Celebration Day #2

Today was our second day of celebrating my dad and Ian's birthday. Tomorrow is Ian's actual birthday, and that will be our final day of celebrating this milestone. We each ate one donut for breakfast this morning as is our tradition for birthdays. The six of us went to church this morning, and Paul went to work at the plant while Dad and I were in Sunday School and the kids were rehearsing with their choir. Around 1pm as the Steelers game was getting started, we ate pancakes, eggs, and bacon. My dad and Nadia had Klondike bars for dessert; I haven't bought those in years so I think it was Nadia's first time having one (I got them at my Dad's request). The Steelers won (sorry to my friends who are Buffalo fans), which was a nice "gift" for my dad's birthday weekend. After the football game we had what he requested for dinner - pot roast, mashed potatoes, creamed corn, and cherry pie. Dad was the only one who had any of the pie, and I am sending it home so he and Maurice can enjoy it in Maryland this week. The kids loved having Grandpa around. He read some picture books to them, sang Christmas carols with them, played Zingo and Boggle with them, etc. He will be leaving early in the morning tomorrow, but the good news is that he plans to return in just thirteen days. Although the start of Ian's life would have been less stressful if he had been born closer to his due date (January 20), it is special that his birthday is just two days after Grandpa's and eight days before Pop Pop's. It has been fun to celebrate Grandpa and Ian's birthdays together several times over the past seven years.

Below you will find pictures from last week. Paul and I are watching the Giants game while my dad and our kids are sleeping. It's so nice to be cheering in agreement this week (neither of us like the Cowboys) as we both want the Giants to win.

Making kale chips

View of Science museum and Heinz Field from the Duquesne Incline

Very special day!

The last few years we have taken the kids to our fire department's annual breakfast with Santa, which is a free event (aside from making a donation to the food pantry). In the past it's been held on a Saturday morning, but this year it's being held on Sunday (18th), which won't work for us as we'll be at church. Most of the other breakfast with Santa events I had seen advertisements for cost money, but when we were at the library I noticed an advertisement for a free one very close to the Lewisburg library. So our day started out with breakfast at 9:00 with Santa and Mrs. Claus. They served chocolate chip pancakes, scrambled eggs, potatoes, fresh fruit, sausage, juices, hot chocolate, and coffee. Nadia ate a couple of bites of one pancake but primarily had scrambled eggs and fruit. Ian ate one pancake and two sausage links. Oliver had a pancake, potatoes, and sausage. They also had four different craft stations set up - at one of them Oliver made a "candy cane" out of Froot Loops, at another Nadia and Ian did some coloring. Their favorite was the cookie decorating station. All three of them skipped the activity that involved yarn.

Our next stops included the library (we have more than 50 books on loan right now) and buying donuts at Dunkin Donuts for our breakfast tomorrow. At noon we joined a demonstration of making candy canes at a candy factory (where the candy is handmade) that is about 5 minutes from our house. It was a very interesting demonstration, and at the end every child was able to roll and shape a piece of the candy into a candy cane and bring it home to eat later. They do these demonstrations three times a day on two different dates each December. This was our first time going in this candy store, and I don't think it will be our last as it was a very informative demonstration.

Paul got home from work earlier than usual so he could take Nadia and Ian to church to see a production of A Christmas Carol at 2:00. Grandma and Pop Pop joined them there. They said it was very well done. Including the intermission it was almost 3 hours long. While they were there I got some cleaning and Christmas wrapping done. My dad arrived around 4:30pm while I was picking up the pizzas. I got two large pizzas for everyone and also a cheesesteak sandwich for my dad because he can't have tomato sauce. Al and

Millie brought some cookies for the kids to decorate as well as two birthday cakes. The bigger cake was for Ian, and it was half chocolate and half vanilla. The smaller mandarin orange cake was for my dad. After dinner and dessert Grandpa and Ian opened their presents. Nadia and Ian also played the piano. After Ian finished building his new Lego set, Nadia, Grandpa, and Pop Pop joined him in a game of Mario on the Wii. The party decorations, plates, napkins, cups, etc were all either related to Mario or Baby Mario. Grandpa, Nadia and I also played a game of Boggle.

I think the kids had a wonderful day. I especially hope that Grandpa and Ian had a nice beginning to their birthday weekend celebration. I am very grateful that Paul's parents, Al, Millie, and my dad could join us. Of course, my mom was missed. Birthday celebrations were very important to her.

I took pictures today but haven't uploaded most of them to my laptop yet. Most of the photos in this post are from Pittsburgh.

