Monday, December 06, 2010

December!

Where do months go?  I declare they go faster with each passing one.  Life is just crazy right now but I'm trying to hold on and enjoy the moments.  A family friend (Lisa) just lost her battle with cancer in her 40's this week.  I was the coordinator on and it was HARD.  I didn't know her so well but I knew her sister and wow.  I couldn't believe it when she died.  She had a 12 year old.  Death seems to be the theme around here lately.  Lots of deaths at work, Snoopy (who died the Wed before thanksgiving), Lisa... when I have a lot of deaths at work I go to the L+D floor and look at all the tiny babies and rejoice that there is a season to life.  A time to be born and a time to die... So I try to take more time for snuggles and books, more time for crafts and play, more time with Wesley.  Because you just never know. 

Loosing Snoopy was hard.  And the first weekend was hard.  It was great to have mom and dad here and the just general buisness of Thanksgiving.  I miss the dog she was, but not the dog she was at the end.  I honestly don't miss the puddles and the meds and the fighting between the dogs.  Daisy has not had an accident since the first couple days after Snoopy was gone.  I gather she was peeing over Snoopy spots/on areas where Snoopy would be.  I know Snoopy is happier and Daisy is happier too!  She's enjoying chewing bones, snuggling with us etc.  Robert said today that we need another dog but I really don't think we do!  When we donated the rest of Snoopy's antibiotics to the SPCA we went in to look at a dog that looked like Snoopy but was really a spastic crazy puppy that I didn't want anything to do with!  I'm so glad it turned out so completely wrong for us!  And glad that some other dog could use Snoopy's meds.  We had just refilled her other pills too and Costco took them back since they weren't opened so that was nice!  We continue to have 2 crates-one is her day crate and the other is her night crate, lol.

Now to Christmas!  I am so excited for Christmas this year.  I trust we will all be home and well.  I'm making felt food for Mary's kitchen and felt activity books for Robert and Logan.  We're doing the fisher price advent calendar and have gotten out the Christmas books and I got an advent one as well from CBD.  The playmobil nativity came today as well so we are playing, reading, singing Christmas!  The kids' play is this Sat and I'm excited to see it.  Their program at church didn't go too well but it was their first time in front of a group.  Mary def had the deer in the headlights look.  Robert said he just didn't want to sing, lol. 

The kids are enjoying the seasonal stuff-Christmas tree cakes, eggnog, and tonight fruitcake. I asked Robert how it was and he said "mmm, tastes like playdough".  Then he said "yummy".  We were rolling on the floor laughing!  Both kids ate their slices.  I gave the rest of my 1/2 slice to Mary.  I still do not like fruitcake.  Maybe it's because I don't like playdough either???

Well, I think that's all the news from here...

Monday, November 22, 2010

misc assorted stuff

When we were packing to move here I laughed at Wesley.  My boxes were all labeled with "spices", "books" etc.  And Wesley's were pretty much labeled "misc assorted stuff".  Poor guy.  But I have a sneaking sympathy for him tonight when I really have no idea what to label this blog post. 

Snoopy is still hanging in there.  Wesley took her last week to the vet in Waynesboro and he recommended putting her on 3 different antibiotics.  2 are twice a day and one is once a day. This is in addition to her 2 stomach pills and her cancer pill.  He also said we can increase her cancer med to twice a day and see how that does.  She isn't really wanting to eat, we're having to give her extra stuff in her dog food to make her eat.  I made a gravy out of supper leftovers and that went really well tonight.  She seems a little better than she did, so I guess we'll see how things go.

I've been having a blast making felt food for the kids for Christmas.  I'm working on a turkey tonight-too cute!  I think they'll really love it-I hope they will!  So far I've made fruit (orange, apple, kiwi, grapefruit, lemon, lime, pear), a 1/2 bread loaf and 2 slices of bread that fit into a hot pink bread pan, some Christmas cookies and now the turkey.  :) 

The kids are doing well.  We had a good weekend, they were relatively well behaved.  We've had to pull Robert and Logan out of nursery during worship due to a sudden influx of 7-12 month olds (we had 4 the other week!).  They are technically too old to be back there so it was past time.  So this was Robert's first week in church with me for worship and he did well.  I took crayons/coloring book/space flashcards and he picked out a handful of cars/trucks.  That seemed to get him through worship, announcements etc OK.  Mary wasn't sure about being in nursery without Robert but I talked up helping take care of the babies and she went for it!   

Ms Sherry was telling me about the Christmas play practice today-Mary and whoever it is who will be Joesph-Jackson maybe? were up front and then they called for whoever is going to be an angel and reminded him to fly his arms.  Mary proceeded to try to fly her arms and hold the doll baby Jesus all at the same time, she said it was hilarious.  Robert's funny is that he calls egg nog "egg noggin".  It is too cute :)  He is playing more and more with his legos and with the dress up stuff.  I got a wicker hamper at the sunnyside sale last weekend and it is working great for the dress up clothes.  I have some more put away to give him for Christmas.  Mary spends all her time with her babies.  She takes such careful care of them.  It's so cute.  I've really been battling eczema with her this winter-it's getting really old.  I can't wait to have her out of her shirt! 

