Terribly Tired

I know, I haven't been blogging - I am still swamped with other things (you know kids, a messy house, junk at work, the usual) and I have been working on a post - drafting and re-drafting it - for days now. Still not where I want it so I guess you'll have to wait. I know, I know its hard, but you can do it ;-) Ok, actually don't get your hopes up too high, I just am having a hard time putting all my thoughts into words with that one. So while you wait you may gaze upon some pictures of my almost 2 month old - oh my, the days just go too fast.

Muddy Monday

We have had plenty of rain this spring for sure...everything is nice and pretty in rich green colors. Last week was especially rainy - the boys were not able to go out and play in the backyard for quite a few days. Today the rain finally cleared and the cooler temps started to turn north to create a beautiful spring day. I sent the kids into the backyard. When I went to check on them I noticed that a hole they had dug in the backyard last week had filled with muddy water - Avery had noticed that too and had already started throwing rocks into it. I thought to myself, hmmm...no big deal, a little dirt won't be terrible, its kind of cute...and I took these pictures.


See, he's just so cute with the little bit of wet and mud on his pants cuffs

















and his sweet little hands,



















and the little bits on his chin.













See this is the harmless little pit of muddy water. What could happen?











Oh and look how he is going back to play some more. How nice. What a nice activity to do on such a pretty day...(do you here the "insanity" in this statement) - I obviously did not.
















Right before I went back inside to tend to Lillie, one of the older brothers decided to join the fun. Look at that face - there is no mischief about it...right?














Well a half hour or so had passed and during that time the biggest brother also joined in the fun. Pretty soon they were showing up at our back door. Isaiah and Huston did not even attempt to come in - they stripped down to their underwear outside. So the sight of half nudie boys coming in did wake me up to reality and I went out to head Avery off before he decided to come in. And boy let me tell you he was a sight to behold. He is mad at me in these pictures because I would not let him come inside...

I like this last shot - it's like he's too embarrassed over his mess and is trying to cover it up.

The older boys didn't really fair much better ( but I guess in their eyes they faired just fine) - they too were caked with mud, they had just stripped before I had the chance to take their picture. Here are their boots.


Needless to say everyone had a nice mid-morning bath. All three in the tub at once and when we were done the bath water looked like a Missouri creek - nice and brown and muddy.

I haven't been able to post about these adventures sooner because well, I have been too busy cleaning up the pants and the shoes and the bathtub and the floor and the - well you get the idea. :-) I guess that's what you call good clean fun.

Dilemmas

I have been faced with a couple of dilemmas this weekend - don't worry neither are life threatening or earth shattering...in fact they are very, very ordinary and 20 years down the road I won't even remember I had come to these crossroads - ok, forget 20 years - 20 minutes!

The first one is this - my key chain broke. It's not just any key chain, it is my little St. Louis Cardinal man key chain...the one I have had for my entire driving life. I got him at the old concrete bowl Busch Stadium when I was in Jr. High and he has always been on my ring of keys. The chain on him has broken before, the problem this time is that the poor Cardinal man is in very sad shape now...you can't even tell he's a baseball player. Along the road of his life he has had his bat broken off, and his paint rubbed off and you can't even tell what team he plays for - for that matter you can't even tell he has a facial expression. I should send him into retirement, but I can't. He's been with me for so long, getting rid of him would be like driving without a key. Replacing him seems wrong too...its kind of the way you feel when the favorite, solid veteran player is replaced by the rookie. It feels uncomfortable. So anyway I have to decide what to do with him. I'll probably just move down to the next link of the chain and put him back on my key ring where he's happy.

The second dilemma is something that bugs me like a little tiny pebble in my shoe. Huston has entered his cowboy boot phase. Isaiah had his season of boot wearing, and we survived it just fine. I really don't mind boots - in fact I think they look pretty sharp with a nice pair of jeans so I usually have no problems in allowing Huston to wear them....but I was reminded of something today that really bugs me about the boot phase...


That's right spring is here - warmer weather has come and my boy wants to wear his boots.....with his shorts. *Sigh* This is not a look that is flattering in any way, but how do you explain that to a 4 year old? I've tried to just ignore it, to be like those super moms that let their preschoolers wear their boots everyday with everything, really I have, but there is that pebble again. It just looks uncomfortable to me, I just think of hot and sweaty feet - and you know its all about me and what I want! Ugh, I think these boots may just have to be kind of "accidentally" lost some days - what!? He can still wear them to church on Sundays...

Well, actually an incident did happen today that could have helped with my argument, Huston fell while wearing his shorts and skinned his knees - except he wasn't wearing his boots when it happened so there goes that angle, can't blame it on them. He thought he was dying though - poor kid. He took forever to calm down and he spent the rest of the day hobbling around like he was lame. He even missed out on going to the creek! A boy that can't even go up and down the stairs without whimpering can't climb a creek bank...he was a bit disappointed he missed out to say the least.



