If only I knew

If only I knew that all it would take for Nehemiah to use the potty was a new pack of Go Diego Go and a pack of Dinosaur underwear... I would have invested long ago. Though he's had a few accidents, none of them were major and happened, for the most part, on the way to the potty. There is hope that he will be potty trained by his 4th birthday people! There is hope!

Yard Sale Eve

It is Yard Sale Eve
and all through the house
everything has a price tag
even my spouse

The toys were all placed
on the table with care
in hopes that yard salers would soon be there

The children were nestled all snug in their beds
while visions of yard sale toys danced in their heads
While Roger was snoring, and I (needing a shower)
we rested our bodies for the coming morning hours
Out on the lawn, there is such a clutter
I want to go to bed, and think about it later


Ok, thats all I got. That hurt my brain to come up with that much.


Now... onto what I really wanted to say........

First off, thank you Lord for this beautiful weather! Not a single drop of rain in the forecast. That makes things A LOT easier for setting things up this evening.

Our backyard looks like Toys R Us is having a sidewalk sale. We should have some pretty happy yard salers tomorrow morning.

Clothes. Though I always think we have too many clothes when I am washing them, I never felt like we had to many while wearing them (does that make sense?) Seeing how many bins of clothing we have is insane. I have 3 buckets of maternity clothes! Some of it is the most awful looking stuff you have ever seen in your life. It was given to me by a daycare mom when I was pregnant with Joseph. I just never parted with it. And for some reason I felt the need to carry it with me on 4 moves.
I found an entire box (!) of Hannah clothes that weren't even priced from previous yard sales. Once the house is asleep I should really get out there and work on that. I think I might need to make a quick trip for some Diet Pepsi first though.

Actually, Hannah's box reminded me that I have a whole box - somewhere- of baby boy items that I was saving. I had every intention of making a quilt with some of the precious outfits the kids wore in their first year. Things that I just couldn't part with at a yard sale.

I lost the box.

I think I just sorted Hannah's box in the backyard.

Now, do I re-sort that which I love, and save it for the quilt? Or do I let go and sell that adorable OshKosh denim miniskirt for $3?

Ahh, the stress of Yard Sale Eve. It's good to know that I can at least wake up to donuts and a diet pepsi. (what? It's a perfectly acceptable "meal" for a yard sale morning!)

Family Night

Olympics!

This was week 2 of an Olympic family night. Last week the kids weren't feeling very well so we kept it small.

For dinner we had homemade Chinese (fried rice and stir fry, the kids had chicken nuggets) and we had red, white and blue jello for dessert. (red jello, cool whip, blue jello)

The kids and I made a banner for the yard to show off our Olympic spirit.

Together we came up with some sports to play. You might not find them in the real Olympics, but we had fun!
Don't laugh at my stick people. ;)
Each game we handed out a "metal" to the winner. I printed some metals off the internet and we colored them and added glitter.







And apparently I hadn't thought of everything. What summer Olympic games are complete without water sports?!



We had a lot of fun. I think this was one of the kids favorite family nights so far.

What do you get when you cross a hammer and a thumb?

A very painful broken thumb!

We are in the process of building a little bridge in the backyard. Roger was hammering away when... OOPS!... he missed the nail. Completely and totally missed the nail. He hit his thumb with as much gusto as he possibly could.

He handled it very well. I think all he said was "ouch" and he even finished nailing in the nail before he got up. I wasn't sure how bad it was since he was so "cool" with it. One glance at his thumb seconds later and I knew I better run for some ice. When I came back out with it he was sitting down, looking very pale. A trip back in the house for water and then again for tylenol. After a few minutes he had some color return to his face.


A trip to the Dr a few days after he nailed it (haha, get it? nailed it?!) confirmed that it is broken, but not much you can do for a broken thumb. So he's wearing a splint and waiting to 1 - 6 weeks for it to feel better.

It proves to be a good laugh for all those that question his splint. He does work for a company that builds gazebo's. That does kinda involve a hammer. And before Roger worked in the office, he built too. Oh, how they laughed. Didn't help that just a few days after it happened we attended the annual company picnic. :)

Roger is being a very good sport about it. He knows it's funny. It hurts, but it's funny. And just for the record... I did not laugh at him for at least a full 24 hours.

