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Tuesday, December 29, 2009

A short and (not so) sweet update.

I just found out that I can post here from my phone, but I hate pushing all these tiny buttons. I'm just here to say (yay) we paid the large internet fine, using most of my Christmas money to do so. Bella's sick. She's barely eating or playing, mainly just sleeping. She has either brohncitis or the starts of pneumonia, since after 2 days since her x-ray I still haven't heard which, I'm glad it's the same meds for both.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

How to cure an almost 4 year old's temper tantrum

So, Ryan is sick and pitiful, thus making it impossible for him to act like a human boy. For one thing, I can't call him Ryan, but only "sweet angel baby" until told otherwise. His temper (not fever) is currently off the charts.
We were painting ornaments to give people the other night when Ryan starts screaming at his friend for accidentally bumping his paint tray. No mess was made and the tray barely moved, but Ryan felt this still required screaming until his friend was crying, I was yelling, and he was almost purple in the face. We calmed everything down and decided maybe we should just stop the painting for now. We're all cleaning up when Ryan yells he doesn't want to clean, he doesn't want to be near his friend, he doesn't like anybody. I told him I understand he doesn't feel well, but there's no reason to act like a rude brat, and that he needs to stop or Santa will find out he's being naughty. Well, he goes into an almost-four-year-old-tirade about how he doesn't care if Santa finds out.
So...
I did what any sane mom would do, I picked up the phone and "called" Santa and told him Ryan was being naughty and that he didn't want anything but sticks and rocks for Christmas, but should he change his mind I would call him back and let him know.
Ryan got very quiet and said, "But Mommy, I do want my Christmas. I'll be nice." Now, all we have to do to end a tantrum is look at him pick up the phone and say, "That's it Ryan, I'm calling Santa."

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Non-Edible Cookie Ornament Recipe

So I've been having lots of questions asked on how to make the ornaments the boys decorated for the tree, so I'm making a post to tell you how.
:)
Ingridents:
4 cups flour
1 cup salt
1 1/2 cups water

Directions:
Thoroughly mix together salt and flour. Once mixed add in water and until most is moist but all water is absorbed. Place dough on a piece of wax paper and then knead for about 10 minutes. Roll dough to a little under 1/2 an inch thick and then cut with cookie cutters, making sure to add a hole at the top for hook, and place on cookie sheet. Cook at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes or until golden. Let sit for a few hours then decorate!


A lesson in anger management.

I have a temper, and not little one either mind you.

I went to Zach's Christmas party Friday because another mom and I helped organize and plan it. Some other parents came to help also, including the third mom who was supposed to help us, but... never came to any of the planning meetings or return our calls. So already we (other mom and I) are frustrated with her, then the non-helping mom came in at the time only parents helping set up parties were supposed to come and then sat on her butt and did nothing the whole time. She did nothing even when we were hurrying to prepare the craft and game she was supposed to prepare before the party.
BUT... I put all this aside because we were having fun and we knew the kids would be enjoying it.
Other parents started showing up and we had 4 crafts and 2 games for the students to do after eating donuts and listening to "the Night Before Christmas." We had about 10 parents show up and we had to beg them to help at the craft/game areas, and only 3 said they would, so the teacher picked up the slack on the last spot. The non-helping mom was not one of the 3 to volunteer. She stayed with her son and went around from one area to another with him.
Non-helping mom and her son came to my area last. As we were working on ornaments (recipe coming in next post) non-helping mom and another mom were chatting and somehow the year 1987 came up. Non-helping mom is an older mom. She had her son in Zach's class in her early 40s and her older son is a few years older than me. She said how her son was in kindergarten in 1987. The other mom said she was in like 3rd grade in 1987. Then both of them look at me, so I sit for a moment thinking "uhhhh..." not sure what to say. Non-helping mom then comes out and asks what grade I was in in 1987. My response, "Um, I was born in 1987." She then has the nerve to look me up and down and say "(Snort) Well then you decided to get started really young didn't you?"
Non-helping mom and other mom proceed to act as if I am not even there sitting across from them as they go on about how horrible teenage pregnancy has become, and how really its all just horrible that teenagers would throw away their lives, and how girls now just seem to think they have to have a baby by 18 to fit in. I'm getting angrier and angrier, really thinking of asking this lady who is older than my MOM if she thought it was anymore responsible for her to have had a baby at her age, and who the heck did she think she was to think she had any right to judge me. Thankfully, Zach's teacher was at the table next to our's and when she noticed she said it was time to switch activities. I was going to get up and follow them when the dad of one of the other boys, who happened to know me from helping in Zach's class last year, came over and told me to just let it go. I need to set the example of being the bigger person.
And he was right, so I did.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Eating like a big girl!

