Saying Goodbye

Our MOPS group lost one of our dearest friends this week. She was such an amazing and strong person and I still cannot believe that she is truly gone. Her love for the Lord and how she daily placed all of her faith in Him will always be inspiring. I can only hope that if I am ever faced with the trials she had to face that I will handle it with the same amazing grace that she did. She reaffirmed what I already know and what I can only hope that others will come to know - God will never leave us. Even when it seems impossible, ESPECIALLY when it seems impossible, God is there. It's up to us to decide whether we will let Him carry us through whatever it is we are facing. I know what my choice is.

I will miss our friend, but she will never be forgotten. Please pray for her husband and their two children as they try to get through this very difficult time.

"I run in the path of your commands, for you have set my heart free." Psalm 119:32.

"...Through Christ our comfort overflows..." II Corinthians 1:5

The Cure for Depression

Just in case some of you are feeling blue this evening... Take a look into these baby blues and I assure you that you will feel better! =)



And just in case you thought it couldn't get any cuter... think again!!!




And if neifher of those did the trick for you, surely this one will. (At least I know it will for one of my friends reading this - you know who you are!!!)

Bye-bye, baby curls!

Dylan couldn't avoid it, but he had to work late tonight. So, this evening, my Mom and I took Daniel for his very first haircut!!!! He did great! Although, I shouldn't be too surprised by that since he's usually always the picture-perfect baby. =)

A lot of his curls are gone now, but he looks like such a big boy now! Now his haircut matches his size! Ha!

Getting started...


Doing such a good job for Ms. Kim!




Not really sure what's going here...


But, I sure do look handsome!

We're back!!!!

Well, we made it safe and sound back from Georgia. All 894+ miles! The boys did great on the entire trip (well, for the most part.) A lot of thanks to my Mom for catering to their needs during the long drive. I drove the whole way and she handed the boys whatever it was they were asking for. Yes - I probably had the better end of the deal on that one.

The trip on the way home went a little faster than on the way down. Once we figured out that Daniel is capable of drinking his weight in milk, we were sure to keep him well-stocked on the trip back. Man, I have never realized how much that little man can drink until I had to be sure to keep his cup filled for a 7 hour period.

Anyways, on Thursday when I picked up Jacob from preschool, I was greeted with an extra passenger that would be joining us for our trip - Chester, the bear! (Actually, there were two extra passengers since Chester also has a bear of his own, Sunny.) Chester is a bear that his teacher gives to a student to take home each weekend. When they return to school on Tuesday, the student gets to tell the class all about what they did with Chester and where they took him. Little did Chester know just how well-traveled of a bear he was about to become! Here are the pictures that Jacob will be taking in for show and tell tomorrow:


Jacob, with Chester and Sunny, at the SC/NC border.


Jacob and his Great-Grandpa Dobinski.


At the Georgia Welcome Center.


Outside of a rest stop right inside the NC state line.

And for extra cuteness, here are some pictures from Jacob's PJ day at Preschool:


They were doing the letter "P" at school that week, so here he is in his Penguin Pajamas and ready to have a Pizza Party for lunch. Oh, and to add on to that Pop-Pop picked him up from school in his pick-up truck! I know, I know - I'm just too much for myself sometimes, too!




Oh - and here is the final product before we left the house. (Notice in the first pictures that his hair wasn't brushed??? Yeah - I was so focused on it being PJ day that we almost forgot to do his hair that day!)

Georgia... on my mind (& Grandpa, too!)

The boys and I are traveling to Georgia to see this man on Friday and I could not be more excited! I love going to visit my Grandpa and here's why:

1. He loves to call the boys by their initials (J.D. and D.J.) and I love it. But only when he does it.
2. I love that my Grandpa cares enough to give my boys their own special nicknames. It makes ME feel even more special.
3. I love the fact that I can talk to my Grandpa about anything. Well, that is, as long as he has his hearing aids turned up so he can hear me. :)
4. I love riding in his car with him. It makes me laugh nowadays to be a passenger and watch how he drives. Trust me on this one - you would much rather be a passenger in his car than be in a different car for this experience!
5. I also love riding in his car because repeat after me: Grandpa's car = Lifesavers Wintergreen Mints
6. I love going down to my Grandpa's and seeing all the family pictures that my Grandma loved to display in her bookcase and how Grandpa has added to this collection.
7. I love listening to my Grandpa's stories. I love going to see him because I always come home with at least one new story.

