Parent Trap

Today, we slept in late, even Patrick! Then, we were very, very lazy. We stayed in our pajamas til about 1:00. I bathed the kids and put Patrick down for a nap. Maggie and I were watching tv and the Parent Trap came on the Disney channel.

I asked Maggie if she had ever seen the Parent Trap. She had never seen it before. It was such a cute movie. I hadn't ever seen the newish one with Lindsay Lohan in it. I loved the Haley Mills' version.

It was so fun to watch it with her. I love watching movies that I loved watching as a kid with Maggie. She was so into the movie and was hoping that she could go to camp to find her twin, too. I hate to break the "bad news" to her that she doesn't have a long lost twin that lives with my divorced spouse.

trying to sort it out

We have had Patrick for 3 months now. He looks like Maggie. He adores Steven. He is seriously one of the easiest going babies ever born. Most of the time forget that I didn't give birth to him.

Today, during worship, God hit me pretty hard. I don't pray for his mom to get well. There's a part of me that doesn't want her to get well. I love him. It's easier for me if she doesn't recover.

I say that it's because I want him to be in a safe place. But, I really just want him to be in our family forever. He's perfect and wonderful.

I don''t have a nice ending for this blog. Just being vulnerable.

Trademarked

Maggie loves to create. These days, artists need to be careful with their work. Uncreative types are out to steal your work and claim it for their own.

Thankfully, Maggie has figured this out already and knows how to make sure that her work remains her own and she retains the rights.

Tonight, she drew a card for me. It says "I L U rtm". In case you are slow on your Maggie language, "I L U" means I love you.

I said, "thanks, Maggie, I love you, too. What does rtm mean?"

She said, "It's the way that you keep your work for your own. You know, how McDonald's puts that r in a circle after their signs to show that it's their own signs? Or the tm means that it is theirs?"

Yep, my daughter is a cautious one.

32

Today, I turned 32. Some highlights from my birthday celebration!

1. Maggie's kindergarten class singing Happy birthday to me!
2. Maggie telling me that she will love me no matter how old I get.
3. Waking up at 6:30 a.m. to a precious little boy. I couldn't be mad at him for waking me up so early. He's too cute!
4. Going to the pumpkin patch. Not doing one thing that I chose to do, but having a blast with my family and watching them have fun. Wow, I'm old. Steven called me Clark Griswold for choosing a family event for my birthday celebration!
5. Having the waiter make me a special dessert at Olive Gardent tonight. It was 2 thin mints covered in whipped cream and a cherry. Interesting...
6. Maggie telling us that her favorite smells of all time is the smell of wet paint and new books.
7. Watching Steven climb on to the giant blow up thing with Maggie because she was scared to go by herself. He was the only dad out there on the bouncy thing.
8.Knowing my husband tried to keep the babies asleep a little longer this morning so I could sleep. He got up at 5:30 and fed Patrick so maybe he would sleep a little longer.
9. Seeing two cutie red heads on a ginormous pumpkin at the pumpkin patch. Trying not to cry as my heart was very grateful for our 2 little ones.
10. Having coffee/donuts for breakfast with good friends!

Walt Disney Celebration

As most of you know, I love me some freebies. Through MomSelect, I recently received some freebies from Walt Disney Parks to celebrate their "year of celebration".

We had a blast with the disney balloons and supplies that they shared with us.

If you would like to host some Disney themed parties, be sure to check out this website. There are some great ideas.

http://www.momselect.com/mickeymomsclub/

most annoying phrases ever

Whatever tops the list. However, my most hated phrase is number 3. I hate the phrase "it is what it is". Well, duh. Of course, it is. It's just an excessively annoying phrase. I'm glad others agree with me!

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hErAragoh5UQoqxyQPWIJ4dVkC8QD9B6EM2O3

Freeze time

I wish I could freeze days like today. I wish I could stop time and keep days like today on back up for those days that aren't that great.

I have 2 beautiful kids who look just like me and Steven. They are joyful and happy and LOVE each other so much. Our little boy lights up and smiles like crazy when Maggie comes in the room. I was sitting on the bed talking about something unpleasant when Maggie ran in my room. She jumped on me and started kissing me and tickling me.

