Tuesday, February 28, 2006

My manatee

Have I ever mentioned how much I love manatees? Well, I have to Matthew.
He drew this for me today.

Have I ever mentioned how much I love manatees? Well, I have to Matthew.
He drew this for me today.

Slip Slidin' away

So, there are things about Texas that make living here bearable. Ok, so it isn't terrible, it just sounded good. LOL
Anyway, here's what the boys did today. Matthew and Dillon were off laying in the sun.

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As Simple as it Gets

I just love these pictures of Zachy. Dirty face and all.
This layout is about as simple as you get.
The wording in the middle reads
A little boy...
You hold him close
You watch him grow
You are awed by his spirit.
You marvel at the wonder of his smile.

I am SO terrible

Matthew caught a butterfly. It's a good sized one too.
He was arguing with the neighbor girl about letting it go. She said he had to let it go, now. He said no.
I said, if we wait for it to die, we can look at it under the microscope. I am SO bad!! The poor thing is in here in a bug catcher going crazy.
Shame on me!!!

I also homeschool so my kids don't ever have to say this!

Received this email today. Really makes you think!

Since the Pledge of Allegiance
and The Lord's Prayer
are not allowed in most
public schools anymore
Because the word "God" is mentioned....
A kid in Arizona wrote the attached
NEW School prayer.


Now I sit me down in school

Where praying is against the rule

For this great nation under God

Finds mention of Him very odd.



If Scripture now the class recites,

It violates the Billof Rights.

And anytime my head I bow

Becomes a Federal matter now.



Our hair can be purple, orange or green,

That's no offense; it's a freedom cene.

The law is specific, the law is precise.

Prayers spoken aloud are a serious vice.



For praying in a public hall

Might offend someone with no faith at all.

In silence alone we must meditate,

God's name is prohibited by the state.



We're allowed to cuss and dress like freaks,

And pierce our noses, tongues and cheeks.

They've outlawed guns, but FIRST the Bible.

To quote the Good Book makes me liable.



We can elect a pregnant Senior Qeen,

And the 'unwed daddy,' our Senior King.

It's "inappropriate" to teach right from wrong,

We're taught that such "judgments" do not belong.



We can get our condoms and birth controls,

Study witchcraft, vampires and totem poles.

But the Ten Commandments are not allowed,

No word of God must reach this crowd.



It's scary here I must confess,

When chaos reigns the school's a mess.

So, Lord, this silent plea I make:

Should I be shot; My soul please take!

Amen

Monday, February 27, 2006

Holy leporinus, Batman!!

We have three leporinus fish. If you follow that link you will read that this is a peaceful fish, and good in all communities, but watch for fin nipping. They are not, however, compatible with angel fish.
We happen to have 4 angels, and no problems. However, in the last three days, these guys have killed two of our fish! They just nipped them to death. One being a betta that we put in to try and see if he could get along with the others. We were worried about him being the mean one!
Not only have they killed them, but they have completely eaten their remains. Except for the betta, which we saw in time to remove.
Poor Collin, when we first got the fish, he chose some bala sharks, that night, one died. The new gouramis were fish that he chose the other night when we went out, just him and me. Bummer. Hopefully the other one will survive.

This is why God made breasts

Good grief. It's a sad day when you have to worry that your baby is ingesting metal from his formula, or worse yet, inhaling the particles!
This, ladies and gentlemen, is why God created breasts. Babies deserve the best of the best, not some factory made powder with metal particles.
If you happen to be reading this, and are a formula feeder, please check the link above and be sure your baby isn't drinking metal!

Sunday, February 26, 2006

The Facade

I have been pondering this entry for several days now. I'm not sure I can get this message across how I would like, but I'm gonna give it a shot.
Again, I must say, I am not writing this to offend anyone, that is not my intention here, I'm just explaining my position.
Last week, my neighbor and I were talking. She told me that Dillon had gone over to her house to ask if her daughter was home from school yet. She wasn't. When he was told this he said, "I wish I went to school." Well, this started her on a whole long explanation of the fact that she knows she would abuse her daughter if she homeschooled because she gets frustrated just doing her homework with her. She then went on to say that of the 3 homeschooling families in our little area, only R seems like she is ok to homeschool. Why? Because she has never heard R yell at her kids, so therefore she must be good to teach! I told her that R is never ever outside to yell at her kids, and that that makes no difference whatsoever. She didn't get it.
At any rate, it got me thinking. Homeschooling is so foreign to some people. I think when a lot of people think of homeschoolers, they think of this nice quiet atmosphere where everyone gets along all day and no one squabbles or gets irritated with anyone else. I think it is the same with parenting, no one wants to show the true side, but that's another post.
That's the facade. You can go online and read about homschoolers, and you will, inevitably, hear almost nothing but the good. No one wants to talk about that bad. Which is fine, I personally don't want to talk about the bad either. But the point is, there is bad.
Homeschoolers are human. We squabble. We lose our tempers. We raise our voices in front of other people.
I think that to tell me that because you have heard me yell at my kids, I should send them to someone else for most of the day is absurd.
God has called us to raise our children. We don't feel the need to send them away for 7-8 hours a day for someone else to influence them. They are our responsibility to protect. We have seen the influence the neighborhood kids have on ours, we can't fathom what a whole day at school would do.
Even for families who don't believe God has called them to homeschool, the advantage of keeping them home far outweigh the disadvantages. My best friend homeschools. She has a 15 year old daughter. I have a friend with a 15 year old daughter, also. The difference in the two is amazing. The one is public school is sexually active. The homeschooled one doesn't really have a huge interest in boys. The homeschooled girl spends time with her family and enjoys doing so. The public schooled girl spends most of her time "hanging out with friends". Now of course, this could be due to family dynamics and the way they were raised. But it could also be due to peer pressure issues.
I don't care if my children are "too sheltered" why in the world would I want them to be exposed to everything kids are exposed to these days? Yikes!
This post is getting off track I think. My original thought was that we aren't perfect. But still able to homeschool. You don't have to be perfect. You don't have to be patient. You don't have to be organized. "I'm not patient enough" and "I'm not organized enough" are the two main reasons you will hear people say they don't want to homeschool. The funny thing about that is that I don't even have to ask. I simply say, "oh, we homeschool" and the response if one of the above statements.
I'm not saying that I think you should homeschool. Everyone has to do what is right for their family. I am simply saying, I don't judge you for sending your kids to school, please don't assume that we must not be doing a good job if you hear my raise my voice. Of course my kids annoy me. Anyone would annoy me if I spent 24 hours a day with them. But we have such a great relationship, regardless.
We are a family. And we enjoy being together.
We don't plan on changing anything anytime soon.

~*~*~*~*~*
I'm disappointed, that whole thing was worded badly, and didn't really say what I wanted it to. More of a tangent. Oh well.

I've created little monsters!!

