Friday the 13th

So today is Friday the 13th and its been awhile since i blogged...matter of fact its been all summer! We've been through a pretty crazy summer that i will blog about soon, but just wanted to make sure i posted today because we got some pretty awesome news today that we've been waiting to hear all summer. Can't post anything yet, need to figure out how to make this private so i can get all my thoughts down first....but i am vowing to get back into blogging.

Till later......

Spring Break

So, this week is Spring Break for the kids...the weather started out Monday being nasty and cold, rainy, but today, Wednesday, its supposed to get up to the 70's....thank goodness!! I am so ready for nice weather and the kids are too. Paetyn had gymnastics last week and she was moved up another level...she has only been in gymnastics since last June (8 months) and she has moved up 5 levels already! We are so proud of her...her teacher told me the other night that she has talent....we are going to see about letting her try out for the gymnastics team for next year. I told her she wouldn't be able to do dance and gymnastics both and she said 'thats ok'....didn't seem to bother her a bit! I'm glad that Khloe will still be in dance, cuz i don't know that i could have NO one in dance! lol I'm so used to having at least one girl in dance for the past 18 years i don't know what i'll do when i don't have a daughter in dance..maybe i'll have a granddaughter in it by that time! Paetyn starts softball tonite....she is nervous but i think she'll do fine. She's been in tball since she was 3, so she's definitely ready for a change. Plus she is on her best friend Audrey's team, so she is excited about that. I realized the other nite that at this time right now, she is in gymnastics, dance, softball and soccer all at the same time! Thats a lot for a 6 year old....but soccer will be over soon, and dance right after.
We found a new soccer team for Tanner and he is excited about it. He is on a team with other boys his age that he goes to school with, and his coach seems to know what he is doing, which is a plus. He started practice last week.
Dealing with some things with Braden...nothing new, but how we handled it is new, and i just hope we did the right thing. We'll see i guess, only time will tell. I just don't know what will happen if he doesn't change his ways soon. Maybe this will be the wake up call he needs....i just don't know if i believe that or not. Its hard to trust when your trust has been broken so many times.
Going shopping with Jess on Friday...i sooo need it! Always fun to go shopping with her, we never seem to run out of stuff to talk about. We are going to Hollo's for cardstock, then probably to Hobby Lobby and Archivers..havent been to HL and Hollos in a very long time....looking forward to it!
Have a great Wednesday!!

His Hero

I forgot to post this a few weeks ago. Tanner had an assignment at school, where he had to write about his hero. And he wrote about ME! (makes me cry just typing it..) Here it is...

"My Mom is My Hero" By Tanner Cope

 A hero is someone who never gives up on their children, and that is my mom. My mom takes care of me so I don't get hurt. Because she takes care of me, I know she loves me. My mom helps me with things I don't know how to do and is always there for me. My mom always knows what to say when I'm in trouble. A hero is someone who never gives up, and my hero is my mom.

I hope that I can be the Hero he thinks I am...i love that kid!!

