Skating in a winter wonderland A Photo Journal:

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*Just a reminder these photos are my property and are copyright protected. Please do not reproduce without permission.*

I'm seein' Orange!

Ryan finally made it to karate tonight and guess what?! Yep, he got his orange belt!!! Go Baby Go! Momma is so proud. :)

Isn't he handsome? He looks so proud, and he should, he's worked hard for this honor.

In other news.... After three days of him being out of school I'm really gonna miss the booger. We've had three great days together. Today was both the busiest and the best. He's really seemed to enjoy my company. We've laughed and tickled so much it has been wonderful. The highlight for me was at lunch today. He asked Meme to take us to lunch and as we went to sit down at the table he says he wants ME to sit beside him! ME!!! :) This is a huge thing because ne never asks me to sit beside him it is always anyone but me. We chatted and snuggled and truly enjoyed each other. I'm one blessed Momma to have such a sweet little boy.

Last night I attempted to capture some genuine smiles from him while I tickled him in my lap with a camera in one hand. This is what I got:

Truly Ryan in a nutshell. :)

Snow Day

Ryan has been home from school for two days now. Monday was a snow day and we went with Meme to take her new baby, Sassy, the tri color collie to the eye vet to be sure she did not have a genetic disorder that would cause blindness. The little cutie passed with flying colors! Although I'm not crazy about dogs this one's pretty special! She is not very Sassy though. :) She is however, my new buddy. Unfortunately I don't have anymore pics to post of her. I'm sure she will be the subject of one or two in the future.
After we got home I told Ryan to go play with his toys. This little boy does not seem to like his toys anymore. All this booger wants to do is play video games or the computer which although they are educational they are video games. We have been putting a big limit to them and told him he needs to play with toys instead. Its apparently not just the games that are the problem.... He FLAT OUT does not want to play with toys. I really don't know why we are getting him any for Christmas. He will do ANYTHING to avoid playing with them. Example:

Yep, that's my boy, cleaning the walls. After about the 5th time of me saying "Ryan go play with your toys" he finally said "Mom, can't I just wash the walls or something?" Well, fine, by all means precious, wash those walls. And he did almost till Daddy came home. See, anything to avoid playing with toys. Quirky little thang.

Weekend Wrap up

I had to take a break from my blog and Facebook (GASP!) for a few days because of school. Friday was the "close" of classes and I was lucky enough to find out Thursday and Friday that I had missing assignments that I totally remember turning in. :( Apparently because I was working from my lap top the work doesn't always save. Doesn't make much sense to me but that's what IT says. oh well. Everything is finally turned in except for one test I am waiting for the teacher to reopen. (Shew) This semester is OVER! YAY!!! It has been the most trying thus far. Now I can get back to cleaning the house. I kid you not I haven't done any cleaning (other than necessary dishes and laundry) in the last two weeks in preperation for finals and the end of the semester.
Saturday was a busy day. At 8 am we had breakfast with Santa. Now, Ryan has informed me that because the world is so big Santa cannot be in every place at once so he sends his helpers out to visit kids dressed like him. He was sure he would be eating with one of the Fakes but assured me he would not out him. When we got to breakfast and he saw the jolly man I asked Ryan if he was the real Santa Clause and guess what? He was! Ryan confirmed it so it must be true!

After our breakfast with Santa Ryan went to Karate to test for his orange belt. I sure hope he got it!!! :) I know he can do it! Since Ryan had to be at Karate, Meme went to Lowes and picked up a kit to make his passenger car for the train he started last week...

(yes that is the origional Mario Brother's 3 in the background... Matt found my old NES while digging our Christmas stuff out of my Mom's basement.)

After Karate Ryan, Meme and Uncle Tobey headed off to pick up the newest addition to the family.... Meme's new puppy, Sassy. (Sorry the picture quality is so bad, I forgot my camera and had to use my phone instead)

Cocoa in the back, new little girl Sassy in front

With a kid free evening Mom and Dad decieded to relax. Yes, after two weeks of not cleaning the house really needed my attention but was sooooo ready do nothing!

Although we were totally prepared to watch movies and become couch potatoes we had some very welome surprise visitors! :) A great evening indeed.

So finally this afternoon Matt helped me clean the house, bless his heart! It's almost in presentable order!

Now mother nature is wrapping up the weekend with a winter wonder land. It is beautiful outside. I tried to take a picture but the quality isn't so great since it's dark but the snow falling sure does look pretty cool!

Nothin' for Christmas?

I'm taking a really quick study break to post this at the request of my little star. (I just learned that the majority of my course work for the semester for one class never got saved so I have to redo it all before Monday 8am. UGGGHHH!!!)

