This is My Forties

Noah and Tristan came walking into the kitchen while Josh and I were cooking dinner last night. Sheryl Crow's "Strong Enough" was playing and we were dancing and singing. I had just finished singing my line "lie to me. I promise I'll believe" so I guess I asked for it. I grabbed Noah for a little dancing, trying to get his hands out of his hoodie pocket which was covered with a white, hairy substance. He had previously waltzed into the kitchen with the same affliction and I asked if it was dog hair or horse hair (from the big stuffed horse "Nougat" we got from Gma N. 5 years ago). He claimed it was Bosley's hair. His hands were sweaty and he was quite keen on keeping them shoved in his pocket. I discovered that his little mitts were wrapped around his 2 new transformers and a pair of scissors. The scissors were also covered in white hair. He looked shocked. He'd been found out! Noah... did you cut the horses hair? No, Mommy. Noah...

It snowed again last night!! We excitedly jumped out of bed to check out the 2 inch blanket of snow (those in PA are scoffing, but we were thrilled!). Then it rained all day long and will continue to do so for the next week, unfortunately. Maybe we'll be surprised by a drop in temperatures so we'll have a white Christmas. Cross your fingers for us! Josh doesn't have to go back and work a full day again until the 4th so we're enjoying a whole lot of family time! Today we made snowflakes and then stuck them to a banner for Santa Claus. I made a Spongebob and Patrick one! I love it :) Then the boys made Santa some thank you cards because, as I pointed out, no one ever thanks Santa... they just take his presents and ask for more next year. Not very nice at all ;) We also traced Tris and Noah and had them color themselves in. They lost interest once they got down to their necks, pretty much. They had a good time though. Brennan low crawled all over the floor, gle...

This week was a little hectic, but still good. Noah's Christmas concert was on Friday and , as luck would have it, I overslept and he missed the bus. So, we quickly got ready and I headed over to Josh's work to pick him up... we were on schedule to arrive in time to get Noah there and see him sing. Right outside the gate I got t-boned before my exit. They have a lot of roundabouts out here and I was driving on the outside lane, she was driving on the inside. No one usually exits at the NATO HQ, which happens to be the last exit from this roundabout. I guess she assumed I was going to exit before then because she tried exiting through our van. Luckily no one was injured except for our vehicles. This is a very common accident out here at this particular exit. I was busy paying attention to the oncoming drivers who are also not used to seeing someone exit and therefore jump the gun and end up hitting people. Guess I should have looked behind me too? Oh well. We were r...

We had a 4 day weekend thanks to Spain's love of paid holidays. We did a lot of Christmas decoration shopping, finally got both our trees and the trimmings. We also went out to the Plaza Mayor and are planning to go again during the day (and take pictures). We spent the rest of the weekend just relaxing, putting up decorations, having fun, spending time as a family, watching old Christmas movies like "The Bishop's Wife" and "It's a Wonderful Life". We lit a few fires, made a few cups of tea, cooked a few hot meals, and did a little cleaning :) Exciting, I know. Then once the kids were down Josh and I kicked some King Koopa butt on the new Super Mario Bros for the wii. It's greeeeeat. I was surprised at the lack of Christmas decorations here. Apparently, the big "to-do" around here is Three Kings Day in January. They don't have any real Christmas trees out here, no stocking holders, hardly any stockings, garland is outrageously ...

On November 5th, Josh and I were chatting through Yahoo Messenger the night before he left to come back to Spain from his 33 day TDY to Norway. I had just gotten offline with him so he could finish cleaning and get his laundry finished. I got on Facebook one last time and saw a status message from one of my friends "Don't worry everyone, I'm fine!". I didn't even know anything was going on for me to worry about so jumped on google news and looked at the headlines... "Shooting at Fort Hood Army Base". As I read more and more I started to recall a few things. I went back a few days on my sister-in-law's facebook page and confirmed my recollection. Josh's little brother Logan was at Fort Hood. Not only was he there, but he would have been in the building because he was filling out paperwork prior to deployment. Oh CRAP! I immediately called my sister-in-law (Torey) to see if she'd heard from Logan yet... if he was OK. I was sure I wa...

