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!

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! :-)

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! :-)

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?

Happy Thanksgiving (a little bit late)

I know Thanksgiving was last week but I honestly haven't had time to sit down and write until today. Jason came home last week and it was AWESOME! Tuesday night I left the kids with his parents and went to pick him up from the airport. From there we headed downtown and stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn right on Bay Street! The hotel has a pool and Jacuzzi on the roof of the 2nd floor. It was a perfect 68 degrees outside so the Jacuzzi tub was perfect. J and I were the only ones out there, us and the moon and stars! How romantic! After the Jacuzzi we did what any other married couple would have done after not seeing each other for weeks.......we climbed into bed and promptly fell asleep! Now that was romantic! :-)
Wednesday morning J and walked downtown a little and bought him a new pair of flip flops. If you never heard our whole free flip flop story from like over a year ago....ask me about it. Anyway, back in December of last year Jason and I each got a free pair of Reef flip flops. I love these flip flops so much they are all I wear! Jason's started falling apart so we had to go buy a pair our selves this time! Life long customers I tell ya! Give us a free pair and now we are hooked! After that we left downtown and went home.....yay!
Thanksgiving morning started EARLY......like 4 in the morning early! Yep, our alarms went off at 4am and the day was started. After J and I got ready it was time to wake up the kids. We went into their room, turned on the light and yelled, "Happy Thanksgiving"! Everyone started stirring a little and I said, "come on, it's 4:30 in the morning, let's get moving". All the kids stopped to look at the clock and said, "4:30 in the morning? Why are you waking us up at 4:30 in the morning?" I proceeded to hold up a Walt Disney World T-shirt and said, "because wouldn't you like to spend Thanksgiving here?"! Stephanie shot up and said "YAY! We're going there today?" The other three just looked at us like we were crazy! After explaining that our surprise was trip to Walt Disney World everyone got moving! It was an easy trip down there and we had a GREAT day!
The kids were so surprised and had no idea what had hit them. It was perfect! Nicholas was tall enough to ride all the rides and rode Space Mountain 3 times that day. Lexi was able to ride Thunder Mountain Railroad and says she enjoys roller coasters. We pushed Ethan to go on Space Mountain and he said, “Never again!” What a sport for at least trying it though! It was sort of crazy being there with our 4 kids plus his parents and then his brother and his wife with 2 kids. You would think that with 6 adults and 6 kids we could have kept a good eye on all of them……one would think. We managed to lose Ethan though and it was awful! I mean, I was about ready to have a nervous breakdown! We had just gotten off a ride and had all gotten in line for the next ride. We had been in line for like 3 minutes when all of a sudden, someone said, where is Ethan? We all look around and seriously the boy is no where to be found! Jason and I jumped out of line and both went searching. He couldn’t find him, I couldn’t find him. I went up to the line attendant and asked her if she had seen a little boy, 10 years old looking for his parents. She searched the line and then said we would have to call security. At this point, I was about to start crying and shaking right there! Just then, Jason came calling through the crowd yelling that he had found him! I ran to both Jason and Ethan and just hugged them both and cried my little heart out! I mean seriously, I was so full of emotion. The line attendant came and asked Ethan if he had ridden the ride yet and when Ethan said no the guy pulled us through all these people in line and put us right on the ride…..I mean you can’t have a family crying in Disney World right? He let us ride the ride twice and then we got back in line with everyone else and rode it one last time! Everything turned out ok but I have NEVER been so scared in my life! Thank God, what had happened is this. My sister in law and her 2 kids had stopped at a little toy booth after the one ride was done and Ethan was with them. Apparently she moved on with out looking to make sure everyone was still with her and we all just got into line. Poor Ethan was left there! Luckily he saw the girl who worked the little toy booth and told her that he was lost and needed to find his mom and dad. He was so upset and crying that he hugged her right away. She was still on the phone with security when Jason found him! All those stranger/danger, what to do if lost from mom and dad talks I guess paid off! I mean, if he had left that booth and tried to find us on his own……..I don’t even want to think about it! Needless to say, I don’t think Ethan let go of my hand the rest of the day! I’m sure it happens, my mom told me about how she lost my sister once, my mother in law talked about leaving a rest area without one of Jason’s sisters. I know it happens but I still felt like the worst parent in the world! That’s the bad part, the rest was GREAT, I mean the kids had a BLAST! We loved all of it and they can’t wait to go back and explore the rest of Walt Disney World!
So here's hoping your Thanksgiving was as Magical as ours and that you had many many things to be Thankful for! I for one am Thankful for my Husband, my family, and all the friends I know I have around the world! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

So I've been slacking.......

