5 Question Friday

I missed out on 5 Question Friday last week but I'm excited to be back and into the groove again. Head over to Mama M's blog and join in over at My Little Life.

For this week here goes ~

1. Do you sing karaoke? If so, what is your go to song?

I have only done karaoke 1 time-that's right one single measly time. I'm a wimp I know!!!! To make it even lamer I was in the sixth grade when I did it. I was at a friend's birthday party and we sang to a Vince Gill song. I'm not stupid enough to try it again unless you sound playing with the kids on the Wii Disney Sing along.


2. What is your favorite coffee drink?

I LOVE vanilla lattes as big as they come however it is very very rare that I get one-I'm talking like 2 times a year. My everyday routine is several cups of black coffee. I used to load it with cream and sugar but I got tired of wasting money on creamer so I gave it up and started drinking it black.

3. If you could choose your own name, what would it be?

I actually like my name however I would drop my middle name if I could-which technically I can which is why I suppose I did when I got married. My middle name is Gail and I never liked it at all. The story is told that when I was born my dad liked Stephanie and my mom liked Gail so that was how they decided on my name. Then when they got divorced my dad didn't like Gail so he called me Stephanie and my mom continued to call me Gail. Basically I was called 2 different names my entire life until I was old enough to decide for myself. My mom still calls me Gail most of the time though it's weird hearing it.

4. Were you ever bullied?

I wouldn't call it bullied. I was picked on in middle school but I wouldn't say I was bullied. It sucked and I hated it but it was a fact of life at the time. I can't say I've actually ever seen someone get bullied like I hear about nowadays.

5. How often do you eat fast food?


Not often. We will go through stages where we'll want it. I'd say maybe once a week though there are many weeks we'll go without fast food at all. When I eat it I feel like crap afterwards though it sure tastes good going down.

I am SO not ready for this!

I was beginning to get frustrated. I have been trying for the last 30 minutes to get this attached and I was bound and determined to find a way to do it tonight!

I am now the proud owner of Lucas' very first love letter! Can you believe it? I can hardly believe my eyes-not only that he wrote it but that he actually gave it to me! I just knew he would tear it up and throw it away or refuse to let me see it let alone let me keep it. He'll kill me one day when he finds out I actually blogged about it but I can't resist. My heart is fluttering with happiness and a little bit of sadness that he's growing up so quickly.

Background: this little girl has been in our lives since Lucas was in 4K. She and Lucas bonded right away and Lucas automatically called her his girlfriend :) For about a year that was the case-just absolutely in love with each other. Lucas eventually became very close to her brother and hangs out her house often. They've all spent an enormous amount of time together. Something you would think would fade but still to this day Lucas blushes when he talks about her. David kept telling him he needed to write her a love letter and even though he said he had told her numerous times that he loved her he said he was going to do it today.

He comes home today and tells me that he wrote it-he said the first thing she wrote back to him was maybe(that's on the other side of the paper-I told ya it took me long enough to get this part loaded) and he wrote her back and told her that wasn't an answer :) Then she wrote back and said not right now. He was fine with it though and said there was another girl in his class he thought was pretty. She still has his heart though :)

I'll cherish this letter forever-it makes me tingle when I read it! The bottom part is her answer.

Wordless Wednesday

I HEART Faces-Hands On Fun

I haven't participated in an I HEART Faces challenge in quite a while now but I saw someone else's entry this morning and decided to jump back in. That's what this week is about after all-jumping back in with both feet forward so here I go.

This is Hands on Fun week at I HEART Faces and I thought of this picture I took of Allie recently. I had just laid Caleb down for a nap so I had a few minutes of one on one time with Allie before her naptime. I love that time of day when it's just she and I. I gave her a miniature sugar cookie and she just laid and looked at it in her hands for the longest time before she actually took a bite of it.

Snow Snow Snow

I figure if I don't jump right in then I'll never do it. Everything has been so stressful lately with house/kids/family/internet it was just easier to not even worry about getting online. When I was online I'd get kicked off every 2 minutes and I just couldn't deal with it anymore.

David's hours at work have been unbelievable. They've been long and never ending. I'm thankful he has a job and is able to work yet it's stressful at the same time. Then to add to it when he finally gets off of work and the kids are heading to bed he calls and he's on the way to a meeting. That's when I feel like I'm at ground zero all over again. It hits me where we are and how much I despise being here. It adds to the frustration and the anger takes over. I think how it would be nice to get out and find an al anon group that would be good for me yet there is no time. He hasn't been getting home until 930 at night and of course by that time all of the meetings are over. So all in all it's just been stressful.

