Trying to post some pictures!

Hey, I'm just trying to figure out how to post more than one picture in my blog and also how to put text between them. Can anyone help me out?





Here is S on his first birthday. He was lots of fun that day.

Here he is getting his first haircut.

Here is our addition with the trusses hanging inside the room. They are now upright. Guess I need a new picture.

Wow, it looks like I might have figured this out. I have a couple more pictures to post regarding organization stuff I've been doing, but I'll do that another time.

**update: No, I don't have it figured out, cause I've tried and tried to line that third picture up and I can't get it to move. so this will have to do......tired of messing with it.

SMART Habit Saturday, a day late and a few goals short!

I wonder why I am bothering to even put this on the list. For the life of me I can't seem to remember to do anything. With the exception of eating, of course, which is the one thing I should forget to do.

Anyhoo here goes:

Exercise: only once this week. Just too many things that had to be done and exercise got pushed off.

Prayer: I think I need to invest in a boulder sized prayer rock so that I really stub my toe in the a.m. to remind me. What works for you???? I wonder if a large poster on my ceiling would help, or have my alarm play "Ere you left your room this morning".

Early to bed: stunk this one up well. C and I need to get on the same page on this one. He hasn't been feeling well and so is watching lots of TV and I have sort of either gotten stuck downstairs in front of the tube with him or upstairs on the computer waiting in vain for him to come up.

Oraganize 3 things: This is the only thing that I did do this week. I started organizing all my scrap embellishment stuff by color. Still need a couple of small drawer units to finish it up. But I did get rid of lots of stuff I'll never use.
I went through the hall/utility closet and organized it. Hung up a drawer unit, and separated out all the screws, nails, picture hanging stuff, outlet covers, etc. Then I put together a tool caddy, a gardening caddy and got rid of lots of cleaning supplies. I can actually get my vacuum in it easily now. I also finished up the bathroom closet, getting the 3 drawer unit in and getting it filled. Everything now has a designated spot and it will be so much easier to find what you're looking for there.

Hope this week is a better one for me and that its productive for you as well. I will be a work widow so this may sideline me again, since I will be doing all the school driving this week. But I'm not going to use that as an excuse to not even try.

What's a mother to do?

Well, it happened.

My first baby went and turned 18 yesterday. Without my permission.

What a strange thing to say and think about. I absolutely can't believe how quickly 18 years can go by. I don't feel much older than that myself. Of course, I am reminded of the fallacy of that thought every time I look in the mirror. I made him pick out what he wanted for supper and made him a cake. We got him some new clothes which of course weren't the right thing. I have hopes of him someday wearing his pants at the proper altitude.

We ate our supper of Chicken Parmigiana and salad, cleaned up and waited around for the party to begin. After my sis and her family and J's friend T came over, we lit the candles, sang to him and made him blow out the candles. I told him it was the last time we would make him do it. It was a very low key birthday, but it was so nice to have family and friends here to help celebrate this special day in a special young man's life. He is really a good young man, with great potential. I'm looking forward to seeing what the next 18 years bring with him. Love ya, J!

SMART Saturday Holiday weekend version

I have been wracking my brain trying to remember if I followed through on any of my habits this week, and I honestly know I did something but can't remember what it was.

It has been such a crazy week with lots going on at the kids school and extra meetings and functions there, that required so much of my time. I think I got in about 8-10 extra volunteer hours this week and C got 5-6. I'm hoping to have a somewhat quieter week next week.

I didn't even get in all my exercising this week, just not home enough......

SO, this week, is just a renewal of all the same old things I'm trying to work on. I think I will have to go back and read what they were, since I'm having a hard time even remembering them.

I would like to get on here one week and report a perfect week...hahaha! Haven't failed til I quit trying.

*update: My brain finally kicked in and I remembered the one organizational thing I did this week. I spent a lot of time Sunday on the computer organizing and catergorizing my pictures. I then burned most of them onto cd's. This is a huge load off my mind. Now I'm not so worried about losing them if my computer crashes. I need to do a bit more 'clean-up' of pictures, deleting duplicates, etc., then delete the duplicates off my camera so I can take new pictures.

