A timeless classic for the Christmas season

The movie "Mary Poppins" was on ABC family channel tonight. My husband knows this is one of my all time favorite movies, so he told me the time and channel before it started. I got busy playing on the computer and doing laundry and forgot all about it until about the last 5 minutes of the movie. So I turned on the last 5 minutes.

I think this movie is such a timeless classic because of the message it portrays. Not of a nanny who whips two bratty children into shape, but that the presence of an earthly father figure is important to the family dynamic. God designed the family unit to be just that a unit~ a mother, a father and the children. I understand that things happen in life to rip that unit apart, but just watch the end of the movie. The family is going to the park together to fly a kite. And the dad gets it! He realizes that it is important to the children to spend time being with them. Not to take them to the park so they can do it on their own, but to be an active participant involved in their lives. And Mary Poppins and her umbrella (the talking parrot head) even have that conversation. The bird says something about the children going off with their father and not saying goodbye and Mary says, "Just as it should be."

Can I just tell you how blessed my girls and I are that we have an active, participating daddy in our lives? He is so good with our girls. He'll take them to the library to pick out books and videos. Then come home and read to them or sit down and snuggle as they watch a video they brought home. He'll take them to the park or start a tickle fest with them. Sometimes all he has to do is be his usual goofball self and they'll just crack up at him. And I don't know about you, but there is nothing that puts a smile in my heart more than listening to a child's sincere, belly busting laugh, the kind that come up all the way from the toes.

So, it is the Christmas season. We celebrate Jesus Christ coming to earth to be fully man, yet fully God. What an awesome gift God gave us in his only son Jesus Christ. I bet Joseph had moments like those above in teaching Jesus how to be a carpenter. What an awesome gift God gave me when he blessed me with the perfect husband for me and 2 beautiful daughters for my husband and I to parent. He chose us to be their parents. May you see the wonders and gifts all around you this Christmas season.

A trip to mecca aka IKEA

So, a little while back (the exact time frame escapes me)my good friend, Maria sent me a link to enter a contest through IKEA. I'm all for entering contests if I'm not going to get more junk snail mail or spam e-mail. So I enter said contest & get a notification back that I won one of their instant $20.00 gift cards. Give them all my info & a few days later, in the snail mail WA LA(is this how you really spell that? Noah Webster must be turning over in his grave!), said gift card arrives. It has been hanging around for a while now as mecca IKEA is about a 45 minute drive heading towards Boston, from where we live. Now, not being a "true" New Englander, this doesn't really bother me. But especially with gas prices as they were(we are down close to $2.00, here), this is not a trip you make any old time or every day. So I say to the hubby after his bible study this morning; "Honey, do you feel like going to IKEA today?" His response? "Why absolutely, oh beautiful love of my life!" Okay, so he wasn't really that sickeningly sweet. But he did agree to load the girls up & head out with us. He had never been to mecca IKEA.
We get there, walk around for a while, then went & had an early dinner. As we sit down, Rachel says, "my ear hurts." Bill asks her if she wants him to pray for the pain & she in her pitiful voice says, "uh, huh." As Bill walks around the table to pray for Rae, we hear Emily say, "In Jesus' name, AMEN!" and then promptly inform Daddy that she just prayed for Rach. (as she has recently taken to calling her.) So she feels no one else needs to pray for her. Then, on the way home I called the peds office to see what I should do, as my girls don't generally get sick. Give her some ibuprofen & a heating pad when we get home & call them in the am to bring her in. Emily, again informs us that she/we already prayed for Rachel & she doesn't need any medicine, but "mommy, can I have some too?" So we tried to explain that we can all pray for Rachel's ear pain & that sometimes God wants us to use medicine to help us get better. We will have to see how she is when she gets up, in the am. I'm just praying it isn't an ear infection or strep.