We are cleaning the house. We usually do this to some upbeat music. The boys discovered that we have a cd of music from Disneyland. They've been listening to it all morning.
Of course, this puts a hankering in us all to go to the magic kingdom!! I was even trying to figure out how old Zachy would need to be so that we could all go on all the rides this time! He's a pretty tall kid, so it could be sooner rather than later! Now to figure out how much we would have to save to be able to go sometime!
OK, so it's all a pipe dream because I'm sure Matt doesn't really want to go, maybe we could leave him here! LOL I'm kidding of course!
Anyone want to donate to the cause? We accept checks, cash, money orders, winning lottery tickets, Las Vegas winnings, valuable antiques, expensive cars...anything worth value! LOL
OK, gotta go back to cleaning, I just can't help but be in a happy mood listening to sounds of the park! HAPPY TIMES!!

Friday, February 24, 2006

*smile*

I love my kids. They make my heart swell to one hundred times it's normal size.
*sigh* Is there anything better than a housefull of kids? True bliss indeed. :-)

How long??

How long does it take for birds to find birdfeeders?
Ours have been up for a week and a half and so far, no feathered visitors.

Thursday, February 23, 2006

Not lookin good

This is the second week with no weight loss. True, I'm not working as hard as I was, and I need to. Need to get back to the exercise routine, but all the good shows are on now, so it makes it tough! ;-)
So, if you look at my ticker it says I have 37.5 pounds to go to hit my goal for my trip this summer. I have like 17 weeks, give or take, before we go. At 2 pounds a week, that would be 34 pounds. I can get close, but not at this rate.
Send me lose weight vibes!!

Random non-kid photos

The three eldest boys made birdhouses at Adventurers last night. I decided they needed a home in my kitchen. They would go much better in my mil's kitchen, but alas, I put them in mine. Dillons is on the left, Matthew's in the middle, and Collin's on the right.



After pulling all my stuff downstairs, I decided to scrap a layout. Imagine that! I'm not sure I'm diggin on it too much, but I've decided to just leave it be.
It reads How can I tell if he loves me so, it's in his kiss


Closeup of the first page



Closeup of second page

How quickly we forget

I asked Matt today when he would be home from work. I told him we had a couple of errands to run. He said, "why don't you just go before I get home?"
Well, I'll tell you why. Because I have grown accustomed to running errands with him. It is totally wierd because for the last 6 years, I've done this parenting thing virtually alone. I wouldn't think twice about just going without him. But in the last 6 months I have totalyl grown to love having him around and doing the normal errands with him.

We've raised them well!

When I told my kids about their new cousin, Matthew asked me how old the baby's big sister was. I told him she was a month younger than Zachy.
He looked at me totally confused and said, "then why don't we have a new baby yet?"
God just hasn't decided that for us.....yet.

While we were playing Life the other night, the kids all wanted "my car full of kids!" It was cute because they always tell us that they want lots of kids.
Makes my heart happy!

I'm an auntie!!

My sister's baby girl was born this morning. She's got all 10 fingers and all 10 toes and is doing great. YAY!

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

What is it???

Oh my goodness!!
At around 4 o'clock I went outside to get the mail and take out the trash and my nose immediately started burning.
It has been on fire ever since then and I am stuffy and sneezy.
I checked weather.com for the allergens that might be high and nothing is! Zach and Dillon are having a terrible time today too, and once Matt got home he started up.
It feels like some sort of sneeze bomb has been set off in my house!!!

The happy medium

I'm feeling all creative these days. Today has been a really good day. I've not gotten an ounce of housework done, but that's ok. I'll work on it tonight when the kids are at adventurers and it's just me and Zachy poo.
I have been quite upset with myself for not focusing more on Collin and Zachy while Matthew and Dillon are doing school. It's almost been an impossibility. But now Matthew is a good reader and Dillon is well on his way. So last night, we went to the education store and picked up some things. We got a set of pegs which Zach and Collin can stack and sort and string and count etc. And we picked up these stringing beads with pattern cards . We also picked up a workbook for Collin.
So this morning while Matthew and Dillon worked on their own work, I was able to sit down with Collin and Zachy and do "work" with them. Collin kept saying, "mommy, this is awesome" talking about his worksheets. He cannot wait to show daddy when he gets home.
Eventually, Matthew and Dillon moved out the school room and into the dining room with us. They had questions and what not. While they were in there, they were both helping the little ones do different things.
Around that time, Dillon was working on the sound 'wh' and had a coloring sheet where he was supposed to color the 'w's black and the 'h's blue. Well, we couldn't find a black crayon, so I decided to throw in an art lesson. We discussed different mediums and he did his black with charcoal and the blue with oil pastels. He thought it was so great.
Everyone got all their work done in a very timely fashion too. I love days like these.
Then the occupational therapist came and all the kids stayed downstairs with us today, and it was so wonderful. They were all pitching in to help Zachy do the things he needed to do, and Zach was in a good mood the whole time.
After she left, Z took a nap and I gave Matthew and Dillon a piano lesson. We tried this last year, but they just didn't have it in them. So we're trying again this year.
We are about to start a big unit study. I never thought I would do a unit study, but here we are. Sea World is opening March 4, the kids are excited. So I decided we are going to learn about the animals first. Matthew will do killer whales, Dillon will do dolphins, and Collin is doing penguins.
The oportunity for teaching computer and library skills has never really arisen yet, so we are going to change that. We will learn about the Dewey Decimal system, and about google. They will have art projects relating to their animal. They will have to research and answer questions about them. The list keeps growing! I was going to take a week and have them do math and the study, but I may even incorporate the math into the study.
This, ladies and gentlemen, is what homeschooling is all about, and I absolutely love when it all comes together like this!!

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

A few other stories

OK, since I'm telling stories, here are two more.

After we got Zachy's epi pens, I decided it was a wise thing to teach the older kids where we were keeping them, and what they needed to do if I said we needed it. I figured that if Zachy couldn't breathe, I would need to stay with him. We also went over them calling 9-1-1 and saying, "my brother was bit by fire ants and he is allergic to them, we gave him the epi pen"
So, not many days went by, and Zachy got bit (on the neck of all places), he was fine and only had a few hives, but Dillon was freaked out. Saying, "do I need to get the pen? Do I need to call 9-1-1? I can tell them that he was bit and we gave him the pen and is allergic!!
It was funny because I figure that someone can fall and crack their head open, and Dillon will call 9-1-1 and say, "my brother was bit by fire ants, he's allergic, we gave him the epi pen" LOL

Last night, while playing Life, Dillon was the police officer. When you are the policeman you get to have speeding people pay you $5000 each time they spin a 10. Well, Dillon is SO literal, we told him he could say, "you're speeding, you owe me $5,000" So all night we heard, "hey, you're speeding, give me $5,000" The funny thing about this is how tongue tied and frustrated he would get and saying, "I can't remember the words!!" Couldn't just say, "pay up!"

