Good Question...

Hey Laura, just to answer your question, in case anyone else was wondering, I have read the books (twice) myself. I read them first because I wasn't going to let her read them until I had checked them out. You are right about the sexual tension but she totally doesn't get that yet. She thinks I'm stupid for for talking about how cute Jacob & Edward are. And in the last book, they never talk about the actual act of sex but I warned her ahead of time that they would have sex after they were married. This still grosses her out and I'm glad :-). Want to hear something funny? Guess who else is hooked on these books? Chip! We got him to go see the movie and then he wanted to read the first book. Now he's read them all twice! We're all pathetic aren't we?

I have a question for you...

This is a question for all of my friends who love to read. Shelby loves to read as much as I do and lately she is stuck on the Twilight series. And I do mean stuck. She won't read anything else. She has read all 4 of them at least 3 times. She says she can't find anything else to read that is as good. And while I continue to agree that Edward and Jacob are very appealing, I would like for her to find something else. I am afraid she's going to be very disappointed one day when she figures out that boys don't come quite so "perfect." Ha! Ha! Ha! :) So my question for you guys is do you know of something else out there. I know that some of you teach reading/english. And some of you get to read a lot more than me, so you've got to give me some ideas.
Tonight I am glad that Cole is no longer puking. I am tired of cleaning it up and I smell like Clorox wipes!

Happy Birthday!

Last week was a week of birthday celebrations for us. Shelby turned 11 on the 12th and Chip turned 39 on the 16th. Yes, he is really 39 this year. He's not looking forward to 40 so next year may be his second 39th birthday! The weekend before Shelby's birthday, she had 6 girls over for a sleepover. It was fun but very loud. It is amazing how much 10 & 11 year old girls squeal! We only had one emotional breakdown - which is pretty good considering there were 7 girls! I am sad that my little girl is 11. She is growing up so fast right in front of me. But I also know that God has great plans for her and so I am excited to see what a wonderful young lady she is going to grow into. As far as Chip's birthday goes, his one request was that I make him a cake and so I did. It's just not as much fun to celebrate our birthdays as it is the kids. Cole's birthday in on the 15th of February and he has been negotiating his birthday plans for weeks!! And then my baby will be 9. I really wish everybody would just stop getting older! And do you know what really bugs me? Is that I sound like "old people" when I complain about not knowing where the time went! :)
Tonight I am thankful for my husband and my children and the fact that they are healthy and have celebrated another year in their lives.

Happy New Year!

Over the past couple of days I have been thinking about past New Year's. What I have done for them and whether or not I made any resolutions. There are a few New Year's Eves that I can remember growing up. A couple at church, one at a friend's house in high school, one at Food Max, and my most memorable one was in New Orleans. Since Chip and I have been married, we have spent almost every New Year's with the same group of friends from church. There are 6 couples that started out as newly married couples and now we've all been married for 12 years or more and last night there was 13 kids between us all. I always enjoy spending New Year's with all of them because I like being with my whole family. I like to have Chip and both of my kids with me at midnight. I know there will come a time when my kids don't want to kiss their mom on New Year's but for now they do and I love it!
I've never been one for resolutions because I know that I'm not very good at keeping them after January 31. I always say I'm going to eat better and exercise but if you know me well, you know I don't do that well either. The one thing I have done that motivated me the most was doing the half marathon in 2007. I have never felt so good physically or mentally. You also know that I partially tore my achilles tendon during training last year for the half marathon. I really want to do it again this year but I am also afraid of hurting that bad again. So I am thinking I am going to go really slow and see how it goes. I may not be able to run it like I want to but even if I can walk it, that would be okay. So if I am going to make just one resolution, it will be to start training slowly and see how it goes. This will make younger sister happy since she keeps bugging me to train with her again. :)
Today I am thankful for a New Year. It is always a nice way to have a "clean slate" and have a new start. Happy New Year everybody!

Merry After Christmas!

Christmas has come and gone. Whether or not my children actually slowed down enough to appreciate the real reason we celebrate the season, I am not sure. No matter how much we remind them, they are always ready to move on to the next presents. We all have colds now so we are slowing down whether we want to or not. =-) More than last year, it seemed that we noticed how much we missed my grandparents and my dad. But it made us appreciate our familes and we enjoyed being together this Christmas. I am glad the busyness is over for a little while. We have New Years in a couple of days but I am glad we have this week before we start back to school and work.


