The Souths

Our One Yummy Watermelon

2011-08-19T09:08:00.002-04:00

We've had lots of watermelons growing, but they would all get stunted. This has been our sole watermelon.

And it was YUMMY!

A few photos

2011-07-07T21:40:00.002-04:00

Life is super crazy. Kira is becoming more difficult to deal with as she approaches three years old. She's been making me crazy. I actually had the thought the other day, "I wonder if I had another kid... would it make raising her easier?" HAH! You know it's bad if I'm thinking that.

And just FYI... the answer is NO! NO! NO! So don't get any ideas about that.

Anyway. Tonight Reid was washing the car, so I caught a nice picture. Then I went and took a couple of pictures of my garden.

I knew working at Waffle House would pay off...

2011-04-27T07:29:00.003-04:00

Aside from me being a great short order cook, I finally found another benefit to having worked at Waffle House...

The worst part (to me) about making weiner schnitzel is the egg dip. You have to deal with the egg whites and their slimey parts dripping everywhere and the bread crumbs who don't stick to it very well. Icky!

I've thought about the solution for years. Why did it take me so long?

At Waffle House, when someone orders an omelet, they put the eggs in a blender to make them puff up and be smoooooth.

So I finally stuck my eggs in a blender when I made schnitzel on Monday for Mike's belated birthday dinner.

Wow. Wow. And Triple Wow! It was soooo nice!

No icky egg whites. No drippy muck. No gooey blobs in my breadcrumbs. Just smooth, clean schnitzeling!

Woo Hoo!

Thank you, Waffle House!!!

Single Parent Camping

2011-03-17T09:09:00.002-04:00

I'm heading out with the kids in a little while to Eisenhower State Park on Lake Texoma. Mike is in Boston. I'm taking them alone.

Oh my. I hope I live to tell the tale.

Bedrooms

2011-02-04T13:59:00.004-05:00

Here are the pictures from the kid's rooms.

View from Kira's bedroom door. She has been sleeping on a mattress on the floor in my bedroom for the past few months, so having her on the trundle frame works out well for now. The futon is in transition... not sure were it will end up. (This used to be Zach's room.)

The view from her bed to her closet. She was so excited to see all of her clothes hanging up in her closet. It was really cute.

Zach and Cole's room. I decided to put the bookshelf between their beds like this to help them feel separated. We'll see if they like it after a few weeks. Cole's bed is the one in the "nook". Zach didn't want to be back there, but Cole seems to like it. (This used to be Reid's room.)

View from the door/hallway into Reid and Jacob's room. Jacob is sleeping on this twin bed. It's the day bed part to Kira's trundle bed. (This used to be Jacob and Cole's room.)

View from the foot of Jacob's bed. This is Reid's queen size bed. It's really nice that this room is big enough to accommodate his bed.

I think the boys are reasonably happy with these arrangements. Reid and Zach previously had their own rooms... so they're not *happy*, but they seem to be alright with it.

Kira has been a bit freaked out in the middle of the night. The first night she totally freaked out when she woke up. Then last night, she stayed in her bed, but was calling for "Daddy". Hopefully she'll get used to it soon. I know I'm enjoying being able to get up in the middle of the night to go pee without worrying about waking her up! :)

Whew.

2011-02-02T19:39:00.002-05:00

Today I rearranged all the kid's bedrooms. I had been planning the moves for a while because I wanted to get Kira out of our bedroom.

As a baby, she slept in her crib in our closet (it's a big closet). Then a few months ago, I took down her crib and she's been sleeping on her crib mattress in the corner of our bedroom. Recently I put a twin size mattress down there for her (she is a restless sleeper, so I wanted her to have a bigger bed).

My biggest decision was whether to put her in a room with one of her brothers, or to put her in her own room. I finally decided that she needed to be in her own room.

That meant that Reid and Zach would have to share a bedroom. They've each had their own rooms since we moved into this house. However, they both said they'd rather share a room with Kira than with each other.

So... my final decision was to put Reid and Jacob together, and Zach and Cole together. So that's what I did today. Reid and Jacob are in the biggest bedroom. Zach and Cole are in the next biggest and then Kira is in the smallest (but still quite large) bedroom. The furniture arrangements seem to be working out for now. I'll take pictures tomorrow after I get everything completely done and post them here.

My biggest concern with this arrangement is that Kira will be upstairs. Mine and Mike's bedroom is downstairs. This really only concerns me because she does tend to wake up at night. Not nearly as much as she used to, but I worry. I think for the first few nights I'll sleep on the couch in the game room so I can try to teach her to stay in her bed.

We'll see how it goes.

All the furniture moving today has just about worn me out. But I'm really happy with the results. Hopefully Reid and Zach won't harbor too much resentment for their mother because she's taking away their private mini-palaces. :)

Closer to Normal...

2011-01-25T17:27:00.003-05:00

We're getting closer to normal around here.

Zach woke up sick to his stomach this morning and has thrown up a few times today. But Kira is feeling almost normal. It's amazing how hard life is when she's sick. And while I don't want to downplay Zach's illness, it's just nothing compared to dealing with Kira. He pukes and then goes and lays down on the couch. Easy.

And just for the heck of it, I want to post a picture of our eternally patient kitty:

Humpty Dumpty...

2011-01-23T11:22:00.002-05:00

...sat on a wall.
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the King's horses, and all the King's men
Couldn't put Humpty Dumpty together again.

Kira's illness has thrown me for a loop, knocked me off my wall, kicked me in the patooty.

Man. I'm exhausted beyond words.

But thankfully she's slowly feeling better.

Hopefully Kira's health will be able to put the pieces back together and my world will return to normal.

Only Three Months...

2011-01-20T17:02:00.004-05:00

It's been three months since I posted here. Yeah... I'm doing good to keep my head above water...

But I did want to share this bit of a story:

Yesterday around 4pm, I was sitting in a chair finishing up the VERY last row of Cole's surprise crocheted blanket for his birthday (WHICH IS TODAY... HAPPY BIRTHDAY COLE!!!) when Kira climbed in my lap looking all tired. I thought, "She had kind of a bad night... I guess she might fall asleep and take a nap." No sooner did I think that when she puked all over me, the blanket, the floor, the chair... did I mention me? Big, chunky puke, too. Whew. She had a few residual pukes, we got her cleaned up, wrapped her up in a couple of towels, put her on her bed, and she promptly passed out. I cleaned up all the puke off me, had to tie off the blanket I was making, and got everything in the washer.

During one of my many, many trips to the sink to rinse off the washcloth I was using to wipe up the chunks, my eldest child asked, "Can we do a driving lesson?"

Sidestory:

See... he turned 16 a little over a month ago and he's certain he's going to die if he doesn't get his license: NOW! We've been working on completing the driver's ed course as quickly as possible. He has it in his head that we should be done tomorrow so that he can go and schedule a driving test and have his license by the middle of next week. I've tried explaining to him that that might not happen for him as he plans, but all I get in return are heavy sighs.

Back to the main story:

I say, "Kira just puked all over the place and I'm dealing with that right now." His response, "So, what, 10 minutes?"

Yeah... the conversations I heard in dark corners at church between moms who were so happy that their sons were moving off to college are becoming clearer to me. I know that teenagers think the universe and everything in it revolve around them, but really? 10 minutes?

I love my oldest. Truly. Deeply. But wow. I don't know that I'm ready to fight the gravity of his planetary greatness for the next two and a half years.

Anyway...

Kira is beginning to feel better. Literally 24 hours later. How do stomach viruses do that?

I just hope and pray that it doesn't start spreading to the other kids. Although, if I was a bettin' man... I'd probably bet against me on that one.

Oh... and the blanket is still sitting waiting to be finished before dinner when we attempt to celebrate Cole's birthday amid the lingering smell of stomach virus in the house.

Yeah...

