Jump for joy!

Yesterday I made my second attempt at jumping on the bed photos. Oliver hasn't really figured out how to jump very high yet, but his day will come to be sure. I did some research online on Thursday night as to what settings to use on my camera, and I definitely am going in the right direction. I also tried a little having him jump on my bed, but as I suspected the lighting was definitely better in Oliver's room. Although since our bedrooms' windows are on the east side of the house, and Oliver's windows are on the west side, I decided I should try again in our bedroom in the morning when presumably the lighting would be a bit better, and so this morning I snapped a couple with Ian jumping on our bed, and indeed the light was better than it was yesterday afternoon BUT I still prefer the light in Oliver's room in the afternoon.

While Nadia and Ian were playing hockey in gym class yesterday, Oliver and I went to a jewelry store and the library. The kids were very excited because I checked out the movie "Secret Life of Pets" at the library. The kids and I enjoyed watching it last night after dinner. Nadia had Jenna in her lap during the whole movie, but we were glad we had her in a towel because at the very end of the movie Jenna peed a little. I cannot wait until these guinea pigs get to the point that they *want* to be held because it is rather stressful for me every time I try to catch one of them. They are so fast, and I don't want to squeeze them too tightly. In light of the fact Jenna did pee while Nadia was holding her yesterday, Nadia wanted the towel today after I snapped a couple of pics without the towel. I retrieved Jenna the first time today, but Nadia retrieved Patches from the cage for Ian, and Nadia also retrieved Jenna the second time she held her today. I will be SO happy to be relieved of the duty of getting them out of the cage! Patches did much better today with Ian.

This morning I took the kids to two more jewelry stores. I figured it would be good to get prices and ideas from more than one jeweler. The store I went to yesterday would "buy" the gold from my engagement ring and put that toward the cost of the new setting, but they wouldn't buy the diamond. I liked that store the best of the three, but I was planning to use the diamond we bought in 2000 toward the cost of the new setting. The jeweler at the first store we went to today wasn't very flexible in styles of settings, and I wasn't really keen on the options he showed me. Both of the stores we visited today would "buy" the diamond from me to put towards the cost of the new setting. I have a feeling the third store will be the one I go with because they will buy the diamond and are totally flexible as to what I want the setting to look like. It has felt weird to be shopping for an engagement ring considering I got engaged more than 16 years ago, but of course shopping for jewelry is fun, and I haven't purchased any good jewelry in several years (just costume jewelry lately). I am leaning toward a three stone setting that would feature sapphires on the sides of the diamond. I have no idea though of the cost and of how much they'll give me for my current ring so we shall see what I end up with in the end!

Nadia threw up again last night, but otherwise we all seem to be healthy. Paul's grandmother is in the hospital as she most likely had a heart attack. She is 94 years old and ready to be with Jesus. The kids are hoping we really do have our Christmas gift exchange with Paul's family tomorrow afternoon before Paul leaves on a five day business trip on Monday morning.
It will be a very full day as the kids and I will be at church for 4 hours and then we have two playoff football games as the Steelers are playing the Dolphins at 1:00 and the Giants are playing the Packers at 4:40. Penn State had their big game earlier in the week when they played in the Rose Bowl. We don't watch any college football, but many people around here (including his mom) are die hard Penn State fans.

When we had planned to go to Paul's parents' house earlier this week, Paul's mom had mentioned possibly making lasagna. I had it on the brain ever since then, and so today Oliver and I made lasagna together. I love having a helper in the kitchen!

Foto Friday

The last few years I took far more pictures in the spring, summer, and fall than I did in the winter because I mostly took photos outside. That's not the case any more, thankfully! I think I'll always prefer taking photos outdoors, but I am much happier with my indoor photos with my new camera body. Now I need to start using the Expodisc my parents got me a couple of years ago so I can adjust the white balance correctly, and it also would be great to start using my Speedlight more (I've also had that for a couple of years but never mastered how to use it properly). Yesterday I had my first attempt at taking pics of the kids jumping on a bed. I used Oliver's bed because the light is nice in his room, but it was a cloudy day. It would be easier on a brighter day, and I need to do more experimenting with the settings on my camera because they are not as crisp as I would have liked them to be. Sometimes the kids are less than enthusiastic about me taking their photos, and other times they are the ones asking me to get out my camera and take their

picture. Let me tell you that they LOVED me asking them to jump on the bed. They won't mind me taking more of those in the future after I figure out how to adjust the settings on my camera. They thought it was FUN!

