Musings From Our House

Shutterfly - Free Cards!

2010-12-14T22:52:00.000-06:00

So... if you know me well enough to have exchanged addresses with me, then you know that your Christmas card will, most likely, arrive late. And often it will just be a snapshot I took myself (think last year's "kids in a snowstorm" snapshot). But this year is different. Only in that it's not a snapshot I took myself ... your card will still be late. My friend, Donna, a budding photographer, took our photos recently and I couldn't be happier.

And what makes me even happier is that I'm getting 50 free cards from Shutterfly. I've never tried Shutterfly for Christmas cards, but I am really impressed with their selection of Holiday Photo Cards.
Or, if you're not the photo card type (meaning you like a card that folds over, but still with your photo(s) on it), check out their Holiday Cards.

Here's a particularly good idea - Thank You Cards with the photo(s) of your choice on them! Have you bought nice thank you cards lately? These are about the same price as thank you cards from a stationery store. Only they could have your adorable kid's face on them.

You know what I loved about creating my photo card with Shutterfly? The fact that I could customize SO MUCH on the card, including the font! I needed to include our new address in South Carolina and was able to find a card that I loved that had room for our address!

I can't wait to get YOUR holiday card this year. If you sent a card to our Flower Mound address and it was returned, please send me an email (crissy dot lodmell at gmail dot com) ... apparently the post office only forwarded our mail for three months even though I requested the full one year.

Buttons

2010-08-06T23:37:00.000-05:00

There's a story here. Did your mom or grandma have a container of buttons?

We have one. Although it lacks character. It's a ziplock plastic dish with a lid. Dishwasher safe, recyclable, and stackable. My grandma's buttons were in some sort of clear jar that would be considered "antique" today. My buttons lack character, as well. They were a "lot" that I bought off ebay for about $10 a little over a year ago. They serve their purpose in our house, though.

This child got up this morning, made her bed, got dressed, then pulled out the buttons. There seems to be some sorting by color going on. Oh, I feel for her. What on EARTH is going to happen to all those buttons that don't fit neatly into the red, orange, yellow, green, blue or purple cups?!? I'm sure she'll figure something out. I didn't give any feedback on this little project, except to confirm that she DID plan on picking all those buttons up when she was done, right?

What's this? Little piles of buttons. There seems to be a pattern here.

Apparently the whole goal was to COUNT the buttons. Kind of a round about way to get to where she was going, via the color sorting, and all, but hey, that's how she rolls. Piles of ten. So pretty, like a rainbow.

518, in case you were wondering.

And yes, she did clean up when she was finished. Without even being asked.

You Never Know

2010-08-06T00:36:00.001-05:00

You never know who is going to be a blessing in your life. Today it was Luke. Luke works at the church where the kids play soccer and my kiddos are strangely taken with him. I mean, Charlotte is just almost obsessed with him. You will understand why later.

Tuesday and Thursday evening are spent at indoor soccer practice. With three playing soccer, we are lucky to just have practice two evenings per week and it's really not a hardship. It's kind of rough that Jack's practice is Thursdays from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m., but it's a short season, so we deal.

The gym where the kids practice and play their games has a "rec room" of sorts, with foosball, air hockey, ping pong, and pool tables. There are couches and TVs and large round tables and chairs, where we often eat dinner between practices on Tuesdays. Luke is the guy you ask for the air hockey paddles, or a ping pong ball, or a foosball, should you want to play any of those games.

Tonight we ate Chicken Express at the church. I ordered a family pack, and I tried to be really conscious of the amount of food we were getting and not order too much. But, alas, there was way too much food. So, of course, we asked Luke to join us. After we shared our meal together, he played with the kids. Now, with John being gone, the kids are not getting a whole lot of "roughhousing" type play around our house. Luke played chase and tickle wars and all sorts of games. Then, Mitchell asked Luke to play ping pong with him. Well, the last ping pong ball had been smashed earlier that evening and Luke didn't have any more. So, he suggested that he and Mitchell should play with an imaginary ball. Here's the result. Note the happy dance at the end when Mitchell declares "My point!"

Thanks for the blessing, Luke! (And can you see why Charlotte adores him?)

The Beginning of Our Homeschool Journey

2010-08-04T22:24:00.005-05:00

I think I'm getting it all together for our first year of homeschooling. If you haven't been reading my blog lately (and why would you? I mean, before last week it had been almost a year!), we are full-time homeschoolers now. Which means that we are setting our own schedules and picking our own curricula. Also, I will be growing my hair down to my knees and will only be wearing denim jumpers from now on. And the kids will, most certainly, become very socially awkward. Because this is how it is with homeschoolers, no?

First of all, we're moving from Texas (where homeschoolers have it really good), to South Carolina (where homeschoolers don't have it quite as good). I'm not saying that it's going to be a hardship to homeschool there; just that there are some requirements that we have to meet. South Carolina, it seems, has made it a bit confusing (imagine that!) to get started homeschooling. Basically, there are three ways to homeschool in SC. The first has a list of requirements a mile long and, as far as I can tell, has the parent reporting to the school system and the child participating in state-mandated testing. The second option also has the child taking standardized tests and the family must be a member of the South Carolina Association of Independent Home Schools. The "third option", as it is commonly referred to, is to join another homeschool association of not less than 50 students whose requirements of members include:

(a)

a parent must hold at least a high school diploma or the equivalent general educational development (GED) certificate;

(b)

the instructional year is at least one hundred eighty days;

(c)

the curriculum includes, but is not limited to, the basic instructional areas of reading, writing, mathematics, science, and social studies, and in grades seven through twelve, composition and literature; and

(d)

educational records shall be maintained by the parent-teacher and include:

(1)

a plan book, diary, or other record indicating subjects taught and activities in which the student and parent-teacher engage;

(2)

a portfolio of samples of the student's academic work; and

(3)

a semiannual progress report including attendance records and individualized documentation of the student's academic progress in each of the basic instructional areas specified in item (c) above.

So, basically, with this option, the kids don't have to participate in standardized testing. Also, the local "third option" associations tend to be much cheaper (SCAIHS is $328-$448, depending on how many students you have in your family). Most local associations are $40-$75 per family, it seems. Fortunately for us, all the above requirements are not going to be a problem. I hate that we have to document 180 days, but I guarantee that if John does science with the kids on a Sunday afternoon, I will be documenting it as a day!

All that said, now I have to find a homeschool association and join it! So, writing this blog entry has prompted me to do some checking and that's a good thing. I don't want to be considered "truant" on our first day in SC!

So, why?

2010-07-27T08:11:00.000-05:00

I have a feeling that a lot people who have read the last two posts are wondering, "So why the heck did you buy this big expensive house that you can't afford?" Fair question.

And the answer is, we could afford it at the time. John's salary had doubled over the course of just a few years. We were blessed with consistent bonuses from his job at Capital One, with which we paid for private school and our annual vacation to Vermont. We put our house on the market the summer before Mitchell was born (six years ago) and then took it off when I started having contractions before every showing (two months early!) because of the physical exertion required to get my toddler and my preschooler out the door and leave the house perfect for every showing. The following spring, we tried again. This time, we sold the house in six weeks and began the building process on the new house.

After we moved into the new house, Charlotte was born (nine months later, only 21 months younger than Mitchell) and then we had a 1st grader, a preschooler, a toddler and an infant. The first year with Charlotte was pretty easy. She was a great baby ... very easy-going and a great sleeper. As Jack was entering 2nd grade and Holly Grace was entering Kindergarten, Charlotte was just coming into "toddlerhood" and Mitchell was a full-on, tantrum-throwing preschooler. That fall, John had the opportunity to propose to his boss that they offer him a "package" and he would leave Capital One. He had been dreaming of leaving and being self-employed for a while and was able to "sell" Capital One on laying him off. He got a great package (almost a year of severance) and we were excited for him to pursue his dream of owning his own business and being his own boss.

In hindsight, again, we can see God's hand in our situation. I really benefited from having John at home and from his help with the kids. Especially when I needed to go somewhere/pick someone up/take someone to an activity during the afternoon. It was such a blessing to be able to leave Charlotte (and sometimes Mitchell) napping at home under John's care rather than waking them up to take them with me. The kids LOVED having Daddy at home and, for the most part, did really well understanding that if Daddy was in his office, he was working, and it was important to not disturb him. I would not trade the time we had him at home for anything.

Long story short (yes, I know, too late), the business did not work out and it became clear that John was going to need to get a [real] job [with benefits]. A job (at GMAC) came along, but the year and a half off, without significant income from the business, had definitely taken it's toll on our savings. The new job paid less than the job at Capital One and the bonus structure was pretty pitiful compared to what he made before. Don't get me wrong, we were thankful for the job, and certainly the benefits.

And that basically puts us back to last summer, where we had the conversation regarding school for the 2010-2011 school year.

Changes (Part the Second)

2010-07-25T00:09:00.000-05:00

So, there we were, having decided to homeschool (sorta) our kids. For a while I was in denial, just hoping that our situation would change and we would just slide right back in to CDA like nothing had ever happened. And, even though John did get a promotion in January, it just wasn't going to put us where we would need to be, financially, to continue to have our kids in private school.

In March, I got a phone call from the Principal of the local private school from which I graduated. They were looking for a middle school math teacher for next year. Guess what?! I have a lifetime certification in Texas to teach math to K-8th grade and all subjects K-6. Now, I knew that I probably didn't want to go get a full time job if it meant spending all the money I made (and then some) to have my children at that school or if it meant putting my kids in public school. However, what an honor for my former teacher and now, friend, to call me and pursue me professionally! As a stay-at-home mom for 10+ years, it feels really nice for someone to see that you have value in a profession. The principal asked me to come in and just take a tour of the new facilities and chat with him. John encouraged me to go, if for nothing else than an ego boost. We scheduled it for a day when my little ones would be in preschool and my big kids would be at school.

Now, this was supposed to be an informal meeting. Luckily, I decided to dress up rather than down (meaning, I had heels and slacks on). Well, when I arrived I found out that our informal meeting had evolved into a full-on panel interview. Wow. I didn't see that coming. Fifteen years ago, fresh out of college, I would have completely panicked. But this ... it's an entirely different situation when you don't need or necessarily even want the job. The tables are turned and you almost get to interview the interviewer! Well, I ended up (after the interview) visiting with the President of the school, whom I also knew from my time there as a student. He offered to me a very generous swap - my four children at the school full-time in exchange for me teaching there full-time. Now, I did the math and that comes out to more than $45,000 in tuition and fees for my kiddos. Holy smokes, that's a lot of money. It would have been a sweet gig. If ... if, if, if. If I had received any confirmation at all that that was where God wanted my kids and me to be.

But the fact is, when faced with the prospect of a full-time job (and we all know that teaching is more than full-time, because you WILL bring work home with you, at least at first) and NOT getting to spend time with my precious children, I could not bear the thought! I did NOT want to turn them over to someone else for 7 hours a day, especially my little ones! I think God used that day to change my outlook from being skeptical to being thankful for where I am. Looking back, I'm sure he was just showing me all my options so that I would be that much more convinced that homeschooling was for us. Really, I would have no excuses - I could easily have put the kids in public school (free, obviously!) or private school (free, if I was willing to work), but this way, I actually had to "choose" homeschooling instead of feeling like it was my "last resort".

Right now, my kids are my mission field. Now, it becomes more clear to me why missionaries become missionaries and travel thousands of miles from home. It is not unlike homeschooling, in some ways. It is not something you do because it is your "last resort" (or at least not for us!) ... you do it because God puts the desire in your heart, sometimes without you even knowing it. For me, it's definitely not something I'm doing begrudgingly.

Which brings us back to John's job. Remember back in December when we thought we might be moving to Detroit? Well, at that same time, John's boss (with whom he also worked at Capital One) left GMAC and moved to South Carolina to take another job. Do you see where this is going? They talked informally for months about a possible role for John. And I do mean months. Sometimes, six weeks would go by and then they would meet for breakfast when he happened to be in Dallas. Oh, the frustration of the waiting for me! John is much more patient in this area than I am.

Finally, in June, we (John and I) traveled to Spartanburg, SC for John to go through the "formal interview" process. He was the only candidate for the job, and the job description had been written specifically for him, so I encouraged him to please not grow an extra head on the way to the interview and he would, most likely, be golden. We flew in on a Tuesday, looked around Greenville and Spartanburg, then he had a full day of interviews on Wednesday. While he interviewed, I drove around Spartanburg looking for preschools. That is a completely separate and funny post in itself. Remember, he interviewed on Wednesday. Everything went beautifully and he expected an offer by Friday. *cue crickets*

Apparently the powers that be were out of the office on Friday and the offer did not happen. Longest. Weekend. Of. My. Life.

By Monday, though, John had a written offer. After a little negotiating and eventually accepting the revised offer, John gave his notice at GMAC the next day. That was four weeks ago.

So here's the beauty. Realtor fees? Paid for. Closing costs? Paid for. FOUR MONTHS of temporary living while we are trying to sell our house? Paid for. Full-service move? Paid for. That's the beauty.

Here's the ugly. The house is on the market and I am having to be Stepford Wife! This house has to be perfect all the time. Oh, the horror. We put the house on the market two weeks ago. The first week we had something like SEVEN SHOWINGS. Nice! This week ... (what is up with those crickets?!? I would like to hear something else, like maybe my phone ringing with a showing on the other end!!!) the showings seem to have completely dried up. Not one single showing. Is it because God is only giving me what I can bear? And we did a week of homeschool this last week?

I am a complete wreck about the sale of this house. No matter when we sell it, we (the kids and I) are going to join John in SC on Aug. 22. We are still planning on homeschooling, but we got Charlotte into a preschool that starts on Aug. 23 and we don't really want her to start late. Besides the kids miss Daddy too, too much to wait much longer than that. He is coming home the first and third weekends in August, so that will be good, but single-parenthood is wearing on me for the time being.

My mind is swirling with questions. "What will we do if we don't sell it and the four months of temp housing runs out and we don't have the money to extend the corporate lease on the apartment itself and ...???" Every single day I have to remind myself that God did not order our steps for this ENTIRE LAST YEAR to bring us here and abandon us! One of my favorite verses that I memorized in middle school and still find myself quoting almost every day is Jeremiah 29:11:

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD,

"plans to prosper you and not to harm you,

plans to give you hope and a future."

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

2010-07-24T14:28:00.002-05:00

Wow. One year (almost) has passed since my last post. Am I really that lame? I totally got sucked into Facebook and for a very long time, formed all my "newsworthy" thoughts into facebook-length posts. So. I'm sure many people think that my blog is "abandoned." Someone get the crash cart ... charge to 350 ... Clear!

Some very interesting things are going on here in the Lodmell household. Where should I begin?

Last summer, John and I struggled to find a way to afford Coram Deo Academy for our two oldest for the year. Jack and Holly had both been at CDA since Kindergarten and it was really working for us, so we definitely wanted to stay. (CDA is a university-model classical Christian school, meaning the kids go to school two days/week and we homeschooled two days/week, with the fifth day being for electives, should we choose to send them at an additional cost on Fridays. Classical refers to the type of education.) Anyway ... we managed to come up with the money for tuition for last year, but it was a stretch. John said as he was paying the tuition last July, "Crissy, I just don't know how we can do this again next year."

So, we started the school year just like we had started school for the past four years. New shoes, new haircuts. First day of school pictures.

It was a very busy fall. I was the "Popcorn Kernel" for Jack's Cub Scout pack and our boys (the entire pack, not my two boys alone) sold over $20K in popcorn. Which means that I had all that popcorn in my garage for a time. A lot of time and effort went into being Popcorn Kernel, and I found it very rewarding, but knew that it was just a one-year thing for me. I felt like God was calling me to pare down my commitments. I did not sign up to be room mom again. I did not help with Girl Scouts at the Service Unit level as I have done in the past. I did keep my position as Girl Scout troop leader, but that was really just about it. No cheerleader coach, either (for sure! Because that was a serious beating, even though it was Upward). The kids were still busy with Scouts (Jack and Holly), karate (Jack), dance (Holly), basketball (Jack) and academic work.

In October, I made an appointment with our school's director, Mrs. Campbell. I knew that re-enrollment time was rapidly approaching at CDA (Jan. 1 begins the re-enrollment period) and that, even though the tuition for the 2010-2011 school year wouldn't be due until July, we would have to make the financial commitment in January. And, let me say, CDA takes the financial commitment very seriously. And rightly so, as they are using our commitment for their budget and to hire teachers. So, I sat down with Mrs. Campbell and discussed our options. She encouraged me to substitute at the school last year and even apply to teach at CDA for the 2010-2011 school year or to consider CDA @home (more on that later). I quickly went online to check out the application and it's pretty intense! I got started on it, but just never felt like God was leading me to jump through the hoops necessary to complete it (letters of recommendation, resume, etc.). So it sat at the back of my mind all throughout the fall.

Meanwhile, times were tight here in our house. I had given up my housekeeper at the end of the summer and was trying, mostly unsuccessfully, to keep our house clean myself. It seemed like our house and our clutter kept getting bigger and bigger and the messes were almost insurmountable. Our house is over 4500 square feet. We love our house. We built it and made all sorts of changes and upgrades and it really worked for our family. At first. But as time went by, it became more and more of an albatross around my neck.

January rolled around and we had to make a decision on school for 2010-2011. We had several options. First, we could keep the kids at CDA in the "signature" (2-day/wk) program, enrolling by faith that God would provide tuition for the coming year, as He had done the previous year. This just didn't quite feel right to us. Second, we could put them in public school (nope). Third, we could homeschool full-time (eep!). Or fourth, we could enroll in CDA's @home program (aha!). This would still be at home full-time, but someone else would be in charge of the curriculum and of keeping me accountable. This sounded like the best option to us, although I was most definitely not super-excited about it. When my kids were little I often said that my greatest fear was that God would call me to homeschool my children, which I did NOT want to do.

