Weekend Top Five 1/20/13

5. Movie night and A Good Cry
Talk about ups and downs in a short time. After dinner we settled in for Family Movie Night. The movie of choice was Tooth Fairy. If you haven't seen this movie yet, I highly recommend it. It was very funny and we all really enjoyed watching it together. Afterward, we put the kids to bed and I finally had a chance to let down from the emotion of the week (really the past two weeks) and sat and cried. As silly as it sounds, it felt really good. The last couple of weeks have been so overwhelming and frustrating that I have been working so hard to hold it together that I needed a chance to finally just let go and let it overwhelm me. I was shocked at how may tears came but when it was over I was just exhausted enough to fall asleep and was ready to face the morning fresh on Saturday.

4. Growing Independence
I have been working so hard to try and make the boys be more independent with their school supplies, but I didn't realize that there are a million things around our house that we still do for them that they could (or SHOULD) do for themselves. The funny thing is that it took working with four year olds every day for me to have that light bulb moment. So this weekend was our first foray into building the boys' confidence with more independent choices.  It was definitely a learning experience for all of us.  At dinner Friday night, and again at lunch on Saturday the boys were shocked when I gave them a "sharp knife" to cut their own meat. How did they get to be this age and we were STILL cutting up their meat for the? Crazy! Aaron also turned his own water on for is shower and even tied one shoe for the first time. And taco night Saturday night? Rather than making their tacos and salads, we put a bowl of meat and the toppings on the table and they did it all themselves.

I know you are probably all thinking I am a terribly mom for doing it all for them this long, but at least it hit me and we are fixing it now. The bets thing is that if they start doing more "little things for themselves, then I think the bigger ones will become easier going forward.

3. Basketball Week 3
Two games a hour apart made for our first travel challenge of the season. it worked out though but I unfortunately missed Noah making his first basket of the season. My parents came to the games and the boys were excited to have them there. As I have stated a million times before, we are sooo lucky to have my parents as part of my boys' life. I wonder if there is anything so special as a strong relationship between kids and their grandparents. Aaron struggled to find a place for himself on the court and Noah made his first basket, even though I missed it bringing Aaron to his game.

2. Playworld
It was a really cold weekend and the boys were bursting with energy so I took them over to an indoor play place for awhile Sunday afternoon. This is a place that Noah has been going to since he was a toddler and I haven;t taken them in a long time, really figuring that they'd outgrown it.  I was right in one respect. The don't really PLAY on the equipment anymore. Instead, the spend time finding ways to make little kid equipment play worthy for big kids, not always ending up in the most appropriate play for everyone. They weren't naughty, just showing that they're growing up. Noah, as always, made me laugh when he stuck play balls up his sleeves to "show me his muscles". Too funny.

1. Church Service
This series has been interesting, about upgrading our lives in different respects. This week's message was about upgrading your "thought life" which was a good one for me to try to get my view of the things that are worrying me in my life into perspective. Looking forward to next week and the message it will bring.

Weekend Top Five 1/13/13

Coming off of my first week of my new job I had really wanted to spend some time relaxing this weekend, and I kind of did a little. My first week at work was a mixed bag of stuff that I will probably not talk about on this blog but it's going to be a rocky ride for sure.

5. Haircut One (and Two)
I avoided getting my ID made at my new job since I was waiting for money to get my haircut this weekend. That was apparently a bad decision since I now look like a fifteen year old boy. I went Friday night to get a haircut but the girl did not understand what I wanted and I left very unhappy. Saturday morning I took a shower thinking it would be better afterward. However, quite the opposite was true and I headed back (with boys in tow since Hubby was gone all day) for another attempt to remedy it but it ended up that she pretty much hacked it all off in an effort to "fix" it.  Good thing hair grows back :(

4. Basketball Week 2
Saturday was a long day since one of the games was at 9 in the morning and the other not until 2 in the afternoon so the boys and I were pretty much dragging time all day, since Hubby had to work and then go to Lansing for a barbershop performance that night. Neither boy scored and Noah didn't even get a shot in. There was not particularly great playing by either of them but they didn't complain and Noah finally got a "Christ likeness" star for his behavior on the court so he was proud of that. Aaron's coach doesn't give stars to every one so he was sad that he hadn't gotten one that week.


