Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!!! I hope this holiday season finds everyone filled with lots of Christmas spirit and joy.

We are doing great. Really. Life is rolling on, way too fast! Here's what we've been up to this fall/winter:

1. The girls still LOVE their school.
2. Grace is learning to read and doing so well! She is such a hard-worker and I am SO proud of her!
3. Lilly is doing great in school, but is more concerned with her social life inside the school walls than academics:)
4. Connor adores his sweet teachers and is excited every day to go. He's a very popular dude there. Every time he joins me to the grocery store I hear little ones yelling from other shopping carts, "That's Connor! He goes to my school!".
5. All 3 are growing entirely too fast. Seriously. Grace especially. I'm thinking of making her sleep sitting up with books stacked on her head! It is already evident that I will be the shortest member of this family!
6. My job is going great. I love teaching and getting to know my students. I have 95 6th, 7th, and 8th graders that I teach Reading skills to every day. It's a rewarding job.
7. I'm still getting used to being a working mom. It's hard having to miss things at their schools that I never had to miss before.
8. I value my time with my kiddos SO much more. That's why this blog has been pushed to the side. I need to spend my time with them...or sleeping:)
9. It is priceless living so close to my family. My children couldn't be any closer to all of them. They love them so much and have such special relationships with all of them. The saying, "It takes a village" is so true.
10. This is the first Christmas in 12 years that we won't be traveling anywhere!!! YAHOO!!!! We get to wake up and play with Santa's gifts. Be lazy. And then drive a whopping 15 min to visit the family. Sounds silly, but it will be so nice!

My "Babysitter"

I can't tell you how much we ALL love this dog. Bezo is so patient, tolerant, and loving to the kids.

If I get a killer migraine, he senses it...and wants to be right beside me. I think he is just wanting to help me feel better.

He is such a sport when it comes to them dressing him up:)

And not to mention, a very handsome boy!

Hard to believe that I rescued him from a pound, with his front right leg so mangled he had NO use of it. He's been through 3 major surgeries and came so close to amputating it on numerous occasions. He had been discarded like trash...and he is part of my family. Unfortunately, our society has demonized his breed, and in turn they are treated in the worst way. I don't know when America will wake up and realize that it is NOT the breed...it is the PEOPLE that beat, abuse, neglect, and starve these dogs to death. Bezo could have been one of them, and that breaks my heart. So please, take a minute to read this short article below. Open your mind to a new way of thinking, and the possibility of learning something you probably didn't know.

FOR OVER ONE HUNDRED YEARS AMERICANS KNEW PIT BULLS FOR WHAT THEY DID BEST. BABYSITTING.

Posted on May 4, 2011 by YWGROSSMAN

Astoundingly, for most of our history America’s nickname for Pit Bulls was “The Nanny Dog”. For generations if you had children and wanted to keep them safe you wanted a pit bull, the dog that was the most reliable of any breed with children or adults.

The Nanny Dog is now vilified by a media that always wants a demon dog breed to frighten people and LHASA-APSO BITES MAN just doesn’t sell papers. Before pit bulls it was Rottweilers, before Rottweilers it was Dobermans, and before them German Shepherds. Each breed in it’s order were deemed too vicious and unpredictable to be around people. Each time people wanted laws to ban them. It is breathtakingly ironic that the spotlight has turned on the breed once the symbol of our country and our national babysitter.

In temperance tests (the equivalent of how many times your kid can poke your dog in the eye before he bites him) of all breeds the most tolerant was the Golden Retriever. The second most tolerant was the pit bull.

Pit Bull’s jaws do not lock, they do not have the most powerful bite among dogs (German Shepherds have that honor) they are naturally neither human or animal aggressive (in fact pit bull puppies prefer human company to their mother’s two weeks before all other dogs), and they feel as much pain as any other breed (accidentally step on one’s toe and you’ll see).

The most tolerant, patient, gentle breed of dogs is now embarrassingly portrayed as the most dangerous. It would be funny if the new reputation did not mean 6,000 are put to death every day, by far the highest number of any other breed euthanized.

That’s a lot of babysitters.

(Pictured: As you’ll see, from the richest to the poorest and everything in between, in America the pit bull was the dog for kids.)