2010-10-22T08:49:00.003-04:00

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

2010-10-06T00:10:00.002-04:00

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???

2010-10-04T16:01:00.003-04:00

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

2010-09-15T15:27:00.003-04:00

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

2010-09-13T12:44:00.006-04:00

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

2010-08-11T21:20:00.003-04:00

**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

2010-08-03T23:37:00.002-04:00

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

2010-07-29T15:48:00.001-04:00

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

2010-07-18T22:35:00.005-04:00

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...?

2010-07-15T23:00:00.002-04:00

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

2010-05-24T08:06:00.002-04:00

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

2010-05-14T11:25:00.002-04:00

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

2010-05-06T08:27:00.003-04:00

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

2010-04-17T19:46:00.004-04:00

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

2010-04-06T09:23:00.002-04:00

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

2010-04-02T08:16:00.003-04:00

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

2010-03-25T09:27:00.003-04:00

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!

2010-03-11T16:49:00.002-05:00

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

2010-03-04T10:50:00.002-05:00

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

2010-02-17T14:00:00.002-05:00

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

2010-02-15T08:01:00.003-05:00

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!

2010-02-14T10:54:00.005-05:00

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

2010-02-10T14:20:00.002-05:00

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

2010-02-06T22:09:00.002-05:00

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

2010-02-02T23:37:00.002-05:00

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

2010-01-26T12:25:00.002-05:00

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

Reid's Assignment

2010-01-24T21:37:00.002-05:00

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

CoCo

2010-01-20T08:17:00.003-05:00

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

2010-01-18T12:55:00.001-05:00

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

What are we going to do with her?

2010-01-17T15:48:00.003-05:00

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

2010-01-10T22:05:00.002-05:00

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

2010-01-10T10:41:00.002-05:00

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

2010-01-08T20:29:00.002-05:00

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!

2010-01-06T22:26:00.003-05:00

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

2010-01-06T12:34:00.003-05:00

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

2010-01-05T08:16:00.004-05:00

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.

Thinking about next week...

2009-12-30T20:18:00.002-05:00

The kids have had two weeks off. It's been really nice to just hang around the house... no schedule... no routine...

And no lunches.

I thought I'd show you some pictures I took one Monday morning when I decided I would make Reid and Zach's sandwiches for the whole week that morning...

This is bread for 20 sandwiches. Two sandwiches a day for each kid. Now... this doesn't include the PB&J that I send with Reid every day... I don't make those ahead of time.

The meat... one slice of ham, one slice of turkey. And the cheese... provolone or muenster. We spoil our kids...

Here they are all wrapped up ready for the freezer. The ones at the upper left are the ones for that day. I just pull a bag out each morning for the rest of the week. Not too bad.

So the kids each get two of these sandwiches, a water bottle, an apple, and a small bag of chips. Reid gets an extra PB&J, a banana, and a trail mix bar to help him make it through wrestling practice. It is a lot of food every day.

It makes me grateful that we have sufficient for our needs. I can't imagine the feeling of not being about to afford enough food for your family.

It's lots of work, but it's a lot to be grateful for.

The Year of The Stocking

2009-12-25T00:53:00.003-05:00

A couple of days after I posted my stockings post here on my little blog, I got a call from my mom. She said, "Well, we are mother and daughter." That morning, after working hard on a gift for the kids, she went to the post office and shipped off a nice package. That afternoon, she checked my blog and had to laugh.

The package contained stockings for the kids. :)

We were thrilled to get stockings from Grandma Becky (of course!), so we decided to hang them on the kid's doors. (All except for Zach... go figure... Zach wanted to do something different from the rest of the kids...)

Here they are:

Cole's

Jacob's

Reid's

Kira's

(no surprise there!)

Zach

Hopefully the kids won't be disappointed in the morning when Santa doesn't fill both sets of stockings. Santa just didn't have enough candy.

Oh... and guess what??? We're having a WHITE CHRISTMAS!!!!! We have about an inch of snow! I'll post pictures tomorrow!

Schnitzeling

2009-12-24T11:53:00.002-05:00

We're up to our elbows here. I think we're about 2/3rds of the way through. I had to stop to take a break. I've had handsome assistants.

I'll start cooking it around 2pm.

Hopefully everyone is having a great Christmas Eve.

I've got a fun post coming in later today... hopefully you're all too busy spending time with family to see it! :)

Their Snowman

2009-12-21T12:53:00.002-05:00

Jacob and Cole are the best of friends. Two peas in a pod. Best buds. Mucho Amigos.

So when we got a slight covering of snow in our yard, they worked together to gather up almost every flake that was on our grass to make themselves a snowman.

You see those long arms? Those are one of Mikes many (MANY) pairs of chopsticks.

They tried raisins and a carrot, but the fruit and vegetable variety of decorations just wasn't working for them. So...

He has googly eyes and a crayon nose. Isn't he cute!?!

Stockings

2009-12-16T12:58:00.004-05:00

Because last week wasn't traumatizing enough, I decided on Sunday that we would make our stockings. I had purchased the material a week or so ago and thought we would do this project when school was out and the kids were bored. But I guess I decided to do it sooner. I was sooo tired, but it was nice to have the kids buzzing around cutting out their stockings and their names.

This is me helping glue Jacob's "JJ" onto his stocking. If Mike hadn't walked by when he did, the Js would have been backwards. I was too tired to notice. Pretty sad. :)

And here's Reid doing what he does best: messing with his brothers. Look at the expression on his face... it's just a routine thing he's doing... nothing unusual.

And here's the final product. Kinda nice. It's the first time we've ever had stockings. I think the kids are pretty excited. I'm very pleased with how they came out. Hopefully this will make Santa's job just a little bit easier.

Our first Artisan Bread.

2009-12-07T13:02:00.002-05:00

A couple of weeks ago, Mike and I finally got around to trying out the Artisan bread from the book that Judy gave us over a year ago. My mom got Mike a baking stone and large pizza peel to make the work easier and look at what we made!

Isn't it pretty? Mike liked that it looks almost exactly like the one on the book cover. Not too shabby for a first try! Now I'm just looking for a container that will fit in our fridge to hold the dough. I'm trying to decide between the 5 qt and 10qt. Probably should do the 10qt since we'll go through the bread like crazy, but the 5 qt will take up less space in my already overloaded fridge. Decisions, decisions!

Yee- Haw

2009-11-30T14:34:00.004-05:00

We went up to Mountain View, AR for Thanksgiving. Mike's sister, Sara, and her family joined us. We arrived around 4pm on Wednesday and immediately began preparing for Thursday's meal:

We enjoyed the traditional BBQ sandwiches and chips Thanksgiving meal.

And I'd say that's not so bad when you're relying on a crock pot and one burner to cook with and your counter space is actually a dresser in your hotel room. :)

And dinner was really great. We had BBQ that Sara had made in advance, baked beans that I made in advance, store bought coleslaw, potato salad, and fruit platter, and a bag of chips. Not too bad. Then Sara whipped out some veggies that she brought from home that she had leftover and didn't want them to go to waste. Kira tore into the baked butternut squash. Definitely something I'm going to have to start cooking for her.

We stayed in little hotel-ish cabins at the Ozark Folk Center. It's a cute little place with lots of old timey crafts and trades that are showcased in a little village. Most of the shop owners were vacant this time of year, but we were able to see quite a few. We ooh and aah over pottery, aprons, hand woven rugs, musical instruments, and more. One shop that was closed that made me really sad was the furniture shop. I thought maybe they'd be open on Saturday, so I went up all prepared to buy a wooden spoon (you should have seen them hanging in the window! so pretty!), but he wasn't there. I was pretty bummed. But I consoled myself with a pretty pottery spoon rest.

(If I can't have a spoon... at least I can have a spoon rest, right? Huh?)

