Brad Paisley Concert

(Don't pay attention to these crazy people.  They do strange things without the children around.)

Jon and I were able to go to the Brad Paisley concert this year.  IT.WAS.AMAZING!  End of story, good-bye.

(Scotty McCreery was one of the opening acts.  I was not too excited about it before the concert.  Afterwards, wow.  This guy is talented.  I loved his songs.)

(The Band Perry was the other opening act.  They were fun, entertaining, but hard to understand.)

(Brad Paisley, ladies and gentlemen.  The opening song was "Camouflage."  IMPRESSIVE!)

(This was one of my favorite songs of the night - "She's Everything.")

(It was awesome when he came out to the platform just below us and sang my other favorite song - "Whiskey Lullaby.")

(And of course we had to have a picture of him singing "Alabama."  Reminded us of our friend Nate who passed away a year ago.)

(The encore number.  It was truly an amazing concert.  Can't wait for the next one!)

Sunrise

I shot this picture the other morning.  Is was seriously one of the most beautiful sunrises I've seen in a long time.     Too bad that it was truly "Red sky at morning, sailor take warning."  The weather was nasty the rest of the day.

Every mother feels this

I don't care who you are, if you are a mom, you've felt this way at one point or another.  


You know the movie "Tangled?"  If you haven't seen it, it is seriously the best Disney Princess movie of all time.  I just LOVE it.  Rapunzel is NOT a whiny, "that's not fair!" princess.  She is a TAKE CHARGE girl.  And I love the Broadway-esque music in it.  So fun.


Anyway, Mother Gothel tries to keep Rapunzel locked away and kept secret from everyone.  Yup, psycho.  Kidnapper?  Yes.  BUT, there is a line towards the end of the movie that I sympathize and relate to.


"The world is dark and cruel. If it finds even the smallest ray of light, it destroys it."


Okay, moms, anyone out there see some logic in this?  Because I sure do.  I hear of tragic events that harm children, or even take them from this earth much too soon.  It makes me want to grab my girls, hold them close to me, and never let them out that front door.


I am a worrier.  Oh yeah.  Putting it out there.  I'm that mom who, even though I walk my child to school every day, thinks of the worse case scenario happening to her while she is in class literally right across the street from my house.  


I worry about Jon getting into an accident while he is out at work. 


I worry about us as parents, when we are out on a date, that we will get into an accident and our children will be orphans. 


Oh, the list goes on and on.  I worry.  If I had my way, and it weren't too creepy, my family would NEVER leave our home.  But I know that isn't possible.  I know it's not rational.  So, I empathize with Mother Gothel, as selfish as her intentions were. 

Feeling Frosty

(The view out my window this morning.  Yes, that is frost on the grass.)

Been a few days since I posted (understatement).  And this won't be very long, since I'm typing with 9 fingers.  We had a good weekend.  Not very productive due to wind, but we were at least able to relax a bit.

Then, yesterday came.  I've put myself on a whole new cleaning schedule, and while it is working, it keeps me busy.  And to throw in another wrench, I sliced my index finger open yesterday, on my right hand (figures).  Then today I decided to slam that same finger in the door.  Brilliant.  Well, at least it wasn't my foot!

On a brighter note, these things make me happy:

(Jocey climbed up on Jon's shoulders while he was watching a game.  I love this shot.)

(Caylee discovered the makeshift bed that lies inside the ottoman.)

(This was yesterday morning.  It was like this all day.  I LOVE days like this.)

PB&...Jocey

Jocey asked me this morning if she could make her own lunch.  HECK TO THE YEAH!  The more independent she is, the more freedom I gain.  Wait.  I just read what I wrote.  Okay, Jocey, you can have independence to a point.  Then, I'm revoking that independence.  :)

So, she pulled out the peanut butter, the strawberry jam (which is basically just pureed strawberries with a little bit of lemon juice and sugar, I'm trying to get away from preserved items), the bread, and went at it.  I'm so proud of this kid.  These pictures remind me a little bit of a song from my childhood, off of Sesame Street.  Come on, sing with me!

First you take the peanuts and you squish 'em, you squish 'em...

Then you take the jelly and you spread it, you spread it...

(Well, this isn't part of the song, but I loved that she had to lick the spoon after!  Just reminds me that she's still a kid.)

Peanut, peanut butter and jelly!

And the proverbial rope went...

SNAP!  Starting Monday morning, my life is going to change.  Drastically.  I have been sitting in my house for a whole week, feeling overwhelmed.  Overwhelmed with the clutter, the to do lists, the time that passes by too quickly in a day.  So, I took a little bit of advice from my dad (which was given to me almost 10 years ago), added a bit of spiritual inspiration, and sat down a started writing.

What do I want?

Why do I need it?

What do I need to do in order to achieve it?

That kind of stuff.  I won't go into detail because, well frankly, it's personal.  It's None Ya Business!

But I will say this, I hit a breaking point.  And I'm going to change things so that I can fix it.  Because I can.  Period.

Come to the darkside, we have migraines

Since I was in high school, I have been getting ocular migraines.  Yup, it's a real thing.  I can feel it coming on in either eye, as a slight eye ache with some pressure.  If I don't catch it soon enough, soon I have a line of flashing dots moving across my line of vision until I lose sight in the eye where it started.  Then, the most horrible migraine hits me.  Every time.  I have learned though that if I can catch it right when I feel the first symptoms, and get some ibuprofen in me and some fresh air, I'm fine.  But occasionally, like today, I don't catch it.  And it totally lays waste to me.  So, here I sit, in a dark house, with the worst headache, praying that the girls will go play in another room for a while.  Bummer.

