Yeah...

This whole blogging thing has gone on the back burner.

Our days are mostly filled with regular life. Nothing overly exciting to blog about.

Although, last week we did buy a new car. That's pretty exciting.

Our 2004 Sienna was just having lots of issues. The front end sounded like it was going to fall off every time I drove it. I had not had a good feeling about that car for the past year, but kept fighting it off. But when I got back from Durham last month and drove it... well, let's just say that the sounds coming from the front end worried me.

So last week we traded it in on a 2011 Honda Odyssey.

And I'm in love. Truly.

It holds Kira's car seat in the middle of the second row. And there's plenty of space for all the boys.

It has leather, DVD player, sunroof, the works!

Here's what it looks like (same color and options, too):


I'm looking forward to driving this car for a LONG time!

More Braces

Zach got his bottom braces today. When he had the top ones put on, they said it would take about two hours, but it only took one. I figured it might be about the same situation today...

No.

He was back there for two full hours. He is much much less miserable today than he was when he got the top braces on, so that's nice.

His next appointment is on November 9th. I'll be taking Jacob on that day for his consultation. I've been saving for Jacob's braces. I don't know when they'd want to start Jacob with braces...

All I can say is "Thank goodness for the dental school prices!"

Do you know I'm working again???

I've kind of avoided telling lots of people about this because I almost feel like I'm stupid for choosing to go back when I've stressed out so much over this place in the past.

But to tell you the truth, I like working. I like seeing my little Social Security mail each year and seeing that I'll have benefits one day (if SS doesn't go belly up).

So I'm a telecommuting bookkeeper. So far it seems to be working. I flew to Durham last month for a few days and will do the same each month for the foreseeable future.

The pay is good and the hours are flexible. As a stay at home mom, it's the ideal job. So I'm happy with the arrangement and hope it continues to be a good thing for both me and them.

Edit: Okay. So this came across a little strong. :) I think I was just trying to say that with five kids, two of whom are homeschooled, and one of whom is not quite 2, I'm not sure I really thought about whether or not I could handle this job with it's stress load. But so far it seems to be going well. I'm enjoying it. It's nice to feel needed and wanted outside my immediate family.

Yum

Chicken Stew with Biscuit Topping

This is one of my favorite dinners. It's Zach's "official" favorite dinner (meaning he asks for it for his birthday).

I make it on rare occasions. It requires dirtying just about every mixing bowl, pot, and measuring device in the kitchen. You cook the chicken, chop it, and put it in the baking dish. You cook the veggies separately in broth, then you remove them and pour the broth into another pot where you've started a rue to thicken the broth. Then you make the biscuits. I should have doubled the biscuits (well... this is doubled... I should have doubled the double) because it's just about our favorite part.

I'm looking forward to digging into this dinner in a little while. It is the very definition of comfort food.

City Chase Dallas

We're so naive. (And look, Kristin, your shirt is cream, too!)

On Saturday, Kristin and I participated in the Dallas City Chase event (it might technically have been a race, but we weren't racing, so we'll call it an "event"). It's sort of an Amazing Race, but in one city for one day. It took place in and around downtown Dallas. The only way you were allowed to travel was by public transportation and by foot. (And let me just say that we did a lot by foot. A LOT.)

I will say this now: If you don't know that this is right up mine and Kristin's alley, then clearly you need to spend more time around us. :)

Before you could start, you had to complete a small, quick scavenger hunt (mostly questions about sponsors that were in the parking lot, some other weird things too) in order to get a clue sheet that tells you where the 30 "stations" are.

So we sat down with our clue sheet to start figuring things out. One clue was:

a Great way foR u to get fit and burn off the summer calories youve been consuminG. you'll be workinG hard aS a PAir with the otheR so you won't leave kicKing and fuming.

This was a bit obvious, but the event was at GRIGGS PARK and it would involve lots of exercise.

There were a few required stations and them some you could pick and choose. The idea was to complete 10 of the 30 available stations and then go back to the start. The first team to do this would be the winners and would win a trip to Orlando for the National Championships in October.

Yeah... like I said, Kristin and I weren't "in it to win it". We were in it to have a fun day.

So we started out by hitting the Parkour station. We climbed walls, jumped off walls, scaled a fence, and Kristin had the misfortune of having to carry me piggie back through a few trees. Probably not our favorite station. Kristin got some nasty bruises getting off the first wall. Ouch. We were glad we got that one out of the way early.

Me after Parkour, "What are we thinking???"

Kristin after Parkour... she's a super-trooper!

Ouch!!!

Our second station was in a rooftop infinity pool. We were supposed to do a bit of a simulated rescue. Kristin got in a kayak and held a second kayak at about a 45 degree angle. I laid on my back in the pool and had to work my way into the empty kayak and get upright with Kristin's help without dunking the kayak (or Kristin!). Kristin had watched the pair before us do it successfully, so we did it on our first try. Sweet.