I had a dentist appointment today and they massacred my teeth so I've taken some ibuprofen and am chilling while Wesley give the kids a bath.  No cavities just lots of tarter.  I got the kids dressed and to school and picked them up and made supper so I figured I've earned a few minutes of down time.  Tomorrow I have tele class so my normally free/catch up on the laundry/house day will be gone doing that.  Sigh.  But I really don't think I could pass the test without re-taking the class!

I can't believe Thanksgiving is coming so soon and I know that before I know it it will be Christmas.  It's crazy.Working full time has really made the weeks fly for me.  Every time I turn around it's Friday.  I think it's because I work wed and thurs nights so I go to work Wed, sleep, back to work and wake up and it's friday evening, lol.

Tuesday, November 09, 2010

Life in these here parts...

is busy. I worked 42 hours last week, a combo of 3 nights, a class and a 4 hour day shift.  Blech.  I have had enjoyed the time that I've been able to spend with the kids though!  We've had some fun times after school and then Sat we went to walmart as a family and then Sun we went out for ice cream and to Ollies (discount store) and just hung out.  This week I just have my 3 12 hour night shifts so that will be good.  I'm fighting off a cough/sinus thing so I'm def trying to get extra rest and fluids.  I was just dragging last night at work but I made it though-even through the never ending to-do list that people called in.  3 transports for PACU, 10 IV/labs, 2 EKG's... there for a while it seemed like it would never end.  I'm glad to be home in the QUIET this afternoon.  I need to get the house picked up and work on laundry some here in a few min but I'm enjoying relaxing and watching trashy TV.  I'm not sure how I ended up watching Steve Wilkos but I guess I'll stick with it and see who is lying, lol.  It does give me some perspective on some of my patients...

The kids are doing well.  They are starting to play TOGETHER which is so cute to see.  Mary is obsessed with nursery rhymes recently, we have a clip on one of the kid DVD's and she wants to watch it over and over.  Robert is obsessed with dress up, we got some more costumes when they were 90% off at walmart.  I have some put away for Christmas, I think I'll put together a dress up trunk for him. 

I'm really worried about Snoopy.  She seems to get more tired day by day.  She has a lot of trouble peeing (although eventually she can get it out).  We're going to do a culture and then start another round of antibiotics and see what that does.  I just don't know.  I for some reason just lost it yesterday at the vet.  Couldn't strop crying.  I guess as a nurse I see so many people who are dying and something in me says that she is .  It just really hit me yesterday.  There was a lady in the waiting room who had a dog in a similar place and she was so nice and helpful.  Her advice was "when you are no longer having fun the dog is no longer having fun either".  It's just going to be so hard to decide when and how to say goodbye.  And then how to get through it with the kids.  Triple blech.

The good news is that they have finally hired someone to do 1 day/wk so that will help some.  I've gotten some days off before and after Christmas which will be nice.  I am going to be working some Sun nights though as well, some weeks I'll work sun instead of mon.

Saturday, November 06, 2010

TAG

1) The best investment you ever made:
-college I guess but also when we made the walls thicker/heavier insulated in the house we built

2) If you could’ve written any book, directed any movie, and composed any song, which three would you pick:

Book: Little Women

Movie: Princess Bride
Song: no idea
3) Weirdest quirk:

I really hate to call people on the phone.  I'm much better about it than I was (since that is the hugest part of my job) but still...
4) One wish immediately granted:

The upstairs cleared out and finished

5) Most expensive hobby:

it was scrapbooking/staming.  I hate to think how much $ I have tied up in that I don't do now.  Now probably raising kids, lol.  They are expensive!

6) An inexhaustible gift-card at which store:

amazon!!!!!!!!!!!!

7) In another lifetime, you’d be:

a colonial person, preferably a midwife.  Complete with hoopskirts.  I've always wanted to wear a hoopskirt.

TAG:

Jodi!

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Fall Pics

apple butter group shot

cousins playing

Robert working the apple corer/peeler

Mary and her scarecrow

Robert and his scarecrow

Halloween!




all dressed up!

to infinity and beyond



afterwards...
Rapunzel

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Pumpkin pancakes, fall cleaning and a Mary update :)

I know, it sounds long just by reading the title!

Last weekend was fabulous.  We took Caleb (our 3 year old nephew) with us to the pumpkin patch complete with fenced in play yard and we had such a great time.  It was very fun.  We packed a picnic, played, took a hayride, ate, picked pumpkins (we let each kid pick a tiny pumpkin-turns out they are only 50 c each!), and generally had a good time.  It was nice family time.  And nice to bond a little more with Caleb. 

So I made it through another week.  Work is still busy (crazy busy actually!) and I worked an extra 4 hours on Sun night for double pay.  Then came home and slept a few hours, got the kids off to school and sat down with my netbook and a cup of tea (I had a sore throat).  Dumped the tea all over the poor netbook :(  Somehow by the grace of God and the skill of Wesley it is fully functional.  For a day or so the R key didn't work but it's back!  Whew!  Wesley had just warned me the other day about that but I didn't listen.  So I had a 2 day time out (no netbook!) to teach me my lesson!

But the big news of the week was the birth of our second nephew, Jacob on Wed.. He is such a sweetie.  It's so nice to have a newborn in the family!  (and so nice that it isn't mine!).  I wondered if I would have baby lust when he was born but I think (OK know) that I am happy to be an adoring aunt to two cute boys!  And hopefully some more if Rob and Kavitha have kids!