Whew, it's nearly over

Last school holiday party down for this year for me as the holiday room mother. Why, oh why, do I get myself into these things? Actually, it hasn't been bad being the room mom for an upper grade class. The kids are really easy to please and don't have to have tons of structured activities. They have always been really wonderful about participating in the activities and thankful for the treats. They are just plain fun, too!
C got to see that for himself today because they needed an additional driver for their field trip up to the Capitol to see the legislative process at work. He got to drive a carload of boys up and back. Good thing he's great with kids and is a Scoutmaster. He has no trouble having fun with them, but being firm, too.

So, after all the 'stuff' I've had on my mind for the past couple of days, I came home from school and literally crashed, taking a much needed nap, and I let 5 Buck Pizza cook for us tonight. Heart shaped pizzas, kind of fun! I think I am just mentally exhausted. I still have more to do, now it's on to the baby shower invites(70) for my SIL and I get to cut out 5 cardboard goats for H's class's Heidi celebration next week.

So, again, I say Whew! Just to catch my breath and dive back in!

I have to be the world's dumbest blogger....

I have been feeling really bad because no one ever left me any comments on my blog and wondering if I was such an incredibly boring blogger that no one had anything to say. Then today for some reason I had to go to my dashboard to change the language from Spanish back to English (don't ask how it got changed to Spanish, I have no idea) and saw that I had lots of comments that had to be moderated to be posted. And it was so fun to read them and realize that someone has actually read this silly blog.

So, thanks to all of you who left me comments and I promise to look for them more often.
There, now I feel better!

So I really sort of slacked off on SMART Habits. I think my brain only functions half the time and for some reason those things I've wanted to work on don't cross my mind like they should.

I am still trying to organize and I cleaned off the dresser in my room, hung up some pictures I've been meaning to do for years, moved the baby's crib and dresser to make more room in our room for them and put more clothes in the new tubs I bought getting rid of the old, raggedy cardboard boxes.

I did get three sessions of exercise in this week. That was great! That kick-boxing was killer-I'm still sore and I'm sure it was hilarious to watch.

I also did research online to gather information on some of the 'skills' I'm trying to 'store' up. I have added to my list and I've divided it into three areas:

Food:
*Cheese making-have recipes, need to practice
*canning-need to get a new pressure canner and gather more bottles, practice canning meat
*sourdough-found a place to get a free start from some 150 year old starter and will be sending for that this week so I can learn to make bread from it
*Honey Candy-(this is a family tradition that will die if I don't learn to do it. Of my grandma's 10 children only two currently make it; my mom and my uncle. I don't want to let this die, so I'm going to learn to make and stretch it properly)
*Dutch oven cooking-have oven and recipes now just need nice weather so we can practice
*Pickles-no info here but I want to try to make some this year

Yard/Garden:
*composting-lots of info, this week I found a good article on building compost bins
*Veggie gardening-Need more info on raising potatoes and onions and how to stake up tomatoes
*Fruit/vines-want to learn more about raising fruit and grapes and berries. Need to check with the extention office for info for Ut Co.
*Root cellar-Found a good website with info on all these 'old-fashioned' things that our forebears had to know to survive. The Old-Timer's Page. I would like to build a small one, if I thought we were going to be here at this house forever.....
*Harvesting and storing seed-found a good article about harvesting wildflower seed and how to clean and store them. Need to find info for vegetables.

Home:
*Pattern making-Found a neat system online called The Lutterloh System that I think would work well and for the price it would work for our entire family. Pondering purchasing this just for preparation's sake
*Hand stitching-need to practice my hand stitching. If I had to make clothing and stitch it by hand I'm not sure it would stay put together.
*Quilting-pretty much the same idea here. Maybe make a wall-hanging to practice piecing on.
*Knitting-I have learned many times, but can't ever remember how. Need to get needles and some stitch guides. I want to start this one right away.

And I finally downloaded some pictures and I'll post them here when I figure out how to get them from my photoshop album. Like I said, I AM the world's dumbest blogger.

