Goodbye 2009, Hello 2010!!!

This is a modified version of the letter that we sent out for Christmas this year...I thought it seemed like a good fit for wrapping up the blog for this year too.

Thanks for continuing to read along with us on our journey through life! :)

Wishing you a Happy 2010!!!

We hope that this finds you all doing well! I think it is safe to say that all of us here are just a little bit glad to be saying goodbye to the year 2009…it’s definitely been a bit rough on us-starting the year out with Scott’s job loss followed by two failed adoptions (one in June & one in November)-let’s just say that a “fresh start” is something that sounds just a little appealing at this point!
So in order to send this year out in style (& to get away from all of that negativity in the first part of this post), here are the…

Top 5 Things That Were
“Fine in 2009!”

5. Teaching! I love working with all of the kids at school & up at church for religion classes. They make my days fun & they give me many great stories to share when the day is done.

4. Scott found a job! He has been employed with a company since the end of June. He works on computers/networks for school districts & is stationed at 3 different schools. He is really enjoying this job & the change of pace. It was quite a blessing that he not only found a job, but also one that he enjoys!

3. Kitties, puppies, trains/cars, balls & BOOKS! Luke has discovered quite a LOVE for all of these things over this last year & if you listen close, you might catch him ‘quoting’ some of his favorite lines from books. He also really likes talking about his cats-Sassy, Bert & Esther!

2. Friends & Family! In many ways, this year has been a tough one, but it has also shown us just how blessed we are to have friends & family like all of you in our lives! The support & love we have been given means more to us than words could ever express & we love each & every one of you very much!

1. Faith! We still have lots of it & we plan on using lots of it in the new year!

We’re looking forward to the New Year and hope that you are too!

Love,
The Faith, Hope & Poop Household

Two year olds don't really get the phrase...

"Hello. I love you...now give me some space!" :)

All of my plans for this wonderful week off of school have pretty well gone down the gutter because my 2 year old got sick on Sunday night. It is a cold he received from his father, but I am the one taking care of it-somehow this doesn't quite seem fair ;)

My wonderful, exciting plans included-cleaning my house intensely while my 2 year old had a visit with the sitter on Monday, catching up on blog reading while my 2 year old took naps, typing a few blog posts after my husband would get home in the evenings while he was playing with my 2 year old, baking food for our remaining Christmas parties that are to be held this weekend...they were all lovely plans...

This is how the week has shaped up...

Sunday evening-Luke comes down with a fever-he ends up sleeping in our bed so that he will sleep more than 45 minutes at a time
Monday-Luke & I lie in a chair for probably 90% of the day while his fever continues, thus he does not go to the sitter, thus I get nothing accomplished-I decide to sleep in his room on the floor so that he will sleep for more than an hour at a time
Tuesday-no temperature...Luke goes to the sitter while I go to the dentist & get groceries-Luke is very clingy the rest of the day & refuses to play with or sit on dad's lap when he arrives home at 8 p.m.-Luke sleeps in our bed again so that he will sleep more than an hour at a time
Wednesday-Luke is feeling better, but still very clingy & must nap on me-anytime my attention focuses elsewhere, his turns to mischief so that mine will return to him a.k.a nothing can get accomplished around the house-after Scott arrived home, Luke once again refused dad until dad enticed him with candy & then mom ran away to the computer & shut the door behind her :)

I can feel my sanity being restored ever so slightly as I type...it has been quite awhile since I have spent nearly 24 hours a day for several days in a row with Luke literally 'right by my side'...I am glad for this slight reprieve & things might start heading in the right direction if I can get some things done tomorrow, even if I have to do it with my 2 year old attached to me :-D

What Would Jesus Do? :)

1 Child Nativity Set with the Baby Jesus having been added yesterday on his 'birthday'

+

1 Toy Tractor & Wagon delivered by Santa yesterday=

Mom having to say to her 2 year old son this morning...

"I'm not so sure that Baby Jesus is supposed to be driving a tractor."

Merry Christmas!!! ;)

Christmas is Coming!!!

Finally, the Christmas songs are being played on the radio! Around this area anyway, it seems as if many of the stations have been playing very few holiday songs until this week...it's just a tad hard to catch the holiday spirit completely when you can't find any of the appropriate tunes to listen to while driving between places.

So, in honor of the season, here are a few of my favorites this year...

White Christmas by The Drifters
I enjoy the classic version of this song too, but somehow I think I could listen to this & it never get old.

