There's a chill in the air...

...which means we all start thinking about Christmas. My cousin Kelli was talking about her plans for Christmas on her blog and in the comments I started talking about my plans. But then I remembered I was planning on doing a post similar to hers and my comment was getting too long anyway. So, even though we haven't even said good-bye to Halloween yet (and thank goodness that's over this weekend!), I thought I'd lay out what we're planning on doing this year for Christmas.

For years, I've been trying to stick to "Jesus got three presents for Christmas, that's good enough for you, too", but it never works. I usually end up getting 3 "real" things, and then a bunch of little filler stuff. I think this year will be the same, too. AND I've budgeted well enough this year, that I'll be able to have most of my Christmas money the day after Thanksgiving, when we might be able to get some good deals. We tend not to go overboard anyway, so I don't think money will be an issue. Here's what we're thinking for the kids (and this is subject to change based on any new ideas they might have):

Stephen will be getting a Razor Scooter (and forgive all my Wal*mart links...that's where we'll doing most if not all of our shopping for the kids). He's been asking for a "cool" scooter for a while, and he's well out grown his other scooter and bike. So he needs a new set of wheels. He'll also be getting an Elmer's Science Kit, although, not necessarily that one in the link. I think he'll be really excited about that. And we're also looking at one of these Star Wars games, although I might get him the new Guess Who game instead. And we might fill in with some books from Half Price Books.

Zachary's hard to buy for. He's not really "in" to much. And most of the stuff we get for Stephen would be a gift to Zachary, too. But we're definitely getting this Batman set for him. It's really cute and I can just see the look on his face when he sees it. I was also thinking about a work bench and tool set, but I don't know. I don't think he would be really excited for it. But it might being one of those toys that don't garner a whole lot of excitement when it gets opened, but ends up being one of the most played with. It would definitely help on fine motor skills, which he could always use help on. He might get a game instead, I don't know yet. And because we're lousy, cheap parents, I was thinking that we would take the bike that Stephen got for Christmas last year that he was probably too big for back then, and paint it to look different (it still looks new because Stephen wasn't able to do much damage to it since he could barely ride it). I was thinking maybe painting it green and calling it a Hulk bike. I don't know. I'm afraid he'd be on to me. He wants his own bike, and I want to surprise him with one, but there's no sense in getting a brand new one when we have a perfectly good one in the garage. And of course some books and coloring books/workbooks.

And Marc-Adam. He's hard to buy for, too, because there's not much out there for his age that doesn't take batteries and that we don't already have or had at some point and then sold or given away. I've been wanting to get one of the kids a set of these blocks for a long time. I think I just might do it for him. I was also thinking about the classic bubble mower or maybe the grocery cart. I thought this was cute, but I read a review that it was smaller in real life than it looks in the picture, so I might go have a look at the store before making a decision. He'll probably be getting some coloring books and maybe a couple new Matchbox cars.

After adding all that up, we still have quite a bit of the money left from what we budgeted for them, so we thought we might get something big that would be a gift to all of them. I was thinking the Smart Cycle, but it's just so large and it hasn't gotten totally great reviews (too many people complained it quit working after a few uses and lots of people said it was a battery sucker). Plus, it might be a little too close to a video game for my taste. So, I'll have to think on that. We might just end up saving the leftover money or maybe get them something else they can all enjoy.

As for me, I've been hoping for a while that this would make it on to Sweet Hubby's idea list for our anniversary or Christmas. And since there's no money for our anniversary next week, I think I might have dropped enough hints for him to get it for Christmas. I seriously watch the infomercial everytime I see that it's on. I read some reviews and most were great but some weren't so good, but I'm still excited to see what I can do with it. Other than that, there's nothing else I really want, so that should be easy for him.

And I have no idea what Sweet Hubby'll be getting for Christmas this year. He'll probably do what he always does and just buy himself some stuff off of eBay or Amazon and then I'll wrap it and he'll act surprised. That's the only that he gets stuff that he's excited about. If left up to me, he would get jammie pants, a cap or a watch. All of which he likes, but all year long he looks at and watches stuff that he really wants...and none of those things are things that he can wear.

We have stockings, but they're not really a big deal to us. We rarely spend more than $10 on them. We'll probably just fill them with fruit and nuts and maybe a small thing of candy (when the kids get older, we'll do Lifesaver books since that's a tradition in our family....they're just entirely too young now for hard candy).

So there you go. That's a lot of links (and I haven't gone back to double check all the links...if you find one that's weird or wrong, let me know so I can fix it). I'll be posting more of our plans (food, decorations, etc) later, since we're doing something new this year and just staying at home both Christmas Eve and Christmas day instead of visiting family. That's totally new for us, and will take a bit more planning on my part.

Two

Holy moly. My little firecracker turned two today. He enjoyed a day of church, Wal*mart with his Gram and Papa and a nice dinner with all the people who love him most.

Marc-Adam,

You're two!! And you love telling people so. You're a big boy now. I catch myself everytime I start to call you "the baby".

You've changed so much and so little in the last year. I looked back at the letter I wrote you one year ago, on your first birthday. Your personality is still much the same, but now you've grown so much that you are able to express it a lot more. Your persistence: One of your favorite phrases is "I deed it!!" which is our cue to back off and let you figure things out for yourself. You are still so affectionate. You don't give the sweet little slobbery kisses anymore, but full on smooches with sound effects and all. One of my favorite things in life is a hug from you. You're pretty chincy with the good hugs, but once in a while, you throw your arms around my neck and squeeeeeze. You're affectionate with your brothers, too. No one goes anywhere or does anything without you getting some hugs and kisses first. We've had to work in a few extra minutes into our nap and bedtime routines to make sure you have time to make your rounds of hugs and kisses and that you get sufficient love before you head to sleep.

You also started talking so well in the last year and in the last few days, I've noticed you trying to put 3 words together. You love asking questions....your favorites are asking where everyone that you love is. We'll be in the car, in the middle of the day, and all of the sudden you start asking, "Where's Daddy? Where's Nonny? Where's Grammy? Where's Poppy? Where's Papa?" It goes on and on. That's cute. But the frustrating part is how you keep saying, "Huh?" every time we answer you. We haven't figured out whether or not you actually can't hear or understand, or if you're just bored and messing with us. Besides just talking, you can clearly understand SO MUCH. I talk to you just like I do your brothers, and the majority of the time, I can tell that you get it. You are a smart cookie!

You still love colors. But now you're a big fan of color books. I was surprised our first day of school a few weeks ago when I was actually able to keep you occuppied with some color books for a while. And I'm really impressed with how well you hold the crayons. It gives me hope that maybe I won't have such a hard time with writing with you.

Lots of firsts this year: You started walking, started talking, had your first time out. Thankfully, so far time-outs seem to be effective in disciplining you, which is a good thing since for a long time I was so slow to discipline you. I think it had to with the fact that you are the third child and you've always been so darned cute while misbehaving. It's hard for me to discipline while I'm laughing at you. But things were clearly getting out of hand when you would blatantly disobey. So I tightened up on you, and it seems to be working. You're a lot more fun to be around when you follow the rules.

You've finally started getting interested in books lately. We don't ever actually finish one before you lose interest, but the fact that you'll go get one, bring it to me and ask to be read to is a big deal. You don't really have any favorites except for a couple touch and feel books. You really like just about anything. You're also the most helpful boy in our house. No one can do anything without you helping. And you don't just offer help, you insist--and sabotage any efforts we might make in doing it by ourselves. You love to help take out the trash, sweep, unload the dishwasher, and cook (but when you help cook, you mostly just empty the contents of the pantry while I cook).

You're still quite the character and love having all the attention on you. You are great in keeping all the grown-ups around you laughing. You are just such a joy to be around!

We love you sweet boy. I can't believe you're not a baby anymore and in a few short months you won't even be "the baby". But you still hold a sweet special place in my heart. And you always will.

Love,
Your mama

From crabby to crazy in only one post

Ok. So maybe I might be feeling a little better. I'm afraid to say for sure that I am because I've been feeling slightly better for such a short time. But yesterday afternoon was actually really good and there was nothing really to make it better than any other day. And this morning when I woke up, my first thought wasn't, "Ah, crap." Which is an improvement. Seriously. I really didn't mind getting out of bed, and everyone else was still asleep when I got up which is always the best way to start the day, in my opinion.

Sweet Hubby and his dad are off doing some side jobs for some extra money (helping family clean up after Hurricane Ike) and they didn't come home last night. So I called my mother-in-law over for dinner, and that really was the best part of my day. We had a great visit and dinner actually turned out good and she brought vanilla cool whip. She brought some other stuff, too, to go under the cool whip, but really, with french vanilla cool whip do you need anything else?