Where did my baby go??

Well, it's official.....Soren is no longer a 'baby'. I took the buzzer to his lovely blonde hair today and he now looks like a little boy instead of a rugrat. It was hard to watch all that hair dropping away from his head, but it was time. I put him in his high chair, put my cape on him and proceeded to cut. He was amazingly still for me, I only had to distract him from the comb and scissors a couple of times. He looks so cute now, Jordan put a bit of hair goop in his hair and gave him a mini faux-hawk like his. I love how I can see his expressive eyes and eyebrows now.

He has also started saying 'Whoa!' all the time now. Whenever anything falls or he bumps into things or throws things, out it comes....."WHOA!"

And tonight he started winking his eyes at the girls at the dinner table unsolicited. SO ADORABLE!

I am amazed at how quickly a year in a child's life can fly by and how much I feel like I missed. I feel like the time is just literally slipping through my fingers like water. I try to hold on to it, but I can't. What a blessing this last year has been with Soren. I'm so thankful for the lessons I've learned along the way. I'm thankful to have had one more chance to enjoy the wonders of infancy and childhood, because I think I have a heightened sense of it's fleetingness and it's pricelessness. When I watch him I can't help but try to think back to all the other kids at his age and try to remember all the little details that are threatening to slip away. Hopefully I will find or make time to record these feelings and memories and emotions before they fly!

Midweek Madness

Whew, Wednesday's over. It has been a busy one. But a good one too. My friend Kristi, had an entry in her blog about good things. I thought it would be nice to try to really focus and come up with some good things that are happening in my life right now.

1-kids are doing well in school. Case in point, today C and M each came home from school with an engraved medal and a certificate for winning in their class spelling bees. C took 1st place and M took 2nd. They will now compete against each other and the other winners in the All School Spelling Bee. Happy Mom moment!

2-The window openings in our new dining room got framed in today. Just need to order windows now. We have picked them out, just have not put the order in for processing.

3-SJ is mostly sleeping through every night now. He's only 13 months old....it's about time. Now, I just need to make myself get to bed earlier and up earlier.

4-I have been pretty consistent in exercising. We updated our television service and we now have FitTV and I find that I like many of their workout programs and I can pick and choose so I don't get bored so quickly. And I like it better than going to a gym...Uck!

5-Got to have a nice quiet leisurely lunch by myself today. I got to spend 1 1/2 hours helping in SK's kindergarten class and then to wait til pick up time I went to Subway and ate. It was nearly 2 pm and the place was mostly empty. It was loverly.

6-Used my new Cricut machine to make a quick thank you note today. I love that little machine. I need to use it more often. Need to make some cute Valentine candy boxes for the kids to take to school.....

7-The inversion is gone for a day or two. It snowed last night and the gunk in the air is gone. It was absolutely heavenly today to see the blue sky, the mountains, the lake and sparkly snow everywhere.

8-J came home tonight and told me that he had just filled out his papers for his Eagle Scout project... I believe my jaw nearly hit the floor. I had given up on that one. I'm praying that his project gets approved.

9-Tried a new recipe tonight. I have never had chili Cincinnati style before. I had seen it before and thought it was strange, but for some reason when I saw it on the Betty Crocker website today it sounded like something to try. And I had all the ingredients. It was GOOD and I actually liked it and I'm happy to have another reason to make chili. Most of my kids liked it, even though it was just 'WEIRD' to them.

10-Used my new pressure cooker again. Got it for Christmas. Love that I can cook up a batch of beans in 1/2 hour. My mom always used her when I was growing up and I assumed I would have one when I grew up, but for some reason I have never had one til now. Guess that makes me a grown up now! LOL! But it is a really handy tool to have and so Thanks, MOM! I think it's one of the best gifts I've gotten.

That's it. Hope you had a GOOD day too!

SMART Habit Saturday

Just trying to figure out this goal tracking thing.

I had a fairly good week in most areas, but not in getting to bed on time. I just seem to crave that quiet time at the end of the day for myself. I think this week I will set bedtime at 11:00 which is more doable for me.