So here you go, for your viewing pleasure... a picture of the broken thumb.
It's the swollen one on the left. ;)



And of the bridge... that is waiting to be finished.

The yard sale pile is growing

Interesting picture?

Yeah.

This is Joseph's choice of toys these days. He generally has a special toy that goes everywhere with him. To bed. To the bathroom. And everywhere in between. This week's selection comes from a birthday party goody bag. I'm just waiting for him to put it all down long enough so they can become "lost". (The yard sale pile is growing!)


We've spent money at Build a Bear Workshop so the kids would each have a special "buddy" to carry everywhere. They all sit - untouched. Some even nicely dressed. I am holding on to a stuffed giraffe that a daycare mom game me when I was pregnant with Joseph. I had high hopes of at least one of my children growing attached to it. No such luck. (It won't make the yard sale pile yet though... we do hope for more children) (Yes Christin, comment away!) :)
And don't get me started on the number of Cabbage Patch dolls I have stored away, just waiting for the day my children decide dolls are fun.

Fun toys are in every nook and cranny, and my children play with 10 cent party favors.

Like they are precious jewels.

The yard sale pile is growing.





Look at that. The dining room chairs. They played for almost an hour with those chairs.

Blocks! We have so many different kinds of blocks. Mega blocks. Lego blocks. Bristle blocks. Wood blocks. Yeah, the kids play with them, sometimes.

The dining room chairs and the couch cushions are just as fun.

The yard sale pile is growing!

What do you have causing clutter in your house? Did you buy something, certain your kids would love it, only to find it collecting dust under the bed?

Not a book for bedtime

Nehemiah loves numbers. He can count higher than Joseph can. So for our bedtime story I thought I'd read our Reese's Piece's Count by Tens book. Each page has a picture of some form of transportation (plane, boat, monster truck...) and reeses pieces. It starts by counting from 1 through ten. Then it goes from 10 to 100 - by tens.

Well, Nehemiah's love for numbers has grown since we last read the book.

It might sound harmless enough but let me tell you, it is not. We could not count by tens. Nehemiah had to count every piece of candy on every single page. A 5 minute story turned into a 20 minute counting fest. Actually, it hasn't ended. He's still sitting in bed counting. "oooh! A truck! one...two...three! woo-hoo! Mommy give me five!"

He's too cute though. I can't make him stop. He's talking like crazy. In words that I can totally understand.




Yeah. I'm a sucker for cute.

Not for the weak of stomach

I warned you

I was on the phone. Joseph interrupted. I gave him the look that said "I am on the phone. This is NOT the time to ask me for a pony. GO PLAY" He responded with "No Mommy, this is really important! Hannah leaked and there is poop all over the floor behind the couch."

I got off the phone.

(THANK YOU JOSEPH!)

If you are planning on eating in the next 12 hours, stop reading here.



Oh sweet mercy. It was everywhere! She was hiding under my desk. It was on the filing cabinet. It was on the baseboard. It was leaving a trail on the carpet.

Oh, and we are out of wipes.

What century are we in?

Because I thought I should be able to figure out ebay with little to no thought at all.

I was wrong.

I wrestled my way through the listing process. Checked my email regularly. PRAYED that my item would go for more than 99cents. and waited.

7 days later it sold (for more than 99 cents!!) and I had to wrestle with paypal. I guessed my way through the process. Seemed to work fine.

Until I realized that I am supposed to pay ebay a portion of my profit.

Now, I was totally aware of that from the get go. I just didn't know HOW to do it. A few months (weeks?) after my item sold I noticed an ebay fee taken from my bank account. I have no idea how much they were supposed to take so I don't know if the amount missing was with additional fines or not. (shame on me for not knowing the correct numbers!)

SO, my computer savvy, 21st century friends, I ask you

How does ebay work?



I mean, fast forward through the listing stuff, I can get that part (kinda) My main question to you is How do they get their money?

I need help.

Thank you. :)

I did it!

I finally started... and finished a dress for Hannah. There are 1,001 mistakes. I didn't have a pattern. I traced a dress of hers that I like and made things up as I went along. I still think it turned out pretty cute. I think I'll see more imperfections than others will. (I hope!) I'll try again... for her baby doll. I'd like to make a matching dress for her favorite baby. I should have started with the doll but oh well, hindsight is 20/20! :)


And while on my creative kick I also decided to whip up a quick little tutu for a 2 year olds birthday party that we were attending. I used Hannah as a model for the cuteness. I think I'll have to make her one too.