We're back from Texas. For those of you who didn't even know we were gone I will give a better update of the past 20 days soon. It's been a stressful month, but we're still a happy and thankful family. I took very few photos, but I did take some that I'll probably post. While we were in Texas I got the call that my Aunt Vita passed away (on Monday the 23rd). Her painful battle with cancer is finally over. She passed in her sleep after a few very rough days. I'm glad she's not hurting anymore, but we're all really going to miss her. The funeral was today in Ohio. I've been thinking of her and her family (my family) all week. I might write more about that later, but honestly I just don't feel up to it at the moment. I love you, family. My thoughts and prayers are with you all. It's 5:30am... I didn't sleep on the plane, didn't sleep for more than an hour at home. I just can't seem to let slumber take hold. Too much on ...

We're still going strong with our happiness levels out here. Yesterday was a little bit rough because Tristan was especially whiney, but today was amazing :) We got our grocery shopping done and even managed to have fun doing that! Noah and I were singing Christmas songs already while Tris and Bren laughed at us. Tristan sometimes piped in with a "all the way" when we were singing Jingle Bells. Noah was cracking up when I sang him the Batman version :D After all that excitement the 2 wee ones went down for their naps and Noah and I gave Bosley a bath with his new tea extract shampoo. He looks and smells so wonderful now :) He was in such a good mood after that too! Noah made a concoction of plum leaves, olives, dirt, and paper which he called "olive a cado". While he was doing his own grocery shopping I was taking some macro shots with my new focus point knowledge. I'm very happy. I thought I loved my camera before! Anyway... We also built a littl...

Last weekend was hard on me, despite the photographic cuteness... really taking pictures is sometimes my escape. Usually it's therapeutic for me because I get to do my own thing, but I am still there for them when they need me. Well it didn't really work. I tried going on a drive and listening to my music and that didn't work either. I was still on edge and frustrated, very sick of certain things Tristan would do or Noah would say. Then I had a sudden change of heart. I don't know really what triggered it... maybe it was all the exercise I've been getting. Maybe it's Josh being on a new shift. Maybe it was staying off the computer from 10am-8pm (unless they're asleep). Maybe it was writing in my journal again. Whatever it was we've had a great week. I've actually been having fun with them and I am a patient and loving Mommy again. Today we had an early dinner and then went back outside to play hide-and-go-seek in the dark with our flashlig...

I finally got around to getting our Halloween Photo Shoot done... though I guess it's more like just a Fall shoot since they're not wearing costumes. But, they all have on their orange shirts and corduroy pants! Hey Michelle, it fits!!! There were many many cute shots, but not of all of them at the same time haha. Bosley just had to get in there and give everyone kisses at least once, but for the most part he stuck with me out of the way. Here are the ones that made the cut. Consequentially, I just figured out how to move the focus point and change the focus area on my camera (after the shoot, as luck would have it) so expect the pictures to get even better... cuz it's fast and easy and amazing. I can't believe it took me this long to think about it :P Oh well, learn something new every day! I have no formal training so I will give myself a break ;) We harvested most of the almonds from our tree this weekend and got to work shelling them. Tristan was a better ...

Tristan officially entered into the ranks of the two year old boy by running face first into the corner of our lovely brick stairs. No one was chasing him, he was not chasing anyone else... he just wasn't paying attention. I didn't actually see it happen, but I am pretty sure that's what happened since he was sprawled out on his back right behind it and there was a square-shaped bruise already beginning to form. Maybe he's had a growth spurt recently or something and his body is bigger. Too bad babies don't have whiskers! He's slowly getting out of the whining stage, which is great because it's driving me crazy. I've been encouraging him to use words and that seems to make him much happier. They just can't stand not being able to communicate. Plus he's probably bored because his brain is like a sponge right now and we don't do enough around here to keep it exciting. Brennan is bulking up to enormous proportions. He's a solid blo...