So we've been giving Bella more and more table food for the past couple of months. However, everything we had been giving her were things we had first ran through the blender and then fed her with her spoon. Well, right before Thanksgiving last month we had to go to a funeral and after it we went to Olive Garden. We ordered the unlimited soup, salad, and breadsticks, and oh em gee, Bella LOVED the breadsticks. I gave her a whole one to gum, thinking there is no way she can bite any off, but no siree, she bit a nice sized chunk off and proceeded to gum it to oblivion. She was in piggy-Bella heaven. She went through two whole breadsticks while we were there. Since then we've been giving her baby puffs, and bread for her chomping needs. Sunday night we had salisbury steak and mashed potatoes. I made it not knowing the boys wouldn't be eating with us, and when I found out they weren't I cut up 1/2 of one into teeny tiny pieces and put it on a plate with some potatoes for Bella. This just rocked her little world, it was the most excellent food in her opinion, so excellent in fact instead of sharing with the dog as she usually does, she screamed at the dog when she came to close. It was so funny to watch her get so excited about it.


A Little Fun!

A few of us siggy making and digital scrapbooking ladies over at Justmommies' Siggies R Us and Digital Scrapbooking board got together and nominated some of the digital scrapbooking sites we felt were the best based on the following qualifications:
  • Product quality
  • Customer service
  • Pricing
  • Freebies, and Sales
  • Forum/Gallery Activity
The following sites were all nominated:
Shabby Pickle, Scrap Orchard, After Five Designs, Pickleberry Pop, Scrap Matters, Enchanted Scrap Studio, Sweet Shoppe Designs, Funky Playground Designs, Elemental Scraps, The French Frog, Digital-Crea, Scrap Bird, Groovy Scraps, and Digital Scrap Cafe.
The top 3 winners will be announced January first. Good luck to all of the stores who were nominated!

Monday, December 14, 2009

Quick explanation post

I'll be back in just a little bit with an actual post, but I thought I would explain first why I haven't posted in a while.
1. No working computer at home.
2. No internet at home at the moment. (Has to do with a battle I lost with our internet company.)

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

"Where the Wild Things Are" (A 5 Year-Old's Movie Review)

So last night I took Zach, Ryan, and Ryan's friend Zada to go see "Where the Wild Things Are." I won't give you Ryan's complete take on it seeing as how he is an easily distracted almost 4 year-old, but I'll give you his brief opinion: "I didn't like it." It might be his favorite book, but the movie did not hold his interest that much. I'll give you my take on it after Zach's.
I had to wait until this afternoon to ask him since he was asleep when we got home last night, and rushed this morning, but I took the time to write down his answers, in his words for the review.
Did you like the movie we saw last night?
Wild Things? Uh huh, but it was kinda scary.
What did you like about it?
I liked the beginning when he built the igloo, and his fort. I liked when he was bad and made his sister's room wet, and when he yelled at his mom, but that is bad. I liked the wild things and when they ran and acted silly. And the clubhouse Max and Carol built was cool. I really liked when he ran back home to his mom and she wasn't mad. (But you'd be mad right mommy?)
What else did you think about the movie?
It was kinda creepy, and funny. Oh and silly.
How was it scary?
It was scary when wild things were angry at him when he helped Carol. And then, when that bird one said Max was just a boy and Carol tore off his arm I had to close my eyes, it scared me a lot then.
What was your favorite part?
Oh, I really liked when they had that dirt fight. It was so silly. (Can I have a dirt fight?) But then, it wasn't so silly. They were mean to that goat wild thing, and that made me sad.
Do you want to see the movie again?
Yes... but not til it comes cd (dvd) that way I can stop watching it when I get too scared.