I bought the shirt and made the tutu and matching hair bow. I was kinda bummed because I really wanted a brown tank top, but being August it's kinda hard to find tank tops. Oh well, I'm happy with it. Hannah will definitely be getting one of these in her future!

No toys for you!

Maybe I got a little out of hand as I was gathering toys for the yard sale pile.



Hannah has resorted to playing with the condiments from the fridge door. Ahh yes, the joys of parmesan cheese and mayo.

Happy Birthday Roger!

On Friday my dear husband turned 29. It's bittersweet being married to a man younger than I am. No, come to think about it there isn't much sweet about it. I mean, the married part is wonderful n' all, it's just the younger part that I don't care for. I can't make fun. I can't make old man jokes. It all backfires. I'm ancient. I'm an antique. When my birthday rolls around this November, please don't talk to me. I'm not celebrating this year.

Anyway, back to Roger's birthday.

He turned 29 and we celebrated with some family over at our house on Sunday. I'll spare you all of the pictures of people mid-chew trying to smile for the camera. (your welcome)
Here are some of my favorites.

Nehemiah being bashful when Miss Nicole (Jon's fiance) asked to take his picture. And Hannah saying "cheese" :) I'll give you one guess who Nehemiah gets his dimples from.
This is Uncle Jon (Roger's brother) and Nehemiah. Nehemiah held his hand and lead him all over the place. Thanks Jon for letting him show you where we keep the trash cans! ;)
My sister bought Roger a little Lego set. Here Joseph is admiring Roger's new toy. That smile says "Mommy when you are done taking the picture do you think I can play with Daddy's new Legos?"

A Lego cake!

Nothing says "Happy 29th" quite like a Lego cake!


This one glares a bit, but if you can squint and try to look past the glare you can see that the Lego workers are getting ready to finish rolling out the cake.

Roger loved it.

Lego's keep him young. I love him for that.

If only I could find something as simple as Legos to help me feel young. At this point it's all about Oil Of Olay and Clairol golden cappucino.

Parenting ~ that you will not find in the books

I'm in trouble. Tonight at dinner I did something crazy. Totally crazy. Before I did it thoughts ran through my head "No! Don't!.... ok, just do it!"

On the menu: sweet and sour meatballs over rice.

Nehemiah had some rice on his plate that he was playing with. It shaped nicely over his apple and he enjoyed swooshing it all over his plate. He hadn't taken even one bite but he was asking for more. Apparently he had some sort of rice covered apple goal. I took some rice and (gently) popped some in his mouth. He laughed and it all came back out. I did it again. So did he.

This is where it gets ugly.

I threw rice at him. The laughter that followed was contagious. So was the throwing of rice. Before I knew it there was a full blown rice throwing food fight in my dining room.

The laughter was priceless.

(And I am so counting it as an ab work out.)

It only took a few minutes to clean up. I vacuumed the floor (and the table) and it was all back to normal. I found a piece of rice in my hair at the grocery store later this evening, but it's a small price to pay for the amount of fun we had.

Please pray for my children. Tomorrow is spaghetti night and I'm afraid they'll think this is the new norm.

It's in the Bible

Proverbs 27: ¹⁴ A loud and cheerful greeting early in the morning
will be taken as a curse


Amen.

There you have it. A biblical response for the morning person.

Projects

It's one thing after another these days. We have lived in this house for something like 3 years. It's not a house that we love. It's barely a house that we like. We just dealt with all of it's ugliness while holding onto the "we'll move soon" card. I don't think that card is going to be played for awhile.

So now we work on the house.

A lot.

Well, as much as we can work on a rental. :)

Roger built a deck box to hold all of the kids outdoor junk-ola. It still needs a coat of paint. But he did a great job on the box.

Our living room has the ugliest lighting fixtures I have ever seen in my life. My mom gave me 2 sconces that she no longer needed (you should see her garage!) and I painted them black. (They were brass) They would look so lovely in my living room. Unfortunately the wiring in this house is prehistoric and we can't make it work.

