Just a little crazy

Nick's Birthday

2007-04-23T20:43:00.000-07:00

As if there was any question that I did indeed do Nick's cake this year, I have proof that I was caught blue-handed. :)

I was so excited this year. I always do the kids' cakes but this year I was working in a bakery. And I was given free reign to use all the cool tools to make Nick's birthday cake. I was counting down the days. Put in the order 3 weeks ago with "I WANT TO DO THIS CAKE" in big letters. I started by asking Nick what he wanted. First he told me a Thomas cake. Well, I've done that before with Nate's cake. Not only that but Nick had a cake last year in Wisconsin with the same kit that we carry. So I told him to think of something else, to think "outside the box". What else did he want on his cake besides Thomas. He thought about it for a minute then turned to me and said, "Candles." Finally I got an answer I could use. "A pig". We had one kit with a pig that was pretty cute. It just happened to be Little People which Nick loves. So a week ago I was telling him about his cake. I told him it had a rainbow. "I don't like rainbows." Then I told him there would be grass. "No, Mommy. Pigs don't go in grass. Pigs have to go in the mud." So I went to work on Saturday knowing I was going to have to make some adjustments to the cake. All in all it turned out pretty good. I regret not taking a picture before I put it in the box and brought it home. The box nicked it on the sides and the back and Kyra got her fingers in it before I got a picture. :( But here it is...

I got home to a very excited Nick who was so excited that when his daddy called to wish him a happy birthday, Nick answered with "Happy Birthday". I asked him how old he was and he told me 4. But we had some trouble holding up only 4 fingers. So he just took the other hand and tried to hold down one finger.

This wonderful child of mine wanted spaghetti for his birthday dinner. :) I made the comment that he was definitely my child and my mom said, "I wasn't going to say it." I can't even remember how many spaghetti birthday dinners she had to make for me. After dinner we did cake. Everybody sang. Even Kyra. "Happy Dirfday to Nick" Then Nick proceeded to blow out one candle at a time. When he was done he immediately started pulling out the candles to lick off the frosting. Then he dug in.

Next we started with presents. He loved the dinosaur and clothes from Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Miille.

Then he opened his present from Grandma and you can see how much he loved his new Henry.

He also got a new Thomas movie, a soccer ball, and a frog. He wanted a Webkinz like Nate so today we went online and registered Oscar and set up his room. He had fun. Overall the birthday was so good that he's already planning his fifth. :-P

Promised picture

2007-04-23T20:26:00.000-07:00

I have been asked pretty much every time I get excited about having completed another cake if I took a picture. Well I just so happened to have a camera with me one of the last times I made one. This was my first kit cake. In other words a cake made with a character kit so I actually had a picture I was trying to make the cake look like. The cake went in our case and someone bought it the very next day. :-P I was very happy. They must all think I'm such a dork. But here it is...

Train trip

2007-04-23T20:14:00.000-07:00

Its a yearly tradition at the boys' school for the 4 year old preschool class to take a field trip on a train. A group of parents drive the kids, some extra adults to go on the train, and the teacher down to Sedalia and drop them off. That same group of parents then drive from Sedalia to Warrensburg in an attempt to beat the Amtrak in order to pick up the group that rode on the train. The trip this year happened to fall on my day off so I volunteered to be one of the drivers. It was fun. :) The boys' teacher rode with me so I got to have a very long interesting talk with her about all sorts of fun stuff. Then I led the caravan of vans from Sedaila to Warrensburg where we did indeed beat the train. And were there to see the kids arrive. I regret to say that I didn't get a picture of the whole class. I wanted to but just didn't seem to catch them at the right time. Nate had a blast and Nick can't wait for his turn next year.

The clueless looking one would be mine. ;)

Life for now...

2007-03-17T13:00:00.000-07:00

I haven't written anything for while so I thought I would give a little update on the new job and life in general. First off, I love the job! I'm having so much fun with this. The people I work with must think I'm quite the dork because I get excited over every little thing. There are 3 of us doing donuts with two of us working each day. We all 3 work together pretty well. A few minor frustrations here and there but overall its pretty good. The job is separated into two job duties each day with corresponding responsibilities (sounds pretty technical for donut making doesn't it ;P ). There's the fryer and the decorator. The fryer is responsible for the yeast ring donuts and pretty much all the glazing and the decorator takes care of all the donuts that need sugared or frosted. I've pretty much nailed the fryer routine. The decorating is probably more fun but I'm slower at that. I'm learning the other parts of the bakery too. I'm learning some of the different breads that we bake and package. I've learned how to decorate cupcakes. But my favorite part is the cake decorating. Its actually what I get the most excited about. I actually got applause the day I wrote on my first cake. They were all standing behind the glass behind me watching me. It was pretty funny. I made my first frosting rose this past week and while it was far from perfect it was very clearly a rose. Today tops it though. Today I actually decorated my first cake and it happened to be a birthday cake for one of the girls that trained me in donuts. The whole cake was purple. I got to airbrush it (way too cool) and write on it and decorate the edges with sprinkles. I tried the cool border thing they do on paper first and wasn't comfortable enough to do it on the cake but that may be something to just practice a little more. Everyone seems more than happy to help me learn all this other stuff. I think its because they know the more they teach me, the more I can step in and help when things are short handed. But I love being able to challenge myself by learning new things. Its neat. I'm almost having enough fun to make me consider giving up an education major and look at culinary school. We'll see. In an another couple months I may be waiting for my time there to be done. For right now, though, its awesome. :D

The kids are doing well. We've had some sickies here the last week or so. Kyra had the stomach bug and Nick had croup. Both at the same time no less. Nick still has a little bit of a cough but is doing better than he was. Kyra has reached full blown two. She's decided that no is her favorite word unless someone else is saying it and then we head into instant tears. Her tantrums are something to behold. She sees herself as quite the little mommy including bossing around (or attempting to boss) her two older brothers. She definitely makes her voice heard. Today she actually told her grandpa to "Go away". Yet just yesterday she went up to grandma unsolicited and told her she loved her and gave her a hug. You just never know with her. Probably the best though is when she argued with her grandpa that she DID like boys (no matter how much he told her not to).

Nick is working on catching up with Nate. He learns something new every day. Yesterday he spent probably a good half hour trying to do somersaults around my friend's living room. We're trying to work on fine motor skills which he is somewhat weak in. Right now his little sister can cut better than he can. But his teacher loves him. Although the littlest in his class he is one of the best about looking out for the other kids. Always willing to help.

Nate is ...well,... he's Nate. I'm looking forward to him being able to go to school all day because I think he'll do a lot better with an all day routine and activities. He hasn't clicked very well with a couple of teachers at the kids new day care and its causing some behavior issues. He only goes there right now on the days he doesn't have school and I'm not at home so its only a problem two days a week. He continues to amaze me with how smart he is. Last week was National Lutheran Schools Week. They had a book fair for all the kids. They let them all preview the book fair on Monday (except for Nick's preschool class who viewed it on Tuesday) so the kids could make lists to give to the parents of what they wanted and how much. Big kids were sent around with the little ones to help them make their lists. I got to see Nick's list first. He had 8 or 9 books on his list. Typical Nick books. They ranged from books about counting to books about dinosaurs and ducks, all of them just a few dollars each. So I picked out about 4 books. Then I saw Nate's list. Nate had one book. One. All the books at the job fair and Nate wanted one. I even asked him about it before Friday when he got to go buy the book(s) thinking that maybe the kid that was with him just didn't write anything else down. Nope. He really just wanted that one book. That one book cost as much as all of Nick's put together. What one book did Nate want? He wanted "My First Dictionary". We are talking an actual dictionary here. There are not pictures for everything though there are pictures. He loves looking through this book. His favorite picture? The picture above lightning. Its a picture of a night sky with lightning streaking down around a big city. A city that is recognizable by one distinct landmark that Nate has a picture of on his favorite shirt. The space needle. And he recognized it. Turns to that picture every time he looks at the book. Its too funny.