Date Night!

Tonight Paul and I will be going on our third date this year. We went ballroom dancing in April for my 44th birthday and out to dinner in August for our 15th anniversary. I learned on Facebook that a Baptist church in our area teamed up with another community organization to offer a "Parent's Night Out" which means free childcare from 5:00-8:30 tonight. When I told Nadia about it, she said we didn't need to go on dates any more since we are married. I disagree! The main reason we don't go out very often is because babysitting costs $10/hr. Paul's parents graciously watched our kids for our other two dates this year. The only cost of the babysitting tonight is bringing some canned foods for a food pantry! We are planning to go to Olive Garden for dinner, which is one of my favorites and I often go years without eating there. And I have coupons in my purse for JcPenney, Sears, etc., and I'm sure we'll do some grocery shopping at Aldi's as well. Shopping without the kids is a very rare and greatly appreciated treat because shopping with Oliver at the mall is pretty torturous.

Tomorrow we are having Ian's 7th birthday party so the house is ALL decked out right now. I am one who likes to have minimal clutter and I go pretty simple with decorations in general, but right now we've got Christmas decorations PLUS birthday decorations so the family room and kitchen in particular are all decked out with Christmas and Super Mario decorations. Ian's actual birthday will be on Monday, and that means the kids will have a three day weekend because we don't do school work on his birthday. This afternoon I bought a gallon of chocolate milk for the kids, and tomorrow I'm going to pick up six donuts for us to eat on Sunday morning. My dad will be spending two nights with us as he plans to arrive tomorrow afternoon and leave early in the morning on Monday. Tomorrow is his 73rd birthday so we're celebrating two birthdays this weekend. Paul's parents are joining Paul, Nadia, and Ian at church tomorrow to see a production of A Christmas Carol, and then everyone (plus Grandpa, Al, and Millie) will be joining us for pizza and birthday cake at our house. I will be preparing the meals my dad requested on Sunday - pancakes, bacon, pot roast, mashed potatoes, cherry pie, Klondike bars, Hawaiian punch, and creamed corn. Hopefully both Ian and my dad will have a wonderful birthday weekend! Ian will have his first basketball practice on the evening of his birthday.

Although I am looking forward to our date, the most exciting thing for me today was I bought a new camera body online. It should arrive by next Wednesday. I can't wait to start using it! I got my first DSLR camera 5 1/2 years ago, and I have really loved it but it's a crop body camera and doesn't deal as well with low light situations as a better camera will. I can use my existing lenses on my new full frame camera body. I expect to use this new camera far more than 5 1/2 years as it was a significant investment. Although I've wanted to upgrade for a couple of years, I didn't think it would ever be possible because of the cost, but my dad sold a coin collection my mom inherited when her dad died, and he is splitting the money from that between his four children. I am using part of my money to buy this camera body. I would much rather have my mom around, but I will think of her when I use my camera just like I think of my grandmother (my dad's mom) when I use our time share because I purchased that with the money I was given following her death. I know she enjoyed seeing pictures on the blog since she lived 3.5 hours away. Pictures helped her feel connected to her grandchildren. I can't wait to start using my new "toy" next week! The photos in this post were taken on Wednesday morning at the Children's Museum in Bloomsburg.

Thankful Thursday

The book was the only thing in that huge box!?!?

 On Monday morning the kids and I were out the door at 7:15, and we arrived at the hotel north of Pittsburgh around 10:45. After a little bathroom break, we drove down to the Carnegie Science Center which is located right next to the Steelers' stadium. Ian was VERY excited about this. He saw a big picture of three players on the side of the stadium, noticed that one was Big Ben, and kept asking to have his picture taken with "Big Ben" (the photo). We spent almost five hours in the museum, and that proved to be not enough time! All five of us got in free thanks to our membership. It would have cost if we had seen a laser show or an IMAX movie, but we opted to just do some of the free shows. Our only expense was $5 for parking, which saved us about $100 compared to what it would have cost if we bought a one day admission for three kids and two adults. There were nine different shows that day (two of those shows were presented more than once so there were eleven free shows altogether). We only saw three of the shows - a planetarium show, a program called "high

voltage" that was about electricity, and a "taste the rainbow" program that included us each tasting a kale chip. The USS Requin Submarine was closed for maintenance, but hopefully the next time we visit this museum we can go outside and tour the submarine that is in the water right by the museum. Some parts of the museum were similar to things we had seen at other science museums, but several exhibits were not at the museums in Philadelphia, Baltimore, or Boston. Thus far the kids have been to four science museums, and I am expecting that #5 will be the one in Chicago. Although the kids have enjoyed all four of them (we've been to the one in Baltimore three times so far), I think this Pittsburgh one was their favorite. The Bodyworks exhibit had things we haven't seen before (focused on the human body), and the roboworld was very interesting. They had robots that were doing different things. One robot was playing basketball right next to where people were also shooting hoops, and the robot was far more accurate. Another robot would create with up to 900 marbles whatever someone drew on a computer screen.