And of course the kids are very happy to take photos with their new pets. Nadia held Jenna for almost an hour yesterday without a towel. Ian held Patches for a much shorter time span with a towel. They both still give me quite a run around the cage when I'm trying to take them out so the kids can hold them. The kids thought it was strange that I wanted to take a picture of their feet, but it was a much easier photo than usual since I didn't need to try to get them to smile or look in the direction of the camera.

I usually take pictures during their ice skating lessons, but I didn't bring the camera yesterday. I will do so at other lessons. Their class is for levels 1-3. Their teacher is the same one they had the past two years. She told Nadia that if she masters one skill, she can be promoted to the level 4 class (with a different teacher that takes place at the same time as her current class). Ian is definitely needs to stay where he is. Next year I'll sign Oliver up for "Snowplow Sam" (the class before level one). We used half of a gift card Oliver got for Christmas for Subway and had dinner there a little bit before their lessons started.

Thankful Thursday

1. As of yesterday, we all seemed to be healthy again after at least some of us being sick for six days. Yahoo!

2. Sears reimbursed us over $100 on Monday for the expenses we incurred last month due to the oil change they botched in November.

3. Even though the outcome didn't change our seeding in the playoffs, both the Giants and the Steelers won on Sunday. Now to see how our teams will fare in the Playoffs on Sunday.

4. In light of the fact we are still waiting to get together with Paul's family to exchange Christmas presents (many tears were shed yesterday by Nadia and Ian over the plans being delayed yet again), I am very thankful they were willing to send the cage they bought home with Paul on the 28th. Yesterday I let the kids hold the cavies for the first time. We were trying to give the skittish creatures time to acclimate to their new environment a little. Jenna (Nadia's) did much better than Patches (Ian's). Patches looked like she would escape from his arms if given the chance.

Letting them hold their pets helped cheer them up over the news that they needed to wait a few more days. They both have come to the conclusion they aren't actually getting any gifts from Paul's side of the family. Well they are being given an opportunity to learn patience. They had counted down the days until Christmas for so long it's been very hard for them to wait two more weeks, but this too shall pass. Oliver is oblivious. The child truly is not materialistic At All thus far. He got his potato soup and some peanut butter cups. He's satisfied. While they held their pets, I cleaned out the cage and replaced the bedding. Once we have used all the bedding I purchased at the pet store, I am going to switch to using quilts on the bottom of the cage instead - think cloth vs. disposable dipaer, ha ha! I would rather launder than create all that extra garbage once a week, and it will also save a lot of $$ over the next 5+ years if I don't need to buy bedding for

their cage. They actually like the little home I made out of a shoe box better than the tunnel I bought at the pet store. I am going to let the kids hold them every day, and hopefully in time they will stop running away from us when we go to get them out of the cage.

5. Nadia's basketball coach asked each player on Tuesday to share what their favorite Christmas gift was. Nadia said her guinea pig. She said all the other kids mentioned an electronic gadget of some sort (the kids on her team are either in 2nd or 3rd grade). I didn't get them any Wii games or any DVDs or anything related to electronics this year, and that doesn't bother me one iota. I'm happy they love their pets. When they opened their gifts from us on December 24, the gifts that got the biggest reaction were the Lego sets (one for Ian and one for Nadia). I have a love/hate relationship with Ian and his Legos. They love to build their sets and can do that in a very short amount of time. Ian plays with the thing he built for a day or two, and then it's put off to the side never to be played with

