a life less common

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Little People, Big Dreams

If my boys would actually be serious and you asked them what they wanted to be when they grew up you would probably get some unique answers. Well, except for the fact that Gabriel insists that he does not want to grow up and wants to stay a kid because 'men don't play and kids do'. But either way, he still has dreams brewing in his mind.

Last summer Gabriel fell in love with tennis. He would wake up in the morning and ask if tennis was on and if it was he would sit and watch entire matches. It was amazing actually. I didn't think he would have patience to sit through a set, much less an entire match, but he did! And he had a favorite tennis player, Novak Djokovic. He would pretend that he played tennis and pretend to with and say 'I'm Djokovic!' When tennis season was done Gabriel was beyond bummed. I thought the fascination would die away since tennis was done but it hasn't. Gabriel will still pretends to play tennis and loves to hit balls across the room. So Gabriel's answer would be that he wants to be a tennis player when he grows up :)

Eli, whom always is complete opposite from his brother appears to have a different passion. Eli loves piano. When my brother comes home from school, Eli will go grab his hand and lead him to the piano. Then my brother and Eli sit and play for a long time and Eli tries to copy his Uncle. Christopher, my brother, will take Eli's hands and play this simple song every time they sit down and one day after Christopher was done playing, Eli went and pretty well played the song all by himself! He will sit down by himself at the piano and try to play and honestly, he can carry a tune pretty well! Today he climbed up on the piano and grabbed a music book, opened it up, pointed to some notes and then pretended to play them and then put the book back. It's such a cute obsession for a 20 month old. So Eli's answer, if he could talk, would be that he wants to be a piano player.

I know that their interests will change and they will grow out of some interests and into new ones and I'm ok with that and excited to see what they will be interested in next. But for right now, I love my little tennis player and piano player and will encourage them in what they enjoy :)

Friday, February 3, 2012

Randomness...

Life has been ever-changing the last month and a half and it's crazy.

School started up again, I'm taking 15 credits and at times it is very challenging. Back in the day when I was doing my generals, I didn't have kids, and I was only 16-17 years old, anything less then 16 credits was slacking... I always took between 16-18 credits each semester and it didn't really bother me. Then again, the classes back then were, well, generals, and not exactly hard. This quarter I'm taking Medical Laws and Ethics, Kinesiology, Human Anatomy II, and Massage Techniques II. My mind is jammed full of words, terms, names, ect. that I could have never even thought of and at times, I'm so confused at to why they gave certain muscles and bones they names they did... I mean, really, I think they just wanted to make up crazy new words and use letters in the alphabet that aren't used as much. Like zygomaticus major or sternocleidomastoid... they purposefully tried it make it difficult... in my opinion ;)

Soon I'm going to have to start doing two massages a week for my massage class... now I just need to find clients!

School is also more challenging this quarter then the last because of my job. When I started my job I was at the end of my last quarter and there wasn't much expected of me at my job because I was new. Now I've had the job from the beginning of this quarter and there is far more expected of me at work then before. I have started (though not sure if I will continue...) to interview people and train in new waitresses. The restaurant was also short on staff for awhile so I had to take more shifts then I actually wanted too or thought I could handle. I'm actually still stuck in this stage for a bit longer but it should change soon as I've trained in a few more waitresses as of late that will help relieve the load.

It's hard having two kids and going to school full time and working. I give people credit who do this all the time with little to no help. Thankfully I have some people around me who help me out and watch the kids for me when I have to go to work and school. I don't know how I would do it without them! I have to say though, that I still miss my kids something fierce. Going from stay-at-home-mom to student-working-mom is definitely challenging, for me and them. I can tell they miss me and I really miss them!

My boys are doing so well! Eli is finally getting a little weight on him and Gabriel is getting so tall! Eli doesn't like to use words much but he is far from quiet :) He is picking up more and more though with words and I am so proud of him! He is also discovering more of his adventurous side and therefore, getting into lots of trouble :)

Gabriel is entering a new stage of learning. He has always been a very factual child. He has never been one to do a ton of imaginary play, he would rather fix something or learn how something works. Now he has entered this stage of asking how and why everything is the way it is. I love it! I love to teach him new things about the world and all the little parts of life. Granted, I'm not big into how things work, so a lot of his questions stump me... like 'how does a car run?' ect. But I try my hardest and sometimes, I just have to send him to someone else who knows more mechanical things then I do... like Opa :)

The boys and I have been sick. A lot. It seems like one or all of us have been sick since Thanksgiving. The worst hit for me a little less then two weeks ago. I lost my voice and felt (and still feel) like I got hit by a bus and someone is trying to blow up a balloon in my head. I missed work and school and pretty much tried to lay in bed or on the couch for a few days. I thought it was going away, and then it relapsed and I feel like I'm back at square one, except I still have my voice, somewhat :)

Anyway, life has been ever-changing, difficult and rewarding lately. We're taking it one day at a time and doing what we can for that day, and seeing my boys taken care of, loved, learning and happy is the best thing in the world!

Friday, December 23, 2011

little family christmas

Today I celebrated Christmas with my boys! I had to do it a little early because the next two mornings I work in the AM and on Christmas day the house is going to be full with family members from afar... ok, just the Brainerd area... so not too far but you know what I mean :)

So last night I gave my boys their Christmas PJ's and we put out cookies and milk for Santa! By morning the boys totally forgot about the whole thing so I actually had a moment to wake up this morning before we dug into presents :)

The boys got up pretty early (6:30AM) so it was dark outside so you'll have to excuse the dark pictures...

They loved all of their gifts!

I tried to get a picture of my boys in the Christmas PJ's...

Then this is where I found Gabriel most of the morning...

Being ever so naughty taking pine needles off the tree...

Then I made breakfast for us. Carmel rolls and scrambled eggs... YUM!!!

The boys spent the rest of the morning playing with their new toys and fighting with their new swords! Uncle Christopher helped them with the toy tool set cause, ahem, I have no idea what goes with what and what not. And since the toy set resembled real life tools, well, I was kinda lost and Gabriel kept asking me how things worked and soon my brother came to my rescue after the umpteenth 'I don't know how it works' from me :)

We ended up going to town to an appointment but afterwards I took my mom (whom is also having a birthday today, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!) and the boys out to lunch at my work, The Lazy Moose... not that I love work so much or anything that I want to go in on my day off... but have you been to Moose Lake? There is only one nice restaurant in town to go to and I happen to work at it :) I don't mind though!

We got home, I put the boys to bed and ate some pie and then started on supper. I made green bean casserole, creamy sweet potatoes, and herb roasted chicken! YUM!

By the way, I discovered today that it takes a heck of a lot of work to get the giblets out of a chicken if your chicken is not de-thawed completely. Seriously, a very. long. time. I had my hand up a chickens bottom for far too long of a time today...

Ahem.

After supper we made a gingerbread house! Gabriel was so excited and even more so when he discovered things were edible. After discovering things were edible there was less decorating that went on and more eating because according to Gabriel 'I'm hungry and I need more sugar!' lol!