Thursday Thanks #2

1. Snow - I have absolutely loved all the snow we've gotten over the past week. I'm thankful for the girls' snow day on Monday that allowed us some "extra" fun time to do somethings that I don't normally make time for but should.

2. Family time - Keith was able to make it home not once but twice this week before the girls went to bed. We even got to have dinner together on Sunday with enough time for wii all to play some Wii. Then the following night wii were able to play some more Wii. Words can't describe how wonderful it was!

3. Reminders of God's love and mercy - He gives us SO many promises in His word and it's been a week of seeing some of those promises fulfilled.

4. Blogs - I have had a blast this week reconnecting with some "old" friends through this wonderful world of blogland. And I've also loved seeing my husband reconnect with some of his close friends. Plus, we've convinced some family members that they couldn't go on anymore without becoming bloggers themselves. What fun!!!

5. A break in the rain - It was pouring down raining/snowing today while I was trying to get some errands run. Picked up a shower rod for our shower, got Samantha some new tennis shoes because she is growing so fast I'm constantly having to replace some item of clothing that she has outgrown and I also picked up groceries. When I walked out of WinCo there was a break in the clouds and the sun was shining thru and I couldn't help but think at that moment that Jesus had given me a little gift so that I didn't have to stand in the rain while I loaded up my car with groceries. I loved that gift!!!

6. Children and the parents who discipline them - Today I had MOPs. (I work in the childcare since my kids are to old to be in the program.) I was able to witness some of the most adorable little kids, who many people might not think are old enough to be learning manners, use their manners and also listen and be obedient. In situations like that, it is clearly evident when a child is being taught at home that obedience is a must. I so appreciate those parents that discipline, it makes their children a joy to be around rather than a burden.

7. Reassurances and reminders - I'm thankful for the little reminders from friends and family that reassure me that I am special to them. They always seem to come right when I need them, which makes them so special.

8. My K.I.S.A - You know who you are and how much I love you!

Snow Angels, Snow Angels

The girls begged and pleaded and Mom consented and after putting on a couple of layers of clothes since their snowsuits are sitting in the garage in Graham they were off to play outside in the beautiful sunshine and glorious snow!!!
Sammy smiles beautifully while Anah informs me that snow is one of her new favorite foods, right after tacos and spaghetti!
The only thing to do after spending an hour or so outside in the the chilly cold getting all wet from making snow angels and a snow turtle is come inside and have hot cocoa with marshmallows!
CHEERS!!!
Let's make a day of it and bake cookies as well!!!

You're gonna have to face it . . . . you're addicted to BLOG!

Okay people! You are crazy with the comments and not that I don't absolutely love seeing what everyone has to say but both today and yesterday when I got home from "work", (Yes, I actually go work at the house as well. Keith isn't the only McCoy to have invested much blood, sweat and tears into our very own "Mobile Mansion". I would call it the double-wide but that title is already taken so I've named our home the Mobile Mansion. Just now!) I had over thirty emails in my inbox and they were all comments left on peoples blogs that I frequent. And I truly don't frequent that many. That is just crazy insane. But what takes the cake is that last night after everyone else had gone to bed I spent some time checking out all those said blogs and leaving my own comments. Then I thought I'd check my email one more time really quick before heading to bed myself. Eighteen emails - all comments I'd left on other peoples blogs! It's AN ADDICTION!!! STOP THE INSANITY!!!!!

CLOUD 9!

I'm worried that the word - apparently - is as big as it is. But encouraged that the word - honest - is one I apparently use a lot. (Yes, I did do that on purpose!) I'm a little surprised that the word - hilarious - isn't on my cloud. Because I am!!! Lastly, I'm hoping that there are no misspelled words. But if there are at least I'm consistent, huh?

Wii got friends in [high] places!

Okay so this is just a short little "plug" post until I can get my camera hooked up to the computer and post some pictures of my two snow angels.

Wii (when I say we - I really mean Keith) have a number of different gaming systems. Some we've had for a long time (like before Samantha was born) and others not so long, like not even a year. Wii decided for our anniversary this last year to purchase a Nintendo Wii. Now this is probably the third No Frendo (named by Keith's friend Ben) system we have purchased. We love it and it is very fun for the whole family. Price comparison wise - it's a lot cheaper than some of the other systems out there. But we started having some issues right away with it. They didn't happen all the time but intermittently it just wouldn't work. Then our nephew dropped it on the ground and so it started having more issues. Then Savanah dropped it on the ground from about 6 ft up. Needless to say, Wii didn't want to play with us anymore. So I called the 800 # hoping that it wouldn't cost very much to get it fixed. Dude on the phone says - hey you're calling from WA. I say yeah. He says we are located in Redmond and have a 24 hour repair service if you drop it off. So I made a trip up to Redmond, dropped the Wii off and they shipped us a brand new Wii the next day because ours wasn't repairable - FOR FREE!!! That's right folks, FREE Wii!!!! How exciting and amazing is that? I know - it's unbelievable!
So if anyone is looking into a video game system - go with the No Frendo Wii! You'll be glad ya did!