Tonight, on the way home from the store, Matthew and Dillon were talking.
Matthew: then the volcano went *poof*
Dillon: I hope grandma and grandpa's volcano doesn't go *poof*

This is funny because my mom lives in a place where there once was a volcano, years ago, the rock may be lava rock for all I know. Anyway, they hiked way up to the top once of what used to be a volcano. So now they are convinced that there is an active volcano that could go *poof* at any minute!

My kids are nutso!

Which is why I love them so much! LOL
This conversation makes me laugh so much, so I thought I'd share it with you, so that you too, may laugh!
This is what I overheard in the van today while we were driving home from the Base.

Matthew: Hey Dillon, that's carbon dioxide. You're breathing out carbon dioxide? Did you know that? You breathe in oxygen and out carbon dioxide. That's why mommy doesn't let us put plastic bags on our heads. Cause it would fill with carbon dioxide and that isn't good, we could die. And did you know that plants are just the opposite? They breathe in carbon dioxide and breathe out oxygen. If there were no plants on the earth, there would be no oxygen. And without oxygen, we couldn't live, we would die.

Dillon: I think I'll just hop like a kangaroo

WHAT?!!! Nut case!!

Monday, February 20, 2006

Today and Tomorrow

Today has been fun. I took Matthew to the orthodontist this morning for an adjustment.
We drove home and picked up Matt and the rest of the kids and headed down to the Riverwalk to eat at The Rainforest Cafe. The kids had a blast there. And the food was pretty good too.
Once we had stuffed ourselves completely, we headed out into the drizzle to walk along the river down to the mall. For no other reason than to just walk after the huge meal. We walked around the mall a bit and then headed back to our car.
We took a detour though, and went through The Alamo. It was kind of eerie I must confess.
We came home and just finished a rousing game of Life. Where Collin made $1,700,000 and was the winner.
Matt is fixing them a light supper now.
A good day indeed.
While at the mall, I noticed that one of Matthew's brackets was missing a band. So tomorrow, we have to go back to the orthodontist to have one put one. What a pain. That appt is at 11. I have to go to our current bank sometime tomorrow too. And Matt and I need to go to our new bank. We are working on closing one account and moving to a different bank, but it is proving to be a huge pain.
Tomorrow is also speech therapy.
How in the world am I ever going to fit this all in. It isn't like any of it is even near the other, geographically speaking. We are literally talking 3 seperate sides of the city.
We'll see how this works out.

Sunday, February 19, 2006

Since he asked..

My dad left me a comment, wondering how the appt went for Matthew.
The point of the appt was to measure the thickness of his cornea to be sure the high pressure was normal for the thickness of his cornea.
We had already done all this in the civilian world, but the dr wanted to do it herself.
So the conclusion was made that the high pressure in the right eye is consistent with the thickness of the cornea.
We went on to discuss the pain he frequently has. She wasn't sure what would be causing it, but is sending his info to a glaucoma doc and a cornea specialist. Just to be sure she's not missing something. She did say that pain like he is describing could very well be from a traumatized retina. I think that's what she said! Whatever she said, she said that that would make sense since he has had so many surgeries on that eye and it is obviously traumatized.
So there you have it. Just cornea thickness testing!

I'm so excited...

That I just can't hide it!
I'm about to lose control,
and I think I like it,
I like it!

OK, sorry, sometimes you just have to break into song. Now someone is going to comment and tell me I have the lyrics wrong. Well, if I do, I'll have to relearn the song, because that is how I have always sung it.

ANYWHO...guess what I did last night? I arranged all my scrapbooking stuff! I brought it all downstairs, and fit it all into the buffet! Yippee me!

Normally, all the kids school books go in the buffet, but this year, they are on a bookshelf, so the buffet was full of stuff that really didn't need to be there. It was kind of one of those things where when you move, you put stuff anywhere, just to have it out of a box! Well, it's all out, and the scrapbooking stuff has moved in.

This is thrilling to me. I haven't wanted to scrap since we got here because it was all upstairs, in my closet. Do you know how much of a pain it is to try and scrap downstairs at the table, whilst all your stuff lives upstairs? A pain I tell ya. I did do one layout, but it really was a pain.

Two years ago, I introduced my best friend to scrapbooking. I am ashamed to say that while she has gone on to teach lessons at her local scrap shop, I have tucked my stuff away in a closet upstairs.

NO MORE!

I can't believe I just wrote a whole entry about scrapbooking. I should be cleaning the school room, but am procrastinating. Tsk Tsk.

Saturday, February 18, 2006

I am SUCH a dork!

We watched The Dukes of Hazzard tonight and something hit me.
Never, in my 30 years, have I ever figured out that the Dukes were a family that lived in the town of Hazzard. Nevermind the fact that we all know Daisy Dukes got their name from Daisy Duke. I never ever put two and two together.
I don't know what I ever thought the title meant, I never put any thought into it, it was just the title of the show.
Such a dork!

Friday, February 17, 2006

After 9 years, I finally slipped up

Oh dear. I'm in trouble! LOL
Way back in high school, "pooptart" was a term of endearment I would use. Everyone was a pooptart, and my mom was Queen pooptart.
That term has gone by the wayside, you know, with maturity! Anyway, the other day my mil was talking to me and she said, 'what a pooptart' about someone. I about died, it was almost as funny as the slip up she had while playing a certain card game!
So the word has been brought to the surface of my brain, no longer buried.
Zachy was just being a total pill and in an exasperated tone I said, "Zachy, quit being a little pooptart!" Collin IMMEDIATELY pipes up, "poopart, why you hay poopart?" Now he's running around cracking up going "poopart!"
WHAT HAVE I DONE????

Today's Events

OK, so the event of the day is taking Matthew to the opthalmologist. Which is an event in and of itself. Let me tell you how much I hate going to the dr here. Totally not kid friendly..AND..whatever you do takes hours. So, it should be fun with all the kids.
The appt is at 2:20, Matt will be off work at 4:30 so will be able to come get the other kids. Audiology is right next door to opthalmology, so it works out nice.
Zachy woke up at 6:30 this morning. He normally sleeps till at least 9. I'm hoping to use this to my advantage, I'll keep him awake till we go, then he can sleep and maybe sleep for most of the appt. That would be nice.
The only thing is..I HAVE to get to the bank today. And it is a jaunt from here. I'm worried he'll sleep then. Maybe we'll go now instead of waiting till after school is done. We'll see!

Thursday, February 16, 2006

Random photos

Totally random photos tonight, not much of an entry.

We got our new FuzziBunz today. I love these. They were great 4 years ago, but now they are even better! They even come in fun colors nowadays!
Here are the four different colors we got.



OK, here are pictures of the door windows. I don't know if you can see anything at all in these pictures, except that you don't see outside clearly, which was the point.
The duller, darker windows are the frost, and the other four are the green.



Here is an upclose look at the design, sort of.