I did not allow enough time for the SportsWorks building, which was our last stop before heading to the Duquesne Incline. They had many interesting things in that building such as a rock climbing wall, a roller coaster simulator that spun you upside down, and much much more. Nadia volunteered to participate in two of the shows, and we did a wide variety of activities throughout the museum such as touching a cockroach and eating a marshmallow that had been frozen with liquid nitrogen. We met my dad's cousin (Charlie) and his wife (Nadine) at the parking lot for the incline. We enjoyed riding up Mt. Washington and enjoying the view of the city. Ian was again VERY excited about being able to see the field where Big Ben plays. 

In hindsight, we should not have done the incline so late in the day. Since I live in a rural area, I sometimes forget about RUSH HOUR. Big mistake. A drive that should have taken 15-20 minutes took 90 minutes instead. Considering I had already driven about four hours in the morning, it was exhausting to spend that much more time on the road. First we stopped at Brooke's house. She and

her husband are both lawyers. The last time I had seen her husband (Peter) was at Charlie's 70th birthday party in 2007 when Brooke was pregnant with her twins. I had seen Brooke briefly in the summer of 2012 when she visited me in the hospital during my pregnancy with Oliver. I also had met one of her sons that day. My kids met Charlie, Nadine, and their other daughter, Samantha (who lives in Virginia) at my mom's funeral. On Monday it was the first time my kids had met Brooke, Peter, and their three boys. Their twins are eight (will be turning nine next month) and are in third grade like Nadia, and their youngest is seven and in first grade like Ian. The six kids didn't have much time together, but it seemed like they hit it off well and would have enjoyed having more time to play together. Then we *finally* drove to Texas Roadhouse where Charlie graciously treated the five of us plus Nadine and Brooke to dinner. It was definitely the latest by FAR that my kids have ever eaten dinner as we didn't arrive at the restaurant until 7:30, and we didn't eat until after 8:00, which is usually when Oliver is going to bed. We didn't leave the restaurant until 9:00, which meant the kids weren't in bed until 9:30.

Nadia and I shared a double bed, and the boys shared the other double bed in the room. I did not get much sleep. Nadia just couldn't seem to be still. Tuesday morning we enjoyed a continental breakfast and then hung out in our room for awhile because the Children's Museum didn't open until 10:00, and we only had a 15-20 minute drive. All five of us again got in for free aside from paying $6 for parking. We started on the top floor, and I quickly learned I should have brought bathing suits for the kids as the water area really necessitated wearing a bathing suit (which the other children were

wearing). There were some interesting exhibits along the way such as a gravity room which really messed with your mind, but the highlight for my three were the art studio and makeshop on the first floor where we spent our time after eating lunch. They had a wide variety of art activities for the kids to do and had those areas very well staffed so that most of the time the kids had one-on-one assistance as they did things like needle felting, print making, painting, sewing, clay,

circuit making, etc. Nadia made a beautiful bookmark from recycled materials with an artist from Israel. I also enjoyed seeing many artifacts from Mr. Roger's throughout the museum - a pair of his shoes, a sweater his mom had knitted for him that he wore on the show, and many of the puppets used in the show. There was also an exhibit focused on Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood. 

While we were at the museum, Paul called me and told me it was sleeting north of State College (which I would pass through on I80 on my way home). It was only raining in Pittsburgh. He said I needed to either spend another night in Pittsburgh or come home a different route that would add one hour to my drive. I really wanted to sleep in my own bed, so I opted to drive a different route. Then as I was on my way home he told me it was also sleeting in our town, and he suggested that I spend the night in Mechanicsburg with his aunt and uncle. We ended up at their house a little before 8pm, which meant I had driven for almost 5

hours since leaving the museum (and 4.5 since I dropped my dad off at the hotel), and I still had to drive a little less than 2 hours on Wednesday morning. On the way out there it took me 3.5 hours, and on the way back it took me more than six hours altogether. Plus on the way back I had to pay a hefty toll, and there hadn't been any tolls on the way there. Tuesday night I was really wishing I had just stayed an extra night in Pittsburgh. The good news is that we arrived home safe and sound. The roads were fine on Wednesday because it was warmer that day. Having a longer drive is much better than getting in an accident.

