the water. Back downstairs I go...feeling a little twang in my knee again. It doesn't like the stairs.
Okay, now I just have to wedge the bucket under this J shaped pipe and then unscrew it. The carrots always seem to lodge in there. I can't believe how tight these things are screwed on...oh my gosh I am soooo going to give myself a hernia turning these!! I finally wrestle this pipe off and brace myself for the gush of water, but nothing comes out. I get the piece of pipe off and look inside and it's clean as a whistle. DANGGIT...the clog must be in the straight connector piece. I move the bucket over , not reattaching the J pipe, but I stick a big tupperware bowl under there...just in case. I am so not cleaning up an extra mess!! If I am careful I can get this done with no hassle. lalalalalaaa...I'm so handy! I wonder what Jake is doing? Oh well...
I start to unscrew the fitting on the straight piece and I feel the pipe start to vibrate rapidly. What is that? The disposal isn't even on..that's weird. I keep unscrewing and ...BAAAMMMMM!!!! Water and carrot bits start spraying every where. The floor is soaked, I am soaked and I do the "girly" scream, which attracts Jake. "mom, why are you doing that mess?" ...oh go away Jacob. I gather my senses and hurry up and unscrew the fitting all the way and the rest of the water falls into the bucket. It is then that I realize the dishwasher is running and it's attached to the garbage disposal...what great timing do I have? Oh my goodness, what are the odds that I would be unscrewing that pipe at the exact moment that the pressure from the dishwasher forces more water into the pipe? Oh my gosh...water is seeping into my underwear, ugh this is nasty! My legs are completely covered in carrot bits and I am soaked. I send Jake to get me a towel and then I finish unclogging this blessed pipe and screw it all back together. brrrr... I am really getting cold now, but why change my clothes when I am going to be cleaning up the floor anyhow?
What is this under here? Hmmm...a box of garbage disposal cleaners...I wonder when I bought these? I might as well use one and do a thorough job of cleaning. " run hot water at a trickle, shove biodegradable packet down into the disposal. Turn disposal on and leave water at a trickle. A blue foam will rise up as it cleans, when it recedes you can turn off the disposal and run the water for one minute." Simple. I follow the plan and watch the pretty blue foam rise up and recede. Then I look under the sink on a whim and notice lovely blue foam ooozing from one of the joints. For crying out loud, I am not strong enough to crank that thing tighter. I grab and towel and with all my might I force it a few more inches and the foam stops it's oozing. I put everything back under the sink and then run upstairs to change. I swear that I fell into a river...how can I be this wet?

Okay, so...wow...it's already 2 o'clock? sheesh...time to take the chicken out and chop it up, toss the stock veggies and add the chopped up ones. I start my process and Jake comes sheepishly into the kitchen. "Mom, I made a spill, are you going to spank me?". JAKE...SERIOUSLY? I am never getting this soup done! I go into the living room and am welcomed by a mountain of Kleenex. What the heck? What did you spill Jake? My spaghettio's and my blue Huggie drink. I then scream, "GET UPSTAIRS BEFORE I BEAT THE LIFE OUT OF YOU!!". He darts away like a rabbit and then I feel guilty for yelling because I just made a big mess myself, so who am I to judge?
I remove this mountain of spaghettio ridden Kleenex to find a dinner plate size area of ground in tomato sauce on my light tan rug. Are you kidding me? How on earth can I clean this up? Oh, but look at the blue huggie pattern..it crosses the spaghettio sauce at the perfect point to make a lovely shade of purple. I guess I am going to have to dig the carpet cleaner out now. Back to the basement I wander , but I can not find my carpet cleaner. Okay, I am losing my mind!! Did I loan it to someone? No, no...I don't remember doing that. Wait a second...Tilden "cleaned" the basement so that the electrician could get to the box so he must have moved it. DANGIT, he forgot his cell phone today so I can't call him. sigh..
I dig around and finally see the handle under the stairs behind MOUNTAINS of crap. I have to dig it out as if I am unearthing a T-Rex skeleton. Why on earth would he shove this so far back? OUCH>>>what did I step on? Oh I don't want to know. I limp up the stairs with this monstrous carpet cleaner and then I proceed to rummage through the cleaning supplies for the carpet cleaner solution. Oh praise Jesus, we have some! I go to add the water and cleaner solution to the tank and discover that the tank isn't even there. Back down stairs I go to get the tank from the utility sink. For some reason it's covered in paint chips. I have no idea what's going on there!
Finally, I have this machine together and I end up cleaning the entire carpet because if I had only done the spaghettio spot...well it would be weird looking. Since I have this up here I guess I should wash the kitchen floor with it too and clean up that carrot mess.
I begrudgingly do that whole floor and work up a serious sweat. When it's all done I call Jake back downstairs and give him the standard lecture about telling me FIRST when he spills and never using Kleenex for clean up. I plop down on the couch and then realize I never cut up the chicken!! Back to the kitchen I go and start cutting all the chicken into bite sized pieces and dropping them into the soup. While I was doing that Tilden calls me from work to tell me that he forgot his phone...yeah, I know. Then he tells me that he has a meeting tonight for soccer. Are you SERIOUS? I am killing myself with this soup and he's not even coming home?
LOL
I finish the chicken and look at the clock...it's now 3:30. Wow, what a day!

