Pictures I promised...

I can't believe that it has been so long since I last blogged. So many things have been going on in our house that have kept me away. We, meaning everyone but Eric, has had a nasty cold that has just finally come to an end. Corban had pink eye for about a week and had to stay home from school one day. I have been wanting to post but I haven't had the time or energy. So for now I will just post the pictures that go with the last blog. Enjoy :)

the hundreds of stuffed animals that Corban insists on sleeping with

bear and dinosaur



one of the 2 frogs


his shark and nerf ball

dinosaur, dog, bird, and centipede

Corban's homemade firefly

the dream catcher his uncle made for him

The more I look at his treasures the more I smile. Corban is such an unique and special kid.

Sunday Surprises...

My son Corban has always like to hold on to things. When we clean out his room he never wants to throw anything away. He even has a box in his room that he keeps paper scraps in make a fly home this summer for when he catches a fly. (One of his favorite books is "Fly Guy" by Ted Arnold that is about a boy who has a fly as a pet. There are actually three book in the series. Really cute books.) Knowing that, I shouldn't have been surprised by what I found in his bed.

Corban went to my mom's this weekend to have grandma time. Since he was gone I thought I would take advantage of the empty house and wash his bed sheets. As I pulled off the 143+ stuffed animals I found lots of small items hidden. There was a small dinosaur, whale, 2 frogs, a firefly that he had made last year in pre-school, a paper cat dreamcatcher that his uncle made him, a small stuffed dog, a small stuffed bear, a little bird, a centiped, a nerf ball, a shark, a little folded piece of paper with nothing written on it, and about 30 stickers placed in a neat stack. (Pictures will be posted later.) When I found all of his "treasures", I thought of how I could deal with this. I could get mad because he's not supposed to have toys in bed, or smile because of how he placed each individual item in a particular spot and think back to what it's like to be a 5 year old where these are your most valued treasures. I chose the latter. When he came home that evening I asked him about what I found and this is what he told me: "Oh those are just my favorite things that I have gotten from the surprise boxes at school. But don't worry mom. I don't play with them - I just like to sleep with them." I just looked at him and smiled. He is such an amazing kid! I made his bed and then left him to place all of his "treasures" back in their hidden spot. Originally I had wanted his bed to be made when he got home from my mom's but then I thought he would enjoy hidding all of those items again and he did. :)

To back track to before he came home but after I had found his treasures, let me tell you what else surprised me on Sunday afternoon. I heard Addison starting to stir in her crib so I went to get her. When I got in the room I found her with her butt sticking up in the air. It was so adorable. Just a simple milestone that every baby does, but so new to her. When I found her like that I instantly remembered how Corban used to sleep like that. I love watching her do the every day ordinary things that babies do.

My children never seem to cease to amaze me and I love every minute of it.

Should we stay or should we go now...

I think it may have been about a month or so after his birthday. Sometime after the commercials came out for Disney with the Mickey balloons popping out of cards asking people "What will you celebrate?" Corban, my oldest, came to me and stated that he knew what he wanted his birthday party to be this year. He wanted his birthday party to be at DisneyWorld!!! At first I didn't know what to say other than we just wouldn't be able to afford for him to take his friends there for a party but someday we would go there. I hated to see his dreams dashed in his big brown eyes but I knew that it wasn't a possibility. He made me promise that I would take him there someday.

Now every time one of those commercials comes on he says, "We'll go there some day right mom? Promise?" Well, just out of curiosity, I wanted to see how expensive this "birthday adventure" would be, just for him, Eric, and I and Addison of course. Turns out that Addison would be free because she's so young. Corban would get in free on his birthday. So really to be at DisneyWorld for his birthday it would just cost us the price for Eric and I to get in. And any additional days it would be the three of us that we would have to pay for.

Then I noticed on the website that Florida residents get discounted rates, I think it was 40% off the ticket price but that could be wrong. Instantly I though of my niece's mom who lives in Orlando. She and I are fairly close and she loves Corban so I know she would be willing to get the tickets for us.

I also was curious about the prices of the Disney hotels. On the Disney commercials they have been promoting a special that if you book 4 days you get 3 free but it's only good through certain days. I looked at those "special" days, and it covers Corban's birthday....just barely, but it does! And the budget resort is fairly cheap. SO...if we were to go, would we go to all of the parks? or just one or two? or just the one on his birthday?

