Sunday Stuff

Tonight at church they were doing baptisms. I recognized a husband and wife that I used to work in Van Zile (K-State) with, except they weren't husband and wife back then. It was really special to watch them get baptized together.

Our pastor told us tonight that his daughter is pregnant. She was worried the church wouldn't accept her, or handle it well. When he told us what he told her "that the church would accept her with grace and love" everyone started clapping and cheering. That made me proud. We've all done pretty stupid stuff. If you haven't, I've done enough stupid stuff to cover for you. I'm thankful for a savior that forgives all the stupid stuff and lets us start over again. New. I feel like I sometimes have to start over again every 20 minutes some days.

Westside is a very special church. I'm so thankful to have found it. Did I ever tell you that I put off going there for several months because "oh no. Westside was one of those K-State churches that I kept hearing about over and over and over again. Westside this, Westside that, bla bla bla. God forbid I join a bandwagon!" Sometimes my pride gets me into some serious trouble. I'm glad I didn't listen to it for very long.

Ok now I'm just procrastinating. I have to clean the kitchen and I realllly don't want to. I wish I could pay my kid some allowance to do it. ;)

I love presents.

Most of you know that I like to open my presents early. In fact, my wonderful mother-in-law learned to send my birthday presents to Devin's work because I have a tendency to dive in as soon as they come in the mail (insert big toothy grin here). My aunt always tries to write in big, bold black writing DO NOT OPEN TIL YOUR BIRTHDAY (or Christmas). She even adds I KNOW HOW YOU ARE! I was pretty good last year. I opened them up the night before. That counts, right?

Well one thing you may not know is that I seriously get equally or more excited for people to open gifts that I give them. I often try to convince people to open their gifts right away. It's just too exciting to wait! I'm like a little kid "WELL, DO YOU LIKE IT?! WHAT DO YOU THINK?! HUH?!, nearly hyperventilating before them when they do. My mom never gives in. Neither does Aunt Shel. Devin always gives in. Last night I bought him one of his presents (a pair of headphones for running) and gave them to him. Honestly, his headphones broke and he has been using mine for the past few weeks, so I did want him to be able to start using them. My intentions were pure! Well now there's someone else who will gladly open a present early: my two year old daughter Addison! Yes! Would this be taking advantage of her limited development? Probably. Technically they weren't her real Christmas presents; just a new pair of jeans and some sparkly red shoes ($11 for both at Baby Gap...love my job!) to wear for Christmas. But she was so excited! She kept saying "I love my red shoes!" and hugging me and Devin, and doing that over and over again. Devin told me I should have given them to her after they went to the gym, and sure enough, the new red shoes were on her feet when they left the house!

This season is a lot of fun.





















P.S. Amanda do you remember back in college when we gave each other our Christmas presents Thanksgiving weekend? ;)

Here's one more fun picture for you from yesterday when I watched my friend Kelly's daughter, Elise. They made a little picnic!

Dear Dad

Dear Dad,
Because I found out today that you read my blog, it is therefore official that you love me more than mom. And I forgive you for teasing me about drinking ONE glass of wine.

Love,
Your daughter

I love Kansas. And senior citizens.

I was at one of my favorite places today, Orowheat Bread Outlet, to use my monthly b1g1 free coupon out of valpak (if you don't need yours, give it to me! I'll use it!). I know I'm being a wise shopper because all of the places I choose to shop are filled with cute old people (Aldi, Hy-vee, and now the bread outlet). Well one particularly cute old lady came up to me with a stack of punch cards (you get a free loaf of bread when you fill one up) that were all filled in. She told me that she wanted to give me a couple of them to use. I told her that she didn't have to; that she could just use them again next time, but she insisted and said "Merry Christmas!" So thanks to her generosity (and my b1g1 free coupon) I was able to get 2 loaves of whole grain bread and 2 packages of whole grain hamburger buns for only $1.89 AND I'll be able to go back again next month and do the same thing (they only let me use one of the punch cards). That made my day. So thank you, you cute old lady. I promise to do the same thing for someone else if given the opportunity.

I sold a book on amazon. It sold in less than 20 minutes! Selling things is fun. What else can I sell? I am tempted to sell Roxy because she threw up on the carpet again.

I am also excited about some of the Christmas presents I've found for my family this year. I don't think my mom reads my blog (in fact, I am also sure she doesn't. Neither does my husband. Where is the love?!) but I better not say just in case. Let's just say googling for online promo codes and then having them work is even more fun than selling things!

Today was a good day!

Toddler Instincts

I've been getting off work an hour later because of extended mall hours, so when I get home my "let's party" switch turns on and I have a very difficult time settling down to go to sleep. Going on the internet makes it even worse, but that didn't stop me from hanging out on here til 1:00 am. I was still wide awake, so I thought I'd take a bath and maybe that would calm me down. I went to bed at 1:30. At 2 a.m. I awaken to the pitter patter of little footsteps down the hall and into my room. When I look over, my 2 year old says "HI MAMA!" She must have thought it was morning. Devin and I have a rule to makes the whole kid in your bed thing a little easier: if it's before 5 a.m. she has to go back to her bed; after 5 a.m. she can stay in our bed. I led her back to bed (she was mad. She really did think it was morning). Before I left she said "I want to pray." Ok. Can't turn that down. Addison knows the stalling techniques that work with mom. :)

I think I need to re-start my "go to bed earlier" plan.

