7 Quick Takes

1. Our stove was red tagged last night. I thought all day that I had been smelling gas. And I felt like I could smell it everywhere. Before I left for tutoring, Brian came home from work and while he faintly smelled something in the kitchen, he did not smell it near as strongly as I did. My dad told us that we could call the gas company and they'd send someone to check for any leaks. (Seems like an obvious solution.) So Brian did that. And guess what? The stove was leaking gas. So, it's red tagged and we're waiting on parts to come in before we can fix it and use it again. Looks like the microwave and toaster oven will be the way to cook this weekend. In all seriousness, there was a huge house explosion caused by natural gas just across the border in West Virginia this morning (very close to where I attended school.) The house is leveled and one teenager died. We are very blessed and beyond thankful that the leak was detected before something awful occurred.

2. We headed to Soergel's Farm this morning to hang out with some moms from Mommy's Group. We didn't get to stay nearly as long as I had wanted (had to meet the stove repairman), but my boys had a blast. Noah ended up falling in a large mud puddle, and Matthew purposefully rolled in the same puddle. He then removed his pants and underwear while I was tending to Noah and was standing in the middle of the play area stark naked from the waste down. Parenting fail. But the good news is that they both had a wonderful time and loved the little break from the city.

3. This weekend is the Diocese of Pittsburgh's 2nd Annual NFP Awareness Sunday. Being trained NFP Promoters, Brian and I are responsible for doing something at our parish to promote NFP. We put up a large trifold board with all kinds of fun facts in the back of the church along with some pamphlets. We are also mentioned in the bulletin. And I have a strong suspicion that Father Jim will somehow weave NFP into his homily on Sunday and his homilies about NFP are pretty much the bomb. We are excited and ask for your prayers that many hearts will be converted this weekend and that many couples can recognize the goods the come from practicing NFP instead of artificial contraception.

4. After the repairman left this morning, the boys and I got crafty with our baby pumpkins that we picked up at the farm. (We will go to a different farm at the end of the month with my parents to get big pumpkins, so we opted to get the tiny ones this time around.) We decided to make bat pumpkins. We painted the pumpkins, glued on eyes and wings and now we have bat pumpkins. Matthew made the wings for his pumpkin. I had to help Noah. It was again, an easy and fun craft. I highly recommend trying it out.

5. Noah went to this ENT this week for his usual 6 month follow up. I already knew he had an ear infection before we got there, and we had started drops a few days before. Well, it turns out one of his tubes is completely blocked. And on top of the infection in his ears, he also has a pretty bad yeast infection going on in his ears, too. He is now on two sets of drops. We are praying that this clears the blocked tube and he can start into the colder weather with healthy ears. We really do not want to have to replace the tubes, and we are discouraged that they haven't worked as well for him as they did for Matthew. Please pray his ears get better quickly.

6. This weekend we are heading out to the Dormont Street Fair. I love the street fair. It is such a fun, free community event. (Well, it's not free for us because we definitely indulge in all the local food offered, but it doesn't cost anything to attend. :)) The boys love seeing all the fire trucks and playing in the kids area. Last year I met a politician who was a huge fan of Propel Schools, and he picked my brain for a while about why the Propel Way works. It was awesome. This year a local band, The Justin Fabus Band, will be performing. We first saw them open for the Hillbilly Way in January and April. The best part is....I went to high school with Justin and was in chorus class with him. Great guy. He has no clue who I am, but he was pretty popular back at KO. Everyone knew him. I am happy to see a local guy have a lot of success.

7.This past week, one of my students was having a hard time because his grandmother is dying. (They were actually taking her off of life support today, so offer a prayer for them.) His mom and I had a heart to heart with him, and during the conversation, I mentioned I had lost a daughter a few years ago. At this point, his mom starts crying. She, too, had lost a baby girl many years ago. And just like that: BOOM! Instant connection. We hugged and then made plans to meet for coffee next week. This family is truly wonderful and I work there three hours each week. I knew I always felt especially connected to them, and now I know why. Thank you, Holy Spirit, for prompting me to share so personally. I have gained another friend. :)

And on that note, have a happy, enjoyable weekend! :)

Five Faves

In no particular order...

