Our Weekend

What a weekend. Saturday we had a yard sale.

(this is only some of it - it ran from the front of the house, down the side yard and took over the back yard)

We've been preparing for it (for what feels like) forever. It seemed like the boxes of stuff going outnumbered the things that were staying. So, at the butt crack of dawn (that is an official time, isn't it?) :) Roger and I woke up to begin setting up tables and tables and tables o' stuff. Before the sun was up people were there in my yard rummaging through boxes that hadn't been unpacked yet. They are crazy. But hey, the crazies bought stuff so I'm ok with that.
Overall we had a good yardsale. It wasn't our best one yet but it most definitely wasn't the worst either. Joseph proudly manned the "money table". He also did a great job of offering everyone that set foot on our property a soda. I had to keep reminding him that they were there for people to buy, not a lovely parting gift for shopping our junk.


So, as with any yard sale we spent most of the day outside. Just Friday I had Joseph at the Dr for allergies. Turns out the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Joseph has seasonal allergies. He was getting up to 5 nosebleeds a day and the poor kid is sneezing and rubbing his eyes more often than not. So at some point on saturday I looked at him and thought "wow, you have been outside a little too long your eyes are looking rough" With that thought I called him to come closer just for a better look at ol' puffy eyes. To say I was grossed out would be an understatement. I was freaked, grossed, I can't think of another adjective to describe what I saw. Joseph's eyeball was swollen. Not his eyelid, though that was swollen too. His eyeball was quickly doubling in size. (I tried to google it to find a picture to post but among all of the nasty eyeball pictures, there were none that looked like his.) (aren't you relieved) :) I called the Dr, though honestly I'm not sure why. I love our Dr, but I'm pretty sure my mind was made up that this kid needed to go to the hospital. That is what he told me to do and I quickly tossed him in the car. Luckily we live only 5 minutes (if that) away from the ER so we got there fast. I prayed on the way over, in between trying to calm Joseph down. He wasn't really worried about going to the hospital, but his eye "hurt and was itchy". Turns out that it was just a bad allergic reaction. Right before we left, Roger got a piece of grass out of his eye. Guess the kids is allergic to grass. The hospital game him some Benadryl, which helped rather quickly. I took a picture when we got home and his eye was already looking better. The hospital staff found Joseph rather amusing though. He was telling the Dr "I'm a boy genius" :) He's so modest. So anyway, now Joseph has to take allergy medicine every morning. At least until summer starts. Then we will re-evaluate. I will now keep Benadryl on hand at ALL times.

this is after Benadryl. If you look at his right eye you can tell it's swollen but it's already SO much better

On the plus side, when Joseph and I got back from the hospital, Roger had already finished packing up all of the unsold stuff from the yard sale! I didn't have to re-pack anything! Woo-hoo! (thanks hon!)

Let's talk paint

Mary is hosting a wonderful Design Time carnival over at her blog. (click here to read about the inspiration behind this great idea. Then click here to check out how other bloggers like to decorate)




Ok, to be honest. All these pictures are of my old house. We currently live in an ugly rental. The walls are white. It's dull. It bugs me. So I'm going to show you some pictures of my house in TX. Right now I can only manage to dig up pictures of Joseph's old room and the bathroom. The living room was my favorite paint color, I'll work on trying to find that. But for now....

This is (was) Joseph's room. You might want to put on your sunglasses.

Bright enough? His room only had 1 window. This room was painted a dark green when we moved in and it was way too dark. Having only lived with white walls in the past we were ready for some color. This room took care of that need. :) His crib bedding was whirligig so I painted cute little bugs all around the room as a fun little border. The sad looking valance above his crib was supposed to get a mock window frame with a pretty painted outdoor scene behind it. Never happened. But that was the vision. :) We had an old ent. center that we painted to match the room. It worked to hold toys, though it wasn't the best in decorating style. But hey, he was 1. This room was a lot of fun. It was hard to walk into his room and NOT smile.


It is now safe to remove your sunglasses.



This was my bathroom. I really like this color. We added the 3 white shelves. The bathroom was rather small and we needed a spot for the every day kinda stuff. So I bought some cute glass jars to hold q-tips n' such and they became displays. I'm classy like that.


Ok, thats all I can find. What I can tell you though...
my (old) living room was a beautiful shade of red. I don't like my couch. This color made me like my couch. Oh, what a little paint can do. I know you're dying to see what color can do such a thing. Sorry. No pictures. Found old pictures that had some cute 14 month old baby buns, but no living room paint. Where were my priorities?! :)

My current house...
We have no cabinets in our bathroom. So over the bathroom door we have a shoe organizer. It houses our shampoo and bath type items. Not pretty, but practical for a small space.

I was SOOOO wanting something like this from pottery barn. We don't have even a little bit of space for it. So instead I went to Target and found a 2x3 cubby and bought pretty little baskets to go inside. They now house our shoes and hats n' heading out the door "stuff".