Today I'm thankful...

1. That the Steelers won on Sunday. I am also VERY glad the Steelers won't play the Giants again for four more years. I'd be fine with our teams never playing each other again. :)

2. We had a safe trip to and from Pittsburgh.

3. We had the closing for our refinance today. Paying over $2K in closing costs was not a very "fun" way to spend money that is for sure, but our payments will be $200 less per month and if we stay here for another 10 years we'll save thousands in interest as our interest rate dropped 3% and we shortened the length of our loan. I am so glad all the paperwork and such is DONE.

4. The low oil pressure light started coming on only when I hit the brakes while we were in Pittsburgh. The light only flashed on briefly and then would go off again and stay off until the next time I used the brakes. I thought something was wrong with the sensor because I had gotten the oil changed only a 2 weeks (and 2 days) before we left for Pittsburgh. Then on Wednesday I noticed a strange sound now and then and was more concerned that something was wrong. When I drove it home last night from caroling at the nursing home, I told Paul I wasn't going to drive it again until it had been taken to a mechanic. Paul checked the oil

and nothing showed on the dipstick. I then became very worried that I had been driving around without oil and had done serious damage to the car. Paul figured that Sears must have done something wrong with the oil change 2 weeks ago. He had planned to come home really early today (to attend our closing at 3:30), but he ended up staying home the whole day. He got oil at Walmart, put some of it in the van, and then drove the van to Toyota. They fixed the oil leak and said that no damage had been done. Thank you, Lord! He then went to Sears to show them what Toyota had documented and the bill he paid at Toyota and also what he paid at Walmart for oil. They said the manager at Sears will call us tomorrow. I'm hoping they'll reimburse us since it was their error that incurred these expenses, but I am very relieved that it cost less than $100. I was fearing a much higher bill than that. What a relief!

5. Nadia and I had a wonderful bus trip on Saturday. We enjoyed touring the Capitol and State Museum and watching the

Nutcracker ballet for the first time.

6. We really enjoyed our visits to the Carnegie Science Center and Children's Museum of Pittsburgh. It was even more special because we shared those experiences with Grandpa. I am so thankful for our ASTC membership. We've gotten in nine museums for free in seven months. It's the best $40 I've ever spent!  We also enjoyed riding up the Duquesne Incline.

7. It was wonderful to spend some time with relatives we don't see very often (Charlie, Nadine, Brooke, Peter, and their three sons). My dad never had any first cousins. Charlie is a more distant cousin of his (3rd maybe?), but growing up we saw them as often as our first cousins. Hopefully we won't let 9 years pass before we see them again, and hopefully our next gathering will be for a happier reason than a funeral. We also appreciated Charlie treating us to dinner at Texas Roadhouse. I do love their loaded sweet potato and rolls!

8. Paul's parents spent the day with my boys last Saturday. They took them to Lowe's and Home Depot to do workshops and bought them things at Walmart, etc. Ian is looking forward to riding his new green bike when the weather is warmer!

9. Yesterday I took the kids to the Children's Museum in Bloomsburg. It's much smaller than the one we visited in Pittsburgh, but I love the programs they offer. This time the focus was on gingerbread. They had some science activities (one on

genetics for example), but the highlight of the kids was making a gingerbread cookie and a gingerbread house.

10. My new canvas was delivered today. Paul assumed it was a gift for my dad, sister, or brother since none of my kids were on the canvas, but nope I got it for our house. I figure EVERY picture on our walls doesn't need to be our three kids, right? Ha ha! I will have to take a picture of it on the wall and post it at some time. The photo is of my brother, Jenna

(oldest niece), and my mom. I took advantage of the Cyber Monday sale and got the 16x20 canvas for about $25 including s/h. Speaking of packages, the very first photo in this post shows Nadia holding a book in front of a box. Would you believe that book was the ONLY thing Amazon put in that BIG box?!?!? Why I don't know!

11. I was very disappointed to find out my choir isn't singing this Sunday because we had been scheduled to sing a beautiful arrrangement of "O Holy Night," and my dad plans to be here this Sunday, and I wanted him to hear us sing that song. They also cancelled our choir rehearsal. I really enjoy choir rehearsals, but the upside of not having one last night was I was able to go Christmas caroling with the kids at the nursing home in our town with their AWANA.

