Wednesday, May 8, 2013
I Heart Faces Photo Challenge - Play
Getting back in the swing of blogging and participating in the I Heart Faces Photo Challenge. This month's theme: Play. I love this shot of Molly clicked during a wee break from her play time at the park where she was running back and forth from scooter to skateboard... to even hitching a ride on Daddy's long board. Fun times :)
Sunday, April 7, 2013
Then and now... four years later!
Molly has been dying to get a particular cake at Sam's Club for her 5th birthday because it was a mini-cake (for her!) surrounded by cupcakes (for everyone else!) The reason she wanted this particular cake? So she could recreate her first birthday smash cake experience! She loves seeing the pictures of herself at her first birthday diving into her own little cake face-first and wanted to be able to do it again. So we happily obliged!
Happy fifth birthday to my baby girl!!!
Happy fifth birthday to my baby girl!!!
The other thing she'd been begging us for over the last... oh... eight months or so... was to be able to get her hair cut. We (less willingly) obliged there too! She and I had a fun little girls' day out yesterday and we both got our locks chopped off. She is in HEAVEN with her new adorable 'do! (I'll get used to mine LOL. I am definitely happy with how healthy it looks and feels at least.)
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| Happy 5th birthday Miss Molly girl!!! |
Saturday, January 26, 2013
Knock Knock Knock... "Mommy, the police are at the door!"
*DISCLAIMERS*
1- My neighborhood rocks and I appreciate the fact that concerned citizens took action to protect our community.
2- In light of recent events, I recognize that this may not seem like a laughing matter to some. I am in no way making light of the horrible shooting tragedies that have struck our nation.
3- I'm not interested in gun (neither real nor "toy") debates as a result of this blog entry...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THIS MORNING
Ben: Mom, I'm heading to the woods to go shooting with Collin (name changed).
Me (still in bed sleeping): Mumble... hmm...okay... have fun...be safe...mumble.. (Roll over and resume snoozing.)
TWENTY MINUTES LATER
Phone rings.
Me: (yawn) Hello?
Ben: Mom! I think Collin just got stopped by the cops!!!
Me: (more alert) What? Where are you?
Ben: I'm down at the end of the street waiting for Collin. But there are like 5 cop cars pulled over by one guy on the side of the road. I think it's Collin!
Me: Don't panic Ben. As long as he's not acting belligerent there's nothing to worry about. He's not doing anything wrong by carrying his air soft gun down the road to meet you.
Ben: Mom! They're making him get in the car!!! I'm coming home!
Click.
TEN MINUTES LATER
Knock knock knock.
Willy (assuming it's Ben, he hollers to the kids jokingly): It's the police! Don't open it! (chuckle chuckle)
THIRTY SECONDS LATER
Brady (having opened the front door and then hustled to our bedroom in a complete panic): Mommy! Daddy! There's a cop at the door!!!!!! Ben is outside with a whole bunch of cops!
Willy and I scramble out of bed and get dressed, shaking our heads and rolling our eyes a bit, while of course feeling a twinge of panic and unease.
FIVE MINUTES LATER
Laughing quite hysterically after these pictures were taken and the front door closed, we got the whole story from the boys.
Turns out that Ben's friend had his air soft rifle covered and was walking over to meet Ben and had to cross a busy street to get here. As he crossed the street his radio fell to the ground and he tried to set his gun down and it was no longer covered up as he scrambled to grab what he'd dropped. Someone who witnessed it panicked and called 911 about the boy wandering down a busy road with a gun and acting suspiciously. Several officers responded. Ben's friend was not in any trouble, just given a reminder that it's not prudent to wander down the road with a gun that way, "toy" or not. The officers admired his rifle and chatted with him for a few minutes. He explained that he was meeting his friend who had been waiting for him at the corner. The officers wanted to talk to Ben about being prudent too, and they didn't want the boy continuing down the road with his gun causing more alarm or concern to other neighbors so they had him hop in the car with them to direct them toward our house. Ben's friend and the officers joked about giving Ben a hard time and making him sweat a bit.
Meanwhile, Ben had seen some of this transpiring and panicked and called me. Naive, never-in-trouble, not-thinking-logically child ran towards home. With his air soft gun in his hands. SIXTEEN 911 calls from nervous neighbors later... the officers had caught up with Ben and chirped the siren at him (he was no longer running when they met up with him) and used their speakers to tell him to stop walking. He threw his gun down on the ground and raised his hands in the air (bwahahahahahah! My poor panicked child.) After a good chuckle I'm sure, the officers told Ben to keep walking toward home and escorted him to his destination where they knocked on the door and let us know that Ben wasn't in any trouble and wasn't doing anything wrong per se but they wanted us to know that they had talked with him about not wandering around with the air soft guns and that they ought to be driven to the woods where they were going to use the guns rather than walking there looking suspicious. The officers were very friendly, not at all condemning or threatening, and they even grinned as they mentioned all the 911 calls that had come in so quickly.
What a way to get everyone's adrenalin pumping first thing on a Saturday morning! I can't wait to mercilessly tease Ben about this for years to come...
1- My neighborhood rocks and I appreciate the fact that concerned citizens took action to protect our community.