3. Shopping One and Two
We finally got a paycheck on Friday so I was able to get some groceries. The boys were so funny since they woke up Saturday morning, went to the fridge for milk and Noah says, "Whoa Mom, look at all the food!" Pretty sad when your ten year old has a fit of gleeful hysteria just because there is actually food on every shelf of your fridge. We are still in transition so it will be a few more weeks before we actually get into a comfortable routine but at least we can eat for this week so that's a good thing. Then, Sunday afternoon I went to attempt to get a pair of pants for work, which of course was depressing and unsuccessful once again. I'll try again in two weeks.


2. Flat Stanley travels again
We took my nephew's Flat Stanley to the Presidential Museum Saturday afternoon and then Hubby also took him with them to Lansing (capital of Michigan) so as soon as I get the pictures developed he will be on his way back to Illinois. I hope he enjoyed his stay in Michigan with us.








1. Church
I was very tired Sunday morning and Noah didn't have to run soundboard so since Steve slept in from getting home from Lansing late, I toyed with the idea of staying in bed too,rather than going to church. I was glad that I fought the urge though. The service was about how to bring happiness into your work life which is a message I needed to hear after the week I had last week. I also had invited my partner teacher to the service and I am not sure if she went or not, but if she did, I am excited to talk about the message with her tomorrow. In addition, the music was uplifting as always and I got a chance to chat a little with the mom of a friend of Noah's about the situation at my new job and get some perspective. It was definitely a good thing that I decided not to skip.

The week ahead:
 Hopefully armed with the message from church I will be able to stay positive this week, despite the negative attitude of my partner teacher. This week also holds my COURT DATE to fight the ticket I got two months ago for supposedly running a stop sign. I can't imagine how I am going to fight it but I have to at least show up in the off chance that the nasty officer won't show up and I can get out of it. Otherwise, our insurance is going to skyrocket and we are going to be in BIG trouble.

Weekend Top Five 1/6/12

Let's see...first weekend of 2013, last weekend of Christmas Break. Should have been a biggie, right?

Nah, more of a weekend to try to get our affairs in order before life changes for  the Wheelz household.

Not a huge weekend but enough to write down I guess

5. Dinner out

Thursday night the boys went for their promised sleep over to my parents and Steve and I finally got a chance to go out for our anniversary (which was three weeks ago). We went to our favorite restaurant and had yummy burritos/enchiladas but really just enjoyed some lengthy time of just being able to talk. We talked about how things have been up until now, we talked about how really really really bad they are at this very moment and how there is actually hope for them to get better (hopefully) next month. We talked about two possible trips this summer as well as other planning we need to do for the future. Basically, it was just really awesome to sit and talk without being interrupted every two seconds but a child feeling left out whenever mom and dad try to talk for a second without them being part of the conversation.

4. Flat Stanley is Visiting
My nephew's class has sent Flat Stanley to visit. If you don't know who Flat Stanley is, you probably haven't had an elementary school child in the last ten years. So we spent some time taking him around to various venues. We have a few more visits for him to make next weekend and then we will be sending him home to Illinois. This weekend though he got a chance to visit his cousins at their grandparent's house, see a Lake Michigan lighthouse and the beach, and help Noah run the soundboard at church.

3. Clothing Misery
Since I am starting a new job tomorrow, you would think our money solutions would be solved. However, things are worse than ever until my first check on the 25th and I have a total of three outfits to wear for my new job this week. So while the kids spent time with their grandparents, I spent the better part of two hours at a Goodwill store trying to find something to wear this week. I came away with two pars of pants and a pair of shoes for $15 and then proceeded to put one of the pairs in the wash not realizing it was "dry clean only" and had to throw them away. So I am now starting this new job with a total of two outfits to wear in five days. Yeah, I'm not a loser or anything :( I don't even know what teachers wear at this school and I am likely to be labeled a nerd within the first five minutes of my first day no matter what anyway.