I exercised three times, once for 1/2 hour and twice for 45 minutes. We recently upgraded our TV service and I find I'm really liking the FitTV channel. I have lots of different workouts to choose from and I'm not getting bored as quickly.

I bought some containers this week for organizing and reorganized the main toiletry shelf in the bathroom closet (got rid of lots of old stuff), revamped the 'junk' drawer in the kitchen and fought my way through my stack of receipts to get the check book up to date.

This feels really good, to actually be making some progress.

This week I will continue to exercise, hopefully for an hour a day, 3x.
I will get to bed by 11:00 pm
I will do three more organizational jobs.
And I'll add......morning prayer. I have a hard time getting that one in and I NEED it.

SMART Saturday-a day or two late.....

Didn't get much done last week, can't even really remember what I was going to work on specifically, just organizing some more and my WW.

I had a few off days on WW and ate too many points, but I did exercise 2x. Trying for 3 times this week.

Didn't get anything organized either. Just trying to put out the fires that rage with homework and church etc. Going this week to get some more containers for the bathroom.

Our family's goal this week is to try to get to bed earlier and get a full night's sleep so that we aren't so tired every day.

So my goal/habit this week to work on is:
exercise 3x (already done 1)
buy containers for bathroom closet
get to bed by 10:30

Short weekend

I am really starting to dislike the weeks that my kids have school on Friday, it makes the weekend seem so much shorter and I actually forgot to wash their uniforms so they had to scrounge to find things this morning for school. Loser mom!

We did have a fun evening on Sat. My in-laws are in town and we all went bowling and then had pizza, salad, fruit and goodies afterwards. It's always nice to get together and catch up. I have never bowled so badly in my entire life.....not even when I was learning how. I just wasn't into it, I guess, so I'm not really bothered by my low score. It was just weird to see such a low score.

The other 8th grade teacher quit last week, so all his class will be joining Montana's class now. 27 students. I hope that things transition well. We also received notice that the school is planning to have a 9th grade class next year and we've been trying to determine whether we want to go that route or not. We need to get Montana's input....I'm leaning to not doing it because in Provo School district, 9th grade is in high school and I'd like him to start at Timpview with all the other kids his age.....that and having one less kid at AHS would help the budget. We'll see what he thinks.

Our family has started a push to work on being kinder and just improving all areas of our lives. So last night at FHE,(had early since C had to go to Elko)we decided to focus this week on getting to bed on time and getting enough good sleep so we can be in a better mood each day and feel better instead of so tired all the time...I understand the logic, but sometimes that's the only time I get any quiet time, and sometimes I really need that. Guess I'll give it a shot, though.

Saturday, again?

Where did the week go? I can't seem to keep up with time anymore, I always feel like I'm chasing after it and never quite catching up.

Time for a SMART Saturday check-in....
Today I got all the game boxes in the hall closet labeled so that the kids can see what game they are grabbing instead of getting it out and opening it and realizing it's not the one they wanted. Good idea, yes?

I also joined the online verson of WW this week and I'm really enjoying the features it offers, such as being able to enter our normal recipes and having it calculate the points per serving for me. I am pleased to report that I have been very good and have recorded everything for going on 4 days now, and I have not gone over on points on any of those days. Of, course, it helps to have the extra nursing points, but I haven't even used all of them. I'm hoping for a small loss this next week at weigh in.

I got my hair cut on Friday and it's wonderful to have that long stuff gone. I'm such a short hair person. I took in a picture of Heidi Swapp(scrapbook celeb) and had the stylist try to imitate her cute do. Hallelujah! C even got his cut,too. He probably shouldnt' have hair longer than mine.....LOL!

1/9

Well, I was supposed to check in on Sat and update on my SMART goals, but I had the stomach bug thing going on and I didn't even get dressed. Which is really sad considering that it was Soren's first birthday. Curtis, of course, stepped in and handled everything for the celebration along with feeding the kids and catching up the laundry. I don't know how I got so lucky to have him for a husband.

