Holiday Stew

*I love this time of year because there's non-stop Christmas music on KOSI. I normally don't listen to music in my car when the kids are with me, but its on all the time during Christmas time. On Saturday I was taking Kobe to his eye doctor appointment. We got into the car, and within 45 seconds - I am not kidding, 45 seconds - I was crying real tears. Why? The saddest Christmas song I have ever heard was playing. The song is called "Christmas Shoes". It was the chorus that I heard and it goes like this:

Sir I wanna buy these shoes for my Momma please

It's Christmas Eve and these shoes are just her size

Could you hurry Sir? Daddy says there's not much time

You see, she's been sick for quite a while

And I know these shoes will make her smile

And I want her to look beautiful

If Momma meets Jesus, tonight.

Are you kidding me? It actually made me kind of mad. I feel the motive behind this song was just to make people as sad as possible, and I don't think that's really a good attitude to have at Christmas time. I'm an extremely sensitive person to begin with, and I don't need to be hit by a ton of bricks to be reminded how fortunate I am and how others aren't as lucky. Poverty. Child. No money for shoes. Mother sick with cancer. Going to die. Christmas time. Child's faith in Jesus.....ALL RIGHT! I GET IT! ENOUGH! This song must be written for the most insensitive, cold-hearted person out there.

*On Friday I did a little shopping. I'm actually not much of a shopper. I like to get in and out as fast as I can. I don't enjoy the process of purchase. But it was super cold and snowing on Friday. The Christmas music was playing. I was by myself, and the Christmas spirit was a'flowin. There were parts of the day that felt like a movie. While I was looking for a parking space, I saw a couple leaving a store, hand in hand, smiling. They were pushing a big cart with a huge box in it, and the box fell out into the snow. And they both laughed and picked it up. It was happening in slow motion. I was smiling.

But even with all this Christmas cheer - maybe even because of it - there are some super grumpy, feisty people out there. What is the background of these people? What happened to them that made them so bitter? While I was in line at JoAnn's, there was a long line that curved, and a lady didn't see the curve and got in too early. Instead of telling her about the curve, these two women just start talking loudly about this lady cutting. She caught on and asked them if there was a problem. Anyway, both parties get into it and start yelling at each other and the accidental-cutter said, "I didn't know there was a line, SO SHUT YOUR MOUTH!" I just closed my eyes. I didn't want to be there at that moment. That stuff makes me super uncomfortable. I was right behind them both.

Then one time I was waiting to cross the road of a parking lot - no crosswalk - and another lady was waiting with me. A car drives by slowly and doesn't stop for us. No big deal. They didn't have to stop. But the lady next to me steps into the street and starts hitting this car and saying, "YOU COULD STOP!!!" Who are these people? I was only out for a few hours, so I wonder how many other angry people I didn't even encounter. I'm glad I don't work retail this time of year.

*I loved having Jake home this last long weekend. It was heaven. Now that he's back at work, Jude is super attached to me again. He's here by my side right now, by the way. Always. We kept busy laying laminate floor in our entry way and bathroom. The original goal was to lay it in our kitchen, too. But there's a lot of false advertisement out there that says laying laminate floor is easy and fast. LIES! It was stressful and horrible. But the finished product is beautiful. As soon as we get our kitchen done, too, I'll post pictures. I wish I could have Jakey home with me all the time. Life is just a whole lot easier and enjoyable when he is around.

*My super cool cousin, Mikey, was a cowboy clown in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. He's on the left. He lives in New York, and this was his second year doing it. I didn't ask him if I could post this picture, but I'm sure he won't mind. I am super proud to be related to him!

*Buying Christmas gifts has been stressful this year. Most of the time I can come up with a great gift idea for whoever I'm buying for. But I'm struggling this year. Some people are super tough to buy for. This year I'm buying for my 15-year-old brother, T. ("T" isn't so you don't know his full name. It's Timmy. We all just call him T. Or Little T. Or T-skers.) He is the most super laid back kid I've ever met. He goes to school. Plays volleyball. Drives his golf-car like car around their huge compound with his friends and swims all the time. At first I was thinking clothes, but he lives in Thailand. And it's summer all year round and everywhere I look there's only long-sleeves and sweaters. I would love any suggestions about great gifts for him, if you have any. Also, what is everyone getting for their parents or in-laws? I'm struggling with really great ideas.

So that's my holiday stew of random thoughts. Hope you are enjoying this time of year!

Happy Thanksgiving!