Winter turned into spring, then back into winter again (remember the day we got 12+ inches of snow?), then back into spring. But let me back up. In December, John and I talked about how we thought a relocation could be the answer. He thought that with the change coming up in his job at GMAC, there was a good chance that we could relocate to the Detroit area and get out of our house. I was not really excited about Detroit, but hey, we could sure get a great deal on a house there! John thought the chances of making the relo happen were probably about 80%. By January, we were thinking maybe 50%. Then, things at work changed and it became clear that a relo was not a possibility (sadly?).

To be continued...

Who's In Charge Here, Anyway?

2009-08-19T08:08:00.003-05:00

From the time our kids are about two years old, until they are about five, it seems, we spend a lot of time reinforcing who is (and who isn't) in charge.

When Jack was about three, we had been saying (a lot), "You are not in charge."

One day at the table, he said, "Grammy's in charge, and PawPaw's in charge, and Daddy's in charge, and Mommy's in charge. I ... am NOT in charge." We laughed and laughed and still say that to each other and to him.

So now Charlotte and Mitchell think that they are in charge all too often and we've taken to reinforcing with them that "You are not in charge".

The other day, Charlotte and John were sitting on the couch having some sort of serious discussion and he said to her, "You are not in charge." Without missing a beat, she fired right back, "You aw not in chodge, eedah." Oh dear, we still have some work to do. We had to hide our faces while we cracked up.

This morning, I went to turn on a show for her in my bedroom and we were laying on my bed "chatting". She started getting all bossy on me, so I reminded her, "You are not in charge." She quickly replied, "I not in chodge. I just tawkin'!"

What a mess.

First Day of School

2009-08-17T11:30:00.008-05:00

Nothing says "first day of school" like new shoes!

The obligatory full-length body shot.

Head shots only

I think this one is my favorite.

Walking into school. They met up with their friends Sam and Ben in the parking lot and left us (the parents) in their dust.

Really? Why did we walk them in? This is the one and only time I do it. The rest of the year, I just slow down in the circle drive and push them out.

P.S. Scrapbookers - imagine how CUTE these pages are going to be. I get to work with GREEN and PINK! My two favs! Although Jack may not look on it too kindly.

My life in bullets

2009-08-13T09:02:00.005-05:00

It seems like I just can't make the time to sit down and write a blog entry lately. (Or, really, for a long time.) Every time I think I want to say something, I can only come up with a "facebook-status-like" line for it. I remember when I was in high school, one of my favorite teachers, Mr. Noto, always complimented my friend, Stephanie, because she was so concise. I gotta admit, it always made me a little bit jealous! Well, I think I'm getting there. Look out, Stephanie!!!

My mom is at the cabin this week. Alone. I'm a bit envious.
I've spent the week doing all the last-minute prep stuff for school. The kids start on Monday. Ordered the brown uniform shoes from Land's End. Ordered the Grammar workbooks and hardback textbook for Holly to the tune of $60. Ouch. Ventured out to multiple stores to buy white tennis shoes for the kids (Converse leather at Dick's - $24.99!)
Went to parent orientation yesterday for both kids. It's a long day, but I always come home excited to start the year. I really think Jack is going to thrive in fourth grade. He's reading some great literature this year, including The Witch of Blackbird Pond and From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. We're going to breath a deep sigh of relief and hopefully have an easier year with Holly this year. It's funny - I should have sighed that sigh at the END of last school year, but I didn't. I was still all bunched up. Now I have, and it's nice.
I think parent orientation may be my favorite day of the whole school year. There's a group of us that have 4th graders and younger siblings and we all get together for lunch in between our orientations. We've been together since our oldest kids were in Kindergarten. It makes me happy. Wendy, LaNita and I were there yesterday. We were sad that Kerry could not join us, they've moved schools and she couldn't make it work.
I did NOT sign up to be room mom for either of the kids this year. When the teachers mentioned it, I got a couple of "nudges" and "looks", but I stayed strong. I promised John I would not do it again, since it just takes up too much time - time that I don't really have. (Time that I could be blogging!)
I went to Gymboree to get school socks for the kids. They did not have Mitchell's size out on the rack, so I asked if the salesperson could go to the back and check for more. She said she couldn't because there was no one else there to watch the floor. But she could call next door and see if there were two people working. If so, one of them could come over and she could go to the back. Now, let me just say, the store next door is Janie and Jack. Janie and Jack is a Gymboree Corporation store. So that makes sense. What doesn't make sense is that I WORK AT JANIE AND JACK!!! And she knew it! I'm still a little baffled by it.
John has been traveling this week. And I am thankful he has a job. That's all I'm going to say about that.
John's trip to Toronto next week got canceled! YAY!!!
The kids' last day of indoor soccer is Saturday. I'm kind of sad, because I really did enjoy watching them play. Holly Grace surprised us most of all. She has natural ability. (Thanks to John, because she most certainly did NOT get that from me.) All the kids have scored this season (Mitchell, Holly and Jack). We will be glad to get our Saturdays back, though. We've been committed to soccer from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. every Saturday for six weeks, now.
I got popcorn ordered for our Cub Scout Pack. Come see us at WalMart on 407 the last weekend in August and the first weekend of September. We have $6500 worth of popcorn to get rid of!

That's all for now. I'm off to find a Sharpie and start labeling those school supplies.

Scrapbook Camp Update 6

2009-07-03T23:38:00.002-05:00

Thursday

Nani Dot, my grandmother, arrives at 9:15 bearing gifts! A Paula Deen cookbook for me and one for Christi! We are excited about our new cookbooks! There’s a recipe in it that I just happen to have the ingredients for, so I whip up a blueberry coffee cake right then and there. Nani Dot is thrilled. Also, I put some more chocolate chip oatmeal cookies in the oven because they are John’s favorite and he’ll be arriving home from his trip anytime. At this point I pat myself on the back. It’s really hard to reach your own back, but I am pretty flexible.

John arrives home, the cookies and coffee cake come out of the oven. And this is all before 11 a.m.! John eats a bit, changes clothes and heads to the office. Nani Dot gets ready to go and I decide to take a quick look at her computer. She shows me what’s going on, and she’s exactly right. IE has just quit working. Get a load of this: my grandmother pays her bills online. How awesome is that? Consequently, she is feeling a little lost with no internet and she is looking at two weeks without her computer. Bummer!!!

After she leaves, I start working on it in earnest. I am no computer whiz, especially when it comes to PCs, but I can sure google with the best of them. I google “internet explorer not working vista” and the first result is a blog that has a recommended fix. I try it. No good. I read in the comments about some of the other fixes that have worked for other people. And guess what? I get it to work. As soon as that computer has a working browser, I head over to mozilla.com and download Firefox for her. Ah, yes, much better.

I call her about 1 p.m. and tell her I think she’s all set – I’ve moved all her “favorites” over from IE to Firefox’s “bookmarks” and she’s thrilled. I offer to bring her computer over in the evening, but she’s so excited that she wants to come get it right now. Okey dokey! She arrives in fifteen minutes flat. And she says she’ll dogsit for us next week while John and I are both out of town because I fixed her computer. Yeah, baby. I’m wondering who got the better end of that deal and I’m thinking it’s not her. J Also, she says she’ll “dance at my wedding”, which I think is hilarious, because, even if I had another wedding, why would her dancing at it be any favor to me?

Christi and I have to run a few more errands in the afernoon. Pick up a few extra prints at Wolf, Target run, Belk’s and once more to Hobby Lobby. Then it’s to the scrapfreak’s house to pick up our orders. Fun!!!

We get home and I am seriously, frantically scrapbooking for just a few more hours before we have to pack up our stuff and head to Amarillo. We have a final Scrapbook Camp meal of Wingstop lemon pepper wings with their famous French fries and veggies. In true Lodmell fashion, we eat our wings in the media room. John and I really can’t imagine eating them anywhere else. We have Get Smart from Netflix and we watch that while we eat, and then while we fold laundry. It’s a really funny movie, even funnier if you watched Get Smart as a child.

We scrapbook a little bit more, then get busy packing up all our stuff. This is a huge task in itself. Christi will be taking her supplies with her to the cabin, where she will spend just one night, then head home with the boys and Cory, who is meeting us there. I am taking my supplies to the cabin to spend another week scrapbooking with my mom. We will have the added distraction of the kids … but no errands to run there!

Final page counts:

Christi: 25 completed pages! Amazing. And lots of supplies purchased for future pages.

Crissy: 20 competed pages and 54 page kits (power layouts) prepared for next week.

It’s been a great week!

BIG THANKS to Grammy and PawPaw who gave us the whole week. What a gift!!!

Scrapbook Camp Update 5

2009-07-03T22:33:00.002-05:00

Wednesday

Wednesday morning we really sleep in. I’m talking about after 10 a.m. wake-up time. It’s so nice. And it’s just very rare that we get to sleep in that late without feeling guilty.

We think that maybe not leaving the house ALL DAY would be a great idea.

We get busy scrapping and watching the rest of the bonus materials from The Sound of Music.

Now, at this point, I should probably confess that I have not done a ton of actual scrapbooking. I’ve spent the week sorting photos, uploading photos, ordering photos, and shopping for scrapbooking supplies. And I’ve also been making page kits (also known as “power layouts” for your CM people out there). So it doesn’t sound like I’ve accomplished a lot, but on Wednesday, I actually sat down and started putting photos on paper. Hooray! Remember, I have four children. And each of these children have their own [series of] albums. When I first started scrapbooking, I bought a Creative Memories Baby album for Jack. And I thought that I would fill up the baby pages and then stop. But then I couldn’t stop. And so then I thought I would take each kid’s album to age 5, or when they started elementary school, then stop. But that didn’t “take”, either. So here I am, with multiple albums for each child. And no end in sight!

We want to watch another movie, but not one with too much of a plot since we are trying not to get distracted from our “creating”. I pull up Netflix and find that we can watch Singin’ in the Rain online. Christi discovers that Good Mornin’, which her mom always used to sing to her in the mornings, was from Singin’ in the Rain. Later, we turn on Bedtime Stories for a little more entertainment.

We also discover scrapfreak.com. This is a website run by a super-nice lady in Highland Village. And guess what?!? You can place an order and then pick it up from her, thus saving on shipping costs! She has some really cute things (we love Cosmo Cricket) and so we place an order.

My grandma calls to see if I can take her computer to the mountains with me and have my brother work on it. It’s a PC running Vista (no wonder she’s having problems) and suddenly Internet Explorer won’t work anymore. Now, bear in mind that my grandmother is in her 80’s. I’m just proud that she knows what Internet Explorer is. She says that she will bring it over in the morning if that’s okay. Dangit. We’re going to have to get out of bed at a decent hour, because she gets her errands run before it gets too hot outside and her first stop is the pharmacy that opens at 9 a.m. I am the second stop on her list.

It’s another late night, but this time I set my alarm for 8:30 a.m.

Scrapbook Camp Update 4

2009-07-03T22:27:00.003-05:00

Tuesday

We have a big day planned. Headed to the library to get the Sound of Music, to Dallas to the AAC to get our circus tickets (this is a great thing) and to do some shopping in Dallas.

I’m going to let you in on a little secret. Circus tickets, the good ones, are $30 each. That’s for lower level. The higher ones are $15 and $10 each. The kids each earned a FREE ticket to the circus. Now, you might be thinking, yeah, that’s probably the $10 nosebleed section tickets they earned, but no, they were the $30 tickets. There are more expensive tickets (“front row” and “VIP”), but free $30 tickets make us quite happy. The only caveat is, though, that you have to exchange your vouchers in person at the AAC box office. Which is not exactly convenient.

So, how exactly did the kids earn their tickets, you ask? SUMMER READING PROGRAM, I tell you. At the LIBRARY!!! And this is how easy it is: Read five books (or have your parents read them to you) and then have the library stamp your voucher. How easy is that? If you’re going to do it, though, you have to exchange those vouchers early. The good seats for the weekend shows were going quickly. However, we were able to get tickets for the Tuesday night show at (what would be) center court, about 1/3 of the way up on the lower level. $180 worth of tickets for the bargain price of $60 (one ticket for me and one for John!).

After the AAC, we go to the American Girl Store to get Charlotte’s Birthday present (a Bitty Baby). And this is where it gets a little cooky. We park in the parking garage and get out to walk in to the store. We get out and as we are walking away from the car, we realize that there is something underneath, right in front of the rear tire. It is a giant human turd. I don’t even know if I spelled that correctly, but that’s what it was. I can’t even believe it, it’s so disgusting. Really, I didn’t think that’s what it was because it was so large. It looked like that spray foam insulation stuff, but we're pretty sure that flies aren't that attracted to foam.

Another stop at the “Scrapbook Barn” and then we are on our way home. Oops, we are headed northbound on I-35 at 4:45 in the afternoon. Not the smartest move on my part. We divert onto 3040 and continue on what would be John’s commute if he were home. From the intersection of 3040 & 2499 we call and place an order for takeout from PeiWei. Oh, yes, this week just keeps getting better. We make one last stop at Wolf Camera before picking up our food. And now, I’m going to let you in another little secret: $.06 photo prints. Here’s the deal: go to ritzpix.com and upload your photos. Be prepared. It takes FOREVER. You might want to start them uploading, then run a marathon, or you runners might want to go to bed and sleep, because when you finish the marathon, your photos will still be uploading. Anyway, don’t order your prints yet!!! Wait until the next Tuesday or Wednesday. Order 3.5” x 5” prints and they will only be $.06!!! What a screaming deal. Even when you can find them that cheap at York Photo, you still have to pay exorbitant shipping charges. The prints are small, but if you are scrapbooking with them, you’ll probably find that that’s okay, especially for the price. I almost ordered my prints through Shutterfly and picked them up at Target where I would have paid $40. Instead, I paid $15 at Wolf Camera. Yahoo!!!

We watched The Sound of Music and then watched a majority of the second disc's bonus materials. Wow, that Liesl (Charmian Carr) is still beautiful today.

And don't even get me started on Captain von Trapp.

So that’s Tuesday. I'm all about the great deals and handsome singing men. That's just how I roll.

Scrapbook Camp Update 3

2009-07-03T22:23:00.002-05:00

Monday

We wake up late. I don’t even remember what time. It is sometime after 9 a.m. I have to work for a little while as soon as they receive the shipment of clothes for a floor set this evening. I’m just going to go in for a few hours and unpack, sort and hang the tiny childrens’ clothes I love so much. Christi’s twin sister is coming over for the day with her girls (who are 13 and 15) and one of their friends. I decide to mix up a batch of chocolate chip oatmeal cookies.

I get the call that the boxes “have arrived” so I get ready to head over to Janie & Jack. Right as I’m leaving, Carrie and the girls arrive. I hate to leave because I know they are going to have so much fun, but the boxes await.

I’m gone for about three hours. When I arrive home, the swimming is in full swing. The girls are having a great time. I have some lunch and visit with Carrie. She is an amazing cook and has brought some yummy treats for us. We have a birthday cake for Carrie’s oldest daughter. She is fifteen today.

A tour of the garden is given and oh, so sweetly complimented. We pick tomatoes, okra and cucumbers and we melt. Wow, it’s hot. We head inside. The girls want to watch a movie or play Wii, so I set them up upstairs with Guitar Hero. I don’t know who likes Guitar Hero more, the girls or Christi and Carrie.

When the foodfest ends and Carrie and her girls have to leave, we get busy scrapping again. Then, because we are SPONTANEOUS, we decide to go to Hobby Lobby. It’s 7:25, and they close at 8:00, so we have to hurry. We’re there by 7:35 and have only ten minutes before the Hobby Lobby employees begin their nightly countdown to “Quittin’ Time”. It makes those last precious minutes of child-free shopping so stressful to have them pressuring us: “ATTENTION Hobby Lobby shoppers!!! The time is now 7:45 (or 7:50 or 7:55) and Hobby Lobby will be closing in 15 (or 10 or 5) minutes. Please make your final selections and take them to the front where a Hobby Lobby associate will assist you.”

Later, while we are scrapping, we listen to the entire Sound of Music soundtrack about three times. It makes us happy. We sing loudly. We decide we need to watch the movie, so I check and (because I am a genius) find that it is in at the Lewisville Public Library.

Again, we stay up far too late. We have big plans for tomorrow (including a stop at the library), but we might have to get a late start …

Scrapbook Camp Update 2

2009-06-30T19:42:00.002-05:00

Sunday

9:00
I roll out of bed bright and early. Christi is just coming downstairs. It's been years since either of us has slept in this late without feeling guilty. John is nowhere to be found. The lamp by my bed is still on.

9:05
We hear the media room door open. John comes downstairs looking sheepish (and still half asleep). Oops. He fell asleep on the couch in the media room watching "The Dark Knight".

10:30
My Aunt Debbie calls to say she dropping a breadmaker off at my house for my mom. I convince her to stop and chat, taking her on a tour of the garden. She is delightful and a wealth of information. She points out that I have basil growing among my cherry tomatoes (?!?). I should leave it there, apparently, because basil likes shade and the tomatoes are shading it. Incidentally, she is the one who told me I should put crushed up eggshells in the garden to keep the snakes out. It works.

12:00
Christi and I have finished an entire pitcher of iced tea. Every time we fill our glasses, we squeeze an orange wedge in it. YUM!

2:00
The scrapbooking, organizing, and photo uploading are in full swing.

5:00
I am freaking out a little bit because John has a flight to catch at 6:30 to Florida and he is not done packing. Wait, I forget who we are talking about.

5:05
He's done packing and I kiss him goodbye.

7:00
Christi and I decide to put a casserole she brought in the oven and go for a swim while it cooks. While we are in the pool, we decide to see a movie tonight. On the spur of the moment. JUST BECAUSE WE CAN! We will see "The Proposal" at 9:25.

9:15
We leave for the movie. We look cute.

9:20
We arrive at the movie theater. The parking gods are smiling on us because we are spontaneous! We park steps away from the theater - right in front.

9:21
The movie ticket gods are angry because the parking gods love us. We take out a loan for our movie tickets. Hi, I'm Crissy. I am a hundred years old and I think that movie tickets are overpriced.

