Silver Linings and My Pocket Full of Change

I just found this beautiful song on Nienie's blog and thought it would be a nice complement to the "Love/Hate" post that I had in the works.  So I'm putting them in one post together.  It's a great blessing to be able to see the silver lining to our dark clouds, isn't it?  And yet, sometimes it's still fun to list pros AND cons to things that we enjoy.  So, here's to seeing both sides of the coins in our pockets full of change : )! 




Re: Not having my own car
LOVE: being forced out of my element ("I can do hard things"), the extra exercise, fresh air, and being independent ("I don't NEED that, I am creative and can get things done anyway.")
HATE: feeling embarrassed about it sometimes.  having to ask for a ride occasionally.  sometimes not being able to do what I'd choose to do if I did have a car.

LOVE: Our new home in Pennsylvania!  And "living in the country" is so refreshing, quiet, and we love the farm lands.
HATE: Having to drive so far to get to church.  We used to live a 12-minute drive from our stake center/ward building, now we're an hour from our stake center, and 25 minutes from our ward building.  I wouldn't mind it as much if the kids didn't whine about it every week!  It doesn't help that 2 of our kids consistently get car sick (including vomiting on occasion).

LOVE: that I've still been able to keep up my exercise habit 5-6 days per week, despite not having a gym membership anymore.
HATE: that I haven't played racquetball once since we left Oregon.  Waaaah : '(.

LOVE: noticing the differences in the way people talk around here.  Such as the "upside down" intonations of their questions, the different vocabulary words ("yous" instead of "you guys"), and the funny pronunciations (Lancaster = LANG-kister,   Lebanon = LEB'nun), etc.
HATE: that I still don't understand the difference between a city, a township, and a borough.  Maybe I'll get the hang of that someday.

LOVE: Tootie's preschool class.  Tootie LOVES it too!
HATE:  that it's only 3 days a week, 2 hours per day.  We could use an extra few hours...2 hours a day 5 days a week would be nice, or 3 hours a day 4 days a week like we had last year would be awesome.  It's hard for us to fill up all the other hours of the week with good stuff to do while the other kids are in school.

LOVE:  reading good books.
HATE: not finding time enough to read.

LOVE: massages.
HATE: that no one is giving me one right now!  ha ha ha : )

LOVE:  my Stampin' Up! business.
HATE: that I am currently in the "find new customers or die" stage...again.  Hopefully for the last time though (at least for a long time).

HATE:  Snow.  That cold yucky (albeit pretty) stuff that is falling from our sky right now.
LOVE: Seeing my kids get so excited about snow, and knowing that they're going to make me hate it a little less as we find joy playing in it this weekend, and for the next few months, probably!

HATE: Messes in my house.
LOVE: Being a Stay-at-home-Mom!!!

DISLIKE: Halloween...Not my favorite holiday.
LOVE: Candy (Not burning it off later though).  And, seeing my kids have fun dressing up.  I don't love doing that now that I'm "old", but I know it's fun for kids.  I love that I have 4 amazing kids that keep me enjoying things that I've outgrown.  

As for counting my blessings, I think my life is almost pretty much perfect.  I am so happy with where we are right now.  Life changes a little bit every day, and I love the direction it is going.  I'm so happy to be me.

Fall Fun

Goldie and Tootie and a neighbor.  Sometimes the kids ask to have their picture taken when they're having fun, when I wouldn't have thought of pulling out the camera.  Those pictures can be some of the best.

We finally got around to taking down the birthday balloons we had hanging up in our dining room, and wanted to make a little more use of them, so Tootie and I invented "the birthday stick".  He carried this with him in the stroller on our outing downtown to the library and it was quite the good time, yes it was.

I just love this sign.  It's at the edge of the Lutheran Church parking lot where Tootie goes to school.  I wish we had one at our own church parking lot : )!

We had fun examining this "Ladybug tree".  There must have been hundreds of ladybugs on and around it.  And believe it or not, this is the first time in my life I have ever seen such PINK ladybugs!  I knew there were yellow and orange ones, but pink?  That's perfect!

Here we are on a very fun little hayride, a great way to celebrate the fall. 

The kids had a lot of fun worrying about the other hayride truck catching up to us.  We were in the lead, and we won the "race".  It was funny how they kept imagining our lead shrinking and expanding, since both tractors were just going about 5 miles an hour.

Shark couldn't have been more pleased with our Philadelphia Zoo experience, because we got in some high quality lion-watching time.  They didn't do anything amazing for us, but at least they weren't in hiding like they were when we went to the Oregon Zoo. 

flamingos! 

Philly Zoo...see you again soon.

The Best Movie I've Seen in a Long Time: "Two Brothers"

  As part of "The 5000 Days Project", the movie "Two Brothers" is a completely awesome documentary about 2 LDS brothers who are interviewed periodically over the course of 10 years.   It starts out when they are 8 and 10 years old, and ends with one coming home from his mission and one leaving on his mission.   The older boy serves his mission in Chile, and the younger brother gets to play college football before his mission.   It's so cool to see them grow up and see how they change in that amount of time.   Shark and Didi and I watched the whole 80 minute movie glued to our seats.   I wish it could have been even longer.

I heard about it because I'm on BYUtv's email list.   I don't know how long they'll keep the whole movie on their website, so I'd highly recommend watching this movie asap while it's on there.   It's also being sold on DVD for $20 (better to watch the free version!).   It's totally worth the money though; Shark wants me to get him a copy for Christmas.  

Watch it, and tell me what you think!   We LOVED it.   I hope you will too!
See the Trailer HERE
View the movie HERE: Two Brothers on BYUTV

It's Great to be Eight

We had Goldie's 8th birthday party the week before her baptism.  Last year she got to celebrate with a big "friends" party, so this year she got a small family party.  She had a fun day even with just us, though. 

I asked Goldie what kind of cake she wanted...the Piglet part was her choice, the rainbow part was my idea. Didi helped guide me this year with the design; she knows the rainbow order better than I do (though she informed me that I ended up making the rainbow upside down), and she was a great frosting color mixer.  She also helped me remember to put the (washed) money in the cake, continuing with my family tradition.

  

 I thought this "Tangled" poster was a fun gift to give her, and thought this photo turned out cute. It's as if the characters in the poster were standing right next to her/looking at her.

 

 

 

After she thought all the presents had been opened, Dad brought her to "the big one" : ).

                          By the way, today was Goldie's first Fast Sunday since she turned 8.  Now as a full member of the church, we were so proud of her for choosing to fast one meal this morning with the rest of us, and she also was brave enough to bear her testimony in sacrament meeting.  What a brave girl!  Isn't it great to be eight?