Bored Then Ride

Aaron has gotten over the initial shock of sleeping on the top bunk. Once Spring Break started he was ready to make the change from his fire fighter room to a cool snowboard themed room. The above picture is one of the pieces of digital art I created for the room. We spent last Monday painting and have been working on piecing the entire look together. I will post pictures as soon as I take some. We are still waiting for the new comforter to arrive. Spring Break is over and now it is back to the regular routine. Until next time....

Comfort

I am in the process of cleaning out the upstairs. In my house this includes the kid's rooms and playroom. You can imagine the mess that is awaiting me as I type this. (Yes, I'm procrastinating) Aaron has requested that his room be changed. He is tired of his firestation themed bedroom and is wanting a more age appropriate and trendy room - A room that shows more of his style, not something that Mom and Dad picked out when he was 2. After I got over the shock of him wanting to actually change something I decided we've gotta do it. We have been planning and Saturday Alex transformed Aaron's bunk bed into a loft bed.
Aaron was so excited. He helped his Dad take apart the bed and move his dresser and desk under his top bunk. We were thinking this is going to be great. It was until bedtime. All of a sudden something so wonderful and exciting has turned into the worst thing a child can imagine. "It is not the same as before, there are so many memories, I've never slept on the top bunk before, I'm just not comfortable sleeping up here", were the words of my 8 year old. He was in a near panic and wanted his bed back to the way it was. I wasn't going to let him do that because sometimes we have to let go of our comforts to experience a fuller life.
In keeping with his new snowboarding theme, I asked him this question: What if you looked at the mountain and thought it was too scary to even take the risk of learning to snowboard? He responded with, "I wouldn't have realized how much fun snowboarding is." By taking the risk, Aaron was able to see the mountain from a completely different vantage point than someone who stayed at the bottom of the mountain. He got to go to the top and experience the wind in his face as he boarded down. I reminded him that he had a teacher who guided and taught him along the way. He wasn't left alone to wander and figure it out for himself. He had to work hard to figure out how to strap the board on and and get up when he fell down. It wasn't easy all of the time. Leaving his comfort zone allowed him to experience something he would not have otherwise. He calmed down and slept night one in his new loft bed. Last night was night 2 and he still was clinging to the old. I am wondering how night 3 will be. Why is it that we cling to comfort? I see so much of my own tendency in watching Aaron. Life is good where I am at so why? I've come to realize sometimes God has better things in store for me than I could have imagined myself. It can only happen though when I am willing to take a risk. What a great life lesson for Aaron to learn and a great one for me too.
It's time to go clean now.
Here is a poster that I designed for Aaron's new room. (I'm getting an error when I go to post the picture so I'll try again another time.)

Where have I been?

What started out as good intentions to write and keep up a blog has turned into a little neglected spot in the bloggy world. Posting on my blog has been at the bottom of priority list. Since last posting, over a year ago, there have been many changes in my family. My grandfather became very ill and passed away in March of 2009. My grandmother moved in with my parents and my brother and nephew moved where my grandparent's lived. My father was diagnosed with cancer. It is a rare slow growing tumor and thankfully he is doing well. My mom is still teaching, but she is retiring at the end of the school year. My mother-in-law retired in January. I am still homeschooling the kids twice a week and Alex is still working for the county. We have celebrated birthdays, gone on a few vacations, and done some redecorating since the last time I posted. So much happens in a year. I hope to post a little more frequently from now on. Until next time....

Project 365 -Week One

I had heard about Project 365 from multiple photo and scrapbooking sites for awhile. Last year I had started the project and only got through the first week or so. This year I am going to try again, hopefully with greater success. What is Project 365? Well, it is the story of a year in your life. You take one picture a day to allow others a glimpse into your world. Thanks to Pamela at Digitreats for deciding to tackle this project and offering free digital scrapbooking goodies.

These are my pictures for the week.

This page explains my pictures. I use photoshop to create the layouts.

The first week in January is always a busy and fun week for me. With new toys, a new year and my birthday the celebration continues. Alex is back to work and the kids started back to school. Despite the plunge back into daily routines week one has plenty of room for play and excitement. As a family we have been having a ton of fun getting aquainted with the Wii that we received for Christmas. Alex and the kids surprised me with Wii Fit for my birthday. I actually had a really great workout this week that was fun at the same time. Some other highlights from the week were:

1. My birthday date with Alex. We traveled to San Marco Square in Venice and ate at this little restaurant called Tutto Italia. Ok, ok so it was the Italian Pavilion at EPCOT. It still was divine. Since we have our annual passes to Disney, we really enjoy trying the different restaurants. Last year we ate at Le Cellier in Canada.

2. I was able to fill the empty corner in my master bedroom with a beautiful chaise that my parents gave me for my birthday. I Love it!!! Thank you!!

3. Going to church the first Sunday of a New Year is always a special time for me. This Sunday did not disappoint. It was a wonderful reminder to look for God in everything. The Lord has woven a story into each of us. It is our job to live it, tell it, share it. After church we celebrated my birthday with my parents, Adam, Prescott, Alex, Aaron and Aleyna at Bahama Breeze.

4. On my birthday I spent the day at Disney and Epcot with the kids. It was a beautiful day that was made even sweeter with the fun card from Disney. Disney is wanting to celebrate your birthday with you so they are giving free admission on your birthday. If you are a passholder then there is a list of other goodies you can pick from. All you have to do is sign up on their website.