That's pretty much it around here. The weather has been pretty warm here so we've been trying to get outside as much as possible. Kids will be all going up to WI for Easter this year so I've started trying to prepare myself for that. I think I'll be okay. I've been making new friends with my new job and have even been on a couple dates this past week with a very sweet guy. Not really sure where this is going yet but I'm enjoying it so far.

And that's pretty much it. End of the update for now. :)

A New Dawn, A New Day...

2007-02-14T10:58:00.000-08:00

A few of you were aware that I quit my job last month. It was becoming a very bad situation to be in. Overall I think I was burnt out on that field of work but the last straw came when my supervisors actually informed me that my work should be more important to me than my kids. I gave them a month's notice and began putting out applications like crazy. This was at the end of December. When January 31st rolled around I was a little nervous but felt sure that I had done the right thing in getting away from that place. My stress level went down tremendously from the moment that I turned in my resignation. I didn't realize the extent of what the facility was doing to me until it wasn't a factor anymore. And while there are people there that I miss being around, I don't miss working there at all. I've spent these last 2 weeks tending to sick kids and trying to fight a major cold myself. Then, last Thursday I got a call from one of the places I had applied at asking me to come in for an interview on Tuesday. Come Monday night, I was worried that I might not be able to make it at all. We had rain all day on Monday which turned into sleet Monday evening, followed by about 4 to 5 inches of snow Monday night. Then school got cancelled Tuesday morning. I decided I was going to try to make it anyway. I dropped all 3 kids off at day care and drove down to my appointment. Got there 15 minutes early. By the time I had been there an hour, they had offered me the job pending background check and drug test. So basically the job was mine. I got a call today asking if I could come in already on Friday for orientation. I am so excited. And you're probably all going to laugh when I tell you what the job is. I'm going to be on the donut crew in the bakery at the Super Walmart in Warrensburg. :) I'll be working from 4am to 12pm Tuesday through Saturday which actually keeps my hours pretty close to what they were before. My starting wage is less than $1/hr under what I was making before, which is pretty good for a starting wage. You all know how much I love baking. The basic job itself sounds pretty easy and fairly routine which will be a nice relief after what I've been doing for the last 8 years. The part I'm excited about though is that I will have the opportunity to get to learn all the other different parts of the bakery. I might even get to learn how to decorate cakes. :P I am really truly excited about this. Probably the best part of all this, however, is the fact that I've decided to go back to school in the fall. This job is perfect for that as I'll be going to school in Warrensburg. Getting off at noon it'll be fairly easy to arrange my classes around my work schedule and I'll already be in town. I want to thank those of you who knew the situation and were keeping me in your prayers. I know they helped. I am truly humbled by how God has blessed my life even when I was unsure of what to do and where to go. I love you all and I hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's Day.

We have snow!!

2007-01-21T12:48:00.000-08:00

Most of you know by now that we got nailed here last week with a major ice storm (though not as bad as it could have been.) Last night it got better. Seriously better. We got snow!! We think about 4 inches, though maybe a little more. The kids were having a blast today. They almost couldn't wait until after church. I had to discourage several snowballs on the way down. :) So after church we came inside, dressed in layers, and headed outside to make a snowman. They had so much fun. Well, the boys did. Kyra didn't quite know what to make of it and was NOT happy when the boys through snowballs at her. The last straw was when she fell down in the snow. That was it and she was ready to come in. But I got some nice pictures to share. :)

Some pictures of just the snow. And a snowball fight right before Kyra had enough.

Here's our snowman. :P All I asked for was a smile. I got two snowballs and a crabby face.

Piggy Pies

2007-01-02T18:40:00.000-08:00

I have the best mom ever. Christmas this year was different. Good, I guess, but different. I had my sister here, which was wonderful. She and Mom and I got to play bells for pretty much every service. :) Children's Christmas program was especially hard. I couldn't help thinking, "My kids should be up there". Especially when I saw some wandering sheep that were about my little ones' sizes. It was good though. The kids opened their gifts before they left and LOVED everything. They loved their new books from Great Grandma and Grandpa Mille. The boys thought all their new cars were just awesome (thank you Aaron and Maren) and Kyra thought her new baby was the best thing in the whole world (again, thank you Aaron and Maren). She even insisted on taking it to bed with her. :) They loved the toys from Aunt Lexi and the trains (for the boys) and the check-up table for dollies (for Kyra) from Great Grandpa Morris. They liked all the toys but were not so impressed at the time. :) It was fun to watch them open everything. A week alone was quiet. Well kind of. I sort of tried to avoid spending too much time at the house. Did a really good job too. Lext left on Tuesday so I worked a double shift on Tuesday, played cards (spades) Wednesday night (kicked some major butt. Aaron, you would be proud of me. I went nil twice and covered my partner's nil for the last hand, setting the other team and winning the game. We rocked), played 80's Edition Trivial Pursuit Thursday night (got my butt majorly kicked), and went into the city Friday night for a major night out. Got all dressed up with a few friends and went to The Cheesecake Factory to eat, to see "The Holiday" at the theater, and to Barnes and Noble to have Starbucks and use my gift card. ;) It was so much fun. Saturday night I stayed at home and vegged. It was so good to pick them up again on Sunday. I missed having them here. It was nice to have the time to go out and do things but I would rather have my babies here.

On to why my mother is the best... for Christmas I got a really awesome coat from my grandparents, a funky new purse from my sister, a comfy robe and very useful gift certificate from my brother and his beautiful wife. All really wonderful gifts. From my mom I got a cookbook. The whole cookbook is filled with fun recipes (most of them very simple) to make for kids. I love it. I can't wait to try them all. I couldn't resist taking a picture of my first adventure. Piggy pies. :) They're chicken pot pies made to look like little pigs. The kids still didn't eat the bottom part but they all had a blast with the making of the piggies. Well, Nate did until he realized I was going to put the piggies in the oven. "But, Mommy, you can't put the piggies in the oven. They'll die!" I told him they couldn't die cause they weren't real. And they wouldn't die anyway. They were just going to get a good tan. :) This is why I missed my kids.

Bah-Humbug

2006-12-15T19:14:00.000-08:00

I'm not in the Christmas spirit. There I said it. I've actually admitted it. I don't know what it is this year. Maybe its the fact that my children won't be here for Christmas this year. Though my sister will be, thankfully. Whatever the reason, I'm just not into it. The decorations up, my shopping is maybe halfway done, the songs are playing on the radio. But my heart just isn't in it. I can't even blame the commercialism of the holidays. Its not that I can't remember what Christmas is all about. Am I the only one feeling this way this year? Just curious...

My Last Little Terrible Two :-P

2006-11-27T20:32:00.000-08:00

I'm really too entirely tired to be putting all this up tonight but felt I needed to get these pictures up before a whole month had gone by. Little Miss Kyra quite enjoyed herself on her birthday. She got a new baby, a fridge radio (really cute little Leapfrog thing that all the kids love to stand around and dance to), a little child size rocking chair and some cute clothes (like the little dress from Grandma that she's wearing). As you can see, she hammed it up rather nicely. :) My little drama queen.

