They're Here!

Yesterday we came home to find this box on our doorstep:

This is a very special Duraflame box, for it did NOT contain lighter logs. Instead, it contained my Cookies for Kaz! They arrived in these simply and tastefully decorated boxes.

And inside contained a dozen delicious cookies, each individually wrapped, perfect for gift giving!

I ordered a dozen cookies for each of my family members.....peanut butter for my Valentine, sugar for my sweet princess, and white chocolate cranberry oatmeal for me. I will be taking them to work to share (since they were so nicely individually wrapped they are easy to share) so that I won't eat them all, but Morgan and I HAD to sample a few before I share.

Thanks a bunch Alaina! The cookies are absolutely divine. I hope you are able to meet your goal in time to go to Kaz.

Supporting some good causes

I don't know about you all, but lately I have been touched by the giving bug. Maybe it's the cold weather, or Valentine's Day, or I don't know what, but I've been in the mood to help out. Now, I'm not one to jump in and head up projects and I really HATE fund raising, but I am more than happy to help out some really good causes. So today I want to highlight 3 causes that I feel strongly about:


1) Morgan's daycare has been planning a Souper Bowl charity event for about a month. In fact, the event was supposed to be last Saturday (the day before the Super Bowl in case you aren't connecting the dots) but with the 26 inches of snow we got in Morgantown, the event was postponed until February 27th. The jist of the event is all of the kids got together and hand painted pottery bowls that are going up for silent auction. Tickets were sold for the event, which gave the ticket holder a pass for all you can eat soup, bread, and desserts. In addition to the bowls, there are other items that people can bid on. For this event I cross-stitched a baby blanket.



It took 75 hours over 6 weeks (I tell you this not for you to feel sorry for me, but just for reference) and I had the best time doing it! Not only does it tap into the ONE creative vein I have, but it keeps me busy in the evenings and keeps me from snacking all night long. This, and many other items will be auctioned off and 100% of the money raised will be split between our local homeless shelter and a group called Labor of Love (a house for pregnant women who have no where else to go. They can live in the house and participate in groups and activities from daily living skills, to caring for a newborn, to parent classes). The school is big into promoting a willingness to give in the kids, and as an added bonus it helps promote it in the kids' parents too :)



2) My very good bloggy friend, Alaina, has the greatest joy to be able to return to Kazakhstan, the country where they were adopted their two oldest, adorable boys. She is going with the group Two Hearts for Hope, a non-profit agency dedicated to helping the orphans in Kazakhstan. The 2 Hearts 2 Kaz Team 2010 will be going to Kazakhstan April 30-May 9. They hope to build a playground for the Children's Home, a local orphanage in Almaty City, and visit the blind children's home, and the special needs orphanage in Almaty. You can check out Alaina's story, donate to help her meet her travel goals, or order some cookies from an amazing cook to support this worthy mission.



3) A little boy who I have been following since he was born, Jonah Williams, has a rare skin disease called Epidermolysis Bullosa (or EB for short). People with this genetic disorder is characterized by the presence of extremely fragile skin and recurrent blister formation, resulting from minor mechanical friction or trauma. Little things, like a diaper with elastic in the legs cause huge, painful blisters. I'd encourage you to visit his website to see this cutie! This little guy will be one year old later this month, and his parents and their friends are hosting an online auction February 23-27. There are over 100 items to be auctioned off and all of the proceeds are going to DebRA, a non-profit organization devoted to finding a cure for EB. You can check out the link in my sidebar to his auction site and log on to get some great stuff at a great price for a great cause!

A Post of Quotes

Borrowed from my friend Catherine's blog, for parents with daughters and/or toddlers:

"One of the common ways that mothers fail their daughters is to load them down with criticism." from Femina


"Patience is not 'putting up with'." There is a difference between being patient and letting things go until things are really unbearable for everyone. "A patient mother is a faithful mother."