Ludacrismas by Ludacris
I watched the movie Fred Claus a few days ago & I thought this song was super (and the chorus is quite catchy too!) :)

Don't be a Jerk by Spongebob Squarepants
This was also a new one this year & I think the message "it's the season to be jolly not jerky" is definitely needed sometimes this time of year, plus the chorus is also so fun to sing.

I Want a Hippopotomas for Christmas
Who wouldn't? ;)

Wise beyond his years

A conversation held yesterday between myself & a 2nd grader...

2nd Grader: (in a real serious voice) "Hey Mrs. S! Did you know that I will have to move to China when I turn 16?"

Me: (pondering what in the world he is talking about-military? No, you have to be 18 for that & then why China if that was the case. Family relocating? No, I know of this family & that would seem very odd, especially looking approximately 8 years into the future at this point. So I decided to ask...) "Why will you have to move to China?"

2nd Grader: "Because I will have to get a job when I turn 16 so I will have to move to China."

Me: (looking quite confused at this point) "Why would you need to move to China to get a job when you turn 16?"

2nd Grader: "Well...I really want to get a job where I can make toys and all of the toys are made in China, so I will have to move to China."

Me: (laughing) "You're right, many of the toys are made in China! Good luck with those plans, but maybe you should at least try to graduate before you move to China." :)

Somedays these kids just make my blog post ideas sooo easy ;)

The Finale: A 'Tail' of Running

Okay, so I really never finished up this little series of posts due to life getting in the way, well here it is...

If you need to catch up here is the original & here is Part 2.

Sooo, that Monday evening came & I decided to run "at night" in the dark....

I headed out the door with my light colored clothing & a flashlight. The flashlight definitely came in handy as I was passed by several cars while I was walking/running, but it also helped to ease my imagination that kept trying to run wild.

I had also decided to bring along my MP3 player to use the music as a distraction for my crazy imagination too.

I kept hearing the words "Chicken" & "Pansy" running through my head as I went along...

but I finally settled into a somewhat calm pattern & let myself get lost in the rhythm of the running & the music playing in my ears while keeping an eye out for cars.

All was going very well & I was really beginning to see just how silly I was being about all of this running in the dark stuff.

Then all of a sudden I realized that I wasn't really paying attention anymore & as I became more alert & began to take in my surroundings again (through the beam of a flashlight)...I saw it...not more than 15-20 feet away from me...

A SKUNK!!!

I started stomping my feet & talking out loud & it decided to turn around & crawl back towards the trees from where it had come...

My imagination started going HOG WILD at this point & I admit that I was just a wee bit concerned! Why, you ask? Because I cannot smell, thus, I had no idea if any spraying had occurred, so the following questions began running through my head...

1. Do I smell like skunk?
2. If I do, will I stink up my house just by stepping into it?
3. What if Scott is putting Luke to bed & I can't confirm or deny this right away?
4. What the hell am I going to do if I smell like skunk-I have to work tomorrow?

A little overreaction, maybe, but this is how my brain works :)

I walked into the house...Scott was in the living room...he said that I did NOT smell like skunk...then he laughed at my insanity :)

All I could think was "HA!" I was right to feel like a 'chicken' when it comes to running after dark around here!

JUSTIFICATION never "smelled" so good! ;)

Wordless Wednesday: "Happy Holidays" ???

Tuesday's Soapbox: Family Ties

Disclaimer: "Tuesday's Soapboxes" are not meant to be offensive-Comments I make are not directed at any one person or group, but are just my thoughts on whatever topic I choose for that particular Tuesday. The topics may range from serious in nature to just downright silly. As always, I appreciate hearing what you have to say about them, however, I am not here to start any 'debates'. Thanks for reading & I hope you enjoyed :)

Oh, that's right, it's back-at least for this week anyway :)

The holiday season is once again upon us & along with it comes the stress of all of the things that need to be done, all of the places to go & all of the people to see. And for me one of the worst parts of it all is the part where we are trying to share our time with all of our families at all of the festivities that will inevitably (most years anyway) conflict with each other...you can believe me when I say that I do truly start stressing out about this in October every single year.

The ultimate problem stems from the terms "extended family" & "immediate family."
These terms lead to questions such as:
"Who should come first?"
"What are the determining factors when trying to decide?"
"What happens if we go here instead of there?"
And on and on and on...