1. Fall Crafts

 

My mom bought the supplies (thanks, Mom!), and Matthew and I put together a great Halloween wreath for our front door. Now, we don't celebrate Halloween all out in this house (All Saints Day is our day to party), but we are Catholics in the world, therefore, the kids dress up and go trick or treating and we buy pumpkins and carve them. I thought the pieces for this wreath were cute and not offensive, and it looks great on our door. They were super easy to put together, too. One day I'll learn how to make a nice bow and add it on. For now, we are happy with how it turned out.

2. Diet Pepsi

I am a Diet Pepsi addict. In fact, I knew I was pregnant with Noah before I took the test because I could no longer stand the taste of it! (And the same had happened with Matthew during the first trimester). Without it, I would certainly die of exhaustion. I know I'm probably killing myself slowly, but right now, this sleep deprived momma will keep on chugging.

3. Toddlerobics Class

The boys take a Toddlerobics Class each Wednesday morning. Miss Christi (the same Christi who trains me) teaches the class, and she is Matthew's favorite person. The class is fun and involved music, activities, and lots of movement for the little ones. My boys love going, and it's super cheap. I think I paid $45 for each kid and it's about 8 sessions in length. Each session is 45 minutes, just the right amount of time before you start losing toddlers' attentions. And Christi, as usual, is super high energy and just wonderful. It's a good time for all.

Sorry the pics are blurry. The class is constant movement. Christi's in the Nike shirt, if you couldn't tell. ;)

 4. Bethenny's Talk Show

Okay, so it's no secret that I am a HUGE Bethenny Frankel fan. (And, yes, Brian has watched every episode of the her reality show with me. He finds he relates to Jason a lot and I relate to Bethenny. Don't worry, we are soooo not headed for divorce like them!) Anyways, her new talk show that airs at 11am on WPXI each day is pretty hilarious. She just tells it like it is, and I have a feeling that had we met in real life before she was famous, we would be friends. She could just say everything I think but filter most days. Anyways, check out this video parody she did of the song, Thrift Shop. It's pretty hilarious.

5. Father Jim

Father Jim has daily Mass at St. Catherine's this week, and while the other priests we have at St. Catherine's are wonderful, there is just something special about Father Jim. He just truly celebrates the Mass with a great reverence and sense of humility. I was afraid I would never find that outside of the Oratory, and I am so blessed that we have. It is edifying. And Matthew is president of his unofficial fan club. It's a win-win for all!

Have a great Wednesday, everyone!

Isn't that Everything?

As I sit and write this, Noah is sleeping upstairs and Matthew and Brian are chilling on the couch watching the Steelers not look so great during this preseason game. (Ben says we have hardly seen anything from the offense yet and that Haley is saving it for the regular season. Um, sure. How about Haley just stinks and needs replaced and this offense really has no clue what they are doing?) Matthew is trying to learn all of the players names as well as who does what on the football field. It's cute and makes me love my already fantastic hubby even more!

This past weekend was full of ups and downs emotionally. You know when  you want something really, really bad but you just can't have it? It's like a carrot being dangled in front of you but you just can't jump high enough to get it. This past weekend we had one of those experiences. And me having the mentality of a princess at times, I got really upset and devastated that I couldn't have exactly what I wanted at exactly the time that I wanted. Without getting too personal (what?! I'm not spilling every detail of my life on this blog? How dare I! Sorry, folks. This is not the Real Housewives going on here!), it wasn't totally a necessity what I did not end up getting, but it would've made life a little easier and less stressful.

I spent a few hours and part of today just stewing over it and crying and getting mad. I think I even had a few not so nice conversations with God. But then, I took a step back to look at what I do have. Let's run through that happier list.

