Friday, October 30, 2009

Friday Facts

Thankful For:

My wonderful husband. I may tease him for being a poo-flinging monkey, and he may tease me back about making a Dracula kitty instead of Toto, but we really do have a great relationship and I love him. I love that nine years later, we still laugh together and we are still each other's best friends. Love you, honey!

Listening To:

Nothing. Absolutely no sound except for the keys of the keyboard and the whirr of the fridge. And it's beautiful.

What's For Dinner:

Breakfast for dinner tonight, I'm thinking. I got a package of Foster Farms turkey sausage links at Safeway on clearance for 1.79, and I need to use them today. I love breakfast! I can almost taste the syrup now...

Looking Forward To:

Halloween, for one because it is a ton of fun, and for two, I would love to be done making costumes and having material and stuff strewn all over my kitchen and dining room. I am also looking forward to someday having a craft room, where I can actually do crafts and not have to clean everything up to have dinner.

I am needing or wanting:

I'll definitely agree with Tiffiny and say energy. I am lagging, I have such a hard time waking up when it's still dark out. I do great when it's light, but in the dark, I am sluggish. It's gonna be a long winter if this keeps up!

Missing:

Still missing my tennis shoe. Ben's is not turning up, either. Two of Grant's juice cups have disappeared, as well as my laundry room floor. Not that the actual floor is missing, I just haven't seen it for a while...

Quote of The Day:

This quote of the day is brought to you by Grant, who was singing a little ditty in the car earlier today.
"Eenie meenie, miney, mo.
Catch a tiger by the toe.
Auntie Holly, let him go!
Eenie, meenie, miney, mo!"

Have a fabulous and safe Halloween!

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Go for a Blog-Hop!

I recently found a great blog on the Multiples and More site called Kingdom Twindom (+1) and was intrigued. I surfed on over and found someone who was a whole lot busier than I am. And surprisingly, a lot more sane as well. Kingdom Mama (AKA Sarah) has a story kinda similar to mine. Remember how I have told you that when my twins were fifteen months old, I got pregnant again? Well, when her twins were fifteen months old, she gave birth to a second set of twins. And then went on to have another baby.

K, I'm not complaining anymore.

Her writing inspires me, the way she teaches her kids to love the Lord is amazing. I learn so much about parenting every time I go to her blog, and today's post is no exception. Please visit her, she is amazing. I have been wanting to send you all to visit her for a while now, and a few days ago, she started a contest for people who sent readers her way. I don't want you all to think I am telling you to visit her so that I can win, so I'm not going to enter the contest, I just want you to go and be blessed by her as I have been.

I have been struggling lately with how to teach my kids to rely on God for everything, and how to raise them to be Godly men and women. She gets it. I am amazed at her creativity, quite often I see things she does and have a "Why didn't I think of that?" moment.

Have I made myself clear yet? Go over and have a little read, OK? You won't be sorry! You don't have to tell her I sent ya, that's not what this is about at all. I'll make it super easy, CLICK HERE to get there!

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Another Because We Are Stupid, That's Why Post

This is what sleep deprivation does to me. It turns me into a crazy woman, who stupidly decides four days before Halloween to tell my daughter, "Sure, sweetie, I'll make a Toto Costume for Mow." Mow is her stuffed cat.

Because we all know I have so much time on my hands, I can easily find the time to go to the fabric store, get fake fur, and make an orange cat look like a black dog.

Yesterday, I did a costume inventory to see what was left, so that I did not find myself getting the kids dressed to go trick-or-treating and find pieces missing. Dorothy just needed two white buttons to finish her dress, then she was done. The lion was done, the scarecrow needed a hat, the tin man was done. Where's the tin man's outfit? Oh, over here on this chair. Pick up the tin man's spray-painted silver clothing. Wait, why is the chair now silver?

Shoulda used silver fabric spray paint instead of regular spray paint. Who knew? (And yes, that is a rhetorical question. I really don't need 6 comments of people saying they knew that it would come off even though it had dried for three days, thankyouverymuch. However, if you know how to get spray paint off a wood chair without ruining the finish on the chair, feel free to let me know.)

So Tin Man went from done to not done at all. Time for Plan B.

I got everything we needed yesterday and set to work last night. I decided to "do the worst first" and try to make the stinking Toto costume for the cat. I needed to make it look good, make sure the fur was facing the right way, and make it secure. This is not going to be a removable costume, I am basically sewing hunks of fake fur directly to the cat.

And is was a lot more difficult than I thought it might be.

Marty kept looking over to see what I was doing, and judging my abilities from across the room checking to see how it was going and interjecting very positive, upbeat, encouraging comments.

Marty: "You know, he's going to look like a Dracula kitty."

Marty: "People are going to wonder if you are nuts, sending a Dracula cat with Dorothy trick-or-treating."

Marty: "Seriously, I will give you serious props if that thing doesn't look like a Dracula kitty when you are done. If you get really good, he might look like a cave-cat."

