the mouth strikes again...

luke told a teacher he was gonna spank her with a belt today. i'm just glad he didn't say a bad word b/c that was what i was totally expecting when his teacher wanted to talk to me. for THAT, i would have been mortified. she just didn't want him to get home and say it and think it came from them. i just looked at her and said "i know it's not from here. it's from home." obviously i don't want him to be disrespectful like that, but i'm not surprised as that is the ultimate in high threats at our house and it typically gets whatever job we want done. this teacher, which he's not real familiar with, was apparently invading his personal space and he held up his hand and told her to stop. i guess she didn't believe him, so he warned her. so that is the only reason i think it is even slightly humorous. i'm so glad he'll go to public school and not a private Christian school. IIIIII, would personally, never make it out alive.

I've been tagged...

What was I doing 10 years ago? just turned 20 and getting ready to start my first semester of nursing school, dating micah

5 things on my to-do list today:
1.) put up laundry
2.) declutter kitchen
3.) cook supper
4.) help luke's tummy feel better
5.) deal with backtalk

5 snacks I enjoy:
yeah, anything chocolate
1.) pb/choc chip granola bars
2.) chips/dip
3.) cookies
4.) pineapple/strawberries/peaches
5.)ice cream

i don't claim to be a healthy eater!

5 things I would do if I were a billionaire:
1.) pay off any debt
2.) save for kids college
3.) pay off parents/siblings debt
4.) new home
5.) donate (church, breast cancer, st. jude's)

5 bad habits:
1.) yelling
2.) procrastination
3.) telling my kids "just a minute"
4.) not getting enough sleep
5.) not drinking enough water

5 places I have lived:
1.) Dothan, AL
2.) Malvern, AL
3.) Troy, AL
4.) Huntsville, AL
5.) Athens, AL

5 jobs I've had or have:
1.) babysitter
2.) house cleaner
3.) RN
4.) mom

Thankful Thursday

1. I am thankful that the boys' room and Ally Claire's room are both done and I don't have to worry about anything else for either of them.

2. I am thankful that they have been sleeping great and haven't had any problems adjusting to having a roommate.

3. I am thankful that for the last 2 days in a row, i got them to BOTH take naps at the same time. (Luke is old enough that he doesn't require one everyday and i really thought it would be more of a fight.)

4. I am thankful for the return of warm weather and sunny days. This is how i get them worn down in the morning or afternoon so that good sleep is had by all (even though i typically never have sleeping problems out of them.)

5. I am thankful that I can call next week and get my date all set up for sister to come. Having an actual date is so nice, especially when you are a planner and you need to tell all 900 grandparents when and where they are needed.

6. I am thankful that my husband realizes that after 2 weeks and 2 weekends, i am due a mental health day on saturday. that means that i have allowed him to get anything he needs to get done that morning. but by lunch, i am outta here and i'll be back...eventually. (i am taking suggestions for what i should do. already on the list...lunch with a friend at a tea room and a pedicure.)

7. I am thankful that i have felt productive enough today to get the laundry done, floors vacuumed and mopped and dishes put away. this afternoon should hold time outside with the kiddos.

8. I am thankful that the genius idea came to me yesterday to take the easel outside for the kids to paint. no inside mess to clean up and when they were done, they got to play in a bucket of sudsy water (and i was even smart enough to use baby shampoo b/c i knew they would splash!) all of those brain cells aren't completely dead after 3 pregnancies.

9. I am thakful that at 32 weeks, i have only gained 6 lbs and i can still wear my wedding rings. i know those days are numbered, but it is definitely something i couldn't say with my boys.