Oh and proof that I'm pregnant....I've been thinking a lot lately about chocolate covered Pringles. To my knowledge, they don't even make chocolate covered Pringles. And really, can a food get any worse than covering a potato chip with chocolate? But I've been thinking about getting the ingredients I might need to make my own. Who knows...maybe I could market something like that. At fairs and festivals and such. People eat fried Snickers. Why not a chocolate potato chip?

A meme.

Because I still can't think of anything else to blog about other than my sour mood. I'm sorry. I know "listening" to me whine about nothing is not why you come to read. So I figured I'd do something a little fun. A while back, there was a little "meme" going around where you were supposed to post the 6th picture in the 6th folder of pictures from your computer. It looked like fun, but I didn't do it for a while because I was never home when I thought about it. But I sat here for a while looking at the little blinking cursor wanting to blog something, and that came to me. So here goes. The 6th picture in the 6th folder. My folders are by date, so this one's from the summer of 2006.


It's Stephen. Eating something. It looks like it might be a small can of fruit, I guess. Although, I can't remember ever buying little cans of fruit like that. It's certainly not something I would buy today. And I'll also point out (since someone is going to notice it, for sure, and I'd rather point it out first) that the wall behind him looks kinda gross. Not sure how something would have gotten thrown or splashed back there. BUT, Stephen looks so young and pudgy there. So cute. Looking at pictures of my kids always reminds me of how stinkin' cute they are. I guess it's harder for me to see that in real life because pictures don't talk back, whine, or smell.

Need more synonyms for "crabby"

I don't know how many more different ways I can say it, but I'm still cranky.

In fact, I'm so cranky that I don't want to go anywhere or do anything. I want to sit at home not being responsible for anything or anybody for at least a couple days. Things that we usually do and enjoy are now a chore for which I drag myself out of bed to throw on a baseball cap and stretchy pants to accomplish. Alas, life must go on in spite of my mood. Especially for the kids. It's not their fault their mama feels like hiding most of the day.

So here's my dream day, I've decided: I want to stay at home all day, with the thermostat set at 68 (it'd be nice if it were cold enough to turn off the A/C altogether, but it's still pushing 90 here in Boiler Room, Texas). I want to sit on the couch all day long watching episodes of Fringe and House and Army Wives. With a big plate of hot cheese sticks and really good marinara sauce. Maybe Sweet Hubby can come too.

As long as he doesn't try to eat my cheese sticks.

Crabby

I'm sorry I haven't been around this last week. I'm not sure why I haven't been blogging. I don't really have anything to say and I've been kinda cranky, so anything I blog about will be through the crabby glasses, so it's probably safest that I don't blog.

Everything is fine here. We're behind in school, though. But I sorta planned for that, so it's no biggie. I'm not stressing about it....yet.

And on the YAY! front, someone came to look at the house yesterday and was very interested. Our agent said that the Guy said a couple of times that he would like to buy it. But (and there always seems to be a butt but) our agent said that the Guy doesn't really sound like he's got his finances together and may not know what he's talking about. And Guy talked about wanting us to pay his closing costs, and I don't think we can make that happen. So, this is still a very iffy situation, but it's still hope!

The jury's in

And it was more optimism than stupidity that led me to go ahead and start school today. Although, there were several points in the day that it could have gone either way.

We started our school day at about 9:15am with some Bible study. We read Genesis 1 about what God created when and discussed that. I was impressed with some of the questions both Stephen and Zachary had. Then we did some reading together, me reading to the kids and Stephen reading to us. During most of the reading we did (bible and regular books) Marc-Adam fussed, cried and bullied his way into my lap. It got a little hairy during that time. Zachary wanted to read one of the BOB books, so I pulled out the very first one, and he read it! He's read it before, but not as well as he did today. He needed help with one word, but other than that, he didn't have a problem. He might have just been looking at the pictures and guessing, but still. That's the beginning. I told him that when he could read the whole first box of BOB books that he could get his own library card. His very own library card has been sort of a holy grail for Zachary, so now he's very motivated to read. I'm actually really surprised...I thought for sure he would be a late reader, but it looks like I might have another early reader on my hands.

Okay. Brag over. Sorry.

After we read, we took a break to get some wiggles out and I taught the kids how to crab walk. If you've never seen a young child do that, you need to. It was a good laugh for everyone...even the kids.

Next was handwriting. Each kid got their own book (Marc-Adam a coloring book, Zachary had a Kumon tracing book and Stephen's working out of Handwriting Without Tears) and pencil. I was actually pleasantly surprised at how happy everyone was working out of their own books. Marc-Adam tried to mark in Stephen's a couple of times, but once I handed him the whole box of colors, he was fine playing by himself (mainly throwing crayons at Zachary and tasting the color pencils). I'm still feeling a little discouraged about Stephen's handwriting, but I'm going to try to make sure we do at least a couple pages every day, even if we do no other school, just to make sure he's getting practice.

We made lunch and had our quiet/nap time. While the two younger kids slept, Stephen and I did a review of some of the Math-U-See book we didn't finish last year. It won't take us long to catch up to where we left off, I don't think.

The most fun part of school was the afternoon. After naps and a snack, we did our KONOS work. We talked about the days of the week, sang a song about the months of the year and studied a calendar, pointing out special days and holidays. Then we started learning about the planets and even made up a little song about them. We talked about the difference between rotate and revolve and acted each out and then acted out doing both at the same time. Stephen and Zachary both got to take turns being the sun and the earth. They thought that was the best fun ever. We did some more "work" about how the earth orbits the sun and finished up by reading some poetry about the universe and the earth.

When I announced, "That's it! We're done for the day!" I was met with groans and "Oh man!" So I guess the day should be counted as a success even though we had to deal with several melt-down and discipline issues with Marc-Adam.

It was really a totally fun day. We're all looking forward to more tomorrow. Let's hope we can keep this momentum and enthusiasm!

Quick update

We saw the baby for the first time yesterday afternoon. Baby's strong and measuring exactly where he/she should be. Heart beat is great, too. I have another cyst, which I've always had at the beginning of each pregnancy and they always go away on their own. I'm praying this one does, too.

Today is officially our first day of school. So far, it's started out great. We're ahead of my tentative schedule and the kids are really excited about starting. Today, we'll just be easing in to all of our curriculum and our new schedule. I'm excited to see how it works for us. Zachary's got this nasty cough and is feeling pretty puny because of it and Marc-Adam woke up testy (and that's putting it nicely), so I'm hoping our day doesn't fall apart before we really even get started. Optimistic or stupid? I'll let you know at the end of the day.

Imaginary Jones

Yesterday morning, Stephen introduced me to his new friend. "He's just in my imagination, Mom," he whispered while pointing at his head. "His name's Joshua." How old is he, I asked. "Almost six."

And so the day went on with Joshua included in the activities.

This morning, Zachary informs me that he's got an invisible friend. I asked the same questions of name and age. "His name's Joshua, and he's almost 4, just like me." Stephen was in the same room with us, and I smiled and said, "So you both have new friends named Joshua who happen to be the same ages as the both of you?"

Zachary said, "Yep."

And Stephen replied, "Yep, 'cept mine's got a bullwhip."



*Edited to add: I've never once heard Stephen ever mention anything about a bullwhip. I have no idea how he knows of such a thing. Which is why that comment was completely out of the blue and so funny to me.

Pink or blue

Before we announced our newest pregnancy (and we still haven't told everyone), people would see us with all the kids and ask a very specific question: "Are you done, or are you going to try for that girl?"

Um. Are those my only options?

I really always wanted to actually say that, but I never had the guts, so I just said, "Neither. We're not necessarily done and we're not going to be trying for a girl." Like the gender of our children has anything to do with how many children we have.

They'd always say, "Oh. That's nice."

I've tried to imagine what it would've been like to have a girl thrown in earlier, like as a first or second child and the honest truth is, even with "mixed" kids, I still think we'd want a large family ("large" being a relative term).

People say now, "You hoping for that girl?" Right in front of my boys. I answer, "Nope! I love my boys!"

Again, the honest truth is I want both. I would love to have a daughter. I would love to have that relationship. I would love to have the pinks and purples and hairbows and baby dolls. But on the other hand, I've got a great thing going with my all-boy household and heart. The thought of holding another son close to me nearly brings me to tears (and the good kind of tears, not the "oh crap another boy" kind). I feel so honored to be the mother of my sons.

