Mama Bear

I promised to list the 25 things I hate about apartment living, but instead I'm going to focus on just one... Parents who don't parent their children. Living in the apartment, there are a lot of children who live in a relatively small radius. I'm not one to let my kids out of my sight, but I'm trying to get better at not being to obsessive about this. This weekend, I decided to branch out and let the kids play outside without me. I did however, keep a seat right by the window. The first thing that happened that made me question my decision was that a neighbor child decided to start throwing hard things at people just to see if he could hit any of them. Unfortunately, McKay was the target. I heard her crying before I saw her. All Moms know that particular sound in their child's cry that tells you, it's going to be bad. I saw McKay and her mouth was covered in blood. She had busted her top and bottom lip and scratched her gum. I could feel my blood boiling but kept my cool as I explained to the neighborhood kids the dangers of throwing hard and heavy things with so many people around. Next, I was looking out the window and saw a 10 year old child pick up a 4 year old and throw him into the scratchy bushes. Without thinking, I called to the 10 year old and told him I couldn't believe I just saw him do that. He told me "Well, he hit me first" which then prompted a 5 minute lecture from me on how the other child was smaller than him and if he had a problem he should use his words, etc. Moments later I heard profanity fly from several children and I decided I better go outside for the rest of the afternoon. As I was sitting outside, a parent came out and was leaving to go somewhere. She told her kids to come and get in the car and they told her "no". After a few minutes of this back and forth she finally said "ok, but don't you be @#% bad cause if you are I'll beat your @#$. I thought are you kdding me? It's no wonder we have the societal problems we have in our country. I'm so grateful to have tools that teach me how to teach my children. I'm so thankful for my knowledge of the divinity of my children. I'm so proud of them and for their desire to truly choose the right and be good kids. I know that I have things to improve on in my own parenting, but it's a great eye opener to see what can happen to kids who don't understand where they've come from, who they are and where they are going in this life and the next.

UPDATE

Our Property (the stakes are the closest thing we have to a house, hee hee)

I can't believe it's been two months since I've blogged! We've been so busy the last two months getting the house sold, finalizing the plans on our new house, shopping around for mortgages... and life in general.

So many people have been inquiring as to when we will be moving in. The above pictures show the current state of our new home :)

We are waiting for the final appraisal, then we can set the closing date... THEN they will start building. The builders guarantee that they will be finished in 5 months but we were told that his average is three months. Here's hoping for small miracles.

Stay tuned for my next entry... 25 things I hate about living in an apartment...

I'm so excited... we got a contract on the house. Our house was listed for 14 days and we got an offer for $900 less than our asking price. Due to the state of the housing market we are so surprised, thrilled and feel incredibly blessed. The only thing that has us a little bit nervous is we are supposed to close on Feb. 26. We have soo much to do before this date, but feel confident that we'll accomplish all that this great opportunity requires.



There have been several times in my life when I have felt the Lord guiding me in a specific direction. I know that He is in charge always, but during those times I feel myself making decisions with Him gently watching over my shoulder allowing me to run with it. When I've felt Him guiding me, it can feel almost overwhelming. It's like I'm watching my life from the outside. I can see a chain of events happening and know I have little control over them, which is a good thing. The ultimate control is in His hands and what better Captain can I have? I guess this is where the overwhelming feelings come from. I'm overwhelmed by His love for me. He is so intimately a part of my life and cares enough about me, His daughter that He takes my hand and leads me down the road I need to be on. I have felt this guidance all through the process of choosing to sell our house that we assumed we'd grow old and gray in. When I've thought I was making the right choice, He has changed my course and then shown me why it was wrong (we don't always get such a blessing). I have no fear about our journey because I feel His watchful eye and His knowledge OF me and His love FOR me. I am so full of gratitude that I just needed to express it.

I'm back...

It's so nice to know you're missed when you're gone. I haven't actually been GONE, just GOING, GOING, GOING.