I tried to go into it with an open mind knowing a lot would have to be added to make the 12ish line book movie length. I thought the wild things looked amazing, they extremely impressed me. However, the wild things did not roar their terrible roars, or roll their terrible eyes, or gnash their terrible teeth, or show their terrible claws at the beginning or end. Nor did Max's room turn into the forest where the wild things are. Some of the wild things are coupled off and in love, and the relationship between the two major wild things, the reason behind all of the wild things' unhappiness went way over all three kids' heads. So did most of the witty-ish jokes that one wild thing made, as a matter of fact, I hated the personality they gave the wild thing Judith. It really seemed like they took a wonderful children's book and tried to gear the story line more towards adults, or at least people older than the book's targeted audience, and that really upset me.
However, after saying all of the above, I did really enjoy the movie, and will most definitly buy it when it becomes available on dvd.

Ahhhh! The joy of a well-sized carrier!

Ok, Bella loves to be held and to be close. The boys also loved to be held, but both of them had a huge sense of independence and preferred more to be able to go and do on their own. Both boys hated every single kind of baby carrier I put them in. So, when I was pregnant with Bella I did not ask for or buy any carriers, but somehow did end up with one. Once we had her John occasionally used the carrier with Bella, but I didn't, my boobs were just too big for too long to wear it comfortably, and Bella didn't really enjoy having John wear it.
Since we've stopped nursing and my chest has gone down to ((below)) normal I try Bella out in the carrier every so often. And... she always hated it, and I hated it too. It had been regulated to the junk pile in my entry hall (doesn't get used).
Well, the city we live in holds a fair/craft festival/car show type thing every year that the whole county takes place in. Since there's not really anything of fun to do around us, unless you want to drive to Memphis, its a pretty big deal. We didn't go last year because it was too hot, but this year it was on a beautiful slightly chilly day. Our house is close enough to where it was only a 10 minute walk to get to Celebrate so John and I got Bella and Ryan together (Zach spends weekends with my mom) and set out. We got two houses down when John decided we should go back and get the carrier because it really sucks trying to navigate the crowded area with a stroller. I told him I'd rather not, Bella and I don't like it. And then he asked the question that left me feeling kinda stupid "Well, did you ever adjust the straps? They're adjusted for me and I'm 8 inches taller than you, plus wider than you."
Yeah the carrier, once my wonderful husband fixed it for me, was wonderful. It made walking through the crowds very easy, kept Bella very warm, and for once, allowed Bella to sleep while we were out and doing.

On our way:




At Celebrate:






On the way home:






And the only down side of it was when some cranky old man stopped me and announced Bella must be freezing since she wasn't in a stroller with a blanket. I told him, no between my body heat and Bella's that she's probably warmer than any of the babies with blankets. He then said it must be some "new hippy thing" and walked away muttering about young parents.

Monday, October 19, 2009

Here's to sucking up my pride.

Obviously I don't mind putting this out for any and all to see...
We're broke. Like super-no money-fighting-broke.
For the past two months I've put off contacting the Health Department and the Department of Human Services, and both my grandmothers. We were on Foodstamps, and then I made the decision that we would not renew them after John's grandmother's estate was settled. And Bella has been unable to get on WIC because you have to have shots to get it, and her doctor did not want her starting shots until she was 6 months. Well, we went in for her 6 month check up and he said she was good to start them up, which means we're good to start WIC. John has told me I have have have to get us set back up on Foodstamps. Oh, and if I could call one of my grandmothers and ask to borrow some money that would be highly appreciated too.
See, there's this issue of my pride getting stuck in my throat when I try to swallow it and go and ask for help. I really don't want to. I'm of the mind there has to be a family out there who needs it more than we do, John's response is "Show me a 5 person family making $13,000 a year, who own their home, and aren't on some sort of assistance." But still, this just isn't something a person looks forward to. Its like admitting not only can we not take care of it all ourselves, we so can't do it we're asking you for help. I wasn't even the kind of student who would ask the teacher for help, this just so rubs me wrong.
But I have to do it. For the sake of my children and my marriage. So, as the title says, here's to sucking up my pride (and asking for help).

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Let me be pissy for a moment.

