Good Evening! I love January! Usually I hate it but this year i've decided to embrace the fact that I am the type of mom who prefers to be home. I prefer to not be driving my kids all over kingdom come, at least at this age. I love that I have friends who have thier kids involved in a lot of things and I see such great rewards in that type of lifestyle, but it's just not for me-right now. I don't feel guilty about it anymore. At least today. :) Gary had a snowday on Friday since it was -11 degrees PLUS windchill!! BRR!!! he also has tomorrow off for MLK day so it's been a nice little mini vacation for us! We even said Thursday night we should have traveled somewhere! :) Congratulations to Kelsey and her baby number FOUR born yesterday! I can't wait to go see her and get to hold her! We also got to see our cousin Nikki and her baby Elizabeth who's almost ONE already. I can't get over it. Grace is 20 months today. She's almost TWO!?! Where has the time gone?! How can I make it slow down!?!? :) We're truly blessed and thankful for each and every day. Tonight while feeding Grace I had a 'thought'. This will make you mom's laugh. I always hear about how men are built for war. They just have to go to battle in one way or another. men are made for it. I get that and sure see God's wisdom in it. However, i think one way to "heal" them of it would be to make them stay home all day every day with some toddlers. You go to battle over jumping on the couch, putting the toilet seat down, eating your green beans, not screaming in the van and about a thousand other things every day, you're way to tired to go marching across some field killing other men. :) I just thought it was funny. Men are made for battle physically, but women are made for it too. Just in different ways. Tonight the Steelers are the AFC Champions!! Gary's dad, Uncle Mike, brother and Lia are there. It's got to be freezing but what an experience to get to see your favorite team (especially true for Uncle Mike!!) achieve that at home! I really don't care for football all that much, a side affect of growing up in Cleveland where frankly, football is nothing to cheer about round here. We do have a bit of a connection now to the Steelers through Lia though and i'm excited that Mike gets to be there for this. Gary's dad however, is going to be very tired this week! We expect he'll get home around 1 am and has to get up around 5am to go to work. We had the cold bug around the house big time this week. Grace has had more nasal drip than seems possible. However, she learned for real how to blow her nose! She's been doing it occasionally for awhile but now she's really getting it! It's SO cute somehow and so very helpful. She does better for her daddy of course... daddys girl through and through. i'm veryt hankful that the illness did not turn into this flu thing we've been hearing so much about. I hear this years flu is particularly nasty. Have a wonderful week everyone! Happy Birthday Dad!

Phillipians 4: 4Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!

5Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.

6Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

8Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

Happy Birthday Jodi Hurlow!! We had a wonderful whirlwind visit to Mansfield. I cry every time we leave there but where we are is definitely "home". We're so very blessed to have such wonderful friends, most of them just happen to live over an hour away in several directions. We went to celebrate Jodi, watch the game *sob- OSU lost*, sleep a little, and back home so Gary could get to work. For several years i've been keeping track of the books I read annually. I used to post them on MySpace but since i'm trying to do better keeping this blog updated (THANK YOU to my readers! Hi Shari!! Hi Amy!! Hi Hannah! Hi Jackie! Grandma, are you reading!?!) I'm going to post it here... ignore it. ;) This blog helps me to journal and keep track of what's going on in life so someday when my kids ask me questions about their lives I can have them read it. I also hope it helps me when I get around to scrapbooking their lives... you know, in 2040 or so. :) Feel free to skim past the stories of "what we did today". Today Giant Grace destroyed my train and crashed it into a "mountain!" She was sorry though so she put all the trains and tracks away for me. :) I've also drunk about a gallon of play "tea" (air- not toilet or any other water as the forward I got a few months ago suggests) She then put her babies to bed and now we're "patting" with Little Einsteins. She pats and sings through the show (the 3 minutes she sits still) and Tyler stares at the TV as if the rest of the world has melted away and he's IN the show. So cute! Her favorite word this week is "NO!" and my favorite she says is "bi-bber" which translates to "slipper". Tyler's favorite activity of late is the new Story Reader we got in the mail Saturday. It reads books and you turn the page- kind of like the records we had as a kid... which I still have. {Anyone have a working record player that plays 33 1/3rd's? } Anyways, he's listened to each story a minimum of 6 times now. I was leery of it at first, as I am of all things that require a battery or electric to work. Not only did the sender include batteries, but it's really been fun for him and encouraging his love of books so it's a win-win! Grace was playing while I was teaching Tyler today and when we were writing on the chalkboard she came over and was making circles (kind of) and was babbling so while Tyler practiced his shapes I wrote her name and said it to her and spelled it to her and she repeated all the letters! I couldn't believe it, so i had her repeat letters for me- she can say almost the whole alphabet! She's so funny how she'll try anything. :) Book List 2008- Heather The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe ~CS Lewis The Wind In the Willows- a kid version testing as a RA Harry Potter book 3,4,5,6,7 ~J.K. Rowling A Merry Heart ~Brunstetter Looking for a Miracle ~"" Plain and Fancy ~"" The Hope Chest ~"" Queen of Babble ~Cabott Someday ~Kingsburry The Wedding ~Sparks Searching for Eternity ~Musser Crossroads ~Hannon An Honest Life ~ A Voice in the Wind ~Rivers An Echo in the Darkness ~"" Leather and Lace ~Mills Lanterns and Lace ~Mills Lightning and Lace ~Mills Captivating Confessions of a Shopaholic Texas Charm ~Mills One Night with the King ~Tenny Parenting isn't for Cowards ~Dobson The Secret Life of Becky Miller ~Hink Wedding at Wildwood ~Worth Renovating Becky Miller ~Hink Shopaholic Takes Manhattan Shopaholic Ties the Knot Queen of Babble in the Big City ~Cabott Homeschooling the Early Years ~Linda Dobson Dakota Born ~ Real Life Homeschooling ~Barfield Flee the Night Sunset ~Kingsburry Going Home ~Brunstetter The Strong-Willed Child ~Dobson? On Her Own ~Brunstetter A Sisters Secret ~ "" Multiple Blessings ~Gosselin Dear to Me ~Brunsetter Allison's Journey ~"" A Sisters Test ~"" A Holiday to Remember OT: Exodus, Leviticus NT: Mark, Luke, Acts - Philemon,