When I went to Disney back in 1993 when I was in second grade I remember some of the parks being so boring like Epcot. Again I looked on the Disney website to look at the parks and attractions they now had since things tend to change in 17 years. ( Wow! I was 7 when I went there!) The more I looked the more I remembered how fun it was and noticed that they have added a LOT of new things. Disney has a fun little thing you can do. You can create customized maps for each of the parks listing your favorite rides and attractions. You can have them made before you get to Disney to plan your vacation or after to capture the memoires. As I was going through marking all of the attractions and rides I think Corban would like, I realized that he would probably enjoy each park.

So now what to do? The more I have been thinking about it, if we stayed at the resort and got the 3 free nights I think we should drive to the closest beach and spend the days. Corban and I flew to Fort Lauderdale when he was 2 1/2 but he doesn't remember the beach or the ocean at all. We could do 2 trips for the price of 1. I really think this would be a birthday to remember! The only problem is if we do this trip, he won't get a birthday party. I'm just not sure if a 5 1/2 year old will like that. And how will we cope with the long drive since flying is definately out of the picture?

Eric and I are still debating if we can afford a trip like this. Corban really doesn't ask for much or extravagant things. It just seems like God has opened pretty much every door to making this trip a reality. My fear is if we don't do it this year, and put if off till he's older and Addison's older that 1) he won't enjoy it 2) he won't believe in the magic anymore and 3) that these deals of the free admission on your birthday and resort special won't be there "next year". Sigh. Still praying about what to do.

Still trying to figure this thing out...

Wow! I can't believe that I am already on post numéro 2. I know that there are no real "rules" for blogging but I still feel like I'm doing something that I should be. Eric has been gone this weekend leaving me plenty of time to think. The only problem to that is I want to write my thoughts down on my blog but I'm unsure how many times a day is one supposed to blog? Once? Once a week? Once a month? I also know that there is no real answer to that either. So to those that are following my blog please deal with me as I try to figure this dilema out.

I have been trying to figure out all day what exactly I want my blog to really be about. I love my kids but I feel like my scrapbooking covers them. I don't want this only for my ramblings either. I have come to the conclusion that my blog has no real theme like I have seen on other blogs and I'm totally okay with that...I think. So for now this will probably more ramblings and cries for advice more than anything else. I have been feeling lately that since my quit my job I have no human contact outside of these walls. Hopefully this will become a useful sounding board for me. To those that read this, PLEASE give advice if I ask for some. That's why I'm posting the questions or dilemas I'm having.

I just realized something that I should point out. I'm a terrible speller. Yes I have a spell checker on here but I don't always spell the words corretly so I don't always catch my mistakes.

One thing I will be incorporating in my blog is a bit of French. Nothing like the word of the day in french or anything but more of how I incorporate the language into my everyday speech. You can ask my husband I tend to say things in French without even realizing I have done it because the French language is second nature to me. When I was in college I was only a couple credits away from getting a minor in French. When I had my son I was in a couple of French classes where we only spoke French. So I began practing my French with my son and would only speak French to him when it was only he and I. I use to speak in french and he would answer in english. It was crazy. Now if I start to talk to him in french or sing in french, he asks me to stop. When we moved this last time Eric and I found old notebooks from our college classes that for some reason we had hung on to. I looked though my anantomy and physiology notes and noticed that over half of the notes were in french. When I was taking french classes working on a minor in the language I would hear english but write french. I wish that was still how my brain worked now. There are still some words that I read or hear and I see them in french in my mind. I have also subscribed to french podcasts to help get my french back to where it was. I promise though that you will never have to have my blog entirely translated to read it :)

Well I finally feel that I have extablished by blog, and can start writing my :random thoughts:. I guess today will be at least a 2-a-day blog :) Enjoy!

I did it....finally

Okay.

The time has come for me to finally get with the new trend of blogging. I have been reading all of my friends' blogs and have always been grateful for my friends that keep a blog - especially those who live far away from me. Without their weekly, and sometimes daily blogs, I don't think I would have a clue to what is going on in their lives.

Lately I have been wanting to express my thoughts but I'm not very good at keeping a journal. They always seem to get started but I either lose them or it has been so long since my last entry that I think I need a new journal cause the thoughts would be so far apart. Not only that, but why would I journal in a private notebook? Most of the things I write or at least want to write are things I want to share with my friends.

So here it is. This is my attempt to keep my friends in the loop of what goes on in my life. I don't know how often I will find the time to update this. My goal is to update it at least once a week. I tried doing a baby blog while I was pregnant but that didn't seem to work too well. I really think it didn't work because I was working and would come home, eat, play with Corban, talk with Eric, and then crash in bed and repeat the next day. Hopefully this will work better than my last attempt at this. 'til next time....