Tuesday, December 25, 2007

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Merry Christmas to everyone! I hope you have a Happy and Blessed Christmas season and a Happy New Year!

Monday, December 17, 2007

What just happened?

Today has been a pretty normal, boring Monday. Not much out of the ordinary, in fact I am having a very good start to the week. Only six more days until Jason comes home and the kids will be done with school on Wednesday! Yippee! I can't wait for the break...now I know how teachers feel. Not that I am getting away from my kids, I am just glad to get a break from having to do school every day and having to get done everything that needs to get done! Yeah, a break will be nice!
So, there are only 3 days of school this week and so Stephie didn't have much homework tonight. A friend and I take turns driving out to the middle school and brining each others little girl home. Today when my friend stopped to drop off Stephanie, Stephie asked if her friend could stay and play since they didn't have much homework. I told her it was fine and I would take her friend home later. We had tacos for dinner tonight, which was perfect and I thought I would take her home after I got dinner cleaned up. So this is what happened over the next 15 minutes after dinner.
The girls were done with dinner and went to watch some TV. The phone rang and it was the little girls dad saying he had had to work late and would be happy to stop by and pick her up. Ok, that is great, thanks! Told Stephie's friend to make sure and get her stuff together because her dad would be here in like 10 minutes. Just then there was a knock on the door and the neighbor boy came over to play with Ethan. So the boys go running down the hall to play. 2 minutes later the phone rings and another neighbor asks if she can borrow a heating pad and massager for her husbands shoulder. Ok, go get that together to give to them. Another knock on the door. This time it's the neighbors other son asking if his mom can borrow 1 cup of Sugar and 1 cup of Flour. Ok, I've got that too, let me get it together for you. Just then the other neighbors little girl comes and knocks on the door to pick up the back massager and heating pad. I now have 3 Jr. High girls in my house who start talking away. Three boys down the hall playing in the bedroom and 1 boy standing in my kitchen just waiting for a cup of sugar and a cup of flour. I remind the one friend that her dad will be here soon and just make sure all her stuff is ready. Grab two plastic cups out of the cabinet and measure out a cup of sugar and a cup of flour. Neighbor boy goes home and then shortly after neighbor girl goes home with the heating pad and massager. Ok, no big deal, time to clean up dishes. I start to clean up the dinner dishes when there is another knock on the door. Little girls dad is here, and my house looks like a tornado hit it! Taco meat is still on the dining room table, dishes stacked up in the sink, laundry on the couch, blankets on the floor.....thank goodness this man has 4 children too! Agh! Get the little girl out the door, get the dishes all put in the dishwasher, clean off the dining room table, get the laundry put away, pick up the blankets. One last thing to do.....sit down, write about the last 15 minutes in a blog and open that bottle of red wine that is calling my name! Ahhhh! It's been a great Monday!
BTW: I am in NO WAY complaining about the neighbors or the little girl who came to visit. I just thought it would be great to share how hectic my evening was. Honestly, I LOVE my life and am so glad I have friends that love me when my house is a mess and neighbors that borrow things from me and I know I can borrow things from them in return! :-)

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Less little girl, more young lady


Tonight was Stephanie's Chorus Christmas concert. The chorus has over 100 members between the 6th, 7th and 8th grade. Outside of Chorus is the Show Choir which sings, dances, and performs. Stephanie is in both the Chorus and the Show Choir. I went tonight, by myself and just watched my little baby up there singing and looking so pretty. Like, it was one of those moments where I saw her up there singing and thought, she is the little gift God decided to give to Jason and I 12 years ago! Wow! What if we had made other choices and not decided to have kept her and raised her as our own? Made me almost cry! Stephanie is my daily reminder that God can use bad choices/situations for good and that He has made her a girl who loves Him and strives to serve Him! I know that I am her mom but that girl is a continuous blessing to all who meet her! And she is at that stage where more and more I see less little girl and more young lady, sniff sniff! She is getting to be so pretty and it just makes me so happy that it makes me sad! I guess we all go through this as parents and there is nothing that I would change.....it was just a moment I had tonight and wanted to share with all of you. So, here is a picture of Stephanie from her concert tonight. You'll see what I mean....less little girl and more young lady. I LOVE YOU STEPHIE!

Monday, December 10, 2007

GREAT weekend!

