2009 or bust!

January always makes me nervous for the coming year. Ask my family, I have been on an emotional roller coaster ever since New Year's Day. Here's the run down:

• Alexander's birthday came and went. I'm glad he is only three b/c it was a pretty lame celebration. I promise to try harder next year.
• New Job opportunity!!! Might mean less blogging. Did I hear a sigh of relief from the audience? Shame on you!
• Started Jazzercizing, it's really fun! I do my best to keep if fun and funny b/c if I didn't, I would give up.
• Mike and I will be married 5 years on the 16th! I am amazed and hope to celebrate it without thinking/worrying about the kids, chores, and up coming job opportunity.
• Church is AWESOME! we are doing this series called "Advice for Barack." It rocks! Check out last weeks sermon at www.heartcc.org I love how the theme is about servant leadership.
• I'm very nervous about the new job opportunity. At first I was thrilled, then I began to think about what needs to happed between now and January 31st and it is scary.
• I am also nervous about taxes. In general it goes pretty smoothly once Mike and I organize our jurisdictions but now I have childcare to factor in. It's not so organized.
• Terrible Threes are a roller coaster in themselves
• Hell hath no fury like "Abbie" scorned

I guess that is everything. Playgroups start next week and the kids and I are very happy about that. We missed all our friends there!

Happy Birthday Alexander!

Down with terrible twos and on to terrible threes!!!

The moment you haven't been waiting for...

Merry Christmas from the Soares kids. This is the final result birthed from the horrid photo experience described in the "Smile Dammit" blog. Getting 3 kids to smile at the same time is priceless!
At church tonight I had a very fulfilling experience. It was truly a breath of fresh air. We sang carols by candle light after we devoured the accounts of Jesus' birth. This may sound pessimistic, but I have never really embraced the Christmas story like so many around me do. God was God, the people were obedient and some astrologers and shepherds witnessed it all as angels sang "glory to God in the Highest." It just doesn't impact me as it does others around me. I guess the year I was pregnant with Alexander and had contractions on Christmas day I sort of identified with Mary. I also relate to Joseph more than anybody because he is a step parent but other than that, it is hard for me to really "feel" the miracle of Jesus birth. Until tonight. As Roger talked, I thought yeah, yeah, I know. I know the story so why did I come to church tonight. Then Roger told a story about a boy that sat on the sidelines with a sort of "bah Humbug" attitude toward the hard work the father had done in order to celebrate Christmas. That's me. So what. What now? Then we turned off the lights. I felt like God gave me the "quiet" I have hungered for all this month. My heart did a 180. The big screen at church said "stop." And I did. Those of you who know me know I don't do that well. You've probably been victims of my resistance to "stopping." The screen said something like stop worring, stop THINKING, stop rushing etc.... Big deal right? Then we passed out the candles and sang Silent Night. I wanted it to last forever. There were times when all I could do was listen (another Christmas miracle). The auditorium was filled with worship. The worship was in the form of "Thank you God for your gift. Thank you for giving us a second chance. Thank you for your Holiness." I will never be able to recreate that moment but for me, that was the best Christmas present ever. For what it is worth, I pray the longing of your heart will be answered this Christmas.

Addiction and Withdrawal

I have the shakes right now... I am a TOTAL junkie. So addicted to Facebook that I can't get over how ANGRY I am that it has been down for two days!!!!! Someone send me to rehab. I don't want to live this way....

Welcome Back

He said I have $95.00 to spend on groceries this week. I thought,"that's impossible, but I'll try" ( we usually spend 120-130 for the five of us). Grandpa called and said, "I'll watch the kids if you need to run errands today." So I went to Aldi first. I haven't been there since about this time last year when Abbie was a newborn and we knew our situation was going to be tight. To be honest, I wasn't thrilled about going. Rather than being thankful for what I do have I felt a grumply cloud surround me a I hunted for a quarter to "rent" a grocery cart. Things changed as soon as I walked in. I saw a mom that I am familiar with at the cash register and many great deals on my grocery list. It became a wonderful shopping experience and the following are three reasons why:
1.) Unbeatable prices on necessary "staples"
2.) Items that my husband and children would dislike simply because they don't look the same as they do when I purchase them from Wal-Mart can be purchased from Wal-Mart at Aldi's low price by informing the cashier at Wal-Mart that it is cheaper at Aldi.
3.) Once I am done at Aldi, I usually scratch the items off my list and cruise through Wal-Mart in half the time.
4.) They require you to pay with cash or debit so you couldn't loan money from a credit card even if you wanted to.
5.) They charge you for grocery bags so they encourage you to be green.