  1. I don't give a flying you know what about Cody the cat! Why the heck was that national news worthy??!! Yeah ok, people lost their cat, people found their cat. Whoopity-freaking-do. The family's happy the cat is back, but its not national news worthy. You know what I want to hear on the news? THE GOSH-DARN-FREAKING-NEWS!
  2. I miss cussing. (lol - noticable?) I'm tired of freaking censoring myself when I talk or post or whatever. I'm trying not to cuss because well, Ryan no longer accepts "Well, its ok for me to say it because I'm the Mommy." But darnit, sometimes no other word works like a nice good cuss word.
  3. I'm tired of going on an emotional roller coaster over Bella's health. We went to her 6 month well baby Tuesday and her doctor is worried because she's only gained a pound and seems slightly delayed developmentally. She gained a freaking pound! AND GREW TWO INCHES! She was averaging about a 1/4 pound a month before this, and actually lost weight between 4 and 5 months. I understand worrying because she's small, I'm even ok now with the testing. But darnit, when I first saw she gained a pound I was ecstatic until the doctor opened his mouth.
  4. I'm sick of strong political biases infiltrating all forms of media. If I wanted to listen to a bunch of Republican and Democratic bruhaha I'd watch CNN or Fox News. Listen up people, about 90% of the time, the government doesn't owe you jack. They don't owe you money unless its a tax refund, and they don't owe you answers to all of what they do. If you think you can do a better job get your butt in freaking politics.
  5. Lastly, oh em effing gee to John and freaking Kate. Just get that sad train wreck off of the freaking tv.

(You can ignore this if you want, I'm just really not a morning person - but these are all things that have been bugging me)

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Bella's Jumper (Pt. 1)

So after spending so much time looking around for a simple, yet cute, free pattern to use for her jumper I discovered something very unhelpful. My printer is useless, thus the site I found with the pattern is useless. I kept the site up, used a too big jumper, and all my Bella measurements to just create my own pattern.
Here is my pattern before I cut it out. I drew it on graph paper, cut it out, then applied to a paper that is slightly thicker than cardstock, that way I can use it again after this jumper.

(you can click to view the full size images)
The extra things on the second image are the strap, the pocket, a leaf, and the peices to the pumpkin I'm putting on the top of the jumper.
Since I was so excited about this project I started it after my last blog post. I got all of the pattern drawn and cut out, plus got the main peices to the jumper traced to the fabric. The next morning I I finished tracing the other jean peices and cutting them out. Then I got all of the cordouroy peices traced and cut. Let me tell you, I though the denim would be a pain in the butt to cut, oh no, old worn cordouroy SUCKS!
Here are all the peices just laid together. (Note: I did decide to leave off the last two pumpkin peices so its now just the middle three, and the skirt isn't going to be asymetrical)

The tab things on the ends of the strap, and tops of the pockets are where the denim is going to overlap the cordouroy to creat a more lasting edge since the cordouroy is worn and old.
After I did all the cutting I started peicing together the details an embroidering it. I'm doing this before sewing the big peices together because on the pocket and bib, where there will be the most detail, I'm putting another peice of denim behind it so that the stitching doesn't get damaged. I hope to finish the embroidery today and will post the pictures tomorrow.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Going to be getting crafty with it.

I love my little miss Bellarina, but I'm afraid I'm going to be having bigger clothing issues with her than I had with Zach-Zoo. Zach, like Bella, was long and skinny. However unlike Zach, Bella has been ripping her jammies. She's still so skinny 0-3 months bags on her, the waists are still too big so when she wears pants I have to safetypin them, but they're now about 1/2 inch too short. She ripped two pairs of jammies with her long legs, one pair last night and another this morning. But my vendetta is not just against jammies, I'm just flat out sick of clothes not fitting her right. Shirts bag on her, along with pants. I can't put her 3-6 months clothes at all because the pants are too wide to safetypin and the shirt collars hang to her baby boobies. Its getting colder so I can't keep putting her in 0-3 months because the sleeves and pant legs are too short.
See my problem?
So I've decided to fix this problem myself. I'm borrowing my mom's big box-o-sewing-crap (her name for it mind you) and taking some of mine and the boys' old clothes, plus some of the hand-me-downs we got for Bella that are out of fashion and I am going to attempt to make her clothes myself. I'm not investing any money into this until I find out if this something I'll even enjoy or be marginally good at.
I've decided on starting with a jumper and some pants that I'll be making out of some of my old jeans and a orange cordouroy shirt the boys have outgrown (that I love the color of too much to give away). It may seem a little pretensious of me as a start out project, but oh well. I'll be altering a sundress pattern I found at Make-Baby-Stuff.com and using her pants pattern as well. I hope to start tonight or tomorrow and I'll update y'all as I go.