Our only Family Photo we got during Christmas! ~thanks Jackie!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Gary has to go back to work tomorrow! BOO!! He's more than ready. He's already in work mode thinking about what he's got going on this week and preparing for meetings and trying to widdle down his masses of emails. We had another wonderful week and it was nice to just be close to home. As much as we love to travel and see people, we also love to be home. Gary went into work M,T,W last week and I worked hard to get the house re-organized and find homes for the toys. We also decided to have a semi-last minute new years eve get together. It's pretty hard to find people who want to give up a New Years Eve to babysit, and then really-where would we go? We're not into drinking or crowds so we decided to try out having some friends over and letting them stay the night. I thought we were going to be just us for a short time as illness was taking friends out but in the end they all came and the cleaning was back in full force! I figured either way we'd kick off the new year with a semi-clean, somewhat organized house. It's been wonderful. Anyways, I called Gary shortly after noon on Wednesday and said "GET TO THE STORE AND GET HOME THEY ARE ALL COMING!!!" We had such a wonderful time and all the kids were so well behaved. It was a lot of work but so so so worth it. I also finally, after several years, got Gary to stay up till midnight without any manipulation whatsoever! Amazing what a temporary x-Box will do. :) I also learned how to play Euchre! Even in our smallish apartment everyone was comfy and certainly cozy. Tyler got to try out his new Lightning McQueen sleeping bag which he LOVES. He thought having a sleepover with Grace in mommy and daddy's room was the coolest thing ever and really had a difficult time understanding why we didn't want to go to bed with him at 9. :) We decided to take advantage of the good weather (ie- no ice or snow) and head to the cabin this weekend. We went on Friday and while the kids napped had our January household budget meeting. It's funny how important it is for our finances to function, and yet so much of it is based on assumptions. We're assuming Gary's going to keep his job and pay rate according to his contracted scale. We're also assuming our rent and utilities won't go up drastically and we're assuming gas won't go over 3$ this calendar year. Seems doable as of today but who knows? Of course we're also assuming our Mansfield renters will stay, pay rent and the house won't need any drastic repairs. That's a lot of assuming and you know what they say about that... We kind of live on that mantra that life is what God gives you after you make your plans. So we make our plans using the wisdom we've got and leave the rest in God's hands. Or try to. The Bush's made it later in the evening and we enjoyed some time with them. The lake is partly frozen so we all got quite a science lesson this weekend! First of all we learned that independent Armandina can in fact walk almost a half a mile in boots (to the lake and back). I carried her a little bit but honestly not much. She would have none of it! Tyler, of course, ran most of the way, also in boots. We got down tot he lake and some of it is drained for the winter so we were able to stand on the ground of the lake in the spot where the boats usually are docked. We pretended to touch the bottom of the "boat". We also learned that the heavier the rocks, the better chance they have of breaking through the ice. We also experimented in ways of throwing them. There was some cracked ice on the edges and i grabbed a pretty large chunk and got a lesson of my own. When you throw ice on ice it shatters and slides for a very long distance! It also makes the most amazing sounds! I'd never seen anything like it! With so few people (we saw 2 other walkers and a dog across the lake but that's all!), no boats or car or air traffic it was SO quiet! The rocks we threw made neat sounds too. From the cabin to the lake is mostly a downhill walk on a blacktop/gravel road. Tyler seems so big and grown up to me but God showed me just how small we all are. Tyler ran ahead of me and once past the houses, with the lake, and the hills and forests around him, my Tyler looked so tiny. His creation is just so vast and majestic and it was just so amazing. I took the kids (by myself mom!) for a walk down to the lake while Gary unloaded the van and got their beds together. The four of us and Stephanie went the next morning as well and Tyler and his Pops got to go a third time on Saturday. They found some fish frozen in the ice! One of the things i love most about the cabin is that they get NO TV reception. No antenna channels, no cable, no cell phone service, no Internet. Nothing. We can watch VHS's and DVD's but that's it! They do get a few radio stations but not many. We pretty much have no other choice but to relax. We make meals, read, visit and sleep. Ahhh.... we watched Prince Caspian Friday Night and i really really enjoyed it. Well, the kids are ready to get up from their Sunday naps so I'd better get in gear for dinner and the rest of the evening. I hope everyone has a wonderful week! God Bless!