I want a Wii......bad

Or is that badly?

Whatever.

I just want a Wii.

Thus far it is not in the budget to purchase one, so I am entering EVERY contest I can possibly find to win one. Here is the latest contest, and I like this one because I have been looking for a contest to enter this photo in since I took it nearly two years ago:

That is Scoop and Baby, whom (or is it who? whatever.) he has recently renamed Jacob. I love this picture because it shows Scoop just being a kid.

5 Minutes for Mom is hosting a photo contest title "The Kid in You" and sponsored by Nestle and the grand prize is..........

A Wii

(remember, I want one of those.)

If I am a finalist there will be voting involved, so stayed tuned because I will expect help from all of my wonderful bloggy friends!!

Chapman Tragedy

I know it is so far from home.
Yet it seems so close to my heart.
Why?
Because he has ministered to my heart with his music on more than one occasion.

Please lift up Steven Curtis Chapman and his family, particularly the big brother that was driving the vehicle that struck and killed his darling little sister. Pray that this family will be strong and undivided in their grief.


Now go hug your children.

She's so funnny......

I just clicked over to my sister Kris' blog to see if there was anything new.........

and there was...........

and I laughed so hard I almost peed my pants.

Go see what she has been doing since she had surgery last week!

My $4.01 Starbucks card.......

A little history here: about 4 weeks ago Skippy was swinging a yo-yo ball around in the house. I had repeatedly told him to stop swinging it because he was going to break something. A few minutes later I hear glass shattering in the dining room. I look out there and sure enough, he has clobbered the light fixture with the yo-yo ball and broke one of the glass light covers and the lightbulb. In my finest "Love and Logic" moment ever, I did not yell at him! I told him to clean up the glass while I looked on line to see what it would cost to replace that fixture. It was determined that $12.50 was the replacement value and I sent him to get me his wallet. He had $2.44 in his wallet, so I took it all and started a running tally of monies owed to me for the replacement of the light fixture. Over the past month he pulled weeds and vacuumed my car for $5 to add to his repayment. This past weekend, his dad challenged him to climb to the top of a rock wall and the reward was a buck. As soon as he got home he gave me the dollar a payment towards his debt; bringing the balance owed down to $4.06.

Fast Forward:
This morning as we were rushing to get out the door I asked Skippy to help me by either A) getting Scoop's shoes on him or B) switching the laundry from the washer to the dryer. He chose the laundry. Pretty soon I hear him hootin and hollerin something about a Starbucks card. Immediately I knew that he had found MY starbucks gift card that I had mistakely left in the pocket of my shorts on Sunday, but the rule in in our house is that if you find money (or other valuables) while doing the laundry then it belongs to you (within reason!)...........so Skippy was then the proud owner of a Starbucks gift card with $4.01 on it.

He then remembers his debt to me and offers up his newly found windfall as final payment. I accept. And am now in possession (once again) of MY $4.01 Starbucks card and he is once again a debt free 8 year old.

Why do I do this to myself?

Here's how my day went:



6:30 wake up, see Dave for the first time since 7:30 Tuesday morning (he worked a swing shift as part of his new job training and did not get home until 1:15 am.) Get ready for work, Scoop ready for daycare, Skippy ready for school (all with Dave's help).



7:50 I leave to take Skippy to bus stop, Dave leaves for work and on his way drops Scoop at the fabulous Miss Jeannie's house (We really could not ask for a better day care provider!)



7:55 Sitting at the bus stop I decide to take Skippy to school (instead of waiting any longer for the bus), it's on my way to work and there is an playground aide on duty at 8 and he loves the extra 20 minutes of playtime in the morning.



8:00 arrive at school, sit in car for extra five minutes just chatting with Skippy (love that!)



8:05 give Skippy one more kiss, wave "I love you" in sign language as he walks away.....how did he get so big?



8:15 arrive at work, work 6 hours.



2:15 leave work



2:30 pick up Scoop from Miss Jeannie's, forgot to ask how many time outs he had today. Oh well.



2:50 pick up Skippy from school, give both boys 20 minutes to play on playground, while I stand around talking to my friends (yes, I'm one of those moms!)