Dillon decided that he is going to collect snowglobes. So Matt brought him home his first one from Florida. It actually says Florida on the bottom. The quality of this picture is so poor.



And I got this cute magnet. We have always collected shot glasses, but now they sit in a box because they have no place to go. So I told Matt we need to switch to magnets. So here's my first one.

Sun Wheel

I love this video so much. We were on the Sun Wheel at Disneyland's California Adventure. If you click that link you will see that it is a giant ferris wheel with gondolas that either stay still or swing along a track. Of course, being the thrill seekers that we are, we chose the swinging one.
When we came over the top, Matthew and Dillon freaked out, but Zachy went, "weehee!"
The next time we taped him. His reaction wasn't as great, but it was still cute!

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Wednesday, February 15, 2006

One last post before I call it a night

Remember that post I wanted to write about being overwhelmed? Well, my goodness.
Tonight was Adventurers. I hate this night because we don't get home till after 9 and the kids are so wound up, it is crazy. So, I'm working on getting the kids in bed, and everyone settled down when Collin grabs a big science glass thermometer and DROPS it on the hard floor. Of course it shattered. At that point he got sent straight to bed.
While I was cleaning that up, I hear "plop plop". Zachy was in the kitchen, dropping eggs on the floor!! What has gotten into them??
Thank heavens Matt is coming home tomorrow morning!!
Zachy got in trouble too, but not sent to bed because he took a really late nap.
Sheesh. I tell ya.
Note to self ~~~~ REMEMBER THE I LOVE YOU NOTES, AND THE SPONTANEOUS "I LOVE YOU MOMMY'S"

So what do you think of me?

I stole this from Leslie (over at crayons etc.)
Go here and click on the words you think describe me.
Fun for all!!

Yay it worked

Well that last one worked, so here's another one. So far, the only ones I've had any luck with are of Matthew. I can only seem to get them off my digital camera, and not my camcorder. Matt may have to work on that for me.
Anyway, there is something about this video. It is so typical 8 year old boy, and so home movie-ish. For some reason it makes me laugh hysterically. I think because Matthew isn't normally like this. No idea what got into him this night!

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Video from Disneyland

I'm testing out this video adding stuff. If this works, it is a video from Disneyland. Matthew was brave enough to be part of the singing group thing.

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Speaking of love..

While I was writing that last note to Vicki, I felt something in my hair.
Matthew was giggling and a rolled up tiny piece of paper fell off my head.
When I unrolled it, it said, "I love you" Well, actually it said, "I love yoy" But that is beside the point. Unless he actually misspelled SOY. Then we'd be in trouble. LOL

Thankis Vicki

I'm not sure I like the windows. They just kind of look dirty. We'll see what Matt thinks of them when he gets home tomorrow.

Wasn't meant to complain

I was just trying to write a post about feeling completely overwhelmed today. Blogger wouldn't let me post it.
I was in here helping the boys with school and I heard Collin saying, "I love you hachary...I love you hachy"
That's much better to post! Collin's been telling my he loves me out of the blue like crazy. It's so nice.
~*~*~*~*
We met our new pediatrician yesterday. He was really nice, and we are happy with the change.
He told me that his son is allergic to fire ants so he doesn't take this lightly. He said that if you were bit on the hand and your arm swelled they would consider that a very bad reaction. The fact that he had hives all up his back and his other leg makes it a severe reaction. So he says no messing around with it.
He also said it would be best if he wore long pants, socks, and shoes all summer. IN TEXAS!! WHAT?!?!?
I'm glad we will be spending most of the summer in Idaho. Because even though the doctor said to consider him allergic to all insect bites, at least you see the yellow jackets coming. Ya know? These fire ants, you don't see them. When Zach was bit, we were at the park, which is all pebbles. There was no mound. They just lived there. Once Zach started screaming we were able to look down and see the swarm, but until then, you didn't notice it.
Maybe by next year it will easier to get him to understand how dangerous they are to him.
Then again maybe not. Last summer, the card. said he wants Zachy to wear a 24 hour halter monitor this year, that he would be old enough to understand. Are you kidding me? It would have been easier last year, we'll see how that goes!

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Totally forgot!

I totally forgot to tell you that I painted my windows in the door.
They look like something from the 70s. I just did frost colored swirls. On some of the panes I did green swirls, but you really can't see the color at all, it is just a clearer look.
It isn't all pretty like Matt wanted. But it did exactly what I wanted. Made it so you can't see through the window, yet all the light still comes pouring in. YAY!!
And for those of you who worry about these things (you know who you are!) it is totally removable.

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day everyone.
Today is also A Day For Hearts. National Congential Heart Disease Awareness Day.
Bet you didn't know that, did you? Bet you just thought it was another romantic day. And it is. It's just also a day for us to spread awareness of chd, and a special day to remember all the children lost to CHD. And a day to reflect on our good fortune.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
I went out last night and bought lots of spring stuff. OK, one long flower box, flowers, a bird feeder hanger, and two bird feeders. Of course, I had to get seed and dirt too.
I planted most of the flowers last night, and today they look a little under the weather. Hopefully, they'll perk up. I have some left over, and I will plant them down below the porch in the ugly flower bed. I figure if I have to be here for 3 more years, I might as well make it a haven.
Wal*Mart has such cute stuff right now. I could have bought it all. Like a gazing ball pedastal with wind chimes hanging below. It was so pretty. But Matt hates gazing balls. I need something.
Our house is stukko so we can't really attach anything to the house, so it all needs to sit on the floor.
Anyhow, I'm off to meet the new pediatrician today. Should be fun!

Monday, February 13, 2006

Flower Help and other rambles

I have such bad spring fever. I know that seems impossible to most of you in the cold states, but here it is so pretty.
We have a little patio out back with railings, and I would like to get some of those flower pots that hang over the railing.
My problem is that it is pretty shady back there. What flowers would go good in shade? I am just so ready for some blooms. It doesn't look like anyone previously has ever planted any bulbs, so not luck there.
I may buy some potted tulips for my desk, just for color.
So if you know of a great flower, that would survive the shade, and sometimes cold temps (it's been in the 40s some nights here), please let me know.
I'd take pictures of the area, but Matt has the camera.
Which is why I couldn't take pictures of Zachy's foot! But here's a visual, all the previous bites, are now scabs. How's that for lovely?!
I ordered my diapers, and I'm EXCITED! No more running out of diapers when you are at the ER! Hooray!
I miss Matt tremendously. I don't know why. Just the knowledge that he won't be here for dinner. Makes for a lazy day, that's for sure. Actually though, I'm currently bleaching the guinea pig cage (without them in it, of course) and catching up on laundry. The house is mostly clean, I know what we are having for dinner (mini pizzas), school is done, and I toned this morning. So it hasn't been a total waste.
Tomorrow, we go to the new ped. I'm pretty excited about that. They seem so nice. Just hope I can find my way.

