Creatures of Habit

Last night I was sitting on the recliner watching "The Biggest Loser" when I overheard Alliah having quite the conversation with her Dad:

Alliah: "Dad, did you know that I am a nature of habit?"

Dad: "A nature of habit? What is a nature of habit?"

Alliah: "You know, because I always write my name, the date, and my number on all of my papers at school!"

Dad: "Oh, you mean 'creature' of habit..."

Alliah: "Creature? I'm a creature? Oh yeah! A CREATURE of habit! We are all creatures of habit."

Larry shook his head and laughed and Alliah heard me laughing, too. She glanced over at me and said, "Mom, I'm a creature. Did you know I'm a creature of habit? I said, "Yeah, so go brush your teeth and get into bed like you do every night, Creature of Habit." Alliah kissed me goodnight and ran up the stairs singing, "I'm a creature of haaaabiiit, I'm a creature of haaaabiiiit..." She started all over when she ran into Angel who was already upstairs. I heard her say, "Hey Angel, did you know that I'm a creature of habit?"

Church Search

So, if you haven't heard, we're on a new search for a new church home. We were at Echoes From Calvary for about 14 months but have now moved on. Our pastor resigned and is moving back to Missouri so we, too, have decided to move on. Today we visited a nice church called Mosaic. It's a new start up church with about 40 people and we liked it. It's about 5 minutes away from our house and the people there all live in our city, Marina. The worship was great and the preaching was down-to-earth and relevant. The kids liked the classes and I liked the free Starbucks coffee. The message about Christmas helped us put the season back into perspective: don't stress, keep it simple, treasure what you already have and remember that it's all about Jesus - it's not about us. The people in the congregation were all about our age, some younger, some older. They were extremely friendly and the church just felt like a comfortable place to be. We're excited to see what doors God is going to open up for our family to walk through. Whoever says being a Christian is boring really isn't a Christian at all because God always keeps us on our toes!

Christmas Fun

The Christmas Dance

I can't believe Christmas is just 16 days away! We have been so super busy and there have been some major changes going on in our lives these last two weeks. I finally have an opportunity to sit down and blog! It's one of my favorite past-times and is a memory keeper for reals. So now...I blog!!! Today we bought our first two gifts ~ one for Angel and one for Alliah. Yes, I did type our first two gifts. I'm the kind of person who likes the crowded stores and crazy parking lots. I love listening (and singing along to) Christmas music as I wait in line trying to make the people around me feel a little less stressed. Long lines don't bother me as long as there's good Christmas music in the background. Anwyas, our poor beautiful tree looked so lonely so Larry and I just HAD to buy the kids something (We LOVE Target) and put it under the tree. We put our tree up last week and had a blast doing it. The video below highlights the dancing skills of our hilarious children... enjoy! We did...

It's Turkey Time

Well emotions are high around our house tonight. Everyone is so excited about Thanksgiving. We'll be spending Thanksgiving with Larry's side of the family and the kids absolutely LOVE going to visit. We know we lose our son whenever we visit because Uncle Joe and Tia Diane adopt him for a few days to play with cousin Daniel. Alliah loves to stay with Grama Silvia because she's babied so much by her. But she has a big decision to make this year because Uncle Tommy wants Alliah to spend time with him and cousin Alexis. So what does that mean? Larry and I are kid-less and get to spend time talking to other adults in adult conversation - without any kids interrupting! That is nice (as long as it's not too long!). We're especially looking forward to spending time with Larry's mom and his step-dad David. Hopefully the whole family will be able to spend lots of time together laughing, sharing stories, eating, eating and eating! I'll be sure to take my stretchy jeans this year. I can look cute while being comfortable...heck yeah! Larry has chosen to pass on Flag Football on Thanksgiving morning. He could barely walk last year and now that he's another year older I'll encourage him just to sit back and enjoy another piece of pie. Have a great Thanksgiving everyone! I'll post some pics when we get back....

My November Throat

Well it's that time of year again... I get a severe sore throat every October or November and takes away my voice. Right now my voice is scratchy and deep, almost non-existent. There's not a lot of pain, but it is uncomfortable. Sucrets and hot tea make it a little better. Unfortunately, my kids anticipate this time of year! I can't raise my voice louder than a whisper and sometimes I'd rather just let things go than try to make a big deal out of something little just for the plain fact that it hurts when I talk. I still sang both services at church and had an 1-1/2 Christmas choir rehearsal to top it off. By the end of church last night I sounded like Oscar the Grouch - no, more like Mr. Snuffleupagus. Last night while we were in the car, I tried to talk to Angel and he couldn't hear me because my voice is so messed up. While I was still speaking, he cut me off and said, "Oh, Mom, you're throat is sick again?" Alliah jumped in asking, "Is it like last year when you couldn't talk and had to write stuff down that you wanted us to know?" I told them no, that it wasn't that bad. Angel's reply? "Awwww.... why not?"

Chore Charts

A few weeks ago, we decided we needed to have a family meeting to talk about the dreaded subject of chores. We believe our kids need to have chores so they can learn about personal responsibility, make a contribution to the family, to teach them to be organized, clean and take care of their things, and to also give them a little bit of moola so they can buy ice cream on Fridays after school. So we all sat down around the coffee table, broke out the pizza and handed each kid a piece of paper and a pencil. They were so excited to find out what this family meeting was going to be about. I layed out, in detail, what needed to be done and gave them the choice of when they were going to do that particular chore: morning, afternoon or evening. Now since THEY had the "power" to choose when to do what, they feel like they are in charge of their schedule and feel empowered to do chores! What a concept!! It's been three weeks now and I am AMAZED at how well these new chore charts are working. The kids put a checkmark after each chore is completed and if they complete all their chores that day, mom or dad drops a little money in a glass jar we bought just for them. I think each kid didn't complete all their chores only a few times. Angel and Alliah are such good kids! We certainly have been blessed with kids who LOVE to help, and now are starting to notice when help is needed and they step up! These chore charts are life savers and voice savers, too. We don't need to remind them, they just know what needs to be done. I'm left standing in the hall saying, "Ha-le-lu-yuh, thank-you Jesus!" :D I love them chore charts!

Wise Advise

Here's some of the wise advise emailed to me from my friend, Lillian:

The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing at the right time, but also to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.
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The older you get, the tougher it is to lose weight, because by then your body and your fat have gotten to be really good friends.
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Did you ever notice: The Roman Numerals for forty (40) are ' XL.'
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If you can smile when things go wrong, you must have someone else in mind to blame.
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The sole purpose of a child's middle name is so that he can tell when he's 'really' in trouble.
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Did you ever notice: When you put the 2 words 'The' and 'IRS' together it spells 'Theirs.'
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Aging: Eventually you will reach a point when you stop lying about your age and start bragging about it.
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The older we get, the fewer things seem worth waiting in line for.
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Ah, being young is beautiful, but being old is comfortable.
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Lord, Keep your arm around my shoulder and your hand over my mouth...AMEN..!!

Great Words

This was sent to me by my sister Liz. I liked it so I thought, "Why not share?"

Happiness keeps You Sweet,
Trials keep You Strong,
Sorrows keep You Human,
Failures keep You Humble,
Success keeps You Glowing,
But Only God keeps You Going!

Oh How They've Grown!