10. i am thankful that b/c i have the awesome-est friends, sister is NOT naked. now we will just have to find somewhere to go everyday to show off our cutie patootie clothes.

at least he was polite...

ok, this is a luke story. the things that come out of his mouth these days...they make me laugh, they infuriate me, and everything in between. this particular story makes me laugh. here is a little background. since luke was about a year and a half old, his favorite snack is the "4 cheese" Cheese Nips. only that flavor will do (thanks, mimi!) if i buy 100 dollars in snacks, these will be the first things to go. when he started identifying them, everything was about color, so he called them orange crackers. still does. (that is important.) this past weekend i went grocery shopping and walmart didn't have the 4 cheese flavor. GASP!! it was the only think lacking on my list and nearly as important as milk and chocolate poptarts as we had been out of most everything for a couple of days. anyway, when i got home, he noticed that i didn't have said beloved snack. i told him we would have to visit another store later. well the next day while micah was yard working, i decided to load the kids up to go waste time until he was done. we went back to walmart and still...no cheese nips. so i told luke we could check out k-mart since there were a couple of things there i needed. when we got there...NO CHEESE NIPS!! so i told him that we would have to go to another store the next day. while we were checking out, the lady that was helping us was in her 20s and probably about 5'0" tall. cute. petite. and if you have been to a kmart lately, you know the registers are basically on top of each other, so there were plenty of people within hearing range of luke saying:
"EXCUUUSE me little girl...but you don't have any orange crackers here!!" like he just knew that she was the one he needed to tell b/c surely she could rectify the situation. i'm sure for the first time ever i blushed, laughed with everyone else and said "well, at least he was polite i guess."

yeah.

and his other favorite thing to tell me is "mama...sethy is gettin' on my nerbs." (getting on his nerves.)

when we left for school this morning he said "mama, it sure is a beautiful day. it is amazing." not sure where he heard that, but i'll take it. any props to the Creator is fine by me!

and tonight he looked at me at the table and out of the blue he says "mama...you're being weird." then he told micah "daddy...you look different today."

We're Ready for you, Sister!!

Again, with much "help" from Luke, Ally Claire's room is finally ready. Minus the whole formula thing, I could bring her home today and we are ready to go. I met my goal of having Seth potty trained before she got here and I even have a few weeks to spare. Now I can reclean the rest of my house and just sit and wait. How will i ever fill my time?? (and i'm aware that the date on my camera is wrong!!)

a peek in sissy's room

i told you she wouldn't be naked

The Boys' Room

The boys, especially Luke waited a week for the transformation of his room into "the boys room". He was so excited that he would get a roommate. These days we can tell Seth most anything and if Luke is excited about it, so is he. I took them to the store and let them pick out their bedding (with my approval anyway...and yes, it was hard not being the one to make all the decisions.) I started getting their toys reduced and put into Luke's room during the week b/c i knew that would be a task in itself. Plus i needed to go ahead and move some furniture out. Micah had a boys day on saturday but on sunday, i had been promising the boys that they would get their new beds. Micah was under the weather on Sunday, but we had promised and they were about to go bonkers to get into their new rooms!! They have done awesome together!! there have been a couple of times that seth has woken up before luke and luke was upset when seth wasn't in there. But we assured him that seth DID sleep in there. Seth has been a super champ about taking naps. He asks me to lie down with him for a few minutes at night (which after i did it the first couple of nights, i figured it would become a constant request), but i'm OK with that for now. I have NO idea what will happen when I'm in the hospital, but i'll worry about that when the time gets here. So here it is..."the boys room".

After waiting and waiting, Luke loves his new bed in the "boys room"

A look in the door while it's clean

Seth's side

the closet is where most of the toys are condensed-toy bins galore and a tool table

the changing table becomes the entertainment center

work-a-holic

one day i will realize that i should take it easy. this is the statement i made to micah last night. his response was laughter and he sarcastically said "yeah." and i said "in 7 weeks i'll have staples and will have to." then my next thought was "ya know, when i had luke, we changed rooms the day after my c-section and i was picking up my suitcase to move across the hall."

