Tomorrow

I received this email from a dear friend of mine and loved it.  Again, something that came at just the time I needed to read it.  I forwarded it to everyone in my address book (even though I rarely forward emails, this one was too good to pass up).  However there are so many people who read my blog that I don't have an email address for.  I wanted to share.  Hope you enjoy.

One day a woman's husband died, and on that clear, cold morning, in the warmth of their bedroom, the wife was struck with the pain of learning that sometimes there isn't "anymore". No more hugs, no more special moments to celebrate together, no more phone calls just to chat, no more "just one minute." Sometimes, what we care about the most gets all used up and goes away, never to return before we can say good-bye, say"I love you."

So while we have it, it's best we love it, care for it, fix it when it's broken and heal it when it's sick.. This is true for marriage.....And old cars... And children with bad report cards, and dogs with bad hips, and aging parents and grandparents. We keep them because they are worth it, because we are worth it.

Some things we keep -- like a best friend who moved away or a sister-in-law after divorce. There are just some things that make us happy, no matter what.

Life is important, like people we know who are special.. And so, we keep them close!

I received this from someone who thought I was a 'keeper'! Then I sent it to the people I think of in the same way... Now it's your turn to send this to all those people who are "keepers" in your life, including the person who sent it, if you feel that way..  Suppose one morning you never wake up, do all your friends know you love them?

I was thinking....I could die today, tomorrow or next week, and I wondered if I had any wounds needing to be healed, friendships that needed rekindling or three words needing to be said.

Let every one of your friends know you love them. Even if you think they don't love you back, you would be amazed at what those three little words and a smile can do.  And just in case I'm gone tomorrow.

I LOVE YOU!!!

Live today because tomorrow is not promised.. 


Love - Jenn

Hip Hop Christmas

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Betcha didn't know our family was so talented, did ya???  Happy Holidays everyone!

Christmas Spirit has come to the Klimowicz-Johnson house

As most of you know, the past couple months have been an emotional roller coaster for our family.  I have been dreading the holiday season and "Christmas Cheer" among other things.  However, the season is upon us and I can ignore it no longer.  JJ and I had a long talk about how important it is for the kids to get to fully experience their childhood and this holiday season regardless of what is going on in our adult life.  We debated back and forth if it was a good idea to take on Christmas together or start splitting time and holidays right away.  We came to the conclusion that if we can get along, it is better for the kids for us to all be together.  Here goes nothing.....

Phase 1  - The Backyard Blowup

The decorations started with Santa and the Polar Bear  This happened almost by accident and was very spontaneous.  It was starting to snow and i remembered from last year that it was impossible to put these bad boys up once the snow was already on the ground.  So, I reluctantly pulled out the decorations and set to add some festivities to our backyard.  I decided on the back yard rather than the front because we live on a very busy street and would virtually never see them if they were posted up in the front yard.  This Christmas is all about the kids, so I wanted them to enjoy the toys.  Sasha wasn't quite sure what to think when she first saw them.  She kept peeking around the corner out the back door/window and giggling.  She kept saying "Whas he doing?"

 

Phase 2 - The Jellyfish Dance

The "jellyfish" dance.  I don't know if this is some weird ritual or a new tradition Zehn is starting for decoration day.  However, it was quite funny and you can see Sasha in the background joining in the fun.  She isn't quite as into the dance as Zehn though.

 

Phase 3 - Decorating the Tree

Zehn was in charge of taking things out of boxes.  At least until the excitement overwhelmed him, at which point JJ took over that duty and Zehn just ran around as if he had lost his mind.  It was so fun to watch how excited the kids were tonight. 

Sasha didn't wait for the ornaments.  She promptly found her sticker book and started decorating the tree with stickers.  Beautiful work Sash!

Zehn was very particular about how these ornaments and decorations looked on the tree.  I fear he may have some of his mother's OCD.  Sorry kiddo.

I thought this was a sweet picture.  Sasha really didn't care about me at all the entire night.  She kept going to her dad for help and guideance.  This solidified that it was a good idea for us to pull together for them tonight.  They couldn't have been happier.  And that makes me happy.

Our "happy" little tree.  Decorated almost 100% by the kids.  As it should be.  Now we have to find something to put under and around it.......

I love this picture.  Sasha looks like an angel in the middle of a glowing heaven.

Finished product and happy faces.  I would say the night was a success.

Phase 4 - Playing in the snow with Santa

 

The night would not be complete without a family picture with our 2 newest family members.