Then, we went in the other room and our little boy smiled and cooed. I fed him his bottle until he snuggled in my arms and fell asleep. Maggie took pictures of everyone in our house and everything in our house while I was feeding him.

Amanda stopped by tonight and everyone rejoiced. Maggie was ecstatic to see her. Willie ran to the door and barked about seeing Bella before they even walked in. I was overjoyed for someone to hold our little boy so I could put finishing touches on our dinner.

We had bible study tonight. I feel like I get so much out of it. We have a great group that prays together and opens up about life. I'm thankful for Sandy and Tanya.

The weather is so nice. It's cooled off and it's fun walking to school in the morning. She loves going to school and has made some great friends. She has a friend who is her BESTEST friend. They are so much alike, but even get along and don't fight during playdates.

Wait, I'm off topic.

Today was a great day. I love my family. I'm thankful to Jesus for giving me many ordinary days like today.

The brick

This morning, Kim and Owen came to our front door right before I took Maggie to school. They said that someone broke into the church last night.

The lady who broke into the church threw 2 bricks through the toddler room window. Then, she slept there and wrote a note on the bricks that she threw through the window. It said, "I'm sorry. I was tired and cold." Then, she signed her name.

She went into Steven's office and wrote a note apologizing again.

She was at the church when Tiffany got to church this morning. Tiffany thought that Steven was meeting with her. While Tiffany went to the church office, the girl went out the front door.

While Steven was meeting with the police, he remembered that he had a checkbook in his office. We keep it there sometimes in case we forget a check to write our tithes. Steven couldn't find the checkbook. We tried and tried to remember if the checkbook was still there or if we had run out of checks. We couldn't remember so Steven had to go sort it out with the bank today. He also had to go and have the window replaced.

And I "know" that the right thing is to feel sorry for her, but I honestly am having a really hard time with it.

This is the 3rd break in that we have experienced since we moved here. The first one was a break in to Steven's truck window.

Then, someone broke into my van window.

Now, the church.

Frankly, I'm tired of paying for broken windows.

I know that I should just be grateful that my family is safe and nothing has ever been stolen. It's just annoying.

So, I'm trying to feel something besides annoyance for the brick throwing girl. I have never felt that desperation before so I can't fully understand what she was feeling.

I don't know how to neatly tie up this blog. Hmmm.....how about "hurting people hurt people"?

Or "it is what it is"?

Nah, I hate both of those phrases.

HWMT

I've told Steven over and over again that we will never be a Husband Wife Ministry Team. But, I opened my big mouth and look what happened!

http://northgatemanteca.podbean.com/2009/09/14/091309family-portraits/

Rainbows and Butterflies

We had a very busy weekend. The most important part was that we added a new member to our family. We got a little boy who is 2 months old on Friday night. He has been a joy and been so easy. Eats and sleeps and coos and smiles at Maggie. It's been so fun. Maggie has adjusted well, but she got a little frustrated tonight. I think that it was probably a mixture of her frustration with her "projects" and working out her feelings for the new little guy in our home.

Tonight, Maggie was trying to make Daddy a new recipe for his return from hiking all day. She got pretty frustrated because it wasn't working right. She is always coming up with recipes and "inventions". Lately, she's been frustrated because her inventions don't work.

I was trying to explain to her that inventors have to work and work on an invention to make it work the right way. This was seeming to make sense to her, but then (drama queen) got upset again about everything.

She said, "you know, when I was in your tummy, I was kicking and trying to get out. Then, I came out and I really thought that everything was (i'm so not making this up) going to be like a lot of rainbows and butterflies. But, I never see butterflies."

This was followed by lots of tears. I was trying to comfort her and then, our little guy reached over and grabbed her hand and held her hand. She stopped crying to smile and him. It was so sweet.

Old blog posts

Just FYI:

I don't want to lose my old xanga posts, so I think I'm going to import my old xanga posts. So be ware, it's going to be out of order old xanga posts coming soon. I just want it all in one place.