3:10 leave school with two kids that suffer from LBSSA and in desperate need of a snack.



3:11 celebrate the fact that I was prepared and put apples, bananas, granola bars and juice pouches in the car before I left home this morning.



3:15 with children safely buckled in and munching on their snacks, leave school and head across town for Scoop'sspeech therapy appointment



3:16 give said children lecture about how we just cleaned the car and I would appreciate it if all their wrappers, peels and cores would be put in the garbage bag instead of on the floor or seat of the car



3:35 Stop to pay a bill that was due last week :-(



3:45 Arrive at Kaiser clinic for speech therapy - how in the world did I get here early?



3:46 realize that children did not hear a word I said in my well rehearsed garbage lecture 30 minutes ago.



3:50 Check in, send Skippy back out to the car to get his homework.



4:00 Scoop and the lovely Jessica get to work on training his tongue to make the K and G sounds, all while playing a rousing game of Kerplunk. I sit in the room trying to keep Skippy on task with his homework.



4:45 Send Skippy to car to get baseball uniform (yay, he remembered to pack all his gear and get it into the car this morning!) and to find a bathroom to change in.



5:00 Mad dash from Kaiser Clinic back over to other side of town to pick up cousin Ryan for baseball game. Drive thru Taco Bell for Dinner (Cheese quesadillas have some nutritional value, right?)



5:25 pick up Ryan



5:35 arrive at baseball field, send Ryan and Skippy running because they are a little late for warm-ups.



5:36 wrangle my chair, blanket and Scoop down to field to watch game. Lecture Scoop about leaving his shoes on and staying out of the sand pile where the cats poop and pee.



5:40 collapse into chair to watch 8 year olds daydream in left field, make dirt piles at second base, pick nose in right field and continuously adjust on their cup at 3rd base all in the name of baseball.



6:10 put Scoop's shoes back on him



6:13 tell Scoop to get out of gross sand pile



6:18 beam with joy as Scoop stands at the fence and yells "do Dutter, det a bid hit" (remember he's in speech therapy) while Skippy is up to bat



6:19 smile, clap and scream when Scoop gets a nice hit and makes it safely to first

6:20 put Scoop's shoes back on him

6:29 remind Skippy that he is to go home with Uncle Troy if dad doesn't get to the field before the game gets over



6:35 fold up chair and blanket, put Scoop's shoes back on him, vow to never let him wear anything but tennis shoes to the rest of the games and head to the car to go to swim lessons.



6:50 arrive at gym, grab bag with Scoop's swim stuff in it (yay I remembered to put that in the car this morning too!), head in to gross locker room to get him changed



6:53 tell Scoop for the third time to please take his shoes off so we can get his swim trunks on.



6:57 herd Scoop out to the pool (yay we're on time!)



7:01 wish I would have brought my book in with me.....too tired to make the trip back out to the car.



7:10 sit on the bleachers watching Scoop practice his "big arms" and try to add side breathing.



7:18 Celebrate the fact that Scoop will be a strong enough swimmer this summer for me to feel a bit more comfortable with him doing this



7:30 meet Scoop coming out of pool and herd him back into gross locker room for shower.



7:35 Call Dave to see if he has made it to Skippy's game. He did!



7:40 pull Scoop from shower and put pj's on him, gather up wet clothes and head home



7:50 pull into driveway, just as Dave and Skippy are getting home.



7:51 send Skippy to shower and I clean all the "stuff" out of the car that I remembered to take with me this morning



8:00 Yell at Skippy to get out of shower..........



8:05 tell Skippy that I am going to start a load of laundy and he better turn off the shower and get out or he will get scalded



8:15 Brush Scoop's teeth and send him to bed



8:17 Start load of laundry, tell Skippy to get pajamas on and teeth brushed



8:20 pray and snuggle with Scoop



8:25 chat and pray with Skippy



8:27 make mental note that we need to clean Skippy's fish tank sometime this year



8:30 look at basket of unfolded laundry sitting on couch



8:31 collapse...............