I actually made it to the gym 3 days this week, and managed to keep the house picked up and meals (mostly) made.  They've been un-impressive to say the least.  And Thursday I had to be back at work at 5 pm and so I gave up entirely and told Wesley he could pick up BK or something.  I didn't manage to get the weekly housework done but somehow the kids were cooperative and I was able to get the basics PLUS a whole lot more done today. 

The kids' clothes are sorted out, the old stuff is out, the fall stuff is in (with plenty of short sleeve shirts for the interim weather), their room is cleaned up even more (it really wasn't bad).  The diapers are gone (all we have left is pull ups that they wear at night and I think we are almost done with them as well!)-RMH is doing a diaper drive for united way so they are in the car ready to be donated tomorrow when I work.  Wesley did a detailed vacuuming of the carpeted areas-even upstairs and the stairs.  I did a detailed sweeping/moping/dusting of the rest and then finished the bathrooms tonight.  Earlier in the week I had bought new storage containers for the toys so we could put them away easier.  One for matchobox cars and the car mat, one for pirate stuff, one for tractors and loader/dumpers etc, one for Thomas trains (take along) and its track, one for snap n style dolls.... It looks a lot better! 

I decorated last weekend so the house looks clean and cozy and decorated for fall.  Ahh.  The kids have been coming home with crafts galore recently, so the picture window is covered in leaves, acorns, pumpkins... and they even made toddler sized scarecrows this week.  They are soooooo cute.  If anyone is looking for a good preschool daycare, I recommend Kidzone!

The kids are so crazy together.  They really love each other and play together... and fight.  Moooooooom he took my stroller and my baby doll.  Moooooom, she has my space rocket.  But over all they love each other and that is cool!  Today they played dress up and trains and baby dolls and ball on the stairs (not sure what that was all about-Wesley was watching them while I made supper.  Ah yes, supper.  Pumpkin pancakes.  Wow, I am in love.  They were so delicious.  Especially with pure maple syrup.  Yum, yum, yum!  Here is the recipes I sort of followed.  Of course I used mixed spice for baking instead of measuring out all of those spices, lol

http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/pumpkin-pancakes/Detail.aspx

Now for the Mary update
Well for one thing, I'm calling her potty trained !!!!!!She has been dry day and night recently (as has Robert) so I'm hoping that I am seeing the end of diapers....that would be fabulous.

For another thing her scars are looking better and better every day.  I am so happy. Here is the latest pic, it had been a long time since we had done a chest shot and it blew me away...

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Fall!

Somewhere over the weekend away I caught up on my sleep and have had more energy to get stuff done.  I'm still trying to find the balance between work/house/gym/sleep.  Sleep is def a priority!  Work has been busy so it takes a lot out of me. 

Monday I got the yard cleaned out.  I took out the tomato plants, cut down the giant sunflowers and cleaned out the peach tree area.  It's nice to have those done.  I also got groceries and met Wesley for lunch.  The kids and I made pumpkin muffins :) Yesterday I slept pretty much all day.  I made PB playdough for the kids which they loved.  After nanny night I indulged in a couple episodes of Bewitched as I folded the 4-5 loads of clothes.  I stayed up some last night watching the Chilean miners get rescued and cleaned the kitchen up some.  There is still so much to do.  More cleaning, more exercising, more work, more sleep.  I work the nex t 2 nights so I'll nap some today.  I'm looking forward to staying home this weekend.  I'm hoping the weather will be good so we can go to the pumpkin patch as a family on Sat. 

We had a good weekend camping.  It was a little strange-we were planning on going to Todd lake but at the last minute Wesley needed to be on call for work so we had to be within cell phone range.  His boss' mother died on Friday morning so he needed to be the one on call.  So we went to Natural Chimneys.  We got engaged there so it holds a fond place in my heart.  The kids did well.  We were across the road from Charlie (Wesley's long time barber) who was there with all his kids and grandkids including a boy about 5.  But they were all doing family stuff and the kids kept wanting to go over there and it was just awkward, Robert was practically stalking the boy and it was strange.  We did end up taking a hike to the top and I was really surprised that Mary made it all the way to the top.  I did have to carry her down.  Of course I hadn't planned on hiking so I didn't have the ergo with us!  Roger and Peggy came over for supper on Sat (Peggy's b-day).  Robert spent a lot of time riding his bike.  We worked some on riding without training wheels but he isn't ready yet.  He is going to need a new bike soon-his is getting really small.  He is really getting tall and big.  My kids are really growing up!  Wesley also worked with Mary on her bike, she is getting there-slowly but surely.  I imagine that next year we will be spending a lot of time riding.  Wesley and I are going to need to start taking our bikes with us-Robert is getting faster and faster!

Sunday we came home after lunch.  I got the camper cleared out and then cleaned thoroughly and stuff unpacked and laundry started.  Robert is already talking about camping again, lol.  He does not like the idea that it will be spring before we camp again!

Mary has also been dry even at night recently.  We actually made it through the camping trip without any wet or poopy diapers.  What a change from the last trip (just last month) where she was in diapers pretty much the whole time because she wouldn't pee or poop in the potty!  She still has a couple pee accidents a week when she gets excited or doesn't make it fast enough but over all she is doing great.  Robert is mostly dry at night too so this is great :)  I haven't bought diapers or pull ups in a long time!

