Birthday song

I have been wanting to post this video since I took it. This is on Lee's birthday in January. He shares his day with his Grandpa Lee. I love watching Lee on this video and watching him sing to his Grandpa Lee. He had a happy 10th birthday and Grandpa had a happy 60th.

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Puggly

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well I had hoped to write  a more in depth post but alas it isn't to be.  I need to go through my pictures and sort them and then get to it!

For now I leave you with "Puggly".  It seems our dog has a new nickname...he has many.  Many the kids give him and a few Frank gives him (can't repeat) and a few I give him.  Especially when I try and get his leash and stuff on him...turns out he might need to go for a walk every day...just throwing that one out there. Oh the joys  of being a pet owner!

It was such a wonderful day today and I loved soaking up the Vitamin D!  I can feel it coming on...SPRING that is!

Have a good day tomorrow!

1 Year of Lee

Lee Emerson Paulson

1/19/2004

11:01pm

9lbs 9oz

16cm-head AND shoulders

*Rolled over not long after being born

*Sat at 3 months

*Walked at 6 months

*He has traits or things that he's made up of, that we will learn to teach him to use to the best of his abilities and for good...not evil...WE WILL!!

*He constantly keeps us on our toes...always....always (it's exhausting sometimes)

*We love our Lee and would be lost with out him...truly lost

*He has a heart for children younger than him (not his brothers mind you), he loves to make them laugh

*You wouldn't know it by appearances and his personality and how he comes off, but he is a very tender-hearted little boy and I pray that he never, ever loses that as he grows up

*He was the one that made Dru and  Eli laugh first

*He was wanted a sister for a long time...he still does...gets upset when friends of ours have baby girls...(they have stolen his sister... ;) )

*He is athletic-loves football, soccer, baseball, hockey...camping, fishing and he's well on his way to learning to get lost in books, and of course video games.

**To the moon and back Lee-Lee you have our hearts**

 

 

 

Well since this is my life these days...I can't finish this blog but I want everyone to see what I did manage to get done.  So it really isn't a year of Lee but more like 2 months shy of Lee.  We had his birthday yesterday and I believe it was a day that will be remembered for a long time to come. 

 

Lee decided to share his day with his Grandpa and have a football watching game party.  In case some of you have no clue as to WHY this was a big deal...it was in many ways.  1) Lee turned 10, 2) Grandpa turned 60, 3) Seahawks were playing the game of their lives...the game that would determine whether we went to the SUPERBOWL or not....in case you haven't a clue...we are GOING TO THE SUPERBOWL!!!, 4)  Seahawks won the game 23-17 against our rivals the 40'whiners and for the second time in the franchise history, we are going to the SUPERBOWL!!! 

 

What a way to celebrate your 60th and 10th right?  Man it was intense at the party...a lot of standing and moaning and groaning at calls and players and such!  A lot of nervous tummies and a lot of LOUD yelling from people...definitely figured out why we don't go many places to watch the games with a few people...eye opening. 

 

Anyway...

 

In an effort to at least get this out...here are all the months until October...I'll have to update it when I can get my computer to work...and get November-January (day of birth).

 

 

 

January 2013

Birthday Spankings

 

January 2013

Birthday treat after dinner

 

January 2013

Birthday party

Seahawks vs. Bengels

 

February

Hiking at Mt. Peak

 

March

Easter-he found the Gold Egg!!

 

April

Northwest Trek

 

May

Memorial Weekend Camping

His Kokanee fish

 

June

Father's day-Lee got smoking chips for dad

 

July

Fireworks!

 

August

Playing dress-up

 

September

Hiking Lake 22 with Auntie Nikki (they were not impressed with our 6 mile hike that day...whiners!)

October

A pirate he be for Halloween!

So there you have it...next up will of course be his party and pictures and the rest of the year!  I do hope that everyone is doing well and getting through the month...2 months from tomorrow it will be Spring...new birth!!

Catching Up

Well hello there!!

Long time no write!  I have been missing this a lot and bummed I can't get on more...so much to blog about.  This is that summer all over again!

Anyway....I guess I'll start somewhere...Christmas seems well enough.

Christmas managed to happen and I'm glad for that...and I'm glad it's over too!  The pressure is sort of gone...for like half a second! I think the boys had a good Christmas and we went to the in-laws for Christmas there for a few hours.  That went ok and I think all enjoyed their gifts...I hope.  Some people are so hard to shop for...stressful! Thankfully I think we managed to get gifts that would get used and for the kids ones that will be used and enjoyed.  The last few years we have bought gifts for kids and they, as far as we can tell, have not been used and have been lost.  We were able to see my nephew that lives in Spokane and for the first time ever we were able to see him and actually give him his Christmas gift!  I loved every minute of it...even if his parent cringed when my nephew opened one of his gifts to find a Huskies Sweatshirt! 

