Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Ooops...falling behind.

November 19 - Today I am thankful for the Grandparents that my children are lucky enough to have in their lives.  It was Grandparents lunch day at the girls school so my folks drove down to eat a ham dinner with us. I am not sure how it happened but my grandparents lived an hour away and we only saw them once a year.  Between the ones that live an hour away and our Indiana Grandparents our kids sure are fortunate.

November 20 - Caffeine - I have become a caffeine addict apparently.  Joe tried to kill me this morning by accidentally making a pot of decaf coffee (I always keep one bag of decaf coffee in the freezer just in case someone drinks it).  By noon I was struggling to even stand much less do any kind of work...I went into the kitchen to make a pot of coffee and noticed the green lettering on the bag "DECAF".  Yikes...was almost a goner for sure!

November 21 - Baby Summer (finally has an official name and is on her way home) - She came in a blizzard which is all the more fitting that her name is Summer, perhaps it was wishful thinking for a warmer time.  Just look at Miss Summer Lee Wells...beautiful and perfect!  (on a side note that is probably the most tired I have ever seen my brother, when asked how was labor and delivery - he said "life changing-ly terrifying" - Welcome to parenthood Tadd! ).


November 22 - Sunday, Sunday - Funday.  That's what we always say when the girls ask if Joe has to go to work, nope because it is Sunday, Sunday, Funday.  We love Sundays in our house and this particular one we didn't leave for anything...smoked 9 pounds of ribs and made all the trimmings with them...and then sent a care package with Nate to drop off to Tadd and Carri on his way back into town.  It was a wonderful day and the girls just kept saying how much they loved having Dad home.  Me too. :-)

November 23 - Mondays - And while they are the polar opposite of Sundays in this home I am thankful that they come around...complete with the chaos and laughter that all weeks start off as.  Jackson is at this truly mobile (nearly walking) terrific age where everything is a toy...my refrigerator has never had more hand prints on it but I smile so big whenever I see them.  When he finds something new and exciting he always says "Whoa!" which makes me laugh...so on Mondays when the rest of the family is running around like we are lit on fire...Jackson is following closely behind saying Whoa! to let us know how exciting the world still is.

November 24 - To-Do Lists.  I keep a rather lengthy To Do List at work (well and at home too but that one is never even close to caught up), so before vacations and holidays I attempt to get everything all put together and finished so I come back to an empty slate.  Well apparently everyone else on my team does the same so while I was hoping for a slow, short week I have been busting my butt to get my To Do List and everyone else's done too.  But boy oh boy do I love checking things off...wow is that satisfying to me!

Thursday, November 19, 2015

November 18

November 18 - Today I am thankful for an agreement on social and political issues in our home.  Sometimes we will run into something that one of us disagrees on but even then we can still have a conversation about it without it getting heated.  I have heard that there are marriages and relationships out there where they are polar opposites and are still happy, though I think it must be difficult.

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Novemeber 17

November 17 - Baby Wells (or should I say baby Stinchfield for the time being) - Today I am thankful for Tadd and Carri having their new baby girl.  I am still waiting on the official name and will be heading down to the hospital to meet her in person here in a few but here's a picture of the newest Stinchfield/Wells!


Monday, November 16, 2015

The weekend....

November 14 - Women.  Today I am thankful for the women that we are seeing in the spotlight in the media.  Some good some bad, but they are there.  We are starting to move up to the front seat of coverage and while we will always have the Kardashians that are known for...well I won't fill you in if you don't know where they started.  But we also have people like Ronda Rousey and Holly Holm.  These two women were and are the best at the sport they have chosen, in this case it is mixed marital arts and I must admit I have never wanted to watch an MMA fight before, not only did I watch this one I also paid $60 to do so.  They danced around the octagon, they caught punches and threw them...they bled and bruised just as the men did.  Not only did they accomplish this, they also sold out the largest venue ever and head lined the most talked about fight in MMA history.  Not in spite of them being women, or because they are women...but rather because they have earned the title of the best, and our society loves an underdog story.  We love watching an 800 point underdog like Holly Holm KO a reigning champ in the second round, I have to think because some small part of the millions that watched now know that it is possible to train hard and win...even when no one thinks you can.

November 15 - Carri.  Today is Carri's due date and even though she didn't have that little girl today I can still give thanks to the person that she has allowed my brother to become.  It was always going to take a special person to work well with either Tadd or myself, we have a fair amount of baggage but if you don't mind dealing with that our hearts are made of gold.

November 16 - Snowmagendon - That's what they are calling the snow forecast for this evening.  With a total of up to 25" at our house.  It sure would be fun to be all snowed in, however when I post tomorrow about wind and a dusting of snow you will know that my thanks will not be to the weatherman who is promising to shut down the state.

Friday, November 13, 2015

What my Mom always used to say...

I grew up with the age old saying if you have nothing nice to say.  So I have again been silent on this poor blog of mine, but enough is enough because it is officially my favorite time of year. :-)  November is the month of thanks and since I already have a couple of weeks to make up, here we go.

November 1 - I am thankful for Joe's friends.  He has developed quite a group of transplanted Indiana friends out here in Colorado and we are fortunate enough to meet up with them often.