Then we hopped on a train and went to a very wealthy shopping area in Uptown. I'm sure all the ladies who were there shopping were thrilled to see all of us idiots running around. This station consisted of Kristin texting me a series of questions or tasks that I would text back to her. We were pretty fast.

Next we walked over to the Gladiator station. A mini-boot camp type thing. Yikes. It was okay, but ugh. Nothing fun and exciting about that one, that's for sure!

Next we walked, and we walked, and we walked some more to the nearest trail station. We rode it 8 blocks (it was SO worth it) to our next station. This one was held in the old Red Courthouse right in the middle of downtown. Not far from where Kennedy was shot. We were given a camera and had to complete five out of the seven tasks. One of us had to kiss a complete stranger. Easy. I just kissed a guy from another team who came in with us to the station. Weird, but one down. Then we had to get people who weren't participating in the race to do things while you took pictures or videos with your phone. This was harder for me. I didn't really want to go up to random people. But while I was struggling with the very idea, Kristin already had a woman agreeing to hop on Kristin's back so I could take a picture. Then she found a group of apparently fun loving people who were willing to stand and clap for 15 seconds while Kristin video taped me doing cartwheels. And I video taped while Kristin did a cheer with them. Which included a lift, kick, and a jump! :) They were great sports and made our task easy. The last thing we needed was a picture with someone in Cowboy apparel. I was thinking "Dallas Cowboys", but we walked outside and there was a real cowboy man. Hat, belt with big, shiny buckle, and Wranglers. It doesn't get much more Cowboy than that! We were like, "Hey." and he interrupted us saying, "Come on, I've been doing this all day." :) This was Kristin's favorite station. I enjoyed it, too.

Oh... and after we finished this station, we were sitting on the steps outside the courthouse looking at our maps when two teams came by asking if we would do the kissing thing. Sure. Why not. So I kissed two more guys. One of them was kind-a cute. :) The third one really went for it with his kiss. But I think he was really nervous. Kinda funny.

Then guess what we did? We walked some more. Ugh, ugh, and triple ugh.

We went down to the SPCA station and "shed a tear for the animals". You probably don't want to know what we did to make ourselves tear up. It involved fingers and tonsils.

For our last station, we walked a block or so down to Fuel City. There we had to "brand" cattle. They gave us a dust mop with about a two to three foot handle and put us in the pasture with the cows. The cows were all the way down at the end of the pasture, just past all the mud puddles (we had flooding earlier in the week). Fortunately, the cowboys hopped on their trusty horses and tried rounding them up for us. It didn't work so hot, but one cow got close enough that I just threw my mop at him and hit him on the butt. I looked at the "City Chase Official" who was sitting on the fence and yelled, "Does that count?" "NO!", he yelled. :) Fortunately, though, a few cows had gone into a small shed, so after another team went in and tagged one as two of them ran out of the shed. I was able to go in and face down a big longhorn (I think there's a reason he didn't run out when the other lady was in there... he wasn't skeered) and brand him with my mop and the one who ran out behind him. They don't give bonus points, though.

And even though we hadn't completed 10 stations, we were shot and it was 3:00. (You had to be checked in at the finish by 4:30.) So we headed back (we were pretty close to the finish) and were lucky enough to catch a bus for part of the ride back. We checked in, sat down for a few minutes, then realized we cared nothing about the ending ceremony or the free beer, so we left and caught the train back up to Plano.

Kristin at the finish line!

Really fun day. The next day... not so much from all the sore muscles, but Saturday was a blast. I think my favorite was the cow branding. Followed closely by the kayak. I hope we can do it again next year. Now that we know what to expect, I think we could do better. Not that we care so much, but we definitely want to decrease the walking and increase the number of challenges. :)

Me at the finish line... Kristin's better at smiling through the agony. :)

Home Alone

**This message is brought to you by a gesture from the Mike South kindness foundation.**

Well. Here I am. Alone in my house. Mike left with all the kids about an hour ago. I've got three and a half days all to myself.

Being home alone is just about my favorite thing in the whole world. Especially when I have a little one. It's how I recharge my batteries.

I've cleaned the living room since they left and got started upstairs. I want to try to have things all clean by tomorrow night so I can enjoy the remaining two days of alone-ness in a house that's clean (and stays that way!).

So now I will go vacuum the concrete floor and run a load of dishes and a load of laundry. Then I'll kick back and watch a movie upstairs. I haven't watched Gladiator in a year or two. I believe some Russell Crowe time is in order. Plus it's the movie with all the quotes that come to my mind at random times:

"Am I not merciful!?!"
"As you wept for your Father?"
"Are you ready to do your duty for Rome?"
"At my signal, unleash hell."
"He was a soldier of Rome. Honor him."
"I've been alone all my life. Except with you."
"But not yet. Not yet."

Oooo... I'm really excited about the movie now!

**Edit: How could I have forgotten to mention this one:

"What we do in life echos in eternity."

Great movie!!!

Couch to 5K

I re-started the Couch to 5K program that I began just before our vacation (that was brilliant). I've done four of the 27 workouts designed to help you be able to run a 5K race by the end. I'm doing alright so far.

