Are you feeling lucky today?

Lucky you!

The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me!

My choice. For you.

This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!

2- What I create will be just for you.

3- It'll be done this year. (might be a little while)

4- You have no clue what it's going to be. It might be homemade cards, a pin cushion, some small, some large, maybe even a scrapbook. I may bake you something and mail it to you.

Who knows? Not you, that's for sure!

5- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

Don't worry, my imagination is not the great!

The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must repost this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog.The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did will win a homemade gift by me! Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it!

So....who will be the first 5 people?????

Is it a gift?

Last night

Wednesday night

Gospel meeting in Nampa, about 20 minutes away

Bob...at work since before 6 a.m. ...back at work at our computer

It would be me and the kids...alone

Grumpy, tired kids

We'd aleady had three meltdowns...and that was the older one!

Late dinner...still had to get baths.

***

Called Mom and asked a silly question.

"Do you think it's ok to just stay home tonight?" after whining about the grumpy kids,

the stay-at-home husband, driving alone on the back roads.

She laughed.

She declined to answer me with a direct answer.

Instead she said, "You know, I can't tell you what you should do. But, I can tell you that,whenever I've felt like that in the past and decided to go anyway, I always heard something I needed to hear."

So, we went, the grumpy kids and I.

We sat in the front row. The kids sat quietly and drew.

I took notes...and almost felt sorry for those that were there because it seemed as if

Chris and Jay were speaking only to me. Would there be anything for anyone else?

Yep, another silly question.

So glad we went.

***

So, here's my question for the day. But I don't think it's a silly one.

Are mothers just born smart?

Is it a gift that they receive at a certain point in life?

Will I receive the same gift someday?

Will my kids look back and appreciate the times I told them no?

Will they appreciate the times I let them figure it out on their own?

I hope so!

***

Thanks, Mom.

Nothing to share...that's how I've felt these past couple of days.

I feel like I have nothing to say that anyone would be interested in.

But, then I remembered that every post doesn't need to be "inspired" or even interesting!

And this one won't be. (smile)

****

This is how I see Ryan most of the time lately. He has developed a love for reading. His teacher gave him a book to read from her own stash. It is harder than what he's been working on...large enough to be divided into parts. It's AR level is 4.9 (almost fifth grade level). He was a little suprised when he wasn't able to finish it in a day or two. But, he dug in and finished it this past weekend. The day that he finished it...this is where he was for several hours. Sprawled out on the futon in the family room, deep in the world of mythical bats.

*****

I slipped today!

I've been so good with my eating this past week and have allotted myself one tall, no-fat, no whip, two-pump, extra hot mocha a week. However, today after story time, Emmalee asked for Orange Chicken from Fred Meyer (Jenny...she would love some teriyaki chicken from Haggens...can you send some?). So, we headed up the road. I tried....I really did. But, to enter the store, I'm within a wimpy girl's (me) stone throw away from Starbuck's. Aahhhh, the smell. It pulled, it tugged, it won! So, I lost. But it sure was good! (And really not that bad for me with all of the 'no's' and 'non's' in it.)

Then, we headed into Fred Meyers and over to the deli to get Emma's chicken. They have a sandwich there that I love...a smoken turkey panini (Jenny...I like this one, but love the ones from Haggen's...could you send one, please?). Once again, I heard it calling to me from over in the deli case. "Pick me! You love me! I'm much better than the soup you plan to have at home." Once again, I was weak, and gave in to the desire of the yummy sandwich.

So, yes, I slipped today. The good news is that I had already walked/ran my three miles for the day. Maybe that will offset the mocha and the sandwich!

*****

If you have a few minutes, please take a minute to visit a new blog over on my side bar...

Annabelle's Garden

For those of you that know my mom or have seen her yard, you know that she has two green thumbs (I think she took mine when I was young!). This is her brand new blog...I'm sure that we can look for many inspiring posts in the future. Maybe she'll set up a gardening question and answer section for those of us that need garden help! (Hint, hint, Mom!)

*****

I hope that all of you have a wonderful day. I hope that you're all in a place where you can enjoy the beautiful sunshine...it makes you think of the Spring days to come!

This week...

***Overheard***

Wyatt: "We call this mac and cheese. In another language, it's macaroni and cheese!"

*

Emmalee: "Wyatt, why do you like me so much?"

Wyatt: "Because I like to boss you around."

Emmalee: "Toss..boss. Wyatt, they rhyme!"

*

Bob: "This is fun!"

