Nothing much

Wow, this week has flown by and I don't have much to report tonight. We moved this week at work. We have this new & supposedly "improved" lighting in our new area but let me tell you........under this new light I have decided I look like I could play a part in a horror movie. My eyes are especially bloodshot by the end of the day from staring at a computer all day, my complexion has been especially bad lately so all in all, let's just say I certainly won't be winning any beauty contests. I really need to get it together with my weight too. Once again I've gained and I'm so mad at myself. I just feel BLAH! With spring around the corner I really need to get going. I do have a plan - it's just whether that plan will work and whether or not I can stick with it. Ugh - it's a constant battle! I'll post some pictures this weekend. The weather looks good so I'm looking forward to that.

Mary's dinner

My college roommate and dear friend, Mary, got married in December. Mary has been a really good friend to me and she is so nice and genuine. I had fretted what to get her for her wedding. Mary is a successful, established woman - so I was really in a quandary as to what to get her but I knew I wanted to do something special for her. My mom came up with the idea of hosting a dinner for her so that's what we did. My mom was kind enough to open her home and her and I worked together to make the meal. It was so fun and intimate. My sister and Mary's mom and brother joined us. Congrats again, Mary and John!

The newlyweds!

My mom preparing her beautiful table.

The grill master, my husband! He prepared the meat, transported the grill and grilled the meat for us. Thanks Mike, you're the best husband!

Conversations with Jay

I had two very funny conversations with Jay recently. Jay is my child with more of a dry sense of humor - and he doesn't just blurt out whatever comes into his head like his brother. I was preparing for a dinner party for my dear friend, Mary (I'll include details on that in another blog) and I had to go to the liquor store to buy some wine. When I pulled into the parking lot my conversation with Jay went like this: Jay, "Mom, you know dad doesn't like it when you take me to a liquor store." Mom, "Well he just didn't like it when I took you to University Liquors (a totally trashy liquor store - not one of my better parenting moments) but this liquor store is a little more upscale." (Yes, I was really reaching at this point). As we were walking in I could hear Jay muttering something behind me. I turned around and asked him what he was mumbling about under his breath. His response, "I'm just talking to Jesus, telling him you're taking me into another liquor store." Let me finish this story by clearing something up. I rarely take my kids to a liquor store but there has been an occasion where I need to stop and get wine - usually for a party I'm having and never because I just "feel like it." But Jay has the memory of an elephant and I'm sure will remind me for years to come how I "dragged" him into liquor stores - Pleazeeee. Then just the other day we were driving to visit my dad in the nursing home. This is not one of Jay's most favorite things to do and he asked me why we had to visit Grandpa Brad. My response is always simple and it's always the same, "Because he's my dad." I then tried the whole put yourself in someone else's shoes and pointed out to him that one day - if he's ever in a home - wouldn't he want someone to come visit him? He didn't miss a beat and responded with (and Aunt Karen, this one is for you), "No, I just like to be left alone." Spoken like the true introvert that he is - god love him.

Look mom, I got braces

It's hard to believe I'm at the stage where I'm paying a monthly orthodontic bill but I am. Jay is a little young for braces but we we're told back in the fall that he has such a severe cross bite we needed to get started. He's has a metal retainer glued to the roof of his mouth and he we graduated to hooking in the dreaded "night gear." Now he's in braces and still wearing the night gear. What a process! But once it's all said and done it will only add to his beautiful smile he has already!

"Ugly" entertainment

As usual my boys provided me with some good entertainment this morning. I had asked Jay twice to stop doing something and he didn't. By the third time I was losing patience and told him that if he didn't stop I was really going to get "ugly." The rest of the conversation went like this:
Nick, "We don't want to have an ugly mommy."
Jay, "Yeah, because you know mom already has gray hairs!"

This is how I found Nick this afternoon. Jay looked just as muddy except he didn't have the spikey mud hair and face. Jay decided he would spike Nick's hair with mud and Nick - being the eager to please younger brother - agreed. Nick had mud EVERYWHERE - in his nose, ears, and not to mention all over his face. It took a lot of scrubbing which he did not like it. Geez, what a mess! The boys knows that when they choose to get this muddy then before they even enter the garage they have to get hosed down in our back yard. It's mid-March in central Illinois so it's only 50 some degrees. One can imagine how cold it is to have hose turned on you! But the boys always seem willing to "suffer the consequences" in order to get their mud fix.

Strong Willed - maybe?

I'm a blogging fool this week. The reality is that from 8:30 until 9:00 there isn't a lot to do - did I just write that? I'm not quite ready for bed yet and my husband is a T.V. hog. We have one T.V. in the entire house - Yes, another shocking statement and the way I see it is Mike works so hard everyday. His only down time is from about 8:00 - 9:30 every night. Besides these days I only watch Army Wives and The Good Wife so I'm really not into T.V. too much. So, during those 30 minutes I tend to crawl under my electric blanket and blog. Over the weekend I went to the Hearts At Home conference - loved it. It was money and time well spent. I went with my good friends, Jen and Kristi. Each of us have two kids and we each have one strong willed child. Can you guess which one mine is? JAY - god love him! But here's the thing - as Jay has gotten older I'm not convinced he's as strong willed as I once thought he was. He comes from a mother who was over the top strong willed and I'm so not a strong willed adult but let me tell you, I was as a kid - all the way through high school until about the time my parent's got a divorce and I was smart enough to realize my mom couldn't deal with divorcing my dad and dealing with me - it had to be one or the other so I straightened myself out rather quickly. Ha. When Jay was smaller I would draw a line and he'd cross it every time. He would also argue with me over everything. The sky could be totally blue, without a cloud in it and I'd comment what a beautiful blue sky there was and he'd say, "No, it's not, I don't see a blue sky." Often times I think I misconstrue Jay's impulsivity with him being strong willed. He's got some of the great qualities of a strong willed child. He's tender hearted and he is extremely determined. My friend, Kristi, made a great analogy. She said if you have a straight line and at one end is a complaint child and the other end is a strong willed child and then you draw a line in the middle - Nick would fall a little more on the side of a complaint child but not to the extreme complaince side and Jay would fall a little more on the side of a strong willed child but again, not to the extreme. In any case I so enjoy the differences between my children and I can only hope I can figure their song and help them sing it.
Did you like that little.......find their song and help them sing it? I learned that from my conference this week. Check out www.kendrasmiley.com. She and her husband wrote "Parenting Like A Pro," and "Journey of a Strong Willed Child." I loved their presentation and I am loving their "Journey of a Strong Willed Child" book.