Look at that sad little face, all dressed up for the creek...











and sidelined with bad knees.







What's a poor, "injured" kid to do?








He decided a poor injured kid needed to go see his Gran where he could get his back scratched and he could practice his letters on the computer. So that's what he did - mom came and picked him up and he spent the evening with them all by himself. He came back in a better humor, still a little overly sensitive (some might even say wimpy), but hopefully all will be forgotten tomorrow.

So that has been a little taste of our weekend so far. Don't worry, Huston will wear his boots to church tomorrow - ahem, with his jeans. (cause its all about me, Mother's Day you know ;-)

Super Day

Today was one of those busy, unproductive, yet sort of fun and good days. It was another cool, cloudy rainy days, the kind that should make a person sleepy unless your a kid and then its just another day to wake up early. Avery was up at 6:00am, which is usually fine cause Lillie has been getting up about then to eat...wait a minute, Lillie isn't up!!! That was the first thought that ran through my mind as Avery crawled into bed with me so early this morning. Her routine had been to wake up in the wee hours of the morning, between 2 and 4 for a little bit extra to get her through til morning...but not last night - the first night of sleeping through the whole night, 9 til 6:30ish, and obviously I slept right along with her.

Everyone was up by 6:30, we were all dressed by 7:30, so I went ahead and piled everyone in the van so that I could drop some supplies off at the church and give some "assignments" to my wonderful "assistant" Ms. Helen. The boys totally go crazy when we step through the church office doors. Just drives me nuts. They can be well behaved, sweet kids and the moment we enter the building they become crazy, greedy little urchins that want anything and everything they can get their hands on. I always end up losing what little control I might have on them and I know after we leave everyone is breathing a sigh of relief that A.) they don't have to go home with them and B.) that they don't come to visit very often.

So after a good "talking" to about their behavior in the church building we all returned home and still had quite a chunk of morning ahead of us. We waded through it somehow - mainly by watching some PBS shows that Gran recorded for Isaiah, and by 11:00 everyone was ready for lunch...hmmm...what to do for lunch. I was tired of the same ol' stuff. So the great idea popped into my head to take all of the kids and go to a restaurant. Yes you read that correctly, I was either very brave, very desperate, or just plain stupid. I vote for a little bit of all three.

We didn't go to just any restaurant, we went to a quick Mexican place close to home that we all enjoy and that serves chips and salsa right off the bat - so no waiting for food and having to scrape things together to entertain everyone during the down time.

Here are the boys enjoying their food...













Then we returned home and Avery, Lillie and I got a nap and Isaiah and Huston played quietly and watched more PBS reruns. After the little siesta, the boys headed upstairs and got into their dress up clothes box...we had a couple of Supermans, a Spiderman, a tiger and a pirate all frolicking around and having a grand ol' time together...

The Tiger and contemplative Superman - the pirate is hiding in the "dressing room" (closet)



























An action shot - the Tiger and Superman "fighting"











The top bunk - aka, the superhero hide out...













Then everyone was downstairs playing play-doh and computer games and such and Lillie and I were have deep meaningful conversations. I was trying to get Miss Lillie to smile on camera and she wasn't cooperating too much. Then Avery entered the picture and you can watch the rest - its in two parts cause Mr. Avery decided to grab the camera out of my hand, as you will see! Avery has become very sweet to his "baby sister" - you will hear him ask to "take her" which is what he says when he wants to hold her. I also like how he pats her belly toward the end of the second clip to calm her when she starts flailing a bit...



Now I am sitting here typing and guess what I am listening to? Shhh....that's right, its absolutely quiet around here. Steven loaded up the gang and is heading to his parents house for the evening, allowing Grandma to have some grandma time and mommy to have some alone time. That means a night to listen to my radio and clean the house without little ones following me, interrupting me and undoing what I just did. A pretty super end to a pretty super day!

Swamped!!

Craziness...that's my life right now. I am keeping my head above water, but there's been a lot of treading. Today was the craziness of craziness...all the children were crazy - Huston at his whiniest. Isaiah very emotional. Avery constantly bringing pulling stuff out of the cabinets and sticking toys in the toilet. You know, the usual. I have lots of deadlines coming up at work - VBS for around 200 kids to plan - 5 weeks or so to go...Baby Dedication sunday on Mother's Day...3 new babies in the congregation last week- trying to provide meals for their families and no one wants to cook (what's with people being too busy to take a meal?)...and then just the week-to-week responsibilities too.

I've had lots of topics pop into my head to write about, but for now they will just stay in my head (maybe - lots of stuff gets lost in there these days). Think the end of the week will be a bit calmer or I will have tons of time to blab about when I am thrown in the loony bin.