I have lots and lots of blogs to catch up on and I figure I should stop putting it off and just jump back in. I'll be slowly making my way around :) and trying to get back into blogging at the same time. I've come to realize that it's hard to take things one day at a time. Hard to sit back and just let things happen. I'm horrible at that! I've always been one to want to know exactly what and when something is going to happen. This new way of living is something I haven't figured out yet.

While I was gone we got snow FINALLY! Caleb was obsessed with wanting to build a snowman. Lucas and Jacob decided they wanted to go to their grandparents house instead so they weren't here. We headed out in the morning for Allie and Caleb to play for a while. After busting my own butt on the ice the kids had a blast on the sled- well Caleb had a blast on the sled. Allie only stayed on for a couple of minutes and then she was happier walking along.

We don't get this weather very much so I didn't have a heavy for Allie. She had to wear Caleb's old Pooh jacket from last year. At least she had pink in her hat :)

David had to get in on the fun too!! Caleb wasn't happy to be sharing his sled.

After the sled David and Caleb decided to build Frosty. Amazingly the snow rolled right up off the grass so he was fairly easy to make but it wasn't my knees out there soaking wet either :) I was too busy keeping Allie off the street! When he was finally done we couldn't find buttons that would stick so David went all redneck on me with the spray paint. Lord I can't take him anywhere! All in all Caleb had a BLAST!!!!!! and Allie wasn't happy when it was time to come inside so though she wouldn't really play and it took her 45 minutes to actually put her feet in the snow I think deep down she had a fabulous time!

Finally!!!!!!!! and new blog!

Okay so new internet and I'm praying it's going to work long term now. Really I'm praying!!!! The internet situation around our house has been incredibly frustrating and I am sooooo tired of having to deal with it. Maybe if I worked outside of the house and had another connection to the outside world during the day other than having to talk on the phone with 4 kids in the background it would be different-however it isn't so I'm praying it's worked out now!

So I've gotta catch up with everyone and keep up with my blog now-I'm so behind and I've missed everyone so much!

First things first-a couple of weeks ago Stephanie over at Dirt and Lace Designs designed me a new blog. You see I've been wanting to do a blog for my project 365 for a while now and thanks to Stephanie I've finally got it. Project 365 is one of my FAVORITE things! It makes me look at things differently than I would on an ordinary basis. I look at the little things and in the end it is the little things I want to remember the most. So Stephanie did an awesome job with my 365 blog. My posting there has been sporadic so far because of my internet problems but it is now updated through today. I'll be posting on a daily basis with my pictures there and I hope you'll head over and follow along with me on my journey. There is a button on my main family blog also that will take you there if you need it.

Thank you so much Stephanie for fixing my blog! I'm sorry I haven't posted about it sooner than now-I hope you know how important you are to me and what a blessing you have been in my life.

Sucks!

 Today sucks. This week sucks. Everything right now just sucks! In a bad mood/frustrated/confused/miserable just not here right now. Internet still isn't working yet either. Hopefully by end of week but we shall see. For now I'm MIA! I promise one day I'll be back to normal-sorry I've been so out of it these past couple of months. Hope to get myself together and be back soon.

Don't Let Him Fool You

Jacob started kindergarten this year and it's been a bit of a challenge. If you've been here a while you remember that I had to pull him from the preschool he was in because it became more of a daycare than a place where they were learning and being prepped for kindergarten. He and I worked on his letters and things throughout the summer before he was going to start school but I knew he was going to be a little further behind some of the other kids in his class. When I took him out of the preschool he didn't even know how to write his name-it took us a couple of hard weeks to get that mastered. All in all I think pulling him was the right decision.

When he started school this year they assessed all of the kids and pulled 5 out of the regular instruction for 30 mins a day for one on one time with the teacher's aide that stays in their classroom. I knew as soon as they said they would be doing that Jacob would be included in that group. He just wasn't retaining the letters like he should be at that point. He went in the group and while I was nervous it proved to be unfounded. The teacher's aide was the best thing to ever happen to us. She is single handedly responsible for putting Jacob where he is today and I am so thankful for her! She did what I couldn't in getting him to understand and retain things that he would need next year and in years to come in school. We have been incredibly lucky with getting two wonderful kindergarten teachers this year and it has been such a breath of fresh air.

Just about 3 weeks ago we received a letter saying that Jacob had been reassessed and no longer needed to be in the group. While I was incredibly proud of the progress he has made I was a little sad too. I worried about him not having the one on one time with someone there to reinforce and teach him things. He's done well since being back in the group all day though so once again concerns unfounded.