12. I found out this week when Nadia and Ian will be having their basketball practices. Nadia was very happy to find out that they will be Monday for Ian and Tuesday for Nadia. She was happy because this means they can take ice skating lessons on Thursdays. Personally I would have been happy to take one year off from ice skating lessons, but I know they do really enjoy them.

13. The kids didn't see Paul at all on Monday or Tuesday and only saw him for about 5 minutes on Wednesday. It was really nice that he was home from work today and was able to eat with us, put up Christmas lights outside our house, take the van to be repaired, going to the closing at the bank, and fix the dryer (he had accidentally put something down the dryer vent while we were away). He also watched "Finding Dory" with the kids this evening as we brought home a copy from the library yesterday.

Steel City!

My dad grew up in Pittsburgh, and he returned to live there after marrying my mom. The first five years of my life I lived in a town about two hours north of Pittsburgh. My parents sometimes took me to the hospital in Pittsburgh when I was ill. I returned to Pennsylvania in 1996, but during the 19 years I lived in AL, TX, MD, and OH, I remained a fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers, just like my dad. Ever since Paul and I started dating in 1997, my second favorite team has been the Giants (Paul's favorite team). Over the past almost 20 years our teams have played each other five times. Since I am used to cheering for the Giants, I do not enjoy it At All when our teams play each other. I am glad it only happens once every four years. The Steelers won today. My dad flew into Pittsburgh for a three day visit this afternoon. He'll spend time with his cousin, Charlie and also with the kids and I as we plan to drive out there tomorrow morning. It will be the kids' first trip to Pittsburgh, and it will be my first time out there in more than 15 years.

Each year the congregation gives the pastors a gift in October, which is known as Pastor Appreciation month. Well this morning the pastors shared a short video as their "thank you" for the gifts they received in October. They did it in the style of the Brady Bunch theme song. They are a creative bunch of pastors that is for sure! There were eight pastors, but one left this summer to become a senior pastor at another church, so there are currently seven pastors.

Nutcracker!

Nadia experienced several firsts today - her first time on a bus tour, first time touring a Capitol building (Senate, House of Representatives, and Supreme Court), and first time seeing the Nutcracker (or any ballet for that matter). Four of us had to get up earlier than usual. I got up at 5:30, and I usually don't get up until 7:00. Paul left for work at 3:30 am yesterday, but today he didn't leave until 6:15 because I was afraid the boys might not go back to sleep. He had planned to wake them at 5:00. They didn't go back to sleep so they slept on the way home (at 6:30pm) as they usually get up between 7:00-

7:15 each morning. Paul dropped them off at his parents' house before he went to the plant. Paul's parents took them to Lowe's and Home Depot to complete two workshops, to McDonald's for lunch, and to Walmart to do some shopping. They let Ian pick out a 20 inch bicycle for his birthday present (his birthday is in 9 days). It's a little big for him now, but we expect by next summer he will have outgrown his current bike and be ready to start using his new green bike.

Nadia and I left the house around 6:20 to drive to the library in Northumberland. We boarded a bus. I wasn't surprised that the bus had tvs and lights and such (those were novel concepts to Nadia), but I was surprised about the free wifi on board. The last time I was on a bus tour there wasn't any wifi. I guess it's been a while since I was on a bus trip! There were 55 people in our group and we knew a couple of the other moms and kids from homeschooling. The bus driver dropped us off at the Capitol building first, and we had a guided tour at 9:00. Then we walked to the State Museum next door and quickly toured two of the three floors of the museum before we watched a planetarium show. We ate the lunch they provided on the bus and then drove a short drive to the Scottish Rite Auditorium where we enjoyed a two hour (including intermission) performance of the Nutcracker ballet. Nadia enjoyed it, but she wished that talking was involved in telling the story. When we got back to the library they gave each of the kids a beautiful Nutcracker book. It was amazing to me that the whole trip was free (funded by a grant from a foundation). I can't remember the last time I had so much one-on-one time with Nadia. It was wonderful!