The spoon rest is very pretty. And it's nice to have met the people who actually made it. It has a fern pattern on it and the guy told about how he and his wife pick fern leaves while hiking, dry them in old college textbooks, and use them to make the prints on their pottery. I like knowing that about my spoon rest. :)

And someday it'll have a spoon resting on it whose history and maker I know just as well. Until then, it will just have to wait longingly for it's soul mate.

Who knew spoons could cause such trouble!

On Friday, we went to a local cavern with the intention of taking the tour, but I guess that's what everyone else within a 100 miles thought they'd do, too, because there was a two hour wait for a tour and the guy said no guarantee that they had any left (it would have been the last tour of the day). We opted to not wait for the tour and went instead to a place where the water comes out of the cave. Pretty cool. There were lots of rocks to climb around on and after a few minutes, all six kids (my four and Sara's two) were missing. We found them climbing the side of the mountain! We hurried after them as fast as our 30 something bodies would allow. :) It was steep! Sara's youngest, Annika, is 4, so it was probably a bit worrying for Sara and Trevor to know that she was climbing up that steep slope. Reid was right behind her helping her. It was cute even if it's wasn't the best decision either of them have ever made. But all was well and we eventually came down and took a longer hike (more horizontal this time) over to the dam where there was a really nice waterfall.

Friday was a nice day.

Saturday was gorgeous. The high was 68! I wasn't expecting that in northern Arkansas at the end of November! We went to a local park and grilled hamburgers and hot dogs. The kids played baseball, played on the playground and just had a good time. We celebrated Sara's birthday with a yummy cheesecake that Trevor got from Walmart and some tricky candles that are supposed to not be able to be blown out, but that would hardly light thanks to all the wind!

Saturday was also a nice day.

Then Sunday came around all too soon and we parted ways. Our trip home was a good one except for some construction traffic around the AR/TX border and then more traffic in Greenville. I ended up exiting a couple of exits early so that I could try to avoid some of the interstate traffic and managed to get into a really long line of cars trying to turn left. The left turn was easy enough, but it was just a REALLY long line of cars. But, I was being patient and we eventually got up about four cars away when a car came up on the wrong side of the street to pass all of us (it was a two lane road). The car that was up at the stop sign stuck their hand out the window to tell them to stop or go back or something. The wrong lane car tried turning left, but the car at the front of the line whipped out in front of them and steered them in a different direction. They both sped up, were dangerously close to each other, and the car that was in the right lane to begin with apparently was quite mad and was chasing them. I was freaking out a bit, so I just stopped looking in the direction they were going. I don't know what ended up happening, but I figure it's better that I don't know. Scary stuff.

It took us 9 hours to get home. Not the best, but actually better than I thought it would be with all the traffic. Mike was a super trooper and got the car completely unpacked right away. I followed his lead and made sure everything got put away right away.

Sunday had it's ups and downs.

Today I'm doing laundry. Lots of laundry. And I'm typing this post with a big cat on my lap who I think missed his humans while we were away. And one little human was particularly excited to see her tee-tat when she got home. She was soooo cute laughing and giggling when she saw him.

We really, really like Sara and her family. We've all decided that we'll go back next summer and stay at a local campground together. It's in the same area as the caverns, so we'll hopefully get to go on that tour.

And I can get my spoon.

Almost Back to the Land of the Living

2009-11-20T20:26:00.002-05:00

Many of us have been/are sick. Kira and I both were sick at the end of last week. By Sunday, I thought I was beginning to get better, but the universe had other plans for me. I ended up feeling like I was going to die for a couple of days. Kira hasn't been sleeping well because of congestion, which means I haven't been sleeping well... although, I don't think I'd be sleeping well even if it weren't for her.

But, aside from lingering coughs, we are both doing a good bit better. Kira's cough is a bit croupy at night, but it's not really bad. I just have that annoying tickle in your throat cough that keeps you from relaxing and falling asleep. So I've been taking some cough medicine that Mike got when he was so sick a few weeks ago and it's been helping me sleep at night.

And it's a good thing I'm feeling better, because tonight we're hosting a party for Parker. Parker is one of Kira's morning brothers. He's moving in a couple of weeks, so Reid wanted to throw him a party. So we have about 7 teenagers upstairs watching Madagascar 2 (their choice!). They were dancing. Shaeson (the other morning brother) brought a strobe light and they were all dancing and having a really good time. Then Shaeson decided to jump up onto the back of the couch and down onto the spot right where two sections of the couch connect. Crack. It broke. I yelled at him as I saw him about to come down hard on the couch, but it wasn't in time. Our new sectional couch. Broken.

Deep breaths.

I took the section of it that is now loose, but still in tact, into Jacob and Cole's room so it wouldn't get broken and Mike thinks we might be able to figure out a way to patch the break (which is on the corner piece). I hope so.

Tomorrow I'm taking a smaller group of the kids to Six Flags. I don't know yet if I'll be taking Kira. I'd like to leave her with Mike, but it might not be very realistic. I don't know what on earth I'd do with her at Six Flags all day.

Okay. I better go poke my head upstairs to make sure the teenage boys and girls (yes, someone invited girls... not too wild about that) are behaving.

Sick Girl

2009-11-13T12:26:00.002-05:00

She's so congested. :( She's having trouble sleeping and just fell asleep on my chest.

Lions and Tigers and PEARS, Oh My!

2009-11-07T13:15:00.002-05:00

Sam's had their boxes of 8 15oz cans of pears marked down to $1.81 per box. Eight cans for $1.81! They had 48 boxes left, so I bought them all.

I got lots of funny looks.

But I hang around with Mike a lot, so I'm used to it.

Toothy Grin

2009-11-06T08:14:00.003-05:00

I've told you how much Kira likes to nurse, right? Used to, she always wanted to play this game while she nursed. She would put her foot up to my cheek and push my face away. I would make it a little more dramatic by moving my head away quickly and making a "ahhh" sound. She thought that was great. Nothing cuter than a baby smiling and laughing while still nursing.

Then she started doing gymnastics while nursing. She's not the first of my babies to try to do somersaults while nursing.

But lately, it's been so funny... she nurses for a little while, then pulls off and flashes me a big toothy grin. At first I wasn't sure if she was trying to smile, or if she was just being silly, or what. But now that she's started doing that, I've realized how often I look at her and smile a big, toothy grin. I think she's just practicing it. What cuteness.

And lucky for you, she flashed one at me just as I was taking a picture of her in her fancy bath robe she got from my Aunt Addeen. What a cutie pie!

Last Week of Football

2009-11-05T13:06:00.003-05:00

Tonight marks the last football game of the season.

I've taken pretty much no pictures. I've captured a pitiful amount of video. Zach played in maybe three of his 8 or 9 games (don't ask). Reid plays full time defense now.

My dad got some pictures of one of Reid's games... he's #26.

These two shots show him wrapping a guy up and making the tackle. It was a pretty impressive tackle.

This shot is of Reid chasing the runner down. He gained 52 yards. He was totally in the clear with the goal line in his sights, but Reid kicked it into high gear, made the tackle, saved the points, and was very pleased with himself.

As well he should have been.

So this Friday, I will not have to pick anyone up from school. But, "Rest-a while you can, monkey-boy!" because next week Reid starts wrestling. He's not sure if he's going to stick with it, but I think he wants to give it a try. If he does, their season ends at the end of February. FOUR months. FOUR. Kill me now.