Thursday Thanks

Okay, so I completely stole this from a dear friend of mine. And to be completely honest, I've truly been meaning to steal it for a very long time. I'm very excited for my very first "Thursday Thanks Tank". Hopefully, it will encourage you to take a moment to ponder all the things you have to be thankful for in your life. Here goes . . . .

1. One on one time with my kids. I was able to spend the first part of the day today with Savanah because she stayed home from school. We went and signed both the girls up for soccer, went out to lunch at Taco Bell (remember Anah's favorite food is tacos), went shopping at Home Depot and a number of other things. It was wonderful being able to talk with her and to just listen to all of the things she had to tell me.

2. Prayer. Though I am so thankful for the opportunity to pray for others, today I am thankful for the prayers that others having been saying for me. I know without a doubt that someone was praying for me this morning. The girls and I had THE BEST morning we've had in a very, very long time. With all the hecticness, that is our life at the moment - I have to be completely honest and admit that I have been extremely low in patience lately. Today though, I had patience and the girls were remarkably well behaved. It made for a great morning and a great day!

3. Helpful friends and family. I'm sure everyone is as tired as I am of all "the house" updates. But I just really need to express my deepest gratitude to all of our friends and family who have gone above and beyond the call of duty and spent countless hours of their time to help us accomplish this remodel project. Words cannot express how indebted we are. So to anyone and everyone who has helped in anyway - THANK YOU!!!

4. My husband. I can't imagine trying to go thru these past couple of years with anybody other than Keith. He IS my knight in shining armor!

5. Spider/cobwebs. I found one in my house today. At least someone gets to live there!!!

MY GIRL - Let's talk about my girls!

Okay, so I love reading peoples blogs where they have all these cute little sayings or things about their kids along the side of their posts. Since I'm a complete numskull when it comes to all things involving a computer I thought I'd just write a post about MY GIRLS! Hopefully this will become a bit of a tradition. Once or twice a year I will "update" their favorite things. And then when I finally catch up to now on my scrapbooking (which will take quite a number of years), I can look back on my very old posts and see what they loved. Since the oldest usually gets to go first I'll mix it up some and start with Anah!

Full name: Savanah Janne'
Nicknames: Anah, Anah-banana
DOB: July 2000
Favorite Book: The Boxcar Children - Mystery Behind the Wall
Favorite Movie: National Treasure - Book of Secrets
Favorite toy: Kit - her American Girl Doll
Favorite meal: Tacos
Favorite dessert: Pumpkin bread
Favorite song: #2 on Taylor Swift - Picture to Burn
Favorite thing to do outside: Cartwheels
Favorite T.V. show: Cory in the House
Favorite Christmas gift this year: Kit, my American Girl Doll
Favorite thing we did this year as a family: camping this summer at Cowlitz Falls with Katie and Maddie and Nana, Papa-man, Uncle Paul and Aunt Lindsay and Capri

Full name: Samantha Reigh
Nicknames: Sam, Sammy, Sammy Reigh, Sammy-girl
DOB: February 1999
Favorite book: Sisters in Time - Emma's Secret
Favorite movie: Nancy Drew
Favorite toy: Ally (her Webkinz) and Pinky (her Fur Real pig)
Favorite meal: Cheese pizza
Favorite dessert: Chocolate ice cream
Favorite song: #11 on Taylor Swift - Our Song
Favorite thing to do outside: play tag
Favorite T.V. show: The Suite Life of Zack and Cody
Favorite Christmas gift this year: guitar
Favorite thing we did this year as a family: Going on an airplane for the 1st time with my mom to California

Rubber Ducky - you're the one, you make bathtime lots of fun!

Ok. So a quick, funny little story. Yesterday evening after dinner as the girls were starting to get ready for bed, I decided to run myself a bath. For some of you, I'm sure your thinking - okay big deal. But I'm not one who usually takes baths. I mean I shower on a regular basis but baths I rarely do. But I was achy and crabby and just not in a very good mood and thought maybe a bath would help. While the bath water was running and filling up the tub, Savanah walked in to wash up and saw the bath filling and got this look of pure joy and excitement on her face and says to me, "Is that bath for me?" (The reason for the excitement is that my girls usually don't take baths either. They shower as well.) I told her no baby, you are already in your pjs, the bath is for me. Her expression turned from excitement to puzzlement. She asked me if I was sick? I said no I just felt like taking a bath. And then in the most sincere and not trying to be funny, childish voice, she looks at me, her expression once again filled with glee and states, "oh Mommy you are going to have SO MUCH FUN! Are you going to play?"
Ah, the joys and laughter that come with having kids!

Post update: Today after getting home from a full day of working and painting at the house, I was getting ready to jump into the shower. After letting the girls know where I was headed, Savanah suggested that I take another bath. I told her that I didn't want to take a bath. She said why not? Didn't you have fun in the last bath you took? I told her actually not really. She informed me that next time I was going to take a bath she would take one with me and - "show me how to have fun"!
Am I so old now that I've forgotten how to have fun? It's a sad, sad day in my little world!