See you on the other side.

Random Answers #8

Quirkiness - that's the theme for this round - I have to spill all the weird and strange things that make me me. So here it goes...

What quirks do you have in the following categories? (Or tell on someone else if you want!)
1. Home (cleaning, order, furniture, yard, etc.)
2. Personal (get-ready routine, clothes/shoes, hate feet?)
3. Relational (high-maintenance proof, personal space, parental/spousal habits, etc)
4. Food (ways you eat, ways that annoy you about how others eat, can't mix foods, etc)

Ok here it goes - with stuff about the home, I have let a lot of things go or I would have gone crazy a long time ago. I do like to organize the stuff in the pantry (not alphabetically - I'm not that bad, just by categories - grouping all the soups, all the veggies, all the fruits, etc.) but now Avery goes in and reorganizes. I like all the silverware in the dishwasher pointing up not down (Steven!) and I like the sink cleaned out - not bits of food and junk splashed all over the sides (Steven!)...but I have gotten to the point where I can over look such offenses, although I occasionally still get pretty annoyed. I also hate cleaning the bathrooms and will leave it until the very last task and will take a shower after it is done (I know, but it creeps me out!)

Personal hygiene stuff - hmmm...I think I am pretty normal in this area - I am quite low maintenance. My short do can be done in seconds (wetting down lumps) or in minutes (totally dippy-doing it so that it has that "natural" tossed look). Some days I do make-up, some days I don't. Some days I wear my glasses, some days contacts. I get ready first thing, or not until I have to leave the house. I am pretty unpredictable. I never want anyone to touch my toothbrush though...especially Avery! I wear the same sandals nearly every day of the summer (Teva brand - will have to find replacements soon!). And sometimes I hate all of the clothes in my closet and sometimes I like them....hmmm, can you say fickle?

Relational - I like my personal space - don't want anyone touching me when I am sleeping, cooking, and no one is allowed in the bathroom when nature is calling me (that's what locks are for). I hate it when husband passes gas in the bed...that's like the worst thing to me. (sorry, you asked - sort of). No one can touch my feet, especially my toes. (I don't know why, it feels weird) I also do not usually get along with folks that talk about themselves all the time and then do not pay attention to anything your saying when your not talking about them too.

Food - its all about how it looks - if anything about it looks questionable, I can resist it - for example my fruit needs to look good - no squishy grapes, bruised apples or brown bananas. I don't do leftovers usually - especially if they've been in the fridge for more than 3-4 days (unless its something that gets better after a day - like soups and chili). I don't like any of my dairy to be room temp. - cheese must still be firm and cold, milk must come straight from the fridge, and yogurt too. And I am a water snob, I have been spoiled by my Culligan system and it too must be ice cold - in fact if my cup has been sitting around and the ice has melted, I dump it out and refill (I know, I know, its wasteful - I tell myself that every time I watch it go down the drain)

Ok, I think that's enough - I am depressing myself. I am much more quirky than I expected. Maybe I should just embrace it cause it's not going away.

He's Back

Isaiah has been waiting rather anxiously for the return of a fun friend...and yesterday we spotted him. "Twisty" the turtle emerged from wherever he had been hiding this winter and early spring. We met him last year - a box turtle that has made our backyard part of his territory. We enjoyed seeing him off and on all last spring and summer and would greet him with strawberries and tomatoes and I may have been imagining things but it seemed to me that this turtle knew that if he came to our back patio he would be greeted with food...maybe.

Here is a picture of Huston and Avery last year, feeding Twisty his treat.

Not only did Twisty return yesterday, but he was seen with a friend. Isaiah thinks this friend was a different turtle that came by last summer that he named "Boxy" - I am not so certain, I think this a totally new turtle neighbor, but anyway they are calling him Boxy none the less. Now the interesting thing is that Twisty and Boxy were quite chummy...they were following each other and climbing over each other and it seems to me that we may just have to stop calling one of them a "he" and hopefully be searching for a turtle nest here pretty soon. I may be wrong, I am certainly no Missouri backyard wildlife expert...but one of our friends at church is in fact a Missouri Conservationist - I will have to research this possibility and pick his brain for some turtle facts.

Boxy is on the left and Twisty is on the right...

Twisty is the turtle that Avery used to spin on the patio last year, so I think he remembered Avery quite well cause he was closed up tightly while Avery was around. And you can see that Avery had no fear in greeting him.

So anyway we will keep you updated on our turtle family - Twisty was out again this morning, but no signs of Boxy - maybe "he" is the "she" - who knows? I bet our friend will.

Lillie Pad

Steven likes for Lillie to practice sitting in her Bumbo seat for a few minutes most evenings...I snapped this picture last night and love her expression - Steven says she looks like a little frog...

