My mom

My mom is my hero. And the best mom anyone could ever ask for. Whenever I think of trying to improve myself I think of her and how I could be more like her. She takes care of everyone before herself. She took care of my Papa for weeks on end, in KC, while he was in the hospital or recovering. She takes my dad's elderly aunt out to lunch or to doctors appt or running errands almost every week, on her days off. She has helped take care of her dad for months, both in the hospital and in her home. She watches my daughter almost every single Wednesday for 6 hours or so at a time so I can have some time off. And she takes her any other time that I ask her to, for whatever reason, without complaint. She volunteers at her church, in the nursery, greeting, at the Ronald McDonald house, etc. I have never seen her lose her patience with anyone, even when they REALLY deserve a yelling. (: In fact, she handled a woman at her work with a grace and Godly attitude that impressed me to my core. My brother, husband, sister and I all wanted to go hurt that woman for the way she treated my mom, but my mom never raised her voice or even spoke badly of this woman. Man, I wish I controlled myself as well as she does! Mom is always up for whatever crazy project my sister and I come up with. She helps us out with our pets, even keeping them overnight or for months or years at a time. And she doesn't even like cats and big dogs that much. She took care of my daughter and I after Anna was born. She cooks for all of us kids. She shops for my grandma. She has enormous self control- watches her diet and exercises. She always looks nice- I have never seen her do the "I'll just throw my hair up today" thing that I do all the time. She has never had a housekeeper but keeps her house up every day. She sews Anna all kinds of dresses, beaded socks, etc. She gardens, takes care of the yard, quilts, paints, helps my dad with his rental houses, makes dolls, gives great wedding and baby showers, travels, the list goes on and on. Mom is great with all kids, she loves them and they love her. She is a doer- always moving, always helping someone, always busy. Always disciplined. Always with a good attitude. She amazes me. And most of all, she loves and trusts God. I aspire to the kinds of relationship she has with Him. I am sure there are countless other things that I am forgetting at the moment. She truly is an inspiration to me every day. I hope one day I can become more like her. Mom- I don't know if you will ever see this but I mean every word of this and I thank God for the blessing He bestowed on us when He gave us to you. You have been the best example of what a woman should and can be.

A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies.

Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value.
She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life.
She selects wool and flax and works with eager hands.
She is like the merchant ships, bringing her food from afar.
She gets up while it is still dark; she provides food for her family

and portions for her servant girls.
She considers a field and buys it; out of her earnings she plants a vineyard.
She sets about her work vigorously; her arms are strong for her tasks.
She sees that her trading is profitable, and her lamp does not go out at night.
In her hand she holds the distaff and grasps the spindle with her fingers.
She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy.
When it snows, she has no fear for her household; for all of them are clothed in scarlet.
She makes coverings for her bed; she is clothed in fine linen and purple.
Her husband is respected at the city gate, where he takes his seat among the elders of the land.
She makes linen garments and sells them, and supplies the merchants with sashes.
She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come.
She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue.
She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.
Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her:
"Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all."
Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.
Give her the reward she has earned, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.

Proverbs 31: 10-31

I told you so!

My sister just called and told me that she was watching Animal Planet and they had a story on there about a woman that sat down to go to the bathroom and a snake bit her on the rear end!!!! See! I knew there was a reason I worry about this!

In case you don't remember, I have a not so secret fear (that I recently discovered that I share with my sister) that I will sit down to use the bathroom and a snake will be coiled up in the toilet. I often sit down and then get up really fast and whip around to make sure there isn't a snake down there.

And now I have proof that this actually happens! Great- I am going to give myself whiplash one of these days. Apparently this particular snake tried to drag this woman down the hole too. So that's just an added bonus. Man I would be pissed if that happened to me. Where did this happen you ask? ok fine- this event did occur in a hut in some 3rd world country but still. YOU NEVER KNOW.

Just for Julie B

Here ya go Jules- Just for you (:

"The statistics on sanity are that one out of every four Americans is suffering from some sort of mental illness. Think of your three best friends~ if they're ok.... then its you.

