Happy Birthday Morningsong!!

This is Husband, I have hijacked Morningsong's blog to wish her a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY. She is the most beautiful women in the world (inside and out) and deserves the very best day! I am so happy she came into my life over 12 years ago. What an awesome mommy, teacher, advisor, best friend, and wife that God has blessed me with. She has given me two wonderful children and I am blessed beyond measure. Sugarbear; HC, JB and I wish you a very special day!!

We love you bunches!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A Night Out

Monday night Steve and I had a treat! We went to a Christmas concert with some GREAT friends! We had a wonderful time! I highly recommend this concert if it is in your neck of the woods. The artists who sang were all stars in their own right. They were fabulous!! I wanted ALL of their CD's by the end of it all. The message was great and I left the concert feeling refreshed and CHRISTmasy. The message was really great!
Most of you may have heard of these artists (but I don't even remember their names now). Wish I would have written down their names - their voices were so beautiful and the live music - well.... it's been a LONG while since I've been to a live concert. It was refreshing to hear live music with live voices. Talented voices. It was marvelous.
Here is one singer whose name I do remember. His name is Bebo. What a name. :) I love his voice!

Steve and I had a really great time! The friends we sat with were the best. :) MARVELOUS Saviour, FABulous husband, SUPER friends, and great music - what a fun night! We realize we need more of these sort of nights in our lives. Note to self: MUST schedule more leisure/fun time with friends on a regular basis!!

HC's First Ballet Recital

This post is FULL of pics for the family who was unable to see this momentous day! Our HC had her first ballet recital today!! Here is HC posing with her ballet teacher before her performance. HC takes lessons at a local church in town. They are so economical vs. the official ballet zones. HC doesn't know what she's missing because Mrs. K is top notch! Everyone was in a bustle 'backstage' getting ready.
Here's HC's whole class posing with their FAVORITE ballet instructor!
HC dancing. She was the youngest in her class. They were ages 5-8 years old. HC may have been the only 5 year old but she sure did dance as though she were 8! She held her own!
HC in action.
The foot work and hand work at the same time was tricky but HC nailed it!! ;)
More fancy dancin'.
The final pose was the best!
Here's JB presenting HC with her roses.
My girl LOVES pink flowers! Roses are a treat for her on any day! Can you see that make-up? She looks so grown up to me!
Here's HC with her friend M. M was in the Rudolf group. She did great too!
I loved this pose.
After the hard work there was food!! YUM! HC had to sit with her friends. We were not aloud at their table - girls only please. ;) So fun to see her branch out - not too far though!! We ended the day with HC and JB buying each other a Christmas gift (they drew each others name... heehee). It was a GREAT day and I am amazed at how well HC performed. She was EXCELLENT!

A Very Christmasy Sort of Day Today!

It all began with a Homeschool Field Trip to see the play Dickens' Vest Pocket Christmas. This was SO fun! I enjoyed it so much. HC kept asking me if the Scrooge had Jesus in his heart yet. It was funny that she asked me that question repeatedly. I think she saw how angry he seemed and realized he might not know Jesus? I don't know but it made the play that much more fun - wondering what she was getting out of this. Such a GREAT play! Thankfully it wasn't too scary with all the ghosts. Here they are posing with Scrooge.
Here they are with Tiny Tim! HC was worried about his leg and worried if he died or not.
Then I decided that we would stop off and see Santa, since we were out. I LOVE to take them but HATE the crazy lines. Thankfully this year we chose a good time to go and the people were SUPER nice.
This Santa was so much fun. He talked to the kids and was very 'Santa like' in how he responded. Not in regards to 'ho ho ho' but in just enjoying kids. In past visits HC and JB would approach Santa and he rarely spoke, he ignored them really. The other Santa was a more handsome Santa, for the sake of photos, but not so fun to visit.
JB sat in Santa's lap for the first time ever! Normally I had to sit with them. Thankfully this year he was brave enough to sit with him without me. HC has LOTS of questions this year. Is Santa real? How does he visit everyone? (So far I just ask her 'What do you think?' when she asks these questions.) JB wanted to see the reindeer. He actually wanted to feed them. It was a fun visit this year.
While we were at the mall (I know - Christmas is near but....) I needed to pick up some earrings for HC. She has been wearing mine and I don't want her to lose them. So far so good but we've nearly lost them 3 times. So we picked up earrings for her and since poor CooCoo has been a bare bear for 2 years..... he was due an outfit. Lately we've needed to pick up something for HC and JB gets left out. Sure he didn't need an outfit for CooCoo but I thought he deserved one for all the many times he patiently did without.... without complaining! At the mall a girl curled HC's hair but we didn't spend $100 on the super fab curling iron. HC wanted a picture with her curls. After having her hair curled we ate a pretzel and headed home. Here's JB showing off CooCoo's outfit and HC sportin' those curls!

