good day

i did something today that i don't do often enough for me. i stayed at home in my pjs. i really like these days. i started organizing the 12,000 pictures that are on my external hard drive. after 3,000 i quit and moved on to other things. baylee and i played cooties. then lee, baylee, tayte and i played mario party 8 on the wii. we played teams: baylee and tayte against lee and i. the boys were winning for most of the game. lee and i made a great comeback, only to listen to baylee say it wasn't fair for 2 adults to play 2 kids. which may be true if those boys haven't been playing that game tons since they got it. next time we will split the teams differently.

i am ready for the boys to go back to school, for the routine again. i need my routine back. my laundry is piling up. i usually do a load or two before i pick up tayte from school. i try to get something going for dinner before i get him, but that doesn't always happen either.

here is to more good days like this.

tara

it's a new year

i hope that you have a great new year.

my 2009 is off to a rocky start. well so far it really sucks. i really want to dig a hole and not come out. yesterday my grandma (my dad's mom) was put in the hospital. she was moved to hospice today and the doctors don't give her long. i joke about it, but i hope that my grandma doesn't live much longer. not in a cold heartless way. in a compassionate don't want to see her in the suffering state she is in. she told me to tell baylee to pray that "grandma gets her wish." i pray that her wish is granted soon.

today was a hard day. my grandma refused to go to hospice until my mother and i talked. that lady is one stubborn lady (probably where some of my stubbornness comes from). this situation made me feel guilty for a variety of reasons. 1. that my grandma's big concern on her deathbed is my relationship with my mother. 2. that the time she has left she is not telling her kids and grandkids the things she should be telling them-i don't want anyone not to say what they need to say to her because she feels the need to have a pow-wow. 3. that people in my family have to have that akward feeling because of all of this.

i did something today that does not show my best light. i did speak my peace about most things. i made a promise and kept it. actually i made two promises today and did not put a time on the second promise, but do intend to keep it in time. i am not ashamed of what i did. in hindsight it probably was not the best place to do this, but probably the only chance of it happening. in my defense i was not escorted out of the hospital. i walked out by myself. i was asked to take it outside, but the situation was over anyway. i could see that there was not going to be a positive outcome.

2008 was a hard year for me. i have grown a lot. i have changed a lot. i am happy and content with where i am. many people in my family think that i need therapy-it has come up several times this year. i am not any crazier than i was before my dad died. i just don't have the time or the energy for all the crap.

hoping your 2009 is all that you hope for.

tara

prayer request

one of my great employee's husband passed away sunday. i have known lanette for at least three years, well before i bought the store. she is a wonderful lady, who would do anything for you. i got a phone call from her on friday saying she wouldn't be at work on saturday because steve was back in the hospital. he had been in the hospital several times over the past year, but i could tell by her voice that this time was different. i didn't know him well, but what little i did know proved he was a good man. it was too young, only 54.

they have 2 sons, thankfully both are somewhat grown, at least out of school. please pray for them because the path they are now on is not an easy one and any prayers for them would help.

thanks,
tara

wii had a great christmas

sorry i haven't posted earlier. explanation to follow.


santa brought the boys a wii and they have had a blast ever since. we spent all day playing with the toys, games, and wii that he left.


fyi: that stocking of tayte's grandma did not make. i did. it is no where near the quality of grandma's, but the same love went into it. it was my first one and i have to remind myself of that everytime i look at it compared to the others. i did finish lee's this year. so i have two stocking under my belt. i will not be taking orders unless you are fine getting yours in 2-3 years. that's how long it takes me.


each boy got clothes from lee and i, much to their excitement. tayte was too tired to open present so he laid down on the couch for half of his presents.


baylee decided last year that he wanted to buy his brothers a gift and he did the same this year. i insisted that the boys each other board games which was a big hit. we got piranha panic, rhino rampage, guess who extra, cooties, don't break the ice, ants in my pants, and wack-a-mole tower. i would suggest any of these games, we have been playing them a lot, the biggest hit being the don't break the ice. some of these games were from santa we didn't let them buy each other that many. don't break the ice makes a nice ice world for the galactic heroes they got.