This year we celebrated Thanksgiving as a family at home. It's been years since it's just been us, and it was super nice! Very mellow and relaxing. But Kobe, feeling very left out, decided to throw-up last night. I was so glad that Jakey had today off so that he could help me with the Kobester last night. I know I'm being gross, but Kobe's throw-up was the most intense, disgusting one yet. He threw-up on the way down his bunkbed ladder, so it waterfalled down onto his messy room. I ran in to help, but then had to turn it over to Jake. The smell was insane! I'm so sorry I go into so much detail about this stuff. Especially on my Thanksgiving post.

So Kobe wasn't feeling super great today. He was actually pretty happy and normal for most of the day, but by the time dinner rolled around, he was not in good shape. We had him sit at the table with us for prayer and a quick picture, but then he was off to bed. Poor guy! The rest of us enjoyed our Thanksgiving feast. Turkey, mashed potatoes, corn, rolls, fruit salad, and apple pie - just to document.

I have so much to be thankful for! I am thankful for Jakob and that he can be home with us this week. I am thankful for my beautiful boys. Even though I whine about it, I am thankful for our home. I am thankful that, against all odds, our cars still run. And I am thankful for JoAnn Fabrics $.99/yard flannel Doorbuster they're having tomorrow. See ya at 6am!

Here are some crafts the boys did at school. Here's Kobe's:

Kobe is a super spiritual boy, even at school. I think he once answered a question at school with "Joseph Smith". For I am not ashamed, baby!

Here's Luke's:

I am not offended that I share a line with babysitters. We do have some pretty cool babysitters. But I have my suspicions that his preschool teacher had to remind him to add mom to his turkey feather. But I know that little roosty loves me!

Happy Birthday, Jakers!

Today was Jakob's 31st birthday! Yay! We started celebrating yesterday night when we went out with our friends, the Wests, to Jake's favorite burger joint, "Cherry Cricket". Super yum. They never disappoint. We then got ice cream at Bonnie Brae, which is a really delicious creamery. It's our favorite date. It was also a treat to go out with the Wests since they are movin' on to warmer climates. I am struggling to accept that they won't be around much longer and am very depressed. :(

On a happier note, Jake turned 31 today! Unfortunately, the whole family was a little under the weather, beginning with some throw-up incidents from Luke and Jude in the night. Poor Jude was so frightened because this was his first big throw-up. He slept in bed with us, and I really didn't get much sleep because I wanted to try and prevent another throw-up explosion. I felt like super mom as I heard him start to smack his lips a little bit, immediately lifted his body and tilted him over the bowl, and caught the entire projectile vomit right in the bowl. I have special powers.

On a less nauseating note, we all slept in because of our restless night. Kobe and I woke up to make dad some breakfast in bed. Kobe was very helpful and did a lot of the French Toast himself, including learning to crack eggs. At 9:00am we finally went in to sing to Dad and bring him his breakfast in bed. Jude just stayed sleeping, limp on the bed. Poor fella! Everyone stayed home from church and rested a ton, so it was a very relaxing birthday.

Luke helped me make Dad's cake and we celebrated with cake and presents after dinner. The boys got Dad some new hiking boots for all his future Scout hikes and some new black church shoes. He was very happy! All day the boys kept telling Daddy how great he was and that he is the best Dad ever. They are so good to praise! We love you, Jake, and look forward to another year ahead!

My name is Mindy, and I am a Beddingaholic.

This is a picture of my loveseat. I love my couch and loveseat. I have loved them since I first laid eyes on them in my grandparents house. And I still loved them when they were given to my parents, even though my brothers were kind of rough on them. And I ESPECIALLY loved them when my parents gave them to me. They are a brick red, floral print, which may not be everyones taste. But they are mine. I wish I could keep them forever. But since they are basically gigantic Kleenexes and trampolines to three members of our house, I know they are slowly getting destroyed and won't last forever. But I have definitely figured out my dream couches.

This little ditty about my couches was to contrast a problem I am having. I have been wanting to post for awhile now about a painting project I undertook a LONG time ago. It was my bedroom. While I was painting I couldn't wait to be done so that I could take pictures of the finished project and share it with my fans. But before I could do that, I had to finish decorating the room so that it could be a truly impressive reveal.

But my problem?: I CANNOT FIGURE OUT MY TASTE IN BEDDING! I know, tragic, right? But it seriously is a problem. I know that a bedroom should be a haven, and that's what I really want mine to be. But I cannot figure out what mine needs to look like in order for me to be perfectly comfortable. This has been a problem for as long as I can remember. Let me take you back:

My first bedding set was given to me by Santa, Christmas 1988. It was light blue with a gigantic brown dog on it. Loved it. But I grew, and puppies weren't so cool anymore. What was cool was teal, geometrics:

This was probably 1992. By the time I was in high school, my taste had changed again. This time I was feeling more classic and mature. I went with a mauve, forest green floral combo:

This combo followed me to college. Then I got married and had a queen bed and oodles of Target gift cards. The result was this yellow floral number which I loved:

That lasted for....two years maybe? Then is was onto my blue phase. It was white and blue floral duvet cover with blue plaid sheets:


That got us through the rest of college. Then we made our big move and that was cause for some new bedding. Eddie Bauer Khaki was my new love, with navy blue and red striped sheets. Very cute:

Let's see. What was next....? Oh, yeah!:

We graduated to King bed which meant new bedding! I wanted to go sophisticated, so I found this cutest silky creation at overstock.com. I knew I had found the one. So I painted my walls a pretty earthy green color to match the comforter. I think I made my bed up in this set one time before I posted it on Craigslist. It just wasn't for me.


