Got to love teenagers

I have the hardest time keeping up with who needs what with the girls. It seems like they are always telling me they "need" something, but yet seems like they have a ton of everything. Getting ready for church is always a stress. I get me and Sammy ready, and the girls get themselves ready, usually with minimal drama I might add. Yesterday, not so much the case. Jane came down looking very beautiful, but barefoot asking if I had any shoes she could wear. Ahh, no; they are all too big and have high heels. Then the drama unfolds. She doesn't have any church shoes (of course), she can't find her sandals (of course), and she doesn't have anything to wear on her feet! (of course). It's now 5 minutes til church starts and I tell the girls I will be out in the car waiting. Katy comes out about 2 minutes later and had forgotten her bands for her braces, so runs back in. I tell her to tell Jane we are leaving. katy comes out and Jane pokes her head out to tell me (more like yell at me) that she doesn't have any shoes to wear!!!! So I say "I'm leaving Jane, church has started now, so put some shoes on." She slams the door (she's a HUGE door slammer) and then it opens with her walking out with her running shoes. I knew full well that she expected me to say "Jane, you can't wear those to church, you go in and change those right now." Instead, I just said "great, thanks Jane, let's go". As we drove to church she said "aren't you going to be embarrassed?" I said "heck no, those shoes aren't on my feet." When we got to church she immediatly went into the bathroom and cried. I was stong and stood in the foyer waiting for her. WE finally went in and she sat very still, totally unwilling to show any signs of happiness. After about 45 mintues she leaned over into my shoulder and said "mom, I thought you wouldn't let me go to church in these shoes, I was just trying to make you mad". I said "I know that Jane, and it's unfortunate that in your desire to hurt me, you are the one that has to live with the consequence for the next 2 hours. I love you." and I squeezed her. She wanted to cry, but knew that she was stuck. I wasn't mad. I had never gotten mad over it, so she realized that she was stuck with it and no amount of crying was going to change her shoes. I think that she won't try that trick again. I will admit though, that I was secretly laughing at how silly she looked throughout the entire meeting.

I love my Sammy

A couple of weeks ago I was babysitting my sister Jen's kids. Her youngest is 7 and Sammy adores him and idolizes him quite frankly. He was SO happy to have him to play with for a week. The first night, when Sammy saw that huge bathtub in Jen's bathroom, he wanted a bath, and asked Will if he wanted to have a bath with him. So the two of them get undressed and hop into the bath with excitment. I'm in the bedroom just tidying up and getting things done (I always sit in the bathroom while Sammy bathes, but didn't want Will to be self-conscious since he's a little older) and I hear this:

Will: What's that mark on your neck?
sidenote: Sammy has a large, dark birthmark at the base of the front side of his neck. It's like a huge totally flat mole. He's used to people asking what it is.
Sammy: it's my birthmark
Will: oh, where did you get it

Pause while Sammy thinks....I'm pretty sure nobody has ever asked him that before.

Sammy: well, Jesus gave it to me.

I smiled to myself. I thought that was the cutest response. It wasn't from me, it wasn't from his dad; it was from Jesus, which makes it a gift rather than something to be embarrassed about.

He says the best things and always just makes me smile. I love that kid more than anything.

girls weekend in Midway :)

I am an excellent driver. I have NEVER been in an accident that was my fault (if you don't count when I was 16 and backed into, kind of over, my sisters RX7). This weekend me and 2 friends decided to head up to Jen's house in Midway for a girls weekend. Couldn't wait to get out of town. Picked up my friends and we headed down the road. Jane was also in the car since I had to take her and meet her dad. Anyway, as we drove down the highway, I noticed next us a pick up truck who's tailgate had fallen open and things were about to fall out. I looked and told my friends to look to see if we should maybe flag them down. Well, that was uneccesary, because as I said that, we felt a HUGE thud and watched a street sign go flying into oncoming traffic. I had veered about 12 inches somehow while looking at this pickup, and of course, just happened to do so at just the right second to hit this sign that was dangerously close to traffic. SEriously, I think I veered like 12 inches, if that. I pulled over when I realized what happened, as did the truck that caused the distraction to begin with. The guy got out and I told him that I was distracted by his tailgate being open. He went up tot eh front of the car with us, saw the damage, closed his tailgate and drove away. Jerk! Anyway, as you can see, a small street sign can do a substantial amount of damage. I was DETERMINED to NOT let it ruin my weekend. After all, we were just heading out of town, so we made sure there was no accident from the sign that I had hit, and since the car was drivable, we just went on. I called the insurance co. and emailed the davis county sherriffs dept. to alert them as to what happened (still haven't heard back from them). So, there's my huge, ugly green machine that I didn't think could get much uglier. I was wrong. It got A LOT uglier. I'm so embarrassed to drive that to school tomorrow. I'm going to go early and drive around back hoping that none of my students see.

And the picture below is what Sammy drew in church last week. I asked him to draw a picture of his dad. he actually did a pretty good job depicting him; HUGE belly and ears, tiny legs, and looking like a monkey/ape.

the sun and the joker

Yesterday I picked Sammy up from my parents house. He's been kind of naughty at preschool, you know, normal 4 year old boy stuff, hitting, pushing, swearing. Yes, swearing (remember his dad has a bad mouth). Anyway, we were talking about it and my mom said something about the devil. I've never really talked about the devil, there isn't any reason to with a 4 year old. Then the conversation moved on, but he knew that the devil was someone that tries to make you be naughty.

So this morning I am driving him to school and this is our conversation:

Me: are you going to have a good day and get a sticker for being so good?

Sammy: Yup, I think I am. But Mommy, I don't like that Joker.