2- In light of recent events, I recognize that this may not seem like a laughing matter to some. I am in no way making light of the horrible shooting tragedies that have struck our nation.
3- I'm not interested in gun (neither real nor "toy") debates as a result of this blog entry...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THIS MORNING
Ben: Mom, I'm heading to the woods to go shooting with Collin (name changed).
Me (still in bed sleeping): Mumble... hmm...okay... have fun...be safe...mumble.. (Roll over and resume snoozing.)
TWENTY MINUTES LATER
Phone rings.
Me: (yawn) Hello?
Ben: Mom! I think Collin just got stopped by the cops!!!
Me: (more alert) What? Where are you?
Ben: I'm down at the end of the street waiting for Collin. But there are like 5 cop cars pulled over by one guy on the side of the road. I think it's Collin!
Me: Don't panic Ben. As long as he's not acting belligerent there's nothing to worry about. He's not doing anything wrong by carrying his air soft gun down the road to meet you.
Ben: Mom! They're making him get in the car!!! I'm coming home!
Click.
TEN MINUTES LATER
Knock knock knock.
Willy (assuming it's Ben, he hollers to the kids jokingly): It's the police! Don't open it! (chuckle chuckle)
THIRTY SECONDS LATER
Brady (having opened the front door and then hustled to our bedroom in a complete panic): Mommy! Daddy! There's a cop at the door!!!!!! Ben is outside with a whole bunch of cops!
Willy and I scramble out of bed and get dressed, shaking our heads and rolling our eyes a bit, while of course feeling a twinge of panic and unease.
FIVE MINUTES LATER
Laughing quite hysterically after these pictures were taken and the front door closed, we got the whole story from the boys.
Turns out that Ben's friend had his air soft rifle covered and was walking over to meet Ben and had to cross a busy street to get here. As he crossed the street his radio fell to the ground and he tried to set his gun down and it was no longer covered up as he scrambled to grab what he'd dropped. Someone who witnessed it panicked and called 911 about the boy wandering down a busy road with a gun and acting suspiciously. Several officers responded. Ben's friend was not in any trouble, just given a reminder that it's not prudent to wander down the road with a gun that way, "toy" or not. The officers admired his rifle and chatted with him for a few minutes. He explained that he was meeting his friend who had been waiting for him at the corner. The officers wanted to talk to Ben about being prudent too, and they didn't want the boy continuing down the road with his gun causing more alarm or concern to other neighbors so they had him hop in the car with them to direct them toward our house. Ben's friend and the officers joked about giving Ben a hard time and making him sweat a bit.
Meanwhile, Ben had seen some of this transpiring and panicked and called me. Naive, never-in-trouble, not-thinking-logically child ran towards home. With his air soft gun in his hands. SIXTEEN 911 calls from nervous neighbors later... the officers had caught up with Ben and chirped the siren at him (he was no longer running when they met up with him) and used their speakers to tell him to stop walking. He threw his gun down on the ground and raised his hands in the air (bwahahahahahah! My poor panicked child.) After a good chuckle I'm sure, the officers told Ben to keep walking toward home and escorted him to his destination where they knocked on the door and let us know that Ben wasn't in any trouble and wasn't doing anything wrong per se but they wanted us to know that they had talked with him about not wandering around with the air soft guns and that they ought to be driven to the woods where they were going to use the guns rather than walking there looking suspicious. The officers were very friendly, not at all condemning or threatening, and they even grinned as they mentioned all the 911 calls that had come in so quickly.
What a way to get everyone's adrenalin pumping first thing on a Saturday morning! I can't wait to mercilessly tease Ben about this for years to come...
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
No reason not to...
I've had the intention to write this blog entry for several weeks now. It's been rolling around in my brain and I've been acting on the thoughts, but I want to write it all down, too, because it's been a very a-ha kind of experience for me and I feel really fortunate to have had the lightbulb moment that set some positive action in motion in my life.
I have a tendency to just muddle my way through life.
I'm kind of lazy. I try not to be. I always have a to-do list with about a gazillion things on it. I can be productive, I just don't always choose to be. I make a lot of excuses. I'm a terrible procrastinator, and I've adapted and learned to work well under pressure. But working under pressure doesn't make me happy. Making excuses doesn't make me happy. Procrastinating doesn't make me happy. Being lazy doesn't make me happy. And darnit, I want to be happy!
Sometime around the end of 2012 I was contemplating possible resolutions to work on in 2013 but *shudder* I hate resolutions. They always seem to result in giant flopping failures about 4 days into a new year. So I was determined to adopt some positive habits but I was resisting the urge to actually call them resolutions. And I feel like goals should be specific and measurable, so just adopting positive behaviors didn't really even fit into the goal category either. I didn't know how to quantify or classify the improvements I wanted to make. But I knew I needed to make improvements.
I knew that I needed to be more consistent in the act of saying my personal prayers. I knew that I needed to be more consistent in reading the scriptures. I knew that I needed to spend quality time with my kids. I knew that I needed to move my body more (and more often). And eat more fruits and vegetables. And drink more water. And the list of SIMPLE but beneficial habits that I knew I wanted to adopt kept coming to mind. But they're all things I've known for... well... forever, that I should be committing to habit, but I've never been successful about tackling them all and doing them all consistently. Like any of my former New Years resolutions, the act of trying to adopt new habits intimidates me and overwhelms me to the point of abandoning the effort within a few days.