The first three days were 60 seconds of running followed by 90 seconds, eight or nine times, for a total of 20 minutes. (Five minute warm up and cool down for a grand total of 30 minutes.)

Yesterday's workout was 90 seconds of running followed by two minutes of walking. Also 20 minutes plus the warm up/cool down.

I tend to do much better towards the end of the 30 minutes than I do in the beginning. That's a good thing and something I learned about my body during my yoga days. Yoga classes were an hour and a half. I would struggle bad during the first 30 minutes, but by the time it was over, I felt like I had just hit my stride.

So I'm feeling good about the program and hope that it will continue to be a good thing for me. Next week I plan to add some weightlifting on the days that I don't do the running.

Part of my goal is to lose the 10 pounds I have put on this year (ugh) and part of my goal is to just do something good for my body to help me feel better. I've been sluggish lately and am ready to make some changes in my routine.

Now I just need to convince my taste buds that they really don't want all the sweets they think they do!

Movie Titles

I have often thought that I should have written down all the names my kids had for movies when they were little. A few memorable ones are:

Sword in the Stone - "Stone" (Reid)

Babe - "Pig" (Reid)

The Muppet Movie - "Ball" (Reid)...

okay at this point I realize that all I remember are Reid's names for movies... and the "Ball" name came from the earth spinning with the Universal Studios logo at the beginning of the movie...

Star Wars - "Boy Saves the Day" (Probably Reid)

Anyway. Cuteness abounded.

So now Kira discovered something that she really likes: Wallace and Gromit.

She calls it, "Cheese". She even lifts her hands up to her shoulders and shakes them when she says it. :)

Cuteness still abounds.

The Magic Bag

A few years ago, I had noticed Sara's cute bag that she carried. I'm sure I asked her about it and I'm sure she told me about it, but I promptly forgot anything she told me because my mommy brain is... well... a sieve.

Last year I saw Sara during the summer and again admired her cute bag (same one... it was holding up nicely). I didn't want to ask her about it AGAIN, so I just admired it from afar.

Then in August, Kristin was carrying a bag that was similar to Sara's and I thought, "That's it, I'm getting a bag like that!"

So I went searching. But I couldn't find what I liked.

Then I met up with Sara again over Thanksgiving in Arkansas and this time asked about her bag.

Turns out they're made by a small company in Seattle called Tom Bihn. I came home and ordered their Medium Cafe Bag. Sara has the Small Cafe Bag. My thoughts were that since I had all of Kira's stuff to tote around with me, I'd like to have a bit bigger of a bag.

Several months of happy use went by when I began to get ready for my flight out to Utah to visit Mike's parents.

I like to travel light. Very light. And that's not easy to do with a baby.

I had my Ergo baby carrier to carry Kira. I figured I would need to carry a large bag for all of the stuff I'd need while on the plane: books, snacks, diapers, etc. I started gathering what I needed and started packing it into my Tom Bihn bag.

Then something magic happened. It was as if the bag was somehow growing larger every time I went to put something in it. It was amazing. It held so much stuff I was mystified.

I have recreated the events so you can see what I was able to get into the bag. :)

The top picture is of the bag with all it's stuff in it easily clasped shut.

This next picture shows the full bag from the top.

And now for the contents:

Large Sippy Cup

One single subject notebook (80 sheets, spiralbound)

One approx 11 in x 6 in board book

Two approx 6 in x 6 in board books

One quart ziploc with three diapers and several papertowels (for wipes)

One quart ziploc with a change of clothes (for Kira, not me) :)

One container with small toys (actually, the container I took with me was bigger and had twelve little toys, the one shown is holding 6)

Sandwich baggie with pretzels

Small box of raisins (I actually had three of these)

4 oz container of baby food

Small bottle of hand sanitizer (maybe 1 oz)

iPhone

Pen

Baby Spoon

Keys (dangling from a strap attached to the bag)

Wallet (also dangling from a strap attached to the bag)

Not pictured:

Box of crayons

Several plastic bags (for diaper trash), and a few lollipops (bribes) are in the front zippered pocket

All of this stuff fit in this bag. And it's not a big bag! It fit very comfortably on my shoulder or across my chest while I had Kira on my back in the Ergo. It was so nice to feel like a normal passenger even when traveling with a baby.

Yea, Tom Bihn!

What the...?

Has it been since May that I've posted? Wow.

I've been busy.

I just wanted to share this video with you. I really hope it works so you can see one tiny little glimpse of our time with Danny and Laura.

I'll start catching up soon!

The Fruits of my Labor

I'm sitting here eating breakfast. Toast with cherry jam I made last summer. I'd never made cherry jam. Heck. I've never eaten cherry jam. But oh boy. This stuff is good!

My plan for this summer as far as "jamming" is to pick blueberries in mid June. I'll probably freeze most of them whole and make syrup with the rest. Blueberry jelly isn't something I've tried before, so I think I'll stick to what I know there. Then after we get back from our trip to GA and NC, I'll put up blackberry and cherry jam.

