BUSY WEEKEND AHEAD!

We have a very busy weekend ahead. Matthew's birthday party is Saturday. Tonight I have to get Chelsea and Matthew and than I have to frost Matthew's cake, he wanted spiderman again! Than I have to make the Macaroni and Cheese salad, per Matthew's request! He wanted Macaroni and Cheese and Hot Dogs for his birthday dinner, so we agreed to disagree and I opted for the macaroni and cheese salad. It is cold and has veggies, so makes a little more healthful than just straight mac and cheese. He is getting the hot dogs as well, just not exactly as he was wanting them. He wanted Mac and Cheese with hot dogs in it! Good for a quick run out the door dinner, but ideal for party food. Plus it is not one of my favs. I know, this day is supposed to be about him, but it I won't eat the food, it is not a good day! Saturday we will get up and enjoy a little quiet time before the guest arrive. My mom and step-dad are driving over from Grand Rapids with my niece and nephew and my dad, step-mom and little brother are driving down from Flint to share in Matthew's day! The party is from 3 to whenever, but since my mom and step dad are making such a drive, they will be over early. I am sure Matthew will have a great day! Mom, Kevin and my niece and nephew will stay the night, it is too long of a drive to make it twice in one day! We usually stay the night when we drive out there as well. Sunday will be its fun craziness as always. We arrive at church around 8:45 to prep for service. Praise team practice starts at 9:15 and service at 10:30. Services usually gets over around 12:00 and we usually get home between 12:30 and 1:00. Mom and Kevin and their bunch will go to church with us and will probably head home after church. Home for a couple of hours and back by 3:45 to prep for Junior Praise practice and Christmas Musical Practice. We are in full swing with the musical and things are coming along great! We are truly blessed with a great bunch of kids. No rest for the weary! God's work must be done and as lame as that sounds, the kids musical touches so many lives! This is the kids' ministry to the world and many of them look at it as a privilege to lead people to Christ! God is Good All the TIME!!!!!!

Too Cute!

So last night was dance night! As always, the kids are too funny to watch. 10 to 15 4 and 5 years olds giving the teacher and her assistant a run for their money! The parents cannot help but laugh the whole time because I think the teacher actually teaches about 15 minutes of the 30 minutes! Hopefully as the year goes along it will get easier!

Well last night the teacher show us the dance costume the kids will be wearing! Very cute! It looks like they will be doing a throw back number to the 20s and 30s. The girls will be wearing little flapper dresses! Of course it is in my favorite color! BRIGHT PINK!!!!! NOT, pink is my least favorite color, but it will make Jacoba happy as it is one of her favorite colors!

Jason and I can't wait until next Thursday, it is parent night and we get to see her current routine performed! It looks cute as well. Jacoba runs around the house singing the song "Kickin it country, I got my hat, I got my boots! Kickin' it country! Kickin' it country!" It repeats a lot or at least Jacoba sings it like it repeats a lot. It will be interesting to see the whole song put together! I can't wait!

Lesson never learned!

So, yesterday was Bosses Day and every year we, the secretaries and I, make a lunch for all the attorneys. This year I volunteered to make the dessert! No big deal right! Well there are 11 of us that will participate in the luncheon, so that requires 2 pies since a standard cut of pie only gives off 8 pieces. Anyways, I had planned to go pick up a few things on Wednesday evening so that I could make one pie Wednesday night and than do my big grocery shop on Thursday and make the other pie after shopping. Again, no big deal. Well Wednesday night I came home from work just wiped out and decided that I should just hang out with Jacoba and just go shopping once and bake once. Well the plan sounded good Wednesday, not so much Thursday. Jacoba has dance from 6:15 to 6:45. This week happens to be my late week at work, which means I don't get out of work until 5:30. So I left work at 5:30, met Jason and Jacoba at the dance studio for dance. Left there and got gas in my truck. I was close to Sam's club and there gas prices are better than most. Then I went to the grocery store. I did not get home until about 8:30, then I need to put all the groceries away. So finally at 9:15 I was getting my chance to eat dinner. Although you would have thought I was killing Jacoba because she could not even allow me to warm up my dinner before she had to have snack because she was starving! We have to break her of the habit of eating because someone else is eating! Anyways, it was 10:00 before I started on the pies. While one was baking I assembled the other, so I was productive, but it was 1:00 before the pies were done! Needless to say I am dog tired right now!