Halloween

2006-11-02T21:28:00.000-08:00

Since I have been commanded by the US Navy ;) I had to get on tonight and post pictures of my kids' Halloween costumes. I'm sorry, Lexi, but you will have to wait for birthday pictures. It is late and I am tired. But here's Halloween...

Nate wanted to be a car. And he wanted to be red like Lightening McQueen. :) He was so proud of that cardboard box...

And then there was my turtle. He had gone through a list of everything he wanted to be for Halloween including but not limited to: a witch, Tinkerbell, a pumpkin, and the list goes on. He seemed to like the turtle though.
And then we have my little lady bug. Isn't she so cute?

Thoughts and prayers

2006-10-29T22:15:00.000-08:00

I don't do too many of these blogs with just simple thoughts. I guess when it comes to me I tend to share everything except those innermost thoughts. I love to share my pictures and funny stories about my kids. I've even shared a couple of my poems. But when it comes to those real thoughts and emotions that run so deep inside of someone, I hold back. I'm not saying that you're all going to get a truly deep insight into my soul here. But I would like to share a little bit with you. This has been one of those truly trying weeks. One of those weeks, I guess, where I find out exactly what I'm made of. One of those weeks where I discover that in everything I try to do alone I fall so very short. I managed to make myself sick this week. That's how bad it got. I actually wore myself out to the point of getting sick. I've been trying to work a lot more overtime lately. I realized that Christmas is coming soon and if I want to get the extra pay in time to actually use it for Christmas, I need to do it now. So I've been going in at the only time I can really work without disrupting anyone else's schedule. This means going into work at about 1am and working through to the end of my normal shift at 2:30pm. I actually don't mind working at that time of night. It does tend to deprive one of sleep though. Something I was handling fairly well until my job took an emotionally bad turn. A week ago today, one of our consumers (patients) at work was taken to the hospital. They suspected impaction of the bowels or a hernia. The next day we were informed that it was neither. They had discovered that he had cancer. It was everywhere. And it was terminal. I've been taking care of this gentleman for over 3 years now. He is one that I have grown quite attached to over the last few years. Stubborn as they come, but he could always make me laugh. They gave him less than 3 months. Tuesday they (they being my supervisors) informed us that the decision had been made to transfer him from the hospital to a nursing home instead of back to our facility. We (the direct care staff who had worked so closely with him) were crushed. This was the only home he knew. We were the only family he knew as his don't really have a lot to do with him. The thought of sending him some place to die alone tore us up. Wednesday I sat with him in the hospital for my entire shift. At the end of my shift he was loaded up onto a stretcher and taken to the nursing home. Thursday I got a call from my immediate supervisor saying he was looking worse and probably wouldn't make it through the weekend. Friday morning I went to see him along with several of my coworkers. That very afternoon we got a call saying he had passed away at 2pm.

Where do you draw the line between caring too much and not enough? I've heard more people than I care to speak to me about how you have to have a certain amount of clinical detachment in this kind of field. But how much is too much? I cared very deeply for this man. Not quite like watching a child die, but at the same time, we're talking about someone that I was partly responsible for nearly everyday for over 3 years. I was responsible for feeding, bathing, medicating, entertaining, ... the list goes on. I knew what the man did and didn't like. I knew how to get him from one area to the next and knew when he just wasn't going anywhere. And in the course of one week he was gone. From when he went into the hospital to when he passed away, it took less than a week. One of my closest friends from work is taking it even harder. This was her favorite. She would have done anything for him. She did do a lot for him, above and beyond what was expected of us. Why is that bad? If we went to work everyday trying to keep ourselves "emotionally detached", how would we be honestly improving any of their lives?

I guess I'm just tired. This past week has worn me down. And I know that this one is going to be rough as well. Halloween costumes, Kyra turns 2 on Wednesday, Brian's coming down this weekend to get the kids (just for the weekend), and simply dealing with the aftermath at work. Its not all bad stuff, just tiring. If I could ask all of you to keep my coworkers and the family of this man in your prayers. Thank you, everyone.

Walk!!!

2006-09-25T07:03:00.000-07:00

The Walk was awesome. Here's our crew, minus me of course, waiting for the walk to begin.
The weather was beautiful. :) Actually it was raining the whole way to the park and misting when we got there, temperature continually dropping. This meant of course that it was perfect weather for sweatshirts. The park itself was beautiful. I had never been to this park before. There was a duck pond complete with a little waterfall, a couple of bridges, beautiful plants, and some weeping willows with benches placed underneath them. There was a rose gardern as well. Many of the flowers were still in bloom so there was color everywhere. There was a rock path leading in a circle around the outside edge of the garden underneath a trellis. Four paths led through the roses to the center where a huge fountain stood. Even with 3 kids running around me there was something about the entire park that just made me feel at peace. I think I will definitely have to go back at some point. The turn out for the walk was pretty impressive. The goal for Kansas City was $30,000. It was met and exceeded. The walk only lasted about 1 1/2 miles. But I'm glad we did it. It felt good to know we had done something. Thank you to everyone who contributed financially and with prayers. I don't think I could possibly express how much it means to us. I think the phrase they put on the t-shirts was very appropriate: "A cure is our finish line." I'm looking forward to doing the walk next year. Hopefully you will all look forward to helping out again. ;)

The kids of course had more fun playing on the totally awesome playground then doing the walk. :D

My kids were monkeys. Nate climbed the rock wall. Not only up but over the top and down the other side. The other two were happy with their own little climbing ramp. These children never cease to amaze me.

My New Window!!!

2006-09-25T06:56:00.000-07:00

I think some of you may know about my van. This summer the window just shattered one morning. Got in my van, closed the door, and down it fell. Into a million little pieces. My very sad looking van has been driving around with plastic on the back. I've had to replace it 3 times. :) My friend Amanda told me it looked very ghetto. Well its finally fixed. And I couldn't help posting a picture cause I was just so excited. So here it is. It's probably the best looking thing on my van right now.

My Thomas Creation

2006-09-05T06:50:00.000-07:00

After some difficulty in posting the pictures (I hate pop-up blockers!), I finally have some pictures of Nate's birthday cake. Its kind of lopsided but for the most part it turned out exactly like I wanted it to. I was pretty excited. I think I've spoiled Nate though. I think he really liked the cake but it was just another cool cake. :)

PKD Walk

2006-08-18T19:32:00.000-07:00

Most of you who read this blog have already received (or will receive) and email saying what I've written below. The luxury of blogs, though, is that I can include links for more information (I hate sending emails with lots of attachments).

On Sunday, September 17th, my mom, kids, and I are doing something incredible and fun. We're taking part in the PKD Foundation's Walk for the Cure in Kansas City. For those who know my family, you know that this walk is not just an event for a good cause. Its for a cause which is very personal to us. Nearly 4 years ago my grandmother passed away. Shirley Morris had PKD, polycystic kidney disease. We know that her grandfather had it. All of her children have been tested. One boy, my uncle Steve, and one girl, my mom Pam, have it as well. My cousins (Paul, Jacob, and Ben), my siblings (Aaron and Lexi) and I each have a 50% chance of having PKD. This disease is genetic, therefore unpreventable, and it has no cure. And its in my family.