Ok, I'm out of ideas now. Be sure to head over to Mary's for some more decorating tips and ideas.

Car Wash 2008

I use that title because we next to never wash our poor van. Sad but true.

Seeing how much fun everyone had "helping" though we just might need to bump our car wash standards up at least to a semi-annual event.

warning: more pictures than you may have ever wanted to see of someone washing a car

Joseph was so excited he could hardly stand it. "I wanna help!" Was uttered approximately 4,789 times.
Nehemiah was happy playing in the water the leak in the hose was leaving in the driveway.
That is, until he saw BUBBLES!
Woo-hoo! bubbles bubbles bubbles bubbles bubbles bubbles bubbles bubbles bubbles


I really like this one of Joseph. Not sure why, but it's one of my favorites.

Joseph was in charge of the hose. That can be a dangerous thing. He was a helper though. Here he is helping Nehemiah and Hannah fill their watering cans.


There was such a look of concentration on his face. He was working hard at his job.

Ah, maybe not so much here. :)
This is Hannah posing. She stands like Joseph. She'll do anything "like Joseph". They are two peas in a pod those two.
Uh, don't know whats up with that face but do you notice how WET he is? That would be from the watering cans I mentioned earlier.
See?





Yeah, we'll have to do this again.

Funny Mom song

Ok, I know I've seen this before on someones blog but I ran across it again and thought I would post it here.
Maybe I posted it here? I don't know. If you all have seen this before forgive me. It's late. I should be in bed not blogging. :)

Daddy's work

Roger works in the sales office for a local Gazebo and shed manufacturer. The kids love to go to his work and play in all of the gazebo's.



This is one of my favorite styles. I don't remember what it's called but I like that it's a cross between a shed and a gazebo. I think it would be a wonderful playhouse for the kids or even a classroom. And the porch is just too cute. Although I don't think I would screen mine in. But, this isn't meant to be a post about what gazebo I would buy if we had a yard bigger than one, it's about the kids. So... moving on....
Nehemiah won't generally take pose prompts from me when I'm waving the camera in his face. But if Joseph says "stand like this" he'll stand just like Joseph. :)
This is Nehemiah's naughty face. He just discovered that this gazebo has an electric box.
"Stand like this Nehemiah!"
This was a neat pavilion. I say "was" because after we were done I think it needed some touching up. Apparently stain doesn't dry on mahogany as quickly as it does on the regular floors that they use.
Yeah. See Nehemiah? When he stood up he took half the floor with him. Well, the stain part anyway. oops. sorry guys.
Another fun thing about Daddy's work? Grandpa works there too!
Need a gazebo? Shed? I know where you can get one at a good price. ;)

This n' That

Hannah's favorite thing to do right now is to wear someone else's shoes. She prefers Nehemiah's dress shoes. There was a mild tantrum when I wouldn't let her wear them out of the house the other day. Here she is proud to be wearing Josephs sneakers. :)

Speaking of proud and Joseph... (how about that segue?)
Joseph had been eyeing a toy at the Reuzit shop. It was a dinosaur robot legoish thing. (quite the toy, heh?) It was $1.50. It was 1.50 more than I wanted to spend on a dinosaur robot lego thing. I said no. He cried. (He got over it) Well, a few days after our first encounter with the dino toy we were back at the Reuzit shop. (It is our main destination when we go for walks during the day) Know what we saw down that little toy aisle? A sign that read "All games 25 cents" Right next to the sign was the dino toy. It was considered a game. Joseph squealed with joy and grabbed it off the shelf with childlike enthusiasm. He paid for it with his own money, which made him very proud. We got home and he spent the rest of the day playing with this thing. It takes batteries (which I luckily had at home) and works kinda slow, but he likes it. I don't think he's played with it a whole lot since day 1. But you know what? A quarter is so worth a whole afternoon of great play. SO WORTH IT. :)

Homemade Tortillas

For Christmas Joseph got a subscription to High 5 magazine. It's a Highlights magazine, for the younger kids. In every issue they have simple recipes to try out. This one for quesadillas is our favorite so far.

(um, had every intention of posting it. But I can't find the magazine. Sorry!) :)

We couldn't quite get the tortillas to roll out into a circle, but they were yummy no matter what crazy shape they wound up.
And you can't go wrong with a quesadilla. You just can't.




and the completely finished picture? I was too busy eating to take it. Imagine melted cheese. A little salsa for dipping. :) yum.

Joseph

These are some pictures my dad has taken of Joseph lately. The ones that look a little "weird"have a special effect added to them. My child doesn't really look like that. :)









Cool? I don't know which one to print out for the wall? Anyone?

Look What Nehemiah Can Do!

Nehemiah can pedal!