Sunday, October 03, 2010

Lazy Sunday Afternoon

Ah the quiet bliss.  There is a sunbeam falling across a sleeping dog on the floor, another sleeping dog next to me and I am snuggled in supreme comfort on the couch with a blanket and my netbook (I love my netbook!).  In the white chair is a butterfly cage wherein resides a sleeping caterpillar and thankfully Robert fell for my suggestion that the caterpillar NEEDED to watch the bug movie so he is sitting on the couch eating his toenails and watching with her(him/it?).  Mary is sleeping in her bed and laundry is going thump thump in the dryer.  Wesley is sitting up at his computer.  He evidently has not fallen for the bliss of being on the computer while reclined as I have.  I'm thinking I should just get rid of my desktop as little as I use it anymore!  I do use it to pull pictures off and to do powerpoint but that's about it.

We had a nice but too short time with mom and dad.  We made Robert some buzz lightyear wings and then each of them play wings for home.  Grandma came for supper.  Wesley and dad mowed.  The kids played outside. Mom and I took the kids to the Dr for their flu mist appointments.  Robert had to be talked out of eating the whole veggie tray and into eating some of his hamburger.  Simple, good times.

I'm back to work tomorrow night and we're thinking about going camping next weekend if the weather is good.  That will be our last trip and then it will be time to winterize the camper and hunker down.  It's been cold today and I can really tell that fall is here. 

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Re-invention

So this week begins another change in our lives.  I was offered and accepted a full time nursing coordinator night shift position.  These jobs don't come around very often (the person who left it had been a nursing coordinator for 24 years!)  24!  So she started when I was 6?!?  So I am really thankful and awed to be here!  It is interesting to see how it all worked out at the right time-so God!   I had just gone back to full time, I had just been thinking that I should go to night shift full time next year when Robert starts K and then all of a sudden here is a full time night shift coordinator job.  It is bitter sweet to give up floor nursing; but more and more I was feeling stretched too thin-too many different jobs and different skill sets to keep up with.  Being moved from unit to unit, job to job, shift to shift.  So I think this will be better for now.  AND the other full time person wants to work mainly weekends so I am pretty much off weekends!  There will be some times when I'll need to work 7p-11p on Sunday so she can go to evening church, especially until they hire someone to do the day a week that I did.  Thankfully Lori wants the overtime for now so she is doing 4 days a week :)

The kids are still doing well with full time daycare/preschool.  They come home with paintings and projects galore.  The last 2 weeks they did apples-apple people made of apple cores and Popsicle sticks, apple trees with toilet paper tube trunks, apples made of small paper plates painted, apple paintings with a little worm stuck on it and the favorite-apple pizza!  It appears that this week is about leaves-when I picked them up Monday they were water coloring leaf cut outs.  They have such a good time! 

We started the kids on allowance last week and that has made a huge difference in potty training and behavior.  They each have a list of tasks to preform and then can pick a prize at the end of the day; a quarter for a bigger toy, a small "squinkie".
http://www.amazon.com/Squinkies-Bubble-Pack-Series-One/dp/B003LQU12M/ref=sr_1_1?s=gateway&ie=UTF8&qid=1285766107&sr=8-1
One of Mary's "tasks" is to stay dry at home and to stay dry at school.  And since we've started she has done much better!  Especially at home!  She even made it though the weekend home with Wesley dry!  They are also picking up their dishes, putting their clothes in the basket, picking up toys, and Robert dresses himself.  Ahh, bliss!

More later I hope...

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

BEACH TRIP! Part 1

Thursday
It took us a long time to get past Verona-first we overslept and didn’t leave til 9.  Then we blew a tire at the very beginning.  Wesley ended up going with Roger to get it fixed and then we had to take the camper to the place and get all the rest repaired.  Sigh.  We had lunch at Verona and left there a little past 12!  We made it to Oregon inlet that night at about 8 pm.  The kids eventually went to sleep as did we.  Daisy freaked out over something she thought was thunder and was so annoying we finally stuck her in the bathroom where she spent the night. 

Fri 
We finally made it to Ocracoke about luchtime on Fri.  The trip over was perfect.  Mary slept on the way to the ferry and hung out with grandma and grandpa on the trip over.  Robert spent most of the trip with them so I took Sammy (one of their pugs) and then Sammy and Robert while Wesley hung out with Daisy and Snoopy slept.  Daisy has decided to be a lap dog and appears to be a little motion sick if you make her hang out in the floor of the back seat. Snoopy hangs out in her bed in the cargo area of the trooper.  After rest time and some quiet play (play dough, snap n style, Mr potato head) I took the kids to the beach for an hour while Wesley showered etc.  We played in the water, dug in the sand and collected shells.  We went out to the Jolly Roger for supper and Mary fell asleep on the way and slept until our food was almost ready to come out (and I woke her up).  She did end up eating a good supper and came home and went to sleep OK.  We have them sleeping together in the double bed up front-one each direction.

