Blue

December 26, 2009

The Before Pictures- This is actually a lot less blue than it was when we moved in. Back then everything was blue, and I do mean EVERYTHING!! We made minor improvements to it at the time to make it liveable until we could afford to make the big changes that we really wanted.

For the past several months we've purchased things here and there as they went on sale. We found great deals on a lot of the bigger purchases and made compromises to ensure that we stayed on budget.

Isn't it pretty?? :)

Wow, it's dark in here!

Christmas is over. I'm a little sad, but life's not slowing down for even a minute- so I'll get over it soon! We also have lots of great new memories from the holiday season!

Wednesday Evening we celebrated Christmas with our best friends, Sara and Todd. We ate sushi (which was *quite* the experience!) and then went back to their house to celebrate with Christmas cookies, cake wrecks, and of course, presents! This year, in the spirit of simplicity and saving money, we agreed to do "homemade" Christmas. It was really nice! We got the most awesome picture frame that has a mat laser cut into our last name!! It's soo nice! It is going to go right above the doorway to the kitchen where the Christmas sign usually hangs backward for half of the year! For Sara and Todd, Matthew carved their last name into a piece of sandstone. We were really proud of how it turned out!

Christmas Eve, Matthew and I spent most of the day cooking and cleaning in preparation for our families to arrive Christmas morning. That evening, we did our annual tradition of exchanging pajamas. We all put on our new PJs and watched the Polar Express and ate popcorn. Then, we got dressed again and headed out to midnight mass.

The boys had slept in really late and they had lengthy naps, so they were able to hang in there through the mass, they were a bit irritable though. We finally made it to Communion, and we're walking back to our seats- Owen was walking behind me, and Matthew was a few people behind him. All of the sudden the entire back half of the church went black. I looked back, and Owen has turned off ALL FOUR of the light switches!! I ran back and turned them on, and of course everyone was staring at us. Owen was cracking up because he thought that the whole thing was hilarious! I was totally mortified!! Matthew later said that even though he didn't see Owen do it, he KNEW when he saw the lights go out that Owen was involved!

We came home, put the boys to bed, and prepared everything for Santa to come.

Christmas morning, we got up, ate breakfast, opened gifts and then prepared the meal. The highlight of Owen's morning was the John Deere Gator delivered by Santa!

We were blessed to spend Christmas with my parents, my grandpa, Matthew's parents, and Jodi and Brett. It was a really nice day, and I am thankful that we were able to spend time with everyone!

Saturday we celebrated Christmas with all of the Gessners at Jodi's house. We did our family exchange, (I got the most fabulous sweater slipper boots, and two new books from Jodi!!) ate yummy food, played games, and just enjoyed each other! It was another really nice day spent with family!

It's hard to stay sad about Christmas being over when we have so many happy memories to look back on.

Stay tuned for the next big project!!

Almost Here!!

I'm so excited that Christmas is almost here. I absolutely love Christmas. I love what it represents, I love the music, I love the decorations, I love it.

I don't however, love the cynicism that comes with the holidays. I don't love the snide songs talking about what a drag it all is, and I really don't love how incredibly stressed people get about Christmas. We are celebrating the birth of CHRIST here people!! It shouldn't be about how much was spent on a gift, or what you did or did not receive. It's about the miracle of Christ. I marvel when I think about how that first Christmas must have been- the humblest of beginnings. I'm in awe when I think about how frightened the Sheppards must have been when the Angel first appeared to them. I'm humbled when I think of Mary delivering her sweet child in a manger. When I put myself in the mind frame to consider these things- it really alleviates any stress that I might be feeling. It helps me to understand why we're celebrating. During one of my recent RCIA classes, Father Kevin spoke about Christmas and why we even give gifts. He said that we give gifts because we see Christ in the people that we love. I really liked that, and it seemed to really fit with the true spirit of the Holidays.

This is my first year celebrating the entire Advent season. I grew up Protestant, and sure I looked forward to Christmas all month, but it wasn't the same. This year, we're celebrating Advent. It has been such a wonderful thing. Owen and I talk about it every day, and we're helping him to count his blessings this Holiday season by celebrating a different person in our lives each and every day. It's been nice, and I think that he's enjoyed it. We started out calling each person as we celebrated them, but then with the boys getting so sick, we didn't get most of our calls made. We certainly still thought about and celebrated each person on their special day though!