I am looking forward to seeing what this year has in store. I'll be posting again soon.

Blessings,

Happy New Year!!!!

I have always heard that the years seem to go by quicker and quicker the older you get. Right now I would have to agree with that statement. I am amazed that it is 2009. I meet this year with anticipation. I am looking forward to see what the Lord has in store for myself, my family, and my friends. My desire for all of you is that you would join me in seeking the Lord with all of your heart, mind and soul. May you experience Christ in ways you never have before. Happy New Year!!!

2008 Where Did the Year Go?

The Christmas presents are unwrapped and the Christmas guests have gone home. As I sit here I realize I haven't blogged in awhile. The last few months have seemed like a whirlwind and now it is the last day of 2008. Where did the year go?

After our fantastic Disney Cruise I found myself hit by one event after another: Grandfather in the hospital, Dad's birthday, Trick or Treating, Grandmother's 87th birthday, Grandfather's 89th birthday, Grandfather in the hospital again, Thanksgiving, making sure the kids schoolwork was complete before our trip to Colorado, saying goodbye to Kasey, trip to Colorado, Christmas parties, Christmas, my mom in the hospital and then I find myself here.

I realize I have not had sufficient time to let it all soak in. I am going to take the next few moments to try and reflect on these last few months and share a few favorite photos.
Thank you to those of you joined me in praying for my grandfather while he was in the hospital. He had a ministroke and is getting better everyday. This event though has put an interesting spin on life. He is not able to do everyday things with ease anymore requiring much help from my mom and the rest of the family. I can't believe that it takes all day on the phone to the doctor's office to find out exactly what medication and what referral and what appointment is needed next. My mom has to make sure he has all of his medication for the day and other little things. We are seeing great improvement and the neurologist said that he seems to be doing really well and should be able to regain the ability to do all the things he used to. It was such a blessing to be able to celebrate his 89th birthday.

The kids had fun Trick or Treating. Our neighbors are extremely generous with the candy.

Here is Sleeping Beauty and Indiana Jones.

We hosted Thanksgiving at our house this year with all of the family.

December 5th - December 15th we took a family trip to Colorado. We had an amazing time. We had fun in Denver and a blast skiing and snowboarding in Breckenridge. This was our first family ski trip and probably won't be our last.

This is the view from our hotel room in Denver.

The Colorado State Capitol Building Red Rocks Park

Playing in the Snow

Aleyna and Alex Sledding

Aleyna Skiing

Alex Skiing

Aaron Snowboarding

Our family after Tubing in Keystone Alex and Aleyna Snowmobiling Our Farewell to Breckenridge: Dinner at an old Miner's tent after a sleigh ride.

We had the Anton's visiting from Boston this year for Christmas. They enjoyed the warmth and we enjoyed their company. Celebrating the real meaning of Christmas - JESUS

Christmas morning at home

My grandparents with all of their great grandchildren and half of their grandchildren

We had a fabulous time. Christmas night my mom ended up in the hospital for really high blood pressure. Thankfully she is ok. It seems she had an allergic reaction to something that caused the blood pressure to skyrocket. She is home now and trying to take it easy.

There are so many great memories from 2008. I wish I had the time to list them all. I suppose I will end this post by saying farewell 2008 and with great anticipation of what 2009 will have in store. I am planning on being more diligent in the new year with my blog posts. For those of you who are still reading this thank you for being a part of our lives. Until next year....

Magical Disney Cruise

Last week I was cruising in the Caribbean with my family. Today, I find myself in the middle of a busy week trying to take care of all of the daily necessities such as getting breakfast ready, packing school lunches, and dropping the kids off at school. Many have asked how our Disney Cruise went. So here is my answer: It was an unexpected opportunity that was absolutely fabulous!!!!

Things I learned from the Disney Cruise:

1. The power in a name. It is amazing how special one can feel when someone calls you by name. ( It was a great reminder to me that God knows and calls each of us by name)

2. How nice it is to have someone cook and clean for you everyday. Our servers, Putu and Rina, and room steward, Roberto were fantastic. Aaron and Aleyna are wondering why we can't have dessert at every meal at home. They also are attempting to recreate the towel animals at turn down. After a week of being waited on, it was hard to come back to 6 loads of laundry.


3. I love playing with my kids.

4. Sometimes the journey is more fun than the destination. We were scheduled for the 7 night Eastern Caribbean Cruise that stopped in the ports of St. Maarten, St. Thomas/St. John, and Disney's Private Island - Castaway Cay. I was very excited because none of these were ports that I had ever visited but things did not go completely as planned. We were able to see St. Maarten but were unable to go to St Thomas due to Hurricane Omar that formed out of the blue. We changed our course northward to the Bahamas. Even though, Alex and I had been to Nassau before we still had amazing time seeing some new sights. We had as much fun on the ship, as off the ship.

5. I love being able to stare out into the vast ocean. It reminds me of how big our God truly is.

6. Seven course meals, along with sorbet to cleanse the palette and an after dinner drink with my wonderful husband is a little slice of heaven. The food in the main dining rooms was great but the food in the adult only Palo's was phenomenal.

7. There is such wonder and amazement to be seen from looking at the world through the eyes of children.

We truly enjoyed ourselves!!!

Dreaming of the "Magic",