9:22
We buy popcorn and a coke (to share because we are cheap ... also because we have very little money left after buying our tickets). The total comes to $11.50.

9:25
We walk into the theater. It's not full at all. We have great seats and the movie starts.

11:30
We leave the theater still laughing. The movie was Hi-Lar-Ious. We may see it again later in the week - it was that good.

11:45
You thought we were going to go to bed, didn't you? Nope, more scrapbooking...

Later
(Can't say how late - my mom's reading this!!!) We decide to call it a day.

Scrapbook Camp Update 1

2009-06-29T20:49:00.003-05:00

Saturday

We all meet in Benjamin, Texas. Yes, it's the middle of nowhere. But it is almost perfectly equidistant from Amarillo (Grammy & PawPaw), Midland (Cory & Christi) and Flower Mound (John and me). The kids go nuts seeing each other, Charlotte almost darts out into traffic while we are unloading the cars (and loading them into Grammy & PawPaw's cars) and Cory and I die from the heat while installing carseats in Grammy's Land Cruiser. Literally. We are still laying in front of the courthouse in Benjamin dead.

It's 104 degrees.

1:30 p.m.
Christi and I start the drive to Dallas. There are no children in the car. It's really weird.

2:30 p.m.
We get to Olney and pull into Dairy Queen to grab a quick bite. Incidentally, they give us our Blizzards at the window, then have us pull around to wait for our food. You can imagine what we snack on while we wait for twenty minutes for our food.

2:50 p.m.
We receive our food. We are no longer hungry. Our Blizzards are mostly empty.

5:00 p.m.
We roll into Flower Mound. It's still 103 degrees. We need a few things from the store, so Christi suggests we "get it out of the way". We stop at Wal-Mart. I melt.

6:00 p.m.
We arrive at my house and unload Christi's things. She immediately wants to get started scrapbooking, so we get our stuff set up.

8:00 p.m.
We are living on the edge and just now decide to think about dinner. Can't do that with kids underfoot, for sure!!! We sit down to dinner with John (leftovers!). John starts a pickle-making project in the kitchen. Our nostrils are permanently damaged by the vinegar/dill odor.

Midnight
We head off to bed. John is upstairs watching a movie, so I leave a lamp on for him next to the bed.

Grandkids' Camp 2009

2009-06-29T20:38:00.002-05:00

All my kids (and my brother's kids, too) are at my parents' cabin this week for Grandkids' Camp 2009. This is the first year that my parents have had all seven kids. I can only imagine how exhausted they are. Thank you, Grammy and PawPaw! They update their blog every night so that we can keep up with the happenings at GKC.

My sister-in-law, Christi, is here. We have spent every GKC together since 2001. It's the best time. Once she started scrapbooking, we decided to spend the 4-5 days working on our books. We have ALWAYS had at least one child with us and many years one or the other of us was pregnant. We decided to update my blog with our activities of the week so that Mom and Dad can see what we're doing this week. It's heaven. :)

The Plague you didn't hear about

2009-04-22T01:15:00.003-05:00

This one didn't make it into the book of Exodus.

Holly Grace has to do a project on Egypt at school. She chose to make a "model" of Egypt. Into a large, shallow tub, we poured a bag of play sand. Then, we made a small "Nile River" down the middle, lined it with aluminum foil, and formed a delta at the low end. Then, we put a bit of potting soil down either side of the river and sprinkled rye grass seed down the riverbanks. Every couple of days, we "flood" the river and the grass has grown to be several inches tall. Later Holly Grace will add some small models of pyramids, etc.

So, after we put "Egypt" together, we left it on the bar in the kitchen. Soon we discovered that the potting soil and seeds had been disturbed and there were new topographic details emerging in the desert.

Charlotte.

She had to have been the culprit. I quickly let John know that we were going to have to move Egypt to a safer place, as it had been hit by the 11th plague - the plague of Charlotte. We had a good laugh over it, and then moved it into our bath tub. Our tub surround is so wide that she can't reach in and mess with it. (This is also where the baby chick lived, safely, for 2 1/2 weeks before she moved to the farm where she now resides.)

Later that day, John was sitting with Charlotte, having a conversation. He asked her, "What kind of plague are you?" She promptly replied, "A PINK one!" and giggled proudly. So we began referring to her as "the Pink Plague."

Anxious to see if she would "perform" for me, I asked her a couple of days later, "What kind of plague are you?"

She thought for a moment, then looked from me to John and said, "CHICKENS!"

Who knew?

In the Garden

2009-04-21T21:44:00.003-05:00

Lots of people have been asking what's in our garden. Well, in our actual "garden", until yesterday, NOTHING! John and I cleaned it out (it was so overgrown after some neglect last year, ahem) and got it ready, but ran out of time to put anything IN. Besides, I raked and shoveled so much I developed a blister that's taken two weeks to heal! I was so traumatized, I had to take some time off from gardening.

We actually have two other "dedicated beds" for the things we love so much that we need MORE than we have room for in the garden. One is an approximately 50 square foot asparagus bed. Start your asparagus now and in three years you'll thank me! This is the first year we've harvested our asparagus and it's gone gangbusters! We eat asparagus every couple of nights with dinner. It grows SO FAST.

Our other bed is a dedicated strawberry bed. We started out with three little strawberry plants in our garden three years ago. Those multiplied and became 21 that year, then more than 50 after that! They are now in a 25 square foot bed on the south side of the house and, after a little trauma from transplanting them, recovering nicely. I walked by the other day and there were two little strawberries getting nice and ripe. I didn't share them. They were SWEET!

So, back to the actual "garden". Yesterday we put in 16 tomato plants - some Better Boys, some Early Girls, some cherry tomatoes, and something else (can't remember just now) and some "unknown" variety that my aunt dropped off (extras they couldn't plant in their HUGE garden). We also planted four bell pepper plants and two jalapeno plants. Those (the jalapenos) are solely for others, as I don't care for them. Leave a comment if you want some and I will save them for you when they start producing.

My "jack-of-all-trades" husband put a drip system in our garden last year, and it's sooooo very nice. Now if we could just keep the critters out. And I don't mean the kids. I mean, I do, but also the kind of critters that live down in the creek and come up to munch when we're not around.

Also, my uncle gave us some blackberry shoots when we were out at his farm last spring. We planted them on the fence behind our garden. One is doing GREAT and is blooming right now. The other, well, it kinda got mowed over sometime last summer because it wasn't well-marked. But, it seems to have recovered and is thriving! We probably won't get any fruit from it this summer, but next year we should! Also, plant #1 has sent up a shoot nearby, so we'll dig it up and put it on the fence as well.

There are lots of little seedlings in our garden right now. They look like they are either watermelons, cucumbers, yellow squash, or zucchini. That's what we had out there last year that may have re-seeded itself (which in itself seems miraculous to me). I tried to leave as many of them as I could and we'll see what we end up with!

I love gardening this time of year. It's so pleasant outside. Ask me again in July ... maybe not so much at that point. I hate going out there so much that our okra ends up 6-8 inches long and much too tough to eat by the time I go out to check on it.

And now, breaking the almost six-month silence ...

2009-04-02T14:05:00.003-05:00

It was the Baby Jogger City Mini, or BJCM in stroller circles. There I've said it. It's overwith. And I am so glad because this post has had me stumped for this long. Here's the rub: She's ridden in it, like, twice. She's now "too big" for the stroller. She doesn't even call it her "Slow-der" anymore. And yet I can't get rid of it because what if?

What if we go to the State Fair and need a stroller because we stay all day and she's exhausted and almost thirty pounds and my arms can't take it anymore?

What if we go on vacation? Through an airport? And I don't want to lose her?

What if we go shopping? Oh, wait. *laughs maniacally* Like that's going to happen. That's what preschool days are for. And grocery carts. Wait a second. This might explain why just about everything in my house recently has been purchased at "The Wal-Marts".

Now, back to our regularly scheduled (or randomly posted) programming. Whew. It feels good to get that off my chest.

A Sordid Affair, part II

2008-11-01T16:48:00.015-05:00

The saga continues...

So, I hated the tandem double. It was really massive and HEAVY!!! It was really hard to get in and out of the car and steering was a beating. But I'd gotten the stroller I wanted, so I had to suck it up and use it without complaining.

Then came Mitchell, baby #3. By the time he was born, Holly Grace was pretty much out of the stroller so I didn't need another double. I convinced John that we needed a new single stroller. I used re

straint, though, and bought this one. It was not an expensive stroller, but I loved it because I could just set my (new!) infant carrier right in it. Strangely enough, my infant carrier was a Baby Trend Latch-Loc. It was fabulous!!! I was so excited that my new infant carrier would work on my old [Baby Trend] Snap & Go ... but then I discovered the strangest thing: it didn't. How weird is that? I had a Baby Trend infant carrier and a Baby Trend stroller - and they didn't go together. I was irritated, but I decided I'd just have to get over it and get a new stroller! So we got this Graco Metrolite instead. Big basket! Two cupholders! Snack tray! Adjustable handle! Stands when folded! It has been a great stroller and served us well. But, I've moved on. I'm getting ready to post it on CraigList. Farewell, good stroller!

Then, Baby Charlotte was on her way and Mitchell would not even be two when she arrived. I needed a double stroller again. Arghhhh. I seriously considered this Phil & Ted's E3, but it wouldn't work with an infant carrier and toddler. Plus, it was HEAVY. Especially compared to the Metrolite. It was a single-to-double convertible stroller. I actually went to Right Start, picked it up, shook my head (too heavy!), then put it back down and left.

I searched and searched and finally came up with this! A side-by-side (SBS) that would accommodate an infant carrier on one side. This is a Combi Twin Savvy EX. Three cupholders, fits through any standard doorway. But wow, it sure was plasticky. I mean really plasticky. And it wiggled from side to side so easily. I wasn't crazy about it, but I didn't have a whole lot of choice because I certainly was not going to do a tandem again. We used it for six months until Charlotte was out of the infant carrier and then I went shopping again.

At this point, we were getting ready to go one our big vacation to Vermont and needed a stroller that could do some serious all-terrain strolling. Which brought be back to Phil & Ted's. Only at this point, they'd upgraded it and it was now called the "Sport". It was going to be perfect for us. I spent an outrageous amount of money on it, and it really was the best money I've ever spent on a stroller. The best thing about it was the removable toddler seat on the bottom. People always stopped and asked me about it and if the one on bottom (usually Charlotte) hated it there. Actually, she didn't. She did great. And I bought it as they were just coming out with new colors and got this great blue camo. This stroller went to Vermont with us twice and Disney World once. When we went to Disney, we didn't even have Charlotte with us, but we took the doubles seat so that Holly Grace could ride if she wanted. And she did want to ride sometimes, even at five years old. This stroller is so maneuverable, it's amazing. It's the combination of the three-wheel design and the swivel front wheel that make it so easy to push. Oh, and the air tires. The lovely air tires. They were wonderful!

I just sold this stroller to my friend Kim and I was sad to part with it. But, she is going to Disney World in a few short weeks and is going to get some great use out of the stroller, toddler seat, raincover, pannier bags, packing tray, parent console and travel bag.

When Kim contacted me about buying my P&T, the wheels started spinning and light bulbs came on all over the place. I was about to fund a brand-new single stroller of my choosing! It doesn't get any better than this! Would it be a Quinny Zapp? a Mia Moda Cielo Evolution? a Bugaboo Bee? a Mutsy Spider?

To be continued...

A Sordid Affair

2008-09-28T01:19:00.014-05:00

I have a long history with Strollers. Yes, Strollers with a "capital S". I love them. I have since before I had babies. I can't help myself.

Hello, my name is Crissy and I'm a Strolleraholic.

Today I was prowling around on the net and I found a photo of my first stroller, the Chicco 2002. Then I thought about it and realized, no, it wasn't my first stroller. My first stroller was a Baby Trend Snap-N-Go. Oh, wait, nope that wasn't my first, either. Then I smiled and counted up how many strollers I've had over the years. The current count is eight. Eight strollers in almost nine years.

Here was my first stroller, an Emmaljunga Viking.

Actually, this isn't the actual stroller, but it looked a lot like this. And you could take the seat off the chassis and it had a bassinet that you could attach. Jack actually slept in that bassinet for the first eight weeks, or so. I bought the Viking before I was even pregnant. My neighbor was selling hers and approached me about buying it. I just knew I would feel like Mary Poppins if I could push that "old-fashioned perambulator" down the street. I wanted to have a baby just to have an excuse to take it for a spin.

I talked John into buying it, since we would use the bassinet portion in our room and the stroller would last well into the toddler years. Plus, I just didn't really like the look of the "travel system" back then. They were all cream or navy and there were lots of teddy bears and the like. Just not really my cup of tea.

When I did get pregnant, we made the pilgrimage to Babies'R'Us to register. Oh, to be shopping for the first baby again. We picked out the Evenflo "On My Way" infant carrier and John's grandmother generously bought it for us. I loved that infant carrier. It had a dark denim cover and the canopy was a really pretty dark blue and green plaid. That dang canopy never would stay up to block the sun, but that's another story. By the time we had Holly Grace, I just took the whole thing off. I remember that it was one of the only infant carriers at BRU that had a 5-point harness. Most of them just had a 3-point harness.

As luck would have it, while we were at BRU, we saw the Baby Trend Snap-n-Go Lite (I think it was the "Lite") and thought that it would be perfect for the short period of time the baby would be in the infant carrier. Ours looked way better than this one, though, because our carseat was navy blue and perfectly matched the Snap-n-Go. I always thought that white infant carrier with the blue Snap-n-Go looked tacky.

Very snobbish of me.

Well, we brought our precious bundle home from the hospital and five days later took him for a walk to the gazebo that was near our little four-plex. It overlooked the harbor in San Pedro and the weather was gorgeous. (It was December, you know, in LA.) My parents were with us and I was livin' the dream, pushing my baby in his Emmaljunga stroller.

Occasionally, we'd put him in that stroller, or "pram", and walk around the Base Housing area, which was really quite pretty, or we'd walk over to the "shopette", a little convenience store about 200 yards away, but the Snap-n-Go was what we kept in the car to use when we were out and about.

Well, he outgrew the infant carrier at four months. Back then, the height limit on infant carriers was only 26" (much smaller than today). And besides, he was a FAT little baby and I really couldn't carry that thing around much longer. So we moved up to the Britax Roundabout we had received as a shower gift from my coworkers and thus began the loading up of the Emmaljunga in the car. That lasted about a day before I declared I needed a real stroller for this kid.

Which is when we made another trip to BRU for this Chicco 2002:

Oh, I loved this stroller. I really wanted to get it, but it was about $160 on clearance at BRU, and I still felt like that was a lot to spend on a stroller (hah!). Really, though. I loved the colors, the seat was really cushy, the handles rotated 360 degrees (good for one-handed pushing). It had a five-point harness and a reclining seat. Strollers didn't really have cupholders then, so the lack of one wasn't really a hardship. Oh, and it was an umbrella fold and stood when folded. It was GREAT! I used and used it. Actually, my mom still has it at her house. I just couldn't bear to part with it. One of the best things about it was that we could sit our Britax Roundabout carseat in it, forward-facing, when we were going through the airport. And we traveled quite a bit when Jack was young. I never did understand why it was called the "2002", though. We bought it in 2000, and it was a 1999 model!

But then, little Holly Grace came along and it was time to upgrade (???) to a double stroller. I labored over this decision until after she was born. When she was two weeks old, I went to The Right Start in Plano and bought this monstrosity, the Baby Trend/Swan Caravan Lite:

Oh, how I came to hate this stroller. It seemed like such a good idea at the time because it could accomodate one infant carseat in the rear position, and Jack could ride as well. Plus, we'd had such a great experience with the Snap-N-Go. But it was so very, very heavy. Caravan Lite? Not so much. To lift it in and out of the car was just misery. I just didn't have many options, though. I wanted to get a Sit-N-Stand, but if you used it with an infant carrier, there was no place for the older child to sit or stand, which kind of defeats the purpose, right? So I dealt with it until I felt like Jack could just walk and I went back to my beloved Chicco for Holly Grace.

Also somewhere in there we acquired one of these. I believe that a friend of ours gave it to us when she made a $20 purchase at BRU and got it for free. That should say a bit about the quality. I have to say, however, we still have it and pull it out when the car is packed full and we still need a stroller (it fits between the seats, on the floor); we've also taken it through the airport when our nice big stroller is all packed away and checked through. It's a good stroller for going through security. Unfortunately, in order to steer it, you have to tilt it backward since the front wheels don't really roll very well. A disadvantage in a stroller, to be sure.

Well, that's only five, but the others will have to wait. To be continued...

Did They Eat It?

2008-09-16T22:20:00.004-05:00

This week I decided I'm turning over a new leaf. Cooking EVERY night this week, for real. No running out for pizza at the last minute because I didn't have a plan. I'm serious.

Monday
Stopped in at Wal-Mart after I dropped the dog off at what Holly every-so-seriously calls "the broomer". Her mispronunciations could be a post of all their own. I picked up a few fresh items that will hopefully allow me to cook all week. I have about an hour and a half of "peace" in the afternoon, so I put together my mom's lasagna recipe. However, I have pork chops to cook Monday night, so I stick the completed lasagna in the outside fridge. Monday night we have grilled pork chops, salad and corn.

Jack - not crazy about them.
Holly Grace - Yes, please. And can I have Jack's leftovers, too?
Mitchell - uh, no thanks. But I would like some more salad dressing to dip my fingers in.
Charlotte - harrumph. I'll take some milk, though.

I'm really bummed - we ate pork chops a lot growing up and I loved them! We'll just have to keep trying.

Tuesday
Tacos. I've decided that one of the biggest deterrants to me actually cooking is having the meat out and thawed. We have lots of beef in the freezer from the side of beef we get every spring, but I'm just not good about bringing it in to thaw in a decent amount of time. So, this morning, I asked John to bring a package of beef in for tacos tonight. Everyone loves tacos, except Charlotte, who claims that they are "yucky" and proceeds to toss hers on the floor and ask for a "snack" instead.

