Happiness Project: day 6

Happiness is waking up to blossoms on my plants :)

Happiness Project: day 5

Happiness is having my Grandparent's piano.

Happiness Project: day 4

Happiness is getting a beautiful card and handmade gift in the mail from a treasured friend that I haven't heard from in awhile.

Happiness Project: day 3

This picture may not look like much, but it represents something huge for me. I've been trying to backup all my home movies and I've been searching for video files for a week now. I was missing files from 2002 and 2003, which included movies of my son's birth. I was devastated, and there were lots of tears shed thinking it was lost for good.

Austin began searching old hard drives for those video files that he was positive he had captured years ago. After searching 9 hard drives, he found my videos. (thus the picture of the computer's guts). I was able to see the day my son was born, his first birthday, and all the funny things in-between. I had my memories back.

Happiness is watching Home Movies and reliving precious memories.

Happiness Project: day 2

These notes from my children make me happy. They are building and developing their own faith and testimonies, despite my inconsistent craziness. That's a tender mercy, and it makes me happy.

The first one is from Ben, from over a year ago.

The second one I found in Ember's bedroom just this morning.

We interrupt this broadcast to bring you....

... the continuing adventures of Marker Girl!

Ember was laying on her stomach on the floor doing her homework, and she thought Grace was just poking her in the behind. She was... with a marker. I got some of it out, or at least lightened it, but I think the pants can't be worn to school anymore. All those light spots right next to the pockets used to be swirls. 10 or 11 swirls. This picture just doesn't do it justice. Maybe I should've taken the picture BEFORE I tried to clean them.

And just for further evidence of her destructive power, I present you a gem from the past: trying to draw a face on the back of Dad's Lazy Boy. Still hard to see in a picture, but horrible in person.

We will now return you to our regularly scheduled blogging:

The happiness project.

Happiness Project: day 1

I saw this on another blog and I thought it was a fabulous idea,
so I'm swiping it.

28 days of Happiness.

A blog post every day for 28 days about something that makes me happy.
Since my medication and therapy seem to be working,
I'm finding more reasons to be happy than to be depressed lately,
therefore I am fully embracing this project.
Even if today's post is a little silly.

Happiness is washing and mating 31 pairs of white socks

and the drier didn't eat a single one.

Who needs sleep?

Ok, if I fall asleep right now I can get six hours of sleep.
What am I going to fix for dinner?
I need to go visit my sister.
What if my house burns down?

If I fall asleep right now I can get five hours of sleep.
I'm glad Ember likes her teacher this year.
Where are my home movies stored?
I need to start my Christmas shopping.

If I fall asleep right now I can get four hours of sleep.
Our budget is so tight, and I'm making it worse.
My parents may visit next month.
I need to paint my sons bedroom.

If I fall asleep right now I can get three hours of sleep.
Austin needs a new desk.
We're out of juice.
I think one of my Uncle's doesn't like me.

If I fall asleep right now I can get two hours of sleep.
Maybe Disneyland isn't a good idea.
Whatever happened to the bully who picked on me?
I hate alarm clocks.

Moral of the story:
Don't work until midnight, and then skip taking the sedating anti-anxiety pill that keeps my brain quiet at bedtime.

Meh, who needs sleep anyway?

I saw God today

Stand under a tree on a sunny day. Notice the patterns on the grass made from the sunlight shining through the branches and leaves. Wait for a breeze. The patterns start to dance, and if your eyes are just out of focus, the ground is sparkling.

This is what I did while waiting for the Kindergarten bus.

I saw God today.

My sweet husband, did WHAT??

Austin, one of the smartest people I know, and my dear sweet eternal companion whom I love with all my heart, did something unbelievable.

He gave Grace a marker and sent her to her room.
Now her sheets have a long blue decoration that wasn't there before. In his defense, it was a dry erase marker and he gave her a dry erase board to go with it. He really thought she'd only color on the board. He really thought she'd obey the rules and not explore her boundless creativity. Actually, he really wasn't thinking.

Do we need to chronicle Grace's history with markers?

Behold the evidence.

I rest my case.

I am so freakin' proud of myself

Check THIS out

Best day EVER!

Back to School!

Look who's starting Kindergarten!

Dude-Man-Guy (favorite nickname)
is starting 3rd grade

Little Miss Thoughtful is in 5th grade,
and she got her FAVORITE teacher!

Ember helped Grace get on the bus.
She was very protective,
like a little Mama Bear.

First Kindergarten class!
She couldn't be more excited!

Mom is excited to have almost 4 hours of quiet time every single day. What to do first? Laundry and dishes, or pedicure and a good book? Ha!

More funny archives

After my last post, I stewed for a few days and I'm finally ready to laugh a little bit again. Here's a few more funny kid moments from my old journals.

February 2004
Ember (age 4) was big enough to place her own order at Wendy's, spending her very first dollar. She got her chicken nuggets, enjoyed them to the fullest, and then got extremely upset. In a teary voice she said, "Mommy, I want my dollar back!"

