Perspective

My mom emailed this to me and I found it to be very profound.

Perspective

One day , the father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to the country with the express purpose of showing him how poor people live.

They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family.

On their return from their trip , the father asked his son , "How was the trip?"

"It was great , Dad."

"Did you see how poor people live?" the father asked..

"Oh yeah , " said the son.

"So , tell me , what did you learn from the trip?" asked the father.

The son answered: "I saw that we have one dog and they had four.

We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they have a creek that has no end.

We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night.

Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon.

We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go beyond our sight.

We have servants who serve us , but they serve others.

We buy our food , but they grow theirs.

We have walls around our property to protect us , they have friends to protect them."

The boy's father was speechless.

Then his son added , "Thanks Dad for showing me how poor we are."

Isn't perspective a wonderful thing? Makes you wonder what would happen if we all gave thanks for everything we have, instead of worrying about what we don't have.

Appreciate every single thing you have , especially your friends!

"Life is too short and friends are too few.

Until later,

Emily

Christmas 2009 Pics

Such excitement & anticipation as they waited to find out if it was

"all clear" for them to go downstairs.

I don't know if it was James or Thomas that thought Toby should wear

a red bow on his back, but he had no idea that it was there.

I love this picture!

"Awesome!"

Our family loves anything with skulls and crossbones!

Toby also got one that is quite similar.

A total surprise (because he had no idea they came out with the new game),

the NEW Wii Super Mario game!

Toby was funny this year, he got into the unwrapping of the presents, but once he unwrapped the boxes, he wasn't very interested in what was actually inside the boxes!

(Wish we would have known, it would have saved us a lot of money

AND time spent shopping!)

Merry Christmas!

Until later,

Emily

"Winky is Watching!"

This year, my friend, Erin sent us this cute "Elf on the Shelf". The story goes that he is a magical elf from the North Pole...a helper of Santa Claus. He watches what is going on in the house and every night he flies back to the North Pole to report to Santa. The kids know he flew back because the next morning, sure enough, the elf was back but was in a new location. Oh what fun!

Each family has the opportunity to name their own elf. After much thought and discussion, Thomas & I decided on "Winky". It has a great ring to it...."Winky is watching!"

Winky didn't come into our home until just a few days before Christmas so he took more than one magical flight to the North Pole each day. Thomas was also quite sure that his eyes and legs sometimes moved. Winky was quite effective and I was sad to see him go.

Until later,

Emily

Naughtiness is the Three-Year Old Living in my House!

I have had a baby gate to keep Toby out of the kitchen. Really, it's the lazy way of "baby-proofing". Last week, I decided it was time to start "trusting" him and take it down. The first couple of days I found myself chasing him out of the kitchen quite a bit but then the novelty of this new room seemed to wear off and he wasn't all that interested.

Today, Toby & I stayed home. I cleaned and did a lot of laundry. I have not done laundry in 11 days--so I had a lot to do. I had folded three loads and had taken them upstairs to put them away. And that's when I smelled the smell and new instantly that my little stinker had gone into the kitchen and turned on the burners or the oven, I wasn't sure which but I knew something was burning or melting that shouldn't be.

I came downstairs to find that Toby had turned on not one, not two, but three of the burners on the stove top! Unfortunately, I had set my nice (plastic) cupcake holder on top of the stove top just an hour before so that it could dry the rest of the way (I had just washed it). For a split second I thought maybe I had arrived before the damage was horrible. But then I lifted the lid and the whole middle of the lid stayed on my stove top. It is ruined. I loved my cupcake holder and hope they still sell the same kind at Real, where I bought it last year.

After scolding him (no reaction), and spanking him (barely a flinch) I put him in his room, in his crib to be exact (he hasn't tried to climb out and I am avoiding buying him a real bed until we move back to the States). This is when he said "I sorry, I be a good boy, I be a good boy."