We are in the process of building a house. The process began months ago, but each month has brought us closer to this goal. We knew we would need a place to live while we built and so Steve started inquiring at Apartment complexes to see if they had a need for a Courtesy Officer. A Courtesy Officer is given a free apartment in exchange for services to the complex. Much to our surprise, we were offered an apartment right away. We saw several advantages to moving now even though our house hasn't sold. Right after Christmas we prepared for the move. The first week of January we moved into our Apartment. We live in the same complex that we lived in right after we got married. Steve served as the Courtesy Officer then as well. It was fun to come back to our Honeymoon neighborhood. We then got the house spic and span and it's on the market. We've had three showings this first week, so we're hopeful. There are several random things I've been noticing about Apartment living that I'd thought I'd mention:

1. I love the way you can smell what each of your neighbors are cooking for supper.

2. I don't like the way the stairwell smells like it's 30 years old. ( it is)

3. I don't like how the stairwell carpet is always dirty.

4. I love that I can plug my vacuum cleaner in once and vacuum the whole house.

5. I love that the kids each have a bigger closet than they had in our house.

6. I hate having to lug groceries up a flight of stairs.

7. I hate having to make sure I've locked my car and all valuables have been removed.

8. I love that it only took me two hours to clean the whole apt. instead of the normal 4 hours for the house.

9. I love that I don't worry about everything being "just so", it's an apt. after all.

10. I love/hate that I can hear my neighbors conversations just below.

11. I hate having to remind the kids not to run in the apt.

12. I love that the apt. has two sliding doors that let in a ton of natural light.

13. I love that we have new carpet so I don't mind when the kids lay on the floor.

14. I love that we get free cable.

15. I hate that we have to take our trash to a dumpster and the people before us never manage to get their trash inside of it.

16. I love that there is a playground right out the door.

17. I'm going to love having a complex swimming pool.

18. I love that the complex has a work out room.

19. I hate having to lug the bicycles down the stairs.

20. I love the blessings that Heavenly Father provides my family. I know He's in charge of this adventure we're on and I feel incredibly loved and protected by Him.

Oh yeah, I am shocked that I allowed my husband to talk me in to getting pets (two geckos and two hermit crabs).

December already??

Is it December already? I didn't even post about Thanksgiving so... it was great.

The latest with our crew is as follows:

We finally have our beautiful boy back! We had been encouraging Griffin to get his hair cut for awhile only to be met with "no way". One day he came home from school and said "Mom, if you buy me a hooded sweatshirt I'll get my haircut short". I'm not above being black-mailed by my nine year old and so I immediately called Steve and told him to get home quick. We loaded up the family and were at the store in about an hour. Griff found a hoodie that he liked and we were off to the salon. We all about had a panic attack when the gal used clippers to cut the back of Griff's hair. It looks so good! He didn't like it at first, but we can tell he's getting used to it. He says he's growing it back out...

I'm thankful to all of the wise people in my life who gave me the advice to carefully pick and choose my battles. In the large scheme of things, it's just hair and in the end HE made the choice to get it cut. Whew.

So, if you look past the bulging bicepts you'll see Owen's injury. He was playing at a friend's house this weekend and got "hung up" on a barbed wire fence, ugh! It looked so gruesome. His friend told him "it will probably leave a scar, but that will be cool so when you show your muscles you'll have a scar on them" hence the picture.

This picture is to shock everyone who knows my McKay! McKay actually found a pair of LACE-UP Tennis shoes that tie and a pair of JEANS that button and zip. I can't believe she wears these. For her whole life, she's only wanted to wear slip on shoes and elastic pants (two sizes too big mind you). Yeah for McKay!!

We had the best time at our friend's house this week. We were invited to Family Home Evening and made white chocolate snowflakes! The kids were very creative and had fun running around and playing. We especially enjoyed the message about how each of us is different and unique, just like snowflakes. It really put me in a festive mood. Thanks guys!

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My sister found a website that had the cutest dresses! They were an updated version of the 80's T-shirt dresses (remember those?) but the people were charging $60 and $70 dollars a dress. Between Sis, Mom and me... we figured out how to put one together and the girls love them. I think the bows were a little too much for Steve to handle. When I pulled out the camera, the girls started posing like crazy. It was hilarious, they're naturals!

Fall Reflections

I don't know what it is about this time of year, but it brings a renewal to my soul. I love leaving the window open at night and the ceiling fan running, cuddling under the blankets. I love the smell of cinnamon, the beautiful colors of the changing leaves and the dry air that replaces the oven-like humidity we're normally accustom to here in the South.

One of our favorite traditions is the annual Chili-Cook off at church. I say "our" not because I have anything to do with the chili... but I love to watch my husband in action as he plots, schemes, shops and seasons his prize winning recipe. This is his second year winning 1st place and it simply brings a smile to my face to see how happy winning this contest makes him. He informed me that once we retire, we are going to start traveling the country searching for food competitions for him to join.

Kaylee and Mckay brought home the sweetest essays from school this week. They are entitled "My Hero":

Kaylee's:

My hero is my dad Steve because he is a policeman. He cares about my family. He once had to go to school and he brought us 14 things back. He's the greatest in the world! (Believe it or not, this actually took up a whole page of wide-lined paper).