Gah flippity gah!

I don't feel like going into why I haven't been posting. Let's just sum it up in one sentence:
"I freaking hate computers, all of them."

Monday, September 28, 2009

Picture of the Day: "He was trying to be helpful"

I was doing the multi-tasking bit last last Wednesday night. I was (unsuccessfully) trying to cook dinner, feed Bella, clean the kitchen (I clean the kitchen as I cook so after dinner there's less work to do), do laundry, and help Zach with his homework. Well, I had to stop feeding Bella for a moment because the phone rang and the timer on the oven went off. Now I'm hearing all of this at once:
"Mommy, mommy, mommy!" (Ryan)
(water running in sink)
(washer and dryer running)
Bella screaming
"Its ok sweetie." (Zach to Bella)
and my mom rambling about something in my ear.
I step out of the room so I can try to hear her, get off the phone, turn off the water, shut the laundry room door, and give Ryan a starburst to shut him up, and I notice Bella's not screaming anymore. I look around the doorway into the living room and Zach is feeding Bella her dinner. Only, he's putting so much on the spoon not all of it fits in her mouth and she spits out 1/2 of it that does! I sigh, and think oh well to myself and go back to cleaning and cooking. John comes home a few minutes later and offers to take over dinner and the kitchen, and I take over the feeding of Bella. (But not before I could get some pictures of the mess her and Zach made of her face!)

Thursday, September 24, 2009

I Promise You, Its "E" not "I"

I'm having issues with Zach's teacher.
  1. I started off the year on the wrong foot with his teacher. At the Kindergarten Parent Orientation I found out one of my best friend's nieces is in Zach's class. Her mom (my friend's sister) was there with her fiance, and she was trying to get him to remember who I am. We were sitting in the crowded class right in front of the teacher when my friend's sister announced to her fiance, "She's the one who went drinking with Katie and I on my birthday, and then threw up in our yard." Yeah, that's not something I want announced to my son's new teacher. I don't drink often, hardly ever, nor would I have drank as much as I did that night, but they kept ordering drinks. Stupid excuse I know, but come on, I'm allowed to act like the typical 21 (at the time) year old every now and then if my kids aren't around. But does Zach's teacher know that? After my friend's sister made that comment I got ugly looks from the teacher (and other parents) often.
  2. Also, at the end of Orientation, I went up to Zach's teacher to explain to her about Zach's soap allergy and that he's primarily left handed. Her reaction to the soap allergy was "You're kidding, how can someone actually be allergic to soap?" and she gave me this look like I must be joking. I swallowed what I wanted to say, and told her that I'm also allergic to most soaps, so is my grandmother, and my great-grandmother was too. She then asked if Zach was aware that he's allergic to it. I told her yes, it'd be hard for him not to since it makes the skin on his hands crack and peel and is extremely painful. I also told her Zach has special scissors that are meant to be used with his left hand, but they aren't made for young children, but he knows how to use them and is careful with them, but she said that was fine.
  3. About 3 weeks after he started I'm going through his folder and there's a project he had to cut and paste for. I'm looking at it and he did a horrible job, and I'm noticing his handwriting is much worse than usual. I sit him down and asked why he's doing so messily on his work. (He takes a lot of pride in making his school work look nice.) He said his teacher said he can't use his scissors and that he needs to use his right hand because his left hand gets too dirty when he writes and colors with it. I sent his teacher a note reminding her that Zach is left handed, and if his hand gets too messy for him he can clean it with a wipes or rinse it off. The next day and he comes home with green paint all over his hands. I ask him why and he says they made hand prints. I asked why he didn't clean off his hands, and he said he couldn't because he can't use soap. I asked him why he didn't just rinse it off with water, and again he said his teacher said he couldn't.
  4. Zach had strep last week, but went to school Monday because he didn't have a fever yet and we didn't know he was sick. I pick him up Monday afternoon and he's miserable. He's coughing a lot, and they just sounded painful. His eyes were all glossy and he was soooo hot to the touch. I take his fever and it's almost 102! I asked if he told his teacher he felt bad, and he said yes, she told him to just put his head on his desk. Then when we discover its strep and that he'll be out the whole rest of the week I email her (the way she told us to contact her) to tell her what's going on with Zach and to ask her if she could send Zach's work he'll miss to the office so I can get it and to please email me back so I know when I can go get his work. It gets to Friday with no word from her. While my phone is off while we're at the doctor's his school's secretary calls and leaves a message asking where Zach is. I call back and tell her he's had strep and will be back Monday. While I have her on the phone I ask if his work is in the office and she said no, but she'll contact his teacher and call me when his work arrives. His teacher didn't send his work there until dismissal on Friday so we only had 2 1/2 days to make up a week's worth of work.
  5. Now, the final straw. Yesterday I'm going through Zach's folder and everyday they have a sheet where they have to write their name 10 times. Yesterday's had his first and last name, but instead of putting the "en" that our last name ends with he put "in" on the whole sheet, and on every other sheet he had to write his name on. I'm sitting there confused because Zach knows how to spell his whole name, and has since last year. I ask him why he spelled his last name wrong all day and he told me he wrote his name on the first line and the teacher checked it and told him it was wrong and erased his last name and spelled it out to him to write, and sure enough you could see where he had written it correctly and it had been erased. She told him that "in" was the correct way to spell it. Um, hello? Maybe this would be okay if it was still close to the first day of school, but he's been in school almost 2 months now and all of his paperwork has his last name spelled "en."
I don't know what to do. John is furious with his teacher. In his opinion enough is enough. Even if she thinks poorly of me because of the drinking remark that's still no reason to completely disregard anything we try to tell her. He wrote her a note this morning (not that I got to read it) about everything she's been doing, and he told me if she continues this way after getting the note he's switching Zach out of her class. I told him I don't want to do that. While Zach might not like her a lot, he has to learn you won't always like your teacher, but you still have to do as they tell you, and just try to make the best of it. I told John if she keeps it up I will call his teacher from last year and ask her to speak to his new teacher.
But honestly, I'm getting really frustrated with his teacher, and I too would like to pull him out of her class, but I just don't think that would be sending the right message to Zach.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Well, SOMEBODY'S Ducks Ain't in a Row.

