"" Is the laughter keeps us coming back for more ""

doing: album designing and retouching.
feeling: crappy
listening to: Dave Matthews Band radio



ssooo its been awhile. I sort of got out of the blogging game for awhile. not that i think that tons of people are excited to read my blog every week... far from it i'm sure! if you are reading this i'm sure you were just bored and saw i posted something new! its more for me to get some of my thoughts out there or in order in my head.

its 2012 now. when did that happen?
i just turned 29, my baby boy just turned 5 and i just celebrated my 8 year anniversary with my husband. my oldest niece is going into HIGH SCHOOL next year... which means that M and i have been together for 14 years. (we started dating when Em was just about 6 months old.) my baby brother is turning 24 in about a week and i've been at my job for almost 8 years.

with all these numbers and milestones you have to wonder how this all happened, when did my life get so full? everything i listed up there is something that is a joy to me(well... being 29 might be iffy.) and something that defines me and my life.

blessed is the word i would use.

sometimes it takes awhile to actually see what is a blessing and why. and for me, in the last couple years, its taken me a little longer to realize that however bad i think my life might be at the moment, there are about 20 things that make it better than any other day!

its no secret that we've been on a roller coaster ride the last couple years. 2010 in particular is a year i'll never put on my list as top 10 great years. it WILL be on my shittiest years ever list.
as of August 2011 M and i have decided that we want to give it one more try. we are going to try for the second child that we've always dreamed about. now that E is 5(and MUCH older than i wanted him to be when we had a second baby), i can see the plus side of having only one child. for one, we are totally out of diapers! thats like money in the bank right there! he's self sufficient now. he can do most things on his own, or will try to do them anyways. he's going to start school next year which means money saved on daycare. (thats my hubby talking there.)

besides the fact that i've always wanted 2 kids, E wants a baby brother or sister. or as of recently he'd be okay with both or even three... whatev!
i feel like its almost a dis-service to him to not try once more to give him a playmate. i know he will make an amazing big brother! he loves babies, any baby that we see! and he just dotes on the younger kids at daycare.
just that plus makes it okay to have to go through the diapers and the daycare all over again. (i know my sitters won't be sad if we bring them another baby!)

in spite all of that back and forth. in my heart i know i need another baby to love. its always been "the plan" and its just hard to picture our lives without a second one!

and so here we are. one more try for the sake of our dream. and if, heaven forbid, it doesn't work out for some reason it will be the 3 of us and we will make E the happiest little boy ever. and spoil him to no end. lets be real here, we all know we won't be able to help ourselves!



other than that decision by us our 2011 has been uneventful in an eventful way. we just keep moving forward, working hard and getting ourselves under control. we are less than a year to being our of our short term debt. which is a crap term... short term debt that takes years to get out from under! blah! BUT our new saying is that soon we'll be "Oprah Rich!" thats not totally true, but we will have some more cash flow which will be amazing for us!

E is amazing us more than ever this year in pre-school. he can now spell some words and read just a little. his first word he learned to spell was CAT. not because of the animal, but because of the machinery. when he writes it he draws a triangle under the A. because "Mommy, thats how its spelled" i've been told!



his teacher has told us that he's all but ready for Kindergarten next year! which makes us happy!

so we are just trucking along, ready to go head long into the new year! i hope you have all had a year to remember and that you will work to make this one even better than the last!

Happy New Year!!

""and we'll take a cup o’ kindness yet, for auld lang syne...""

doing: just got up. sadly my child doesn't know the meaning of sleeping in.
listening to: Ethan watching Toy Story. "somebody's poisoned the water hole!"
feeling: less than good but i think i'll be okay.

well its a new year. finally! 2011. a fresh start, a new beginning. i'm ready for it. 2010 basically sucked all around. sure there were some good parts, some memories i'll carry with me. but overall it was a crappy year and i am so ready to be done with it!

i don't make new years resolutions anymore, mostly because i never have good ones, and i can't ever keep them. but this year i'm doing the working out/getting in shape thing - so cliche i know. with some of my Christmas bonus from work i went and bought a pass to the rec center, i'll start on monday. i want to swim! i feel like i can only get a really good workout when i swim. but they also have the elliptical machine that i like to use, especially when i only have 10 or 20 minutes free. but swimming, i'm really going to make myself get up in the moring and go. and hopefully, soon, i'll be in good enough shape to get a really decent workout in!