PKD is as it sounds: multiple cysts growing in the kidneys. As more cysts form and the existing ones grow bigger, the kidneys increase in size and decrease in function. As the kidneys fail it sets off a chain reaction throughout the body. The speed of kidney failure varies in each patient. The symptoms can make it difficult to diagnose because there are few until the kidneys actually begin to fail. Being relatively unknown can make diagnosis difficult as well. If you want to know more than I can tell you right here....

http://www.pkdcure.org/site/PageServer?pagename=pkdabt_aboutPkd

The PKD Foundation is currently funding many research projects searching for a cure. The Walk for the Cure is a big way to help raise funds. More than that, it is a way to raise awareness. On September 16th and 17th, there will be walks all over the country as a part of this. People all over the country will be signing up and raising donations. I encourage any and all of you who might be interested to go to the PKD website and find a walk near you. Go walk! My main reason, however, for this post is to ask you to sponsor us, Pam's crew. If you can afford to do it, any amount is appreciated. No matter how big or small. Just think, a lot of people each giving a little bit is going to add up fairly quick. And its easy. Just go to this site...

http://www.pkdcure.org/site/TR?team_id=13810&pg=team&fr_id=1450

and click on "Support Pam's crew". If you just can't afford to help sponsor us, there are other ways to help. You could spread the word. Tell people about the disease. Tell them about the Foundation and the Walk. The more people know about this, the more we can do. Most importantly, though, you can pray. Pray for those who have PKD. Pray for the families and friends who love someone with PKD. And pray for good weather. ;)

Let's see what we can do, everyone!

Just Me and My Gal

2006-08-01T17:45:00.000-07:00

As most of you can probably tell by now, I'm having a blogger day. This means I found a bunch of pictures that I took, transferred to the computer, then never put up like I planned. The boys are in WI for another week so Kyra and I decided to put some pictures up. Since its just "me and my gal" :) I decided to put up some of just my cutie.

I especially love the ones where she's fallen asleep in the middle of doing something. :-P

Some Messy Kids

2006-08-01T17:34:00.000-07:00

I think it was strawberry shortcake ice cream.

But they

got it

EVERYWHERE!

Nate had already finished and DID NOT want his picture taken. :)

Playin' in the Rain

2006-08-01T17:25:00.000-07:00

This is obviously not recent. We haven't had much rain and I currently only have one child here. Just more old pictures. :)

Nate's Pilates

2006-08-01T17:16:00.000-07:00

I took these pictures a couple months ago but never posted them. Nate loves doing Pilates. He actually doesn't do too badly, either. :) You can actually see the tv a little in some of the pictures. Shows just how close he got.

Temptation

2006-08-01T15:53:00.000-07:00

What is it about a scale that we just can't walk past? Is it masochism? Do we just love the pain of knowing that eating half a family size bag of bite size snickers and a pint and a half of ice cream wasn't just a bad dream? Or is it that eternal hopefulness? Maybe the walk to the end of the block did really burn some calories? Whatever it is we just can't seem to do it. If there is a scale there, we must weigh ourselves. People just can't seem to help it! Part of my job as a med tech often includes regular checkup things like blood pressure and pulse. Today it included getting the weights on all the guys on that side. Trying to be efficient, I placed the scale just outside the med room so that I could weigh each guy as he came up to get his meds. The med room happens to be next to a hallway that many staff go through. Without fail, every staff who walked by the med room took the time to weigh themselves. Usually trying to hide the numbers so that no one else could save the data in their memory banks. Person after person I watched walk toward the med room, catch the small white object out of the corner of their eye, and gravitate toward it like a moth to a flame. Some of them didn't really look concerned with their weight. They just wanted to know. Others would step on, then with a look of dejection, step off again stating that unfortunately the scale was probably right. So this set me to wondering. What is it about the scale. The majority of us don't really want to know what we weigh because chances are it isn't what we want it to be. Whether we need to be on a diet and don't want the kind reminder of why, or we are on a diet and know that we haven't quite reached our goal. We just don't want to know. Yet we can't help it.
By the end of the morning I had weighed all of my guys and most of the staff (not all of them had ventured down the hallway) and went to put the scale away. I am happy to say that I avoided temptation today. I weigh what I weigh. Whatever that is. :)

Original Numa Numa

2006-07-26T19:29:00.000-07:00

Original Numa

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lc9EC1sLehA

Okay, since I posted the Navy one I thought I should post the original. Simply because there might be other people out there as naive as me who don't know where this stemmed from in the first place. This started as just a video for a sight like YouTube. It became a national (maybe even international) sensation. I have to admit it is pretty funny.

Navy Numa Numa

2006-07-26T19:24:00.000-07:00

Navy Numa Numa

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clt9t4ZPZcA

I just had to show this. My mom found it through her Navy Mom's site and with 2 siblings in the Navy it was just too much fun to watch. Enjoy!

Nate's Theories on Life

2006-07-17T14:51:00.000-07:00

Nate's Theory on Ice Cream: "It has ice in it and that's what melts it."
Nate's Theory on Cookies: "No, Mommy. We can't put shortening in the cookies. We don't want our cookies to be short."
Nate's Theory on Wetting Pants: After hearing Nate run from the bathroom downstairs to his bedroom upstairs then come down in different shorts. "Nate, did you wet your pants?" "But you didn't see me."

Happy Belated Birthday

2006-07-17T14:49:00.000-07:00

Happy Belated Birthday to my beautiful sister Maren. By the time she reads this she will probably be in Norway. May God watch over and give her safe travels. I hope the birthday was wonderful. We love you, Maren!

Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil

2006-07-08T16:57:00.000-07:00

My deaf monkey would not perform for the camera but rest assured that off camera her fingers were in her ears. :)

The Kitchen

2006-07-08T16:38:00.000-07:00

So this is the infamous kitchen. There are still some things to go up on the walls and we are planning on repainting the trim and doors (with the exception of the red insets) white. Looks pretty good doesn't it. :)

This would be the new backsplash behind the oven. Basically just the tiles from the floor. But on the wall. I voted for smaller squares on the backsplash but was apparently outvoted.

...

2006-07-08T16:03:00.000-07:00

Hands clasp, arms lock.

Deep breath, eyes meet.

Note by note feet step;

Bodies move across the floor.

Skirts swishing, shoes tapping.

Hips begin to rock and sway.

He leads, she follows.

He holds her in a firm embrace.

Blood pulses with the rhythm;

Cheeks flush from the heat.

Guide her, twirl her.

Move him, tease him.

Feel the music come alive.

Gazes hold, breathe deep.

As the song comes to an end,

Wait for it to start again.

Busy

2006-07-04T19:21:00.000-07:00

I'm keeping this post short and sweet. A few of you know that the reason for Lexi's and my silence is that Lex has been home and we've been working on home improvement projects. These are just 2 of them. We pulled up the tile in the bathroom upstairs and put new tile down. We pulled down the wallpaper in the entire upstairs hallway, stairway, and downstairs hallway and repainted it all. This was the best shot I could get of the walls. We painted the stripes with the same color, different gloss paint. I'll put more in a different post but am not really feeling like posting right now. Just wanted to do my "job" and post pictures.

I had a date!!!