Go ahead, ask me how I spent a nice large chunk of my day.
Well, how nice of you to ask. I spent a nice chunk of my day going back and forth arguing with the records keeper at Zach's school and the records keepers at the Health Department. See to start the whole mess off, our doctor does not give immunizations, so I had to take the boys to the Health Department for their's when they were little. By the time Zach was finishing all his before 5 years ones, and Ryan was on like the second round of shots I decided that my children would not be getting further immunizations. People had started saying they led to Autism, and since boys have a higher chance of becoming Autistic I decided that wasn't something I wanted to chance. Zach was able to register for school last year without the 5 year old round of shots because he wouldn't be turning 5 until the school year was over, at which point I promptly forgot about shots.
Well, the school called me at the end of August to inform me that Zach needed to get a physical and his last set of shots. I informed them ok to the physical, but he's not getting that last shot. They then told me, Tipton County does not allow students to attend who do not have their immunizations and do not have religious or medical documentation for not having them. I figured what the hay, its not worth it, and talk has gone down a lot about the immunization/Autism link. Zach got his physical and while we were there his doctor said he wanted to see Bella next week, not in October like planned. I made Zach an appointment at the Health Dept. for his shots for the next week too. Bella's appointment came first, and after that I didn't give a flying fig about some shots I didn't want him to have anyway.
Well, Zach's schooled called yesterday saying if Zach's immunization is not brought up to date by October 1st he will not be able to return to school. The lady was getting very angry at me, as if I somehow tricked them into letting him attend without the physical and shot records being up to date. And for the first time (from this lady) I hear this gosh awful phrase, "Well, sweetie, we just need to get all our ducks in a row." (hear that with a thick Southern accent)
So I try for two freaking hours this morning to reach the Health Department, finally do, and actually get to talking to the appointment lady, and do you know what she tells me? "Our records show that Zachary has already gotten the full amounts of each immunization." Um, hold the phone, noooo he hasn't. I give her Zach's social and ask her to check to make sure she has the right one, because I know for a fact I never took him for 5 year old shots. She says yes she does and for medical reasons Zach got them with other shots or something. She tells me to call the school back and talk to them. Call the school back talk to the lady I did the day before, and hear the duck phrase twice more. She says he needs DPT and polio. Call Health Department again, they say no he doesn't. Do this twice more, with duck phrase during both other calls. By the time I hang up the phone saying screw it, he'll go in for me and the nurse to look over his chart and she can then talk to the school or just re-give him these shots, and start Ryan's back up so he can go to school next year. And I'm thinking the school can get all the freaking ducks, cows, sheep, goats, pig, and whatever the heck they want in a row, but my records are freaking correct and they need to just get the heck over it.