And while I was typing this my boys have had their own adventures for the night. Micah decided that he wanted to shave for the first time, but he didn't want to wait another hour for his dad to come home. Well, I don't shave my face, so I am not really sure what to tell you...this is what dad does..blah blah blah. I am very tempted to get my camera and snap a shot, but he's going through puberty and not very agreeable with things of that nature. I just left him alone. He did a fine job.
Jacob took his own shower because he didn't want any help. As I am typing this line he is saying, "Mom, I washed my butt and I did a great job. My butt is so clean, want to see?". No thanks Jake, I'll trust you.
Can I go to bed now?

A pumpkin picture story

Alex came home to carve pumpkins with Micah this week. Here is our evening, best told in pictures.

Jacob couldn't use a knife....ok...welll he probably COULD , but I most definitely didn't want him to. He drew all over his pumpkin and decided that it should wear a mask.

Then he decided that he should color the mask...and wear it himself.



Alex's pumpkin came out very cute...and looks "spooky" when the lights are off.

Micah's pumpkin weighed in at a hefty 37 pounds!! It was nearly impossible to cut because the skin was so thick. Micah broke one of those pumpkin carving saws on this monster and had to resort to using a steak knife! LOL It came out pretty good, considering the struggle he had with it.

Jacob was pretty proud of his "fat mouth Jacob" pumpkin. LOL

I took a few little video clips of our night and you can view that youtube video on the sidebar in here. Happy Halloween!

So this morning....

Jake opens my door and says a cheery, "good morning mom"....I respond with the same. Then he says, "don't go in the kitchen today, all right?". Hmmm...that means that I must NEED to go to the kitchen. I stand up and Jake quickly blocks the door with his body and outstretched arms. "MOM" he says quite emphatically, "do NOT go downstairs, just stay in bed". I sigh my "mom" sigh and say, "why Jake?". He very matter of fact replies, "cuz there is rice all over the kitchen floor and you don't feel like cleaning it up today." LOL

I go downstairs, against his will and find that he has dumped a whole container of fried rice onto a plate, but most of it has spilled onto the floor. As I stand there and take in this mini disaster I notice that the microwave says "40:32" on it and I realize that is what is left of someones cooking time. I open the microwave to discover more rice and I say, "Jake, did you try to use the microwave today?" to which he gives me a cheery, "YUP".
Let me paint this picture for you....
Sticky fried rice from one end of the kitchen floor to the other because he spread it all around in his 5 year old attempt to clean it up. An ENTIRE roll of paper towels has been spread from the microwave to the garbage can without tearing a single sheet and the end of this roll is tucked neatly into the garbage can. He tried to cover the whole floor with paper towels to hide the rice. I clean up all the towels and then I get the broom and sweep the rice into a pile. Then I tell Jake to get the dustpan and the small hand broom and sweep this all into the garbage. As he is cheerfully sweeping up the neat pile of rice he looks at me and says, "this is easier than paper towels mom, you are smart". WHATEVER!!
That is how I started my day today. Cleaning up miles and miles of sticky fried rice and slightly used paper towels. Then I had a very long discussion with Jacob on why he can't use the microwave...AGAIN!

pictures by Jake

I got Jacob a Little Tykes digital camera for Christmas last year. It was one of those hard to pass up deals on "black Friday". How could I resist a 60.00 camera for only 25.00? LOL This poor camera has been dropped no less than 50 times in the past year as well as being smashed under the couch and wedged under the treadmill. Jacob wasn't that to interested in it on Christmas morning, but a few months later he decided that it was pretty fun. I toss it in the toy box all the time and will find it on the floor somewhere in the house a few days later. He LOVES to take pictures of the living room rug. In fact, when I was uploading all his pictures today I noticed that this one would have been perfect for the family scavenger hunt - shapes.