again aside from the mini-figures. Nadia only has a few sets, and she keeps hers built and does play with them for months. I wish there weren't so many specialized pieces for the different sets. We own thousands and thousands of legos. And 99% of the Legos we own are never used. And yet we keep buying them more sets. I think in the future I'll just stick with buying Ian only mini-figures unless he starts actually using the Legos to build more things. On the other hand, they didn't seem happy *at all* when they opened the packages that contained wooden blocks. I bought them on the day Amazon had it's annual Melissa and Doug sale (which was really awesome this year because it was 50% off PLUS on top of that buy 2 get 1 free...I bought 6 different toys for about $40 total). I bought the blocks because the past several months they have been building All The Time with the two bigger sets of Melissa and Doug wooden blocks. I thought they might enjoy having some different shape, color, and size blocks to add to their collection. Seeing their facial reaction when they opened the gifts, I thought I was

wrong, but truth be told, over the past week they have spent a lot more time playing with these wooden blocks than the new Legos.  I am thankful they like them even though our family room carpet is hard to walk on.

6. At the mall on Monday we passed by a toy store that had everything 50% off. Ian picked out another Mario stuffed animal. He had enough money to buy it between money he got from the dentist in exchange for Halloween candy and money he got from his grandparents. Let me tell you that boy loves his Mario stuffed animals (as seen in the photo above). He carries them throughout the house all day long and sleeps on top of them in his bed at night. The newest one (the bomb) also sits in a highchair at the kitchen table next to him at every meal. Nadia selected a figurine set from Moana. It was more expensive than what Ian picked, and she didn't have enough money. However she is industrious and willing to do whatever extra chores possible to earn the money. Yesterday I gave her $2 for doing some vacuuming, organizing the Tupperware cabinet, and helping me clean the shelves of the refrigerator. Now I need to come up with a way for her to earn the last $4. She definitely is my most helpful child.

7. I really enjoyed choir rehearsal last night because it had been more than a month since I had been in one between us having some weeks off due to holidays, me missing one to take the kids to a concert, and me missing one due to attending the membership class at church. I had trouble coming home because Paul's car wasn't working properly. I tried calling him for 15 minutes, and he never answered his phone. I called a neighbor who came over and rang the doorbell and told Paul I was trying to call him. Paul almost always leaves his phone in silent mode so it's generally very hard to reach him on the phone. Just as Paul was bundling the kids up to drive to the church and come get me, I got the car started (25 minutes after I started trying to leave). I was very thankful it finally

started working properly, and I am hoping this doesn't mean there's something seriously wrong with the car. It has over 120,000 miles on it, and usually we have traded in vehicles before the mileage got that high, but we don't have the money right now to trade in his car so hopefully it will keep working. I know Toyotas are supposed to last a lot longer than 120K. I'm thankful Paul didn't have to come get me, and I'm thankful I have the phone number of a neighbor and that they are willing to come over and ring the

doorbell when I can't reach Paul on the phone.

8. Yesterday I received the newsletter from the state park where we attend programs. It was fun to select which programs I'd take the kids to over the next few months. The naturalist who has worked there for 20 years is retiring in June, and because it's a government job (red tape galore) it will be at least 18 months until she is replaced (insert sad face here). So I want to seize the moment while we

can because it will be awhile until we're up there again for a field trip after she retires. She does many programs for homeschoolers - programs for different ages (4-18). When I was selecting programs, I noticed on several occasions I already had another field trip scheduled for that day/time. It's a nice problem to have choices in which field trip to pick for a certain day! Hopefully I made good choices. I didn't have any field trips planned for this week, but I did have two outings planned for the kids -

roller skating yesterday and skiing today. Neither one actually happened. The roller skating rink closest to us is free to skate on Wednesday nights (just pay for skate rental), but usually the kids are at church on Wednesday night. Since they didn't have AWANA this week I thought it was the perfect time to go roller skating. I had taken the three kids by myself last summer, and it was a challenge to have 3 kids who can't roller skate with one adult (and no things to hold on to like they have at the ice skating rink). I thought with two adults it would work out much better, but the skating started at 5:00, and Paul couldn't come home that early from work. The upside is that their ice skating lessons are starting today. I thought they'd be missing their first ice skating lesson because a couple of months ago we made plans to go skiing (Paul, myself, Nadia, and Ian) today as we got 4 free lift tickets and rentals through a membership I purchased with a local PBS station. Once the kids are older I'll be able to take them myself, but since they've never skied I didn't feel comfortable taking 2 or 3 kids skiing by myself (not to mention it's been more than 15 years since I skied). Paul couldn't take the day off because they are going on a business trip in Baltimore next week. They always go to Baltimore in early January so this will always be a problem for this ski trip (until the kids are good enough skiers that I feel safe taking all of them by myself). Thankfully we have plans to go skiing with my dad next month (with free passes again). I have been looking forward to taking the kids skiing (have had plans that fell through in years past), and maybe 2017 will still be the year it happens.

