Halloween

I’m not here to write a bog post on the controversy of Halloween. I agree with the church side in part but I really really enjoy getting my little man dressed up for Halloween…and he enjoys it.  We don’t focus on the negative side that everybody says Halloween is…but just on the fun part.  That being said…that’s the end of my “controversy Halloween blog post”.

When we lived in our old town we lived on a really sharp turn and so there weren’t any kids that came to our house.  I ran the church’s trunk or treat program instead and loved it.

When we moved here five years ago I was soooooo excited to pass out candy on Halloween.  I had never had the chance to do it before and so therefore this was an exciting experience for me.  However, we lived on the top floor apartment and because of that no kids came.  😦  I was sad and disappointed…however we had a lot of candy to eat after and that was all good.    🙂

This year he was a penguin.  He was so cute.  (My computer is broken and facebook is being slow so I can’t find all my pictures)
After that year we moved and we decided that going out with Big E was more fun than passing out candy.  The next year Big E was a lobster.  Then the year after that he was a Monkey.  The year after that He was a Ninja turtle.   And this year he’s going to be a black Ninja.

All those years, except for one, we have gone around to houses with Big E.  Both of us.  The one year I decided to stay home to pass out candy and we didn’t have very many people.  So this year we will all be heading out together as a family again.  We have so much fun doing it.  It’s so cute to watch Big E go house to house and say trick or treat.  Probably not as cute as his first year when he was a lobster but still cute.  🙂

And besides…I have another reason for doing Halloween.  It’s free after school treats (and midnight chocolate treats for this gal) for probably half a year.  🙂

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Ready?

School.

Before he was born we talked about it. After he was born we didn’t think about it until about age three…and then it slowly started creeping it’s way in. I started thinking about the how many years I had left with him. How many mommy and Big E days we had left…and I tried to take full advantage of them. However, the thought of “I still have lots of time” was always in the back of my mind.

This summer started and I was determined that I was going to make the best of it. We were going to do as much as we could in the amount of days we had. We had great weather and were involved in a lot. Summer was wonderful….probably one I will never get back…as I will be babysitting more kids next year.

Then this week happened. Monday we had one last family vacation day before we got back into the grind of working. We enjoyed it with a trip to our local wildlife park…and then Monday night we had a family meeting. We went over important informant that Big E should know for school. Such things as: our phone number, mine and hubby’s names, our address and making sure not to get into cars with strangers were very important information we wanted to make sure he knew.

And he did.

Then there was silence. Big E walked out of the room and I think hubby and I both took a deep breath at the same time.

Big E is ready for this…but are we?

I thought I was….but now I’m not so sure. Oh I know I will be fine…it’s not the school part that worries me. It’s the part where for the most part this is where the age of innocence dies. I can’t control him (as far as the influences in his life go) anymore. He’s going to be susceptible to the different things the world has to offer…and there’s nothing that I can do about it.

Well there is……a few things I guess. I can pray for him….(trust me…a lot of that will be happening) and I can make sure I teach him good values. But really….the rest is up to him…because he has free will and will make mistakes that he will have to learn from.

But man…the thought of teenage years scare me. My best friend said to take one day at a time and I will….it’s just that right now….the future is just sticking its tongue out at me and taunting me.

Right now this mom is all over the map with mixed feelings and emotions. :s

When we dedicated Big E we said we will always teach him about God and bring him up in a Godly home. That we would pray for him and we will lead him in good ways. But it didn’t stop there…my brother in law then turned to our family and friends and said “they also need all of us to help them. To teach him and guide him and to pray for him.”

And you know….the saying “it takes a village to raise a family” is true. We all need each other. To guide…to walk along side…to pray and to hold our hands.

This is one if those times friends and family. We need you to continue to pray for our boy as he takes this step out into the world of the unknown.

Will you please continue to be our village?

Laura

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Checking my list.

It’s been extremely quiet on my blog this past week.  It isn’t because I haven’t had anything to write about, just been super busy getting everything ready for our Christmas vacation.  It will probably be like this until the new year, so I thought I’d get one more post in here.  Wow!  I just looked at the time.  10:29….where has the day gone?

I think I’m pretty much finished with my Christmas shopping…just need a few extra stocking stuffers for the hubs and such…but other than that I’m good.  A few more presents to wrap for grandparents tomorrow night and then that’s all my aching back can take.  🙂

I’m excited for this Christmas.  Even through world events that have happened, I am extremely in the Christmas spirit.  I don’t think I have been this excited before Christmas eve in a long time.  Don’t get me wrong, Christmas Eve I NEVER sleep.  I don’t get excited about getting presents, but about seeing the people unwrap the gifts that I got them.  (I never used to be this way…but in the past few years this is the way it has been…maybe because of Little E.