I painted our mailbox and the numbers on the front door. I discovered today when I was mowing the yard that I can also paint the one lonely fence piece on our front "yard" as well. (We don't really have a front yard. It goes House - sidewalk - street. But right even with the front of the house is a piece of fence. Just one 3ish ft section of fence. I have no idea why it's there. It serves no purpose. But it will get painted)

A company next to Roger's work had a PILE of 2 x 4's for free. We took a bunch. I had no idea what we were going to do with them all but it was free! So after a few days in the driveway I decided that I would like a bridge. yup, a bridge! :) We have a walkway in the back that leads to the garage door. The garage is not ours. So we walk from the sidewalk to the grass to the driveway. A bridge will go from the driveway to the walkway and leave out the muddy mess of walking in the grass over the fall/winter months.
We're waiting for the stain to dry on the wood. (stain found in my parents garage = free!)

Hannah's dresser is finally all painted. All I have to do now is sew a curtain for the front. It is supposed to have a door w/ a mirror on it. But it was too warped to fix. So for now it will just get a pretty curtain on the opening. (dresser was my older brothers, found in my parents garage! free!)

That's our projecting to-do list for now. We have a lot of things going at once here. Hoping to stamp a "finished!" on something soon. Need to get some more painting done. It's not the easiest task when the kids want to help. What are you working on? And HOW do you do it with the kids around?!

A letter to a murderer

It's been 8 months since I found out a close high school friend of mine commit murder. Very few days have passed where I have not thought about it.

I decided it was time to do something, so I wrote a letter. I looked up all of the information on-line. It shook me a little to see their name with a cell block number next to it. I am always thinking that I should be able to wake up from this horrible dream. Seeing the name there on the prison's web site only further confirmed that this was certainly not a dream. Google searches turned up a few articles I hadn't read yet... along with some comments from local readers who had their 2 cents to throw in about the murderer. It made me nauseous to read the comments, but I couldn't stop myself. "They don't even know the person! How can they say that?!" My heart was defending a murderer.

So I wrote a letter to an old friend that resides in cell block C. It took awhile. I prayed that God would guide my pen and help me to say the right words. I really wanted it to be just right.

My thoughts lead to the accounts of the day (as described by local papers). My heart is so heavy, as it's been since I heard about it that first time. I must say that my view of a murderer has changed drastically. I've gone from being disgusted by them (not their actions, because no matter how you look at it the actions are disgusting, but by them) to having compassion and a deep sadness. I can only imagine our Father's heart that day. The day one of his children was murdered. Weather they knew Him or not, they were His. Was he angry? Was he screaming and shaking the Heavens in anger as guns are fired and knives are turned to weapons? Or is he weeping. Crying out to his children "No! Don't you see it? I left you an out. There is another choice. There is always another choice. The door is open, get out! What you really want is me. I will fill that void in your life." and through tears of sadness and great loss God witnesses a horrific act.

The devil won.

But the victory isn't all his. God's heart is bigger than anything the devil can throw at him. And he offers this thing called forgiveness. I've seen the effects of prisoners who's hearts have been surrendered to the Lord. I've seen the changes that they have made in the maximum security homes (cells) that they live in. I've seen men, with hearts harder than rocks turn soft in the presence of our Lord. He can change lives. That life might be spent behind bars here on earth, but will know the warmth of Jesus' embrace for eternity.

And now I sit, praying. Praying that Jesus would show up in cell block C and prove himself real to my high school friend. Praying that a hard heart would turn soft and words of repentance would be spoken.


Matthew 9:13 For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.

You'll never look at chocolate the same way again

In case there were ever a thought as to where the "crazy gene" comes from in my family, let me tell you a little story.

The kids and I were doing some grocery shopping today. We happened to be at Walmart. I don't shop there often anymore, but I needed some non-grocery items. Anyway, that has not much of a thing to do with the rest of the story.

Rounding the aisle that holds the Hershey's chocolate syrup I ran into my dad. The kids all shouted "Grandpa!" and began telling him about every item that was placed into our cart. Joseph might have sang part of a song he learned in school. There was a lot of commotion. It's not every day we run into Grandpa at the store. :)

My dad: (holding a bottle of magic shell) "Hey, I'm glad I ran into you. Listen, um, what kind of chocolate would you use if you wanted to dip something in it and have the chocolate get hard?"

Me: "Well it depends what you want to dip. What you have in your hands is for ice cream. It has to be on something cold"

My dad: "Oh that won't work then"

Me: "What is it you want to dip?"