So, I think when we find out if our newest little addition has indoor or outdoor plumbing, I'll be excited (the phrase "over the moon" comes to mind). But I'm also going to grieve for what we didn't get.

SO glad to have that off my chest!

The news is out now! We're expecting baby #4 sometime in mid-May. My official due date is the 18th, I think, but I know I'll be scheduled for a c-section earlier than that, but who knows when the baby will actually come. Marc-Adam taught me to never be so sure of the plans that I've made. :)

I've known for almost 3 weeks now. The first few days it was terrible not to be able to tell anybody. I really wanted to wait to announce it until after our trip because we were planning on telling my parents and the kids while in Disney World. So we told my in-laws just before we left, and then broke the news to the kids and my folks the first night we were there. I actually got it all on video. The younger two kids didn't really care obviously (Zachary has yet to say anything about it), my parents got excited, but Stephen, who had been up since 3am that morning and had only an hours nap jumped up and yelled, "WHAT?! I already have to listen to him cry *pointing at Marc-Adam*! Now we're having another one?!"

Dork.

Not the reaction I was expecting. Especially since he's been saying for months that he wanted another baby. He's since apologized for acting like that and is acting more excited, but it would've been nice to have him really excited on the video. I feel bad for his future sibling to have to watch that.

But who knows....it might win us $10,000.

I'm baaaack!

Howdy! We're back from our fabulous vacation. Actually we were back on Friday, but I didn't feel like getting to all the e-mail and blogs again, so I had to convince myself to do it today. I have a bill that needs to be paid online anyway. So, I'm spending some time catching up with what's been going on with all of you while I was playing myself silly in Disney.

We had a seriously fantastic time. We came back exhausted and overstimulated. Friday night, we were all in bed asleep by 9pm. ALL of us! The kids loved it (even though the lack of normal sleep made Stephen terribly irritable) and we did everything we wanted to do. There were far more people than we had expected, but we still didn't wait more than 20 or 30 minutes for rides or shows. The weather was fabulous, except for one whole afternoon on Monday and for about 15 minutes on Tuesday. I did discover that my hair revolts against Florida weather and water. It looked terrible all week and there was nothing I could do about it. I did have a hat that I wore until the showers on Monday afternoon. At some point during that rain, my hat got wet and shoved into a bag, so that when I took it out, it looked like a hat that should be worn by one of the bears in Country Bear Jamboree. I left that hat in the trash in Florida. It made me sad.

I'll post pictures soon, but we got pictures with so many characters (no autographs though, because I didn't think about that). Just off the top of my head, we met Tigger, Pooh, Darby, Eeyore, Rafiki (the kids didn't even know who that was), Spiderman (at our trip to Islands of Adventure), the Cat in the Hat, Thing 1 and thing 2, The Grinch, Curious George and the Man in the Yellow Hat, Buzz Lightyear (twice), and Woody. There's more I'm sure, but that's all I can think of. If you aren't already thinking about or planning a trip to Disney, you should start NOW. Seriously. It's a lot of work, especially with really young kids, but it's so worth it. We're already planning another trip for 2010. Except then, we'll have 3 more people...my mother and father-in-law are joining us....and the new baby.

Due May '09.

:)

Unintended bloggy break

Tuesday afternoon I sat down at my computer to write some e-mails and to blog only to find that I had no internet connection. I quickly fired up the troubleshooting software to find out what the heck was wrong only to find that I also had no phone lines. I called our company to report the problem only to be told that they were experiencing an extremely high call voulume due to damage done by Hurricane Ike (also known as the hurricane that just keeps on giving). Yesterday afternoon, I saw that a large telephone pole had fallen (a few days AFTER Ike passed through) and there were all kinds of phone trucks and phone guys working on it. So I'm guessing that was my problem. My original plan of action was to just ignore the problem. At least until after we got back from Disney. I figured if it were a system wide problem, it would be fixed by then, and if not, well, then maybe the call volume wouldn't be so high and I would be able to get through. But it looks like it's going to get fixed. I may call my house soon to see if my machine picks up meaning that the line went through.

So that's why I wasn't around this week. TOMORROW, I'm getting on a plane headed to the place where dreams come true. I'm so excited. Really, I just want the Cap'n Crunch Chicken Fingers at Planet Hollywood. I've been craving those for a few weeks. Anyway, I don't know if I'll find a place to get to the internet during that time, so I probably won't be blogging this coming week, either. But I'll be back at the beginnning of NEXT week with all the pictures and details of our excitement. Oh, and please pray for safe travels and good weather. It's supposed to be thunderstorming every single day we're there. Boo.

Oh, and speaking of excitement...someone came to look at our house yesterday (only the SECOND person ever) and liked it so much they wanted to come look at it again today. YAY! Maybe maybe maybe we'll get an offer while we're on vacation!

Have a great week, y'all! Stay out of trouble! Love all around.

Random ramblings

The next few days should be hectic. I've got to get the house spotless, in case someone wants to come look at the house while we're gone, and get all of us packed and ready for the big trip. I actually have to get all that done by Wednesday evening, because Thursday we have stuff going on and we've decided to stay with my parents Thursday night (in addition to Friday night that we had planned on so we could get up early to get to the airport). Today, I had some dental work and I've been so tired this week (I think all the hurricane stress sapped me more than I realized). So instead of working on getting things done during nap time, I passed out on the couch for an hour and a half. Thank goodness for DVR because Stephen was able to watch whatever he wanted so I could get that rest. But now I have 2 days to get it all done...and I don't know where to start. So all day today, I kept finding myself just wandering through house trying to find something to do that would make me feel productive and that I thought I wouldn't have to do again before we leave.

I'm so happy to finally be able to put my focus on the trip now, but I'm also thinking about what comes after that. I'm anxious to get started with school, and I'm toying with the idea of starting to potty train Marc-Adam. I know. He's not even 2. Starting our homeschool year and potty-training at the same time. Bucket full of crazy. But he just seems so ready. He tells me when he's 'gone' and when he needs to be changed. He goes and gets all the stuff I need for each diaper change. When the kids holler for help in the bathroom, he runs in ahead of me saying, "Wipe! Wipe!" He flushes the toilet and tells the contents "bye-bye". He's so interested in the boys' undies and he's always trying to take his diaper off so he can sit on the potty, but I won't let him, because he wants to sit there all.day.long. My heart's just not in it yet, and I certainly didn't want to be hauling a potty training child on a plane and then to Disney World. That would just suck all the fun and relaxation out of the whole week.

As I'm typing this, I'm half watching an episode of John and Kate Plus 8. They're on a plane with the 8 and things are quickly falling apart. Kate's crying, as are what sounds like at least half of the children. I'm glad we're not taking 8 kids to Disney World.

Getting back to normal...well, maybe not

Ahhh....things should be getting back to normal very very soon. I'll unpack everything that got packed up in case we had to make a quick getaway. Food will go back into the pantry where it belongs and the weather will clear up soon. I'm so glad this thing has finally passed and hopefully it'll be another 25 years before we take another direct hit.

And now that that excitement is over, I can let you in on a little secret that's got me REALLY exicted. 6 days from now, my family (including my parents) will be sitting on a plane heading for Disney World! The kids know we're going, but they think it's 16 days and that next weekend we're going to Dallas. That was my cover for the packing and planning that they're going to be seeing over the next few days. Then, next Saturday morning, we'll wake them up at 4am and tell them, "We're going to Disney World TODAY!" I bought them Leapsters that they have no idea about to help them stay busy and calm at the airport and on the plane. I think they'll all just be beside themselves. Stephen's been asking for some kind of video game player for a while and I'm pretty adamantly opposed to owning video games of any sort. But I caved for the Leapsters just so they can have something new and fun for the plane ride. And then in the future, we'll use them for situations where they might need to be entertained for a few minutes while I take care of business.

There are lots of surprises in store for the kiddos on this trip. Our days are pretty jam-packed but it'll still be relaxing and fun and leisurely.

We're praying off any more bad weather...for here AND Orlando. It looks like things are clearing up and the Atlantic is almost empty of anything that might cause us problems.

All is well

It's 1:42pm. The worst is over. The weather is still really nasty and it's almost creepy outside. But we're safe. The house has no damage. Let me repeat--we are safe, and the house has no damage. I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed right now at how blessed we are. We're still out of power, but my in-law's have it, so that's where we are right now. We just had a nice, hot meal that my mother-in-law cooked instead of the spaghettios and boiled eggs we had planned. We drove around for a little bit before we came out here just to see how the town looked. There are downed limbs, trees, power lines and rooves all over the place. The tin roof of one business in town is literally wrapped around the power pole in front of the building. Another business lost it's roof completely. It's laying in the parking lot. One light pole was literally twisted and broken in half.

