New Adventure

So for those of you who have not heard yet, I have embarked on a new adventure. After taking about 6 weeks or so to think about it, process it with other people and research it, I have decided to become a lia sophia jewelry advisor. Why, you may ask? Well for a couple of reasons, first off I LOVE wearing jewelry. It is so much fun to have several different pieces to pick from. It can make a very boring plain shirt look totally different. The other reason is to make a little bit of extra money.

Why lia sophia you might ask? Well one of the things I love about the company is their lifetime guarantee. If anything happens to your jewelry at any point or if you decide at any point that you no longer like it you can send it back no questions asked. They will not just fix the jewelry if it is broken, they will replace it and if they no longer have the piece then they will send you a gift certificate for the full price of the piece you are returning. There is NO place else I have found that has this same deal. I have bought way too many pieces of jewelry and had to end up throwing them away because stones fell out or they tarnished. No more of that! The other thing I love about the company is that they have great deals every month, they give hostesses great deals and their jewelry is just plain cute!

So far I have done 4 shows and have another one tomorrow and have a couple scheduled in March and April so far. I am really having a good time doing all of this. I love meeting new people and showing them how to get good deals on great jewelry. If you ever want to host a party, you get lots of free and reduced price stuff (really it is amazing all you get) and I also offer great deals for hosting a party, let me know!

Go to http://www.liasophia.com/ and take a look at the new Spring and Summer catalog, you WILL love it!

Tyler's Phrases

Here are some the the things Tyler says that just crack me up sometimes:

- huh, that's weird

- your jokin

- you're funny

- if you say so

- Carter Ruth (okay so that in itself is not so funny, but Tyler only calls Carter, Carter Ruth, never just Carter and even Carter sounds more like haha)

- I don't know

- naw, naw, naw (he sings this when he plays Allison's Hannah M. guitar)

- whatever

- school where my teacher gets me out of the car (he is going to 2 preschools right now and this is what he calls one of them)

- I am a happy boy!

- He has also been known to tell his friends that he has a big penis, yeah we all cracked up at that one!

- you like my big, big muscles

I love this stage when they are talking like crazy, but not all words are 100% clear, it is just so cute. I also love the fact that they say what is on their mind and there is no filter. of course I like it till one of them says something about someone they see that is true, but dosen't really need to be said outloud. Gotta love kids!

Perfection

I have figured something out about one of our kids just recently. Now, I thought that this was one of her characteristics before but it is becoming very clear to me now that it is who she is going to be. Our eldest daughter, Allison, is becoming more perfectionist all the time. For those of you who know her father, the apple did not fall far from that tree. Yes, I do also have things that I like a certain way, but not sure that I would call myself a perfectionist.

There have been clues along the way that have helped me come to this conclusion, like when I send her and her sister up to clean their rooms, Allison CLEANS her room. She picks everything up and puts everything in its place. Her bed is made, she even runs her hand across the comforter to make sure it is smooth. Her dresser is neat and orderly, she has a drawer in her nightstand for books and a drawer in her dresser for all her American girl doll clothes. She even likes to organize her underwear drawer and put them in piles by colors. Rachel on the other hand, likes to clean her room by putting more stuff out on her dresser. When you ask her what she is doing, she will tell you that she is decorating and making it pretty and yes adding more clutter. Which by the way can tend to drive me CRAZY! She is also one who has been known to just shove stuff where it cannot be seen when you walk in, that must make it clean right?

The big clue though for me this year, has been Allison's school work. Almost everyday she comes home with papers they have worked on throughout the day. Some of the papers are ones they have done together in class and other ones are ones they have done on their own throughout the day. If she happens to miss one problem on those papers, it can send her to tears. As I would go through her stuff everyday I would talk to her about the ones she missed, so that I knew she was understanding what she did wrong. As soon as I brought up that she had missed one the tears would start. I have talked and talked to her about how it is okay to miss problems and that no one gets everything right. I have told her that all her dad and I expect out of her is that she does her best and when she gets something wrong that she learns from it. I cannot tell you how many times I had this conversation with her while there were tears flowing down her cheeks.

I will say it has gotten a little better and now when she comes home from school she will tell me right away if she missed any on her papers. I look through them and if I can tell that her teacher has gone over them with her then I just blow it off or I ask her if she understood why she got it wrong. The other thing that really gets her going is tests. She already worries about them the night before and asks us what happens if she gets her answers wrong. We try to reassure her and tell her that she will done fine. All I keep thinking through all of this, is she is in 1st grade! What in the world is going to happen when she is in middle school or high school? To be completely honest it kind of scares me.