Jack - 2 HARD SHELL tacos, let's be clear that they must be HARD SHELL.
Holly Grace - 2 SOFT tacos. Again, let's be clear that they must be SOFT tacos.
Mitchell - THREE! TACOS! I don't care - in any combination - I'm starving here. And after I'm done, can I have an extra hard taco shell to munch on?
Charlotte - "Yucky!" But now that you mention it, can I have a hard taco shell, too? Yum! It's like having chips for dinner!

Wednesday
Spaghetti? I have all the stuff and it's pretty quick if I use the canned sauce. Hmmmm.

Yep, they ate it, and some of them (Holly Grace, I think) even requested sauce. Everyone, of course, loves Pepperidge Farm Garlic Bread, but only John and I ate the Caesar salad. Of course, I put some on everyone's plate, but they complained about that "yucky sauce" until I gave in and said, "Fine, you don't have to eat it. But nothing else to eat until BREAKFAST, capice?" Okay, I didn't really say, "capice". Heck, I don't even know how to spell it. But I thought it.

Thursday
Roast? Heading out to the freezer after finishing the post.

Friday
Lasagna. Ah, the beginning of the weekend and I've already made dinner!

Live Blogging - Couch Pillows

2008-09-16T10:57:00.006-05:00

Why bother having them when you have four kids? Let's just see what happens with the couch pillows over the course of a day. Maybe it's not as bad as I think.

11:00 a.m.-2 on the couch, 3 on the floor. Pick them all up and place them, nicely, back on the couch.

11:32 a.m.-all four kids are still outside for their morning "break" (my shower). Cushions still in place; I'm thinking about lunch...

10:25 a.m.-everyone's in bed, and guess what? the couch pillows are STILL on the couch, nice and neat. And tomorrow everyone's at school, so maybe it's just my imagination. To be continued...

7:48 p.m.-ALL FIVE pillows on the floor. I'm not sure how it happened, 'cause they were all on the couch when I last checked at 6:00 p.m. I know this, because five of the six of us played a rousing game of Ring-Around-The-Rosies in the living room at that time. WHO IS THE CULPRIT??? I shall begin the interrogations as soon as they are all out of the shower.

The new thing that I love

2008-09-11T01:33:00.003-05:00

It's called Click-and-Pull. It's at Sam's Club. It helps me avoid the vortex at Sam's that sucks you in holds you hostage and makes you pay a ransom of at least $200 to leave the store. Every Sunday, I log onto samsclub.com and "do" my grocery shopping. It's great. I take John's laptop upstairs and sit with him while he watches football. Good wife, on two counts. She is grocery shopping and she is also watching football. I click "place order" and go about my business. Monday morning, I drop the two big kids off at school at 8, then Mitchell at 9. Then I cruise right on over to Sam's, go through the exit (since I am a big fancy "Business" member and can shop earlier than the lowly PUBLIC). I pull my order out of a binder at the membership desk, take it to a cashier, and pay for it. Then a person brings my cold stuff out of the back and I pick up my basket of everything else by the pharmacy. Then we leave. Ten minutes, tops. The End.

Warning: you cannot add stuff to your Sam's Club shopping cart over a period of a couple of days. It will not save. It makes me sad, but this is how it is. I know from experience, so trust me. All of your "clicking" will be for naught if you try to keep "adding" to the cart over time. You will log in and the cart will be empty. And there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. And someone might rend their garments. It's very upsetting, is what I'm saying, so use a 20th century notepad and pen to make your list until you are ready to shop.

Chicken Cacciataco

2008-09-11T01:23:00.003-05:00

A new recipe for you! Six ingredients! And you probably already have (or should have!) them in your pantry/freezer. A side note: every time I try to type "pantry", I inadvertently type "panty". What does this mean???

2 tsp. seasoned salt

4 chicken breasts

1/4 c. (or less!) oil

1 pkg. taco seasoning

1/4 c. water

1 16-oz. can tomatoes

Leave the chicken breasts whole, or, if you really want to live a little - cut it up into bite-sized chunks. (Did you know that chicken is easier to cut up when it is still just a little bit frozen? Yes, I have time to hover all day until my chicken reaches the perfect state for cubing.) Heat the oil in a skillet. Toss the chicken and seasoned salt in a bowl until the chicken is coated. Brown the chicken on all sides. Drain. (If you don't use the full 1/4 cup of oil, there won't be much to drain! What a concept!)

Add everything else to the skillet. Cover and simmer 40 minutes (or less, if you're pressed for time). Serve over spaghetti, rice or on tortillas. John likes it on tortillas, with cheese and taco fixin's. I like it tossed in a big pot of spaghetti. The kids like to eat the tortillas and spaghetti plain while I sob quietly over why they won't eat what I cook unless it's meatloaf.

I check my blog ...

2008-06-23T15:57:00.002-05:00

frequently to see if I've posted anything new, yet.

I can't wait to read this entry next time I open all my bookmarked blogs "in tabs".

Did you think I'd fallen off the face of the earth? I did, into the world of volunteerism. Argh.

Disney World

2007-10-14T21:44:00.001-05:00

We took the BEST trip to Disney World a couple of weeks ago! We were there for 11 days/10 nights and had an absolute blast. Here are our secrets:

We rented a condo at Mike Ditka's Lighthouse Key Resort and Spa. It was almost 2200 square feet and had four bedrooms, three bathrooms, a full kitchen, dining room, living room and laundry room. It was, in short, incredible. It was ONLY $129 per night. AMAZING. Especially when you consider that, on our last trip to Disney World (after which I swore I would never go again) we paid $99 per night for a "Disney Hotel" on property that was MAYBE 300 square feet (one room).

We bought a $30 crockpot when we got there and cooked most of our meals in the crockpot while we were in the park all day. What's that? Oh, you want the recipes? Of course. Yes, I will share those soon. :)

Each kid had a "pack" that they wore around their waist (I refuse to use the f-word ... as in "fanny-pack") (What f-word did you think I meant?) They carried their own snacks for the day, "Disney Dollars" that they had earned at home for their souvenirs, an i.d. card with their name, our names and our cell phone numbers, and pennies for pressing.

Mitchell didn't carry a pack - John carried his stuff for him. But, I wanted his name and our phone numbers on his person somewhere. I didn't want a place that was too obvious - like a nametag, yet I didn't want anything too hidden like a piece of paper in his shoe (who would look there at park security?). I finally came up with what I thought was the perfect solution. I went to PetSmart and bought a little round animal tag that said "Mitchell" and then listed John's cell number and my cell number. And then I bought the cutest little dog collar. Just kidding ... I attached it to his shoelaces ... it was noticeable if someone had found him, but not obvious to everyone walking down Main Street, USA.

We left Charlotte at home with my parents. It was really hard to say goodbye to her, especially because we knew that she didn't understand that we were leaving, and more importantly, that we were coming back. My mom told me when we got home that it seemed like she was a little depressed the first couple of days, but then she perked up and definitely began to "bask" in all the Grammy and PawPaw love she was getting. When we got back, she actually didn't want anything to do with me at the airport, though. She only wanted John (definitely a Daddy's Girl).

We took our Phil & Ted's stroller with the doubles kit so that Mitchell and Holly Grace could both ride if they wanted to. It was awesome. And a lot of moms pushing those tandem double stroller "limos" wanted to know where we got it after they saw the small footprint and maneuverability of it. It's camo blue, in case you were wondering. We also got the double rain cover, pannier bags, and packing tray to take with us, all three of which were invaluable.

Why did we stay so long? Well, consider this: an adult 4-day ticket to DisneyWorld (includes Epcot, Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom and Disney's MGM Studios) costs $212. A 10-day ticket is only $13 more at $225. Yes, it's crazy, I know. So, we just figured we'd take our time in each of the parks and not try to "marathon" it by staying from opening until closing. We did not buy the "park hopper" option, but we did buy the Water Park Fun & More Option for an additional $50 per ticket. It allowed us ten (total) entries into the two Disney water parks (normally $39 per day), Disney Quest ($37) and Pleasure Island ($21.95). We went to the water parks three times and Disney Quest twice, so it was definitely worth it.

This year Disney's theme is "Year of a Million Dreams". Now I'm not really sure why they have to have a different theme each year. It seems to me that an appropriate theme that would always be fitting is "Disney - Where it's all about the movies and us cashing in on them". Anyway, on our first full day in Orlando, we went to the Magic Kingdom. Jack, Holly Grace and I rode Space Mountain (yes, she is too young to ride, but she is tall enough and she insisted that she wanted to and so we said, "okay" and yes, she was in tears at the end of it). Well, as we were getting off the ride (tears and all) there were these people at the "disembarking" area handing out free mouse ears as part of the "Year of a Million Dreams" celebration. Apparently, sometimes they just start handing out free "stuff" at random times in the park. So, I gave my mouse ears to Mitchell outside and all three kids then had a pair. So that was a great start to our day. Then, just a little while later, we were riding "Pooh" and there they were again - at the exit! Only this time, they were handing out "Dream Fastpasses". Basically, it was like a credit card on a lanyard. It had nine different break-off tabs for nine of the most popular attractions at the Magic Kingdom that were like Fastpasses (basically, you get to go to the front of the line when you use a fastpass. At least, you get to go in the Fastpass line, which is significantly shorter than the "standby" line). We actually saved most of those Fastpasses because the crowds were so light that day that we didn't need to use them. We did use them, however, when we went back to the Magic Kingdom another day and the lines were longer.

We spend three days at the Magic Kingdom, 1 1/2 days at Animal Kingdom, 1 day at Disney MGM, and one full day and two half days at Epcot. We worked in Water Parks and Disney Quest in the other half days. And the afternoon we arrived in Florida was spent at Cocoa Beach. Until Holly Grace got too much sand in the nether regions of her bathing suit and begged to leave so that she could take a bath. :)

Someday I'll get around to getting the photos off my camera and onto my computer. And then maybe I'll upload them and share. We'll see ...

Charlotte at 15 months

2007-10-14T21:28:00.000-05:00

My friend Lindsay posts monthly updates about her little guy - and I love it! I've never really done that with Charlotte, but I thought it might be nice to let everyone in on what she's up to at fifteen months:

Height: 31" (75th percentile)
Weight: 21 lbs, 3 oz (25th percentile)
Head circumference: 18" (50th percentile)

Words: "Dad-dee", "Mama", "Jack", "PawPaw", "Uh-oh", "Puppy", "Kitty", "Moon"
Signs: More, milk, please, thank-you, yes, no

Loves: dancing, the "Itsy-Bitsy Spider", when Mommy sings "Moon, moon, moon" at bedtime, swimming, milk, Dad-dee, toilet paper, sneaking into Mommy and Daddy's room when the door is left open, going outside, grabbing her girly-parts during a diaper change, eating crayons

Hates: diaper changes, when Holly Grace tries to pick her up and carry her around, when we run out of milk, getting awakened from a nap to take someone to an after-school activity, staying up late, hairbows/ponytails

She's still a delightful child who LOVES HER SLEEP. She still naps twice a day, although we're starting to push toward one early (about noon) nap. It's hard unless we are out and about and staying busy. She is starting to be interested in climbing the stairs (ack) and she gets really upset when the other three kids go trooping outside to play and leave her standing at the door.

Meatloaf - the sequel

2007-10-14T21:22:00.000-05:00

I have been honored recently on two other blogs. Go check it out here and here. And all because of a meatloaf recipe I posted over a year ago! :)

Thanks, guys!
*wipes a little tear away*

The Word Art Below

2007-09-12T13:43:00.000-05:00

Here's the link to the program that I used to make the Word Art below. Why did I select "Jack" as my example? Because it's only four letters long. Anything longer than four letters wraps around the page because it's too wide.

Word Art

2007-08-28T13:07:00.000-05:00

If you have a blog...

2007-08-25T11:44:00.000-05:00

would you let me know so that I can keep up with your family? This is you:

Cathy M.
Angie B.
Kay L.
Carrie S.
Jorie G.
Kim W.
Carrie H.
Debbie N.
Kelly E.
Candice D.
Stacy M.
Tara H.
all of John's siblings (except David and Beth since you already complied with my request)

And anyone else who's lurking around. I woud love to know what you're up to!

I guess I'm "tagging" you to get a blog.

Double Feature

2007-08-25T09:51:00.000-05:00

Last night John and I got a babysitter and had a real date. Our baby sitter showed up a few minutes early and took the kids upstairs while I finished cleaning up the kitchen and getting ready. I could hear her upstairs playing "Blue's Clues" with the kids. Not watching ... playing. They were having a blast. With the kids in good hands, we left right on time for a local theater where you eat dinner and watch the movie at the same time. We arrived 30 minutes early, like you're supposed to, were seated and ordered our dinner, and were eating by the time the lights dimmed for the movie. It was great! I mean, the food wasn't all that, but it's a real time saver to eat while you watch the movie. And The Bourne Ultimatum was excellent. Just our kind of movie.

The movie let out at about 9:10, which is still pretty early for us. We walked out to the car and were talking about what to do next, when I said, "Hey, I wonder if Ocean's 13 is playing over at the $1 movie."

"Do you wanna go see?" asks John.

"Really?"

"Sure, why not?"

So we hopped in the car and drove over to the $1 theater (about 5 minutes away) and, sure enough, it was playing at 9:45. So, for another $3.50, we saw another movie before we got home at midnight. Ocean's 13 was also fabulous, although I think I would need to see it about 3 more times to really get it.

The whole time we were waiting for the second movie to start, I was thinking to myself, "Look at us! We're so spontaneous! We never do things like this!"

The First Day of School

2007-08-23T21:32:00.001-05:00

Jack went back to school yesterday. Holly Grace started Kindergarten yesterday. Whew. What a summer. I'm so glad that they are back in school!!!! Here are some pics:

Holly Grace picked her own shirt out of the catalog, we ordered it, and she wanted to wear it the first day. I was really pulling for the sweet petal-pink shirt that I picked out, but nope, she wasn't having it. The purple bow has little sparkles all over it, too. Notice that the backpack is practically as big as she is. She chose it, too. She has to take a beach towel and a pillow every day for "quiet time" so it really is stuffed full.

Oops!

I always like to get their shoes in the picture. I love the blinding whiteness of those brand spanking new back-to-school shoes. Although I do wish that Jack didn't have to wear all white tennis shoes.

This picture I just loved. My firstborn is getting so big and serious.

And what, exactly, did I do with myself all day on Wednesday? Well, Mitchell and I had a nice morning while Charlotte took a short nap. We played "Mark, Seck, GOOOO!" with matchbox cars on the wood floors. Wow, they go a long way if you really fling them hard. Also, I have not yet fished out the ones that went under the buffet in the dining room.

Then, everyone had an early lunch and I put them both down for afternoon naps at 12:45. Then I had TWO WHOLE HOURS to myself before we had to leave to pick up the big kids. Did you hear me? TWO WHOLE HOURS. So what did I do?

Made cookies, of course! Hoping to be back in the running for mom of the year by having warm cookies for the kids when they got home from the first day of school.

When John got home from work, he promptly plucked the top cookie off the pyramid of tastiness and ate it. After which I fussed at him for ruining the perfect display. Then he rearranged the cookies to look as if he hadn't eaten anything. He might just be in the running for husband of the year.

The best school supply yet

2007-08-13T21:10:00.000-05:00

Every year I struggle with this school supply: the water bottle. Some teachers want sport-top, some don't care, some sport tops my kids can't even get open without using their molars to pop the thingy up. A couple of weeks ago, we were at REI and I found these:

CamelBak Water Bottle - 25 oz.
*CamelBak® convenience comes to popular water bottles for the benefit of anyone in need of quick hydration.
*Durable Lexan® polycarbonate construction now benefits from easy-to-use, no-drip bite valve system; simply flip up the valve, bite and drink
*Wide-mouth bottle fills easily and holds 25 fl. oz.; dishwasher safe in the top rack
*Standard cap size fits most wide-mouth bottles; bottle fits many water filters
*Easily attached to a pack or belt using a small, lightweight carabiner; handles warm liquids as easily as cold
*Lists approximate volumes in ounces and milliliters

Did you see that part about the "bite-valve"? It's awesome. The kids just bite on the blue part and the slit opens up; then it works just like a regular straw. As soon as they release their bite, the slit closes again and prevents leaks. It's polycarbonate, so it doesn't absorb odors and make the water taste funny. Holly Grace (a.k.a. the "midnight waker") likes to keep one on her nightstand and sometimes sleeps with it in the bed with her. It never leaks. And that blue thingy can be replaced if need be.

Grandkids' Camp Day 6

2007-08-12T21:35:00.000-05:00

Our day started with cranberry orange scones, oranges and a smorgasbord of meats. A Bible story about pouty children followed - I promise that was not planned! God gave it to us on just the right day, though.

An attempt at the hot tub was more successful today - no flies.

Dressed and ready for the day, the rock shop opened briefly. We are concerned about the fate of the business. A better offer came along and the choice was made to go crawdad fishing. Everyone caught at least one, but we employed the catch and release program, thankfully.

Lunch was sandwiches at the picnic table on the deck. A squirrel wanted to join us when he found a few goldfish crumbs. We wouldn't let him, though. He was very entertaining!

Some free time outside allowed the kids to fight off the Japanese (?) bad guys before quiet time. Everyone was in separate rooms with books chosen just for them at the library. Jack was thrilled to have time to read in Grammy and PawPaw's room. Holly Grace was singing in her room. We heard Will reading in the attic room. He also had a perfect view of the new culvert being installed on the driveway above us. Of course, Grant was the last one up and he made a surprise appearance at the top of the stairs with, "What's up, Doc?"

It was then time to complete the camp project - a new bridge across the ditch. It is beautiful and sturdy! We have pictures to prove it!

Now we decided to play a new game - Hide and Seek with Walkie Talkies (Rocky Talkies according to Grant). It didn't go over so well at first. It is a difficult concept to embrace - being quiet with a communication device in hand! So Grammy and PawPaw hid (without walkie talkies) while the kids counted under the deck. The kids are not so quiet or sneaky and Grammy and PawPaw are. After an extensive search, they finally found the old folks waiting where the kids had been counting. hmmmmm.....