Micah has taken several pictures of Jake with this camera , but most of the pictures were taken by Jake himself. Some of them are awesome , but most are silly nonsense...just like the boy himself. LOL This camera doesn't boast large mega pixel capacity or tons of storage, but it's perfect for a child and will give you a glimpse into the mind and day of a 4 -5 year old. I think that I will get him a better camera in a few years because he really LOVES taking pictures. These are his best buddies...all lined up and "smiling "....I busted out laughing when I saw it.

I uploaded his whole camera memory to myphoto album online. He has his own folder over there if you feel like scrolling through some pictures. They are kind of neat. There is a whole series of his own feet while he was sitting in the back of Alex's car. I have only let him take the camera with him one time, but after going through his film I think that I need to allow him to take it out more often. He got some pretty interesting pictures on his drive.

My favorite picture is this one because he was trying to take a picture of the "happy birthday " sign on the fence. I am not sure why, but I really like it...maybe it is the crappy old garage in the background or the fact that he was so happy to see that sign on the fence. It just made me say...awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. LOL Go have a look at his pictures, you won't be sorry that you did!

Electricity

The electrical contractors are here today...at this very moment, in fact. They are running the power lines to the garage. It's been 5 weeks since that tree fell and severed the lines. They have to do this up to code, so they are trenching an underground line from the basement to the garage.

Let me just describe the whole event. I am feeling frustrated and irritated this morning so I am venting....ahhhhhhhhh

Tilden came home because I told him last night that I don't feel like dealing with another contractor today. I am just "spent" on all the phone calls and meetings by myself. He hasn't dealt with any of it, but he gives his opinion on the details that have been arranged afterwards. Basically, it makes me feel like I am being "graded" on my level of professionalism and shrewdness. Not intentionally his plan, I am sure...it's just the "way of man". LOL

So, he put on his official work outside outfit. He's had this whole ensemble since we were married and he doesn't veer from it - EVER. Let me do the visual for you...since I am not getting out the camera for this.
- The oldest jeans ever made. Very faded and worn with giant holes in the knees and at the edge of the back pockets. Oil and paint stains that will never come out.
- 20 year old work boots that are completely stained with dirt and oil. There is no trace of their former color. I bought him a brand new pair of Timberland's 2 years ago, but they are still in the box because he doesn't want to "ruin" them.
-Flannel shirt that you can barely see under his zip up , blue sweat shirt. The thermal lined sweat shirt has seen it's last days, but that thing ain't going nowhere.

Know what's funny? When you look out the window, he matches the 3 electrical dudes out there...right down to the BLUE sweatshirt jacket. LOL

Anyhow, he's not actually DOING anything. It's kind of like going to a professional football game and wearing the jersey of your favorite player. You are never going down on the field and you will surely never touch that ball, but you look the part anyhow. He's currently wearing his "electrical contractor fan" outfit. He's sitting in the bleachers out there, cheering them on.

Sooo.........they had to take down my fence on the driveway side in order to drive their trencher to the back yard. Then they dug a 3 foot deep trench from the back of the house straight out to the top of the hill and then across to the garage. Jake and I watched from the kitchen window because it was fascinating. There is a brick path under the grass out there and when it came to that spot it simply shot the bricks out and they went clear to the fire pit in the back yard. I was hoping to see a dinosaur bone or some ancient pottery fly out of there, but I guess a 3 foot hole just isn't deep enough, huh? They did unearth a huge flat stone though, it's awesome and I told Tilden that I want to keep it and use it somewhere.

Then they drilled a hole through the bricks in the garage and that took forever! Jake like the next part the most. They went into the crawl space in the basement and drilled a hole through the concrete and the entire house vibrated with that drill. Now they are running the line from the box in the house through that trench and into the garage.