My Friday

2009-10-30T22:39:00.002-04:00

Mike got home late Wednesday night. Yea. So my Friday was considerably better than my Monday. It went something like this:

5:15 - Kira wakes up... I try to get her back down, but no luck

5:45 - Still sort of trying to keep Kira from waking up, I send Mike to get Reid in the shower

6:00 - Give up, get Kira up, get Zach up, make lunches

6:45 - Zach out the door for the bus

6:50 - Load Kira up, take Reid to seminary

7:05 - Home, start watching Survivor

7:50 - Sneak out to get Reid while Kira is playing in the living room

8:05 - Home, finish watching Survivor, start watching Amazing Race

8:50 - Ask Mike to take the boys to school and to take Kira, so Mike loads up Kira and takes the boys

9:20 - Put Kira down for a much needed nap

9:25 - Finish watching Amazing Race, watch Grey's Anatomy and Ugly Betty

11:40 - Kira up, lunch, play

3:30 - Zach comes home off bus... he didn't realize he had practice after school

4:50 - Reid home off bus... he actually didn't have practice today

5:30ish - I put in Gladiator upstairs and start watching it

8:30 - Zach loads the dishwasher and runs it

8:45 - Cole cleans the kitchen table

9:45 - Sitting on couch posting to my blog while Mike and the kids are upstairs

So I went out of the house a total of two times today. And one of them was without Kira. Ahhhh... I'll take more days like this anytime!

My Monday

2009-10-27T08:46:00.002-04:00

Mike left really early yesterday morning to catch a flight to Boston. He'll get home super late Wednesday night.

So my day went like this:

5:45 - up, kids up, make lunches

6:15 - Kira wakes up

6:50 - Load Kira up, drive Reid to seminary

7:05 - Home

7:50 - Load Kira up, pick up "Morning Brothers" from seminary

8:05 - Home

8:50 - Load Kira up, take "Morning Brothers" to school, stop by bank

9:20 - Home

10:00 - Put screaming baby down for a nap

12:00 - Feel grateful that Kira napped for two hours

3:00 - Load Kira up, take food to Zach (who has a football game I can't go to because it's windy and rainy and not good weather for Kira to be out in)

3:40 - Home

5:20 - Load Kira up, pick up Reid from football

5:40 - Home

6:40 - Load Kira up as well as Reid, Jacob and Cole, pick up Zach from football game... it takes me 30 minutes to get across town because of a broken down truck on the highway... still rainy and windy and now it's dark, too)

7:20 - Get Zach, drive to book store to get book that Reid has needed for English class for over a week

7:40 - Park a million miles away from bookstore because apparently everyone is at the mall where the bookstore is located... leave all kids in car because Kira is sleeping... threaten them with their lives if they wake her up

8:00 - Home, Kira wakes up, screams for half an hour before going back to sleep

9:30 - Bed, pray that Mike makes it home safely because this whole single parent thing is not for me!

Piggy Flu and "The Bearded One"

2009-10-23T14:32:00.003-04:00

So Mike has swine flu. He went to the doctor yesterday because he was running a fever. He figured it was an infection related to his poison ivy which now covers many sections of his body. (I told him he should have warned me of his defectiveness BEFORE I married him.) However, it was just that his body was kicking him while he was down and he tested positive for swine flu. The doctor gave him a steroid shot to help with the poison ivy and wrote him a prescription for some fancy ointment to help with the really bad spots. He also got a prescription for some super duper cough suppressant.

And he's feeling much better today. His fever is gone (the dr said it usually only lasts around 24 hours) and the steroid shot has really sped up the healing of his grotesque face. :) (I'M KIDDING!!!)

--------------

Kira woke up this morning while I was taking Reid to seminary. Mike said she yelled out, then another minute later made a couple of sounds, so he went to her crib. At this point, she was pretty quiet and it was very dark when he picked her up. She reached out, felt his beard and burst into tears. I wish I could say that she wanted me because of my great mothering techniques, but we all know why she really wanted me...

Small Things

2009-10-22T14:36:00.005-04:00

The church has early morning lessons for high school students called seminary. The class starts at 7am and ends at 7:50am. So every morning I drive Reid there, come home for a while, and then go to pick him up. Kira usually comes with me to pick him up. We also pick up two to four other boys who come and hang out at our house until around 9am when I drive them all to school. We call these boys Kira's "morning brothers". She loves them and they love her! They talk to her, sing to her, and have recently begun talking about what they'll call her when she's older. Right now they call her "Baby" and say it with much gusto!

Shaeson and Parker come over every day. Two other boys are more sporadic. Shaeson is the one holding her. He usually carries her in from the car when we get home each day. And Parker is the other boy. Reid is peeking in from the background.

And last week, we took the baby gate off the stairs. Kira can go up and down safely now. We are keeping a folded sleeping bag on the floor at the base of the stairs just in case she takes a tumble, but she's a little pro, so hopefully she'll do alright. While I was folding clothes just now, she went upstairs, played for a while, then came back down.

What a cutie!

2009-10-21T17:15:00.002-04:00

I thought her birthday post should be about something that she both likes to do and is good at. She likes her puff snacks and she is quite good at getting into them.

See how the edge of the lid is starting to curl up? She uses her bottom teeth to pry it up. (And she has 10 teeth now. All four molars are in!) Then she takes the lid off:

And reaches ALL the way in! The only thing missing is a picture of them spilled all over the floor! I love how she has her whole arm inside the container!

She is such a precious little person. We are amazed that she is a year old.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

2009-10-21T11:35:00.002-04:00

Kira is 1!!!

I'll post a bunch of pictures of our birthday girl later in the day!

Freakazoid

2009-10-20T11:07:00.003-04:00

Poor Mike.

He went with Jacob and the 11 yr old scouts on their campout this past weekend. And now his face and lips are covered with poison ivy (or some other plant... he's allergic to EVERYTHING!).

He looks plain freaky. It worked it's way into his right eye overnight and now it's all swollen like his lips (which are also oozy).

Poor, Poor Mike.

And to make matters worse, he has his annual business meeting next week. I would say that maybe he'll have time to heal by then, but he's Mike and will probably have it completely covering his face by then. Maybe I need to knit a couple of leper bandages. I told him he was reminding me of Robert the Bruce's father in Braveheart. He was an evil, hideous looking guy. Mike's not evil, but he's not too far from hideous.

No. He's not hideous. Pitiful is more the right word here. I'll say it again:

Poor Mike.

(Kira is walking across the living room with one of my flip flops on her foot.)

So lots of kind thoughts in Mike's direction will be appreciated.

Four Kids, Four Winds

2009-10-17T17:43:00.002-04:00

I know I have five kids, but the saying doesn't work with five. And Kira's a bit young to be going off on her own.

Anyway. Yesterday Mike and Jacob headed out to Jacob's 11 yr old scout campout. They left around 4pm with the plan to come back today around 5pm.

At 4:15, Reid comes in asking if he can go to Parker's (his good friend here). He had a day full of church activities this morning and was supposed to be done by 4pm, but I haven't heard from him yet. There's a Stake dance tonight at 8pm that he's going to, so if he doesn't come home before that I probably won't see him until tomorrow morning since I'll be in bed by the time he gets home tonight.

Then this morning around 9am, I got a call from a friend from Austin who is up visiting family in McKinney. They invited Cole to spend the day and night with them (their son is Jake, Cole's one and only friend from our neighborhood in Austin). So Cole left with them this morning and won't be back until 11am tomorrow.

Zach has stayed home and thankfully my dad called (they've got their own wind and are spending the evening with my step brother James who is performing in a play tonight) and asked if Zach would wash his truck if he dropped it off here and picked it up tomorrow on his way home. Zach was thrilled. The truck is now washed and all spic and span.

I have had an unusually empty house. I like it when my house is empty. :) I know that in 10 years when all the boys are gone, I'll feel differently, but for now, I really enjoy a quiet house. Cleaning is so much easier that way.

I had decided last night that my cleaning strategy for today was to start at the front door and go from there. It has worked pretty well. The house is pretty clean and I've even got dinner in the oven.

However, the dinner also has a wind because it's going to the neighbors who just had a baby. I didn't have enough ingredients to double it and make some for us...

Oh well. Be free, dinner. Be free.

