The Last Year - March 2014

Since I basically fell off the end of the earth for the last year, I will do brief picture updates of the last year.  This is March 2014:

Trying out the 4-wheelers at the new house.  Room to ride!

Booker's 8th birthday - cake batter pancakes!

Booker's bday bonfire with Reece.

A Real Struggle

I have a problem.  I am trying to fill a void for my children that they don't even know they have.  I know I was spoiled growing up, and so are my boys, don't get me wrong.  But I had something they don't.  And it really bothers me.  I had family galore.  We were always doing something with grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.  Like all the time.  We all lived within a 30 mile radius of each other.  My grandparents were very active.  They would take us to the mountain to ride 4-wheelers, snowmobile, cross country ski, ride horses, hike, arrowhead hunt, climb in caves.  They played board games and cards with us.  They had a slot machine in the basement and croquet in their yard.  They took us on many vacations all over the place.  They had an indoor pool and hot tub.  They had Super Mario Bros 2!  I get it.  I had things a lot of people don't.  But, I experienced all of that with my mom & dad, sisters, grandma & grandpa and cousins.  But I feel like that has been lost.  My oldest sister's kids are all in their 20s and in Wyoming.  My middle sister's kids are closer in age to mine (15 and 11), but they live in Arizona.  And let's be real.  It's expensive to travel and it takes a lot of time and coordination.  So, we don't that often.  And it really makes me sad.  The kicker is that my kids aren't sad.  They don't know any different.  This is their childhood, and they are happy and content.  I had my childhood.  And I need to remember they are completely separate and different from each other, and that is ok.  Oh, and I just have to say it.  I have the BEST grandparents out there, even though I don't get to see them nearly enough either.

Heart of Gold

Hello?!?!  I do still exist! I have all these plans to catch my blog up for the last 9 months, but haven't had time to sit and do that yet. But tonight I realized I'm forgetting so much that I don't want to forget. I want to freeze my kids right where they are, but since I can't, I need to be blogging.

Bodey is a natural born giver. It's in him and it makes him who he is. A local boy has brain cancer and there have been fundraisers for him. Bodey decided he wanted to give him all of his money. His heart is better than mine. I struggle and I'm not even sure we handled it correctly or not. But here's what we decided. Bodey had quite a little savings going on that took him a while to save. We want him to know the value of money and realize it doesn't grow on trees and you have to earn it. So, we put a biblical twist on it and let him give away 10%. Right or wrong in the parenting area, it doesn't matter. That kid was beaming when he took his own money to the bank to deposit in the account set up for that little boy. And this mama had tears in her eyes watching this act of kindness.

So the boys can take quarters to school to buy candy canes for friends. I had to force Booker to participate (with his own $). Today Bodey took 9 quarters and spent them. Thursday he is taking 30 quarters (his own $) to buy every kid in his class one plus 12 teachers!  How can they be so different?!?!?

I have had to learn you can't stop a giving heart. It comes naturally to him and I don't want to change him. Life will change and mold him when he's older, but for now, I've got to let him give. And maybe even learn a little something from my 7-yr old.

Some Before/After Pics of Remodel

Hallway before: laundry on left is gone, and now part of master bathroom. 
Pantry access on right is gone and now in the dining room.

Hallway after

Master bathroom before:  We moved the toilet and the shower, and added
to the master bathroom by taking the original office closet and original laundry room.
This picture is from what would now be inside the shower.

Master bathroom after

Where the toilet is now used to be the office closet.
Where the tub is used to be the laundry room in the hallway.

4 long weekends went into tiling this shower and around the tub.

Dining room before

Dining room after.  Now my pantry access is here instead of the hallway. :)

Bodey's room before

Bodey's room before

Bodey's room after - however, we have not decorated with his KU stuff yet.

Bodey's room after

Stairs used to be in the garage.

Office before

Same view as the above office picture, but now it is an office and the stairs are inside.

Office after

Stairs after

Just Funny

Bodey cracks me up.  I really could (and probably should) blog about something funny he says every day!  I need to get better at that... since I have already forgotten almost all the funny things he's said.