Playing Catch Up

(This was us shoe shopping befoe school started this summer. I seriously felt sorry for the salesman by the time we were done. I practically made a camp in the corner and had staked my claim that I was NOT leaving without new shoes for all 3 of them! Why??? Because there was no way I wanted to take them shoe shopping again for a long, long time! Not fun people.)

I have to be the world's worst blogger now...and I'm sure you've all given up on me ever posting again! I can't believe I've let a month go by, but as I said in my post last time-my life is just crazy busy right now! But, we are hanging in there and still alive:)

Work for me is going really well. After 5 weeks I'm now finally settling into a groove. I love my students and am having fun interacting with my middle-schoolers. It is definitely an interesting age! Being a working mom though is something I have NOT gotten the hang of yet. And I honestly doubt I ever will. It's just freaking hard. There's no "nicer" way to put it! I get up at 5:15 every morning to start our day...Get the 4 of us fed, dressed, packed-up and ready for school. Then I have to make two different stops before I have to be at work by 7:30...work all day...pick up kids between 3:30-4:30...then get home to spend some quality 'down time', fix dinner, do baths, Grace's homework, bedtime. Then after they are all asleep by 8-8:30 I have to clean up the kitchen and house, try to do some dreaded laundry, and I usually bring something I need to do for work home every night. And oh yea...try to sleep somewhere inbetween all of that! So you can see that I am not purposely leaving you longing for cute pix updates on Connor, Grace, and Lilly on purpose. I just can't find the time.

Despite my being so busy, life is great. I will admit that I get pretty overwhelmed at times, and certain weeks are harder than others when I feel like I just can't get caught up on things (this week is one of those!), but overall things are really good. The kids are healthy and very happy. So what more can I ask than that? Connor is talking up a storm now. His sisters are officially named "Gace and Diddy" to him, and he is very verbal about what he does and does not want! He's my little linebacker...solid as a rock and still 'a bull in a china cabinet' everywhere he goes! He's still jumping of the couch and doing any dangerous boy-thing he can get his hands on. He's also still the sweetest boy you'll ever meet. He's a huge flirt with the ladies and loves to play hard-to-get so I have to beg him for a kiss. He tells me "I wuv you" all the time and is always hugging on his sisters. He loves school and his teachers adore him. We've been so blessed with the church preschool he goes to. I have a feeling the women there will be a part of our lives for a very long time now. The girls love their school and are very comfortable and confident there already. They are growing like weeds (especially Grace) and are just happy little girls. Still play so well together...still sweet as sugar:)

Before I catch you up on the pictures below, I'll tell you a quick, sweet story about my Grace to warm your heart.

About two weeks ago we had spent a great night with their new, little best friend here, and her whole family for her birthday. The kids played in the sprinkler outside, we had an awesome dinner and cupcakes, and wonderful company. When we got in the car to go home the kids were beat. It was immediately quiet and I assumed all 3 had passed out within minutes. Then Grace spoke up from the backseat and said,

"Mama, I've been thinking about something. I'm so glad we moved here because I love my new school and our new house and my new friends...and I get to see Mimi and Gigi and Uncle Paul...(this list went on for awhile). I feel like I'm gonna cry, but don't worry Mama. They're happy tears. My heart is so happy."

This was all I needed to hear. No matter how tired or stressed-out I get, all that matters is that my babies are happy. Money worries, lack of sleep, and my longing for my once very organized, clean, picked-up house (ha!) shouldn't amount to a hill of beans! Those are all but trivial things in life. That happiness she feels in her heart is all that matters...and those are the things that last forever.

Lilly and Connor

We did a ton of swimming this summer. Here the girls are with their best friend, AC. They love her:)

Lilly loved helping me get my classroom ready this summer. She'd always grab her "teacher glasses" before we left the house. Then she'd sit on my stool with a book and 'play teacher'...and basically boss the 3 of us around!

Even Bezo helped:) And endured a little embarrasment from the kids in the process.

It's never a dull moment when Grace is around! She scared me to death when she walked in the room looking like this one day. She'd gotten into a box of band-aids and ended up looking like a weird Silence of the Lambs sequel!

I love this picture! The biggest perk of living here is being so close to my family. They get to spend a lot of time with Uncle Paul and Aunt "Jessa". Here they'd spent the day with them and they'd gotten all of these storage boxes out for them to play with. These empty boxes entertained them for hours!