We are finishing the night off in style.... we are watching Polar Express and then off to bed! A VERY Christmasy day for our crew! If only it would have snowed! haha

HC and JB Have Officially Moved Out

Here are a few pics of us as we left to go GET OUR CHRISTMAS TREE!!!There has been a new development in our home this week. HC and JB and Steve and Melodye have been replaced. It isn't obvious to the onlooker but a transition has officially occurred.

It all began with our new hobby of watching Little House on the Prairie. Recently HC asked why Laura calls her Dad "Paw" and her Mom "Maw". I told her that is the way they talked back then. An innocent question. Then today I had the idea - how would HC look with the Laura braids. That was the final straw, I guess.

Now... we have a new family. We are Laura, Albert, Paw and Maw. It's fun watching them enjoy their new identities! As we decorate the Christmas Tree tonight they are jumping about asking Maw and Paw "What can we do?" Laura and Albert are having fun hanging out at our house. So.... if we don't answer to Steve and Melodye or HC and JB next time you see us... try our new names of Charles, Caroline, Laura and Albert. You may have better luck getting our attention that way! :)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

We are THANKFUL for all our many blessings! Especially for friends and family like YOU! From our family....
We send a BIG 'HAPPY THANKSGIVING' out to you!

Tough Life Lessons For A 5 Year Old

This semester we signed the kids up for their first individual 'class'. HC takes ballet and JB takes KinderMusik. My first motivation was for HC to have some girly fun but it became clear that there was another life lesson that was just around the corner.

HC took her class and JB quietly sat next to me in the hallway. I brought a coloring book and a Highlights book to keep him busy. He sat still. So content even while other kids were running around like it was time for recess. He would ask questions as to why they were running but he remained content with what I brought for him to do.

As I sat there with him, I began to think.... how will HC handle sitting while JB is in his class. I knew that if I were sitting with HC, in the middle of all that chaos, my sweet girl would be so distracted that she would be driving me caRAZY to join in the 'fun'. She would have begged me, cried, whined and made EVERY effort to convince me that even if those kids were not obeying... she would obey and have fun. I wondered how to teach HC a lesson so clearly learned by her baby brother. The lesson to sit still and to be content with what is in your hand.

She has neither trait mastered. JB can sit quietly and entertain himself with no trouble but my HC demands help and your focus. She must discuss any and every thought she has the instant she has it. She must do the fun thing - she cannot be the only one doing the boring stuff. She MUST play, she MUST laugh, she MUST talk, she MUST not be required to be still. That being still stuff sounds like torture to her.

We attended JB's first class and I sat in the hall with HC. I didn't realize the class was an interactive one and so the first class I sat with HC alone. Since his class is a morning class there were NO kids lingering about. The sound of laughter and fun happening behind the door was enough to keep her worried. "Why do I have to sit here? Why does JB get to do all the fun stuff?" and on and on it goes. She didn't finish coloring one page, she didn't enjoy her Highlights stickers, she was preoccupied with what she wasn't doing. It is her weakness. She cannot comprehend why she should be left out of anything remotely fun.

Towards the end of JB's class they invited us to join the last song. At the end of it all the teacher gave away stickers. HC HAD to have one too. The following week I joined JB in the class and brought HC some busy work stuff and I joined JB. We've slowly gone from her asking me a question every 5 minutes, to trying to do the moves with us, to asking me questions every 20 minutes, to finally - last week.... my HC sat quietly the entire 45 minutes without disturbing us or trying to join. She still expects a sticker though. I am so proud of her progress!