He just hopped on one day and started pedaling! He cruised the driveway like he had peddled all of his life. You go boy! :)

Babysitting

Ok, so I just downloaded (or is it uploaded?) the pictures off of my camera and I realized there is SO much I was wanting to blog about! So, I better get started!

I babysat my cousins the other day. They are 3 years old and 4 months old. Joseph plays really well with the 3 year old (Paul). Nehemiah can too, if he's feeling up to it. (He kinda likes sticking to Joseph when others are around) Hannah was having fun with the baby.


2 Superheros!
Nehemiah teaching Paul how to play the Smart Cycle games
After baby Layla finished eating (I dug out Hannah's old Bumbo seat) Hannah decided she would relive the glory days. :)
The boys playing animals
Joseph feeling mighty proud to be holding the baby :)

Joseph is SO good with little ones. He is always able to get a smile. He had Layla giggling. It was adorable!
Hannah didn't care much for holding the baby. Not that she didn't like it, but she was just not sure what to do with her. She thought it was fun to give her the pacifier though. And if she cried (which she really didn't do much of) Hannah was RIGHT THERE to "help"
And this is what Nehemiah thought of the baby. Notice the distance? I wish I could have captured this from a different angle.
He wasn't mean, although he wasn't mean to Hannah when she was born either. He just waited until about her 1st Birthday to acknowledge her existence.
please ignore the hideously mis-matched pj's. I realize I may be drawing your attention to it, but for those of you that noticed it on your own - This is not the norm. I'm thinking there must have been a diaper leak or something that morning to warrant such a crazy combo. I can not stand mis matched pj's. It is beyond a "pet-peeve" of mine. :) Maybe I'll just blame Roger. If he got the kids into pj's that would explain this one.
Love you honey. but it's all your fault. :)

School Work

Hannah loves to write with a pen.
I like this picture. I think she looks cute, concentrating on her "schoolwork" :)
Joseph working hard on his lesson about money.
Whenever we do schoolwork Hannah is right there. She likes to learn too! :)
I'm just noticing the pencil she has here. I'm thinking this was the last time we knew where that pencil was. Hmmm.
Joseph is doing well with Pre-K stuff. I have been a horrible Mom and threatened him with public school if he didn't start paying more attention. It worked. Instantly. Within a few seconds he "suddenly" was able to count twice as high as before. I'd be lying if I said I'll never use that one again. Let's just hope he never calls me on it. ;)

I did it!

I french braided Hannah's hair! It is not something that I will do often (at this age) but I really wanted to see if her hair was long enough for it.
*insert big cheesy smile here*
It is!



sidenote: Nehemiahs hair is long enough for a barrette. Or a Pebble's pony tail.
Not that I've tried. :)

Ahh! It's blood!

If my two boys were any more different they wouldn't even be related. Well, ok they would but, well they would just be REALLY different.
Joseph fell today. Roger was "riding" the shopping cart back to the car. Joseph was hanging onto the side (which I don't allow. ahem. He was with Daddy) Joseph let go. Roger was still riding. Joseph doesn't have any pants left without a whole in the knee. So this fall didn't have any denim to absorb some of the shock. Really, it wasn't a bad fall. A little dirty knee with a pin-size scrape. He did well. For 5 seconds. Then he saw blood. A drop of it. You would have thought this kid got run over by a car. Ugh. Luckily I travel prepared. The diaper bag and the glove box both have first-aid kits. With a gently applied band-aid he was a little bit better. With a threat of not getting to play in the sandbox if his knee hurt to bad he was a lot better... except for the awful hobble of a walk he now has.

okay... now Nehemiah

After playing in the sandbox the kiddos needed a bath. Like BIG TIME. Hoping to get it over with quickly I tossed all 3 in together. (We don't do that much anymore. It's too crowded) Roger ran to the basement to get towels form the dryer. I turned around in the bathroom to get the kids soap. I started to kneel down to begin my scrubbing of dirty little children when Nehemiah began to scream. Now, Nehemiah is NOT much of a screamer. If he cries, he's hurt. I was talking to him and trying to figure out what on earth happened during the nanosecond that my back was turned. Then blood started running down his nose. His lip was bleeding too. Aaaaahhhhhh! I screamed for Roger. 3 times. I was afraid to call again in fear that the neighbors would hear me and come running. I was more freaked out than Nehemiah. He calmed down after a few seconds. He seemed a little puzzled as to why blood was gushing from his nose but other than that he was fine. He's only 1/2 clean now. He didn't want to get back in the tub after he was finished bleeding. Oh well. 1/2 clean is better than not clean at all. :)

SOOOO glad that it wasn't Joseph that fell. (Don't read that wrong. I'm not happy that Nehemiah fell. Wish he wouldn't have gotten hurt.) I can only imagine the tears I would have had to endure for that one. Another Joseph example...
He hurt his leg doing something a few weeks ago. He walked on it funny for 2 days. I was getting real concerned. I talked to Roger and decided I would take the car so I could take Joseph to the Dr. With that Joseph suddenly did a little jig and his leg was healed! :) This boy knows how to play us!