From K-Love's Encouraging Word of the day:

So let's stop condemning each other. Decide instead to live in such a way that you will not cause another believer to stumble and fall. ~ Romans 14:13, NLT

Some thoughts on parenting:

To bring up a child in the way he should go, travel that way yourself once in a while. ~Josh Billings

Your children need your presence more than your presents. ~Jesse Jackson

If you want your children to improve, let them overhear the nice things you say about them to others. ~Haim Ginott

Snow pictures from Saturday

The Snow Storm of 2010 started like this...beautiful, huge fluffy flakes.

Morgan's play house. By the end of the snowfall the snow was up to/over the door.

I thought this was a funny picture of our bird feeder :)

Tree limbs nearly touching the ground.

My wonderful husband, shoveling, and shoveling, and shoveling (look how deep it is, and this was only 12 inches into 26).

Where is Ben Franklin when you need him?

**UPDATED FEB 7: We now have power after 45 hours without. Came home from family's house to see our home lit up like a Christmas tree. What a lovely sight it was.**

Today during the "Blizzard of 2010" we woke up to no power. Well, to be fair I woke up to no power at 2:30 this morning. And unfortunately it hasn't come back on since. According to the power company, we are in good company of 206,000 households with no power. And while we haven't had most of the niceities of electricity, we do have a small generator that we can use to run our furnace, refridgerator, and microwave. And folks, when you get about 2 feet of snow, the furnace becomes the ONLY thing that you really want. When we all finally got out of bed this morning it was about 55 degrees in the house!

It's really easy to take for granted normal everyday things that you have until, if only for a while, those things are gone. However, you can also find things that you have forgotten when the normal things are missing. For the first time in our life as a family of 3, we were all in the house and the TV was never on. Don't get me wrong, we are not the poster family for The Couch Potatoes, but Patrick jokingly says "We're paying for it if it's on or off, so it might as well be on". And he does mean it! Morgan's life wasn't changed much....she's one of those kids who watches TV while doing 5 other things. She just really enjoys the background noise, much like her father. Patrick and Morgan played a couple games of dominoes. I found that without the distractions of DVR and Investigation Discovery I was able to actually get our entire kitchen CLEAN. I mean reorganization of the drawers clean (and that's huge for me, trust me). We all took an afternoon nap. And Morgan and I sat down together and worked on a craft. I hardly ever sit down and work one on one with Morgan and I think we both really enjoyed the time, just the two of us.

Right now we are spending some time with our friends Josh and Anna (who graciously allowed us over because they have electricity). We had Chinese food for dinner and now all of us are watching The Aristocats, Morgan's choice but we are all quite captivated. My fortune cookie said that only good things are to come ahead, and I hope that means that when we do head home we see the porch light on! Patrick promised Morgan some time playing in the snow tomorrow, so hopefully I'll be able to upload some of the snow pictures. It is really pretty, if you can get past the no power thing :)

**Patrick said I must put a special thank you to the Robinsons for rescuing us from the death grip of the Storm of the Decade! So a hearty thank you our friends!!!**

Morgan decorates for Valentine's Day

Celebrating Birthdays

Morgan has been very interested in birthdays lately, constantly talking about her birthday and when her party will be. She has had a couple classmates have birthdays recently and she thinks that her birthday is coming soon.

In an effort to help her understand when birthdays in our family occur, especially hers, I came up with an idea that we have finally put into place. I bought a 2010 desk calendar yesterday for 49 cents (score!) because the squares are big enough to put pictures. Sadly, we missed birthdays in January (sorry folks) but I was able to start in February. I placed pictures of the person whose birthday it is in each square. We will be marking off the days of the month and when we get to a picture, we will be calling those people to wish them a happy birthday.

I was able to get February and March done (as you can see, March is a busy birthday month, and I am even missing one picture!), and will have to work on getting pictures for the rest of the year. In an effort to keep it fairly simple for her, I have chosen to only put close family and some of Morgan's friends' birthdays on the calendar. I hope that this will work to help her understand when people celebrate special days. I also hope to include days when we are going to be doing something she likes (like WVU basketball games) and holidays.