New Experience

2009-10-15T17:43:00.003-04:00

I've known for a long time that no matter how many kids I have, I'll always feel like a bit of a first timer. All my kids are so different. And recently I've been proven right all over again.

It's been clear for a while now that Kira likes to nurse. A few months ago, when she started walking and becoming a little more independent, she would, at times during the day, stop and just cry and cry at my feet. She wanted to nurse. The boys never really cared. She nurses a lot more frequently during the day than they ever did at this age. The two boys that I was still nursing at 12 months were down to twice a day. Naptime and bedtime. And by 14 or 15 months, I decided it was time to stop, so I stopped. No big deal. They didn't care.

Not so for Kira. Yesterday she was fussing, so I picked her up and she started banging her head against my chest. Then today she was sitting beside me on the couch when she lifted my shirt up and started "nursing" on my stomach. When I pulled my shirt down, she started crying and banging her head against my chest while also lifting my shirt.

I don't really have a plan for weaning her. I guess I figured it would be like it was with the other boys. I'd decide I was ready to stop and stop. I had thought the other week that I might want to nurse her through the winter to hopefully help her avoid colds and such. But now I'm not sure. I don't know that I want to continue on and have it become a big fight. But I'm not necessarily ready, either.

So... something new for me to experience. Lovely.

Good News

2009-10-10T09:33:00.003-04:00

Jesse is home from the hospital. I called him yesterday afternoon to see what room he was in and he said he was home. So Reid and I went over to his house yesterday afternoon to take him some cookies and a small gift. He looked good. I visited with his mother and grandmother while Reid talked with Jesse. They are really nice people and were very nice to Reid. Jesse told Reid that he was going to be out of sports for 6 months. So he won't be able to play basketball like he had planned, but he said he'd be playing baseball in the spring. It just emphasizes the fact that while you know it's all part of the game and everything, Reid has changed this kid's life.

While I was thinking of what to write on the note that we sent with the gift for Jesse, I kept thinking of the line from Better Off Dead: "Sorry I blew up your mom, Ricky."

Well. A little, cute girl just made a present for me in her diaper. I should go tend to that.

Double Ack.

2009-10-08T20:45:00.002-04:00

So yesterday I picked Reid up from football practice and asked if he had heard how Jesse (the boy who got injured) was doing. Reid said that Jesse was still in the hospital with broken ribs, a cut spleen, and a bruised kidney. I pulled the car over and went in to get Jesse's parent's number from the coaches. Good grief. I knew I needed to do something for them.

So I called the number today and talked to Jesse's dad. He said that Jesse was still in ICU and that he wasn't allowed to move at all because of the danger with his spleen. They're trying to keep it immobile so that it can heal. They're trying to avoid surgery and removing the spleen. Then he said, "But they let him start eating today." How do you respond to those things? And then he says, "It was really great of you to call. You really didn't need to worry." Didn't I? I know it's part of football, but my kid just put your kid in the hospital for four or five days... I think I'm required to call!

I asked if it was okay if we take a gift basket to Jesse and he said of course. They are supposed to be moving him to a regular room tonight or tomorrow. So we might get to visit with him a bit. Hopefully he's out of the woods surgery wise and may even get to come home on Saturday or Sunday. I certainly hope so.

Ack.

2009-10-06T23:06:00.002-04:00

I went to pick Reid up from football practice today. As I was coming up on the school, I noticed an ambulance in the parking lot where I pick Reid up every day. I pulled into the lot, trying to make sure I didn't get in the way of the ambulance (and fire truck). I'm wondering what's going on and if it has to do with Reid's team, another team, or the middle school football players who are playing a game at the high school field. I knew Reid was okay because he had called me a few minutes before to come pick him up.

Reid starts walking to to the car and as he's getting in, I ask him, "Do you know what's going on?" He says, "Yeah, I tackled a guy and he came down on my knee and broke his ribs."

ACK. I was not expecting that.

I feel bad for the kid, but as Reid's mom, at that very moment, I felt really bad for Reid. I asked him if he was alright and what the coaches had to say and all of that.

I think he's alright. But I'm going up to give him a big hug before bed just in case.

And I think I'll make some cookies for the kid who has broken ribs. Reid has a class with him, and hopefully he'll be back at school soon.

In Love

2009-09-30T22:46:00.002-04:00

Today was a bit of a hard day for Kira. She woke up really early and was pretty grumpy. One of her three molars is really coming up quickly. The fourth one has yet to break through, but is "right there". I think they must be causing her trouble.

She napped well, but early, so the evening was getting tough. Mike took Reid and Zach to scouts and I stayed home to take care of Kira. I took her in to give her a bath. She's so cute in the bathtub. She was putting her hand in the running water and when the water would splash up in her face, she would turn her head away and smile a huge smile. She kept leaning over and putting her head on my arm (I was leaning over the tub) which was very endearing. Then at some point, she slapped her hand on her stomach and that got her tickled. She kept slapping her stomach and chest and had a big, big smile on her face. The song line "Hopelessly Devoted to You" came to mind as I watched her discovering her world.

Then we came out to the living room where she played for quite a while climbing on me, sitting in my lap, playing the "lean back" game (where I catch her head as she leans back from a sitting up position), and just wandering around the living room.

Finally, she got fussy. It was 8:20 by this point, so I scooped her up, nursed her and then snuggled with her for a few minutes after she fell asleep before putting her in bed.

I think it's safe to say that I'm totally head over heals for this little girl.

What We're Up To

2009-09-29T07:12:00.003-04:00

Football. Pretty much football. Reid and Zach have practice after school every day, so I pick them up from that and then they each have a game each week. Zach was sick and didn't play in yesterday's game. Reid was sick a couple of weeks ago and didn't play in a game. It's been a bit odd that way, but still busy.

We're still unpacking and getting the house organized and comfortable. We're about to hit crunch time, though. Our couch for the gameroom will come in next week. There are lots of things that need to be done before that gets here. Hopefully that will motivate us to get some things organized and put away. For now, we're going to throw unpacked stuff in the garage. We'll go through that stuff hopefully within the next few months to decide what stays and what goes. I'm having a little birthday party for Kira on the 24th of October, so I'm hoping to have things mostly organized inside the house by then.

Jacob and Cole are doing well with homeschooling. Mike has found a group here in Collin County that is very active. They have a weekly gymnastics gathering at a local gym. It's $5/kid and they get about an hour and a half of open gym time. That is just wonderful. Both Jacob and Cole loved gymnastics when we did it before, but the cost has been prohibitive. So this will work out extremely well. And I'm considering a language software so they can learn Spanish. We'll see if I do that or not. It's on sale through tomorrow, so I guess I need to decide! :)

So life is pretty crazy, but good right now. If Kira would start sleeping better through the night, I'd be much more capable of handling all that is required of me each day. But I must say that for the most part, I don't mind going in a few times each night, picking up a sweet little person, nursing her in my arms and then tenderly laying her back in her bed. She's a precious little person and I know these days will be over soon. So I'm trying to enjoy everything about them. Even when, like last night, I wake up at some point in the night (I think around 1am) to find that Kira is in bed with me and I have only the foggiest memory of bringing her in bed with me (I typically don't do that). I must have been VERY tired when she woke up (probably around midnight). So at 3am when she woke up again, I nursed her and put her back in her bed.

So life is good. Come and visit. :)

Malachi

2009-09-24T14:18:00.003-04:00

I went down this morning to see John and Kristin... okay, I really went to see Malachi. He is a cutie pie. I managed to get a few pictures of him to verify that fact with the rest of the world. :)

Look at all that hair!!!

Crazy Girl

2009-09-22T23:16:00.002-04:00

So Kira turned 11 months old yesterday. I'm in denial that she'll be a year old soon.