Just an update on....well everything

Hey all- just blogging to blog tonight. I am super excited for a couple of reasons tonight- well super might be an overstatement because I am to tired to be super about anything. In any case...

reason #1 - I totally just ran for 45 min with only a bathroom break. !!! That is a major achievement for me. And it also happens to be the 5k distance so I can now officially say I can run a full 5k. Go me! It probably helped that I was watching The Biggest Loser. My close friends all have to listen to me obsess all the time over how much I want Jillian to train me. Seriously- if I had all the $ in the world that is one of the things I would spend it on- I would hire Jillian to come and kick my butt all over the place. I think I am gonna go ahead and be a total nerd about it and cut her picture out and glue it to my treadmill. That way I can picture her yelling "QUIT BEING A BABY AND GET YOUR BUTT MOVING! YOU CAN DO BETTER THAN THAT! THIS IS WHERE LIVES ARE MADE!" (:

reason #2 one of my best friends in the whole world just started a blog too! Yea! She has the two cutest boys and her oldest one does the funniest things. Well they are funny to me at least. She doesn't always think so. But now I can read her stories and have one more way to be connected with her. (Like I need another way- my husband has had to up my text messaging allowance and phone minutes basically because I can't stop talking to her...hehe).

so let's see....what else today? well my gpa has been in a combo of rehab hospitals and normal hospitals since before Thanksgiving and he came home to my parents house Thurs so we are so glad to have him out of there. I think he was going a little nuts. He is healing so well and doing so much better and getting stronger. Thank you God for keeping him in Your Hands.

I am doing totally crappy with the Complaint Bracelet. Man thats frustrating. I just open my mouth before I even think and out flies a complaint. To be honest, I haven't even had the dumb thing on the last few days. So back on tomorrow for another try.

Anna is doing great. We had a little time out episode today....eek. It is starting. She does this screaming thing which I know is just her age but man is it annoying! I have been doing the uh oh thing every time she screams but tonight decided to go ahead and go with a time out. She is so cheerful about the time out and just I really have to fight the urge to laugh at her. It is way funny. Also she calls my gpa- her great gpa- "Bert". His name is Hubert and for anyone that doesn't know him- this is hysterical. He has always been the manly man- fishing, hunting, strong, etc etc and I don't think anyone has ever even considered nicknaming him before. And this little girl walks up and gives him a nickname and he loves it! But I don't think anyone else is allowed to call him that.

Well this is getting really long so I will sign off now so I don't put everyone to sleep. Here are a few pics of Anna from the last week.

Feeding her baby. (the brown thing sticking out of the doll's head is hair)


Playing with her kitchen.


At the Nature Center with the Bartlotti Boys.


At the Nature Center -Greyson and Anna


At the Nature Center.

The destructive power of a 1 1/2 year old

I thought you all might enjoy seeing what our house looks like right before I clean it up and put the messmaker to bed....








and the little messmaker herself...


No wonder I am so tired at night!

Anna said "Mommy sit" today

Why is that important you ask? Duh! Because that is her first "combined word"! That I am counting at least. My mom will probably tell you she says things like "there he is" etc but I think that is just copying what she has heard us say. This was a definite case of her mind putting the correct wording together on her own! YEA! Go Anna! Just another reminder of how fast my baby is growing up. My friend Julie and I were discussing how little time we actually hold these little babies close to us. Five years- that is what we get before we have to share them with the world. Five years before there are hours of her day that I will not be a part of! I can't even fathom that right now. I know I will get used to it and might even be glad of it at some point but right now that just breaks my heart. The truth is that even though it is sometimes a hassle to cart her everywhere and sometimes I really just want to read my book instead of hers, overall, I just love having her around. I like knowing she is safe beside me, I like hearing her little voice down the hall, I like having her pull on my pants every five seconds, I like the connection of being part of each other's lives every second of the day. Sometimes at night I just go and get her out of her bed just to hold her close to me because I miss her. And she is just down the hall! How am I ever going to survive her going to college? Maybe by then the teenage years will have me a little more ready to have some space between us! (: How precious is every hour with Anna and how often I forget that. What a precious, wonderful, smart, funny, fun, sweet, beautiful baby girl God has given me and how blessed I feel to be a part of her life. And how glad I am that I still have over 3 years before kindergarten starts. Yea- I will be that mom who cries worse than the child on the first day of school! (: I guess "because I will miss her too much" isn't really a valid reason for home schooling, right?

so far...