This Sunday, at church JB came out with his bag from class and there were a few mini-candy canes in his bag. She did not get a bag but she was fine. In fact, there have been several services where she received suckers and ate them in front of JB without offering him a taste or being considerate of him. She also gets a sucker every night at ballet - JB gets nothing. We hear nothing from JB. No "where's my sucker?" No "that's not fair!" Nothing! NADA! He simply asks HC how her class went. Well, this Sunday she discovered that JB had candy canes and she had NADA! She was devastated! She cried for 1 hour. And although I could have given her one of JB's (because he would definitely share) I didn't even offer her one. She wailed on and on for 1 hour. Wow! We were making progress and now she still thinks it's all about her! I guess we will figure this lesson out soon too! I want her to be content and thankful without wanting what she doesn't have. What a hard lesson to learn! But a valuable one! I don't know how JB managed to learn this lesson already but.... I need a how to book on how to teach this lesson to HC! What a tough thing to learn! My HC is generous and kind and thankful and thoughtful and concerned for others.... just as long as she isn't getting the short end of the deal! Round 2 of being content, while being left out, coming up! Whew - seems like this will be a tough one to teach!

Elderly Ghetto Gospel Choir

If you need a good laugh.... watch this!

I was spoiled without my knowing!

I guess I was spoiled? My last OBGYN was a GREAT Doctor (he had many levels of responsibility since he was on the board of Doctors for the hospital) and his office was on hospital property and I NEVER waited more than 15 or 20 minutes for him to arrive. He was my one and only ever regular doctor and he was punctual AND he respected the time of his patients. (He was direct and to the point once he arrived - which I also appreciated.) In addition, his nursing staff made you feel at home and if you had questions or problems they listened intently with true concern. I see now that I was spoiled. I was fooled into believing that this was regular treatment.

Fast forward to now. The last three years I've been going to this new guy and the only time he was punctual was on my first visit. Then on my second visit I thought... maybe it was an isolated incident that I waited 1.5 hours. The thing that was the MOST frustrating in this scenario was the lack of communication from the nurses. No one bothered to tell me that the doctor was delayed and when I pressed the call button they still were less than informative with the "he should be back any minute... sorry for the delay". I was LIVID!

Then this year I had a small issue and so I called the nurse. She abruptly dismissed me and said "if you have further problems then you should schedule an appointment". Feeling less than heard by the nurse I simply called to make an appointment. I arrive to find out although I am due my annual check-up they cannot do the normal visit stuff AND check on my other issue. Once again I waited 1.5 hours while I heard the friendly and laid back banter of the nurses and doctors in the hallway. They were in NO hurry. I now was determined that this was my final visit with these people. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me!

The worst thing of all is that I needed to have a follow up visit today, although I now think the ultimate reason for my problem was stress. Had the nurse taken 5 minutes to ask a few benign questions... I would have figured that out withOUT the need for 2 sonograms. Cha-ching insurance company. So today I went for the follow up and the TRULY last visit with this doctor and had to wait 2 hours. I left without seeing the doctor. I know... births happen without planning, I know doctors are busy even if they are on-call. But if you are on call why not make that your surgery day. I never had to wait on my last doctor, unless an unexpected delivery occurred and that was clearly within 20 minutes time line because the birthing nurses called him when it was GO time.

Back to today, I was sitting in the waiting room (after being told I was next - the doctor just returned from surgery) and happened to move to another chair that had a better view of the hallway. The nurse who said he was back asked "has anyone told you the doctor had a delivery to attend to?" I said no and told her I needed to leave. She put a note for the doctor to call me and then she said "there are 2 other patients waiting ahead of you and I cannot guarantee he will not be interrupted again". I told her "THANK YOU SO MUCH for telling me! No one has EVER told me anything in regards to my wait before." I added "it does make the time more bearable when I KNOW I will be waiting an hour. If I cannot wait - I can make that choice for myself". She told me his nurse would have told me of the delay ANY minute; but my past experience has shown otherwise. She was being kind and for that I think even higher of her. And the thing that made this nurse all the more fabulous to me was her name was Ginger. It made me think of my online friend and that made me smile. So... thanks to Ginger I left without sitting another 30 minutes before asking for help. Ginger ROCKS! So I now see I was spoiled by my sweet doctor and I now know that not ALL doctors are so courteous. Thank you Dr. Andrus - you are forever my favorite doctor of all (favorite Doctor that I hated to visit - but miss so much).