47

When Paul and I met, he had recently turned 27 years old. Today he turned 47. And right now our boys are 4 and 7 years old. In the early years of our marriage we used to go over to his parents' house on his birthday and Millie would make him a birthday cake. We used to get together for each person's birthday, but the past eight years we've typically only gotten together for the kids' birthdays. Over the last eight years I've made him a variety of treats for his birthday but never a cake. I've made him vanilla cheesecake, vanilla fudge, white chocolate macadamia nut cookies, cheese danish, etc. Today Oliver and I made him white chocolate macadamia nut cookies. A few years ago we started the tradition of getting six donuts for every birthday - one donut for four of us and the birthday boy or girl gets two donuts. I meant to get the donuts yesterday on the way home from Sears, but I forgot. So today we got them on the way home from the library. In past years Paul ate breakfast with us, but not any more (except occasionally on a Sunday). The last several years he's had his birthday dinner at a restaurant two miles from our

house that gives you a free meal on your birthday (even a steak dinner!). Paul used to take Nadia or Ian with him, but with his work schedule at the plant that won't be possible unless his birthday falls on a Saturday or Sunday. Last year he didn't go because the kids and I were in Maryland. It was the last time the kids saw my mom until June. None of us were around for his birthday last year. This year we were around but didn't see much of the birthday boy, as he left for work before we got up and didn't get home until 7:35 pm. I made him one of his favorite meals - rigatoni with meatballs, but as usual these days he ate the meal by himself. Thankfully my stomach was doing better today which was a blessing because the smell of food was torturous the past two days. Unfortunately Nadia threw up part way through dinner so she hasn't totally gotten over the bug. I went to bed at 8:00 last night, but I think tonight I can stay up to a more normal bedtime. I got 23 hours of sleep over the past two nights!

BBF

No, it's not a typo. I didn't mean BFF. I am referring to back button focus. Yesterday Oliver and I had a fever and both of us went to bed at 6:45 pm. Paul was worried Oliver would wake up too early this morning, but nope he was still in bed when I went to check on him at 7:05 am. The two of us were in our beds for more than 12 hours last night, and truth be told, I would love to still be in that bed. I had planned to get back in gear with school work today, but I decided to declare today a sick day as Oliver, Nadia, and I still don't feel well. I dd social studies and Bible with Nadia and Ian. Nadia was gracious and did some of the reading for me when I was feeling too nauseous to read to them. Nadia and Ian also each read from their chapter books, and that was it. I let them watch Tom and Jerry cartoons for an hour this morning, and it is a very rare treat for us to have the television on in the morning. While they were watching the cartoon I went into another room with my laptop to watch some master class videos on a photography site. One of the classes was on BBF. I am starting off on the right foot with at least one of my goals for 2017 (honing my photography skills). I am now using two more buttons on my camera that I hadn't ever used before. I know I have SO much to learn to take full advantage of my new camera body. I did leave the house twice today. First we went to Sears to get the $100+ payment they gave us for the botched oil change. I took 2 Tylenol before we left to lower my temperature. Then I took the kids to FBC for Ian's basketball practice. Moms don't get sick days. Ian and Oliver seem to be feeling back to normal today. Here's to hoping all of us are feeling back to normal tomorrow. Germs seem to be a Christmas gift we receive every year. We are hoping to go to Paul's parents house on Thursday night to do our Christmas gift exchange. Hopefully we'll all be healthy by then, as we don't want to share any germs with them!

Flash back to my childhood as I remember having a Lite Brite when I was a child.

Their favorite part of Legos are the mini-figures. 