Anyway, Sorry that I am just rambling today. All of these thoughts have just been rolling around in my head, so I thought that I would just write them down here. I hope that everyone has a very safe, joyful, and blessed Christmas this year.

Happy 50th!

Happy 50th Blog post to me, that is. :) I cannot believe that I've already written 50 posts. That's just lovely.

I really don't have anything witty to say today, but I was proud of myself and thought that I should mark the occasion.

Owen is under the weather again. I *think* that he might be fighting croup. He's barking like a seal and spiking fevers now and then. So far, it hasn't gotten him really down, but keep him in your prayers that his condition doesn't worsen before Christmas. (Also that the rest of us stay healthy through the holidays!!!) He had croup REALLY bad last February. It was super scary, so I am praying hard it doesn't come to that again.

Have a wonderful day, my wonderful blog readers. It's been really fun hearing your feedback these past few months. I hope you're all still enjoying the peeks into our little world. :)

Do you stand up?

We had an interesting day to say the least. This morning, Owen had his Christmas party at school. I went with him, and I really don't think that he was feeling very well because he clung to me the entire time, and didn't want to participate in very many of the activities. Normally, if I am there he's happy to play games and participate.

We finally make it through the Christmas party and I'm already flustered with the way that he had behaved. We get out to the Jeep and it won't start. Several different people offered to help and we tried to jump it, but to no avail. We were stuck.

I called for roadside assistance and we were told that a wrecker would be there within 45 minutes. 45 minutes came and went... No wrecker. He finally showed up after about 1 hour and 15 minutes. In the meantime, Owen scratched Eli's face badly enough to make him bleed. Nice.

The tow truck guy, Nick, was a pretty burly fellow. He was nice though, and apologized for being late, and he helped me get the kids loaded into the wrecker. Where I was parked, it was difficult for him to get his truck into the right position. He worked forever and finally he jimmies this huge flatbed truck into position in front of my jeep with inches between the front of his truck and the school building. Just then, as he's getting ready to load up the jeep, someone from the school came out and told him that he was going to have to move his truck because they were going to have a fire drill in a couple of minutes. He was very polite, and told him that he'd figure out something else.

So then he goes around and gets behind the jeep, and with much effort, he finally gets the thing winched onto the truck. He comes back and gets in the truck and we take off towards the repair shop. As we're pulling out out of the school parking lot, Owen says, (in a loud voice) "What's that lady doing?" (About the two truck guy) My face turns beet red.
"He's a man, Owen" I replied.
"No he's not mommy, he has long hair on his face. It's a lady!"
Face beet redder
"No Owen! He is a man!" I insist.
"Does he stand up to go potty?" Owen asks.
"I would assume so." I reply, *DYING* of humiliation!

A little time goes by, and Owen decides to point out the cleanliness level of the inside of the tow truck. "This truck is REALLY dirty Mommy." he tells me.
"Well, it's like Daddy's truck. He uses this truck to do work, so it gets dirty." I tell him.
"You need to clean it." He tells the guy. "You should probably use a hose."

OMG. I was soo embarassed.

Fortunately, the guy was very good natured, and laughed at all of Owen's "thoughts" on the matter. He explained to me that he has a 5 year old boy of his own, so he was well aware of the things that children say. I was super thankful that he was so understanding!

We finally get to the dealership. It was possibly the longest 1.8 mile ride of my life! He drops the jeep off, and then offered to take us home so that we didn't have to be stuck there. I wasn't comfortable with that, so I told him that we'd just walk over to the Chik-fil-a nearby. He insisted on taking us there so that I didn't have to carry the car seats and all of our stuff over there. Eli had fallen asleep, so he carried Eli inside the restaurant for me, carseat and all.

Matthew had left work to come rescue me almost an hour before, so I figured that he'd be arriving any minute. I called to see where he was, and he informs me that he was called back to the job site because the Environmental Management people had showed up to do a surprise inspection and he had to be there. So there we were, stuck again! Matthew got there as soon as he could, and it wasn't a terribly long wait considering how far that he had to come. But it was really cute fitting all FOUR of us (including two car seats) into the Bernsmobile!