Referring to work...words never before uttered in our

household by the CPA in tax season.

***Anticipating***

Bike rides

*

Longer days

*

Sunshine

*
Fun at the YMCA

New books from favorite authors

(I requested them all at the library and was put on the waiting list. Whoops!

They all became available at the same time!)

Hearts

***Witnessed***

Ryan's sweetness to little sis

Ryan has given Emma about 30 Pokemon cards. She loves to trade them back to him.

Yesterday, they had finished trading cards, and Ryan told Emma that she would need to buy more. The next thing I knew, Ryan had both of their piggy banks out and was emptying them. Emma ended up with a bag of pennies (I wonder if Ryan's back had more silver in it?). She then went to Ryan to "buy" more cards from him. Poor thing...he had meant that she would need to buy more cards at the store. Emma sat in my lap with crocodile tears just streaming down her cheeks saying, "I want to buy more Pokemon cards from Ryan." Ryan disappeared upstairs and came back a few minutes later...he'd pulled a couple of his cards out of his book and gave them to her. Her tears dried up, and she was happy as could be. And she got to keep all of her pennies!

***Added***

Regular exercise
(If you're looking for walking DVD that will make you work, this is it! Whew!)
*
New game: Shadow Stomp
Never seen Emma laugh so hard!

***Removed***
Two pounds!

***Avoided***
Chocolate
Mac and Cheese (or Macaroni and Cheese, in that other language!)

Happy weekend to all

I have a friend that wrote a post called Schitzophrenic Post

That how I feel my mind is today. It's running in all kinds of circles. Used to...I'd just have to deal with it. However, my blog has become my place to lay it all down on "paper."

So, this post is really just for me to get it all off of my mind...feel free to come back tomorrow or the next day for something more interesting (hopefully!).

First...a few "Emma-isms."

Yesterday, she and I had quite the funny day. It seems like everything she said

had me busting up laughing.

During lunch, the radio was on in the background, and a song came on that mentioned God.

She looked at me very seriously and asked, "Is there really a God?"

I told her that there was. She asked where God lived. I told her that God lived in Heaven.

She asked me to show her where Heaven was. I told her that it really isn't a place you can see and then told her that God also lives in each of us. She thought about it for a minute and then asked, "Am I Heaven?"

I talked to her for a minute about her soul. She sat up straight, put her shoulders back and asked, "Mom, show me where my soul is." I explained that it's not a body part that you can point to or see. She leaned over, put her cheek to mine and asked very quietly, "Is it something you can hear?"

A few minutes later, she started to pound on her chest with her fist. I asked what she was doing and she told me that she was "knocking for God."

*****

Later in the day, I was busy tickling her and decided to pretend to "eat" her tummy. It is quite irresistable. She started to laugh and told me no. I said to her, "Tummies aren't for eating, are they?" Emma replied, "No, Mom, and life's full of hard knocks, too." I have no idea where she

heard that phrase!

*****

Lastly, for now anyway, we were on the way to the grocery store this morning and passed by the library. I pointed it out to her. She said, "Yeah, Mom, but where's Easy Street?" Oh, if only I knew the answer to that one!

***********

Another friend has been very open about her goal of saving money...even fessing up on her blog when she came across something that she couldn't pass up (gotta love those sale prices!). I'm a firm believer that it's a great incentive to keep at something if your are accountable to others for it. It is sometimes hard to admit when you've fallen off of the wagon, but that's o.k.

Many of you know that I removed 60 pounds in 2006. Sorry...can't stand the word "lost" in relation to weight. To me, lost is somthing that I want to find again. Not so with extra weight! Anyway, it is my goal to remove 15 pounds by the end of March. This past week, I began again my "must exercise at least 5 times a week" workout schedule and am eating healthier again. Sorry, Max, I mean anonymous, no more cookies from my kitchen! Well, maybe once in a while.

I plan on posting my progress each weekend.

***********

Bob and I made the decision to put Emma in preschool two days a week after moving here in August. She became very attached to me...in Portland, I could leave her with any of our friends for playdates and she'd have no problems. The experience has been great for her. Her friend

is in the same class, and they just have a great time. However, it costs $140 a month. We are in the process of trying to boost our savings, so we are looking for places to cut back. Since Emma has a December birthday, she cannot start school until August of 2010. So, we've decided to not send Emma back to preschool next year. We are so lucky to live where we do...just down the road is the Ada County library. It is wonderful! Every Wedensday morning, we head to the library for new books and story time. Storytime is led by Miss Erin. I don't know how Emma even tolerates my story reading after hearing Miss Erin. She is so expressive with her reading, and she brings her friend along. She has a monkey (only some of the kids believe that he's a monkey) that she calls Monkey. She incorporates him into the theme of the day...the kids love it! Today, there were over 60 kids from age 6 months to 5 years and all of them were enthralled. Also, the same library has preschool art twice a week.

