The Story of My Life

Sorry about the quality of the pics...I took them with my phone...



My mom gave this to me some time ago. She said when she saw it she thought of me...

I don't really know why...

Except that I DO have sticky floors 100% of the time.
My oven is ALWAYS filthy, which is to say NEVER clean.

So if that makes me a good mother, bring it on! In fact if those two items are the measure by which all mothers are measured...then I FOR SURE have pretty much secured Mother of the Year for...like...the next...100 years! Sorry about your luck other moms, but I have clenched the title.

If it also means that I have happy children, then I will gladly pour maple syrup on my floor and in my carpet and I will rub grease on the inside of my oven and light it on fire.

Anything to have happy children. (My mother is FREAKING out at the thought of having to clean that up this weekend when she comes to visit.)

Don't worry Mom...It's just Abby's room that I need help with.






See?

MOTHER OF THE Y.E.A.R.

The Near Future-Cast

This time of year is chronically busy around our house. Each year the late Winter/early Spring time is C.R.A.Z.Y.

It's baseball time.
It's D-Now time.
It's Easter time.

This year is particularly crazy because I am in school and we are travelling a bit to teach at other D-Nows.

So the Future-cast for the next few weeks looks like this:

*This week Mon-Thurs and Sat - I have class

*Saturday I am supposed to have a team mom mtg so I somehow must split myself in half and be in two places at one time...any ideas?

*Paul has a crazy schedule this week with D-Now prep that consists of meetings on Wed and Fri nights, plus shopping for food and making plenty of copies...etc.

*This week also kicks off Baseball practice two nights a week...THANKFULLY...the boys are on the same team this year!

*This weekend is D-Now and that will be....yep...you guessed it! C.R.A.Z.Y....THANKFULLY...my parents are coming on Friday to watch the kids for D-Now so Paul and I can concentrate on D-Now and class.

*Next week is MARCH people! Is that a shocker to anyone else? We have to have some sort of birthday party for Caleb and I have class on Mon, Tues, and Wed.

*NEXT WEEK I FINISH MY CLASS ON WEDNESDAY!!!

*Then Paul teaches another D-now for the weekend.(not our church)

*After that I suppose we will take a break. Oh yeah! Spring Break!

*I take some wedding photos to start the break and then we get to go to visit my parents while Paul and I teach a D-Now over the weekend ending spring break and THEN we will rush back on Sunday for our Easter Celebration and concert.

*And THEN the NEXT week is EASTER! Which of course means that the youth will be going to the Pre-Easter retreat.

Now I am going to take a nap.
Thank you.
Amen.

I know...I know...It's been too long...

What can I say. I have failed as a blogger lately. But I have some really good reasons....I think.

I have been taking classes to get my teacher's certification and I take the test tomorrow. Ironically the test has very little to do with the practical application in the classroom, but the "powers that be" say I have to know all kinds of "educational gobble-de-gook" (and yes, that is a technical term)to pass the test.

So.

I.
Have.
Been.
Studying.

It has been quite brutal. I have been going to class 4 nights a week and my family is really taking it well. We have been eating dinner at 4:00 in the afternoon/evening just to be able to eat together. I spend time with my kiddos after they get out of school and then after I get out of school (at 9pm) I do my homework leaving me awake until the wee hours of the night/morning. I get up and do it all over again!

It has all been leading up to this point. Tomorrow morning. Nine.A.M.

It has been quite some time since I have taken a test like this...let's just say...about ten years. YIKES! I also have not studied quite like this in a few...ahem...10 years. So all of this is adding up to a couple of nerves.

To top it all off, I am having a wee bit of guilt. Caleb's birthday is today and I have been so concentrated on this test, balancing family time and church...and D all of the above, that I did not plan a birthday party for him. For some reason this always happens to Caleb. He is SO good about it too. He is laid back and so comfortable in himself that he just looks at me with those enormous brown eyes and says, "Don't worry Mommy, we can have my party in two weeks."

OMGoodness...Do you love him?

Paul says I am doing a good job of studying and balancing...I hope so. I don't want to regret any part of this. I don't want my kids to suffer in any way. I don't want to fail my test...(and waste my $120!)

Good News? The test is tomorrow.
Bad News? The test is tomorrow.

So after tomorrow things will be better. I hope. Either way the test will be over. I will either pass or fail. I have studied all I am going to study. I either know it or I don't.

He knows my every moment.
He knows the outcome of my test tomorrow.
He knows if I pass or fail.

He knows.

He. knows.

Just What the Doctor ordered...

What, you ask, did the Dr. order? REST. Well the DOCTOR didn't actually order it, because I would have had to go to the Dr. to get such an order...and I didn't go to the Doctor.

Anyway...

I literally did a whole lot of NOTHING today. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Nuttin'.

It has been quite some time since I have had a day with nothing to do. And, needless to say, the last couple of weeks have been a wee bit crazy for me and my family. The very near future is ALSO a wee bit crazy...so I am very thankful that God planned this day of nothing for me today.