They had their first sleepover with a friend (AC) this summer...and since they've had several more. It's so cute to see them growing up and having real friendships. AC is an only child so she loves coming over to our "zoo"! I'm sure she's worn out every time she leaves:)

A snapshot of my life.

I love this picture. I really, really do. It'll go down as one of my most favorite of all time. How wonderful is this beautiful, chaotic life of mine. I'm an average mom, just trying to get a cute picture of 2 of my children. A mom whose oldest daughter thinks it's hilarious to look at me cross-eyed (I swear I tell her they'll stick), and who's son is usually a blur...speeding past every situation with his full-on active, all-boy-self.Just a mom, with three happy, healthy, crazy kids...that always make me smile with their creative imaginations and wild sense of humors.

Life has been crazy while adjusting to going back to work full time. I'm tired. Stressed. Getting us all dressed, fed, and out of the house by 7 am is hard. My insomnia is even more inconvenient now. I miss my children. I miss my friends. Not being able to sign up to help with class parties for my girls makes me sad. Did I mention I'm tired?

It's so hard right now, but these reseliant, supportive children have adjusted so well. They have only gotten upset a few times about me being gone for work. They love their new school. Lilly offers me back rubs. Grace is still so easy-going. Connor loves all of the new women that have come into his life as babysitters and mdo teachers. (I swear he doesn't meet a woman he doesn't like. I'm going to be in so much trouble with this boy!) And although it's little comfort now, I know that one day they'll know how hard I worked for them.

The time we spend together now is heavy on QUALITY, instead of quantity. On days when "my candle" has burned out, and I'm tired and a tad grouchy, they still love me. They still want to be near me. They still tell me they love me. And G and L still tell me at random moments almost every day..."you are the best Mommy in the whole world". Life just doesn't get much better than that.

And to my mother, I owe so much. She is at the core of making this transition as smooth as possible. She's picking up my slack at home, and doing everything she can to help out. I would be lost with her.

Relief...

Remember when I told you that I had to find another home for my Lola and Zoey??? Moving to a smaller home and tiny yard definitely wouldn't accomodate my 4 dogs like the 4 acres I once had. It was a heartbreaking, stressful, and painful thought for me. I was literally praying that God would help see me through the process, because I knew if I wasn't SURE about their new homes...then I would carry some insane amount of guilt around with me forever. I was also a nervous wreck about how my girls would handle this. They had already had several crying episodes, missing the furry friends we had to leave behind.

Well, God definitely answered my prayers!!! Lola is now with this wonderful family. They don't live very far from us, have three children exactly the same age as mine, and are completely in-love with our beautiful girl. She's now a 100% inside dog and I have a feeling...spoiled rotten!!! Her new dad is also a pastor, who intends on getting her back into a nursing home as a therapy dog like she once did with me. She was just incredible for the patients, and I could tell gained a real sense of pride with that job...so glad she can serve in that way again.

This wonderful family keeps me up to date on how she's doing, and I just couldn't ask for a better situation for us all.

Doesn't this pix just warm your heart??!! Their boys were asleep on the floor with Lola:)

And then there's Zoey...she is yet another answered prayer. There's a sweet family where I used to live who was wanting another dog as a playmate to the one they had. Perfect! Especially since Zoey is a follower, and needed another alpha dog to lean on.

She has two new, cute girls that think she's the cutest thing ever...and from my last email she is sleeping in the bed with her new mommy! (I bet she's wondering why I didn't let her go there a year ago!!!) Zoey has even been boating this summer with her new fam!

How cute???

**I intend to post more soon. Life has been CRAZY since starting work full-time!

We Got Stuck in an Elevator!!!

Yes people. These two cute girls and I got stuck in an elevator 2 days ago! And for 45 minutes!!!! It was awful. Claustrophobic. Hot. Crowded. There were tears (Lilly). And there was even an emergency make-shift toilet...yes. Not good.

Yes, after I put Connor to bed the girls decided to play "hotel"...and I was supposed to be my usual "Ms. Beverly", the hotel manager. After checking in...Lilly said I needed to escort them in the "elevator" (aka. hall closet) to their rooms. So, as any good hotel manager would do, I escorted my distinguished guests into the elevator and shut the door. I hit the button to the 7th floor, and then went to open the elevator for my guests.

