Working Momma

Have I mentioned that during the month of September I'll be working at the mother's day out/preschool program where Julia goes? It will be every Tuesday and Thursday from 9-2. The three younger kids will all go with me - Julia to her k-4 class that she's super excited about, Aulora to the 2 year old class, and Joshua will go to the baby class where I'll be the teacher. There will be three baby boys - one a little younger than Joshua and one a little older. They'll be my little triplets! The three amigos!

So Tuesday morning is going to be crazy fun. I'm not sure how early I'll have to get up, but I'm thinking 6:30 maybe? I mean, how decked out do I need to be to take care of three babies all day? We'll leave the house at 8:15, drop John David off, then head to the preschool. If all goes well, I may continue after September. At this point, I'm just filling in for a teacher who just had her baby a couple of days ago.

I don't know why I'm nervous about Tuesday at all. I just have to make sure that Julia has panties on, John David gets cream rubbed on his eczema but not his sleeves, Aulora leaves her diaper on, Joshua doesn't find and eat whatever was in Aulora's diaper when she does in fact manage to take it off, we all have a lunch to eat that will not make us "puke" or "shrow up" - including the correct flavor juice box. They each need their hair combed - John David needs spiky, Julia likes 2 bows, Aulora won't want any at that hour of the day, and Joshua gets a little mohawk but he'll be lucky if he gets dressed before going, if we're being honest. So yeah, I don't know why I'm worried about it at all. It's going to be great!

Ohhhhh Yeah!

It's 9:30 and guess what I'm about to do?

I'm going to BED!

I apologize if I caused anyone to faint. Until tomorrow.....

I don't want to be...

sick, but I am. Sometimes I lay around thinking how luxurious it must be to be sick without having to take care of kids. Staying in bed, watching tv all day, sleeping whenever I felt like it, not having to get dressed - basically just doing whatever my body felt like doing. Anyone who's a mom knows that is SOOOO not the case when there are kids involved.

It's especially aggravating when my two youngest are on opposite nap schedules. As soon as I've played with Joshua for a couple hours and get him to sleep then it's Aulora's turn to be awake. When she's ready for her nap, then Mr. Man is waking up ready to be fed. If there is ever a time when they are both miraculously asleep at the same time, well then you know I have to go pick up John David from school or make peanut butter crackers for Julia.

Oh to be kidless and sick. Absolute paradise, I'm sure....

How Embarrassing

John asked me over the phone today to send a simple reply to one of his professors at HSU. This particular professor will be giving John a letter of recommendation for law school. When he got home tonight and was checking his email he saw what I sent. The sad part is, I even reread it before sending it. (In my defense, I was tired, not feeling well, and had a million other things going on right then! Really.) Here's what I sent:

"Hi Dr. XXX,
I wouldn't be able to get there until after 4:00 today. Is tomorrow morning be a possibility? Thanks....John"

Isn't that just brilliant? We can only hope he doesn't decide to not give the letter of recommendation now!

And so is the King......

My boy had a rough day at school today. Some of his friends were being mean to him (he thinks they were anyway) and his behavior wasn't perfect in class either. To make it worse, I had promised him an apple pie from McDonald's if his teacher had a good report for me. He didn't obey quickly all day so I couldn't get him his pie and now he's unhappy with me because I'm "being mean". He knows Julia got ice cream after her shots (see post below) and thinks that is terribly unfair. Now he doesn't want to talk to me about any of it. I made him sit by my so we could any way, but it wasn't too effective since I'm so "mean". Sigh. Being a mommy is soooo not easy.

The Queen is In

Julia had to get her final 2 shots today - she was supposed to get 5 before but they were out of 2 (mercifully) so we went back today. She did so great all week and all morning and the whole way there and during all the waiting for the nurse to come in. We were looking forward to strawberry ice cream from Braum's when she was done. When the shots were in sight though, she started pulling away and crying. I had to hold her arm down for one shot on each side. Oh the screams and the wails. My ears are still ringing.