Soren's birthday was fun. He wasn't much interested in opening more presents, but had fun with the new toys once he saw them. He was not shy about digging right into his first taste of cake and ice cream. He really liked the cake and had it everywhere. He also had his first taste of rootbeer and his first rootbeer float at Great Grandma's for FHE last night. That was a hit. He is growing up so fast, I can't keep him little long enough. He has gotten his two top centrals in the last week. He is starting to assert his wishes and flops when he doesn't get what he thinks is necessary at the moment. He loves to sing and clap and play hide and seek with anyone who will play. Cambria and Sadie probably have the easiest time getting him to laugh. He goes in for his 12 mo dr visit on Thurs.

I called and made an appt to chop off my hair on Fri. I am so excited. I tried to grow it out to see what it would look like and I just feel frumpy when I look at myself in the mirror. I liked it short and sassy. So off it comes.

I am making small amounts of progress in my goals. I have organized the game closet, put all the tiny baby clothes and stuff in a labeled bin and put it in the storage room and out of my closet. I cleaned up the toy basket in the living room and made room for the toys in Soren's cupboard by his bed.....I joined WW online today and will attempt to get back to my 'goal' weight. I want to lose a few #s before starting to run again so that my knees won't hurt so bad. I have been thinking of other things to add to my list of 'life/survival skills' to learn. That's about the extent of it, but I feel like I've accomplished a lot already and I guess that if I can feel enthusiastic about it, for me, that's 90% of the battle.

New Year, and New Me, Hopefully!

Yah, it's Jan 2 and I'm still excited for this new year. I have so many plans and my major goal this year is to EXECUTE them. Not kill them (which is what I usually do), but actually put them into motion or practice.

So yesterday to start I ran to Kmart and bought some plastic containers and then revamped the game portion of the hall closet. Put all the game pieces into the containers and got rid of all the bozes that were falling apart and were different sizes. Now everthing stacks nicely and we went from 3 shelves to two. Job well done, I'd say. Now I just need to label the containers.

I'm going to jump in with Lara on the SMART Saturdays.
I loved the quote used by An Ordinary Mom on her blog(which link you can find on Lara's SMART Saturday post) and so I am going to break down the things I want to work on based on those same areas.

Intellectual/mental:My goal here this year is to learn new skills that would be useful in the case of major disaster and the collapse of our current way of life. Things I would need to know if we had to live off the land and totally provide for all our needs to survive. I had to give a talk in Sacrament meeting last month and that was the idea that really came to me. I need to 'store up' my skills as well as food. Some of the things I want to learn about and practice are: cheesemaking-ricotta and mozzarella, pressure canning, gardening(better) and I'm sure I will come up with more.

Physical: nothing new here, try to lose a few #s and exercise. But I have a plan and support now. My mom and sisters and I are doing WW together and we all want to do the 5K in Monticello on the 24th of July. I want to run it and I have time to train, but I will settle for walking it if that's all I can do.

Social/Creative: My goal here is to actually set aside time to work on my many scrapbook projects. Mostly I want to finish up my Ancestor album so my kids can actually look at it and start to make those connections. Other projects include my baby album, and my wedding album. I also want to find time to finish up the class I paid for from BPS that Stacy Julian taught.

Spiritual: Nothing new here either. I need to devote a specific time to read and study and pray. Now that Soren is a bit older I think I can find some consistent time to do this. Can't claim sleep deprivation any longer. I'm thinking 6:30 will be a good time for me to do this.

I also want to try to have a date with one of my children each month. And encourage their dad to do the same. They really need that one on one time since it's so hard to come by at home.

We had a really nice, lo-key Christmas. I didn't even take very many pictures and don't feel bad about that. It's nice to have it over with and get the living room back. Thanks to my DH for putting all that stuff away while the kids and I were at my moms. We had a fun time at my sister's for an early New Year's celebration on Fri. So fun to spend time with all of my sisters and their families. Thanks to my sister and her hubby for hosting again this year.

We also got the walls up on the addition and covered with plywood. We need to order windows and trusses. It's actually happening, almost can't believe it.