Tilden just came in because he's cold. heeheee (guess we will call this half time)
Guess that's all for now!

Mill Creek Park

There was no school this past Friday, so Pam and I took the kids to Mill Creek Park. It was cloudy and chilly, but that didn't dampen the fall colors one single bit. I just had to share this picture ...have you ever seen so much orange? It was breathtakingly beautiful and I am certain that the older boys were very tired of hearing Pam and I say, "Ohhhh look at that tree, guys". LOL This picture was taken on the path going back to the parking lot, right by the mill. Just a tiny little path that cuts to a parking lot, but it was one of the most breathtaking sights of the whole trip. There must have been 20 bright orange and red trees in this small space. It's funny how we remember things in life. When I think about being young and "fall" I don't remember ever really caring what color the leaves were. I was mostly interested in rolling around in the piles of dry crunchy leaves or making mazes through all those leaves to try to confuse my sister. I guess it's because we only had Oak trees in our big yard . Those leaves were plenty of fun...even if they were "pukey" brown. LOL

No matter what color the leaves are...throwing them in the air and watching them tumble all around you will always be FUN! The look on Jacob's face says it all. Leaves are sooooo fun when you are 5! You don't think of the bugs on them or the fact that they are going to kill your grass if you don't rake them up. It's just fun , fun, fun! Remember how much fun they were? Now that I am an adult I still think that leaves are "fun", but not in the same way. I have no desire to roll around or bury myself in a deep pile of dead leaves, but I derive tons of fun from driving around and looking at them. I love to just stand there and stare at the wonderful colors and marvel that something is so beautiful because it's DYING! What a metaphor...it's pretty cool.

I have uploaded the rest of my "fun" Mill Creek park pix's on my photo album website and I even took a little video clip of the Lily Pond for you siesta's to admire...I'll get that up on youtube soon. HUGS! One of Jake's "special" poses...heehee

Autumn leaves

"Happy Autumn"

I took Jake for a walk 2 days ago just to take pictures and show all my "southern" sisters what it currently looks like in Warren. These shots are from around my house and I made sure to take a wee video clip of the SOUND of fall...you know what I mean don't you? Crunch crunch crunch. You can see in this first picture that some of the trees are at that really cool stage where they are still green on the bottom, but orange, yellow and red at the top. I love it when you can find a single leaf that has all 3 colors .

This was Jake jumping up to grab the perfect leaf to show Noah. He jumped up and down at least 5 times before he could grab it. LOL

And here is "Noah's leaf"....a lovely shade of red. :)

The weather is perfectly blissful right now. We are having cool nights and sunny days in the low 70's. The leaves are so brilliant against the bright blue sky right now. I think it's going to be at it's peak for the fall colors this weekend. I am taking Micah and Jake to Mill Creek Park on Friday to hike around and enjoy the beauty. Fall is like nothing else, sometimes I think it's why God gave us eyes. How can you not marvel at a tree that goes from green to brilliant orange literally overnight? It's awesome! I wish you all were here!! When you go outside there is that very distinct "fall" smell. You know the one? It's kind of a dry dead leaf smell, which sounds gross when I say it that way, but it's soooo distinct and I am sure that you all know that I am talking about. The only bad thing about this time of year is those darn yellow jackets. They come out in full force this time of year...remember how they used to be attracted to the pumpkins when we painted them? Silly bees! I guess we have to accept the good with the bad, huh? Turn up the volume and listen to the crunchy leaves! Pretty soon the entire sidewalk will be covered as well as most of the yard.

tree clean up

Tilden has been cutting up the tree little by little. Every single time he gets out the chainsaw Jake runs in the house and puts on this "ensemble". LOL

This is his tree cutting outfit...Ohio state cap, safety glasses and a single mitten. I have no idea whatsoever why he decided this was necessary, but with Jacob- - you just don't question.

Maybe it has something to do with Micah...who's glasses and gloves are mandatory according to his dad. Jake does like copy his brother as you can see by this delicate balancing act they are performing on the tree trunk.

I do have some lovely clips of tree clean up that I will be turning into a web clip soon. I hope you are not hoping for the 3 hour tree cutting extravaganza from our youth!! I kept it down to 3 minutes in honor of mom's marathon taping. LOL

What tree clean up post would be complete without this foggy picture of the man himself...the one who was doing all the work while the 2 chuckle heads played on the tree.

gymnastics

Yesterday was Jacob's first gymnastics class. I took him to the gym that Alex competed for all those years and she is still working there...OGI.