We were able to meet our friends the day after Christmas for some fun and gift exchange and we enjoyed each other's company while eating out.  Kids did well and fought over who was going to sit next to Uncle Tim.  Isn't he lucky to be him! ;)  Thankfully I got to sit next to Aunt Rene`!  Afterwards we all went to GameStop to use gift cards they'd received and bought new games.  I was thrilled to find the Ducktails game...Woohoo! 

Before that we were able to stop really quick at my parents house and dropped off some traditional Norwegian goodies...Lefsa and Krumkake.  We had a super quick visit and the kids were able to thank their grandparents for their gift.  Was glad we could stop by and see them and give them something.

New Year's Eve...that might have been the most boring evening ever on the planet at our house.  During the day we managed to keep busy.  We went to see the movie Frozen (finally for Eli's birthday) and we did some more shopping with Christmas money and then headed home to the local set of Arches (McD's).  Let the kids get just about whatever they wanted...a milkshake AND ice cream was probably TOO much dairy.  Dinner ensued at home and the rest of the evening was insanely boring!  That has to be the first time that I can think of where I have been so bored.  Next year I swear we are doing something...not sure what but ....well we were all together and that's what counts but good grief!

Manage to get a kiss on or from all my men and we took our family photo of the year...that seemed to be harder than the normal. 

I hope you all had a decent start to the New Year!  We are now on our way to planning a birthday party for a 10 year old!  Boy the time is going fast!  This year his birthday will be on the same day as the Seahawks big game against the 'Whiners'.  This could make or break a little boys 10th birthday.  No pressure!  I can't believe 10 years!  Wowza!

Then next week will be my birthday and then off we go!

I hope to keep posting when I can but some days that just is harder than I'm willing to deal with.

TAke care and have a wonderful rest of your week!

 

Silent Screaming

I seriously hate my computer...really I do! 

It's having issues...again.  

WHY ME!?!


Husband will try again tomorrow....


But I say again...WHY ME!?!



*guess I'll go read my books...and check in from time to time....long exasperated sigh....*

New Year's Day

 

In true Paulson fashion

Here we are starting a new year together, it took me awhile to remember how to use the timer on my camera...

 

Enjoy

 

*Poor Charlie really didn't like the fireworks going off, he was hiding in the blanket.

Griswolds

No pictures today...Just some verbal vomit for ya...

1) We are the embodiment of the Griswold's this year...the kids have wrecked our 'new' Christmas tree (we bought it last year)...we no longer have lights that work because the part that plugs into the outlet...well it just flat out fell off...we are looking into if there is a warranty.  That part shouldn't just fall off even though my kids wouldn't stop touching it and running around it and into it. 

2) To add icing on the cake...our lights outside...well those are new also.  We bought the LED lights and they are pretty slick and we all like them.  The catch...they come with a remote and have about 500 settings (not really that much) to choose from.  Wanna guess at who had the remote last? Yeah...he's not telling where it's at...or rather because he's 5 he can't remember.  Soooo... that means our 3 strands of lights...just randomly do their own thing...for 2 nights straight the icicle lights were fine, one strand was stuck at yellow/green and the other strand was being spastic and doing, well whatever.  However, I will state that today the strand that was stuck on yellow/green is no longer stuck...but neither strand are doing the same thing.  Pretty sure the remote is somewhere OR (and Frank is pretty convinced it seems) that some random person is having a great laugh at our expense...or mostly his...he's unsure as of yet.

