Home for Christmas-- Part I

I feel like I could just let the pictures do the talking for this post.  But operating with few words really isn't my thing.  I am feeling slightly accomplished since these Christmas pictures are only a week late.  Last year's Christmas pictures are still on my camera card, shamefully.  They never made it to the posting stage for no good reason and a million not so good reasons.

 

The weekend before Christmas we headed to Lewistown to celebrate Christmas with the Richard side of our family.  This trip was the 4th round trip I had made to Lewistown in the course of the week, after being home several times to be with my family as we paid tribute to my Pappy Ray and laid him to rest.  To say we were all weary was an understatement.  In fact, when we woke up on Saturday morning with a packing list a million miles long and a to do list equally as daunting, it was not a welcome surprise for Jason to wake up very sick.  I tried to talk him out of making the trip with us, but he was sure he could manage the trip.  It was very clear that he was in bad shape, though, when he pulled the car over and asked me to drive the rest of the way to my parents' house that morning.  In our nine years of marriage, that had never happened before.

 

We pressed on, and headed for Stacie's house for the party.  She and Noah were, once again, willing to host the whole mess of us and all of our stuff.  The kids got to quick work playing and giggling.  Brewen and Dre were there, and I think Joshua quite enjoyed having a few boys there to play with.  When Ridge and Reed arrived shortly after us, the boys almost equaled the girls! 

 

Jason had to make an early exit from the party when he requested a ride back to Mom and Dad's shortly after we got to Stacie's.  He spent the rest of the day and all of that night resting at their house, trying to feel better.  I felt awful to leave him at the house, but there wasn't much I could do to help.  Libby was mostly absent from the festivities, as well, because Brooke was also sick.  We certainly missed them being there.

 

We enjoyed great food, the kids had a fun gift exchange, and there were lots of laughs.  The only tears came as we gathered to sing our Christmas medley, and all of us addressed the fact that we were really missing Pap. I wonder how many years it will be until we can make it through that song without breaking down.  I had a horrible time with Silent Night at our church's Christmas Eve service as well...just missing him and the incredible joy he had for Christmas.  I think we're all feeling the absence of some of that joy, even as we mark our 2nd Christmas without him here on Earth with us.

 

As always, my heart was blessed to be able to spend a day with our family.  Nothing makes me miss living in the same town as everyone more than laughing together, telling old stories, seeing the kids have a blast together, and then having it all come to an end.  No doubt, being a Richard is among the things I am most grateful for. I only hope that times like these will help our children to feel a tangible connection to that family identity as well.

 

 The kids were a bit anxious to get to the gift opening.  Funny...I remember it being exactly the same way when I was little.

 

 Mara got an adorable Melissa and Doug pediatric nurse set to help take care of her babies.  She loves it!  Emily...I thought you'd get a kick out of this!

 

 Lauren's exchange gift was the game Barbeque Party.  She had a great time playing it with Freda and Aunt Rhonda!

 

 I absolutely loved seeing these kiddos together.  Mara and Reed, born a short 8 weeks apart from each other, were fast friends.  Both of them are spunky, spirited and full of it.  But adorable.

 

 

My sweet Lauren and her Nana.  Love this one!

 



Merry Christmas

So this just happened...

When we got home from church, Clocky had left 3 giftd under the tree. The kids opened them and found new pj's to wear tonight. After they put them on, Mara says (in the way only she can)...

"No fair!  All we got was pajamas. We wanted TOYS!"

Merry Christmas-- sure hope Santa delivers the goods tonight!

A White Thanksgiving?

We weren't about to let a "little" snow get in the way of our Thanksgiving celebration in Lewistown!  In fact, my being a complete scaredy cat about travelling in the snow totally paid off this time.  We decided to leave home on Tuesday before Thanksgiving right after we got the kids picked up from school.  They were thrilled to have an extra day to spend at Nana and Pap's!  (So was I!)  It had been quite a long time since we were in Lewistown and parked for a couple of days at a time, so we all welcomed the chance to spend some longer amounts of time with our Lewistown family.