We made it home safely, and found out that we have to replace the starter on the jeep. We *should* have the jeep back tomorrow if all goes well with the repair!

If you think about it, say a little prayer for Nick, the tow-truck guy, today. His compassion and graciousness were VERY much appreciated in my moment of need.

What you need to do

Is there anyone else out there who loves shopping online as much as Matthew and I?? We honestly do 80%+ of our shopping online. We get better deals, I ALWAYS have coupon codes, and our newest treasures are the cashback programs!! We're hooked!

I've been using shopathome.com and cashbaq.com for a couple of months now, and Matthew just started using mrrebate.com. We've had great success with these sites and are THRILLED with the deals that we've got. Just today, we earned over $20 in cash back from these sites! Not too shabby! You can also combine coupon codes with the cash rebates to make for some really sweet deals.

The other great thing is that you get a percentage of what your referrals spend, plus usually a signup bonus! I pasted Cashbaq and Shopathome's linkies in my sidebar. If you click through one of these to sign up, you'll receive $5, and so will I!! Everyone wins.

Give them a try, we've been super pleased!

St. Nicholas Day

Sunday at church, we celebrated St. Nicolas Day with a pancake breakfast and lots of Christmas activities. It was a really fun morning and Owen enjoyed decorating Christmas cookies, making reindeer food, getting his face painted, and talking with St. Nicholas. When it was Owen's turn to go sit on St. Nicholas's lap, he walked right up there and climbed up. St. Nicholas asked him what he wanted for Christmas, and Owen looked around at the Christmas trees and "gifts" that were being used as the backdrop for the "Santa" pictures, and pointed to the largest gift under the tree and says, "I'd like that one!" St. Nick just laughed, and sent my precocious child on his way! I wish that I had a picture of this event to share, but unfortuately I forgot my camera that day.

During church, my RCIA group was recgonized and introduced to the congregation as Catechumens and Candidates. Our sponsors promised to guide us on our continued faith journey, and made the sign of the cross over various places on our bodies. I nearly had my eye gouged out by Owen "helping" Daddy to make the sign of the cross over my eyes.

I can always count on him to liven up any solemn occasion :)

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving spent with wonderful friends and family! Wednesday night we made the trip down to the Gessner's to spend Thanksgiving Day with them. We had a wonderful meal at Kenny and Ruthie's and really enjoyed spending time with family! Owen and Eli did their jobs charming and entertaining family members!

We were supposed to stay down South Thursday night, but unfortunately, Matthew's work schedule forced us to come home.

Friday night we went downtown for the annual tree lighting. We enjoyed dinner at the Adobo Grille with Chris, Emily, Nathan, and Olive. I don't think that that restaurant sees a lot of the 3 and under crowd in there, because they foolishly set us upstairs next to a balcony overlooking the rest of the restaurant. The balcony rails weren't far enough for a three year old to fall through, but they were far enough apart for a three year to throw things down onto unsuspecting diners below! A busboy even came up the stairs to return some crayons that had been hurled over the precipice! Needless to say, it was a little bit stressful trying to keep these two unruly three year olds under control!!

After dinner, we walked a couple of blocks to the circle downtown, and watched the "tree" light up!

(Check out Baby Olive peeking out of Emily's coat!)

Saturday, I drove to Winchester with my mom and dad for the Toschlog Thanksgiving. We had another wonderful meal, and enjoyed getting to visit with everyone! My cousins are the best, and they all took turns entertaining Owen and Eli. Nathan always brings cars and toys for Owen to play with, and Owen just adores him!

After the reunion, we drove back to Indianapolis, and Owen got to go see Monster Trucks downtown with Grandma and Grandpa. He had a great time, and LOVED those trucks! It was hilarious listening to him tell about his evening. He even got a t-shirt signed by all of the drivers.

It was a busy, busy weekend, but it was really nice to get to spend time with all of our families.

Guess who's walking!

It's Eli!! He started walking the evening before Thanksgiving, Novemeber 25. I had just given him a bath and dressed him in jammies in preparation for our trip to Gessner Thanksgiving. I set him down in the hallway on his feet, and instead of immediately squatting down and crawling away, he walked! He walked all of the way down the hallway and into the living room, like he'd been doing it his whole life! I'm a proud mama!