anyway, that was random. however, the room is painted and the curtains have been hung and yesterday i took it upon myself to clean out the clutter that has started accruing in my garage and storage building from "moving prep". can anyone say nesting?? today's plan is to put the crib together and vacuum in there and start getting things in place. the weekend i will use for getting clothes organized (as i have a shower at work tomorrow so no reason to start that today.) and hopefully that will be the end of getting ready for little sister.

next wednesday is my doctor's appointment and i think it's when i start going every 2 weeks. and if i haven't mentioned it, i really think she is facing forward b/c i can see every move, every kick. it is strange!! and i know i have felt actual feet and knees. and i think i'm starting to have a liiiiiiittle swelling. (i need some more epsom salts, Dana!!) i have been able to wear my rings, but i noticed the last couple of days that they are getting a little tight. that and how do you gain 5 lbs in 2 days? just another reason to take it easy and chug some water.

and i promise pictures are coming. just stay tuned. you know i'm OCD and want you to see the finished product!!

getting there...

2 "aloe" walls down, 2 to go. you know i'm ON it tonight!! i am seeing that sister's room will be ready this weekend. which means that between her room and the boys' room, there is a picture blog-a-thon a comin'.

teaser

ok. there has been sooo much going on around our house. and i promise i'm gonna have a super long update with photos soon. it may be a work in progress for the blog since what we are doing is a work in progress. but i'll say that yesterday we finally got the boys moved in together and today i started priming what was seth's room which is what will now be sister's room. his room was a jungle green and now it's gonna be "aloe"...a very pale green. i know, i'm a green-a-holic. but no other color would do. i can't have an all pink room or i'd gag. i'm a girl, but froo froo was never my gig. so i'll give you some updates soon.

luke's good day

i went to pick luke up from preschool today. he was with the rest of his class watching a video while parents started to pull in and his back was to the door. his teacher, mrs. pat, whom we love, was walking toward me and i immediately thought "oh no. here we go." (don't you love the faith i have in my child?) anyway she said "luke had a wonderful day today. he just did great. we had to go to the big bathroom instead of the one between the classrooms and he just went right in and used it and came right out and when we went to the elevator he didn't cry or even hold my hand. he just said "i can do it. i can do it." so of course i'm all teary by this point. a little history...luke has had some sort of preoccupation/obsession with elevators for at least a year. he wants to know if there is an elevator everywhere we are going. and i have already been talking to him about how he will have to go in the elevator to come see me and ally claire at the hospital. he even pretends that his closet is one sometimes. so i'm not sure if it's now a fascination when it used to be shear terror or what. either way, that was MAJOR today. and the bathroom thing...if you are a new reader...luke has had a major fear of big public restrooms since he was first potty trained 2 years ago. if we are traveling, he's rather use a bush than a potty and that is even in the cold weather. it's the atomic flush thing. however, i knew he was good at church b/c he used the regular adult one with micah a few weeks ago.

anyway, all that to say it was a super day for luke and he deserved for his mama to brag on him. plus i did a major no-no and rewarded him with food. we went to "old mcdonalds", as he calls it, and got fries for his snack.

thankful thursday

sorry it is so late. i have been so busy in the last couple of weeks with house stuff, but i feel like i'm letting my small little population down if i can't find something to be thankful for.

and so...

~I'm thankful that God put a little boy into my life that i never met. his illness showed me the true power of God. it is something i need to be reminded of, especially being in the medical world.

~I'm thankful that all I lack getting the boys merged into one room is getting their beds. that will be checked off this weekend.

~I'm thankful that Ally Claire is hanging in there, despite the fact that her mama thinks there is no rest for the weary and is determined to work like a farm hand despite being 30 weeks pregnant. (hopefully that will just teach you perseverance sissy!)

~I'm thankful that i have an excuse to ask Micah for a foot rub or a back rub for the next 8 weeks. after that, i'm afraid i'm on my own.