It had been more than ten years since I had toured the Capitol, but we took the kids to the State Museum and Chuck E Cheese in August 2015 for Oliver's 3rd birthday. I kept thinking as I walked through the museum that this was the last museum I went to with my mom. It's sometimes hard to wrap my brain around the fact that she *seemed* healthy in August 2015 and yet she had less than a year left to live. I do remember she had trouble standing that day. She had no trouble walking or sitting but if she was standing she needed to rest against the wall. I find myself very sentimental about all the "lasts" with my mom - like a stuffed animal Nadia has that my mom got her from the gift shop at the Whitaker Center. I have encouraged Nadia to take extra care with it since she won't be getting any more stuffed animals from Grandma. I feel very sentimental about my kitchen drapes because my mom gave them to me in April -one of the last gifts from my mom. I don't have many regrets regarding my mom. I know she knew I loved her, and I know she loved me. A big regret I have with my mom has to do with photos. I wish I had taken some (with her in it) in December 2015. I didn't take many photos that month, and I had no idea that was the last time I could take her picture. I also really, really, really, really wish I had at least one nice picture of just my mom and me from the last twenty years. I love the photos I have of her with my children. I love the photo I took of her with my dad a couple of years ago, and I love the photo I took in December 2014 of her with Jenna and Maurice. In fact earlier this week I ordered a canvas of that photo. The most recent photo of my mom and I was taken when we were on a white water rafting raft (wearing life vests), and it's more than 20 years old. I can't fix this mistake, but I can learn from it and keep on taking lots of pictures.

Thankful Thursday

1. The Underwater Bubble Show on Tuesday night was excellent. The tickets were free, but people got in line up to 2 hours before the show started to make sure they got a ticket. The tickets were distributed in 18 minutes, which meant that many people were turned away. The show was outstanding, but I wouldn't have been willing to stand in line for that long with my kids to get tickets. Thankfully, a woman in our homeschool group had made arrangements to pick up 65 tickets earlier in the day, and so we only showed up 30 minutes before the show started and got 4 tickets from her without waiting in any lines. The show of course included a lot of bubbles and lasers, but it included a wide variety of other things (although not any talking) such as a sand artist, ballet, acrobatics, etc. We were amazed as one man got his entire body into a small box. I think my favorite part was when three people were doing amazing things inside giant slinky costumes.


2. I'm thankful for appliances that make life easier such as a dish washer, microwave, refrigerator, etc. In particular I am thankful for our new refrigerator because it also comes with an ice maker and water dispenser and also for our dryer because I bought it 20 years ago and it's still doing it's thing. The washer I bought 20 years ago was replaced a few years ago, but the dryer is still doing fine. I know we'll have to replace it at some point, but it's wonderful that it's lasted this long as appliances don't seem to last very long these days. Appliances have more bells and whistles than they did 30 years ago, but honestly their "life expectancy" seems to have gone down over the last few decades.

3. The library program Nadia was in yesterday was outstanding. The librarians put a LOT of time and effort planning it and getting all the materials organized. I'm grateful that community organizations provide programs for homeschoolers. As you can see from the pictures a red headed eight year old boy (Chase) was her partner.

4. The African Children's Choir concert last night was also excellent. I think the kids enjoyed the Watoto one a little more in part because last night the choir sang some of the songs in an African language and also their English was a little harder for the kids to understand, but it was an excellent program and included a wider variety of things such as Christmas carols at the end and all of the kids drumming on drums. Many of the songs were acapella (or only with drums) and only kids were singing whereas with the Watoto Choir some adults sang with them. Even though it meant me missing choir rehearsal and the kids missing AWANA, I am glad we went. It's not often to be able to interact with people whose home is in a far away place like Uganda. Each child introduced him or herself and said what he/she hopes to be when he/she grows up. The three most popular responses were doctor, nurse, and pilot. Ian was tickled that one of the children's name was Ian. He was amazed that their might be kids in Africa who have the same name as he does. All of the kids were between 8-10 years old.

5. I am very thankful for wish lists as it makes Christmas and birthday shopping for nieces, nephews, etc. so much easier. I'm also thankful for being able to shop online as it beats taking three kids to the mall any day of the week.

6. Ian has been trying to read half of a Magic Tree House book each day (in other words read two books in four days). I am thrilled with the fact that he is now reading above and beyond the amount I require him to read each day. Wahoo!! I hope this continues. Nadia already had been reading more than I required for quite a while, but she has also taken off recently and has been trying to read at least one book a day. She's mostly been reading books by Ron Roy or from the Clementine series.

7. I got a haircut today, and the kids were well behaved while they waited for me. Yay! I get my haircut four times a year. The salon is less than 10 minutes from our house.

8. Although it was very emotionally difficult to get out the Christmas decorations (because of losing my mom), now that they are up I don't find it difficult to look at them.

9. The kids were up past their bedtime on Tuesday night as we didn't get home until almost 9:30 pm. Thankfully the boys slept in until 7:30! Usually Nadia is the only one who sleeps that late.