Something Special

 

I love being a mom.

The boys bring such happiness to my heart.

Not all the time mind you, but the majority of the time, yes.

 

Today I went into Caleb's room to check the dirty clothes situation. While poking around in there, I noticed that he had created a new poster for his wall. Since I am head decorator around here, I immediately wanted to have a talk with him about hanging stuff up without my permission.

 

But then I walked closer and decided to instead talk with him about putting his new poster in a frame.

 

 

 

 

Do you know which band Caleb has been rocking out to?

 

(Jesus Freak)

 

Love that kid so much!

 

Owen had a big day.

 

His first award in 1st grade and it was in the area of Leadership.

Who knew?

Guess that means he's doing what he's supposed to!

 

 

 

Love this kid too!

 

 

 

My heart is definitely happy right now!

Reason #548

I have often thought that I have one of the best jobs in the world. 

11 years in and I still love to teach little kids. 

Yes, some days are harder than other and I do get tired of all the meetings we seem to be having these days, but when it comes down to just me and a classroom full of kids - I love it. 

There are other bonuses as well. Some of the parents of my students are now good, close friends of mine. And of course, you can't overlook the vacation package! I don't think I would survive without summers off now! Students treating you like a Hollywood movie star every time they see you outside of work - priceless. And then there are "snow days" or in the case of where I live "freezing rain and black ice" days. 

Yesterday was starting to show the signs of a slick night ahead and since Mark is working graveyard right now, I had him scout out the situation for me.

"How are the roads? Anyone sliding? Any accidents?"

He kept me posted and by 10:00 I had a good feeling that we would have at least a 2-hour delay. It was a pleasant surprise to get the call that school was canceled for the whole day. 

First thing I did was sleep in of course!

To the point where I worried my children. 

Caleb woke me up by anxiously knocking on my bedroom door,

"Mom! Mom! It's 7:55 and it's a THURSDAY!"

The boys had gotten up around 7:30, got dressed, made their beds, brushed their teeth, ate breakfast and had their backpacks and coats by the door ready to go. 

Gotta love those kids!

I let them play the Wii as a reward for being so good and I am now relaxing with a cup of special Russian Tea that my cousin Hannah made me, brownies baking in the oven for company tonight and some extra time to go through the pictures on my camera card. 

My job is seriously the best! I'm getting paid to do this!

The first pictures up are harking back to wrestling season. 

Owen was so excited to wrestle this year and even though Caleb said he would rather have this toenails pulled off than be beat up and pinned by other people, we were all supportive of Owen going for it. 

Practices were two nights a week, which I can handle.

Wrestling meets were each Saturday starting at 8:30, which I can handle. 

However, there was only one meet in Pendleton (that I had to miss to go do the Poplar Run - more on that later) and the rest were all away - some, very far away.

Not so cool for a girl who doesn't like to get up early nor one who hates to drive anyway in the winter when there is snow and ice on the roads. 

But I did it. And my son Owen thinks I am pretty cool for doing so, so I guess those 5:30 wake-up calls - ON A WEEKEND - were worth it.

Our first meet was in Hermiston and Mark and I were totally unprepared for the amount of people there as well as the intensity displayed for this age level. Also the tears - lots and lots of tears. 

This is the gym when we first showed up. Not very many people yet because before another half an hour had gone by, the bleachers were completely filled up and you could barely move. 

Owen was a wee bit nervous, but Mark took him out there and they warmed up and he started to relax. Then it was his turn. His nerves started to act up again. (That and he was embarrassed at having to wear the singlet).

The ref velcroed a band around Owen's leg which would show the judges who to give the points to when he awarded them. 

Then they begin to wrestle. Now, I have never wrestled but I can yell with the best of them so I just repeated everything Mark said at a high volume and tried to snap pictures at the same time. I have no idea what I was yelling so I can't really walk you through these pictures but as you can see there were arms and legs involved and twisting/pulling and grappling on a mat. Use your imagination for the rest!

Mark and Caleb were glued to the action.

And Owen did some more pulling and grappling and rolling and twisting. 

And then he won his first match!

Yeah Owen! 

That was all it took.

One win and Owen was hooked. 

It didn't matter that he got worked over by the next kid he wrestled against. 

He was in love with a new sport. 

