Thankful

Lately it seems that I have been a little depressed. I always get like this towards the middle of the winter. I call it my "winter blues". We spend to many days stuck inside, which leads to more kids fighting. I have also realized that when I am stuck inside I think more negatively about everything going on in my life. I always think about what I don't have, instead of what I do. My friend Kristina has written on her blog all the things that she is grateful for so I thought to get me out of my winter blues I am going to do the same; so her goes.

I am grateful for Chad having a job. He recently got a new one, and I can see how much happier he is. He no longer has to get up at 3:30 in the morning, which means he can now stay up past 8! WOO HOO! Now it is me who usually goes to bed before him.

I am grateful for my parents. We have been living with them for a year now, (Happy Anniversary mom and dad)! This wasn't initially the plan, but due to unforseen circumstances we are here longer. They have never once pressured us to move, or told me they are tired of us, (even though I can see an occasional eye roll dad), and that makes me so grateful. My children have grown closer to them, and I know that when we do move, Lex will be destroyed. She has 2 breaksfasts' in the morning. One on her own, one sitting on my mom's lap eating hers. She has 3 dinners, hers, my dad's and then my mom's. And Pk includes them in all his family stuff at school. He had to draw a picture of his family, and Papa and Grandma were included. Yesterday, Tan had art class and I asked him if I could take him. He told me no, Papa was going to take him. I asked him if I could take him just once, and he told me no again. "What would Papa do then mom?" I will always be grateful to my parents for letting us live here, and I hope my children will always remember how close they were to their grandparents.

I am grateful for my children. Yes, I do need to remind myself of this. They have been little buggers lately, being cooped up inside. But, what would I do without them? I love each one of them and they make me smile, laugh, cry, pull out my hair and yell like I've never heard myself yell. I love every minute of it.

Tv Review

Here is my update on my no TV for a week rule.
Day 1: Not so bad because it was a holiday and the boys played with their cousin most of the day.
Day 2: I caved in a little on this day. I knew that PK would be watching the inauguration on TV at school and I wanted Tanner to watch it as well. I thought it was very important for them to know who the new President was and to be able to watch history being made. After he took the oath of office we turned it off.
Day 3: I had to stop myself from caving on this day. I was not in a very good mood, and I didn't want to have to entertain them. It worked out fine, though. Tan had his art class that kept him busy, so I only had to deal with one whiney boy instead of two.
Day 4: TV has been on ALL DAY and I DO NOT CARE! We made it four days, I think I could technically count that as a week!

Oh come On!

I discovered something this morning that I knew was happening, I just didn't know to what extent. I was making the kids breakfast and I turned around to discover that Pk was taking a piece of toast and then walking in to the family room to sit in front of the TV. I have noticed him and Tan doing this before, but I have never really stopped it because I was too rushed to worry about it. Since I wasn't able to start school this semester I thought now is the time to change a couple of things that have been pushed aside.

So I stopped what I was doing and declared to everyone that this week is going to be a NO TV WEEK! This not only includes TV shows and movies, I told them that it also includes the Wii. Their reply? "Oh come on!"

I'm tired of my kids waking up at 6:30 in the morning to watch it. Then they come home from school and immediately turn it on. I also have a two year old little girl who is addicted to I Carly. For those of you who do not know what that show is, lets just say a two year old should not be watching it, let alone have the shows memorized. It's going to make this week a very long and dreadful week, but hopefully we may be able to get rid of some of our bad habits.

And what the kids don't know is that I'm sure the TV will be on when Lex is asleep and they are at school. And I'm most definetly not going to give up my primetime shows once I put the kids to bed. I at least have to make this week bearable some how. And besides, maybe the kids will learn a lesson about to much TV. They just don't have to know about my addiction to it!

The Art of Sledding

This past weekned we went sledding with some of our favorite friends. The kids had an awesome time, the adults had an even better time. I don't know what it is about sledding that makes you feel like a kid again. And because you start to feel like a kid, you start to act like one as well. I get so excited to do things, then I realize that I have a little more weight on me and the fall is going to hurt a lot worse than when I was a kid. I think I went down three times before the BIG ONE, and after that I realized that my bum was never going to be the same again.

Making the trek up the huge hill

Chad and his best buds. They are all so different, yet get along great. I'm so glad that they are all friends.

Lex in between her crying fit

Chad attempting the hill.

Tan enjoying the snow

The three boys ready for take-off

Look how adorable they all are!

Skiing 101

Last week I went skiing for the first time in 15 years. The last time that I went skiing I threw up in my dad's ski boot so I haven't really been allowed to go since then. It was my brother-in-laws 30th birthday and my sister knows how much he loves to ski. So she roped us into going along with them. After all the planning that was involved it ended up being me, my sister, brother and brother-in-law that went.

The first lesson that I learned is when you are borrowing someone ski's make sure that the boot fits into the binding of the ski. I learned this the hard way. All four of us got on the same lift, and right as I sat down, my ski flew off. The people behind us picked it up and dropped it off to me at the next stop. Me and my brother started going down the hill and I actually started to get a little confident in myself. I had a huge smile on my face and started going even faster and then CRASH! My ski flew off. I picked myself up and tried to get my ski on for the next 10 minutes then took off again. It flew off again but this time my leg twisted with it and I hurt my knee, bruised my bum, and scraped my back from the fall. This continued until my brother noticed that my boot didn't fit with the ski. Awesome! It took me an hour to make it down the hill without killing myself. I took the ski off, sent my brother down the hill again and waited for my sister which takes us to lesson number two.

Don't try and go down a huge slope on a snowboard when you have never done it before. My sister has never tried to ski, let alone snowboard, and she thought it would be easy to just get on and "smoke it" down the hill. This quickly changed as she got off the lift and immediately fell. This worker ran over to help her up and as soon as she got upright, she fell again. After these two times of falling she scooted herself over to the side of the mountain, and decided that she was done. My brother and I took off while her husband tried and tried to get her up, but it didn't matter. Everytime she stood up she fell and gave up after two hours. After that she took the snowboard off and walked the rest of the way down the mountain. We came up with a different plan.

Lesson number three: If there is a bunny hill you should try that first instead of the slope. My brother and brother in law took off and I took my sister to the bunny hill where she could stand and actually go down a couple of feet without falling. She did much better and I realized we should have taken her down that first. Was it more fun watching her try to go down the slope? VERY! We had a great day and I can't wait to try it again; as soon as my bum heals, I can walk with no pain, and my muscles aren't screaming at me everytime I move.