When you know you're a dork....

There are times when it's just confirmed. This was one of them.

I have been taking Master's level classes in Biblical Counseling for hmmm...about 4 years now. It's kind of funny because people in my current class assumed that I was pretty far along in the program - which is far from the truth - it's been two years since my last class. But I'm at the point where I felt ready to get back into it and this class - Essential Qualities of a Biblical Counselor - is only 8 weeks long and involves self evaluation and writing rather than a book list so I figured I could handle that.

Anyway - the last hour of the class is spent in counseling. We are paired up with a person and we switch from week to week on who is the counselor and who is the counselee. Last week was my first time as the counselee and we were talking a bit about how I have become more of a worrier (sp?) and more anxious since I've been a mom. The conversation went like this....

Her: Do you know where it was said "All that I have feared has come to pass"?

Me (seriously): Oh yeah, wasn't that in the Lord of the Rings?

Her: No, it was Job.

Me (still serious): Well I'm pretty sure it was in the Lord of the Rings too!

Yeah, that pretty much clinched it.

Home again, home again

I got home Monday night from my longest trip away from the kids. I took the bus (man, that was an experience in itself, luckily I quickly connected with a 20 year old heading to visit her boyfriend in Penn State and had a traveling buddy the rest of the trip. She made my day when she was shocked that I was turning 30 - she thought I was her age!) to State College, met up with friends and journeyed on to Ohio the next morning. Funny thing was talking to Matt at one point and realized he knew nothing about my travel plans - only that I was leaving Thursday and going to Ohio - no clue that I was staying in State College and not getting there until Friday afternoon. If it were him traveling I would know every detail of his trip - him...not so much. We had a wonderful time - I think we seriously talked for three days straight. And of course enjoyed a relaxing day at the spa - in robes and slippers from 9-3! It's hard to believe it was a week ago - I'd been thinking about it for so long and now it's a week past already. It was such a great time to be away from all the responsibilities of everyday life and spend time with friends sharing our lives together. It was wonderful to come home though - Catherine didn't know what to think - took a few minutes before she came to see me. But Ella just sat in my lap and hugged and every so often would just touch my face and say momma. Very sweet...

We had a nice snow/ice storm Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. Everyone else stayed home from work on Wednesday but Matt only works a mile away so he had no excuse not to. Only time that's worked out to be a disadvantage!

Ella has been a royal terror lately - throwing some tantrums that have me convinced she's possessed. Long story short, we decided that it was time to finally take away her pacifier. I am pretty embarrassed to admit that at age three she still uses one. Only at naptime and nighttime. We originally said she would be done at three years old but somehow that got delayed (just by two months though!). These tantrums would result in her wanting to go up to her room and sneak her "nooky" - basically the only way she would calm down. We're hoping the elimination of the pacifier will help us deal with the tantrums. It felt good to make the decision and stick to it. Last night was her first night and she did alright - up a bit early, but that's too be expected. Naptime didn't happen - she got pretty sad and upset when I was attempting to get her ready to nap but we persevered through it and she went to bed no problem tonight. I've been dreading this for awhile now and I am just so happy that we did it. I'm sure we'll struggle a bit over the next week but so far so good!

Other news...

my usual (as usual as it gets with me) TV review -

Friday Night Lights has worked it's way into one of my favorite show - Matt got me hooked even when I was trying so hard not to watch another show. Just so so good - and this past week's epi was great - tackled issues of racisim in a pretty honest way.
The Office - better than last week's episode with too much over the top Michael. The bat story was funny - I like when all the lesser used characters get screen time - even if it's only a line or two. I loved Michael coming to see Pam at her art show - worked so perfectly after he told Ryan that being a manager was about inspiring people. Oh yeah - Kelly getting so excited about Ryan relocating closer to her was hilarious!
Greys Anatomy - I don't even know what to say. Wow -very intense. The question of the week is "Is she or isn't she?" I gotta admit that I loved the scene where Meredith saw Dylan (bomb squad guy) and Denny - two great surprises.

I did forget to let everyone know what a wonderful husband I have. He stayed at home with the kids from Thursday to Monday and didn't complain at all. In fact, he said that they had a good time. He did such a good job of it that I think perhaps I should go back to work and he can be a stay at home dad. Today he got some much deserved guy time away and went with his friend Jon to a Winterfest that was held nearby. There were alot of local breweries there and you were able to sample the different varieties that they offered. He's in bed already - poor boy isn't used to that much beer! :)

That's what's new in our household. I'm so happy it's mid-February - we're getting closer and closer to a Spring thaw! One more big snow storm and I'll be ready.....actually I'm ready with our without the snow....

Old friends....

I just realized that this is my 50th post. Woohoo! I'm still relatively new to this whole blogging world and still a bit fascinated by it. When I graduated from high school no one had cell phones, the internet was completely new. I remember being in college and having the internet and e-mail explained to me. It seemed so hard to comprehend and was such a luxury. Now it is my primary form of communication. I still have letters from friends at other schools and notes of encouragement that friends would put in each other's mailboxes. Now we send e-cards. As much as I like those notes and letters that we are able to pull out and reminisce with, not having to search for a stamp or an address certainly has helped me keep in touch with friends.

And cell phones. How much different would have those long distance relationships that many of us endured have been if we had unlimited nights and weekends?

Ok, not the point of this post at all. I really just wanted to say how interesting this blogging world is and is it something we could have even predicted we'd be doing 10 years ago? I love the way we reconnect with people from various stages of our lives and meet new people who've checked out our blog after seeing us post on another.

