Still Not So Graceful : 2009

12.13.2009

11.24.2009

I found these photos on my camera yesterday. Brian found this cute turkey project for kids on the internet and he helped Ellie do it while watching football on Saturday. He even got out the art supplies all by himself!!! I am so lucky. I was upstairs working on Christmas crafts. He even got out one of his old t-shirts for her to wear as a smock. The final product was a turkey, these are his "feathers." He even thought to take pictures... seriously how could I not be head over heels for a guy like that!

My growing boy...a proud Mama

Guess who can roll wherever he wants? Guess who got his first little toothy??? What a cutie!

11.20.2009

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!!

11.06.2009

Work Work Work

Yesterday I spent the day substitute teaching for a friend of mine at the building where I got my first teaching job. This was a middle school teaching job and I very muched loved it at times! While it was fun to see familiar faces and the younger siblings of students I had a few years ago. I found myself really missing Elliette and Ian around noon. I was completely wiped out when I got home. Luckily I had the foresight to put some stew together for the crock pot the night before.

This time at home with my kids is so wonderful and substitute teaching is really affirming for me that staying home with them for this season was the right choice for our family. Brian is so encouraging about me not working and I just love him so much. I had the opportunity to work again today, but I plan to only work about six days a month and I am still tired from yesterday. I think today I will focus on getting my home clean, preparing healthy meals and a bath for the kids, getting some exercise, and taking care of paperwork. AND... I will be thankful for each moment of it!

11.01.2009

Halloween Fun with Our Arizona Cousins

Payson digging for goodies!

Elliette sorting her loot!

Sweet Sierra checking out prizes!

A very serious Ian-O-Lantern! Thanks for the costume cousin Paxon.

A glow light on a fright night in the moonlight!

The Tricksters and...

The treatsters and...

The oh so sweetsters!

First Time Flying

Sharing a snack with Pa Pa Milo!

Mom and a sleepy Ian waiting to board the plane.

Runaway Bride

After three tries and quite the struggle Ellie landed on this outfit to wear to preschool for their Halloween Party. First, she wanted to be a princess, but the dress was too scratchy. Then, she wanted to be a fairy but that costume was too skimpy and I wanted her to wear legging and a leotard underneath, which she refused to do. At one point she wanted to be a fairy detective with a giant magnifying glass. Of course a bride is a good option too!!! Finally, she decided that the bride costume was the best. It took a lot of work convincing her that I should fix her hair up pretty and that she should wear a veil. I finally showed her a picture of our wedding and after that she was sold. To top it off I let her wear the necklace I wore on my wedding day, costume jewelry, but special none the less.

10.24.2009

So Unsexy!

"I can feel so unsexy for someone so beautiful, so unloved for someone so fine. I can feel so boring for someone so interesting, so ignorant for someone of sound mind."

These are the words Alanis Morisette sang to me this morning (via my MP3 player) as I scooped up all the dog poop in my backyard. So Unsexy... how appropriate I thought! Then I listened more closely to all the lyrics and founds myself saying. Wow, she has really written a homerun song about insecurities. I could think of so many women (and some men) who would relate to these lyrics. Don't we all feel ugly, unloved, boring, and ignorant from time to time. These are the lies we choose to believe about ourselves when we are feeling insecure.

She also sings, "Oh these little rejections how they seem so real to me, one forgotten birthday I'm all but cooked. How these little abandoments seem to sting so easily. I'm thirteen again, am I thirteen for good?"
Thank God I'm not thirteen and God help me to be more secure in myself than I was at that age because guess what? I'm not perfect, but I am beautiful, loved, interesting, and of sound mind.

So thank you Alanis, for helping this sweat-pants-wearing, make-up less, pony-tailed, sleepy-eyed mom feel a little bit less unsexy and more confident.

You can listen to this song on youtube www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2SJODtB42Y or better yet go pick up the cd Under Rug Swept the whole thing is great in my opinion.

An unrelated side note about scooping dog poop: Let me tell you something... there is no worse time to scoop dog poop than a wet fall morning when leaves are covering the ground. Now I know why they refer to these piles as landmines (appologies to those who have encountered actual landmines, I am sure this is a totally insensitive comparison). It is nearly impossible to find all the piles when they are mixed in with the leaves so tread lightly. Not to mention we have had several days of heavy rain so actually scooping up these bad boys is a real chore. Normally, I make my dog poop in a special spot (a fences area of our yard) but like I said several days of heavy rain have made for a bad (lazy) habit of just sending him out quickly to go anywhere! I wish I could say, "lesson learned" but I am fairly confident I will be lazy about this in the future!

10.23.2009

Old jeans become new again!

I fished these cute, but too short, jeans out of our give away pile. I cut the legs off just above the knee and then used my seam ripper to take out the old seems. I sewed the front side into a straight line and did the same for the back. I left a little V in the back to give her more leg room. Then I took an old pajama top with a ruffle along the bottom, also from the give away pile, and sewed the ruffle along the bottom of my new jean skirt to make a finished look!