On the way to Braum's we had to listen to how her arms were broken and she couldn't do anything except eat ice cream and play a computer game. (all said in a very whiny, grouchy voice of course.) The much anticipated strawberry ice cream bombed when she discovered, get ready for it........strawberries! "WHY ARE THERE STRAWBERRIES IN MY STRAWBERRY ICE CREAM???" she wanted to know. I am also not allowed to drive fast when her arms have shots in them as that hurts them.

She is currently sitting in an empty box, shirtless with a cold washcloth on each arm while watching her Rolie Polie Olie movie. I love Rolie Polie Olie right now. He's given me my first moments of peace all day!

On top of all of that madness, Aulora now has strep throat also. I at least caught it early enough that she didn't get too bad off before starting antibiotics. Now if I can just keep everyone else from getting it! As far as the strawberry ice cream goes, Aulora thought it was great. She ate every bite of hers - except the strawberry hunk that fell down in her car seat.....

Doctor Visit

Poor little man has strep throat. He and Aulora had doctor appointments today that were going to be for shots, but since he was sick those were delayed. Hopefully, his medicine will kick in fast because he's been feeling really bad since yesterday morning. =(

My heart skipped a couple of beats as the doctor was checking Aulora. She's had a cough lately and it's been in her chest. He listened a little too long for my liking and then was asking questions about asthma and allergies. He began to firmly pat her back repeatedly - a motion I'm familiar with because my older sister, who died of cystic fibrosis, had to have her back patted that same way several times a day. When he realized cf was in our family he went back to listening and thinking. He ended up prescribing a cough medicine that should clear it up but we're supposed to take her back if it doesn't work. Why do doctors do that? It's just mean to all us mommas.

What We're Doing In Our Spare Time

In case you've wondered why I haven't posted in a while, it's not because I've been on the couch eating bonbons. Trust me. In addition to school starting and a teething 7 month old with a cold, we've been house hunting. We found "it" a couple of weeks ago and now we're in the middle of all the financial junk that buying a home requires. That's ok though, because it's kind of like going to marriage counseling. It's really not a fun thing to do but you're so starry-eyed in love that who really cares?

Since we always regretted not having more pictures and videos of our first house remodel (although now that I think about it, we do have a little footage of kablot painting a wall - how scary is THAT!?! haha), we've decided to devote an entire blog to the project this time. It will be remodeling on a whole different scale than what we did before. When we're done, it will be like a brand new house except for the fact that there are lots of big gorgeous trees! If you know me, then you know trees, especially big ones, are high on the priority list when it comes to a home.

The picture over on the right side of this blog is a link that will take you to everything. Or you can click right HERE. It's gonna be fun (fingers crossed!)..........

Great Site

Here's a great website called kiddio for moms and grandmas or even teachers! It's full of ideas and fun (and inexpensive!) things to do. We're going to try some stuff for sure.....

Unbelievable

Tonight a family came to church that had lice. Two of their kids for sure had it and the other two possibly did, not to mention the parents. The unbelievable part is that they all knew they had it. They had at least one child in every age bracket of the kids' ministry for the night. All four of my kids were near at least one of them. I had the distinct honor of being the one to tell the mom they needed to leave.

Wanna know why they came to church? Because the mom was scheduled to be one of the nursery workers. She said she didn't know what else to do. I smiled and told her that next time she could just call her team leader and they would take care of it. Extremely faithful nursery worker or incredibly dodo mom? I know what my vote is. (I like this woman, I really do, but come on!)

I felt so bad for the older girl who is in my human video group. She seemed embarrassed even though I didn't call her out and I also told her about my lice encounter last fall. Those "sneaky slice bugs", as Julia says, are embarrassing though. Poor girl.....

Sweet Reunion

Before summer was over, we just had to get in a visit with our friends from SA. We all decided to meet in the middle for a trip to Chickfila (a must since we don't have one here!), the zoo, and then some fun at Chuck E. Cheese's afterwards (another must since they don't have one there!). It was a jam-packed day but it was so worth it! I loved seeing our kids together again - they really do have some special friendships. There were some mommy pictures taken too but not on my camera. Hopefully someone else will post those so I can steal them. =)Thanks friends for a wonderful, memorable day....

Monday with Joshua

My two littlest monkeys having a good ol' time together.
(No, Aulora's hair is not combed in this picture. Gasp!)