Not what we planned

Yesterday was supposed to be a great day...we were planning to go to church in the morning, then the kids wanted to go roller skating in the afternoon at the school's skating party. We also had small groups for church that we were going to try to fit in, but we weren't sure if that was gonna work out. So, we headed to church in the morning and it was an AWESOME service! We started a new series, called The Me I Want To Be, and its all about how God made us to be the people we are, but we must be the 'best Me' we can. After church, was Kidstuf and Khloe danced with the Kidstuf dancers...she really seems to enjoy being up on that stage and we love watching her up there. After church, we came home and went on a mad cleaning frenzy! We are in the process of refinancing the house, and we had appraisers coming on Monday so we needed to clean up a bit. Brad made sausage, pepper and onion sandwiches for lunch and the kids had leftover pizza. Tif came for lunch, but Andrew had to work, so it was just the 7 of us. Around 2:30pm, we decided we had better at least go to small groups for an hour, then we'd go skating. Went to Merry and Ryon's, and Melanie and Dru were there but Tim and Tamarickia weren't. Was disappointed that we didnt get to see them, but we all sat down to watch a parenting series by Dr. Gary Smalley  http://gosmalley.com/seminars/speakers-bureau/gary-smalley and it was great! It was all about different parenting styles and what type are you? Well Brad and I decided that we are the Dominant and part Neglectful parents...which sounds awful when you write it down but it actually means that we are strong on rules and also tend to be a little permissive ('go ahead, i don't care') type of parents. What we need to strive to be though is the lot of love, very attentive kind of parents. When you have 6 kids, it can be hard to give them lots of individual attention but its something we both want to work on.
Anyway, we watched the movie, then it was time for us to leave for the skating rink. As we rounded the corner, Paetyn was sooo excited, she was about to jump out of her seat, and then we saw it.......the line that went AROUND the building, the line of cars waiting to pull in to the parking lot, and the parking lot next door almost filled! What you need to understand is that this isn't the year 1978 when roller skating was the rage!! This is 2010....NO ONE goes skating anymore....at least we didn't think so! But apparently the promise of free admission and ALL of your friends going is enough to get everyone in New Philadelphia out of the house on a cold February Sunday to go skating! Well i knew this wasnt going to end well...Brad is not one who is big on crowds, I really didn't want to go in there and try to skate with that many kids around, and where in the world would be even sit?? I slowly turned around to look at Paetyn's face and knew she was about to be disappointed...Brad and I looked at each other and he said..'um, maybe we shouldn't do this today..' and the tears started to fall. She was so upset, as i'm sure the other kids were too, they just aren't as verbal as Paety is! She kept saying it wasn't fair, and she'd look at me and just sob. We turned around and went to Walmart, because we needed coffee and we also wanted to try to figure out something else to do...and everytime we'd look at her, the tears would just roll down her face. I knew she was disappointed and i felt so bad for her, and when we were almost out of the store, her daddy had a great idea...he whispered something in her ear and she smiled so big....
She looked at me and said 'daddy said we can go to Grinders for desert'!!! Well in our kids minds, that is just the next best thing to roller skating!! We NEVER get desert when we go out to dinner (just too expensive usually with 6 people) so to actually be able to go and get desert was huge to her! We went to Grinder's and she ordered a hot fudge sundae..and when it came to our table it was huge! The other 3 ordered mouse munchers or something like that, and theirs was ice cream and oreos...Brad and I each ordered a brownie sundae and it was wayyy more than i needed but it was soo good!!
And last nite, right after he kissed Paetyn good nite, she looked at him and said 'thank you daddy for taking us to Grinders tonite for desert'....in the sweetest little voice ever....and he looked at her and said 'you're welcome honey'.....
and so our not what we planned on day ended up being a pretty good day after all.....

New week....its Monday!

So, its Monday, Presidents Day today so the kids have no school...and its snowing...again! Supposed to get 3-6 today and another 2" by morning....if it comes, guess the kids will be off school again tomorrow. They will then have to start losing either their Spring Break or go into June...either way, not good. So much better to have no school when its nice and warm outside, not cold! We had a great Valentines day...Brad made me dinner, filet mignon, crablegs, baked zucchini, baked sweet potatoes and salad. I am so lucky to have him in my life...don't know what i'd do without him. I got Valentines from my kids....and they got them from us. I am blessed to have such good people in my life. Well not much more to say...here are some pics i took recently...
bottom pic is Tanner and Gio (a little boy i watch) in their snow cave..

She is 10

February 7, 2010, Khloe turned 10 years old. I honestly don't know where the time has gone..i remember the first time i saw her, so beautiful. I remember hearing the first time that she was going to be ours, and how happy we were. She has grown up so much in the past 10 years, going through things that no child should have to be put through, but she has come out strong, beautiful and stronger than she realizes. I don't know what the world has in store for her, but i hope the world is ready for her! Open your eyes and shine girl!! I love you!! mama

10 years of Khloe....

sorry about the sideways pics...don't know how to fix those! lol Anyway, from birth to age 10...can't wait to see what the next 10 years bring!!

Happy Monday!

So, its Monday and i can definitely tell!! After getting Braden off to school at 7am, went back to sleep and slept in til 8...got Paetyn up, dressed and headed down to breakfast where we were joined by Khloe and Tanner...after they ate breakfast, and brushed teeth we were on our way out the door when Paety said "oh mama, we forgot my book'!! Which meant we had forgotten to read her book that she brings home on Thursdays, (but she brought home Friday cuz she wasnt there last Thursday) and her class book that she also brought home on Friday! We sat down at the table..good thing we were actually a little early today anyway...and she read her book to me, then we read the class book and took a picture of her page (cuz we don't know if we'll ever see the book again, so we always take a picture of her with her page). As we got in the car and were almost to school, i asked if she had her hat...um, no she didn't. Then i realized she was also wearing her broken zipper coat with no jacket underneath! I soo hope they don't have outside recess today....its pretty cold outside, so chances are pretty good they won't, but i'm sure i won't be getting Mother of the Year now!! lol Came home, got my coffee with my peppermint mocha creamer and home made whip cream in my HUGE Starbucks cup, and read my emails. Good thing i don't have anything planned for today...maybe i should just go back to bed??!! Happy Monday!