i really loved how well the boys played together on christmas. that truly was the best gift. a day with no fighting.

the wii was big fun for us all. i am a super bowler in case you were wondering. papa gave the boys money so they bought extra games. for only have the thing a week they already have a large collection of games. last night we played mario party as a family so it was a blast. here the boys are playing the star wars clone wars light saber duel.






contrary to what it may look we have not had a light saber catastrophe yet.

baylee got the a.t t.e from star wars and was super excited about that. the other boys got more star wars galactic heroes, so for the third year we have had a star wars christmas.

lee got a new computer hence the delay in blogging. here is the problem: we are old school and not wireless in our house. the old computer that i save all my photos on is upstairs not next to the connection. so i finally got my photos from my computer to the portable hard drive santa left me so i could get the photos to my blog. and i don't feel right blogging without photos. i like the extra they add. lee loves his new computer so that is what matters. i don't want to slow down his new computer with the almost 12,000 photos i have already on my hard drive. that is from 2005, holy photo batman that's a lot of pictures.

i made coffee cake with the help of payton. luckily only it was only us that ate this because payton put cinnamon on the biscuit and then licked it off, but still threw it in the pan.

tara

merry christmas

merry christmas to all. i hope everyone had a wonderful day.
one thing we heard in church last night was that the lights on the houses and trees are to resemble the stars the night the angels filled the sky to tell of the birth of jesus. i thought that was really cool because before we went to church we went looking at the lights around town. we may try to make that a yearly tradition.

tara

cookies for santa

rebecca asked what was a christmas tradition we have. so every year for at least the last five years(it could be longer, not sure how old baylee was the first time, but we have done it every year since we started) we have decorated cookies for santa. this year i bought the already cut sugar cookies that all you have to do is bake them. i am really impressed at how well they turned out. to be honest i was a little disappointed at how small they were but in the end they were perfect. small enough where the boys got them all decorated before getting bored. this year we made another change, the accordian tube things from pampered chef. those are the best. if you decorate or plan on decorating cookies with your kids these are a must. i ordered replacement tips so each one could have the circle because i wasn't sure how the fancy tips would work. baylee and i played around with them after we were done and he could make some of the fancy shapes. i will be ordering another set of 3 for next year, i may even get 2 sets. payton could even squeeze the tubes.

tayte hated the tubes said they were too hard, but once i held the end and let him squeeze like baylee was he had a blast. i think it was more that he couldn't do it like baylee.

i always go way over board with sprinkles and toppings we have so many left over each year.

and in the end we had the "drinking" of the left over icing. that was a wonderfully nutritious breakfast.

when i asked tayte if he wanted some he said "no tanks." i just don't get that kid sometimes.

i have learned that if you put a large piece of foil down for each kid most of the sprinkles stay on there and makes clean up a breeze. wad up the foil and throw it away.

the cookies chosen for santa. i am sure he will enjoy them.

tara

texter

i really thought i had at least 5 more years until i had to tell baylee

no more texting.

really he is only 7. he asked about texting the other day. so i let him have my phone and told him to text a message to lee's phone. within a few minutes and several texts later we got to our destination and i took the phone from him.

the next day we were going to amarillo. we decided to eat lunch with lee. i gave baylee the phone so he could text lee to find out where he wanted to eat. then i told baylee to give me my phone so i could get it to aunt rachael's number so he could text her and let her know we would be late. "i already got it, thanks." seriously he figured out how to change people and went wild. in the last 2 days he has probably sent 20 texts. i see unlimited texting in our future. or maybe the newness will wear off and we won't have to worry about it. i also see that i will be communicating with my son through texts. for those of you already there, do you draw the line at yelling at them through texts? lol. the whole thing is so unreal for my to believe it is already starting.

tara