2. Basketball
For the next eight weeks, basketball will be taking over our Saturdays. With both boys playing at different churches and various times every Saturday we will definitely be busy. Their first game was this past Saturday and they both did pretty well. Since this is Noah's second year, he kind of knew what to expect and he was much more active and aggressive than last year. He even tried for a few shots. Aaron did great too and even made the very first shot for his team. Both boys' teams lost but that totally doesn't matter in a church league and I think it is going to be a great season for both of them

1. Haircuts and Mall
So thankful for free child haircuts at JCPenney on Sundays. I was able to take both boys in for much needed haircuts on Sunday afternoon, and then follow it up with a trip to Panera Bread for free smoothies and sweets thanks to their little rewards card. Afterward we wandered through the book store for awhile and really had a nice couple of hours wandering the mall together. I even ran into a Gymboree family that didn't know I was leaving which was kind of funny.

The Week Ahead
As I sit here pondering the week ahead I feel a gush of anxiety, worry and fear. I start back to work full time tomorrow but still have a full piano load every night as well. I am panicked because I don't know much about this program I am teaching, I have NOTHING to wear, my kids were NOT doing well in school before break so I don't know what is going to happen there, I am going to be completely exhausted from all of the double work load, and I don't know what I can sell to get enough money for gas this week. So really what should be an exciting evening for me is really just plain PANIC. I can't really do anything about it tonight except for planning out lunches for all of us tomorrow, trying to get the backpacks packed, and praying that my lead teacher will be patient with me as I try to figure out where I fit in.

I don't know...I just don't know...

A New Plan in Gift Giving

It's a new year so I am now looking forward to a fresh new start. But before I do, I have to post my present theory from this year, just so I remember NEXT Christmas.

I decided to make a conscious effort to only give gifts that the kids actually wanted this year, not just random stuff just so there were a bunch of presents under the tree.  I also know that as the boys get older, their desires will become even more expensive and I want them to start getting used to having fewer things wrapped on Christmas morning.

So the plan this year was something I found on a website about a month ago. It goes like this:
Something you want
Something you need
Something to wear
Something to read

I loved this idea but I had also picked up a couple of things that I wanted the boys to have for outside since it is hard to make them go outside when there's not much to do around here. So I added:

Something for inside
Something for out
Something you will laugh about

Here is what we ended up with this year:

SOMETHING YOU WANT

This was hard to narrow down but we did it. Noah finally got a a game for his 3DS and Aaron got the drum set that I kicked through aisle after aisle on Black Friday (no carts available), only to discover 12 of them still on the shelf the following morning when there was NOBODY in the store.  I think I may be done with Black Friday shopping for good.

Aaron has gotten quite talented at turning music on his keyboard and then creating percussion with it on the drum. I had many people tell me I was crazy for getting an eight year old drums but I truly love listening to him play them.

SOMETHING YOU NEED

These were not met with joyous excitement when they opened the huge boxes, but when we used them two days later on our trip and they realized they could put two people's worth of clothes, PLUS their blankets, pillows, buddies, etc. in them with room to spare, they realized how awesome these duffles were. I was excited to get such a deal.  Kohl's Black Friday was good to me for these...$100 adult sized duffels for $20 apiece and they will probably take them to college someday, as well as make packing for our road trip to Florida this Spring much easier.

Aaron even climbed inside his to check out the space:)


SOMETHING TO WEAR

I originally intended this to be clothes but as I started thinking about things that would be more useful, we ended up with headphones for Aaron's keyboard and snowboarding goggles for Noah. Both were a huge hit so it was a good decision to stray from original intention.







SOMETHING TO READ

There ended up being several "somethings to read" thanks to the Scholastic Warehouse sale a couple of weeks before Christmas but you can never have too many books, right?









SOMETHING FOR INSIDE

Science kits and legos











SOMETHING FOR OUT

Soccer ball with net that was NOT fun to assemble and football with lasers to play with in the dark










SOMETHING YOU WILL LAUGH ABOUT


These are HILARIOUS!!!!!!!!











I'd say we did pretty well this year. Noah has said that he noticed fewer things under the tree this year but he also said that it was cool because he liked EVERYTHING  he got this year for the first time.

That's a home run if you ask me.