my second "goal" is to have a baby. i know you can't just make youself get up and do that... not like working out. but it is a goal for me, for us, that we want this year. in order to do that we are going to take good care of ourselves. i want us to eat just a little better, take vitamins, workout, basically get our bodies ready - and the added bonus is we'll be healthier!

this isn't a new years goal, its just one of me and matt's that we have ongoing. we got a little extra money from our parents for Christmas so we are going to put that towards our house. since this is now going on the third spring we've had our house on the market we basically give up. we decided that we should give in and just start putting some work into the house. this won't only help it sell better later, it will help us out right now. plaster walls? who's bright idea was that?? we basically have zero installation left in them either. Matt says its newspaper and its pry all at the floor by now. so thats our start. in our bedroom we are going to re-do the walls and ceiling and put in installation. a warm house is something we've never had!!



a little backtrack now to Christmas. i think this could possibly be the least stressfull Christmas we've had since having Ethan. i feel like we got our shopping done in a good amount of time, we didn't have too much rushing around. and while there was still some stress, i didn't feel like it was as much.

however, as a 4 year old boy who wants Santa to bring him every single thing under the sun.... going somewhere and NOT having 20 presents to open led to tears beyond measure. Ethan might have had some stress!

Ethan got everything he had asked for though! Matt and i are pretty happy that we decided(at the last minute, literally) to get him a Thomas the Train track set. he can't stop playing with it. he got legos of all kinds, books, colors, movies and more!


tearing into his Thomas the Train Misty Island set!


The Polar Express. He loved the book and watches the movie all the time now!


i LOVE this one! he got Wall-E, which is absolutley loves! he was so happy!


Ethan and his Construction Duplos


Greg and Ben got me sweet necklaces for Christmas (a 'winner' medal and a $ sign) so i shared and we had to get a shot of all of us with them!

besides Ethan, Matt and i also got a lot of things we wanted this year! i got 2 new pairs of shoes, a Kindle, 2 Lego video games and Mom and Dad C got us a trip to the Omaha Zoo!
all in all i think the Russell family made out pretty darn well this Christmas!


i hope you all had a great holiday season and pray that 2011 brings you blessings and joy all year long!

"" (the Harry Potter theme song) ""

doing: Harry Potter marathon on ABC Family!! woot woot!
feeling: okay. tired and a little stressed though.

today is the 5th day of Decemeber. i feel like last December was ages ago, but that i've just missed the entire months of August-November.

its an understatement to say that we've been busy at work. we've been maddeningly busy. Jeff and i have almost killed each other a couple times... but we are making it through. we are both excited for the actual "slow time".

as for my other job - youth ministry coordinator at the church. this second year of me being YMC is going much smoother. i think that those first year kinks are loosening. my team and i are communicating better and we are all just happy that we've made it this far! my adult team has been nothing short of amazing. they are always ready to lend a hand or let me bounce an idea off of them. and mostly they are great with the kids. the kids also have been amazing. they all have been and continue to be very supportive of me and the roll i've taken in the church. while there is still some stress, as goes with every job, i feel like there is about 70% less than there was at this time last year!

all that said, i feel like this year has sucked - to put it nicely. i'm ready to say goodbye to 2010. however much we try to make it differently, the bad things always seem to overshadow the good ones. and 2010 has left me with a bretty bad taste in my mouth.
i'm actually welcoming December this year. usually i dread it, only because of the weather. but this year the month seems to be filled with places and activities that i am looking quite forward to!

one of those activities is Ethans very first Christmas Program! we have been so impressed with him starting pre-school this year. he loves school! and i love it when he loves something this much! he has been practicing at school the songs they will be singing, and so has been singing them at home as well! i'm also always impressed with him with the things he remembers! and he remembers all his songs!

the other thing i always am happy about this time of year is my family. not only Matt and Ethan, but my extended family too. i'm lucky enough to have amazing extended family on both sides (yes i love my in-laws!), and to add one more level my friends are just as great! with all of that, i consider myself one of the luckiest girls around!

New Family Pics!!

we doubled up on family pictures this month! first of just the 3 of us and then us + the Croghan's!! my kid was awful-he screamed, i screamed, i almost beat him in the middle of the Molengracht in Pella on a Sunday morning.... and THIS is what our session ended up as :::








i don't think i could be any happier about them!! (thanks to my boss-man Jeff! he rocks my world!!)