My hubby

Steven had a birthday today. I hope he had a great day. We are going camping this weekend, so we tried to keep it pretty low key. He played golf, went to olive garden, played a new wii game with maggie and got some chocolate ice cream cake. That sounds pretty awesome to me.

My favorite part of the day was when he went to Walgreens at 1 a.m. to get Maggie some medicine. She has been under the weather on and off for a few days. When he left to get the medicine, Maggie said, "My daddy is so sweet. It's HIS birthday, but he went to get me medicine."

Later, she cried because "he is turning 37 and is going to be too old"!

We are going camping/fishing/jet skiing this weekend. We need it. It has been such a crazy week. We have been out every night of the week. I hope we can just relax and hang out. And Willie gets to try out our new tent. It has a special "room" just for dogs.

So, happy birthday, Steven. I hope you had a wonderful day. Thank you for being a wonderful husband and an awesome daddy.

(I took some awesome pictures of the items that Maggie bought for Steven that I will post later. They are hilarious, but very "thoughtful".)

Ryan started the fire

I cannot wait for this show to start again.

Willie's twin

If this dog didn't have pointy ears, I think it would be Willie's twin. What do you think?

Going to Kindergarten

She was not sure about this. She told me that she was going

to sleep late and try to miss Kindergarten.

But, she had to go. She had a great attitude when we got there. No crying. No whining. She was excited!

San Francisco

I can't ever spell that word...

Yesterday we went to SF. We decided to take the cable car to get down to Pier 39.

Here are Maggie, Evan and Aiden waiting on the bench to get on the cable car. I love that they are all wearing hoods. Even though it's August, it's COLD there and very windy.

So, we waited and waited for the cable car. Guess what? We couldn't all get on the car together. So, when the next car came by, Steven and his mom got on the car to get down to Pier 39. So, we took the short jaunt downhill to Pier 39.

Well, it looked like a short jaunt. It wasn't. It was straight downhill for about 740 blocks. Literally. I know because I counted how many times our kids told us how tired they were and how sick they were of walking.

Luckily, it was a beautiful day. There was a lot of stuff to look at, too. We walked through Chinatown and stopped at a park to use the potty.

We got to Pier 39. We went to Hard Rock Cafe for lunch.

The kids got free balloons.

More to follow....

Heads up!

Maggie got a new PINK baseball glove (on clearance at Target). She came home and begged Steven to play fetch with her. What she lacks in talent, she makes up for in perserverance. She would not quit. They played catch for about 30-45minutes in the field by our house.

If you give the girl a garbage bag....

This is Maggie looking "mean".

Maggie begged for a few garbage bags the other day. Then, she took her safety scissors and cut the sides and a holes for a head and her arms. It became an instant costume. She grabbed a neon green silly straw and became a magician!

just a swingin'

(i can't get these pictures to go the right away....ugh.....)




Evan and Aiden are moving and can't take their swingset with them. We offered to take it off their hands. Maggie loves it. She runs out to swing on it as soon as she wakes up in the morning
Steven putting together a new swingset. .


It is beautiful outside for the past week. I didn't doctor these photos at all. This is the real light around 7:30 p.m.

Now, back to eating my bagel at my patio table (thanks, mom) and watching her swing some more.

thrifty mama

I made my own laundry detergent today. My mom called to tell me about her experience making detergent this weekend.It sounded pretty easy and on a whim, I decided to try it out.

Unfortunately, I was going by KMart when I decided to do this. I have the worst luck there. I could only find 2 of the ingredients. I couldn't find washing soda there. I did a google search when I came home to see if I could substitute something for the soda.


I read a blog that said that washing soda was basically just doubly strong baking soda. So I doubled the baking soda.

4.5 oz of zote soap (it's pink) and comes in 14 oz so I cut it with a big knife to about 1/3 of the bar (grated)
1 C Borax
1 C Baking Soda

I grated the zote soap and then mixed in the soda and Borax. It's not a lot of soap so I put it in a coffee container. I washed it out first and I hope my laundry doesn't smell like coffee. Oh wait, that might be a good smell.

You should use 1TBS per load.