10 days til shes 10

My middle girly will be 10 in 10 days..wow where has the time gone?!

10 things Khloe likes (according to her)

1. Dance
2. Cats
3. Junie B. Jones books
4. Mexican food
5. Christmas
6. Church
7. Dress up
8. playing school
9. scrapbooking
10. her mom!

10 facts about Khloe (according to me)

1. She can throw a temper tantrum within seconds
2. She is one of the sweetest girls i know
3. She's beautiful...but doesn't know it
4. She almost always gives in to her sister or brother
5. She loves to spend time alone with her mama
6. She HATES to study for anything
7. She is very very girly...loves fashion, fingernail polish, and lotions...but hates to comb her hair!!
8. She is my very best room cleaner..even though she hates to do it!
9. She is a big eater, even though she is no bigger than a flea
10.She says she is gonna work at Starbucks (to get her mama free frapps) and be a massage therapist (to give me free massages!)

Favorite food: pizza
Least favorite food: green olives
Favorite drink: root beer float
Least favorite drink: Harvest surprise veggie juice
Favorite tv show: ICarly
Least favorite tv show: Back at the Barnyard
Favorite movie: The Little Princess (shirley temple)
Least favorite movie: GI Joe
Favorite book: Little Women
Least favorite book: she doesn't usually read books she doesn't like
Favorite color: Purple
Least favorite color: Black
Favorite day of the week: Sunday
Least favorite day of the week: Monday
Favorite class: Reading
Least favorite class: Math
Favorite band or singer: Hannah Montana
Least favorite band or singer: Adam Lambert and David Archuleta
Favorite State: Kansas (cuz she'd rather live there and gramma lives there)
Least favorite State: Indiana..(cuz it takes too long to go through!)
Favorite clothes to wear: dress or skirt
Least favorite clothes to wear: Clothes that are too small

kids home from school today due to a slight dusting of snow we got last nite! lol Seriously, not much there, but they gave us a 2 hour delay first, then canceled by 7:30am. So, all of the kids are home today..already had to send Tanner to his room for teasing the girls..and that was within the first  hour that he was out of bed! Not sure what we're gonna do today..prob play some Wii and clean the house a bit. I counted how many pages i've scrapped this month and as of yesterday Jan. 25, i had scrapped 25 pages! Thats an average of 1 per day...not bad, hope i can keep it up! will share a page or two that i did this month..happy tuesday!

Some scrappy stuff

I finally scrapped this month!! I've been wanting to for a while, and last Friday nite Jess, Kari and i went scrapping and i got 9 pages done!! Just thought i'd share...

Mama i need glasses...

Paetyn has been obsessed lately with thinking she needs glasses. She said 'i can't read this' or 'i can't see this'..so when i held up a paper for her to read then she said 'mama, i can't read'!! lol So one day when Brad and i were out, we found a pair of reading glasses for .59!! Well since i'm ALWAYS losing mine, i decided to grab a pair...and he said 'why don't we get a pair for Paety also'...so we did......and you LOVE them!! You ask if you can wear them to school, to gymnastics, everywhere we go. We don't let you wear them to school or gymnastics, but you do get to wear them to the grocery store or other places...oh and yes..we took the lenses out, didn't want you to REALLY have to need glasses!  I do have to admit you look awfully cute in them!!

Monday

Outside My Window
its cold and gloomy and rainy

I am listening to
the kids playing/fighting on the Wii

I am wearing
pj pants and a tshirt

I am thankful for
so many things this week:
1. Brad went back to work this week (after 6months of being laid off)
2. Church was great yesterday
3.No school for the kids today so we got to sleep in
4. My mom is back home after being in Florida for a week..i missed her!
5. An awesome husband.

I am pondering
what i should eat for lunch

I am reading
The 4th Sookie Stackhouse book, Dead to the World....LOVE my vampire books!

From the kitchen
Guess it will be chicken tonite...with Brad on days for a while, this means the dinner duty falls back to me...i really don't like cooking dinner..:( and he is so much better at it!

I am thinking
about scrapbooking today...i have some page packets ready, so think i will start during lunch

I am creating
scrapbooks for my kids.