There are many more reasons, but it all comes down to this: I love my Grandpa and I always have. As I get older, so does he and so I have learned to cherish every minute that I am blessed to spend with him.

And here's hoping that everything will truly be great in '08 - yes, I am that cheesy!

Well, Christmas is over. That's right, my favorite time of the year is over. The lights have been taken down and the tree has been undecorated. Notice how I didn't say it has been taken down? Yep, we have a Christmas tree minus the decorations still sitting in our family room. Dylan assured the tree that today it would be meeting it's end. Apparently it's either been too cold or too dark or both over the past 3 days for Dylan to take it outside and rip the lights off of it and throw it next to our trash cans. Hey - I'm not complaining because y'all know that I'm certainly not going to be the one to do that dirty, pokey pine needles, sticky sap kind of work. I'm just hoping that maybe the two of us can get motivated enough to finish packing up the rest of Christmas so that I can finish getting the house in order.

The boys had a wonderful Christmas and so did I. Jacob's favorite part was going out on Christmas Eve to leave some "magic" food for the reindeer. Who am I kidding? Jacob's favorite part was really the PRESENTS!!! Santa brought him a lot of things off of his list and he was very happy with all of it. He thought it was pretty cool that we let him go out in his PJs on Christmas morning and try out his new bike. Daniel loved opening his presents. He didn't really care too much what was inside, he just liked ripping them open. Of course, as soon as the last presents had been opened at my in-laws' house, we had to come home and pack up some of the boys' current toys to make room for the new ones. Jacob actually did a really good job helping me choose which toys he was ready to pack up and which ones he wanted to keep. I was amazed that he was able to let go of anything at all!

Anyways, I hope you all had a very Merry and very blessed Christmas! Now it's time for the pictures:


This is what happens to you in this house if you sit still too long while I am decorating. :)


Jacob and Daniel pick out the next ornaments they want to put on the tree.


Jacob puts on the star while Dylan appears to be spending some one-on-one time with the tree.


All the grandkids together in front of the tree at my Mom's house.


Oh, yeah - and did I mention that Daniel started officially walking a week before Christmas! Yeah!!!


It may have been Jacob's gift, but Daniel clearly has been enjoying the kazoo.


Eddie found his favorite spot - right under the tree!


Speaking of the tree... here it is with all the presents under it.


Jacob's reaction when he came downstairs was absolutely priceless!


Jacob helps Daniel open a present.

Bah! Humbug!

The stomach bug, that is... Last weekend was a complete wash thanks to some lovely germs Jacob brought home with him from preschool. Some very unwelcome visitors if I do say so myself! Jacob was sick all of Friday night with a stomach virus and moped around all of Saturday with the same symptoms (just not as violent as the night before.) We thought it was all over by Saturday night. Jacob went to bed without protest and was sound asleep as soon as his little head hit the pillow. (And what a very clean pillow it was seeing as we must have done at least five loads of laundry the night before cleaning up the aftermath.)

Fast forward to 5:30 am on Sunday morning... I awoke with an unsettling feeling in my stomach. Uh-oh. I knew this was not going to end well for me. But, I was in no way prepared for what would occur over the next seven hours. That's right, my friends. SEVEN hours!!! Poor Dylan. Poor me, but poor Dylan. He put up with my moaning and groaning all day and on top of it, the bug started to move on to Daniel by Sunday afternoon. Monday morning came and I dragged myself out of bed (only because I had to since Dylan was abandoning ship to go to work) and managed to make it through the day. I was pleasantly surprised when Dylan came home early, but the pleasantly left the building when he reported to me that he only came home because he was sick, too.

So, again, I say, "Bah! Humbug!" Praise the Lord the stomach bug has now gone away and I can resume my Christmas to-do list. The other day I was in the kitchen feeling very overwhelmed as I made my list of remaining things to do before Christmas. I found myself asking how in the world I was going to get all of this stuff done before Christmas??? Thanks to five days being completely wasted due to the stomach bug, I was really running out of time! I began envisioning all the late nights I had ahead of me. After all, here it is ten days before Christmas and I still have to do Christmas cards, wrap presents, bake lots of goodies to give as presents, get Christmas photos taken, take a picture of the boys in front of the Christmas tree, drive around and see all the Christmas lights, go see Santa and many other things that I have forgotten already! Then, I passed by a sign I have hanging in our kitchen. The most true statement about this Christmas holiday. It reads, "Christmas begins with Christ." And then, my list didn't seem so important.