At one point in the night, about 4am, I was surprised to hear what I thought were cars going by in front of our house. I realized that that must be a lot of cars and therefor it couldn't be cars. It turned out to be the wind. I got up to go look outside and it was bad. Our large live oak in the backyard was twisting and turning. It was scary. Just by listening to the storm inside the house, we had no idea how bad it was outside. I was expecting creaking and moaning and bumps and thumps. I never heard any of that and so we all actually slept pretty well, even though we were up early because it was so hot. The lights went out about 4am. I realized last night how well our house is built. It's a sturdy little house.

Sweet Hubby just texted me to tell me we have power now (he went back to get some stuff out of our fridge).

We didn't even lose a single limb. There's lots of little leaves and branches along with a couple unfortunate animals (ew), but other than that, we're no worse for wear.

I can't even describe the relief.

What's the right way to pray during a time like this?

So it looks like the storm has indeed moved to the east a little and last I heard about our area, we may only be getting 60-75 mph winds. In which case, it still might be a little scary, but we might not even lose power. That's better than the eye passing right through us. I heard that some transformers are built to go out in 75 mph winds because those winds are strong enough to down power lines so if the lines do go down, there won't be live wires all over the place. That's smart. I wondered about that.

During all this I've been praying, but it feels a little sticky . Obviously, stranger things have happened, but let's face it, this storm isn't just going to go away. It's not going to just disappear from the gulf. So when I pray for us to not get a hit, I feel like I'm basically praying for it to be sent upon someone else. That just feels wrong. I don't want a direct hit or danger in my household, but I certainly don't want to wish it on someone else. So I've just started praying that no matter what happens, that my family is safe and that there is minimal damage to my home. Really, I just want this to pass fast enough that we can go on our big trip next week without having to think about whatever we're still dealing with after this storm. That's the goal.

Batten the hatches

We're home. And I couldn't help but get my ol' 'puter hooked back up.

We're staying put during Ike. That's all we can do. We filled up our gas tanks this morning and I went to Wal-Mart (I was there before 8am and it was already a madhouse). I tried to get as many supplies as I could within our budget, but I'm a little worried about our food supply if we're out of electricity for more than a couple of days.

We actually got plywood for the windows since they were talking about 80-110+ mph winds here where we live (and we live pretty far inland). That was several hours ago...I'm hoping things have changed a little bit. Before they were talking about the eye (where the strongest winds are) would be coming straight up through our little town. But last I looked, they said it had moved east and the eye would be passing about 30ish miles east of us. Whatever happens, we'll be boarding up and all camping out in Marc-Adam's room tomorrow night. My in-laws are coming to hunker down with us, too. It should be an interesting night with 3 small kids, 4 adults and 2 dogs in a 10x11 room. But I guess people all over the world live like that every day. We can do it. I told my father-in-law that it might not be pleasant, but safe trumps pleasant.

I might check in once or twice tomorrow morning, but otherwise I'll get back on to let you all know what's going on as soon as we have electricity.

If you are in the path of this sucker, stay safe and take care.

Edited to add: This is the song that I've been singing in my head all day. It's been my prayer today.

Just so you know

I'm at my parents right now. I'm going home today, but it looks like Ike is headed straight for us. Our little town so far from the coast could be getting hurricane force winds. We're in the process of deciding now what we're going to do--stay or leave. Whatever we do, we've already unhooked our CPU at home, so I won't be around for a few days, so I'm posting now to let you know what's going on so you don't worry or wonder where I am while this thing is hitting. I'll get back to the blog as soon as I can.

Love all around.

Allrightythen

So do you all remember several months back when I was posting almost every day about our woes with Stephen? He suddenly went a little crazy and was having tantrums at all hours of the night and having awful behavior during the day. I was sleeping in his room for weeks and I finally gave up and told him that if he needed to be in the same room as me, then he would have to be the one sleeping in my room on the floor. Since then, he's been coming in in the middle of the night to sleep the rest of the night on a palette on our bedroom floor. I wasn't happy about it, but as long as I got to sleep all night in my own bed, I was willing to go along with it. I eventually got him a clock for his room and told him he couldn't come in until 1am. It worked great and that's been our arrangement for several months.

One night last week, though, he went to bed really late after a long and hard day. He ended up staying in his own bed until about 6:30am. When he got up to come into our room, I was awake enough to tell him that if he stayed in bed 1 more hour he would have stayed in bed all night long (6:30am is still middle of the night to us). He said, "Okay!" and happily went back to his room and slept for another hour and a half. He was so proud when he woke up and called everyone. He told me that afternoon that he was going to stay in his room all night that night, too, and I was all "Yeah, sure." But he did, and he has every night since. He even invited his brothers to go into my room and tear up his palette with him (he was very particular about his palette being right and straight).

So that problem worked out all on its own without any coaxing or worrying on my part. And I think his mood's better during the day, too. Which makes life easier on EVERYONE, because if Stephen ain't happy, ain't nobody happy.

And on a sidenote, I went back through my archives to find the link for the post I linked above and it's really interesting because I don't remember most of the huge issues that I posted about. I remember that we had a hard time overall, but not specific situations. Things were so bad back then that I would pray every day for God to help us all forget some of the really awful situations (mostly because of how I hated how I handled some of them). And I have forgotten. I don't think Stephen remembers either. He's got an amazing memory and brings up good and bad memories from long ago and he's never mentioned anything from that time. God is good.

Oh y'all....

This is scaring me.

Normally, I would be slightly worried about this. And no time is good. But now is just so not a good time to be dealing with a major hurricane. Not now. Just.not.now.

Right on!

More political stuff. I'm just really hyped up with the RNC being this week....feel free to skip this if you're tired of me posting it. At least I'm not blathering on about my own opinions...I'm just posting other people's that I happen to agree. :)

This is just fun to watch. Be sure to watch the last minute of the video.

I want to be best friends with her

I'm going to try not to get all political on you, but you'll have to bear with me over the next couple of months as the election draws near. I probably will be posting more and more about it because it's important to me and I hope it's important to you, too. And I hope that maybe even a respectful, civilized discussion and/or debate can come out of it.

So anyway, I didn't get to watch Sarah Palin's speech last night. But I got to read about it. I heart Sarah Palin. I was underwhelmed by John McCain's pick for VP at first, but the more I read about her and the more I hear what she has to say, I'm getting really excited about the prospect of having her as our Vice President.

And what Obama's been saying about her makes me like her even more. He keeps on talking out of both sides of his mouth. Blech.

So happy!

A while back (oh a year or so ago, I guess) I was so disappointed when one of my favorite homeschool blogs "shut down". The author needed to do other things, I guess. I don't remember if she ever said why she was shutting it down. But then a few days ago, I happened to stumble back again and she's writing again!! YAY!

In addition to writing about homeschooling issues, she also writes a lot about politics (some, including me, would argue that homeschool issues and politics go hand in hand). And the lady knows her stuff. Here are a few of her articles that I think are can't miss when it comes to the upcoming election. I hope you find them interesting and informative, too:


Above My Pay Grade?
Obama and Infanticide
Obama on Education Reform
The Audacity of Home
The Politics of School Choice
Worth a Second Look?

That's just a few. There's still more. I love her blog!

Home again, home again, jiggety jig

Well, I'm so so pleased to let you know that my cousin and her husband were able to bring baby Alex home yesterday. We are all so relieved that he's better and finally where he belongs...home with his wonderful family! Thanks to all of you who kept Alex and his family in your thoughts and prayers. I appreciate it and I know his mama and daddy do, too.

Monkey

Keep praying

I haven't posted an update on my cousin's baby yet because things haven't really gotten much better, but they haven't gotten worse. It seems that everytime the clouds start to clear, there's another little setback. The docs were talking about releasing him the end of this week, but then the doctor noticed he was using his tummy muscles to breath. And she won't let him go home until he quits doing that. But the great news is that he's now breathing air room with no help and his mama and daddy have gotten to hold him, feed him and change his diaper. So there's some bonding going on. Yay!

So keep praying for Alex to get healthy and come home soon. We all can't wait to get our hands on him! :)

Homeschool fun

A friend sent this to me yesterday (thanks, Kim! And hi!). I've seen it before and I'm sure you have to, but it just gets funnier the older the kids get, so I thought I'd share it. She found it here, but it's been around a while, so I'm not sure who to credit it to. Just know that I didn't come up with it.

