Happy Birthday, Meagan!!

Happy Birthday!
Hope it was a great day. We love you!
love, ColoradoBennetts

Happy Birthday Sissy!!

I love you Meags! You are one of the most amazing women I know! I hope you had the best day possible. I would say best day ever but the best day ever can only happen when we are together :) Happy Birthday Love! We love you!!!
Love, Ellynn Jason and Finny


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still so young..

Meags! Oh, how I love that you still laugh at my ridiculous faces. We sure love and miss you!! We need to take another Disneyworld trip (or Disneyland works, too)..soon!

Happy 29th, you hottie pants!!

We think you are very great! We love you Uncle Mike.
Love,
ColoradoBennetts

After Thanksgiving GRATITUDE post

(I could be wrong, but I think this pic was taken 2 Thanksgivings ago. Geof. got a bloody nose playing basketball and continued on..)

I had a clever idea of a little (or "yittle" in June language) thankful game we'd play before eating our Thanksgiving feast when Brind and Julia were here, but Cole misunderstood my request and (unintentionally) ruined it for me. And the empathetic, kind-hearted mom that I SHOULD have been, was gone at the moment. I was angry and irritated that my plan had failed and we didn't even discuss things we were thankful for at the dinner table (and I had to race out the door to class after my first serving).

Gratefully, we did have a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving day yesterday, full of leftovers, movies, a family hike/walk (Richmond doesn't have the best "hiking"), playing "school" (Dayne's idea), making "thankful" hands..er, turkeys, and just lovin' each other. Good day.

However, a THANKFUL list is in order. Here it goes..in all its randomness:

I'm thankful for...

-trees (Geof. likes to make fun of me for this one because when we were engaged/dating/getting to know each other, I once told a group of people I was passionate about trees and he laughed at that, "Really?" he said, "Name some trees for me." And I sat there looking silly not knowing enough about trees to be "passionate" about them). I do really like trees, though

-music (is there anything as wonderful in this world as good music??)

-color (blindness-especially after I'd once had my sight-would not go over well with me)

-people (I used to enjoy people more than I do now-sad, I know-but I can always say that God puts the RIGHT people in my path to teach me what I need to learn)

-my children (I wouldn't come close to reaching perfection-which I'm still light years away from-without my sweet, sometimes challenging, funny, smart, and made for ME children)

-Geof. (sometimes I am struck dumb-not to be dramatic, but seriously!-at how wonderful he is. To be married to me is not an easy task and he and I were meant for each other.)

-feeling happy

-good food that makes me FEEL good after eating it. I'm learning more and more about what is best for MY body and I am grateful.

-Virginia

-Alaska

-Colorado

-California (the states I grew up in. They each hold a place in my heart)

-My parents (I can say that many of my good attributes came from them. I won't discuss the bad ones..because you can only blame yourself for who you are NOW)

-my siblings (we are unique and independent and strong people. I admire that about them)

-My extended family (I have a great relationship with my aunts and uncles and cousins and grandparents, surprisingly strong for our large number (85 first cousins!)

-My in-laws (Can that include sisters and brothers in law and all my cute nieces and nephews? It's kinda ridiculous how well we all get along and enjoy each other's company. Thank you!)

-TRUTH (it's especially nice to find it in unexpected places..like your children, or the person you judged wrongly..)

-beauty (I used to feel bad about wanting a beautiful home and beautiful clothes-of course, this can go too far-but am understanding that beauty is something GOD given and can create much peace and joy)

-The Internet (only sometimes, though. I also hate it) (;

-travel (and a husband who enjoys it as much as I do)

-my body (when it functions well..it's glorious!..wait, did that come out wrong?)

-REPENTANCE and overcoming sin

-The scriptures (truth in EXPECTED places is also a glorious thing)

-good books

-dancing!!

-money (sad that I'm admitting this? Okay, better stated-the MEANS to do what I like to do)

-peace (this comes when we TRY to be our best selves..peace is the outcome)

-honesty and integrity (I admire and love a truly REAL and GOOD person)

-Christ (when I get distracted or frustrated with people or the culture of my religion-I can turn to Him and know that HE is real and the infinite source of Truth)

Happy post Thanksgiving! Love you all.

ColoradoBennett

I'm learning everyday. Today I learned that I have an anger demon on my shoulder doing it's best to block empathetic thoughts/words/actions. I was reading a book to Sierra and Kaia while they were playing nearby. I think they must have been spinning each other around and Kaia fell on me. I instantly got mad and I saw the look of fear in her eyes. A tiny voice said to notice the look on her face and react with kindness. But that voice was overpowered by my self-righteous indignation. It didn't even hurt me, but I laid into her about being more careful and blah blah blah. I stopped reading and starting working on my sewing project. Sierra and Kaia picked up where they left off in their imaginative play. I eavesdropped and realized that my over reaction was entering into how they communicated with one another. After a while I apologized for what I said. They both looked at me blankly and said "ok". Then I noticed them saying sorry more often while they played. It didn't work perfectly, I still have had to break up several fights, but I know it makes a difference when I apologize when I react without empathy.
I try to remember this quote by Sister Lant often: "If we want our children to come to Christ so that they might see His face, it is important that we seek to see it as well. We have to know the way in order to show it to them. We must put our own lives in order so that the children can look to us and follow. We might ask: 'What do my children see when they look at my face? Do they see the image of the Savior in my countenance because of how I live my life?'".
Do my kids see me trying to shoot fire out of my eyes at them because they barely hurt me, or do they see eyes full of love and empathy? I'm learning that the latter is the best choice.

