Sunday, August 31, 2008

does is get any better?










and last but not least...

"we're not all grins and giggles, but we have love and that's all that matters."-Kate Gosselin (my hero)

Friday, August 29, 2008

y'all...

4:27 am--i can hear seth's fisher price acquarium going off for the 2nd time. not sure if he hit it on purpose or accidentally during his sleep.

4:30 am--ally claire wakes up and wants a bottle. i sit up and say "i'm tired." micah said he'd feed her.

4:32 am--i decide to go check on seth. he is awake as can be. i asked him if he wanted me to lie down with him and he does.

4:51 am--i'm back in my room. micah has finished feeding AC, but oddly, she is NOT asleep. she has never done that. i take her b/c sometimes i think she is just wanting me.

4:54 am--i take AC to her room to put her in her crib. she cries out a couple of times...and it's 9am right now and i still haven't heard a peep out of her.

5:19 am--i keep thinking i hear the acquarium...(i turned it way down while i was in there). then i look up and i'm sure i hear and see seth in my doorway (which is odd b/c even though there are a couple of nightlights, he is typically scared of the dark.)

5:20 am--mama, i need to potty. so i help him to mine. then i tell him to get in our bed.

5:25 am--i am about to fall off i am so on the edge of the bed and he is "right up my duke" as my friend monica says. he never goes to sleep. i do once he gets up with micah an hour later.

today...the good news is that there will be a super early naptime.
yesterday...luke (and seth, but mainly b/c of luke) lost his mega blocks...FOR GOOD. let's remember the incident from july 22nd when luke hit seth repeatedly in the head, so much so he bled. yeah. last night i was washing dishes. micah started running water for ACs bath. the boys were supposed to be cleaning up, same as last time. seth is crying. again, nothing new in our house. i get done and i can tell his crying is different. micah had told him to stop crying a little earlier. i tell seth to come to me. when something is really wrong with seth and he has been crying hard...he breaks out in hive looking things. really red and blotchy. i picked him up and asked him what was wrong. he said "luke hit me in the head with a block." i said "do you hurt?" he said "yes." so i said "show me where." and when i went digging, i saw where blood was raised to the surface. and speaking of blood raising to the surface...i was mad b/c micah had not fully checked out the situation (same as last time) and i told him he needed to be the one to spank luke b/c if i did it, i'd cross the line, i'm quite sure. (now let me say this...micah is a super great dad. one of the best i know. however, he's not been so great lately to go get the story when he hears a ruckus. after the blood letting of last time, i check everything out. i'm hoping this was the last lesson learned. i mean, he and his brother tried to kill each other on many occasions. guy took a bat to micah and micah hauled off and threw a brick and hit him square in the back. micah also stabbed him with a pencil a few times and guy still has the lead in his hand to prove it.) anywho, i finished packing up those blocks and i marched them over to my neighbor's house. she has a little boy seth's age. i'm seeing now that i should have made luke do it. but i was mad and was just ready to get rid of them for good.

lessons learned: when sissy cries, just get up and feed her. it may be easier than the alternative.
if someone is crying, always check it out. mega blocks can be used in attempted murder.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

tropical storm twelve...

12 pack of cookies
11 of them eaten
10 (the time micah went to bed everynight)
9 troopers in the first 45 minutes
8 inches of rain from friday afternoon until sunday morning
7 different people to hold ally claire
6 hour trip, one way
5 magazines
4 days with family
3 snotty noses
2 items left behind
1 exhausted mama