Ok friends and stalkers,
I need some really good tips for having a toddler and a newborn. I started watching Celia when she was itty bitty (Addison was 8 months old), but she always goes home around 5, so I know I'll be in for some surprises. Give me your best advice!

Santa

The whole Santa Clause situation has been on my mind a lot lately. This quote from one of my favorite blogs, Stacy From Louisville made me laugh:

Perhaps one of the most hotly debated issues around Christmas is whether or not, as Christians, we're supposed to tell our children about Santa. You know as well as I do that this determines your worth as a parent.It's kind of like the whole Amy Grant situation. As the years pass, I can't remember if we're still supposed to be mad at her or not. To El Shaddai or not El Shaddai; that is the question. Same with Santa.

This was my original thought, that I thought was so profound: "If we tell Addison now that both Santa and Jesus are real and Santa turns out to be fake, how can she know that Jesus is real?"

When I took my profound thought to Devin he said "Well how is that any different from The Backyardigans and Barney?"

Uh....good point.

Then I realized that my profound thought from above wasn't so profound because just about every other Christian parent probably has the same thought. Dang! Here's another funny quote from the same post:

Once, in a women's group, I mentioned taking my kids to visit Saint Nick. As soon as I said it, one mom said, "We choose not to lie to our children. If we lie to them about Santa they'll think we're lying about Jesus. Then where would we be?" She made a good point. As my kids and I keyed her Mercedes later that day I couldn't help but wonder if my children would be scarred for life because of Santa Claus? Was I doing irreversible damage? I lost a good 20 minutes of sleep that night wondering...


So Santa stays in the Riley house! Why? BECAUSE IT'S FUN! Just like my extremely tacky...err..whimsical collection of stuffed Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer characters that must be displayed prominently in the house every Christmas. I don't think we'll make this gigantic deal out of Santa because I really do want the focus for Addison to be on Jesus (thankfully she has about 4 or 5 different nativities from both grandmothers so this shouldn't be a problem!) but to avoid Santa like the plague seems a little overly dramatic and silly to me.

After holiday letdown

Do any of you get depressed when the holiday weekend is over? I always get really sad when Christmas ends (no more music, decorations, gift giving, etc.) but today I was kind of in a funk because Thanksgiving was over. I loved getting to spend all that time with Devin and my family, especially my brother who lives in Denver. He's very attractive by the way for any of you single ladies out there. Plus you get me as a sister-in-law which, in my opinion, is the ultimate prize. ;) I think I may have overheard him teaching Addison about evolution when he was playing with Play-doh with her....

My pie making venture turned out pretty great, but the Pumpkin Pie Cake was (and always is) the hit of the dessert menu. It looks like a pumpkiny blob in a 9x13 pan, but tastes like manna from heaven (or realistically probably a lot better). So thank you once again, Amanda for that wonderful recipe.

The rest of the weekend was spent working and hanging out. On Sunday Devin, Addison and I spent the entire day together which was great. We went to spin class (yep I made it through the whole class, taking it pretty easy of course) First Watch (you can get a free entree if you sign up for their email club) for breakfast, watched Love Actually, and went to church.

This pregnancy I've done much better about my hormonal outbursts, but I had two this weekend:

One thanksgiving evening because my dad was teasing me relentlessly about having ONE glass of wine with my dinner. I made it perfectly clear beforehand that my wine quota included Christmas and Thanksgiving. First he refused to put a glass next to my plate. Then he only filled it about 1 cm with wine. In my family teasing = affection, but he should know better than to mess with a overly emotional pregnant woman. I started crying, which wouldn't have been a big deal, but my mom invited a friend that I had never met before. I did drink my glass. I almost didn't out of stubbornness and frustration, but I wasn't going to miss out on that glass of Seven Daughters white wine at $17 a bottle. I better have Devin warn his family ahead of time that if anyone messes with me at Christmas dinner for having one glass of wine I will probably cry then too.

I had another one at CVS. I had a wallet filled with extra bucks, but I didn't get my totals right and a line was forming behind me so I was irritated that I had to pay out of pocket. I spazzed out on Addison, Devin and the CVS guy. I felt so bad later that I apologized to Addison, Devin and called CVS to apologize to them too. Hopefully I can show my face in there again.

It's getting to the point where I'm getting lots and lots of comments and critiques from people about my pregnancy. I had forgotten about that part. Everyone means well, but sometimes enough is enough. I've had people bluntly ask me "So how much weight have you gained?" Is it ever ok to say that? This man at work tonight who was in his mid 60's looked me over once and said "yeah, you'll go early." Ok.... He must have had his special labor predicting glasses on or something. Maybe I should invest in a pair of those. I really don't mind getting advice and stuff, especially from friends and family (I'll need lots of advice about having TWO kids and not just one), but sometimes it'd be nice just to blend in with everyone else. I am sure you all have had your share of weirdo comments. One blogger I read a while back had everyone post their most hurtful/weird infertility or miscarriage comments and I couldn't believe some of the stuff I read. So I know it's not just me going through this! I'm sure I've dished out some of that stuff too.

Let's end this post on a positive note! I listened to my first Christmas music of the season tonight! I played Drummer Boy by Josh Groban three times on the way to work. Leave it to Josh to turn one of the dumbest songs of the season into a musical masterpiece.
















Addison didn't even eat any turkey, but she was still pretty exhausted from the day.


Here's the first of many "getting into mom's makeup" pictures. This time it was the mascara. She'll learn someday that eyebrows and eyelashes aren't the same thing.