I smell...

My house smells heavenly right now - between the chocolate chip cookies we just baked and the fresh air coming through the back door, I am feeling pretty dang good.  I even sneaked a cookie - don't judge me, I ran my 2 miles this morning!

Work can be a chore

With the start of the new year, we made some decisions as a family.  One of those being that the girls would start a new chore chart.  The other is that we would have a few chores for each person over the weekend.  So, today, I sat down and made the charts.  I'm pretty happy with the one for the weekend/family, a simple frame that I can use a dry erase marker on.  Hopefully this will help teach our girls responsibility around the house and help our house stay a little cleaner.

(For now, I hung everything on a wall by the back door.  I plan to hang everything inside the pantry door though, so it's out of sight when guests are here.)

(Jocey's chart.  Since she is learning to read, I included simple names of her chores and the times when she should be starting them.  She added her own personal touch with the princess stickers.)

(Caylee's chart.  Yup, my 2 year old gets chores.  :)  Simple ones though.  And only pictures so that she knows what she needs to do and when.)

(Our family weekend chart.  I took an old frame (which I plan on painting black), made an insert to go behind the glass, and will write weekly tasks with white board marker.  As you can see, I have a column for everyone with a section at the bottom for family chores that we do together.)

The Incredible Hulk

We're comic book movie junkies.  Jon grew up loving comic books.  He can tell you most of the stories by memory.  So when an opportunity presented itself tonight, I had to seize it.  Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Hulk Yates:

My cup (and bowl) runneth o'er

Oh my gosh, I love my youngest daughter.  Tonight, we asked Caylee to say family prayer.  She has been saying it with me each night when I put her to bed.  And she has gotten to the point where she can pretty much say it on her own (copying everything I've told her in the past, but it's a start).   So, tonight, we started:

Me: "Heavenly Father,"
Caylee: "Father,"
Me: "Thank you..."
Caylee: "Thank you, day."
Me: "And thank you..." (before I could get another word in, she replies with...)
Caylee: "Thank you, car."
Me: "No, thank you for Daddy.."
Caylee: "Daddy"
Me: "And Mommy..."
Caylee: "Mommy"
Me: "And Jocey..."
Caylee: "Jocey"
Me: "And..." (Again, before I could say anything, she answers with...)
Caylee: "Shoes."
(enter giggling from everyone in the room)
Me: "Please bless..."
Caylee: "Bless"
Me: "That we can..."
Caylee: "SLEEP!"
(enter more giggling)
Me: "And have good..."
Caylee: "DREAMS!"
(giggling rising to a laugh)
Me: fearing the disrespectful laughter coming from myself "In the name of Jesus..."
Caylee: "CHRIST!  'MEN!"

We all had a good laugh and then put the girls to bed.  I made my way downstairs to find this:

So, apparently, Shylowe's bowl runneth over as well.  And I wasn't mad about it.  I wasn't mad that there was a trail of dog food from the pantry all the way across the kitchen to the bowl.  I had to take a picture. And I laughed.  Caylee did exactly what I asked her to do - feed Shylowe - for the next year!  My heart is so full tonight.  I love my family so much.  And I am so grateful to have daughters like this one:

Good night, my sweet girl.  Mommy loves you - " 'MEN!"

It's so fluffy!

I put Caylee's hair in ponytails yesterday, and she ran around all day calling them "fluffies."  Her favorite movie right now is "Despicable Me," and so everything has to do with it right now.  It just makes her more cute, if that's possible.

I made this lovely dish last night.  Mango-Orange Chicken.  It was SO GOOD!  And very low calorie.  I'm adding it to our staples.  Oh, and did I mention simple?  LOVING IT!

It's Knitter-ific!

Since October, I've had the knitting bug.  I've made several hats for my girls, neighborhood girls, and my nieces.  Now, I've completed a scarf for Jon, a scarf for Jocey, and now a matching scarf and beanie for my dad for his birthday.  I'm loving my new found craft.  OH!  And I knitted cozies for some reusable coffee mugs for the grandparents for Christmas.  Wow, I just realized how much yarn that is!

Update on Christmas Lights Contest

Ha ha ha, WE WON 1ST PLACE!  I think it's absolutely hilarious.  We just have fun at Christmas, getting our lights up inside and outside.  It's our favorite holiday and we go all out.  So, this past year, it paid off.  WOO HOO!  Here's to next year and having another Griswold Christmas.

Better?

(Jon and I, just before our first date of the year.  What a goof.)

The new year gives us an opportunity to be better, right?  Better people, better spouses, better parents, etc.  And that's just what we are trying to do.  We started the new year out right, at being better spouses - we went on a date.

Will I be better at being a blogger?  I don't know.  We'll see!

New Year, New Resolutions

res·o·lu·tion - A firm decision to do or not to do something.

Oh yeah, we're on the bandwagon.  We've made a handful of resolutions for the year.  We have the usual - lose weight, eat better, stop swearing, read more, be more in control of our finances, etc.  But we also have some new ones. Here's a little preview to what we would LIKE VERY STRONGLY to do this year.

1. We are planning on running the Susan G. Komen 5K - yup, I said run!
2. Jocey wants to learn how to water ski.
3. Caylee MUST be potty trained.  The sooner the better.  :)
4. Our house will be painted.  Done.  Finito.  I hope.

So, here's to a successful, fun year.  I am looking forward to the exciting things we have planned and the changes we hope for.

Happy New Year!