My first load of towels is in the washing machine right now. I will keep you updated on the results.

I put the directions on the top of the coffee container and the recipe with the remainder of my detergent ingredients.

According to most sites, it's about 42 cents per load if you use tide.
It's about 14 cents with this recipe and you feel so thrifty!

my favorite you tuber

This is a video from Ben Watts. We saw him recently when we were in PA. He was the creator of my favorite you tube video of all time.

Here's a new video.

Visiting with Donna

Last week, I met with Donna. She lives 30 minutes from where we were for our conference.

Donna is a friend from a pastor's wives' message board that I joined right after I got married. It has been such a great group of supportive, Christian women who understand life in ministry.

I have met Julia and Gina and I couldn't wait to meet Donna. I went to her house and then we went to a flower park nearby. It was beautiful. This is the view from the top looking back of the garden.

Here's some gorgeous lilies. They weren't as fragrant as most lilies are, but they were really pretty.

Donna's daughter, Joy, came with us. She is such a beautiful girl and I am so glad that I got to meet her. This is Joy and Donna posing in front of the ballroom at the flower gardens.

clean up time

I asked Maggie to
sweep the floor last week. She didn't really want to do this. Can you tell?

I took a picture because I am a mean mommy who thought that this image was too good to pass up!

A thousand questions

This was the opening video for the Brethren National Conference last night. It was amazing.

I loved it even more because "this is my father's world" is one of my dad's favorite hymns.

How does your garden grow?

 

 

 

 

Sandy came over in April and helped me plant our first vegetable garden. We had so much fun and guess what? The VEGETABLES GREW!!

A funny joke by: Maggie

(it actually is funny)

Maggie: What's so bad about being an octopus?

Maggie: It takes a long time to wash your hands before lunch.

wocka wocka

funny maggie

Maggie was helping me bring in a "HUGE" box of paper towels yesterday. I was holding the door open for her. She said, "um.... um.....mommy" and she struggled to bring in the papertowels. Then, she blurted out in a loud voice "Mommy, I love you."

I told her that I loved her, too. She said "I just wanted you to know in case I pass out!"

Remembering to praise Him

You know that song that says, Still I will worship you.
It says:
I will worship You, in the midnight hour
I will worship You, when I'm in the fire
I will worship You, when all hope seems gone
I will stand and proclaim that You are my God
I will worship You.

We started out our vacation on a high. I found out that I was pregnant. After all of the ups and downs of the last year with our foster children, maybe this was an answer to prayer.

We ended our trip in the E.R. I lost the baby at almost 7 weeks along. I am in a lot of pain but we had to come home the next day and it is nice to be able to recover in my house and not in a hotel room.

Though we are very upset about this, I have to keep going. Maggie can't see me breaking down all day long. We have to eat, so we went to get groceries.

On the way home, we were listening to a worship cd and "indescribable" came on. I had in on kind of loud and didn't realize that Maggie was paying attention to the music. Then, I hear the cutest little voice from the backseat singing it word for word. It made me so happy.

I told her that I loved hearing her sing and she said "i sing because I believe in God and I believe in His word."

I do a lot of things wrong and I wallow in my self doubt a lot, but we are trying so hard to raise her to be a godly woman. I have to remember to count my blessings and not dwell on our sadness.

Iran?

I admit, I don't know much about what is going on there, but this is a powerful blog about Iran.

http://blog.sojo.net/2009/06/16/iran-we-are-born-to-be-free/

I think this sums things up so well.

We were born to be free. God created us to be free.

Spaghetti

 

 

 

 

Maggie and Nah Nah had a great day making meatballs for lunch yesterday. She loved rolling them and said that they felt like "greasy play doh". She had a blast and ate every bite of her lunch.

Rachel can drive?

>

Our good friend and Maggie's mentor, Rachel, is getting her driver's license this summer. She wanted to drive us to Newnan on Saturday to go shopping. ENJOY!

Dinner to celebrate

We went to dinner on Friday night to celebrate my mom's last day of school. We went to a great seafood place in Opelika. There's a big front porch where you can feed the ducks and turtles. It was so fun and the food was amazing!