Here's Joshua enjoying his new found skill of sitting up.

I just have to wonder what he's thinking in this picture. I love it.

My biggest boy and littlest boy sitting together.

I made it into this picture by diving in behind him. hehehe
( I just realized that although I got a haircut and I've been wearing my hair down a lot, every picture I've put on my blog lately has been a ponytail picture. Oh well. I'm a busy mommy - the ponytail is inevitable.)

False Start

Well, so much for school starting. It's canceled today! Can you believe that? Day number two and it's canceled!!! I was already totally dressed and ready and was starting to get John David ready when we found out that the school was flooded. There has been soooo much rain that a number of roads are closed and his school will be closed for who knows how long. I can't imagine the frustration the teachers must be feeling right now. Or are they relieved? I suppose it depends on if they are getting to go home or drag buckets of water out of their classrooms.

So the reign of peace that was so enjoyed in our home yesterday was short lived. I'm sure they'll make arrangements for classes to start back soon enough, but what a bummer.

(Clarification: John David is not necessarily the reason there is not peace at any given time. It's just the fact that John David and Julia are not together. Little + Jupie = scary faces, tickle wars, high pitched girly screams, toy battles, indoor chase, and so much more!)

It Was a Lot of Work....

but I finally squeezed out a few little tidbits of information about the boy's school day. This shouldn't take long at all:

• yes, he likes his teacher
• yes, he is sitting in the same desk he chose at meet the teacher night
• you can't do the legos or blocks center until Friday - this did not make him happy
• you can't switch centers once you have chosen - this also did not make him happy since what he thought was going to be a fantastically fun center (math safari?) was not so very fun after all
• lunch was good
• he didn't get in trouble except when he and some friends raced - his friend was last so, understandable, he called his friend a rotten egg. he in turn was a fresh egg since he was first. he and his friend had to talk through this since being called a rotten egg hurt the other boy's feelings. we might need to find a less sensitive friend.
  
• there is no homework
• now he's swimming with Daddy and Julia

So there's the first day of school for second grade. Only 10 more first days before he graduates!

Six Hours...

That's how long before I can pick up my boy and find out how his first day went. I'm not worried about the time dragging by - I've still got 3 more kiddos that didn't go to school today. Julia won't start until September and even then I'll still have my littlest monkeys to keep me company!

Here's to a "peaceful" second grade!
(Shoes courtesy of Grandmamma and Dodie)

The new backpack and matching lunch bag. It even has the pocket for an ipod with the little hole for the headphone cord, but we're old school. Our 7 year old doesn't have his own mp3 player (yet).

It took many pictures before I got one with his tongue inside his mouth. Every time I snapped the picture he would quickly make a face. It really was kind of funny. =)

Here's the picture I got after I told him that $1 would be deducted from his money jar for every tongue picture henceforth.

A very empty seat still warm from his little bottom.
Still sad but no tears like in kindergarten.

9 Hours

that's how long until my biggest little boy starts second grade. The backpack is ready, the uniform is hanging on the door, and breakfast and lunch orders have been taken for tomorrow. (Oatmeal and toast for breakfast and a chicken nugget Luncheable for lunch in case you're wondering.) He's excited, I'm excited.

Tonight, as I was tucking him into bed and talking to him, he stuck out his freshly washed feet and asked me to "rub sweet feet". When he was a little baby, not even talking, we used to rub his feet in the car to keep him from crying. Once he started talking he would always say, "rub sweet feet!". He's never stopped doing that to this day, although now I won't always do it if he has dirty feet! But tonight, as I was holding his not so little anymore feet in my hands, we decided that we would always rub sweet feet the night before school starts. It makes this mommy really happy to imagine my grown up boy about to start his senior year of high school asking me to rub his sweet feet. And of course I will! Man, I love that little guy!

Waiting....

I'm not an overly impatient person, but the thought of having to wait and wait for something.....ugh. Something good, something bad. It matters not. Waiting stinks.

