Whew!

I can't believe I haven't posted in almost a MONTH! I have been sooo busy. Here's a brief update on what has been going on in my life over the last month.

Let me start with the most recent and head backwards.....


Meet Lydia Lea, born Wednesday, May 24th. 6 lbs 7oz and 19" long. Congratulations to my brother and sister-in-law, Isaiah and Jen on the arrival of their 4th adorable little one.


The next family news is my little brother, Josiah, graduated from college last week. He has a degree in music education and will be doing his student teaching this fall at a nearby high school. (Pictured here with my mom and dad)

Then of course we had our last day of school. Ryan's next day of school will be kindergarten. I can't believe how fast time has flown. I remember him being 3 or 4 months old and thinking it would be soooo long before he were to be in school. Now its just a few short months away.



We had a fast and furious Mother's Day with having lots of family to visit. Heres a cute pic of Lizzie. I painted her toenails for the first time that weekend. She actually sat there and enjoyed it. Boy is she a girly girl or what???!!!



Our biggest project has been the never ending saga of our bathroom. We got started on the demolition a few weeks ago. We even let the kids help. Heres a cute video of Ryan kinda freaking out because we didn't tell him ahead of time what was going on. He just saw my brother come in and start tearing down walls and flooring. (Sorry, part of it is on a side angle, but if you listen close you get the gist of the conversation).

Bathroom demo

Bathroom demo
Video sent by cooperden

Ryan Freaks Out

Bittersweet Memories

My kids birthdays are such a bittersweet day for me. I rejoice and celebrate with them that they are one year older, one year closer to kindergarten, one year closer to driving their first car, one year closer to graduation. But in the back of my mind I remember the day I gave birth.

Ben, my middle son, turned 4 yesterday. My labor with him long, 60 hours to be exact. I had to have an epidural (which was an improvement from my previous birth that ended in C-section) He weighed 8lbs 10 oz and was adored by his older brother. When I was pregnant for Ben I desperately hoped for a girl. After Ben was born, he looked at me with those big blue eyes and I just melted. God knew exactly what I needed.
As I sit here I realize something...isn't it funny how, each year, I find I remember less and less of the actual birthing event. The one thing that does not waiver is the memory of the first time I held them in my arms.

~ Tough Love vs. Spanking ~

Most of America's populace think it improper to spank children, so I have tried other methods to control my kids when they have one of "those moments." One that I found effective is for me to just take the child for a car ride and talk. They usually calm down and stop misbehaving after our car ride together.

I've included a photo below of one of my sessions with my son, in case you would like to use the technique.






** disclaimer: this is absolutely in NO way my son. I put this on my site just for a good giggle, especially for those of us who have children and know what it is like to be a parent. If you do not find this humorous even in the slightest bit...you probably shouldn't be reading my blog**

A Little Known Fact...

Sorry I have been super swamped at home and have not been able to post lately. However, this email was sent to me today by a friend and I thought you would enjoy this "little known fact"


Most people don't know that back in 1912, Hellmann's mayonnaise was manufactured in England.

In fact, the Titanic was carrying 120,000 jars of the condiment scheduled for delivery in Vera Cruz, Mexico, which was to be the next port of call for the great ship after its stop in New York. This would have been the largest single shipment of mayonnaise ever delivered to Mexico.

But as we know, the great ship did not make it to New York. The ship hit an iceberg and sank, and the cargo was forever lost.

The people of Mexico, who were crazy about mayonnaise, and were eagerly awaiting its delivery, were disconsolate at their loss. Their anguish was so great, that they declared a National Day of Mourning, which they still observe to this day.

The National Day of Mourning occurs each year on May 5th and is known, of course, as Sinko de Mayo.

WHAT!!!! You expected something educational from me??!!

Something much worse

Yesterday I had a dentist appointment. Not my favorite thing to do. I truly loathe going, even if it is just for a cleaning. I just have this thing about people sticking their hands in my mouth and banging around in there, plus I have extremely sensitive gums and teeth.

