macaroni

so my macaroni broke her leg. she broke it on a trampoline, while i was unaware. she broke it while i wasn't watching her, while her brother who was with her jumped down on her ankle. it was a scream heard round the world, or at least around the block. an unfortunate accident to say the least. she is in bed tonight with a beautiful pink and purple cast on her tiny leg.
we lucked out and saw a wonderful orthopedic doctor today who took great care of her, explained the fracture to me, then took us to the casting room. he asked her exactly what she wanted, then topped it off with a custom pink and purple braid design going around it. he was awesome. we were in and out in forty minutes. it could of partly been because i work with his wife, who so kindly asked him to please take care of miss mags. sometimes my jobs benefits are truly great.
maggie was super excited to get her "pinkalicious" cast on and show it to all of her friends. the newness wore off about bedtime when she asked me if i could take it off so she could sleep. nope, it will be on for several weeks maggie. she said, well mom, it feels a little annoying. yes, im sure it does.
i loved on her all morning when she was nervous about her appointment. i held her little hand the whole time, and then babied her all afternoon. she started getting sassy this evening and i firmly told her to shape it up. she began acting horrid, throwing a fit which resulted in purple sharpie on my couch and her brother pushed over in the shower. (she literally went to the shower curtain and shoved him over... when she tells her side, she simply moved the curtain a little tiny bit.) when i thought i might really go and whip her little booty, she turns and looks at me with her sad blue eyes and gives me the taylor swift heart with her hands. really? i mean, i am going to give in and whip you, and you look at me and give me the heart sign? i busted up laughing and she blinked away her giant tears and hugged me. she had me at hello. it is ridiculous the amount of love i have for this girl.

spring break

innsbrook missouri is where we headed this year for spring break. it is a large resort community centered around several lakes and natural surroundings. we rented a lake house which sat right on a small private lake. sheer bliss. we had our own little boat, canoe and kayak. the kids played hard from sun up to sun down every day. molly and i hiked through the trails daily, earning our marshmallows each night. carson joined us on the last day and he spotted a sleeping deer - bedded down in the pine during the heat of the day. the weather was awesome - low 80's every day and sunny.
it was incredible to not have work, laundry, school etc. to fuss with and just enjoy our little family.












nobody wanted to leave and we all kind of had a sad feeling in our guts pulling away. its not that we don't love our home and the kids were thrilled to see their neighbor friends when they got back. its just that as soon as we pull into the driveway mom and dad are no longer the fun relaxed game playing parents... its back to laundry, bills and chores. this time we proved them differently. we got home - threw the laundry to the side and immediately took the kids to crown center for the afternoon, then off shopping for a fire pit in which we broke in the first night with a giant marshmallow roast for all of their friends. it struck me how happy it made my children to be with their parents and get their undivided attention - to not have my brain on housework and chores, only half heartedly interacting with them most nights. i promise to give them more of me, not just on vacation, but daily turn my brain off of all the outside stressors and just focus on the amazing little beings that they are.

catch up

i am terrible about keeping up to date on the blog. it was meant to be a scrap book of sorts, since we all know i am not crafty enough to do that.
so, i was uploading pics off of my camera this morning and realized i am even terrible about this kind of scrap book.

a few things i have left out.

molly had her 11th birthday. last year. we had a giant amount of girls over for a dance party, and took her to the american girl doll store. it was actually super fun, and i do not love birthday parties. i think that the girls are older, most of her friends are so sweet and easy to get along with, it was just fun for all of us. not a dramatic moment to be had!



christmas. it was at our house this year. it was perfect. our family got together on christmas eve morning, we had a fire, music, tons of food and the cousins exchanged books and played their hearts out. that evening we went to candlelight service, opened our new pjs and got ready for santa. we woke up to cinnamon rolls, presents, and hung out in our jammies most of the day. we ended the day with a huge feast of home made bread and stuffed cheese pasta. perfection.



work update. i started working in the skills lab at the college. this has been very good for teaching me patience, which is one of my major short comings. watching students hang blood, draw labs, do assessments, things like that over and over all while smiling and being supportive teaches me a great deal of patience.
we are still trying to figure out the direction of our future careers and lives over here, but we are taking it one day at a time. right now it is working pretty lovely with me just working weekends and a day at the lab. jeff is still in limbo with his job until we figure out how to fit it into the lives of our little ones.

carson and ashton both tested into the gifted program this year. we are so proud of them and grateful for the bright little minds we are able to raise. ashton is the youngest of the kids to make it in thus far.

annie turned 7 months today. we were out on a walk with her and the dog yesterday and she was smiling up at us from her stroller. jeff said - aren't you so glad we have her? i replied yes. he said, could you imagine how quiet our house would be without her? can you imagine how sad it would be next year when maggie heads to kindergarten and we would have no little one around? i just laughed, i mean, that is us in a nutshell. so happy with the chaos. so happy to have baby stuff all over our house, the sleepless nights, the tiny sleepers. we love it all and this time around truly appreciate it. we have loved them all, but i guess because we are a little older and know this is the end of this stage of our lives, we really get down on our knees and thank god daily for the gifts he has given us. we are abundantly blessed with a crazy busy messy house filled with children. i look around right this minute and see boots, slippers, tennis shoes, back packs, sweat shirts and hear dora in the background. i should probably get off of the computer and straighten up all this evidence of love.

