A Picture is worth 1000 words!

This was taken by my Mother-in-law......I just discovered it this morning and had to blog it.......this picture speaks on so many levels! Good ol' brotherly and sisterly love!

Christmas on the Farm

C-man with his cousins Austin and Jeremey
The Mehmen grandchildren

The three amigos
C-man 5, Austin 6, Jacob 6

For my babies!

hand held video games!

Grandma and Grandpa with their grandchildren; the joys of their lives.

Miss-O and Jackie getting into the snack cupboard.



We had a nice time with the fam....it went way too fast and wish we could have had longer time to hang out and chat away with everyone.

C-man loved playing spies with his cousins.

Miss-O was content playing with the little fisher price people by herself.

The next morning, C-man, Miss-O and Daddy all had a fun time playing in Grandpa Mehmen's snow mountains. They climbed the mountains, slid down them and had a snow-ball fight.......it was finished with hot cocoa and marshmallows!

Home for the Holidays

2 days before Christmas, C-man and Miss-O sat on Santa's lap and whispered in his ear. Miss-O didn't cry this year!
Here's a carrot for the Reindeer!

Writing a letter to Santa

Is this mine dollhouse?

Is this mine dollhouse?

This is mine dollhouse!

verbatim from Miss-O when C-man showed her what she got!

"He came!"

He wrote us a letter!

We WERE good!

verbatim from C-man in the am when he ventured out in the living room.

Christmas eve day, the kids and I made a gingerbread house....we all cleaned for Santa so he wouldn't trip on anything and sue us! Then I went on to work while the kids enjoyed their time with Grandma and Grandpa Roberts and Daddy for dinner and prepping for the night.

My evening probably wasn't as joyous as the fam's. It was a bit sad in fact. my patients were quite sick and their families left after dinner. That's when I brought out the pictures the kids colored and C-man wrote "Mary Christmis!" on them. This did brighten a few faces for a moment or so but then they went back to their flat affects and early sleep. Silent prayers were sent out to them that night while I cared for them.

Gratitude

My daily teachings book (gift from my mother) told me to write down 100 things that I'm grateful for....WOW! that's a lot! The meaning behind it all is the more grateful you are, your heart warms and your perception of life changes......so this is my challenge for the day......



I definitely need this since Saturday, I had a relapse of my back going into major spasms and locking up and enduring pain.....those days I'm not so grateful at all.....instead I'm helpless (and I'm used to being the helper and care-taker) Saturday, I took my muscle relaxers and pain medication and induced myself into a coma for four hours, along with some ice...yes, this did help and by Sunday I was stiff with minimal pain and yesterday I was actually able to move..........anyways, I digress.........after a ungrateful day of pain, helplessness, temporary hopelessness, and coma; I'm going to list things that I'm grateful for.....100 of them.



1-10; Relationships; Husband, my children, my brothers and sisters, Mom, Dad, my in-laws,
Mother-in-law, father-in-law, all extended families, my friends and co-workers, and many strangers that become my patients and put their lives in my hands for an 8 hour period.



11-20; Practical things; house, heat, food, access to water, clothing, income, work, security and safety (meaning we aren't fearful of our lives from our neighbors like some people in other countries), car (which is really a leisure), access to electricity.



21-30; Health; I can walk, my five senses work, my heart is beating, I have my extremities to take care of things and people, I have a memory (except the short term is not up to par!), I am not mourning a loss of a child, I don't need surgery with the extent of what my back is at this point, I woke up this morning, I'm breathing, the kids are healthy, there are no health crisis in my family.



31-40; Spiritual; God, Jesus, Holy Spirit, Mary, Faith, Grace, Joy, Hope, Prayer, Communion.



41-50;Simple Pleasures: smiles, laughs, hugs, kisses, teasing, jokes, cuddles, my children's joy, my children's endless expressions, and bubble baths.



51-60;Emotional; forgiveness, expression of feelings, a good cry, I'm free of panic attacks, Selective Serotonin Re-uptake inhibitors!, a husband who listens and supportive, supportive family, supportive friends, not afraid to show my feelings on my sleeve ( I have no choice, that's an innate thing), and sensitivity....(this may be something I'm grateful for and ungrateful for, depends on the situation.)

61-70;Intellectual; nursing knowledge base, ever-growing mommy knowledge, love for language and arts, extensive writing, journaling and lists, photo-graphic memory, open-mindedness, basic algebra that helps me calculate medications (my patients are probably grateful of this too!), tuition grants that reduced my school loans, love for education.

71-80;leisure; shopping, blogging, scrap booking, crocheting, reading, vacations, wii, i-pod shuffle, cell-phone, and sleeping.

81-90;abilities; able to cook, clean, play with the kids, figure out shutterfly!, able to launder the clothes, able to use a screw-driver, hammer, and other tools, able to paint and do home-improvements, able to plan, plan, plan, able to organize (only if it could stay that way!), and able to figure our technological appliances in our house.