The class is relatively new, so there are only 3 kids in there right now and there is no waiting around to take your turn on something...plus they have 2 teachers! LOL

Jacob went right in there without missing a beat because he saw Alex in there coaching another group. He was flat out AMAZING and I couldn't help but laugh out loud several times at his "Jacobness". The first thing that they did was to try some stuff out on the vault. There was a system set up where they first jumped up on a high mat via a mini springboard and then onto the big vault with the bigger springboard. The 2 little girls struggled a bit to get up there , but not Jake...he popped off that springboard as if we have one in every room at home and he is soooo used to using it. He was standing on top of the vault - which was pretty high off the ground - and his teacher said, "can you do a tuck jump off of here?". He said, "sure" and then did a Brani off the vault!! It's kind of like a front tuck but has a twist in it. He landed on the mat sideways and jumped right up and said, "oops, let me try that again cuz I can land on my feet sometimes". LOL Both teachers yelled, "NOOOO!". Every single parent in the waiting room saw it and were saying, "did you just see that little boy do a front tuck off the vault, oh my gosh". Alex was in the gym cracking up and her friend Lauren walked over to the parents and said, "that is Alex's little brother, obviously she's been working with him". LOL

He just hopped around the entire hour and did every single activity with precision and flair. Oh,.... AND he has a toe point that Alex used to dream about! hahaha When the class was over Jacob refused to leave the floor. His teacher said, "but we are done now Jake" and he said, "but we didn't get to run yet"...whatever!! He's so weird. When we were leaving he said, "can I come back tomorrow?" and when he got up today he said, "six more days til gin nastics". I'm so glad that he started off like himself. He was outgoing and spontaneous and FUN. YAY for Jake!

I'm old

No, really...I am!!

I tried to help...no no let me rephrase that...Tilden DEMANDED that I help him cut up the tree. I trudged out there and started pulverizing sticks and branches with dad's mulcher machine. I was moving big pieces of the tree trunk out of my way when...BOOOIIIINNNNGGGG....I felt my back tingle. If only that tingly sensation could last! It quickly turned into roaring pain and I was out for the count. I have taken so much motrin these past 2 days that I think I should buy stock in the company. Sleeping? Why I'm glad you asked...HECK NO!! I blame it on Tilden for making me work when he knows darn well that I am better off sitting on the couch watching tv. What was he thinking?
I had to share my pain...because it's really annoying me. ouchy

soccer video

This video is on my yahoo in the sidebar too, but I thought I'd test out the add video feature and soooo..here it goes!

This is a 2 minute video of Jake having FUN playing soccer...so my sisters can see that he really did enjoy it, despite that first game, LOL! He got his trophy today at the picnic and carried it around for about 15 minutes before he dropped it and it broke into 3 pieces. I was so prepared for him to cry, but he just said, "ooops" and ran off to play soccer with Micah. I tried to glue it back together, but it might be a lost cause. At least the name plate is in tact. :)

Living Beyond yourself

Ok, so that is the title of a Beth Moore study that I am currently working on...based on the Fruit of the Spirit.


I am just in the first lesson, but I felt discouraged today because it's so different and "disjointed" in comparison to the Daniel study that I did last year. I flipped to the front of the book and saw that the copy right date is 1998...Daniel study is 2007. Let me just point out this one thing...she has gotten a LOT better. LOL


Anyhow, there is still some pretty good stuff in here if you take the time to slow down and reread certain parts. She shoved so much in these chapters and has you looking up 3 or 4 verses for each point. Now she zones in and goes much deeper into ONE verse. I guess that is more my style, I like to pick one area apart and turn it over 100 times and get every bit out of it instead of skimming 4 verses to gather their common theme. BTW, she just finished a study on Esther....I LOVE THAT BOOK of the bible. It will be interesting to see what she gleaned from it.


Okay, I need to focus, now who's flitting about?

I had to answer a question at the end of this chapter and my own answer suprised me. We read through Galatians 2:20, " I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." I read through her 10 very in depth points on the characteristics of a crucified life.