And of course...... Zehn in his shorts snuggling up to Santa.  I think he is trying to suck up for the Wii gaming system he wants this year.  Good Luck on that one kiddo.

Overall this night turned out very pleasant.  I was happily surprised and glad that we decided to do this.  Ok, Christmas...... this mom is ready....... bring it on.

Sneaky Sasha

So, with all the transitions in our house over the past couple months, bedtime was one of the first to go out the window.  This is really sad because we had broken Sasha of the bottle habit and both kids were very good about being in bed at 8, 8:30 at the latest.  However, as I fell apart, so did bedtime routines.  Sash is back on the bottle and bedtime is pretty much whenever they pass out.  Bad Mom.

Well, as I try to piece our life back together, the time has come to un-learn these bad habits and re-teach my kids a good bedtime routine.  I thought we were doing pretty well the other night.  I put the kids to bed and only got struggles until 9:00. (which is a miracle right now)  The house was quiet and I assumed they were asleep so I crawled in my bed to do the same.

I got up around 10:00 to get a drink from the kitchen and as I walked back to my bedroom I noticed the rocking chair in the dark rocking itself.  I looked a little closer and noticed Sasha sitting quietly in the rocking chair with a stack of books in her lap.

So i grabbed the camera and captured the moment.... BUSTED!!!

Who knows how long she had been there reading quietly in the dark, but how can you get mad at something like that.  She thought she was in so much trouble.  Just look at the fear in her face.  :)  We sat down and read together for about 20 minutes and then she went to bed quietly for the night.

My kids may get in trouble for a variety of things, but reading will never be one of them.  Good Sneaky Sash.

Zehn Says..... IMAGINE.....

Today when Zehn got home from school he ran in and excitedly asked me if he could go back to meet 3 girls at the flagpole (oh man....) because they were going to build a time machine.  I walked back across the street to meet the girls and make sure that things were ok with this adventure.

As I suspected, even though the kids had great plans of building the time machine right then, the parents had different plans and that included taking the kids home for the day.  So, the 3 girls and Zehn formed a plan to meet up tomorrow morning to start planning the best time machine ever.  One girl took charge and assigned Zehn the task of finding metal.  (I'm not sure that I am going to send him to school with a backpack of metal tomorrow though..... this time machine may have to be built out of plastic).

Anyhow, when we got home Zehn said to me "Mom, imagination is SOOOO important.  Without imagination, we don't really even have a life".  I thought long and hard about what he said and about how profound this statement could be in my life and the lives of others.  Where in our life do we stop dreaming, imagining and believing that we can build a time machine out of metal (plastic) and a lightbulb.  These kids are going back to visit the dinosaurs.

I am going to take this lesson that my son has taught me and begin to apply it in my life.

"Imagination is Soooo important.  Without imagination, we don't really have a life........"

I challenge you to do the same.  Dream......Inspire....Believe......

Love - Jenn

Sooooo Sad...............

Halloween (better late than never)

So I know this post is very outdated, but life has been crazy.  I just wanted to catch everyone up on our "normal" ? life over the past month.

Halloween started out with Zehn's pumpkin slowly dying (just one of the casualties in our home this month)  We had 4 other pumpkins from the pumpkin patch, but never got around to doing anything with them due to the chaos of the month.  We kept Mr. Pumpkin face as long as we could, then he made the sad trip to the garbage.

The festivities started out with Zehn, who refused to commit to a Halloween costume.  He just plain was not interested.  We discussed it many times and looked through some at the stores, he just did not care to dress up.  Well, after I sent him to school (costumeless) for the parade, I panicked, fearing once he showed up and was the only kid without a costume he would be upset.  I grabbed a cowboy hat and ran it to the school only to find him happily holding the sign in front of his classroom.  He didn't seem to notice or care that he was the only one not in costume.  I begged him to at least wear the cowboy hat, and he finally complied.

Next, it was off to Sasha's school where she was dressed as Pippy Longstocking.  She was very excited, as you can see here about the pumpkins and just being at school with her "friends" as she is every day.

Stage 2 of Halloween was at Tiff's house.  We had a great halloween party and after searching the boxes, found both Sasha and Zehn's old costumes from last year.  At least mom was satisfied.  Again, I don't think either one of them cared at all.  Zehn was a  muscle man, Sasha a spider.