I dabbled in this red duvet cover from IKEA for a time.

Then onto my solid, deep red comforter with bows. Spent a lot of time making A LOT of pillows to match. But didn't really like these deep colors with my deep colored walls. Time for a paint change. Took off all the bedding and used this beautiful quilt that Jakob's mom made for us as our new bedding:

So I painted months ago, and by the time I was done painting, I was so over my deep red comforter with bows. That's when I fell in love with this cutest retro looking set at Target:

But this was an entirely new look for me. This was cause for some other big changes - new art, new decorations, new curtains. I was so certain that this was the bedding of my dreams, I lost the receipt. No worries. So while I was busy searching for the perfect new decor, we took a trip to Utah. And while visiting my friend Emily, I walked into her room and saw this cutest ever quilt:

Oh, no. I knew I loved it. I knew I had to have it. I went all the way back home and couldn't get the quilt out of my mind. So one day, I urgently dialed the quilt shop in Utah, bought it over the phone, and had them ship it to me. Phew! I almost passed up the bedding set of my dreams! When it got here, I laid it out on my bed and loved it. But all I could think was, "I hope I still love it in a few months."

I have a problem. I can't figure it out! Why do I dream of dying of old age sitting on my red floral couches but I can't be content with a bedding set for more than a couple of months? I think it's like someone forcing me to chose one outfit to wear for the rest of my life. I have so many outfits that I love - comfy, trendy, dressy, casual. How could I chose only one? Can you imagine how much money I've wasted?

So I'm sure this post was more than a little boring. But I just wanted to document a serious problem I am struggling with. And explain why it will still be quite some time before my big bedroom reveal.

Exodus

Dictionary.com defines exodus as

noun
1. a journey by a large group to escape from a hostile environment

This exodus was not made by a large group, only Jakob. But I still think my title is appropriate because he definitely made a strategic escape from a very hostile environment. Our house.

Jakob left ten days ago for a business trip to Amsterdam, as well as a leisure trip to Germany to visit his friend, Randy. He had three solid days of work (which included work dinners to some very cool local restaurants) in a small town, Dordrecht, an hour outside of Amsterdam. He then had a day to tour around Amsterdam. In the top picture he is in Dordrecht, where they have the traditional Dutch windmills. The second picture is him standing in the city in front of the buildings and canal.

He had a good time there, but it was very cold. He walked around the city, visited a few art museums, and took a tour of the canals. Before he went on his trip, we rented a video for tourists about Amsterdam and watched it together. Well, we watched half of it and fast-forwarded through the rest. The video made it seem that unless he was interested in the 'Red Light District', smoking pot, or the gay parades, there wasn't going to be much for him to do. But it was a very beautiful city with much more to offer.

He then was able to take a plane and train to Wurzburg, a little town outside of Frankfurt, Germany to go and visit his childhood friend, Randy, his wife, Nia, and his boys, Sam and Jack. Randy is stationed over there as a dentist with the army. He loved spending time with his friend and seeing their beautiful town. They ate at a local restaurant and had schnitzel, which is deep fried pork, breaded and smothered in mushroom sauce. Yummy!

The next day Randy showed him around the city, but I guess it was FREEZING there. Here he is standing in front of a church. They saw a lot, hung out, and played games. I'm so jealous. But I am really happy that Jake got to visit his friend.

We are glad to have Daddy back. He brought home a lot of chocolate which is nice. These last ten days were tough, but we survived. Jake has traveled tons since we've moved here. But it gets harder and harder every time. I think as the kids get older and we have more going on we just need our dad around. Plus, the fact that he was in Europe certainly didn't help my psyche much.

But the number one factor in this horrible week? Daylight Savings Time!!!! What the heck?!? This used to be the 'good' time change. Fall back. But any parent will tell you that no matter what time you put your children to bed, they will always awaken to their internal alarm clock. So my kids were waking up at the new 5:00am. Three hours till school starts? You gotta be kidding me. The day seemed fifty hours long and when it finally ended and was time for bed, I was too exhausted to have any alone time and just crashed. I am not loving Daylight Savings.