And we got the phone call today saying we can pick up our new living room furniture tomorrow. Hooray! It's only been 6 1/2 weeks since we ordered it. Yahoo! now I can put my room together and hang all the decor back up.....

FIVE!

Only five days til Christmas! Yikes! How did that happen?
Seriously, I love Christmas, but it seems that each year the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas gets shorter and shorter. Guess that indicates how old I'm getting to be! LOL!

I think we are mostly ready this year. Most of the gifts this year are intangibles, so there wasn't much running around and shopping to do. That was a nice break, but then I got to wondering what in the world will the kids do all day on Christmas if they don't have something to play with or to keep them occupied. So we might have to brave Wallyworld and get a game or two, or a puzzle or something of that nature.

I'm happy that we have Christmas Eve on Sunday because that really extends the time spent focusing on the Savior. We won't be shopping or running around after the 23rd this year and I like that idea. Hhhmmmm, probably ought to check my lists and make sure I'm prepared in the food department to go that long between store visits.

Soren is going to be so fun this year. He has been pretty good at leaving the tree and its decorations alone. A few years back I got a nice, pre-lit tree at Kmart for $12.50 during the after Christmas clearance. It also came with a stand that rotates, but since it's fairly big around and our living room is so small we've never had it rotate, cause it's usually smooshed up against a wall to make it fit. Well, since we are getting new furniture, which still isn't here and a whole nother story, we have already gotten rid of the old ones and now we have lots of room for a rotating tree. We have learned that that is a really good thing to have when you have a baby who wants to pull all the ornaments off. He can't hang on to them long enough to pull them off and he can't walk quickly enough to keep up with them once they move past him. I was also worried about him getting into the gifts, but he has yet to bother even one. I guess the cupboards and drawers in the kitchen are still entertaining and exciting enough for him.....He also really likes the lights in the window that we have up this year. We are not big decorators for Christmas, I think due to my desire to simplify everything, but we did find a working string of lights that work really well in the front window and Soren likes to stand on the couch and touch them one by one. His very first Christmas! Memories to keep close.

Oh, My! What a vision!

I just got to thinking of the newest, fanciest thing out in the world of kitchen appliances that I saw at Home Depot the other day. It was a lovely, stainless steel side-by-side refrigerater with a TV screen on the front of it.

My first reaction was "Hey, that's COOL! Expensive, but very cool."

The other night, for some reason I was thinking about it again and I had a startling vision come to mind of millions of Americans sitting in their recliners right in front of the refrigerator/TV and they were slowly, slowly growing larger and larger because........you no longer have to leave your chair to get a drink or treat from the fridge. You have the 'best?' of both worlds right there in your kitchen/living/family room.

As I type this I'm beginning to wonder which room you WOULD put it in.......Are we the laziest people in the world or what???

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

I love Thanksgiving, don't you? My kids have this whole week off from school and I'm taking the time to catch up on some stuff that needed to be done, appts and such, and wishing I hadn't let things pile up so that I could stay home and just hang out with them. We are looking forward to spending time on Thursday with our Welch family....Nathan and Lori are hosting this year (again, that's what happens when you have the largest house). Curtis's parents flew in yesterday from GA and will be here a week. They asked me to bring rolls to dinner. Said that my rolls had been requested.????? What??? I don't make rolls except maybe once a year. I told them I would have to practice all week to make sure I had any that were edible.

Yesterday I got to go to the court building and sign myself up for traffic school. It was embarrassing. But I managed to make it through the ordeal and I get to go to traffic school on Dec 9. What a way to spend a Saturday.

I would much rather spend it like I spent last Saturday. Stacy and Stewart visited us and I went to the temple with them. I hadn't been in the longest time, it's hard when you are pregnant and then have a new baby. So I really enjoyed being there and the peace. Then Stacy and I did some shopping while Stewart went to the BYU game and then we got pizza for the kids and we went to the Spaghetti Factory for dinner. It was a full day, but very enjoyable. Funny how it's so hard to get together with them when they only live 70 miles away. But they're busy and so are we. We'll just have to make it a priority.

Well, better go get my day started so I can be productive today. Got rolls to practice and Visiting Teaching and running to do......among other things.

