my walking commercial

i've got a personal infomercial. yep, you guessed it. my sponge of a child, samantha, sees or rather absorbs commercials and "replays" them to me at the most random times. we'll be in the store and she'll see some "mr. clean" product, ask me if i want to buy it, and then tells me why exactly i need it!

lately she's been on kick of telling that she needs pixos just because of the commercial on tv.

"mom, they're easy to use and they're safe."

"yes dear."

"...and you don't need any heat."

"yes dear, but we're not going to get them."

"...and you don't use glue."

"yes dear, we're still not going to get them."

"...and they don't make a mess mom. do you want me to be messy mom?"

"no sweetie, but we're still not going to get them."

"okay....... i guess if you want me to make a mess then...." she said in her best you're gonna regret this voice.

well, we didn't buy them, she hasn't made a mess without them, and i've come to the conclusion that she watches way too much tv!

thankful thursday revisited

the past few weeks i've been trying to teach samantha about being thankful. thankful for more than just the things that are so easy to be thankful for and things that we have made a habit of being thankful for such as, "dear Jesus, thank you for this day, thank you for this food..." this thankfulness endeavor started when she started complaining too much. so every time she'd whine or complain i told her we were going to think of something that we were thankful for instead. simple enough huh? instead of complaining that she didn't have the new barbie, she could be thankful for aaaalllllllllllllllllll the toys that she does have.

never would i have thought that God would turn around and tell me to do the same thing. yes, i do realize how much i have to be thankful for, but today He told me to be thankful for the things that i'm not so thankful for.

ben was home today. there was nothing for him to do at work, so he got the day off. now usually i'm not flustered when he's home, but there are certain days when he's home it seems like i have 2 additional kids to look after. and it was worse today because i needed to do stuff (laundry, cleaning, etc.) around the house.

he was playing with the kids and watching tv most of the time that i was doing my chores but then i found myself picking up after him and finishing the tasks that he had started, or rather cleaning up the messes that he had made.

after lunch i put ryan down for his nap and continued my laundry while ben was watching a tv show. i finished my tasks and went to watch tv with ben and found him asleep under a blanket on the couch. "really?" i thought, "you're doing the same thing that our 17 month old BABY is doing right now!"

then i went into the kitchen and discovered 2 more un-picked-up messes that ben left. as me and my grumbling attitude were cleaning up it was as if God whispered "instead of complaining, what can you be thankful about ben staying home today?" man.... there are just some days i don't want to be taught anything, but i started thinking of reasons why i was happy ben was home today. and as i started naming them off, i kept thinking of more and more reasons to be thankful. and in the whole process my attitude totally changed.

so now i am sitting here in the living room, looking at my husband who is STILL fast asleep on the couch despite the loud noise of the kids playing in their room, and i am thankful that he's home today. i'm thankful that he's not driving a long drive home in his car right now especially since we are supposed to be getting freezing rain and the roads could be hazardous. i'm thankful that he got to stay home and play with the kids today because they enjoyed spending time together so much. i'm thankful that he's home and gets to take a nap today because he works so hard for us. i'm thankful that he's home when a couple of my friends have husbands that are deployed right now.

so try it out next time you aren't quite so thankful about something. you might find out that you really are! and don't miss my previous post to see what else i was thankful for today! :-)

thankful thursday

today i am thankful for my camera... especially when i can capture moments like this!!

thankful thursday

i almost forgot! it's been a weird week so my days are all messed up.

today ben and i are thankful for our respective jobs --- husband father self-employed painter and wife mother homemaker (hmmmm... should i actually list all the jobs i have?!).

a few years ago we had a really bad work related year. it was really tight. tighter than *place your witty analogy here*! maybe someday i'll tell you everything i learned that year.

anyway, God has truely blessed us. ben has had a BUSY year! winter usually slows way down but God has been faithful in providing constant (for the most part!) work for ben. and God has been AWESOME by allowing me to stay at home ever since we got married (even during that bad year) and be a full time wife and mom.

there are a lot of people right now without jobs, and probably a lot of stay at home moms that have had to go get a job. i know there are days when everyone dreads the job they have (except Jessica. she has the best job!) but right now i'm sure we can all be thankful!!

a bad case of the grinchies

in years past i have always dreaded getting the Christmas decorations out. it's usually well into december by the time i get the tree up, only to leave it up for couple weeks before putting it away again. so this year i decided i was going to do it early. i got everything out on saturday, november 30th. yes, i said november! i was so proud of myself!

well i figured out the reason that i dread the Christmas tree is because i hate the lights. for the past 4 years i have battled, and the tree has usually won. i put on the lights. i take them all off. i put them on again, still don't like it, so i take them all off. then i put them on again and run out of lights at the top. oh, if only i could get another strand of 15 lights for the top... last year was the worst. i ended up tearing the lights off of the tree, threw them on the floor, then went to my room to pout. yes, i was a 25 year old acting like a 2 year old! finally i got the tree decorated and ben said we were going to get a prelit tree on clearance after Christmas. AHHHHH......... all my Christmas decorating problems would be solved!

wrong.

ben went to home depot and bought be a beautiful prelit tree after Christmas just as he said he would. he brought it home and set it up in the middle of our living room to see what it looked like. it was a big tree. real big. but we both decided that we'd deal with it next Christmas.

so next Christmas came. last sunday i got out the new prelit tree and all the decorations and started to set it up. well remember how i said the tree was big?! it was 7.5 feet tall and 48 inches in diameter. for the few of you that have seen our living room, that tree was waaaayyyyyy too big. there are 2 places in our living room that we could put a tree and each spot was too small. ben suggested we could rearrange, but that was out of the question seeing that we have a 75 gallon fishtank. a full unmovable unless you take all the fish and water out fishtank. so that was out of the question.

