Friday's Thankful Treasures

AB: "Just my Poppy and Moose"

Lydia: Her new toy. (AB's old activity center with buttons, rattles, mirrors, lights and music!!!)

Dustin: New iPads for all of the employees at his company

Me: Getting my church email inbox below 100. It has been a long time! Actually, I am not sure if it ever has been that low. Excited nonetheless and hope to get it even lower.

Thursday's things Heard...pockets

Things heard while playing...

Each week I wonder if I will have something worthy of posting and then she does it, she goes and says something so precious as if she is right on queue.

Coming down the stairs with her most favorite treasured toys. It is fall now and she is wearing clothes for the first time since she is a size bigger than last fall. She had on a pair of black leggings and as she came down the last stair with both hands overflowing with her little treasures, she asked, "Mommy, do my pants have pockets?"

I replied, "Nope, babe. Not those."

To which she replied quietly to herself as she set down her toys so she could go back for more, "Jesus, please let my pants have pockets. In Jesus name, AMEN!"

Wednesday's Something I have never done before

My poor husband. He deserves so much better than me. This Wednesday's post is not one I am proud of but it is in fact something I have never done before. I have been married for over 10 years. This past Tuesday, mark it as a first. It is the first time in 10 and a half years of marriage I sent my husband to work with dirty sock. Not only were they dirty, they were handed to him nicely folded together as if they were clean. I just couldn't admit defeat to him. I had fallen behind on the laundry and had completely forgotten to do a load of darks. He asked me at the last minute as he was walking out the door and I panicked. I am sorry, Dustin. I vow to always have clean socks for you.

Tuesday's Taco Salad Family Night

We had TACO SALAD again tonight on a TUESDAY! Life is as it should be! It really is like an automatic reset button for our family.

What did we do for family night tonight? It was simple...I loaded her up with lots of sugar and sent her straight to bed! Isn't that what every mom does? Actually I gave her a lolly pop that someone gave her over 3 weeks ago. We just don't do sugar in our house so this was a REAL treat.

She will be going to bed VERY soon. It was a long day for her with a shorter nap. She has been having to adjust to having another kiddo in the house because of our daycare. The weather has been changing and today was a little gloomy...perfectly matching her mood. Bless her heart, she needs sleep. 2 nights ago it was 8:30, last night it was 9:30...tonight our goal is 7:45.

It is just a reset kinda night for our family. We have been through a lot and life is starting to settle. I can't wait to do a little resetting myself tonight at 7:46!

Monday's Making it a Home...smells

Did you ever come home from school to the smell of fresh baked chocolate cookies? What about the smell of fresh clean sheets on your bed? I am convinced part of what will make my house more of a home is if I can create a "smell memory".

I have one friend that gives AB hand-me-down clothes and I keep thinking to ask her each time what laundry detergent she uses and then the last batch she gave me had fresh, unused dryer sheets in each bag hidden nicely between layers of perfectly folded clothes. That was it. That was the smell. It was just what I was looking for.

They can only be purchased at Costco. Another friend I have just did a Costco run and she picked some up for me. Now, in my house, there are fresh unused dryer sheets, in my closet, Lydia's closet, AB's closet, the shoe closet, all of our dressers and a place that you wouldn't think to put one, my car. I will replace them every few weeks, maybe the car every week. I also plan to put one in each bin of clothes we have stored in the shed.

Seems silly, but I think that if years down the road my girls get a quick whiff of that smell, it will take their minds back to home immediately and my hope is that they will want to sit there a moment and treasure all their home memories. If it doesn't work and my theory is all wrong, at least we will smell nice. Its a win win.

Friday's Thankful Treasures

Dustin: "the loan being finished"

AB: "my Poppy"

Me: Uploading hundreds and hundreds of photos to Flickr

Lydia: She is thankful for her fist, she discovered it and can practically cram the whole thing in her mouth

Thursday's Things Heard...keeping Lydia

As we were getting ready for bowling, I was changing Lydia's diaper and started to put her in her car seat, AB asked: Mommy, are we going to keep her for never?

Instead of answering her question, I did what any good mom would do, I asked her a question: Do you want to keep her or do you want me to send her back?

Frightened and upset at the very thought of my question, she quickly replied: No mommy, don't send her back, I want to keep her forever!

Wednesday's Something I have never done before

So this week it was store bought sugar cookies rolled out and cookie cutters and sprinkles and the whole nine yards!

Last Wednesday was my first attempt at it. Here are my thoughts on it.

It was super easy.

It tasted nasty.

I rolled it too thin.

I cooked it too long.

It was just gross.

I was gonna serve them at small group that night but I just couldn't bring myself to put them on the table.