You Know You're A Homeschool Mom When...

• You get to change more than diapers, you get to change their minds.
• When a child busts a lip, and after seeing she's okay, you round up some scotch tape to capture some blood and look at it under the microscope!
• You find dead animals and actually consider saving them to dissect later.
• Your children never ever leave the "why?" stage.
• When your teenager decides to take one community college course, and comes home and asks you why the teacher wrote "At" on his paper. (A+)
• You ask for, and get, a copier instead of a diamond tennis bracelet for your wedding anniversary.
• Your kids think reading history is best accomplished while lying on the floor with their head resting on the side of their patient dog.
• Your husband can walk in at the end of a long day and tell how the science experiment went just by looking at the house.
• You never have to drive your child's forgotten lunch to school.
• Your child will never suffer the embarrassment of group showers after PE.
• The only debate about the school lunch program is whose turn it is to cook.
• You never have to face the dilemma of whether to take your child's side or the teacher's side in a dispute at school.
• If your child gets drugs at school, it's probably Tylenol.
• Your neighbors think you are insane.
• Your kids learn new vocabulary from their extensive collection of "Calvin & Hobbes" books.
• Your formal dining room now has a computer, copy machine, and many book shelves and there are educational posters and maps all over the walls.
• You have meal worms growing in a container....on purpose.
• If you get caught talking to yourself, you can claim you're having a PTA meeting.
• Talking out loud to yourself is a parent/teacher conference.
• You take off for a teacher in-service day because the principal needs clean underwear.
• You can't make it through a movie without pointing out the historical inaccuracies.
• You step on math manipulative on your pre-dawn stumble to the bathroom.
• The teacher gets to kiss the principal in the faculty lounge and no one gossips.
• Your honor student can actually read the bumper sticker that you have put on your car.
• If your child claims that the dog ate his homework, you can ask the dog.
• Some day your children will consider you to be a miracle-working expert and will turn to you for advice.
• Your kids refer to the neighbor kids as "government school inmates."
• You can't make it through the grocery produce department without asking your preschooler the name and color of every vegetable.
• You can't put your produce in your cart without asking your older student to estimate it's weight and verify accuracy.
• You live in a one-house schoolroom.

• Your favorite Christmas gift was a gift certificate to a book store.

• The principal can give the teacher a pat on the behind and it's not harassment.

• Your kids will actually talk to grown ups at a family gathering and are actually patient with kids half their age.

• You can take the time to look at a tiny spider on a log.

• You can listen to your child's favorite hilarious passage from Hank the Cowdog 47 times.

• Your daughter, who is practically a vegetarian, is begging her dad to shoot some starlings so she can pluck them and clean them up to make a "blackbird" pie just like the Ingalls family.

• You're almost afraid to put your hand in your purse because you not sure if your 6yo has put something that's alive (or possibly not alive, but once was) to take home to view under the microscope.

• You have a line item in your budget for overdue book fines.

• You have to add the words: "homeschool, homeschooler, and homeschooling" to your computer's spell checker so it will stop marking them as wrong.

• Your house in on the Parade of Homes List - for educational merchandisers.

• When visiting a strange town you see a parking lot full of mini-vans and station wagons and wonder if it's a homeschooling conference.

• Your friends don't want to help you move because you have so many books.

• Your school clothes have more holes in the knees than your play clothes.

I love the ones about pointing out the historical inaccuracies in movies and referring to the neighbor kids as "government school inmates". I literally laughed out loud at those. Although, neither my kids or I have actually called other kids inmates (but it has crossed my mind a few times). And I hate that the spell check thinks homeschool (and homeschooler, and homeschooling) aren't words.

And I have to share a couple of things that I've done in the last few weeks that made me realize that I really am a homeschool mom:

A couple weeks ago, Marc-Adam found a dead cricket in our laundry room. He went and got Stephen to pick it up (obviously I wasn't taking care of it fast enough, but I was right in the middle of switching a couple loads). Stephen picked it up, and instead of throwing it in the trash or flushing it, studied it for a while, carried it around for a while, and then asked for a jar. So I gave him one. And he carried around the dead cricket in a jar. And I let him. After my mom threw it away, I realized how strange it was. But I still wouldn't have thrown it away.

Then we went to a wedding where one of the favors was actually a little toy (you've seen them, it's like a paddle with two balls or beads attached to string on each side and when you spin it, the beads hit the paddle so that it makes a noise). I kept mine, and asked other people for theirs, so that I could take them home and show the kids the power of centrifugal force.

*And I'm sure you noticed that the font has gone all weird on this post and I spent 30 minutes trying to fix it, but now I'm mad at it and I'm done. Sorry. Hopefully things will be back to normal next post.*

Believe it or not, this actually IS worth blogging about

For a while now, Sweet Hubby has been encouraging me to try my hand at cooking fish. If you know me at any level, you should know that my dislike--no, hatred--of anything that at one point lived in the water runs deep. Fish hate runs through my blood and is much a part of me as my brown hair and brown eyes. But to humor him, I've tried twice in the last 7.5 years of our marriage to cook--and eat--fish. Neither time turned out well. In fact, the last time I made it, not only did I want to run screaming from the dinner table, no one else would touch it.

But he's been working on me for a while now to try again. He pulled out the big guns last week when he reminded me how healthful and "good for you" fish is. Well that did it. I know how healthy fish is, but to know that he knows how good it is and still wants to eat it means I should take advantage of that opportunity.

So. Today was our big grocery run. I actually put fish on the menu for tonight's dinner. I actually went to the grocery store with fish in mind, and actually walked up to seafood counter (trying my hardest not to gag as I rang the bell) and placed my order. Then, I actually drove home with *shudder* fish in my car. And then. I cooked it. And y'all...I ate it.

*Pausing to let my parents and dear friends pick themselves up off the floor.*

I made tilapia. I baked it in lemon butter and Mrs. Dash. It turned out well and I ate all of it (although, very reluctantly). The kids even ate it and at one point Stephen proclaimed that I was the best fish maker in the world. It wasn't terribly "fishy" and that helped tremendously. It's that yucky fishy smell and flavor that makes me shudder and gag at just the thought (I literally had to stop typing that last sentence so I could shudder and gag at the thought of the fishy smell).

I ate fish.

And now my melodrama is over.

Watching the bus go by

So it's official. We're homeschoolers. As the school bus went by this morning for the first day of school, Stephen wasn't on it. On what should be his first day of kindergarten, I'm thinking we're going to go rent a movie, make some cookies, read a few books and just hang out. In fact, for the first few months of his kindergarten year, we're going to be doing a lot of "just hanging out". We're taking a trip the 3rd week in September and I don't want to start before then, so our target start date is Oct. 6. That's when things are going to have to start having a little more structure. We'll be starting Accountable Kids back up again, too (we quit because M-A kept tearing the cards down) and they won't be able to call the shots all day long on what they do.

But my heart is so happy that Stephen's not going to public school. All of his friends are in school now. He asked me a few days ago what kids do in "real school". I immediately told him that we can call it "public school" or "conventional school", but our home school will be "real school". We also talked about how when public school kids are learning about animals, they'll have to read about them in books....and when we learn about animals, we'll go to the zoo. And when they learn about stars, they'll read about them in books or do projects in their classrooms....we'll get a telescope and head out to our backyard. And when they learn about rocks, they'll see them in books...while we're at the museum or at a nature park to collect and compare rocks. He thought that was the neatest thing. I think he's getting really excited. (This post is not to diminish the choice of any parent that has sent their kids to conventional school. This is just our view and experience--I don't expect everyone else to feel the same way.)

I'm trying not to be too ambitious about our first year. Especially with Marc-Adam being in the phase he's in. He wants to be in the middle of everything, which has made it a little difficult lately when we've tried to do some book work. I have a lot of things lined up that I want to do, but I'm really trying not to set us up for failure. Some of what we're doing this year is what we started and didn't finish before or planned to do, but never got to last year. Some of it is different, though. Here's what I've got lined up--

For math, of course we're sticking with Math-U-See. We started, but didn't finish, the Primer some time last year, so we'll be finishing that up this year. My plan is to finish it up before we start up again in the spring (after our Christmas break), so we can start Alpha then. But it'll be okay if we only make it through Primer for kindergarten.