And if I can find a good source for green beans, I'll can green beans, too.

Yummy. I love summer!

Dancing With Daddy

Mike is listening to some funky music that he got from my dad. (Imagine that: my dad likes funky music!)

So a song got into Mike's soul, I suppose, and he got up to start dancing (I call it flailing.)

And when he did, he happened to step on a pile of coins that Kira had piled on the floor and they made a nice clinking noise that she really liked. After a few minutes of watching Mike and sort of dancing, she got up, walked over to the pile of coins and starting dancing like crazy. :) It is just too cute to watch her mimicking Mike's movement: jumping, swinging her arms, bobbing her head. It's really cute. Who knew adding clinking coins would encourage a baby to dance? :)

I'll just have to make sure these dance lessons don't go on for too long. Her chances of normalcy are decreased if she thinks flailing is a proper form of dancing...

Just look at her dad.

Hurt Me, Rhonda

Last week I went to our local massage school for a massage. I have been having a lot of back/shoulder/neck pain recently that I know has been caused by large knots in my muscles.

The massage school has interns ($30/hr), advanced students ($40/hr), and instructors ($50/hr). I got an intern. A few times during her massage, it almost tickled. I will admit that she did relax me, but it did NOTHING for my back issues. So as I was leaving, I said to the woman who runs the school (and works the front desk), "Yeah, that was okay, but I need someone who will dig into my back." She said, "Come see Gabrielle next week." So yesterday I saw Gabrielle. She's also an intern, but oh my. She put a world of hurt on me. And those knots in my back/neck/shoulders? They are huge and plentiful. And extremely painful. The biggest ones are under my shoulder blades right in the middle.

I actually was brought to tears during the massage. It hurt so bad. But I knew it needed to.

I'm going back next week, too. These knots are going to take a while to work out. I hate spending the money on it, but it's at the point where it's causing me not to sleep well and I'm uncomfortable most days. And a few days ago I had pain shooting down my right arm. I wasn't sure what that was from, but during the massage, she hit a spot on my largest knot (which is at the right shoulder blade) and a huge shot of pain ran down my right arm. So at least I know it's all related.

I'm going to ask her to take it just a tad bit easier on me next week. I'm so sore from the massage that I can hardly sit here and type. My head has been pounding since the massage, too. And my nose is running. They say toxins from your muscles get released during a massage and I now believe that fully. I feel like crap.

But it's a good thing.

Burning Up the Highway

Last month I traveled to Vicksburg, MS with Reid, Zach, and Kira to meet my mom. She drove in from Georgia and we stayed in the Quality Inn. It was a great weekend. We shopped at the outlet mall, drove all around Vicksburg, visited the downtown Coca Cola museum, and hung out at the hotel. It was a great, relaxing weekend.

The drive there was a little tough. Kira melted down about 30 minutes before we got there and we just had to power through it. She just wanted to stop and be held by her mother. The drive home was significantly better. She slept for a good ways and then was happy the rest of the way, so I never stopped. The boys weren't too thrilled about that, but I know I made the best decision. If Kira's happy, we're all happy. :)

Mom and I plan to do these meetings twice a year. We'll meet again in Vicksburg in the fall and then we'll start looking into other places to meet after that. Maybe along I-40 or in a more rural setting...

And then last week I flew up to Las Vegas and was picked up by John and Judy and they drove me up to their house in Cedar City. The airport in Las Vegas shouldn't have surprised me, but it seems a bit silly that there were slot machines right outside all of the gates. I mean, just because you *can*, doesn't mean you *should*. Kira did really great on the flight. She was happy and quiet for most of it. Then she started getting fussy when we were landing in Las Vegas. She fell asleep while we were taxing to the gate after we landed. That was probably the most inconvenient time she could have fallen asleep... she could have slept during the flight, or during the drive, but no... she wanted to sleep for 20 minutes and then wake up. But actually she did sleep for about an hour of the two and a half hour drive up to Cedar City.

I really enjoyed the scenery. I've never been to Arizona, Nevada, or southern Utah, so it was nice for me to admire the mountains and countryside. I even learned why Andy's wallpaper in Toy Story is blue sky with puffy clouds. I never knew that was a "western sky" until the drive back down to Las Vegas when John pointed it out to me.

Kira and I really enjoyed our visit. It was just the right length, I think. Long enough to really feel like you're part of that world, but not so long that you feel homesick. Just right.

We enjoyed a visit from Mike's brother, Joe, and his family. Their two boys (5 1/2 and 3) were really nice to Kira. She was so happy to get to play with them. It was really cute. And it was really nice to see them. They are some of my favorite people in the whole world and it's always nice to catch up in person.

One goal I had for when we were visiting was to help Kira learn to go to sleep on her own. I took my Dr. Ferber book and had my timer and was ready to be consistent. The first night I put her to bed after a bath and stories and she cried for about 15 minutes before falling asleep. Most of the other nights, she went to sleep without crying. She usually cried for about 10 minutes for naps. The middle of the night was a little rougher. The best night she had was 25 minutes. One night it was an hour. It was nice to know that I didn't have so many demands on my time and energy and so I didn't get so stressed out about her crying and keeping me awake.