~I'm thankful that Luke is strong. otherwise i would have killed him by now. thankfully he says things like "mama, you worked hard today. you get an extra sticker!" to cancel out the times he beats on his brother.

~I'm thankful that this past week, sethy has pooped in the potty twice and tt'd in public twice. that is progress and that one should really be at the top of the list.

~I'm thankful that i didn't have time to put my kids down for a nap today with all the furniture moving and now, they will go to bed in 15 minutes (yep...that's 7:30!)

~I'm thankful that there is a bag of brownie mix in my pantry, b/c i DO believe it is time for a treat!!

seriously...

i'm hurt. people will tell me they like my recipes, but no one will comment on my beautiful angel baby girl.

ally claire

the final decision

if you haven't already, scroll down to see the events leading up to the finale.

today the "foundation specialists" came. they came in their button up dress shirts and khakis. they read the inspector's report. they took 5 minutes to kneel down by the crawlspace door. they then walked back around and handed me an estimate for....wait for it...$4500 for a drain and sump pump. and that doesn't include wiring. i seriously laughed out loud. micah called our realtor and said that we could be willing to negotiate some things and write them a check at closing for a muuuuuuuuch smaller amount and they could do what they wanted with it. they thought about it and as much as they wanted the house, they are on a time constraint and needed to look other places. CAN I JUST SAY FINE BY ME???

our goal has always been to move by spring 2009. we put it up now b/c if it happened just right before ally claire got here, then that would be fine. otherwise, the plan was always to wait. i have prayed for big answers and God certainly provided. the house we loved sold 2 days before we got the offer on this house. things with these people have been so crazy the last couple of weeks that i have been super anxious. the 2 houses we had to choose between (b/c that was seriously all we had to choose from that wasn't exactly what we already have) just weren't completely what we wanted. so God promptly said wait. and so we will.

so for now, we will continue to reside in athens. the next 8 weeks hold many doctor's appointments, finishing up another year of school, painting a room, getting beds and bedding so the boys can become roommates and getting everything ready for sissy's arrival. that is surely plenty for now!! i am thankful to have a sigh of relief!! now i hope this helps my neighbor's house sell.

crazy/busy--the loooong version

what a week! i am completely exhausted and am glad it's over. let's see...monday i drove down to clanton to pick up my mama. she was a huge help this week and i'm glad she was here. at the very least, it saved plenty of phone calls this week. tuesday, after i had to eat a snickers and drink a regular sprite at 6:15 (28 week glucose tolerance test...i know...i shouldn't complain, but it is just GROSS for breakfast and i typically feel like crap the rest of the day!) we took the boys to walmart and just played around here. not too much to offer on that. wednesday luke had school, we had some shopping to do, we took sethy to the play area at the mall and had lunch before going to pick luke back up. thursday...yeah. the inspector came that morning with their realtor and the buyer and...i'll get to that in a little bit. we took the kiddos out to hazel green (30 minutes northeast of athens), then drove back to huntsville (20 minutes south of HG) to the doctor for my 4-D ultrasound. Fortunately sissy cooperated and showed her little face (and her 100% certainty of being a girl) and she looks soooooo much like...SETH! i really thought she would look like Luke from her previous profile on ultrasounds. and she does have his nose, it seems. but the cheeks and lips are alllllll sethy bean! and we were able to tell that she has hair! but then again all my babies are born with some hair...we are just always curious to know what color it is gonna be!! and if it's gonna be curly or not!! i go back for my 32 week appointment on the 23rd and after that i will start going every 2 weeks. now that's a trip. it has gone soooo fast. but even better is that i will get to call to schedule the actual day!!