For reading/language arts we'll be kind of doing a mish-mash of sorts. I've gotten him two Explode the Code books to work out of. The plan is to work out of those and just read, read, read as many books as we can to really give him lots of practice and give him a good foundation before we start real language arts (grammar, spelling, etc) next year. We'll also be using KONOS, which has some language arts in it...I'm not sure yet if we'll use it for LA this year, though. And for his handwriting (which is partly why we're only focusing on reading this year instead of a total LA curriculum) we have Handwriting Without Tears. I really wanted A Reason for Handwriting, but it's more expensive and the store I was at when I had handwriting on the brain only had HWT (and on sale!). I like the way it teaches to write the letters, because it's exactly the way I was teaching it before we had a real curriculum for it. Stephen's handwriting is just really not good. I've been trying to work with him on it without stressing us both out, but that's a really fine line. I'm going to try not to push it too hard. But I can't tell if I'm teaching it wrong, he's just not ready or if he's just being lazy. If I'm teaching it wrong, or if he's just lazy, I can fix that. But if he's not ready, then I'll be doing more harm than good by forcing him and making us both cry.

And for everything else (science, history, bible, music, etc.) the thing I'm really excited about is KONOS. We'll be doing the Orderliness study first. I don't know how long it will take us, but if we finish before I consider our school year over, I'm not sure if I'll start another unit. They say that each unit takes 9-14 weeks, but that you can stretch it out. Since I plan on just covering the subjects on surface level and taking it slow, I might be able to stretch it out to cover most of our school year. Through the Orderliness unit, we'll be learning about days of the week, months of the year, seasons, planets, animals, trees, rocks and classifying those last three things. There's also a study of the book The Secret Garden, but I'm not sure if I'm willing to do that yet. And we'll be studying about the character trait of Orderliness through what the bible has to say about it. There are lots of really fun activities laid out for the whole unit. I'm really very excited about it.

So maybe I'm being too ambitious. But I'd rather set our goals high and have to adjust later than to set them low and not be prepared or not do as much as we could have.

Even though we're not starting quite yet, the fact that Stephen's not sitting in a classroom right now means we're homeschoolers!! I feel like I can finally say that for real now...every other time up to this point, it's just been "We're planning on homeschooling." I'm also getting more brave about telling people. For a long time, I didn't tell anyone unless they knew me and I knew them pretty well. But yesterday morning, as all the kids "upgraded" their Sunday school classes and everyone was getting ready for school and talking about it, I started telling more and more people. I'm proud of our decision now, instead of worried about what people will say or think. I'm feeling so many more emotions than I thought I would on this day. But I'm really feeling excited and FREE!

YAY!

And for a small funny, there's this: A couple days ago, I was flipping through our Konos book to get reacquainted. I was looking at the part about memorizing the days of the week. I was pretty sure Stephen had the days of the week memorized. He always knows what day it is and if I say "the day after tomorrow", he immediately knows which day of the week I'm talking about. So I asked him if he could name all the days in order. He wanted to start with Monday, but I corrected him and said, "Start with Sunday." And he named them all, in this order: Sunday Saturday Friday Thursday Wednesday Tuesday Monday. LOL! So, just to see what he would do, I told him to start with Monday, and he got them all right (except he stumbled and almost switched Sunday and Saturday). That was just strange to me. I bet once he can see it visually on a calendar, it'll click and he won't get it backwards anymore.

Happy school year to everyone!! :)

When you give a kid a camera, part II

More pictures from my little amateur photogs. I really love doing these kinds of posts. You can see the first set again here.

Finding my place to be happy

For the last few years I've been struggling with the question, "Am I doing enough?" in regards to serving our church and serving God, more specifically. I've felt restless and useless and incapable of doing more than I was already doing. At church, I joined things and volunteered for things and none of it felt right or the opportunities fell through or I just couldn't make it work, no matter how badly I wanted to do it. I prayed and prayed about where I was supposed to be serving God. I sing in the choir and that's working great for right now, but it has just not felt like it was enough. I wanted to be more involved in church....I've been getting so much out of it and I was feeling the need to give back. I wanted to get more involved in community outreach projects. I was asking God where he needed me and what I should be doing, but nothing ever happened. Like I said, as I tried to find more places to plug in and get involved, things just didn't work out.

And then one morning, I woke up and it occurred to me: As Christians, we don't just serve God through our church or community. We can also serve God by serving those that he places in our lives. Duh. I have this man whom I love for my husband and these children I adore as my sons and what blessings they are! I can see how they are exactly the right people for me to be surrounded by. It's taken me longer than I'd like to admit to see it, but I finally realize that for this season in my life I can serve God simply by loving and blessing and serving within my own four walls. God has blessed me with this beautiful family and I can give back to him by loving and supporting my husband and by nurturing, guiding and teaching my children. He loves them just as much as he loves the people in my church that I wanted to serve and just as much as the people in the community that I wanted to reach out to. And I can be a blessing by letting most of my focus go to my family. I can finally tell myself, IT'S OKAY. And I can finally be happy with that.

Think he hears this often?

I sat down on the couch for a few minutes and Zachary came up and snuggled in my lap. We start chatting and laughing about something funny that he does (I'd explain it, but I'm afraid it would just sound strange). He said something really funny and I pulled him close to me, gave him a big hug, kissed the top of his head and said, "I LOVE you!" To which he added: "I'm so cute!" Which is how I usually finish that thought. :)

Prayer request

I mentioned in a post last week that my cousin (who goes by BJ when she comments on my blog) was having her baby this week. Well, she did. Sweet Baby Alex was born yesterday morning. But he's had a bit of a rocky start and now I'm asking you to pray for him. I don't have too many details of it all, but I'm fairly certain his condition is not critical, however he and his mama (and daddy and brother and sister, too) could certainly use some extra prayers. He took his first breath before he was all the way out, and ended up inhaling some fluid and now he's having a little bit of a rough time. Pray for him if you're the praying sort and I'll update you when the situation changes. Thanks!

You should see this

Saturday night, Fox News aired a political forum hosted by Rick Warren at his megachurch, Saddleback Church. He hosted both presidential candidates, separately. He asked them both the same questions and while Obama went first, John McCain was not listening. It was an amazing thing to watch and I hope this format will be repeated in the future. There was no bashing of either candidate. I think it truly showed what each candidate was about, and if there was someone watching that hadn't yet decided who they were voting for, I don't know what else they'd need to make the decision.

I tried to find a video or transcript, on the Fox News websited, but this is all I could find. Basically a synopsis of what was said. But as much as it pains me to link to CNN, they have the whole forum on their website. It's lengthy, but I hope you take the time to watch it. I haven't watched it on the CNN website, so I don't know what they've added at the end as far as spin (if they did), so keep that in mind.

Why the third child doesn't have as many pictures

I lost my camera. That's why. Thankfully, I found it again, charged it up and have been taking pictures like crazy trying to make up for lost time! Hoping that Marc-Adam won't notice when he's older that there seems to be months missing from his second year. Looking through the pictures that were already on the camera from before I lost it, I lost it a short time after this post, I guess. Marc-Adam has also taken up the hobby of photography, as well. We've gotten some interesting shots from that. And I can't bring myself to delete them. I'm going to post them, I think. But not now, I have to make breakfast. And maybe not this weekend, and maybe not the beginning of next week....my cousin, BJ, is having a baby #3!! But now I'm rambling...

Oh, and we finally have someone coming to look at our house on Monday. At this point, I'm not sure if I want them to buy it or not. Part of me wants them to love it and buy it, the other part doesn't want to think about moving now. I'm out of the mood.

Crazy

I recently realized that when Stephen was Marc-Adam's age, I had Zachary. And when Stephen was Zachary's age, I had Marc-Adam. C.R.A.Z.Y. I love all my boys dearly and don't even want to imagine life without them, but sometimes I wonder what the heck we were thinking! When I hear about someone getting pregnant while their youngest (or only) is 1 year old, I think, "Wow, their kids are going to be really close together!" Then I realize, WAIT, I did that! TWICE. Even now, Marc-Adam seems so young to be a big brother. He's my baby. But I do love that my boys are so close in age. And that not even Stephen will be able to remember a day when he wasn't a brother.

At least I wasn't wearing white

We went to a wedding this past weekend for a cousin of Sweet Hubby. Normally, I love weddings, but not this time. And it wasn't because of anything about the wedding.

I agonized over what I was going to wear. I didn't want to be overdressed, but I also wanted to dress up a bit. This couple is only getting married once, and it's not very often that Sweet Hubby and I get to dress up and go somewhere just the two of us. I had decided to wear this cute cute outfit of a top and skirt. Then at the last minute, I changed my mind to wear a cotton dress. It's a pretty dress and it looks really cute with a certain pair of shoes.