1. Few will understand.

2. you must abandon your own will and your own agenda.

3. Your intimate spiritual companions will be few.

4. Intense times of aloneness with God are required.

5. You will be constantly on the witness stand.

6. You must go "outside the camp".

7. There will be times when your dignity is forfeited.

8. you must fore go your rights.

9. You must accept that death is painful.

10. Because He was forsaken, you never will be.



Which of these characteristics of a crucified life spoke most personally to you? - the question

I am tired and it's late and I instantly wrote something without giving it a ton of thought. I wrote that "Death is painful" was the one that stood out. Then I had to sit up and stare at my painting of "starry night"...it brings me focus . Why did I write that so quickly? What made that stand out to me? I turned back to my book and wrote..." The "death" of things that I desire so strongly is surprisingly excruciating". Sometimes I beg and pray for God to take that "pain" or to change the outcome, but it never seems to happen quickly. Lots and lots of sleepless nights are a result as I wade through it...lots of pain. How silly am I? Death IS painful....and if I am killing off something in me that is not God's will, then it will hurt. Ahhhhhhhhhhhh....thank you 10 years ago Beth Moore for bringing your chaotic book into my brain today. LOL



Interesting to me anyhow. Now I guess I will go stare at Stary Night some more....the chaos of the sky is beautiful, but the tiny church standing boldly in the center of that painting....ahhhhhh that's the beauty. That's our "island" in the storm, you know? The over powering mountain (evil), the chaos and madness of the sky ( life)...the little church is the center of the painting...the center of "life". Can we stand firm in the midst of evil and chaos? Can we be like that island of stability in this painting? You can if you aren't afraid of the pain of "death"...being crucified with Christ and giving up that stuff that He doesn't want from us or for us. It's not an easy road, for sure...but it's my road, it's my choice.

Typical morning

Jake is such a character...he really is "different".

This is my morning with Jake far.

7:30 - Wakes me up by coming into my room with a prescription tube of cream for his eczema. "Mom put this on my arm because I think bugs are crawling on my skin and making me itch".

I go downstairs and ask what he wants for breakfast. He answers me with , "Bleep blorp" because he is wearing a soccer ball Easter basket on his head as a helmet and apparently he is now an alien astronaut. Then he says, "Hey mom, can I wear this for Halloween? Can we go to Shelby's house today and tell her it's Halloween and then she can give us candy".
Me - "you can wear that for Halloween, but we are not going to lie to Shelby and make her give you candy. You just have to wait until Halloween".
Jake- "okay, but do you think they sell Austin costumes?"
Me - " Now you want to be a backyardigan? I thought you wanted to wear that soccer ball on your head?"
Jake- "I do! I am going to be Austin soccer ball head martian".

I get the child some cereal and come upstairs to read email. He pops back up here pretty quickly and proceeds to tell me that I am required to give him "ten thousand one hundred million fifty six dollars" when he scores a goal tonight at soccer. Whatever!
Then he goes onto his tirade of questions that require no answer, nor does he wait for a response.

- I am going to play for the Indians. I'm a good batter.
- Do I need a blue bat or a brown one?
- I think I'll play for the Dodgers too because I miss Casey Blake.
- Is it winter? It's cold outside (yells out the window, "hello winter")
-Mom, can we go outside when it's cold?
- Is Alex coming to my game tonight? She will give me 26 billion dollars for every goal and then I am buying toys and a cool shirt.
-Logan has a Wii , but he doesn't play it because his mom said he's little.
- I am getting bigger cuz I drank milk today.
- what color is my tongue?
- If I lived in Bikini bottom I would be spongebob and you can be one of the fish in the Krusty Krab and I will make you a Krabby Patty.
- Dad can be Squidward, but he never eats so I am not cooking for him.
- what time is it?
- When's my game? Can we go now and wait?

Suddenly he leaves the room and comes back dressed in his soccer uniform. The game is only 9 hours away...tick tock...

- Mom, I am scoring a lot a lot a lot a lot of goals tonight.
- I think it's warmer now, can we go outside and play soccer?
- I think you are pretty. (his form of bribery I guess)
- How do you spell Noah? Is it N O? His name says "no"...hhhaaahahaa
- I don't want to spell Haliegh cuz it's to big, but I can spell Alex, A - l - e- x
- I can do a better cartwheel than Mikaela, but Alex does a better one than me
- I'm gonna go watch tv

Sheesh....that is like in 10 minutes time with a lot of swinging a bat, jumping on the bed and kicking a ball mixed in. He's so silly, that child. I'm sure anyone else with a child under the age of 8 can relate. Your ears get tired!!