Marty: "So easy a cave cat could do it."

Me: "If you think it's that easy, why don't you come over here and make this, then?"

Marty: "Oh, no. Cave cats are a lot smarter than poo-throwing monkeys."

OK, he had a point there.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Updates!

I have a lot of things to cover today, so I thought I'd just throw it all in one big post. Hope you are ready!

First of all, the winner of yesterday's contest was Kristen! She was the first to comment:

I'm not 100% sure, but isn't Ben the one who stashes stuff?? If I'm right, I want to win a day to hang out with you and the kids!!! When all of our children are snot, cough, and germ free!!! RIIGHHHTT! Have a wonderful day! Kristen

Kristen is a friend I met in the Nursing Room at church, her oldest and Emma are the same age, and then we met again as her middle child and the twins are the same age, and her youngest and Drew are only a week apart. We have spent a lot of time in church nursing our babies together. I will honor her request to hang out when our kids are healthy. Or when Drew and Noelle go on their honeymoon go to Kindergarten.

The shoe is still missing, and the location of Ben's Secret Stash has not yet been discovered. I wonder if somewhere in out house, there is a portal to space. Hmmm...

In other news, on Sunday we went to church, excited that this was two weeks in a row that we were all healthy enough to go. I dropped Drew off at the nursery, and after church picked up a crying, too warm, cranky child. Drat.

He was cranky and miserable all day, cuddly and tired. You know this kid is sick when he looks like this:
And how do you know he is sick, you may ask? Because he is holding still.

Seriously, this kid is always moving.

He spiked a fever at 8:30pm of 106.8. No, I did not type that wrong. That was one-oh-six-point-eight. So off to the ER we went.

Long story short, they found a massive double ear infection, complete with bulging eardrums. Poor guy! I had seen him patting his ear, but he was playing at the time and saying "bababababababababa..." since he was not crying, so I figured he was just discovering his ears.

Come to realize, his ears were probably infected for weeks and had progressed to the point that his body shot up to 106.8 to fight the infection. If it weren't for the high fever, we might never have known.

'Cuz this is the (applesauce covered) face of a bulging-eardrum-double-ear-infected child just two days before the fever hit:



Isn't he adorable? Such a tough little boy!

We got home from the hospital a little before midnight, and he got his first dose of antibiotics. He fell asleep and slept straight through till 6:30 am. Last night, he slept from 10:30 to 6 am. He has not been sleeping well for months and months, so I never thought that his waking every ten to fifteen minutes would have to do with an ear infection. If this fixes it and he starts sleeping at night, I will be so very very happy!!!

Ah, the thought of getting sleep. The clouds are parting, birds are singing, and there is music playing... kinda like in a Disney movie when the Princess is about to get her first kiss from the prince... magical. That's what sleep is to us. Magical.

Back to reality. Sorry about that little dream right there, it's just been so long since I have slept well consistently...

OK, next in the lineup of updates is the fact that Marty's Grandma is back in the hospital. She has been having trouble eating for quite a while, is constantly nauseous, cannot keep anything down and is losing way too much weight. Some of you may remember that in September she had open heart surgery for an aorta tear, and then had a pacemaker put in ten days later. She has been back in the hospital for over a week now, and the docs cannot figure out what is wrong. Please pray that they figure out the problem soon, there's only so far you can go without nourishment.

If you would, could you pray for our family? It has been a rough month with Grant's hospitalization, Ben's lip, our entire family getting sick, and now all of this. I know we still have it really good compared to a lot of people, and I do not want to complain. Please pray that Marty's Grandma can be diagnosed so she get well and go home, and that our kids stay healthy. Pray that the two horrendously sick, moaning and shaking Swine-Flu victims in the ER waiting room did not infect Drew or I, and that we can miss that illness. Pray that I can finish the kids' Halloween costumes on time, and that I don't do anything else stupid like offering to make a Toto costume for Emma's stuffed cat. thank you all so much, I really appreciate my bloggy friends!!

Have a great day!

Monday, October 26, 2009

Not Me! Monday!



Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This was created by MckMama, go to her blog to see what she and everyone else have NOT been doing this week!


I did NOT, once again, procrastinate and leave the kids' Halloween costumes to the last week to finish. While attaching straw to the scarecrow's flannel shirt yesterday, I did NOT hot-glue my finger so many times that I still don't have full feeling back.

I did NOT do a happy dance when Dorothy's dress came out better than expected, considering I am attempting to make one from scratch without a pattern. Or sewing skills, for that matter.

We have NOT been watching The Wizard Of OZ every day in preparation for Halloween, serving the purpose of both getting the kids excited and helping me figure out how in the world I'm going to pull this off.