November 2 - I am thankful for the opportunity to call Pepper our kitty for 9 years.  On this afternoon I was outside with the dogs and kids and found her after apparently being hit by a car, hopefully she didn't suffer much and didn't need us in the end.  She managed to teach the whole family (dogs and kids included) so much respect for animals.  While she may have been the smallest resident in our house, weighing in at only 8 pounds she was definitely our fiercest.

November 3 - As always election day is a big deal to me, as I dive deeper into politics I realize how much my vote does count and I am truly thankful that I am able to cast it.

November 4 - Today made me thankful for modern medicine.  I will always stand by my statement that having a baby is terrifying...nothing about being pregnant with baby number four is different from the sheer terror that you can experience while pregnant.  I would have thought I would have been better at this whole gig, but alas I am not.  They found a hematoma (fancy word for bruise) today while doing the 20 week ultrasound.  While most of the time these are no big deal, they only raise concerns when you are in the second trimester and/or over 35...not sure if you could see my hand raised for both of those questions.  So now we wait and see, will it shrink as it should and disappear...or will it cause a miscarriage?  Only time will tell.  The doctor smiled when I brought up the concern and when I made it home and looked up potential treatments I understood the smile.  Bed rest.  Which is completely out of the question for the next 4 to 5 months.  At least with the ability to view our little baby girl we know for the time being that she seems happy and healthy.

November 5 - Random trips to see Joe at the shop.  With Joe's recent employee changes he has been working a lot more so on occasion the kids and I drive in after I pick them up at school and bring a coffee or something to say Hi.  The kids love seeing him and I am sure it helps his day go by quicker if it is broken up by little kid stories.

November 6 - Today I am thankful for Pay Day.  I might still be the only full grown adult with an actual career that has a reminder on my calendar about pay day.  I love the ding that my phone gives me, like hey I know you have been working "hard" these two weeks - here's your payment.  And while my money is set to pay bills and transfer around to all different kinds of accounts automatically, it still feels good to get paid.

November 7 - Trips to Grandma's house.  We had a dog show this weekend so rather than drag the kids by myself on Saturday while Joe worked I sent them off to spend the day at Grandma's house.  The girls used to go there all the time while we went snowboarding but since I was pregnant last season and I am pregnant this season poor little Jackson has never been there for the day.

November 8 - Finishing Kuma.  Kuma is officially a champion...he's title name is now CH Moonlight's Fudo.  And still just as sweet as the day we picked him up.  Just look what two years and hundreds of dollars in dog food can do.

We had just brought home Hiro at two months old and here's Kuma at 5 months old.



November 9 - Today I am thankful for my patience.  We have homework every night to get done, and while I am sure the girls are tired of sitting still and paying attention they have another 60-90 minutes of it when they get home.  It takes everything in me to not be angry at the situation and then the kids in the process.  Sometimes I sit back in the playroom (our room of choice so Jackson can crawl about unharmed) and watch the three little people and their personalities and get the biggest smile.  Of course the smile is wiped off my face when I repeatedly have to say "please sit down and pay attention, this is your homework not mine".

November 10 - Today I am thankful for Chipotle.  While it seems like an odd thing to be thankful for, we are back into the winter swing of things which means that we don't have the sporting events so I am responsible for cooking 7 nights a week.  During the summer I can always just throw meat on the grill and prepare a salad or some veggies but in the winter I have to really come up with meals and sometimes it is just exhausting.  On this particular day, Chipotle teamed up with the girls school to run a fundraiser so Joe picked it up on his way home...check mark, dinner is done. :-)

November 11 - Snow.  We had our first snow, and while it was only an inch or so...it was still magical for the kiddos.  I can't wait for the big dumps now that the girls are so much bigger and love playing in it.  Something about this year is proving to be even harder to be pregnant during the winter, perhaps it's because I won't be due until the end of the season which means that I have a zero percent chance of snowboarding this year whereas last year at least I got in one trip.  But at least seeing how excited the kids are to play in the snow warms my heart.

November 12 - Non-alcoholic beer.  Again it may seem like an odd thing to be thankful for, but last night when Joe got home and mixed up a drink and we sat down to talk about the stresses of the day, it sure feels nice to crack open a "beer" (even if it's a fake one).

November 13 - Lunch dates.  I have been dragging the kids to lunch dates with my friends and family since they were first born, today since my boss is off on Fridays which makes my work day a lot quieter I will be meeting Kelley for lunch.  I consider it a learning event, look at the server when ordering, answering completely while enunciating and sit still until the meal is done.

Monday, November 2, 2015

Our weekend

Our friends host a Halloween party every year, and while it was/is an adult party they start it now at 7PM so we can drag the kiddos and leave when the real party starts.  Every year I try and dress the kiddos up as something at least together and most years I match them too, however this year I decided that we should all dress up together as a family...and while Joe grumbled he ended up pulling off the Scarecrow very well. :-)

Earlier in the day, Jackson was helping me make the cupcakes for the party.  Boy do I love that face!


Poor Jackson's head piece kept falling down (which I actually think made him cuter, but also angry).  We won second place in the costume contest too...thanks to pulling off The Wizard of Oz!

Sunday mornings we try and make it to Overtime to watch the Bears, here's Jackson hanging out with Adam watching the game.

Tadd and Carri got a new rocker for the baby's room so we got the furniture box, which Joe turned into fort.