PawPaw had a good time with Jack and Will by giving them directions via walkie talkie. Jack was the communications officer and Will was the navigation officer. They followed directions very well as PawPaw sent them to the gate, up to the cul-de-sac, across the water and the new bridge to the deck and around to the hot tub. Very impressive! Grant and Holly helped Grammy with supper.

Supper was Chicken Stir Fry filled with veggies - yummy and everyone ate very well. Showered and jammied, ice cream was served with a movie and then, popcorn.

We are headed home tomorrow!
Grammy and PawPaw

They will change your life

2007-08-12T21:08:00.001-05:00

I recently took a big leap. With the prodding of my husband. And it's phenomenal - the difference.

I invested in 800-threadcount sheets. I LOVE getting into my bed every night. The sheets are so thick and heavy. They aren't as soft as I thought they might be, but they are NOT scratchy like the 6-thread count sheets on Jack's bunk beds (kidding - they are at least 10-thread count).

I have often thought that nicer sheets would be a luxury I would like to have, but have held back because I thought we would be getting a king-size bed soon and didn't want to invest in nice sheets that we would be getting rid of. But, John's been traveling and sleeping on quality sheets in some hotels that are really proud of their beds. So, he urged me, when he saw a sale ad for 50% off to take the plunge. We are in love. With the sheets, I mean. And each other, lest you should wonder.

We got them two days before my surgery. That afternoon, when I got home from the hospital, it was so wonderful to crawl into my freshly made bed with nice cool sheets. I slept for four hours straight. Okay it might have had something to with the fabulous drugs I had. But still.

So having a fabulous bed (I got new bedding, too - nothing expensive, but new to us) has inspired me to clean out the master bedroom. Get rid of all those kids' toys lurking in there. Institute a new rule: No Kids Playing in My Room or Watching TV in My Room That's Why There's A TV in the Gameroom Full of TiVoed Kids' Shows. Donate the old bedding already. Figure out a better laundry system that will actually get the clean clothes put away instead of sitting in laundry baskets until the kids need them. I feel like I'm "nesting" only I am most certainly not pregnant! :) I am feeling SOOO liberated now that Charlotte is one. I am getting rid of pesky things like: bottles, the breast pump, the boppy, the bouncy seat, the infant carrier, the pregnancy/nursing/childbirth books, the burp cloths, etc. etc. Whew. Apparently we needed a separate storage unit for all that baby paraphernalia. Who knew?

Today I went through all of Holly Grace's clothes and boxed up all the too-small things, labeled with sizes on the outside of the tubs, and put them in Charlotte's closet. I helped the kids clean their rooms and the gameroom and get school uniforms ready and accessible.

All because of new sheets? Can you say "obsessive"?

Grandkids' Camp Day 5

2007-08-09T21:57:00.000-05:00

GKC 2007
Day 5
Date: July 11, 2007 10:20:02 PM CDT

Pancakes and bacon got the day off to a good start! A Bible Story and morning activity included coloring pages. PawPaw found a space program on the Science channel and the kids decided that the cabin would be a great space shuttle with booster rockets and we would all wear space suits. Holly Grace would have a purple one. The most important thing is to look good!

Grammy and PawPaw put together a fun obstacle course on the driveway that included hurdles, cones, loops, balls, frisbee, start and finish lines and a stop watch! Everyone handled the course very well. A game of washers followed.

Off to the creek on the 4 wheelers with fishing poles! Grant and Jack almost caught minnows and crawdads, but they would not hang on to the salmon eggs. We had only one serious fisherman, Jack kept his bait and hook until something took both from his line. Everyone else traded them early in for a little yellow fish to cast.

Back to the cabin for lunch - hot ham and cheese sandwiches with pickles and carrots, then ice cream cones! It seems that everyone looks forward to quiet time each day with no complaints. It is such a good break in the day for one hour! PawPaw and Grant usually make the most of it.

The campers have struck gold! It was found in the fire pit where PawPaw had been burning scrap lumber. You won't believe how many nails and screws are there! Everyone will be rich!

Will has moved the little orange trailer about 10 miles on the driveway. A little trailer is always useful, especially when there is a rock shop that needs inventory. Speaking of which, the Rock Shop opened again late this afternoon. There are many helpers and they are always busy. Grant was trying to shoo away the humming birds today because Holly Grace does not want birds in her store. They might eat the food if there was any. She is definitely in charge and is good shop keeper. However, we are unsure of how profitable this business will be. There is no business plan and no set hours but lots of fun and she is generous!

The zip line has been in use and probably needs to be raised because these kids are getting so big! A big campfire was just the ticket tonight for cooking supper. It was cool with a little wind, but no rain. So, hot dogs and beans and marshmallows were cooked over the fire. More sticks have been cooked this week than any food. They are all getting really good at firebuilding with great respect for the fire and the fire pit.

Inside, there were showers and a game of Old Maid. Then, we had to make a decision - another game or ice cream? Grant was so excited that he said, "Ice cream? - I don't know how to play that!" The vote went to ice cream.

Dental hygiene, Bible story and bedtime story relaxed everyone and caused some heads to nod. So, off to bed...
Grammy and PawPaw

Grandkids' Camp Day 4

2007-08-08T23:27:00.000-05:00

We knew it would be a good day when there was ice cream in the honey nut cheerios for breakfast!

After the Bible story, an activity book for Smokey's Friends kept everyone busy for a while. PawPaw discovered a show on the Science channel about dinosaurs while we made dinosaur posters. We found the flag and said the pledge as we put it up.

The rock shop opened early with expanding inventory. Rocks have started appearing in the bathroom, livingroom, dryer and elsewhere! Jack has found a piece of obsidian and is very excited about it. Geology is a wonderful hobby.

We started the camp project which is cleaning out the drainage ditch on the north side of the cabin that has been filled in with rocks and limbs and wood. Maybe we will build a new bridge across it! Taking a hike to check on Grammy's blackberry plants, we found a huge, new climbing rock. A long 4 wheeler ride completed the morning. We stopped to talk to the neighbors and their "giant dog, Ziggy". Holly Grace thought that Ziggy wanted to snuggle with her.

We had a great lunch - turkey sandwiches and a wonderful quiet time - one hour of total peace! Letters home were painfully written and you will find them in the duffle bags upon return. This brought a need to get outside. So, a hike along the game trail took us to the old castle rock. There was a big fight with bad guy indians, but good prevailed and we are all safe.

When we returned, we started a freezer of ice cream and tried out the hot tub. Unfortunately, horse flies chased out all hot tubbers. So, back to the rock shop when rain began and then hail! Talk about exciting! Glad we weren't trying to cook outside today! All camp cooks got the day off andGrammy and PawPaw cooked tacos and beans. Hopefully, we will have a campfire again tomorrow. We had a diverse group of ice cream sundaes - chocolate, strawberry, and banana and all mixtures!

We discovered Jack reading Calvin and Hobbs to all the other kids after supper.

A short ride took us to the meadow to watch for the bats - and we saw three, though Grant got a little "freaked out"! PawPaw had left a fire going and it sure felt good when we returned to prepare for bedtime. First, we had to receive stickers for today. Teeth, meds and jammies readied everyone for the bedtime story. Will and Grant fell asleep and Holly Grace was almost there when we made our way to the attic room.

Today, Will asked, "When does the next Grandkids Camp start?"

Yesterday, the birds were fed and everyone tasted the hummingbird food. The general consensus is that it tastes like marshmallows.

Grammy has received fresh flowers everyday.

More tomorrow!
Grammy and PawPaw

I did it! All by myself!!!

2007-08-08T19:27:00.001-05:00

I finally figured out how to get video off my new (since Mother's Day) digital video camera and onto my computer. I swear, I was trying to use the PC instructions, but my Mac made it so simple. All I had to do was buy a firewire cable, connect the camera and turn it on. Have I mentioned my new love, iMac?

Anyway, here's the inaugural video ...

When all else fails, Baby Girl, just kiss your daddy.

Grandkids' Camp Day 3

2007-08-07T15:31:00.001-05:00

GKC 2007
Day 3
Date: July 9, 2007 11:19:53 PM CDT

What a great day at GKC in the mountains! Grant was the first up, but came downstairs and into Grammy and PawPaw's room very quietly. Holly Grace followed later, then Will and Jack was last. We had eggs with bacon and cheese, hash browns, toast, pears and peaches and apple juice for breakfast. A Bible story every morning helps us through the day. We had a Smokey the Bear Fire Safety Fun lesson, too.

Outside, the boys gathered rocks for collections and Holly Grace opened a Rock Store. Rocks were free and cleaning the rocks was free, too! So, the rock cleaning began. They all used water and "toulet" (Holly's pronunciation) paper leaves (a nice soft and rather large leafy plant that they all agreed would be perfect for an outdoor toilet!). We have a fine rock shop on the deck, now.

A ride on the 4 wheelers took us to the creek and back before lunch. Lunch was individual make your own pizzas - yummy and creative. Everyone had 2 english muffins. Toppings included marinara sauce, mozzarella, canadian bacon, jalapenos, capers and olives. Some toppings never made it to the pizzas. :)

Quiet time was wonderful for everyone. Holly Grace listened to Amelia Bedelia in the east bedroom, Grant read 2 books and slept in the west bedroom and Jack and Will listened to Hank the Cowdog in the attic room. PawPaw and Grammy rested in the bedroom. This all lasted one perfect hour! After helping Paw Paw with new water hoses for the trees, it was off again to the creek on the 4 wheelers.

Everyone made and cooked their own supper tonight. We had yummy chicken trail burgers. Eating on the deck was a treat. We are so proud of all the participation of all the campers!

The boys were playing out back and Jack accidentally hit Will in the back with a big stick. We knew that it was serious when Will cried. Apparently, it knocked Will's breath out. Jack was horrified! We are unsure who cried more - Will or Jack. All was immediately forgiven. Ice cream saved the day!

Throughout the day, there was the zip line and exploring and rock climbing. No bears are coming around here, but Grant discovered a big, huge pile of bear poop just south of the cabin. He thinks we should clean it up tomorrow - maybe he will forget.

A quick game with the Woodsy the Owl team kept some busy while others showered. Then, a Bible story and we started reading a book. We hope to complete it this week. Sleepy kids brought bedtime and good rest.

We have found that camp is so easy with older kids! We are getting spoiled!
Grammy and PawPaw

Don't get too spoiled, Grammy and PawPaw ... Mitchell is pooping in the potty these days. I have a feeling he'll be joining you next year.

Grandkids' Camp Day 2

2007-08-06T22:47:00.000-05:00

GKC 2007
Day 2
Date: July 8, 2007 11:06:17 PM CDT

Well, let's see - where to begin. Perhaps at 4:30 this morning with coughing and crying. Holly Grace needed more meds, then right back to sleep on the floor beside Grammy. At 6:30, Jack and Will appeared at Grammy's side, dressed and ready for the day! hey did not see Holly, but avoided stepping on her, so she slept a little later. Grant was soon behind them.

So, off to Capulin early, had breakfast on the way (yogurt, oatmeal to go bars, pinapple juice and yogurt covered raisins). There was a feed lot on the way and Will told us that he saw two cows wrestling. One of them "got bucked up". Hmmmmm.

Capulin Mountain finally appeared and we were so excited! Stopping at the information center, we watched a short video (Grant was looking for the video games). We drove up to the crater to hear the ranger talk. Jack was really in to her talk and interacted with her. We had picnic sack lunches of string cheese, peanut butter crackers, goldfish, teddy grahams and capri sun - eaten not necessarily in that order. We hiked down to the center of the crater and completed the lady bug hike forms. Everyone received their lady bug buttons. Jack and Will received the junior ranger badges - oath and all after completing the requirements! We even saw a lady bug this time. Will spotted her first! Of course we stopped for a group picture at the entrance sign.

A movie kept everyone occupied while we drove to the cabin and finished the lunch bags. Grant slept. It was not a long trip and we arrived at the cabin a little after 4 pm. So, we unloaded, poured wine (adults only) and built a campfire. Hot dogs and s'mores were a big hit. We are glad to report that there are no burns on any bodies.

We took the 4 wheelers to the cafe for our daily dose of ice cream and rode back little way in the rain. Hot showers, meds, teeth brushed and story time completed the evening. All four campers are asleep in the attic room.

Everyone is playing nicely and earning stickers for the name tags. Jack is all about that!

Holly Grace is better today, but her energy level seems to fluctuate. We keep ibuprofen, cough drops and cough syrup handy, but she is improving. Tonight, she started coughing and Will said, "Bless your heart" as he put his arms around her. It was really sweet.

We are all happy to be at the cabin and off the road. Everyone is looking forward to coffee with PawPaw in the morning.

More tomorrow!
Grammy and PawPaw

PS - Will had a red tiger blood snow cone last night.

Charlotte's First Birthday Party Slide Show

2007-08-06T10:41:00.001-05:00

This is a digital scrapbook I made yesterday in about 3 hours with software from Topline Creations (TLC). I LOVE this software. This template was pre-designed, so I just dropped in my photos and adjusted sizes, etc., when needed. I went to see a demo of this software and fell in love - so much so that I signed up to sell it. If you are interested in a copy of it, let me know! I am having a hard-bound copy of the book printed by TLC and I've burned an interactive CD with music for my mom. You can mouse over the slide show to stop on a page at any time. I made the slide show with the hi-res images of each scrapbook page on slide.com ... super-easy!

Funny things Mitchell says

2007-08-06T09:00:00.000-05:00

"Mom, Mom, I want some this cumcumber in my salyad."

"You want some of this cucumber?"

"No, it's too strangerous."

Grandkids' Camp

2007-08-05T16:54:00.001-05:00

Every summer, my parents take all the grandkids who are potty-trained with them for a period of time and give us moms and dads a break. The first year, it was just Jack and Will. And actually, they weren't potty trained. Either of them. They were 21 months and 12 months, respectively. After the first two years of "Grandkids' Camp" (or GKC, as they call it), when they pretty much changed diapers and put babies down for naps all day, they instituted the "must be potty-trained" rule. They have seven grandkids now, but only four are potty-trained. The cast of characters: Jack (7), Will (6), Holly Grace (5) and Grant (4). And of course, Grammy and PawPaw. This year, GKC was a WEEK LONG. One week of heaven.

Several years ago, Christi (my SIL) and I decided that it would be fun for the two of us to get together and scrapbook while the kids were away. So we meet up either at her house or mine (we live about 5 hours apart) and work as fast and furiously as possible. The highlights of our time together are: eating, scrapbooking, and getting the daily email update on how camp is going from my mom. After all the kids are in bed each night, she writes us an email that highlights the day. So, I thought I would share the highlights of GKC with you! This year's theme (EVERY year has a theme!) was Ice Cream Every Day.

Grammy and PawPaw came into town for Charlotte's birthday and picked up all four kids. They left at 9 a.m. Saturday morning ...

GKC 2007
Day 1
July 8, 2007 12:08:44 AM CDT

Oh yes, it is very late! We had a good, but long day. Leaving a little late was just the beginning! Will shared his Spiderman comic books that Nani Dot gave him and everyone was busy for a while. Then, the movie was good.

At Sonic, we ordered a dozen corny dogs, tater tots and slushies. As Grammy remembered to get Grant's patch and closed the back of the Land Cruiser, there were four little heads popping up through the sunroof! We got everyone back inside along with lunch and went on down the road to the rest area for lunch and playing.

Holly coughed a lot, but it did not slow her down much until later. There were lots of trains today, mostly stopped and very long. Everyone has been kind and generous!

When we talked about stopping at the local water park, Holly Grace said that she loves water parks! As we turned in, Will said that he had always dreamed about going to this place! So, about 5 pm, we arrived there, got changed and lockered and in the water. It really felt good! The wave pool was fun and the lazy river was nice, but Holly barely made it around two times. She must have gotten water in her mouth and started coughing again. It did not stop and she was exhausted. She and Grammy sat in the lounge chairs and she went to sleep wrapped in towels! Grammy was so worried about her, thinking that there could be a trip to the emergency room or at least some phone calls this evening. PawPaw and the boys went off to ride the big slides. Jack was a little apprehensive, but he was glad that he went. When they returned, Holly Grace woke up happy and refreshed and walked to the car! Miraculous recovery!

At home, we showered, had Meatloaf for dinner and went to get snow cones for our ice cream of the day. Jack had cinnamon, Will had toasted red something (can I get back to you with that?), Grant had spiderman, Holly Grace had blue coconut, Grammy had strawberry daiquiri and PawPaw had butterscotch.
Jammies, meds, tooth brushing and off to bed for all!

Tomorrow will bring adventures at the volcano!
Love from GKC~
Grammy and PawPaw

Charlotte is One!

2007-08-04T10:13:00.001-05:00

Here are the promised photos from Charlotte's first birthday. We started a James Avery Charm bracelet for her. John and I gave her the bracelet and the girl baby shoes charm. My mom gave her a 2006 charm for the year she was born. My brother and sister-in-law gave her the ladybug charm. Jack and Holly Grace picked out a whole slew of play wooden food from Target to get for her (i.e. themselves ... it was all for ages 3 and up). She also got some great books and a few electronic toys from Grandma. We had a swim party and it was oh so much fun. Just family was there, which was great. Unfortunately, I didn't get to swim ... too busy taking about 150+ photos. It was only 14 pages worth in her scrapbook.

Shake Your Groove Thang

My nephew Brock

My newphew Will

Jack and Will enjoying cake

Uncle Cory and Charlotte

I have been shamed

2007-08-04T09:41:00.000-05:00

Okay, so I have been shamed into posting (see Lindsay's blog at crawfordhouse.blogspot.com. Scroll down to the part where it says I update "rarely"). What's going on in our lives? Let's see...