I make excuses. I procrastinate. I'm lazy. And the habits never fully take root.
And then it came to me.
There's no reason not to....
I considered this little epiphany and applied it to some of those habits I've wanted to establish but have never successfully and consistently managed to do.
There is, quite literally, no legitimate reason that I can come up with to not say a prayer to my Heavenly Father each night before I go to bed. Too tired? Excuse. Don't want to get on my knees? Excuse. Worried about spiders or critters on the floor? Excuse. (C'mon. I lived in Hawaii. This was an honest excuse that I've used myself! LOL) Nothing terribly exciting about the day to say "thanks" for? Excuse. Nothing terribly important to ask for help with? Excuse. Feeling guilty about a choice I made and don't really want to own up to it? EXCUSE (and perhaps the biggest reason I SHOULD be on my knees...) There is simply no reason not to pray at least each night before I go to bed.
There is, quite literally, no legitimate reason that I can come up with to not open my scriptures and read a verse (or more!) each day. Tired? Excuse. Read it before? Excuse. Left scriptures in my church bag? Excuse. Something else I'd rather read at bedtime? Excuse.
There is, quite literally, no legitimate reason that I can come up with to not intentionally move my body for at least 20 minutes a day. Woke up late? Excuse. Cold outside? Excuse. Bored with workout routine? Excuse. The "day got away from me"? Excuse. Don't have time? Excuse. Don't want to get sweaty just for a quick workout? Excuse. Every single "reason" I give myself for not getting my butt out of my office chair or off the couch to intentionally move my body is just an excuse. Twenty minutes is NOTHING in the grand scheme of my day. I waste way more than 20 minutes in the day. There's no reason to not convert 20 of those wasted minutes into moving my body in some manner.
I kept applying the idea and managed to come up with no legitimate reasons to not add a few positive habits into my life. And I came up with a lovely little list of "no reason not to" habits to adopt daily, weekly and monthly. (Some of these are personal and church-specific, but the concept is universally applicable.)
There's no reason not to ... pray daily.
There's no reason not to ... read scriptures daily.
There's no reason not to ... have intentional one-on-one contact with each of my children daily.
There's no reason not to ... intentionally move my body (some form of exercise) for 20 minutes daily.
There's no reason not to ... drink 64 oz of water daily.
There's no reason not to ... eat fruits and vegetables daily.
There's no reason not to ... wash my face daily.
There's no reason not to ... write down a few things I'm grateful for each day in my journal.
There's no reason not to ... have Family Home Evening weekly.
There's no reason not to ... dance hula weekly.
There's no reason not to ... practice my ipu heke beats weekly.
There's no reason not to ... play the piano weekly.
There's no reason not to ... contact my parents and grandma weekly.
There's no reason not to ... read my patriarchal blessing monthly.
There's no reason not to ... read the Ensign monthly.
There's no reason not to ... do temple work monthly.
There are other things that I know I could be doing routinely, and there are no legitimate reasons not to do those things, either, but I'm not ready to abandon all my excuses quite yet hehehe. I'm not aiming for perfection here. Just improvement. And these simple things are the improvements that I want to prioritize. I anticipate adding to my list when these things are so natural and routine that I don't have to remind myself to do them any more. And I antipate improving on these habits as time goes on. Because really, is there any legitimate reason to not pray morning and night? Or to not intentionally move my body for 30 minutes instead of 20?
Now just because there's no reason not to do all these things doesn't mean I won't stumble across a legitimate reason to skip something one of these days, I'm sure. And I'm sure I'll occasionally make excuses or allow excuses to get in the way of me doing them all. I'm not perfect. That's life. But I'm happy to report that I'm making a lot of progress since shifting my mindset and identifying these habits to work on. I'm happy to have done all the things on my daily list daily since the beginning of the year. And I'm happy to have consistently done my weekly list weekly.
Simply put, I'm happy!
Happy habits, happy me.
I have a tendency to just muddle my way through life.
I'm kind of lazy. I try not to be. I always have a to-do list with about a gazillion things on it. I can be productive, I just don't always choose to be. I make a lot of excuses. I'm a terrible procrastinator, and I've adapted and learned to work well under pressure. But working under pressure doesn't make me happy. Making excuses doesn't make me happy. Procrastinating doesn't make me happy. Being lazy doesn't make me happy. And darnit, I want to be happy!
Sometime around the end of 2012 I was contemplating possible resolutions to work on in 2013 but *shudder* I hate resolutions. They always seem to result in giant flopping failures about 4 days into a new year. So I was determined to adopt some positive habits but I was resisting the urge to actually call them resolutions. And I feel like goals should be specific and measurable, so just adopting positive behaviors didn't really even fit into the goal category either. I didn't know how to quantify or classify the improvements I wanted to make. But I knew I needed to make improvements.
