Letter to Santa is in the mail!

He's excited (and so are we!!)

Thanksgiving was hijacked

Dear Thanksgiving,

For whatever reason, I NEEDED Christmas to come early this year.  Not the presents or parties... just the spirit of Christmas.  Just the joy and peace... just the beauty.  Holt wasn't thrilled BUT he let me hijack Christmas.

T and I shopped all day for a few special ornaments and some additions to his train sets.  He wants people and "things" to add to his train scene.  It's all he talks about right now.  And, of course, Holt is all in.  I took T to the train store yesterday and we bought some more deer and cows.  Cows? Yes... because (wait for it...) the cows came with poop.  Yup, you read that right.  Cows and poop.  What boy can resist that.

So a taste from yesterday.  Hope it warms your heart as it did mine.

We went tree shopping (and pretended to cut it down!)

and brought it home to trim her up!

the boys were hard at work... I supervised

and made things pretty :)

This is my new Advent calendar. I told Tristan what the purpose was.  I was curious how he would react when I told him that instead of little treats for him...

there was a daily thing for our family to do to bless SOMEONE ELSE this Christmas.

He said "yeaaaaaah - bless other people!!" (WHEW!)

He's started preparing the Manger

because it will be part of his trains village.  We all need Jesus in our towns :)

and of course you have to have reindeer, cows (and their poop) and a good army

Daddy was busy getting the tree straight

and the candy cane lights were added.  (I caved, red and white it is!)

Tristan even brought Paula Bear in to watch (AAAAAAAAAAAAAAW!!!)

and we showed off Daddy's new ornament 

(it's Duke!!)

The lights and the stars are ready so we loaded up the decorations.

It was really cool, I told Tristan a ton of fun stories about my decorations and told him that we would buy HIM a decoration to have for his tree some day...

Well, there you have it

Coffee at 5am staring at this, listening to some Christmas Carols while doing my Bible study.

THIS is how you start your day right.

Sorry Thanksgiving, I didn't mean to steal your thunder but hey, at least I'm really, REALLY feeling thankful.  That's the point, right?

Off to get my turkey out of the oven.  My house smells of both holidays and I love it!!

His letter from Santa is in!

 

2 day sleepover and LegoLand time

Tristan did so great on his obedience stickers - he "won" a 2 days sleepover with Davis.

Soooo, I bought tickets to LegoLand!!
The boys raced lego cars (that they built) for almost 2 hours and rode in a lego car and rode lego rides... pretty amazing place actually!

 

then it was snack time...

 

and on the way out, Bebah gave them money to each have a new Lego!

 

We went home, they built them for an hour and played even longer.

 

Little cuties had a blast, way to go T!!!

Tristan loses his first tooth exactly 2 months before his 6th birthday

I picked T up from school and he was pretty darn excited....

this tooth was barely hanging on...

We drove home and talked about how Bumpa used to flip my teeth out of mouth and it didn't even hurt

He asked me to do it (I couldn't - I was too freaked that I'd hurt him)

so we came home.

I ordered dinner, he ate in the play room and I ate in the living room.

I cleaned up both of our dinners only to hear:

MOMMY, MOMMY - HURRY UP!!!  COME HERE!!  I LOST A TOOTH, I LOST MY TOOTH!!!

Sure enough, he did!

Now here's the funny... well, not so funny... part.

HE LOST THE TOOTH.

I mean, we couldn't find it anywhere. We hunted, I even vacuumed and dug through the cleaners tank to see if it was in there.  Nuttin' honey.

Well, we decided we better write a note... I mean, we've got some explain'in to do....

Here's to hoping there is some money in that pillow.

I mean, will she take our word for it????

Amazng article!

What Students Really Need to Hear

It’s 4 a.m. I’ve struggled for the last hour to go to sleep. But, I can’t. Yet again, I am tossing and turning, unable to shut down my brain. Why? Because I am stressed about my students. Really stressed. I’m so stressed that I can only think to write down what I really want to say — the real truth I’ve been needing to say — and vow to myself that I will let my students hear what I really think tomorrow.