Since my last post I have:
*Watched Charlotte take her first steps. Captured it on film - video and still! Still don't know how to get digital video off my camera and onto my Mac. Help, Bre!
*Celebrated Charlotte's birthday with grandparents, great-grandma (NaniDot) and my brother, Cory, and his kids. What's that? You want to see photos? Okay... coming soon.
*Spent a week with my brother's wife and their littlest while her older two and my older two went to "Grandkids' Camp". Yes, it's awesome. I shall blog on that, as well.
*Spent two weeks with my parents in New Mexico at their cabin. Mom and I scrapbooked like crazy and I got SIXTY pages done. And the weather was gorgeous. And the food was amazing.
*Had a minor day surgery. I'm fine. Don't worry. I suppose I could blog on that if you want gory details.
*Watched the first three episodes of the first season of the BBC's "Coupling". John and I laughed out loud several times. Although it was odd watching a show with canned laughter again. We don't watch many sitcoms ... actually "The Office" is the only one we watch, and there's no canned laughter, so it took us a while to get used to it again. But, it's hilarious.
*Been to the library twice with four kids (glutton for punishment).
*Been to the Honda dealership to replace the rear entertainment system remote that we can only assume was inadvertantly thrown away after our spring break trip to the mountains. It was $238 to replace. I said, "No thanks". Update: John found one on a Honda Accessories website for a mere $168. I guess I'll have to suck it up and pay it.

Alright, everybody happy? More coming...

My dad reminded me

2007-06-28T13:41:00.001-05:00

of something I forgot to put in the last post. (Hi, Dad!) That day I spent with my Grandmother? She told him about one thing that I omitted.

While we were at the library we decided to ride the elevator on our way out. Because it's one of Mitchell's favorite things to do and it's free. :)

We always let Mitchell push the buttons because, well, he's two. That's what two-year-olds do. So, we got on and let him push the button for the second floor. Then he looks at me and says "I push this one?"

"No," I respond as the elevator door opens. It was like slow-motion. He never took his eyes off of me and pressed the button anyway. I couldn't reach him to stop him because the stroller was between us. In the blink of an eye, he'd pushed the "HELP" button and called 911!!! Meanwhile, the older two kids had gotten off the elevator on the second floor (which is the ADULT/QUIET area of the library) and were calling to me "We're going to go down the stairs, Mommy!" Mitchell ran out after them, screaming, "I go too!"

Back at the ranch (in the elevator) I heard, "911, what's your emergency?"

Um, hello, I have a two-year-old who likes to push the buttons in the elevator ... that's my emergency!

The elevator doors were open. My grandma was trying to corral the three older kids. I hade Charlotte in the stroller half-way out of the elevator and I was leaning down to talk into the built-in speaker on the wall.

"There's no emergency," I hissed, but I was interrupted by an automatic recording that comes on to respond to the operator:

"Please send help to ..." and proceeded to give the address of the library to the 911 operator. I was pretty sure I was going to die of embarrassment. I wanted to strangle robot-man talking to the operator and tell him that there was, in fact, NO EMERGENCY and to quit talking for me.

Finally, the librarian sitting nearby hung up her phone and said, "I've already let them know it was a false alarm ... it's okay". Meaning, I could now leave the elevator and not try to talk to an operator who couldn't hear me. I just didn't think it was right to leave the operator hanging, you know?

So, I retrieved Mitchell, we had a talk about being quiet in the library and obeying Mommy, and I made him apologize to the librarian. Then we got the heck out of dodge before he could find a fire alarm to pull.

Lovely Saturday

2007-06-23T15:25:00.000-05:00

John's Grandfather died on Thursday. He was 95 years old. Wow. He was a lovely man - I wish I'd picked his brain about gardening, but the last time I spent any time with him was before I knew I enjoyed gardening!

John flew home to be with his family this morning and after the kids an I dropped him off at the airport, we decided to go by my Grandma's house to visit. So we called when we were about five minutes away and said, "Can we come by?" Of course, the answer was, "Of course!" She only lives about 15 minutes from us, but we don't seem to be in her neck of the woods too terribly often. We got there and piled out of the car. The kids played (and fought over) her mega blocks and Barbie car for a while, then they headed out to the HUGE backyard where they played until their faces were pink and they had little beads of sweat all over their foreheads.

So, then we invited Nani Dot (that's what we call her) to lunch with us. We picked up tacos at Taco Bell and brought them to our house to eat. Again, the kids played outside and she and I walked through our garden. After that, we packed up the kids again and went to the library. I hadn't been to the newly remodeled library in her town, and it was GREAT! We got lots of books, DVDs and books with tapes/CDs for Holly Grace to listen to. She can't read yet, but enjoys those, "When you hear this sound {DING}, turn the page" books. It was interesting that Nani Dot (80 years old) showed US how to use the self-checkout computer. What a lady! We had a great time with her and we were thankful to get to spend part of the day with her.

The whole reason for our trip to the library was Jack's current obsession with geology. We got five juvenile non-fiction books on geology. We worked on his geology beltloop for Cub Scouts a while back and he took quite an interest in it. Then, this week at Cub Scout Twilight Camp, they had a geologist come and talk to the boys. They earned their geology pin and got samples of all different kinds of rocks. So Jack officially has a rock collection now. Before it was just an unofficial rock collection - two gallon-sized ziploc bags that he had collected on his last trip to Grammy and PawPaw's house. John's excited because the geologist at Twilight Camp said that Geologists are in the 4th highest-paid profession in the U.S. (behind doctors, lawyers, and something else that John couldn't remember).

Anyway, after the library, I thought about how this is how learning should be! Jack is fascinated with Geology right now. Well, we'll go to the library and help him pick out some books and then we'll capitalize on that interest. Even if it's just a passing interest, that's fine. This is why I love [partially] homeschooling our kids. Summer seems so much more "doable" now.

Party till 2 a.m.

2007-06-18T21:07:00.001-05:00

Last night we partied till 2 a.m. With all four kids. In our downstairs hall bathroom. It was quite crowded, really too crowded to even dance but the music was great. It went something like this ... "Woooooooooahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, woooooooooahhhhhhhhhhhh."

The party started at 1:40 a.m. when the tornado sirens sounded. I was actually awake watching the lightning flashes all around, which I love, but I do NOT love dragging my husband and four kids out of bed to join me in the smallest room in our house for a late-night soiree.

Of course, Holly Grace complained that Jack was touching her and making her "itchy". It's hard not to touch you, sweetheart, when you've staked your claim on the entire floor so you can lay down. Jack had some real fear in his eyes; I assured him that this was just like the tornado drills they had at school. (Only this time, there really was a tornado, which I omitted.) He wanted to know why we had to have a tornado drill in the middle of the night. I sat on the floor with the kids, while lucky John got the potty. But, both Mitchell and Charlotte wanted me to hold them; Daddy just wouldn't suffice; and then Charlotte was grabbing Mitchell's hair and he was crying about that and the fact that Jack was trying to lay his head on my knee, which was clearly Mitchell's territory. Ugh.

Miraculously, all four kids went RIGHT BACK to sleep when we closed the party down. With no complaints.

Although, today Jack stated that he hopes we don't have another "tornado drill" tonight.

Oh, and I couldn't even find anything on the news this morning about this alleged tornado.

Augmentin = Chocolate!

2007-06-18T19:13:00.000-05:00

Really, it's true! Augmentin tends to give kids diarrhea, so our doctor recommends a Hershey's kiss after every dose. It works! Even Charlotte gets 3.5 mL of chocolate syrup after every 3.5 mL dose of augmentin. Genius! And the kids NEVER complain about taking their medicine.

Speaking of which, have you ever tasted this medicine? It's nasty, really. When Jack was about three years old, he was taking augmentin (and complaining about it - I didn't know the chocolate trick at the time). My parents were in town and my dad was really talking it up: "Jack, you're really going to like it; it's yummy white medicine!" (Jack called it "white medicine"). Jack looked at him with a really straight face and out of the mouth of my babe came, "PawPaw, have you ever HAD white medicine?"

My dad, realizing that he really couldn't actually attest to the tastiness of augmentin, wisely said, "Well, you know, Jack, I haven't ever had white medicine. But you still have to take it."

Things to pick up ...

2007-06-07T17:59:00.000-05:00

off the living room floor before you let the baby roam free.

* 5 year-old's flip-flops (one of these you will have to physically take away from said baby)
* small plastic make-up brush
* Thomas the Tank Engine DVD case
* one single, solitary square of toilet paper (???)
* wrapper from one red crayon
* piano sheet music "Theme from Cheers" (don't ask)

My life in numbers

2007-06-07T07:35:00.001-05:00

6 - the number of people in our family
6 - the number of people in our family who went on vacation
5 - the number of people in our family who came home sick
5 - the number of doctor appointments our family had yesterday
3 - the number of ear infections diagnosed (well, Charlotte's isn't technically an infection ... yet)
4 - the number of breathing treatments Jack has had since then
3-5 - the number of minutes it takes to administer a breathing treatment with the new "fast" cup
20 - the number of minutes I spent LOOKING for the nebulizer
370 - the number of tissues I've used on my own and other's noses
1 - the number of sinus infections diagnosed (my own)
2 - the number of times I was up during the night hacking up a lung
37 - the number of minutes I was up during the four-o'clock hour
14 - the number of items I "googled" while awake in the middle of the night (killin' time - ya know?)
3 - the number of people on antibiotics in this house
2 - the number of yeast infections I predict we will be dealing with in less than two weeks
6 - the number of prescriptions I picked up at Target yesterday
4586 - the combined number of mine and Jack's coughs through the night
8 - the number of times I predict narcolepsy will overtake me today

Haiku

2007-04-18T14:17:00.000-05:00

In honor of Chris's "Bad Haiku Tuesday" at Notes from the Trenches, a haiku for you:

Long days, endless fits.
Why can't my two-year old fly
Unaccompanied?

So peaceful

2007-03-08T20:46:00.000-06:00

29 months old

Overheard

2007-03-08T20:34:00.000-06:00

From the backseat while in a drive-thru line

Jack: (reading the bumper sticker on the car in front of us) "My son is in the US Army."

Holly Grace: "Who's your son?!?"

Someone, please just shoot me.

2007-03-07T11:05:00.000-06:00

Really, that is what I thought while I was sitting on the couch yesterday unable to will myself to stand up, walk to the kitchen and get myself some ibuprofen. I have Strep. Again. I had it last fall and didn't even know it for several days. This time, again, no fever, no vomiting, just a wicked sore throat that hurts when I swallow. Then yesterday morning I woke up with a plum bulging out of the right side of my neck. Oh, wait, no ... that was just my swollen glands! My joints ached, my skin hurt, my head ached. So I called my doctor ... he said "strep" is my middle name after the test came back positively positive. Great. I forgot to ask for a shot of penicillin, so now I'm taking the long way around to "wellville".

Ibuprofen is a miracle drug. If I forget to take it every six hours, I start feeling rotten again.

That's all I can type. I have to go lay on the couch some more. It beckons me.

I know why you don't comment

2007-02-14T21:29:00.000-06:00

I couldn't figure it out. So I signed out of blogger, went back to my blog as a visitor, and clicked on "comment". So you have to sign in. And in order to sign in, you have to use your google or your blogger sign-in. Oh, dear. And there's no link to click to create a user i.d. if you don't already have one. There are knots in your stomach. The room starts spinning. Wasn't it enough that you typed in the address from scratch again because you don't know how to manage your bookmarks?

Here's what you do. If you have a google account, use that i.d. If you have a gmail account, use whatever comes before "@gmail.com" as your username, and your gmail password as your password.

Okay, if you don't have a google account, create one. Go to google.com and click "sign in". Then click "create an account now". Take a deep breath, it's gonna be okay. All you have to do is enter your current email address and then make up a password. Oh, and then you have to enter the crazy word verification letters as they are shown on the screen. Don't hyperventilate. It's just so that someone can't program their computer to create multiple accounts without a live person doing the work. Another post on just that coming soon.

So, you've created your google account, congratulations! You may put the paper bag away, you can be done hyperventilating. Now you can comment all day long on my blog. I know you're there. I have "statcounter". I can see that you are visiting ... I just don't know who you are!

Is it lame to beg for comments? Because I'm not proud. I'm shameless, in fact. Show me some love!!!

My Two Year Old Threw Me Under the Bus

2007-02-13T15:21:00.002-06:00

equals

We were on our way out to eat Sunday night (all six of us) but first we had to stop at SuperTarget and pick up a prescription. John dropped me off at the door and circled the parking lot while I ran in. While I was inside, he aske Mitchell, "Where'd Mommy go?"

To which Mitchell replied, "Ummmm. Get coffee!!!"

Oh, yes. He ratted me out. John was not supposed to know that every time he sees a "Target" charge for $4.37 that it is a Grande Half-Caf, Extra Hot Peppermint Mocha.

Photo Booth

2007-02-12T22:46:00.001-06:00

Ohhh, I haven't laughed this hard in quite some time.

Funny things

2007-02-12T21:57:00.000-06:00

Funny conversations

Crissy: (enter holding crying baby)
Jack: Charlotte is really sensible (sensitive) this morning.

**************************

Scene ... Jack and Holly Grace at the kitchen table. John is on his way home from a week-long business trip. They are making welcome home cards for John.

John: (Entering the room) Hey, guys!
Jack: No, Daddy! We're not done yet!!!
John (shrugs and heads outside)
Crissy: How's that for a "welcome home?"

Cards are presented to John. Pink hearts with fancy-scissor-trimmed edges. Writing on Holly's (done by Jack):
"Welcome Homo Daddy!"

***************************

Holly Grace: Talk to me some more about what happened at school today, Mommy.
Crissy: Don't you think you should talk to me? After all, you were the one who was there!
Holly Grace: I can't renember!

***************************

Sam's Mom: (picking up the kids from school) Okay, everybody, let's hold hands in the parking lot!
Holly Grace: I'm a hooker!

And I get this...

2007-02-12T21:33:00.000-06:00

John's away overnight on a business trip. Here's the email he sent me at 7:22 p.m.

(subject)
Guess who is sitting at the table next to me

(body)
George Clooney.

At 7:22 p.m. I was wrestling the Elmo Spinbrush away from a toddler while a 4 year-old and 7 year-old were SUPPOSED to be brushing their own teeth. While my husband was eating a dinner in a nice restaurant. One table away. From. George. Clooney.

"Small Laundry Rooms that Work"

2007-02-01T21:03:00.000-06:00

"Small laundry rooms have a big job to do. A well–designed space with clever furniture choices and creative storage is the key to making it both efficient and clutter-free."

Okay, so this is on the "Big Ideas for Small Spaces" page at PotteryBarn.com. Um, hello. I don't have a teeny laundry room, but it can be a tight squeeze when there are six loads of laundry in the queue (on the floor) and we're trying to get out the door to the garage. So, I clicked on the link, thinking I would get some helpful hints on how to organize my laundry room, since the sink is always NOT full of babyclothes soaking, or dirty mop water, or some other item you might expect to find in a laundry room sink.

Instead, it's full of:
1. Pharoah costume, bagged up and ready to be returned to the person from whom we borrowed it for Jack's Egyptian Festival at school.
2. Tuff Stuff (carpet cleaner), since it belongs in the cabinet below the sink. Said cabinet is locked with a magnetic Tot-Lok for the protection of the children in our house who might like the taste of various cleaning products. However, when the "key" disappears from any other room in the house, I always snag the laundry room one since it doesn't see a lot of action. Also, John constantly has a pair of shoes in front of this cabinet. Usually it's flip-flops, but if I happen to get off my hiney and move those to the closet, he promptly replaces them with another pair. If you were to ask him, he would have no idea that he does this. It's just as if there's some primal need to put muddy shoes in front of that cabinet. So I really can't hold it against him.
3. Preschool artwork - currently a snowflake made of Honeycombs glued on a snowflake outline on blue paper. Really, most of the time I take these straight out to the trash, unless it's one we want to display in the game room. Why did this one happen to make it all the way into the house? I don't know. Perhaps said preschooler had her eye on me when exiting the car, and I couldn't make a beeline for the trashcan. (Don't get me wrong here - I love the preschool she goes to - and she has a blast and learns alot, but the sheer volume of papers and art projects in this house are mind-boggling, so we only save the very best!)
4. Hat from the Spanish TV station Jack's Cub Scout Den toured last weekend. It didn't even make it the additional four feet to the coat/hat/shoe closet.

So, Pottery Barn, if you are going to give me some tips on making the most of a small laundry space, can you please illustrate with a SMALL LAUNDRY SPACE??? Instead of a photo of a palacial laundry room with a built-in space for the washer/dryer? Seriously, if you have a space that is large enough to be making "clever furniture choices" about, then you do not have a small laundry space. By the way, dear readers, if you have a laundry room that looks like this one, raise your hand. Raise it high ... you should be proud.

"Small Laundry Rooms that Work".

Wait, do you hear that?

Yes.

It's the sound of me laughing hysterically.

No time for that!

2007-01-16T20:57:00.000-06:00

Someday maybe I will have time to watch the news again. Then, maybe I can have an intelligent conversation with someone who says to me, "Can you believe about those two missing kids being found?" Okay, I do know a teeny bit of that story, but only what I could read on yahoo! news (didn't have time to watch the video clip).

We are too busy to watch the news. Busy trying to figure out if this kind of poo is from Rotavirus or Noravirus or neither. Busy trying to figure out the best way to remove said poo from the back of every one of Charlotte's outfits, since she only "goes" every two or three days, usually in the exersaucer, and it goes all the way up her back. Busy trying to figure out when I'm going to have time to take the Christmas tree down (last year it was up until February). Busy giving the baby breathing treatments every four hours. Busy folding six loads of laundry I did over the weekend. Busy listening to a "barking cough" coming from the one child upstairs who is neither sick nor has asthma.

So next time you see me, let's have a current events report. Remember, the kind you did in high school? You read the paper or watch the news, then summarize for me the current event of your choosing. Oh, and I need you to do it in less than 15 seconds. Because at that point someone under four feet tall is likely to need me again.

Identify yourselves!