So we get to the wedding, say hi to a few of the people that we know, and right in the middle of a conversation it suddenly hits me like a mack truck that I wore that same dress to the wedding shower six weeks before. Now, I know that may not sound like a big deal to some of you, but it was a huge deal to me. I rarely see most of the people that were at the wedding. The last time I saw them was at the wedding shower. I probably won't see them again until the next wedding in that side of the family. They probably wouldn't have remembered what I wore to the shower if I had worn something different to the wedding, but I'm convinced that they knew that I wore that dress the last time they saw me. And I was so self-conscious about it the rest of the night. Drrrr. And as much as I love that dress, I'll forever have to think about when I wore it last every time I take it out of the closet.

New friends

I updated my blogroll to more accurately reflect where I'm spending my online time. Most of the old favorites are still there (aside from my cousins who went private), but there are some new favorites there as well. I think a few of them I started reading around the time that I last updated the list, but didn't want to commit yet to adding them to my sidebar. But I've spent some time getting to know and love them. I think you might, too.

You might remember my friend Chewymama. Well now Chewymama has a personal blog where she blogs about her family happenings (including the recent birth of baby Abram!! YAY!).

Jana blogs at Dress-Up and Diaper Changes about life with 3 young kids (I can relate!). We seem to have a lot in common and I love reading her perspective about being a mom and what goes on in her life.

I think a lot of you read Mommy Daisy already. I was late to board that train for some reason. She's a fun read and blogs about her life and happenings with her too cute son!

Blissfully Domestic and Marriage Hacks are new, too. Definitely interesting reads and both give you things to think about regarding your roles as homemaker and wife (assuming you are on one or both of those).

I also updated the link for Total Mom Haircut. I had no idea how terribly outdated it was. Sorry Beth!

I hope you enjoy reading these new additions!

Lessons learned

Lately, Stephen and I have had several talks about what it means to be in control of our words and "taming our tongues". He has a habit of just talk-talk-talking all.day.long, especially when he's mad or upset. He talks so much that he frequently says things he shouldn't. When he gets to that point, he "loses the privilege to talk" for a while and must keep all thoughts and comments to himself. It's been fairly effective in making him think about what he wants to say instead of just saying anything that comes to mind. But it's definitely a work in progress and I realize that it's a lesson learned over time and with a dash of maturity.

So. Last week, I had a huge blister on the inside of my lip. It hurt to talk. And now that it's all healed up, I have some kind of sore on my tongue on the opposite side of where the blister was. Now it really hurts to talk. So much so, that I try my hardest not to. And when I do, I talk funny and everyone's been asking me to repeat myself. They don't get a second chance, because I'm not opening my mouth again. I only say things that are truly important and need to be heard. It's been a nice little lesson, because I think I might be figuring out where Stephen gets his diarrhea of the mouth verbosity.

A few days ago, Sweet Hubby and I saw a friend from church in the grocery store. We stopped and chatted for a while. As we were walking away, I slapped my forehead and asked Hubby if I talk too much. He said no, but I'm thinking he was probably wisely avoiding the landmine I had just laid out for him. The thing is, I often walk away from conversations slapping my forehead and wanting to kick my own behind because I felt like I talked too much. There have more times than I can count that I have yelled at my self internally, "Just SHUT UP already!!"

So, because of this monster on my tongue, I've lost the privilege to talk. Interesting, huh? I talk to the kids all day long, and most of it is important. We talk about all sorts of things and Stephen has been asking lots of questions lately, especially questions about God. So we have to talk. But outside of those conversations, I'm seeing how much I say that is unimportant. I'm filling their ears with nothing but words, and they are reflecting that. I had no idea that I had a need to tame my own tongue. I get it now. It's definitely something that I need to work on.

Let's just hope that the kids don't catch on too quickly and start to take advantage of this.

I may not be around much this week

Starting tonight, Sweet Hubby's off for a whole week! He got the little impromptu vacation because he volunteered to take another manager's shift because she was going to be out for a wedding. So he worked 8 nights out of 9 and now he doesn't have to go back to work until next Tuesday night! I'm so looking forward to having him around this week. It's been well over a year since he's had this kind of time off. Once our friend Edouard moves on, then we might be able to do some fun things. Which means I may or may not be around blogging. Unless something really funny happens.

And speaking of something really funny happening, here's a little scenario from yesterday:

I was on the phone and Stephen asked if they could give their superheros a bath (which means they want to play with their action figures in the sink). This usually makes for a colossal mess, which I'm normally willing to deal with, but not yesterday, so I said no. A few minutes later, Stephen came out of the bathroom yelling, "MOM!" and I knew something was up without him even saying anything more. I went into the bathroom where Zachary was standing on the stool at the sink with a "Bambi caught in the headlights" look. I couldn't tell that he was doing anything more than washing his hands, but he gave himself away. His face melted and he said:

"I told Stephen not to tell!!"

See y'all around!

Still in disbelief

It was a heavy morning in church today. No one really knew what to say or do. It was agonizing dropping off Marc-Adam in his class knowing his little friend wouldn't be there anymore. People were gathering in the halls outside the nursery, crying. Parents and nursery workers were extra sweet with the kids, all of whom were too young to even know what happened, much less understand it.

My heart breaks for what my friend must be going through right now. I can't even wrap my mind around that kind of pain. It's so unnatural. I guess I'm feeling a little bit of survivor's guilt, wondering what separates me and this baby's mother that she's been dealt this overwhelming hand. Her heart will never recover. And I get to kiss all of my babies tonight.

I've also been feeling a little bit frantic when the kids are out of my sight. Last night, as I went to bed, I panicked a bit because I felt like I couldn't be watchful if I fell asleep, that I wouldn't know it if something horrible happened. I felt the same way when dropping the kids off at nursery and Sunday School because as much as they're well-cared for there, strange weird things happen all the time. All these awful "what-ifs" kept streaming through my head. It's like I realize that I have a whole lot less control over what happens to my kids. I've been praying more than ever today for the health and safety of my children. I pray for that every night with them, but now I find myself almost begging God to spare me from that nightmare.

Experiencing the death of a child has got to be the worst kind of suffering there is. It affects everyone who has ever had contact with that child, or any child, for that matter. It makes every moment shorter and finite. And all the things that we think about and do and obsess about seem trivial. Nothing else really matters except that I made sure when my kids went to bed tonight that they knew that they are wonderful creations of God and that they are safe and loved and special. Everything else just fades away. I guess that's the blessing that comes out of an unimaginable tragedy like this. People are more real. They re-prioritize. Life is lived better. Too bad we can't all figure that out before something like this happens.

So sad

I just found out that a baby from our church passed away earlier today. I just can't believe it. He was 15 months old. Just last Sunday I was marveling at how he was in the "big boy room" in the nursery with Marc-Adam now. I've played with that baby and held him and let him drool on me. I can't imagine what his parents, especially his mother, must be going through. It was a tragic accident, but I think given the circumstances, his mama might blame herself.

Please pray for the family. I don't want to give their names for the sake of privacy, but when you bring it to God, I trust that he knows exactly who you are praying for. And hug your children close tonight.

Darn those female parts

I'm finally feeling better after two days of nasty pain. At first I didn't know what was going on, but after a late-night ER visit, we deduced that it was probably an ovarian cyst that burst. I've had cysts before. Large ones, too. When I was newly pregnant with Marc-Adam, I had this large lump on my left side way down near my c-section incision. My doctor initially thought it was a hernia. Turns out it was a cyst. On my right ovary. It was so large that it had caused my right ovary and fallopian tube to fall over to the left side. The doctor was seriously concerned about an ovarian torsion (which is the fancy schmancy way of saying "twisted tubes" (on a completely random note, wouldn't that be a cool name for a punk rock band? The Twisted Tubes)). It never happened, praise God, but instead the cyst just kinda deflated. I also had cysts when I got pregnant with Stephen and Zachary (and as an aside, I'm in no way implying that I might be pregnant, I'm just saying that I know I had them then because I had the ultrasounds to see them...I've most likely had them at other times because of the pain I get at ovulation, but my pregnancies are the only chances I actually get to see the cysts).

