Black Friday thoughts

Woke up at 3:30am and couldn't go back to sleep. I laid in bed 'til 4:30, woke up Presley to feed her, got dressed and headed to Walmart at 5:15. Then to Target. Then to Panera. Back home at 7:30.

• The parking lot was so full at Walmart, cars were parked in the bank lot nearby. It was crazy.
• Alot of people were buying a lot of junk.
• At 5:30, they were out of the Ironman dvd. Found the other thing I was looking for and got in line. 30 minutes later, went to Target.
• Crowds were much better at Target-Target was much more organized.
• Got the last game I wanted, the last other thing on my list, the last vest (I got for myself as a treat since I got up so early)
• Bought some m&ms to go w/ our popcorn tonight. We're watching the Polar Express.
• Went to Panera and picked up breakfast. The house was still dark and quiet when I came home.

Hope to go to a few more places later today. At home, we'll put up the tree(s) and enjoy the season together! Have a great weekend.

Thankful thoughts

I've spent the day cooking 2 turkeys for our church's big dinner on Thursday. The girls had fun rubbing "Sam" with oil and salt. My heart breaks for those who have no one to celebrate life with. I'm wondering how Thanksgiving will be for those who eat at Quincy's. Will they be excited? Will they be happy? Will they feel alone? Will they feel like there's a hidden agenda? I'm sure there will be all sorts of different people there, with different thoughts, histories, life experiences, emotions. I'm anxious to hear how things go.

We are heading North to Abilene on Thursday to have lunch with my family. My best friend from college and her family are joining us up there. Never a dull moment when Rachel's around! We'll spend Saturday with Kevin's family.

I have so much to be thankful for

• God has given me a husband who loves the Lord, loves me and his children


• God has provided a home for us to live in. We are able to pay our bills on time.
• God has allowed me to stay home and teach my children. I can't explain the thrill I get when I see their little minds at work, learning.


• God has given me a new hobby, learning to be frugal and living with less. I'm loving it.


• God has blessed us with good health this year. In spite of a few scares, we are all fine.


• God has given us Presley. She is a wonderful addition to our family and God has great plans for her. I look at her and am in awe of life and the greatness of our Father.


• God is still at work in this family. We are not the same family we were last year. Praise the Lord

The girls have been learning about Thanksgiving these last 2 weeks. When asked what they are thankful for, they responded by saying...

Avery-food to eat and a home to live in.

McKenna-getting to see you (Mommy) every day. (I didn't prompt her, I swear!)

Presley-I assume she's thankful to find her thumb in her mouth, which she's getting pretty good at, and to be held.

Happy Thanksgiving to you. In the midst of great turkey and stuffing (with raisens, of course) take time to express thanks to God for the good things He's given you.

Ready for a pedi!

We had a great time in Abilene. This week went by fast. We saw a lot of friends and enjoyed seeing Kidstuf. My mom came back to Wichita with us so she could watch the girls Friday while I worked.
Saturday, Marla, Mom and I are doing a spa day at Charisma. This is 2 years coming. Christmas of 2006 we got gift cards from our husbands for a pedicure, manicure, massage, and facial. We moved to Wichita the following March and my gift card got lost in the process. I was so bummed. Last summer on vacation, Kevin unzipped a tiny pocket in our suitcase and found it by accident.
I hope to get Christmas decorations out in the next few days. It really is the most wonderful time of the year. Have a great weekend!

I'm IT!

My ever so loving husband tagged me in some blog game I don't quite get.

Here are the rules:
Link to the person who tagged you.
Post the rules on your blog.
Write 6 random things about yourself.
Tag 6-ish people at the end of your post.
Let each person know he/she has been tagged.
Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Six random things about me:

1. When I was a little girl, I wanted to be a waitress when I grew up.



2. I'm a survivor-cancer survivor. Thyroid cancer-1992, 2 surgeries, 3 radiation treatments, 2 recurrence scares, yearly check-ups. Forever on Synthroid and Calcium.