Sat:
Today was such a fun day.  I’ve really enjoyed spending time with the kids now that I don’t do it all the time.  This morning Robert hooked up with a little boy who unfortunately was leaving.  He and Sawyer had the best time riding bikes and playing together.  After they left Roger and I took Robert to the beach where we played for an hour.  Mary stayed with “wamma” (grandma) and they took care of the dogs and read books.  Robert was completely drenched by the end.  He ran through the waves, hunted shells, built sandcastles, dug in the sand.  It was great.  We came home for lunch and rest and rested until about 4 pm.  At 5 pm the 4 of us went to the beach and I played with Mary.  Her favorite thing is crumbling the hard pieces of sand between her fingers-oh and getting her feet buried!  Then the kids and I played and Mary took a bucket of shells and “left for work” and Robert and I created Ocracoke as sandcastle and built a ferry channel and Hatteras and a bridge and the mainland.   Roger had supper ready by the time I got the kids out of the shower-roasted pork loin, sliced regular and sweet potatoes cooked in foil and I made a salad.  Wesley and I took turns showering and then I washed some dishes and took the dogs for a walk.  Robert has been riding bikes all the time and has been straying a little to talk to his friends.  He went with me and the huge group of boy scouts already knew him by name, lol.  Snoopy took off running-she is having a great time and I’m glad we took them.  Having Daisy here is helping-Snoopy stays calmly in the camper with her which is so nice.  So now I’m listening to the surf  on one side and Mary on the other.  She’s alternately singing (Mary had a little lamb), making dog-dog play “taper, taper” (a French singing/motion game) and just now informed us that dog-dog pooped “oh dog-dog” she said in a most indignant tone. Wesley and I are silently cracking up.  These kids are certainly something!  As are the mosquitoes.  I haven’t been bit so much since, well the last time we were here, lol.

Sunday
Sunday dawned rainy and windy so we went to our favorite breakfast spot; the Pony Island.  We finally got the kids to eat-it took a while for some reason.  Wesley and I had salsa cheese eggs, we got them a pizza English muffin and fruit to split.  Then we did some shopping at the pirate’s chest. We got Robert a pirate playset which he has been playing with ever since.  Roger and Peggy let them pick out some pirate coins and jewels which have been perfect in the pirate chest.  We then went to a toy shop/gift shop where Peggy had seen a sand cupcake making set.  So I got that J  It is so much fun.  It works well with play dough too.  Our family came home for a sandwich lunch and then Robert and I took the dogs for a walk and then grandpa showed him how to fly a kite and then we tried Robert without training wheels but that didn’t go over well.  Roger took Robert to the beach while I read a while and then we hung out and made supper.  We were going to go back to the beach but the weather (which had cleared up pretty nicely by mid afternoon and was not raining but overcast before that) turned yucky again so we played pirates and watched “baby Robert” until bedtime.  The wind continued to beat around all night.

Monday
We made breakfast (eggs and sausage) and then headed to the beach for a couple hours.  We had such a good time.  Wesley and I were able to swim some, Robert splashed in the lapping waves (Mary is not really a fan), we made sand cupcakes, sandcastles etc. And just hung out.  Wesley and Roger picked up some seafood for lunch so we had that with leftover chicken, hotdogs and hamburgers from earlier meals and shells and cheese-yum.  Now Mary is napping, Wesley is resting and Robert and I are outside under Roger and Peggy’s canopy.  Robert technically is playing pirates but he’s doing so very slowly.  We took the dogs for a walk and washed dishes and got some lemonade.  All’s right with the world!  I hate to go back tomorrow…

After rest time we went shopping again-it was super duper hot and sunny so I didn't want Mary out in it, then out for a seafood supper and home for bed.





Tuesday

Home again.  It took 12 hours to get home-left the campground at 8:30, just got to the dock to catch the 9 am ferry.  We stopped briefly at the Body Island lighthouse (they are working on it and there is scaffolding all over it) and at a monstor truck thing which even had a petting zoo!  The kids were super good it was just a long day.  We got home about 8:15 and got the kids to bed, unpacked some... luckily I've been on call 3a-7a

Thursday, September 02, 2010

Mary Update and...well...life

Mary's appointment went really well.  She is down to just a sleeve, not a whole compression shirt.  And just that until Jan they think.  It's just her left upper arm that needs compression now.  It's so strange to see her without a compression shirt!  We had a good day together.  It was a long day and we waited a long time for both appointments.  We were able to meet up with a virtual friend from the parenting board I spend a lot of time on and that was great!  She had offered to help while Mary was in the hospital but it was so crazy and I was such a mess I never took her up on it.  We met up at the mall and had lunch and then played at the kids play area there for a while and chatted.  Then Mary and I went to toys r us and then to our next appointment.  It was so hot but I had cash and got drinks from the soda machine and that really helped.  She slept all the way home and still went to bed at 8 (we got home at 6:45).

Snoopy isn't doing very well.  She wakes up at night panting (which wakes me up), is more lethargic.  She seems a little better on her antibiotics, less puddles etc.  But she HATES this round of antibiotics.  It takes forever to get them into her.  Thankfully it;s just once a day for 10 days.  I think we're at the beginning of the end and it is tearing me up.  I've never done this before and I'm not sure how to handle it.  I guess we'll know when the time is right to let her go. I know it's not yet.  And I am thankful that we have Daisy. Even though it is more work and chaos having her here helps.  We're taking them both to the beach next week and that should be good.  I think it will be Snoopy's last trip.