I knew that I needed to be more consistent in the act of saying my personal prayers. I knew that I needed to be more consistent in reading the scriptures. I knew that I needed to spend quality time with my kids. I knew that I needed to move my body more (and more often). And eat more fruits and vegetables. And drink more water. And the list of SIMPLE but beneficial habits that I knew I wanted to adopt kept coming to mind. But they're all things I've known for... well... forever, that I should be committing to habit, but I've never been successful about tackling them all and doing them all consistently. Like any of my former New Years resolutions, the act of trying to adopt new habits intimidates me and overwhelms me to the point of abandoning the effort within a few days.
I make excuses. I procrastinate. I'm lazy. And the habits never fully take root.
And then it came to me.
There's no reason not to....
I considered this little epiphany and applied it to some of those habits I've wanted to establish but have never successfully and consistently managed to do.
There is, quite literally, no legitimate reason that I can come up with to not say a prayer to my Heavenly Father each night before I go to bed. Too tired? Excuse. Don't want to get on my knees? Excuse. Worried about spiders or critters on the floor? Excuse. (C'mon. I lived in Hawaii. This was an honest excuse that I've used myself! LOL) Nothing terribly exciting about the day to say "thanks" for? Excuse. Nothing terribly important to ask for help with? Excuse. Feeling guilty about a choice I made and don't really want to own up to it? EXCUSE (and perhaps the biggest reason I SHOULD be on my knees...) There is simply no reason not to pray at least each night before I go to bed.
There is, quite literally, no legitimate reason that I can come up with to not open my scriptures and read a verse (or more!) each day. Tired? Excuse. Read it before? Excuse. Left scriptures in my church bag? Excuse. Something else I'd rather read at bedtime? Excuse.
There is, quite literally, no legitimate reason that I can come up with to not intentionally move my body for at least 20 minutes a day. Woke up late? Excuse. Cold outside? Excuse. Bored with workout routine? Excuse. The "day got away from me"? Excuse. Don't have time? Excuse. Don't want to get sweaty just for a quick workout? Excuse. Every single "reason" I give myself for not getting my butt out of my office chair or off the couch to intentionally move my body is just an excuse. Twenty minutes is NOTHING in the grand scheme of my day. I waste way more than 20 minutes in the day. There's no reason to not convert 20 of those wasted minutes into moving my body in some manner.
I kept applying the idea and managed to come up with no legitimate reasons to not add a few positive habits into my life. And I came up with a lovely little list of "no reason not to" habits to adopt daily, weekly and monthly. (Some of these are personal and church-specific, but the concept is universally applicable.)
There's no reason not to ... pray daily.
There's no reason not to ... read scriptures daily.
There's no reason not to ... have intentional one-on-one contact with each of my children daily.
There's no reason not to ... intentionally move my body (some form of exercise) for 20 minutes daily.
There's no reason not to ... drink 64 oz of water daily.
There's no reason not to ... eat fruits and vegetables daily.
There's no reason not to ... wash my face daily.
There's no reason not to ... write down a few things I'm grateful for each day in my journal.
There's no reason not to ... have Family Home Evening weekly.
There's no reason not to ... dance hula weekly.
There's no reason not to ... practice my ipu heke beats weekly.
There's no reason not to ... play the piano weekly.
There's no reason not to ... contact my parents and grandma weekly.
There's no reason not to ... read my patriarchal blessing monthly.
There's no reason not to ... read the Ensign monthly.
There's no reason not to ... do temple work monthly.
There are other things that I know I could be doing routinely, and there are no legitimate reasons not to do those things, either, but I'm not ready to abandon all my excuses quite yet hehehe. I'm not aiming for perfection here. Just improvement. And these simple things are the improvements that I want to prioritize. I anticipate adding to my list when these things are so natural and routine that I don't have to remind myself to do them any more. And I antipate improving on these habits as time goes on. Because really, is there any legitimate reason to not pray morning and night? Or to not intentionally move my body for 30 minutes instead of 20?
Now just because there's no reason not to do all these things doesn't mean I won't stumble across a legitimate reason to skip something one of these days, I'm sure. And I'm sure I'll occasionally make excuses or allow excuses to get in the way of me doing them all. I'm not perfect. That's life. But I'm happy to report that I'm making a lot of progress since shifting my mindset and identifying these habits to work on. I'm happy to have done all the things on my daily list daily since the beginning of the year. And I'm happy to have consistently done my weekly list weekly.
Simply put, I'm happy!
Happy habits, happy me.
Monday, December 24, 2012
Took some effort, but it feels like Christmas around here...
I've been terrible about updating our family blog. It's been such a whirlwind year with so many comings and goings and changes and craziness that I simply haven't been able to keep up on everything. I think I feel paralyzed by the idea of playing catch up on the blog so I don't do anything on it and it just keeps getting farther and farther behind. I need to just start back up and keep at it, without trying to catch up on the events of the past months. Hopefully I'll be able to back track a bit and fill in some gaps, but in the meanwhile I need to just live in the moment and move forward.
We're in a rental house here in Louisiana. Three months ago we found out that the house we're in has been foreclosed and is now owned by the bank. We found this out when the bank rep knocked on our door and handed us a "cash for keys" offer trying to get us to vacate the home within 30 days. We simply couldn't do that in the time offered, and instead we're riding out our legal right to reside here for 90 days from the time they notified us that we need to leave. Our 90 days is up on December 29th. So 4 days after Christmas, a little less than 5 months from the date we moved into this house, we'll be moving again. It's getting old. It's getting old fast. But it is what it is, and we feel fortunate to have found another home to rent within the boundaries of the kids' schools so they won't have to be uprooted once again so quickly after our big move this past summer.