Anyway, I’m excited!  YAY!  This is the first time that Little E has actually made a list for Santa.  Last year we sat down and wrote a letter but all it consisted of was things in the living room that he already had.  He just kept looking around the room and telling me to write stuff down that he saw.  So this year he had four requests for Santa.

1)  A Nintendo DS.

2)  An angry bird hat

3)  A baby sister (which later turned into a baby brother)

4)  A bike for his dad cause dad’s bike is broken.

That’s it…that’s all he wrote….that’s all he wanted.

I think Santa can deliver 2 out of the 4…but I think Little E will be happy with the rest.  And you know what??? I’m excited to see the look on this face when he opens number 1!  (Thanks Kijiji for a great deal!)

I want to wish all of you a wonderful Merry CHRISTMAS and a great holiday season with friends and family.  If you are alone…..I hope that somebody reaches out to you…and shares some of their Christmas cheer with you.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Laura

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Missing at Christmas.

When I was a child I grew up in a small community…an island.  A place where everybody knew everybody.  Kinda of like cheers.  🙂

I went to a small Baptist church where we had the best leaders a church could ever ask for.  My youth leader was amazing…she always had fun games, fun stuff to do and great trips to go on, and I had the best Sunday School teachers.  Lots of memories in that church.  I was looking on somebody’s facebook the other day and they go to the same church I used to go to.  Her daughter was in the Christmas concert there and it got me to thinking about the Christmas concerts that we used to do.

It wasn’t just something simple…it was a great production….was fun and we had the best leaders ever to lead them.  Always cheering us on and making sure we knew our lines.  No papers for us up on stage…we had to know our lines!  I also remember after those Christmas concerts hanging out with my friends or going to check under the Christmas tree for a gift from my teacher.  Sometimes we would get all covered in tinsel from the tree..but it was worth it.  And we always got candy.  Great times.

That being said, I’ve realized something.  It’s something I realize every Christmas, get sad about, and pray that maybe in the next year it will be better.  It’s something that I long for with our church.

I miss Christmas concerts put on by kids.  I LOVE seeing kids up on stage singing, or saying little lines they have learned.

Miss it, hope for it…long for it.

Why don’t we have them?  Well we are a church plant…just starting out.  Growing but not quite at that stage yet as there are only about two or three kids that can speak.  🙂  Someday we will have it.  I’ll make sure of it….ok…well at least I’ll pray about it. 🙂

That being said we do get to join in on my Bro and Sis – in law’s Christmas concert on Christmas eve.  The last two years Little E got up on stage and played his harmonica.  This year I’m hoping maybe he can actually say a few lines….got plenty of time to work on them this year.

That will have to be my fix for now.  🙂

Laura

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Traditions

I must confess…I have been slacking lately on the blog posts.  You probably can’t tell because I’ve scheduled the last little bit.  I have lots on my mind and lots to share with you…but things have just been super busy lately.

So I’m going to keep this light and “Christmasy” and next week I’ll share a little more of my deep theological mind.

Go ahead..you can laugh.  🙂

We put up our Christmas tree on the weekend.

Yup…right next to the pretty unfinished walls.  🙂

I love my tree.  Why do I love it?  Because it’s not perfect.  I see so many other trees on the internet or on tv where they are all decorated nice with bows and things flowing down them and you can tell that a kid never helped decorate that tree.  Not. at. all.

Our tradition has always been to decorate the tree as a family. (One time when hubby was a youth pastor we had the teens from the youth group come over and decorate the tree and make decorations to take home with them.  Another time it was the children’s church)

Hubby puts the lights and garland on and the star on top and then Little E and I and hubby decorate the rest of it.  We decorate it with old ornaments that Hubby and I both had as a kid, new ornaments that Little E has gotten over the year.  But the best decorations of all are the ones that Little E has made himself.  I love those and there are a few scattered here and there on the tree.  My tree is not perfect by “perfect decorating people” but it’s ours, it’s made by us and we love it.

Also this week Little E and I put up our advent calendar above the window.

It’s not really much of anything.  We bought a Christmas card holder from the dollar store…one that we can attach pieces of paper to.  Each piece of paper is for a different activity we can do as a family for each day before Christmas.  There are fun activities such as: “Go out for hot chocolate”, “Go visit our neighbour”, “Color Christmas pictures together”, “Go for a walk”, etc.  Just something fun and simple we can do as a family.  We did it last year and loved it.

So far this year…we are on December 6th and haven’t done one.  But, mark my words, we will be starting tomorrow night for sure!