Oh yeah, as we are pulling out of the parking lot, I could sense he wasn't impressed with wasting his afternoon his visit to IKEA. So in my ever observant & un-filtered way of saying things, I stupidly ask him what he thought. He says, "It reminds me of a high-end Job Lots." (I think he might have meant bldg. 19, but I could be wrong)

In the meantime my friend, Dawn, aka "the domestic goddess" & martha stewart, jr. calls me, ME!!! to ask me a recipe question. Okay, so it was on a recipe that I had given her, but still. I'll have to get it back from her to post on recipeasy. I got it from the owner of my local meat market, but since my family wasn't crazy about it, I just gave her the entire recipe.

btw- thanks Maria, for hooking me up with the IKEA give away!

false alarms, pregnancies & wonderful husbands

So, my friend, neighbor & landlord(all the same person, in case you couldn't tell!) is 9 months pregnant with baby #2. Her actual due date was Oct. 4th. Alas that day has come & gone & there is no baby as yet. Now most women would not be happy about being late, but would probably not stress about it. And just to clarify she isn't stressing about it either, however she is sooo done being pregnant. Not only that, she's a hairdresser & has exactly 8 weeks maternity leave. Her last day at work was 10/2 & she has to be back to work 12/3 & she's already booked solid that week (& probably most of the month of Dec.). Her 1st child was about 2 weeks late, so let's do the math- she only had about 6 weeks at home with a new born. As any mom can tell you, especially those who go back to work it isn't a fun thing to do. Not that you don't like your job, but you have this amazing, new wonderful little miracle in your life & now you have to entrust him to someone other than his own parents - even if it's family! So the long & short of it is she'd really like this baby to get here! To the point she decided to try castor oil. She said it was not all the horror stories you've heard & it did give her some contractions. Well, about 1:15am she calls me & says can you come sleep upstairs? The contractions are about 4 min. apart & after calling my dr. he said come in. Imagine every one's disappointment when she calls me a little after 3:30am & says they sent me home I'm only 3 cm dilated. :( So needless to say I got very little sleep last night.
Which is where the wonderful husband comes in. He didn't go to work today due to the holiday, & the rain(sprinkles) we had. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about this especially after today! About 11am he tells me go lay down & take a nap. Gee twist my arm honey! I don't think I could hit the bed fast enough. He shut the bedroom door, took the phones away from me & said don't worry I'll entertain the girls. I got up almost 2 hrs. later feeling much more refreshed & almost my normal self. This is what I woke up to. He loaded, ran & unloaded the dishwasher. The girls were very quiet the 2 hours I was in the bedroom. Let me just paint that picture for you- we have a small 2 bedroom 5 rooms total apartment. They were sitting at the table eating mac & cheese w/hot dogs for lunch. Can you say WOW! Thanks honey- you made my day.

Now for the pregnancy part. People, people, people DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT ask a 9 month, late, pregnant person "So how you doing?" This is just asking to get slapped. Okay, maybe that's a little strong, but let's just think about this. How the heck do you think she's doing???? Do you expect her to say "Great, I'm gonna go run a marathon tomorrow, since the baby isn't here yet!"??? I just know that when I was in those shoes I was ready to start cussing like a sailor.
Well, on those rants, I need to get to bed & catch up on the sleep I lost yesterday.

I just have one more thing to say before I close- Go Indians, beat the yucky Yankees!

Red Sox, my husband & 2 year olds growing up

So, I started this post yesterday & must've hit the back button, 'cuz I lost EVERYTHING! At that point I was just too tired to try to put it all back together again so I went to bed. (Good thing the king's men weren't too tired or humpty dumpty would've never made it!)

Last nite the hubby showed me how to add pix to my blog- look out!
So this is him & me after the Red Sox win against the A's Wednesday nite.
This was my first ever Red Sox game, at the legendary Fenway park. While I enjoyed myself, I did tell the hubby that we could've just as easily watched this game in the air conditioned comfort of our very own living room for a lot less money!(and sweat) Wednesday was a beautiful day, but it was a bit of the new england humid. I did learn something at the game though. The cardboard drink trays make excellent fans to fan yourself with. It didn't help that our seats were directly behind home plate underneath the overhang. What I'm trying to say is we had excellent seats, but air does not circulate under the overhang! This was a belated Father's day present for the hubby- he enjoyed it & I guess that's all that matters! (He hadn't been to a sox game since before we got married, so like 4 years or so.)

