Just another day...

Hello All,
It's been a normal week for us and I think I'm blogging because of boredom more than anything. I hope all is well in your neighborhoods. Are you enjoying the season change? I know we are enjoying not having to run the sprinklers daily like we have to in the summer. I'm looking forward to Halloween this year. Kieran is going to be the guy from "Scream," Steff is going to be Tinker Bell and Sadie is going to be a lady bug. I'm sure my sisters will have a Halloween party since it's my stepmom's favorite holiday. So, they will get to wear their costumes more than once which makes buying them worth it.
Ryan has been doing well. He seems to be past his funk of hating work. He had the big boss come and tell him that he recognizes the extra effort he has been putting in to getting things done. He also said that Ryan would see some kind of opportunity for growth in the near future. This must help him feel better about leaving home each day. I can sympathize with him on this though. He really loves his family and he's a very hands on dad so spending time away from us must be hard. I get to talk to him each night around 9:30 but it's usually to see how things are going for both of us and to express how much we miss each other.
Kieran came home from school all excited yesterday...He said there is a new girl and she likes him and wants to go out with him. I have to admit this makes me happy since he seems to base his value on who wants to go out with him. I have been trying to figure out how to help him see that what he thinks and how his family values him are more important than the kids he goes to school with. If you have any ideas of what to say or do to help him please email me. All suggestions are welcome.
He's still enjoying football and last night at his game he snagged an interception and ran it down the field for a touchdown. It was the most awesome thing to see. His face when he caught the ball was just classic and precious. You could tell he was shocked that he caught it. I can't express how much fun these games are to watch. I get chilly until it's time for the boys to do something else that is amazing. Last night the team they played had one of those coaches that takes things far too serious, he was yelling and screaming at his team the whole game. The funniest part was that our kids check in with the coach but for the most part they are allowed to call their own plays and run the ball any way they like and they won. I made sure to thank our coach for being so good to our kids. I also thank the Lord that we've never had a coach that was like this man was.
Steff is doing well. The other day she was in stinker mode and she got a hold of the table salt and dumped the whole box out in her room and was playing in it. She did annoying things like this all day that day. Yesterday was a good day and she said please and thank you and my ultimate favorite, "You're welcome."
She has been really playing with Sadie lately and it's not the usual throw something and tell her to go get it. She has been so cute with her and it makes me excited for the day when they can play together as friends. The cutest thing she has been doing with Sadie is giving her kisses when she goes down for a nap. She used to be so picky about when and if she would give kisses but lately she has been very generous with them.
Sadie is pulling herself up really well and the other day she started letting go for short periods of time. It won't be long now until she starts to stand on her own and then takes that first step.
She will be one soon...We are thinking of getting her a wagon for her birthday. We figure at this age she has all the toys she needs but they could both use a wagon so why not use her birthday as a good excuse to get one?
I have been reading Boundaries with Kids in the hopes that I will learn how to help raise responsible children and so far I've learned to parent for the future. What I do today will affect my children's lives tomorrow.
I just finished another book called Boundaries in Marriage and I found that Ryan and I have pretty good boundaries with each other. I found that my money spending habits aren't fair to him. Don't get me wrong, they have gotten better but I have this fetish with ordering things from catalogs and I try to justify it by saying that I'm buying things for Christmas. I know I'm not the best and that I need to respect our budget more, otherwise I wouldn't be airing my dirty laundry on the internet for the whole world to read. I really enjoyed reading that book and so far I've enjoyed reading about how to have boundaries with my children. Ryan and I took a class on raising kids with Love and Logic and this book really reinforces what we learned in that class. I think I'll have Ryan read it when I'm finished with it. He's so good about reading books that I suggest to him. Just one more thing to love about him. I don't know what I'd do if I had a husband that wasn't as supportive and helpful and loving as Ryan. Of course, we both went through lots of bad apples before we re-found each other. Ryan was saying something to the effect of being grateful that we had hard times at the beginning of our relationship to help us grow in love and commitment to each other. He said our marriage would be boring if we hadn't seen hardships. I have to agree with him. We have a history of working things out and our problems now seem small in comparison to the trials we've overcome in the past.
I have one final thing to say...Believing in God and actually believing God are two different things. Where do you stand?