Mother's Day Hike

My little girl
My Boys
My baby boy


For Mother's Day we went for a hike at Watkins Glen. It was real pretty there. Then we went out to eat and came home!

Boy am I gonna have my hands full

Ethan is teething lately and has been up very early every morning. This morning he woke me up at 5:30 which is late for him these past few weeks! So I got up gave him some milk and put him in his jumperoo to watch cartoons while I laid on the couch. At about 8 o'clock I figured I should get my lazy butt up and get him out of that thing. Afterall he will never walk if kept in that all the time. I turned to him and said "Do you want to get out?" He grunted "yes" and as I got up to get him he jumped in that thing. Only this time it was different. He jump with so much force and he angled his body so that he could hang over the edge a bit. His feet weren't on the ground, but he kept putting the weight of his body forward. He did it so much that the whole seat flipped over, all while he held on and once the seat was upside down he let go and fell out. He laughed the whole time! He is like Spiderman! Then he proceeded to crawl over to the couch and climbed up. He is only 31" tall I have no clue how the heck he was able to get up. How the heck did he know how to do that? There is no safe place for him anymore. If he can figure that out he surely can figure out how to get out of his crib. It's just a matter of time! Welcome to boys! haha! Emma NEVER climbed out of a crib etc. She was miscievous in other ways, but was never a climber. Ethan can figure things out whithout much thought though, so it's a bit odd but at the same time amazing that he is that smart. For instance cabinets. Emma struggled to figure out how cabinets opened. She eventually figured it out but she would feel the cabinet, but her hands on one side then the other until one day it worked. Ethan on the other hand, went up to the cabinet for the first time and just opened it. NO struggle at all, he just knew how to do it. So strange. The other day he went and picked up Phil's screwdriver and some washers that were on the ground (he is working on putting together a wagon but needs new hardware before he can finishes it. In the meantime everything is in our spare room waiting to be finished). He went over picked up the screwdriver, and washer, lined it up on the wagon wheel, and inserted the screwdriver and began twisting. How did he know how to do this. No one showed him! He saw it once and did it! It really amazes me. ONe other thing he does is when he walks with one of those push toys and gets himself in a corner, he will back up and turn it around and keep on going. Emma never did this! First of all she couldn't walk with those stupid things she always let it get away from her and she would fall. But if she did get stuck in a corner she would cry until she got help! I guess men really are better drivers and they are born with it! haha! It just amazes me the difference between them but most of all how smart Ethan seems to be. Amazing!

Bad night

We had a showing on our house tonight so I decided I would take the kids to McDonalds with a play place for dinner. I had a gift card to use so I figured why not. First, I had to stop off at the UPS store to mail a couple of things for Phil for work. We get to the store and I get out to get Ethan, and he had puked all over his jacket. So I clean him up while Emma is not listening and flirting with the idea of running in the street! I finally get everything under control and head in the store with 2 kids, a drill and a laptop! I get in there and all the baby wants to do is get down.What a pain but ok I can deal, nothing new. So the lady packs each item to ship, and gets pricing and I agree because it is being shipped for the company and I was using the company account. Well when going to pay for this she says they do not accept company accounts there so I have to pay for it. So I call fill, no answer. A decision has to be made as these items should have been shipped weeks ago. Ok fine, let's so it the company will reimburse us after all. $200! Yes $200 to ship 2 packages to arrive by the end of the week. So I go to pay on credit card. DENIED! It wasn't working for whatever reason even though I know there is plenty of available credit. I had money in the savings but no way to get it so I had to leave and go get money. So me and the kids walked to the bank to get money. All the while Emma is disobeying! We finally get the money and go back to the store to pay. I get the kids in the store and drive to McDonalds. We get out to get Ethan and he puked again. Only 2 times as much! Clean him up again and go into McDonald's. I order and Emma decides she has to pee, my cell starts ringing and I am holding Ethan who is squirming to get down. We finally get our food and sit to eat. Ethan decides he does not want to eat and starts squirming to get out of the high chair. I repeatedly tell him "no" and he decides to wave his arms across the table knocking all of his food on the floor. Whatever cause I don't really want him eating McDonald's anyway. We hurry to finish eating and I am putting the cover on Ethan's "big boy sippie" my hand slipped and I knocked my whole soda on the floor. At this point what else could go wrong? Someone came and cleaned it for me THANK GOD! I took the kids to go play for a while and they enjoyed themselves! Finally it was time to go, so we got ready and stepped outside and no word of a lie it started to down pour and I had no jacket! Perfect ending to a perfect night! LOL! I wanted to cry, but it was all almost laughable! What the hell else could have gone wrong? I kept thinking I would get pulled over on the way home the way my luck was going! Thank God that did not happen!