Soccer and Jake

It's hard to believe that Jake will be playing his last soccer game tomorrow. He had a rough start, but ended up having a wonderful experience. He is considerably smaller than the rest of his team as you can see in this picture, but he didn't let his size become a hindrance. Once he came out of his shell he was a force to be reckoned with!! LOL

He was shy and scared his first game against the "yellow" team and they beat us 9-1, but it was a different story last week when we played them again. Jake decided that he was the "sweeper" and no one was going to score. He played like he was on Micah's U-15 competitive team. He hawked that ball and did not let the other team score. He would chase down anyone who tried to make a fast break and slide kick the ball out of bounds. He was ruthless and aggressive...and made 2 or 3 kids leave the field crying (because Jake didn't let them score). At one point he stole the ball and ran all the way across the field to his goal and scored. Then he ran back to the middle of the field screaming, "YEEEEAAAAAAHHHHHH". I knew he'd be like that if he got past his shyness. He smiles the entire time he is on the field, as you can see in this picture as he's punting the ball away from a boy that was making a break for the goal.

The final score for that game was 7-1 (the other team scored their only goal when Jake was not in the game). Our team lost their first 2 games, but once Jake decided to really play, they've been undefeated. He's a nut!!

I just wanted everyone to know that his first year of soccer ended really well for him and he's sad to see it end. However...we start gymnastics next week, so here we go again! LOL

Time flies

This is my favorite picture of all time.

Micah asked me yesterday if we could go to Mill Creek park and look at the leaves and this picture instantly came to mind. Jake was about 1 month past his first birthday and still a bit wobbly in his walking, but he was in extreme independent mode. He saw that path before him and would have nothing to do with holding my hand because he wanted to explore.

I guess it's because he's my baby, but I felt a pang of sorrow go through me when I took this picture because I knew that within a blink of an eye I would be taking him to his first day of school and suddenly it would be time to plan his graduation party. There was my baby...my little miracle child...taking his first independent trip away from mom. He was completely oblivious to the dangers around him, but they were so clear to me. I came home that day and printed the picture and stuck it to my fridge. Tilden asked me why I liked it because, "you can't even see Jake's face". I don't need to see his face- - I love the picture because of the journey and the fact that he was so small. I caught a moment in time that symbolized his future as well. It's priceless to me.

January has never felt like the beginning of a new year to me. It's always September when the leaves change and the kids start a new grade in school. It's a new beginning and they are a year older suddenly and we are transitioning from summer into the "cold" months. You don't realize how much the kids have grown over the summer until you have to buy them new winter clothes. My jaw dropped when I took Micah to Kohl's for some jeans and he needed a size 14. Just last fall the size 12's were to big on him. I am going to wake up tomorrow and he will be asking me for the car keys. Time is no friend to a mother.

As I start MY new year and track the progress of my 4 amazing children, I love to stop in front of my refrigerator and freeze time as I look at this picture of Jake. He was starting on his journey down his path of life. All I can do is pray that he makes it safely "around". Alex , Caleb and Micah all started on that same path just as determined as Jake. It makes me proud and sad at the same time. sigh

Hurricane?

Apparently, we have just felt the remnants of Hurricane Ike. We knew that the rain was coming and it poured Friday night and most of Saturday, but we were not prepared for the winds. There were no weather warnings on the tv until well after 8pm, but by that point most of us were without power anyhow.