Here's our conversation when I was tucking him in last night:
B:  When are we going to Walmart?
M: I'm not sure, I just went.  Why?
B:  I need some mints, chapstick and some toys.
M:  Mints and chapstick?
B:  Yep.  The school's pizza sauce is really liquidy, and when I eat it, I lick my lips a lot, so I need chapstick!

Each day when the kids get in the car, they tell me what color they were on for the day.  Booker is almost always on green.  He's a rule-follower and pretty predictable.  With Bodey, you just never know.  Green is the highest, and he really is on green the majority of the time.  However, he gets 1-2 blues each week (one step down from green in kindergarten).  Today he jumped in the car and said "B!"  He has been spelling as many words as he can lately, and also just saying the first letter of the word he is hinting at.  I asked why he got on blue.  "Well, I fell asleep on the job."  I am so glad he can't see my face when I'm driving because I was about to lose it!  "I was supposed to be watching the calendar person change the calendar, but I was just soooooooo tired!"

Speaking of just saying the first letters of each word, Bodey has been asking me just about every hour on the hour for an A, B, or O.  Seriously, the boy can eat a whole meal and ask for food 10 minutes later!  He also knows that if he asks for an apple, banana, or orange I'll let him snack.

8 is the New Old

I am really having a hard time letting my kids grow up!  I just kills me that time goes so fast.  Eight.  Eight years have already gone by since Dusty and I welcomed Booker into this world, yet it feels like he's always been a part of our lives.  I have very vivid memories of being an eight-year-old.  It seems like from the time I was eight until the time I was eighteen was sooooooo long.  Days lasted forever.  I really hope Booker feels this way too.  I hope we are providing him a fun, non-stressful, care-free childhood.  I seriously worry about that.  I compare his childhood to my own and feel like I'm failing.  But, I need to realize that times have changed, and while his childhood might not be like mine, it is like most of the kid's he's growing up with.  Even though at eight he's not riding his bike all over town unattended, walking to the gas station to buy candy, staying home alone or walking to the woods with a hammer, nails and a bb gun, he's going to be ok.  Maybe I was the one that we should be worried about!  :)

Wow, I kinda got off on a tangent there!  Although it's happened in the blink of an eye, we are so blessed to have a happy, healthy, growing, crazy, fun, kind, loving EIGHT-YEAR-OLD!

He helped me make a K-State birthday cake.

Birthday cake pancakes with icing instead of syrup!

Lent and Strep

Booker and some other kids at school must have been talking about Lent because he came home with the bold statement that he is giving up his Kindle for Lent.  If you understood his addiction to this certain electronic device, you would be as shocked as I was.  I went on and on about how that was a great choice because you should give up something that is really hard to give up.  Something that you don't even want to say outloud.  Something that makes you want to cry just thinking about it.  The Kindle was the perfect thing!  All is good.  Until.... he asked me what I was going to give up.  I wish I hadn't given him that long speech.  Pop.  There.  I said it.  And it hurts.  I've had at least one pop a day since I can remember... and that dates back to when I was about Booker and Bodey's age.  I guess you could say I have a slight problem.  But I had to give up something that was hard for me, and that was it.  Bodey was forced to give up his Kindle as well.  He has a problem, too.  On Thursday, one day into his intervention, I went to wake him up.  He was already awake, but still in bed.  When I came in he said, "I just want to stay in bed for 39 more days!"  Poor guy.  It's going to be a long 40 days.  For all of us.  But, I also explained the importance of giving something up, or sacrificing.  It helps us turn our focus back to God.  I wanted them to know and remember that, so whenever they think it's hard, they can pray.  Not sure if it's working, but the seed was planted.

Last night Booker suddenly had a sore throat.  We've been there done that with this kid.  I knew immediately that it was strep.  Again.  For the 4th time in 5 months.  We went to the dr. this morning and discussed some options we have.  One is trying to completely kill the bacteria that he may be harboring with a long, strong dose of antibiotics.  The other option is having his tonsils taken out.  I'm not opposed to either.  I'm really tired of the poor guy being sick and missing school.  So is he.  Dusty is all for getting the tonsils out and just being done with it.  I guess time shall tell.

And, like I always say... I will get to posting updates on the house.  I'm so far behind on it, I'm overwhelmed.  But, the most important thing is that we are now at least living in our house, which is one of the best feelings ever.  Gets our lives somewhat back to normal.  If there is such thing.