Masterpiece

While making lunch, the boys were making stuff out of popsicle sticks.

Dillon, "look mommy, I'm a masterpiece"

Matthew, " no, you're an artist"

Dillon, "Oh, and You're a masterpiece"

Guess it's time for an art lesson!

POOP!!!

I have noticed that Matt always escapes the ickies of parenthood. Ok, that's not entirely fair. He has done his share of poop and puke clean up. It just seems that everytime he is gone, I encounter such yuckies.
I vividly remember him being gone for the weekend back when we lived in Ohio. Matthew, Dillon, Collin, and myself all had some tummy upset. Nothing would stay down, and it was coming out both ends of all of us. Matthew and myself were the only ones able to make it to the toilet. Oh my, that was FUN!
But on to current issues. The antibiotics have given Zachy the runs like nobodies business. His bum is so red. I actually stopped them yesterday, so I'm hoping for a slow down on the poop fest. This morning I let him roam sans dipe. My stairs are covered in poop. Poor thing. Did I mention I'm the only one around who has stairs with carpet? I normally love that fact, but not today!!
So last night, against the warnings of sweet Robin I broke out my really old Fuzzi Bunz. I knew that their big selling point is the ability of the fleece to wick away any moisture from the skin, and it seemed so much softer than the Huggies.
I've fallen in love with them again. The first thing (and this is WAY too much info, sorry) is that is absorbed so much more of the liquid part of the movement so it didn't even send him into fits of screaming as soon as he pooped. The second was that overnight, they really did keep him dry, and his bum is looking a little less red today.
This brings me to my current predicament. I had a stash of Fuzzi Bunz when Collin and Zachy were in the medium size. Well, when I say I pulled out my OLD FBZ I mean OLD. They are missing a lot of elastic and are just too small anyway. I had sold all the "usable" dipes some time ago.
I'm thinking I want to reinvest. I can get a stock of 12 dipes with inserts for $146. I figure 12 should be plenty for a toddler. I have $50 budgeted a month for diapers. Do the math. I could start saving $50 a month in a mere 4 months. The only drawback for me, is that if I go back to cloth, I go knowing I'm taking on all diapering duties. Matt doesn't like cloth. Which really, isn't a huge deal because he's gone all the time anyway.
So, I'm already thinking of places to string my clothesline, because nothing warms my heart like cloth dipes drying on a clothesline!!
What do you all think? Should I make the move back?
Oh and along the diaper line, Collin has been dry for nights now. We told him he was a big boy and no more pull ups! So far so good!

Sunday, February 12, 2006

NOOOOOOO

I just wrote a whole post about Matt leaving for Florida, and Zach's foot getting better, and getting more familiar with this city, and and and....and now it's gone. UGH!!
Anyway, I guess it didn't need a long entry because really, what I said is right up there. In a nutshell. What a pain.

Saturday, February 11, 2006

OK I lied

I have to say one more thing today. Heehee.
The boys are holding their frogs, which reminded me..shortly after we got them, we realized that Collin's had a really cloudy eye. Since then, it has turned red and essentially died, the eye that is.
I just think it is funny that with all the frogs we had to choose from, we chose the one with the bad eye.
It's made life interesting, I'll tell ya that. We have to help him see the crickets by turning the frog with it's good eye towards the crickets. Poor thing!

Feeling fortunate

Maybe this will be the last entry today! I'm being chatty, I know.
I just wanted to say how lucky we are.
I'm a member of a listserv (grandma, this is an email group that you subscribe to) that is for parents of kids with TAPVR (there's a specific link over on the side for TAPVR). Zachy has had no problems whatsoever since his surgery. I assumed that's how most TAPVR kids were. But being on this list, I see that we are some of the luckiest people. Many TAPVR kids, DON'T do well. Many right now, are going through more surgeries, and there are parents who have lost their kids to TAPVR. Praise God we have come this far, and are probably in the clear forever.
Keep all the CHD kids in your prayers.

New Links

So I've been informed by some people that the blogs I link to are quite sad.
And yes, I do have a few links to people who have lost babies.
I've added more "up" links. Half the people don't know I exist, but that's ok, because I still read them. LOL
So why do I feel the need to have links up to blogs of people I really can't relate to? Having an early miscarriage does not make you able to understand infant death. Likewise, nearly losing your infant doesn't make you able to understand either.
I really have nothing in common with these women.
Except that we are all mothers. I feel these women just want to be heard. They want someone to acknowledge the fact they even though their baby has passed, they are still mothers. They want to tell their story, to anyone who will listen.
As a fellow mother, I need to support them. And so I will continue to link.

Pictures galore

Because I know you all want to see Zachy's foot everyday, here it is today.



After I took that picture, Collin decided we needed to have some camera fun. Matthew and Dillon were playing on the computer, which is why they aren't here. And Matt had to go into work today!

It's a Zach attack!!



The boys were attacking me, so we decided to attempt a portrait. LOL I look terrible here!



Here's just me and Collin.



My self portrait. I'm such a plain Jane! Sheesh.



Collin decided to take some self pics. Here's his first attempt!



After he saw it, he said, "oh I forgot to smile" So here's his smile!!


Then he caught me kissing Zachy. So sweet.



Here I am after he told me to make a silly face. This is such a horrid picture!!

Swing and Jab

Yesterday, we picked up Zach's EpiPen. We will get specific instructions on how to use it on Tuesday. But the dr wanted us to have it in case he got stung before then.
We were instructed to read through the directions to be familiar with it in case the dreaded happens.
So I'm reading them to Matt. Once you open the thing you are to lightly place it on the outer thigh, then swing and jab it into the thigh until it clicks.
OK, Matt assures me that if Z were in anaphylactic shock, I would be able to do this, but oh my, the thought of swinging and jabbing something into my baby's thigh...turns my tummy.
We're all praying really hard that this is something we never have to do!!!

