Thought we’d share some photos that I found on our camera since the last time I downloaded them onto the computer. Seems like November was full of a bunch of goofy things to do. Lots of crazy photos.

There is the one of the workers having their lunch on the steel beam while building the skyscraper and the Ansel Adams had some good shots. Zapruder used a home movie camera so that would be in a different category. There is the one of the protester standing in front of a tank in Tiananman Square and also in the conversation are “VE-Day Kiss” and “Iwo Jima Flag Raising”, but after those, THIS is the….

Greatest photograph ever taken
as written by Dale

I had gone on a walk with the dog at 10 at night and came home to this “rockstar” sitting on my couch -not sleeping! She looked adorable for 2 minutes and was immediately sent back upstairs to bed.

Lindy was invited to Chuck E Cheese this weekend for her friend Lucas’ birthday party. Let me just start by saying “crazy!” Chuck E Cheese found out the best way to take advantage of little kids and their parents money. We were crammed into a room with 10 OTHER little birthday parties and were sent through the birthday motions all simultaneously to a big mouse in costume. Kids of course enjoyed it. Lindy was a little over-stimulated. She just curled up on my lap for a few minutes. The noise, the lights, the games!

She started here at Skeeball.

and ended up here.

Sugar high crash-almost ready to leave

The Things We Teach our Children
We were playing hide and go seek from daddy all of Lindy’s ponies and I (mom) had the brilliant idea to hide one in the fish tank. Needless to say, when it was Lindy’s turn to hide the toys she put all 13 ponies into the fishtank!!!! I had to somehow tell her to never do that again.

Daddy and Lindy were upstairs (Again, Lindy was supposed to be sleeping) and daddy came down to show me something. No wonder Lindy’s sleeping habits are all off. Thanks to Uncle Justin for the cool military backpack.

Hanging out at our church youth barn outing. Dale and Lindy sizing up the flag football competition. Watch what I caught on camera while we were at the barn.

Circus
So,Dale and I wanted to buy tickets for the circus this past week but after reviewing the budget, we decided we’d buy our silly dog Indiana $350 worth of a vet visit and medication to make him feel better. Oh, the things we choose to do. I do think God cares about the little things and has always provided for us. Out of the blue last week, a friend e-mailed me and asked if we wanted some FREE tickets to the circus. Talk about making our week. So, Sunday evening, we headed to the Big Top. Thanks Carrie for thinking of us!

Lindy looking at the animals before the circus

Daddy brought ear plugs!

Mommy brought glow in the dark glasses that Aunt April sent from Japan! I had been holding onto
them for something specia -cheaper than buying the circus toys that cost $20.
Lindy wasn’t as happy about the free toys in my purse.

Stay At Home
I wanted to share something that has been on my mind lately and that is this whole Stay at home mom thing. I think there is a learning curve and I have yet to figure it out. I will admit, it is a lot harder than I ever thought. I know I have this underlining void in my life which adds to it. My maternity leave was LESS than ideal which kicked off my first 3 months of staying at home.

I have this constant nagging in the back of my head, wondering if I am stimulating Lindy enough. Do I tell her “not now” too often. Do I not play enough with her? She is CONSTANTLY asking me to play with her. Am I checking my e-mail too much, facebooking too much? I think if Everett was here, things would obviously be different. I wouldn’t have to be her constant playmate. Dale and I have always been of the mindset that we don’t have to constantly entertain her -but that voice just doesn’t go away. Now, I think we are doing the right thing by me being home with her and I don’t want to complain about what is going on. Not everyone has the choice to stay at home and I don’t want to take it for granted, but this is tough stuff. Anyone else go through the same thoughts?

Nobody gives you a manual on being a stay at home mom -sometimes I read those mommy blogs where they are doing a craft everyday and joyously traveling around the city running errands. Yeah, not me but I hope to get there in my own way.

Last week, we made egg salad and had some fun decorating eggs before we ate them.

Music
I was barely listening to Lindy signing a song the other day and then I heard “Bust da window out your car.” I guess we have to take gLee off of our pandora playlist. Ha. Dale and I looked at eat other and our eyes were as big as saucers.

Good thing is today I heard her singing “I dreamed a dream in time gone by.” That made up for it.

So, I’ve been following this blog McKmama and she has created a fun posting called “Not Me Mondays” where we post our crazy mom stories by being brutaly honest. Some of them are really fun to read and I thought I’d share a few things that I did not do this past week.

I did not stop my daughter Lindy from asking intelligent questions about halloween by telling her to just “eat the candy honey.” Why do we really need to know what halloween is and why people give out candy willingly?

I did not pull out the maternity pants from the closet to try them on because I didn’t want to do the load of laundry sitting in the corner of my room. That said laundry was not climbing up the wall almost taller than me. Nope. I do laundry everyday and stay on top of it.

I overheard Lindy talking to daddy “when mommy’s and daddy’s love each other, they give each other rings for their fingers.” I then did not see her lift her shirt up over her head, point at herself and say “and when I get big, these get bigger too!”

I did not put Lindy in front of Dora at least twice a day so that I could get a few things done around the house. Nope. Not me. I always have non-tv things for Lindy to do and I always have time to read to her every book we own.

I did not wish that my friend had a longer labor, at least 36 hours and maybe a longer stay in the hospital because hers went so perfectly.

We always try to thank God for the food that we are about to eat at the table and thank God for each person at the table. I did not Read more...

Now, for Dale and I, Halloween wasn’t a big holiday for us so we’ve just been pretty laid back about all the hubbub. After so many people kept asking Lindy what she was going to be for Halloween, we finally asked her the question at home and she said, “A Pirate Princess.” Now, I can only imagine she got that idea from one of her favorite movies, Peter Pan, and anytime she is wearing a dress, she is a princess (If YOU wear a dress and she sees you, she’ll call you a princess). From that day on, when I asked her again to see if she’d change her mind, she’d say the same thing, “A Pirate Princess.”

We pulled a dress from her closet, a pirate set from the dollar store, and a black t-shirt of daddies to make the covers for the shoes. Now for just $1, we bought Lindy happiness for one evening.

It took about 2 houses for Lindy to realize WHAT we were doing and WHY we were doing. She kept asking me, “but why are the houses giving us candy?” “What are their names?” Try answering those questions without getting circular reasoning. I’d answer her and then I’d get yet another brilliant question. I probably finally just said, Lindy, just EAT the candy okay?

I made the mistake of taking the smallest basket we owned. Didn’t even think about the fact that the candy wouldn’t fit. We made it to about 4 houses and ran out of room. I had to jam the rest in my pockets.

We got home and I believe it is customary to touch all the candy? We got home and transfered it to a bigger basket and I told her she could have one piece of candy before bed. She picked the cheese crackers. ha.

We went to a Pumpkin Farm for some Fall activities last weekend and enjoyed a hayrack ride, a pony ride, a corn maze for kids and a petting zoo. View Photos Here