this is the summary of our trip in numbers. this post will likely lack the spunk i usually try to add to make my typically boring life a little more lively b/c i feel like t-total-bum today. TMI moment--but i'm assuming it's just us girls...i'm in the throws of my first real post baby/no birth control TOM and it's a doozy.) i have been postponing this post because i want to post pics with it, but i hate to pull them off of the camera just yet. we finally did have to buy a new computer, which micah did yesterday, and it has to be shipped to us. this one is operating off of a different hard drive. so i'll have to come back and insert pics at a different time. last week i spent 2 days on laundry, getting everything cleaned, folded, sorted, and packed. (let's just insert the fact that i have 4 people to pack and unpack while micah still has just one. hmmmm...something wrong with that math.) anyway, we had a pretty good and uneventful trip down. only had to break the law a couple of times to settle sister. around troy she was spent. she thought it was only necessary to take a couple of 30 minute naps within those 6 hours. so when we got there, she went down for a nap pretty well and wasn't real thrilled when we woke her up to take her to supper at my aunt's little restaurant. but she was a good girl and came home, went down at 8:15 and didn't MOVE until 3:30. that is 7 hours in a row, people. she took a bottle and kept right on sleeping. (the next night she slept from 9-5!! and has done the same ever since!!) the rain moved in on us friday night and i was disappointed because my 6 year old nephew, jamey, was supposed to have football practice. but that just meant we got to spend more time with scott (my brother), sherri and the boys. saturday was a quiet day. we were rained in and it was just us and pop and mimi. we went to my brother's house that evening...in the tropical storm...so we could spend some time with nana and papa, who haven't seen AC since they left the hospital and she was still on the ventilator. (nana-my mom- actually snuck over to pop-my dad- and mimi's the night before for a few minutes. she was about to die to finally get to hold ally claire.) the boys got out all the super hero costumes and dressed up and played as hard as they could while being inside. we had a good supper of breakfast food requested by little sethy bean. then we went back to pop's so i could wash clothes and repack. sunday morning was up and at 'em so that we could try to make it to troy for church (where micah and i met). we were doing great...until a few minutes down the road from pop's luke (who slept in until 8 or so) said "daddy, i forgot my tiger." thankfully pop was coming through where we pulled over to go to his church and they were able to bring it to us. we were only about 10 minutes late for church. we got to catch up with some good friends and have lunch with them. however, in troy is where we realized we left our packed cooler in the garage at pop's house. great...no drinks for the way home. and thank goodness i had packed one extra bottle and a formula dispenser in the bag b/c a bottle was in that cooler as well. her ride home was terrible. oh my gracious!! thank goodness we didn't get pulled over b/c i had to *ahem* calm her down at least 5 times in our 4 hours it took to get from troy to athens. that would have been a pretty ticket and a possible DHR call. let's just say that i have a snuggle baby who loves her mama and leave it at that for calming her down. anywho, we made it. the kids allllll woke up with snotty noses on monday, making my day much longer. i went ahead and called the pedi since she is concerned about anything respiratory due to ACs NICU history. she sounded better last night, but is a little stuffy today. she is still sleeping well at night. i have her in the pack-n-play with is propped up on cinder blocks. she had graduated to her crib on sunday night, but that was before the stuffy/runny nose. also, we have a humidifier in our room, which they recommended and i haven't gotten around to the store to get one for her room yet.

next week preschool starts, so that will make the gas bill add up again. seth will go on thursdays and luke on tuesdays and thursdays. that means a little bigger grocery bill this weekend, also. it's always something. finally got unpacked yesterday and got everything put away...except now i have mountains of clothes to wash...again. does it ever end? tonight i plan to sit in front of my TV in my room, not to be distracted, with my ironing board and my Jon & Kate + 8 marathon. i DO love them and secretly wish i could live with them. what's 1 more, right? (plus i'm potty trained and a germaphobe and OCD, so i'd fit right in!!)

Sunday, August 24, 2008

holy cow!

we are home and not a moment too soon. more to come...

we drove into a tropical storm, braved not getting caught by the troopers for every time i had to break the law, and passed my child around to plenty of people (don't cringe harriette!) good times were had, and bad ones too. mainly the car ride home. but we made it and i still have 3 kids and a hubby. now to reclaim my house.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

my heart might break

this isn't a post about my kids going to preschool...i'm leaping for joy about that. this is far worse. it looks like my hard drive on our computer is about to bite it. yall...i thought i had already done my time with being without a computer. so, micah (a.k.a. computer guru in our house...or i also lovingly call him "technical support") will be bringing home a hard drive from work today to make sure everything is backed up. and then we search for a new laptop. i don't mind b/c i hate this computer, but i'm sad b/c i don't know when that will be. it would be nice to sell the house, but i can't go that long without my computer. i mean, did we not learn anything from a few weeks ago when charter almost made me go completely insane? i mean, i changed to DSL and went from cable to sattelite for pete's sake!! so if i go MIA...i'm at best buy...trying to find my friends a new home to live in.