As nice as it is to have that really clean room of hers, I sure don't want her living her life worrying about not being perfect! My hope is that Daryl and I can help her strive for excellence but also teach her how to learn from her mistakes and move on.

Family Night

I love Friday nights and the reason I love them is because they have become our family night. Daryl normally is home right on time, the house is normally clean, and it is the beginning of the weekend. We do dinner, which most of the time is more breakfast like foods, then clean the kitchen up together and then it is jammie time. All the kids and mom and dad sometimes too get pajamas on.

Once everyone is all comfy then it is time for some sort of treat. Last Friday night it was chocolate milkshakes, tonight it was popcorn. We then all retreat into the living room for movie night. Movie night has become a huge hit in our house. We all snuggle together, turn all the lights off and on comes some sort of kids movie. Last week it was Meet the Robinsons, this week it was Jungle Book. The kids absolutely love it and look forward to it all day.

Movie night is one of the ways that we spend quantity time with our kids in hopes that there will be moments of quality time that come out of it. I cannot begin to tell you how important it is to me that we are making it a priority to carve out quantity time with our kids. One very wise man (Dr. R. Mark Beeson) once said that quality time only comes with quantity time. You can't plan the quality time, it only comes with quantity time-and that you can plan.

Christmas Eve and Day Pictures 2007

Opening presents at my Sister's house on Christmas Eve.

More presents at Grandma Marques' house on Christmas Eve.

Santa came, Santa came!

Rachel and Tyler in their new sled!

Allison in the new sled, take a look at Rachel in the background, too funny!

Tyler with his new Diego backpack.

It was a Hannah Montana Christmas!

Rachel and Allison both got Ipods for Christmas, thanks to the discount from Aunt Katie!

Papa got Rachel a drum set,

and Allison a Hannah Montana guitar, he pretty much won the Papa of the year award!

Our new band, not pictured Tyler on the tambourines.

Papa got Tyler a new bike for Christmas!

Stocking fun, I LOVE stockings! My mom always put special things in our stockings.

Christmas 2007

As Christmas Vacation comes to an end, I thought it about time I blog about it. The kids go back to school tomorrow which is crazy. Daryl and I both had about 12 days home with the kids and it was awesome.
It all started on Christmas Eve when we attended Christmas Eve service at GCC (they knocked the ball out of the park this year), celebrated Christmas Eve with my sister and their families and then headed over to Grandma Marques' for a bit. We then came home and got ready for Santa. The kids could not have been more excited.

Christmas Day started about 8:30 am for us, when all the kids ended up in our bed. We started 2 new traditions this year. The first one was we decided that before we go downstairs and the chaos begins that we are going to read the Christmas Story out of the bible. So we did that and then made the kids wait at the top of the stairs while we got the cameras all ready, etc. They could barely stand it! The 2nd tradition we started was each person opens one gift at a time, that way everyone gets to see all the presents. My dad and brother came over about 9:30 am and we had breakfast with them and then opened more presents. It felt like it was presents for about 5 hours straight. Then mid-afternoon Daryl's sister and her family came over to hang out with us. Daryl's mom and dad were out of the Country this year for Christmas. The kids had a ton of fun hanging with their cousins and playing with all of their new toys. The Callender Family was supposed to come over, but we missed their phone call which was a bummer! Christmas night Allison and Rachel got the chance to spend the night with their cousins and they had a great time.

The day after Christmas we went ice skating up in St. Joe with the kids and Daryl's sister and her family. This is the second year we have done this and I think we need to make it a tradition. I was amazed at how well Allison is skating. We even got Ty on skates this year, he was a little unsure at first but by the time we left he was having fun.

Thursday we took the kids to a movie, dinner and then to the mall to do some after Christmas shopping. Friday we cleaned the house and went through all the toys in the basement and got rid of about 4 bags full of toys. Friday night we headed to Chi-town with our best friends to eat at PF Changs, all I can say is yum, yum, yum! Saturday was a typical day, hang out at home, go out to eat with friends and then go to church. Sunday, I spent the afternoon and early evening with Allison and Rachel shopping, we had a blast. Monday was New Year's Eve and we had our normal group along with Trent and Leah over. It was a ton of fun! New Year's Day we spent the day playing in the snow, sledding and taking down all the decorations. As much as I love the holidays, I love getting my house back to normal once they are over.

Our vacation then came to an end and it was back to work for Daryl and I, but at least it was a short week. We ended the kids vacation with having Christmas at Daryl's parents on Saturday and hosting Carter Ruth's Birthday party today. It was a great Christmas vacation. I have to admit it will be strange to not have all my kids with me all day, but I suppose school is important :)

Some pixs to follow in the next post!