It felt good to be back. Feel free to comment on anything you particularly appreciate about Aldi!

Feliz Navidad!! A tribute to grandmas everywhere

This nativity scene was a gift from my favorite person in the world. My Grandma Dot. She sent it to me about six years ago and I have never recieved a gift that has touched my heart the way this one has. I couldn't let Christmas pass me by without displaying my treasure. My Grandma Dot and late grandfather got it the year they were married and gave it to me after they had been married over 50 years. They had been married 63 years when Pa Pa died in 2005. Here's the funny thing about it, though, baby Jesus looks like he is about 3 years old. You can't see it well from this picture but he has sort of a pageboy haircut and amazon legs. I can remember seeing this nativity scene year after year in my grandmas house. I am honored to have it in my home for my children to see (and not touch).

One year, my grandma was lettin' loose with a lot of Bailey's Irish Cream (we are not Irish but we all invite Bailey to our Christmas parties) one snowy Christmas Eve and for whatever reason, my grandfather had stayed in Florida that year while Grandma came to Illinois to visit us. After a few card games Grandma started twirling her scarf and singing Feliz Navidad at the top of her lungs.... I can still hear her now "I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas...." I was the designated driver that year and no matter which Christmas Carol was on the radio, to Grandma it was Feliz Navidad. This was also the year that Grandma opened a beautiful jacket and said "this is for show and NOT for blow!" What did she mean by that?

Despite her tipsiness on the holidays, Dorothy Winter is an amazing woman. She can tell a story like no other. I wish I had inherited that from her. All she passed to me were really good guilt trips , interpretive dance moves and recipe for homemade Bailey's Irish Cream. Oh and she gave my daughter her beautiful blue eyes (see below). She is a professional clown with the map of Norway written across her face. Here is the thing about Grandma... She is infectious, She is captivating, she is wise and very sarcastic. She is lonely, she is in pain, she is crazy, she is beautiful and she never gives up on anything. Not even her precious Cubbies. Why am I writing this? Because we all have someone like this in our lives and life is too short to let Christmas go by without putting our heart on our sleave and serving someone who has blessed us. If your grandma is alive, I challenge you to tell her WHY you love her this Christmas. If your grandma isn't alive, pick someone else's and tell them how they have blessed you. I just did!

Same eyes...3 generations later!

Feel free to comment about your grandma!

I look at this picture everyday and thank God for her

Then she smiled at me parumpumpumpum...

I can't believe it has been a week since I blogged. It feels so good to sit down and let my fingers go crazy. We have had a great week!

• Following Thanksgiving, we went to my good friend from college, April's wedding. I felt so HONORED to go because as many different friends I had in college, April is the only one that I can say I was friends with for all four years. I was the ISU represenative at the wedding (not a title that I really thrive on) but to celebrate central IL, I brought the wedding party some Avanti's bread and ranch. I won MVP at the wedding!!!! Which is very amazing because I missed the ceremony due to the corrupt bouncer who wouldn't let us in!!! April looked so beautiful and I wanted to stay as long as possible because I am so happy for her but someone needed to cut me off and he did.
• Alexander, Abbie and I played in the snow, it wasn't as delightful as I dreamed it would be. The kids didn't like it when I pretended I was pulling them in a dogsled and they fell out. They decided to watch me from the sidelines while eating snow instead.
• This week we have been busy cooking and shopping and wrapping and carol singing and light hanging and rearranging furniture. Despite all the busyness, Alexander must not be that tired from it because he skipped two naps this week!!! He was in his bed and quiet and even naked yesterday. Yeah! I went into his room to see if he had fallen asleep and there he was stark naked. I said "Alexander what happened to your diaper?" He said, "I don't know where it is" I said, "Why did you take your diaper off?" He said, "Because I wanted to say hi to my pee pee!"