Joists are in!

We have floor joists. Soon we will have subfloor and that will require that we quickly put up walls and roof to protect it from the rain/snow to keep it from warping. Hoorah!

Went to the library today for the first time in a long time. We have had another book disappear on us and I was dreading paying for it. I wonder how many other people have 'Bermuda Triangles' in their homes. Things just vanish.....POOF!
I raided the home organization section. Still collecting ideas. Last week I got to peek into Stacy Julian's life and home and was I ever inspired. I have always admired her, she is so dynamic, and it was so cool to see how she does all that she does. How she organizes her home, her family, her work and her life. I have so many ideas floating in my head. Now the trick is to put them into practice. As I have thought about it, I think that any system of organization only works as well as the people who use it. I can go about my house organizing to my heart's delight but if my kids won't participate, it won't do much good. But I am determined to try. I believe there are a few things I can personally do to help make our home and my life run a little more efficiently and allow me time to accomplish some of the 'fun' things I want to do, like scrapbook my kids/ancestors' histories and do some painting/home decor stuff. For me, the critical part is actually doing! I'm a great thinker of things and gatherer of information, but terrible when it comes to putting into practice those thoughts/ideas. It's my perfectionist tendencies. 'It might not look right!" Well anything would be better than nothing which is what we've got at the moment.

I CAN DO THIS!

Soren @ 10 months

Soren was 10 months old on Monday, Nov 6. He got his first tooth that day. At least that was the day I first felt it. Today, the 8th, he started to crawl in the normal manner for the first time. He still drops and army crawls if he has to get somewhere fast, but he's sure working hard to stay on his knees. Where, oh, where did my baby go???? He has started being very vocal and voicing his opinion on all sorts of matters. Yesterday Curtis and Soren and I went out to lunch at Jason's Deli and we could not put food into his mouth quickly enough for him. He kept yelling his dissatisfaction and the people around us kept looking at us to see why he was yelling....One older lady stopped by our table on her way out and dropped off a package of crackers for him. Little turkey!
He is sleeping through the night now with great consistency, which is such a blessing for Curtis and I. Now if he just had a bedroom other than ours....He calls me Mom-mom and knows that that means me. His favorite foods are bananas, beans, grapes, meat, peas, berries. He pretty much eats anything, but is not too fond of mashed potatoes. I'm not sure he can be mine if he doesn't like potatoes.

We are so thankful this year to have this sweet little boy as a part of our family. He daily brings joy to our home and a gentleness and softness in all of us. We are blessed!

HAUNTED!! That's how I've been feeling for a couple of days now. Not in the way that is obvious, but by some words I read the other day. I was working in Sadie's kindergarten class checking in the kids homework. Some of the kids were missing part of their work so I went to their backpacks to see if I could find any papers and in one of them I found a large pile of papers. I pulled them out to see if this child's homework was in there and as I glanced at one of them, obviously written by an adult, not a kindergartner, a line or two caught my eye. It said,"I'm sorry you don't like our house, or like our furniture. I wonder sometimes if you even like me. I guess that I haven't been the best husband, father or provider that you expected.... " I quickly put it away and didn't read any more, but I am haunted by those words because in truth, they could have been written by my own husband. I can't count the number of times that I have complained about those same things, either to him or to others. I realize now that by doing that I am essentially telling him that he is a lousy husband and provider. That is the last thing that I want to tell him. I know how hard he works to provide for this family, and what a wonderful father and husband he truly is. In my heart I know that no house, no amount of $$ and no other thing in this world would ever make up for having a poor marriage or a disinterested father for my children and that I am actually RICH beyond my wildest dreams. I feel badly that I read a part of some one's private conversation, but it was unintentional and I put it away as soon as I realized what it was. But I look at it as a wake-up call for myself. No more thoughtless comments will come from me on this subject. I want to be supportive and sustaining to my husband, even when he is not present, rather than saying and doing things that diminish him and his self-worth. He is priceless to me and I need to treat him as such. I hope that I am forever haunted by these words....so that I will never make that mistake again.