I was visiting with Kristin yesterday morning (who, btw, had her baby tonight - Malachi South, 9lb 8oz) when I noticed some dots on the back of Kira's gums. I was hoping it wasn't thrush again. That was no fun and much too recent to be able to deal with again.

So after we got home, she was sitting on my lap and was crying about something when I saw the dots again. So I stuck my finger in there and lo and behold, it was a molar. Eleven months old and a molar. Craziness. So then just for the heck of it I feel around some more and she's got three molars! And the fourth one is just about to pop through. She's had six of her eight front teeth for a little while, but I guess her body decided she needed some molars before the other two bottom incisors.

What am I going to do with this baby who seems to be determined to grow up way to fast!?!

Yummy Recipe

2009-09-18T21:23:00.003-04:00

Kira ate the family dinner for the first time yesterday. I made this chicken stew and she loved it... along with the rest of us. Dinner success!

Recipes:	1
Servings:	6
Makes: 9x13 pan	1
Ingredients:
Chicken, boiled and chopped	2 C.
Chicken Broth	6 C.
Sliced Carrots	3
Cubed Potatoes	1 lb
Butter	1/2 C.
Flour	1/2 C.
Parsley	1/2 t.
Morton Nature Seasoning	1/8 t.
Salt and Pepper to taste
Biscuit Topping:
Flour	2 C.
Baking Powder	1 T.
Salt	3/4 t.
Shortening	6 T.
Milk	2/3 C.

Place vegetables in chicken broth and boil 10 minutes. Remove vegetables. Set broth aside. In separate pan, melt butter. Add flour to melted butter and cook for about a minute. Add chicken broth and bring to boil. Add spices.

In 9x13 casserole pan, place chicken, vegetables and pour sauce over.

Add dry biscuit ingredients with shortening and blend. Add milk, mix well, roll, cut into 1 - 2" rectangles and place on top of vegetable mixture. Bake at 400 for 20-25 minutes.

Comments: Recipe comes from Judy (Mike's Mom). The biscuit recipe is from Joe’s (Mike's brother) middle school cooking class.

The Office

2009-09-14T22:30:00.004-04:00

I agonized over desks for a few weeks. I wanted lots of file drawer space. I had planned to put a desk in my bedroom. Nothing seemed right. Mike thought I could put a desk between the kitchen and dining area. I couldn't find the right desk.

I got the IKEA catalog in the mail. That thing is dangerous! I debated, but finally decided. I got three Effectiv cabinets. Each one has a file drawer in the bottom drawer. Two have drawers on top and one has plain cabinet space. It is along the wall that is just across from the kitchen. So if I need desk space, I sit at the bar.

I put a nice calendar and some magnetic dry erase boards up to keep up with where we are or where we need to be.

And I fashioned a simple, but nice charging station with some hooks on the wall. I feel particularly proud of this. This makes life SO much easier.

And my papers all have a place to live. Keys have hooks so they don't get lost. Pencils have a home. So do calculators, school supplies, and my checkbook.

I'm a happy girl.

Zach's Scrimmage

2009-09-08T22:58:00.004-04:00

I took my video camera. I was completely ready to video tape some of his plays and put them up here for everyone.

Well... little did I know that this scrimmage was a city wide event! All of the McKinney middle schools were out there scrimmaging each other in 20 minute increments. There were four sets of teams on the field at a time. Two eighth grade teams on one side and two seventh grade teams on the other side. It took me a while to figure out which team was Zach's and after two and a half hours of watching out for him, I never did see him on the field. But I got this picture of him after it was all over. He said he played a lot and got lots of tackles. He looked like he had a good time. And the kid running behind him is a kid (Tylan) on the team that lives near us. We took Tylan and another kid, Bo, with our family and my step sister Kim to Grand Buffet after the game. Zach's been wanting to eat there forever!

So... next week I might actually know which one he is and can put up some video of him.

The Eye

2009-09-02T08:32:00.003-04:00

Move over Sauron. There's a new evil lord in Middle Earth (or at least Middle US). So, can you guess who's eye this is? (And I just found this picture on my computer. I guess the kids were having a good time with the web camera.)

The Gameroom

2009-08-31T19:06:00.002-04:00

So, just like all of my home improvement projects, there's always something that makes finishing it take longer than expected.

For the decorating of the gameroom, that has turned out to be the couch. I'm ordering a couch from IKEA and it is on backorder. They say they hope to have a few available next week. I have been waiting now for about two weeks. I can get some pictures put up while I wait. And I still have a shelf I need to install.

And while I've been waiting for the couch, I've put in a couple of cabinets in our very open hallway to be the office. I'm very happy to have a place for all of my papers and office stuff.

This house will come together one day. :)

The First Week

2009-08-30T19:56:00.004-04:00

The first week of school went pretty well. Reid and Zach seem to be adjusting to their new schools and routines. They are both playing football. Zach has made some friends at school who live near us and he's gone out to hang out with them a few times. One of them happens to be the boy who used to live in our house. Kind of funny that they are now friends. He told Zach that he was sorry for the black marks on the wall in his room. :)

Our daily routine is about to change, though, because Reid starts seminary this week. He will need to be at the church at 7am each morning for the 50 minute class. Fortunately, that coincides with Zach's 6:45 bus pick up. So we'll get up at 6, Zach will get on the bus at 6:45, I'll drive Reid to church. I may hang out at the church during his class, or I may come back home, or go to the grocery store. Hopefully I'll get that routine figured out. But, Reid will be home by around 8 and he gets on the bus at 8:30. Whew.

The afternoon works out alright because Zach needs to be picked up at 5pm and Reid gets picked up at 5:15. Game days will be a little tricky, but we'll get that worked out when the time comes.

Jacob and Cole are staying home this year. The first week went well. We'll be working the kinks out of that routine for a while.

And Kira wasn't so sure about the changes going on in the house. She's been sleeping pretty poorly the past several nights. Which hasn't made things terribly easy on me.

But overall I think things are going well. The first few weeks are always the hardest.

Reid's Scrimmage

2009-08-24T16:55:00.006-04:00

Football practice started August 10th. At this point, I'm pretty sure that Reid is playing on the 9th grade B team. He plays running back on offense and free safety on defense.

On Friday, Aug 21st, they had a scrimmage practice against a team from Greenville, TX. I took lots of video of Reid playing, but only got one good clip of him making a play. And even then, he made the play on the opposite side of the field, so you kind of have to follow helmets to figure out that he made the tackle (or at least assisted with the tackle... it's hard to tell).

So... he's in the yellow jersey and playing furthest back. He has black bands on his arms if it helps you find him faster... (and click the full screen button on the video box to see it more clearly)

The Trampoline

2009-08-22T10:28:00.005-04:00

We got the kids a trampoline a couple of weeks ago. They have been enjoying it quite a bit. Since there's not really any kids in the neighborhood, and we don't have a neighborhood pool, they were in desperate need of something to do. We talked about an above ground pool, but opted for a trampoline instead. I think it was a good choice. If for no other reason than I don't have to go out there and clean it and keep it clorinated. It can just sit there happily waiting for children to bounce on it.

Look at those big kids! It scares me most days as I watch the boys get bigger and bigger and bigger!

I LOVE this picture! I was a bit lucky on the timing. It is perfect. And I can't believe how easily he does these back layouts!

It's nice to see the boys interacting in a (mostly) positive way out there.

And here's a little video we got the night we were putting the trampoline together. Mike put Kira on it before all the springs were in and the boys were all out helping to get the springs on, and this is what ended up happening.

I love that this video shows so clearly how rich Kira's life is. I think of how wonderful it is to be able to provide a home for her that is filled with people who adore her. What a special person she is.

Picnik Part 2

2009-08-16T19:21:00.004-04:00

I appears that you can create a free online account and then upload your photos to touch them up a bit. Most of their fancy features require paying for their service. Like... I would have liked to add some color to Cole's eyes, but that required paying, so I left them as is. I was able to work with the contrast a bit, but nothing above what I can do with iPhoto, so the only feature that's really nice is being able to write text on the picture.