So, if you don't get your Christmas card or present until after Christmas (or if you don't get one at all!!), please know, it's not because we don't care. It's because we are choosing to spend our Christmas celebrating the birth of Christ instead of pulling our hair out to meet our own deadlines.

So, Merry Christmas! I hope all of you are able to step back and enjoy the real reason for Christmas!

Calling all shoppers!!!

This has officially gone on sale!!! With free shipping!!! Hello... what are you waiting for??? My yard will be patiently waiting for it's arrival.

Just waiting for Turkey Day... to be OVER!

Ok, so I haven't posted in a while, but mainly because I just haven't had anything very exciting to write about. Let's see... since Halloween, I have successfully finished helping to organize a Craft Fair (it was a fundraiser for our MOPS group), attended lots of meetings and outings for my MOPS and other Moms group, attended a Turkey Fest at Jacob's preschool and had dinner with a friend that I don't see nearly often enough. We are currently treating our very first case of pinkeye. Poor Jacob woke up Friday morning saying, "Mommy, my eye is all green." Yuck. Luckily, so far, he is the only one that has it. It was only in his left eye, but it appears to have moved on to his right eye as of this morning. As long as it clears up in time to go to Georgia on Wednesday, it will be ok.

I'm not particularly looking forward to Thanksgiving this year. I can't wait to see my Grandpa, but other than that, it would suit me just fine to just hang out here in town. It's going to be a weird Thanksgiving. We are making it a short trip this year so that we don't have to spend so much money boarding the pups. Plus, normally there are 30+ people at our family feast (yes, my Mom's side of the family is rather large), but this year there are only going to be 18 of us. Still a pretty good crowd, but it's just not going to be the same. Of course, the main person that I will truly miss is Grandma. Although, come to think of it, surely it will be better than last year. Last Thanksgiving was just horrible. I was still nursing Daniel and going through my lovely postpartum hormonal changes while still dealing with the loss of Grandma and trying to come to terms with the fact that my sister and her family would be moving out of town within the next two weeks. Even with all of this going on, nobody had a worst Thanksgiving than my Grandpa. I just pray that we can all be there for him however he needs us to help him get through this holiday. I love him so much and I just everyone to be able to have a good time and make it a nice holiday for him.

Once Thanksgiving is over, it will be time for my favorite time of the year - CHRISTMAS!!! When we get back in town, the house is getting cleaned, the decorations are being put up, one perfect, slightly crooked, Christmas tree will be purchased and many hours of Christmas music will be played. Yeah!!!!

Hope you all have a very blessed Thanksgiving!

Boo!

So, some would say I'm killing all the fun for my kids, but we don't really do the whole trick-or-treating thing in our house. We did for the first year or two, but then I looked around and noticed how everyone is VERY into the scary part of this holiday. And scary when you have children under the age of 14 is just not a cool thing. When Jacob and I go into Wal-Mart or Target (that's almost a daily occurrence in this house!), he points out all the skeletons or monster-type things and says, "Look, they have scary guys." Basically, if it's scary, gross, yucky or something I would have a heart attack if I rolled over in bed and saw it laying next to me, I have trained Jacob that it is scary and that we don't like it.

So, what does the March Family do for Halloween? We get dressed up (only non-scary costumes, of course) and go to a Harvest Festival. It's even better than just plain, old trick-or-treating if you ask me. There is food (yummm... Brunswick stew...), games, moon bounces, pony rides, train rides, hay rides and a petting zoo! And after each activity, the kids get candy. Jacob is still young enough that he doesn't know the difference, so this may get harder as he gets older, but it's become a tradition and we're sticking to it. Quite honestly, I was getting tired of opening my door to see teenagers (and usually rude ones at that) in regular clothing asking me for candy. And after they would leave, I was usually left praying that I was nice enough and gave them enough candy that they wouldn't come back later and smash my pumpkins!

Happy Halloween - no matter how you choose to celebrate it!



