Moved in but not unpacked

Today was an exciting day. Today our things finally arrived from England. It ended up taking over two months, but at last we have everything here in the states.

The movers arrived at 1pm and were done unloading everything an hour later. I suppose it made it easier that everything was just going into the garage and not being unpacked, but I was still surprised at how quickly they got it done. Now we have a mountain of boxes in the garage.

While it is a relief to finally have our belongings here (instead of at the bottom of the ocean), we don't really plan to unpack anything until we have a more permanent home. Hopefully that will be this summer. Sammy did, however, insist on opening one box of stuffed animals because she had missed them so much.

The biggest surprise was that our bikes were delivered DISASSEMBLED. When the movers loaded them into vans in England, they were in one piece. When the movers put them in the garage here at the Ostlund's house, they had been completely taken apart. I assume this was to make our total shipment take up less space, but it does leave me with a bit of a problem. How exactly do I get them put back together without any directions or tools? Thank goodness for wonderful home teachers!

Cooking 101

There's a new chef in the house...

JONATHAN.

My motivations?

(1) He wants to learn to cook.

(2) He needs to be able to cook on his mission.

(3) I am tired of cooking.

The results?

(1) A day off for me.

(2) He feels accomplished.

(3) He will be prepared for when he moves out.

Fashion (?) Show

When Jonathan and Andrew went upstairs to find something to do this afternoon, I never imagined that they would come back down looking like this...

I'm so glad that cousins have such fun together. And I am so glad that the Ostlunds have such a wide variety of dress-up clothes!

A confession

Okay.
I admit it.
Some days I wish I wasn’t a mom.
There.
I admitted the worst.
It’s just that sometimes it is SO HARD for me to keep going.

Today I had a wake up call.
I was watching one of my favorite TV shows, Extreme Makeover Home Edition. And they were building a house for a family that had their daughter kidnapped ten years ago. As I watched, I was touched by the hope the family still has as they work to help abducted children to be reunited with their families. And I realized exactly how lucky I am. I realized how much I love my children. I realized that I love being a mom. I realized how selfish I had been in wishing I could give up sometimes.

So I am working on changing my attitude and outlook.
I am working on being more patient and more positive.
Most importantly, I am working on appreciating the opportunity I have to be a mom.
And NOT giving up.

Valentine's Day Cookies

Decorating cookies with the kids always makes me laugh.
And I needed a good laugh today...

We woke up to yet another snow day - no school.
No school = no sub job = no pay check.
Determined to make today less boring than yesterday, I formulated a plan. We would go to the store and get ingredients for sugar cookies, invite friends over to decorate cookies with us and have chili and cornbread for dinner.

Well, our friends couldn't come over. I used up all the baking powder on cookies and couldn't make cornbread. I forgot to buy a red pepper for the chili. And some of the cookies broke.

BUT...
Jonathan and Sammy still wanted to decorate cookies, so we did.
And I am glad we did because it was fun watching them create little masterpieces out of frosting and sprinkles.
Sammy's cookies always have a TON of frosting loaded onto them. This one is a large sandwich cookie with two smaller sandwich cookies on top. Lots of frosting and lots of sprinkles were added later to make an enormous sugary mess. I couldn't stop laughing.

Jonathan decided to make each of his cookies look like a face of a different expression. He had one that looked like a pig, one that was smiling, one that was yelling, and one that was supposed to be whistling.

I ended up mass producing about 30 cookies for the kids to take to their church activity that night. Not nearly as cute as the kids' cookies, but still yummy.

There's no business like snow business

Last night it snowed about 5 inches. Not a ton, but enough to cause the schools to close. Bummer for me because I lost out on a sub job, but the kids were happy to sleep in and play all day.

When the doorbell rang this morning, I had a feeling that it was some kids wanting to shovel our driveway for us - for a fee, of course. I sent Jonathan to answer the door and when he called up to me to see if I wanted to pay them to do the work for us, I replied, "No. YOU can do it, Jon." I am sure he was thrilled...

But being the good son that he is, he headed outside and completed the task. He even hammed it up for a photo when I came outside with my camera.
Sammy got all bundled up and went out to brush all the snow off the car for me. What a cute little helper.

I am so lucky that my kids are willing to help out around the house. I really appreciate their help.

Too much of a good thing

While we are staying at the Ostlunds house, we have a pet cat. Their cat. Felix. And Sammy loves Felix. Sometimes too much. Poor Felix has lived alone for the past three years while the Ostlunds have been in Japan. Since we have been here, Felix has had the benefit of company every day. Unfortunately, she just isn't used to it anymore.
Sammy wants to pet Felix all the time. She tries to carry her everywhere. She wants Felix to be in her bedroom with her. She wants to play with Felix. But sometimes Felix just wants to be left alone for a while. But Sammy doesn't seem to get the hint. Even when Felix finally has enough and scratches Sammy, she continues to try to play with her. It's something we are really working on - leaving Felix alone when she's had enough attention - but it isn't easy for Sammy. She just loves animals so much.

What's on my mind

I am a worrier.
It's just part of my personality, I guess.
And lately I feel like I have a whole lot to be worrying about.
Here's just a glimpse into what's been on my mind...
- I worry about finding a permanent job.
- I worry about my belongings arriving safely from England.
- I worry about money and bills.
- I worry about the kids getting settled at school.
- I worry about being alone.
- I worry about not having health insurance.
- I worry about my car breaking down.
- I worry about finding a place to live.
- I worry about getting depressed.
- I worry about being a good teacher.
- I worry about being a good mom.
- I worry about renewing my teaching license.
WOW! No wonder I have a hard time falling asleep at night!