We'll see how this works not only to teach her about birthdays, but to help her learn more about the calendar, days of the week, and recognized her numbers. But if nothing else it will help her know when to celebrate (and make cupcakes, which she thinks needs to be done every birthday, and I am not arguing!).

Thinking more about "normal"

Today I have had a little time on my hands at work and have been going through folders on my computer in an effort to start "spring cleaning" here in the office. I have been thinking alot about what is normal for our family, and this post will be a continuation of the post I did just a few days ago.

While sifting through the layers of documents on my computer, I came across a letter I wrote to my precious child the day after her birth. As I was reading the letter, I was saddened to see that promises I made to her that very special day were not being honored today. I sat and looked at the things I said and realized that even though I have not been doing all the things I promised, it didn't mean I love her less or have failed her in some way. It only means that I am human, a woman trying to work full time and be a mom.

During this little exercise, however, I did realize that the "normal" in our life really didn't have to be the "normal" that we experience in the future. The frenetic life that we currently live will slow down, but we need to apply the brakes. The times we spend together can be more engaging and we need to take advantage of those times. The love we have as a family for each other needs to be expressed, daily. Normal can be changed, but it won't change if we sit by and wait for someone else to change it.

Sometimes it is OK to fall short of expectations. As a Type A personality, the quest for perfection can get overwhelming, especially when perfection can never be achieved this side of Heaven. And for as long as I have lived, I have never met SuperMom. My job is to provide for Morgan, teach her about God and the world, love her unconditionally, and remember that the only way she will learn is to experience things herself. I remember today the total love I felt for that precious newborn, and I still love her as much. I suspect I always will.

The start of democracy...

Tuesday I got the opportunity, through work, to go to Philadelphia for a few days. I have only been to the City of Brotherly Love once before, and that was many years ago when I was a sophomore in college. I took along my Aunt and off we went on a grand adventure (if you know us both you should be laughing now!).

Fruit Berrilicious smoothie at Hard Rock Cafe'

Taken for my hubby, who loves Johnny Cash

For all the National Treasure fans out there....

Our hotel was in the heart of downtown, 6 blocks from the Liberty Bell and the Pennsylvania State House (more commonly known as Independence Hall). After all of my work engagements were complete, we set off to find our way around town and see the sites.

I can't explain how powerful it is to stand in the very building, literally mere steps from the place where the Declaration of Independence and Constitution were signed. I have seen a lot of things in my world travels, and I can honestly say that only a few places were more powerful to me than Independence Hall.



The chair in which Thomas Jefferson sat, and Ben Franklin said the sun (which you can't see very well) on the headrest symbolized the dawning of a new nation.


The original ink stand used to sign the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

The Governor's aresnal, you know in case the red coats are coming! Bad joke....I know.

Just an old piano (a period piece) but I thought it was neat.

And yes, in case you were wondering, I did have a Philly Cheesesteak while I was there. And it was delicious!

Settling back in to "normal"

The end of January is almost here, and as I look back, I realize that while the days have quickly ticked away in the first month of 2010, not much has really happened in Small Town USA. Before the end of 2009 Patrick and I kept saying, next month it will be less crazy, then after Christmas it will be less crazy, then after New Year...and so on. But truth be told, January has been just as nuts as the waning months of last year were. It has prompted me to think a lot about what "normal" is in our home, and whether or not this normal is really what I (and more importantly what God) wants.

Trying to be a full time professional, full time mom and wife, full time housekeeper, cook, and chief bottle washer has certainly caused a great bit of life in the fast lane. I have noticed that I have been saying "the next month/stage of Morgan's life/anniversary year" will be less crazy, but that has yet to actually be true. The older Morgan gets, the more we seem to shuffle her from one place to another as our work lives pull us in different directions across the state. As we grow older in our marriage, instead of leaning on each other we seem to wave from across two sides of the interstate as we pass each other. And lately it seems that "quality time" means I am spending more than 30 minutes in the car with one or both of the other members of my family.