While trying to get ready for church yesterday, we did NOT find only one shoe of a pair. The particular child who the shoes belong to does NOT only have one pair to his/her name, leaving us trying desperately to figure out how to get out the door. As the time to leave came and passed us by, with no shoe to be found, I most certainly did NOT decide to bring my child to church in last year's snow boots. I would never do such a strange/embarrassing thing!

And knowing that most things that get stashed around here by this particular child are gone for months, if they ever are recovered at all, we did NOT go to the mall last night and purchase a new pair of shoes for this particular child. And one for the brother as well, since he actually needed some. There is NO WAY I would go and buy a pair of shoes after one has been missing for less than twelve hours, that's crazy!

There is a contest to see who can guess first which child would have stashed his/her shoe in a place where no one would ever find it. There are no prizes for this contest, since I'm broke convinced this is the easiest contest ever if you read my blog. Leave a comment with your guess, and I'll give the winner a shout-out this week!


What did you NOT do this week?

Friday, October 23, 2009

Friday Facts

It's official.Thursdays with Tiffani has been cancelled.

But it was replaced by Friday Facts, which is, well, exactly the same.

Except it's on Friday. Makes sense, right?

Thankful For:

My wonderful Mother in law, who watched the "bottom three" while I drove for Emma's field trip to the pumpkin patch in the rain today. I am also thankful for the opportunity to get to know one of her friends in class and watch them interact, so that I am able to make the decision that this particular child will never come to our house. And my darling daughter will never go to hers. There will be no socialization outside of school at all. Ever. But I really, truly am thankful, because this makes the decision easy, and now I can pray for this child and her family.

Listening To:

The quiet, as the twins are napping and Emma is finishing up her school day. Drew is on my lap trying to grab the keyboard and saying, "Dadadadadadadadadadadadadadada!"

What's For Dinner:

Oh, yeah. I should really get on that.

Looking Forward To:

Halloween! I cannot wait to see the kiddos dressed in their adorable costumes that I am sure I will have finished by then. I'm sure of it. I hope it doesn't rain, 'cause that would really mess up Emma's ruby slippers!

I am NEEDING:

To figure out how to explain to my five year old what "making love" actually means. And why do I have to explain this to my five year old, who should, at this time, not have any reason to have that phrase in her vocabulary? See the "thankful" answer.

Missing:

I am still missing my tennis shoe. Darn Ben and his Secret Stash. Gotta love him, though.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

I love fall.

There's just something so cozy about getting out of a warm bed, putting on a fuzzy bathrobe, and greeting the day. The big windows in my living room display a fabulous sight, the vine maple this year is gorgeous in it's reds and oranges. The birch trees have turned yellow, and not the traditional change of green-to-nasty-green-to-brown like they have done in previous years. The contrast is amazing, the trunks of the brightly leaved trees are looking almost black in the wetness of the occasional rain. I feel the need to head into the yard with the camera soon.

The morning fog adds a comfortable yet almost mysterious quality to the color surrounding me. I love the coolness of the house in the morning, and the relative calm that goes with it. Morning means cuddly quiet loving kids, not wild high-flying circus children.

It's almost movie-perfect. The leaves on the ground cover the evidence that we have not weeded the flowerbeds in a long time. Fall mornings make me feel normal, as my currently un-showered and bathrobe-clad body is perfectly acceptable on a cool fall morning.

All that is missing is the hot, steaming mug of some delicious hot beverage. Evey fall, I consider taking up drinking coffee. I am not a coffee drinker, and I do not desire to be a coffee drinker, but I get it in the fall. My morning glass of ice cold water does not fit into my movie-perfect fall morning.

Currently I have two roasts in the crock pot. Yes, we are that big of a family. The smell of beef and garlic is filling the house and will remain there the rest of the day. It's time to light a fire, adding to the coziness, and remove the bathrobe in trade for my daily jeans.

If only I could hold on to the calm of morning for just a bit longer....

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Monkey See, Monkey Poo

Monday night after the kids went to bed, we finished up our nightly tasks, watched our Monday night TV shows, and counted coffee beans.

Note to self
- if hubby ever comes home with a big jar of coffee beans and says, "These are for a guess-how-many-beans-are-in-the-jar game, and I get to count them," do NOT offer to help. Coffee beans are small, and it took 9,806 to fill that jar. It will take far too long to count them and will leave your hands smelling like coffee oil, which will remind you of the days when you used to smoke and your hand smelled like cigarettes all the time. Not cool.

Anywhoo, we went to bed around midnight. We were both in the bathroom getting ready for bed when Drew started to fuss. Since Marty was closest to the door, I asked him to go settle him. I could hear him talking to Drew, which I thought was odd. If you are going to settle a baby down, you don't talk to him. That only gets him riled up and not sleeping!

I left the bathroom and came into our bedroom just in time to see my darling baby Drew, who should have been sound asleep or close to it, flying through the air and coming down into his Daddy's waiting hands.

Are. You. Freaking. Kidding. Me?!?!