They are SO different. Joseph is definitely sensitive. (Which I love about him, when it's not involving bodily injury) Nehemiah is a tough guy. In bodily injury and other wise. He doesn't like taking No for an answer. He can be pushy (especially towards a certain baby sister) but man... is he ever protective over his big brother. He really looks up to Joseph. I'm so glad, no matter how different they are, that they have each other.

Hannah

This is a normal conversation with Hannah.

me: Hannah
H: huh?
me: Can you come here please?
H: why?
me: because you need to get your shoes on
H: shoes? why?

She is only 1. I'm in for it.

What time is it?

It is 8:45 and all of my children are asleep!

For those of you whose children go to bed at 7:00, this may seem late. Not in my house. We have a goal of a 9:00 bedtime. and thats before books and "one more drink" (I like late bedtimes. It means late wakeup times)

Today was a long day of playing hard and getting dirty. They were all tuckered out.

Can we just sing a little Hallelujah chorus together right now for God bringing us some lovely warm weather?

Snoring all around. It's 8:49. God is good.

Amen.

Call your Mother

I just heard the news. My friend just lost her Mother to cancer. Her sister is sick at home with hospice there daily.
I want to say something to comfort, but what can you say to someone who just lost their mother and is on the verdge of losing her sister? They are all Christians, but the head and the heart don't always work together in these times. Knowing that her Mother is pain free and healed in Heaven doesn't make the pain of missing them here any easier to bare, does it? I can't speak from experience. I just think My mom is too young to die. I'm too young for my mom to die. My world would be shaken for sure if she were to die, say, anytime in the next 100 years! My mother is not a Christian, so that adds a different dimension to the whole thing. This however is not about me or my mother. It is about my friend and the hard times she is walking through. If you think about it, whenever you think about your own mother, say a little prayer for my friend. Names are not important. God knows. And while you are at it, say a little prayer for your mother too.

And even though this is from a Daddy to his little girl, it reminds us how precious life is. Treasure the times you have with the ones you love.



I found this video on another blog. Just want to give credit where it is due. Check Rocks In My Dryer for original post.

Easter Candy

I realized that I didn't write about Nehemiah's little...um...incident.
Allow me to quickly set the stage. It's after Easter. I'm in the kitchen starting dinner while on the phone with Roger. He always calls when he's on his way home from work. The kids were in the living room playing. All was well.

Nehemiah started to scream. I looked into the living room and asked what was wrong. More screaming. I asked Joseph if something happened. He said no. Then it dawned on me. He had been playing with a piece of foil from a chocolate egg. (Do you see where this is going?) I hung up on Roger and checked out Nehemiah's nose. Yup. There it was. A piece of green Easter candy foil.
Nehemiah was hysterical. He was trying to pick his nose, but that was shoving the foil further and further up his nose. Ugh. So... I got out the tweezers and tried to get it out. LONG story short, I sat on Nehemiah. Foil lost, I won. The second I got it out he stopped screaming and said "Oh wow"





This is the "after" picture. The blurry part is the tweezers with the pesky foil. It was about the size of a large pea.

I wish this obsession with his nose would end. Like soon. As I'm writing this he is sitting on my lap with both fingers up his nose. Come up for air buddy.

A hammer?!

***********Update At Bottom***********

I walked into my parents house this evening and was greeted with a rather pitiful "hello" from my mother. My first thought was 'Ugh, she's sick. We should go'. I asked her what was wrong... and to make a long story short this was her answer "A Hammer fell on my nose" A hammer did what?! Yup, a hammer fell off of a ladder and landed smack (OUCH!) on her nose. A trip to the ER showed that she didn't break it (miracle!) but she could possibly have two black eyes by morning. (Praying against that one Mom!) She's probably resting soundly now, as she got some sweet meds at the hospital. The whole thing makes me chuckle just a little. Really? A hammer. Hit your nose? Just sounds funny. I'm warped. I blame my mother. In all seriousness though I am VERY glad that she is alright. And I do think it is a miracle that she didn't break anything. For the hammer to fall... it could have hit her head, her eye!, her cheekbone... but it didn't. It got her nose. Thank you Lord for that.
The moral of the story? Don't forget where you put your hammer.


Updated to add:
My mom is doing better. No black eyes! Her headache is getting better each day.
And just so you all don't think I"m a horrible person for laughing at this whole thing - she laughed while reading this post. We're weird like that. :)

Ping Pong

With no tv the boys have become rather creative with their play. It's much more enjoyable to spend the day playing toys than watching movies. And as you can see from the background in the video, we aren't lacking in the toy department. Lot's of fun! :)