Monday, September 21, 2009

Picture of the Day: "Reasons Why I Love You"

(Picture is from our wedding on March 28, 2006)
Here are 10 reasons why I love my husband (no particular order):
1. You always manage to make me feel special, even when I know I'm being exceedingly ordinary.
2. I've gotten to spend the past 6 years growing up with you, and even though as we've grown we've changed so much you're still you, I'm still me, and we're still us.
3. You are an amazing father, much more than my own was, and a million times more than your's was.
4. You still kiss me and tell me you love me every morning, and then kiss me and tell me you love me when you get home every night.
5. You know how to make me laugh, and how to push my "smile button" better than anyone else.
6. Even though you get up early every morning for work in the morning and to take Zach to school, you let me sleep in as late as I want on Saturdays while you care for the kids.
7. You hardly ever say "I told you so," even though I tend to have this annoying habit of being wrong often.
8. You put my happiness first, even while I'm trying to put your's first.
9. Though I've got some flabby skin in my middle, my tummy is covered in stretch marks, my boobs are down 3 sizes and not perky, you still look at me as if I'm the most beautiful person you've ever seen.
10. You complete me in places that I never knew were incomplete before you came along.

Bye Bye Boobies

Despite my pleas of protest it seems Bella has weaned herself.
In the past two months she has gone from nursing 4-5 times a day along with taking a small formula/cereal bottle, to then nursing twice a day, to nursing only in the mornings, and then, for the past almost week, not wanting to nurse at all. It seemed nursing alone wasn't putting much weight on her so we did the nursing plus bottles under her doctor's recommendation while slowly increasing the amount she eats, and now she doesn't want to nurse and it makes my heart sad.
I loved those mornings of lying in bed and cuddling and nursing. She still wants to lay in bed and cuddle, but I miss the intimacy of nursing. She was doing so well I had such high hopes that I could nurse her to at least 6 months, preferably a year+. I mean I'm glad she was able to nurse longer than Ryan, but it still stinks. This morning she was in a good mood, and I tried to get her to latch on, and the more I tried the angrier she got. I thought, okay well maybe she's just not hungry yet. But as she did get hungry she still wanted nothing to do with it.
My baby has officially said bye bye to the boobies.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Mission: Space Station Spotting

So on September 7th when the Space Station was able to be seen we went over to my mom's (baseball field by my house is not conducive to night sky viewing) and went out back to see if we could spot the space station! We saw it and the boys thought it was sooo incredibly neat. Ryan kept pointing to every plane and star and saying "Ohhh I see it! I see it!" At which point we'd have to explain no, it was a star/plane. Zach got a huge kick out of it, and was the only one in his class the next day who got to stand up and talk about it because he was the only one (who admitted to) saw it. Yes, I annoyed everyone by taking pictures. lol. Here are some:

(Hannah (sister), my mom, Ryan, Zach)








John was annoyed with my picture taking (and the resulting flash) so he took my camera and proceeded to attempt to annoy me by taking my picture.

Have a lot of catching up to do.

Life has just gotten away with me the past week since I made my last post. And I'll try to catch up as quickly as I can but not all in one post. I'll be trying to do 1-2 posts a day to catch you up.
But everything's been going ok. Still haven't heard more on Bella, but we're choosing not to stress over it, we've increased the amount she eats a day and are having much greater success with a spoon. (Pictures to come soon) Zach was out of school almost all week with strep last week, and then when we take him for his follow up we find out Ryan had early stages of it so he got put on an antibiotic. Unfortunately... its giving him the 'rheas. Zach's soooo happy to be going back to school in the morning. I was non-computer for two days last week. Not due to sick kiddos (who actually slept most of the day), but because my computer woke up one morning and decided to hate me. Still have no idea what happened or how it got better.
So, even though all that's been going on, plus another glorious (pfft) period where I had cramps all 5 days plus for 2 days after, its been going well.