After about 10 minutes of using every bit of muscle I had turning that old doorknob back and forth, it eventually came off completely...which you would then assume would cause the door to just swing open! Nope. I tried some McGyver moves with an iron hanger and an anorexic barbie's leg to try to shimmy something lose in the space where the knob once was. Nope. I then did the typical movie scene of "Stand back kids! I'm going to kick the door down!"...which was funny in and of itself because there was nowhere for them to go....and we were so cramped in there I could only get my leg as high as my knee. No momentum. No luck.

My reaction to this was actually extreme calm. I guess it's one of those mom-things where you know you can't freak out. I was actually laughing through most of it...like a crazy person. I mean, really. It was funny. Most that know me well have said, "Sarah, only YOU could do something like this!", so even I had to laugh at myself. Lilly, of course, was wigging-out the whole time. Grace, of course, was laughing right along with me and just taking it in stride.

After my attempt to kick the door down, I decided to give up and sit down. ("Sitting down" is not really the appropriate word...it was a very awkward kneel/sit because we were in there so tight.)

So I guess you're wondering how in the world we got out??? Daddy Chris (my dad) called right before I took my guests to the elevator and told me he was going to come by that night to drop something off. So I was praying he'd come soon...and that he wouldn't change his mind and decide to come another day! I could hear my cell ringing several times, and I was imagining him calling to say it'd gotten too late and he'd see us tomorrow. Well, what I am thinking was about 45 min later, we heard Max bark. Then we heard my dad come in. All 3 of us started yelling like we'd been slaves in a dungeon for weeks! He opened the door, peeked in, and practically fell on the floor laughing!!!

It was an experience, to say the least, and I had fun telling the girls that I was SURE they'd be laughing and telling their own children about this one day:)

*In case you're wondering...Connor slept through the whole thing.

**And if you are curious as to WHO went to the bathroom in the closet...in an emptied-out My Little Pony bucket...well, it wasn't me. If you're read my blog much, you can probably guess which child was relaxed enough to do such a thing. She'll be an awesome camper!

***And the pix of the "elevator" is what it looked like after we were rescued. The weird caterpillar looking thing is a huge, hanging organizer...hence the VERY crowded closet!

God Called Me Out!

The heat we've had lately is just awful...makes you want to stay inside and do nothing! So, to relieve you from your heat-depression (if you have it)...here's a funny moment from my life that is bound to make you laugh.

Last Sunday I had decided we were going to church come hell or high water (no odd disrespect meant with the word hell there:). I always have good intentions, but craziness hits my house like a meteor most Sunday mornings...like no matter how hard I try I can't get all of us out of the door on time, or someone comes down sick, or we have a major crying melt-down right before and I give up (it's not me with the melt-downs...usually:). And yes...I KNOW these are excuses, and there should be NO excuse. I am trying people. I will get there:)

So, back to my funny story...this past Sunday I was going to church. No matter what. But first I had to color my hair (you know, the cream you let sit 10 min then wash off...lasts about 28 shampoos or something like that). I have started finding a few grey hairs, which saddens me. But it's life. We would have been right on time if I hadn't added the extra step of getting rid of those three grey hairs! So we walk into church a few min late, and as we sit down this verse comes out of the pastor's mouth (And you know I'm telling the truth because there is NO WAY I could make this stuff up!!!) ...

Grey hair is a crown of splendor; it is attained by a righteous life. Proverbs 16:31

I laughed out loud!!!!!! Grace and Lilly looked at me like I'd lost my mind, and I did a fake cough thing to hide my insanity from those closest to me. I just couldn't believe what I was hearing!!! I was late to church because I was trying to get rid of my grey hair, and this was the first thing I heard when I walked in???

Well, you got me God. Good one. You really do have a great sense of humor. And I got it...no more excuses for church. Especially not being late because I was trying to get rid of my "crown of splendor"!