Ramble Ramble

Zachy's foot is looking better. Less red today. He isn't going to let me take a picture though. Stinkpot.
In answer to Char's question, I'm not sure how long they take to heal. His bites always seem to last longer than normal, so we'll see. Even on antibiotics, the bites look worse than normal. And by normal I mean how they look on everyone else!
I just hope we are able to get a shoe on him before long. Normally, for him, the bites are icky at least 2 weeks. Should be fun! :-(
~~~~~~~~
Matt is finally the proud owner of an ipod. Ooooh, I'm jealous. Fun stuff I tell ya! He's leaving tomorrow for Florida and wanted to have it before then. So, he has it now, and has been busy playing with it.
I'm all ready for him to leave. Not that I want him to go, but I'm just prepared. Netflix sent me some chick flicks, and I've been recording ER and not watching it. I'll watch it when he's gone.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Due to recent events, I've not been able to exercise the last two nights. Last night I was just plain tuckered out and conked out instead of exercising. Tonight, I must start again.
I woke up with a terrible headache though, and took some Excedrin Migraine, and now I feel quite loopy. Hopefully that will go away soon.
Alright, I'm outta here. Things to do, kids to play with!

Friday, February 10, 2006

Today

This is what my poor baby's foot looks like today. The stings turn into pustules that supposedly hurt like the dickens. The cluster up on his ankle is right where his ankle bends. Poor kid!


Yeah Baby!!

Look at my ticker up there. I finally broke the zero! By a whole pound even. GO ME!! Richard says it is much better to look at the loss in a month than by the week. I'm sure he would frown on my daily weigh ins!!
Let's hope I can get on the roll again. Although, today I think we will have lasagna, that will be tough.
Maybe I'll rethink dinner!

My family might just be better off without feet

Sheesh. I tell ya. So many foot problems.
Yesterday, the kids were at the park and Zachy started screaming bloody murder. Dillon was next to him and started saying, "no Zachy! NO!! ZACHY!" Etc Etc. Scaring me to death. I need to point out that Zach was on a trike so his feet were far apart from each other.
Anyway, Zachy's left foot had found itself in a fire ant mound, and the vicious boogers were attacking my baby!!!
Stupid Stupid ants.
We get him all brushed off and the welts start to form, it takes them a minute to develop. I counted about 30 bites on his foot. He then promptly conks out. When he woke up, he was in so much pain. He couldn't stand on his foot and would just shriek if anything touched it. By now it was hot and red as well. He also kept whining about his thighs and scratching them.
While he had been sleeping I did some research and found out the fire ant isn't actually even in the ant family, rather the wasp family, and their venom is the same. Which means that it is the same idea, the more often you get stung, the more likely you are to have an allergic reaction.
Now Zachy has never had a normal fire ant bite. His always react much different then everyone elses.
So I called up the new doctor. They were so nice, by the way, and I'm so glad we switched. They said he was having an allergic reaction and needed to go to the ER, if for nothing else, antibiotics.
So off we went. After waiting forever we were seen and given Benadryl and antibiotics. They then proceeded to tell me to be careful next time and watch for wheezing because most likely it will be worse next time.
When we got home and undressed him, we realized he had hives all over his legs and up to about the middle of his back.
This morning, his foot looks much better, and doesn't seem to hurt him, but I still can't touch it. I called the dr to see if we needed to follow up. We go in to see the new doctor on Tuesday. They were concerned enough though, to call him in an epi pen script. They want us to have it in case he should get bit again before Tuesday.
How awesome is that? I totally expected to be blown off, because really, it's fire ants, they're everywhere and this must be so common. But no. They actually care.
The whole thing got me thinking about what would happen if there were an anaphylactic reactions. How fast could an ambulance get here, and what about the security at the gate?
Here's a picture after the benadryl kicked in. It was looking better by this point. There are more bites on the inside of his foot. Keep in mind that this is the same venom as a wasp, so even though it doesn't look so bad there, it was pretty bad!

Thursday, February 09, 2006

Fours

Four jobs I’ve had
1. Toys R Us
2.Stagecoach Pizza
3. Shoe girl at Target
4. Pantry worker at the Olive Garden

Four movies I can watch over and over
1. Grease
2. Dirty Dancing
3. Annie
4. How the Grinch Stole Christmas, although I don't think I would watch this one so often if it weren't Zachy's favorite movie that we have to watch at least once a day!

Four places I have lived
1. Oregon
2. Ohio
3. Idaho
4. Texas

Four TV shows I love
1. Amazing Race
2. Survivor
3. Nip/Tuck~~ I know I am SO bad, sorry
4. Friends

Four places I’ve vacationed
1. Florida
2. California
3. the Caribbean
4. Mexico

Four of my favorite dishes
1. Lasagna
2. mil's steak fingers...YUM
3. fil's mac and cheese
4. roast

Four sites I visit daily
1. USAA- that's our bank site
2. various blogs
3. Weather.com
4. Richard Simmons.com

Four places I would rather be right now
1. DISNEYLAND
2. Idaho
3. Washington
4. A different neighborhood

Char's Journal

If you look over in my 'Blogs I read' links, you will see a link for Char's journal.
I'm quite certain that she doesn't even know I exist...BUT...the woman amazes me. She is the mom of 2 kids, ready to pop with number 3. She is one of the most positive journals I read.
So what? What is so great about that? Here's what...she is completely blind. This amazes me. You would never ever know just by reading her journal. She gives me hope. I often wonder what limitations Matthew and Collin might face, but she gives me hope.
Anyway, just thought I'd tell you all that, for no apparent reason!

My fat loves me

It must. Otherwise, it would GO AWAY!!!
I feel like I have been working my tail off, and nothing is happening. UGH! I'm stuck at 6 pounds. I told Matt our scale must be broken because it WILL NOT let me get below that zero. Well, right now I'm at a zero point five, but still.
I've been eating good, not cheating, well ok barely. And I've been exercising my tail off. Only not literally because I still have a huge back side.
Next week I think I'll start adding toning in the morning. They say muscle burns loads more fat. I assumed I was making muscle doing aerobics, but maybe not. *shrugs*
I just want it GONE!

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Keep on Truckin

I just finished another workout. Are you tired of hearing that yet? It just feels good.
I'm so upset though because I haven't hit my 7 pound mark yet. I feel I may be behind on my scheduled weightloss before we go to Idaho plan. I keep telling myself that I am building muscle and that someday, poof! a bunch of weight will fall off. HA! One can dream, right?
I told Matt about being behind in my goal and his response was, "why does there have to be a goal? why can't you just exercise and eat right and do what you can between now and then?" Such a man, I tell ya. No goals??? No...there MUST be goals. And rewards. Although, I've yet to come up with any rewards yet. Have to lose some weight first, right?
Let's hope that this is the week I hit my 7 pound mark!!!

I wish...

I wish that I could take a tape recorder and record the sounds of all the birds singing here. Then I could figure out a way to post it here. And then all of you who are still in frigid temperatures could get a small taste of spring.
It has been beautiful here. In the mid to upper 70s. The trees are getting their leaves back. Things are starting to turn green again. I want to start watering my lawn, but I'm afraid that it is a wee bit too soon. What I haven't seen around here is any flowers popping up. It is still February, which supposedly, is supposed to be the cold month here. Next week it is supposed to get down into the upper 60s. Matt will be in Tampa then, and I checked the weather forecast and it will actually be warmer here than there. I told Matt I want to buy a shepard's hook so that I could hang up some bird feeders to attract the pretty birds. We'll see if I ever actually do that though. I wonder if it would be too close to the house for them to come over.