This is what students really need to hear:

First, you need to know right now that I care about you. In fact, I care about you more than you may care about yourself. And I care not just about your grades or your test scores, but about you as a person. And, because I care, I need to be honest with you. Do I have permission to be honest with you — both in what I say and how I say it?

Here’s the thing: I lose sleep because of you. Every week.

Before I tell you why, you should understand the truth about school. You see, the main event of school is not academic learning. It never has been. It never will be. And, if you find someone who is passionate in claiming that it is about academics, that person is lying to himself or herself and may genuinely believe that lie. Yes, algebra, essay writing, Spanish, the judicial process — all are important and worth knowing. But they are not the MAIN event.

The main event is learning how to deal with the harshness of life when it gets difficult — how to overcome problems as simple as a forgotten locker combination, to obnoxious peers, to gossip, to people doubting you, to asking for help in the face of self-doubt, to pushing yourself to concentrate when a million other thoughts and temptations are fingertips away.

It is your resilience in conquering the main event — adversity — that truly prepares you for life after school. Because, mark my words, school is not the most challenging time you will have in life. You will face far greater challenges than these. Sure, you will have times more amazing than you can imagine, but you will also confront incomparable tragedy, frustration, and fear in the years to come.
But, you shouldn’t be worried about the fact that you will face great adversities. You should be worried because you’re setting yourself up to fail at overcoming them. Here’s the real reason I lose hours of sleep worrying about you: You are failing the main event of school. You are quitting. You may not think you are quitting, but you are because quitting wears many masks.

For some, you quit by throwing the day away and not even trying to write a sentence or a fraction because you think it doesn’t matter or you can’t or there’s no point. But it does. What you write is not the main event. The fact that you do take charge of your own fear and doubt in order to write when you are challenged — THAT is the main event.

Some of you quit by skipping class on your free education. Being punctual to fit the mold of the classroom is not the main event of showing up. The main event is delaying your temptation and investing in your own intelligence — understanding that sometimes short-term pain creates long-term gain and that great people make sacrifices for a greater good.

For others, you quit by being rude and disrespectful to adults in the hallway who ask you to come to class. Bowing to authority is not the main event. The main event is learning how to problem solve maturely, not letting your judgement be tainted by the stains of emotion.

I see some of you quit by choosing not to take opportunities to work harder and pass a class, no matter how far down you are. The main event is not getting a number to tell you you are worthy. The main event is pulling your crap together and making hard choices and sacrifices when things seem impossible. It is finding hope in the hopeless, courage in the chasm, guts in the grave.

What you need to see is that every time you take the easy way out, you are building a habit of quitting. And it will destroy your future and it will annihilate your happiness if you let it. Our society cares nothing for quitters. Life will let you die alone, depressed, and poor if you can’t man or woman up enough to deal with hardship. You are either the muscle or the dirt. You either take resistance and grow stronger or blow in the wind and erode.

As long as you are in my life, I am not going to let quitting be easy for you. I am going to challenge you, confront you, push you, and coach you. You can whine. You can throw a tantrum. You can shout and swear and stomp and cry. And the next day, guess what? I will be here waiting — smiling and patient — to give you a fresh start. Because you are worth it.

So, do yourself a favor: Step up. No more excuses. No more justifications. No blaming. No quitting. Just pick your head up. Rip the cords out of your ears. Grab the frickin’ pencil and let’s do this.

– C. Mielke

Santa's 2014 video to T

This LITERALLY makes me happy on the inside...

Tristan's 2014 video from Santa
 

Happy Halloween - 2014

T's Halloween breakfast

I think he liked it

After school it was time to transform into 

Sir Tristan

(he called himself the Dragon Slayer Knight")

Tristan defending his maiden

We headed over to the May's for dinner and some serious trick-or-treating

Dinner with Taylor

The boys shared their candy with the Police Officer and he gave them badges (stickers)

This little one is a trooper, she outlasted all of us!

we headed back home to hand out candy at our house and had a TON of kids - I went through about 12 bags of candy!!

And we had plenty of laughs with the "head" - Holt made kids take candy out of a basket with the head in it.  Impressive.  Next year... we are decorating to freak some people out! LOL

Thanks for the great night everyone!