A Glimpse Thru My Window

THIS is my formal dining room! Yes, I replaced the chandelier, and now it's our piano room, wii room, a few toys room, guest room with the sleeper sofa, and general hang-out room. I have always used my dining rooms just a few times a year...which has always felt like a lot of wasted space. We use this room every single day, so the switch was well worth it. Just know if you come over for dinner and don't fit on our table that's just big enough for us...then you'll be eating with a plate on your lap! Or we can go picnic style:)

All of the artwork in this room was done by 3 incredibly talented artists that happen to live here. This is by far my favorite keepsake to date. I went through the box of the kids artwork I am always collecting and pulled out my favorite pieces. Each frame and mat are filled with special creations from one child. I tried to arrange them in a creative way, and I think they look beautiful!

Here is our "jungle room"! If Elvis can have one, dang it, we can have one too!!!

I love this room. It's a "sunporch" with windows that can be removed to use the screens behind. With this 105 degree heat...the windows are ON! This is our playroom/reading room.

This is where we will hang our coats and backpacks...and there is an old white locker next to it. We each have our own shelf in the locker and that's where our shoes, hats, and sunglasses are kept. (I LOVE to be organized!)

The kids have their rocky-horse, play kitchen, train table, and word wall for learning.

Then they have a cozy, whimsical sitting area next to their bookshelf. The area is very inviting for my little emerging readers:) They love to sit under the leaves with me while I read to them.

This is my den.

With my sectional sofa, eating area (And yes, every chair at the table is different. It's on purpose. I'm weird that way.), my comfy chair, and a wall of windows over-looking the cove...it creates a room we are in the most. It's very cozy.

This is the girls room.

They love sharing a room...and since this house has only 3 bedrooms, that is a good thing:)

They have enough dress-up clothes and barbie dolls for a small village!

(And we are in love with this light lavender color on the walls! It's the best room color choice yet!)

We have hardwood floors throughout the whole house, which is awesome for a family filled with seasonal-allergy sufferers!

My wild-man's room!

My old home has a few wonderful built-in shelving areas. I had a lot of fun decorating the shelves in Connor's room...choosing pieces that are special and hold meaning. The shelving items really tell Connor's story.

I really tried to decorate and choose pieces for the kids rooms with them maturing in mind. My goal was to create rooms they could grow into; that they wouldn't "outgrow" in 2-3 years.

I somehow ended up with a HUGE master bedroom (with my first king size bed!) in this house!!! (Which is unheard of in an old home.) This wonderful built-in shelf was also fun to fill with my grandmother's collection of antique books, old family pixs, and special family mementos. It's a collection of special family memories.

I really, really love my room. It's my favorite room in the house. It's my sanctuary, and I've never had that! I've never had a master bedroom that I paid any attention to. They were always pushed aside with the need and attention going to the rooms in my house that people actually saw!

I love that it's big enough to put my desk in here...so I have everything for work and all my house/bill needs close. My non-working fireplace gives a cozy feel too:) The door you see leads to my laundry room, which works nicely being in my bedroom.
My bedroom furniture is a hodge-podge of things given to me (Some I've had since college!) so in order for it to not look a mess, I chose one thing to focus on and then build around that to tie in the many different pieces. I chose the rug I found. I loved the colors used that aren't traditionally seen together...like the dark red, creamy yellow, and baby blue. I had furniture in those colors and painted my consignment headboard the baby blue color, and then finished off the room with my dark red curtains from Wal-Mart!

The two chests at the end of my bed are Grace and Lilly's hope chests.

So.....that is my house! For my family and friends that haven't made it here, there you are! For my blog friends, hope you enjoyed! I'm really proud of it. I did A LOT to the house the week before the kids moved in...every single room was painted, I refnished a bathtub, had to replace appliances AND a hot water heater. It was hard work and lots of money spent, but worth every penny and all the sweat! This house is the perfect size for us. Big enough, but also small enough for one person to manage. It's in my all-time favorite neighborhood here with hills and LOTS of trees, and we're in a nice cove where the kids can ride bikes.

I have to be honest and say that I have wondered what the homes look like of those blog families I've followed for years. Especially those who seem to have great style. Maybe some of you will share what your dwellings look like! I know our homes definitely tell a story of us, and are an outward, tangible view of our personalities. I wonder what mine about me??? Hmmm. Maybe I don't want to know!

***And no worries. I do have bathrooms...just forgot to take pixs of those.

******And I also still have 3 children...and I did in fact take pixs of them yesterday like I said I was. I promise to post them tomorrow.