Well, yesterdays appointment was to have a few small cavities filled. (I haven't been to the dentist in 5 years...of course there are going to be cavities) Anyways, as my dentist begins to drill on my first tooth she makes a comment that this cavity is bigger than she thought. About half way through she mentions to her assistant that she cannot finish this one and for the assistant to prepare a temporary filling. She continues on with my other 2 teeth. After she is mostly done she explains to her assistant to finish my teeth and explain to me "the procedure". At this point I am starting to worry....What procedure??. The assistant finishes her work, sits me up and explains that the first tooth she was working on, my wisdom tooth (yes i had all 4 wisdom teeth) has extreme decay and if she continues to drill the tooth will basically crumble so the only option is to pull it. So I am given the option to have the tooth pulled while I am already there and numbed up or to come back on a different day. Assuming it would save some money and time, I gave them the go ahead to do it while I was already there. I asked the assistant if it would be painful. She assured me it would be completely painless and all I would feel is a little pressure...well...let me tell you...it was more than a LITTLE pressure. Do you remember the old Norman Rockwell type pictures of "the first dentist" where there is a patient sitting in a chair and a dentist standing on top of him yankin on his teeth?? Well, this is the best description I can give to how this whole thing felt. I had the assistant standing on my left holding my forehead and lower jaw firmly in place and my dentist on my right holding my upper jaw still with her left hand while she put these massive pliers in my mouth with her right hand and just started to yank and twist with some serious, heavy duty pressure. Eventually after about 10 minutes of tugging and twisting the tooth did come out, after which, my dentist proceeded to wipe my face with a cloth. I must have given her a confused look because she said "we prefer to have our patients blood-free before leaving our office". Apparently when they pulled the tooth, my gums squirted blood from the pressure. So they packed my mouth with gauze and sent me on my way informing me to eat only soft foods, take tylenol for pain,swish with salt water and keep my mouth packed with gauze for a while to stop the bleeding. It took all night for my gums to stop bleeding and I had pounding headache and jaw ache til this morning, even after taking Tylenol.

Today I am in better condition, but still have some pain. I can hardly eat...at least anything that requires much chewing. Hopefully the pain in my jaw (from having my mouth stretched open for 2 hours) will be gone by tomorrow. And people wonder why I would rather go through child birth than to go to the dentist....well...almost.

Finally...

At 9 months old, Elizabeth has finally figured out how to feed herself. Now there are pros and cons of this. The pros...I can sit her in her high chair with a handful of rice puffs and it will keep her quiet and entertained for at least a good 15 minutes, on the other hand, the cons...she picks up and eats EVERY little thing off the floor. It has been so long since I've had crawlers around I forgot about having to make sure all floors are completely spotless and clean. Now the other con that comes along with feeding herself is that she is learning to chew...and by that I mean learning to bite. hard. Even though she doesn't have any teeth yet, it still hurts. (remember I'm still nursing). Tonight was the first time she had ever tried it. OUCH! Man that alone is enough to make you want to quit nursing. Hopefully this was the first and last time for that.

If you like to talk to tomatoes...

If a squash can make you smile, if you like to waltz with potatoes up and down the produce aisle....

Yes thats right folks. We went to the Veggie Tales Rockin Live show. We took the kids and had a great time.

We weren't sure how the kids would react or if they would be interested in going. Ryan overheard me telling someone on the phone (a MONTH ago) about the show coming to town. He was extremely excited and wouldn't quit talking about it, so we decided to go ahead and take the kids.
On the way to the show Ryan said "hey mom I am soooooo excited". I said "thats great". Ryan said "And ya know what mom? I can't wait to see them and I REALLY can't wait to see the look on their faces when THEY see ME!" It was darn cute I tell ya!
We arrived at the venue 1/2 hour early assuming we would be able to get right up front...we were totally wrong. The place was packed out 30 minutes before the show! Kids EVERYWHERE!! We ended up sitting towards the back. When the show finally started Ryan took one look at the "Veggies" on the stage, looked at me, gave me a dirty look, and covered his eyes and REFUSED to watch the show. I wanted to yell at him that, by golly, I paid 12$ for your ticket and you are GONNA watch this show. I was good, I refrained myself. He sat like this for about 3 songs when they took a little intermission due to technical difficulties. I asked Ryan why he was hiding his eyes and not watching the show. He looked at me and in a very angry voice said "Mom, you lied to me" "WHAT?!?!" "You told me it was going to be the Veggie Tales...THOSE are just COSTUMES". How do you explain to a very smart 5 year old that cartoons are NOT real?? He was quite disappointed in the whole thing...until they sang his FAVORITE song!
From that point on he stood on his chair screaming/singing his little heart out to all the songs. Now Ben, on the other hand, LOVED the entire show and begged for more when it was done. Honestly, I think 2 hours of stage-dancin Veggies is about all I could handle for one night.

