Heard in our house today

This morning Emma came bouncing into our bedroom.As I helped her onto our bed (our fabulous, cal-King, super comfy bed, that I could sleep in forever) she excitedly said, "Happy Mother's Day Mommy!" To which I replied, "Thank you Emma!" To which Emma then said, "Now you tell me Happy Emma's Day Emma!" Oh my...that girl is funny!



While playing the V-Tech this morning, Dylan grabbed the string on his remote and put it around his wrist. Emma asked what he was doing. After he explained, she examined hers and said, " Oh, I don't have a wrist." Again...that girl is funny.



What a splendid day to be a mom! We had a fabulous brunch at our house with friends, I picked up my new bicycle, received beautiful picture frames from my children and a Vanilla Bean frappucinno this morning, did a little shopping during naptime, and now I can't wait for them to wake up so we can take a bike ride together. We have sun, smiles, and lots of snuggles to still be had on this day. Being a mom is a wonderful thing!

Friendship is like a circle, it has no end, that's how long I'm going to be your friend!

These are my two dearest friends from highschool, Meredith and Jennifer. We have known eachother for 21 and 22 years. Wow! I feel so priveleged and blessed to have had two wonderful friends for that long. These women are truly amazing wives, mothers, friends, and Christians. We were able to spend a day together earlier this month while the kids and I visited Washington. We were only able to visit for a few short hours, as I could have talked to them for days! Between the three of us we have ten children. Only eight of the children were at our get together, as the other two were at school. The kids had fun and so did the girls.

I wonder how I got so lucky to have two friends through out the years that have stayed so true to themselves. They are grounded and confident in the women they have become. They are inspiring as mothers. Both have more patience than I have seen in a long time! I call them both friends with great ease, and pride. Mere and Jen make me feel normal in a world that can otherwise seem overwhelming and stressful. They are the ones that brought me to blogland!

Mere and Jen~love you both! Thank you for years of friendship, encouragement, and acceptance. You are both amazing!

~Liz

The girls!

Here are my sister and I with our "girls!" We are having fun on the swingset in my parents backyard! How fun to see both of us with our girls!



More fun memories to come...today is our first day of vacation at Grandpa and Grandma's house! We had a great trip up here on Jet Blue. We met a great group of high school/college guys who adored Dylan. They gave him high-fives in the Long Beach airport and had some fun with him on the plane (they sat right behind us.) After getting off the plane in Portland, as we were walking towards my parents, they all yelled out "Bye, Dylan!" He got a big smile on his face, turned around and waved. How nice and refreshing to see young men that are friendly, nice, and sweet to an otherwise unknown little four year old. They made his day.

After the above sweet moment, Dylan could not run fast enough to get to Grandpa's arms. As we came around the corner to where people wait to pick up passengers, Dylan started running, with the biggest smile on his face, shouting, "Grandpa! Grandpa! Grandpa!" It was movie-esque!!!!

We are looking forward to a week full of fun and sweet memories!

~Liz

Sweet Memories

My mom sent me all the pictures she took when her and my dad were here for Christmas this past year. They are so precious. What struck me the most was how precious all of these pictures are and how special what we are doing in each picture is to me. We aren't at Disneyland or flying off to some far away place. We are home. We are building with Grandpa, making cookies with mom, riding bikes, drinking hot chocolate, and decorating our gingerbread house.

Sigh. These pictures make my heart happy. The simple things in life bring my children~and me~the most joy.

And yes~these pictures were taken in December the week surrounding Christmas. It was very warm and we were celebrating California style!


My dare devil riding his razor as fast as possible down the sloping driveway!


I love this picture of my hands over Emma's making cookies.







Dylan gets his great imagination from Grandpa!



Grandma made them the hot chocolate they'd been longing for~and of course they didn't like it!

This last picture still puts a smile on my face. Of all the wonderful things my husband spoils me with~he still spoils me the most with his sense of humor and ability to make me smile. He was just complaining about how many "kitchen gadgets" I have. He took the kids out to Target around 4:30 on Christmas Eve, completely freaking me out. Mainly because Christmas Eve dinner was almost ready and Santa would be arriving soon. Anyway, my funny guy came home with one of the few kitchen gadgets I don't have~a toaster oven. It was a very funny moment to me. Even though we might complain about things our spouses do or want~in the end we really do all understand eachother. It's the ability and effort we put into understanding eachother that can make marriage so powerful. I may not always think my husband understands me or completely "hears me" but he truly does. Here is my expression after being married to him for almost nine years.


As I share these memories of the things in life that truly make me the happies: family, marriage, laughter, and sweet memories, may we all remember baby Stellan. Please continue to pray for this sweet baby from a fellow bloggers website. He is battling SVT. She is the remarkable mom of three other children. I have added the button to my blog if you too are willing to join us all to pray for this sweet boy. May they continue to be blessed with sweet memories.

~Liz

Superheros, super day!

Today was a great day! Dylan and Emma spent the day with a great friend and neighbor who has two boys of her own. She is an amazing mom and friend! Her oldest was at school this morning when Dylan and Emma were home playing with her younger son Tanner. Here is how their morning started...




Tanner is in the middle and Dylan is on the right (Emma on the left :-)...


(It made me laugh that Emma was the Hulk! I used to growl like the Hulk when I was her age...too funny! She loves "hanging with the boys!)

