Two more reasons I love my kids

1st. Kayla. While in the bath tonight she was washing her body singing a little song about the body parts she was washing..."washing my elbow's, now I'm washing my hands" but my favorite part was when she sang "washing my little boobies, that will be big someday"!!! yup that will keep a smile on my face for a few days!

2nd Jenna. As I was putting her to bed she asked why some people have less money now than a little while ago (her wording) she must have heard us talking about the economy. So after explaining to her that jobs are a little harder to come by now, and that a lot of people make less money than they used too. She asked if tomorrow she could take all the money out of her piggy bank and go to all our neighbors houses and ask if they are poor and if they are she will give them her money. Now that brought tears to my eyes because yesterday she counted out her money to see how close she was to buying a Rapunzel dress from Disneyland. I used this little moment to teach about welfare and helping the poor. I told her if she really wanted to help she could contribute a small part of her allowance to fast offerings and explained to her how that money goes directly to people who need food and help paying their bills....she enthusiastically said yes and asked how much do they need! I just love these small teaching moments that happen spontaneously:)

The real me

I'm not big on posting all my drama on FB. I really don't like to hear people whine on FB. I often find myself thinking suck it up and get over it. I just don't think posting negative feelings ever portrays yourself in a good light. Yes I know I have done this very thing a time or two, but I really try hard not to put those feelings out in the cyber world.
That said I realize that posting only the positive happy things in my life may give the illusion that my world is perfect, that we are just happy people going to Disneyland all the time and soaking up sun at the beach!
The truth of it is my life is a crazy chaotic roller coaster! This is my own fault of course! So to reassure you all that I'm not perfect (I laughed when someone told me that!) I decided to put her and everyones mind at ease and share some of my imperfections...so enjoy!
I'm not that great at making sure clothes, shoes, lunches are put out/made the night before school, you will often find me yelling and frantically searching for a missing shoe while shouting "How hard can it be! you come home, you take off your shoe, you put it on the shoe rack" I find I don't have a clue what to pack for snack time 1 minute before we are to leave for school, so my kids end up having odd things packed in their lunch bag. We are often searching for "matching" clean socks in the sock basket that holds most of our socks, it maybe gets matched and folded once a month (thank you btw to Little Mismatched you have truly made my life much easier!). I will wait till I have 12 loads of laundry to do before doing it. Yes I will wash one pair of pants just because nothing is sorted, it's 11pm at night and I just remembered my husband has nothing to wear the next day...I see the gasp of horror on your face at such waste! My house does get deep cleaned once a week and everything will be put away in it's proper place, but you come over a hour after I finish and you would never know! I don't always pick up the toys before my kids go to bed. I often leave dishes in my sink overnight. I'm horrible at planning menu's and find I'm constantly going to the store at 4pm to pick up chicken...and yes I have a freezer full them but well they are frozen and I have this whole thing about defrosting meat in the microwave (ya I probably could use some therapy over that) and well my list could go on, and on.
To tell the absolute truth I don't always feel like going to soccer games or helping out at the school. I hate homework and I become very grumpy while helping with it, thank goodness the kids have Justin because he is way better at homework than I am. He is patient and kind and I am yelling "what do you mean is that a 15??? we have been working on 15 all night!!!!!!"
And while I love my kids dearly and think they are wonderful they are not perfect, but I don't need them to be perfect or the best at everything. If they put forth their best effort and try their hardest then I am happy....heck I'm happy even if they don't I mean we all get lazy sometimes!!!
So if you read my super happy post about how much fun we are having and how great our life is know this
1. I blog about happy things because this is becoming my journal and I want to remember the happy times.
2.I know my kids will remember me being grumpy but maybe they will look back on these post and it will help them to remember that the good truly out weighed the bad.
3. I'm not always naturally happy person, it is something that I have to work at. I do have mornings when I force myself out of bed so sometimes when I'm struggling the most at working on happiness I write down all the good things in my life, it lifts me up, helps me to remember all the wonderful blessings I have been given and gives me the motivation to try harder the next day!
Yup this is me in a nut shell, don't believe me go talk to my neighbor she can vouch for me...I'm sure she hears our craziness on a daily basis!
But to sum things up I do have to say I love my crazy life, I may get overwhelmed and yell, but there is a whole lot of love in our home, we show kindness and gratitude for each other, we say sorry, we work hard together, play hard together, are always there for each other, but most importantly we say I love you to each other and really that's all we need!

Where were you?

I remember as a child my Mom talking to me about the day Kennedy was assassinated, she told me she would never forget the exact moment she found out the president had been shot and then proceeded to give me every detail of that day in a way that made me understand even as a small child what a terrible thing that was. I remember thinking that I hoped nothing in my lifetime would impact me in that way.

Now I am a adult of 33 and if you ask me where were you? I will tell you in my car on the way to work, I know exactly what you are asking. The morning of September 11 has been burned into my memory in way that I never thought was possible.

We were living in some apartments by Wal-Mart off Redwood road. I got into my car that morning and heard reports on the radio that the pentagon was on fire and speculation about it being related to the planes crashing into the twin towers. I wanted the radio to give me more information, I wanted to know everything! But the news anchor on KSL just kept saying I think our country is under attack, I'm sure he said more but that's all I processed. I got to work and went into the waiting room where the TV was. I watched with my co-workers the awful scene of the twin towers on fire, and then to our horror the first tower fell! Looking back that was worst moment, you just knew it was only a matter of time before the next tower went down. It's funny what stays with you in times like that....I remember going back to my office to put my things away and walking past my boss' office, she was on the phone laughing with someone, it seemed eery to hear laughing, hundreds of people just died before my eyes how could laughing be allowed? I went back into the waiting room and watched until the second tower fell. In that moment I just wanted to find Justin, while I knew I was safe I wanted to be safe with him. I don't know how any of us managed to get through that day. In the days that followed I remember almost every car had a yellow ribbon tied to it, our country had come together in a way I had never seen and I had never more proud of my country, to call myself an American.

10 years later the hurt is still there, the sorrow still consumes me this time of year.

I have not talked to my girls about what happened that day, I feared they were too little, how do you explain such horrible things to such innocence? The flag at Jenna's school was at half mast on Friday and as I sat waiting for the bell to ring I knew we needed to talk with the girls about 9-11. I asked Jenna on the way home what she knew and was relieved when she had no clue what I was talking about.

So tonight I have been pondering how I to tell them, wondering how much needs to be said. I have read articles on how to talk to your kids about 9-11 what to say, what not to say. Then I remembered that conversation I had as a child with my mom. It did not leave me scared or nervous just sad over someone dying. So I'm going to keep it simple, tell them about it the same way my mom told me about Kennedy's assassination. I hope that they will remember 9-11 the way I think about Kennedy from my mom's perspective .

So much has happened in the past 10 years and 9-11 changed our country in a way that I don't think anyone anticipated. I know I'm just one person, I didn't know anyone who died that day, I have never been to New York or to the Pentagon but it was my country that was attacked and therefore they attacked me as well. So today I'm honoring the hero's of 9-11. My prayers are with those who lost their loved ones and with our military who ten years later are still fighting for our freedom, may God bless them and bring them home safe.

Finally, my greatest hope is that my children's generation will be spared what so many generations before us have not, from Pearl Harbor, to Kennedy and finally 9-11, I pray my girls will never have a " never forget" moment.