3) We had to have the talk with Ian...you know the talk right?  Not the birds and the bees kind of talk (although I'm sure that will be coming way too soon...) but the talk about Santa.  Sigh....the last few days really have just been crappy all around, but this was a bit too much for me.  Granted I know he's almost 12 but I wasn't going to be the one that made him grow up like this.  I couldn't bring myself to break the news to him nor could Frank.  And I think we had just decided to let it go this year...again.  We are a bunch of chickens I tell ya!  Turns out this year was going to be the year.  Ian was being a brat (shocker!!) and throwing a fit about anything and everything (see what happens when you don't feed your kids what they want...the horror! Oh and by the way...I was informed that I just had kids to have a spic and span house...I'm still waiting for that!).  While pitching a fit and being a general pain the you know what, Lee comes out and asks me if Santa is real.  Now we get these questions from time to time and they are easily assuaged with well yes of course Santa is real! Has he ever let you down? Have you always gotten something left for you? I believe in Santa!  Usually those things works.  However, when you throw in Ian...things get dicey.  Ian was busy talking in Lee's ear and saying Santa isn't real.   I also hear Ian chanting Santa isn't real, all in hearing distance of Lee, Dru, and Eli.  Imagine my horror as this all unfolds while Frank is out getting a hair cut!  Things are getting hairy here!  (pun intended).  I go round and round with Ian (now I need you to remember I didn't grow up with Santa, that I recall, so this whole thing is all very new...ish) and finally I've said what I can and he's still chanting Santa isn't real.  I finally look at him and tell him to stop talking and he can stay in his room and don't come out, even to go pee (cause I know the whole time he'll be chanting that very statement loudly for all to hear...I'm seriously trying to do damage control and probably making it worse!) and I shut the door.  I immediately get my phone and call Frank in a panic...no answer!  So I do the next best thing...I text.  My text starts with "Uh we have a 911 situation..."  Frank finally gets home from the worlds longest hair cut (he looked good though) and we have an emergency meeting before we call Ian into our room.  We get to talking to him and trying to figure out why he's chanting. He tells us he's been hearing kids talk and some of the things that have happened.  So we explain to him that Santa is the spirit of Christmas and we all get to be Santa and isn't that so much fun to be able to give and see what happens when we give.  Explain to him how he gets to be a Santa to his brothers...and Santa is magic because there are things you just can't explain, Christmas miracles that well the magic/spirit of Christmas are what is left to explain it.  That he is under no certain terms to utter one iota to anyone that Santa isn't real, and that what you'll find is that more people than you realize believe in Santa.  Then named a few names of people in his life that believe in Santa and that they could ask them and they'd tell him yes they believe...that his dad and I believe.  You get the idea.  Then....then it happened...I opened my mouth and said something to the effect of " even though Santa isn't a real person...."people...I kid you not...Ian wasn't talking about the same thing his dad and I were talking about...we were not simpatico...I could see it wash over his face...I will never forget that moment for as long as I live!! I took a piece of his childhood away and although I'm still here I still feel like I will die!  I was the dream crusher and I never wanted to tell Ian about that...I wanted him to find out on his own or have it be Frank BUT not me!!!  It was me!!!!!  I know he can't stay a little kid forever but I never had a childhood, never got to really believe in Santa and kids are kids for such a short time and they want to grow up so fast. I want so bad for my kids to have a childhood and to stay there until the last possible moment...
So far this Christmas season has been crappy...really just one for the history books!

4) ...just because I'm making a list and being open...sorta....I hate the struggle with my weight.  It has been a GINORMOUS struggle since probably July, but been a major pain since the weather turned cold.  I want back to my 178...now I'm struggling badly with the 10lbs I've added since July...I have to get my head in the right place but I don't know where that is or how to get back there!!!

5) I would like to figure out my place in this world, my family, extended family, immediate family...I just wanna know where I stand.  If I know that and know my place I can make it work.  This roller coaster ride that I am on, well I don't quite know how or when to get off...and is it really that easy? Probably not or I'd have done it a long time ago...years ago even...back when I already knew but let myself get sucked in...when I had figured out so young to fly under the radar so no one would notice or care...that would have been the time to get off...maybe...

6) I'd like the turmoil of husband's job to be figured out...we've been on that ride since before Thanksgiving...thanks in part to a lot of different things and years of turmoil in Boeing, compounded by recent contract talks with a union...well suffice it to say...things have gotten extremely real around here.  There are serious talks going on right now in Frank's group about moving and to the state of South Carolina no less.  Because we've been in such turmoil over rumors and planned meetings and then canceled meetings we have come to our own conclusions  that even though we believe  a good part of his group is going to S. Carolina, we don't know if it's him or if he will have a job or anything.  We also don't know that if yes, he is being asked to move there what that means for us...most likely (depending on when and if he's asked to move) I will stay behind until we can sell the house (God willing)...all kinds of scary stuff going on right now!  With all that said, we believe they won't be announcing anything more until January when people go back to work...so our plan is to try and forget about it and not stress too much more about it...try is the operative word here...try is really all we can do...and move is all we can do...keep a job is all we can do...and first and foremost pray is all we can do and test that God shall and has and is in all parts of my life it would seem. 