March 4 is when Sea World opens back up. The boys and I are way too excited about it. Matt could probably care less, but oh my, are the rest of us excited! Matthew keeps talking about if Daddy will ride in the front of the Steel Eel with him. My mom and stepdad are coming to visit sometime at the end of March, and the kids are so excited to take them there. Anyway, we're a bunch of wierdos, but that's ok.
I still have been unable to break that zero. I just hope that once I do, I'll zoom on down to the next zero! My clothes are starting to fit better, and I think I'm looking a bit like I'm firming up, just a wee bit. Even though the scale isn't moving too fast, the inches are still coming off. I've been exercising lots. I'm so proud of me!

Monday, February 06, 2006

Something's cooking in the state of Denmark

YUMMMMM!!! I'm making gingerbread. It smells so yummy.
Matt likes gingerbread so hopefully he'll like this.
And guess what? It's out of the Richard Simmons cookbook so I can eat it! YAY!

Scrapbooking

I stole this from Les, over at crayons, playdough, and wax. It's funny, because I must be a lot like her, it seems like every quiz I steal of hers, I'm the same thing.

Fibers
You are Fibers!
Fun and crazy at times. You are a warm fuzzy kind of person. You run around getting things done but still find time for fun! You have so many diverse interests that it is often hard to pin you down to any one thing. People love your friendly attitude and carefree ways. You often brighten other people's days. But Fibers Beware - Sometimes people don't take you seriously because of your happy-go-lucky ways. Sometimes you find yourself feeling left out from decision making that could directly affect you. Even though you like to be happy and cheerful, make sure others know that you can also be serious and in tune with reality.

*sigh*

I'm so mad at myself.
I had a terrible day on Saturday and now I'm up 3 pounds. That's half of what I lost! And if it can come back in one day, was it ever really gone? I worked my tail off yesterday and still, 3 pounds. UGH.
Someone motivate me. At this point I'm thinking, "gee, I'm not really losing weight"
Ugh Ugh double Ugh.
I survived through Sweatin to the Oldies 3 this morning. That's the hardest tape I have. I'm feeling stronger. I can make it through the tapes much easier nowadays. But the weight.....oh the weight....
~*~*~*~*~
Zachy is wearing my favorite shirt today. Which is funny because he wanted to wear Collin's church shirt and I wouldn't let him. So I pulled out almost all his shirts saying, "this one? this one? ok how about this one?" I got the same answer over and over. But when I pulled out this shirt he got all excited and nodded his head.
I wish it weren't white, and I'll get him one in a bigger size someday, and hope they have gray. It came from cafepress.com and I don't even know if they have gray. We'll see. Anyway, on the front it says, 'my heart was fixed...' and on the back it says, 'but I've always been perfect' Oh how I love that shirt. So SO true. My sweet little muffin.
Speaking of broken hearts, I told Matt that I want to do the heart walk this year, but now that I think of it, they are usually in summer, and that means we'll probably be traveling. :-( I had also thought of sending Matthew to summer camp this year, but I bet the times won't work out. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Sunday, February 05, 2006

I so LOVE this neighborhood

OK, totally not.
After being at the superbowl party for an hour, not one person has said a word to me. So, I decided that I might as well come in. No sense sitting around unwanted.
Matt is good, he can just play with the kids and feel right at home.
Not me, I hate the outright ignoring.
Oh well.

Last thing

Sorry, I keep remembering things to say.
Funny story from the other night.
Collin was trying to scoop up some dinner and he said, "me do it" Matt said "I can do it" He said that as a way to correct what Collin said. We do that, we repeat what they say, only correctly, and hope it sticks but don't make a big deal of it. Anyway, Collin replied, "me can do it too!!" and proceded to scoop the food. It was so hilarious. Again, I guess you had to be there, but he thought Matt was saying that he would do it for him. Silly boy.

Survivor

I keep meaning to mention this here, and forget.
What do you all think of this new Survivor? Did you get a chance to watch it Thursday?
It's interesting, I'll say that. But way back when they did the men vs. women tribes, I thought the show flopped. I'm not sure it will be much better with 4 tribes consisting of older women, older men, younger men, younger women.
I guess time will tell. I hope it's good.
I so can't wait for Amazing Race. End of February. I'd have to say that's one of my favorite shows. I really like that my kids can watch it!

I can't WAIT

I know I need to live in the here and now, but let me tell you, I so cannot wait to wear skinny clothes again.
I know, I know. That is a LONG ways off, but still, I can't wait.
The weekends are really hard on me. I think it is because I'm not nearly as busy, so I eat. I gained weight yesterday, but I'm attributing it to all the salt I ate. Made me retain water. ;-)
So this morning, I woke up (totally not bright and early ;-)) and had a date with Richard. I'm feeling much better. My legs no longer quiver, and I can make it through the whole tape without practically dying. It feels good.
I can do this. I know I can. I've done it before, albeit not with so many pounds, but I can do it. Richard tells me all the time, 'you can do this' and I tell him, 'yes I CAN' LOL OK, I'm a dork, and Matt laughs at me for carrying on a conversation with someone in the TV, the same one every time even! Oh well.
In other news, today there is a neighborhood superbowl party. We will be attending, dressed as the outcasts. HA! We were quite surprised to even be invited, but we were, and so we will go. Now, I have a question, and I totally don't mean this in a bad way, I'm just curious.
We have 3 mormon families here, all of which have told their kids that they may not go outside on Sunday because it makes Jesus sad. Now, why is it ok for them to go to a superbowl party? I know in the Adventist religion, our sabbath is from sun down Friday, till sundown Saturday. Is it something like that in the mormon religion? Is there a certain time it becomes ok to go outside to a party? Heck, 5:30 is when the game starts here and the sun won't be down for at least another hour.
So if anyone knows the answer to this, I'd love to hear it. It's a curious thing indeed.
The weather is wierd here. It is warm, but it's been warm. But suddenly the songbirds are singing and the air has a spring like smell to it. It's done wonders for my mood. I'm so glad. I know, spring in February, but apparently, that's when it happens around here. I'll take it. Maybe this is where I belong after all, a nice short winter followed by spring like smells and gorgeous weather!
I think we are going to a craft store today, after I clean. We have a window in our back door that used to have a miniblind covering it. However, whoever put it up, spaced the holder thingies too far and it was forever falling down. It is now broken, and we have nothing to cover our window. I hate this because the window looks right at our computer. So, I came up with this brilliant idea...way back when Matt was in Basic Training in 1997, I bought this whole craft kit thing from QVC. It came with gallery glass,. I had made some christmas decorations with them once upon a time, but had a bunch left over. We (and when I say we, I mean it was my idea, Matt will do it(he is the artistic one after all)) are going to try and be crafty and make some coverings for the window. I'll let you know how it goes as the project progresses. It's highly possible that we will just use the clear and make designs, just to make it so you can't see right in.
OK, I'm off to clean. I hope you all have a splendid day. Go SEAHAWKS!!!