Showing

Wait patiently for the LORD. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the LORD
Psalm 27:14, NLT

We have a showing tomorrow night! Please pray that this is the one. The timing seems to be perfect as any offer that comes now, allows us to finish off preschool here and move over the summer. It seems like this could work out great and our house looks gorgeous outside right now with all the spring flowers in bloom etc. I am excited but trying not to get too excited in case this isn't the one. I need to keep this verse in mind and trust this will out work out in God's time! It's hard not to be human though! :)

Mantra

I heard something really great today about the power of words. Just like a nasty word can ruin you before it finishes leaving the mouth, good words can change your life. How often are we so HARD on ourselves? I am too fat, I am so lazy, I can't keep my house clean, I am not organized, I am a bad mother! Lets stop being so hard on ourselves. We are of course, are our worst critic, but let's take that negativity and turn that around for good. I am going to try this and see how my life changes. People swear by it! So here and now I begin my daily mantra. I will say this to myself at least once a day and see how much it really matters, and what difference if any, it makes.

1. I LOVE to exercise
2. I want to be healthy
3. I will get out of debt
4. I will play with my kids more and have more fun
5. I will be a more supportive wife in every area
6. I LOVE to clean
7. I am organized
8. I will save more money

That's all I can come up with at the moment, but those in themselves are quite BIG feats to take on. I am sure I will be plenty busy trying to better myself in those 8 areas, and I am sure there are many more that need to be worked on as well!!!!

Out with the negative in with the positive!!!! Certainly couldn't hurt anything.

Fearless

2He called a little child and had him stand among them. 3And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 18:2-4


As I sat and watched my son today this verse really spoke to me. I saw him practicing his new trick! CLIMBING! He isn't walking yet, but he has gotten very good at manuervering objects to climb on top of chairs, tables etc. He is a smart boy but when it comes to knowing the outcome he is clueless. He doesn't know that he could fall with one little misstep. He IS FEARLESS. God spoke to me with this little illustration saying that this is how we are to be in our lives. ....FEARLESS. Often times we sit and worry too much about the outcome, we let fear rule us when in all reality there isn't much we can do to control our lives anyway. The big things will work themselves out and really we can't do much to change the way it ends. Our story is written, the plan is laid out. The truth is that only God knows the outcome and only God can direct our lives, so long as we are trusting in Him. I have been consumed and anxious about this moving situation and have had fears that this may not work out. That our house won't sell. And at times the enemy keeps trying to deceive me with the little things that come my way. For instance yesterday I got a call from the realtor asking if I wanted to reduce our asking price. I immediately thought "she thinks it's not gonna sell." I refused knowing that we will be here until June regardless, but those words and thoughts resonated with me throughout the rest of the day. Then this morning I read that verse and watched my son and thought it would be great to truly be a child again, so innocent, so trusting, so free, so fearless.

I have to remind myself that when things seem impossible GOD IS POSSIBLE. I was hopeless when I lost my baby 2 Easter's ago, but what joy I found 1 year later on Easter Sunday when my son was brought home. God IS good, and when life doesn't go the way we plan we have to trust in that Sunday morning! God WILL provide our needs. This is HIS promise to us.

Updates

Well it looks like we will be New Yorkers for a while longer. Nothing has come through with this whole rent to own bit and quite honestly we are getting sick of the whole thing. I thought renting to own would be easier at this point but it turns out to be one of the hardest things we've done. So for now we are staying put until our house sells. Which in some ways is fine with me because Emma will be able to finish school here and I can finish my MOPS group. Unfortunately Phil will be gone alot while working out in the Northeast. But it's not the first time we've done this and at least he will be here every weekend. I never imagined I would be able to care for myself on my own while he was gone never mind with 2 children, but for the most part I think I am coping really well!!!

So we are in planning stages for Ethan's first birthday. My sister-in-law so graciously offered up her house as the party place so we will be driving down there to have a party for him in a couple of weeks. I am so excited about the party, but not so excited at the thought of getting in that car yet again, to drive 7 hours! UGH! This will be the 6th time since February and it's really starting to get old!

That's about all that's going on here. Ethan is not walking yet, but hopefully will be soon.

He fell today and got his first "big boy" boo boo. He bit his lip and blood went everywhere! Poor baby, handled it quite well. But those mouth bleeds never seem to stop, they just gush and gush forever. Luckily it's all under control now and he is down for his morning nap!

It's going to be 60 degrees today! We have been outside the past 2 days walking and enjoying the weather! So nice. I am really ready for this weather. Winter gets so depressing after a while!

so that's all for now. I need to get some things done around here.