The basic jist of it all comes down to the basic statement that I have heard come out of several people's mouths (including that of my mother's in reference to how one of my sister's decides where to go when her events conflict) year after year..."Immediate family should come before extended family" & that is where it all gets tricky folks!

In our specific circumstance, it takes a little bit of traveling to visit any of my "immediate" family members & both of my "extended" families & Scott's "extended" family, thus we do not see many of these people nearly as often as we would like & so we feel it is very important to attend these functions when they occur. We see Scott's "immediate" family (who when they are all home for any of the holidays) are literally right next door & we see much of them for several days back-to-back-to-back. So, yes, I admit it-we do tend to put more of an emphasis on making sure we attend the other family Christmas events first if there is a conflict with Scott's "immediate" family Christmas event, mostly because we know that we will have many opportunities to see them over the course of a few days & therefore, feel like it could easily be the most flexible one scheduling-wise due to everyone being so close together in regards to location. This, of course, tends to cause a few problems from year to year & loads of guilt on our part because we are putting "extended" family before "immediate" family (i.e. remember the anxiety that begins in October :)

Anyway, the point of all of this is that it all got me to thinking more about it this year & I actually "thought something I hadn't thought before" (that's my own little take on the Grinch there ;)

What are these terms we all use to refer to each other & what do they really mean? The definitions please (taken from dictionary.com)...

Immediate family:
one's parents, step-parents, siblings, spouse, children, step-children, foster children, in-laws, sibling in-laws, grandparents, great grandparents, step-great grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, nieces, and nephews

Extended family:

1.	a kinship group consisting of a family nucleus and various relatives, as grandparents, usually living in one household and functioning as a larger unit. Compare nuclear family.

2.	(loosely) one's family conceived of as including aunts, uncles, cousins, in-laws, and sometimes close friends and colleagues.

So, basically, our "immediate" family members are exactly the same as our "extended" family members, except for maybe 'cousins', but then aren't Luke's cousins (who would be considered his extended family) actually my nieces & nephew (which makes them my immediate family, but not his)...

CLEAR AS MUD, huh!!! :)

All I really can tell you that I know for sure is that each & every single one of our family members is very important to us no matter whether they are "immediate" or "extended", thus, it is very important to us that Luke get to know ALL of his family (immediate & extended!) Therefore, we will continue to do our very best to make that possible as long as all of these families continue to get together because in my humble opinion-family is family and they are all equally important to have around! :)

Happenings around Home

Over the past week...

*I have somehow managed to be near the computer like 2 days of the whole week(Sunday & yesterday), unfortunately, it seemed to be quite a busy email week for me (which is a bit unusual) & I found out about several different important things all at once so...

*I have several emails to follow up on now & several people to write back too-sorry if I have not responded yet :)

*For one afternoon, I thought I was coming down with the flu again :( Luckily, taking the afternoon off of school/sleeping & relaxing that evening, helped me to feel much better, but the back aches (like I had with the flu last month) that came along with it still took a few days to go away. [This would also be part of the reason I was "unplugged" for a few days.]

*We are all still crying all of the time here at the Faith, Hope & Poop household, but not for the reasons you might be thinking...Luke has finally become aware of this lovely phase called "I DO IT BY MYSELF!" It is sooo handy when you are in a hurry or trying to do something like fill up his cup. Somehow over the past 2 weeks, he seems to have come to the conclusion that he is quite capable of (along with many, many other things) taking a FULL gallon milk jug & filling up his own cup. We beg to differ thus the crying on the parts of both sides due to several close calls :)

*Along with this, I am soo happy that he can undress himself, but I just wish that he would stop yelling "PEE" & pulling his "undies" down before we get to him (he's a quick one alright!) Acting like the carpet is all one big potty is NOT cool!
[On a side note though, he is beginning to tell us quite a bit more regularly, which is a major plus-I'm hoping to have a few days at Christmas to work on this a bit more consistently with him, but he has come a long way over the past few months!]

*Lucky for me [stated with only a hint of sarcasm], Luke is in a very big "mommy" phase right now, which is okay at many different times, but please son, when dad is home with us too-he is quite capable of playing the same games/toys that I play with you & even if he is not-it really is OKAY for me to have at least 2 minutes of "me time" when I need to use the bathroom. As soon as I disappear, all I hear is Luke saying to Scott "Mommy? Mommy? Mommy?" Hmmmm...I guess I'll enjoy it while it lasts because I'm sure that before too long he may not want to spend quite as much of his quality time with me & then I might be left feeling left out ;)