So far I have been quite the complainer. I had a trial run weekend just to make sure that I did in fact complain a lot (in case there was any doubt). Needless to say my wrists are raw from switching that bracelet back and forth. To be fair- the rules actually only apply to SPOKEN complaints and for the sake of the trial I switched it with spoken and thought complaints. But for me, the whole point of this is to learn to control my thoughts and my words. As my husband so nicely put it.... "it doesn't matter if you don't say it if you are still sitting over there being all bitter". Isn't he helpful? For the record, I have already switched my bracelet 2 times this morning- because of this blog I will have to switch it again. I don't really know if they intended for the bracelet to rip out hair and rub your skin raw when you change it or if that was just a nice bonus! Anyway, here are the official rules so if you catch me violating them you can call me on it!

Complain-to express grief, pain, or discontent
Criticize-to find fault with openly.
Gossip-a) a person who habitually reveals personal or sensational facts about others b) rumor or report of an intimate nature

The Bracelets are In!!!

Ok World- prepare for a severe loss of negative energy! I get my no complaint bracelet this evening! Yea! I am going to put it on tomorrow morning and do a fun little experiment for one whole day. I am going to wear the bracelet but speak completely normally- just to see how many times I actually do complain. I will carry around a notepad and put a check down for every violation of the rules. This will give me my "baseline" of complaining. I will switch the bracelet back and forth btw. Just to get in the habit. This should be interesting.

Angry January

For my loyal readers wondering how I came through the storms last night....well I am not going to lie- I fled. Didn't even try to brave them. Nope... just ran away. Like a little girl running from a big angry dog. And I don't even care. It was so worth it. I was going to make the stand but when my husband came home and said he would take me to the wonderful safety of my parents basement I went quickly and with no hesitation. And when the storms again raced right above my house, I was so glad and happy to be not there. I am a little confused as to what kind of metal or water or dirt or bad juju or horrific curse resides under my house but there must be something because every storm that goes through Springfield seems to go right over my subdivision! I mean really- that is so irritating. So we raced across town right ahead of the storm. As an interesting side note, Anna is going through that wonderfully fun stage where she thinks it is the height of funny to scream as shockingly ear piercing as possible. Adam however does not think it is funny. So I sang Old McDonald about 100 times for her to keep her from screaming. She likes the horse and pig the best in case you were wondering. In any case, back to the storms. We stayed at my parents house til what we thought was the last storm had gone through. My sister who shares my hatred and dread of all things tornado was there too. When I asked her if she was scared before she got there she said and I quote, "oh... I completely disgraced myself." Ha! I have so been there. So we missed the first of the storms but never fear. I ended up having my share of bathroom floor and pillow time anyway. For some reason I woke up at 230 and the news was sharing the excellent news that more storms were headed straight for me. So Anna and I spent a wonderful ... oh I don't even know... half hour to hour laying on the bathroom floor on pillows and waited the storm out. Good thing I made that resolution to keep my house cleaner right? You should be proud of me though- I was so tired by that point that the panic never rose above medium on the tornado panic scale. Yes that is a real thing. And no you can't see it.

Complaint Free World

"Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man, but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be." James 3: 5-10

I ordered my complaint free bracelet today since the free one has never come. It was interesting to see how many new sites, etc have popped up promoting this since I ordered the first one. I don't typically like to "jump on the bandwagon" and join in on movements that everyone is doing but this one is hitting a particular area of life that I need to exercise some control over. My short-term goal with the project is to complete the 21 straight days of no complaints. But my long term goal is to stop and think before I allow "bitter diatribes" to escape out of my mouth! And to exercise some control over my thoughts as well. Pure and lovely and noble and good - let us think on these things!