Twas the Night Before Christmas

The Christmas pajamas are on, the cookies and milk are out along with the note to Santa. The reindeer food is placed in the front and back yard just to make sure and the kids are all tucked in bed barely able to sleep waiting to see if Santa really will find our house.

The McMullen Family wishes you all a very Merry Christmas. We hope you find time to celebrate the birth of Jesus and to spend time with friends and family.

Waiting for Santa,

Daryl, Tammy, Allison, Rachel and Tyler

All I Want

All I want for Christmas is my two (make that 4) front teeth!

Happy 37th Birthday Daryl

Happy Birthday babe! I am so lucky to be the girl who you celebrate your Birthday with.
I had a great time this weekend!
I love you with all my heart!

Marriage

If you remember one of my recent posts was all about divorce, I thought it only fitting to follow it up with a post about marriage. We recently did a parenting series at our church, Granger Community Church, and one of the messages touched on some of the points I am going to talk about. Now I understand that I have only been married for 8 years and there are many people out there who have been married much longer than I, so I know I still have lots to learn, but this is what I have found to be important so far.

1. Daryl and I understand that Jesus has to be at the center of all we do. The most important relationship I have is my relationship with Christ. The same is true of Daryl. Mark Beeson, our senior pastor, during one of his messages a long time ago drew a picture of a triangle with Jesus at the top point and Daryl and I at the bottom points of the triangle. He then went on to explain that as we each move up our line closer to Jesus we also move closer together as a couple.
2. Daryl and I understand that the next most important thing after our relationship with Jesus is our relationship with each other. So what this means is that our children come after that. Yes, I did just say that my children at not the center of our universe. I know there are many people out there who don't agree with this, they think because I say this it means that I don't love my children. No, I never said that I don't love my children, but my relationship with their father was around before they existed and when they move out and leave home (as they should) he will still be here. The best thing we can do for our children is to love each other well and to always put each other above them. I want to show them what a marriage should look like.
3. Have a group of other married couples around you who will hold you accountable about your marriage and who have marriages that you want to emulate. We have a very close group of friends and everything (and I mean EVERYTHING) is open for discussion. We make it a priority to spend time with those friends and to pour into each other. It is understood in our group by all of us that divorce is not an option for any of us so we check in on each other often. We have the hard discussions with each other and we are open and honest with each other.
4. Date your spouse on a regular consistent basis and make it a priority. Daryl and I have date night at least 2 times a month. We trade kids with the Callenders, so they have date night every other week and we are the opposite weeks. Those date nights are important to us, we look forward to them and if for some strange reason we miss one we try and make it up. Besides a regular date night I think you need to make it a priority to get away over night with each other too. Daryl and I had an opportunity this summer to get away for 5 days together without kids. It was great! We had time to just be Tammy and Daryl and not mom and dad. I have decided that we need to try and do this every year.
5. Make it a priority to communicate with each other without distraction. You may read this one and think I communicate with my spouse everyday, no big deal. Daryl and I have found that we communicate on a much different level with each other if we turn off the TV and computers, put the kids in bed and just sit down, look at each other and talk. We do not do this enough, this is something that we need to do better at. I am one of those people who needs to feel like I know things about my spouse that no one else knows. It helps me to feel connected!
6. Work towards a goal together. This is something I have just figured out brings Daryl and I closer. When I think back about the times when I felt closest to Daryl it was during times when we were working towards some sort of goal. When we were pregnant with each of our children, when we were looking for and purchasing a new home, when one of us were changing jobs, when we were making a big purchase, when we were reading a book together, when we were working through a challenging problem together, these and many other things helped me feel closer to my husband. We were working towards a common goal!
7. Have sex on a regular basis. Yep you read that right. Sex is a huge part of any marriage. Not only do the men need it, but admit it women so do we. God created sex and there was a reason for it. It is way too easy to be too tired or too worn out or to just not have the desire. As much as we all hate to admit it sometimes those are just excuses. We have found that as long as we are having sex on a regular basis it helps us stay on track in all the other areas.
8. Don't become complacent. It is very easy to think, we know divorce is not an option so we don't have to worry about it. But as soon as that happens then you find yourself in a place where things are not good. You find yourself in a place that you never thought you would be. I got a phone call from a friend about 3 and half years ago that changed me. I cried tears I never thought I would cry, I had conversations I didn't plan to have and I prayed like I had never prayed before. Their story had a happy ending, but it taught me to never become complacent. I need to make all of the above things a priority so that my marriage stays on track.

Like I said at the beginning, I am not an expert on any of this. These are just things that I have found work for Daryl and I. What else would you add to the list?