Monday, August 18, 2008

a little here, a little there

today has been kinda random. i got some things done that have been getting on my nerves for a while. i cleaned out my night table and my armoire because they were the biggest chaotic mess and i cannot stand that. plus i had some books that needed to get put back in the moving box. then i loaded up all 3 kids and went to athens to get my little seth a backpack for school. i could have gone anytime, but the shop where i wanted it from is only open M-F, so there was no going alone. he picked out one with a rocket on it and we will pick it up next monday. then we all went to walmart to pick up some snacks for our trip to dothan. i figured ally claire would be a ravin' lunatic b/c she hates her car seat so much. but actually, she was better there than she is in the car. i think it is because of the angle that the car seat is in the basket. but hey, whatever works. she just looked around and then went on to sleep. i was in complete shock. we came home, i put everyone to bed and then rearranged the living room. it gets nasty dusty under the furniture thanks to having the laminate floors (which i do NOT recommend only because i have 3 kids, 2 being loud boys and i really need the sound muffler of carpet.) i am worn out. tomorrow we have open house for preschool. this will be luke's last year (october birthday) and seth's first year. i have no idea what to tell seth's teacher. i am praying he is a completely different person at school than he is at home. otherwise i'm gonna have to break down and say he is a complete whiner about everything and can't get his spoon in his mouth with the food on it to save his life...and he'll be 3 in a couple of weeks. how do you like that. oh...and bonus...he's a biter. please just put his chair with his name on it in the corner and make it permanent.

good times...

tomorrow afternoon i am praying for naps all around as i need to get the laundry done so i can start packing for our trip. got my list all made out today (because like you, tara, i ADORE lists. it really is a calming thing.) so, i'm gonna get a couple of more things done tonight between watching jon & kate + 8 and getting in my walk...if i can hold out that long. the olympics with gymnastics and swimming has been keeping me up a little late.

Friday, August 15, 2008

i am thankful it's friday

for all the obvious reasons...my mama card is full today. i was frazzled by 9am. that is nothing new in my constant world of chaos. but without further adieu...the cutest picture of the week award goes to....


Thursday, August 14, 2008

dentists, doctors and house showings, oh my!!

ok, so it has been a busy few days...well week actually. the post below fills you in on the boys trip to the dentist. after the dentist, we went out to eat and then came back home. it's never an easy trip anywhere these days, mainly due to the "sister HATES the carseat" issue. seriously, yall...somebody help me. give me some tips. i have to take her out of the seat everywhere we go and hold her the whole time. my back is killin' by the time we leave anywhere. then, that afternoon we had to make the house presentable for a house showing. i am sooooo tired of this. if it weren't for the fact that we are painfully on top of each other in this house, i wouldn't be this insane. anyway, yesterday was ally claire's 2 month appointment. susan, tell "jonahclaire" to watch out...ally claire is coming on strong!! (for those of you who don't know susan or don't stalk her blog from mine, you totally should. she has the cutest boy/girl twins named jonah and claire. luke refers to them as one person!)

not so little sister weighs 13 lbs and 14 oz and is 23 inches long. yeah. she is bigger than her brothers were. instead of a little miss, i may have an amazon.

fortunately, we don't run big girls in my family, nor in micah's, so i would be surprised. but she apparently likes what we are doing around here. and with all 2 month check ups, she got her 6 vaccines. we missed the cut off for seth getting the rotavirus one, but sister got it. i didn't know it was oral. i wish they were all oral. they gave my angel baby 3 shots and she did NOT like it...like any of them do...and here is my chunker monker and her legs, all 3 rolls per leg of them!!