The day ended with my visit to the Breast Care Center in Newport Beach. After a mammogram and ultrasound all the images showed that there was nothing to be worried about. I just have dense tissue. Horray for dense tissue! I feel like a huge load has been lifted off my shoulders!

We watched Finding Nemo tonight on the couch. It was so nice to be so snuggly with the kids after such a long week. I love being with them and just "being." Nothing else like it in the world!

I love my little "superheros!"

~Liz

Thank you God for who I am ...I don't have to be a superman!

I haven't posted in some time because, quite frankly, I feel that the air has been sucked right out of me. I feel like I don't know where to begin. I feel sad. One of my third grade students lost his father to cancer last week. He battled cancer for two years. My student's mother is one of the strongest women I have ever met. She is now raising a nine and a six year old on her own. I went to the service last week and just felt overwhelmed with sadness for her and the kids. They are strong. Strong in faith, strong in family, strong in character. My other students made cards for him. One of the sweetest things on earth are the words of children. I cried even as I read through their cards. I know my student will hold them dear for a long time. I wish I could "fix" this for him. That is what I do as a teacher. I solve problems, fix situations, make things better. That's what I do as a mom. He knows that his dad went to heaven and that our time on this earth is a temporary life. The true life comes once we die. Such faith at 9 years old. Amazing.

As these events all unfolded last week, it quickly put my life into perspective.All of those little things I am always complaining about quickly seemed so unimportant. We have jobs. My husband and I have eachother. We have our health. I have spent too much time sweating the small stuff in my life. Which takes me to my next point. I of course did not go to the dentist for such a long time due to being pregnant and nursing children (my "acceptable" excuse) that I then needed a root canal. I raced to the dentist on Tuesday to be referred to an oral surgeon on Friday, today. On Thursday I raced to the ObGyn for a year check-up to find out that I need to now go and have an ultrasound on my breast. Also to find out that shocking as it may be~I am suffering from anxiety. I had no idea...not!!!! My goodness of course I am anxious about life. I don't sleep well so now will be taking sleeping pills. How can I not be tired? Seriously...working, kids, groceries, husband works late, committees at school, laundry...who isn't tired? Apparently, me!

I was anxious about going to the oral surgeon today for my "consultation" and when I arrived I found out that I would not be having said consultation, but would be having the root canal right away. Oops, back up. Before leaving work preschool called to let me know that Emma needed to be picked up because she had had two loose "BMs." No fever...eating fine...sleeping...but loose BMs. That is what they call it. We prefer icky poopies in our house. Anyway...seriously. I can't just go to the oral surgeon without needing to go get Emma too????? Why???

All of this is happening, and I stop. I remember. I have my husband and my children. We have our family. We have our health. We have our jobs. This is the small stuff. Why do we so quickly forget that life is too short to worry about these things? Life is too short!!!! It of course all worked out~I got the root canal, picked up the kids and had a cozy night with both of them.

The funny part...I picked up my sleeping pills at the pharmacy, read through the info brochure on them...one of the side effects? Anxiety! Seriously?

I have had lots of time to pray lately. Pray for my student and his family. Pray while I am having a root canal. Praying in the car after taking the kids to preschool that they will have a good day. Praying that I will get some sleep. Praying that I will get the ultrasound done and everything will be okay. I cannot even begin to fathom if it is not. Praying that I will calm down and not sweat the small stuff. Praying how thankful I am for the wonderful life I have.

Dylan and Emma sing this wonderful song around the house. They sing it every Wednesday in chapel at preschool. This is my favorite line:

"Thank you God for who I am, I don't have to be a superman."

That says it all!

~Liz

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week. So keep in mind that the following confessions, I mean stories, did not really happen and would NEVER be told openly on a blog. Not.

Not me. I did not silently curse that my children are in a public preschool setting today. I did not wish I could keep them hidden from the "germ infested" world. The school did not call me again today to tell me Emma had a fever. Her fever was gone yesterday. Gone. I did not feel like ultimate neglective mother who sent child to school being sick. I did not race to go get her and Dylan during my lunch time to bring them home. I definitely did not leap at the chance to leave work and be home with then instead. I defintely do not believe that they follow my children around with a thermometer just waiting for their temps to rise above 99.1 just to call me. That is ridiculous. They surely do not do such things, do they? Nah.

I definitely did not gently encourage my son to eat his last carrot at dinner tonight, only to have him gag on it and then throw up at the table. My daughter did not then eat a piece of chicken, gag and throw up as well. My kids would never copy each other. Not my kids. They definitely eat their vegetables with smiles and ask for second helpings. Surely they do!

No, I did not crawl into bed each of the last three days when my children were napping. I am not that lazy! I know that is the best time to get the housework done and plan meals, etc. I would never crawl into bed three days in a row in the middle of the day. I do not feel emotionally exhausted from taking care of sick kids for nine days now. That would not drain me. I only have two kids. My goodness. Not me.

I did not feel cheated out of my son's life this weekend when he got to go to birthday dinners and parties and I had to stay home with sick child number two. I loved cuddling with her. I wasn't jealous at all that my four year old son got to leave the house and have more of a social schedule than I had this weekend. Not me. That would be silly. I was perfectly content doing laundry, cleaning, and watching cartoon after cartoon ALL weekend with a husband at work. No. It didn't bother me at all. I absolutely LOVE feeling like a prisoner in my own home. Doesn't everybody?

What did you not do this week??

~Liz