And lastly, there is a full time coordinator (night shift) position open.  I think I've decided to take it but we're ironing out details.  At the beginning it was that the other full time coordinator wanted to work every fri-sat-sun.  Then I heard a few min ago that she wants 2 Sundays a month off.  I guess we'll need to work out a schedule and see how it goes.  I hope she means Sun nights, not sat nights! It it's Sat night that will be hard to do.

The kids have been cute recently.  I went on a shopping spree today (or should I call it retail therapy)?  Robert had asked for light up shoes and I found him light up toy story shoes for $15.  I also picked him up 2 more toy story t shirts and I found 2 lego shirts that came with tiny lego sets.  I have them put away for later.  I got Mary a pair of light up shoes too and a helmet and some clearance clothes for next year and an outfit for fall.  I also stocked them up on socks (both) and underwear (Robert).  I told Robert when I picked him up today that I had a surprise.  He decided that he needed to go sit on the couch and close his eyes and so he did.  Well he was SO excited (as was Mary).  It was very cute.  He loves them.  He then decided that we needed to go swimming so I set up the pool.  Of course it was COLD so they didn't last long!  Mary is doing well with potty training with just the occasional accident.  She takes tender loving care of the babies, especially Amy (the bitty baby).  Well, I'm falling asleep so more later...

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Good times!

The kids are really settling into going to school everyday.  Robert still whines some but he goes willingly and is happy when I pick him up.  The last few days I couldn't get him to LEAVE daycare, lol.  It was really nice to have a quiet morning today. It was raining-a steady downpour and dreary.  So I just worked on some projects (listed the nursery stuff and the stroller on craigslist, uploaded pics etc) and cleared up the clutter, cleaned counters, swept etc.  No real housework, just getting the house livable again after the weekend!  Then I took a nap (yeah!) and then went to the gym, picked up a kid's rocking chair that I found on craigslist for $7!, got groceries and then picked up the kids!  Mary LOVES the rocking chair.  She tried to carry it up the stairs!  I had to take it for her and then she was right in it, rocking Amy.  Robert likes it too.

We had a great weekend.  It was good to just chill out and get projects done.  Sat Wesley finished mowing, replaced a roof vent in the camper (and ordered the rest) and picked up stuff to fix the camper awning and oil changes. Peggy and I got the kid's room fixed up (soooooo cute!)-I'll post about it separately and I hung out with the kids while Wesley project-ed.  That evening I froze a bunch of tomatoes and made "peach fondue" and "sundae in a jar" ice cream topings (canned).  Sunday after church Wesley picked up the pics from the fair (he won several ribbons again this year including I think two 1st place!)  His first 1st place ribbons ever!  And he and Roger fixed the camper and then they brought out this hand me down bike Roger's niece had outgrown and his brother had handed down for Mary. They added Wesley's training wheels to it (they still have his training wheels????) and Mary loves it.  Apparently she had seen the bike once before one evening while I was at work and I had never heard about it, lol.  I'm surprised she hadn't mentioned it.  She isn't anywhere near riding yet-doesn't have any clue about pedaling but we'll see how it goes at the beach where there is flat ground and sidewalks. 

These kids are certainly something!  Mary is having more and more dry days.  She gets a present at the end of the day if she is dry all day and she's gotten one the last few days.  Fingers crossed that we are almost done with potty training!  I feel like we've been working on it FOREVER.  She is reliably pooping in the potty and that is fantastic!  :)  Robert is still playing with legos non stop. He is definitely an addict.  And he loves the shoe organizer on the back of his door.  Any time he gets something that can go in a little pocket he rushes to put it away there (silly band or small dinosaur figurine-prize from school).  Mary is obsessed with "ouchies"-hers and yours.  She carefully looks at me to see if she can find an ouchie on me, and will tell anyone close by that she has ouchies (no, not her scars but small ouchies!). 

Speaking of her "ouchies" we go back on Monday to see the plastic surgeon and PT and I'm looking forward to seeing what they say.  I think she has improved so much recently.  I've been doing pretty hard masage not just on her jaw line but on her left upper arm as well which seems to be helping a ton with the thick areas.  I have a feeling we will need at least 1 new shirt since her pink one is torn at the elbow...  2 year olds are not meant to wear a shirt every other day forever!  Especially not one that thin.  I'm hoping we're nearing the end of the every 3-4 month visits with the plastic surgeon.  I'm sure he'll want to see her again in Dec/Jan which will be a year from the accident and hopefully we can get out of the compression shirt at that point.  But I'm not sure that I can dress her without putting a compression shirt on and doing the whole cream thing.  It's just such a part of everyday, twice a day.  It will certainly be strange for a while!  I'm sure we'll also hit toys r us on Mon-especially since we have a pretty big gap between appointments-11:30 for plastic surgeon and 4:30 for the PT (she is at the hospital that day-she'll call us if she can see us earlier).  I usually pick her up something and then a little something for Robert too.  I figure we can also check out the children's museum too if the day is dragging.  Or the mall :)

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

working on the kids room and misc

I've been having  a  great time working on the kids' room.  I've got all the posters now and they are in frames.  Robert has a space shuttle, planets and one of the milky way (or to quote him the milky wave, lol) posters.  Mary has 2 butterfly/flower prints which are gorgeous!  I'm trying to have enough stuff for Robert so when we get his room done it will be good.  And I decided to go on the light side for Mary since she still doesn't really have preference/taste.  I figure eventually we'll have a Tinkerbell or Princess poster in there too. 