3. I like "smut" shows on TV-Friends, General Hospital, The Hills, Jon and Kate +8, etc...



4. I struggle with feelings of inadequacy.



5. I'm living a dream I didn't know I had-being a wife and mom (remember, I just wanted to be a waitress)



6. My dream vacation would be going to a vineyard in California with my husband.

ok-so, I follow 29 blogs on bloglines, 5 of which are people I actually know. Kevin tagged 3 of them, so I'm only tagging-

Beth

Brandi

If you read my blog and have one of your own, consider yourself tagged!

x-mas thoughts

Caution-this is a rambling post-

My brother in law called last night and I think we've got Christmas plans taken care of. We'll spend Tuesday night (the 23rd) with Kevin's family, do Christmas morning with just the 5 of us, then head North to Abilene Christmas afternoon. I'm so excited to decorate our house, make cookies and fudge with the girls and do advent devos and light the purple and pink candles as a family.
So, Kevin and I are brainstorming gift ideas for everyone. I really struggle with this, because I WANT to give gifts and presents to everyone. My heart wants to show my family how much I love them and how much they mean to me. But I/we usually don't know WHAT to get everyone. We don't NEED anything. No one in our family NEEDS anything. I want to give the girls something to open on Christmas morning, but in the back of my head, keep thinking they're gonna get so much stuff from everyone else. Why spend money on stuff that I'll probably toss in a few months? Avery wants a new bike. If we get Ave the bike, we need to get something big for McKenna too, right? We could get McKenna a dollhouse. We already have a dollhouse that Avery got when she turned 3. Where will we put another dollhouse? We need to get Presley something, but she doesn't need anything, but diapers and wipes. Do Kevin and I need to exchange gifts, just to show the kids that Santa didn't forget us? Kevin and I usually don't do gifts, just b/c all of the money goes to everyone else (there's 21 people in our 2 families). Do we buy stuff for each other for the girls' sake. Ugh, the thoughts in my head go on and on about stuff that doesn't even matter, long term. I guess I'm growing tired of buying stuff. Wow-never thought I'd say that. I'm tired of de-cluttering my house and throwing things away that we spent money on, then decided we didn't need (read-mostly the older girls' toys)
We didn't make it to Abilene today, hopefully tomorrow though. Didn't get as much school and laundry done yesterday, as I'd hoped. It's 11:30 and I'm still in my pjs, so today's not looking much better. Thank goodness, Avery's teacher can wear pjs to class!

Past and Future

(Presley and the baby sitter)

We had a busy weekend. Good, but busy. Date night last Friday was AWESOME. We went to Red Beans, shopping, and ended the night with Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate from Starbucks. It's hard to believe Starbucks is having financial trouble, we waited in line for 20 minutes for our drinks. The place was packed. Anyway, we had a great night being husband and wife-not Mom and Dad.

• I went to the Y this weekend. The last time I worked out was the day Presley was born. It felt so good to get on the eliptical again.


• We got to see Gabriel baptized on Saturday. He is 4 weeks older than Presley. It was a nice service, followed by a great meal with friends.


• After church Sunday, I picked up 2 turkeys to cook for GP's Thanksgiving of Grace meal. We also picked up a boatload of invite flyers to sort into groups of 25 to hand out to area school kids.


• I packed up my maternity clothes yesterday. A friend of mine just found out she's having twins, so I'm taking them to her this afternoon.
• The Wizard of Oz was on 3 times this weekend. Guess how many times we watched it....
• Last night, after the girls were in bed, I watched the Notebook. I LOVE that movie.

The girls and I are going to Abilene this week. I hope to get to see the unveiling of the new home in Chapman Tuesday afternoon. On Wednesday, we're going to see kidstuf. I'm hoping to get a nap sometime when we're up there as well! Thank God for grandmas! Kevin will be home working on his dissertation with no interruptions from us.

Friday thoughts

I'm getting ready to teach my last class for today. Can't wait to go home and hold Presley. Some quick thoughts-

• We're supposed to have a date night tonight. Kevin's sick though. It may turn into a "let's take the kids to the sitter, and come back home and sleep" kind of date.


• I'm ready for Christmas-I want to decorate our house. I want to go Christmas shopping...


• Presley slept from 10:30 last night til 5:30 this morning!!!!!

Unleashing Generosity

http://www.kwch.com/Global/story.asp?S=9340666

Above is the link to a segment on Channel 12's news. Gracepoint was featured for unleashing radical generosity on the city of Wichita. Yeah God!!!