"Were you actually throwing him up in the air at midnight when you were supposed to be settling him down to sleep?" I asked, incredulously, hoping there was some other explanation than "my husband is an idiot."

There stood Marty, with a happy/guilty look on his face, "But I did it with love!"

Got it. He's an idiot. Check.

I looked at him in disbelief. "Seriously, talking to you is like talking to a monkey sometimes. And not those cool circus monkeys that can actually learn tricks. You are more like... like..."

Still grinning, Marty ended my sentence for me. "I'm like a monkey that throws poo?"

Then he took darling baby Drew's hand, and made a scooping and throwing motion at me. Thanks a bunch.

I know this will be a shock to everyone, but Drew was wide awake and wanting to play until 1:45 in the morning. While my darling, poo-throwing-monkey of a husband slept soundly, I worked at trying to settle him the right way and get him to sleep, all the time wondering why I was the one having to fix Marty's screw-up. I must have had "sucker" written across my forehead.

But he has been warned. Next time, I am taking my pillow to the couch and leaving the two monkeys to work it out between them.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Little Bearfoot Farms 2nd Annual Chili Cook-off

This weekend marked a historic day. It was our friends' annual chili cook-off and pumpkin carving contest. Some of you who have followed this blog from the beginning remember this post from last year, where my Autumn Harvest Chili took the Boobie Prize for being the worst chili in the cook-off.

About two weeks after that one, I started working on my recipe for this year. I found the recipe for Rachael Ray's Buffalo Chicken Chili and decided that it was The One. My entry for this year, my winning chili, the Greatest Chili Of All Time.

The cook-off is held in Gordon and Tracie's shop at Little Bearfoot Farms. It was a blast last year, and we were really looking forward to it again this year.

There were eight different chili recipes in the cook-off this year. All were very good, and all very unique.

My dear friend Tracie, the most creative person I have ever met, made this mushroom garden. Isn't it cool?
We sampled all of the chili recipes, and were amazed at the variety. We all voted for our favorite and least favorite, and went back for seconds (and thirds, sometimes fourths) of the ones we found most tasty.

My personal favorite was made by mt friend Erin, and her recipe included chocolate, coffee, and beer. And it was delicious!

We ALL ate chili.
And we all loved it!
Finally, the votes were tallied, and this year's winner was crowned. Our MC and host Gordon awarded the prizes. Congratulations, Brad, on your victory! (Obviously no one told Marty that you have to win to be in the winner's picture...)
And my reign from last year was robbed from me by Jennifer, who won the Boobie Prize. My fabulous chili was only one vote away from last, and we found out later that Brad messed up his vote and voted for Jenn's chili when he meant to vote for mine. I should have won the Boobie Prize, but it was stolen from me. It's a chili-scandal.
My chili is like cilantro, you either love it or you hate it. There are always a few who love it (I didn't bring home very much leftovers!) but those who like the more traditional chili tend to dislike mine. With a passion. I may have to come up with something different next year. Or maybe not. See, I don't like traditional chili, so trying to make and perfect something that I don't like would be difficult and not too fun for me. Maybe I will continue on my quest to have the last place chili every year, since there are always a few people who love my chili. Maybe I'll write to Rachael Ray again and see what she says. Hmmmmm... the wheels are already a-turnin...

Next came the pumpkin carving. Marty drew a pumpkin outline on the ground and Emma illustrated what she wanted her pumpkin to look like. I was actually really impressed with her picture.
Over time as people started scooping and carving, Little Miss Fickle-Pants changed her mind, and the pumpkin changed...
And for the first time in history, Grant actually got dirty on purpose. He dug into his pumpkin and played with the seeds. It didn't last long, but we were very impressed with the fact that he was willing to reach in there in the first place. He's not really an adventurous type yet. But he's getting there!

"Is guts, Mommy?"
Emma wanted to do hers herself, and had a great time. You know, till she got bored and we finished it for her.
We carved for the kids however they wanted. "Do you want triangle eyes or circle eyes? Happy face or angry face? Big teeth?" and these were the results:

Ben's "punkin-punkiiin?"

Grant, "Punkin, say Cheeeeese!"
Emma's took a bit longer, and Marty had to demonstrate the faces he could carve on it. At least, that's his story.
"I want a straight top of the mouth, and spooky teeth bottom mouth. And eyebrows. And triangle eyes, and a triangle nose. No, Mommy, not like that, like this. Yeah, like tha... no, like, up a little. A little more. Now more." "Emma, you want his nose between his eyes?" "No, down here a little, yeah right there."
Drew got some Auntie Holly snuggles. Or Auntie got some Drew snuggles. They sure like each other!
As we finished up carving, the kids headed up to the hayloft to get into trouble play. I heard a loud Emma voice calling, "Mom! Boys are in the cage!" So I headed up to photograph them and laugh rescue them. If only I could do this at home...
Don't worry, the door was unlocked, they got in there themselves, and got out themselves when they were ready.