Moving so close to Christmas time posed a real dilemma. We weren't sure if we wanted to be in a new place before the holiday or move immediately after. We opted to stay put in our current home so we were able to put up a few decorations and try to get in the spirit of the season. When we were deciding what things to bring with us from Hawaii to Louisiana, we had to make some hard decisions about which Christmas decorations to keep and which to let go. We kept all our special ornaments. We kept a few other special decorations. I had to let go of some large stuffed carolers that I'd had since I was a little girl. Willy and the kids hated them. They were content to see them go. But I cried when I opened the two measly boxes of Christmas decorations that moved here with us and remembered that I'd left my long-time, memory-filled Christmas carolers decorations behind. It didn't feel like Christmas without them and without so many things that I thought I was comfortably letting go of in Hawaii, only to realize on this end how important they had been to me.
We didn't have a tree. And with the costs of a move upon us we couldn't really afford to buy a new one. But most of our treasured Christmas decorations are ornaments and we needed a tree to hang them on! I had kept one lighted garland as box filler when we packed up our ornaments and so I thought maybe I could hang the ornaments on the garland. But I really wanted a tree. I saw an idea on Pinterest and got it in my head that since we had moved plenty of books with us to Louisiana (media mail is cheap!), perhaps I could pull off a personal version of the Book Tree I'd seen. It took me four builds and rebuilds before I got the dimensions correctly resembling a tree. I feel like it was well worth the effort. It was a fun way to start getting in the Christmas spirit!
Despite loving the Book Tree, I found that we couldn't realistically hang our special ornaments on that one strand of garland that wrapped around the tree. We NEEDED a Christmas tree. Fortunately someone on Freecycle offered one up and I snatched it quickly! It's a simple 6' artificial tree, but it's pre-lit which made things easy and our ornaments fit on it perfectly. It felt like a wee Christmas miracle to plug in those lights and see our ornaments on display.
Next, I excitedly opened a box that I'd wrapped at the end of the last Christmas season. It was our box of wrapped Christmas books, ready to begin our December tradition of opening one book each night and reading it as a family. Because I re-wrap all the books at the end of each season, busting out the books and kick starting our annual tradition required no effort at all. Gratefully, as expected, when we opened the first book on December 1st, we started to feel that itty bitty excitement that comes with the holiday season. Admittedly I've gotten weepy a few times as we've read some of our favorite books collected while in Hawaii (The Christmas Gift of Aloha, The Hawai'i Snowman, etc) but the continued tradition helped us enjoy the beginning of the season and has carried us through the month. Tonight we'll read The Forgotten Carols and listen to some beautiful music as we prepare for Christmas!
Finally, I decided to tackle a loooooooooooong overdue task. As a child I had an amazing Christmas stocking made by my mom. It was an advent calendar of sorts with 24 little pockets on the front that my parents would fill with candies or trinkets. Years ago my mom gave me my stocking as well as stockings for Willy and the boys! She knew I enjoyed cross stitching so she didn't put their names on the top, leaving that little labor of love for me to handle. A few years later Molly joined our family and for Christmas that year my mom gave her a stocking as well (with her name stitched on it.) For the next three Christmases Molly's and my stocking were the only stockings with names on them... I'd never gotten around to stitching the boys' names on theirs. It was embarrassing each year to hang the stockings, fill the pockets, but not have them identified by name. I finally decided that in order to help me feel more satisfaction in this Christmas season, that it was time to tackle the task and stitch those names on once and for all! I'm happy to say that the stockings have been hanging WITH names this year... and I was only a few days into the month when I got them done :) I'm SO happy to see them hanging COMPLETED by the fireplace this year!
We did add one new fun decoration to the mix this year and it makes me grin every time I see it! It's a nearly lifesize burlap wall hanging of the "Major Award!" from A Christmas Story, which is one of our favorite movies to watch as a family each holiday season. My local friend here made it and I LOVE it!
So, it took some effort, but we're officially in the mood for Christmas! We went and saw a beautifully decorated square in town, we saw Santa, we attended a holiday party at church, we watched Elf, we went to church yesterday, and tonight we're hosting the sister missionaries in our area for dinner and Christmas Eve festivities. I'm so grateful for traditions that have helped us feel some sense of normalcy this holiday season. I'm excited about our Christmas Eve tradition of opening new pajamas (for ALL of us this year! Even Willy and I!). We'll watch A Christmas Story as a family. We'll enjoy the excitement and anticipation of Santa. And in the morning we have a whole bunch of other traditions to enjoy! I can't wait!
Merry Christmas!!
We're in a rental house here in Louisiana. Three months ago we found out that the house we're in has been foreclosed and is now owned by the bank. We found this out when the bank rep knocked on our door and handed us a "cash for keys" offer trying to get us to vacate the home within 30 days. We simply couldn't do that in the time offered, and instead we're riding out our legal right to reside here for 90 days from the time they notified us that we need to leave. Our 90 days is up on December 29th. So 4 days after Christmas, a little less than 5 months from the date we moved into this house, we'll be moving again. It's getting old. It's getting old fast. But it is what it is, and we feel fortunate to have found another home to rent within the boundaries of the kids' schools so they won't have to be uprooted once again so quickly after our big move this past summer.