 

As you can imagine, when the kids started seeing the flakes flying in the air on Wednesday morning, they were very anxious to get outside to play in it.  It didn't take long for it to pile up, and after lunch time we bundled them all up and sent them outside to play.  Jason took charge of being the sled pusher and sent them all flying down Nana and Pap's BIG hill in the yard.  Everyone had a great time!  The hardest part for them was definitely hiking back up the hill, but they all did it many, many times.

 

 

We warmed them all up with hot chocolate and some games inside (truth be told...the hot chocolate is probably everyone's favorite part of playing in the snow!) 

 

Thursday morning we got up and headed down to Libby and Zig's house where the cooking was in full swing!  It was their first chance to host Thanksgiving dinner in their new house, and we were all thrilled to be there with them.  It smelled delicious--- I think one of my favorite parts of Thanksgiving is how awesome the meal smells while it is cooking.  Thank goodness sniffing the wonderful cooking aromas doesn't have calories...because we certianly did enough damage with the eating part!

The kids enjoyed lots and lots of play time together at Libby's house.  They were into everything, but all enjoyed watching some of the floats on the parade and playing with all of the girls' toys.  My bet is that Nana and Pap were perfectly fine to have the mess confined to a different house than their own for at least some of the day.

After we ate and had some visiting time (with a surprise visit from Jeannine-- YAY!) we decided to go up to Valley View with spend some time with Pappy Ray.  It was a hard decision, but he had decided not to come down to eat dinner with us because of how slippery the roads and sidewalks were due to the snow the day before). So if he wasn't comfortable coming to us, we took our show on the road to him, and hopefully brightened his day a bit while we were there.  We took him some leftovers of filling balls and gravy, as well as some pumpkin pie.  He assured us that he would be enjoying them for supper that night.  I think he enjoyed seeing the kids, and I believe they said hello to a lot of the residents there while they were walking around in the hallway.  Pap and Jason had some PSU discussion, always a favorite topic between the two of them, and then we headed back to Mom and Dad's.

It's hard to believe that that was the last time I would see Pap.  I asked him on that visit what Santa Claus could bring him for Christmas, and his response was, "Just ask him if I can have a few more months."  Breaks my heart now, but I know that he is celebrating the most beautiful Christmas in Heaven this year--- with my Gram (and ample raisin filled cookies!) and his parents, and the Lord himself.  Although he didn't get his wish, I have a feeling he isn't wishing to return to this world even for a second.

We headed back to Turbotville on Friday morning to get some Christmas decorating done at our house and prep for the PSU/Michigan State football game on Saturday afternoon.  Little did we know at that point what a disaster that was going to turn into with the closure of the grass lots that I posted about.  Luckily it all worked out and we got tons accomplished on our Friday at home.  All in all it turned out to be a special visit home-- one of our favorites in recent history.  It always feels good to be home...and this trip was certainly no exception.

One more last...

 

Yet another "last" crossed off of the list with Miss Mara as we finally transitioned her from her crib into her toddler bed.  I'll admit that I was dragging my feet a bit on this one-- and for several reasons.  First of all, Mara had finally reached a point where she was sleeping.  All night.  Every night.  Without any problems.  And in case you forget what our sleeping life was like for a very long time with this sweet little thing, read back on the blog a bit to our early days where I considered hooking up to a caffeine drip through an IV just to make it through a day at the office.  It was one of those, "if it isn't broken, don't fix it" situations.  I just had visions of Mara up and wandering around the house in the middle of the night, as well as the extreme temper tantrums that would ensue when I had to get her back into her bed.

 

Also, if any of our children DO NOT need freedom at 3 am, it is this one.  Bless her heart, she gets into enough mischief during the normal waking hours of the day, let alone the messes she could create if given the opportunity in the middle of the night.

 

But she finally won Daddy over with the bed thing.  And this happened just like so many of the other "lasts" that have happened with her.  Had I known that the night before we made the switch would be the last night that I would lean over the crib to lay a sleeping girl into it, I might have savored it a bit more.  I will say that she is still requesting that we rock to sleep, which I'm not wishing away at this point.  I know the time is coming oh so quickly that she won't need that special snuggle time with me in order to fall asleep.  So, for now, I'll enjoy what is left of that.