2007-01-13T23:27:00.000-06:00

It's delurking week, the brain child of Sheryl over at Paper Napkin. If you enjoy the blog, or even if you just read it because you're related to me and feel like you have to, leave a comment and show me some love. Seriously.

Keep your clothes on, already!

2007-01-13T23:11:00.000-06:00

I have a friend whose daughter became so obsessed with "getting naked" during naptime that she finally started using duct tape to secure her diaper. Every day at naptime she would wrap duct tape around the child's diaper to keep her from taking it off and smearing poo all over her crib. Eventually, the child learned to go get the duct tape and bring it to mommy before she put her down for her nap.

I think we are headed toward duct tape.

Mitchell has been having trouble settling down and going to sleep at night. Which then causes him to be sleepy about lunchtime each day, because he stayed up so late the night before. So sleepy that as he's sitting in his chair eating lunch, he starts saying to me, "Mommy nap?" Then I put him down for a nap and he sleeps 3 to 3.5 hours! Then, at bedtime he can't go to sleep and the cycle starts all over again.

At bedtime tonight, apparently the insomnia set in and he decided to amuse himself by getting his shirt all wet. I'm not sure how, but probably by taking a sip of water from his sippy cup, then letting it run out of his mouth and all over his shirt. So, I change his shirt and put him back to bed. Fifteen minutes later, I discover that he's stripped himself down to nothing but a diaper and is trying to get said diaper off. Arghh!

So I put him in "zip-up" jammies and safety-pinned the zipper up. We'll see if it works. Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

Overheard Upstairs

2007-01-09T23:57:00.000-06:00

(Holly Grace has decided that she's going to marry her friend Mason...)

Holly Grace: Mommy, do you know how many babies I'm going to have when I grow up?

Me: No, tell me how many!

Holly Grace: FIVE!!!

Me: Really?!?!?

Jack: Then MASON will have to have a surgery!!!

Oops

2006-11-29T13:19:00.000-06:00

Mitchell is turning into the funniest child I know. I swear I laugh out loud at him sometimes. Like today. He was sitting in the booster chair (he's been evicted from the high chair because of you-know-who. She's eating cereal now, you know, but that's another post) and he kept calling me over saying, "Mommy, hurt!" and pointing at his leg. Until I took a close look and discovered a tiny scab on his knee. He didn't stop complaining about his "hurt" until I actually picked the scab off. Then it was all better. Now that's weird! Then, just moments later, I said "Oops!" about something unrelated. Then I hear a little voice say "In da potty." Oops in the potty. No, let's clarify. "Poops in the potty!"

Dinner for the family - the easy way

2006-11-13T15:46:00.000-06:00

Dream Dinners. I know you've heard of it, or something like it (i.e. Super Suppers, etc.). So they've come out with a cookbook. It's called Dream Dinners. Yes, I know, shocker.

If you haven't heard Dream Dinners or Super Suppers, here's how it works. You go to their storefront, spend about two hours preparing meals with prepared ingredients (the onions are already chopped, the chicken is already cooked and diced, etc.) and you come home with eight or ten meals for your family. You stick them in the freezer just pull them out when you need them. We've done this a couple of times at a local place and it's fun, but expensive. So when the Dream Dinners cookbook came out, I bought it and we are loving it! One day a month, I give John a grocery list. He goes to Sam's and the grocery store and buys all the ingredients we need. We spend about 5-6 hours together in the kitchen putting together meals and at the end of the day, have about 18 meals in the freezer. Some are casseroles, some are soups, some are marinated meats. Most will have leftovers, so we have enough dinners to last about a month.

The cookbook shows ingredients for one dinner in one column and ingredients for three dinners in another column; we always do the three dinners ... it just seems to make better use of our time to slap two more dinners together.

Yesterday we made:
Split pea soup mix (not from Dream Dinners, but good nonetheless)
Baked Ziti
Cheesy Chicken and Rice Casserole
Beef Stir-fry
Three Cheese and Spinach Soup
My mom's Meatloaf and Sauce

Voila! Eighteen meals in the freezer!
John and I both enjoy it; he shops and makes cocktails, I organize the processes, and we both cook and assemble. I love it that we've been married long enough to be comfortable in our roles. I know now that John doesn't like to read the recipes; he likes to be told what to do. We make a good team in the kitchen. :)

Four months old

2006-11-06T21:06:00.000-06:00

Charlotte is now four months old. Wow, does time fly, or what? We had her four-month well-check today and she weighed in at 14 lbs. 3 oz. And to think that when we brought her home she was just a tiny six-pound peanut! Now, she laughs out loud (especially when I fake a sneeze - that's hilarious, you know) and she "talks" to us all the time. She really is a great baby. And she looks so pathetic right now with one pink and three orange band-aids on her legs from the shots today.

John and I traveled to New Hampshire last week. He was recruiting at Dartmouth College and so I tagged along. We left Tuesday morning and flew to Boston, then drove up to Hanover, NH for two nights. We took Charlotte with us and it was lovely. She is just right on the hairy edge of being too old to travel easily, but we got very lucky. Although, it seems that her favorite thing last week was to blow out her diapers. Why do babies love to do that in airports, or Talbot's, or, say, at a nice restaurant? She did have the decency, once, however, to do it in an outfit that snapped all the up the front and down the legs, to getting it off wasn't a problem. The rest of the time she was wearing onesie-style tops, so [use your imagination here so that I don't have to type "poop"].

The leaves were peaking in the Boston area, but alot of the trees were already bare in Hanover. Except for one right outside our hotel on the "green". It was flaming red ... so beautiful. Thursday morning, before we drove back to Boston to catch our flight home, we took a little side trip to Quechee, VT, to a pottery and glass-making facility and restaurant. It was so fascinating. They were using hydroelectric power from the river outside to heat the furnace to 2400 degrees and make glass. We watched them blowing glass and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Charlotte slept the whole time.

It was an amazing, refreshing trip. Thanks to my parents, who watched the other three kids while we were gone.

On another note, I thought I had it rough with doctor appointments until I read this from another blogging mom who has SEVEN children. "On my calendar this month for the children I have five dental cleanings, one dental sealants, four orthodontist consultations, and two check-ups at the pediatrician." That's 12 appointments in one month! Not counting sick kid visits! I feel blessed. :)

In the hole

2006-11-06T17:29:00.000-06:00

So, Jack has lost his first tooth:

He was so paranoid that it was going to hurt that he just let it get more and more loose until he could bend it completely perpendicular to the rest of his teeth. I finally got him to open his mouth and I just popped it out. It didn't even hurt or bleed. It's bittersweet, when they start losing their teeth. He's growing up so fast; soon he'll have those giant permanent teeth that are much too large for his face.

Apparently the tooth fairy pays $5 for the first tooth these days. Inflation is harsh. I sound like I'm a hundred years old, but back in my day, a tooth only fetched $.25!

In which I desperately try to catch up...

2006-10-07T23:50:00.000-05:00

Good heavens! Has it really been almost a month since I posted? (Thank you, Lindsay! I really didn't realize it have been that long!) My perfectionism is rearing it's ugly head! (If I can't do it "right", then I won't post at all!). Well, here you go. There are no photos to share right now. Maybe later.

Okay - the bean incident. Once upon a time, Mitchell shoved a [cooked] bean up his nose. That's how all good stories start, right? It was a Tuesday night. What to do? Well, I didn't know if that warranted a trip to the urgent care, or not. I hoped not, because, to our insurance company urgent care = E.R. = $100 copay. So, I called my doctor friend and she said it could probably wait until tomorrow. The next morning, promptly at 8:00:01, I began that frantic dial, hang up, redial process (that all mothers have done) in order to get Mitchell in for a "beanectomy" ASAP. Or, "Stat!" should I say.

The doctor poked around in his nose and removed the bean, a little mushy bit at a time. It was pretty gross to watch. So, I'm betting his nose was a bit sore for a couple of days, but he really didn't seem any worse for the wear. By Friday we had pretty much forgotten all about it. But then. I can hardly bear to type it. On Saturday he came walking through the living room with something hanging out of his nose. Now, as a mother, it's pretty common to see stuff hanging out of your kids' noses. However, this was brown and looked rather nasty. Oh, holy schnikes, it's half of a snot-covered bean. I'm telling you, this was Gross. Here's what I'm ashamed of. I grabbed a tissue and swished it across his face because I was most worried that the thing was going to fall onto my RUG!!!

Garden (and accidental garden) update: The cute little watermelons are not going to make it. They reached the size of ping-pong balls and mostly started to turn yellow and fall off the vine. Then John poisoned the vine so that he could get the yard ready to plant winter rye. Bummer. On a positive note, our fall garden is flourishing. The kids and John and I have been harvesting beans off our bean pole and the ocra is doing really well (it's amazing what regular watering can do!). Good thing John put that drip system in! Our strawberry plants (3) have sent out runners, which put down roots. We cut the runners and now we have more than a dozen strawberry plants. Yum! We also harvested a ginormous zuchinni and 5 cucumbers this year. Good times.

John, Charlotte and I traveled to Colorado Springs last weekend for John's 10-year college reunion. The other three kids stayed with my parents at their house and they all went to their cabin. We had a great time, but my, we are getting old. We were in bed at 10 p.m. the first night we were there.

Mitchell will be two tomorrow. And, my, he is certainly alternating between perfection and terrible these days. He's in the process of making the move to the "big bed", which is really a misnomer because it's no bigger than the crib. It's a toddler bed, so the mattress is actually a crib mattress ... it just doesn't have high sides to make it a "baby jail" like the crib. He loves the "big bed", but if he gets out of bed, his punishment is to go back into the crib. Followed by our punishment of 5 minutes of bloodcurdling screams. Again, good times. We keep finding him asleep on the floor of his room, though, which is heartbreaking. Especially because of the abundance of sleeping options in the room (queen-sized bed, toddler bed, crib ... um, no thanks, I'm good here on the floor). Whatever.

I took him to Target (along with the three other children ... what am I, on crack?) the other night to pick out Halloween costumes. Jack promptly picked Darth Vader, Holly Grace picked Snow White, and then there was Mitchell. Here's how the conversation went:

Me: Oh, Mitchell, look here's the aisle with costumes your size!

Mitchell: Elbo!!!

Me: Oh, do you want to be Elmo for Halloween? Here, let's try on the Elmo costume!

Mitchell: NOOOOO! Tractor!

Me: No, honey, they don't have a tractor costume. Look how fun Elmo is!

Mitchell: No. Tractor.

Me: Yes, I know, you want to be a tractor, but they don't have one. Do you want to be Elmo?

Mitchell: No. Tractor.

Holly Grace: Mom, he wants to be a tractor.

Me: Um hum. I know.

Jack: Look, Mitchell, you can be puppy!

Me: Do you want to be a puppy for Halloween, Mitchell?

Mitchell: No. Tractor.

Me: How about a duck? Do you want to be a duck?

Mitchell: No. Tractor.

(Are you seeing the trend? And don't bother telling me that they have Cars character costumes and that Mitchell could be "Mater" from the movie. Because while Mater was my favorite character, I think it's lame to "wear" a car. I hate those costumes. I apologize if your child is going to wear a vehicle for Halloween. I'm sure he/she will be the cutest vehicle ever.)

Me: How about a chicken? or a princess? or a devil (seems fitting)? or anything but a tractor?

Mitchell: No. Tractor.

(Seriously, he's got to be thinking, "What is it with you, lady? Are you deaf? I want to be a T-R-A-C-T-O-R!!!")

Me: Okay, here are your choices. You can be Elmo, or you can be a chicken. Look at them closely. Evaluate the pros and cons. The choices is yours. Elmo? or chicken?

Mitchell: No. Tractor.

Me: Fine. You will be Elmo. Let's go.

So we pay for the costumes and head home. Once we get home, I try to get Mitchell to try on the costume. I can't even get him to stand still for two seconds. What is with this kid?

We head upstairs for bed. I am changing his diaper when he looks up at me, big brown eyes open wide and says, "I a chicken! Bock, bock."Are you freaking kidding me?

The costume has been exchanged and tried on. We know how to make chicken noises and flap our wings. Now we're working on saying "Trick or Treat". I'm not holding my breath. I'm thinking we will be knocking on doors and saying to those who answer them, "NO! Tractor!"

Vital Stats - two months

2006-09-11T22:15:00.000-05:00

Little Charlotte - still little, but gaining in percentile!

At the two-month check-up she was 10 lbs. 13 oz. (up from 6 lbs. 1 oz. at birth) and 22 1/4 inches long. She's now 50th percentile for height and weight. Her eyes are still blue and her little legs are starting to get a little fat on them! Her feet are still really tiny - her toes are like little corn nibblets. Her fingers are so long that when she tries to find her thumb and does actually get it in her mouth, she gags herself. It's pathetic.

Now to get this off my chest. What is up with the books saying that "sleeping through the night" is when the baby sleeps five hours in a row? Who has ever woken up feeling grrrrreat after a measly five hours? Heck, Charlotte was sleeping five hours at night at like, one week. So, now we're getting more like seven to eight hours straight, which I say is more like sleeping through the night; however, personally, I would prefer a solid twelve hours. :)

Things Charlotte has done in these two months:

learned to hold up her own noggin, when she's not too tired
started smiling, especially at her brothers and sister and perfect strangers. Not so much for Mom.
began tracking objects with her eyes
become enthralled with ceiling fans (who needs expensive baby gyms and other toys?)
put herself to sleep (only after we put her in the "baby straightjacket")
outgrown an outfit!
had her first round of shots (she was not impressed)

I was thinking about our doctor visits and how, because our pediatrician only works part-time and books up quickly, there were six of us in the exam room at Charlotte's well-baby visit: the doctor, me, Charlotte, and her three siblings. I do not recommend this. Alas, it was unavoidable, though. Then, I got to thinking about upcoming doctor appointments:

Mitchell's 2-year in October
Charlotte's 4-month in November
Jack's 7-year in December
Charlotte's 6-month in January
Holly Grace's 5-year in February
Charlotte's 9-month in April.

Throw in a group visit for flu shots sometime this fall and a couple of sick visits and I should probably be awarded my own special parking space and entrance at the doctor's office. Sheesh. The flu shot visit is always the most fun, by the way. I've never been so embarrassed by my kids' behavior as I was last year. I'll keep you posted.

New photos and an account of Mitchell's "bean encounter" to come as time permits. It's hard when you have four kids and your husband is out of town. It took me 1 hour and 20 minutes to make my easy 5-minute meat-loaf today. It was a good thing I started to put it together at 3 p.m. We were actually able to eat it at 5:30! :)

How to Insure that Everyone Sleeps Late

2006-09-05T09:04:00.000-05:00

So, we had a rather late evening (for us) yesterday. It was Labor Day and we spent the entire day at some friends' house. We took John's rapidly-becoming-famous ribs over for lunch. The plan was to eat and swim and hang out. But, after a double-digit number of days of triple-digit weather, thankfully, it rained. And rained. And rained some more. We could not have been more thankful. So we fed the kids (their two and our three) hot dogs (why waste fabulous ribs on kids who won't appreciate them?) and sent them upstairs to play. Our friends turned on the pool heater so that maybe the kids could swim. It wasn't a thunderstorm, just a slow, steady rain.

Well, we ended up all swimming. In the rain. And it was GREAT! We even brought little Charlotte out into the hot tub with us. We don't even have a swimsuit for her (do they even make them in 0-3 month size?) so she just chilled out in a swim diaper. She loved it, by the way. We didn't keep her in too long, though. It was pretty warm in the hot tub. After I got her dressed again, we put her in the infant carrier with a giant golf umbrella over her on the deck. She was perfectly content!

Anyway, we had dinner with our friends, too, then we let the kids stay up far, far too late while we visited downstairs. Mitchell, of course, was asleep in the pack-n-play, but the other kids were upstairs playing. We finally got them home and in bed about 10 p.m. Jack was upset with John because he didn't read to him (Oh, the horror, the abuse!).

So, here's how to make sure, in a house with four children, that everyone sleeps as late as humanly possible:

1. Wake up early (6 a.m.) and realize that the baby slept all night!

2. Feed the baby when she wakes up at 6:30.

3. Decide to go ahead and get the baby dressed; undress the baby before you've even finished snapping the outfit up because she just spit up all over it. Redress baby and lay her down by Daddy in the bed.

4. Check email and favorite blogs.

5. Intercept 4 year-old as she's coming down the stairs with her blanket, upset because she's left her favorite bracelet at friends' house last night. Remind her to use her "whisper voice" so she won't wake up the rest of the family. Lay down on the couch with her since it's only 7 a.m. and you know she's still tired.

6. Carefully remove your arm from under (miraculously) sleeping 4 year-old's head because 23 month-old is calling you from his crib. ("Mom-may! Mom-may!)

7. Enter 23 month-old's room and pull out all the tricks to try to keep him in his room so that he won't wake up the rest of the household. Ask the now-awake Daddy to bring yogurt into the 23 month-old's room to buy more time.

8. Send 23 month-old to the shower with Daddy to keep him out of the living room. Resort to covering his mouth with your hand when he screams a bloodcurdling scream because he doesn't want to put his diaper back on after the shower.

9. Realize that 4-year old is now awake, but 2 month-old is now asleep. Head to the kitchen to get breakfast and try to keep kids quiet so as not to wake 6 year-old and 2-month old.

10. Jump through hoops to keep kids quiet ("Do you want this? How about this? Oh, this Thomas the Tank Engine cup? Milk or water, your highness?")

11. Sneak upstairs to check on 6 year-old.

12. Realize that 6 year-old has been awake and playing K'Nex in his room for at least 1/2 hour.

13. Resolve to never keep kids up past bedtime again.

This is a great way to watch TV

2006-08-23T15:09:00.000-05:00

Reminds me of that scene from Notting Hill.

The Third Child

2006-08-23T13:16:00.000-05:00

I realized today that poor Mitchell is so neglected on the blog. It's basically because he naps three hours a day, he's not a new baby, and he's not starting anything new right now (in terms of school, activities, etc.). But, he is starting so many new things! Here, I gave him a spoon and container of yogurt just to see if he could feed it to himself without making a huge mess. And you know what? He's probably a more tidy eater than Jack and Holly Grace both!And if you're having trouble being a tidy eater with a spoon, you can always just drink your yogurt.