I'm also learning that reading chapter books out loud to my children is helping them in so many ways. We finished the "Fablehaven" series and now we are on to "The Candy Shop War", both by Brandon Mull. They pull the stories we are reading into their lives in fun and creative ways. Tristan's Preschool started a word wall and I created one for Sierra and Kaia too. I try to get them to write at least one sentence a night using words from the word wall. I think between me reading to them and having them find a love of writing, we should be able to get them up to grade level reading.

{This is a picture taken in September of Tristan's Preschool class. They are all such cute, fun kids!}

I took Sierra & Ruby to the Dr. this morning and learned the word "peripatetic". I'm embarrassed to say that I learned that word while reading an article about Taylor Swift. I don't like country music and I've heard that Taylor sings country. I've bet I've heard some of her songs, I just don't know. I'm really behind the times. It was an interesting article about how she says healthy with her peripatetic lifestyle (per·i·pa·tet·ic/ˌperipəˈtetik/Adjective: Traveling from place to place, esp. working or based in various places for relatively short periods). She runs for an hour each day while listening to new releases from various musicians and she only allows herself one Starbucks something-or-other per day. Does she get stress fractures or plantar fasciitis from all that running? The interview didn't say.

Adam has been living a very peripatetic lifestyle this past month. He's been to TX, WA, UT and he leaves for AZ on Monday. I guess he found out last week that he will be working 6 to 8 weeks straight in Dec & Jan. He didn't want to tell me because it would bum me out. I overheard him telling Ellynn on the phone. I am bummed out. He promises he will be home for Christmas, he just doesn't know how long. I know I've been blessed that with all his traveling, big troublesome stuff only happens when he is home. One weekend Kaia fell out of a tree house and was acting very hurt and the night before Tristan came into our room in the wee hours and threw up. Both kids turned out to be fine, but I'm so glad I had Adam's help. Then this week our car started making funny noises and he was able to take it into the shop (I have really, really bad experiences with car repair places. Once when I was in college my car was in the shop for over three weeks. They kept telling me all this crap and it wasn't until my dad went into the shop to give them a hard time that anything got done. The last time I took our Jetta into the dealership the guy tried to tell me I needed new tires. Adam was so mad. Our tires only have 20,000 miles on them and are just fine. He tried to teach me all this car jargon to use the next time the dealership tries to take advantage of me because I'm a clueless girl. But I've already forgotten what he said).

So Sierra has a double ear infection and Adam has had flu-like symptoms for days. We will not be going up to my parent's log house like planned. Adam went to the store and picked up all we need for our very first solo Thanksgiving Dinner. I'm excited.

And lastly, I'm learning that races never order enough small shirts. I ran the Brighton Turkey Trot 5K last Saturday and this is what I walked away with:

An XL shirt. I tried to shrink it, but that was dumb b/c it is 100% polyester. So my grandpa has a new work out shirt. But the metal, oh the metal I'm very proud of. Even though I don't deserve it. I came in fourth in my age group so I stuck around to see if I could get one of these precious metals. They had a table with hundreds of 'em. Turns out it was the longest awards ceremony ever. They broke it into tiny age groups, starting with nine and under. Not only did they award the top three runners in every group, but also the top three walkers! Plus they had a raffle going on in between each metal. After about an hour, they called out my age group and the third place girl was a no show. I snuck up to the award table and told the girl I'd come in 4th and could I please have 3rd place's metal? At first she said no b/c they were going to mail it, but then she asked someone higher up on the totem pole and they said "sure". Hehe, so even though I came in four minutes and 23 seconds later than the first place girl in my age group (she ran a 20:20), I still got a metal! I'm a cheater...but a dreamer that one day I'll be that fast.

Goings on

I feel like I haven't written forever, and I haven't, for real. A brief update- last weekend Mike and I met Kenn, Barb, Marnie, Dave, and Adina up in San Francisco for the weekend. Jane and her friends and my friends did the babysitting for the weekend. Thank goodness for good peeps. We had a really great trip. I love getaways with Mike and it has been a long, long time.

My Beth moved to Maryland this week. My running buddy is gone. I am extremely sorrowful. Running buddies have a special place in my heart. I will miss her dearly. We tried to fill up our last week of her being here with as many little activities (mostly workouts) as we could. Many, many great memories, the Lorah family will be missed.