When I was a little girl we used to go out either Christmas eve or a few days before Christmas and go look at Christmas lights.  I told Little E about this and he told me that was boring.  We shall see Little E…we shall see.  🙂

What about you…what are some of your favourite Christmas traditions you do as a family or when  you were a child that maybe you hope to pass on to your children someday?

Laura

Blessing for today: I had a chance to go to Little E’s Christmas Party at preschool.  Always a joy!

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Ugh what a time I’ve had trying to get a LeapPad Explorer!

See this thing right here?

This “gadget” has been the bane of my existence for the past….oh….month and a half.

Why?

WELLLLLLLL….because I wanted to buy this for Little E for Christmas.  He loves using my iPod touch and I knew that he would just LOVE this.

About a month and a half it came on sale at Walmart for $89…which is a $20 price drop from the original price.  I went to our nearest Walmart and they didn’t have it…so drove all the way to the other Walmart (it’s not really far…but remember my story about going around the rotary?  Yeah…what should have been a ten minute drive turned into about a 20 minute drive).  I found it at the other Walmart…buttttttttttttt…and here’s the BIG BUT…they only had one left and it was in the color PINK.

However  because I can always find a way to get myself out of a mess (usually) I decided to buy it and then later on when they had green ones in stock exchange it for a green one at the same price of $89.

Little did I know that the evil elves of Walmart didn’t feel the need to stock up on anymore LeapPad Explorers.  And the extra naughty elves of the internet were selling them on Amazon and Ebay for almost double and triple what they were worth.

All I could think of was “this is just like the Tickle Me Elmo” scenario a few years back.  However, I didn’t run over anybody (yet) to get one.

So I brought it home…hid it in my closet and probably annoyed all my friends with my asking them if they were going away so that they may be able to get one for me in the color GREEN.  I called other stores…even 4.5 hrs away…and all were sold out.

Then last night the magical elf that loves me came to visit.  He brought me a flyer from Zellers that said “LeapPad Explorer’s on sale $99.00”.  I was soooo excited.  Here was my chance to get a green one. We hurried out to Zellers the night before the sale and the nasty sales lady said “they don’t go on sale till tomorrow…they won’t be out on the floor until tomorrow.”  I replied….”I’ll buy one for regular price.  All I want is a green one”.  She nastily replied “be here at 8 in the morning if you want one”.

Seriously…cause nobody works right?

In my head, though, I was plotting.  How will I be there at 8 in the morning.  I have to babysit kiddos all day…it’s just not going to happen.

I turned to hubby with my sweet eyes and kindly asked “hey can  you be there in the morning at 8 to get this for me?  Pretty please???”

He quickly agreed and he headed in to Zellers at 7:30 this morning.  I really think he was just tired of me talking about it the for the last month and a half.

At about 7:50 I texted him and asked him if there were a lot of people in line.  He said “5 and then me…so 6.  5 Crazy ladies and me…I feel so dumb.  Do I run?  Do I scream while I run?”

Oh the humor of that boy.

I said…”no just walk very very quickly!!”

There was silence and then I heard the lovely “twinkle” saying that I had a text message and this is what it said:

“for it” (yes…hubby is still learning how to text)

Then a reply came quickly after that “Got it!”

Woohoooooooooooooooooo I was so excited.  Little E wouldn’t have a pink LeapPad after all. (Although I’m sure he probably would prefer the pink one)

And what am I doing with my pink one?

Hahaha…I’m joining the thousands on ebay and trying to sell it for more than it’s worth.  If it doesn’t sell then I’ll post it on Kijiji or take it back to Walmart…but a girl has to try right?

Laura

Ps.  Note to self:  Buy the popular items ahead of time!

Blessing:  No women were killed or trampled on while my husband grabbed the LeapPad Explorer.  🙂

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Preschool!

Well today was the day!  My little man (Little E) went to preschool for the first time.

Hubby and I talked about it a while ago and thought it wouldn’t hurt for him to go to preschool once or twice a week so he can get used to being without us so once he gets into school in a few years it won’t be so hard on him.

He told me last night that he was scared.

So I prayed with him and told him that mommy was scared too but I knew he was going to be a big boy and that he could handle it.  Then I told him that Jesus was with him.

He was pretty excited to go this morning once he saw his book bag and hubby said that he did really good.

Mommy did good too.  I didn’t call AT ALL.

I was tempted to a few times…but I held back.

And he did excellent!  He ate all his food…even had a 20 min nap and I think he has a new friend named Caleb…but the jury is still out on that one.

And…he can’t wait to go back!

Take a look at how cute he was this morning!

Uggh…break my heart.  😦  But I’m glad he’s having fun.

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Blessing: My heart grew fonder 🙂

 Laura

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