On my ipod
hmmm, no ipod here....yea i'm still stuck in the 90's apparently! lol


I am hoping and praying
for lots of things...for things to get better around here, for me to figure out how to do the right thing, for the people in Haiti, for my kids to stay well

Around the house
Need to clean the living room, but i don't want to...prob should unload and load the dishwasher..but i don't want to....notice the pattern here??

Funny Girl

Paetyn is such a funny girl! The other nite we were eating dinner and someone asked a question and Tanner said 'i do'. Immediately Paetyn said 'what, are you getting married'??? I had no idea what she was talking about and looked at her funny and she said 'what? he said 'i do'!! Now what 6 year old would think of something that quickly?!
One day a few months ago, after Paetyn and Khloe had been fighting/arguing all day i told Paetyn 'you should be loyal to your sister'....she looked at me funny and said 'ROYAL?? Why royal...she's not a queen or something'!! yes, my little peanut you are a funny girl..

Sick boy

Today Tanner is home sick...it started last nite with him puking all over his floor in his room. I heard Tif screaming 'mom, mom' and i go into his room to see what the heck is going on and all i see is a big pile of puke on his floor...the good mom should have said 'oh my goodness' and run in to see how he was doing...but who ever said i was the 'good mom'?! Instead all i could think was oh my gosh, why didn't he get to the bathroom instead of standing there puking all over the carpet? So while Tif gagged stayed in the bathroom with him, i gagged cleaned up the carpet. I had a towel wrapped around my face so i couldn't smell it, but it didn't work too well. All i could think was 'what the heck did he eat that was ORANGE'??? So after we got him and the room and the bed cleaned up, i changed his sheets and he went back to bed. I told him if he had to get up again, to please try to make it to the bathroom....don't stand and puke on your floor. And what did he say? 'I just didn't want to spread it clear across the room'! Yea, i felt like crap, like the bad mom that i was being. I hate that i am not very sympathetic to sick kids...i can be sympathetic when they are little, but as they get older, i just am not that sypmathetic. i don't know why really. Then he started crying and that just gets me..and not in a good way either. Tanner wears his emotions on his sleeve, and when he cries (which he does ALL the time) its hard for me to tolerate. So, i left the room....i know i need to work on this, i know i need to be more patient....i know i need to ask God to help me with this. Maybe that should be one of my resolutions this year....ask God for help more, and not be so quick to be harsh.

Ten Tales from Ten Years Ago

Ten years ago it was the year 2000, and i was 34 years old and...

1. Tif and I had survived the Y2K scare after worrying all nite long on New years eve if everything would just shut down!
2. In February, the little girl that we would adopt in 3 years was born...but we didn't know her and had NO idea that we would even be thinking of adopting.
3.In May, we went to a fertility specialist to see why i couldn't maintain a pregnancy...and found out i was pregnant...only to end up having another (my 3rd) miscarriage by June.
4. Tif started 7th grade in August and got contacts this year
5. Brad started a new job at Timken, working in maintenance. I sent his resume in, becuase we were tired of all the stuff going on at United States Ceramics (where he had been for 16 years). Turned out to be a good decision, becuase a few years later they would go out of business.
6. I was the Director at a child care center in West Lafayette, making 9.50/hr...it was my first Director's job and i really liked it..just hated the 30 minute drive one way to get there.
7. George W. Bush won the presidential nomination against Al Gore...we were very upset, because we felt like it was all 'fixed' since he didn't win the most popular votes in the country.
8.Brandon turned 8 and started 2nd grade
9. Bow hunting is a big thing in our house..and this was the year that Brad taught Tif how to shoot a bow..and she was really pretty good at it! However, things quickly changed when she discovered other interests (boys!) and she quit wanting to shoot with him.
10. We started going to church at Dennison Four Square and re established our relationship with Jesus Christ. This completely changed our lives for the better.

New Year....new Blog!

Ok, so i am determined to write in this blog every week this year. I'll try to do it on Mondays, cuz i'm thinking maybe i can remember to do that! lol So, the kids went back to school today...and we had snow like crazy last nite! I woke up early to check the tv to see if there was school today, but of course, here in Tusc Co everyone had school! Just was not ready to head back to school yet, has been nice sitting around in pjs all day doing nothing. We start back up with Small Groups from church this week. And dance and gymnastics starts back up too. Guess we might as well get back in to EVERYTHING full swing at once, huh?! ok, gonna figure out how to add pics to my posts...back soon!