Cleanliness is next to Godliness

Every mother should have at least one child who feels this way about their room.

Way to go, Elise!!!

Peace

One day last week I had had a rough day.  Actually, just a few rough hours.  I can't seem to remember now what all the frustrations were--which probably says something about how unimportant they really were--but nevertheless, I was getting stressed out.  I think I needed to feed Paige who was getting fussy, Merry Grace woke up grumpy as all get-out from her nap, dinner was cooking, Ian was probably destroying somthing and things were just getting hectic.  Elise could tell things were getting out of hand and she went to her room and came back with something shiny in her hand and handed it to me.  A while back, she had collected the wrappers from a bag of Dove's Promise candy and saved them in her nightstand drawer.  I looked down to see this message on the wrapper: "Create peace for yourself."  What a sweet, funny girl she is!!!  She broke the tension of the moment by making me laugh and warmed my heart because it showed me that she loved me and wanted to help me feel better.  So I tried to do what the message said.  I even put it on the refrigerator to remind me to create peace for myself, because I need that reminder about 100 times a day. :)  

Peanut Butter

Can I just take a minute to say how much I love Peter Pan Honey-roasted peanut butter?  It is without a doubt the most tasty peanut butter ever made.  It is creamy with just the right amount of sweetness.  Yum, yum, yum!!!  I think I could eat the whole jar.  It is so good.  Maybe I'll go get a spoonful right now....

Tagged by my funny, smart, talented, and lovely cousin Lisa

8 Favorite TV shows:
1. The Closer
2. NCIS
3. 24
4. House
5. Bones
6. Good Morning America
7. Cold Case
8. Dancing with the Stars

8 Things I did Yesterday:
1. Help the kids decorate the house to welcome Cory back home from a business trip.  We strung yellow crepe paper all over the entire living room to make what the kids called "laser blades."
2. Went to get McDonalds and Applebees take out for dinner.  (I was tired of cooking. :))
3. Went for a walk in our neighborhood with the kids.  
4. Cleaned the house
5. Snuggled with my baby who is rapidly leaving the newborn phase behind and becoming an infant.
6. Ate chocolate candy left over from Halloween.  
7. Loaded up my four sleeping children into the van to go pick up Cory from the airport at 11:30. 
8. Wore mismatched socks all day because I couldn't find a match to save my life.

8 Things I look forward to
1. Christmas!
2. The weekend
3. My next meal. ( I LOVE food!!!!)
4. Snuggling with Cory at nighttime.
5. The Twilight movie
6. Kissing my kids wonderfully soft, sometimes chubby cheeks
7. Date night!!!
8. My next trip to Target. :)

8 Favorite Restaurants:
1. Applebees
2. The Village Tavern
3. This Chinese restaurant we always eat at, but I have no idea what the name is. 
4. Sonic
5. My Kitchen (my cousin, Lisa, wrote this but its true.  I enjoy cooking and eating what I cook. :))
6. My Grandma's kitchen (There's no place in the world like it.)
7. Tripps
8. Goobers

8 Things on my Wishlist:
1. A porch swing
2. Pay off all our bills
3. Finish my college degree (or at least go back to school for something I am interested in pursuing...)
4. Money to fix our house (its not terrible, but its older and could use some tlc to make it nicer--new bathrooms, "fancy" up the downstairs, new windows, curtains...)
5. A big family vacation, somewhere out of the ordinary.  (I love our smaller ones and the good family time, but I'd like to do something spectacular one time.)
6. A romantic get-away with my honey. :)
7. A lilac bush.
8. A big snow this winter.

8 People to Tag:
1. Amanda B.
2. Susan R.
3. Bonnie B.
4. Kathryn H.
5. Kory W.
6. Lynetta Y.
7. Melissa W.
8. Everyone else who reads my blog and I can't fit into number 8...

Passy-less

Merry Grace came up to me yesterday and was admiring my earrings. Then she said, "I want to get earrings like Mommy." My first reaction was to say, "Maybe when you're bigger." Then I got to thinking that maybe this could turn into something good for both of us. So I said to her, "You can get your ears pierced if you throw away all your passies." Wouldn't you know that she did just that?! Just picked them up and threw them away like they were gum wrappers. Then she spent the afternoon going through my jewelry, looking at all my earrings. So later that evening, after Cory got home, we took her to Wal-Mart and got her ears pierced!!! She was very excited and very brave. She did ask for her passy at bedtime, but got over it more quickly than I'd ever imagined she would. And today she hasn't even asked for it. I'm a little bit in shock over how easy the transition has been so far. So here is the little cutie showing off her new earrings. She's awfully proud. :)

One of these days

Maybe one of these days I'll get used to Ian's penchant for trouble.  One day last week, in preparation for Halloween, I was getting the kids' costumes together.  Ian decided to be a ghost, so I had a couple of white pillowcases out and about to put it together.  I had just come up from downstairs with a load of laundry and left the door to downstairs open.  (If you are my Grandmother, who constantly frets over the dangers of the stairs, even from a few hundred miles away, or my Mother-in-Law, who prays daily to protect the kids from the possible accident of falling down the stairs, stop reading now.)  I went into the kitchen to set up my costume making operation when I heard a scream followed by several loud bumps and bangs.  Instantly I knew Ian was falling down the stairs, but couldn't get to him fast enough to do anything about it.  At the time, I was scared to death and my knees were shaking like crazy.  But now that its been while and I know he was okay, I can see the situation in a little different light.  When I rounded the corner and saw Ian at the bottom of the stairs, I quickly saw what had happened.  Ian had put a white pillowcase over his head and was stumbling around the living room pretending to be a ghost.  But with no eye holes, he couldn't see where he was going and walked right off the landing at the top of the stairs.  Not only that, but the poor kid had his arms trapped at his side (inside the pillowcase, remember?) so he couldn't stop or catch himself.  Fortunately he didn't have anything worse than a bright purple bruise on his hip bone.  There is no doubt he is my child.  

Later that same day, Ian and Merry Grace were playing in my closet while I was out in my room folding clothes.  They love to hide behind my clothes, so I didn't think anything about it, until once again I heard a loud crash.  I ran into the closet and found Ian and Merry Grace lying on the closet floor on their backs, my lower closet rod and all the clothes hanging on it, smushed right on top of them, hangers jutting out every which way.  "What in the world?!" I said, to which Ian replied, "I was just doing a flip."  Good grief.  Too bad he didn't reccognize it for what it was, mistaking it for a gymnastics bar instead. :)

This past Sunday we went down to Cory's folks house for the day.  We pulled up to their house, only no one was home.  So the kids and I sat in the car while Cory tried to get inside.  Ian climbed into the front seat and was playing around like he always does.  All of a sudden I realized the car was moving forward.  It took me a second to figure out what had happened--it truly did shock me--and slammed the gearshift back into park...just as the car rolled into the brick side of their house.  Just then, Cory raised the garage door and saw the van touching the house.  Unbelievable.  Yep, Ian had put the car in drive and rolled us right into the house.  I guess the van wasn't any worse for wear, considering the other things that have happened to it and the house is fine.

So, maybe one day I'll get used to Ian's messes.  But it doesn't look like that day is coming anytime soon!!!