Yardwork Galore

Last weekend, after many many many hours of work in the yard (and a few sunburns) I think our yard (1/2 acre) is finally cleaned up and ready for summer. We have this area in our back yard (approximately 20' x 20') that we have used to dump all of our grass clippings, tree limbs (from our 2 HUGE globe willows), leaves, etc. Each spring (and fall) we vow we are going to burn that pile. Well, it has been 3 years and we finally got around to burning it. Unfortunately, only about 1/2 of it burned. The other half we had to shovel into the pick-up and take to the dump. It was a TON of work but it felt good to get it all done...until...

ALLERGIES. Yuck!!! My allergies started the 2nd spring we moved into this house. The sneezing, sniffles, itchy throat, itchy eyes...you get the picture. Growing up I never had allergies of any sort, so this was all new to me. Each year it has progressively gotten worse. I dont know if it was the "stirring" up of all the grass clippings or what, but I had the absolute WORST attack the day after cleaning up the yard and it hasnt stopped.

I can't hardly sleep at night because either my nose is plugged and I can't breathe, or its running and tickling/itching my nose. I finally broke down and went to Walmart to get some allergy medicine on my way to church. Its approximately 9:50 a.m. I couldn't STAND it any more! I went running in, expecting to grab the box I need, pay for it, get a mouth full of water at the water fountain on my way out and pop a few of these pills. Much to my surprise, Walmart has taken almost ALL of their over the counter meds and put them...where?...BEHIND THE COUNTER...in the PHARMACY....which DOESNT open until 11 a.m. WHAT is up with THAT?? Aren't OVER THE COUNTER medicines supposed to be..oh, I dont know...OVER THE COUNTER and not hidden behind it? So I suffer through church...where people think Im crying because Im constantly wiping my eyes and nose. I stop back in at Walmart and get some meds now that the pharmacy is open...take the pills and it doesnt help one bit. So after all that I am back at square one...miserable. I finally got to Vitamin Cottage on Tuesday where I found some things that are actually helping to relieve my symptoms. Thank God!

I am still not top knotch, but at least I have a way to relieve some of these symptoms...now if I can just get through the next 2 months...

How to make birdfeeders

You will need:

1. Pinecones
2. Peanut Butter
3. Birdseed
4. String
5. Kids willing to get messy and eat bird seed


After seeing a craft on TV, Ryan has been insisting that we needed to make pine cone bird feeders, because if we don't the birds could starve...apparently. After many reminders to buy bird seed we decided to make our feeders today. Kaley and Alesha were over, so, of course, we have to have enough pine cones for everyone. I sent the kids on a pine cone hunt and they miraculously came back with enough pine cones for each person to make 2. Now I had NO idea how to make these feeders other than the use of peanut butter holds the seed on. Thanks to my sister for the tip to microwave the peanut butter, otherwise, we would have had a bunch of smooshed pine cones and a very frustrated mom trying to put peanut butter on each point of the pine cone by hand.

I handed the first pine cone to alesha (who is 4) and told her to put it in the peanut butter and roll it around then put it in the bird seed. She looked at me and said "But it will make my hands all thticky". I told her it was okay and we could wash her hands after. I hand the peanut butter dish to Kaley (who is 5) and tell her to do the same. While she is making her feeder Ryan and Ben are fighting over who will get to go next (me, no me, no ME, NO me, NO ME). As I look back at Alesha, she is eating all the bird seed that stuck to her fingers...from the peanut butter. I explain to her that is for the birds to eat...she isnt quite sure she liked that idea. Apparently the bird seed was pretty tasty. As Kaley finishes up her feeder I passed the peanut butter to Ryan and then on to Ben. I glance down and Lizzie is sitting on my feet. I pick her up and put her back in the living room. Surely I don't want her covered in seed as well. I come back to find most of the melted peanut butter is gone, look at all the kids and ask where the peanut butter went. 4 "i don't know"s came back in my direction. I decided it wasnt worth the argument. Im sure that peanut butter that has had dirt covered pine cones rolled in it and bird seed dropped in it cant be THAT bad for you!!?? A short while later I caught Ben, peanut butter on hands, licking his fingers.

After all this work those darn birds better eat these :)

Oh man, that's bad...

