Out of the Mouth

I always try to write down the funny things that my kiddos say. Cinderella usually keeps us in stitches.

A couple of days ago, after I told her that she eats too much chips she says, "Just call me Chips Girl!"

Last night, she put on her Super Girl cape and started a search of her mask. Once she found it, there was no stopping Super Girl.

The kids are really starting to be imaginative and love playing with each other. One of their favorite things to do is to pretend they are "classmates" or one of their friends. They will call each other by different names and tell that person what to do. It is sooooo cute!!

The favorite things to do at home right now are: playing their Nintendo DS, singing karaoke, and of course....playing Mr. C's piano. Noise is ALL the time!!!

8 years ago today....

8 years ago today, my life changed drastically. I got the the phone call on my cell at school on my break. That evening, we drove on a snowy, cold day to pick up the tiniest little baby I had ever seen!! That tiny bundle of blue took my heart the moment I saw him. I'll never forget that night and all the sadness and joy it portrayed.

I am so very thankful to have this precious, special little boy in my life. Words cannot fully express what he means to me. He brought such a soothing balm on my heart and I didn't think I could ever love such a tiny little thing so very much.

The first couple of days were so challenging with learning the ropes of parenthood, but I would never change a thing!

Happy Gotcha Day Mr. C! We love you more than words could ever say!!

This and That

There's nothing new and exciting to report on the kid front. The kids are going to school and have been incredibly healthy. (Hope I don't jinx that by writing this!) Mr. C has missed 2 days of school this year due to dental surgery and Cinderella has missed just 1 day due to dental surgery. I am thinking they have come a LONG way from their baby days when ear infections were so rampant for them and let's not forget Cinderella getting the rotovirus. Mr. C used to get the stomach virus alot and remember right before Disney when he contracted strep?!! Needless to say, we are so incredibly thankful about well children!!

My eye surgery is scheduled for Feb. 3rd and I appreciate prayer. I have never had anything like this before and am a little anxious about this surgery, especially having the lay still for 48 hours and holding an ice pack on my eye for so long!! However, I know it will be worth it in the long run and am excited about contacts!! Yay!!

Oh what a night!!

For once, the weather forecasters were sooooo right and we experienced an ice storm last night. It started after 9pm and did not finish until 5 or 6 am. As I was going to bed early since I had a Spelling Bee to help coordinate, I went to bed before 10pm. I wasn't asleep fully when the power went out. What stirred me was Cinderella crying that her light was out and she was scared. Cinderella is so scared of the dark and we HAVE to leave a light on in her bedroom. Matt went to comfort her and then I went on a search for candles. I called my sister who reported it to Duke Energy and she said that the power should be restored by 1am. Luckily Mr. C was in bed already and didn't notice anything. So, we had three of us in our bed trying to stay warm by candlelight.

Cinderella crashed quickly due to all the drama but then I had trouble going back to sleep. Then the lights come on in the middle of the night (aka 12:45am) which woke me up because our bedroom light came on a-blazin'. So I got up, took care of the candles and crashed until 5:10 when our school Spelling Bee supervisor called me to say that the bee was on a 2 hour delay. I did not want to call all the teachers at that time so I tried to go back to sleep for another hour. By the time I did go back to sleep, I had a crazy nightmare and then got up to call 6 other teachers to let them know about the delay. No sooner had I called them and went to the bathroom, when the power went out. I have no windows in my bathroom so needless to say, it was pitch black.

I was planning on going back to bed and getting another hour of sleep, but the power outage killed that idea. So, I had to light the candles again and rested but could not fully go back to bed. The house really started to get cooler each hour that it was off. Brrrrr! I couldn't take a shower so I had to make do and pull my hair back in a pony tail and get dressed in the dark.

I found out the reason for power outage #1 was that a car hit a pole on the hill of my parent's road not 2 minutes away from our house. The pole cracked and the car was demolished. Power outage #2 was either due to ice or another bad crash on another road. Either way, the ice storm was BAD!! Our driveway and street is a solid sheet of ice. When the lights came back on after midnight last night, I could hear the ice hitting our bedroom window. Eery for sure!!

While I was at the Spelling Bee, the power came back on around 11:30am. Matt was getting concerned and if it lasted much longer, we would had to go somewhere to warm up.

Needless to say, last night was quite the night and of course all the weather people are calling this an "Ice Ice Baby" storm. We are supposed to get a wild thunderstorm Monday morning with temps going into the 50s with strong winds. You just never know what kind of weather we will get here!!!

Wordless Wednesday - Composer-to-be

Happy 8th Birthday!

Today, Mr. C turns 8 years old! We celebrated his birthday at Pizza Hut yesterday. He was so very excited about his party!! I say this every year, but I cannot believe he is 8 years old!! The years are flying by and I am trying to hold on to the sweet, little boy and not let him grow up!

His birthday theme was music and rock! He loved his piano cake and tried to play it several times! He loved all the money he got as well as DS games, drum set, Rock Star Mickey and Guitar iPod. He had a rockin' good day!!

Happy Birthday sweetheart! We love you so very much!!

Gotta love deals!!

Yesterday, Matt and I had a day to ourselves (very, very RARE) and so we had to pick up Mr. C's cake and then decided to do some birthday shopping. I had heard that Target's clearance sale was on so we went there first. SCORE! We found Rock Star Mickey that was originally $56 before Christmas with 70% off....we got it for $14! We also found the Paper Jams drum set originally for $20 for $5! It's awesome to get such good deals which allows us to buy more presents.