Moving so close to Christmas time posed a real dilemma. We weren't sure if we wanted to be in a new place before the holiday or move immediately after. We opted to stay put in our current home so we were able to put up a few decorations and try to get in the spirit of the season. When we were deciding what things to bring with us from Hawaii to Louisiana, we had to make some hard decisions about which Christmas decorations to keep and which to let go. We kept all our special ornaments. We kept a few other special decorations. I had to let go of some large stuffed carolers that I'd had since I was a little girl. Willy and the kids hated them. They were content to see them go. But I cried when I opened the two measly boxes of Christmas decorations that moved here with us and remembered that I'd left my long-time, memory-filled Christmas carolers decorations behind. It didn't feel like Christmas without them and without so many things that I thought I was comfortably letting go of in Hawaii, only to realize on this end how important they had been to me.
We didn't have a tree. And with the costs of a move upon us we couldn't really afford to buy a new one. But most of our treasured Christmas decorations are ornaments and we needed a tree to hang them on! I had kept one lighted garland as box filler when we packed up our ornaments and so I thought maybe I could hang the ornaments on the garland. But I really wanted a tree. I saw an idea on Pinterest and got it in my head that since we had moved plenty of books with us to Louisiana (media mail is cheap!), perhaps I could pull off a personal version of the Book Tree I'd seen. It took me four builds and rebuilds before I got the dimensions correctly resembling a tree. I feel like it was well worth the effort. It was a fun way to start getting in the Christmas spirit!
 |
| Well worth the effort... we love our special Christmas tree! |
 |
| Not as clever as our book tree, but this one holds our special ornaments and that's helping us enjoy the holiday! |
Next, I excitedly opened a box that I'd wrapped at the end of the last Christmas season. It was our box of wrapped Christmas books, ready to begin our December tradition of opening one book each night and reading it as a family. Because I re-wrap all the books at the end of each season, busting out the books and kick starting our annual tradition required no effort at all. Gratefully, as expected, when we opened the first book on December 1st, we started to feel that itty bitty excitement that comes with the holiday season. Admittedly I've gotten weepy a few times as we've read some of our favorite books collected while in Hawaii (The Christmas Gift of Aloha, The Hawai'i Snowman, etc) but the continued tradition helped us enjoy the beginning of the season and has carried us through the month. Tonight we'll read The Forgotten Carols and listen to some beautiful music as we prepare for Christmas!
 |
| We open one wrapped gift each night starting on December 1st. The gifts are all Christmas books that we read as a family each night leading up to Christmas. |
Finally, I decided to tackle a loooooooooooong overdue task. As a child I had an amazing Christmas stocking made by my mom. It was an advent calendar of sorts with 24 little pockets on the front that my parents would fill with candies or trinkets. Years ago my mom gave me my stocking as well as stockings for Willy and the boys! She knew I enjoyed cross stitching so she didn't put their names on the top, leaving that little labor of love for me to handle. A few years later Molly joined our family and for Christmas that year my mom gave her a stocking as well (with her name stitched on it.) For the next three Christmases Molly's and my stocking were the only stockings with names on them... I'd never gotten around to stitching the boys' names on theirs. It was embarrassing each year to hang the stockings, fill the pockets, but not have them identified by name. I finally decided that in order to help me feel more satisfaction in this Christmas season, that it was time to tackle the task and stitch those names on once and for all! I'm happy to say that the stockings have been hanging WITH names this year... and I was only a few days into the month when I got them done :) I'm SO happy to see them hanging COMPLETED by the fireplace this year!
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| The COMPLETED stockings were hung by the chimney with care!! |
We did add one new fun decoration to the mix this year and it makes me grin every time I see it! It's a nearly lifesize burlap wall hanging of the "Major Award!" from A Christmas Story, which is one of our favorite movies to watch as a family each holiday season. My local friend here made it and I LOVE it!
So, it took some effort, but we're officially in the mood for Christmas! We went and saw a beautifully decorated square in town, we saw Santa, we attended a holiday party at church, we watched Elf, we went to church yesterday, and tonight we're hosting the sister missionaries in our area for dinner and Christmas Eve festivities. I'm so grateful for traditions that have helped us feel some sense of normalcy this holiday season. I'm excited about our Christmas Eve tradition of opening new pajamas (for ALL of us this year! Even Willy and I!). We'll watch A Christmas Story as a family. We'll enjoy the excitement and anticipation of Santa. And in the morning we have a whole bunch of other traditions to enjoy! I can't wait!
Merry Christmas!!
Thursday, November 22, 2012
Three Little Thankfuls
It started six years ago with a little writing assignment. We were instructed to write about three little thankfuls. Not the obvious things like family, faith, health or wealth. We were required to think about the little things in life that we're thankful for and share them in our writing assignment. I've enjoyed reflecting on those little things each year and trying to identify a few to share, and I'll do the same this year.