Im sitting here, staring at my computer (well actually I was reading Katie “J”s myspace) I look up and see my 5 year old feeding my 8 month old. I realize I have ignored his last 10 requests for more soup, telling him “just a minute, just a minute” along with my 8 month old who is fussing because she wants more to eat,. My son, being the “big boy helper” that he is, steps in, setting aside his hunger pains, steps up to the plate to feed his little sister...oh good...that will buy me another 5 minutes of blog reading!

I am finding that I am soooo addicted to my fabulous little 12” Powerbook G4. I can’t get enough nor could I ever survive without it. I could stare at this beautiful little screen all day long. Not that I don’t have a million things to do, but how can i ignore these little pleas that come from my screen saying ... “stare at me, stare at me”

But alas I must put my beautiful computer down and resume my motherly duties of feeding dinner, giving baths and bedtime tuck-ins.

Learning how to cope

This month is going to be a rough one. As long as I look at it as "one day at a time" rather than "the big picture" I will survive. This month my husband is going to be gone...A LOT. Now this may not seem like a big deal, but I really count on him helping with our 3 young children. Not that I can't do it by myself, but its nice to have an adult to talk to about my day, someone to help get dinner on the table, or give the kids their bath, or, better yet, read the kids their bedtime story (they LOVE daddy doing the story time). This next week will be a hard one...today is Thursday and DH has already headed out. I will see him briefly on Sunday, but in all reality wont have any time to ourselves til Tuesday night. Thank God he will be around for Easter, but after that he will be gone most of the rest of the month. (Lets not EVEN get into what this does to our sex life...or lack there of)

Part of me says ... hey, suck it up and get used to it...this is what life is going to be like for now on...the other part of me fights it and says...this really isnt fair. I want to stomp my feet like a 3 yr old throwing a temper tantrum and tell him he should be here with his family, helping to raise his children. This was never part of the "deal" when we got married. I planned to have a quiet life with me and my husband raising our 2.5 kids on a small lot in the middle of the country somewhere.

A friend of mine once told me, prior to getting married, she knew her husband-to-be would, one day, be on the road a lot and she was willing to make that sacrifice, knowing that was his dream. I, on the other hand, sometime feel a little gyped. I never in my wildest dreams would have imagined that the man I married would be on the road all the time. (*side note* this "on the road" stuff is hobby related, not full-time job related)

GRRRRRRRR - Okay...I really needed to vent that frustration out...well...its not completely out, since, technically im "talking" to my computer and not another human being (face to face), but I guess this will have to do.

Ryan and cousin, Kaley

The kids had an easter egg hunt at preschool today since there is no school next week they did it a little early. Can't you see why Ryan would want to marry her? She is quite a cutie!!

Way too young...

...to be having this conversation!

Today I am babysitting my 2 neices who are the same age as my boys. Now Ryan has told me repeatedly in the past that he LOVES Kaley and wants to marry her. I, not wanting to burst his love bubble, didn't have the heart to tell him that he can't marry his cousin.

Sooo today, while the girls are over I sent them outside to play so I could get some house cleaning done. A short while later I hear Ryan just bawling his eyes out crying "Kaley you hurt my feelings". I ran outside expecting to hear him say that Kaley wouldnt share or that Kaley hit him. After much prying and sobbing I finally got Ryan to tell me what was wrong...it went something like this...

Me (in a compassionate voice): Ryan, whats wrong??

Ryan: *sob* nothin..

Me: Are you okay?

Ryan: *sob, sob* no...

Me: So why are you crying?

Ryan: *sob, sob, sob* because Kaley said SHE WONT MARRY ME...BAWL BAWL BAWL...

Me (trying not to giggle): Ryan, you know how Kaley is your cousin?

Ryan: *sob* yeah

Me: Well you can't marry your cousins because they are already in your family, but you and Kaley can be very good friends instead, and someday you will meet a very pretty girl that you will like a lot and she wont be your cousin.

Ryan: *sob* are you sure??

Me (trying not to giggle): Yes, Ryan, I am sure.

PRAISE GOD!!!

I just received a call from our insurance claims adjuster. He wanted to be the first to let me know that our insurance policy covers up to XX amount on home rot and our bathroom problem fully qualifies for the entire amount. Its not the full amount of our estimate, but its still a decent amount. We should be receiving a check sometime in the next 10 days. Which means sometime this month (depending on scheduling) we will probably start our demolition. YAY! Thanks to everyone for your prayers!