Jaden and Zehn getting ready for trick or treating.  Isn't her cowgirl costume cute.  I hear that Tiff had some issues with her not wanting to wear it either.   What's wrong with kids and Halloween now days?  They sure did look cute though.

My costume for everything that requires a costume for the past 6 years (toned down a bit this year)  a wig and boa.  Can never go wrong.

Back from Trick-or-Treating and Sasha found Kelly's wig.  She apparently was not done dressing up for the night and thought she was some hot stuff.  Then she decided to share the wig with her mom......

Boo Ya - Mom working the new kickboxing skills with the wig.  There really is nothing that can even be said about this photo except, WOW.

So, that was our Halloween.  It was fun and I think the kids had a great time.  The only exception would be when a "statue" on one of the porches came alive behind Sasha and scared the *beep* out of her.  The rest of the night she kept pointing at anything dressed in black and saying "HOLY MOLY".  All in all, it was a success.  Good Times

 

New Moon

"A new moon signifies new beginnings, a time to release old habits, patterns, projects and anything that no longer serves us – and to begin something new, with a new vision and a clear focus. "

- The LOVEolution

I love how the universe brings us exactly what we need when we need it.  I was cleaning out my junk email and a subject line caught my eye.  It read "Has anyone else been experiencing some INTENSE emotions lately?"  Usually I just clear out my junk mail in bulk, but for some reason I actually opened it and saw this email.  I clicked on it and what I read was extremely shocking.  I have heard all the hype of the NEW MOON as the release of this movie was only yesterday.  Somewhere in the hype got lost the REAL new moon which took place on Monday of this week.  As I read, this article shot chills through my body and it gave me more insight and strength into my situation.  The opening quote of this blog is from the article I found in my junk mail.  Junk?  I think not! I plan to spend the day doing some research on the astrological New Moon (if I can weed through the movie hype).  Thank you universe (and the inspiration to open my junk mail today)  this truly is a time for change and letting go of things no longer useful to me in my life.

Updates

I am aware that updates are in order....... but I'm soooooo busy and tired (and that is a great thing).  I will update soon.......

The Water Bottle

So, it looks like a simple normal water bottle, right?  Well this water bottle has been the source of so much conflict between my kids I lost my head today as they fought over it for the 100000000th time again.

Ok, so let me back up.  The day started out as normal.  Breakfast, Barney, and fresh juice from the juicer (yes, I am diligently trying to wean myself off of my coffee addiction).  Tiff called at 10 am to remind me of the hip hop class we had agreed to go to at 11.  I got the kids ready and out the door in 1/2 hour (which is no small feat you will know if you have 2 wild animals for children).

We got the the gym and were absolutely ridiculously horrible at our ...um "hip hop dance" class.  Ha ha ha ha.  If you can even call what we were doing dance.  There was a point that I turned to her and said as long as we keep jumping, maybe no one will notice we don't know what we are doing.  No matter, it was great fun and I couldn't imagine a better saturday morning than making an ass out of myself with Tiff.

After a nice relaxing sit in the hot tub, we decided we better get on with our day.  I went to the Kids Club to pick up Sasha and Zehn (who absolutely love going to the gym, and Sasha asks multiple times a day....."gym???")  They came when I called them which is rare, so I'm not quite sure where this next part of uncontrollable aggression came from.

Yes I am......  the water bottle.  This damn water bottle.  You would think I would just buy them each their own, but no, I have not up to this point, been that smart.   So, anyway as I was helping Sasha get her shoes on they spotted it in my gym bag.  Zehn grabbed it and immediately Sasha reached for it and started whining.  Well of course, Zehn wasn't handing it over.  I could see the situation escalating and went from 0 - 100 irritated because we have had the "fighting over this very water bottle" talk 100 times.

I snatched the bottle out of Sasha's hands (who had somehow won the fight for the moment).  As I lectured them on how annoying and tiresome this battle had become, in a moment of "mommy glory", I turned to Zehn first, aimed the bottle at his face and squirted.  Then I turned to Sasha and did the same thing.

Awesome.  Mom of the year.  Both my kids were now crying and wet as I was preparing to take them into the blizzard snowstorm outside.  Tiffany was laughing in horror and the girl sitting at the Kid's Care desk looked like she had also been a target of my uncontrolled spur of the moment waterfight.  I wonder if she will ever let us back in there.  We probably now have notes in our chart like Elaine from Seinfield and no one will ever take us again.

But guess what.............  I got the water bottle!!!  I win!!  :)