So overall I was really pleased with how that worked. She's been doing great since we got home. She had some trouble last night, but we're just taking it one day at a time. It's a totally different lifestyle when you can just lay your baby down for a nap or bed. No more trying to get them to go to sleep and feeling frustrated when they won't even though you know they're exhausted. I think she's happier for it.

So besides the great cousin visit, we drove around Cedar City a good bit. John and Judy showed me all the sights. (Okay, there aren't many, but it's a nice little city.) I really, really liked the old church building and some of the older homes closer in downtown. The mountains are beautiful. I remember that from my trip to Joe's three years ago. The vast contrast between the flat plains and the towering mountains. I'm used to rolling hill/mountain country. But this is quite beautiful.

Kira had lots of great grandparent interaction. She'd hardly let them sit for long. She was always grabbing their fingers taking them to the room where the toys were. I'm sure she wore them out, but it sure was cute. She's had to adjust a bit to more normal levels of adult interaction since she's been home. Poor thing.

On the last full day we were there, I cut Judy's hair. She's been wanting to have it be shorter for quite a while, so I cut it to her shoulders. It's been about 40 years, I think, since she has had her hair this short. I was (and still am) nervous about the cut. I think I did a pretty decent job, but I still fret over it a bit. It was a big move for her. But it will be so much easier to manage and I know she'll enjoy that. I wouldn't grow my hair as long anymore except that I like to donate it. That shoulder length is just perfect to me. Long enough to pull back and tuck behind your ears, but not so long that caring for it is a pain.

Then the night before we were going to leave, it snowed about an inch or so. It was so fun to wake up to snow. And it was well behaved snow, because the roads were clear by the time we left to drive to the airport.

The trip home was long, but good. Kira did great and slept for 11 hours straight that night after we got home. She was as exhausted as I was!

Now I am getting ready for John and Judy to come here to visit John's family and us. Then in early June I'll head out to California to visit Mike's sister, Ann, and her family with Cole and Kira. And then at the end of June all of us will make a trip out to Georgia and North Carolina.

I think this will go down as "the year of travels".

My Baby

Okay... this picture doesn't have anything to do with my post, but it sure is cute!!!

Welp. Kira is weaned. I honestly wasn't sure if I could do it. If she would let me. But a few days ago, I just knew it needed to stop. And she went the whole day without asking for it, or trying to pull my shirt up, so I figured the planets were aligned and I better jump on the opportunity. I nursed her about an hour before bed that day and then a couple of days later in the middle of the day when I was in pain, but that's been it. I think it's been about three days now that I haven't nursed her at all. She has asked a couple of times each day, but seems to be coping well.

So...

YEA!!!

I'm a tad bit sad that she's growing up and moving on, but not really. Mostly, I'm giddy at the mere fact that I don't have to be with her pretty much all the time.

Now off to pack for our trip to visit her Grandma and Grandpa South.

Another YEA!!!

Easter Bunnies

Last night was perfect temperature wise. So after dinner we all went out in the back yard. We came in after a while and I guess the cat stayed outside. Then we heard a squeaking/screeching kind of noise and Cole said he thought the cat had caught a bat. Mike went out to check and said that he thought it was a newborn bunny. So I went out and found that indeed, Kory had a newborn bunny. It was uninjured except for having pooed itself. :( So I picked it up trying to figure out what on earth I was going to do with it!

Thoughts were running through my head, "Can I care for a newborn bunny?" "Would it drink milk from a medicine dropper?" "Ugh. Why me?"

Then I realized that the cat was sniffing vigorously in a spot a few feet away. I walked over and there was another newborn bunny. I put it's sibling down by it to comfort them both and looked around with the flashlight when I found their mother's den. Then I see all the stuffing that the cat must have pulled out when he was searching for the bunnies. So I put the two bunnies back in with as much of the stuffing as I could and just hoped for the best. We all turned around and started going back in the house when I decided to look around some more. And what did I find?

Another baby bunny.

Only this one is injured. He's bleeding and not moving much. Breathing hard. Mike and I decided that nature would have to take it's course with that one. So we all went back inside. This morning Zach reminded me to go out and look to see what was up with the bunnies. The injured one is gone. Maybe his mom brought him back or maybe something else carried him away.

And the rest of the stuffing is back in the bunny hole. Hopefully that means mom came home to find two of her babies okay.

We'll keep the cat out of the back yard for a while.

Then in a few weeks when bunnies are eating my vegetable garden, I'll probably let him back out again.

What?

Everybody loves a newborn.

But not everyone loves kids.

Right?

Ahhhhhh

Life is too hectic to keep a consistent blog!!!

This past weekend Reid, Zach, Kira and I drove to Vicksburg, Mississippi to meet my mom. The drive there was good except for the last 30 minutes that Kira screamed her head off. And the drive back was as easy as could be. We didn't even stop. We made it home in 5 hrs and 40 minutes. I didn't even drive that fast. 77 in mostly 70mph zones.

