A Christmas Story

Here is a Christmas photo of the family. We didn't do adults this year... just the grandkids. We didn't even do the color coded thing either.

Anyway...

front row: Tyler, AnnaGrace, Esther, Ruth, Titus, Briella.

middle row: Grandma, Bennett, Adam, Micah, Jared, Grandpa.

back row: Emily, Maggie, Zach, Marci, Lydia.

Ok, there's a story that I caught on film (really, film?) and I wanted to share it with you.
It was a beautiful Christmas day... as you can see. With 15 of those things running around we had sent them all outside to play for a while. What started with a bunch of boys "playing" football... turned into more of a wrestling match... which then pitted cousin against cousin.

Never a good thing to pit cousins against cousins!

So then they had to chose sides.

Was it girls against boys?

It may have started that way.

But Esther was NOT having everyone pile up on Micah - so she defected to the boy side.

Everyone sizing up the enemy...

Titus and Maggie squaring off. The faces are for real. They are not messing around. You are on the wrong side of the line in the sand Mister!

Jared comes over to take her down. (In my best asian accent) "you killa my brudder... now you die"

This doesn't look too bad. He's still holding a weapon. She has two hands. Surely she can hold her own!

Jared's One Armed Take Down! yes, she's going down!
Trying to hold on to hope. Titus coming in... just in case!

THE VICTOR!!!

Gloom, despair and agony on me.

Woooooah!

You see... the problem wasn't that Jared was stronger and beat her. The problem can be found on her right knee. Mud! Dirt, moisture, etc. Not happy about being dirty.

That's my story for the night.

There is a final picture.

Restitution was quickly made and they were once again playing. See, she even let Micah walk next to her.
Cousings are awesome!

Hey - It's March 4th!

In case you weren't sure of the current timeline... my friend just reminded me that it's March 4th. The funny (odd) thing is that I was actually logging into blogger to post a post, blog a blog, make a comment... and she reminds me how long it's been since I have done such things. So, here I am. Once again, the wee hours of the morning. I worked the past two days and I should be tired. Really I am, but it's quiet here- except for Jay's ridiculous ramblings in the background.

The month of February was spent (for me) concentrating on completing the girls' school's yearbook. This is the 3rd year I have done this. Somehow, I agreed to work on it and found that each year it gets easier - so it just makes sense to continue to do it as long as I can... especially since I'll be at that school for 3 more years (maybe 4 if Lydia doesn't get on the ball soon!). The first year I managed to do most of it on my own, between kids and work and life. I think something happened to my brain and I can't get that much accomplished alone anymore. Last year I took a week off work (yea!) and compiled pictures and pages and got it finished. It wasn't bad. This year, I took off TWO weeks of work (yea yea!) and had very few of my own pictures, very little time devoted until February, and bothered the teachers and staff repeatedly. You'd think I could get to the school and take needed pictures with just Lydia left at home. I have done very little at the school compared to years past. Ruthie's Kindergarten class just isn't the "hey come in and play/read/visit" kind of class. I don't think I've been off work for ANY of her field trips. Curtis gets to go... but it's just not the same. Maggie's class is all business too. Her teacher is very welcoming... but there's just not much you can do with the class other than read occasionally and help with their parties (which I've done). I know most of the kids in her class from years previous so it's lots of fun for me to be there and call them by name. After having spent 2 weeks in the school, each day more kids will smile and say good morning to me. Some even wave their little "I hope my friends don't see me talking to an adult" wave. I love being able to study their class lists and remember some names. Calling a kid by name is cool. And it surprises them! Makes them feel special... or worried. There's a girl from Maggie's 1st grade class that I still call Bob, and she calls me Fred. It's a thing we started. I couldn't tell you her real name. I don't think she'd like it anyway. Well, the yearbook is complete. Mailed it on Friday. Got an email today that it arrived at the publisher by the due date! That's a huge weight lifted!! The pressure mounts as I finalize all the lists, photos, names, pages... to make sure no face is seen too many times, to ensure all classes are represented, to hurt as few feelings as possible. There are always those "UGH" moments when I remember I forgot to include something I intended on including 1,593 times and still forgot. After it hits the UPS truck I remembered I never got that office staff shot I wanted. Ms. Debbie is happy about that but the kids won't be. I also remembered I forgot to go through an entire folder of photos I had saved. That's not such a big deal... but still reminds me of how old and forgetful I am. So, now we wait for May to arrive and the big brown truck will deliver 7 boxes of colorful, friend filled pages for each child to remember their year. I hope it lives up to their expectations! P.S. If anyone needs a yearbook company for next year I HIGHLY recommend the Memory Book Company.