Friday, February 03, 2006

Artsy Fartsy

Collin has been wanting me to help him make a puppet today. I asked if he wanted just a face on a paper bag. Of course not. But you see, I'm not artsy, at all. So I told him he would have to wait for Matthew to finish school so that he could do it for Collin.
I tell you, Matthew can create anything with construction paper and tape. Really.
Collin told him he wanted a dinosaur puppet. So this is what Matthew came up with.



The eyes are three dimensional, clever kid.



The dinosaur is a pterodactyl (I'm sure that is spelled wrong!) so he needed wings.
After I took these pictures Matthew added a tail, and now Collin has an egg too. Silly kids.



And while Matthew was doing that, Dillon decided to set up a stand where people come and have their picture drawn. For $1.15, fake money of course. ;-)
Anyway, it's true, I must be a witch, complete with a pointy nose and chin. Poor kid, looks like he may have acquired his art skills from me.


\

Rambles

The kids are eating lunch, so I thought I'd take the time to sit down and update here.
I, once again, have so many thoughts going on that I'm sure this will be a jumbled mess. Don't you just love posts like that from me??
So, look up at my weight loss ticker. Yep, I'm down 6 1/2 pounds, also I've lost 5 3/4 overall inches. This thrills me to no end. I'm half a pound away from my original goal of 7 pounds by valentines day. I will break that 10. YAY. And then the next goal will take a little longer, it will be 10 pounds. I can do this.
It's wierd. I've tried again and again and again since having Zach. And I've failed miserably everytime. Gaining over 10 pounds in the last two years. But this time, it feels like when I lost all the weight with Collin. It's easy to stick to. It just must be the right time. I'm excited. I hate being fat. Really truly.
I think that is something that skinny people don't understand. They say, "Well you must not hate it that bad, or you'd do something about it" but that isn't the case. Food is an addiction. It's tough to just up and leave it.
Along with me, Matt has lost 6 pounds. Not that he ever needed to, but he feels he does, so YAY MATT!! He thinks it has been because we aren't eating out. I hope that doesn't mean that really soon I will plateau. At any rate, it's fun exercising with my main squeeze. We've been bad and not exercised the last two nights, but it's been because we have been out and about.
It took me two nights to get my grocery shopping done this week. What a pain. But guess what...I used coupons and saved...$16! GO BEKKI!!! It seems like we spend a lot of money on food, but by the end of the two weeks, it is gone.
That brings me to two questions I have for you.
1)What are your favorite money saving tips?
and 2)How much does your family spend on groceries? This one is personal, so you don't have to answer it, I just wonder if we're in the ballpark. We have $600 a month budgeted for groceries. Which seems about right. Which really, only equates to $100 per person for a month. That isn't alot. So tell me, do we way overspend? We even buy almost everything generic.
The new buget is going well. I just keep stressing that we won't have enough for our vacation this summer. Stuff that hasn't been budgeted keeps coming up. So I guess I just need to realize that if we don't get to go to Idaho this summer, it won't be the end of the world. We can go some other time.
~*~*~*~*~
My step brother and his wife had their third baby on Tuesday. Their third boy. My sister will be popping anytime. I held a 5 week old baby the other day.
It's all killing me. But, as time goes on, I'm realizing that perhaps God's plan for us is to have the family we have now. Perhaps there are no more babies for us. I'm struggling to come to grips with this. But let's be honest here, we've not used any form of birth control since Zach was born, and no babies. So, it could just be over for us. And I can be ok with that. I think.
I was watching Maternity Ward last night, and a baby was born with Spina Bifida. The last baby show I watched had a baby born with Spina Bifida as well. I can't help but think it is a sign. Matt says I make everything a sign, but I can't help it, after Zach was born I was able to look back and see all the signs we were given and ignored. Anyway, I'm not saying we would have a baby with Spina Bifida, but so much can go wrong. And then part of me says, "you know what, so much HAS gone wrong so either 1)nothing will go wrong because surely things must start looking in our favor or 2)if something did go wrong we would deal with it, and be stronger people because of it.
I don't know.
I know it is all in God's hands. So why even think about it? I guess my point is, that I'm starting to think maybe this is it, so I need to be ok with that. Of course, if God chose to bless us right now, I would be beyond thrilled. It warms my heart to watch Zachy gently rubbing the neighbor baby's head and saying, "my baby??"
For now though, I'll focus on getting healthy and losing weight. Here's another thing I've never vocalized. I've felt for a long time that God wants me to get healthy before giving us another baby.
So that's where I'm at. Trying to distance myself from the preggos and focus on getting healthy. I must distance myself because if I don't then I will only focus on wanting a baby of my own.
~*~*~*~*~
Cute story...
Collin had been asking me one day if he could drink Matt's last pepsi. I kept telling him no, that it was his last one and he wouldn't be happy if it were drunk.
Well, by the time Matt got home the lid was off and it had been drunk a bit.
At dinner something was said about it. This is the conversation that followed.
"someone drank daddy's last pepsi" (me looking at Collin)
"wasn't me"
"I think it was you"
"did you hee(see) me?"

ok, it doesn't look so funny, but it was hilarious because he completely expected to be able to say he didn't do it if I didn't see him. One day he also told me he couldn't see me because he was invisible.

Lunch is over and school needs to be tended to. Sorry for the long boring post.

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

Pictures

When I was uploading the toe pictures, I realized there were more on the camera.
Enjoy the cuteness!!

The boys got a soccer net for Christmas. Here's some soccer fun with the neighbor kids too.



The boys and Matt were playing Zigity, and COllin won. YAY!



My kids are all like their dad, glued to the tv. I thought this picture was so cute though.



Isn't he getting so grown up??


I have no idea what was in between his legs, but it's a cute picture.



More Collin cuteness.



Matthew's green braces. Look how straight those top teeth are getting!



He can be such a goofball.

Toe pics

Sorry, these are gross, but I thought you could help me decide what to do.



In this picture you can see the "cut line" I was talking about, it is trying to heal there.

The Feet Have It

Just when you thought the story of feet was over....REVENGE OF THE BIG TOE!!! MWAHAHAHAHAHA
OK, I can tell Matt is totally rolling his eyes at me right now!
Anyway, Zachy's foot seems to be much better. He still has a little limp, but at least he isn't crying about it all the time.
Then, yesterday afternoon, Dillon was playing basketball, on the asphalt, with no shoes. Somehow, he managed to scrape his big toe and there is a huge flap of skin that it ripped back. The skin is still there, but I'm quite sure it will probably die. Even though it looks like it is trying to heat where it tore, like the cut line.
The flap is over his toenail now. So, I'm thinking, if this does heal (would it? I mean it seems like it should just die) will it heal over the toenail?
Which brings me to...should I take him to the doctor? Now, normally, I would ride this out, BUT today we get to start seeing the civilian doctor, and I'm thinking that maybe to get Dill established, I should take him in. The kids can't just go in for physicals because they had those already this year at the military hospital, so there has to be a reason to be seen. Methinks this is as good as any? Or maybe it is just dumb. I'm thinking that maybe they could at least trim that part of skin so it isn't over his toenail. I don't know.
What to do....