well, this weekend is slower, at least i hope. we are gonna go look at a few houses ourself on saturday. i also need to buy sethy a backpack for preschool and buy a birthday present for a friend...and grocery shop. ok, maybe not so slow. but my prayer is that i can find some time in there to nap. seriously, i am coasting on fumes and chocolate poptarts this morning. i will probably have to run to the gas station in a little bit for some caffeine. all of our "cokes" (which you all know coke means anything carbonated, in our house it is DDP for me and regular DP or MD for micah) are caffeine free...and that will never do today!! like i wasn't already lacking in the sleep department enough. don't get me wrong, i'm glad sister is only getting up once a night...but i wish it were none. and then add on top of it michael phelps swimming late at night. i'll be glad when swimming and gymnastics are over. i can go to bed earlier and hopefully catch up!!

i haven't forgotten thankful thursday. but it will have to come tomorrow and we'll call it "fankful friday" in honor of luke who refuses to say "th". he prefers "sef, fank you and feaver (seth, thank you, feather). he does it for spite these days. seth getting on to luke for saying his name wrong is funny.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

squeaky clean

today the kids went to the dentist. this is their second visit. i forgot my camera both times, but i at least remembered to send my phone back with micah to snap a few pics and my cousin, amy, graciously let me pix them to her and she emailed them to me. thanks cuz! the whole office is decked out in space stuff. the kids are in a space ship that is inside the office. luke is catching up on some spongebob. next time i'll try to get a better picture b/c amy told me this looks like an igloo.


when i was signing them in, the receptionist asked me how old ally claire was. i told her 2 months and was thinking "i hope she isn't thinking i need to go ahead and make her an appointment or something. i mean, this is a pediatric dentist...but come on. then, she pulled out the cutest thing...a 6 month t-shirt for baby sissy. so cute!!


the boys went right on back (with daddy) and just got on up in the chair and did a great job.



their teeth look great...some crowding, but i'm not surprised about that. i know they will have to have braces. i did...twice and micah did. of course, if they have biggo horse teeth like him, he will have to take the blame for the crowding. i mean, the man is missing 8 teeth and they are still tight!! i am proud of my super big boys for doing a great job!!

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Happy 2 months Tinkerbell!!

right now she has a chin for every month old she is...i hope she knows it's ok to stop here!!

it is hard to believe my baby girl is 2 months old already! she has come sooooo far! 2 months ago, i had no idea what was completely going on b/c i was in a wonderful narcotic fog.

but it's the night i met a new friend in Harriette, who is the BEST NICU nurse and i also met my new life long best friend.

sister, mama loves you with my whole heart. i prayed for exactly you long before i even ever met your daddy. i always wanted to have a daughter of my own. you are already everything i ever hoped for.

i pray that God will bless you with a long, healthy life and babies of your own. I hope you know I will always love you and always be here for you.

and i hope you know that mama would love you even past your tippy toes if you would give up that last middle of the night feeding ;0) but i'll take you all the same!!

Saturday, August 9, 2008

cause i love these things

i have been tagged by dana and i never refuse a good "poll"...as it were.

six random things about me that you may not know...and they WILL be random b/c i forgot i had been tagged...

1. i have no clue what color my natural hair is anymore. i have used hair color since 9thish grade. i'm assuming it is a dark blonde. i'll have to look at an 8th grade pic to know for sure.

2. i ALWAYS have my toe nails painted. i clean, clip, buff, apply bonder, 2 coats of polish, then clear coat and it lasts as long as a salon. if i'm not wearing polish on my toes, it's because i'm letting them breathe...but typically no longer than 2-3 days. and i NEVER paint my finger nails.

3. i always wash my hair last when i shower. i think subconsciously, it is from the fact that i have naturally fine (read grease monkey) hair in the mornings and i want it to be as clean as clean can be.