Anna and our LMNOP friend really enjoyed making them, so I guess over all it was a success but man they were gross.

I think in the future, I will use my own dough that I pre-make and freeze.

Catch Up - Sorry

I am a few post behind but I will catch up now!

Tuesday's Taco Salad Family Night - I married an amazing man!

Tonight was not a taco salad night again BUT I have a very good reason! Dustin has done so much for our family lately! He made so many things happen and fall into place so that we can start our daycare that we took the chance to celebrate him last night. He wanted to go out, so out we went. At dinner, we listed all the many things he did for us so that the daycare could start. I wanted to share the list with you, but first I must say, I do not deserve the wonderful man that I am married to. I have never seen someone so determined and someone so in love with their family. Dustin Hedrick, you are amazing. Now please take a break and rest, PLEASE!

had the back yard fenced in

painted every room in our house

had new windows put in the sunroom

put a fence around the HVAC unit

made a little fenced area for moose's potty area

put railing up on the deck

had an electrician come out and instal smoke detectors

did a lot of electrical work himself

installed a latch on the front door so kiddos cannot escape

hooked up the alarm system when we first moved in

made a "pirate ship" for AB (also known as a swing set)

helped me pick out and install baby gates

ordered car magnets for his car

reordered them when one flew off

got business card printed

got me listed with vista print listings

google local

yahoo local

all search engines

built a KICK BU*T website

logo and image graphic design

listed in all child care registries, directories, and associations for the county, city and state

listed in the Gazette

registered my company as an LLC

Got an EIN number

registered LMNOP with the state

opened a checking account

opened a paypal account

linked my checking and paypal account together

got a Twitter account (which I do not know how to use)

got a Flicker account

got a Facebook account

Thank you Dustin! I honestly could not have done this without you! Thank you for letting me stay home with our girls!

Monday's Making it a Home...LIFE CHANGING DECISION

I have put this announcement off for about 13 weeks but I needed to make sure that I ended things well and had loose ends all taken care of. Here is one of the major things I have done to make my house a home:

I am a stay at home mom! I went through hours of training and certifications and Dustin helped me get a daycare started in our home. I am a licensed daycare provider! I currently just have one kiddo and am looking for a couple more, but I get to stay home with Lydia and Anna!!!

I am looking forward to investing my life into children!

Check out our website: www.lmnopdaycare.com

Here is a little from the site. Enjoy!

Have you ever wished you what you did during your ‘nine to five’ part of the day made more of a difference or had a lasting effect on others? That exact thought has been my driving force for the last three years. I have a long resume listing various administrative jobs with my last job being an Office Manager for a commercial real estate company. I did a great job making sure that the office set others up for success so that they could in turn be successful and bring more money into our company. I don’t want to do that for the rest of my life. Who am I having a lasting impression on?

I want to make a difference. I want to impact lives and what better way than to spend my ‘nine to five’ hours with kiddos. I can teach them, love on them, care for them and in turn be a resource for parents and families. It might not bring world peace or stop hunger but it sure has great potential.

Thank you to all of our friends who prayed for this to happen!

Friday's Thankful Treasures

Me: Hands down UNCLE DAVID being in town! It is always so great to have family visit!

Lydia: Uncle david would have to be at the top of her list to. He did a lot of holding!

AB: The usual (the color green, Poppy, dogs, and the special crackers we share with our friends AKA Matzo bread for communion)

Dustin: Things continuing to fall in place

Thursday's Things Heard...

Things heard when talking about Jesus...

AB: Mommy does Jesus have wings?

Me: No baby, Jesus does not have wings.

AB: But angels have wings and I love you, Mommy.

Me: I love you too.

AB: And Mommy, I love all kinds of dogs.

The other day we were listening to a worship video on YouTube and I told her they were singing to Jesus and with as much excitement as her little body could contain she asked, "Our Jesus?!?!?!"

Wednesday's Something I have never done before

Many of my friends have tried my Monkey Bread but this time I took it a step up and made Gorilla Bread. Same concept as the Monkey Bread but the balls were bigger and filled with cream cheese. Yum! I will say this Paula Deen is a very clever lady. I will also say this, this recipe is ONLY good fresh out of the oven. If you wait too late to serve it, it is just ok, not GREAT!

10/13/10

Tuesday's Taco Salad Family Night...minus the taco salad AGAIN

SHOCKING! (huge gasp of air) Two Tuesdays in a row without Taco Salad! My Uncle David is in town and we decided to go out for a nice dinner. He wanted seafood. We went to Black's Bar and Kitchen. It is some of the fanciest food around. I got to get my absolute favorite dish in the world, Addie's Mussels. I do not know of anyone else in the world that can have their favorite dish at 4 restaurants (soon to be 6 restaurants). Addies, Black Market Bistro, Black's bar and Kitchen, Black Salt. Found out last night it is the Addie's Mussels is his grandmother's recipe and he has it at all of his restaurants. They are opening 2 more soon! I can't wait. Any ways, it was so good to have my favorite dish AND have dinner with Uncle David. Our evening was cut short by a diaper situation with Lydia.

