Plans for the week

This week will be fun but very busy.

Tomorrow I work and have my fun yearly doctor exam in the afternoon and then in the evening the church board that I work for is treating all of us preschool teachers and aides to a nice "Thank You" dinner. It will be nice to get out with my co-workers.

Tuesday and Wednesday the preschool that I work at have a big Thanksgiving Feast for all the kids. We have it both days because some kids come Tuesday/Thursday and some come Monday/Wednesday/Friday and some come to school everyday. One of the fun things about working at a preschool is that you get to REALLY celebrate all of the holidays. For each holiday there is always treats, parties and a ton of excitement. That is one of the many reasons that I LOVE what I do, working at a preschool brings out the "kid" in you almost everyday!!! My kids have Wednesday off from school so they will go to Grandmas while I work.

Thursday is THANKSGIVING and for the first time I am making Thanksgiving dinner. It will just be us (hubby and the boys) and we are also inviting Gary's brother and sister over with their kids (still not sure if they are coming though). I am actually excited that it will be just "us" this year.

Friday we are off to the baseball park at the crack of dawn!! Tyler will play at one park and Brandon will be playing at another. I will take Brandon (with Jordan and Ryan) and Gary will take Tyler. We most likely won't all be together (awake) again til Sunday night but that's what happens when you have 2 kids in travel ball!!! I truly love spending time at the park. Jordan and Ryan love it too, since they get to play all day at the park.

Jill

Random acts of kindness

Tonight while Jordan and I were out shopping we noticed a homeless man picking out of the trash to get food, he was ACTUALLY eating the food he found. This broke my heart and I just knew I had to do something. I told Jordan that we should get him dinner and he agreed. So we went through a drive thru and got him a couple of burgers, french fries, and a drink.

I had only done this one other time and my husband was with us. I was not sure how the man would react. So Jordan and I got out of the car and said, "Hello, we have some dinner for you."
I think he was surprised. He had such warm eyes. He told us thank you little one (talking about Jordan) and God bless the both of you.

I felt so good about this and I know Jordan did too. I told Jordan that we really cannot do anything to help him out of his situation but at least we gave him a meal and he will not go to sleep hungry tonight.

I also have heard of going through a drive thru and paying for the car behind you so that when they get up to the window they find out that their meal has been paid for and you are long gone.

I do many service projects with and without the kids but is in a very in-direct way. I guess I want to help the people that are around me in my day to day life.

Jordan told me that he saw that same homeless man a while back when we were shopping in that area and I think he is right. I do remember a homeless man a couple of months ago near that same shopping center trying to cross the street. I hope we do get to see him again and I will be happy to get him another hot meal (hopefully a little more healthy than fast food).


Jill

It's been over a month!!!

I cannot believe that it has been over a month since my last post. I guess I have just been busy with life.

Our Halloween was a lot of fun. Tyler dressed as a girl, Brandon was a nerd, Jordan was a skeleton, and Ryan was a army soldier. We made our first stop at Gary's God parents house, this has been our tradition since we have had children. It's funny that we don't visit with them on any other holiday except Halloween. We also stopped at my grandma's house so that she could see the kids. After all of our visits we went off to a Halloween party. We went to a baseball friends home and had a lot of fun. The kids got a chance to trick or treat in between or visits and also once we got to the party some of the moms took the little ones out into the neighborhood for some trick or treating.

November has been really nice. I am really looking forward to the holidays. I have most of my shopping done so I hope that when December is here I don't have to worry about heading out into the stores even though I know I will most likely have something or someone to buy for. Even if I have every last thing purchased I just can't seem to stop shopping at Christmas time!!!

I miss blogging. I really NEED to get my thoughts down and out of my system. I plan on slowing down and taking time for the simple things, and that includes blogging.

Jill

My Birthday Weekend

Well I am now 34 years old.
Yesterday was my birthday and a very good day.

We did not do much for my big day because Brandon's baseball team was hosting a tournament and we spent most of the weekend at the ball park. I was fine with this since my b-day is a great day but I have never felt that the world had to stop for it.

When I woke up Sunday I was surprised with "happy birthday to you" from Gary and the kids. I was also able to have a nice conversation with my mom, we always e-mail and rarely talk on the phone. I also got handmade letters and cards from the boys. In the evening Maryah (my God daughter) came over with homemade cookies and a card.
When we got back from the park I made myself some cupcakes and shared them with the boys, Gary was sound asleep.

This morning when I went to work at the preschool some of my students brought me gifts. one little girl brought me flowers and a Diet Coke (my favorite), her mom said that she just HAD to get me a Diet Coke because "that is Mrs. Jill's favorite"!!! It is so cute to see all of their little faces so excited that it is MY birthday.

So over all my big 34 was nice and simple and I had a wonderful day.

Jill

Balance

I have been thinking a lot about being balanced in my day to day life. I have noticed that I seem to really struggle with this. Lately I feel that I have many things in order. I have all 4 boys going to bed at a decent hour, I have been reading to my Kindergartner every night, I am making dinner and meal planning every night BUT I am really lagging in other areas. I need to make a doctors appointment for me, I need to make dentist appointments for the boys (and me), I need to look into Cub Scouts for Jordan, I need to call our cell phone company to try to lower our bill, I need to look at our budget and have a meeting with Gary about how we are going to change our spending habits and plenty more other things that I cannot think of right now.

I have been feeling really down about all of this. I know I need to stop my pity party and just get organized and get things done.

So this is my plan for this week. I am going to start by making a weekly list and maybe daily lists and try to keep my daily tasks in order while also tackling some of the other tasks, such as making appointments and phone calls.


Jill

Sweet Dreams My Boy

Earlier tonight my 13 year old asked me to tuck him into bed!!!
He will always be my little boy.

I love you Tyler

Getting Ready For FALL!!

I love Fall and Halloween!!!

For the past week I have wanted to decorate. Tonight my hubby took all the boys out. I got down a couple of boxes of decorations but I will need Gary to get the rest down. Everything is up in the rafters in the garage, I have been trying to find a way that I can keep all of the holiday decorations down on the garage floor so that I can get to them with out risking my life!!!

Another issue I have is that I love to decorate with Fall leaves, pumpkins, gourds, etc. but my sweet boys want all of that scary Halloween stuff they are DONE with the cutesy stuff (see the big spider on the couch). I really feel like I CLASH with my decorating for this time of year. I try to buy good quality scary stuff but for some reason this bugs me.

So here are some of my Fall/Halloween decorations, some a bit Halloween-ish, some Fall-ish (don't think those are real words)!!!

Jill