The season lasted a couple of months and while we didn't make it to every tournament, we made it to quite a few. They were all fun and I even got to see a few of my good friends from college as they were either in the vicinity visiting family (Sarah) or watching their own little boy wrestle (Hailey). 

That definitely helped pass the time!

Sarah even used her new super zoom lens and snapped some pictures of Owen for me.

And when Mark and I weren't looking, she snapped some pictures of us as well!

I am still worried about Owen wrestling girls (he didn't this season at all) and of course, me being me, I am still worried about ring worm (I made Owen SCRUB after every practice and meet) I think that I am starting to warm up to this sport. Who knew!? 

Now, I am off to enjoy the rest of my "snow day" with my family. 

We have a new game to try out - Wits and Wagers, some books to read together for Caleb's Battle of the Books competition that is coming up, some organizing and cleaning around the house and some plain old curl up into a comfy chair with a warm blanket and good book to read!

Hockey - Go Americans!

On Friday night the boys and I zipped out of school as soon as the bell rang and we headed up to Tri-Cities to meet Mom and Zach for dinner and a hockey game. (Mark was working...)

The boys had been looking forward to this and were really excited to go since they had never even seen a hockey game on TV. 

First we went to dinner at Red Robin's. Very good but very busy. 

(I had Denny's flashbacks from college!)

Trying to get a cute picture of the boys was not so easy. 

This is picture number 13. 

And this is the best one believe it or not. 

After dinner we headed over to the hockey game. 

We had seats behind the goal side which was nice. 

I didn't take my camera but instead had pilfered Mark's little digital one that fits easily into my purse. Since I did that, I can blame all blurriness on his camera, not on my photography talents of course. 

The boys were pretty excited as we walked around and took in all the sights and sounds. 

This is the American's mascot and I was a little concerned because I thought the announcer kept telling us his name was "Weiner" but it turns out that it was actually "Winger". Phew!

I had hoped to take a cute picture of the 3 boys at the hockey game but alas, that was not to happen. 

I did get one of my mom and Owen.

"Hi Mom!"

The game started not too long after that so I put away the camera and we just sat back and enjoyed the game. Caleb and Zachary had the best time and even took off their shirts to swing them over their heads for the song "Cotton-Eyed Joe". I wish I had got a picture of that. 

Owen was a wee bit tired and mainly wanted to sit on my lap or my mom's lap. We headed home close to 10 and both he and Caleb were snoring within 10 minutes of us being in the car. 

The Americans lost but it was still a good game. The boys were a little concerned when the players fought but I explained that in hockey, it is part of the game (and secretly a part I enjoy!).

Hopefully Mark can join us next time!

Do you want to know my favorite part of the whole night?

Hands down it was the bucket of mini-doughnuts that my mom bought. 

I am still dreaming about them. 

At the first intermission, she came back to our seats with a bucket of mini-deliciousness that came in 3 flavors. 

The doughnuts were warm and soft and gooey with their toppings. 

The first dozen were covered in chocolate with sprinkles. 

The second dozen were covered with maple frosting. 

The third dozen were simple cinnamon and sugar. 

I don't even have the adjectives to describe how good they were but just picture yourself closing your eyes and a little bit of heaven settling down onto your tongue.

That good.

Seriously.

I foresee another hockey game in my near future.

Book Club

This year I gave up Bunco.

I gave up Tuesday Taco Nights with some of my friends. 

I gave up couponing (for a while anyway).

I gave up watching any TV that isn't DVR'd.

But I refused to give up my Book Club!

Once a month, the group of us 8 girls get together at Great Pacific (a restaurant here in town) and eat, drink and be merry. 

We also usually discuss books. 

Usually.

We have a pre-determined book each month that we all have to read at least 100 pages of. Even if we hate the book - 100 pages minimum. 

Then we come together and talk about what we liked, what we didn't like, share favorite passages and compare it to other books we have read. 

It is way too much fun!

(says the book nerd)

Tuesday night, I hosted book club at my house. We usually get together at Christmas time but it didn't work out this year until now so we did our annual book exchange and fun here. It was perfect. 

We sat around for 3 hours, eating of course and talking about books. 

And babies, school, Christmas, adoption, vacations, and a few other things as well.

Two of our members were ill, but otherwise here's a picture that Mark snapped of the six that partied it up last night:

Book Clubs Rock!

(I'm just saying...)

Owen's First Basketball Game

Basketball for the 1st and 2nd graders just began on Saturday. 