He does, indeed, rock!

And speaking of iPhoto, I was able to do some fancier stuff with their editing software. Check this out:

I like the fuzzy on the outside and the changes in color. His eyes are a little more prominent this way. I suppose if I want to do this stuff for real, I need to buy Photoshop.

Maybe someday.

Picnik

2009-08-16T12:48:00.003-04:00

So Reid told me about Picnik.com. It's a photo editing site. I don' t know all the details, but it looks like you pay a fee to have full access. I just took one of Kira's photos and touched it up a bit and put some words on it. Pretty fun. I think I'll mess around a tad bit more to see how much they let you do for free.

The New Sink

2009-08-15T19:40:00.004-04:00

In a post long ago in a land far, far away, I said something like, "Mike and I don't feel normal if we don't have a major project going on." Something like that, anyway... I think it was during the "tile every floor in the house time" or the "replace the freaking countertops" or "HEY, I KNOW, Let's tile the backsplash" days. Ahhhh, good times.

Anyway... so we've moved into a house that is basically perfect. Two years old, nice walls, nice countertops, nice tile, nice floors... there's not a whole lot to do in this house.

But one thing that stuck out to me was the kitchen sink... do you remember the kitchen sink we put in the house in Cary??? My beautiful. My PRECIOUS?

Okay... not really my PRECIOUS, but still. I really, really liked that sink. So I bought it here and put it in. Along with an upgraded garbage disposal. The one here was a whopping 1/4 HP. So I put in the nice sink rather than the very, very plain one they had here and put in a 3/4 HP disposal that is very very quiet. So nice.

Here's a picture of the sink in use:

And now that the sink is in... there's no real need for home improvement projects, so I'm trying my hand at decorating. I'm part way through the game room re-do. I'll send an update on that room soon. Hopefully it will be super awesome when I'm done!

The Girl Who Ate

2009-08-13T09:01:00.003-04:00

First: Tragedy Update: We're still waiting for the truck to come back from the commercial renter. Mike said he's sure he put the stick in there, so I didn't bother the people in our rental house in Austin. We haven't called the place where we dropped the truck off... I guess I'm figuring that if they found it, they wouldn't have saved it... I should call...

Okay. Back to our regularly scheduled programming:

Kira is a eating fool. She has three meals a day and a few little cracker snacks in between. The other day I made her a grilled cheese sandwich. Oh yes. A grilled cheese sandwich. She refuses to eat baby food unless the circumstances are perfect and all the planets have lined up just right. I got her to eat a jar of food at church the other day, and all the moons must have been lined up right, too, because she didn't make a mess of it. Usually the baby food feedings are also a huge mess because she insists on grabbing the spoon and feeding herself.

So... back to the grilled cheese. This was lunch and I made her the grilled cheese. I started cutting it up and she started eating it. I also had some canned pears in the fridge (she loves those), so I cut up one of the pear halves. She ended up eating the pear half (not uncommon) and a quarter of a grilled cheese sandwich. Does that seem like a lot to you? It did to me. Or maybe it's that I was feeding my 9 month old a grilled cheese. I don't think I've ever done that before. I think all the boys were still happily eating jarred baby food by this age. But not her. She wants all finger food, all the time.

Actually... I think Reid's diet at 9 months consisted mostly of animal crackers... I hated that time with him. Animal crackers haven't been introduced to Kira. No Goldfish either. She gets the little Gerber puffs. They're expensive, but aren't too sweet or too salty.

So I guess it's not entirely odd to feed her a grilled cheese. I'm mostly trying to keep her diet interesting and (mostly) healthy.

And did I tell you that she weighed just over 18lb at her 9 month check up? They say she's about 40th percentile for weight and height. I say she's perfect and extremely cute. :)

Tragedy.

2009-08-06T23:33:00.002-04:00

No to be too melodramatic, but it really is a tragedy.

I think we've lost the measuring stick that I transferred all of the growth measurements from the door jam in Cary on to. I thought about it last night because I want to measure Kira on it since she's walking. To show her one day how tiny she was when she started walking. And I realized that I don't remember seeing it here at this house.

So you can imagine how well I slept. We looked all over this morning and can't find it. Mike thinks he remembers putting it in the Budget truck. He thinks he put it between the wall of the truck and the wood slats that run along the wall. Maybe it fell down to the floor and is still in the truck.

So we called Budget. The truck is being rented by a commercial renter and has been out since July 19th. They don't know when it will come back and said they couldn't contact the people. Maybe we'll call the place where we turned the truck in to to make sure they didn't take out the stick (which, if it's where Mike thinks, is probably hard to see, so maybe it's still there).

We're waiting now.

I'm going down to Austin on Sunday maybe to pick Zach up, so maybe I'll knock on the door of the people who are living there now and ask if I can look in the garage. Maybe it's there and not on the Budget truck.

But maybe we'll never see it again. I had a good cry this morning at that thought. I cried and cried over leaving that door jam in our house in Cary. But the stick consoled me. I was okay because I could bring that record of my little boys with me. And now that I'm ready to start adding my little girl, it's gone.

So think lots of positive, miracle producing thoughts that my stick will return to me. I hate the idea of going the rest of my life without being able to just stop and look at how big (or little) my boys were.

A Fine Group of People

2009-08-02T17:25:00.005-04:00

A few weeks ago we had Mike's sister from Florida and her family visiting. Mike's brother and his family came over several times (they live about 15 minutes away). Mike snapped this picture of several of us hanging out in the living room.

Life is Tough

2009-07-28T13:22:00.002-04:00

You know. I go through day by day trying to be productive. Get housework done. Make dinner. Take care of Kira. Hug a passing Cole. Listen attentively to an unexpected story from Reid. Hope I even see Jacob for a few minutes. And help Zach know that I love him and that he's okay.

Those things can be tough to do each day. I go back and forth between feeling like I can conquer the world and feeling like I need to just run away. Today I've been feeling like I just need to be better. Like I should be able to love more, do more. Days like today are hard. Guilt takes over and I'm under it's grip.

Hopefully a passing hug from Cole, or a conversation with Reid, or watching my little baby toddle across the floor will help snap me out of it.

I want nothing more than to appreciate the kids and the life I have. I hate days like today that make me feel like I don't. Because I do.

Whew

2009-07-27T13:39:00.002-04:00

Well, the thrush seems to be under control. Thank goodness!

We have about three more days of the medicine just to make sure we knock it out and keep it gone. We are both happier people and are getting better sleep.

In other Whew-ness, Mike and I got our mixer installed in the island on Saturday. We put in a butcher block countertop and installed it in that. We have to oil it every couple of days for about two months to season it. With just two coats of oil, the wood is darkening and is showing off it's pretty grain. I'm excited to see what it will look like after it's good and seasoned. After that, they say you only need to oil it about 3 to 5 times per year. And having the mixer installed is a big step in the "I'm home" feeling. It's nice to have that aspect of our lives back to normal.

Bleeping Thrush!

2009-07-21T14:22:00.003-04:00

Okay. Thrush is no longer a nuisance, it's a freaking horror story.

I took Kira to the doctor last Thursday and since the case was mild, we opted to try to treat it with home remedies and probiotics. Well, by Sunday morning, I knew that wasn't working any more.

So I called the doctor first thing Monday morning to ask her to send in a prescription for diflucan for Kira. Then I had to find myself a doctor who would write me a prescription for diflucan that day. After a way long day, I finally got the prescription and we both took our first doses last night.

But until it starts to actually work, I'm in a ton of pain. Man oh man. It just about kills me when she nurses and it hurts all the time in between, too. Ugh.

I'm at least thankful that I could get the prescription and that we're hopefully on the road to recovery. Her mouth already looks better. Hopefully my 'what nots' will follow shortly.