I swear! I only showed him a video of this once! I jokingly told him if he didn't be good, this is what he'd be singing for Christmas and well, he's taking it further than I thought he would.
No worries, he's been really good for months now so I do believe he will be getting a little bit more than "nothin" for Christmas. ;)
Doesn't the hot chocolate on his face just make the video all the more realistic?

Add this mischievous grin and he could pass for Dennis the Mennis. ;)
Welp, it's back to study land for me as soon as Daddy gets home to entertain the little booger. Gotta get a lot of work done in a very small span of time but I'm determined! Hopefully I can finish before Ryan's lunch time tomorrow and go have lunch with my boy! Fingers Crossed.

Wait.... What?

The most awesomest thing just happened!!! (yeah, I know "awesomest" not a word) Ryan was having one of his moody pouty days.... Well, part of that could be because we just a.) boxed the wii up to be sent back for repairs and b.) limited his video game time to 20 min per day and computer to "equal to the amount of time spent playing with toys", because the child WON'T play with his toys. All my boy wonder wants to do is sit and play video games. I am not letting his brilliant little mind turn to mush.
Anyway, this kid was moody. The first thing he did when he got off the school bus after getting a drink of Gatorade and refusing a snack was hop on the computer. I calmly reminded him he had laundry to put away and that he cannot play computer till he gets some quality toy time in. Well, the demon that came outta the child just lead me to believe he needed to chillax and wind down so I let him play for a few minutes. Chillaxin soooo did not work. When I finally made him wrap it up the sweet little booger went bonkers!!! I'm talkin "WAAAAHHHH!!!! I can't believe you are soooooo mean!!! You never let me do anything!!!! This is not fair!!!!" followed by laying in the floor fake crying. Really? I have learned that 95% of the time when he's like this, he's hungry so I promptly offered a snack again. Nope. So he trudged his little behind up the stairs to his room to pout. It didn't last long though.
About 2 or 3 minutes passed and I heard him creeping down the stairs. So I simply said "you are more than welcome to come down here and play but leave your attitude in your room". Usually that would prompt another spiral of squealing but to my surprise he hopped around the corner and said (Brace yourselves)
"I am sorry for what I did.... I shouldn't have acted like that". Without prompting!!!!! :) And with a look on his face that showed he was disappointed in himself!
WOWSERS! That just blew me away! Here I thought I was in for a rotten stinkin night!
So I hugged him tight and snuggled him. I offered him a snack and this time he accepted. I'm tell you, it's like two different kids, especially when you feed him. After one little bite of that yogurt he was bouncing off the walls! :) Happy and cheerful! What would have normally been a 3 hour fit and power struggle ended with this:

giggling and standing at the front window eating a frozen yogurt stick watching for his Daddy to come home.
I cannot praise this kid enough right now! He went from one extreme to the next and handled himself so well! :)

Too many people miss the silver lining because they're expecting gold. ~Maurice Setter

I might not be the most optimistic person out there. I'm actually far from it. My thought is usually "expect the worst, be pleasantly surprised when you get the best". Sometimes it's not the best way to think of things but it works for me. The funny thing is when I hear someone else thinking like that I usually feel the need to tell them to be positive. Thinking about all the negativity in our society brought me to a simple pact that I made with myself this spring. I vowed not to complain about the weather. This is a big deal for me because I'm a whiner, I admit it. But I did my best. When people would complain around me because it was raining this spring I simply said "that's good, the flowers need it!" If someone would complain this summer because it was too hot I would say to myself, "it's not cold, and at least I can go inside to the air conditioning" or "it looks so beautiful with the sun shining". When it rained like crazy this fall I said "Rain is a good thing", "we need the rain". I t-totally despise getting out in the rain but I know that in the cycle of life we need it. So now that it has gotten REALLY cold I must say I'm having a much harder time not whining. It's COLD! So I'm looking for the positive and here is what I've come up with:

1. It's warmer than the North Pole. If Santa can handle that, I can handle this.
2. I have a home, with electricity warm blankets and jackets and sweat pants and socks to keep me warm, I'm sure there's a homeless person out there who would give their right leg for all of that.
3. The snow has managed to mostly stay off of the roads and my walk areas and it looks so pretty on the rooftops and grass.
4. Since the snow has melted pretty quickly from the roads and sidewalks there is minimal chance I'll break my bum on the slickery ice (yes I make up words, and that's one of my favorites... at least I think I made it up, it sounds a lot like something Tigger would say).
5. Ryan has had an absolutely wonderful time playing in the white stuff!
6. You can't have snow cream without snow.
7. If it didn't get cold, I don't believe I could appreciate the warmth as much as I do.
8. CHRISTMAS TIME!

I've found my silver lining and I hope you can find yours. <3