The pumpkin guts were fed to the pigs, who were delighted with the meal. My kids loved watching them!
Grant stood there for quite a while, watching them nose around for more. I could have left him there all night, I bet. "I watching the piggies, Mommy!"
Thank you, Gordon and Tracie, for another great night. We look forward to next year, where I will reclaim a prize!! (But I'm not saying which one...)

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Ben's Lip Update

A few of you have been asking about Ben's lip. I have been hesitating answering, since I really didn't know a definitive answer until last night.

Thankfully, Ben is fine.

Here is Ben on the first day of the injury, after a half dozen Popsicles had massively reduced the swelling in the inside of his lip. You can see the bit of tissue that is running from his lip to between his teeth. It was a lot worse when it was really swollen, but there was no way I was going to hold him down just to take pictures of that.
As it turns out, that little piece of tissue that connects your upper lip to your gums? That connects to Ben's gums right at his tooth line. And when it was swollen, the swelling pushed that little bit through his teeth, and made it look like his lip was stuck. As the swelling receded, we had started to suspect this was the case, but wanted to have our dear EMT friend take a look at it to confirm our suspicions.

Here he is today.
He still has the split bottom lip, a scab under his nose, and the mark on his upper lip, but he is fine. Ben is so incredibly tough, I cannot believe how well he handled all of this. Especially when I tried to dislodge his lip from his teeth, and ended up just tugging on his injured lip for no reason.
Oh, and he has the bump on his forehead from running into the van door, and the mark on his finger from touching the stove.

Yeah, this kid's gonna be tough.

Friday, October 16, 2009

Dan is the Man

I now declare that today is "Dan Snow is Freaking Awesome Day."

Let me back up a bit.

This is my brother-in-law Dan.
He is married to Holly, Marty's older sister. Dan is a night owl. So what did this night owl brother-in-law of mine do that was so freaking awesome? Let me tell you.

Last night, he did his night-owl thing at my house. With baby Drew in the playpen in the living room, Dan took care of him all night, giving me and Marty all night to sleep.

Glorious, uninterrupted sleep, oh, how I have missed you!

That's right, folks, after MONTHS of waking several times a night, and several nights of sleeping in six minute stretches, I got over seven hours of sleep last night. SEVEN HOURS.

I feel like a new woman.

Marty asked me as he left, "I know what you are like with sleep. What are you planning on doing today? Re-arrange the furniture? Paint the living room again? Am I going to come home and find you have rotated the house on the foundation?"

No worries, honey. But an addition wouldn't be a half bad idea...

Thank you so much, Dan. You have given both Marty and I a new lease on life, and we appreciate it more than you can imagine. Thank you, Holly, for letting us borrow your husband for the night. We love you both!!

Thursday, October 15, 2009

We could use some prayer today!

And so, our string of unfortunate events continues.

As I type this, Ben is working on his fifth Popsicle of the day. Why five Popsicles, you ask? Because he fell earlier, and hit his face on something (most likely the dump truck) and was bleeding heavily from his top lip, his bottom lip, and his nose. Ben does things thoroughly. When I got things cleaned up enough to see the damage, I discovered that on top of the split open bottom lip, he managed to get the inside of his upper lip wedged between his two front teeth.

It's stuck. And it's stuck good.

The doctors are so swamped with flu cases that I was told to try to reduce the swelling and remove it myself, as they would prefer I not need to bring him in. Honestly, the thought of bringing my child into the swine-flu filled doctor's office does not sound like a great choice to me, so I am happy to not have to make the trek.

However, his lip is not budging.

I really think I would be handling this a whole lot better if Drew did not continue on his stretch of waking up every six minutes last night, where at one point I decided to let him cry it out a little because nothing else was working, and successfully had all four kids screaming at the same time at about three am.

I just got off the phone with my dear friend Gordon, who is an EMT, and he instructed me as to the best removal process. But it's going to hurt, and it's going to bleed. Hopefully the five Popsicles will numb it a bit.

Would you pray for us today? I cannot do this on my own strength right now, I need God to lift me up and carry me. And I am so very grateful that I can rely on Him. Cuz I'm kind of a mess.

And now I have to go make my son bleed to remove his lip from his teeth.

When it rains, it pours.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Wanted: A Good Nap

I have fallen into the trap of the Family Cold.

My plan to get it all out of the way quickly was a good one, Emma is well and the twins are on the mend. Marty has thus far avoided it, but Drew and I started feeling it over the weekend, and if all goes according to plan we will be better by this weekend.

You know, just in time for one of us to bring home something else.

Drew is worse off than I am, his little nasal passages get clogged so much faster than anyone else, and he is miserable. The last few nights have been really hard, I finally started timing things and he is waking up every six to eight minutes.

Literally. I am not joking around here. The poor kiddo cannot breathe well and is a fuss bucket all. night. long.

Finally at about five thirty this morning, I gave the poor child a pillow in his crib to prop him up a little.