1- This is embarrassing. But this is as real as it gets. This year I'm thankful for the insanely catchy, absolutely ridiculous, make-me-move song of the year... Gangnam Style. Apparently 790 MILLION of us can't get enough of this song according to the views count on You Tube. I've actually wanted to blog about this song for a couple of months but have felt silly every time I consider it. If this doesn't sound overly dramatic I don't know what will, but I honestly give credit to this crazy K-pop song for pulling me out of my depression. When it comes on I can't help but smile. When it comes on my kids and I dance. Every. Single. Time. Nothing else was able to pull me out of the funk I found myself in after leaving Hawaii and trying to find my center in this new home of ours. But when this song plays, I'm genuinely happy. The first time the kids and I heard it on the radio in the car we flipped out we were so excited! We pulled into the driveway, cranked up the car stereo, leapt from the car, and we danced and danced and laughed and danced. Happy memory. Happy song. Definitely one of my three little thankfuls this year. I dare you to watch this ridiculous video and try not to crack a smile.
2. This year I'm thankful to experience seasonal change once again without having to deal with hard-core winter temps and snow. I loved the year round moderate temperatures in Hawaii and the constant and consistent beautiful weather. But I forgot how good it feels to warm your body up in a nice hot shower, or how comforting it is to cuddle in a blanket. I like my new fuzzy socks that help me keep some feeling in my otherwise icy toes. I LOVE the feeling of running outdoors in the chilly air. I'm thankful for seasonal change.
3. I'm not sure if this really counts as "little" because it has felt pretty huge, but I'm really grateful for the way our move played out. I'm thankful that all of the boxes we shipped from Hawaii containing the things most important to us arrived more or less intact and safe. And I'm grateful for my dear Louisianian friend Karen who graciously accepted our mountains of boxes and stored them for us until we had a house to move them into. And I'm really grateful that despite having no furniture whatsoever when we arrived in Louisiana, we quickly had a fully furnished home thanks to the generosity and kindness of people here in our area. We put the word out at church that we'd moved here with basically nothing and we were completely provided for. The generosity was amazing and overwhelming. We have a mix-and-match assortment of furniture to be proud of. We felt the love and we recognize the enormous blessing. I'm so thankful!
What three little things are you thankful for this year?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Because I didn't want to repeat things I've shared in the past, I figured I better re-read some of my old writings. It was fun to take a little trip down memory lane. And I figured I may as well link 'em all here for kicks and easy reference next year when I need to be reminded again. Please ignore the weird color formatting on my old blog. I used to change it up a lot...
2006 Part One
2006 Part Two
2006 Part Three
2006 Part Four (I may have gotten a little carried away that first year LOL)
2007
2008
2009
2010 Part One
2010 Part Two
2010 Part Three
2011 (That's the year I got a little over-enthusiastic and went for Thirty Days of Thankful, before doing a month full of "I'm thankful for..." posts was the cool thing to do.)
1- This is embarrassing. But this is as real as it gets. This year I'm thankful for the insanely catchy, absolutely ridiculous, make-me-move song of the year... Gangnam Style. Apparently 790 MILLION of us can't get enough of this song according to the views count on You Tube. I've actually wanted to blog about this song for a couple of months but have felt silly every time I consider it. If this doesn't sound overly dramatic I don't know what will, but I honestly give credit to this crazy K-pop song for pulling me out of my depression. When it comes on I can't help but smile. When it comes on my kids and I dance. Every. Single. Time. Nothing else was able to pull me out of the funk I found myself in after leaving Hawaii and trying to find my center in this new home of ours. But when this song plays, I'm genuinely happy. The first time the kids and I heard it on the radio in the car we flipped out we were so excited! We pulled into the driveway, cranked up the car stereo, leapt from the car, and we danced and danced and laughed and danced. Happy memory. Happy song. Definitely one of my three little thankfuls this year. I dare you to watch this ridiculous video and try not to crack a smile.
2. This year I'm thankful to experience seasonal change once again without having to deal with hard-core winter temps and snow. I loved the year round moderate temperatures in Hawaii and the constant and consistent beautiful weather. But I forgot how good it feels to warm your body up in a nice hot shower, or how comforting it is to cuddle in a blanket. I like my new fuzzy socks that help me keep some feeling in my otherwise icy toes. I LOVE the feeling of running outdoors in the chilly air. I'm thankful for seasonal change.
3. I'm not sure if this really counts as "little" because it has felt pretty huge, but I'm really grateful for the way our move played out. I'm thankful that all of the boxes we shipped from Hawaii containing the things most important to us arrived more or less intact and safe. And I'm grateful for my dear Louisianian friend Karen who graciously accepted our mountains of boxes and stored them for us until we had a house to move them into. And I'm really grateful that despite having no furniture whatsoever when we arrived in Louisiana, we quickly had a fully furnished home thanks to the generosity and kindness of people here in our area. We put the word out at church that we'd moved here with basically nothing and we were completely provided for. The generosity was amazing and overwhelming. We have a mix-and-match assortment of furniture to be proud of. We felt the love and we recognize the enormous blessing. I'm so thankful!
What three little things are you thankful for this year?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Because I didn't want to repeat things I've shared in the past, I figured I better re-read some of my old writings. It was fun to take a little trip down memory lane. And I figured I may as well link 'em all here for kicks and easy reference next year when I need to be reminded again. Please ignore the weird color formatting on my old blog. I used to change it up a lot...
