Victims

While most ladies were waking up to flowers and chocolate on Valentine's Day, I woke up to lots of small, sparkly items!  

How exciting, right?  These shiny particles were not enclosed in a bracelet or necklace.  They weren't found inside a little jewelry box.  They were scattered around the driveway and in our van.  

We were the victims of vandalism early in the morning on Valentine's Day.   These shiny, sparkly items were glass, not diamonds.  

Saturday morning, I woke up at my brother's house and looked out the window.  The garage door across the way had yellow spray paint on it.  After a closer look I could see it was graffiti.  The image itself was quite vulgar with a message I couldn't decipher, (except one profane word).  My brother quickly went outside to see if there was any graffiti on his garage door and luckily there wasn't.  It was freezing in WI so we didn't go outside again until later in the morning.  

My brother decided to look around the house again and noticed a mountain bike sticking out of the rear view window of our van.  His initial thought was "why did they bring a bike?"  Another window had been smashed and he quickly realized what had happened.  He walked across the street to the neighbors who had also been vandalized, only to realize the bike was his sons and it had been sitting on their front porch the night before.

When the Madison Police came by a little later, we found out we weren't the only victims of vandalism.  There had been over 25 incidents, accounting for tens of thousands of dollars in damage.  Awesome!  

You can't help but feel violated when something like this happens.  This wasn't provoked and we weren't targeted.  (I'm hoping having out of state license plates had nothing to do with this).  It's simply a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.  You definitely feel on the edge, wondering if it could happen again.  Your emotions spiral from anger and sadness, to annoyance, irritation and "why me?"  We did have some valuables in the vehicle and luckily nothing was stolen.  Obviously the punks responsible will never get caught or receive punishment for what they did.  We'll never understand the thought process behind doing something like this, and I pray my children NEVER think this is OK.

Our story made the local news and my brother had his first on-camera interview :).  

http://www.nbc15.com/home/headlines/Madison-police-investigating-string-of--291962761.html

(click on the Madison Vandalism video to view)


Being 5 hours away, we had to come up with a solution to get back home for the school/work week.  Ironically my sister in law's parents are vacationing in Mexico so another vehicle was available.  We drove my brother's van back, while ours continues it's vacation in Madison at the repair shop.  

Yes, I know things could have been worse.  The punks could have spray painted our van or dented it with whatever supplies they could find.  My brother's house could have suffered damages.  We are so thankful these things didn't happen.

You still can't help but feel upset about the entire thing. It's been a rough month thus far-with expenses we weren't anticipating and a couple things that have been out of our control.  Hopefully we will start to have some positives soon!  

Little Problem, Big Problem?

When my oldest moved into the 3 year old room, the teachers started teaching the children about little problems and big problems.  It's a great concept and something that many of us can apply to real life.  It teaches the children to not report every little thing to the teachers and to know what things should be reported.  It helps them manage the little issues they may have between their friends, instead of making the teachers get involved.

It's crazy how things my 5 year old is learning in school can be useful for adults too.

When something surprising happens in life I often ask myself, is this a big problem or little problem?  

The girls are upstairs changing clothes multiple times on the weekend, throwing outfits on the floor:  Little problem or big problem?  Although I know this is a little problem, in my mind I'm thinking, "I'm going to have to put all those clothes away!"  

The laundry is piling up, C just dumped the Legos out for the 10th time, and the plates from breakfast are still on the dining room table.  All little problems but many times I don't realize it. 

There have been many instances where I get a little worked up about something and Justin will say "is this a little problem or a big problem?"  It's definitely a good perspective to think about life this way.  It forces you to take a break and look at the situation from a different view.  

Day in and day out, I feel like I am climbing up a mountain, trying to reach the top where everything is in order and completed.  Many days, I feel like I will never reach the top, other times I'm close but a set back pushes me back down the mountain. I'm thankful for campsites along the way that allow me to rest, regroup, and recover before making the push back up the mountain.  These campsites include exercising, reading, yoga, catching up with old friends.

My Little Yogi

I have always been a cup-half-empty type of girl and my husband often points that out to me.  Therefore, I feel like many things are big problems, when most things are really little problems.  I'm definitely working on changing my mindset and have been much better at realizing big problems are really that-BIG problems!

Hitting, biting, and bullying---Big problems

Out of milk---Big problem

A child going potty on the carpet?  ---REALLY big problem! 

Thankfully most of us don't have to experience too many of these in our every day lives.  So next time you feel yourself getting a little worked up about something, remember this little problem/big problem concept. It may just relieve you of some of your every day stress.    

TMNC!

Me Do!

Does anyone else have a little two year old who wants to do everything by herself?!

"Me do," and "I do it myself," are two of the most common phrases heard in my household over the past few weeks.  My oldest was independent also, but nothing like this!  I think my youngest daughter has acquired mommy's independent trait:

My two year old can dress herself, with the exception of getting her socks on correctly. She can also undress herself and likes to do this at random times during the day.

She can peel her own clementine.

She can turn the light on to the bathroom, pee pee in the potty, wash her hands and turn the light off all by herself. (We are still working on number 2-that's another post on it's own!).

This little one can climb into the van and buckle herself into her car seat, (or she thinks she can).

She can get her own ice water, (which usually ends with a puddle on the floor).

She likes to pick out her own clothes, along with her brother's clothes, and sometimes mommy's clothes.

Little Missy CANNOT open her own package of Belvita crackers, but she will try for many minutes before throwing a mini tantrum on the kitchen floor and then succumb to let mommy open the package for her.

She can put on her snow pants, coat and hat by herself. She will attempt to put on her mittens and boots before melting down in frustration.  On the other hand, we have received notes from her brother's teacher, telling us we need to have him work on trying to dress himself.  He has zero interest in doing this.

She can climb into her own high chair and buckle herself into place.

Where we are living now, she is able to open the fridge and get her sippy of milk all by herself. She will do this over and over and over again, taking one little drink each time before returning a minute later to enjoy this independence again.

Although I love this new found independence, it can definitely make you pull your hair out, especially on those days when you are in a hurry and just need to get the child dressed for school!  Hopefully some of this trait will rub off on her twin or mommy and daddy will be dressing him until he leaves for college!