**update** I found out that the check the insurance company is sending has to be signed by our mortgage company (how wierd is that???) Anyways, once I get the check I have to mail it to Georgia and get someone at Chase Home Finance to sign it and mail it back to me...sooo....I am guessing it will be at least 6 weeks before we actually have this money in hand...but at least its coming...eventually.

"Not all kids my size can do this..."

Okay, I don't know if this is normal...but yesterday morning Ryan who is 5 yrs and 5 mos old said "Mom, I can tie my shoes". Me, being the naive mother that I am said "oh I bet you can sweetie" but secretly in the back of my mind knowing there was no way because I hadnt shown him yet. Ryan said "No Mom...I REALLY can...see..." So I sat down to watch, expecting him to just twist the laces around "pretending" to tie...much to my surprise...he REALLY can! When I asked him where he learned how to tie (expecting that maybe daddy taught him)..he said "my teacher showed me yesterday"...go figure!!!! My son is on the road to being responsible for himself. It starts with feeding himself and then going to the bathroom (and wiping) on his own, and now this??? What's next?? Wait...maybe I don't want to know the answer to that one...

Yet another update...

Well, good news and bad news on the insurance front...the good news: we did get our van window fixed (and just in time for the rain storm today). We found a glass company in another town who were willing to come to Delta to do it for $250 as opposed to the previously quoted $700. For the bad news...a few years ago our current insurance company merged or sold or something to another insurance company. When the new company took over our policy, our retarded insurance agent we were working with changed our policy. He changed our comp deductible from 100 to 250...sooo...we are stuck paying the 250$ for our own window. Grrr! Like I had an extra $250 floating around that was just dying to be spent on a van window.

As for the bathroom...that is still in limbo but we should hear something soon.

Nicole (* thanks for checkin out my blog :) *) - you can read about the initial "water damage" post here :Bathroom Update

Are you PUZZLED???

I found this on a blog I came across and had fun doing it so I thought I would try it on mine...just click and drag the puzzle pieces to where they should go. (my husband is the one on the right)

**thanks Bethany R. for the pic**

Do you search???

Now this is too funny not to share...I joined this thing called "Blingo". Its a new search engine (like google) and when you use their site for searches you have the ability to win things like gift cards. (If you are interested in signing up, let me know and I will send you a link...you can sign up under my name and we can BOTH win)...

Anyways...I was using this search engine just typing random things and I thought "hmm...i've never typed in my name as a search...I wonder what will happen". So I tried it and this is what I found...this is a real thing, not a joke or prank. This item really does exist...

Prudence

I LOVE the remark they make...If you want the inside track on where to eat, drink, shop and stay around the world for less, pick up Prudence – because life should be rich.

Insurance update

We finally got a claims adjuster to come check out our "water damage" in our bathroom. When I showed him the weak spot in the floor he gave me this look like, Lady, dont waste my time. I assured him he needed to look UNDER the house to see the real damage. He, reluctantly went into the crawlspace. When he came back up he had a completely different attitude. He told me we have a serious problem under there. He pulled out a little pocket knife. He told me the way he checks for rot is to use this little blade (about 3") and tries to push it into the wood. Most water damage spots the knife just goes in a tiny bit. He said his entire knife slipped right into the wood as if he were cutting butter. YIKES! Anyways, good news is that he thinks the insurance company will cover it, hes not completely positive, because if insurance companies can find a loophole they will...but he said he doesnt know ANY insurance company that doesnt cover rot. Soooo...I have to wait about 2 weeks to hear from my insurance company on a definite answer. Hopefully at that point we can get started right away with repairing that bathroom!

*funny* after the claims adjuster left I called Anthony to tell him the good news. He told me "Im in the driveway..you have to come look at the van". So I walk out the door (expecting the worst) and find the rear side window of the van completely GONE! I asked him "What happened???" He said he was driving down the road and the window just blew out. There is beaded, tinted glass all over the back of the van. He called the local dealer and it is a $700 window LOL...guess its back to the insurance company again. (we use the same company for home and auto insurance) They are going to think we are soaking them for every penny LOL. Funny thing is lately I've been really questioning why we pay so much for insurance (health, auto, home, etc) Asking God to show me if we should be spending this extra money on insurance or just let our insurance go...hmmm, could this be His answer?!?!?!