We've had a "ton" of snow this winter. I have a couple photos somewhere. I was home for one day but the kids were unmotivated to be frozen popsicles even for their Mom. I tried to get the girls to sled down our neighbors hill... but by the time we accomplished getting dressed and over there... well, there was very little snow left. We have snow on the ground now and they were out of school the past 2 days... but they must be done with being snow happy because Curtis said they didn't go out at all. I was stuck at work. Doesn't do much for happy kids in the snow pictures.

Ruth lost her first tooth... a month ago. You can read all about it on my friend's blog since she did a better job with writing about it. We were celebrating Rob's 40th birthday while she was knocking out the tooth with a rock hard brownie from the Easy Bake Oven.

Ruth also had her long-awaited kindergarten performance for the family/friends. She was very cute... of course. She sang every song, did all the motions and had general love for the stage and attention. She also had a speaking line and did so quite well. :) Both sets of grandparents were able to be there... which made it all the more special for her. She tends to steal the hearts of those around her. Ask Grandpa Nelson about his little friend who now calls prunes - pru-ins, just like him. And she thinks that's correct! I'm not telling her otherwise.

This past weekend we participated in the Challenged Child 5k. Curtis and the big kids ran/walked while the little girls and I cheered at the finish line. I took the kids in year's past but this year we wanted to all go together... and my bum leg won't allow me to actually go the distance right now. Lame excuse, but I can't do it. I refuse to be too old or too crippled to play with my kids! I fell in the driveway the next day playing football with Bennett and busted my tail. As we all know... it takes a lot longer to recover as we age. He laughed at me... in case anyone doubted.

Here's my star runner. She really does enjoy it and seems to do well, without complaint!
I just love this picture.


Lydia sang with her preschool choir a week (or so) ago. She was horribly grumpy the first hour but had fixed her heart and sang with a smile for the second service.

She is working on her motivation. Being the 4th child is often, um... well, she's very self-focused and does what she needs to make sure she's the top. We try working on pre-school material to help prepare her brain. She doesn't like to answer, even if she knows. "Lydia, sing me your ABC's"... a,b,f, oh I can't know them, she replies. I've a few spies who are trying to quiz her regularly as her performance is often enhanced by attention from friends. Dawn can get her to J without too much difficulty. :) Kindergarten registration is in 2 weeks and the teachers are going to wonder what I've done wrong!

Mom came to stay with the kids over Valentine's weekend. We had an adult dinner at church. She's convenient sometimes and the kids sort of like her. Dad was in PA keeping all the Rose kids... Mom was here. Good thing they're retired! :)
She has to come back for a WEEK in April and do it again because...

Next month Curtis and I get to go on a cruise with other couples from church... as long as his passport arrives! It better get here.

This is from our Valentine dinner at church. It was a snowy night outside but obviously warm inside.

I can't believe I just found the folder of all my Christmas pictures. I guess another post should follow soon.

Happy Groundhog's Day!

I have Christmas to blog. I have New Year's to blog. I've completely missed January. Where did it go? It was just here. I saw it briefly. And now it's officially the 2nd day of February. Today is Groundhog's Day. Also knows as my older brother, Rob's birthday. Happy 40!!! :)
Do you ever feel like you're living Groundhog's Day? You remember the movie? Way back in 1993 with Bill Murray... we watched as he lived the same day over and over until he got it right. I would love to relive some days and re-do them... to have the chance to change a comment, to be nice, to not say anything instead of making some ugly remark. Why do we do that? Then there are days I feel like I just can't get out of... they go on forever. I just want to go home and hug my babies.... but this cycle of life keeps going round and round and I'm missing my babies.
I want a baby. Random thought - I do not want to have another baby. Well, really that's not true. I wouldn't mind being pregnant again at all. But that's not the point. I want a baby and I want a boy baby and I want one of those Haitian boys who's lost his family, home, etc. I just want to go down there and grab him up and bring him home. And be done with it. He's mine! If only life worked that way.
We have connections in our church with Haiti and they played a video on Sunday which I cried through the whole thing. What's wrong with me? Am I just being emotional? Is this crazy? Men in our church family have travelled south to help. I keep hoping they'll come home with a little boy in their suitcase for me. :)