decision time

i have been trying to decide whether or not to continue on with my grad school classes to get another master's degree. i have completed one, yaaaah me. i am in the process of my second.
the first one was a no brainer. it was free, and not too far from home, one day a week. this one was not free, and i have not really ever been sure if two master's are really that much better than one.
i do know that while i am away at school, my children are growing. while i am stressing over papers, my family is having fun without me. while i am sitting with my buddy microsoft office, my baby is learning to crawl.
my husband and i sat down tonight and had a long discussion. he is very good to bounce things off of because, unlike me, he is truly non judgmental. he analyzes facts and makes decisions based on the facts. no emotions, just true reason. i toy with decisions, agonize over my own guilt, begin to think irrationally about the outcomes.
after 6 long weeks of my own internal deliberation, i have made the decision to take my msn and be complete! i am officially done with school after this monday night.
i have made a 4.0 and will have the pretty little initials behind my name.
i feel like a giant weight is off my shoulders.
my first monday night off i am going out for pizza with the kids to celebrate.
jeff and i are both officially done with school. finally an outside weight has been released, giving me a little more breathing room with my top priority - my family.

Stress Free

A homework assignment I read tonight, written by my firstborn.


Stress Free
I can be rather worrisome and stressful. That is why, by the end of this year I want people to think of me as stress free. I think that by being stress free I could be a better student, daughter, sister, and friend. Besides by stressing over the littlest things, the people around me mentally note that I would not be good in a crisis. That is why I need to be stress free.
One thing I need to work on in order to be stress free is to quit worrying about every single possibility. I need to understand that whatever happens is what happens, because there is no time machine to go back and fix it. I also need to lighten up about whatever happens, because I can deal with it. Walking around stressed will get me nowhere in life. One more thing I need to accomplish in order to be stress free is the ability to live in the moment.
Another thing that I feel I am struggling with is the self-control to let go of little, unimportant, things. To master this skill, I need to focus on bigger things such as family and religion. I also need to recognize that the past is unchangeable and the present is what I need to focus on. I have decided to make this my motto; “Yesterday was the past, tomorrow is the future, today is a gift, that is why it is called the present. But I will still remember my old motto; “Dream as though you will live forever, live as though you will die tomorrow.”
One last thing I need to work on to be considered stress free is being able to cherish every last moment .That is the meaning of stopping to smell the roses, which I consider an important life skill. I also have to enjoy the life of a kid, as it will not last forever. Truly understanding the people around you is also very important. I also need to slow down.
By the end of this year I want people to think of me as stress free. One last reason I want to be stress free is because if I stress too much I will get stomach ulcers (yikes!). If I was stress free I would have a clearer mind, and with that, the sky is the limit. The people around me will trust me more because I will be able to keep a clear head in a crisis if I were stress free. That is why this year, my word is stress free.
as written by Molly Wooster

stringent

so when you take something for granted, it really hits you in the face when reality strikes. my sweet molly recently scored high enough on her spelling test to advance to the class spelling bee. she did this last year, if you remember and made it all the way to the county bee as a fourth grader. she also made it pretty far in the county bee, getting out when there were only a handful of crazy smart private school type kids left.
she did not just assume she would win the class bee, she studied several nights preparing for it. these were the same words as last year, so it wasn't a lot of work for her to memorize them.
i knew when she got off the bus, walking slow with her head hanging what had happened. immediate tears as she fell into her daddy and just sobbed. poor baby girl.
the word she missed was the very first round. stringent. she has never missed that word. it has never even gotten a second thought from us, she spits it out every time.
honestly, she is like a robot going through them, just firing them off, one after another, amazing.
she said she got up there and started to spell it and the boys in her class starting giggling at her. the teacher had to stop them, and then she just repeated the in again... a no no for spelling bees. no repeating, no do overs. so she was out.
rats.
no big deal in the grand scheme of life, but huge to a fifth grade sensitive bookworm.
the girl has hives from crying so hard. i dont know what to tell her, but to tell her we love her no matter what, and this just wasn't the plan for this year.
i might be a tiny bit relieved we don't have to study for the next three months... but not enough to watch her cry.
there is no greater pain my heart feels, then when i think about my kids hurting, getting laughed at, or feeling disappointment. all necessary growing pains, i realize... reminds me when i would get hurt as a child and my mom would flinch in pain herself, saying it was like a knife twisting in her stomach. i get it now mom.

Two things

Grandpa and his baby.




Christmas tree made out of the hands and feet of my babies.


That's all. Just two sweet things that made me smile today.