We joined the YMCA, and they have a variety of classes that Emma can take for $28 a month. Between the library (free), one class per month at the "Y" ($28), play dates, and trips to the zoo, botantical gardens, parks, etc...we can just has much fun without paying the

huge fee each month. She loves to do homework here at home, so we'll sit down for a while each day and work on letters, numbers, etc. If she continues as she is, we might even get her reading by the time she starts school.

**********

One last topic. My going back to work. After reading my post about the short amount of time it took me to read 4 large books, some members of my loving family have mentioned that it might be time for me to go back to work. Apparently, they think that I have just too much fun!

These same people were very vocal about the fact that I should not be working back when Ryan wasin daycare from age 2 months to 20 months. Because I've been on both sides, I have so much respect for those moms that do have to work and are able to still spend meaningful time with their children. It's a hard balance to find.

However, at this time, there is no need for me to return to work. If it comes to that, I will have no problem putting out those applications and rejoining the work force. Neither Bob nor I see any need to put Emma in daycare while I work to pay for said daycare.

Besides...I have a job. A 24-hour a day, no monetary gain job. And I love it!

I have the wonderful responsibility of raising two kids, making sure our house is liveable, meals are nutricious and on the table with the breadwinner gets home. I also have the priviledge of being able to some time reading or crafting or writing on my blog. On a normal day, it's not much time...but it's important to me. I love to lose myself in a book (yep, still have to do the housework when I stop reading), I love to make things for people (almost always wait until the housework is done and the kids are in bed), and I thoroughly enjoy blogging. I enjoy sharing our lives and getting to know others better through their written words and photos. I love to logon and see comments waiting for me. I'd love to see who my lurkers are (feel free to leave an anonymous comment if you don't have a blogger account...just make sure you sign your name so I know who you are!).

*********

See...pretty boring post today for everyone but me. It's all out of my head now...written down somewhere...and now I'm off to work on some birthday gifts. Happy day to all.

What's for dinner?

I gave this cookbook to Ryan for his birthday in December. I remember getting my first cookbook at around the same age...I couldn't wait to start cooking!

Ryan is going to be in charge of dinner one night a week....it can be anything but corn dogs (his favorite food group). This week he decided to make the dish on the cover.

Ingredients all ready to go.

I like this book because each recipe takes between 4-8 ingredients.

It also has photos of each recipe.

Stirring the pasta.


All done!

Thanks for dinner, Chef Ryan.

Now we need to discuss cleanup!

Caught...

...with her hand in the cookie jar!

Ember's Album

Some of you have expressed interest in seeing Ember's album. Cassie was kind enough to agree to letting me share it. Occasionally, the red is a little off in the photos and appears orange.

This is Cassie's blog post from Ember's birthday. You can read it here

Letters like these will be tomorrow's treasures!

The end.

This week...

Spotted! My long-lost husband a.k.a. CPA. He's putting in

long hours, but he also seems to be thoroughly enjoying himself.

For you BSU fans...he's been converted!

Monday night, we had our first card night. Five of us designed a Valentine's Day or Love card and then made kits. We met together and got to work making one card of each design. We enjoyed the beautiful cards, wonderful company and delicious treats. I'm only posting a photo of the card I designed because I don't have permission from the others to post theirs. Believe me, they were amazing! I highly recommend this as a way to use your stamps, learn new techniques and to just have an excuse to get together!

My two silly ones...a rare moment these days...just sitting together and having fun.

Emma's drawing of her friend Ember. I love the details that are starting
to emerge from her drawings.

Emma's second favorite thing to do is collect a large pile of books, sit on the

couch and slowly go through each one.

Her favorite thing?

To collect the same large pile of books, sit in my lap, and ask me to

read them to her.

One more quiet moment. In order for Ryan to get his Nintendo DS time after school, he has to read for at least 15 minutes. He's gotten so used to reading books very quickly. Now that he's moved up to the fourth grade reading level, it's taking him a bit longer.

I love that my kids love to read.