So anyway, I'm feeling much better. I never did find out exactly what was wrong because I never got an ultrasound. We waited for hours at the ER, and I got tired of waiting. Then when I called my doctor to try to get in to see her the next morning, the nurse wanted to get snotty with my because I didn't stay at the ER for the ultrasound. But by the time we had finally left the ER, I had been up for 20 hours and I was getting NO REST thanks for the plastic IV thingy shoved up my arm and the pain that I came in with (which was diminished by the pain of the IV thingy being shoved up my arm). The ER people were annoying me because no one really knew what was going on. So I left. Against medical advice. I never thought I would be one to do that. They made me sign a paper that said that I could die if I left. Like they were going to convince me with their scare tactics. Besides, I would have bet the offending ovary that it was indeed a ruptured cyst. The pain was like none other. I didn't have much of a sense of humor Wednesday night, but on the way to the ER I joked with Sweet Hubby that wouldn't it be funny if I were actually in labor and didn't know it?

He didn't think it was that funny.

I have a confession to make

Hi, my name is Alli and I'm addicted to the TV show TMZ.

It's sad really.

I watch it every night. Even when I'm really tired and want to sleep, I make myself stay up so I can watch it. I don't even know who half the people they talk about are because I'm so out of touch, but it's really funny. And what I love is that the show doesn't glorify the behavior of the rich and useless (beyond having an entire show about it) but instead pokes fun at them.

I've been using a significant amount of willpower to not get on the website. I'm afraid of what the addiction will turn into if I have TMZ at my fingertips any time of night or day. But I had to go grab the link for this post. I told myself I would not look at the site, but just get the link to make sure it was right. I still had to look. And found out that Shia LeBeouf might not have been the one at fault in his wreck last week. And I'd go get the link for you in case you didn't know about that story, but I must.stop.here.

I'm so lame. You got any confessions?

Fair and balanced

I mentioned in my last post that I wanted to try to even things out in regards to my posts about my kids. I have nearly twice as many posts about Stephen than I do about Zachary and Marc-Adam. Obviously, it's not because I love Stephen more or because I find him more interesting. I love all of my kids individually so much that sometimes it hurts. And they're all full of life, funny, smart and sweet. It's just that Stephen gives me more blog fodder that I think would be interesting/funny to you, my reader. The mind of a five year old is an amazing thing, y'all. I don't think I've ever been around a five year old for an extended period of time. So it's truly fascinating. But so are the minds of my three and one year olds.

So. I've decided to do a little "random things" meme about my Zachary. Things that I find cute, interesting or funny about him that I think would give you, my readers, a better idea of his personality. Here we go.

• His eyes are so very expressive. Sometimes it's humorous how he uses his eyes to get a point across. And if you tell him to look at you while you're talking, he'll do this creepy eye thing that makes you want to tell him to stop looking at you. But you can always tell what's going on with Z by looking in his eyes. They give him away every time.

• He speaks with a slight lisp. And I didn't realize it until recently. It's even more pronounced when he's very excited. Come to think of it, all of his little speech impediments (that are normal for a 3 year old) are more pronounced when he's excited or mad.

• He's the most laid-back of all my boys. He loves wrestling with his daddy and brothers, and loves a good game of Guess Who? and loves to race cars around the living room, but after a while, he needs some down time and time to be alone, so he'll snuggle up on the couch (sometimes on me, if I'm there) and just be.
  

• He's loud! Oh my word, he's loud. Now I know that he's three and and that children of all ages are loud, but geez! When all three kids are playing and they're yelling and laughing and carrying on, ZACHARY'S is the voice I hear above it all. He has two volumes....loud and asleep.

• He loathes eggs. Until recently he wouldn't even allow eggs to be on his plate. A few months ago, he decided he would eat a boiled egg. After I picked myself up off the floor, I gave him one. Now he eats them with us, but only the whites.

• He loves knock-knock jokes. And tells the same one over and over again. About bacon. Going to the bathroom.
  

• He's started to sound out 3 letter words (especially "at" and "am" words). Although, I realized yesterday that he has trouble identifying the lowercase letters.

• He sleeps with several stuffed animals and carries two of them around. He's named all of them, can remember their names and insists that you call them by their names. What's funny is that the names he's given them are fun and funny...I don't know where he came up with them. They are: Sam the fire dog, Sophie a blue dog, Peanut the one-eyed eagle (after Peanut the mouse in the Magic Treehouse Books and Zachary makes me go looking Peanut's eye every time it falls out), Junior the dog he won out of the claw machine, JoJo the white tiger, Bumpy the seal, and Arky the seal ("Cause he goes 'ark ark'"). He carries Junior and JoJo around with him. And then leaves them where he can't remember. And then makes the whole family go on a search and rescue mission.
  

• And speaking of carrying things around with him, he still carries a "lovey". He also still sucks on his two middle fingers, but only when he has lovey. He is beginning to leave lovey at home and in bed more often, though.
  

• I always thought he looked more like Sweet Hubby, but the older he gets, the more he looks like me, I think.
  

• I love loving on and cuddling with all my kids, but he's definitely the cuddliest. And gives the best kisses. Lately, he'll come to me for no reason at all except to say, "Gimme a big kiss!"

• He's the only one of my three kids to have a nickname (but he only lets me and Sweet Hubby call him those names): Z, ZZ and Z-man. But don't call him Zach! He won't let anyone call him that.

• He wants to play the accordion and play basketball. Not at the same time of course.

• He is the member of this family that marches to his own beat. The great thing is, though, that his own little beat compliments perfectly the rhythm of our family.
  

I can't think of a title

We had a pretty fabulous weekend. Things just kinda fell into place, I guess. I've mentioned before that Sweet Hubby was working a 4 day on/3 day off schedule, but that changed this week and now he's working 4 days on/4 days off. So that means that every few weeks, he'll have weekends off! So this week, he had W/Th/F/Sat off. The kids talked their grandparents into letting them spend the night--one night with each set of grandparents, so Sweet Hubby and I had two whole evenings to ourselves!! It was sooo nice and what I love about us is that whenever we don't have the kids, it's never awkward for us, we just fall right in to being "just us" with plenty to talk about and lots to do.

Yesterday, we threw some of our junk treasures into my cousin's garage sale (thanks bj!) and made fifty bucks out of it. For minimal work. The kids weren't there the night before when we started getting stuff together and tagging it. When Stephen saw a kid walking around with one of our old toys, he said, "Hey look Mom! That's just like the toy we have at home!" On one hand I felt bad for not telling him that it was ours from home, but on the other hand, I had to kind of giggle to myself when I responded, "It sure is!"

I had an interesting conversation with Stephen this morning. You know Stephen lost his first tooth last week. I've never said anything about the Tooth Fairy, but kids just kinda get indoctrinated with that kind of stuff, so he knew about it and was excited about leaving his tooth under his pillow (we ended up leaving on his night stand). If you've been reading my blog for long, you know how I feel about Santa. I feel the same way about the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny and all that. But in his excitement about his first tooth, I didn't want to ruin it for him. So I neither confirmed nor denied the existence of the Tooth Fairy when he lost his first tooth. When he would say, "The Tooth Fairy's gonna come!" I would say, "Okay!" And I played the part and left him some money. The next morning, the first thing he said was, "SHE IS REAL!!" I just smiled at him. And I never brought it up again.

Then this morning in the car on the way home from church, he sweetly asked, "Mama, did you take my tooth when I left it for the tooth fairy?" I felt a little cornered and stalled by asking him what he meant. And I did want to get to the bottom of his question and give him the information he was asking for. He asked again if I took his tooth and left the money instead of the Tooth Fairy. Then I asked him what he thought happened. He said, "I think you did it." I try to never actually take the fun and the whimsy out of those situations, so I said, "I think it's fun to pretend to be the tooth fairy." He asked if I wore a tu-tu when I did it. Then we giggled about the idea of me sneaking into his room wearing a tu-tu and plastic wings with a magic wand. It was great and I love that he can ask me questions without worry and that he knows he'll always get a straight answer from me.

I KNOW I've been talking a lot about Stephen the last few weeks and not much about the other boys, and I'm going to try to balance it out over the next several posts, but Stephen's just giving me so much to think and blog about. Here's another Stephen-ism:

Lately, any time he asks me a question, before I answer it for real I ask him what he thinks about it. Today, he asked, "Mom, do you have spit?" Yes. "Does Ryan have spit?" Yes. "Why did God give us spit?" What do you think? "What is spit made of?" What do you think? "I think it's made of bubble wrap and water." I laughed and asked why. He spit into his hand, showed me and said, "See? It looks like bubble wrap and water." And you know what, y'all? It does look like bubble wrap and water.

My boys, they like to move

The boys were running around playing this afternoon and ran into the living room where I was. Stephen was chasing Zachary and eventually grabbed him by his shirt and yelled, "Stop, Zacharyyyy!! I want to show you my moves!"

Zachary's response? "But I want to show you MY moves!!"