Weekend Top Five 12/30/12

So now I think I'm caught up, at least for now :)

This weekend was the come down from a crazy holiday week and it was a good one as well. It certainly was nice having Hubby home fro the entire week following Christmas and by this weekend we had definitely settled into a comfortable pattern...Daddy and mommy sleeping in and the boys even sleeping in as well. Noah slept in later than ever before and woke up Saturday in what was probably the best mood he's had in five years. It's amazing how nice a household can be when everyone is being nice to each other.

So Saturday was a laze around kind of day for the most part. Both boys were able to accomplish something that a year ago each was unable to do. I will explain below.

5. Pajamas All Day Saturday
I didn't even realize until bedtime that none of us had gotten dressed fully. I had put jeans on to run to the store an Steve had put jeans on when they went outside but for the most part it was just a snuggle in kind of day

4. Outside Fun
We FINALLY had enough snow for sledding and the boys bundled up (yes, in their pajamas) and headed over to a tiny sledding hill by our house. Last year Noah could only make it down a hill maybe two or three times on his snowboard in an entire sledding session. It's amazing the difference a year makes. He took that board up, sailed down the hill his very first time and was even taking jumps by the end of the time at the hill.

3. Undecking The Halls
I usually always wait until New Years Day to take down he majority of the decorations but with the tree already down  it seemed just natural to finish up the job. we are keeping the outside lights up for awhile, just because I love the look of them when I come home. The boys have both had fewer allergy issues since we took the tree down and I wonder if it's because we got a different kind of tree than ever before of because they are truly allergic. I guess we'll wait until next year to find out.

2. Skating Rink
Since I had a commitment Sunday afternoon Steve took the boys to a skating rink that had free open skating on Sundays for Christmas Break. A year ago on New Years Eve I took the boys skating and although Noah was rocking the rink, Aaron spent the entire time last year whining on the side crying that it was too hard, even though the time before that he had done great. THIS year however, after we discovered that the kid now wears a SIZE 7 shoe and he's bee wearing 5s and 6s (yes, I have to find a way to buy new shoes for the 8 year old giant),  he went out onto the skating floor and continued the entire time, even participating  in the special skates like limbo and Dead Bug.

1. Final Good Bye
Although I was done teaching classes at Gymboree, I had committed to running a birthday party for a little girl's second birthday who was the very first little one I had "graduated" at 6 months old from her first play class. It was bittersweet as I have come to know the family very well over the last 2 years. However, the owner pulled another frustrating stunt right when it was time to leave, which was just a reminder about why I am so happy to be walking away from that job. So Steve had been itching to have a campfire in our backyard all week so we decided that the perfect kindling would be the stack of my lesson plans for the last 2 years. Steve and Noah had a blast making a fire and burning every last note card.

The Week Ahead
Tonight is New Year's Eve and we have bee treated to free tickets to a Hockey game tonight from Steve's work, followed by an indoor fireworks display, whatever that means. The rest of the week Steve will return to work and we will enjoy a week at home before the boys go back to school and I start my new career. I am getting very nervous about the new job for so many reasons. this week will also see my boys get a sleep over at their grandparent's and Steve and I will finally go out for our anniversary dinner. There are a lot of issues that need to dealt with around here as we transition into a new family plan. The boys also have their first basketball games next weekend so that should be an experience as well.

Happy New Year Everyone!

Weekend Top Five 12/17/12

Found this post from a few weeks back and need to  publish it for consistency.

5. Starting to Say Goodbye
Friday was the day that I started to let my gymboree families know that I was leaving. It was  a nice thing though because the moms and grandmas were all so happy for me that I was moving on to bigger and better things that it felt really good. Gymboree was very good for me when I got the job. When I started that job, our house was in full foreclosure and we didn't really have any hopes of getting out of it. Two years later, (with a little help that has now been paid back due to gymboree) our house is ours for good again. Also, if it wasn't for that job, I never would have thought about returning to teaching in the capacity of early childhood education. Not too back for a part time job, huh? Oh, and I got to practice my artistry on the front windows :)