One of the crazy things that happened over the weekend was Jacob turned 8! I was freaking out a little bit! I am certainly NOT old enough to have an 8 year old! (just in case you were wondering)

We had a sleep over with 6 of Jacob's closest friends. They were loud. There was burping...a lot of burping. There were video games. There was hide and seek in the dark/mud. There was cake. There were presents. In the morning there were donuts and Sunny D.

There was NOT sleeping. For. A.N.Y.O.N.E.

It was a great party and we had a great time celebrating Jacob's 8th birthday. Here are the pics to prove it!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

The hats I wear.

These are the hats I wear.
Some I wear everyday.
Some I wear a lot.
Some not so much, yet occasionally the hat graces my head.
Many hats I am totally qualified to wear.
Others I am NOT AT ALL qualified to wear.
Some are real.
Some are imagined.
Some I chose.
Some were thrust on my head.
These are the hats I wear. (in no particular order)

mom
mom
mom
taxi driver
doctor
teacher
doctor
director
nursery coordinator
reality tv conisseur
bootcamp trainer
praise team singer
pharmacist
wife
warden
student
PTA vice pres.
chef (this one is up for debate)
follower of Jesus (this one is NOT up for debate)
referee
worker-outer
human timer (this usually comes with the refereeing hat!)
homework helper
team mom
blogger wannabe
Bible study facilitator
CNN watcher
scrapbooker
friend


I am sure there are more.
These are the hats I wear.

My day according to Facebook

I did this a few weeks ago and I'm doing it again tonight...so there you have it.

Tanya Brand "slept in" today. (until 7:00am)

Tanya Brand waited quite impatiently for the coffee pot to finish making the coffee at the preschool..because no teaching/learning was going to take place until I had a cup of coffee. I wasn't standing there alone either.

Tanya Brand had a "conversation" with a three year old today about his attitude.

Tanya Brand cleaned white paint off the table after her class made a really cute project.

Tanya Brand facebooked while she was in line waiting to pick up the boys from school.

Tanya Brand made arrangements to help her sons kindergarten class tomorrow.

Tanya Brand came home after school and watched her kiddos play outside because today was the epitome of San Antonio's perfect weather. Sunny and 65 degrees.

Tanya Brand filled out some paperwork for a new thing she is doing and then when she looked up and out the window toward the backyard all she saw was a HUGE fire...and then I noticed that it was the burn pile.

Tanya Brand went outside to talk to her husband about the burn pile being on fire and to express out loud, in words, my concern for the children and the burning pile of stuff in the back yard.

Tanya Brand was told by her husband that he is in complete control of the burn pile.

Tanya Brand left for her something new that she is starting.

Tanya Brand ate dinner at Chick fil A and when I ordered my food the cashier completed my sentence...apparently I go there alot.

Tanya Brand started something new.

Tanya Brand came home to 3 naked little people in my house. Don't worry, they belong to me and they promptly put on PJ's and hopped into bed.

Tanya Brand prayed with 3 little people and one of those 3 little people thanked God that I was the best mommy ever....be still my beating heart! (I'm pretty sure the other 2 little people were thinking it!)

Tanya Brand is sitting on the couch, blogging and watching all manner of reality tv that is DVR'ed right now, skipping through all the commercials and watching people lose weight in record time and sing terribly...some sing well though, very well.

Tanya Brand is done typing this blog.

New Year's Resolutions

I am not/WILL NOT make New Year's Resolutions.

I don't like them. I feel like I am either setting myself up for failure OR I choose things that are so easy it takes me one second to achieve them. Doesn't that sort of defeat the purpose of the resolutions? Aren't resolutions supposed to strive you forward to a goal? Yeah that's what I thought.

So I am not/will not make New Year's Resolutions.

I will however strive to do things better. I will continue to pray about the direction of my life and my peoples lives. I will try, try, try to be better at every thing I do.

Here, more specifically, are some things that are NOT New Year's Resolutions for me: (in no particular order of importance...that's just taking things to far...)

*workout/eat right
(plus cake)
*read through the chronological Bible
(this is so intriguing!!)
*serve my church and my kids school
(this is keeping my pretty busy...I wouldn't have it any other way!)
*clean my house/do laundry
(my husband and mother are ROFL right now...I have no idea why...)
*play with my kids
(in the new tree house of course and on the Wii)
*strive toward being a better teacher/parent/friend/wife
(this one is serious)
*become more efficient at the Wii
(Lego Star Wars to be exact)
*keep my scrapbook up to date
(this one is also serious)
*plan a 10 year anniversary trip...to somewhere...anywhere
(this one is VERY serious!)
*save money
(probably not...how about be an AWESOME sale finder!! Yessss!)
*take better pictures
(I am getting better every day!)

Now these may sound eerily like New Year's Resolutions, but I assure you they are not! I was doing these things on December 31, 2009 and I was doing them on January 1,2010 and I am continuing these things today.

So since I am NOT making any New Year's Resolutions I have nothing to worry about. Nothing to fail at...and if there is nothing to fail at then there are plenty of things to succeed at! I plan on succeeding at everything listed above.

Go ahead. Try to make me make New Year's Resolutions...you can't do it. But you go ahead and make your own New Year's Resolutions and then let me know how that works for you!

Happy New Year!