91-100;work skills; public relations and service recovery at work, patient advocacy, compassion, communicate, team-player (or at least I try if I'm not busy!), patient safety and prudent nursing cares, I can usually put those IV's in without much difficulty......I think I'm 7 for 10 this past month!, I make a good "crappacino *!", nursing armor for the mean patients, and nursing instincts for the patients that might be taking a turn for the worse.

(*crappacino: Milk of Magnesia, Prune juice and Coffee...........makes anyone constipated poop!)

So, there it is; 100 things that I'm grateful for......the teaching says to do this daily until it just becomes part of my day to be grateful.....I'll try my hardest and I can go back to this list or make a new list....because I'm thinking of other things that I'm grateful for...........



soon to come are blogs of Christmas;
Home for the Holidays
Christmas on the Farm.

Christmas in the City

We had Christmas in the City with the Roberts family.

As you will see, the pictures are in rewind....note to self;

make sure I start from last to first next time!

We had a grand time; Friday night Paul made us his famous home-aide pizzas. we played with the kids, played scattergories into the early am.

Stayed overnight and had a lovely breakfast and then opened presents. We made ourselves a quick lunch and by the time we knew it we were home at 3pm!

It's funny how time stands still when you're with your family! But yet goes so fast.......

Enjoy the pics....

I might have overdone the pictures, but they all were so good, I didn't know what to pick.

Marin fell asleep in mid-lunch....I'm sure there are sugar plums dancing in her head....
Grandma and Grandpa with the grand kids; the joys in their lives!

Picture of the kids and grand kids; not an easy thing to do with a two year old on the loose!
(not pictured is John & Sarah, we miss them very much and hope they'll be able to join our Christmas next year....weather permitting of course.)

Marin adores her Uncle Paul

Miss-O enjoyed unwrapping the gifts in a reclined position.

C-man is in love! Wii Indiana Jones Lego Game! after that, he wanted to go home immediately to play it.

Marin started in with the unwrapping while presents were divi'd out.

We three kings of orient are.........

Grandpa loves his whistle he got in his popper!

Poppers with Grandma!

Ready-set-go! Pull on the poppers!

mornings can be hard.

Marin saying cheese for Uncle Paul

Rudolph the C-man Reindeer!

Tickle fest!

Pig pile!

Murin....as Miss-o would call her.

Christmas pic of the two kiddos

Roberts grand kids rendition of jingle bells!

Tatum snuggling by the Christmas tree.

I'm not up to anything, I swear!

Paul and Danny in the kitchen making the infamous pizzas;

BBQ chipotle chicken pizza

Alfredo Chicken and mushroom pizza

new! Chicken Fiesta pizza.

Christmas Decor 2008

The reason for the season! Our precious gift from God; Jesus our Saviour!
Having fun with the Christmas tree lights and shutter speed.

Ornaments on the tree; they are all very special to us in one way or another. All have a special meaning behind each and every one of them.

Part of our snow globe collection

C=man's present to us from last year's preschool. His hands are now huge compared to these.

Our advent wreath at the center of the dining room table..I lit all candles for the ambiance.

Our stockings that Grandma Donna personally made for us (except for Tatum's)

O' Christmas Tree! (kinda leaning this year...)

Nativity scene number 2, I didn't put all the other fellows out this year. Just the main characters.


Our halls are decked, there's snow on the ground and we're preparing our hearts for Jesus' Birthday. God gave us a wonderful gift and we will try our hardest to give back our gifts and to follow Christ's lead in the new year of 2009!

God Bless everyone!

Glory be to our new born King!

Candids

O puts on her "sippers" they are actually lining to her clogs, but owell, she's resourceful!
C-man enjoying his mother's boots! You look fabulous!

Uh-OH! Who tore into the presents too early? This mission was happening while C-man and I were in the kitchen discussing cookie making, when we heard a RRRRIIIIIPPPPP! We both ran into the living room to find Miss-O tearing into her present. Guess we have to wrap that up again!

Miss O wanted to be extra warm this morning, she has her boots on her feet and C-man's boots on her hands....

C-man made his first yellow cake with chocolate frosting in his easy bake oven on Friday night...I'm not sure who was more excited him or his father! Paul might be reliving his childhood dream through C-man, who knows????


Other things that have been heard in the household;

"Daddy made a Christmas tree!" Miss-O exclaimed after Paul put it up.

"When you get older, I'll teach you how to sing the Star Wars song, okay?" C-man reassures Miss-O, "okay." she answers.

"No, we don't sit in the refrigerator." Mommy and Daddy say to Miss-O

"Is today Christmas?" C-man asks everyday.

"Let's not pour the shoe string chips onto the tv stand, okay....let's put them back in the bowl." Mommy says to Miss-O.

"I wish it was summer time!" C-man said this morning while putting on layers and layers of outerwear.

BABY, IT"S COLD OUTSIDE!

This morning I bundled the kids up to go to school.

It was -17 degree chill factor!

They look so cute, like little puff balls!