Yeah, I know it's wrong. He's only nine months old, and you aren't supposed to give kids bedding till they are at least a year.

But he actually slept for a good hour and a half stretch, which he needed badly. I needed that sleep badly, too, but I needed a shower even more badly. I am so tired I am writing things that don't make much sense, like "even more badly." Maybe they do make sense, but in my sleep deprived state, they sound like strange child-created English to me. Like "more better" and "I see it with my ears!"

**By the way, honey, I'm sorry if I was rude to you this morning when you went to the bathroom with your alarm on snooze instead of turned off. I understand that you really thought you had turned it off, and I know that you would never intentionally leave it on for me to deal with, in the middle of my first thirty minute stretch of sleep in a few days. And I apologize if it is no longer in... ummmmm... great working order. There is a small chance that instead of just turning it off, I might have ripped it from the wall and thrown it. It's hard to know for sure.**

Monday, October 12, 2009

Not Me! Monday!

Welcome to Not Me! Monday!

As always, this was created by MckMama, and you can go check out her blog to see what she and everyone else have NOT been doing this week.

I was NOT shocked and amazed at my two year olds' strength when I found this:

Now, I must ask, have you ever tried to break discs before? I have done it when they used to send out the mailings with the free AOL trials. Those things are hard to break. They are so stinking strong, people could use them to build houses and space shuttles and the like. The Big Bad Wolf would not be able to blow down a house made of CDs, I tell ya. I did NOT feel just a little bit, umm, weak when I realized that two two-year-olds could easily accomplish what I found to be next to impossible. I did NOT suddenly have a flash-forward to what later years will be like, since my children are stronger than me a mere two and a half years after I brought them into this world.

I did NOT think that maybe they were trying to tell me something with their choice of movies to destroy. Perhaps breaking "Potty time with Bear" was a sign that I should not be pushing potty training, and they were happy with diapers for a while. Which is fine, I mean, I LOVE having three kids in diapers and I truly believe there is NOTHING better I could be spending over one hundred bucks a month on.

But then, this did NOT happen.

I was NOT horribly disappointed that the changing table I bought on clearance at Wally-World five and a half years ago was not high enough quality to outlast all four kids. I mean, really, just because two-year-old Ben is such a tank that he weighs the same as five-year-old Emma, he cannot be held up by a flimsy piece of particle board? What's this world coming to that we cannot rely on China to produce quality furniture that can last a lifetime?

Oh, right.

On a slightly less sarcastic note, I did NOT just a teensy bit enjoy the forced rest and relaxation provided by Grant being hospitalized from pneumonia.

I did NOT lay down for hours on end, just holding my sick boy while he got better. And I did NOT savor every minute of it.

These were taken a few hours before we were discharged, so he is looking much better than he had been oh, 24 hours prior.

He is NOT stinkin' adorable.
I do NOT have the cutest kids in the world.

Yesterday we went down to my parent's house to celebrate some birthdays and make apple cider using apples from my dad's mini apple orchard in his backyard. During the course of the day, my brother took my camera, as he often does, and got a few pictures which I will share in another post. However, he did NOT take a picture of his own bum.
I am NOT posting this picture up on my blog for all to see, and leaving out the story that went along with it. There is NOT an actual explanation to why this picture was taken that I am deciding to leave out for now. I am NOT going to offer the condolence that I only tease people I love, so my brother can relax in the idea that I must REALLY love him to tease him to this extent.

I would NEVER do that. I mean, really. Would I really say, "You take pictures of yourself with my camera, I will blog them however I want!"? Nope, NOT Me!

Love you, Jeff!

What did you NOT do this week?

Friday, October 9, 2009

We're Home! We're Home!

This afternoon, Grant was discharged from the hospital! WooHoo!

He's doing great, we picked up a prescription for him and we picked out a new truck at Target. He also picked out a new toy for Ben and for Emma to bring them, just because.

He is so excited to be home, as we were coming down our road, he saw our driveway and yelled, "We're home! We're home! Mommy, we are home!"

What a great little boy he is!

I'll update more later, but I just wanted to thank you all for your thoughts and prayers.

Chat later!

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Grant the Sick Super-Hero

Today, things did not go the way I wanted.

Yesterday Grant's cold seemed to move a little toward the "not just a cold" when his fever hit 105.9. I called the doctor and listened to a long recorded message regarding flu-like symptoms and kept him home, pumped him with Motrin, and tried to keep him filled with fluids.

Today, he decided that eating and drinking were not activities he wanted to take part in, so I took him in to the doctor. They took every precaution and he got to wear a nice mask the entire time he was there. We called it his super-hero mask. He fought it at first, but then didn't seem to have the energy to care.

The good news is that he does not have the swine flu. The bad news is, he has pneumonia and they admitted him to the hospital.

I spent the day with him there, I held him as it took four tries to get and IV going and he cried and whimpered. But he did not fight or try to pull his arm away from the kind nurses, which was almost worse than if he had. I hate seeing him so weak and listless.