The fact that this is my 50th post and my interest in the blogging community were actually not what I intended to write about tonight. What is on my mind is that I am getting away. I am leaving my husband and two kids behind for an extended weekend away with my college friends to celebrate our 30th birthdays. I am NOT 30 yet! I will cling to my 20's until the last possibly moment which is still 5 months from now. Out of the nine of us that stay in touch, seven of us are turning 30 this year, with the other two just a few months behind. I've known all of these girls since I was 18 years old (one even longer - Shannon!) and we got to experience those life changing college years together. They all knew me before I was a wife and a mom and the mature woman that I am today. Pause for laughter....because you all know the mature part isn't true! We've laughed together, cried together, prayed together, studied together, slacked off together, pigged out together, play pranks together, ran together, fought and made up together, danced together, played sports together, cooked together, worshipped together, fallen short together - basically we've lived together. I've seen each one get married and met every baby (we're up to 11 with 3 on the way). It's amazing that we've been out of college for longer than we were in it and we've all stayed connected. Our time together in college was far from perfect. In fact I think all of us would agree that we did alot of dumb things (and I'm not even talking about the Miss Dairy pagent you (meaning not me!) all performed) and have grown greatly in our faith and as women since graduating. We've learned to be more honest, less afraid, more confident in who we are.

We meet as familes once a year over the summer but this is the first time in years that it's just us girls. We're crashing at Heidi's house and are enjoying time to hang out and spending all day Saturday being pampered at a spa. Matt asked me today what I was looking forward to the most - spending the day at the spa, hanging out with friends....or getting away from the kids. I can honestly say that going to the spa is exciting and I am really really looking forward to getting away from the kids (add another really in there), but the highlight is being together with these wonderful women. So to Shannon, Emily (we'll miss you California girl) Kate, Erin, Heidi, Cindy, Kerri, Karen - I love you guys!

PS - It's been a stressful few days as Catherine threw up yesterday and showed signs of the stomach bug. Perfect timing, I know. She's been fine today and we are just praying that it continues that way. I was panicked that Matt would get sick and I would have to stay home to take care of the kids. I would probably spend the weekend crying and depressed with the kids in front of the TV so we're all quite happy that he's still healthy. Keep him and the kids in your prayers - for continued health and a good few days without mom. I don't imagine I'll be posting again until late next week because I have a paper due for my new class (more on that sometime) when I get home and instead of working on it tonight I wrote this!

Megizzle....

Since I haven't been posting any pictures lately - I figured I would bombard you with a bunch. I'm sitting here watching Grey's Anatomy so I might be a bit distracted - oh no George is acting all weird - is he sick or is he regretting his impulsive marriage. Holy crap, they're all down....Ok hope that didn't spoil anything....
So they above picture is a shot of the cake I made the other night as a part of my cake decorating class. I missed a week so I was just concentrating on learning how to do the roses. I was pretty happy with how they turned out. I think I'm a bit ADD because I was supposed to put white dots on it and flowers along the border and I just felt like going home - so I did.

Here is Catherine looking stinkin' adorable. She's growing up so quickly!

Here are the kids all bundled up to go out in below zero (wind chill) weather. Catherine was waving hi to me as I took the picture!

And then Ella - one of the few pictures of her real smile, not her fake pirate smile (have I posted one of those? She is grimacing and has one eye kind of squinty - likes she's going "aaargggg"- that's often the face she makes when you ask her to smile. ).

So enough with the pictures. I did decide on Ella's preschool. A few days ago in fact, just now getting a chance to post. Interestingly enough, most of you advised going for the cheaper and closer one - which is what we ended up doing. I had basically decided on Lower Providence (the one we ended up picking) because of the money and the fact that when Catherine and Ella were both in preschool we could send the girls the same days rather than alternating and having no chill days as a family. But then at Bible study the next day I was told that in all likelihood FCA (the school located at the church where I do Bible study and the one that was a bit nicer) would offer a Pastor discount. Who knew?! So I found out that we could get a 25% discount making the price difference between the two $5/month. It was hard because I thought that God must be leading us towards FCA but as Matt and I continued to process and pray about it, we still felt that Lower Providence was a better choice for our family. In the end I feel like God gave me a gift because I felt like we were making a choice based primarily on money and I just get sick of having everything be about money. Sometimes I just don't want to have to worry about money. So even though it played a small factor (the $ went up a ton when you go 3days/week when they turn four) it wasn't the deciding factor and it made me more confident in the decision we made. So thank you God for Pastor's discounts! :)

Now you know more about picking a preschool than you ever wanted to. Thanks for adding your input.

On to something silly. I saw this posted on myspace and it just made me giggle. So even if you don't actually post it on your blog, I dare you to resist....

MY NINE NAMES

1. YOUR REAL NAME:Megan

2. YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (first 3 letters of real name plus izzle.)Megizzle

3. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (fav color and fav animal)Blue Dog

4. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, and current street Kathleen Second

5. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first

name, last 3 letters of mom's maiden name)Demmegil (seems more LOTR to me)

6. YOUR SUPERHERO NAME: (2nd favorite color, favorite drink).Green Cosmo

7. YOUR IRAQI NAME: (2nd letter of your first name, 3rd letter of your last name, any letter of your middle name, 2nd letter of your moms maiden name, 3rd letter of you dads middle name, 1st letter of a siblings first name, last letter of your moms middle name)Emkiwmn

8. YOUR WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mothers middle name)Jean

9. YOUR GOTH NAME: (black, and the name of one your pets]Black Goldie