There are no try-outs, no practices and the only time you have to show up is on Saturdays for the games. 

Low commitment on my part and Owen gets to have some fun for his part. 

Win, Win!

The only downside is that the games are always at 8:00. 

That really cuts into my sleeping in time...

Owen is on the "Black Team". 

That is no testament of his skills, only the color of shirt he wears. 

However, Owen is one athletic little kid and he is confident enough at this age  that even though he has no basketball skills to speak of, he can certainly ball hog with the best of them!

Before the game, the kids quickly listened to a few "rules".

Then they were each given a colored band to wear on their wrist. The other team also wears colored bands and the goal is to have the kids guard the opposing player who is wearing the same color of band as you.

The system works at least 14% of the time...

Our team is sporting some real height... watch out!

Game time! All of the next photos are blurry. I was on the other side of the gym and when they were moving slow, my zoom lens did ok, but once the action sped up, no such luck. 

Owen was pretty good at dribbling down the court and he even managed to be fast enough about it that the other team wasn't always set up and ready for him. 

Here's his first shot! A jump shot of course and although the ball didn't even come close to going in, I still gave him an A for effort!

Some more mad dribbling skills being displayed. I think he's trying to juke the other team so they don't know which way he's going to go. Mark said it looked like Owen himself wasn't sure which way he wanted to go...

Another shot attempt...and another miss.

But just look at the height of that ball!

More dribbling...

More shooting... (I actually think this one might have been a pass).

More dribbling...

You get the idea. 

Owen is convinced he is the next big thing in basketball. 

His new goal for himself is to go outside and make 10 baskets every day on our hoop here at the house. That and eat some more birthday cake to boost his strength...

Meeting Some Goals!

Spiritual Goal #3: Facilitate a Dave Ramsey Class

This last Wednesday marked the beginning of the new Dave Ramsey class that Mark and I are co-teaching. We had 8 different couples come to class and it was so fun and exciting getting to know them and hear how they are excited to try Dave out!

Call me crazy but I love it when people tell me that they are having money problems and they want help solving them! I am just like Monica on friends when she gets to organize something (Sarah will totally know what I mean!)

Want to put more in savings? 

Let me tell you how!

Want to stop paying out all your money to debt?

Let me tell you how!

It goes on and on...

It's so much fun being helpful and bossy at the same time!

Spiritual Goal #2: Do a marriage devotional with Mark

Last night after playing a mad game of Monopoly (we had to put the game on hold until this morning) we watched the movie Courageous as a family. I cried several times, like always, and the boys now have a new favorite movie. 

Once the boys were in bed, Mark and I sat down to discuss our newest book that we are reading together. My friend Hailey recommended it to me, telling me that she and her husband Matt had read it with a small group at their church. They all loved it and she thought that Mark and I would enjoy it as well. 

                                                    

Our plan is to read a chapter a week and then either Friday or Saturday night (which ever Mark has off) we will sit down and discuss it after we put the boys to bed. I always love to talk books with Mark and last nights talk was fun. To start the conversation, Mark asked me what one thing stuck out to me in the first chapter. I instantly blurted out

"When he (the author) talked about how when his wife got her mommy haircut of convenience it made her less of a wife to him". 

That's not exactly how the author phrased it but that's how I took it. 

Without missing a beat, Mark said "That's exactly what stood out to me too! That's strange that we would both pick the same thing!". 

Our conversation went on like that for a while, just sharing things that we agreed with the author on and things we disagreed on. This book is written by a married couple and they both write from their points of views at different times which we both liked. I am excited to be doing this and I am looking forward to our talk next week already!

So, 2 goals from the New Year starting to be met (I can't cross them off until they are completed!) and I can't wait to work on some more!

Games

 

What is the game that has taken the Golter house by storm?

 

Monopoly.

 

Each year we get the boys a new game for Christmas.

Mark and I love games and we want to pass that love on to our children.

Luckily they have no problem being the recipients of games and they actually get all excited and want to play them as soon as they are opened.

 

As soon as Monopoly was sprung loose this year, the boys quickly abandoned their other games and wanted to learn this new one.

 

Chess - so last spring...

 

Risk - so last summer and fall...

 

The four of us played our first game together this last weekend and since then there has been a daily Monopoly game going on at our house.

 

 

 

The boys are learning great lessons from the game also!