Christmas around here was tons of fun. I worked Christmas Day this year so we celebrated early with the kids. We had our Christmas 2 days early so we could have Christmas Eve with the extended family. It was so much more fun to celebrate early. I think the kids enjoyed it too. There is no "santa" here... just Mommy and Daddy. The kids all pick out gifts to give each other. This is more enjoyable than opening any santa gift. They really get excited to see the others open what they've picked and wrapped. Oh yeah... the wrapping is part of the fun too. They have to pick out just the right paper for the job. Then we go through some tape. We go through a LOT of tape. Sometimes I wonder how the paper can ever be torn open there's so much tape on it. They can hardly contain their secrets. "Do you think she'll like it?" Their hearts are so genuine at a time when most hearts are so selfish.
This year everyone got a bike... the next size up! Curtis found a couple really cheap ones for the little girls so they wouldn't feel left out... since we really already have their size. Bennett is riding one that's pretty much adult size. He's NINE! Why does he have to be so big... and such a daredevil? Maggie is keeping up with him. Not jumping the ramps... but rides alongside him through the woods and trails they create. Ruth is learning... she wanted training wheels on hers and is too chicken to ride Maggie's without them. Then she figured out that training wheels and gravel driveway don't make a fun outing. She's learning. She doesn't want to. But eventually she'll ride a bike. Lydia is unmotivated by anyone but herself. Is this the curse of being the baby? Oh, she is such the baby! But she still cuddles with me and lets me sniff her. She still giggles and makes me laugh. She still needs serious boundaries and instructions! She still frustrates me when she whines. But I love every ounce of her being.
Maggie turned 8 and we celebrated! My sister (from PA) was still in town with her kids so they joined us and Grandma at the American Girl store to pick out Maggie's new gift. We made a day of it. We shopped. We ate. She requested STEAK and so we did... Grandma made her a chocolate cake and brought it with her. We took it in the restaurant, lit the candles, sang loudly and passed it around. We even gave a slice to our server who gladly boasted to her friends in the kitchen. After dinner Mom and Lara headed back to Griffin and we headed to our new year's eve rockin' party at Strong Rock Camp where we ate and played until 2am. It was weird though. We had a decent group until 11:30 and then right before the official ball/peach/chicken drop... they all went home. So our midnight crew was a smaller, more intimate group. We chinked glasses and then went back to our card games and Farkle. Please play Farkle sometime. It's a quick game... and it's lots of fun. The girls had a mean game of cards going on we just couldn't stop until we were victorious! A fun birthday and New Year's celebration this year.
At work we've had a changing of the guards of sorts. Pretty much all our management left, quit, got fired, retired, etc and now we're at a point that could be very good... or very bad. We're praying (well, at least I am) for the right manager, the right educator. Sometimes we have a hard time getting out of our rut and onto the path where we belong. Why do people resist change? Why is change looked at as a bad thing? And why is it that a group of complainers is so hard to break up and convince? We have "committees" (I thought that was a Baptist thing) and we're focusing on making changes to lead us into the future. I'm sure there's some motivational phrase just waiting to be created there. Our teams are meeting... a lot more that I wanted. That's in addition to the normal work days. We have overload of babies in the unit and it's busy. I don't want to go to work but there's work to do. This is where the Groundhog's Day feeling comes in to play. Every week it's the same thing. Go to work... love my work... but miss the kids. Get home... throw them in bed... read, sign and go through papers. Day "off" to clean the kitchen, do the laundry and get ready for whatever activities are up for the day. I try to do playgroup for Lydia on Tuesdays because in August we'll be done with the playgroup thing. I've been doing that since B was born... it'll have been 10 years by the time she goes off to school. Thursdays we have our family group dinners - every Thursday. I try to schedule to be off for those too. Which means I work a lot of Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Not a bad schedule... it fits with the family. Sometimes I would like to work night shifts just to not miss out on the day time activities. Here it is 2am and I'm up and functioning while they sleep. They don't miss me when they sleep. Every night they ask "Mommy, will you be home tomorrow?". WHY do they do that to me? But then there are downsides to working nights too. Eventually a gal's got to sleep. Speaking of... is it bad that I can still hear him snoring even with music playing in my headphones? :)
Back to work stuff... we have a couple kids that have become special to me. 3 months with us in the NICU, you get to know them - the parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc. Going home is coming up soon... and it's a good thing, but I'll miss them. We also had a loss this month. Now that is very difficult when it's one of those special 3 month babies. Argh! Our hearts wrenched last week. And we snuggle our own a little longer, hug a little closer, and say yes when they ask if you'll play instead of reading/writing emails, checking facebook updates, doing laundry, washing dishes. Let's go ride bikes. Let's go for a walk. Can we play? Will you read?

I'm not going back to read this post for fear of finding how rambling it really is. I didn't write half of what I wanted. I didn't look for any pictures. I never did write a Christmas card. Is it too late?