I have the material to make Mary's fleece tied blanket and I got Robert's cloth too-but somehow I ordered regular material, lol.  I googled fleece and wasn't paying attention!  So now I need to figure out how to transform it and 1-2 sheets into a light bedspread.  He LOVES the fabric and I think it will be great.  I got twin flat sheets today at walmart for $3 each-one lime green and the other dark blue.  They both look great with the material.  I guess I'll call grandma and see what she recommends.  That might be a fun project for us to do this weekend and her machine would probably do better than mine.  Of course she may well have plans this weekend!  I've shrunk the green sheet and the material already.  I'm hoping to get Mary's blanket done Thursday which would leave me with just his bedspread to do and the pictures hung in the right places etc.  I also have wall stickers for each of them.  Glow in the dark planets and regular butterflies.  And 2 painted butterflies (and she already had one) for Mary and 2 stars for Robert.  Anyway, it's just so much fun to have new stuff in there and to have big kid stuff instead of the baby stuff.  They are growing up sooo fast!  I can't believe it. 

I almost don't remember when they were babies.  It was like there were other babies that went away or something.  I think about how much I stressed over baby food, sleeping issues etc and now I realize that those things were so fleeting.  Between the 2 of them I spent maybe 8-9 months making baby food, lol.  There are certainly things that I don't miss-pumping, spoon feeding, 2 in diapers, first thing in the morning poopy diapers... lol.  It really goes so fast although it doesn't feel like it at the time.  I think the best quote on that was "the days are long but the years are short". 

I'm still trying to find my balance again with going to full time.  It's been hard trying to find time to go to the gym, get the housework, laundry, groceries etc all done.  I feel like I should be able to ask Wesley to pick up some more but he REALLY didn't want me to go back full time so I kinda feel like I can't.  So I'm still doing it all.  Except mowing and bills.  And he occasionally empties the dishwasher and burns the trash.  And he has the kids a little more-especially in the mornings.  I haven't made it to the gym at all this week yet (maybe tomorrow but I will be between 2 night shifts) nor is the house really clean.  It's not bad but it's not great either.  I did get a shark steam mop and it is fabulous!  And I'm seriously thinking about having Cricket come once a month and do the hard cleaning.  I'll see what my first pay check since going full time looks like.  It also doesn't help that the garden is in full swing so I'm picking tomatoes and peaches and more tomatoes....  We still aren't anywhere with working on the upstairs and I'm frustrated with that. 

Speaking (earlier) of mornings, the kids' new alarm clock is fabulous
http://gifts.barnesandnoble.com/Toys-games/Teach-Me-Time-Talking-Alarm-Clock-and-Nightlight/e/860078000308

it turns green at a pre-determined time (7am here) and you tell the kids not to get up until it turns green.  Fabulous!!!!!!!!!!!  We were having issues with Robert getting up at 6:15/6:30 etc and that has completely eliminated it.  Now he does start knocking at 7:01 though so I think he is just hanging out and watching the clock, lol.  But that's fine because he is doing it quietly in his own bed, lol.


Work has been pretty busy over the last week or so.  Nothing too exciting, just busy.  I still love it though!

look mom!  Finally got the blog fixed!

Saturday, August 14, 2010

where to start?

I've been putting off blogging mostly because I don't know where to start!  But here we are, almost 2 weeks since we've been home and I think it's time to just 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8 SPLASH to quote Robert...lol.  That kid is a nut in the water.  He jumps and swims and jumps and swims (all with a life jacket).  No fear of getting his face wet or going under, no more spluttering or anything.  He really took off today using his arms (as well as his legs) and it was amazing how fast he could go.  Another light bulb.  And Mary was the star today-this was the first time she could swim independently.  We started like we did when they learned to walk-swimming between us and then another light bulb went off and she was OFF.  And I mean swim across the pool off.  Arms and legs.  And jumped in and climbed out and played with pool toys and by the end she was tired.  But stayed awake going to great grandma's (Grandma R's) and home (with help, lol).  And let me tell you they ate well!  And polished off the ice cream for desert too, lol.  Now I hear they are out to dinner with the Furr grandparents complete with a million silly bands and "new" clothes from a second hand store.  I hear Mary has 2 dresses on over her clothes, lol.  I wish I could see it! 

They were great at grandma's house.  I was so proud of them.  It's nice not to have to take the whole house with us anymore.  I don't even take a booster for Mary for quick meals like this-she sits next to Grandma and loves it!  Lunch was fabulous...mmm.  Grandma says we can swim at the pool their so we'll have to do that the next time-I'm sure she would get a huge kick out of seeing them swim!  We got home in time to put Mary down for a nap and get me ready for work.  I ended up doing a load of laundry because after today I'll be out of scrubs (up until this week I only had 3 sets of regular scrubs and 1 of Peds and my new ones came after laundry day) to make the 3rd day in a row I've done a load, lol.  So unlike me!  I generally do a load thurs/fri of all the cleaning cloths/pee stuff etc (between Mary and the dogs there is generally some of that-this week it's been mostly Mary) so I did that Thurs, then Friday Mary peed her pants 3 times in about as many hours (err! including twice in about 15 min at the school supper!) so I washed them and their clothes Friday and then scrubs and the wet swimsuit stuff today.  So I guess I won't have much laundry to do Monday!  I'll be glad to have 5 sets of scrubs now.