I knew that this would happen. Start a blog, be all excited about it, write and write for the first few days and then.............nothing. Of course, in my own defense I did not pick a very opportune time to start a blog. I mean, I went from having a husband who was home every day at 4:30 with weekends off, to having no husband home and life with me and 4 kids round the clock. Crazy!
Some people are so nice and say things to me to like:
"You must be super mom"
"I would go crazy"
"There is NO way I could home school and be mom/dad all at the same time"
"How do you stay sane?"
These are all very nice compliments and I know my friends mean well when they say these things. It just seems silly to me at times though. I think people underestimate what they are capable of. It's not like Jason and I made this decision lightly or that I just KNEW I could be Wonder Woman (my favorite underroos character as a kid :) I just knew that I would have to take life one day at a time. I was scared, I still have my bad days...........like yesterday when I took my kids to the mall and instead of watching them like I should, I was talking to a friend and the boys broke a glass vase right in the middle of Belks! Talk about pure horror! This is the type of thing you see on TV, I was really really embarrassed and really thought the vase was ugly and didn't want to have to buy it. The sales clerk was nice and told me not to worry about it and that she would call maintenance. Still felt HORRIBLE! But, we survived and life is back to normal today.
All that to say, I don't think I am doing anything any other mom couldn't do if put to the task. Is it the ideal situation? No. Is it easy to do day after day after day without Jason here? No. But I do it and keep on moving forward.......just like I believe any one of my friends could/would do if put in the same situation.

Happy Halloween!

Hi!  It has been an interesting and eventful Halloween this
year!  I amexhausted and the kids are dieing to get into that
candy tomorrow.  With Jason in TX it was just me and the kids
this year. Actually, some friends of ours came along to trick
or treat with their two kids too.except the wife got really
really sick so it was just me, the dad, and 6 kids!  I was
going to take Zoë with us too but let me tell ya' that dog
is STRONG! Jason took her with last year but there was just
no way.  She would have pulled me through the neighborhood
trick or treating,not the other way around!  I was disappointed
that I couldn't get her to calm down but I made the decision to
just take the dog back home! Ethan wasn't going to go trick or
treating this year but changed his mind at the last minute. Thanks
to our great neighbors,finding him a costume was not a problem.
Don't ask me who he was supposed to be, but whatever he was, it
worked! Stephanie wanted to be an 80's rocker.  I didn't have
the heart to tell her that these days, you don't have to go far
to be in 80's style.  I mean come on, everywhere I look I see belt
on sweaters again, leggings with denim skirts, and the big hoop
earrings...everyone wears them!  It was fun to do her hair though,
she was laughing so hard at what I did to her bangs. She kept saying,
"this looks so silly".  I kept telling her, "your hair looks so HOT
for an 80's chic"!  The things we did to our bangs back then!
Nicholas had a GREAT Darth Vader costume but his helmet was so
heavy and it kept fogging up in the humidity.  Darth Vader did
not have such a good time trick or treating this year but that's
ok, he'll never remember being miserable, he'll just be devouring
candy and happy that he went.
Alexis was super simple as she has an endless supply of princess
dress up clothes.  This year she went as Cinderella and it was perfect.
Her little friend Jasmine was a princess riding a pony and the two
of them together were just priceless! You can't go wrong when your 4
and 5 years old! They held hands the whole time and seemed to take
care of each other just fine!
We missed Jason.I am trick or treated out and the week is only half
over! Pray for me as we are still adjusting to Jason being away for
his new job! Sometimes I think it's a lot easier since the kids
are older and more independent and then there are times when I
think...I could NEVER be a single mom.hat's off to those of you
who do it, It's only been 4 days and I am tired already!
Anyway, I hope everyone had a safe and happy Halloween.