When we got home it was bath time for both the girls. Lydia's was first of course due to our little situation and AB's followed shortly after. After bath time both were placed in their new PJ's that Auntie Vienna, Uncle Joseph and Rhiannon sent up. Fall is here and Halloween is soon! My girls are ready!

Monday's Making it a Home...refinance

Praise the Lord we were able to refinance our mortgage. The rates are at a historic low and we were able to drop our PMI insurance and our monthly mortgage payment is a couple hundred less a month and since we have been a one income family for the duration of my maternity leave it will help tremendously.

I need to take a moment to brag on my husband! He did it all. All the paper work, the research, the applications! No thanks to Bank of America though. They had issue after issue after issue including losing our house note and not having my SSN on file!

Monday the 11th of October was the finish of months of working on this! It will be nice to take a deep breath! Aaahhhhh!

Friday's Thankful Treasures

Here is what the Hedrick Family Treasures this week

AB: a visit from Uncle David (starting tomorrow) She has asked everyday if it is today. It has actually been a great tool for teaching days of the week and length of time and patience! Thanks Uncle David!

Lydia: I am sure you guys loved AB's version of what Lydia treasured last week. I will give it a go this week. I would have to say it is her lady bug night light. There was a night last week, she struggled with falling asleep. She was warm, fed, diapered and clothed so I wasn't in my jurisdiction! Dustin gave it a try and realized her room was too light. He put a bulb in the old nightlight and ba-da-bing she was a sleep in no time!

Me: Dustin's ripped pants last night while bowling! We really needed a good laugh and boy did we ever get one! Laughter does your soul so good and it has been a long time since we laughed.

Dustin: "finishing business stuff"

Thursday's Things Heard...

So if you read my Monday's post you will know that I have this question I am struggling with. How do you teach your child about strangers, yet at the same time, reach out to your community and share the love of Jesus with complete strangers?!?!?!

For those of you who have met my 3 year old, you know she is fearless and very well could be our church greeter if her attention span was long enough. As our church was growing, she was helping me learn everyone's name. She has a great memory and LOVES people!

I am not sure if it was too many episodes of 20/20 or Dateline that did it, but I started feeling like she needed to learn about strangers and how to react, etc.

Here is what one of our beginning conversations looked like:

Mommy: AB, what do you do if a stranger asks you to come in his car for a ride?

AB: I say no!

Mommy: that is right, say no but then say MOMMY!!!! and run away!

Mommy: What do you do if a stranger says do you want to see my puppy?

AB: I say no!

Mommy: that is right, say no but then say MOMMY!!!! and run away!

Mommy: What do you do if a stranger gives you a piece of yummy candy, what do you say?

AB: I say thank you!

Mommy: NO! You say stranger danger! and say MOMMY!!!! and run away!

She sure did make me smile. She is a little polite, miss manners fearless child! I really am working on her!

We tried different combinations and at the end she had the right answer to each scenario!

Pheww!

Now I am just dealing with her pointing to random people and hearing her say "Mommy, she is a stranger I DO NOT LIKE HER" Man that was embarrassing when she said it to the little girl a the library. I am now telling her that if Mommy is there and Mommy talks to the stranger it is ok and she can too, it is when she is alone that she needs to watch out"

URGH!!! Why is this world so messed up that I need to teach my child about all this!!!!!!!

Wednesday's Something I have never done before

I did it. I signed up to receive a kit to be tested to be part of the National Marrow Donor Program. The test is easy. They will send me a kit, I will swab the inside of my cheek, secure it in its container and send it back. It took 5 minutes to register online and will take less than that to use the kit when I get it next week.

This is something Dustin and I debated for a while (him more than me, I was already convinced it was something I was going to do). If someone's life could be SAVED because we donated bone marrow, isn't it silly not to give. When Dustin and I are talking about evangelism and the lost, he often asks me, 'what is the cost of one man's soul? Where do you draw the line?' My thoughts are exactly the same when it comes to donating bone marrow. 'What is the cost of one man's life? Are you going to be selfish?' ( I am not asking you if you are being selfish, it is the question I ask myself...but now that I went there, I think I will ask you....are YOU going to be selfish?)

Got 5 minutes? Go to www.bethematch.org

Bone marrow transplant is a life-saving treatment for people with leukemia, lymphoma and many other diseases. First, patients undergo chemotherapy and sometimes radiation to destroy their diseased marrow. Then a donor's healthy blood-forming cells are given directly into the patient's bloodstream, where they can begin to function and multiply.