That's the cowboy, Jacob, tipping his hat and saying, "Yeehaw!"


Jacob walking in the parade at pre-school.


A better view of the cowboy "riding" his horse.


There goes the neighborhood!!! The boys with their two friends who live down the street.


Daniel, the dragon, and Jacob, the quarterback (Broncos, of course!!!)




Still working on that whole standing & walking thing!

Down on the farm

I can't decide if I am grateful for the summer we are still having or if I wish that Fall would hurry up and get here. There just seems to be something wrong with going to the Pumpkin Patch when it is 82 degrees outside. Don't get me wrong, the weather is beautiful, but I am having a hard time preparing for the upcoming holidays when I'm still dressing my kids in shorts!

Jacob had been asking about going to the Pumpkin Patch for at least two weeks and this past Saturday, we finally went. It didn't take us long to pick out the "perfect" pumpkins for us. Before we did the hayride to pick out our pumpkins, we got to see a pig race, shoot corn cannons and visit animals in the barn. Needless to say, Jacob had a blast doing all of it!



This was the name of the aisle where we parked. Jacob actually remembered it when it came time to go back to the car!


That, my friends, is a squeal of delight!






Daniel helps Daddy pick out a pumpkin for him.


Jacob shows off the pumpkin he picked.

The party is over

My 28th birthday has come and gone and I don't feel any different. Don't get me wrong - this is a good thing!!! My birthday was totally awesome - complete with many birthday wishes, kisses and wonderful presents. Dylan followed his list to a "T" (yes, that's right - I said list. How else do you expect him to get me exactly what I wanted?!?!?) Daniel even attempted to help me blow out my candle on my cake - super cute! But, Jacob actually succeeded in helping and I think he was even more excited than I was that we got to have cake. You would have thought it was HIS birthday...

So, this past Saturday, we headed up to Carter Mountain Orchard for some apple picking with my parents. It was crazy busy, but hey - we were all spread out on a mountain. Once we headed up the mountain (no, really - this time we had to literally hike UP the mountain to get to the section where we were allowed to pick), you really couldn't tell that there were hundreds of other people there. Jacob was too cute. When we got to the top of the mountain where the apples were in abundance, he started pointing and screaming, "I see the apples! I see the apples!" Daniel was a little confused about what was going on until we gave him an apple to hold onto. He must have worked on it for at least 30-40 minutes and in the end he had finally bit off a tee-tiny piece.

Anyways, here are some pictures of what a family having fun looks like:


So happy to be here - he's been looking forward to this day for a while now.



Hmmm... and what should I do with this?




Yeah... that feels about right!




The guys - doing their part to pick the apples.




Enjoying the "fruits" of their labor. Hahahaha!




I love this life!!!

Ready or not, here it comes!

Ok, my friends. Now is the time to panic. I will officially be 28 in less than 2 hours. Wow... getting closer to the big 3-0 every minute. I'm actually looking forward to my 30th birthday just because it is a big deal and I am hoping someone (hint, hint...) will throw me a big ol' party. The only part I am not looking forward to is actually being 30. There's nothing wrong with it other than the fact that I will no longer be able to say that I am in my 20s. You see, I am used to always being the youngest person in the room. Everywhere. It doesn't matter where I go, I am usually the youngest. Especially at my Moms groups. More and more women wait until their 30s to start having kids, so for me to have 2 kids at 27 is a rarity. But, I am already starting to realize that as you get older, you not only, well... get older, but you also get replaced. Yikes!!! Why didn't anyone warn me of this???

Oh, well - on the upside of all of this, at least I will probably be the youngest Mom at Jacob's high school graduation. Plus, if everything goes as planned, Daniel will be off to college and the house will be empty (sniff.. sniff.. waaaaaahhhhhh) when I am at the ripe, young age of 44. Pretty rockin' if you ask me. Dylan and I will still be in our prime and maybe we will finally get to take that dream vacation to Hawaii by then. (Yes, my dream, not his.) Actually, if I am doing my math correctly, 17 years from now (when Daniel is in college), we will be getting ready to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. Wow. Sounds like a perfect reason to take the most kick-butt vacation ever!

And the countdown continues...