I am still struggling with plantar's fasciitis in my heel and that has been a major bummer. I have run a few times in the past week and I don't have too much pain. If it was just the minor pain I could deal, I just don't want any permanent damage. I am so worried about a chronic condition.

Jane made second chair for the Monterey County Honor Band and pulled straight A's this trimester. She has made a couple of good friends finally and is really enjoying life right now.

I just had a parent teacher conference with Sadie's teacher. Sadie is an amazingly smart girl, a gifted reader, and an amazing writer. These things I knew. Her teacher has to retire in December to go take care of his sick father. We are seriously bummed around here. Sadie adores him, he has a great sense of humor which my girl fully appreciates.

Ellie is still amazing. I am debating cutting her hair to a bob. She hates having her hair brushed sooo much, but it's so cute long and we don't want it to look utilitarian. Weigh in with any opinions please.

Mike has nearly no life at all. He has so much work to do this term and he has also begun work on his thesis. This week there were multiple nights where he stayed up till midnight or one and was back up at 4 or 5. I don't know how he'll keep up the pace. Hopefully his next term will not be so demanding. I think he and Jason are excited though to get moving on their thesis work.

Sawyer is giving us fits. Okay, I started this blog on Thursday I believe, maybe at the midnight showing of Harry Potter while Jane was getting her treat? It is now Sunday. Sawyer and I spent Friday night at the ER after Mike and I unsuccessfully tried to soothe our boy and his tummy aches. Finally at 2:30, when the whimpering became actual crying we set off for an area of the hospital that we have already visited within the past two months. So they took a lot of blood, did an xray and an ultrasound and came back with constipation (even though he had pooped two times that day and at least once every day and it wasn't overly soft). So... he was given meds to loosen everything up, those meds made him throw up. They gave him anti nausea meds and sent us home with more meds. We came home and he started running a low grade fever. I called the ER doc back, we are supposed to keep a close eye on him and call his Dr. Monday morning. In the meantime his tummy is feeling better but now his fever is about 102. I hate this kind of thing. I want to know what is wrong and I want to fix it! Hopefully our Dr. will get us on the right path tomorrow.

Okay, so it is Monday morning and I am finishing this post no matter what. Sawyer is seeing the doc at 11:30. He woke up crying at 3:15 am and told Mike he would feel better if they could play Lego Batman. So out they went to the living room for Lego Batman. Ellyn was asleep on the floor (it's her new favorite place to sleep, she goes there every night) and we were worried she would wake up so I carried her into bed with me which did wake her up. Awesome. So it was a night of Lego Batman, Little Mermaid, Finding Nemo, and Dora. I am soo tired!

Off to take Sadie to school. I wouldn't wake up Sawyer to take her to the bus, one late day won't hurt anything. Blog out!

P.S. Since I meant to add Jane to my update before I posted on Beech Tree and Sundry it has been a few days since I posted this on Breezy. So a brief Sawyer update. Dr. said everything looked clear for Sawyer, all the tests came back normal. He wasn't running a fever when I took him in and he was good all day Monday but his fever came back last night. Paula, I talked to him about the fever. Monday the dr. said he probably had just caught a flu bug that coincided with everything else. Could be, but... we are a little worried based on everything he's been through this past little while. Please keep the kid in your prayers.

We hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving. We love and miss you all.

Bglife

So I'm just going to keep blogging until someone gets sick of me and blogs.

So today hazel is all sassy standing there like this...


waiting for her tea.
Cory asks...where did you come from?
Hazel wimps around and says...HELL!

Yep that's our girl. Oh how we love her.

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Bglife

Harris sitting with daddy trying to solve the problems of the world.


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Snowman for the sick

Hazel was tossing it up today so she stayed home from church.  It snowed though, so the kids went out and made her a snowman.  They were so excited, trying to be as sneaky as possible, and then presented it to the sick little thing.  She was as excited as could be, then went back in on the couch. 

Yeah, I know… they’re soaked.  It’s Northwest snow, which is little more than solidified rain most of the time, but we’ll take what we can get.  Like our license plate says  - ‘Worst Snow on Earth.’  Or something like that. 

Bglife

Harris wants to brush his teeth too!


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Sweet Baby Boy!

Did you already get a phone call from Brind? He is very excited to brag about just how manly his child is :) I thought I wanted another girl... but I saw that boy and I am IN LOVE! I can't wait to hold him. And despite what Brind may have told you, we are still working on a name!

Happy 26th, Mind!!!

Is is me or have we slacked on beecher blog birthday posts? Hope you have a wonderful day and a wonderful year, Mindi! It's no surprise that everyone loves you! You're such a perfect addition to our family.

So Cory and I are pretty proud that our house is NOT covered and baby shtuf but really Cory do you think this is the best toy? Do worry I'll save my baby and give him a sock or something.



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Bglife

Our LiTlLe BaT.....



sO cUtE!!


No one else would put their costume on again so I could take their pictures. Yes- I forgot to take any during any of the parties. Oops!

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