He eventually fell asleep. Right after that, I decided to pull back my curtains in my bedroom to let in some natural light. That's when I noticed that my heavy, insulated curtains now have "fringe" down one side of them. Yep, he found my fabric scissors and wasn't afraid to use them. The sad thing is, I'm pretty sure he did it right under my nose this morning and I didn't realize it. I thought he was playing with cars along the ledge of my window sill, not giving my curtains a new, updated look! (The scissors are now WAY up, I found that he pushed the step-stool in the bathroom to my bedroom where they were so that her could reach them).

Tonight, at dinner, I gave James the full report. When James turned to Toby to ask him about all of his naughtiness, he admitted to everything in a "very matter-of-factly" manner, there was no shame, no remorse. The more I get to know Toby, the more I think he will be our little "free-spirit"...but he's so deceptive because I think he often times looks like he's so sweet. Believe me, he is NOT!

Until later,

Emily

Toby Turns Three!

Unwrapping presents while Skyping with Grandma Arleen, Grandpa Dan & Kurt.

We were singing "Happy Birthday" to him. Toward the end, he joined in.

Yum, a cupcake and a big bowl of ice cream!

Thomas

Pretty serious about the unwrapping.

A phone call from Kate.

More unwrapping.

Today was Toby's birthday. He is three years old now. Or the way he pronounces it "I free!" Today was pretty much a normal day for Toby, but he did have two requests: he didn't want me to take him to daycare and he didn't want me to take him to a friends and leave him there. And, I didn't. We did go see a friend (VT), but when I left, so did he. We made a trip to the commissary where I filled a cart all the while only having approximately 10 items on my list. He had a meltdown while checking out because I wouldn't let him have any candy. Since it was his birthday, I probably should have given in, but I don't often reward meltdowns and tantrums like that. I bought him a new booster seat, as opposed to giving him Thomas' old one. This morning, I gladly swapped the booster seat for the car seat.

Toby fell asleep in the car on the way home from the commissary. I think he is hitting the point in his life where he will not always take an afternoon nap, but will probably still need one a couple times a week. Today was one of those days. He napped for quite a while and then Thomas came home from school. Thomas has been out of school for the past 3 weeks for Winter Break and today was his first day back at school, so Toby did ask about Thomas quite a bit today. He missed him.

Toby and Thomas played this evening while I picked up the house and made dinner. He got to Skype my parents and Kurt (my brother) while he opened their presents to him. I love modern-day technology. After that, he got a phone call from Grandma Sherry (James' mom) and Kate (my sister) Later on, we had our neighbors, the W family come over and have cupcakes, brownies and ice cream. Then our boys and their oldest son played together. Toby got a cool Hot Wheels track and some more Geo Trax train so our living room has been taken over!

Until later,

Emily

Deep Thoughts by Toby

Today, seemingly out of nowhere, Toby came up to me and said this:

"Mom, don't be sad and don't get burned."

And then he left the room. That was all he had, I guess. But, when I thought about it, that really is some pretty good advice.

Until later,

Emily

Redecorating

I wish redecorating in real life was as easy as giving your blog a new look (and as cheap!)

Until later,

Emily

2010...a 50/50 Year

I have pics and commentary to post later, but since I posted it on Facebook but I know not all my "readers" are on Facebook....we have exactly 6 months left in this crazy German adventure. We're leaving Germany on July 1, 2010. We are flying straight to UT (and to the "Snow" side of the family, yes that means we'll be joining you in Newport but be forewarned we will be dealing with major amounts of jet lag!) but will be back in MD about a month later. It's weird to say but I feel some sort of relief now that we have hit that milestone. I know six months will go by fast. And, I'm not really wishing the 6 months away either. We have had a lot of wonderful experiences and made some great memories while living here that I am thankful for. We have events to look forward to over the next 6 months and life to live. But I am sure looking forward to living in the US again, and I will not lie or feel bad about that.

Until later,

Emily