I did a bit more hand embroidery on paper. I know there's a shortcut - pierce the paper and draw lines collecting the holes - but I love how this turns out. Much more

dimension to the page.

(Sorry about the color...this paper really is a deep red, not orange)

Some of you might recognize the project that is up above from my sneak peak a few days ago.

I'm so happy to say that the 20-page scrapbook is now complete...I hope to put it in the hands of

the beautiful girls' Momma tomorrow. It was very refreshing to work on a project

that had a definite start and finish...not like the boxes of photos I have in my closet just waiting to be put into albums. Thanks, Cassie for sharing your girls with me this week.

*****

Mom and Dad came up on Thursday. Dad played with Emma while Mom and I made a quick trip to the bookstore and then the scrapbook store. One negative side affect of us moving so close to them is that I don't take photos of them with the kids nearly as often. I resolve to change that...I love photos of our every day life and

need to remember to preserve those moments.

*****

Our volleyball team, The Friendly Digs, had two games this week. Between the two games, a two-hour practice last Saturday and another scheduled for tomorrow, this is giving us all a pretty good workout! What I love about our team is that, even though we haven't won in a while, we all have fun, try our best and leave the game as friends. Bob acts as our cheering squad (thanks, Bob!) and all of the kids (all ten of them) love the chance to get together and play.

*****

That, in one semi-long post, was our week. This weekend, I plan on slowing down a bit...spending some quality time with the kids before I start another project...and spending some quality time with my husband (that might just mean keeping the kids quiet so he can get some rest after working both days of the weekend).

*****

Happy weekend to all.

Next week brings the last week of January and

Spring one week closer!

Brave Little One

It all started yesterday when I was talking to Bob on the phone, reminding him that Emma had a d-o-c-t-o-r appointment tomorrow (today) and that I didn't think she had to have any

s-h-o-t-s. Her little ears picked up, and she said, "No, I don't want to go there!" I asked where she thought she was going. She said that she didn't want to go to the G-P-S place. What?!

*****

This morning, after dropping Ryan off at school, we continued in the car on roads that were unfamiliar to her. She asked where we were going. I told her that we had an appointment.

She thought just for a second and then I hear this little voice from the back, "No, Mommy. I don't want any shots!" She's had a cold, so she just sounded pitiful when she started to cry.

*****

Our new doctor has a wonderful waiting room with a built-in playhouse, loads of sensory toys and a movie playing. She quietly sat down and started playing with the toys. A little while later I hear, "Mommy, is the doctor going to be here in just a second?"

*****

As we walk back, she's very brave. They weigh her (a wopping 31 pounds, 17 percentile) and measure her (40 inches, 57 percentile). Then, we head back to the room. As soon as the nurse and I enter the room, Emma's feet stop and they simply will not be moved. "Momma, I don't want to go in there. I think we should go home!" Finally, she flies into the room with a little help from Momma's arms.

*****

Rather than the regular high chair-thingy for the kids, they have a table set up at waist height. The nurse sits on one side with her laptop and we sit on the other. On the wall, hung with handle IKEA wire and clips is a wall of art. Some of them are colored, and Emma gets to pick from the blank pictures. She pics a butterfly, we sit on the opposite side of the table, and she gets to work. She answers all of the doctor's questions..."Yes, I have friends...Ember, Wyatt, Lucas, Elise." "Yes, I have a bruder, but he's at his school right now." "Of course I colored all of this and stayed in the lines."

*****

Then, a bit of delightful news. No shots! Aahhh, the world's happiest girl grins at me.

*****

The doctor comes in, and she's very pleasant. Emma likes her instantly. She has Emma play a few games with her, lets her listen to her own heart (Oh, did she ever love this! I don't think her play doctor toys are going to be sufficient any longer), checks all of her body parts, and then confirms that, once again, her cold has indeed turned into an ear infection.

*****

Emma's high tolerance for pain gets us into trouble sometimes, like in the middle of the night when she finally shows signs of a soar ear and it has already burst and, oh, the other is infected also. But today, once the dreaded appointment was over, she was so fun to be with. Her cold didn't bother her as we went to Target to buy a new pair of black shoes (hers broke on the into the doctor's office), to Michael's to buy an album for a special friend, to Office Max to buy a cordless mouse for Daddy, and then onto Fred Meyer for her prescription. She's such a little shopper. She loves to touch everything...and of course, had to smell every artificial flower at Michael's...and then I had to smell them, too.

There's something that I just

l-o-v-e

about my sweet little brave one.