Lesson learned/2nd Chances

A lot of mornings we start school while still in our pjs. Today, I told the girls to get dressed before we started school. They didn't obey. Aunt Shawna just called and wanted to take the girls to see Great-Grandma. They didn't get to go because they weren't dressed. Avery threw a huge fit. She ran upstairs to pout. She was so mad at me when, in fact, she was the one who didn't make the wise choice earlier this morning.

How many times does this happen with us and God? God tells us to do something-we don't do it-then we get mad and sulk and complain when opportunity comes and we're not prepared. Am I the only one seeing a parallel here?

In the meantime, Shawna called back to say they were going to go after lunch instead. Wonder if the girls will be dressed by then...

I'm pregnant!

So, we were home yesterday and the phone rang. Kevin answered and it was someone from Wichita Clinic. They asked for Michelle, he gave me the phone and the conversation went like this...
Me-Hello, this is Michelle
WC-Hi, Michelle? I got your test results back and you are pregnant
Me-WHAT? That's impossible
WC-I'm sorry, it's not, you're pregnant.
Me-No, you don't understand, I just had a baby 6 weeks ago. There's NO WAY I'm pregnant. And I'm not currently a patient at WC, so there must be a mistake. Who was the dr. that ordered the test?
WC-Hold please....

After a couple of minutes, she hung up on me. Kevin and I had a nice laugh!

My Walgreens Deal

I've been taking synthroid since 1992. For the last few years, I've been taking 2 different doses. Since we've been in Wichita, I've floated my prescriptions from Walgreens to Dillons to Target, depending on price and incentive. One time this summer I got $60 in groceries for transfering my prescriptions to Dillons. Every once in a while, Target advertises a $10 gift card with each transfered prescription, which I take full advantage of. This week, I got a check in the mail from Walgreens for $25 if I transfer my medicine back to them. I was running out of my synthroid, so I refilled them at Walgreens. I got my check validated and started shopping.

I had coupons for the diapers, the creamer was B1G1, the coloring books were 3/$1, the 8x10 picture was free (deal they had over the weekend), Kevin needed starch and McKenna asked me to get straws. The grand total...$25.07! I paid $.07 out of pocket for everything above.

Side note-One of the best things about Christmas is that Coffee-Mate has peppermint mocha creamer available. I usually buy a whole bunch and stock up for as long as the date allows. It's so yummy. If you drink coffee, I highly recommend it!

High/Low

This week's high/low

Avery-High-getting to read Sam and Pam, Pam, and Cat Nap (stories she read all by herself)
Low-I do not have one

McKenna-High-getting to color
Low-I do not have one

Presley-High-being held
Low-not being held

Mom-High-getting to be with my kids
Low-not getting enough sleep!

Red and Blue thoughts

Before this election, I thought that I was only friends with those who thought like me. Reading my friends' statuses(is that the word?) on Facebook this morning told me otherwise. Boy, I have some very liberal friends! While these Democrat friends have yet to blog today, I found some interesting ones from the middle to Conservative viewpoint worth reading. So grab a cup of coffee (yes, I know it's in the afternoon, just heat what's left from this morning in the microwave) and enjoy!

Change needed

The Will of the People

Should We Be Surprised?

A Historic Day

The Supremacy of Christ

It's Monday...again

Go here to see the cutest kids on Halloween. We had a great time Friday night. Uncle Phil dressed as the wolf and walked around with McKenna and Aunt Marla was a witch and accompanied Dorothy, aka Avery. We have enough candy to last us a lifetime, or at least till Wednesday. lol
Presley had a great night last night. I've found out she doesn't like spinach alfredo pizza. I ate some Friday for supper and she was up 3 times in the night. Her tummy was making crazy noises. Darn! I love that stuff-OH well...
We have school today-Avery is learning

1. Math-0-6 backward and forward in order--very easy for her
2. Phonics-reading
3. Language Arts-reading the Runaway Bunny and making one of her own-bunny, that is
4. History-Arabian Peninsula (I'll be learning about that as well)
5. Art-artist Henry Tanner-creating a special moment portrait (drawing a picture of yourself doing something special-riding a bike, playing dollhouse, etc...)
6. Park-it's going to be nice out-

McKenna usually joins us for Language Arts, History, and Art-she plays by herself or watches Dora while we do Math and Phonics. Presley is learning to soothe herself to sleep without being held. I can't type well with one hand. Although I LOVE holding her, after 5 weeks, I'm realizing other things need to be done :)