We had to start Shelby in counseling a few weeks ago for her anxiety. She has always had really bad anxiety and it peaked a few weeks ago. She started having thoughts she shouldn't be having and so I started taking her to a counselor. My psychiatrist has been telling me for a couple of years that each of us need to be seeing a counselor so that we have someone we already trust when things get bad. Which is a great idea and I knew Shelby needed it the most but I just kept putting it off. And even during the 1st session, with several - and I do mean several- worries for her to talk about - Shelby told the counselor that her main worry was losing me. She said she doesn't want to be the only kid in college who can't call their mom. And she said that Cole wouldn't be able to make it without me. That is a lot of stuff for an 11 year old to worry about. But I am praying that the counselor will give her some ways to deal with her worries. She told me that we might still have to give her meds but we would not do that for a while. Unfortunately, Shelby is not worrying for nothing. I can't tell her everything is going to be "okay" and that is very frustrating as a mom because I want to make it okay. So when you think about Shelby, say a little prayer for her - that her mind and her heart would not be anxious. I am feeling horribly guilty about being the cause of Shelby's anxiety. When I take her to counseling, I sit in the waiting room and think "we wouldn't be here if it weren't for me." But I know I will have much more to feel guilty for before this is over. And so for now I will just be thankful that I have found a counselor that Shelby likes and trusts.

I did not intend for today to sound so depressing because I am not sad today. Today I am very thankful for the sunshine. I feel so much better when it is not gloomy outside!

Only 3 days left!?

Okay, so this weekend I had a couple of better days and I am very thankful! Not great but definitely better and I'll take what I can get. Friday, I got to go to both of the kid's Christmas parties at school. It makes me sad to know that was Shelby's last Christmas party in Elementary school! Saturday, I actually went out shopping with my family - and enjoyed myself! This sounds silly but I haven't been able to do that lately. I even felt pretty good on Sunday. Good enough to do my Christmas cards! Maybe this is the beginning of me feeling better. I don't want to be depressed at Christmas.

I am glad we don't have to travel far like so many people do. We will have Christmas Eve at my Mom's and Christmas day at my older sister's house. Then on Friday we will go to Clarksville and spend the night at Chip's parents house. Spending the night is not my favorite thing to do. All of Chip's family spends the night so you can imagine how much my nerves love the chaos. But the kids love it so it is worth it. :-)

Today I am thankful to have my kids at home. I love having them home. We're going to go get Chip's gifts. It's always fun to see what they pick out for him!

I want to thank everybody for their encouraging words. I really do have great friends!

Bah Humbug!

There is a very good reason I haven't written for a while now. It is because I don't want you to know that I don't feel "merry." I don't want you to know that I actually feel more like a grinch. =) I have nothing in partcular to be depressed about but I am. I am dreading the holidays to the extent that my family finally had to put up the decorations. I haven't done any of the shopping that I'm supposed to do. I have bought a few things online - I have bought the things from us for my children and I have bought teacher gifts (very important!) and I've bought all the kids in my classes a gift and that is it. After all, I reallly don't care about anything else at this point. Every year my mom wants me to get gifts for my children from her and Chip's mom wants me to get gifts from her for the kids. And I have 2 sisters and an aunt that want me to get them something for the kids. In theory, this isn't a bad idea because then I get to make sure that the kids are actually getting the gifts they want and I get to make sure they're not getting 2 of everything. I usually have these gifts out of the way before Thanksgiving so I can finish my own shopping. But considering that I am having a little case of the Christmas blues, that hasn't happened yet. And so on top of feeling yucky, I am also beginning to panic. Chip is going to help me some this weekend and he is going to take off on Moday so that we can shop together. This will probably get our kid's gifts out of the way so that we can shop for our parents, neices and nephews, our grandmothers, aunts,ect... Well you get the picture. I am behind and I'm torn between panic and not caring at all!
I am sorry that I am one big pity party right now. I hate feeling this way at Christmas. I usually don't get depressed until after Christmas. I do hope the rest of you are having wonderful holidays! I saw on Facebook today that Meg was going to 3 parties in one day! Girl, I am so glad that is you and not me!! There is not enough medication in the world to make me go to 3 parties in a day! I am thankful for my family even thought they have decided it is great fun to play UNO EVERY NIGHT at dinner!