Thrush

2009-07-15T22:42:00.002-04:00

Kira has thrush.

With as much probiotics as I have in the house, I have no idea how we've gotten this.

I don't think it's very severe right now, but she has some white patches on her inside cheeks and on her tongue. She's been refusing to eat and has been very, very cranky.

I started giving her extra acidophilus powder in her food and just mixed with water. Hopefully that's helping.

I take her to the doctor tomorrow morning. The doctor may give us some nystatin. Yuck. I'll feel bad for Kira if we have to use that stuff.

I'll wash all my shirts and hang them out to dry in the sun to help disinfect them. Supposedly a little topless sunbathing helps with nursing moms, too. This private backyard might come in handy if I get brave enough.

Her crankiness is making it so I haven't gotten anything done for the past day or two. She screams bloody murder if you even think about walking away from her. So the house is a mess and I'm exhausted, but such is life, right? She's still cute and is the apple of my eye. (Okay, one of five apples.) And I adore her. I just hope she can feel better soon.

For both of our sakes.

Two weeks

2009-07-12T11:07:00.002-04:00

We've been officially in the house now for two weeks. Progress has been made, but it's slow going. There just seems to be very little time for unpacking and setting up the house.

And I'm tired.

We've had Mike's sister, Sara, and her family here for a week. That has been really, really nice. They've visited us each year for three years. We adore them and hope that visits continue to happen.

And my dad and I have started walking around Towne Lake several mornings a week. That's been really great. I think our 3.6 mile walk yesterday kind of did me in. :) I'm a bit sore this morning. But it's great to get out and get some exercise and be able to talk and hang out with my dad at the same time. Very nice.

Also, he, Darlene, and my sister, Kim, stopped in for dinner on Friday night. It was nice to be able to have them just come over quickly and not have to feel like we all had to interrupt our schedules to make it happen. Because we just live here now. Pretty cool.

Normal

2009-06-30T23:47:00.002-04:00

Tonight for the first time in I don't know how long, I felt normal. Just normal.

It was unexpected. I didn't really realize how "off" life has been until I felt that sense of normalcy tonight. I mean, I know we've been in transition and uprooted, but I just had an overwhelming feeling of "*this* is how life should be" tonight.

It all started this morning with a trip to IKEA with Darlene. I had found a bookshelf that would fit in a downstairs closet that would hold our board games. So we got that and this afternoon, Mike and I put it together and got it in the closet. Then I had the kids go through the boxes upstairs in the game room to pull out the board games. I loaded up the shelf and before long, the kids were asking me to play a card game: The Great Dalmuti. (We like this card game. Come over and play with us anytime!)

After a few hands (the hands go quickly), Reid asked if I was making anything for dinner. And it so happens I was planning to make french bread pizzas. So I started them, but Mike did most of the work finishing them. The kids and I laughed a lot during our game.

Just something about hanging out with the kids, messing around in the kitchen, and just having fun felt so good.

And now Mike is upstairs watching a movie with them. I got Kira in bed and just wanted to take a few minutes to reflect on how nice it is to feel grounded again.

We Now Officially Live in McKinney!

2009-06-26T16:57:00.002-04:00

A lot of our stuff is still on the truck in our front driveway, but we're here and we're not leaving.

Ever.

Final Push

2009-06-25T11:38:00.002-04:00

We're loading up the second truck tonight and will head up to McKinney hopefully around 6 or 7pm tonight. The house is looking pretty good and is basically empty except for the small pieces of furniture and a few odds and ends.

I keep reminding myself not to forget the cat! I need to take down his kitty door and make him stay in the house so we can find him when the time comes!

Home Again... wait... where?

2009-06-22T19:54:00.003-04:00

We're back in Austin for a few days. We got home today at 11:15am. It was a good drive down. Kira did amazing. Reid slept the ENTIRE way.

When I was a kid, my mom used to tell Tommy and I to "take the shortcut". We would promptly do all that we could to fall asleep. Then we'd wake up and magically be much further along in our trip than we were before. We loved the shortcut. I've tried to teach my kids this, but they're not car sleepers the way Tommy and I were. Oh well. Maybe it's because they can't curl up in the back window of their parent's VW Rabbit under the warm sun and fall peacefully asleep. :)

I told Reid when we got home that he took the super-mega short cut. One of these days I'm going to take naps while HE drives us where ever we are going!

Anyway. I apparently had the energy of the Energizer Bunny when we got home. I organized all the stuff in the garage and started moving things in the house that were ready for the truck on Thursday out there. I cleaned the living room really well, moved the couch so that we could walk through the living room easier, vacuumed baseboards, and yelled at kids who were using the newly found space as a baseball field! :) (Actually I didn't yell at them for doing that. How zen am I?) I cleaned the den and set it up to be my packing station. I'm running my fourth load of laundry of the day and I did some cleaning in my room/bathroom. At this point, I'm kind of hoping that we can load the truck on Thursday evening and just leave that night. I don't want to wait until Friday. That will require me to have everything out in the garage ready to go so that while Mike is loading the truck, I can do the last minute cleaning. I don't think it's impossible. It would be a late night, so maybe it won't work, but I'm going to shoot for it anyway. Maybe if we have just one or two people helping Mike load, he could get it done in a couple of hours and we'd be able to be on our way. We'll see.

So. Phase II is under way and successful so far. Let's hope I can keep my energy up so that everything can get done.

A First

2009-06-13T11:00:00.002-04:00

Mike is a funny guy. He lets his beard and hair grow until they're long and unruly. Then one day he comes down from taking a shower and is bald and shaven. Then about six months later, he repeats the whole process.

Well, his beard has been way too long for a while now (I wish I had a before picture to show you), but he hasn't trimmed it because Kira likes to hold on to it while he's holding her. It's like a little comfort thing for her, I guess. And he's such a good dad and loves his little girl so much.

But he was starting to look pretty scrappy. And so yesterday when he started fussing at his mustache for getting into his mouth or into his nose, or whatever, I decided to pounce. I asked him if I could trim his beard.

I've never trimmed his beard before. But he'd just shave it off anyway, so he was game.

So I got out a comb and some scissors and started trimming. Well... it's not perfect, but I LOVE it! I like the trimmed beard at a reasonable length. I don't like Mike all clean shaven so much, but a scraggly beard isn't good either... so I'm happy. (And that's all that matters, right?)

And hopefully I'll get better at it the more I do it.

And Kira didn't seem to notice or care much, so all is still right in her world.

Just So You Know...

2009-06-12T14:49:00.003-04:00

This is apparently what happens

When this child consumes

Shrimp.

He stayed on Benadryl for about five days for these outbreaks.

It has finally subsided.

Thank goodness.

What a difference two boys make!

2009-06-11T19:53:00.003-04:00

I haven't had to go to the store for milk since Saturday. Our dinners are fitting in one pan. The dishes are caught up and the laundry is done.

I'll still be glad to have them home, though. :)

Wow..

2009-06-10T09:50:00.004-04:00

Closing is only a little over a week away. We will load up our first UHaul truck a week from tomorrow. It's crazy, really. We've spent the past almost four months hoping to be able to buy this house and move into it. And now it's upon us. Time just goes by so fast and so slow all at the same time.

Take Kira, for instance. She's standing up behind my chair exploring the paper shredder . Wasn't she just born? The months have flown by... and yet, the days dragged with a screaming baby and wakeful nights. It's why you have to appreciate today and why you can't all at the same time.

But today, I will appreciate life. I will pack and clean and take care of a sweet little baby who gets into everything. :) Being able to say things like, "You're my best girl" is pretty amazing. And I'll get us ready to move into an amazingly beautiful house. So yes... today I will appreciate life. (But I'll still grumble over cleaning the kitchen and folding the laundry.) :)