Don't panic. Whatever you do, don't panic. You still have 24 hours to find the perfect gift. Well, ok. I'll give you 48 hours. That will still get the gift here before midnight, so technically you will still be on time. Oh, and in case you are wondering: No - cash is not a tacky gift and is gladly accepted. Just kidding (well, ok, not about the cash part). Just wish me a happy birthday and I will be, well... Happy!!! It just makes me happy when people remember it's my birthday.

Oh, and just so you know, I have successfully trained Jacob for his future girlfriends/wives. They can thank me later. (Mostly because since Jacob is only 4, I'm assuming that the majority of these girls probably don't even know how to talk yet.) Anyways, back to the reason they will be thanking me... Jacob called Dylan after preschool today and after he was done talking to him, he gave the phone to me. Dylan and I were talking and I heard, "Wait, Mommy! I forgot to tell Daddy..." So, I handed Jacob the phone and he says, "Daddy, you need to buy Mommy a cake, a card and a present for her birthday. We need to do that." Keep up the good work, son.

For you early bird shoppers...

Please have this shipped to my house no later than Saturday, November 27th. Thank you in advance for my lovely Christmas gift. Oh, and I'm sure my neighbors thank you, too!!!!

Play that funky music...

If you don't like to listen to the music on my page, well, that's just too bad. I can't help it if you have bad taste in music.

Totally kidding!!! Hit the pause button, silly - the music will stop. =)

Just another Saturday around the house

Dylan is off golfing with his former boss right now. Yes, I know he has a rough life. Just kidding - he did let me sleep in this morning so that was awesome! Right now, the boys are taking naps (well, Daniel is asleep and Jacob is still trying to see what kind of stalling tactics he can use to avoid sleeping) and I am just waiting for Dylan to come home. I need him to help me out with a few things around the house that only big men with big muscles can do. I think the rest of the day will probably be spent cleaning. Not fun. Very necessary, but not fun.

I keep doing a mental countdown in my head of how much time I have left before it will be time to decorate for Christmas (yes, I said Christmas, not the holidays - don't even think of saying Happy Holidays to me. I'll have to save that conversation for a different post.) Anyways, after this weekend there are only 6 weekends left before it will be time to make my house look like a candy cane factory. Some would even say it looks like a candy cane factory exploded all over my house... I do a HUGE candy cane theme - gets bigger every year - and Dylan doesn't like it. I love it! In fact, I think I may even love it even more because Dylan doesn't like it. hahaha. (Click here for my reason on doing a candy cane theme.)

Next weekend we will be going to the Apple Festival at Carter Mountain, so at least we will have that to look forward to. Mmmmm... drool... Mmmmm... oh, sorry. I was thinking about the yummy apple pie I will be baking from all the apples we will be picking! =)

It's crunch time, people!!!

Ok, you guys have officially less than one week to pick out the perfect birthday present for your favorite person. No, not that person - I'm talking about ME! For those that are close to me, you know that I LOVE my birthday! I love telling people it's my birthday, I love getting cards in the mailbox the days leading up to it, I love everything to do with my birthday! I think the main reason is because it's MY special day and I don't have to share it with anyone. (Well, that is until I found out that it is the same day as Bill & Hillary's wedding anniversary - and yes, I did just throw up a little bit just thinking about that!)

So, other than looking forward to my birthday, not much has been going on around here. Oh, I guess I did forget to tell you that two days after the layoff, someone stole my iPod out of my car. I always lock my car (well, now I can only say that I lock my car 99% of the time), but I was deathly ill and I was unloading my car after a trip to Wal-Mart. Anyways, I had my hands full and I just wasn't in my right state of mind. I must have forgotten to lock the car and someone took advantage of that. It makes me so MAD to think about it even now, two weeks later. Oh, and on top of it, we discovered a HUGE cigarette burn inside up on the roof liner. The thugs must have done it while they were looking for more loot in the back of my van. Hahahaha - joke was on them because all there was back there was a stroller and some Christmas decorations. (Yes, we like to prepare for the holidays early around here. And when I say we, I mean me.) Anyways, we filed a police report and are now going to begin the lovely process of dealing with our insurance company. The sad thing is that I was going to let it go when it was just my iPod. But, I refuse to drive around with a daily reminder that some low-life was in my car and couldn't keep his grubby little hands to himself.