Happy New Year!

I have tried to establish a variety of family traditions related to different holidays and birthdays, but thus far we haven't done anything for New Year's Eve or New Year's Day. The only one Paul and I celebrated over the past 16 years was our first one as a married couple when we were visiting Chicago. Otherwise I usually go to bed at my usual time on December 31. A lot of people in our area have a tradition of eating pork and sauerkraut on New Year's Day, but Paul and I have never done that. This year we planned to go to church and then celebrate Christmas with Paul's family on New Year's Day, but those plans have been postponed (much to the dismay of Nadia and Ian) because of the stomach bug they caught from their cousins. Ian threw up again yesterday morning, but he seems to be fine now. Oliver threw up just before bed last night, and Nadia started throwing up around 5:00 this morning. We shall see if Paul and I can escape the bug. Because I thought we would be at Paul's parents' house today, I didn't have a menu planned. If the restaurant is open, I think I'll get take-out pizza to try to make the day a little bit special.

Paul and I always used to go to his aunt's annual Christmas party, but it's been several years since we've made it there. I thought Paul went on Friday night, but he skipped it due to not being able to leave the plant soon enough to make it down to the party. Because we usually get sick during the Christmas gathering in Maryland, we often have had to cancel our plans to go to her party (which is always held a few days after Christmas).

I have always been more susceptible to respiratory bugs than stomach ones.  I have lived in PA for 20.5 years, and during that time I've had a stomach bug three times. The first was when I was single and living in my apartment. I remember my secretary coming and bringing me crackers and Ginger Ale. The second was in 2007 when I was newly pregnant with Nadia. I caught the bug in Chicago when staying with Wendy, and I lectured at 8:00 am with the bug because at that point I thought it was morning sickness. Oops! The third time was two years ago. I caught it in Maryland at our Christmas gathering, and I remember throwing up while I was in the PICU with Oliver. Although stomach bugs are a lot messier than respiratory ones (thankfully Nadia has been making it to the toilet in time), one plus is that they don't last as long as respiratory ones. Hopefully in a couple of days we'll all be healthy again. Maybe we'll exchange Christmas gifts at Paul's parents' house on Paul's birthday, which is on Tuesday. In addition to tending to sick kids, I know we'll be watching two football games even though neither of our teams need to win today.

Although I have written a goal post every year for several years, for the past few months I had decided not to write one this year because so many of the goals weren't met last year. I am accustomed to not achieving all of the goals, but it was discouraging to see how many of them weren't achieved. For example, instead of losing weight, I gained weight. Lovely. But yesterday I changed my mind and decided I would still write some goals for this year, and hopefully we'll have more success in 2017 than we did in 2016.

House - I want to stain the deck and do some exterior painting (posts on the front porch and the new door that Paul installed on the side of the garage).

Ian - learn how to tie shoes, eat his dinner faster, learn how to cut his food, obey the first time I ask him to do something, decrease the whining and complaining, less of the "gimmes,' learn to shower and shampoo independently, and learn to read chapter books silently

Nadia - get in habit of having a daily time of prayer and Bible reading, focus more with her on creative writing, practice cursive writing more, become less sensitive to sights, sounds, and smells, be more aware of the tone of her voice, be more honest, and smile when singing

Showing the new color of our living room walls. Quite a change from white!

Oliver - learn how to ride a bike without training wheels, follow directions better in Soul Patrol kids choir and on the soccer team, identify the sounds each letter makes, complete Level One of the reading curriculum, learn to write all the uppercase letters, and do 100 piece puzzles independently

Math - Nadia and Ian master their addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts; Oliver learn to count to 20 and identify the numerals 0-10 accurately.

Ruth - lose weight, try at least one new recipe a month, continue to hone my photography skills, floss more regularly, dust the house more regularly, drink more water

Art - Complete six more Beginners projects from Creating a Masterpiece with Nadia and Ian by the beginning of June

Bible - start a prayer journal with Nadia and Ian, read I Chronicles through Malachi to Nadia and Ian by the end of May

I still can't believe I picked this color, ha ha! It only cost $21 for the paint, tape, and roller brush. Big Change!