A few things I remember waiting for in my lifetime so far:

• A Spanking - my brother and I always got sent to our room to await whatever terrible punishment was coming our way. No matter what we had done wrong, we were "cruisin' for a bruisin'", according to our mom. If mom was the one who came in with the belt or paddle our fears were soon realized. If dad came in though, it was all we could do to contain our smile since we knew we would get off with a milder than mild pat on the behind.
• Christmas Day - we were never good at waiting. My poor parents had to search high and low to find new hiding places for our presents. They finally resorted to hiding things at other people's houses! That's when we got super smart and just started perusing the receipts in her wallet. hehehe
• Getting old enough to drive - I planned for many years that the first place I would go once I had my license was to Dairy Queen to buy my brother and me a blizzard. Sadly, that didn't happen. Wishing for a do-over now.
  
• Piano Recitals - It didn't matter how old I was, I almost always had a panic attack the closer recital day came. I could know my song forward and backward, but I still always had trouble sleeping the night before because of all the nightmares. Boy was I glad whenever recital day was over. I still occasionally have bad dreams about performing! I really do hate it.
• Getting Married - Long before I knew John, I was cutting out pictures of things I liked for a wedding. (Don't all girls do that?) I always knew I wanted to get married and have babies so I could be a mommy. At least our engagement was short. Once I knew who I was going to marry I didn't have to wait too long.

And with getting married came all kinds of waiting. Waiting for my new husband to get home from his long hours of school and work because I was lonely in our little one bedroom apartment in Dallas. Getting a job as an art teacher for K-12th and waiting desperately for the school year to be over because I hated it so much. Waiting to find out where we would move for John's first job. Kentucky? Texas? Oklahoma? Some podunk place that had a population of 7,000? Waiting to meet all the new people in our new town. Waiting to meet our precious baby boy. Waiting to see if he would have spina bifida. Waiting to proudly show him off to everyone when he did not.

Fast forward through lots more and here we are again waiting. I don't like surprises and spontaneity so very much, so not knowing where we will be in one year from now does not come easily. John told me the other day that I could make a plan for each of the likely possibilities if that would help me feel better. Sadly, it did not. The good news is that we should know within 6 months where we will be going - maybe even less than that. That's doable.

Yesterday we put in an offer on a house here. It will be a flip home that we will live in until we move. I really, really love it (as does John) and it's killing me that I have to WAIT to find out if the sellers are accepting our offer. They are asking way too much for what it is worth in its current condition and it has been on the market for quite some time. So we're hopeful that we'll be able to come to an agreeable price, BUT in the meantime......do you think I'm sleeping well? No way! I'm busy thinking through color schemes and cabinet colors and where walls should go and how our furniture (that I've missed dearly while it's all in storage) will all be arranged. And did I mention that it will have FOUR bedrooms? That's two more than we have now! So Monday - when we will probably get an answer - just can't come soon enough.

I don't like waiting one iota, but, as my brother-in-law preached just this morning, the "process" is the point. That's the time when God is really at work to prepare us for our purpose.

Our kids haven't yet learned to have much patience and I wonder if God thinks I act as ridiculous as they act when they are stamping their feet demanding something. Probably so.....probably so.

Horrible Habit

I was blessed with my dad's lovely feet. If you've seen my feet, you know that last sentence is dripping with sarcasm. I have very long, monkey-like toes and I'm incredibly prone to callouses. The worst part of it all is that my husband has beautiful, smooth feet - with no grooming at all.

A few years ago I discovered the callous shaver-offer-thingy at Wal-Mart. I get my money's worth out of that little tool, let me tell you. The problem is that it's very difficult to only shave off callous and nothing else. In an effort to get my feet perfectly smooth and even, I often shave just a tiny bit too much. I always say I'll never do that again, but then I always do. I'm addicted!

So this afternoon, I sat there again trying to get the ever elusive smooth and callous free feet. John shook his head and asked why I was doing it again. He's seen me hobble around plenty of times so he knows what happens. As careful as I tried to be, I once more crippled myself with raw feet. They were bleeding soooo bad! I bandaged them up and carried on with my day.

After dinner, John took me by Wal-Mart to run in for some milk. I was almost to the back of the store when I suddenly realized that my foot hurt really bad. I looked down to see that my band-aid had come off and my toe was covered in blood. I did feel like I fit right in with all of the other questionable people shopping at Wal-Mart at 10:00 at night.