7)  I would also like to not be left out of immediate family holiday events...on purpose or so it would seem... Even if it wasn't on purpose I wasn't invited and that's just out right rude! Throw the ball in my court,  I would have made an effort to be there when I could OR on a different day!  But when I'm not even asked and it's all secretive or comes off that way (not one word was spoken to me...obviously) ...what the heck is all I can think!(seriously though, that's mild thinking)  Two years in a row I'm not invited to my own flippen families Thanksgiving...I don't even know what to think.  However, it's grossly overdue in addressing the situation with my family...and so I must embark on that journey...I don't have high hopes for ringing in the New year with gusto but now it looks to be more like  ringing it in with  dread...and because 2014 is an even number I had such high hopes.  I some how manage to be my own dream crusher...how in heavens name does that happen!?! But on the serious side...makes you wonder what a person has to do or say before they aren't invited to a holiday family event right? I'm still puzzled by it.

8) I would like this house that's spic and span that Ian and Lee speak so often of...where is it??  I am just exhausted by the thought of the conversations of chores and you do them because you are a part of this family.  And no you aren't getting paid to participate in this family, you want money go out and get a job! And what is so hard to grasp about the concept of just get it done now and quickly (but done correctly) so that you are done, and can go about your day and so can I??? I also want my kids to start being more kind to each other and speak with respect to one another...this is so difficult right now to teach my kids.  I'd like Ian to stop fighting with his words...they hurt so much and trying to teach him to not fight that way is hard...really, really hard.  Hard to show him the effect he has on his brothers when he says he hates them and wants me to get rid of them or make them go away, that his life would be better w/o them.  He fights mean and I don't fight like that nor do I do well with that or how to fight back.  Trying to teach him that his tongue is sharp and that he must...MUST watch what he says or someday he's going to seriously regret what comes out of his mouth. There will be consequences to what he says.  One day it's just going to be him and his brothers and he's going to need them or they need him...they need to be there for each other, that we won't always be there.

 For Lee to just obey and do what is asked, to tone down the obnoxiousness a level or two or better yet find his volume control (my ears hurt a lot)...I am so tired of yelling his name.  They don't tell you when you pick your kids name to practice yelling it at the top of your lungs in frustration 20 times to see if you still like that name. 

For Dru to quit crying at the drop of the hat...at times it's just unbearable.  And trust me I have nothing against boys/men crying...trust me it's gut wrenching to see  but so needed by boys/men (and if we are honest...it's important to us women too...just so we know they feel something)...I often tell my kids it's ok to cry.  But it becomes too much when it feels like it's all the time...like when someone looks at him cross-eyed!  Dru also need to work on obeying...and listening...he also likes to just stand near me and whine or chant what he wants (like a 2 year old). For instance if I offer what I have for a snack and his options are the snack I provide OR whatever he has left in his lunch...he stands there whining/chanting that he wants something completely different than what was offered...for like 5 minutes!! I want to shove an ice pik in my ears!  It's too much!  It really is.

For Eli to stop blowing up like a stick of dynamite when he gets mad and for him to stop yelling to be heard, when he gets mad, when he's happy (again my ears hurt-I'm starting to sound like my Grandma Jolly...I get it now...she had 5 kids...4 of which were boys...she gets me), when he's angry...and he yells a lot.  His brothers like to poke the sleeping bear and then scatter when he's roars...it's not funny.  He tries to use his words, like when he tells Lee his heart is broken when Lee doesn't do what Eli tells him to...he's trying...

9) That they all quit using the word hate...and use instead I don't like...this is a battle...bigger than I ever imagined.

10) We (including Frank and I) have things to work on, to be kind to one another, to be good to one another, to love one another, speak kindly to one another, to respect one another, to fight fairly/well (there is a right way and a wrong way to fight), to be there for each other when we need them.  To watch our words and how they make people feel.  We need to all be consistent and to respectfully keep each other in accountable.  Being consistent will be key, but it's also the hardest thing to ever do/learn as an adult and as a parent...sometimes it's just easier to not be and that's when things happen.


So on that note...there is always hope in the Lord...he renews our strength....(even though I feel like I fall for the 4-letter word every time, and I'm left frustrated every time...I always seem to re-up my membership in that word...) , I hope to have/find tiny seeds of hope for the new year to foster and grow and have grown in  faith and trust in the Lord and to follow/trust  his plan for me and my family.  To see where he will lead us and what doors will be obviously wide- open and what ones will firmly be closed...I just pray it's painfully obvious to me...I'm afraid otherwise I'd be too obtuse to not see it.  May the Lord bless my guardian angle...she's got her work cut out for her...poor thing...just what did she sign up for right!?!