McKay's:

My hero is my Doctor. She is so so so so careful with me. When I cry when I get a shot, she says 'let's do it next year'. She says to bring a stuffed animal that might work. She let's me do it next year, can you believe that? (Not really, since that's never happened) She protects me. She knows right from wrong. She protects me from danger. She loves me. I forgot her name. I almost never see her because I almost never get sick. I don't know where she lives. The first time I saw her was because I cracked my head on my Mom's dresser. It bled. I had to go to the hospital. I got a butterfly band aid. My Birthday she gives me prizes. Once I got lip gloss. My hero is my doctor.

As Vice-President of Student Council, Owen is learning that it's not all fun and games. He's been very nervous all week because today at school, in honor of Veteran's Day, he was supposed to dress up like Uncle Sam. He had a complete costume! I felt bad for him but knew he had to follow through with his obligations. When he got home today, I asked him "how'd it go" he said "Great!! The closet where the costume was just happened to be locked". Hmmm... made me think that he sabotaged it or something equally as shady.

The other night after a hard day I went into the kids rooms to tuck them in. As I looked at Griffin, I saw a side of him that I don't see very often these days. The side he usually portrays is a cool, confident, girl-magnet who's prone to spurts of mischief and surges of hormone induced mania. As I looked at his sweet unpretentious face, there was that little boy who I miss more and more each day. The one that is being pushed out by an equally as lovable preteen. As I smoothed back his mop of hair, I saw that face that reminds me no matter how old my kids get, I will always be able to see those baby faces just below the surface. I know it will be harder as they get older (I can't imagine trying to find them under facial hair) but it was a sweet reminder that those precious baby faces are never forgotten by a mother's eye.

Happy Halloween!!

Pumpkin Carving Fun!!

Grandpa Allen said that because of the ears on our pumpkin we should call it "Obama"

Hannah Montana - Kaylee Sharpei - McKay The Undertaker (wrestler) - Owen Jeff Hardy (Wrestler) - Griffin

Halloween was a fun and spooky night! We first Trick-or-Treated in our Neighborhood. There were only 2 houses on our street who handed out candy (Bah-humbug... is that an appropriate expletive for Halloween?). Then we met up with Clarence, Chloe and Jarom (Shana's crew) and headed over to Mr. Tom's house to go through his Spooky House. He did an awesome job and almost every house in his neighborhood handed out candy. Then we were on the road again heading to Harlem to go to THE spooky house. It's a great walk-through spooky yard that a family does each year. This was the first year that Griffin got up his nerve to go through it AND McKay decided that she was big enough! Kaylee and Chloe said "No Way", in fact Kaylee said "My feet are planted and they aren't moving". Too bad I had to stay with them and miss the spooky adventure :) After this we hit the road again and headed to Grammy and Grandpa's for a lot of good loot. Then back home for Homemade Cider. (The kids didn't like it, so they had Hot Cocoa.) It was a great night. McKay gets the award for most endurance because she was wearing little high-heels and boy, you should have seen her run! Nana and Grandpa Allen tagged along and seemed to have as much fun as the kids. I think Nana was the only one who screamed in the spooky house.

We got several chuckles and they were all from Owen. While ringing one families doorbell, they didn't come to the door but their door was open. As Owen walked away from the house he said "The spookiest thing about that house is their furniture!" Of course that made us grown-ups want to go peek but we didn't want to get arrested for being "peeping toms". Next, the kids were commiserating about the difficulties with their costumes. Finally Owen had heard enough about people being itchy, or hot or scratchy and he said "Y'all think you've got it bad... I'm wearing TIGHTS!"

A Walk Down Memory Lane:

Owen and Griffin 1999 (M&M's)

Owen and Griffin 2000 Dalmatian Puppies

Owen and Griffin 2001 Scarecrow and Tin Man Wizard of Oz

Griffin, McKay, Kaylee, Owen 2002 (M&M Packages and Candies)

Owen, Griffin, McKay, Kaylee 2003 "Little Red Riding Hood"

Griffin (Spider) Owen (Fly) McKay (Butterfly) Kaylee (Ladybug) 2004 "Bugs"

Owen and Griffin 2004 (They had two costumes because of career day, Policeman and Crocodile hunter)

Kaylee (Fairy), Owen (Dracula), Griffin (Skeleton), McKay (Fairy) 2005 first year the boys revolted against a Theme.

Griffin, Owen (Ninjas), Kaylee, McKay (Oriental girls) 2006

Griffin (Pokemon) Kaylee, McKay (Black Cats), Owen (Ash from Pokemon) 2007