 

Have I mentioned how much I adore this little girl?  Yes, she makes me crazy about 10 times a day with her stubborn strong will, her sassy attitude and her picky opinions about EVERY.SINGLE.THING!  But her hugs are the sweetest.  Her giggle will melt your heart.  She is a clown and a jokester, and I can just tell that she will go to the ends of the earth to make you happy.  And now she is an official big girl.  With a big girl bed.

 

Look out, world.

Penn Staters

I have always been a proud Penn Stater-- since I can remember our fall Saturdays have been scheduled around kickoff times. There have always been get togethers with other PSU fans, pounding on walls of a certain double house on Edgewood Place, trumpet fanfares from my Pap with every score and countless other Penn State memories. Attending college there only solidified what I already knew-- I am a Penn Stater. 

The past few years have been tough on those who love Penn State.  The changes in the football program have been difficult to watch, especially this year as the effect of the NCAA sanctions hit the hardest.  Everyone knew that this would be a tough year, and that it has been.  But it hasn't stopped us from loving it- from taking clients and friends and family to cheer on our beloved Nittany Lions right along side of us.  To support all of the kids who made a tough choice to stick with the University they loved when they had an option to walk away. 

 

We had planned to attend this past Saturday's game and ended up having a ticket to be able to take Joshua along with us.  He is becoming quite the PSU fan, and has attended two other games with us this season.  We knew it was going to be cold, but we hadn't exactly planned for the snow that would impact our plans.  On Friday afternoon, as Jason had spent the majority of the day getting our tailgating supplies packed, cleaned and organized, and as I had been in the kitchen preparing food for the tailgate, we got a message from my cousin, Stephanie, who told us that there had been major impact to the parking for the game.  All the grass lots around the stadium were closed-- so that meant BAD news for us (and about 100,000 other people who were planning to park there).  The alternate plan was that you could park in one of 6 other lots around greater State College and catch a shuttle to the stadium and back.  I detest waiting in lines, so I was pretty sure that I wasn't interested in waiting with heaven only knows how many other people, in the cold, for a shuttle before the game, and especially not after it!  So our initial reaction was the scrap the whole thing and watch the game in our comfy sweats from the warmth of our own living room.

 

Until...

 

The idea hit us that perhaps my Dad's cousin, Dan, might have a parking pass available.  We knew that he had great parking, on macadam, which was like holding a winning lottery ticket for this particular game.  After making a phone call to him, he told us that we were welcome to it.  Mom picked it up for us and brought it to our house the next morning since she was coming to hang out with the girls while we were at the game.  Jason re-packed everything for the tailgate into the Suburban, which was a feat unto itself.  Believe me when I tell you that we could not have fit even so much as one more glove into the back of the Suburban.  Most of our passengers fit into the car with us on Saturday, and Libby and Zig rode over with Steph and met us there.  By a stroke of amazing luck, she also had a pass in the same parking lot.

We had a great time tailgating with friends, and enjoying the company of family.  We were all feeling a bit like stuffed sausages based on the number of layers we were all wearing.  I lost count at 5 on my top of three on my bottom, along with fur lined socks and sub-zero appropriate boots.  We had gloves and hand warmers and hats and everything else you could possibly imagine to brave the cold.

 

We had some very fun neighbors at our tailgate who had quite the set up (including a three pot crock pot that had me drooling for sure...such a cooking nerd).  We had to borrow ketchup and mustard from them for our hot dogs because someone (...me) forgot to pack ours when I packed the cooler.  But they also had something called the "Gin Bucket" that they shared with us...it was a mixture of gin and Sprite that they were drinking from with turkey basters (Saturday after Thanksgiving, so this seemed appropriate...HA!)  We all thought it was pretty funny, and there are rumors that it might make an appearance at the family Christmas party at Stacie and Noah's house. 

When it was game time, we bundled up in a few more layers and headed to our seats.  We all had blankets and definitely needed to use them to stay warm.  Although the game totally stunk...from play #1 when Michigan State returned our kickoff for a touchdown...it was still a great day, and one I will remember for a long time. 