Our visit was great. We stayed at a decent little hotel right off I-20. They served breakfast and it was pretty decent. The value of a free breakfast can't be overlooked when there are teenage boys to feed. :)

We spent Saturday afternoon at the Vicksburg outlet mall. We drove around a good bit on some scenic routes and through downtown. There are lots of casinos on the river.

On Sunday we had planned to do our outdoor activities: seeing a Civil War battlefield memorial, walking through a downtown landscaped garden, and going to a great local playground. However, the freak weather storm came and made those things a bit difficult. We were fortunate not to see any snow (well, there were a few flurries at one point), but it was 39 degrees outside, so we decided to go to the local Coca-Cola museum. A guy in Vicksburg was the first person to bottle Coca-Cola. That was fascinating. The museum was tiny, but interesting. We went to Walmart and the Dollar Tree (Zach's favorite store of all time) and then went and ate a late lunch at Cracker Barrel. Then we went back to the hotel and watched TV for 7 hours straight! :) Hey... it's a vacation. We're allowed.

A nice trip overall. Mom and I are planning on trying to meet twice a year. Once more in Vicksburg, but then maybe other places after that so we can explore other towns.

Changes, Plans, Projects... LIFE!

I don't think life ever "settles". Something is always causing trouble: illness, hormones, projects, sports, you name it...

I've spent the past couple of days trying to catch up on some projects around the house. I got the last two bookcases put up in the living room. I took off the baseboards for those (because the other bookcases on the other side of the fireplace required that) only to learn that there's a little more room over on this newest side and I didn't need to do that. So I put the baseboards back on. The bookcases led me to clean out some things from our downstairs TV room. I got some of our games that have lived in that closet out and emptied a bookcase that was in that room, and moved them out to the new bookcase.

And so then I thought, "I'd really like to get my canning jars out of the TV room closet." But that required that I finally get up the second wire shelf in the laundry room. So I did that, moved the canning jars over, moved the TV room bookcase (now empty) into the hallway and basically just made a mess of everything. :)

So today I've been trying to get it all put back together. And I don't have a choice because Shawn (my nephew) is bringing over my dad's old couch tonight. A big sectional couch. I've got to have things ready for that.

Oh... and I finally pulled up the carpet in a spot where the cat peed repeatedly. Stupid cat. It's soaked into the plywood, so we're going to have to cut that out and replace it. Stupid cat. I've got some laminate to put down in it's place. And if the cat finds another pee spot somewhere, he'll be finding new owners I'm afraid.

So during all of this, I think, "It'll be nice when we're back to normal." And then I laugh at myself.

Normal.

Like that exists!

Especially when there's a teething 16.5 month old in the house!!!

Revolving Door

Our house should have a revolving door. On any given day we:

Take Reid to seminary

Pick Reid up from seminary

Take Reid to school

Pick Zach up from track practice

Pick Reid up from water polo practice

That's right. Water Polo. He finished wrestling on a Friday and started Water Polo the next Monday. Several boys from church are playing, so Reid opted for that instead of track. I think he's having a good time. He says they have a game this weekend, but he doesn't know where or when. :) Gotta love communicating with teenage boys.

Zach started track last week. He was running the 400, but switched to discus. He says he's pretty good at it. They have a practice meet today at McKinney North High School. Hopefully he'll do well.

Those two keep us busy.

And so does their baby sister. She keeps us as busy inside the house and Reid and Zach do outside the house.

Jacob and Cole are the calmness in the house. They go to gymnastics once a week and Cole has piano once a week, but other than that, they are pretty easy.

Thoughts

I love this little person. But man, has she ever changed my life. I guess babies are notorious for doing just that.

For instance, right now, this very second, she's sitting on the kitchen table watching Cole eat his lunch. Now she's trying to put her hat in his food. He's telling her "That's a no-no." Of course, she just leaned in to give him a kiss, so I guess he can't complain too much. :)

The kids have started eating at the bar to keep away from her. She's trying to figure out how to get on the bar stools, but that may take a while. Hopefully, anyway.

Last night I was reflecting on these changes and whether or not I'm appreciating this time with her or just recognizing how much harder things are now. And I thought about a talk that President Monson gave last year (he's the president of our church). Some of the things he said in his talk really resonated with me:

This is our one and only chance at mortal life—here and now. The longer we live, the greater is our realization that it is brief. Opportunities come, and then they are gone. I believe that among the greatest lessons we are to learn in this short sojourn upon the earth are lessons that help us distinguish between what is important and what is not. I plead with you not to let those most important things pass you by as you plan for that illusive and non-existent future when you will have time to do all that you want to do. Instead, find joy in the journey—now.

What great wisdom. He goes on to mention what I'm dealing with specifically:

If you are still in the process of raising children, be aware that the tiny fingerprints that show up on almost every newly cleaned surface, the toys scattered about the house, the piles and piles of laundry to be tackled will disappear all too soon and that you will—to your surprise—miss them profoundly.