For a patient's body to accept these healthy cells, the patient needs a donor who is a close match. Seventy percent of patients do not have a donor in their family and depend on the Be The Match Registry to find an unrelated bone marrow donor or umbilical cord blood.

Tuesday's Taco Salad Family Night...minus the taco salad!

Tonight we did not have taco salad! (Big Gasp of AIR)!!!

I spent a good part of the afternoon at a friends house watching her kiddos and Dustin was in DC for most of the day! Our Family night started off differently and we just decided to "go with it". Chicka told us that Ledo's Pizza was celebrating its 55th anniversary with $.55 personal cheese pizzas. Lydia had been fed and put down for a nap. Dustin was chillin on the couch! It looked like a perfect time for AB and I to hit the road.

We have been pinching pennies the past few weeks. I have been without income during my maternity leave and we are in the process of refinancing our home because we cannot refuse the amazing low interest rate. I think we can splurge $1.10 for dinner for the 2 of us. Once in the car, I started chatting it up to AB and building it up and making her really excited. Its a date!!! Almost there, we got a text from Dustin. Chicka just let him know that its not worth it. The line is OUT THE DOOR! Of course everyone is there. With Dustin's urging we quickly came up with a Plan B.

Chipoltle! We split a steak burrito bowl and each got a water with lemon and salsa on the side. AB mostly ate the salsa. We sat at a bar stool. I had a blast! It was soo good to reconnect with her! I ran into a co-worker and said hello. Then 2 grandpa type dudes had to mention to me that she was gorgeous and that they loved her shoes. Then, because she was such a good eater, I treated her to a muchkin from Dunkin Donuts. While standing in line, one person asked if we were just next door and after saying yes, they said that it really blessed them when AB and I prayed for our meal. Then AB started singing Take me out to the ball game and got another customer to chime in with her. After we each got a muchkin and headed back to our car, another lady asked how old she was, said she was precious and said she reminded her of her daughter when she was that age.

Dinner was not $1.10 for sure but we did manage to keep it under $8. We had a blast!!! I didn't realize how much we both needed that. No Poppy, No Moose, No Lydia Grace! Just Mommy and Anna!

And a side note...how do you teach a fearless child how to reach out to a community and share the love of Jesus but at the same time teach them about strangers and "Stranger Danger!! Stranger Danger!!" ?

Monday's Making it a home

This time I put 1/2 her toys away! I did it for 2 reasons...partly because I am so stinking tired of picking up toys that have a million pieces and partly so she doesn't have to share her special toys (i.e. scooby, her 23 year old barbie toys and stuff like that).

Our house is full of kiddos all the time. Friends from church and soon to be daycare kiddos. This child has to share all the time, day and night 24/7 bless her heart. She needs a break.

So here is what I did. All those broken, cheap happy meal toys, broken and/or missing parts toys were trashed!!! Her "special toys" went up to her room and are not to leave there and we just dont have kiddos upstairs to play. The family room has our "core toys", toys that are easy to clean up when the time comes. (ABC Blocks, doll house, Lincoln Logs, Play food, legos and blocks for towers). The rest of the toys (batteries required, exciting toys, dress up, baby toys, million pieces toys, flash cards, puzzles and games) are in the daycare closet. Those will be rotated in a week at a time and made more special because she doesn't see them all the time.

We have had it this way for a week and let me tell you...it ROCKS! Clean up is super easy. No sharing wars with friends. And it sure does make the one toy at a time rule a lot easier. I have seen her play longer and more independently because the area is organized and spacious and she can really focus on her task at hand! It might not work for everyone but our life is just a bit more crazy and we had to find something that works!

Happy toy playing!

Happy Birthday to a very special friend

Happy Birthday to my Mom, Barbara Chapman!

I love you and hope you have a wonderful weekend and a blessed new year!

Enjoy the video AB made for you.

Friday's Thankful Treasures

Dustin treasures very much his 171 bowling score from last night.

Anna, what do you treasure? "my dad, Cheetos and crackers." Did you say dad or dog? "Dad, I mean my Poppy. Not my puppy, but my Poppy"

Anna, what do you think Lydia treasures? "She is thankful for treasures and the picture of the ladybug on top of the ice cream on the computer and toilet paper and tomatoes and mickey mouse with potatoes and a hat with the leaves and a hat on a flower with a baby and it was on top of the ice cream plate with a blankie and it was all wet and then it falled down and the baby cries. Was that a great story about Lydia mommy?" Maybe next week we will go back to my speculations for what Lydia treasures.

And what do I treasure? Puzzle pieces falling into place.