Adventures in Mommyland: November 2012

I know it's a little late, but we should be thankful all the time instead of just on Thanksgiving, right? ;)

There are so many things I am thankful for.

I'm thankful to God, for sending his son to die for us on the cross. For never leaving us. Being there for us always with a love that never fails.

I'm thankful for my parents. Even as an adult, they still help me out whenever I need something. They are wonderful grandparents to my boys.

I'm thankful for Chris and Logan. I love my boys so much. Chris is laid-back while Logan is a little firecracker. They are as different as night in day in most ways, but they are alike in that they are both caring, kind, compassionate, eager to help and learn, bookworms, animal lovers, and as sweet as can be. Although they never turn down an opportunity to drive me completely crazy, I wouldn't change it for anything.

I'm thankful for Eric. We have been married for 7 years. Almost our entire marriage has been a struggle because of someone or something getting in our way, but we've managed to make it through. He is a very hard worker and does everything he can to provide for our family so I can stay at home and take care of our children. He makes sure we have everything we need and even some of what we want.

I'm thankful for my friends. I seriously have some of the best friends anyone could ask for. I've been through a lot of rough things the past few years and they have been there for me through every single bit of it. They love me for me and that is really hard to find these days.

I'm thankful for Chris' teacher. He has an absolutely wonderful teacher this year. She is doing absolutely everything in her power to make sure that Chris gets whatever kind of help he needs. It's sad to say, but that is a rare quality to find in a teacher now. Most of them could care less and are only there for a paycheck. I can tell that Mrs. Isley genuinely cares about Chris and wants the best for him and that means the world to me.

I'm thankful for Logan's speech therapist, Christy. She has been working with him for a while now. Logan has a very hard time articulating certain letter sounds. Now that we've built up his vocabulary, she is working on articulation and he is slowly getting easier to understand. There are a lot of people though who still can't understand what he is saying. I can't imagine how frustrating it must be for Logan to want to tell someone something and they can't understand him. Christy is doing what she can to get him to where he needs to be though.

I'm thankful for the yard sale sites on Facebook. That may seem like a silly thing to be thankful for but with us struggling financially right now, those yard sale sites were how I was able to buy most of Chris' birthday presents and I've been putting away things I've bought off there recently to give the boys for Christmas. You can find some really nice things on there for a cheap, reasonable price.

There are a lot of other things I'm thankful for but we could be here all day. ;)

Remember to be thankful always....not just on Thanksgiving.

Hey everybody! I took a bit of a break from blogging, but I'm back now. If you all remember this post, I was really starting to feel pressured in blogging. That just takes all of the fun out of it, you know? I just had to step back for a while and try to not let it bother me so much.

I thought I'd use this time to share what's been going on in my life since my last update. But first of all, WELCOME to all of my new followers. So glad to have you here!

** Chris is doing really well in school. He got his first report card of the year a couple weeks ago and got all S's or S-'s. Being in the first grade, he isn't on an ABCDE grading scale yet. In other news, he finished up his soccer season and is now starting basketball. He's pretty excited about that. Tonight was his second practice. **

** Logan is doing well in school other than having some behavioral issues at the moment. I'm hoping it's just a phase and will be over soon. In other news, his birthday is coming up in a couple weeks so right now I'm busy planning his birthday party. He has chosen Jake and the Neverland Pirates as his party theme. :) **

** A couple weeks ago I went out for a day of book shopping with my friend Abby. I introduced her to a couple of the used bookstores in our area. This one store in particular has great prices and a good selection, too. I ended up getting a bunch of new books for the boys to read. I can't seem to go to a bookstore without buying at least one ;) (or two, or three....hehe) **

** I also went out on a lunch date with my friend Joanne. We went to Ruby Tuesday. The food was pretty good, thankfully (the last time I'd ate there, the food and service wasn't that great) **

** I took the boys to "science night" at Logan's school close to the end of October. Two of the employees from our local science center came to teach the kids about reptiles. All of the kids loved that, especially the boys! Chris and Logan ended up getting to pet a snake and a blue tongued skink. That was pretty neat. **

** For Halloween, Chris dressed up as Lightning McQueen and Logan dressed up as Tow Mater. I love putting them in matching costumes like that. I'm not sure how much longer they'll let me get away with that though, so I'm enjoying it while it lasts ;). We took them to a couple trunk or treats. One of them had a little train that the kids could ride. That was pretty fun. **

** Eric and I went to see our friend play in his band again at the local country music bar. They are a great band. I'm glad we got to go see them play again. **

** I got together with a couple of my friends for lunch a while back for a book swap. We decided it would be a monthly thing, where each month we bring books that our kids aren't interested in anymore and swap them out. It's a great, free, way to get new books for the kids to read. **

** Last night we went downtown to the "Light Up the Town" event, where all of the Christmas lights are turned on. It was a lot of fun. It was really cold outside but thankfully there was a table set up offering free hot chocolate, so that warmed us up a little. After seeing the lights turn on, the kids were able to visit with Santa and have their picture made with him. **

** Today I went out to lunch with the Fab 4. We're going to be getting together in a couple weeks for our annual girls' Christmas party, but we needed to get together before that so we could draw names for Christmas gifts, so that was pretty much the purpose of today's lunch. It was great getting to see everyone. We don't all get to hang out together very often because of conflicting schedules and things like that, so it's always extra special when we're all together :). It's kind of funny how the drawing worked out.... we literally drew names out of a hat that I borrowed from my husband, haha. Erika and I ended up getting each other and Joanne and Abby got each other. **

(If you noticed I didn't mention anything about Thanksgiving, don't worry! I'll be writing about that and being thankful in another post)

Here are a few pictures from the past month or so.