2006 Part One
2006 Part Two
2006 Part Three
2006 Part Four (I may have gotten a little carried away that first year LOL)
2007
2008
2009
2010 Part One
2010 Part Two
2010 Part Three
2011 (That's the year I got a little over-enthusiastic and went for Thirty Days of Thankful, before doing a month full of "I'm thankful for..." posts was the cool thing to do.)
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Hallelujah! Major milestone!
It finally happened. After four and a half months, I finally heard this song without bursting into tears. I only welled up a little and then sucked it up and kept my cool. It's a huge milestone for me.
If you listen to the words and you know anything about me and this year of change for our family you'll perhaps understand why it moves me so much. I secretly always imagined Willy singing it to me (y'know.. if he had a Phillip Phillips kind of voice.) I'm not sure if it's the increased air time that the song is getting on the radio these days, or if I'm actually adjusting and getting comfortable in my new home, but I'm grateful that the tears didn't fall today when I heard the song in the car because up until today tears were the natural consequence of hearing the tune.
Other sure fire ways to make Angie burst into tears these past few months include:
The reality, thank goodness, is that the tears come less frequently now. For the first couple months I sunk into a pretty deep depression. I tried to cover it up and keep it bottled inside, but I think it's fair to say that I was miserable and holding myself down. I finally clawed my way out of the pit I was in, started exercising again, gave socializing with new people a half-hearted attempt, and faced the things that hurt me the deepest instead of avoiding them (like dancing hula... it took me almost two months after leaving Hawaii before I could emotionally handle turning on my hula music and letting it move me again.)
This particular move has been one of the biggest trials of my life. I suppose that probably sounds pretty dramatic, but it's my reality. It's been hard. Plain and simple. But I'm so grateful to be finally coming out of the funk I've been in for a good chunk of this year, and I'm grateful that my family didn't give up on me as I've gotten through this. They've all thrived here. I've felt like I'm barely surviving, let alone thriving. But I've been able to "hold on to [them] as we go. As we roll down this unfamiliar road."
And I know I'm not alone. We're finding a way to make this new place our home.
If you listen to the words and you know anything about me and this year of change for our family you'll perhaps understand why it moves me so much. I secretly always imagined Willy singing it to me (y'know.. if he had a Phillip Phillips kind of voice.) I'm not sure if it's the increased air time that the song is getting on the radio these days, or if I'm actually adjusting and getting comfortable in my new home, but I'm grateful that the tears didn't fall today when I heard the song in the car because up until today tears were the natural consequence of hearing the tune.
Other sure fire ways to make Angie burst into tears these past few months include:
- Having to change my shipping address for online orders and billing address with various financial accounts
- Hearing the word "aloha", especially when friends in Hawaii say it to me as a farewell when we're hanging up the phone
- Catching myself and writing "Thank you" at the end of my notes instead of "Mahalo"
- Seeing a photo of a familiar Hawaiian place (Facebook has been fairly brutal since I have so many friends in Hawaii who post pics of their day-to-day... May I take this moment to apologize for sharing so many Hawaiian pictures in the past. Now I understand how it may have been perceived as rubbing paradise in your face. I promise it was never my intention, just like I know it's not my Hawaiian friends' intention to make me weep when they post a picture of Ko'Olina or a rainbow or a sunset over the Pacific.)
- Watching Hawaii Five-0 and recognizing streets I've driven down, beaches I've played on, familiar landmarks and locations.
- Having a Hawaiian business call me and listening to familiar Hawaiian hold music
- Hearing about friends who are going on vacation to Hawaii and wondering if I'll ever get to go back
- Getting email newsletters from Hawaiian businesses that I subscribed to for special deals and not being able to use them
- Thinking I look kind of sickly and then realizing that I'm just paler because my tan is fading
- Seeing my two best friends in Hawaii dancing hula together
- Hearing fighter pilots at the air show we went to a couple weeks ago (The military presence on O'ahu is huge and we would have F-18s and F-22s fly over our home frequently. When we'd hear them roaring overhead we'd almost always run to a window to see if we could catch a glimpse of them and identify what kind of plane they were.)
- Hearing "WHY would you leave Hawaii?!" for the gajillionth time in a day
The reality, thank goodness, is that the tears come less frequently now. For the first couple months I sunk into a pretty deep depression. I tried to cover it up and keep it bottled inside, but I think it's fair to say that I was miserable and holding myself down. I finally clawed my way out of the pit I was in, started exercising again, gave socializing with new people a half-hearted attempt, and faced the things that hurt me the deepest instead of avoiding them (like dancing hula... it took me almost two months after leaving Hawaii before I could emotionally handle turning on my hula music and letting it move me again.)
This particular move has been one of the biggest trials of my life. I suppose that probably sounds pretty dramatic, but it's my reality. It's been hard. Plain and simple. But I'm so grateful to be finally coming out of the funk I've been in for a good chunk of this year, and I'm grateful that my family didn't give up on me as I've gotten through this. They've all thrived here. I've felt like I'm barely surviving, let alone thriving. But I've been able to "hold on to [them] as we go. As we roll down this unfamiliar road."
And I know I'm not alone. We're finding a way to make this new place our home.
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