Sisters, Sisters . . . there were never such devoted sisters?

So I guess my kids are at that age where they are having a very hard time getting along. I'm not sure if this extremely normal and that in the years to come they will become close friends that love and care for each other immensely or if this is the start of the "sibling rivalry" that lasts till they are old and gray. I remember fighting quite a bit with my sisters growing up. One of them is 4 years younger than me and the other is almost 6 years younger. Now that we are older we get along great; though if I were being honest I would have to say that my youngest sister and I still can butt heads on occasion. But I also know of siblings who never got along as kids and still to this day do not get along. I don't want that for my kids. But I'm not sure how to create a bond between them now that lasts a lifetime. I have two cousins who are sisters that are very, very close in age (10 months apart). They are best friends and for as long as I can remember, they always got along. Even as young girls I don't remember ever hearing them fight. Although, I'm sure they did some. But it seems that they figured out at a young age that sticking together was the best course of action. Sam and Anah on the other hand have two cousins that are the same age as they are and I'm constantly hearing - I wish Katelynn was my sister and not you. Oh yeah, well I wish Madison was MY sister and that I didn't even know YOU! I feel as though I'm at my wits end with trying to get them to get along. Of course, they have their great moments too. And these are the moments that bring smiles to face and sometimes even tears to my eyes and an occasional chuckle from deep within. These are the moments I long for!

One of these moments that produced a chuckled from me happened a couple of days ago as we were headed to school or somewhere. Sister A (the names have been changed to protect the innocent or in this case not so innocent) says to sister B - "Did you brush your teeth this morning?" Sister B's very, very quick reply - "Why are they really colorful?"

I am a rock, I am an Island . . . but does Mikey like it?

Okay, so this is the dilemma . . . to island or not to island?!?

Keith and my dad started putting the bottom kitchen cabinets in place over the weekend. I was informed though that the kitchen is "too big". First of all, it's a mobile. Can a kitchen in a mobile home be "too big"? And really, lets be honest - can any kitchen really be "too big"? Well, according to Keith ours can and is, which leads us to the next question. Do we put in an island? See below exhibit A - a "rough" estimate of the kitchen floor w/o an island. We are about 8 1/2 ft between counters from side to side.




Now see exhibit B and C which show either side of our very hastily set "fake" island. The cabinet you see in exhibit B is actually a very big drawer unit. So no cabinet doors to contend with but I question whether I would be able to stand with my back to the island and pull the drawers all the way out and still have room for me?!?

The upside down shop vac barrel is apparently supposed to be showing where the refrigerator will come out to. Is that enough room to open the frig and freezer door and still have plenty of room to maneuver stuff in and out of the frig? (We do have a side-by-side frig so the doors are quite a bit smaller than an over-under frig, but it is probably one of the biggest side-by-sides you can get.)

Lastly, this is a picture of our newly installed microwave/hood vent. So now when we are working at the house we can reheat our COFFEE!!!! That makes for some very, very happy workers but apparently installing it was another thing all together. I can assure you that if that microwave ever goes out while we live here Keith will insist on buying a micro for the counter top and use this one here for storage!!!

So, I need some advice from you all about what I should do about my "island". Yes? No? Will I be disappointed if I don't have a built-in? Will a movable one be sufficient? Or will my island slowly but surely suffocate me? I need someone to tell me what to do! ARGH! The pressure - it is overwhelming!!!!

O Christmas Tree

So this is an extremely late post but I wanted to share some more on my NYC/DC trip. One of the reasons we ended up being gone for as long as we were was that we found out that if we stayed a couple of days longer than we were originally planning we would be able to see, not only the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade but also, the lighting of the tree at Rockefeller Center. Since we were already in New York we figured we might as well see and experience as much as we possibly could. So we extended our stay by two days and put the tree lighting on our itinerary. We ended up getting there a little earlier than planned but this afforded us a much better "spot" in the crowd. It was a lot of fun to stand around waiting and listening to the different people near us. Some had come a long ways and some were from Jersey and others were New Yorkers. We stood there waiting for 3 1/2 hours before anything actually got started and then there was two hours of performances before they actually lit the tree. The first hour was broadcast locally, while the second hour was televised nationally. Even though by the end our feet were killing us and our backs and legs were aching it was still worth every minute.
On a side note - my brother-in-law happened to be in New Jersey on a business trip and so he drove over and met up with us for the evening. It was fun spending a few "New York Minutes" with someone I usually only see in Washington.
As far as our Christmas tree here at home goes, it's already put away and that makes me a little sad. This Christmas season seemed to fly by so quickly and while I'm thankful for all the special moments and times shared with family I feel as though I missed out on so much. Each year it seems a little harder to fit it all in and then there's the guilt you feel when you miss out on something. I'm not one who normally makes New Year's resolutions but if I were to make one for this year I would have to say that I want to slow down and enjoy the 2008 holiday season. To make the time to spend with friends and family, the people I love most and to reflect more on the wondrous gift God gave us in that tiny baby boy, Jesus.