4. Warehouse Sale with Sisters
Scholastic has a huge warehouse nearby which opens its doors several times a year to the public for shopping. Most items are half off and I love to go and stock up for the boys (and myself I have to admit). Last year I invited my SIL along and she made out quite well also. So this year my sister and sister in law decided we would make a threesome and head out together. It was a nice time of just the three of us shopping together and we even got to visit with Clifford the Big Red Dog. It's a good thing these sales are only periodically...they're too dangerous otherwise :)

3. Elf Hunting at the Museum

 My brother's family was in town for our annual family Christmas on Sunday so we packed the cousins up and headed to our local museum for some Elf and Santa Hunting. We had a great time and the kids actually found all of the Santas and Elves. My seven year old niece was the champion elf finder for sure, even finding the really well hidden ones (and one creepy looking one I must say).





2. Soundboard Duty
Noah is becoming quite capable of running the soundboard on the first and third Sundays of each moth fir children's church. He is getting more independent and his friend from church ha now decided to join him one Sunday a month running the computer while Noah runs the sound. A week later while we were at the big church service, Noah looked at the huge soundboard and says, "Someday I'm going to run THAT one!". I love that he is learning this skill as it could actually lead to something someday if he wants it too. Otherwise, it's just a cool thing to know and a way for him to serve in church and be proud of himself as well.

1. Family Christmas
We are a blended family and we are also lucky that we are able to get everyone together to spread Christmas cheer. There are 15 grandchildren, at least one born every year since 2001 until last year. It makes for fun and  craziness that the kids look forward to so much each year. Their cousins are truly some of their best friends and I hope it will stay that way for a very long time. I had forgotten my camera so I only got blurry pictures with my ipod but the funniest picture of the day was Noah opening his presents. He received a sock monkey hat from my MIL the week before and has not been seen without it very much over the last two weeks. So naturally, he was wearing it the entire day at my parent's house. While he was opening his presents, he was looking down and I snapped a picture. Then I started laughing. Upon looking at the picture, it looked as if a monkey was opening the gifts. The picture still makes me giggle every time I see it.

What a Week!

Whew! It's Friday night again. It seems like a month since last Friday night because it has been so eventful. I guess the only reason for this post is because I want to remember pieces of it to jog the many memories we've made.

I should really back up even more but that would be out of control so I'll just go back a week.

A week ago was Friday night, December 21st. It was also my hubby's and my 16th wedding anniversary. Rather than dinner and a movie as is our custom, we stayed home with a sick child, whom we now have decided that he has had the full blown flu...poor kid. Apparently so did the majority of his class so we are just glad it happened now instead of after school starts up again. Now if he could just get rid of this nasty cough it would be a good thing.

That day was also my last day at the job I've held for two years teaching mommy and me classes at gymboree. It was bittersweet and I will keep the rest of the thoughts about that day inside for awhile longer.

The next day was technically the first day of Christmas vacation. Since Aaron's cough was really sounding awful I remembered someone once saying that if a baby has croup to take them outside, so why not an eight year old? I found a very neat place nearby called the Critter Barn that not only had TONS of live chicks, bunnies and cats to hold, touch and play with, but also a live nativity performance and sheep shearing. Best of all, it was FREE. We went and had the best hour and a  half ever. Noah was in heaven picking up and playing with baby chicks, some of whom were only a few days old. The Nativity was interesting and I  learned a few things I didn't know about the manger itself. It was just a really really neat place to visit and I can't believe I never knew about it before now.

Sunday we had planned to go to the "Christmas Eve" service since our church was doing five identical services on Sunday and Monday and encouraging all of the regular attendees to come Sunday to leave space on Monday for visitors.  But sometimes even the best laid plans go awry and we decided to go on Monday night instead since we were heading to Detroit for the day for an impromptu visit with the bulk of the Wheelz Clan. Surprisingly enough, it actually ended up being a pretty good visit and the kids had a fun time playing with their cousins that they don't see as often. The boys' favorite part was eating their traditional Pile Of Cream, courtesy of my SIL.

Monday was Christmas Eve and due to (yes again) finances we had to skip our traditional dinner out after Christmas Eve services but we still had a memorable night. After church we came home and opened our Secret Santa gifts from each other and got some giggles out of the things the boys had picked out for us. I spent the day getting baking done and the boys spent time making a welcome sign for Santa.