4. i thrive on having a quick wit (read smart mouth...ish). by the way, i would write what i really think and do the strike out thing so that it would be funnier than saying "read...", but i haven't figured out how to do it. somebody help me b/c it is important to me that i be funny, even on my blog. it is, after all, what i have goin for me these days.

5. i can sing well. but i always wanted to take voice lessons to see if i could sing better, expand my range and tone, and to try to get over my complete stage fright. i like to be noticed, but not for all eyes to be on me. dana, you have to know that i love you with my whole heart, along with my brother adam to have sang at your wedding. it was a solo first. i thought i would throw up. thank goodness it was at sorrell.

6. i was a cheerleader for 15 years. yes, i started when i was 3 and my bro was playing football for the boys club. in the 15 years, i only missed 2 years. i still have all of my pom-poms (yes i know they are actually pom-pons, but it looks stupid) except for the ones we used at NHS. we had to give those back. it was the only time in my life i wanted to steal...but i didn't. ask mrs. shelor.

i tag...
1. brandi
2. lindsey
3. hillary
4. susan
5. tara
6. brandy
7. allyson
8. harriette
9. vaughn

(it was supposed to be 6 people that i tagged, but i've always been a little bit of an overachiever...plus it gives you all something to blog about. i'll try to wait patiently.)


Friday, August 8, 2008

needing little prayer

as i've mentioned...we have our house on the market again. it is showing once a week, which i figure with the market how it is now, that is pretty good. it's really good for my neighbor b/c hers is for sale also and she and i are in a little different situation. i would like to get moved by the spring at the latest. luke will start school fall of '09, and i want to already be in that school zone. now, getting the house ready (or keeping the house ready for that matter) isn't an easy task with the 3 little ones. so i would love for it to sell sooner rather than later. preschool starts back the week after labor day and having to show a house here and there isn't gonna be real fun. plus, i don't even want to think about all of this when it is colder. anyway, we aren't in a situation where we NEED to have it sell, but it sure would be nice. we are bustin' at the seams around here.

tomorrow micah has the kids pretty much all day while i'm off to HSV for a CE class to finish up my hours for my nursing license renewal. so yall say a little prayer for him, too. I'll be gone from 730-4 tomorrow!! (i will get to feel smart and see if my brain remembers stuff they will be talking about!)

anyway, nothing exciting to report. sister is stretching out her nights a little bit. but every little bit counts.

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Thankful Thursday

as i lie awake this morning at 4 am, trying to go back to sleep after a feeding, i was thinking of all the things i was thankful for. now that it's 9:30, i'm having a hard time remembering what all i planned to say.

1. I'm thankful that I am more consistantly getting 4 hours of sleep uninterrupted. I'm more thankful that when we get back from our trip to Dothan at the end of the month, sister is gonna have to start doing a little CIO at night. (I'm hoping that she doesn't wake the boys up in the process!!)

2. I'm thankful that my BF Ellen has lived up here the last year. It has been really neat, after all of these years apart, to get to know her as a mom and get to develop our friendship as adults. (I'm also thankful that Maddie had a good first day of kindergarten yesterday. We missed you while you were gone!)

3. I'm thankful that i can call my mama on the phone and gab most everyday. I hope I can do that with Ally Claire when she is a mama.

4. I'm thankful that for once in my life, I wasn't completely ADD and stuck out nursing school. I will always have a job I can go back to or if God forbid anything ever happened to Micah's job.

5. I'm thankful I have reconnected with so many of my childhood friends through the blogs. It is great to know you aren't alone in the world of toddlerhood, tantrums and potty training.

6. I'm thankful that Micah is thinking he needs to go back to the ENT when we get back from Dothan. Hopefully that surgery that he has needed for a while isn't too far from now and it will help with his breathing situation...or lack thereof.

7. I'm thankful that God made me a woman and that i can multitask. There is rarely a moment in my life that requires that I do one thing at a time. The other day, I was giving Ally Claire a bottle, putting on make up and "reading" Good Night Moon to Seth all at the same time. ("reading" meaning he turned the pages while i recited the story that i have memorized...hey...it counts!!)