after the appointment, we grabbed a quick lunch and then headed back out to HG to look at 3 more houses...and i mean really look at them and try to make a decision about what we wanted to do. really there were only 2 that we needed to choose from, but we looked at a 3rd just to have another option. an hour and a half later we picked up the kiddos (who were both without a nap) and headed back home. a little bit later, ellen and maddie came by to bring us supper (thank goodness b/c i was tired and offering a home cooked meal apparently wasn't on my agenda this past week!! poor nana!!) and a birthday gift! i was so wiped after that, that i just decided not to go to work on friday. we had decisions still to make depending on what the inspector said/buyers wanted, luke to take to school and a house to kind of pick up around for one more guest. monica. now, it's not like monica or mama require anything special. after all, they are family. but come on. who knows me and all my OCDness?? i'm a neat freak as it is. other folks being around didn't squelch that. i think it turns it into overdrive! plus it rained allllllll day on friday. and when i say rain, what i mean is monsoon. i hooked the pump up under the house (we have a crawlspace) and pumped water out from 10 that morning until 9 that night. holy moly!!

saturday was my baby shower. thank goodness for a nonstressful time! it was much needed. my friends brandy and ellen hosted it. ally claire is gonna be one spoiled, froo froo little girl!! i got her bedding in and it's actually the first time i have laid eyes on it. it was an online only thing, so i was praying it was just as cute in person...and it IS!!! my friend tiffany who made the letters for her room match is beautifully and i can't wait to get her room ready. (i already had all that done by this time with the boys...but since we are in limbo...) anyway, we had good food, awesome gifts and i will brag and say i took today to get my thank you notes written. otherwise, it may get forgotten in the next few weeks! i have the best family and friends.

ok...house stuff. last friday the buyers called and wanted to come take a final look because they were trying to decide between our house and one other. we were thinking that the woman really wanted our house b/c it was nicer and more move in ready. the husband wanted the other because it was cheaper (isn't that typically the case??) we knew their realtor was gonna push for a decision that weekend. and on sunday we got a call from our realtor about 345 that afternoon (we were walking out the door at 4 to go over to HG to furniture shop for the boys and go to church with micah's parents...which is where our realtor goes to church.) he brought the papers to church. we made a counter offer. he left and called them after church and when we got home about 830 we go them to agree to our offer. so, then came the inspection. he came out on thursday. we DID expect them to say something about wetness under the house. (like i said earlier, most of the houses in north alabama are built on a crawl space and everyone around here that i know of has had to have a sump pump put in...not an issue. totally ok.) and we expected there might be a few minor things. well...they want us to replace our whirlpool tub with another whirlpool tub...FOR NO HONKIN' REASON. the inspector said that it leaked down into the crawlspace. however, functionally there is nothing wrong with the tub. we looked at lowes just for kicks, and our tub would have to be a special order and would be 1000K minimum. ummmmm...everyone with me...THAT WOULD BE A NO!!! otherwise they want "an electrician" to come out and replace 3 electrical sockets with the ones that have the reset button on them. nothing is actually wrong with the sockets that are there right now. again...that is a no. they want us to regrade, seed and hay along the back of the house b/c they don't think there is enough slope for water drainage. they are sending a foundation specialist out tomorrow to look under the house to see what they suggest. micah told me today he will listen to what they have to say tomorrow, but he is thinking that what he is gonna do is just tell them we are willing to pay "x" amount of money from our profit and they can fix what they want to from that. otherwise...nice to meet you.

seriously. i have 3.5 weeks to know if i'm moving or not. i'm 29 weeks pregnant. we would need to make an offer on the house we have decided on, have it inspected, get my house packed, on top of taking care of my 2 & 4 year olds which includes school 2 days a week and working 1 day a week. yall have realized i need to be committed, right??

anyway, just pray that the next couple of days goes well and that God will give us the clear answer of what we need to do right now. if we move, it's now. otherwise, we will relist our house in july. and if that is the case, which is fine, i still have to buy 2 twin beds and bedding, move seth in to luke's room, paint ally claire's room (which is seth's current room) and get both of those set up and then figure out what is left to do for her. i'm not stressed. i'm not stressed a bit.....(anyone else laughing???)