I need to print these passages out and stick them on my fridge. I know how much I miss my little boys. I don't want to go back and raise them all over again, but when I look at pictures of them, my heart aches to be with them again. And I wonder if I did everything I could for them. I need to keep that perspective with them now and with Kira.

Hopefully I can do that today. And I'll worry about tomorrow tomorrow.

I Actually Won Something! - Part 2

So you know I won a book from PoopandBoogies.blogspot.com! It's called Frankie Pickle and the Pine Run 3000. I've never seen this series of books before, so I'm excited to get introduced to them.

And to top it all off, PoopandBoogies' Bill is going to meet with the author in a couple of weeks and offered to get the book signed for me! How cool is that? I asked if he could have it signed to "The Souths". How fun!

I think I offended him with my last post. :( I was trying to be funny, but I guess when you are as sleep deprived as I've been and have as little adult conversation as I have the past two years, what's funny or not can be very confusing!

I Actually Won Something!

Do you ever read Poop and Boogies? He was having a giveaway

for a new children's book and was giving two of them

away and I won!

Go figure!

He contacted me by commenting on my "Doing Better" post.

But I guess my writing isn't up to snuff, so he just left

this generic comment. :)

Fun, fun.

WILLIAM said...

Hello,
I wanted to let you know that you won the Frankie Pickle book over at Poop and Boogies.

Can you email me at batmeaks @ verizon. net

February 14, 2010 7:10 AM

(Now if I could just win that HGTV 2010

Dream Home!)

Ugh

I should know better than to say things like "I'll take pictures tomorrow." or "I'm feeling better."

Sunday afternoon, after the first hour of church, I started getting a bit woozy. My head was killing me, my throat was killing me, and I was hit by a wave of exhaustion that I couldn't ignore. So Mike took Kira and I home and I slept while she napped.

I also slept after she napped. I slept for four hours. And when I woke up, my throat was on fire.

So back to the doctor I went. I got stronger antibiotics. Monday evening was very difficult. You know the kind of all over body pain that's so bad that your skin hurts to touch? I was just sitting on the couch hoping I wouldn't just die. So now it's Wednesday and I'm not feeling as bad as I was on Monday. My throat is back under control. I'm just dealing with a cold that is trying to get into my chest. Hopefully it's something that the antibiotics that I'm already on can help with.

Probably not, but I can hope!

Good news is that I actually loaded the dishwasher today all by myself. I've been making Mike and the kids do it. I don't know if I'll be up to cooking dinner tonight. (Mike has done it two nights in a row... what a good husband!) It's stroganoff tonight, which is historically his dinner to cook, so maybe he'll have to deal with it again. Poor guy.

I decided against a nap today. I was sure I wanted to take one, but I decided to just stick it out. Hopefully I won't regret that decision in a few hours.

Doing Better

Thanks to amoxicillin and motrin, I was feeling much better by Wednesday evening. I'm not back to normal. I spent the day catching up on cleaning. Everyone else is healthy, so that's really good. Hopefully no one will get it from me.

Mike and Dad worked on getting the old transmission out of our parts Vanagon today. Did you know about our parts Vanagon? Mike bought one a couple of months ago.

And I worked on getting some shelves put up in the hallway and the laundry room. I'm close to being done. Just one more shelf in the laundry room. Kira now has a little shelf for her jackets and things in the hallway. What a cutie! I'll take pictures tomorrow.

Strep

Ugh. I have strep throat. How awful is that?

I woke up Sunday morning with a bit of a sore throat. (Or was it Saturday??? I can't remember!) Anyway. It got a lot worse overnight last night and after seeing little white patches on my tonsils this morning, I decided to go get checked out. Now I'm on anti-biotics and hopefully will feel better soon.

Can someone tell my body that Moms aren't supposed to get sick?

Starting to Pay Off

Cole's been taking lessons for 5 months now and it's really starting to show. :)

Reid's Assignment

Reid has map assignments in his World Geography class. He drew the dragon for Cole. I hope his teacher appreciates the humor. :)

CoCo

In the last month, Kira has become much more independent. One thing she loves to do during the day is go upstairs and hang out with Jacob and Cole. She likes to bang on the computers when they're trying to use them, destroy Legos that they carefully built. You know. Standard destructive baby behavior.

But what's really cute is when Cole comes downstairs toting Kira on his hip. He's either trying to get her away from his stuff, or she's fussy and he's bringing her to me, or she's poopy and he's bringing her to me, or he just wanted to come downstairs and Kira wanted to go with him.

Sometimes when he tries to put her down, she fusses, so he keeps holding her. It's just a cute relationship. My two babies. Only one isn't so much of a baby anymore...

A couple of mornings ago I left Kira home while I took Reid to school. I asked Cole to feed her breakfast while I was gone. I helped gather a few things for him to feed her and then got ready to go. He picked her up, put her in her highchair, got her tray on, and started giving her her food (finger foods, he didn't have to spoon feed her). When I got home (it takes about 12 minutes), she was in her chair still and Cole was sitting next to her at the table eating a bowl of Kix. He said, "She didn't want her toast, so I gave her some Kix."