My feet are throbbing now so I'm going to limp to my bed and hope that I can walk again tomorrow. What a dummy I am sometimes.....

Update on the Cowgirl

My mom is back home now and doing better. She was released from the hospital today and then they had to make the 2+hour drive home from Vail. Next week she'll go to some different doctor appointments and possibly have wrist surgery scheduled. All in all we're just thankful that it's not any worse than it is. It could have been so much worse. She could have died!

I suppose the moral of the story is to leave the cattle drives to the real cowboys.

Pete and Repeat???

Oh NO!!! I just went in to check on the kids before crawling into bed myself. As soon as I walked in I smelled a really good, soapy kind of smell. I couldn't figure out where it was coming from though. Of course, my first instinct was to check all in and around Julia's bed since she's normally the culprit. Nothing unusual - except for the fact that she changed her pajama top, but I think that's just because she's quite fashion conscious and liked another top better.

I moved on to Little...... Nope, didn't think so. He's usually snoring as soon as I close the door.

On to Aulora. She was sleeping sweetly so all I needed to do was remove some of the million and one things that she likes to sleep with. (tonight that included a Dora purse, a pair of Joshua's shoes, several dolls, an empty bottle....and the list goes on.) As I was straightening her blanket my hand finally found the source of the flowery smell. A big, goopy pile of pink hand sanitizer! Arghhhh!!!

Somehow the bottle ended up in her crib. She does like to get into my purse and get it out to play with. Did she sneak it in her bed somehow? Or did Julia give it to her at some point so she would stop crying?

Or......is Julia secretly training her to be "Aulora the Destroyer"???

I'm suddenly very, very tired.....

City Slickers Up Close and Personal

My mom, who is a Dallas native and now resides outside of Denver, went on a cattle drive today. Normally, she's working hard as a VP assistant for a well-known organic company. This week they were having meetings all week in Vail and today was a "fun day". I think she would have issue with that term now though.

Even though she could have chosen a full body massage for her "fun day", she wanted to get out and do something different. So a cattle drive it was! I still don't have all the details yet, but we do know that at one point, she took her feet out of the stirrups for a moment. At that same moment, the horse got spooked and threw her off. Ouch.

She's in the hospital now. Praise God - we found out not long ago that all that's wrong is a badly broken wrist, dislocated fingers, and lots of scrapes and bruises. We had feared that her shoulder was broken or that she had internal injuries, but tests and scans have proved negative.

My poor momma. She's had to go in an ambulance twice in two weeks now! It's so hard to be so very far away. =(

Grandpa Love

Why Seven Year Old Brothers Probably Shouldn't Be Left In Charge

A Tired Mommy's Comentary on Buying School Supplies

School supplies for monkus #1 - check. (Well, almost. Target didn't have the right crayons or pencil box. Of all the things not to have.)

It's no easy thing to locate the exact pair of scissors or just the right kind of folder when your children keep asking for all kinds of other, non-related things. Or try finding the 16 count box of #2 6 sided pencils when your 4 year old is asking for 7 pink folders because they are the most beautiful color she has ever seen in her whole life. Do you see why this was difficult?

I tried to be a smart mom. I gave them little jobs, like look for the big bottle of glue that looks like this. I promised them a prize from the hot spot if they were behaved (which they pretty much were). I guess there's just something about being at the store that inspires little kids to build "houses" with big packages of paper towels and run up and down the isles playing chase.

I love buying school supplies, but I am really glad it only comes once a year. (Except for last year when we moved half-way through the year. Then we got to buy them twice! Yikes!)

Hypothetically Speaking.....

What Would You Say if a mommy told you she put her baby in the laundry basket, on top of all the clean clothes, and carried baby and clothes upstairs. Would you say, "Hey, what a great multi-tasking mom she is!" or "Where's the number for CPS?"? Just wondering....