So... other than some suburban crime, things around here have been going pretty well. I participated in a VERY successful consignment sale where I was able to unload the rest of my baby gear and the majority of our 0-12 months clothes. I am actually able to see some of the floor in our attic now after all of the clearing out. Wooohooo!!!

I have really been enjoying my free time in the evenings. I still catch myself looking at the clock at night and thinking, "I need to hurry up and finish (insert whatever activity I am doing) so I can get started on my work." This is usually followed by a hysterical laugh. Especially when I think about how the poor schmucks that work in the office at my old job are now having to do all of the work I used to do. Yeah, you know - the work that they used to complain about if they had to help out even a little bit. No, I don't feel sorry for them and no, I don't miss working. Money, now that I miss, but at least I have my life back and I sincerely believe they couldn't pay me to go back to working the way I was. It's so nice to be in bed before midnight. =)

And the hits just keep on coming...

This morning started off as a rough day... I woke up sick (Yuck - I hate this time of year when I seem to have a cold once a month!) and it was so hard to roll myself out of bed. But, when Daniel starts calling (I should say yelling) for me, there's no denying that the day must begin. The boys had breakfast, played together and then Daniel went down for his morning nap. Jacob laid in bed next to me and watched a movie and let me take a "Mommy's sick" nap. (Yes, I know - no Mother of the Year award for me today!) Then, it was time to get showered and go for my weekly allergy shot. I had one of my breakdowns in the shower (still trying to be able to think about my Grandmother without having a total meltdown.). I am just holding out hope that one day, I can think about my Grandmother and just have one or two tears roll down my face. For the past year, it's been nothing but ugly crying whenever I think of her. And I do mean U-G-L-Y crying - it's not a pretty sight.

I gathered myself back together and we all piled in the car to go to the doctor's. We didn't make it far before I had to turn around and go back to the house because I was just feeling so bad that the thought of sitting in a waiting room for 30 minutes after my shot was just more than I could stand. So, we came home, had lunch and I attempted to put the boys down for a nap. An hour into my failed attempts, my manager from work (I work part-time at home) calls me. Uh-oh - that's never good news any way you look at it. She usually only calls me when she has extra work for me to do. Well, I only wish that's why she was calling. You see, today the company was doing budget cuts through layoffs and unfortunately I was on their list to be let go. Yeah. (I found out later tonight that they had let go a total of 100 employees and one of them was my former boss, a VP, which explains a lot. I always said that as long as he was working there, I didn't have anything to worry about as far as them cutting my position out. Woops...) After 7 years of working there, they decided to let someone go who can run circles around anyone that is paid full-time with benefits. Doesn't really add up to be a savings in my mind, but whatever.
Of course, this phone call was followed by a panic attack - I've never had one, but I'm pretty sure that's what I experienced. (Unless you think that sitting on the floor of your kitchen and hyperventilating is normal.) All the while, I was praying. Praying (and crying) to God and telling Him I will not waver in my faith, but I don't like what is happening. Having faith doesn't mean I have to enjoy everything that happens in my life. It just means that I will continue to place my hope, trust and life in Him.

I am so conflicted with feelings of joy and relief (I HATED working!!!) and feelings of panic of how we are going to manage without my income. But, I know that God knows what he is doing. It was getting to the point where my job was taking priority over other things in my life and that is not how I want to live my life. I want to have my time with God, take care of my family and house. I was not doing any of this (at least not well...) because of my work commitments.

It is not going to be easy (mostly because I was not in control of this decision), but I know that somehow we will get by. I can't imagine the budget getting any tighter than what it was before, but I know how faithful God has always been and I know that this will only bring us closer to Him.

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11"

I thought that this was my verse for 2006, but I am becoming convinced that ya'll can just consider this my life verse. Well, that one and "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds." James 1:2. That's certainly not an easy thing to do and I'm not saying that I always remember to do it, but it does keep me grounded during tough times and lets me know that through this trial, I will somehow find joy. It reminds me that I just have to keep pushing through so that I can look back and find the joy from the other side.

Ok - enough of being down. Now that I have lots of time, I have lots of things to do! =)

As promised - the cutest preschooler ever...

This was his first day at preschool, but it was really just a "meet & greet" with his teacher for about 90 minutes. So...




Here he is going off for his first full day at preschool!