Guess what's growing in our backyard?

2006-08-21T20:30:00.000-05:00

All that work that we put into our garden ... and this is what we find growing in the backyard (not in the garden!).

Yep, that's right! It's a teeny tiny watermelon! Last summer, when our house was still under construction, we brought a watermelon out one evening. We paid no attention to where the seeds landed. Well, a couple of weeks ago, a little plant appeared in the middle of the dirt that we like to call "the backyard". (We haven't laid sod yet because of the watering restrictions due to the drought.) I thought it looked suspiciously like some of the vines growing in our garden and left it there. Sure enough, baby watermelons have begun appearing! We wonder if they'll be worth eating! Any tips out there on growing watermelon?

Week of Firsts

2006-08-21T18:58:00.000-05:00

We had a big week around our house last week. Jack had his first day of first grade. The workload is significantly greater this year than last. There was a lot of coloring (I didn't realize how much!) in kindergarten. Not so much in first grade! Which is nice, because Jack wasn't a huge fan of the coloring, anyway. Jack really likes his teacher and I think we're going to have a great year.

Holly Grace had her first dance class. It's a 45 minute combo class - tap, ballet and tumbling each for 15 minutes. There are six little girls (all 4-5 years old) in her class and they couldn't be cuter. Those tap shoes are the shiniest I've ever seen!

Charlotte learned to smile last week, although I couldn't have been lucky enough to capture it on film. She's not making a big habit of smiling yet, either, but we see one every now and then.

Big Promotion

2006-08-14T08:17:00.000-05:00

Jack tested for and was promoted to Yellow Belt at TaeKwonDo last week. He is very proud of his accomplishment. This is him with his teacher after the awards ceremony.

New photos

2006-08-13T22:04:00.000-05:00

I took some B&W photos of Charlotte today. Here are a few of my favorites.

Gaining

2006-08-06T20:40:00.000-05:00

Charlotte was 8 lbs. 6 oz. at four weeks (up from 6 lb. 13 oz. at 2 weeks). And, her cord finally fell off at exactly one month old. I thought she was going to go to Kindergarten with that thing on her tummy. Ick.

Last night she slept from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m.! Grandma (from Kentucky) and Uncles James and Matthew are in town, though, so I didn't go right to bed at 10 after she ate. Rats. I missed out on seven straight hours of sleep.

Lots of Hot Air

2006-08-02T17:07:00.000-05:00

So John is home on paternity leave (thank you, Capital One) and Jack and Holly Grace spent the better part of an hour trying to make a hot-air balloon out of K'Nex, a plastic bag from SuperTarget and a blow-dryer. John took pity on them and helped them make one that would be more inclined to fly out of a Chick-fil-A cup lid, fishing line, birthday candles and a produce bag. So we get set to light the candles ... Jack and I are holding the edges of the bag out and John is reaching under with the lighter. He lights all four of them, then a little four-year-old voice begins singing, "Happy birthday to you ... happy birthday to you ..." It was hilarious!

"But did it fly?" you ask. Well, not exactly. At first. But it did stand up straight as it filled with hot air.

Then John decided to ditch the lid and candles and just hold the lighters under the bag.

Oh, here it goes!

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have lift-off!

My children and I are so lucky to have this man in our lives.

Meatloaf Part II

2006-08-02T14:03:00.000-05:00

Years ago, when I had just moved out on my own to a micro-house in Kress, Texas, I called my mom to get her recipe for meatloaf. The conversation went something like this:

Me: "I need your recipe for meatloaf"
Mom: "Okay, sure. Just mix your ground beef with an egg and some crackers in a bowl-"
Me: "Wait, how much ground beef? How many crackers?"
Mom: "As much as you have - probably about a pound. Crackers - I don't know - 20 or so? Not quite a whole row of saltines."
Me: "Okay, mix it how?"
Mom: "Just smush it up with your hands and shape it into a loaf"

and on and on this went. Till we got to the best part.

Me: "Okay how long do I bake it?"
Mom: "Well, gosh, Crissy. I don't know ... until it's done!"

So, here it is, the recipe as I've made it for over ten years now and as my mom has made it since my childhood. It's different in that the sauce is separate, not mixed in with the beef. It's easily doubled and I usually double it to feed our family. Also, if you double it, you obviously stand a much greater chance of having leftovers, and therefore, meatloaf sandwiches the next day.

Meatloaf
1 pound ground beef
20 saltine crackers (in a pinch you can use bread crumbs)
1 egg

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Crumble up the crackers and smush all three ingredients together in a bowl. This is a great job for your kids if you have the patience of a saint and don't mind them (and your countertops) getting a little messy. Add salt and pepper if you like. Form the mixture into the shape of a loaf. Place in a 9 x 13 pan and bake at 400 degrees until done. :) It usually takes about 30 minutes for a 1 lb. loaf; 45 minutes or longer for a 2 lb. loaf. I try to make the 2 lb. loaves thinner so they take less time. You will know it's done if it's not pink when you cut into the center. Unless you like your meatloaf rare. Then it's done when it IS pink in the center. But I don't know of anyone who likes their meatloaf rare.

While the meatloaf is cooking, make the sauce.

Sauce
1/3 med. size bell pepper
1/3 onion
1 small can of tomato sauce

Chop the bell pepper and onion into whatever size pieces you like. I generally chop them pretty large so that, on the off chance that one of the kids actually wants sauce (most of the time they don't), they can pick out the chunks. Saute the onion and pepper on medium heat in butter, margarine, vegetable oil, or olive oil in a small saucepan. If you have some fresh garlic, you can throw that in, too. When the onion and pepper are crisp-tender, add the tomato sauce and heat through.

I don't know why all three of my kids love meatloaf, but they do. The older ones don't care for the sauce, though - they like it dry. Good luck!

Why I Love Meatloaf

2006-08-01T22:14:00.000-05:00

1. Six ingredients total - and I almost always have them on hand
2. My kids love it. I mean, [fighting for the last piece] love it
3. No crumbs, no mess, no spills. I don't have to sweep under the table when they're done eating.

Can this be normal? We're talking meatloaf here! Let me know if you want the recipe. Perhaps it can work miracles in your house, too.

24

2006-08-01T08:43:00.000-05:00

Okay, are we the only people out there who haven't watched this show? John added it to our Netflix queue and we got the first four episodes about two weeks ago. We started watching it and became totally addicted! If you don't know what 24 is, it's a TV show that chronicles the events of one day in the life of Federal Agent Jack Bauer, starting at midnight and continuing for 24 episodes (one for each hour of the day) . So we finished all 24 episodes (it took us almost two weeks to watch them all, after the kids were in bed each night), and John said, "Do you think Season Two is out on DVD yet? Or was last year the first year of the show?" So those of you who watch 24 are laughing out loud right now. Yes, we realized that the first season of the show was actually in 2001 when we finally looked at the DVD case and saw when it was recorded. Okay, so we're losers. But now, the pressure! We have, like, 4 more years worth of 24s to watch! That's almost a hundred hours of television!

But here's the real kicker ... John is always annoyed with me when I don't want to "commit" to watching a movie, yet I have no problem sitting down and watching two episodes of my favorite TV shows that we have on TiVo. Still two hours, just not a movie. Why is this? Why can't I commit to watching a movie? We can't figure it out. But I don't have any problem at all committing to watching twenty-four hours of programming. Maybe because it's broken up into small one-hour episodes? It's crazy.

So, we won't spoil it for those of you who have not seen the first season of 24, but, my gosh, what a twist at the end!!! We are still reeling over it!

A New Woman

2006-08-01T08:30:00.000-05:00

Wow, I feel like a new woman today. I fed Charlotte early (9:30 p.m.) last night and then we went to bed at 10:00! I woke up briefly at 11:00 because she was "gritching" around in the bassinet, but she went back to sleep, thankfully. I was just up once at 3 a.m. for a little bit to feed her, then she went right back to sleep. John and I were both up at 6 a.m. (it's trash day!) and I actually got a shower before I had to feed her! Mitchell and Jack slept in (till about 7:30) and Holly Grace actually woke up in a great mood.

We have an appointment with a pediatric dermatologist today for Mitchell and I will be braving a doctor visit with four kids by myself today. This should be interesting. I'm sure I'll be packing lots of snacks to keep little mouths busy.

Have I Ever Been This Busy?

2006-07-31T08:56:00.000-05:00

A whole week has passed and I survived! We were home alone on Monday and Tuesday (the four kids and I), then John was home with us the rest of the week. Although having him home didn't really "count" because of his little surgery on Wednesday and subsequent recovery. Yes, folks, it's official. We are not going to have any more children. John sent an email to his classmates from the Air Force Academy that said, "Charlotte Ivey was born 2 weeks ago and is doing well. For those of you keeping score at home, that is Lodmell child #4. This will be the last edition of Lodmell children. The production line is being disassembled tomorrow. Wish me luck!"

I have to say I'm a little sad. I sure do love having a tiny baby. I love giving birth and being in the hospital and picking a name. I love the smell of a freshly bathed baby and I love baby noises. I love nursing a baby and rocking a baby and watching a sleeping baby. But one thing I do NOT love is being pregnant. I can't even count the number of times during this last pregnancy I said, "I am so done. I am NOT doing this again." So, four is a good number. This is a good place to stop ... our family is complete.

So, after telling, oh, about a hundred or more people who have asked, "Oh, she sleeps great - she only wakes up once during the night to nurse then she goes right back to sleep!" Charlotte made a liar out of me. Last night I was up from 2 a.m. to 5 a.m. Let's back up. I usually try to make her have some "awake" time in the evening. But yesterday we went to church and she just slept in the infant carrier from 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Then I woke her up and fed her and she went right back to sleep until I woke her up and fed her again at 10 p.m. I should have known that I was in for a long night. Because when she woke up at 2 a.m., she thought it was time to be awake! If the lamp was on, it was all good, but as soon as I would turn the lamp off, she would get mad! She finally ended up falling asleep on my chest about 5 a.m. I think I feel a nap coming on this afternoon.

Tomorrow we have an appointment with a pediatric dermatologist for Mitchell. It's not a big deal, except for the fact that all four children will be going with me. This should be interesting.

Here's a new picture of Charlotte. It amazes me how much she has changed in just one week.

Home Alone

2006-07-24T10:10:00.000-05:00

Today is our first day home alone (just the four kids and me). Grammy and PawPaw left yesterday and boy, are they missed! We're doing okay, though. We may even try to go somewhere (SuperTarget) to help the day pass a little more quickly.

Charlotte is actually starting to fit into some 0-3 mo. clothes. Thank goodness! I only had a couple of things that fit her, so we were doing a lot of baby laundry in Method detergent!

She's alert a lot more these days - just looking around with her big blue eyes. We are all enamored with her! Mitchell likes to surround her with toys when she is in a bouncy seat or in her car seat.

2-week visit

2006-07-19T03:00:00.000-05:00

We went for Charlotte's two-week appointment today. She gained 13 ounces in 7 days - she's now up to 6 lbs. 13 oz. The doctor said that it's fine to let her sleep until she wakes up during the night since she's gaining weight so well ... which is good because that's what I've been letting her do! She generally eats at 10 p.m., 3:30 a.m., and then 7 a.m. I consider myself very lucky to only be getting up once at night.

We are using a Miracle Blanket with Charlotte and it's awesome. I've never been able to swaddle a baby this well. We highly recommend it, since it's like a little straight-jacket!

The Dairy

2006-07-16T21:29:00.000-05:00

The other night I was nursing Charlotte and Holly Grace wanted to hold her. She said to me, "Can I hold baby Charlotte after she's done milking?" Moo.

Hospital pics

2006-07-16T20:36:00.000-05:00

Charlotte and Mitchell. He calls her "My Baby" - never "Charlotte".

Holly Grace kissing Charlotte's tiny fingers

Jack and baby sister

First Doctor Visit

2006-07-11T22:38:00.000-05:00

Charlotte was down to 5 pounds, 10 ounces when we left the hospital. Today she is up to 6 pounds even, just three days later! Hooray for our good little eater.

All the Gory Details

2006-07-10T22:12:00.000-05:00

And I mean all the details. If you are "faint of heart" you should just skip this post and know that everything turned out beautifully.

So, my last post before she was born just said that we were on our way to the hostpital. We got to the hospital about 6:30 p.m. I was having contractions all the way there about 4 minutes apart, but they really weren't painful. My cervix hadn't changed any since my appointment that morning, so the doctor gave instructions for me to walk around the hospital for two hours, returning to my room to be monitored every half hour. John and I did three half-hour walking tours of the third floor (my feet were killing me) and returned to be monitored for about ten minutes each time. The baby was doing great, but after the third round, there was a dip in her heartrate after one of the contractions. Normally, I don't think this would have been a big deal, but it happened with Mitchell and he ended up having a knot in his cord. So, John and I kind of got uptight.

The nurse checked me again, and I still hadn't made any progress. She put a call in to the doctor, who decided to go ahead and keep me there (they had been planning on sending me home if I didn't make any progress) because of the dip in the heartrate. We definitely felt like it was a two-edged sword. On one hand, we didn't want to see that dip because of what it could mean. On the other hand, we were glad to be going ahead with labor and delivery.

Meanwhile, the kids were with friends and my parents had flown in to town and picked them up. They took them home and put them to bed and we promised to keep them updated through the night.

They finally started the pitocin (to get the contractions going stronger and more regular) about 11:00 p.m. We started the epidural process about midnight, and by 1:30 I was feeling no pain at all. John got comfortable on the couch and promptly went to sleep. I slept a little on and off, but I was being checked pretty frequently.

At 2:00 a.m. I was at 4 cm.
At 3:00 a.m. I was at 5-6 cm.
At 4:15 a.m. I was 7 cm. and my water broke as the nurse was checking me.
At 5:00 a.m. I was complete and the nurse had me do a practice push. I didn't really put alot into it because I didn't want to deliver without my doctor there. So, the nurse counted to 10, then told me to take a deep breath and start pushing again. So this time, I "wrapped up around the baby" and put some effort into it. She said "One ... two ... okay you can stop pushing and I'll go call the doctor. You really moved the baby down with that."

The doctor arrived about 5:10 a.m and started "gowning up." They removed the bottom of the bed and put my calves in the supports. The doctor got into position and then started talking to John about our recent vacation. Then she looked at me and said, "Okay, well, here's the head if you want to give a little push."

So I started to push and she immediately said, "Okay, stop pushing." John looked down and said, "Wow, lots of hair, and she's face down!" (Babies are supposed to be born looking at the floor, but our last two have been born looking at the ceiling. I would have put money on this one being "sunny side up" as well.)

So then, she just slid out and there she was, all covered in vernix (since she was only 37 weeks) and pink and beautiful. She did have lots of dark hair and she was so tiny!!! John cut the cord right away.

They put her on my tummy and dried her off, then took her to the warmer to do the assessments and clean her up. Her 1-minute APGAR was 7, the 5-minute was 8. Meanwhile, the doctor was marvelling at the cord. Apparently, it was "hyper-coiled" meaning it was coiled more tightly than most cords. This can result in smaller babies as it inhibits their growth. The doctor commented about the large amount of blood in the amniotic fluid and, once the placenta was delivered, found a small tear on it. She called this a "possible partial abruption", which is pretty scary, since an abrupted placenta can be serious for both mom and baby.

At that point, my doctor said, "Let's just say I'm glad we went ahead and delivered this baby." Yikes!

John held her for a bit, then I held her for a few minutes, but she was working really hard to breathe, so we kissed her and sent her off to the nursery for a little assistance. She did great and we had her back in our room within four hours.

Charlotte is nursing great and we go to the pediatrician tomorrow to see how she's doing. She lost weight down to 5 pounds, 10 oz. by the time we were discharged, so hopefully she's gaining it back now. Tomorrow I'll try to post pictures of her with the siblings, who are completely enamored with her.

One Day Old

2006-07-07T13:24:00.000-05:00

My daddy loves me!

Newborn

2006-07-07T08:13:00.000-05:00

Well, here she is! Charlotte Ivey made her grand entrance at 5:19 a.m. on Thursday, July 6, 2006. She weighed 6 pounds, 1 oz and was 18.5 inches long. The labor and delivery were easy (no pushing required!). I'll update with more details later. She's nursing well and has already found her fingers and thumbs.

"Contraptions"

2006-07-05T16:39:00.000-05:00

We're leaving for the hospital ... contractions are about 5 minutes apart but not terribly painful. The doctor wants us to go on in.

Jack asked me today if I was having any "contraptions." If only I were having contraptions instead of contractions!

Delivery is Imminent

2006-07-05T14:04:00.000-05:00

Well, of course it is! I can't be pregnant forever!

I went to the doctor today and I'm 3 cm. and 80% effaced. Since she can't deliver this baby this weekend and I'm (as she said it) a "ticking time bomb," we decided that she would strip my membranes. If the baby is ready, this can jump-start labor. If you want to know what "stripping of membranes" is, click here. It's a pretty painful procedure, but it seems to have worked. I'm having contractions every 8 minutes or so. Mom and Dad are on their way into town, and we think we'll probably be headed to the hospital sometime this evening. We'll try to labor at home as long as possible.

The next update may be after the birth!

Singin' In the Rain

2006-07-05T08:15:00.000-05:00

It's been so long since we had rain, when it rained yesterday, the kids just sat at the window watching it. They reminded me of the kids in The Cat in the Hat. Of course, they remembered the time last winter when they wanted to play in the rain, but it was too cold and I said they could do it in the summer when it was warmer. So, they put on old clothes and their raincoats and rainboots and headed out. I wish I'd thought to take a picture as they were headed back in, covered in mud from head to toe.

Tall Tales

2006-07-01T18:40:00.000-05:00

This is Jack, "Captain Gil" (the fishing guide) and Jack's northern pike that he caught fishing on Lake Champlain in Vermont. It was one big fish!