It's just so sweet to watch those two interact. He'll be the brother she spends the most time with. It's nice that they're off to a good start.

Happy 10th Birthday, Little Man

Reid's Facebook

Reid South So today i wake up and the baby is crawling on me. Next she gets off my bed and closes every door in my room. She goes to the one that opens to the hall and starts banging it and yelling (this is her way of saying open the door). So as it turns out baby is my new alarm clock that makes me wake up and get up. There is no snooze button and i obviously cant smash her. My favorite baby in the world

about an hour ago via Facebook for iPhone · Comment ·

Brandon Driggs

Babyyyyy!!!

about an hour ago

Reid South

Never thought i could love her so much

56 minutes ago

What are we going to do with her?

Kira is a little beacon of joy in our house. She's so full of life and has so much energy. We all adore her.

But when you find her sitting on the second rung of a ladder while you were folding laundry... well, you wonder what on earth you're doing with this little baby!

She is, for the most part, fearless. Take today for instance. I was sitting in the living room when I hear rattling from the kitchen. I go in and find her with an empty laundry basket that she's turned upside down, pushed up to the cabinets, standing on it to reach into the drawers in the kitchen. I suppose I should be really, really grateful that she understands it when I tell her no. She usually just runs off looking for her next adventure.

And even though it drives me a little crazy, I'm grateful for a daughter who isn't afraid to try things, isn't afraid to be up on that ladder. (I'm also grateful that she doesn't mind that I hold onto her arm to support her and make sure she's safe.)

But mostly I'm thankful that we have since cleaned up that messy corner of our house! :)

Good News, Bad News

First... Reid finally got the stomach bug. Poor kid. He's been throwing up all evening. He was looking quite pitiful earlier in the evening. I haven't gone up to check on him a whole lot because I'm still a bit queasy. Mike fortunately was willing to take care of some of the clean up.

Good news is the rest of us are mostly doing pretty good. I had lots of energy this morning, but would get stomach cramps if I was up too long. I think that ended by mid afternoon, so I got dinner cooked and got a lot of cleaning done in the kitchen.

And I did end up staying home from church. It was a good thing, too. Mike left with the boys at 10:15. I had put Kira in the bath just as they were leaving (we finally had some hot water). She was just crying and crying while she was in there and wanted out as soon as I would let her. So I got her out and usually she's happy playing on the bed naked after a bath, but she just kept crying. So I put her diaper on her, nursed her, and she was asleep by 10:30. She woke up at 12:45. She was a tired girl and we would have been 100% miserable if we had gone to church. I should have spent the time reading my scriptures, but I just did nothing.

Perhaps that has it's own merit for a mother of 5 after a week of stomach flu.

Hello New World

You know that feeling you have after you've been sick and you're back to normal. You feel like you could conquer the world. I pretty much feel that way today. But if I'm up and about too much, my stomach muscles knot up and make me feel like I need to puke, so it's a bit of a bummer.

Don't know if I'll be going to church today or not... If Mike wasn't in primary, I'd feel like I could handle it, but trying to deal with an almost 15 month old by myself for two hours when church is in the middle of both lunch and nap times is a bit daunting. (I know... I'm a big weeny...)

The fact that our hot water heater somehow got turned down and there isn't enough hot water for me to shower may be a sign from above.

Ugh, Ugh, and Triple Ugh

Actually I guess it's Sextuple Ugh. The bug has hit everyone but Reid. Mike and I aren't puking, but I wish I was (he's glad not to be... we're WAY different that way). It's awful. Cold, clammy sweats. Nausea galore.

But the Jacob, Cole, and Zach are all feeling much better. Hopefully Mike and I will follow soon. I'm planning to sleep as much as possible tomorrow. That is if I can rest while being this sick to my stomach... not an easy thing to do.

Okay. Off to watch a movie or something to try to keep my mind off my stomach. :(

Oh No!

It looks like the bug has hit Cole. Poor guy. He was throwing up this evening. He's sleeping now. Hopefully it will end quickly for him like it did for Kira.

(And this picture is from about a month ago when he was pleased with himself for getting the broom to stand up on it's own.)

Feeling Better

I'm glad that stomach bugs are typically short lived. She's doing better. Not fully back to eating like normal, but close. And she slept well last night. That hasn't happened in a while. I got 4 1/2 straight hours by the time she woke up at 3am and my body was in such shock that I had trouble falling back asleep.

Sickness

We've been lucky with Kira. Other than the tummy issues she had during her first six months of life, she's been very healthy.

She had a cold a few weeks back and has had lingering congestion since then.

But last night, she started throwing up. Her first time to have a stomach bug.

It's hard to watch her feel so bad. And throwing up really takes the energy right out of you, so she's just laying around being pitiful.

Hopefully it will end soon and we can get back to enjoying the lively little girl that she typically is.