He is doing better now, after getting some antibiotics in and getting some IV fluids. The plan is to observe him overnight, as the re-hydration process can sometimes make the pneumonia worse and he might need supplemental oxygen.

We hope to have him home tomorrow, but we will have to see how the night goes.

He decided that he wanted to have his sleepover at the hospital with Daddy, so I am now at home with the other kids and Marty is with Grant.

Please keep us in your prayers. It is good to know that he will be just fine, he just needs a little help getting there. However, Ben is missing him, as this is their first night apart since, well, conception. Ben is sleeping with one of Grant's buddies tonight, and I am hoping that does the trick.

And for me, I am doing well, just drained and exhausted. Have a good night, and I'll try to update when I can tomorrow.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Gimme an S! Gimme a U!

Last night was our second PTO (parent teacher organization) meeting of the year. I remember my mom being involved in the PTA when I was a kid, and I always assumed I would be a part of my kids' school organization.

I went into this year with one goal. Be a part of the club, offer assistance when needed and DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES VOLUNTEER TO TAKE OVER ANYTHING.

Riiiiiiight.

Since the boys are still sick, Marty stayed home with them and I went to the meeting solo. Big mistake. I tend to act before I fully think things through (of course, in my state of severe sleep deprivation, it takes about a week to fully "think things through") and I needed him there to hold my hand.

Now, I don't mean that I needed him to hold my hand like a child and walk me through it, I literally needed him to hold my hand in a tight grip and hold it down so I didn't raise it when there were no other volunteers.

But as my dear friend Brenda told me via facebook, and this is a direct quote: HAHAHAHA kinder-mom's all have "sucker" stamped on their forehead!!!!!

Thanks a bunch.

I am now in charge of the "Spirit wear" order, which is the t-shirts and sweatshirts and everything else they sell at the school. I am taking it on with another mom who will be in charge of actually collecting the orders and money from families, but I get to decide on logos, design, colors, vendors, and actually place the order.

I wasn't going to, really, I wasn't but when there were no volunteers, they said they would just not do spirit wear this year, which make me freak out because I wanted Emma to get a cute sweatshirt that had her name on the back like the big kids.

I panicked. And I raised my hand.

Because I am a "sucker" like that.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Mother Of The Year?

Today marks the second Bible study class in a row that I have missed due to sick kids. Instead, I am taking my sick kids shopping for Halloween stuff and salsa makings. Yes, I know that I am supposed to keep my kids home when they are sick, but I cannot stay holed up for however long they might be coughing. Not gonna happen. Don't worry, I am going in armed with hand sanitizer and decongestants, so they cannot spread germs everywhere we go.

And I am doing my best to limit the length of time this sickness plagues our household. When the second of four children got sick, I decided that it would be much easier to have four kids sick for a week or two than have each kid sick individually and have a sick kid four times, dragging on for months on end.

I started letting them share cups, and if they just so happened to lick each other's faces, I didn't stop them. See, by doing this, their contagiousness is limited and I have less of a chance of spreading this to others in my community.

Your welcome.

Now that's what I call good parenting.

Monday, October 5, 2009

Not Me! Monday!



Welcome to Not Me! Monday! As always, this was created by MckMama, and you can go to her blog to see what she and hundreds of others have NOT been doing this week!

I did NOT let my baby boy crawl around in just a diaper and shoes on the carpet. I mean, common sense would tell you that a Velcro tab against carpet would stick to the carpet, not the diaper, and the diaper would come off the baby. Sheesh, everyone knows that, right?
And no, there are NOT that many cheerio crumbs on the floor in my hallway, I photoshopped them in to make the other moms who choose not to vacuum the edges of their floors on a twice-daily basis feel better. Isn't that nice of me?

Our neighbor brought over some cupcakes to share with us. We had a few left over that I put in the middle of the island for later. Grant did NOT decide to pull a bin into the kitchen to climb up and take a bite out of each cupcake and put it back. I tell ya, if my child is going to be naughty, he would NEVER choose to deface every cupcake in the pile!

I put him in time out and we had a long talk about not taking things without asking, etc. etc. A few hours later, he did NOT go back and eat more cupcake, and I did NOT find him with a big, sneaky grin on his face. My children always listen to me the first time, and NEVER do things that they know are naughty. Especially Grant.

Anywhoo, I was so mad that I took him into his room and sat him on his bed and yelled at him had a stern talk. I left him on his bed and left the room in a huff.

Now, I have a cool thing in the boys' room. It is a doorstop that can lock into a piece that is attached to the baseboard. It can keep the door open so the boys cannot close their door, which is great for me. I usually have it in the position where you can close it, all it takes is a little tug on the door and it comes apart from the stopper thing.

This day, I actually had it locked in the open position.