8. I'm thankful Mrs. Bonnie was here yesterday when my boys decided it would be fun to tear up Ally Claire's wreath that I made her for the hospital door. If not, I would have gone postal on them. I settled for a calm voice, spankings and corners in stead. That was hard.

9. I'm thankful for clarity at 3 am when I'm typically feeding Ally Claire. It is when I get my best prayers in for the day b/c I don't have anyone interrupting me, for once. (I mean come on...you know I can't even use the potty alone.)

10. i'm thankful that bones don't break that easily when you are young b/c I know the boys are trying to kill each other!

Monday, August 4, 2008

warrior weekend

don't ask me why i adore illiteration. i just do. it's catchy. and i'm probably not otherwise clever enough to come up with a cute title and i figure i need to grab your attention up front b/c i'm sure whatever else i write may be kind of boring. i'm much funnier in person. i'm more of a comeback queen than anything else. (of course most of you have known me forever and are thinking "more like smart mouth".) and you are probably right on that one as well.

anyway...i had a really good weekend!! friday night and saturday morning i went to the Living Proof Live simulcast event where Beth Moore spoke. I'm a little addicted to Jesus and Beth..and yes, it is in that order. I think of Beth kind of like a math teacher. ( I know, with the Bible, shouldn't it be history??) But i say math because history isn't that complex. it happened, memorize the date and event, done. with math...sometimes you just look at the teacher like a deer in headlights and think "funny...i didn't know my teacher taught math in greek." but other teachers put it on your level and you think "thank you for making it plain as day." that is how i feel about Beth (i only call her by her first name b/c i'm sure we're friends.) anyway, I bought a new Bible study (the one on Daniel) and then i WON a Bible study (workbook AND CDs!!) I found last year that i LOVE buying the cds because i (meaning Micah) can turn them into MP3s and I put them on my player and listen to them as i walk or wash dishes or whatever. super awesome way to get your study in. I have never been good to just read a scripture and take it apart and digest it to see what it is really saying. and perhaps that is why i feel like a lot of times i have felt like i'm the "rocky soil" in the parable of the soils (Luke 8). I feel like things fall on the surface and go down a little bit, but never take a firm root. (and yes, that is what our lesson was about over the weekend.) so i'm in the process of trying to take it one verse at a time to really KNOW what the Bible is saying and seal it in my heart. i'm also learning things about myself more and more the older i get when it comes to worship. worship is different for everyone, and i think it should be. it reflects your own personal relationship with God. (if you want more of a personal statement, you can ask. i won't go into it on here because of the diversity of who is reading.) anyway, all of that to say it was an awesome refresher and i surely needed it. big thank you to micah who had the kids most of the day saturday so i could do that, get my hair sassed back up and grocery shop. he also had to pick the house up a little since we had to reschedule our house showing from thursday to saturday. yeah...we were busy.

i also made a trip to kohl's to pick up a few things for the kiddos. kohl's was having a deal where if you spend 50$ you get 10 back in kohl's cash. plus it was tax free weekend. well, i now have 30$ in kohl's cash that will probably go towards some new kicks for me. i am in DIRE need of new tennis shoes for exercising. I have been walking with my neighbor, but it's time to really get with it and burn this baby stuff (most of which is still hanging around from SETH!! i lost everything from ally claire!!) so...i'm bringing in the big guns and getting out "the FIRM" stuff i used to use. it's a good work out. it combines cardio and strength training. i sat down after walking the other night to stretch and thought to myself..."sista...how come just a few years ago...OK...12 years ago-OUCH-you could lay down flat in the floor stretching and now you look like you never had an athletic day in your life?" so that is my quest. to become a mama who keeps up with their kids and can outrun them as long as possible (which let's face it...i'm on a ticking clock with having 2 boys!)

well, better get off of here and get something accomplished. sister is napping and i just made the boys a tent in their room. so i just bought myself about 30 minutes!!

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