May 2004
Ember, almost 5, sat in the bathroom singing to herself for almost 10 full minutes before I realized what she was singing. She'd made up a song to tell me that "there's no toilet paper!" When I finally clued into the words of the new song, I ran in to help her and she just smiled and said "hi Mom! Guess what? There's no toilet paper!"

Spring 2004
After Austin hadn't shaved for a few days Ember told him, "Daddy, you have bugs on your face."

July 2004
I have a mole on my arm that is Ben's favorite, it always has been. He rubs it when I sing him to sleep... from age 1 to age 8. He used to call it my "button." That summer I'd spent a lot of time outside and all my freckles had gotten darker. Ben (age 2) told me one afternoon, "Mom, you have a LOT of buttons!"

July 2004
Ben was pulling on the doorknob desperately trying to get out of nursery one Sunday, and the teacher asked him where he was going. He shouted, "California!"

July 2004
During one visit to California Ben showed my parents where their home wasn't childproofed. He put mom's bowls in the toilet, and he put hot dogs in my milk, just to name a few foibles. When we were leaving Grandpa said, "feel free to come back and visit after his mission!"

November 2004
Ben talks in his sleep. Here's a few favorites we've overheard, since he sometimes crawls into bed with us.
"No, I DON'T want a sandwich!"
"Stop it! No No, Daddy!"
"I don't want a pony."
"No, No Ember"
"Expectro Patronum!" (shout out to Harry Potter fans)
He also sang Jingle Bells and the ABC's. And giggled. A lot.

I've never BEEN so mad!

First, the basement is trashed. They took every toy in the house and piled it up in the middle of the floor. Mix that with garbage and laundry, and it doesn't make a pretty picture.

Then I went into the bathroom.

Ben and Grace decided to make a 'potion' today. I'll spare you the pictures. I was unawares, because I was in some kind of drug induced coma and slept all day. This is all probably my fault.

In the sink they combined an entire roll of toilet paper, various other papers from notebooks, then they mashed the whole thing up with an entire bottle of soap and.... PEE! And there were bits of their 'potion' everywhere. Mirror, counters, floors, doors...

I am disgusted and angry. I want to beat them, I want to take away every toy they've ever owned, I want to ground them for the entire school year, and I want to feed them bread and water for the rest of their lives.

All I did was help Austin clean it up and sent them to bed with no songs or stories. Gee, I'm so mean. We'll deal with punishments tomorrow.

This had to come during the week that I decided I didn't want to be a mother anymore. I didn't want to be ANYTHING anymore. Is the universe trying to give me more ammunition? What the hell?

I am NOT cut out for this job.

Funny Kids

Before my days of blogging I had a journal just to keep track of the funny things my kids said or did. Now that I'm scrapbooking my blog, I want to have all those funny things in just one place. I opened up that old journal today in an effort to cheer myself up, so here's some transcripts of my kids funnier moments.

December 2003
Grandma Lawlor asked Ember (age 3) to help clean up the toys before we left her house for the evening. Ember said, "I'm sorry, but I can't clean up. I'm going home."

January 2004
Austin found Ember in the bathroom spinning in circles in front of the toilet. When he asked her what she was doing she said, "I"m doing the potty dance!"

One of Ember's favorite things is to add the words "very-very" to everything she says. The told Ben the other day, "That's a very-very no-no."

Ember can't say throat, so she says float. When it gets sore she says, "Mommy, my float is back." She sometimes says "my sick is back."

December 2003
Ember (age 3) came with me to a dollar store where two boys were righting with foam swords. She walked right up to them and said, "hey two boys! You have to stop fighting. Just be happy, ok?"

Common three year old phrase? "You CAN'T say no to me! That makes me very angry!"

Winter 2003
I like to curl in on the couch wrapped in blankets in the mornings, and Ben (age 15-18 months) now races me to the couch to get there first. He throws his arms out and shouts, "my spot!"

January 2004
Checking on the kids after bedtime one night, we couldn't find Ember. She's pulled her bedding under Ben's crib and made herself a little cave under there, falling back asleep. We woke her up and moved her back to her bed and asked her why she'd done that. In her groggy state she said, "Because I did. You can't tell me no."

February 2004
Ember put on a beautiful dress, admired herself in the mirror, and told Austin, "Daddy, you have to marry me."

March 2004
At the dinner table one night Ember said, "Someday when I'm older I will get bath-tized, but not today."

January 2004
Got up and fixed Ember some oatmeal, then laid back down because baby Ben was still sleeping. Ember got me up awhile later and said she'd shared breakfast with Ben. He was still in his crib, so I had to investigate. He was covered in oatmeal, and so were his sheets, the crib slats, the walls, the carpet, his blanket, some toys, and it was also gummed up in his hair. And he was grinning like a fool, he was so happy! I couldn't get angry, Ember was so proud of herself for sharing with Ben.

April 2004
Ben was getting into trouble over and over again and in my frustration I said, "Ben, do you want me to spank you?!" He shouted "Yes!" Ember rushed over to him, grabbed his arm, and whispered LOUDLY in his ear, "Ben, you're supposed to say no!"



That's all for today. I'll archive more crazy kid stuff the next time I want to cheer myself up.