The Librarian is In

Last week, as I was cleaning one of my contacts before putting it in, it tore right in half. I guess the beginning of the rip was what I thought was fuzz in my eye all day. That was my last pair of contacts until my new ones come in. It could be up to another 10 days or so before they arrive. Ehhhhhhh. So my choices are:

• blindness (not really an option with four kids)
• one contact on (this option includes headaches and HORRIBLE depth perception issues - not good when you're carrying babies up and down stairs all day!)
• wear my glasses

Dum dum dummmmmmm...........

So of course, the only real choice I have is wearing my glasses. If you only knew how much I despised wearing them. I used to choose blindness when I was in school because I hated the way I looked in my big fat coke bottle glasses. Even with the new technology for thin lenses, mine are almost half an inch thick. You think I'm kidding. I wish I was.

When I reached the 6th grade, I guess my parents thought I was old enough to handle wearing contacts. Other than passing out when the lady at the optometrist's office put them in my eyes for the first time, it was awesome! I could finally see and not look like a big nerd - all at the same time. Life was good.

Well, I'm back at square one again. Lucky for me, my husband thinks I look like a hot librarian. I think I would need the chain attached to them to complete that look.

Here are some things you non-glasses-wearing-people don't even think about:

• removing anything from the oven causes immediate vision loss since glasses fog up every time
• showering is difficult at best - they fog, they get splattered in water, they slide off my nose
• jogging sends them bouncing up and down and all around (speaking of jogging, I forgot to mention that the last two times we've gone out, we've had company. a possum the first time and a skunk the second!)
• holding a baby is near impossible because their chubby little hands grab nonstop for that weird new thing on mommy's face
• waking up in the middle of the night to read the clock requires way more energy since you have to first find your glasses in the dark and put them on
• wearing glasses in the intense heat makes my eyes hot - they suffocate. air people, I need air
• I have to read blogs through my children's fingerprints - it doesn't matter how often I clean them, my glasses always have their paw prints on them
• how in the world am I supposed to put make-up on???

I'm sure I could go on for quite some time. Perhaps my time would be better spent researching laysic eye surgery......

Praise the Lord for Air Conditioning....

It's been so excruciatingly hot around here lately that I didn't really take too much notice when the a/c couldn't keep up yesterday. I put the babies down for their naps and went downstairs for awhile. When I went up about an hour later it was almost 90 degrees! They were roasting in their little cribs. =( We soon concluded that the a/c was quite broken upstairs.

Sleeping last night was a joke. We all dressed very minimally for bed and then laid on top of our covers with fans on full blast. I also had a spray bottle of water that I kept using. The repair man came around noon and it has been working since. Big sigh of relief....

How in the world did people live without air conditioning back in the "olden days"???

Mommy in Training

Last night I heard Julia holler from upstairs that Aulora had a stinky diaper. I went up within just a minute or two, but I was too late. I found Julia bent over Aulora who had been forced to lay down on the floor. Big sister was trying to put a clean diaper on little sister's freshly wiped clean bobo. Julia had actually done a great job - and it couldn't have been easy because that was one messy diaper! She just needed some help getting the new diaper on good. How great is this development???

Joshua - 6 Months Old

Backyardigans Live

We LOVE the Backyardigans!
They are so stinkin' cute when they dance and sing!

So of course when their show came to town we had to go see it.
This is Julia and her friend Naph. This is their third live show to see together.

Hey look, Mommy's in a picture! John David doesn't look excited about being there, but trust me, he was. He acted all big and macho at first saying he didn't want to go, but he changed his story later.

Gran and Joshua posing pretty. We were doing some fancy baby juggling that night since Gran and I were the only two adults and there were a number of wet and stinky diapers between both babies. How many more years until they're all potty trained???

There they are in all their cuteness. John David was quite put out that there were human faces showing. It was still a good show - not the best show ever, but good. Personally, I liked Sesame Street Live better, but it's hard to compete with Oscar and Elmo and Super Grover. I tried to get a video of Aulora dancing, but it was too dark in our seats. =(

In case you're wondering, no, I did not cry at this show. I'm proud of myself....

What Aulora Thinks of Me

I was playing with Aulora, going through some Winnie the Pooh flash cards. Each card has a big picture on it - things like butterfly, sun, worm, bird, moon, Winnie the Pooh, tree, etc. She knew just what each one was and I was so very pleased.