We got home and got unpacked, and it didn't take long for our little Nittany Lion fan to find his spot on the couch, in his warm PSU flannel pants and robe.  And this was what we found only minutes later.

Until next season, PSU!

95

Tomorrow is my Pap's 95th birthday. 95! The last few years haven't been easy for him as body started to give him fits even though his mind is as sharp as I remember it being when I was a little girl. There is a cruelty in that, although I have grown in deep respect and admiration of him in recent years as he has taken the weight of difficult decisions about his care by simply taking charge and making the right choices at the right times. I can only pray that I will one day have the same foresight and concern for my family as he does for his. 

There have been a few times over the past few years that we weren't sure Pap would make it to another birthday. And so, for today, we celebrated!  I believe he was very happy today, surrounded by his friends who have been his chauffeurs, his comic relief, his check in point, his go-out-to-dinner gang, as well as all of his family who live locally. If only our Texas/Massachusetts/Caribbean family could have been there. 

The kids were troopers- church this morning and then jumping right in the car to get to Belleville. Joshua was a charmer, discussing Penn state football with Pap and his friends as well as helping to serve cake and ice cream. He is a good boy-- and I love seeing him like that. The girls did very well, too considering they were napless and the nursing home isn't exactly a fun place for kids. Just having each other there was, I believe, a treat for them. 

We stopped at Lib's on the way home to run off some steam before the ride back. Everyone (amazingly) stayed awake on the ride home but it wasn't long til we found Mara like this...

Which is exactly how I envision Pappy Ray right now too!

Happy Birthday, Pap!

Masquerading as a Stay-At-Home Mom

I am on day #2 of my stint masquerading as a Stay-At-Home Mom. Grandma has some surgery on her eye yesterday, so while she is resting and letting her eye heal, I have been staying at home with the kids.  I should first say that I feel incredibly blessed to have the job I do which allows me the opportunity to do this when necessary. I also have team members who work their tails off when I can't be there...and I don't take a second of that for granted.  Being a business owner means that even when you aren't in the office, you're still checking in and keeping an eye on things so I have been checking email and trying to stay in the loop that way. 

I will say that I have thoroughly enjoyed the last few days. I haven't found any time to relax- or even sit down for that matter- but it has been good to catch up on some things around the house. We have been to the vet and made more trips to and from Meadowbrook than I care to count. We have cooked and cleaned and folded until we couldn't do it anymore. 

Today I decided to snap some pictures of our fun. It is mostly the girls since Josh was at school most of the day. 

The pace of things in the morning between 5:30-7:30 is hurried at best, and frantic at worst. I get ready and then wake Josh and Lauren up at 6:30. Clothes, breakfast, backpacks ready, ice packs in lunchbox, vitamins and teeth brushed before they run out the door at 7:35. Mara has been awake for all of this routine the last couple of weeks and insists that she do the same things the big kids are doing. So that means dippy eggs times three instead of two. 

Then starts the time period I call, "magic".  It is just me and Mara who is quite possibly the sweetest little girl ever when she isn't having to fight with her brother and sister for attention or toys or whatever. I love it!  Today we spent about an hour playing babies together.

After that, we did a few puzzles and then headed upstairs to put the clean sheets on all 4 beds. While I did that and put away clothes, Mara used all of our pillows and laundry baskets to make a hideout in our bedroom. She played so nicely in there that I managed all of the beds AND three other baskets of clothes to fold and put away. 

Then we went out to get Lauren picked up at school. She was so thrilled that I got to pick her up again.  I love that smile when she comes running out of class.  

After lunch, I worked on some mini banana muffins (and banana bread) for Lauren to bring to her Thanksgiving party next week. While I did that, the girls were upstairs playing in the hideout and apparently getting ready for the beach. They had their bathing suits on and Lauren was pushing Mara around upstairs in the laundry basket (their boat). 

Then, at 2:30 we left to get Joshua.  I let them play at The Well after school to burn off some energy. They had a blast but I didn't get a picture because they were all running too fast!  All that playing led to this...