Can you see where this is going? I am furious, leaving Grant's room mad because he is really ticking me off, but I certainly did NOT grab the door and pull, thinking it would pop off the stopper and close...
Really. I did NOT pull off the entire baseboard. And if you look closely, you will NOT see that I never removed all the wallpaper when I painted, just the stuff that was visible.

I am NOT a giant dork.

I did NOT let my kids help make applesauce on Saturday.
I most certainly did NOT start roaring at my daughter when Marty got the camera out. I mean, really, who does that?
Emma is NOT so used to my crazy antics that she is just looking at me, waiting to see what I will do next.

Grant did NOT sing a little "apple, apple, applesauce!" song as he worked.
And Ben did NOT get bored very quickly when he learned that he could only turn the crank one direction. Oh, and I did NOT get frustrated with my darling hubby when Ben returned from having his hands washed with crazy wet hair. There is NO WAY I expect my husband to understand that if the kids are doing something cute, I will take pictures, and they will be blogged, and so he should not mess them up beforehand!
I did NOT can fifteen quarts of applesauce, which added to my twenty-two quarts of peaches, is really making me happy for good food this winter!

What did you NOT do this week?

Friday, October 2, 2009

This Very Moment...

As I sit down to type this post, I have two little boys under my desk, "hiding from the monster." I love the creativity of children.

I have a sick little girl, home from school today with a cough and a fever, sitting in the rocking chair eating cereal and complaining that every time she eats, she gets crumbs in her eyes.

Okey Dokey.

I have a happy little baby, who once again did not sleep much last night (for a couple hours there he woke up every ten minutes) who is sitting in his high chair, happily drinking a bottle and watching his crazy older siblings be crazy.

And in the time it took me to write that, the whole scene shifted.

I have a naughty curious little boy who decided to sit on the arm of the couch, which is not allowed. I was unaware of the other little boy on the floor directly beneath him when I told the first boy to get down, which he promptly did and landed on top of his brother, sending the second little boy face first into the carpet, driven by the force of his brother landing on his head.

I have a sick little girl who is now in time-out for getting sassy with the aforementioned boys and telling them with a snooty tone, "That's why you don't sit up there! Sheesh!" complete with an eye roll from her perch as Queen Of The Sickies in the rocking chair. And she is quite distressed that I made her leave her perch, which was all cozy with pillows and blankets.

I know, I'm such a mean mom.

And I have a happy baby, still sitting in his high chair, still drinking his bottle, but who is now asleep. Probably needs a lot of catching up after last night. I know I do.

And now I'm off to unload the dishwasher and rotate laundry. Because naps are for babies. And today, I am planning on channeling my inner baby at naptime, so I'd better get some work done now. Come one o'clock, I'll be checking my eyelids for light leaks.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

One Step Forward, Two Steps Towards The Can Of Lysol

It started off as a normal morning.

We put the fleece sheets on the bed last night. Ohhhh, I love the fleece sheets. The fleece sheets are so great, I have a really really hard time getting out of bed in the fall and winter.

I was up about ten times last night with Drew (and no, that's not an exaggeration, that's just life with this baby) and I was up for about a half hour with Emma convincing her that no, there was not a spider in her bed. By the time morning came, I was no where near rising and shining, I was much closer to putting the pillow over my head and letting the children fend for themselves for an hour or so.

Darn responsible parenting. I could have used that extra hour.

In my morning daze, I wasn't paying real close attention everywhere I went. I found the boys giggling together under the table, and didn't look close enough to see that they had captured the cat under there and were both trying to hold him. At the same time. And they were sitting more than a cat's length away from each other.

Poor Teddy.

After the alarm bells broke through my daze to say that they don't giggle like that unless they are causing trouble! I realized what was going on, saved the cat, made them apologize to him, and set the poor animal free to run in the toddler-free yet rainy outdoors. I picked up Drew, who was trying to get into Emma's room which is filled with choking hazards and, well, more choking hazards.

I walked by the bathroom and saw Ben standing on a potty (the potties double as stools) brushing his teeth. I saw that he was jammie-free, but failed to notice that he was completely naked.

This morning, Ben went poop on the potty. By himself. Not instigated by me, completely solo.

Fantastic. And that's not my normally sarcastic fantastic, it was a real fantastic, with just a hint of sarcasm.

Why was there a hint of sarcasm, you may ask? Because Ben is, ummmm... a non-traditional child, and his ways are not the same as everyone else's.

Back to where I was in the story.

I walked by the bathroom with Drew in my arms, intent on getting him in the high chair with some cheerios for breakfast. I swept the kitchen and started to fold some laundry. After a while, I noticed that there was till water running in the bathroom. I returned to find a buck-naked Ben still standing on the potty, brushing his teeth, with a small pile of poo forming on the lid of the potty underneath him.

See? He pooped ON the potty. Just not IN it.

I will take my oh-so-tiny success in potty training and run with it. And then I will bleach the bathroom.

Again.