What is the lesson we should learn from this, but that we probably will never learn, Procrastination never pays!

Out of the Mouths of Babes!

Ok, so Jacoba can say some doseys! Well last night she got Jason. As usual, I was driving home, talking to Jason on the phone while he was making dinner. Jacoba was in rare form wanting to talk to him continuously! She kept coming in asking what he was doing, what he was making. Finally he got a little frustrated of saying he was making dinner and telling her what exactly he was making for the tenth time. He started to respond with nothing. She walked over and said well your making something. He responded with nothing for you! She walked away a little stunned and a few seconds later came back saying, you have to share daddy! He told her that he did not, again stunning her. She finally comes back into the kitchen and very calm and collected looks at Jason and says, "Daddy, Jesus says that you have to share with me!" Jason stood there in complete shock! He was silent, so she walked back into the living room and started watching TV. I was laughing hysterically! I finally told him, she got ya! You can't argue with logic like that! Those are the moments when you can feel good about yourself and the teaching that you are doing!

Not Me! Monday (thanks Beth!!)

I did not spend all last week sitting in front of the TV or napping after work, rather than doing laundry and cleaning my house! My house is very clean all the time! I would never be embarrassed to have company just drop over unannounced!
I did not wait up until 2:00 Saturday morning reading a book waiting for by husband to get home from work! I always go to bed early so that I can be well rested!
I did not sleep in until almost 11 on Saturday! I am never so lazy as to waste half the day in bed.
I did not decide on Saturday that it was better to go to the apple orchard, and out to dinner rather than working in the yard!
I did not forget to take the whole chicken out of the freezer so that I could make a home cooked dinner on Saturday!
I did not go to Sam's club on Saturday specifically to buy M&Ms for my daughter, because those are her favorite snack!
I did not forget to hand out the new schedule to the kids of kids choir, again!
I did not convince my husband that we should stop and pick up pop and chips on the way home from church yesterday! I never snack on junk food.
I did not lazily flop on the couch and watch TV all Sunday night rather than do laundry!
I did not leave all the clean laundry piled on the table in the basement rather than putting it away where it belongs! I always put our clothes away, rather than going to the basement each night to get clean clothes for the next day!
I did not look at the mess on my kitchen table and say I can take care of that Monday night!
I did not decide that a good snack last night for my daughter would be a donut from the orchard and a Gatorade followed up with some chips and chocolate milk! We always eat good food!
I am not so OCD that I already have the spring musical and Christmas musical ideas for kids choir at church already picked out for the next two years! No one is so obsessed to do something like that!
I did not put my sweet girl to bed last night without reading to her! I am a good mom, that reads to her every night before bed!
I did not decide to have a pop for my first drink this morning! I always drink lots of water!

What didn't you do this week!

Stealing from a friend (Beth's out of the mouth's of babe's)

Ok, so Beth got me thinking about the things that Jacoba has said over the last couple of years. I swear that child has a lazy tongue. Not that I think she needs speech therapy or anything, but there are days that I know she can say a word, but she just screws it up.

For instance:

As many of you at church know, Jacoba calls Victor, Mr. Bigfur! She can say Victor, when you go through it slowly with her, but the minute she throws in the Mr. it comes out Mr. Bigfur. Well last night after dance we had another one of those weird word moments. As we walked to my truck, Jacoba asked if she could have a Dora lopsicle. I had her repeat what she said and sure enough, she said Dora lopsicle. I asked her if she meant popsicle and she said popsicle right after me like it was no big deal. As soon as we got in the house, she said lopsicle again. She has the ability to say the words, but when she is in a hurry, she manages to mangle words with the best of them.

It is so true, that kids say the darnedest things!

Dancing with the Stars!

Ok, so I have to admit, I love the show. Although at the moment, I am a little offended. I think some of the stars are great dancers and deserve to be on the show, but all I can say is Cloris Leachman is not one of them! I think she is offensive and her behavior on a family show is out of line. I give her a lot of credit, I hope at 82 I can even think about dancing! Her language is out of control and after she dances, she thinks the show is completely about her. They always run over, because they cannot reign her in. The judges and the hosts don't even know how to react, it is just sad that a woman her age thinks that the only way she can get a laugh is making a complete fool of herself. I have to say that the next few weeks will be long on the show. Rocco will go this coming week and all I can say is I hope Cloris goes the following week.

