Little kids

We had a really great Thanksgiving. We spent most of the day at the Weiss' eating, hanging out, chillin with the niece and nephews and relaxing. Good food, great company, very nice. Then we came home and layed around for a few more hours enjoying some of The Office and Home Alone again (which is on all the time now), I even let out a tiny laugh at a part that I have seen a million times and in my food coma state I thought deserved a tired funny response.

This picture is actually from Halloween. My mom and I joined my sister and her adorable family to the petting zoo where little man Kestan was dressed head to toe as a cow. He had these little mittens that you had to struggle to find tiny fingers as he reached up for your hand to walk along side him. This kid is beyond cute, and like we all are in love with our niece and nephews, cousins, kids and grandkids... I of course think my nephew just so happens to be one of the cutest kids around, and that's that.



So Kes has began to LOVE uncle Matt... he just thinks he's the coolest, which is great. Anytime my sister says "Lindsay's coming over.." or "it's Lindsay!" Kestan's first response back is "Matt!! Matt!" We got a voice mail today from Kes saying over and over again "Hi Matt... ejghj eidh Matt, Hi Matt... eidjha wj wu Linly Hi Linly.. Matt! Matt Hi Matt!" You get the picture :) So pretty much any voice mail from an almost two year old that goes like that, is pretty great. And I know being an aunt is way easier and less tiring than being a mom or even a grandma for that matter... but as exhausting and life changing little ones can be.. at least they are so dang cute, that helps, right? :)

It's the most wonderful time...

Hello there. I woke up early with the dogs and then have taken the afternoon to be lazy. I have to remind myself that we have absolutely nothing planned the rest of the day and I really love that feeling. Matt set up our wifi at home because soon I will be working from home! It will be an adjustment but I am pretty excited about it. Work provided us with lap tops and soon cell phones to keep up with our clients. Working from home actually saves our organization money and let's us have more flexibility and thankfully keep our jobs at least for the next year that is. I definitely still have a long day at work every once in a while but I have truly enjoyed all of experiences (even the not so pleasant ones) with kids and their families because I know I am gaining alot from each encounter. So I find myself cozy and at home, currently on my lap top on the couch while Home Alone plays in the background, and a meal cooking in the crock pot. I love this time of year when all the good holiday movies come on. I have added a few to the list over the years but for the most part my favorites are the ones I've been watching for years.

Thanksgiving; Planes, trains and automobiles. If you have not see it, please rent it. Classic Steve Martin and John Candy. Love it.

Christmas; Scrooged -Bill Murray, maybe not so traditional but hilarious and sweet. Definitely How the Grinch stole Christmas (the cartoon). Home for the Holidays -Robert Downy Jr. and Holly Hunter, dysfunctional family makes for a great comedy. Another family with a lot going on but still the underlying idea is about love; Family Stone.

I am not a big candy eater, I like gum and reesee's peant butter cups, but around this time of year I love candy canes, plain. simple. peppermint candy canes. The grocery store by our house had fifteen kinds but no peppermint, thankfully Target had some :)

I put up our christmas lights on our porch and windows for the outside and love them. I don't want to rush and get a tree but when we do get it I know I will love decorating it, especially since my wonderful aunt Tracy hand made us a beautiful tree skirt for our wedding present, it's going to look great under our tree!

And if you've ever been around me during christmas you already know this but; my abosolute favorite christmas music is by the Carpenters and Amy Grant and then I like the really old stuff by Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, all the stuff my grandma likes to hum along to.. warms my heart as she would say.

I hope you are all having a chance to enjoy your traditions, start new ones or whatever it is you chose to do...

there's something about the air

so work has been going well, busy but good. there is something kind of odd going around with all of our families, some things seem to be extra chaotic and we can't decide if it's the weather, this time of year, or perhaps too much dairy. i don't know what that means, i just had to add a third thing on the list for some reason. i took off work early today because i had a sinus head ache, and this was my first one ever, so i have much more sympathy for people who say they have a sinus head ache, i now understand. and later in the evening my boss called me asking where one of my clients lived, i told him and said "why, are you meeting up with them?" which this never happens in a normal situation so i instantly knew that something had gone wrong. he said "yes, SRS was called and we have to go over there now, i will tell you all about it tomorrow". so, this obviously is not good news and this has been a very chaotic family since the beginning (July). however it did make me wonder, if i was at work would this same thing have happened? i had called this mother five times in the morning from 9-noon because i knew they had a scheduled meeting tonight and i wanted to confirm a meeting with them for tomorrow, however mom never answered and never returned my calls (which is unusual for this family). i was on my drive to pick matthew up from work because his car wouldn't start this morning. his car is fine, just hates the cold weather and we were leaving at the same time so it was just easier to take him then wonder if he caught the bus, etc.
so, i let myself burden myself with this families issue for a few minutes. wondering if i could have done anything different. then i stopped myself, and reminded myself not to feel burdened or internalize any of the negative things i see and hear every day (there are lots of good things i see too) but when you feel compassion and empathy for families it is also easy to drown yourself in their problems too. i take myself back and remember that i can only help people who want help, and even then i can only do so much. their burdens are not there for me to carry. i know that it is all worth it at the end of the day even if i only help 2 out of ten, at least those two were helped, right?
i also know that things happen for a reason. and whatever happens with this family (i obviously don't know the whole story yet) but there could be an issue of the mother losing custody of her kids and as sad as that is, it might be something that saves this family.
i want to continue to help, to be energized to help those that want it, and know that my part is my part and the rest is up to them.
i continue to work from a place of goodness, to try and see the bigger picture more often. i know that even a little is better than nothing, and i'll strive for a lot...

do you love recess?

i went shopping on saturday with my mom and sister. it is always great having that girl time together to catch up, have fun, and grow closer. we were at an outlet store, which any sort of store/mall on a saturday is one of my least favorite things to do. i don't like all the crowds, all the hurrying, people not walking my speed, etc. but i managed to enjoy myself because of the company i was with, plus i really like people watching. i was in the little girls section of old navy looking for a cute top possibility for my niece. a mom and her daughter were slowly getting closer to me, and eventually pushed me out of the isle as i leaned into some clothes and made some weird noise that made only myself laugh as i walked away.. but before that the mom was looking at every single shirt and reading it to her daughter. the girl was around 9 or ten so i am pretty sure she could read all of these herself, which was kind of the funny part to me.
the mom -"ohhh i like recess (reading the shirt), amber! do YOU like recess??"
eight seconds later, the mom -"ohhh marshmellows, amber do YOU like marshmellows?"

you get the idea :)