Pleased until we got to the card with Piglet on it. She pointed at that picture and said, very clearly, "Mommy!".

I don't even know what I can add to that........

Porkchops and Applesauce (to be read like Peter Brady)

Well, there was just applesauce actually but I don't think Joshua minded.
Here he is smacking his lips, anticipating that first bite.

His first bite of food ever. Will he like it???

Aulora thought she needed some baby food too.

He thought the jar was far more interesting than the stuff inside.

Yep, he'd rather just suck on the jar. Silly boy.

I'm soooo mean....

Yesterday, Julia went with John's mom to lunch. The rest of us went out while they were gone and then we decided it was a good time for haircuts. We went by the house to get Julia, who was now home again with Gran. I ran in to tell her to come get in the car and then went back to let Gran know. She was in her room and I didn't hear anything so I thought maybe she was resting. I figured I would just leave a text message for her once I was in the car again.

That didn't happen though. The kids were having seat belt issues and we saw the blue heron bird who has taken up residence by our pond. I totally forgot to call or text. Oops.

We were almost to the hair salon when John's phone rang. Gran was crying and wanted to know where we were. I quickly told her we had Julia. I'm pretty sure that she would have beat us in that moment if it had been possible. She had been beside herself looking for Julia. Inside, outside, in the attic, around the pond....everywhere. She had called both uncles to come help look. And then she made the horrible call to tell us Julia was lost.

We felt soooo horrible. I got a stomach ache because I was so upset about it. =( We took her a Sonic drink as a peace offering and I think she forgave us. Poor Gran!

You just never know...

John David and I got up this morning, packed his lunch and waited outside for his friend's family to come pick him up for the day. We waited and waited. They're usually right on time so after about 20 minutes I gave the mom a call. I got her voicemail. A few minutes later the dad called to say they had been in a pretty bad car accident right down the road. John David's friend is being airlifted to a children's hospital in the metroplex for better care. He's going to be ok, but he's hurt pretty badly. I'm so sad. I hugged John David pretty tight when I got the news.....

The Return of Crab Boy

We knew it would happen. It was only a matter of time......
Remember this post?

We went to Joe's Crab Shack in Colorado and my boy ordered crab legs.
What can I say? He's still obsessed!

He's absolutely, hands down, fascinated by these creepy poky legs that he can eat meat from. Maybe we'll have crab legs at his rehearsal dinner someday. I can just see him making the crab legs walk across his bride's shoulders. hahaha!

Some extra bonus footage:

My First Ever.....

real snow cone! I've never been a snow cone fan and John couldn't understand why I didn't love them. I told him that I had tasted a few through the years from a few different stands on the side of the road but that was about it. So he took me to Bahama Buck's.

Wow. WOW!!! I love it!!! We had a coupon for a free smoothie so of course we got that, but we also got a banana snow cone with cream on top. That was one of the best things I've ever tasted! Especially since it was on Sunday night and it had been about 109 all day!

I didn't eat all of the smoothie and snow cone by myself, but I did have quite a bit. Aulora kept saying "I want more ice cream!" in a her cute little voice from behind me in the car. She wasn't interested in the smoothie we bought her since she thought the snow cone looked much better. (I agreed with her! I wanted snow cone too. We stole it from Daddy!)

So there's a peek at our exciting Sunday night and my first real snow cone experience. We already have another coupon and will be going back soon. Trust me.....

A Little Quiet Time

Although I know it's going to be very, very short lived, I'm getting a few moments to myself right now. Husband already left, the three youngest are asleep, and the oldest is downstairs and quite capable of fending for himself.

Some reasons to be sad:

• Husband is gone because he had to make an important trip to SA to help a very close friend - I stayed awake last night trying to figure out how i could go so I could see my friends. It's just not feasible when it's a day trip. 8 hours in one day with any number of kids is just not a good idea. So I'm here and he'll soon be there. =( As Julia (and I'm sure pretty much any other kid) would say, "That's not fair!"
• I already know that I have lots of laundry - for the second day in a row. When I checked on the kids this morning, Julia was laying on top of her sheets and quilt and she was naked from the waist down. That means she wet the bed. She also wet the bed on Saturday night. It's automatically two loads when that happens because I have to do the sheets and mattress cover and then the quilt. Ughhh. This bed-wetting is not a regular thing but I'm considering some pull-ups or something. Or, I suppose she could even wear Aulora's night time diapers since they're about the same size other than height. (Actually, Aulora is bigger except for height. She's a much better eater!)