So Jason was home again this weekend! That for one always makes it a GREAT weekend! He flew in Friday night and left again Monday morning. Only 12 more days and he'll be back again. Thinking about home schooling Stephanie along with the younger three kids after this semester is over so that we can stay in Dallas longer and not have to be apart from Jason as much. So many big decisions, so little time!
Sunday Stephanie and I ran to Walmart for 3 things. I needed Tide, Potatoes, and Construction paper. Simple! I can run in and out of Walmart, get my 3 things and come back home. Left J with the younger three and headed out the door. On the way to Walmart I noticed that our new Lowes looked open. So I swung through there to just to see if it was open....no such luck! Employee appreciation night, opening on Monday morning. :-( Then I thought, lets just walk through our new Walgreens (don't need anything there but then we can say we've been in the new Walgreens. Woohoo!) From Walgreens we went to the Dollar store and spent like $10 and finally got to Walmart. Still needed my 3 things! Went into Walmart, saw a little 20Q game that Ethan wanted and grabbed that as a stocking stuffer. Headed towards the back of the store to get the Tide. Grabbed the Tide and went to get the Construction Paper and Potatoes. Walking down the aisle a little Disney Princess notebook caught my attention and I thought, "that would be a great stocking stuffer for Lexi" and thew it in the cart. Got the last 2 things on my List and headed to the check out aisle. In line there were a whole bunch of those new ToothTunes Toothbrushes that my kids have been wanting ever since they saw the commercial. As corny as this sounds, we buy our kids little electrical toothbrushes every Christmas and when they die, they are done and we go back to normal toothbrushes. Anyway, I was planning on buying these for Christmas anyway but decided to just grab them then, since I only had Stephanie with. Oh yeah, Stephanie had headed off to go look at Nail Polish and get some gift bags to give to 6 of her friends as little Christmas presents this year (we're putting more than just nail polish in them). So all that said....I went into Walmart for 3 items, I came out with 3 bags and was now $70 more poor! Oye! Dang store gets me every time! Oh well. Stephie and I went back home, Jason had the ribs off the grill and ready for dinner. It was FANTASTIC! Nothing better than ribs off the grill! So we had a great dinner, Jason and I made our Russian Teacakes together, the kids decorated the Christmas tree and then headed off to bed it was so perfect! We got everything done this weekend that we wanted too and had a great time doing it!
Oh and Jason and Stephie got the new shoes that they were needing. We actually got 3 pairs of Reeboks for only $91! Gotta love Tanger Oulet and coupons! So Jason is back in TX and I already miss him but I am so glad he got to come home for the weekend and I can't wait to see him again in 12 days! 12 days my friend and yes, this lonely wife is counting! :-)

Thursday, December 6, 2007

Pac-Man Power Balls

Ethan was in his room "working" on school work. I was on the phone with my sister and Nicholas and Alexis were hungry (like 30min before dinner). I gave in and told them they could have some cheese balls and handed them the little bag of cheesy powdered snacks. I was on the phone when Ethan came to ask me a question and all of sudden I turn around and there all over the floor in the living room are a whole bunch of little orange cheese balls. Now these weren't just spilled and in a pile but meticulously placed all over the rug, wood floor and tiled fire place. I looked at the living room, and said, "guys, what are you doing?" Nicholas just looked at me and said, "it's ok mom, we're going to eat them all. These are just our pac-man power balls!" How could I be mad about that? Pac-man power balls....now that is just cute! After they ate the cheese balls, minus the few that got crushed, I told them they had to vacuum. Lexi pulled out the big rainbow vacuum cleaner and her and Nicholas fought over who would get to vacuum. They were having so much fun and laughing that my sister asked if they would want to come vacuum her house next. Haha! So after the living room got vacuumed I realized the rest of the house needs a good cleaning too! So time to go clean and get things picked up before daddy gets home tomorrow. Yay! :-)

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Christmas Traditions

A friend of mine asked me today what plans and/or Holiday traditions did my family have planned this year? After writing her back, I thought, what a great idea for a blog post! So here for your reading enjoyment is my family Christmas traditions:
1) Sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas Jason and I spend one evening playing Christmas music, talking and making our annual Russian Teacake Cookies. No kids are involved in this cookie making session, just Jason and I spending quality time together...I LOVE IT!
2) So the kids don't get left out on the cookie making "thing" Christmas cut out sugar cookies will also be made someday before Christmas. This will involve flour all over each other, sprinkles all over the house until the New Year and an endless sugar high for the rest of the year! But it's GREAT!
3)Christmas Eve is always spent going to a Christmas Eve service and then coming home to watch The Polar Express. Cookies are left out for Santa and a note to wish him a Merry Christmas. Christmas morning brings eaten cookies from Santa and time to read the story of Baby Jesus out of the Bible!
4)Christmas morning involves the annual Christmas under the tree picture. With messy hair, pajamas and all the awaiting presents to be opened!
5) And sometime before Christmas we let the kiddos get in their pajamas, bring the blankets and hot cocoa in the truck and go looking at all the pretty Christmas lights in the neighborhood.
And that my friends are some of the Granstrom family Christmas traditions! What do you do with your family?