I keep wondering if this is the way it is supposed to be? I mean, sure everyone defines quality time differently, and what works for one family is not a universal model for everyone. But when what used to be the slowest month at work turns into one of the busiest, I wonder if I am taking on too much. Too much "extra" stuff at work. Too many outside obligations. Too many excuses not to take better care of my family and our house. And when I think about whether our family feels complete (as I am frequently doing after spending some time with my 6 week old nephew) I wonder if we could manage juggling another person. And I don't want to juggle anyone.

It's hard to find time for everything in your day, and THAT is universal across most people. Yet many people I know seem to be managing a lot better at prioritizing activities and events. This has been heavy on my mind and I have been and will continue to pray for guidance on a subject that has me quite unsettled. There are some big decisions that our family needs to make together in the coming months. This will require that we all spend time together. Perhaps this is God's way of saying "You need to see what your priorities are, plan for them, and with my help make it happen". It's time to refocus, review, and move forward.

And just to lighten up this post a bit, a few pictures from my week spent with my sister-in-law, niece, and nephew:

Morgan thought he needed a "friend"

His beautiful smile for Aunt Jen

War?

About 4 months ago, our neighbor moved this really old cannon that he kept in his front yard to the adjacent property, and it is pointed directly at our house! I distinctly remember opening our bay window curtains one morning and thinking "Is Denver declaring war on our home???"

It's actually a really cool cannon, very old. I finally went across the street to get some pictures. Why I decided to wait until it was 24 degrees outside before doing this, I don't know.

The view from where the cannoneer would stand!

I was happy to see that it wasn't loaded, but there were softballs setting around the cannon! I'll have to keep an eye on Denver and perhaps fly a white flag instead of the American flag?

Enjoying the Snow

Unlike me, the rest of my family loves the snow. Morgan has always loved to go outside and play. Last year when we went to Canaan Valley all she wanted to do was play in the snow! Since the temperature warmed up to a balmy 21 degrees, Patrick agreed to take Morgan across the street to sled down the neighbor's hill.

She had such a great time! First they had to refill the bird feeders because Morgan likes to watch the birds come in to eat.



Then they retrieved our sleds from the garage and headed across the street.


Morgan tried to go first, but the snow was a little too deep, so Patrick had to go down and create a lane to sled in. After that it was no holds barred! As fast as her little feet would run, she made it up to the top of the hill to go again.







She and Patrick stayed outside for about 30 minutes until Patrick's bottom was numb and Morgan's cheeks were rosy red.



I stayed out for a few minutes to take some pictures, then retreated back to the house to make hot chocolate and stay warm. I hate snow (for those of you who don't see me on Facebook). I hate everything about the snow. I think snow is beautiful.....in a picture. I long for the days of flip flops and short sleeves. I think the ONLY thing I like about winter is flannel sheets (which I got on sale for a super price....2 pair of king size flannel sheets for a total of $7.49!!!). Every night I go to bed I am thankful that we are one day closer to summer!

Reminiscing

Makes me want another...

New Year, Not so New You

'Tis the season for resolutions, changes, and promises for a better year than the last. Honestly, I think I've made too many of those empty promises and resolutions that don't even make it through January in the past. This year I want to be real with my hopes for 2010. I vow to make only one resolution/change/promise. I believe that all other things will fall in line if this one resolution is followed.

Sure I want to lose weight, spend more time with my family, and complete the thousand half started projects around my house. And those are all attainable goals, if priorities are in the right order. And one very big thing I want this year (and it's BIG, but not in the literal sense) depends completely on a portion of this resolution.

And what is this one, simple yet so large resolution? One simple word: church. Get there. In a town with very literally 15+ opportunities to get to a Mass, I have NO good reason to not get there. And hopefully you can see now how doing this one thing should make 2010 better than 2009. What a tough year 2009 was for me. While my relationship with God was a large part of it, it was not the focal point.

So for me it's simple. Church--get there.

And I pray each night that I follow the path set before me, with an open mind and loving heart. I have full faith that my Lord hears that prayer and will do all He can do to show me the path HE wants for me. And I will trust God that I am exactly where I need to be.

Welcome 2010!

Happy New Year from the Teagarden Clan!

**please excuse my crazy eyes, this was take 4**