Today was a more challenging day for me with pain, but I would not let it deter our plans to go to ToysRUs to finish the birthday shopping. The Nintendo DS games were on sale (didn't know about it) and with his $3 that was sent to him by ToysRUs birthday club, his game was only $7 total! We scored again when I went to Big Lots and they had DS games buy one, get one for 50%! Everything we bought for him was on sale! Love it!

So, now, all we have to do is celebrate our special 8 year old's birthday tomorrow!! Here's hoping I have the extra energy and pain-free day I need to get through it! It's going to be such a fun day!

Sneak Peek

Here is a sneak peek at Mr. C's 8th Birthday cake! My co-worker at school makes FABULOUS and delicious cakes. Mr. C saw a version of this cake on Facebook and LOVED it! Now we are trying to "hide" it until his party on Sunday!! I think it is his best cake ever and boy will it be yummy with the filling that is inside!!

Lemons

Sometimes, life gives you lemons. Yes, I will admit that I have had my full share of lemons lately. I have had two health issues that I have had to face. One was more debilitating than the other so it had to be take care of first. This issue was taken care of by minor surgery today. So I am recuperating today and also trying to take it easy tomorrow as well (no work for me). My next issue is my eye. I was born with what I thought was a cyst on my eye, well, an eye specialist said it was not a cyst! My tear duct gland prolapsed at birth and is laying in the corner of my eye. It also has some sort of "substance" in it so the doctor referred me to one of the partners at his eye institute. So now, I have to see a plastic/reconstructive/cosmetic eye surgeon at the end of the month.

With both of these issues, I could have chosen to get depressed, but I know that by the Lord's strength, I will get through them. There are several storms on the horizon but I know it will pass. I choose to remain positive in spite of some heavy diagnoses. My family has been my focus for getting better. When I have a bad day, Mr. C knows exactly when I need a hug and kiss and then he will whisper in my ear "I love you Mommy!" It melts my heart for sure! I am so very blessed!!!

Wordless Wednesday -SpongeBob ala Hangman

Planning his party

A special little boy will be turning 8 years old in a week and I love to plan his birthdays around what he really likes. This year's his birthday party will be mostly family with a few friends due to several reasons, however, his theme is Rock - N - Roll!! I have ordered a fabulous two-tiered cake that will be just as delicious as it will be to see! Mr. C saw this cake on Facebook and REALLY liked it so I just had to order it!!

Although the party is low-key, I plan on adding a few surprises!! Nothing thrills my heart more than to celebrate this special little boy's birthday!

We are looking forward to the weekend and party time!!

Great Day!

Today was a great distraction from reality. My niece wanted two of her bridesmaids to check out the dress she had picked out for us for her wedding. Looking on the website, I was saying I would NEVER wear that dress...not at my age or body shape!! Well, it wasn't that bad. It would definitely not be a dress that I would pick out for myself, but I will wear it to please my beloved niece. HOWEVER, I definitely have to work on certain areas especially my arms. Sorry, but no pictures of me in that dress until I loose the necessary weight and it gets ordered. (I tried on the same style but one size to big and definitely NOT gonna post that one!!)

Afterwards, we went looking for flower girl dresses with the three little girls who are in the wedding, one of them being my daughter Cinderella. The girls looked adorable! I had tears in my eyes when I saw all three of them in white!! They are going to be absolutely little princesses in their dresses! Their dresses will be ready in 2 weeks and they are going to be DARLING!! Gotta love little girls in white dresses with flowers in their hair!! We also found adorable Easter attire for the kiddos on the clearance rack for next to nothing!! I won't have to stress about finding an Easter dress or suit this year....already purchased! Wooohoo!! A special thank you to someone who blessed us by getting it for them today!!

Today was definitely a great day!!

Prayers Appreciated

I am waiting on some serious tests in the coming week and would appreciate prayer and an important doctor appointment on Thursday.

Wordless Wednesday - Super Heroes!

Getting Back to Normal

Today, the kids went back to school on a freezing and quite snowy day! Today was the first time the snow actually stuck on roads and grass. Honestly, school should have been delayed an hour or two. However, I enjoyed my last day off with silence and taking care of laundry and school work.

It was quite a rude awakening for everyone when that 7am alarm hit. I normally get up much earlier, but since I had to get the kids ready for school, I got up the same time the kids did. Matt had the day off as well and we enjoyed a quiet day! We had lunch at Panera totally free thanks to gift cards.

When the kids arrived back, they were exhausted and missed their new toys. Here's a pick of Cinderella getting her DS fix....yes, the child had withdrawls at school!!

Happy New Year 2012!!

Last night, we had our friends over for pizza, veggies, and Wii gaming. It was fun although my thumb was numb from Mario Kart!! The kids had fun to although they crashed into way too many walls on the racetrack. Everyone stayed awake to watch the ball drop!!

It was nice sleeping in until 10am. The kids almost slept that long also. Of course, normally I would not sleep that late, but I was sick in the middle of the night. Nice! What a great start for 2012!! I am feeling better and it's re-affirming my food choices will be healthy from now on!

I love a new year because I always try to make healthy and positive goals for the year. I am so hopeful that 2012 will be a great year!!

Happy New Year!!