Tired kiddos. Who also still happen to be dressed for the beach. Happy Mama.  My cup runneth over. So thankful. 

Once a week...

So, the way I see it, if I get at least one blog post per week posted, I will be doing about 10 times better than I have over the course of the past year. I should also manage to keep those who read this little gem of daily literature from thinking I am deceased. (Hi Rebecca!)  And this should be manageable because I find myself with my phone in my hands rocking a certain two year old to sleep every night at this time. Although I complain sometimes about this nightly ritual, I am ever so aware of the fact that these days are coming to an abrupt halt really soon. And I will miss it so much. 

So here are a few shota from my phone from the last few days. I have to admit that this first one makes my Penn State heart do a few leaps of joy. Joshua decided to graffiti our driveway a few days ago...with all PSU phrases. I especially love the "Penn State Forever- roar lions roar" part. I promise to save this because it will make a great human interest story when he goes there and gets his first collegiate start someday. I am only a little bit kidding. 

Things at the office have been a bit of a challenge from a scheduling perspective lately so I didn't manage to figure out groceries during the week. Even doing my online order at Weis and scheduling pickup on Friday didn't even work. So the girls and I took off on Saturday morning to do our shopping. It was a big list. And I am now even more certain that it is worth the $4.95 to have the nice girls at Weis do the shopping for me and just pick it up in the drive through lane. I live. I learn.

Please make note of the outfit Mara insisted on wearing to go to Wal Mart. Oh yes she did wear it in the store. 

After the PSU win on Saturday (not a pretty win, but a win nonetheless) we celebrated by taking our babies on a walk. I dont know what was in Mara's bag but she swore that she needed it around her neck. 

We enjoyed church this morning and then made a special trip to Grandma and Grandpa's this afternoon to see their two new puppies!  They were so sweet!  The kids loved playing with them and they both curled up in my lap and fell asleep. They are beagle/lab mixes, one boy and one girl.  Puppy energy is a far cry from life with our Watson- who can't hear, can't see, and at 15 years old, gets off the couch only to go out three times a day. 

Crazy week upcoming, but we're ready!  Happy Monday everyone!

Home for the Weekend

I am still in recovery mode after the football game at PSU last week. As in...being up that late still has my sleep all out of whack. So when it was decided that Jason's partner was going to be the one to entertain clients at last Saturday's game, no tears were shed. The prospect of being at home for a whole weekend sounded heavenly!

Friday morning started with Joshua's Harvest Party at school. Normally I love being on hand for these parties, and find it helpful to monitor the food situation, but these second graders were WOUND UP!  The noise level was similar to the white out at Penn State and the amount of bodies and hot air inside the classroom made it feel like a sauna. And they wonder why parents stop coming to these things after about third grade!  I don't mean to complain. It really is a blessing to be able to share in the parties with the kids, and everyone seemed to have fun. I was just glad when 11:30 rolled around and we got our walking papers for the rest of the day.  The kids had an early dismissal so I handed them off to Grandma and went to the office.

After I got home from work, it was go time for trick or treating.  We had our annual Halloween supper of mummy dogs (I wonder if they'll still request those when they are 20?) and then began the process of costuming the crew for their night on the town.  After a ridiculous amount of time we were ready to collect treats, and armed with three epi's, a camera and a phone out the door we went.  We had considered going to Christ Wesleyan's Trunk or Treat, but since it fell on the same night as the local trick or treat night we opted out of the 2+ hour wait in line and walked the "city" streets of Turbotville. The kids all brought home bucket fulls of candy, much of which was promptly traded for peanut safe varieties that I had purchased for the switch. The worst news of it all is that anything without actual peanuts in it was saved in a high up bag that only Jason and I could get to- and much of that has now found its permanent home on my hips. The diet has been out the window with blatant disregard in recent days.  I can offer no greater excuse besides my own lack of willpower.  But I will get that turned around.

For Saturday's grand plan, I had it in my head that I wanted to make a big pot of chicken corn soup. So I set to work on that around 8 am and finally finished cleaning everything up for supper. But we now have a bunch of containers of that homemade, soul warming soup to be pulled out throughout the winter months. Well worth the effort, I think.