Church was amazing as always, including the first time the boys got to hold their own candles for the candlelight service.  The opening was crazy rocking and rolling a la Trans Siberian Orchestra and ended with it "snowing" in the sanctuary.

So as the boys get older it gets a little more difficult to keep the element of surprise for Christmas morning but I do believe we achieved it :) After the boys finally fell asleep and we got the presents under the tree, we got silly and decided to cover the entire doorway to the living room with wrapping paper, to keep our very curious boys from creeping in before we wake up.  It definitely achieved it's goal.  We were greeted in the morning with the boys jumping on our bed saying, "Mommy, Santa didn't just wrap our presents, he wrapped OUR ENTIRE LIVING ROOM!" It was funny when the boys were jumping through the paper until Noah decided to PUNCH through the paper and missed, hitting the wall instead. Gift opening was delayed by a tearful boy getting a band aid on a knuckle that had three less layers of skin.

Present opening went fine and the kids liked what they got. They funniest was that when I was wrapping this year, I was determined to put things in boxes for more uniform packages. I ended up putting each of the video games that they received in cereal boxes, stuffed with newspaper. By the time Noah was opening his last gift, he said, "Oh wow, this is a cereal box so I know it's going to be a great gift!" I can't fool these kids at all and I think I am going to have to work even harder next year.

We continued our Christmas Day tradition and took the boys to Rise of the Guardians that afternoon. The boys were blown away at how crowded the movie theaters were but our movie was old so it wasn't crowded. Santa was so smart he even put movie theater style candy in the stockings. It was a very good movie.

Wednesday morning was the day for playing with all the new stuff, putting stuff together and just relaxing.  And the best thing was that it FINALLY started snowing...and hasn't stopped since so we can finally go sledding at some point this weekend. The funniest present of the day was the sumo boppers we got the boys. They tried to head outside to play with them but the cold kept deflating them so it looks like they'll have to wait until spring. But while they had them, they were hilarious!

Thursday morning began our planned adventure for the week. We packed up the stuff and headed out for our road trip to a suburb of Chicago. We found a hotel nearby with an extremely low rate and checked in with about an hour to spare before our big event. I saw an IKEA and had never been to one before. We wandered the store and I think I'm glad that we don't have one of those near us or it would be hard to not spend money that I don't have there.  It was pretty cool since the colors are blue and yellow and Noah said "It's Michigan Everywhere!"

Then it was finally time! We got a really good deal on Cyber Monday and took the boys to Medieval Times. It is a dinner and tournament  where they serve you a multi course meal with NO utensils while a tournament on horses is played out in front of you. It was pretty cool and the boys LOVED it. They especially loved the battles with swords at the end. The pageantry was fun and watching Aaron attack and destroy his huge chicken slab was extremely memorable. Afterward, we returned to the hotel and let the boys swim for awhile before turning in.

So here we are Friday again. We got up and let the boys swim again before we hit the road to come home. The drive home certainly felt much longer than yesterday. Aaron's cough is still so prominent and even though I know it's a virus that the doctor can't do anything for, it still makes me sad when I hear it and I know that he's still feeling yucky. I heard that the tree might be aggravating it though so given that, plus the fact that we got a bad tree and it was pretty much dead already, I decided to take it down while the boys were out playing in the snow. Because it was so painful, we decided to clip the branches rather than try to take it out the door so it was definitely a memorable tree un-decking this year.

One thing that Steve and I agreed on was that since we had such a fun adventure planned for a couple of days after Christmas, it took the "let down" feeling that is inevitable after Christmas away and I will definitely remember that for future years if possible.

So that was our week. Another weekend ahead and another free fun family activity planned for New Year's Eve which should be fun. Next week is off school  and work but also money-less since I am now between jobs so it will be a week at home for sure. The best thing is that after I start this new job in January, I look forward to never having to post again the words "...since we couldn't afford to...". It's been a long ten years of being poor and I am sick of it and ready for it to end.

We can make it two more weeks. I know we can. We have to. At least there's finally an end in sight...