The boys are glad to have their daddy back. He got to go in a little later to work today and they asked him, "Are you tracked off?" (Because they go to year round schools and 'track off' for a few weeks.) So cute! Not yet. But soon. I can't wait for some days off!

You Are My Sunshine

I've been singing this song to my little Kobes Elliott since the day he was born. Kobe has been having a very happy last couple of months. I think my kids go through stages. I always freak out when they're in them, like, "Where did I go wrong?" But then they always pass and they're back to their normal, happy, wonderful selves. This is Kobe's 1st grade picture that we just got back. SO CUTE!!!! I love a good picture. And how good of him to smile so sweetly even when moms not around.

We had parent teacher conferences this last week. Kobe is doing very well. His teacher says he's a little disorganized, but I've been in the classroom and I know where the root of this disorganization lies. It's chaos in that class most of the time. And the children usually have very little direction about where to put their things. And a six year old is not going to put his work into the right colored folder unless he is directed to do so. So I guess what I'm saying is....DON'T GET UP IN MY FACE TELLING ME MY SON IS DISORGANIZED. Mmm-hmm.

No, seriously. I can take criticism about my children. :) The only other issue addressed was how long it takes him to do his classroom work. But he's a perfectionist. I understand that. And he wants everything perfect. But I have noticed that he loses focus easily and is VERY slow. He doesn't disrupt kids or make noise. But I think his mind wanders a lot. Sometimes, when I'm dropping him off for school and we're running late, I'll pull up to the curb and say, "Hurry, buddy! Run to the door!" And he'll take off in a run....for about five steps...and then slow down as he begins to look around, notice the sky, wave to some friends, look at his feet. And before I know it, he's dragging along at a snail's pace. But I love that he is very thoughtful and has a lot of inner dialogue. It makes for some priceless conversations.

But other than that, only perfectly positive feedback. And she told us to try and make it to the assembly on Friday because Kobe would be receiving a surprise award for 'Exceptional Effort'. She said he really deserves it because he tries so hard. I was SO GLAD that Kobe was going to receive an award. Kobe reminds me a lot of me as a student. And I NEVER got awards. Did I ever do anything but behave absolutely perfect? No. But I just wasn't on the 'award radar'. Plus, they tend to award children who they notice are behaving exceptional. And I was always so perfect, I guess no one ever noticed. :) And I think Kobe is the same way.

The awards are always surprises, and I've been to the assemblies before. I would always watch Kobe watching so anxiously, hoping his name would be called. And it never was. So I was so excited for him! The very morning of the assembly, while I was dressing him in his school shirt, he said, "I hope I get an award at the Coyote Call someday." Yay!

When his name was called, he had the biggest smile/open mouth embarrassed face ever! He walked up and took his award and went right to the stage to stand. He was so happy! I was waving at him and giving thumbs up and clapping so loud. But, of course, our camera was completely messed up and couldn't capture a decent picture. But at least it's something to document this very important day for him.

He brought his award home, carefully handed it to me, and said, "Mom, could you please go to the store, buy a frame, put my award in the frame, and hang it in my room?" Sure thing. What a cutie!

Halloween (aka lots of pictures)

Halloween! Yay! My original dream was to have a Star Wars themed Halloween, but my boys are getting more opinionated every year and strongly vetoed that idea. Kobe was adamant that he wanted to be Harry Potter (until the night before Halloween, of course, but we averted that crisis). He was Harry Potter in '04, but he has caught the Hogwarts fire again this year. Luke was passionate about being Batman this year, even though he had been Batman in '05. He likes what he likes, I guess. So I took the child I still have total control over, Jude, and had him be Yoda. I think he makes the perfect Yoda anyway. (We all know that Yoda's light saber is green in this house, but we couldn't find the green one.)


Luke had a fieldtrip with his preschool where they got to wear their costumes and go trick-or-treating at a retirement home. And Kobe got to wear his costume to school and have a party and a costume parade.


Jakob and I dressed up this year, too. My dream was to be Princess Leia this year, but I knew I wouldn't get around to making the costume. So I borrowed my friends Queen Amidala costume. It's the coolest costume, but highly unflattering, especially with the make-up. But even Natalie Portman doesn't look her best dressed like that.


Jakob complimented Kobe's costume this year and was Hagrid again. I love that costume. We got the entire thing (minus the wig and beard) at a thrift shop and I think he looks very authentic.


The weather was pretty mild, which was a nice treat. We trick-or-treated around our block for an hour, then after Jude had had it, we went home and Jake took Kobe and Luke to a shopping center where they had a bunch of stuff going on. They had a blast and got WAY too much candy.


Another fun Halloween!