Love her

Date snapshots and Valentine's Day

I don't want to neglect the fact that my hubby and I have actually had a few dates the past few weekends.  I personally prefer the "Daytime" date rather than evening.  We found a great HS girl down the street (walking distance) that hit it off with the kids and I could actually have a nice conversation with the girl.  She didn't have her nose in a cell phone nor did she have an attitude.  Rare these days! These dates made up for the fact that I was on my deathbed the day before Valentine's day with the stomach flu.  My home was full of love and care from my family refilling my Gatorade and soda crackers :) I did crawl across the street in my weak stupor to take some picture of Charlie on Valentine's Day.  There is just something so sweet and about opening those little valentine's that are sealed with a heart sticker.  While my students enjoyed getting pencils and erasers (due to no candy rule in our county) my children devoured loads of artificial flavors and dyes and had a melt down at about 5pm.  Hmmmm, I am beginning to like the other side of the mountain.

Does she see dead people?

So my girl is a little obsessed with death.  In fact, both my children are very curious about dying.  Mary Kate has mentioned random people mostly men that she sees in odd places for sometime.  There was the man that stood by her window in the red shirt (at the old house).  Now there is a man that she has seen at her preschool that "helps the people to not die".  Last night she asked if dead people wear clothes.  She said    "When I die, I do not want clothes.  I want to show everyone my boobies."  Hmmmm.

I then proceeded to have a conversation with Charlie about why E.T. was all dried out when he died.  He asked if dogs get all dried out like E.T. when the die.  That led to the dreaded question, "What will happen to me and Mary Kate if you and daddy die?".  I assured him that there are so many people that love him (did not mention that it is all taken care of in our will that Aunt Kelly and Uncle Doug will get him and MK).  I made sure to start with Aunt Kelly and Uncle Doug.  His response, "Oh yeah, they are nice.  I know them. Uncle Doug is really good at changing tires".  LOL!

Happy New Year!

Instead of wishing what this new year will bring, I wish to bring this new year...
a frugal lifestyle 
more love for the outdoors
down time
more time spent educating my own children
showing more gratitude toward the people I love!

Holiday

From Thanksgiving to Christmas a warm home with family.  Funny highlights included...

Mary Kate yelling to Santa on the roadside because she refused to get out of the car out of fear.

Charlie getting cut off by the other people in line while talking to Santa about his long, long, long list. 

Charlie's proud moment as Rudolph in the school Winter Show.  His singing talent was showed off at his sister's Nativity show while he sung above the whole audience out of tune and the wrong verses.  Mary Kate also had a proud moment as an angel and we were just glad that she stood on stage and smiled considering she refused to sing the Thanksgiving prayer dressed as pilgrim.  Our over excitement about our tall ceilings led to us having to cut about two feet off our Christmas tree (that was tied to the family Sedan).  Can you say Chevy Chase...

Our not so regular house

I think our old house on the mountain is now just a small memory to the kids.  Every once in awhile Mary Kate will say, "Remember our regular house with the basement?"  Our not so regular house now is starting to feel like home.  My cousin once said that your home is not your home until you have scrubbed your own toilets.  Check!  It is now filled with our laughter, our tears, our smells, our pictures and our love.  I do love this house.
I love my 175 year                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      old home and all its quirks.
Since moving in, the most important things that have occurred are the purchase of rugs for the floors and most importantly the wood stove.  We are now hopefully heating this house more efficiently.  Tomorrow we will all sit down for our first Thanksgiving in our home.  Charlie wants to invite Squanto and Mary Kate proceeds to tell us every day that she is not eating turkey.  These pics were taken across the street at the school playground.

Chaos

Trying to find some order amongst this chaotic life we are living right now.  My sights are set on the future we will have in our new home but it is difficult to see this clearly when I am stepping over boxes, shoes, backpacks and such.  I know that our small setbacks are actually just one step closer to a new journey.  Set backs such as Carpenter Bees, chimney cleaning, replacing vent fans all of which have been thrown onto the man of the house.  As he works out these kinks with outside resources, I am just trying to keep some normalcy to our lives.  So, we keep routines among the boxes and still sit down for dinner every night.