2006-06-11T14:03:00.000-07:00

Not only did I go on a date, but I went on a date with 2 guys at the same time. They made me buy. Tickets and the popcorn and drinks. Then they ate most of the popcorn. Can you believe it? I hardly got any! They wouldn't even share the drinks. They wouldn't hold my hand. Made me leave in the middle of the movie because THEY had to go to the bathroom. Talked during the movie, couldn't stop fidgeting. One of them even dropped their bottle of water and had to chase it down the aisle! All in all I think it was the best date I've ever been on. :)

Post-bath conversation

2006-06-06T20:16:00.000-07:00

Set scene. Mommy and Nick are sitting on the floor outside of the bathtub drying off Nick and getting his pajamas on. Nate and Kyra are already finished and up in the living room with Grandma.
Nick: Mommy, you're a stink pot.
Mommy: I'm a what?!?
Nick: You're a stink pot and I'm a Mommy.
Mommy: So if you're a mommy and I'm a stink pot, does that make me a Nick?
Nick: Yep and I'm a mommy.
Mommy: You're silly.
Mommy and Nick finish putting on pajamas.
Nick: Mommy, I want to see in the mirror. Pick me up.
Mommy: Do you think you're handsome?
Nick: Yeah, pick me up. I want to see.
Mommy picks Nick up to look in the mirror.
Mommy: So are you handsome?
Nick: I'm a turtle.
End Scene.

Need Air!!

2006-06-03T13:48:00.000-07:00

Okay, I have to relate the latest Nate story. For those that don't this already about us Friday is always pizza night. It's tradition. Well my parents went out last night to see a movie so it was just me and the kids. By the time we went out to the van to go get the pizza, the vehicle was rather warm. My van is old and isn't the quickest in cooling off so I rolled the windows down until we got enough air in there to try the air conditioner. Nate pops up and asks, "Mommy, why do we need air in here." I should have known better. I admit that now. Being a smart alec to my 4 1/2 year old son in never a wise idea. I popped right back with, "So we can breathe, Nate." So Nate starts exaggerating his breathing in and breathing out showing me that he understands and just accepting my answer. When we got to the highway I closed the windows figuring it had cooled off enough to try the air conditioner. Instantly this panicked little voice in the back seat yells out, "No, Mommy, don't close the windows!! We need the air to breathe!!!"

I should have known better. :-P

2006-06-01T18:33:00.000-07:00

I can see the two of them sitting there.

Her silver hair spilling onto his frail shoulder.

His arm over hers, fingers linked together.

They sit on that porch swinging gently,

Shoulder to shoulder.

Through the years they've grown older

But never grown apart.

The wrinkles on their faces tell their stories.

Laugh lines tell the joys and jokes they've shared,

Memories that make them chuckle still.

Times of pain and deep sorrows

Still etched deep around their eyes

Tell of things that made them stronger.

Many years together, inseparable

And they still can't get close enough.

Wrinkled hands seem almost woven together.

Hands that worked hard to make dreams come true

Yet loved gently and surely.

Arms that have held children and grandchildren

Yet still long to hold each other.

Time has changed them.

The color of their hair; the texture of their faces.

Their bodies have worn the test of time.

Yet when he looks at her now

She is more beautiful to him than she has ever been.

She sees the man that she loves more today

Than when they first pledged their love

With hearts so very young.

They've lived, loved and learned,

Knowing all along that growing older simply meant

Growing together.

I sent this to a friend of mine and he gave me the courage to post it so here goes. You are now all being honored with my first poem in many, many years. :) Tell me what you think.

Boys

2006-05-30T11:40:00.000-07:00

I want to know what it is in boys' wiring that makes them think they have to stomp in every puddle they see. I'm assuming its something along the same lines as why they need to take everything apart. And why they have to push each and every button on any piece of electronic equipment. I'm really curious. I went for a walk with my children this morning after it rained and I swear it was like each puddle had this magnetic pull on my boys. Especially Nick. Somehow that makes sense though seeing as Nate was wearing sandles (not such a big deal) and Nick was wearing socks and sneakers. Kyra doesn't react the same. She might go up to a puddle and lean over it. Maybe even stick a finger in. But she doesn't feel compelled to stomp in it as the boys do. So I'm curious. What makes boys do, what it is that boys do?

Kissing Monkey Patrol

2006-05-29T21:11:00.000-07:00

Just some random pictures I've been collecting for a while on my digital. Hadn't gotten the software for my camera on this computer yet so I couldn't really do anything with them. But here they are! Enjoy. They begged me to draw all 3 of them. I've done it before (I'm pretty sure it was better before, too.) But they all stood over me until I had drawn ALL 3. They didn't want anyone to be left out.

Kyra was going down the slide and then intentionally standing on her head. Silly girl.

Watching the trains. They all had to be up there to see it go by.

First time Nate was ever on a 4 wheeler. My friend's husband actually took all of my kids out at one point but I didn't get pictures of the other 2. He went REALLY, REALLY slow. He had a good laugh after he told the boys to watch out in the woods for dinosaurs. He said that both of them were just staring into the trees waiting to see something. :)

Slacking again

2006-05-28T11:32:00.000-07:00

Sorry about that guys. I always seem to go for a couple of weeks in between posts. Blame Lexi. She got me on this Lutheran singles site. I'm just having way too much fun talking to all these new people. It's nice to have intelligent conversations again after working where I work and coming home to 3 small children. I've also met a couple of very interesting men. Kind of interested in one but trying to remember that its online so I need to be careful. But he's actually studying to be a pastor. Kind of cool. And then there's David. ;) Lex and I met him through our crazy adventures on Match (short-lived adventures for me). We've had a lot of very interesting conversations. It's weird. I always thought these people who went out meeting people online were strange (and maybe even a little desperate). But I don't even really care if I come out of this with a romance. I'm just having so much fun making new friends that actually believe the same things as me and have morals. :) I missed that. Got too used to it in school, I guess.
I've also been trying to exercise more. I'm pretty proud of myself too. Lost about 13 pounds in one month. Not like I needed to lose a lot of weight, but I didn't need to still be carrying around all that baby weight. I pretty much just needed to do some major toning. I'm fitting into clothes I haven't worn in a long time. (I even felt brave enough to go lay out in the backyard in a bikini yesterday)
So those are my excuses. Trying to spend more time doing productive things and spending my time online on a site my sister got me on. Well, enough with excuses. There really isn't a whole lot new here. Nate finished his first year of preschool. Looking at his final report card it's neat to see the progress he's made this year. To see all the skills he learned. I think he's very excited to go back again next year. So now our summer project is to get Nick preschool-ready (in other words potty-train him). He knows how, its just a matter of going all the time when he needs to. It's not going to be easy either with two 2-week visits to WI. I guess it will be our first real test of how well we can work together as parents while not being together. I don't have a lot of faith in Brian, but we'll see.
Can't really think of much else. For anyone I had told about the play it's getting postponed until fall. :( Lack of people (male and female) to participate. We'll see how it goes come fall. It should leave the summer more open though. And that's about it. I'll try to get some new pics up soon but I'll have to download my camera's software onto this computer (we had major computer malfunctions a couple weeks ago so we're on a new computer without all the software we had before. And I no longer have access to a lot of my old pictures. :( very not cool. I could however add that on as one more excuse.) So keep an eye out for new pics.

Another Nate Story

2006-04-30T14:03:00.000-07:00

I guess this happened about a week ago today. But my mom thought it was so funny I guess I'll have to share it. At Christmas time my mom bought the kids some new bath toys. One of those toys was a fishing pole and some foam fish with holes cut out in the middle so you could catch them with the fishing pole. Last Sunday the kids were in the bathtub while I was getting ready and I looked over to see Nate sitting there with the fish in his lap. Conveniently placed so that his penis stuck through the hole. I was so shocked I immediately told him to get that fish off of there. My innocent little son looked at me wide-eyed and said, "But, Mommy, it has a hole in it."