Wednesday was a bit crazy though, I got the call early in the am saying that I had tix available to me. Well the girls were officially 2 & 1/2 on Wed. & I had scheduled their Christmas pix for that morning. Can I just tell you how stinking cute & good they were for the pix?! Oh my goodness, I could've spent a small fortune on the pix. So by the time we got home, fed them lunch & packed everything up it was time to get on the road to head to the game- it was a 5pm game. Well, as we dropped the girls off at our friend's house I clocked the hubby in the head w/the hatch to the van. Obviously not on purpose. Thankfully he has a hard head so you can't even tell I hit him.

The girls are getting so big & grown up it just kills me. I told Emily to stop growing the other day- in typical 2 year old fashion she said "Okay, momma." She has no clue! I feel somewhat sorry for this child as she is such a mini me. It took her over 1/2 hour to eat 1/4 of a hamburger the other day + I had to bribe/threaten her with ice cream.
Aahhh, the joys of parent hood.

My Darling Husband & crappy starting days

So let's start with the crappy starting days. Literally. My daughters are potty trained during the day- well at least the pee part. They get diapers at naps & bedtime. Apparently they've figured out how to hold their poop until that time. Now if you've known me since my girls were born I am glad they are pooping on a daily basis. Both of my daughters have had constipation issues, pretty much since they were born. Well, now it seems we've gone to the other extreme. Not only are they pooping pretty much on a daily basis, they are blowing out their diapers. This is not fun for various reasons: a)it stinks! b)depending on the extent of the blowout I am now changing their sheets at least once a day c)also along with the sheets is of course either the outfit or pajamas. There was one day I had to change Emily's sheets twice. I've always been a huggies girl since they were first born(yes, I've tried just about every other brand out there), but thought maybe they were getting too big for the huggies so let's try pampers. No better. Well, maybe a tiny bit, but I think it is because the amount of poop has changed, not because I changed the diaper brand.
I am at a loss as to what to do. I must say I did feel a tiny bit better when I called my friend Dawn & we commiserated together. Her 16 mo. old son pooped on the floor, trampled it into the carpet, then onto the vacuum cleaner(he climbed on it) & in between the ridges of the accordion hose. By the time she managed to get a hold of him & put him in the bathtub with his 8 yr. old sister, well he pooped in the tub too. She got out faster than you could shake a stick at it & then he apparently trampled all of this into small bits while waiting for the tub to drain. Oh my! I guess I'll change poopy sheets any day of the week than have to clean up that mess. (Sorry, Dawn.)
The 8 year old sister- this child is the greatest! Not perfect, but a good kid! She is my mother's helper. My daughters worship her. I can use her name as bribery.(guess that isn't necessarily a good thing is it?)
My darling husband. God has been teaching me a lot of things about him- all good, mind you. Like yesterday, I was running wicked late trying to get dinner done. He wanted to ride the motorcycle over to his mom's to let the dog out. But after I asked him (hopefully)very nicely to please take the girls with him, he graciously gave up his ride, loaded the girls into the van & went to his mom's. (I made it up to him later!) There have been a couple blow out days where we've just had to stick the girls in the tub & wash them off that way. One day as I was doing that he changed the crib sheets for me. I didn't even have to ask him to, he just did it. This afternoon, he came home & offered to make dinner. Nothing spectacular, but let me see, he's going to the store to pick up any missing ingredients & then cook dinner. I don't care if I like it or not, I'll manage to choke it down if that's the case.
I'm learning that even though he doesn't do things exactly the way I do them, it's okay as long as it gets done. This is very hard for me to do as I can be very anal retentive about these types of things.
I'm realizing what a wonderful treasure God has given me in this man. Do we see eye to eye on everything? Heck no!!! But God has been teaching me a lot & I've realized that some of the times I thought the husband was wrong, I was the one that was wrong/acting like an __________(fill in the blank).
Thanks honey for loving me in spite of my faults & for forgiving me for acting like an _____.

Two two year olds and other random rantings

Two year olds. We've all been one once in our lifetime. I have identical twin girls, who for the most part are pretty well behaved children. But some days they just work my last nerve. I think it is in direct proportion to how much sleep or lack thereof that I got the previous night. Combined with the fact that they are simply 2 year olds. They are definitely into the independent stage. I do, I do, I do. I help??
They think they can appropriately dress themselves. Although with a little guidance they don't do bad. Usually if I tell them they have the shoe on the wrong foot they understand they need to switch it. They love to help mommy cook & clean up. Most days I have the patience for it, but every once in awhile I just want to get it done! Their latest thing is wiping the table with a sponge, or trying to sweep up a mess on the floor. Then they have to touch & get into everything they aren't suppose to, like the liquid soap in the bathroom. My husband doesn't understand why I put it on top of the vanity, up by the lights. Little hands can't reach it up there; then I don't have to worry about them slathering & spilling it everywhere.