Some reasons to be happy:

• It's only going to be 104 today and not 108. Maybe we won't bake alive.
• We're actively in the process of finding, buying, and remodeling a house to live in. Knowing that I'll have my own house again soon, along with the fact that we're getting to pick counters and colors and floors and stuff, really makes me happy! If the time line we have in mind works out (which may or may not happen) we will move in towards the end of September.
  
• School starts in less than 2 weeks! (Sorry to my teacher friends. I know this would be on your sad list, but for me it's certainly on the happy list!)
• We're going to the library in a little while.
• Joshua can hold his own bottle now. That makes life a lot easier!

All the kids are awake.....gotta to go!

Yeah Buddy.....

it's hot here. I looked down at my little weather forecast on my computer and you know what's there? A picture of flames! The description is "very hot, 108". Those flames really cracked me up. Someone who helps do those weather reports is having a good ol' time laughing at us here. They should have put a little picture of the devil himself beside those flames since that's what it feels like. Flames indeed........

Green Cake

When I was about 8 years old, my dad had an accident with the lighter for our hot tub when it blew up and burned his face. He had to wear some bandages on his eyes for a while and was stuck just laying around since he couldn't see. In my 8 year old mind, this was the perfect opportunity for some mischievous fun. I had a friend over one afternoon and we baked him a cake - but not just any cake. We thought it would be hilarious to feed him cake that he thought was normal, but, in actuality, would be a hideous green color. I still remember that like it was yesterday and, understandably, it's one of my favorite memories with my dad.

As I've mentioned before, the kids are always asking for stories about when I was little. So of course I shared the tale of green cake. Before I knew it, we had decided to pull the same prank on my dad while we were in Colorado (minus the explosion of course). They were soooo super excited, and if I'm being honest, so was I!

Here they are about to go in and feed Dodie his surprise. It was a white cake with green food coloring and white icing. When I did this as a kid, the cake was way, way greener.

Close your eyes, Dodie!

The moment John David had been waiting on all day.

Dodie's mock horror at eating green cake. (Of course I had to let him in on the secret so he would give a memorable performance.) I'm pretty sure my kids will always remember feeding their grandpa green cake.

That Was One Baaaaaad Migraine

My dad had to go pick my mom up from work on Friday because she was really sick. When he got there he felt it was very serious and decided to call 911. After waiting a couple of hours while they ran various tests and did a cat scan, we found out she was suffering from a terrible migraine. Thanks for adding a little excitement to our weekend, Grandmamma!

I wouldn't want to....

run into this guy in a dark alley.....or anywhere else for that matter, I guess. This was a display at Bass Pro Shop. I'm still not sure what it's supposed to make me want to buy. He looks pretty frantic, huh?

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Look at that - you're already a whole year older again! Wish we could be there this weekend to help you celebrate. We would make you a coconut cream pie for sure!!! Love you........

Best Time Out EVER

I don't remember why now, but when we were at the jump place, John David had to have a time out. It wasn't for anything super serious, probably just being annoying or something of that nature. I sent him over for a time out, thinking he would sit in one of the normal chairs. Silly ol' me. Why would he sit in a normal chair when he could have a deluxe massaging chair? The funny part is that after a couple of minutes I came over to the sitting area with Joshua. I had already totally forgotten that John David was supposed to be in time out since I was so distracted. He asked me for a dollar to get a massage and I gave him one. Hahaha! I told you - it was the best time out ever!

The Great Big Slide

At that same inflatable place, called "Jumpin'", there was a great big slide. It was so much fun to climb up the side over and over and then go sliding down super fast. All you could do was just lay there and laugh once you got to the bottom because everyone was always a jumbled mess. That was some good exercise too!