and did i mention that we got rid of our old tree and lights after Christmas last year?! we couldn't even resort to that awful $16 walmart tree and lights that would probably put me in a mental institution.

so in the midst of all this happening ben talked to his friend, norbert, to see if they wanted our new prelit tree. they already had one, but said we could switch and use theirs. turns out that their tree wasn't prelit though. ben kept telling him, "NO... WE NEED A PRELIT ONE. YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND. ERIN DOESN'T DO LIGHTS." i'm sure he was just as afraid for me to tackle that again as i was. but norbert kept saying that it was a pretty nice tree and it was smaller. so i came up with the conclusion that i could just have a tree with no lights. that would work, right? so ben and norbert brought our tree to their house, and brought norbert's tree back here. well when i took it out of the box i realized that norbert's tree was the exact same tree we got rid of last year!!!!! i definitely was NOT going to go down that road again, so i resorted to having no tree, or getting one of those 12 inch mini trees (that was actually our only Christmas tree the first year we had samantha). i was getting more grinchy by the minute. but then ben talked me into Christmas tree shopping.

so for the rest of sunday we went to target, home depot, and kmart with no luck. sunday evening was spent looking at trees online. again, with no luck. you can't get a prelit tree that is taller than you but only 30" around for under $150. and i really didn't want to spend a lot of money on a tree when i could get one for half the price after Christmas. we finally decided to get one of those tall, skinny, potted trees that are supposed to go outside on your porch. so monday afternoon we went to about 5 more stores looking for a tall, skinny, potted tree but ben didn't like any of them that we found. we finally ended up at walmart and ben found a tree he liked. it was still a little big for our living room, but we decided to bring it home and see how it looked. so we did. it actually looked really nice and it was PRELIT! (although now i realize i also don't like fluffing a tree...) when we put on the very top section of the tree it was sooooooo messed up. we were going to have to take all the lights off and redo them, but instead went and got another one and just switched the tops. so our tree is finally up, i am finally satisfied with it, and it will be much easier next year!

i am now finally over my grinchiness. for a couple days i was seriously considering not putting up a Christmas tree at all. but i'm so glad i did. when samantha came downstairs and saw the tree right after we assembled it, she gasped, covered her mouth in amazement, and said it was so beautiful. and ryan... you wouldn't think a one year old could be excited about trees, would you? but every time we go to target or walmart or anywhere with trees, he gets so excited and says "preeeee" (pretty) and "treeeeee" (tree) in his squeaky high-pitched voice. so now he looks at our tree and says that. how could i not put up a tree and miss him saying that?! and if you read my previous post, you already know my biggest reward for putting up the Christmas tree.

so if you find yourself stressed with decorating this Christmas, ahem *JENNY*, just suck it up, get over it, and do it for the kids at least! i'm glad i did... you will be too!

thankful thursday

today i am thankful for memories. this past week i have been thinking a lot about memories from my childhood and different traditions that were a part of our Christmases. how my sisters, my mom, and i would go trudging through the snow behind our house for hours trying to find a suitable tree.... how we would decorate the tree while listening to ray conniff on the record player.... how we would make cookies and decorate them but weren't allowed to lick our fingers if we got frosting on them.... how we would go to grandma and grandpa k's house on Christmas eve and bring all our presents from home and open them there and then bring them all back home.... how we'd listen to the innkeeper's dream with all the lights off on Christmas eve.... how we'd wake up to breakfast in my (and becky's) room on Christmas morning....


these are memories that i've missed so much. i guess because when i got married and moved away, we didn't have any traditions or memories right away. but last night i realized that we've made new memories -- our own memories.

last night samantha and i decorated the Christmas tree. she's helped me with the ornaments probably since she was two and a half. it was so fun to see the joy in her eyes and the excitement on her face when she'd pull out an ornament that she remembered from last year. "OH!! MOM!!! I REMEMBER THIS ONE," she's say with so much enthusiasm.

last year when we were all finished decorating the tree samantha said, "now we need to turn off all the lights and sing silent night." and so we did, never thinking that she'd remember it. but yesterday she said the same thing. "mom, when we get all done putting the ornaments on the tree we need to turn off all the lights with just the Christmas tree on and we need to close our eyes and sing silent night and tell Jesus our wish and praise God." and so we did again.

we didn't get the tree done until 11pm, but we were all still up. even ryan. so with all the lights off we all sat around the tree, told Jesus our wish, and then sang silent night. it was so peaceful to hold samantha on my lap, listen to her squeaky little voice singing an octave higher than me, and think about next year when we'll do this again. she has made a wonderful memory for our family.

today i am thankful for memories. old memories that i'll be able to pass down to my children, favorite memories that bring tears to my eyes just thinking about them, and new memories that we'll be able to revisit in the years to come.

what are some of your memories?

wordless wednesday (with an explanation)

yesterday, while on our most recent christmas tree shopping excursion, i couldn't pass up this wonderful photo opportunity. we pulled into the hobby lobby (craft store) parking lot, parked, i looked up, saw this lovely sight, and said, "hallelujah i have my camera with me!!" and it gets better... after we left we drove around on the other side of the cars (yes, i know there's a truck too, but for now they're both cars) and attached to the front of the grill on each car was a big, red nose. ben wouldn't stop to let me take another picture so you're just gonna have to imagine it.

*no offense to any of you car decorators out there...!*