Sunday we were finally back to church after having been gone for two in a row. It was wonderful!  We are working through a fantastic curriculum in Sunday School and church called The Story, which walks you through the entire Bible in 42 weeks (or something close to that).  It explores the stories of the Bible, the characters and their complexities and has been teaching me oh so much. I thought I knew my Bible stories pretty well, but I had surely never learned or thought about them in these ways before. The neatest part, I think, is that all of the SS classes are doing the same story each week- from toddler to adult. Our Wee Worship and Super Kids Church curriculums are the same as well, so everyone is getting the same material on their own level. It has made for some great conversations with the kids during the week. Pastor Jamie's sermons have been amazing- full of challenge and reality and just the kick I need to apply it.  Mara has been doing well staying with Lauren in her classes, which has allowed me uninterrupted time to study with other adults. What a blessing. I have been bribing her with treats but you know my motto- "Sometimes you've just got tomdo what you've got to do!"

This week's bribe was a new book at the bookstore. Joshua had a gift card that was burning a hole in his pocket, so I thought I was being clever to wrap a bribe into this already promised escapade. After roughly 7 hours inside of the bookstore all three children had found their book and we were on our way home. Sitting through Sunday School and church cost me exactly $57.34...and 7 hours of my Sunday. 

We ended Sunday with the beginnings of a nasty fever for Miss Mara. Sadly much of the week has been spent nursing her back to health. 

Eight

I find myself between a state of shock and one of utter disbelief that we celebrated Joshua's eighth...EIGHTH!...birthday on Saturday. I am not entirely sure how it all happened but it seems as though I have blinked and now all of a sudden my little boy, my bundle of blue fuzzy blankets, has turned into a big kid.

Over this past year he has grown tremendously physically- as evidenced by the multiple pants wardrobes we have cycled through- as well as in every other way. We can see his character developing, thanks so much to the incredible school environment that he is in that supports and supplements the instruction he gets at home. We see him turning into an even more conscientious and responsible student, and those traits are carrying into his role here at home too. We are just so proud of him and so honored that we were the ones blessed to be his parents. 

Ever since we found out that this year's PSU vs Ohio State game was scheduled for his actual birthday, our little Nittany Lion fanatic had asked to go with us to this game. So, in lieu of our normal birthday bash at home with our families, we got to spend the entire day with our birthday boy soaking up the atmosphere of a Penn State white out night game. 

We had quite a tailgate, both for Joshua's special day and to help show Jason's clients, who were also along, the kind of PSU hospitality that Happy Valley is known for. Although I literally spent all of Friday in the kitchen preparing food, everyone seemed pleased with our offerings for them. The Penn State birthday cake was a hit- even though we couldn't light any candles because they would have blown out with the wind. Either that or we would have burned down our tent, and neither one of those things seemed like a good idea. 

Kickoff wasn't until 8:00, and this guy's bedtime is normally 8:30. Add to that the fact that he had been up since 6 am "too excited to sleep" and we had a tired boy on our hands by half time. 

See?

He napped for a bit during the half time show, but was awake and cheering when it counted (pretty much the entire second half and both overtimes!). The game certainly could have ended on a happier note, although truly the horrendous officiating cost our team the victory that night. They had obviously chosen the winner of the game before our team even took the field. (As if we needed any more reasons to hate Ohio State!)

After double overtime, we arrived back to our parking spot around 12:30. To give you an idea of the traffic situation, we finally made it out of the parking lot by 1:30 am. And we returned to our home at approximately 3:00 am. In case there was any question, this exercise confirmed, hands down, that I am waaaaay too old to be out at those hours of the night. Returning at that hour meant putting the girls to bed (they had fallen asleep on the living room floor) and then finally getting ourselves into bed after 4 am, with the kids' usual wakeup time shortly after 6. Needless to say, we opted out of church on Sunday and considered it success just to have our eyes open the rest of the day. 

I think Joshua had a very special day-- he loved getting to do something special with us, and loved the atmosphere of the game. And if those are the kinds of things you can do with an eight year old, maybe it's not such a bad thing after all!