So I'm thinking in my head, what the heck is he talking about when he says

Sammy: he makes us do bad things

I then realize he is talking about the devil and has this on his mind since it was discussed the prior day and he didn't remember it was the devil, so he called him what he thought it was, the joker. In my mind I thought maybe I should correct him, but decided against it.

Me: I don't like him either. He's not very good at all.

Sammy: How is he everywhere to make everyone do bad things?

Me: Well, it's kind of like Jesus, he is everywhere and tries to help people do good things. You jsut can't see them, but they are there.

Sammy: how can they be everywhere?

Me: Well, Jesus is kind of like the sunshine, everyone feels the sunshine.

Sammy: Oh, so Jesus is the sun! (excited, like he finally gets it)

In my mind: do I correct him. No, I think I will just keep talking to him

Me: yeah, Jesus is just like the sun, he touches everyone and is everywhere

Sammy: he makes me feel warm. I love the sun.

As I drove I thought about what sweetness there was in that conversation, and what truth there was in the simplicity. Satan is the master joker, always trying to make us believe that what he is telling us is ok, or right, that it won't hurt anyone. He is just what Sammy called him, the joker. And Jesus, well, quite literally, he is "the Son". Maybe not, the actual SUN, but he is the son of God and does make us feel warm and happy. He is exactly like the sunshine and I'm totally good with Sammy thinking that Jesus is the actual sunshine. If that what helps him understand that Jesus is everywhere and can help us all feel happy and warm, then great. Honestly though, I appreciated the insight from my little boy, not even 5, that simply put things in such a perfect way. Satan the joker, Jesus the sunshine.

Most of you that know me know that I am Clara Boren's granddaughter in that I can't let my house be. I am always redoing something. I don't think I will ever be done redecorating or changing things. It's just the way I'm wired and I don't mind it a bit. I have a beautiful home and I absolutely love it, and love it more with every change I make. The bathroom above is the girls bathroom. When we first moved in I painted it red, yes red. I don't know what I was thinking, but all the other rooms were such subdued colors, I thought I would be bold in there. BIG mistake. I got around to fixing it a few months ago and the results, you can see, are amazing (to me at least). I LOVE this room now and so do the girls. I painted the vanity black, changed out the mirror to a framed mirror, repainted, got a new shower curtain, hung some new artwork, and there you go. For about $100 I redid the entire thing and now love it. It looks fabulous!

The upstairs of my townhouse has three bedrooms; the original master bedroom (no onsuite bath), and two small bedrooms, which should really be walk in closets they are so tiny, and there there is a full bathroom and the laundry closet. Because there isn't a bathroom attached to the master, I had the basement finished to be a small family room and a large master suite, where I sleep. It's been great. Jane has had the original master bedroom, and Katy and Sam have had the other two rooms. Recently the arrangments hasn't been working for a few reasons; the girls have been waking Sammy up at night and in the morning, and I didn't like my treadmill sitting next to my bed. So I came up with an ingenious plan and carried it out the next day of course (with help from others moving things around) The original master bedroom because the new family room, which was in the basement with me. Jane moved from there into Sammy's room, and he was moved into the old family room in the basement, next to me. This way, the treadmill could be moved upstairs into the new family room and Sammy would not get woken up by two very loud teenagers. The above picture and the below picture are Jane's room now, which used to be Sammy's room. I LOVE how it turned out. The stenciled wall was hand painted by me, of course (as if anyone else would be that crazy), and I made the window treatment and bedskirt to match the dresser. I absolutely am crazy about it and the only left to do is to get a new light fixture.

The is the same bedroom as above, just before I changed it to Jane's room. So it's a before and after. I like the after, although the before, when it was Sammy's room was good too :)

Below is Jane's original room, which is now the family room. I painted the tree on the wall, and want to keep that, so I'm not going to repaint the now family room.

Below is the room now, as a family room. It's so great to have that room upstairs with the girls and the treadmill up there. I just drag my tired body up there every morning at 5am and do my thing, and hate it every single day!

I was going to have a picture of Sammy's room now, but I am washing his sheets, so it's not exactly put together. Something for later I suppose.

On the docket is also repainting the 1/2 bath and doing a antiqued gold stencil in there. I know it will be worth posting and will do it as soon as I can. Time is not something I have a lot of, so when I get around to it, I will post it.

I love my house. It isn't as huge as I would like, but you know what, I love it and it works great for me and my three blossoms :)

lets see if I can remember how to post something

I had all the kids at home this christmas and it was great. We had a really nice christmas. I shop all year for christmas and when I get everything out, always realize that I have over done it, But since I'm a bargain shopper and get EVERYTHING on sale or clearance throughout the year, I think I can justify it.

This is SO Katy. This is her excited look :)

Sammy was thrilled with a new bike that is a big boy bike!

Christmas Eve in their new Jammies

One of these things is not like the other

While the kids were gone over thanksgiving weekend, I put up the tree and a few other decorations. While in Africa, my parents got us all a nativity set that was carved and is beautiful. I put it on the coffee table every year, and it alone (ok, there is a small stack of christmas books there too). When Grandma Dearie moved into a new nursing home, most of her belongings had to be given away or taken. When she was in Africa visiting my parents she got some animals carved out of similar wood, one of them was a baboon. For some reason, Sammy latched onto this baboon and it was given to him. He plays with it, and loves it, but is sure it is anything other than a monkey.

So, he comes home and sees the manger scene Sunday night and he says "where is the other camel" and runs into the kitchen to look through toy box and comes running back into the front room; camel in hand. Except it isn't a camel. Who knew there was a giant BABOON at the birth of Christ that holy night? And so the Baboon has remained there and will remain there all season.