Motorcycles. I love motorcycles. I've been riding since I was about 15 years old. So in 2001 I got my motorcycle license. But I didn't have a motorcycle until the fall of 2002 when my mother so kindly gave me her 400. I rode it that fall & the next spring until the registration expired in April '03, by then my now husband & I were spending time together so I didn't do anything about getting it registered. Fast forward since we've been married I've been after the husband to get his license & he said he wanted to. Even went so far as to ask me to sign him up for the safety course. We talked about it, but never got around to it; well finally this summer he did it & he is loving it! I am so happy. Now we just need to find another bike so we can go riding together.

Dinner tonite. We had steak, baked potato & corn. We really enjoyed it, but if my husband liked vegetables he'd be a vegetarian. Instead I call him a pastatarian. The man would eat pasta 7 days a week if I let him. I personally got burned out on pasta when I went to Bible college.

Please pray for the country of Haiti. Our church is in the process of helping them bring the Willow Creek(Bill Hybels)leadership summit to that country. It is a time for great change in this country & God has really been moving. If you want to see more of what I'm talking about check out the church's web site @ communitycovenant.org, go to Sunday messages, scroll down to the end & you'll find a link to the beginnings of what we are trying to help accomplish in this impoverished nation.

Well enough rambling & ranting- I should go to bed so I get plenty of sleep for my yahoos. :)

A Birthday Tribute & other rantings

Today is my husband's birthday! He is 4 years younger than me, but a lot of people think he's older than me just because of his appearance. This is really irrelevant, because he acts like a kid- in a good way & I love him just the way he is! So Happy Birthday to my husband & may you have many, many more wonderful years & may they be filled with joy & happiness. May you also have a wonderful day today. :)
This has been a bit of a tough year for both of us. My mom passed away the beginning of April & then he lost his job the end of April. We've had a lot of adjustments to make, but the amazing part of it all is that God has been incredibly faithful. (Well, it isn't really so amazing, more just awesome.)
God has been teaching me what a wonderful gift I have in my husband, even though he doesn't always do things the way I would or do. So I guess I could say God has been teaching me alot of things also; like how to be a little bit less anal.
I've noticed that about myself lately- the older I get the more anal I get about things. Now, I am clearly not a germ-o-phobe, but there are certain times I really just don't want my children to get dirty; for no other reason than I just don't feel like dealing with that particular type of dirt. i.e. SAND!
Well enough ranting for now. Happy Birthday, my love!

Thankful

Well, it has been 3 1/2 years of marriage, along with a set of twins. Can I just tell you how thankful I am to my Lord Jesus Christ? He is wonderfully awesome! He gave me this man to be my husband and we have been learning to dance the marriage/family dance. We are still learning all the steps, but of late it has been good. All I can say is thank you God, for being an awesome God & working in both of our lives.
Both of us came from broken families. We both brought our share of baggage into the marriage(of course, who doesn't?), and we are still dealing with that.
But he has been wonderful as of late. In the past we have had our moments. Tonite after dinner he cleaned up the kitchen & loaded the dishwasher for me as I got the girls ready for bed. I didn't realize quite how much he'd done until we came home from our bible study group. Which btw has been good too. We are currently doing the Truth project from Focus on the Family. One of the things the video talked about tonite was submission. God the Son, a.k.a Jesus Christ, submitted to God the Father. So why does society make marriage/submission seem like such a dirty & bad word? i.e. wives submit to your husbands.
So on the way home I asked one of those tough questions that you don't always want to hear the answer to, but sometimes you just need to find out. It was good, he sees improvement in our relationship as well. And no it wasn't on submission.
Thank you, Bill for being an awesome father to our girls & being willing to work on you & us & our relationship.
Thank you Lord for giving me Bill, & two beautiful daughters. Help me to always treasure each one of them for the unique, individual, beautiful creations you made them to be.