Ears and Aches

Avery has been having problems clearing up an ear infection - that's not good. He started in with it a couple of weeks ago and I took him to the dr. when his sleeping started to become restless - cause trust me if he's not sleeping, then I'm not sleeping ;-) Anyway when we went in 2 weeks ago his little ears were so full of wax and junk that the dr. couldn't even see the ear drum. So that meant that we had to hold the little guy down on the examining table and while the dr cleaned out his ears with the long hooked stick thing (I'm sure that's close to the medical term for it). It blooded his ear and totally made him hate the dr's office that much more - but there was success in that doc was able to see down in there and determine yes in fact the ears were infected - so medicine was prescribed and we were sent on our not so merry way (it took 3 hours for the boy to calm down).

One week later the sleeplessness crept up again for Avery and the whining about his ear hurting...so back to the dr we went. Avery was not too willing to let them come near him to put it mildly, so once again we had to hold him down on the examining table (this time an additional person was required to achieve this) and again the nurse practitioner in this case, looked into his ears and the were too full of stuff to see the ear drum. Knowing how much he hated the pointy stick approach to cleaning them out, and also noticing that his ear canal was still healing from the previous week, the nurse practitioner went the water pick route and we held him down while she cleaned out his ears with the water. Once again we had success, the ears were still infected, stronger medicine was prescribed and we went on our not so merry way.

Today was the recheck appointment. I walked into the lobby with Avery and he immediately began to cling to me very tightly. After signing him in we sat down to wait to be called back and Avery curled up into the fetal position in my lap and grabbed my hand and placed it over his ear...and there it was to stay for the remainder of the time in the office. He would not let me put my hand down. Here he is in the waiting room...













So the moment we were called back to the examining area little Avery started to whimper...ever have to take a nervous puppy to the vet? Believe me, if Avery had fur he would have been shedding it all over me. Just to take his temperature in his ear was a small ordeal. We were taken back to the examining room and waited for the dr. Here is how Avery dealt with that...


And eventually he just decided that it would be best to hide totally...

So long story somewhat shorter, the dr. came in, we wrestled Avery down to check the ears - they are now perfect and we are praying that he doesn't have to return for a very long time. Avery was absolutely giddy to be home and even was thrilled at the suggestion of an early nap. He laid down to sleep, Lillie was sleeping, the older boys were with Grandad - so I figured might as well join the crowd and I napped too. A pretty good end to a traumatic morning.

I Won A Major Award...

Don't you hear the voice of the father in "A Christmas Story" when I say that - I love that movie! But seriously, I am very honored and thankful to RK for choosing to pass this award on to me...(this is my first blogger honor and I am indeed honored)

Here are the rules that come with this "major award" -

1. You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also contributes to the blogging community, no matter what language.

2. Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his/her blog to be visited by everyone.

3. Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her/him the award itself.

4. The award winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of Arte y Pico blog, (that must be Italian....sorry, couldn't help myself) so everyone will know the origin of this award.

5. To show these rules.

So ok, here is where I may have to cheat a little with this award. I have linked Ms. RK above and her fun and wonderful mommy blog Just RK, as the rules state - I will also link to her little cutie Braska, who has so many fun adventures to keep up with and together these two have taught me sooo much about Downs Syndrome and RK and her little community of mommy bloggers have taught me so much about how families grow, learn, and are truly blessed by all their little family members that have been given something extra special. So many of these folks are dealing with things I have never dreamed of dealing with and they do it with positive attitudes and determination. They are all inspiring to me.

Now the difficult part is that I am really new to blogging and for the most part, thus far, I have been an eavesdropping blog-hopper. I have not really gone out there and hob-knobbed too much...so I am going to give you five sites that I like checking on relatively regularly that I have found through my leap blogging. I won't officially tag them - cause it seems wrong to do such a thing when I hardly know them at this point - I think introductions should probably be made first, ya know...anyway here they are -

Check out Michelle and her little Ruby - this family has a lot on their plate and they handle it all quite amazingly....
Then there is Jen and her 3 sweet young boys - she is a witty mom that makes me laugh and totally just tells it like it is concerning her adventures in her testosterone rich household....
Next pop over to ~Melissa~ and her awesome, down-to-earth family and all the creative things they keep busy with...

Finally these last two I am choosing totally for their entertainment -
Kim Ayers is a Scotsman with a wonderful gift for storytelling...
and Mary is an American living in Scotland that has seemed to have lived everywhere and experienced everything and she too will keep you looking forward to her next posts (plus as you will see, she has great taste in blog templates!)...

So there are my picks for the blogs I love to check out - believe me, there are many others out there - hop around sometimes when you have a moment or two - its like getting a nice letter almost everyday!