Our power went out around 7pm last night. I called dad to see if he still had power over in Howland and he did, so we piled in the car at 7:30 and drove over there to watch the Browns game. Wouldn't you know that on our way there I got a call from mom that said, "Hey, our power just went out too". LOL Since we were already on our way we decided to go there anyhow. We sat on the front porch and tried to cool off because it was soooo muggy and the wind was actually hot. Dad brought out his radio and his 3 inch (yes I said INCH) portable tv. We listened to the first quarter of the game and took turns watching the mini screen. Jake was not happy though. He was scared of the wind and wanted to go home. Since the Steelers scored and the Browns were not making me happy, we went home. Driving home was crazy though. Most of the traffic signals were without power and the roads were littered with branches and other debris. We got home and our power was still out, therefor we could not open the garage door. Our entire town was dark , so seriously it was pitch black outside. From the headlights of the van I could see that we had a big branch on the garage roof. I said, quite casually, "oh look, we lost a big branch". Then I got out of the van and walked along using my cell phone as a light and found that I couldn't open the gate to our back yard. I peered through there with my very poor flashlight phone and said, "ohhhh man, it's a whole tree and it's blocking the door". We went around to the front door and got the lantern (I highly recommend keeping a big camp lantern within close range at all times. It's annoying and collects dust most of the time, but in a moment like that- it's your best friend in the world).

Micah and I crept our way around branches at the back door to get around the tree and we were horrified and fascinated by what we saw. Our giant maple tree had split in half. Half of the tree was still standing and the other half actually split into 2 halves and fell in 2 different directions. We couldn't really see to much because it was dark, but we saw enough to feel lucky!! Our power came back on and we got to watch the last 2 quarters of the Browns/Steelers game on our beautiful 47" LCD HDTV screen. ahhhhh...to bad the Browns disappointed me yet again!

This morning I went out and took pictures. It's pretty fascinating when you look at these shots. Consider the fact that my neighbors built a new garage in June this year and look where that tree fell. What are the odds that it didn't fall on my garage or their garage? God was taking care of that for sure!

Can you believe how that split?

Micah is standing there to help show the size of the tree.

This branch came through the roof of our garage.

What's with sleeping?

Seriously, what gene is missing in our family that makes us stay awake for hours on end night after night after night.

Here is an average night...since as far back as my memory goes. YES, I do remember staying up half the night when I was 5 or 6 years old. Maybe the massive memory quality links to the non sleeping thing too. Hmmmm....this is boring, I think I'll interject a picture of me the last time I slept through the night.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Night time thoughts...feel free to add your own...

- did I remember milk when I went to the store? Oh yeah, I bought that.

-wait...did I need milk? Did I put it away? I don't remember seeing it when I unloaded groceries.

-Danggit...is that a moth? Why is there a moth in here? I wonder if it came through the air conditioner. Maybe I'll turn the tv on and it will be attracted to the light.

- Dude, I've seen this episode of Will and Grace like a million times, I love this one. It's so clever, but I guess it wouldn't make sense if you haven't seen "The Sound of Music". Why does Grace have a moustache? OHHHHH that's the moth. I wonder how you spell moustache...I should turn the computer on and type in into a word document and let it fix it for me.

- Kill moth, step on hot wheels car, stub toe on dresser...fall back into bed.

- I should turn the tv off...the moth is dead. Well, it's only 1:15am I might as well stay up until 1:30.

- Was that the cat? Why is she so noisy? She's a cat for crying out loud, be fleet footed already you fat cow. I wonder if cow's are smart? They don't look smart. At least Maggie LOOKS smart, but she's probably stupid.

- Ohhhhh WHY do they start the next episode of Will and Grace without putting a commercial in between? Now I HAVE to watch it...I like this Fanilow episode. Ha, I remember when "Mandy" came out and was a new song. I think I was in Jr. High. Janine used to listen to Y-103 non stop and I remember hearing it anyhow.

- I wonder if Micah is buying lunch tomorrow or packing. He's so picky!

- I wonder if Alex is awake. I used to catch her up at all hours of the night reading books or making doll clothes out of Kleenex for her barbies....man, I had the coolest Barbie Jet. I wonder what happened to that? I wish mom had saved our old toys. I would love to have my old Bionic woman doll and her car...but those wires in the car never hooked up to her arm like they were supposed to. that was so frustrating!! Is is so hard to make toys that work? Sheesh!!

- great...now I've been up long enough that I need to go to the bathroom again.

Eventually...sleep wins and I doze off. But what a pointless conversation I have with myself on a weekly basis. How about you? I KNOW Allie is up planning on places to store her cell phone in case of a water landing. LOL

Oh my gosh, ALLLLISON...I stayed up the other night planning exactly what I would take and how I would pack it up if we were ever evacuated for a tornado or hurricane or fire. I'm so ready now...in my mind. :)

Vita...will you do my hair?