Author: Melissa

Last night while my mom watched the kiddos, we went to see New Moon at 9, then headed up 2 exits to go to the Philadelphia Outlets, which opened at midnight.

Two and a half hours later, we decided to give up – STILL having not reached the EXIT off the highway. (Yes. We sat on the highway, trying to get to a stupid outlet mall for over TWO hours.)  So we turned around and drove back towards home.

Then Husband mentioned that we should stop at the Wal-Mart to check and see if they were open all night, since he was planning to get up at 3am for some deal anyway. And they were open. And he was 5th in line! Yipee! So we all sat on the floor of Wal-Mart until FIVE AM waiting to buy a new Playstation 3.

Because… and I am not exaggerating… I am the BEST wife in the WHOLE WORLD.

So – to sum up –
Cooked Thanksgiving dinner yesterday afternoon – and all that.
Left the house at 8:30 to go see New Moon.
Watched New Moon until 11:15.
Sat on 422, going about 6 feet every 10 minutes until 2:00.
Arrived at Wal-Mart at 2:15.
Sat at Wal-Mart until 5:30.
Arrived home at 5:45.
Colin woke up at 6:30.

If you were in the parking lot of the Wal-Mart around 4am and happened to see someone in the back seat of a Jetta asleep under a grey peacoat… that was me.

After all we went through in September with Ellie getting bullied, now its Gracie's turn. That's right – mean girls in preschool. Two girls have been teasing her because she loves to draw animals. They tell her she makes "boy pictures." They also call her a boy because she likes to play with bikes and in the sandbox on the playground at recess.

(Let us just take a moment to ponder that they are teasing Gracie – the girliest girly-girl ever – about being a boy. Seriously!! Girlfriend throws a fit when she has to wear pants and when her nails aren't painted!)

What am I supposed to tell them? Its an awful, awful truth: there will always be mean people in your life. Sometimes they will be mean to you.

But YOU must not be mean back.

Its such a hard lesson. (Even for us grown-ups.) Where to begin?

Well, this week I learned about these wonderful books called 'Little Lights' from Berenstain Bears. We've been reading  Faithful Friends, The Golden Rule
and Love Their Neighbors
a lot lately as we've dealt with these mean girl issues. Take The Berenstain Bears Faithful Friends: its a wonderful story about Sister Bear dealing with being left out and having a friend be mean to her. Sister is advised by Brother Bear to love her friend, ask her
whats wrong and to extend forgiveness (all with supporting Bible
verses). Sister reaches out to her jealous friend and they work it out.
Then – I love this – the book provides discussion questions and activities that relate
to the book's lesson.

I love finding books for the kids that relate to exactly what they are going through and reiterate what we are teaching them at home. These have opened up some great discussions with my girls about how we should treat others.

Check out more What I Learned This Week posts here.

I need two big ticket items right now that I'm shopping around for:

1. a cell phone – my cell phone is 95% dead. It charges up, I turn it on and it dies. Luckily, my "new every two" kicked in and I can get a new phone. YAY! Now comes the hard part… which one?!?! 

(sidebar: don't tell me to get an iphone. i know they are awesome. but i need to stay with verizon.)

I visited the Verizon store today. And I've pretty much decided to upgrade to the data plan. (Way to finally join the 21st century, Mel!) And I've narrowed it down to a few.

• the droid by motorola: awesome. I love the combo of a touch screen and still having a keyboard. And its just so, so cool. The downside? $200 after rebate.
• the droid eris: just like the droid, only lacking the turn-by-turn navigation. And $100 less than the Motorola Droid. Sweet.
• blackberry storm: still touch screen, which is cool, and the cheapest option at only $50.

Thoughts? What do you have?

2. a vacuum cleaner – my vacuum is one that I inherited from my mother-in-law when she got a new one. I'm not sure how old it is. Lets just say its reaaaaaallly old. Parts of it fall up when I'm trying to do pretty basic things like, say, vacuuming the floor. Annoying. It also randomly loses all suction. Which is a problem.

I have NO CLUE what kind of vacuum I want. I've just begun looking and I admit, pretty ones like this
are making my head turn. But we have a split level, so I'm wary of getting a big bulky upright.

What vacuum do you have? What do you love or hate about it? What are the best brands I should be looking at?
Help!

This week for homework, Ellie had to brainstorm in her journal eight words that end in '-eck' and '-uck.'

She came up with a list that included:
yuck
duck
deck
truck
luck
puck
peck
… and another word that was promptly crossed off the list and replaced with "neck."

That would not have been good to turn that in on Friday when we have parent-teacher conferences on Monday!

I've been hit lately by how many terrific friends I have that I never see.

Some have moved away from me, some I have moved away from. Some live right down the road and we just don't cross paths as much as we used to. Some are old friends, some are newer.

Right now, I'm so wrapped up in my family and our crazy schedule, I just don't  have time. I'd love nothing more than to jump on a plane and fly to Michigan and love on my girls there. Or run home to Ohio and love my girls (and sisters!) there. Or run away from home and meet my girls for dinner and gabbing. (And I confess that lately, even when I do have a chance to get together with a friend, sometimes I don't have the energy. It sounds terrible, but I'd rather sleep.  (Sleep is a rare gem these days.)

Still, I'm determined to do more. Being busy at home, I can still send a note or an email or make a phone call. I can reach out and let my girls know that I'm thinking of them and missing them. I can pray for them, encourage them and love them – even from far away.

you are loved.