Baby Mama and an Egg Timer

During my blog break a few blog friends that I know in real life and I met at the local movie theater for an evening of brainless humor brought on by Tina Fey and Amy Poehler (of SNL fame) in Baby Mama. While this movie is certainly not destined to win an Acadamy Award, it was funny, at a time when I NEEDED funny.

From L-R we are: Me, Heather, Annette, Meleea and Erica

Now about that egg timer:

I was talking to my friend Val the other day about my struggles and how I wanted to get back to blogging, but did not want to allow it to become a "check out time" for me. It is so easy for me to get on here, get enveloped in typing or reading other blogs and lose all track of time or not care about the time. So we came up with a challenge for each other to get the old fashioned egg timer and put it right next to our computer to limit our time spent blogging. I happen to like this one:

I am thinking one thirty minute spot during the day and an hour at night after the boys are in bed seems like a justifiable amount of time.

How about the rest of you. How do you regulate your time spent blogging?

I'm back.....

First of all I need to give a big thank you to all my blog friends (some of whom are "friends in real life") for your support, encouragement and prayers.

So here is the scoop: I am human and I have struggles. period.

Okay, so really (it is very difficult for me to be vulnerable), my world was crumbling around me and I was using blogging as a means of escape instead of dealing with the issues.

As a lot of you know, my husband went back to school a little over two years ago to finish his degree. While going to school full time he was also working full time and so during that time, I went into "survival" mode. Basically it was the boys and I together all the time with a little bit of daddy thrown in when he was available. It was hard, but I knew that it was only a temporary situation and I can do anything for a short period of time. So the boys and I survived, actually, we more than survived, we thrived. Well, Dave graduated from college (with a business degree and a marketing minor!) back in mid December and was available to us again as a husband and dad on a full scale level. Just one problem............I didn't let him back in. Now see, he was never really "gone" from our house, he was just unavailable except when he was a little available during school breaks. Does that make sense? So the boys and I went on with our life, we got in a groove, mad our own routines and took care of each other. When graduation day came and Dave was able to "rejoin" our daily life, I was mad and resentful. Who did he think he was that he could just jump right back in, shake up our routine that I had worked so hard at, and be part of our life again. I have struggled with abandonement issues since I was a teenager, and this brought those feelings back to the surface. This transition brought alot of fights and turmoil to our house that, along with the stress of Dave looking for a new job to go along with his new degree, turned our home into a pressure cooker. Instead of dealing with these issues, I shut down. I would plop myself in front of the computer for hours some evenings and completely ignore my other responsibilities...namely my husband and children. Not to mention my relationship with the Lord was also lacking big time.

Which brings me back to those abandonment issues. Even though I have known Jesus since I was a young child, I struggle with accepting the fact that my Heavenly Father will NEVER abandon me. Not only will he never abandon me, but he desires that I seek him for help and strength in the day to day things and somewhere along the way I forgot to do that. Thus the feelings of emptiness and exhaustion.

There have been some recent events that have brought about rest and restoration for me and my marriage. Dave and I have been meeting with our pastor and his wife (who have been dear friends since before we were married) for counseling. Another event that has brought some restoration to me was just a couple of weeks ago when Karla Dornacher (who is a WONDERFUL women's speaker, an author, an illustrator and an amazing lady of God) gave the Sunday message at church. Her message was title "Free to run.......free to win" (listen here) and was about how we are to run the race that is set before us, but we don't have to run it alone. God wants to run with us. This was one of the timeliest messages that I have been witness too, and quite honestly by the end of the service I felt like it was just me and Karla having coffee together. God was speaking directly to me through Karla (forget the other 300 people in the room that day). He was telling me that even though I run a good race, I have been doing it all on my own. I forgot to take him with me. Oh, I let him pay my entrance fee into the race along time ago, but then I left him somwhere along the path. Let's just say that by the end of that message I was broken. I knew then that healing would only come by opening up my heart and allowing God back in to "run the race" with me.

Matthew 11:28 says "Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."

Those words are from Jesus himself. He told me to let him carry my burdens and I didn't.
But now I will!!