I have a cute little townhouse in which to live. Sure we rent. And yes it's not big enough to have more children in, but right now I'm not getting pregnant any time soon for many reasons, and we still have years ahead of us to have more babies. Renting isn't terrible. It is a little frustrating, but when the furnace broke last winter I didn't have to pay to fix it. That was kind of cool. So when things go wrong here, that's a YP (your problem....you can thank my old coteacher at Propel for that one) not an MP (my problem.) Major, major bonus. Plus, the townhouse is in a nice area and we have great, quiet neighbors. Oh, and did I mention our large back yard? With two energetic boys that's definitely a blessing.

We have a great parish to attend. St. Catherine of Siena rocks, and so does our pastor, Father Jim. Our kids idolize him, and Matthew pretends to be him on a daily basis. Our fellow parishioners adore our children, and our new associate pastor, Father Gary, is pretty cool, too. There was a time in my life when I thought I'd never find a devout, conservative parish with a great pastor. WRONG! My faith has been blessed by attending there, and I have grown spiritually in countless ways.

I have three amazing children. Brian and I have our angel in Heaven to watch over all of us. (Which is great because just this afternoon in the back yard, Matthew and Noah crashed into our fence in their Little Tikes truck and flipped over. Not a scratch on either of them. Thank you, Abby, for saving Mommy from a parenting fail!) And then we have our two, wonderful boys here on Earth. I'm not really sure what life was like before them, but I'm guessing it must've been pretty boring. They are so full of excitement and life. They do everything with great vigor and truly live each moment to the fullest. They are fun and have taught me more about life and how to live it than I ever imagined possible. I have loved them instantly since the positive pregnancy test, but I fall more in love with them each day. God has blessed us beyond belief with the lives of our children. They are the best gift I have ever received.

I have wonderful and supportive parents who live about five blocks away. They will drop anything at any time if we need (Yep, I have even called my mom at 2am when Matthew wouldn't stop crying or when he had croupe and couldn't breath and she comes right over), and we know we can always count on them.They love our boys to pieces and spend the majority of their time out of work with them. They rarely turn down a babysitting job (except on their anniversary. ;)) They will bend over backwards to help us and make me staying home during the day work. My mom is for sure my absolute best friend, and she wasn't expected to be around at this point in my life. Each extra day with her is really a blessing. She and Brian are the only two that can talk me down off of my dramatic cliffs some days. Having parents who love and care for us so incredibly much and who will give anything to help us means so much. Not everyone is so lucky.

Finally, I have the best husband a girl could ever ask for. Brian loves me for me. (So much so that when I'm crying about the last ten pounds of Noah that I cannot lose for love or money he simply lets me cry and then reassures me that I've only gotten more beautiful since having his children. And I'm pretty sure he's not lying....) He works hard at a job that is all consuming and requires way more hours in a day than he ever could have imagined. At one point he worked two jobs when I first started staying home with Matthew just to make sure we could make ends meet. He has jumped right into helping me with my business and even designed the logo and business cards for it without me asking. He puts my needs and the needs of our children first. He even lets me sleep until 7:30 on Saturdays, even though I'm sure he, too, could benefit from those extra hours of sleep. He gives so much of himself every day, and he's faithful beyond belief. I owe my sanity to him most days, and I love him more each day, too. Of the two of us, he is the better half.

Okay, so I really do have a lot to be thankful for. Now, most days I find it hard to remember and see things that way, so that's one of the reasons I wanted to write it all down. Most of you know me well enough know that I'm really a sunshine and rainbows and unicorns type girl. I find the glass half empty most times. However, on days when I'm busy having a jealousy inspired pity party, I can come back to this post and remember that I have a great husband, wonderful kids, amazing parents, and a cute place to live, and a wonderful parish to belong to. At the end of the day, isn't that everything? Yes, it really is.

And just cause I love my kids so much, here's a picture of them with their brand new pool toys from our trip to Dormont Pool on Saturday. :) They are my little fish!