biRthdAY FUN!

I was very lucky this year to ceLeBrAtE with of my fAvoriTE people.

The boys and I started out the day at Color me Mine and painted our hearts out! I was fun to see what they picked and how they painted their pieces. Wylie is very artistic and choose to paint a picture on his plate. I am always impressed by his patience and skill.

After that we met up with my sister to have lunch and catch a movie. It was so nice of her to invite me out to lunch since we don’t get to see each other much and we invited her to join us to watch Alice in Wonderland, which we all loVeD!

My sweet friend Nicole asked if her and her husband could join us for dinner at our favorite “birthday” dinner place. I am so glad that they did, they are a lot of fUn to be with. We had a delicious dinner and then headed to rent “the time travelers wife” that was an adventure all in it’s self. After two red box’s and an expensive trip to blockbuster we were off to watch the movie.

I continued my celebration the next day scrapbooking with my favorite ladies. We enjoyed wonderful dessert pizza Julie made for my birthday treat (she is the diva of desserts). Lana made us laugh with her funny jokes and Nicole is always full of good conversation. I had a wOndERfuL birthday thanks to my favorite people:)

just what we NEEDED!

 

Fresh air, sunshine, a little warmth and some exercise. After our 18th episode of SpongeBob, 80th game of tetras and lots of lounging around our house, I suggested that we take our dog to the dog park. So we put on our gear and headed out the door.  During our walk it was nice to see Wylie guide the way and give Payne lessons in breaking sticks. It gives me hope that they will be better friends soon.

We hope you enjoyed the little bit of sun today too:)

32……

Yesterday I celebrated my 32nd birthday. I can honestly say, I cant believe I am 32. It’s not really a bad thing but in my head I still see myself as mid-twenties.

I have a thing with numbers, when I turned 19 I thought I was going to loose my mind. All the responsibilities that I was going to take on, a job and college but still living at home (if only things were so simple now). Life made a quick change and I was going to become a mother? Talk about pressure, I had a lot to accomplish quickly. I wouldn’t change a thing. I truly believe the events in my life have changed me, all for the better.   My 25th birthday came along, I had just married the man I adore but again the expectations of what I need to accomplish (is this just me?) Now 32, I feel like I am not sure what comes next, I wish I could freeze time. My kids are at a great age, I have a strong marriage and  I am blessed to be where I am, where I always hoped I would be as an “adult” (maybe with one more little person in my life, dressed in pink of course) but I am in a good place! Welcome 32, I hope we have a good year:)

a little confidence….

 

My sweet Wylie comes in this morning wearing a very interesting outfit, not anything I wouldn’t approve of but interesting. I ask him if other kids dress like this and he says sometime and then he said “it doesn’t matter if they did, I like it” I was impressed.  This lead us to another conversation about his size, for a sixth grader his is quite small and he proceeds to tell me that some kids at school call him midget  (my heart sunk). I asked if that made him feel bad? He said no, they  like me for who I am.  I hope that as he enters a world of not so nice kids next year, aka JR HIGH, he caries that attitude with him and he remains confident with his decisions and stays true to himself.

7 years….

Today, Mr. Strate and I have been married 7 years!! How time flies when you are having fun:)  We decided to celebrate early  and in segments due to the busy week at work he was going to have. Friday a movie and a little dinner on Sunday at our favorite restaurant, the Porcupine. Tonight we went and watched our beloved Ute's get slaughtered:( Thank you LOVE for making this a great life, I look forward to what the future has in store for us.  Here’s to the next 7!    

Struggling :(

Payne is struggling with preschool and this bReAks my heart! We decided since Payne stayed home with my mom everyday that we would enroll him in preschool this year  to work on his socialization skills. By nature I think he is a very shy person and that is ok but being with my mom and not around other kids amplified it (in my opinion). He was never really excited about the idea from the beginning. I shrugged this off as “it’s a change and he will adjust”. He did ok at first but around the Holidays with so many breaks, I would take him and he would melt down in my car. I had to leave to get to work and that was that, I felt bad. But now that I am home I have been able to take him in and see what he does there.

I believe that he goes to one of the best preschools in the area and the teachers are amazing!  So I know that is not how he is treated. I think it truly stresses him out to be left with people he doesn’t know well.  He has his ROCK Lucy but she wasn’t there today and I think that didn’t help. I told Payne that I was going to leave after story, about 30 min. into the day and he kept asking me to stay longer, I was firm that if I came in I had to leave after story. At free play, he only want to play with me, so I kept asking other kids if they wanted to join in, he was ok with that.
At story he sat close and looked at me with pure pleasure in his eyes. I knew I had to leave and break his heart and this I did. It was not pretty, I leaned down to say good bye and his eyes teared up and he held onto my arm as tight as he could. His teacher suggested that I draw a heart on his hand to remind him that I love him and will be back soon and he drew one on my hand. So I said good bye and, the heart helping a little but there were still tears. I had to leave, I can’t go to school everyday all day. That would defeat the purpose. So today I leave with as many tears in my eyes as him and I am sorry!!

Responsibility

Today Wylie came home from his weekend at his dads. I ask him the same questions, did you have a good weekend, did you do anything fun, did you miss me… you get the idea. He proceeded to tell me about his weekend and finished with “oh yeah we ( him and his step-brother) bet Super Mario for the Wii”. I asked if he had taken his game to his dad’s or was it Cole’s? He said he rented it, I knew right then he was not being 100% truthful with me. I asked him where his game was, I haven’t seen it around for awhile. He responds with "don’ know”. Which made my blood boil, the fact that I spend ridicules amounts of money on his entertainment and that is what I get. I sent him on a search for it, of course he can’t find it because I know it is at his dad’s.  I don’t mind that he takes his stuff there, it is his stuff after all, BUT please bring it back!! Dismissing the fact he is lying to me, I try to make a responsibility lesson out of this. I have a knack for going overboard on stuff like this but I don’t think he realizes how much his stuff costs. So I take inventory of all of the games, play systems, etc… and say to him I could have stayed home for a whole month with out pay if I hadn’t bought all of this STUFF!! I threaten that we will go to the neighbors after school and ask them if they have it and he say’s “we don’t need to involve them with this” (really, involve) LOL. He finally comes clean that it is his game at his dad’s and he didn't want to tell me cause he was afraid that I would be mad!! OMG. I think my response would have been nicer if he would have told me the truth!

if he wasn’t so damn cute!

(Halloween 2009, a nerdy football player?)

This leads me to the Responsibility issue, at first I wanted to believe him, that he wouldn’t lie to me and he really doesn’t know. But this is the ONLY issue have with this kid. Overall he is WONDERFUL, he is smart, funny, polite, respectful, giving, caring he is so many things that I am truly grateful for but he needs some serious help with responsibility. He will tell me the day before he has a report due, homework, a spelling test, oh yeah I have this or that. He can never remember where he has left something or if he did something I asked. So how do I re-enforce responsibility?? HELP:)