Nick's Birthday

2006-04-30T13:37:00.000-07:00

We didn't really celebrate Nick's birthday until the day after. But we had a lot of fun that Saturday. Nick loved the balloons: a Thomas balloon and some others tied to a Thomas plush toy. Too cute.
Grandma picked up ice cream cake. It was really good. Nick actually blew out all his own candles although it did take him a while to do it. :)

He was awfully proud of himself, too.

Then it was time to open presents. He was so excited about everything he got. The best though was probably the tee ball set that Grandma got him. The boys took it out as soon as they could and had a blast. Nate was actually really good at hitting the ball with the bat. Both boys though jumped out of the way as soon as the ball came at them to catch though. The only kid that actually caught the ball was Kyra.

Long Easter Weekend

2006-04-30T13:32:00.000-07:00

The boys went up to Wisconsin on Thursday and came back on Monday. They were busy the entire time they were there. With the long 12 hour trip both days, they were exhausted when they got back. So much so that when I sat Nate on the steps after getting back, he fell asleep while I was unloading the car. :) You never see this child so still.

Easter (belatedly posted)

2006-04-30T13:18:00.000-07:00

Just one little girl for Easter. The boys were up in Wisconsin. So we did a little Easter egg hunt in the afternoon for one lone little girl. It took her awhile to get the idea but once she did she didn't do too bad.
Gotta love little girl skirts. :)

Not always the happiest little girl. But awfully proud of herself when she found one.

Isn't she pretty?

Rolls

2006-04-16T08:13:00.000-07:00

This post is mainly for Maren although I'm sure you will all enjoy the picture. I made these wonderful rolls from a recipe Maren gave me (she has a picture of the rolls on her blog and mine actually looked just like those when I got done). I was so excited. As good as I am at baking I usually ruin anything having anything to do with yeast. These turned out beautifully and tasted wonderful. But really I just wanted to show a picture of my helpers who had a little too much fun with the flour. ;)

Landscaping

2006-04-03T19:25:00.000-07:00

It's been so completely beautiful outside the last several days that yardwork has been big priority on my mom's to-do list. She got a lot done on Saturday but the really big things were the birdbath and new sand in the sandbox. Yes, Lex, that is THE birdbath. It is finally standing outside. She put the old sand underneath the rocks and the birdbath. Then she put white and blue beach sand in the sand box. The boys were pretty excited.

Visit From Grandma and Grandpa

2006-03-28T20:21:00.000-08:00

Today my paternal grandma and grandpa came to visit. They were on their way back from my brand new cousin's baptism. It was their first time seeing the boys since Nick was practically a newborn and their first time ever meeting Kyra. Nate decided he absolutely loves his great-grandma while Nick bonded with great-grandpa. Kyra, I think, charmed them both. They got to show off just how wild they are but calmed down after supper when the books started coming out. They must have sat there for a good half hour asking to be read book after book. Well... Nick didn't really want to read at first. He was playing hide and seek with grandpa by hiding underneath the little kids' table and in a big orange bucket. Of course you could always see him but that doesn't really matter. He was having fun with great-grandpa counting and being silly. What a special day though. How many people can say they've ever even met their great grandparents? Much less play with them. Just thought you guys might enjoy these. :)

A very happy birthday!

2006-03-28T19:44:00.000-08:00

Thank you, God, for the wonderful people you have brought into my life. There are times where I feel so terribly old. Partly because of circumstances and partly because that's just who I am. I'm too serious for my own good. I started out yesterday in a not-so-good mood because I wasn't so sure I was looking forward to the concept of being 26. The actual age isn't that old but this is completely not where I pictured myself being at 26. Then I got this hilarious e-card from my beautiful sister-in-law that made me completely crack up. Not just me but all 3 of my kids. This brightened my day. Then the mail came with 2 packages from my sister. Then I got a beautiful bouquet of flowers and a balloon from my extravagantly sweet sister. Not 5 minutes after that I got another bouquet from 8 of the sweetest people I've ever worked with. It ended with a completely cute outfit from my mom along with a good meal that I didn't have to cook or clean up after. The funny thing is: I don't think it was things I got although they were all extremely wonderful. I think it was more just knowing how much the people I love, love me too. Not that I didn't already know. It just reminded me of what wonderful people God has blessed me with having in my life. These are the people who have kept me smiling through the past year so I guess it's only appropriate that these are the people who made this birthday one of the best I can remember. I love you all!! Thank you for everything.

Sorry about the silence...

2006-03-28T19:29:00.000-08:00

So I want to apologize to anyone who's been checking my blog only to find that there hasn't been anything new. Things have been somewhat crazy around here. Imagine that! Life around these 3 sweet angelic children being crazy. ;) That was sarcastic, by the way. Life is pretty much the same normal life. A bout of strep throat with the middle child last week. One year molars for Kyra are through the gums. And Nate's 3rd quarter progress note came home from school. Naturally with all good marks. His teacher loves him. That's very good cause she's got another year and an extra day with him next year. :) The pics here are from Sunday. Kids all kind of got up from naps around the same time so I got them each a snack. They all voluntarily sat together on the same loveseat and pictures were just irresistable. Especially the one with Kyra taking back the crackers that Nick had already snitched from her bowl. :) I love my kids.

Let's see, what kind of trouble can I get into...

I may be little but I can play see, too!!

My Culinary Expertise

2006-03-27T20:17:00.000-08:00

I don't really know why I'm publishing pictures of these fruit pizzas. I guess there is just a certain amount of pride in making something that not only tastes delicious and disappears in a few hours time but turned out beautifully as well. And since I have so few talents to brag about... :) Guess I better take advantage of showing off the few I have.

My Incredible Son

2006-03-27T20:10:00.000-08:00

Here is one of the few signs that I might actually be raising this young man right. :) He actually begged me to let him wash dishes. Believe it or not we have here a guy, one of the male species, who actually LIKES to do dishes. Anyone wanna take bets on how long it'll last. ;)

The words of Nate

2006-03-05T13:10:00.000-08:00

After all the wise words of Nick, I finally have a Nate story. One of the worst parts about Sunday mornings is deciding what to wear. It's the only day that I really truly care what I look like and my selection of dressy clothes is minimal due to many reasons. This morning however I decided very quickly what I would wear and was left to waiver on a different issue. I didn't have a clue what to do with my hair. I decided to ask my 4 year old. "Straight or curly?" I asked him. He answered straight so I got out the straightening iron and went work finishing my make up. In walks Grandma to use the straightener on her hair. Nate and Nick were happily playing in the bath tub when Nate looks up, sees Grandma, and just has to inform her, "Mommy is going to look strange today." Thankfully, though I continually asked him if I was looking stange yet, I never got an affirmative on looking strange. I do think though that I will just go curly next time.