My dad: (with a mischievous look he surely learned from Nehemiah) "Um, well, bacon. But listen! We were watching this tv show and everyone loved it".... blah blah blah... excuses excuses excuses.



Me: After I fought the urge to throw up, I let him know that 1) That is NASTY and 2) melted chocolate chips should do the job.

We quickly parted ways after that.

The story however does not end here. For this evening I was talking to my mother. I wanted to make sure she knew what my father's intentions were with this chocolate and bacon. I was thinking she should have poison control's 800 number handy.

My mom: "Yeah I know. I saw the show. I thought it sounded a little weird at first but everyone on the show loved it! And it did look really pretty when it was all done."

Me: "I'm sure grasshoppers look good covered in chocolate too, but some things were just not meant to be"

I'm not sure if she plans on being present during the chocolate covered bacon feast but she apparently isn't bothered that the concoction is taking place in her kitchen.

My brother (15) is, I'm pretty sure, on cloud 9 about the whole idea. For a few years he lived off of bacon alone. Ok, maybe there was some mayo involved, but mostly bacon. My parents microwave holds the smell to prove it.

It all kinda reminds me of the one Friends episode where Rachel decided she's going to cook Thanksgiving dessert, by herself, from scratch! (Did you see that one?) She mixed two recipes together by accident and came up with a sheperds pie trifle. As everyone else was gagging on the combo Joey was like "whats not to like? Custard? Good. Jam ? Good. Meat? Gooood ."


So I suppose, looking at my parents, I had no chance to survive the crazy gene. It was passed down in full force.

Lord, help my children.

7 year anniversary

Well, as you may already know we have this silly tradition of taking our picture every year on our anniversary. Me in my veil and Roger in his top hat. (we were stylin' on our wedding day) :)

This year I took things a little too far.



















Yes, that's me. In my wedding gown. I'm all kinds of crazy.
Roger's stuck with me though. Wedding gown crazies and all.



And here we are. Blurry, but here. Joseph was manning the camera, all 5 years of him. The flash is broken so the slightest movement and things are all a blur. Did I mention that he's 5? I haven't seen him sit still since he was, well, I've never seen him sit still.

Joseph instructed us "Do that thing where you kiss" Who's to argue with the photographer? :)


Happy Anniversary honey! You're my favorite.

More on Parenting

This is Nehemiah, using his spare time at VBS. This would fall under the "He's not hurting anyone, it's not gonna kill him" category of (my) parenting. I told him multiple times to remember this moment. I might have even made him chant " you ARE a fun Mommy!" a few times just for fun.

Don't let the 5 second video fool you. He splashed in puddles for close to an hour. Yes. One whole hour. Hannah joined him but the camera battery died. This is the only picture I have before we put the dirty wet children in the van to go home.



I AM a fun Mommy! :)

Day at the Dentist

Today was a long day. I was so nervous waking up this morning. Hannah threw up twice. She knew what the day held for her.
I dropped Hannah and Roger off at the dentists office and the boys and I went out to kill some time. We wound up swinging by the dollar store and getting Hannah some presents for when she was done.
We got back to the dentists office before she was finished and I could hear her screaming from the waiting room. I wanted to run back to her little room, but I knew Roger was with her, and I knew screaming would be involved. So I waited.
It was only a few minutes and she was done. I cried.

Roger said she did really well. She cried worse when they called her name out in the waiting room saying that the Dr was ready for her. She didn't like it, but she did really well. Roger was a trooper too. The dentist even complimented him on how well he did. He said most parents aren't as calm as he was. Roger's good like that. Thank the Lord for one of us with the ability to be calm. :)

Anyway, Hannah is doing well. Mushy foods for a day or two. Tylenol every so often.
I'll post pictures of her new pearly whites when she's feeling a little more up for a photo shoot. :)

Thanks to all who prayed for us!

Racoon eyes

Tell me, how do you explain to a dentist, that you have only ever met once before, that your daughter is really just a klutz and we in fact do not beat our children?
(sorry, that was a doozy of a run-on sentence)

Do you see her eye? She fell off her chair. I caught her by the foot. So I saved her head from crashing on the floor, but not from smacking the table.
This is a day after she took a tumble that gave her two black lines under her eyes. (think bad eyeliner)


Ugh.