Parents of the year

YUP!!!  Jeff and I are the not-so-proud winners of the "Parents of the Year" award.

A week ago, the kids were so being so kind to walk some of the neighbor kids home and on the way, Ali tripped and fell.  Sarah brought her back and she was sobbing.  The problem: Ali is our Drama Queen and she often seems to exaggerate most things.  After "trying" to sympathize, we had enough of her complaining and quickly told her to stop crying or complaining about her "hurt" arm and to toughen up.  She needed help getting up and down from her bed, getting dressed, making her bed, you name it, she needed help with.  She has always been one for trying really hard to get out of work and we were not going to have anything to do with that excuse.

Until this morning when I was helping her do something and I grabbed her arm and she pulled it back very quickly and started crying.  The way she reacted to my grabbing her, I thought something has got to be wrong.

I took her into the doctor and sure enough, it was broken.

So, there you have it -- our parenting skills could use a little improvement in the sympathy area.  One more proof of that, when I called Jeff to tell him Ali was not faking it, our conclusion was something like this:

"Well, if she wouldn't cry wolf all the time and complain about everything so much, maybe we would believe her."  Okay, that was my comment, so I am the insensitive one.

We really do feel bad, and hope that our kids will forgive us of all our bad parenting moments that are far from being over.

What I love about Thanksgiving

I am a sucker for Holidays, let me just get that out of the way.  I LOVE them and I really wish there were more of them.  Not because I end up doing a whole lot for most of them, but just for the fact that it gives me a day to reflect about something other than my everyday, mundane list of whatevers.  I am one of those who gets caught up in doing "my" stuff and I find it easy to forget that there is anyone else that is present in my world.  I really appreciate those holidays that focus on something worth spending any brain power thinking about -- do you follow me???

As a kid I never could really understand what was up with some of these holidays and why we even "wasted" any time thinking about such days as Flag Day, Columbus Day, Veterans Day, Presidents Day, Good Friday, MLK Day.  I mean, come on, how boring can a holiday get.  At least on some of them we get out of school, those were always a little bit more understandable.

Until now ..... that is.  I guess that probably comes with age for the most part.  I now look at these holidays and I have a new found respect and a sense of reverence whenever I see on the calendar that such a holiday is coming up.  Let's look at a few of these, Flag Day -- what is worth more to us in this great country than our freedom.  I LOVE seeing the ginormous flag waving at Macey's, or driving down the freeway and see it blowing in the wind at Colonial Flag, or just by the Fashion Place Mall.  There is a sense of pride when I see it waving at someones home, or at the school.

And then there is Veterans Day.  That gives me a day to actually think about those who have and are serving our country to keep its freedoms that we enjoy.  I have always got a little choked up when I see on the news that another group of soldiers have returned, and I love seeing the reunions with their loved ones.  Or the sense of sadness when a soldier comes home in a casket to the mourning family who, all to often, has young children who are left without a parent.  I give my thanks, as piddly as that seems, to all of you who have in one way or another, served our country with honor.

I guess this brings me to the point of why I really started writing this post -- Thanksgiving!!!  Oh how I love this holiday.  For one thing, the kids are out of school for 3 days (which means I am off work for 3 days).  Another thing is that it is a holiday where we don't have to think about giving and receiving gifts.  With Christmas just around the corner, every little kid has one thing on their mind, and it usually is not being grateful for things they have.  I LOVE having a day where we spend time with our family and eat, and eat some more, and then enjoy more yummy food.  It has always been a time of reflection on the things we are most grateful for.  We usually go around the table stating what we are thankful for and taking time to reflect on some of our most precious blessings in our lives.  The only problem with it is -- it seems to pass way to quickly.  One day it's here and the next it's gone.  But in its wake are some wonderful memories and a feeling of love and unity.

I LOVE my life.  I am in a good place right now.  My family means the world to me.  I KNOW my Savior loves me.  I am excited for what's to come.

3 Cheers for my NEW ROOF!

I think you can say that I am a little more than ecstatic about my new roof.  

A big, huge THANK YOU goes out to everyone who took time away from their family to help us out.  This means so much to both of us that we would have such great friends and neighbors who would give of their time and talents to help us out.

I still LOVE my new roof.

I can sleep better this winter knowing my roof will not be leaking on us.

Fun in the snow

Here's a look at what we've been doing in the snow---

It's really hard to see, but we got over a foot of snow overnight.  The kids were so excited to go play in it.  They cleaned off the snow from my parents car that was parked in our yard.  Just don't tell Mom and Dad that the kids used their car for a slide.

Yup, there is our girl who is usually doing her own thing.  That's what we love about her!!!