Sick babies and flying birds

2006-03-02T18:29:00.000-08:00

My daughter has had a fever almost nonstop for the last week. It started last Friday afternoon reaching highs (before today) of 103.5 degrees. I took her to the doctor on Tuesday only to be told they didn't know. The only symptom she has besides fever is a runny nose. When the doctor checked her out the only other thing found was a not so pretty throat. So the doctor tested for strep....negative. So then she tested for flu....negative. She decided that it was probably a virus which simply has to run its course but still didn't like the look of the throat so she put her on an antibiotic. Now since Tuesday her first thing in the morning temp has gone down to just under 100 but today when she woke up from her afternoon nap it was 103.6, a weeklong high. By bedtime she was down to 99.8 and blowing kisses at the baby in the mirror but its scary when the temp goes that high. I'm putting in another call to the doctor tomorrow. I don't think her fever should still be spiking that high after this long. Please keep my baby in your prayers. I also found out on Wednesday that Nate is sick too. He's been snoring loudly and badly over the last couple of months. Lately though its started to sound like he's having trouble breathing and its started to scare me. I went to the doctor to get my suspicion of allergies verified. Not only did she get it verified, she discovered that the poor boy has a double ear infection. So now he's on Claritin AND an antibiotic. Add another one to the prayer list.
Then we come to my Nick story of the day. Grandma has decided that she likes the feel of little feet walking on her back. The other day she asked Nate but he started to get too rough, as Nate does, so tonight she asked Nick. He actually did a really nice job, she said. Well then Nick decided he was done and got off of grandma's back, bent over looking at grandma's back, tucked his hands into his armpits to look like wings and started to say, "Fly with me baby birdies. I'm the mommy birdie." My silly 2 year old then proceeded to flap his wings, jump and "fly" all around the living room. As with most Nick things I have no idea as to the motive or the origin to this imaginative tale only that I'm glad I got to see it. :)

Unusually warm weather

2006-03-02T17:52:00.000-08:00

The weather here has been unbelievably warm lately. The upside to this is that on one of the rare fever-free afternoons I managed to get all 3 kids outside. We started in the driveway where we drew our traditional road. The boys love to get their bikes out and ride around their road. Nate has quite mastered his bike. Almost time to take training wheels off maybe?
Nick spent a good 10 minutes sitting on the ground looking at this bug. He decided after a while that the baby bug was sad because it wanted its mommy bug. This had him very distressed. Just another Nick moment. :)

Even though she was fever free for the moment, Kyra was definitely not a happy girl.

2006-03-02T17:51:00.000-08:00

we then moved to the back yard where the boys had fun
building a sand castle

A Walk in the Park

2006-02-26T09:00:00.000-08:00

The weather we've had here lately is totally not your typical February weather. Its been nice though for getting the kids outside. My mom and I took the kids to the park the other day. Beautiful. Walked the loop around the park and then let them run around the playground until almost dark. They all slept great. ;)

Nick and the Fish

2006-02-24T14:22:00.000-08:00

My Nick story of the day involves a plecostomus, one of the fish in my dad's fish tank. For those who don't know, its one of those fish that sucks the algae off the side of the tank. This fish has grown huge and today was the center of Nick's attention. He was talking to the fish. Talking about the mouth he could see presseed against the glass. As I sat in the next room I could hear him talking to the fish about nonsense things. Then I hear him exclaim, "Awwww. I am so proud of you!" To the fish. Laughing I walk into the next room. Just in time to seem him kiss the tank. Right where the fish's mouth is. He has since moved on to other toys but the fish story was just too cute not to share.

2006-02-22T20:12:00.000-08:00

Wild things #1, 2, and 3

2006-02-22T20:07:00.000-08:00

now is that trouble or is that trouble

The Wise Words of Nick

2006-02-21T18:56:00.000-08:00

So this weekend my mom and I packed up the kids and headed down to Arkansas for a long weekend of visiting family. After driving through nasty sleet, snow, rain, and ice (my mom ended up with that half of the driving) we spent a long weekend bringing me to this one ultimate conclusion: you never know what's going to come out of the mouth of a two year old. Okay so maybe I, along with the majority of the human world already knew this. This just happened to be one of those occasions that highlighted it, so to speak. Let us start with Saturday night. We had gotten down there in the middle of the night on Friday so the next night my grandpa decided to take all of us out to Cici's Pizza. All of us included my Aunt Cathy; cousins Rachel, Ryan, and Caleb; my grandpa, mom, myself and the 3 wild things. For those who don't know Cici's its a pizza buffet complete with salad, pasta, pizza, breadsticks, and dessert. My mom had just sat down with her food when Nick, who was sitting across from her, started looking at everything she had on her plate. After a minute of checking everything out, he turned to my mom and asked her, "Grandma, do you like clown noses?" Coming out of nowhere she was of course confused. We hadn't been talking about clowns. He then followed it up with, "I don't like to eat clown noses. Do you like to eat clown noses?" It took us all a minute to figure out that he had been looking at her salad plate. More specifically? The cherry tomatoes on her salad plate. Only a two year old. After we finished eating we went to Walmart to get some cough medicine for the boys. I asked my mom to just run in and gave her some money, planning on just driving around the parking lot instead of dragging 3 tired kids into the store. Nick was fine with Grandma getting out until I started to move. He went into hysterics screaming, "You can't leave Grandma!!!" He was just convinced that I was going to leave Grandma at Walmart and go home. This brings us to Sunday morning. He was the last one to wake up, coming into the living room about the same time as my mom. She sat down on the floor as I began taking off his pajamas to put his clothes on. All of a sudden he began yelling, "No, Grandma, you can't get my toes." He then proceeded to tell his Grandma in no uncertain terms that she could not eat his toes because he had already eaten them and they were all gone. Just FYI: no one had made any attempts to even act like they were going to get his toes. Goes to show, you never know what is going through the mind of a 2 year old. :)

Parent Teacher Conferences

2006-02-15T18:18:00.000-08:00

So I had my very first parent teacher conference yesterday. By the time I was finished I could clearly remember all the times my parents had come home from conferences with my teachers talking about how my teacher must have been talking about a different kid. Nate's teacher thinks that he is such a sweet and considerate boy. Sweet and considerate!! Now anyone who has met my son and spent any amount of time with him and his siblings has seen him torture and pick at his brother and sister and the dog. Anyone who knows me has probably heard me tell stories of his ingenious ways of getting himself into trouble. But no, she says he's sweet and considerate and sits there quietly for group activities. She did say he tends to wiggle a lot sometimes so maybe she is talking about my kid. :) She went on to say how very smart he is (which I totally agree with) and amazed she is at how well he's doing with letters and numbers, patterns. Logic side of brain kind of stuff. No surprise there. The only real problem she had was with him participating in group activities like singing and saying rhymes. I saw this kind of behavior first hand with the Christmas program this past year. We worked for 2 weeks learning "Away in a Manger" and singing it every night. He would sing every word with me and by himself. He KNEW that song. But when it came time to stand in front of the church and sing with the other kids, he would not do it. Meaning we most likely have the same thing happening at school. Which pretty much means he's shy. Again, no big surprise. Overall it was a good first parent teacher conference. I'm very glad that as rotten as my son is at home, he is so very good and sweet and considerate at school. But so it begins. Next year there will be two in school. That is so hard to believe. They grow up too fast. Oh well, we wouldn't want them to stay babies forever. :)