 

*It is better to own a property than to pay rent to someone else.

 

*When you develope your property or put some money into it, your reward will be greater later on.

 

*Life has unexpected surprises that can cost you money! Be prepared!

 

*The bank will not give you money for free and when they loan you money, it is never a good deal.

 

The lessons just go on and on! Not to mention all the practice they are getting with money. It is awesome!

 

 

If you stop by anytime soon, be prepared to sit down for a game or two!

The boys are anxious to play (and take all your money too!)

Family Dinners

 

 

 

 

When Mark and I lived at our old house, we had started to do "family dinner nights" with his parents, his grandparents and his brother Bill's family. Once we sold our house and were roving around until our house was built, family dinners were put on the back burner.

 

Finally, we are getting back to them again and I am so glad.

 

We all went to church this morning and then headed over to Hermiston to Bill and Molly's house. We even forgoed watching the Seattle football game so that we could go hang out. (We did DVR it though so we could watch as soon as we got home! Go Seahawks!)

 

While we were there I got to visit with my niece Ailsa for a while. She is totally into sewing now and has created quite a few projects. She showed me each and every one of her sewing accessories as well as her new fabric for future projects. Then she let me take a picture of her.

 

 

 

I couldn't decide between light or dark version so I put them both on here.

We got to visit around the table and I snapped a picture of Mark with his grandma.

 

 

Molly and I ended up outside watching the boys pretend to kill each other in a thousand and three different ways. Sheesh. At first we were embarrassed that our own children were so bloodthirsty but then we looked at each other and shrugged. Oh well. Kill each other as peacefully as you can was what we told them.

 

 

After much bribing (and threatening!) we got all five of them up to the top of Gabriel's new tree house for a quick picture. 

 

I tried to get a picture of Gabriel but as soon as I pointed the camera in his direction he got all shy on me.

 

 

Brody posed as soon as I asked him (sweet boy!) and it is official - he is taller than me. Much taller than me. He is going to go to Israel with Mark's parents next month and he is so excited. I can't wait until they get back so I can hear his stories of his adventure there.

 

 

In the spirit of using my camera more, I asked Molly and Ailsa to pose for me some more and they so sweetly obliged me.

 

 

 

I got the whole tour of Aunt McMolly's farm. I saw the chickens, ducks, geese, sheep, goats, bunnies, and horses. And a few dogs and a cat too!

This pretty horse is named Sunshine and Ailsa is a big fan!

 

 

 

 I am so excited that we are doing family dinners again and I look forward to many more photo shoots of these awesome children too!

Mad Libs with Caleb...Hilarious!

A quick disclaimer before you read this:

1. Yes, Caleb is getting braces.

2. No, he does not have armpit hair. 

Just don't let on that you know!

Phew, now that that's out of the way, we can move on. 

Caleb as a 3rd grader has been so interesting to observe.

He is lanky all of sudden. Seriously. All legs and skinny limbs and big feet too! He is starting to develop a personality that includes a sense of humor and is actually really witty at times. Shocker!

He makes Mark and I crack up all the time. 

For Christmas, I thought it was time to give him some things that might tickle his funny bone so I put some Mad-Libs in his stocking (Star Wars ones of course!). He was puzzled at first but then the other night he started looking through them and quickly saw the potential. He sought me out in the library and started firing orders my way. 

Mom! Give me a Verb!

Now I need 2 nouns!

Another Verb!

Now an adjective!

In the middle of asking he would sometimes start to snort with laughter. 

Then he'd shake his head, wipe a tear or two from his eyes and say 

"Just wait Mom, just wait. This is going to be epic."

When he was finished filling in all the blanks he would clear his voice and then start to read what we had created together. He had to often start over because he was laughing so hard. I was laughing at how he was laughing and Owen came in to find out what all the laughing was about. Then Caleb would read our story all over again and laugh just as hard with Owen and I chorusing in. 

Epic Indeed.

We did a few stories and then Caleb had to take a break because his stomach hurt (from all the laughing no doubt). 

Here's one of our creations (in 2 parts because I had a certain lens on and I couldn't switch it out because Mark was sleeping in our bedroom and now that he is graveyard we try to let him sleep as much as we can or he gets to be the "graveyard grouch".)

If you are looking for an evening of cheap entertainment just pick up this book! It was worth it's weight in gold.

Just ask my lanky, funny 3rd grade boy.