Everyday they come home with homework and a book to read. Recently we've added what they call popcorn words to the mix. Those are a group of words that they should know before they move on to 1st grade. I had not worried about them so much during the first part of school because my main concern was making sure he was remembering the letters more than anything. Now that he had those down I knew we had to tackle the words and with how easily frustrated he got when he didn't know something I knew it was going to be difficult. He complains every single day when he comes home about having to do flashcards. He has done very well and now knows all of them until we add new ones to the mix and he doesn't know those yet. He ALWAYS complains about them. Just the other day we finished them and he was telling me how much he hated doing flashcards-until I walked in the room about 10 minutes later and he was standing in the corner playing with them. BUSTED!!!!! Of course he also just came up to me while I was typing this and asked if he could practice them for a while too :) I think there may be hope for him after all!!!

Week from Hell

I was beginning to think I would never get online again. The internet situation in our house is about to drive me absolutely insane!

Week started by me getting ready for a huge consignment sale in our area. They hold it twice a year at our local expo center and there is always a huge turnout. I should have planned better but things have been so crazy lately I just haven't had the time to get things ready like I would have liked. I had to work the drop off on Monday night and had to have everything dropped off by 730 on Tuesday night. I worked for close to 72 hours sorting,hanging,pricing,tagging and loading over 200 items for the consignment sale. I have never been more ready to not see things again in my entire life(somehow I vaguely remember feeling that way last year too). I drove up to drop off at exactly 730.

Our house looked like a tornado had blown through here. It was an absolute disaster!!! I took me all day Wednesday to get it back to even semi livable. As soon as I got up Wednesday morning the internet was down :( Irritating!!!! I called and they said that there was an outage but it would be fixed within a few hours. Next thing I knew it was Wednesday night and still no internet. Thursday no internet again-I finally called on Thursday afternoon and they said they would be here Friday afternoon! Honestly Charter is driving me insane!!!! I am so incredibly frustrated with the internet and the issues that we've been having for the last month it isn't even funny. It's about to drive me insane-just when I get caught up on blogging and checking in with everyone else it goes down again. YUCK

So they came today and it's up again for now. I'm researching and trying to find out other options we have for internet right now. Problem is from what I have found out so far our options are very limited if even that.

I'm hoping the internet will stay up and I'll get caught up again soon early next week. We are getting snow tonight. Right now we have about 3 1/4 in and that's huge for us. Lucas and Jacob went to my Dad's house and Caleb and Allie are home. Caleb is going to be ready to build a snowman as soon as he opens his eyes in the morning-guess I better get ready.  I have no idea what my weekend has in store right now-my husband has some secrets up his sleeve :) I am so horrible about giving up control so this is HARD!!!! We shall see if I survive.

5 Question Friday

I have seen this little meme  the past couple of Fridays and thought I would start participating.

Mama M. over at My Little Life hosts this weekly blog carnival so head over to her blog and join in. It looks like a lot of fun!!!!



1. What are you most afraid of?

         I am absolutely terrified of bugs. Especially spiders and most specifically jumping spiders! If I see one in a room I'll shut the door and not go in that room again until my husband gets home and can kill it for me. Absolutely TERRIFIED! I mean really this world could be just as pleasant and spin on its axis if we didn't have jumping spiders-aren't spiders bad enough without having the capability to jump on us. YUCK!! Gives me chills just thinking about them!
2. Do you use a flat iron or curling iron?
         I don't use either. I was cursed with naturally curly hair and the texture is so coarse that a flat iron is a disaster waiting to happen. If I haven't said it before I hate my hair!
3. Hands-free or phone to the ear?
        Phone to the ear. I've never owned a bluetooth though I do use the speaker at times on my phone. I've thought about getting my husband one though so if you have one and have likes or dislikes let me know so I can look into it for him.
4. Do you have a matching bedroom set?
         Yes. Sleigh bed and I adore the style of it. I always wanted a sleighbed so that was the first thing I looked at it. I would love to get a better quality one though one day.
5. Do you believe in the paranormal?
        I don't and my mom will think I'm insane. She loves stuff like that and completely believes in it. I think it's spookier to me to think it's true so easier to deny it.

This was fun! I'll definitely be doing this again next week so head over and join in!!

This and That

Much of the last couple of weeks has been spent being sick around our house. If it wasn't one person it was another and it hasn't stopped since. I feel like I'm just now beginning to get over it and Allie still has a runny nose while Lucas started coughing tonight. This has been the scene around our house for the last couple of weeks-and an awful lot of laundry!
                                                                   Lots of couch laying

TLC

Medicine

Sad Faces

And a little game playing

So: Germs-  we've had enough of you  in our house-please see your way out!