I guess you could say, I just need to get this off my chest!

TV - I truly am lame!

I think Jason and I are addicted to television this season. It seems like there is not a single night of the week that we do not have something dvr'd. How sad is it when you run home to find out what has recorded. How lame am I that I am thank for dvr, because having a 4 year old in the house means I don't get to sit down many nights when the shows I like are actually on and watch them. God forbid I miss anything! What a vice TV has become. Its pretty sad when two grown adults sit with the remote and boo hoo over the fact that we have too many shows on Tuesday to dvr everything we like! Sad Sad times.

This season does have some pretty good shows. I will admit, I am somewhat of a reality show junky. I like dancing with the stars and America's next top model and American Idol when it comes out in January. None of which have any real value to them, other than watching petty drama! Yup, I am officially lame!

This is how our week works out:

Monday - Dancing with the Stars and CSI: Miami
Tuesday - House, Fringe, Knight Rider, Dancing with the Stars Elimination show, Without a Trace
Wednesday - America's Next Top Model
Thursday - CSI and Eleventh Hour
Sunday - Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

With all the things in life to accomplish in a week. TV always seems to find its way in. I guess the biggest problem is that it is easier to be lazy and say I will get something done tomorrow, than to just get it done now! TV helps in that way too much. Although I have to admit, last night I could careless what was on tv. I was very engrossed in the end of my Thomas Kinkaid novel and wanted to finish it. Now that is a vice I can truly give into! Too bad my four year old thinks my novels are not good reading and that her books are the only thing I should read. Someday she will appreciate something other than a picture book. I have to be thankful she loves reading!

First Blog

Hello everyone! I just thought I would try out this blog thing. I know I have a lot of friends at church that are faithful in keeping everyone up to date via their blogs, so I thought I would try!

Hmmmm, where to start. Well Jacoba had dance last night. It is amazing to me how 4 and 5 year olds can actually pay attention for 30 minutes and learn an activity, when they actually want to. Jacoba loves dance. She is very excited each week when she finds out that dance is the next day. She has not quite grasped the concept that it will happen each week. When we leave dance each Thursday, she always ask me if dance is over. I always respond with, well dance is over for tonight and you will have it again next Thursday. She gets so excited as if this the first time she ever heard it! I have to say that I think her dance teacher is a saint. She has 15 kids and only one assistant. Now if you don't have any experience with dance slippers, they are constantly coming untied. One of the other parents made the comment last night that the assistant should be called the official shoe tier, rather than dance assistant. He was right. She must have spent 20 of the 30 minutes of last night on her knees tying ballet slippers. I also have to say that I am truly blessed to have a wonderful little girl. She loves dance and listens to her teacher very well. I cannot say that is true for a set of twins that are in her class. At the beginning of the season the girls could not agree on which class to take, jazz or tap. So their parents decided that they would put them both into both classes for a few weeks and once they decide. Well of course 4 year olds cannot decide, so they have kept both girls in both classes. More power to them if they have the money. Well these little girls have two dance classes right back to back and Jazz is their second class. Well after about 10 minutes in Jazz class, they are at the door asking to go to the bathroom or asking if they can have apples after class. Their teacher's assistant is always gracious and politely escorts them back to the rest of the kids and tries to continue on with class. To make matters worse, the mother of the twins is overdue and they are taking the baby next week. So this poor mother has no patience for her girls asking questions about snack after dance. She finally told them last night if they come to the door again, they were leaving. That seemed to work! We shall see next week.

I have to admit, years ago I never thought I would have children and I definitely was not going to have a child in dance! Now, here I am with two step-kids and my sweet Jacoba and I can't imagine life any different. On top of that, I am trying to convince all the kids not to do sports. Jason and I both have bad knees because of the sports we played. Some how my brain has convinced me that they won't get as hurt doing dance or something else. As a fan of Dance with the stars, I should realize that they can get just as hurt! Look at Misty May-Trainer! Hello, great athlete blowing out her achilles tendon dancing! Scary!!! Dancing with the stars is a whole other story that I don't have the energy for at the moment!