Pooped out

2006-02-07T18:47:00.000-08:00

So I'm getting really tired of poop. For those who know where I work, you know I get to clean it up daily. With two kids still in diapers, I deal with it even on my days off of work. I deal with it figuratively and literally every single day ALL DAY LONG. I'm tired of it. Today however certainly tops the cake. Nate is 4. He is potty trained. (or he was. I'm thinking the stress of the divorce and visitations has taken its toll and he's reverting back to pre-pt days) When he goes down to the bathroom, I don't follow him. He can wipe his own bottom, pull his own pants down and up. He's a big boy. Today was no exception. He went down to the bathroom by himself and without hearing a little voice asking for help, I stayed with Kyra and Nick waiting for him to come back to the living room. Maybe it was behavior, maybe it was the stomach flu last week. Either way it spelled disaster. When he had been down there for quite some time I became concerned and went down to the bathroom to check on my son. After assessing the situation this is my best guess as to what happened (have to guess because it is next to impossible to get a straight answer out of a 4 year old). Nate apparently pooped in his pants. On the way down to the bathroom he must have began to pull his pants down before actually being in the bathroom because there on the carpet in the dining room just outside the bathroom was poop. Then just inside the bathroom before you get to the toilet was more poop. He must have promptly sat down on the toilet and pooped some more because there was some IN the toilet... just some. He must have then decided to use toilet paper and wipes to try to clean himself up because not only was it on his backside, it had gotten all over his legs when pulling down his pants. In the process of doing so, the poor kid got some on his fingers. Well yuck, can't have that. So he began to wipe it on the door. And the sink. And the rug. And the toilet lid. Meanwhile the toilet seat is now covered from wiggling around. This is about the point where Mommy walks in not knowing whether to cry or yell. Now I'm thinking I might print this off and save it for a special share-with-future-girlfriends-type memory. That will certainly be revenge enough for having to clean up that mess. :)

The bug

2006-02-04T19:23:00.000-08:00

The flu bug has been through the house this week. Unfortunately it still hasn't completely left, but it does appear on its way out. Tuesday night I had the oldest child throwing up. Then his brother the next morning and his sister followed Friday morning. What's coming out the other end, however is the part that just will not quit. And on that note I will move on. If you guys could just keep 3 very uncomfortable, pitiful, not-quite-themselves children in your prayers I would be ever so grateful.

Bedtime

2006-01-31T18:37:00.000-08:00

I've decided that bedtime is my favorite part of the day. Not mine, theirs. My kids were rotten today. When I picked up my kids from daycare today, the only one of the 3 that had taken a nap this afternoon was Kyra. She only took about 10 or 15 minutes. To top it off, we weren't going home but rather to a friend's house because I had agreed to watch her kids until she got off of work. The boys were in the mood to test their limits to the extreme and Kyra did not want to be put down. So I had the boys screaming at each other and Kyra screaming at me. This lasted through the majority of the day. When we got home I immediately put kids in the bathtime. The screaming did not stop there. As a matter of fact I think it got louder. But we somehow got kids clean and dressed in their pjs and up the stairs we went. We brushed teeth without incident (unless you count Nick falling backwards off the toilet) and it was time to be tucked in. I put Kyra down first because she was the most tired and the most ready for bed and then went into the boys room to tuck them in. They were so good. We sang our good night song, said our prayers, kissed and hugged, said our "I love you's" and said good night. They were so sweet and so cooperative. I think somehow, somewhere between the bathroom downstairs and the beds my children disappeared and were replaced by robots, or maybe aliens. No definitely couldn't have been my children: they've been in bed for half an hour and I haven't had to go up there once. Not a noise out of the room. Must have finally found an off button. ;)

2006-01-30T19:22:00.000-08:00

such happy kids

2006-01-30T19:20:00.000-08:00

what a merry christmas

Christmas pictures

2006-01-30T19:19:00.000-08:00

we were trying to get kids to sit quietly and take a picture. as you can see they were not cooperating. and Nate was trying to be so helpful. :) Kyra didn't appreciate that very much.

2006-01-30T19:18:00.000-08:00

isn't she sweet

2006-01-30T19:17:00.001-08:00

my fearless knight

2006-01-30T19:17:00.000-08:00

My little fairy

2006-01-30T19:15:00.000-08:00

My amazing wizard

halloween pics

2006-01-30T19:12:00.000-08:00

I know these are really old but I'm really bad finishing rolls and developing pics. These are the kids halloween costumes. Made them myself. Pretty proud of myself, too. :)

All in a days work

2006-01-27T18:36:00.000-08:00

You gotta love a job where all in the same day you can see one guy walk around with his pants down to his ankles, another guy put his hand through a glass window, yet another guy crawl around on the floor and don't even get me started on my fellow staff. :) I really can't say anything else to say about the clients because of HIPAA but suffice it to say it was a very interesting day. Especially when you start out 30 minutes late to work. I hate being late. It throws your whole day off. Then there is nothing like coming home to Wild Things 1, 2, and 3. I think they were literally bouncing off the walls today. Of course all that is made better by baby kisses. Rare but special. She doesn't usually give kisses to anyone but her grandpa. I got 5. I think that made the whole day better. Laughter is most definitely the best medicine. Ah well, that's all for today.

Taxes and so on...

2006-01-26T21:07:00.000-08:00

They're done!!!! January 26th and they are done. Gotta love technology. Wish everything was that easy. Like kids. Today was one of those days where you just cannot wait for bedtime. The oldest one was picking on the younger two unceasingly while the younger two were constantly crying and whining because neither one feels very good. And then they decided mom would make a really good jungle gym. And chair. And trampoline. And ...well, you get the idea. It appears that they were ready for bedtime too, however. I put Nate to bed first. Well actually Kyra then Nate. Anyway, in the time it took me to help Nick brush his teeth, get his pajamas on and say his prayers, Nate fell asleep. Must have been a long day. Now if I could get them to fall asleep like that every night...

2006-01-20T12:44:00.000-08:00

Nate

2006-01-20T12:43:00.000-08:00

Kyra

2006-01-20T12:42:00.000-08:00

Nick

My kids

2006-01-20T11:43:00.000-08:00

Or rather... my middle son. Part of my craziness would definitely stem from my children's antics. Maybe I should retitle my blog. The adventures in the life of a single mom. Nah. I'll leave it. Most of the antics lately seem to occur around naptime. Today I put Nick down for a nap only to hear crying upstairs a few minutes later. I wondered why he hadn't opened the door to announce his heartwrenching trouble which has been his custom as of late. As I got about halfway up the stairs I discovered why. He was crying, "Mommy get me down from here." I still had no idea what I would find when I opened the door. He's been on his dresser before but has never had any problem getting down. So I open the door to find my 33 month old standing on the window sill about 2 ft off of the ground afraid to jump, crying, and holding a pull up in his hand. Now the order of things is still a little fuzzy. If he was stinky before he climbed up, why would he climb up on the window sill. But if he didn't perform that odiferous task until after he was up, why was he holding the pull up. The clearest answer I could get from him was that he wanted to see the trains. I'm still somewhat confused because I didn't hear any trains go by after putting him down for a nap. Beyond that I don't even think you can see the trains from his window. I will likely never now. It's not quite as bad as yesterday however. Yesterday he stood at the top of the stairs after being put down for a nap and hollered, "Mommy, I'm stinky" over and over until I came upstairs and changed him. A short time later he was again standing at the top of the stairs hollering. This time it was, "Mommy, I have a buger in my nose." This time I simply told him to go back to bed. About 5 minutes later I went upstairs to make sure he was in bed only to discover he wasn't even in the room. He was down the hall in Mommy's room where his sister was supposed to be sleeping. It gets better. He had found some of my chocolate left over from Christmas and had decided to share it with his 14 month old sister. Needless to say they were a mess. I must say I am looking forward to what tomorrow may bring.

2006-01-13T19:35:00.000-08:00

My first post, my first website. Where do you start? Where do I start. I guess a new life and a new year make it somewhat appropriate to start a new blog. I guess I could start with my title. Anyone who knows me knows that I started out just a little crazy. I guess this might just be a way to show the world just how crazy I am. So until I think of anything better to post, welcome to my blog.