Full time is going OK. Last week was super duper hard.  I was SO tired coming back from Chicago and then going into 2 night shifts.  So tired.  But this past week has been better.  I don't know if it's because one of my shifts is in the weekend so they're not all together during the week?  I know Brenda says that the week when there isn't a weekend shift is the hardest.  This week I've been full nursing coordinator while someone is on vacation and this comming week I have an extra coordinator shift as well.  I'm working the weekend and then Tues and Wed night shift.  But then I'm off until the following Tuesday :)  I need to get in Thursday or Fri and catch up on the blood bank report I do.  I am SO far behind on it!

I've also been working on getting the kids' room fixed up again.  It's been fun to have a craft project to work on.  Last night I worked on some painted ornament things for their walls and re-did Robert's name letters.  I also have the 2 posters that we got for Robert and the air force museum framed and some art work that they had done that fits in framed (just in walmart frames).  I have 2 posters for Mary and 1 for Robert coming in the mail and material to make Robert a fleece blanket and I have the material but need to make Mary's blanket.  I'm going ahead and making a blanket that will fit a twin bed since I'm sure she'll be in a real bed before I know it.  Actually I guess she'll need a full size one since she'll get Granny's bedroom set but since I only have 2 yards of fabric (that's all they had) she'll get a twin!

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Chicago Part 2

Friday we went to the museum of science and industry.  Wow.  It was even more amazing than the last time.  The kids really enjoyed it and so did the big people!  Rob and Kavitha both joined us and we packed a picnic.  Mary liked the hatching chicks/baby chicks the best.  Robert liked the kids exploration area and the trains/planes/sub.  Mary didn't sleep at all until we hit the car late that afternoon.  Then she was out the whole way home.  Robert never did fall asleep.  I though he'd sleep in the car!  Wesley and I then went out to Mon Ami Gabi for supper while Rob and Kavitha along with Kumar babysat for us. The steak frites and then profiteroles were fabulous!

By Sat morning we were all exhausted.  The kids were still up when we got home at 9ish so they went to bed late.  The weather was drizzly.  So we hung around all morning and then went to Nookies for lunch and then to the Lincoln Park Zoo.  Mary liked the monkeys.  Robert loved the spiders/snakes/mice etc.  Mary slept through that part.  And then that was the end of her nap.  We were seperated on the double bus (Kavitha, Mary, Margaret on one and Wesley, Robert, Rob on the other) and Mary kept pointing to Robert and telling the people near her "that's my brother; that's Robert".  So cute!  Thankfully aunt Kavitha keeps cool stuff in her purse so she was mainly intertained with lotion, inhaler, and purse holder, lol.  The purse holder was definitely spit shined by the time she was done with it!  I think we had poppy seed chicken for supper.  Mmm

Sun we did the botanic gardens which were gorgeous.  But it was a fair bit warmer than previous days and by this time we were all dragging a little.  OK a lot!  They had a great garden scale train layout with all sorts of cool landmarks-from Old Faithful (erupts every 60 sec) to Mt St Helens (erupts every 30 min) to several of Frank Lloyd Wrights houses, the white house etc.  So cool.  The other gardens were also really cool.  There was a fountain you could splash in which was fun as well as tons of gorgeous layouts and plants.  I loved the scented geraniums.  Wow.  When we got home we went out for ice cream (yum!!!!!!!!!!) and then to the park.  We had planned on going out for pizza but by this time we all wanted showers and PJ's so we ordered in. yumm again!  And then we had all the fun of finding all our stuff and packing it all-which really didn't take as long as I was afraid it might.

And that was it.  Except the 14 hour trip home. It wasn't as bad as it could have been but it isn't in my top 10 favorite memories either!  The kids did well-I was expecting them to nap more but that didn't happen.  They did watch more TV though.  We ran the kids out at a home depot next to the steak n shake where we ate lunch (wow they have a great avacado burger!) at lunch time.

Saturday, July 31, 2010

Chicago Trip Part 1

Since I'm up crazy early with the kids I'll take a few minutes to blog. We
left on Monday afternoon after I got up. We made it to Dayton IN about 8
pm-we only stopped 3 times in that part (400ish miles). Once for a general
potty/stretch break. Once for a Mary poop break and once for a quick
McDonald's supper. We stayed at a motel 6 with a pool and went swimming.
The kids slept til about 6:30 and then we packed up and had breakfast at
Bob Evans. YUMM! We then went to the Air Force Museum which was fun. Mary
fell asleep in the car so I hung out with her while Wesley and Robert
looked at the planes outside.

We then went inside and I took Mary. We wondered a while, then found a
cafe and got a drink, found the guys, had lunch and hit the road. We made
it to Chicago in time for a yummy spaghetti supper made by Rob. We threw
the kids in the bathtub and put them to bed.
Wed we went to the Shedd aquarium. We had a good time there. The have a
show called Fantasea that was good (a dolphin show mainly). And a 4D movie
which actually was the first movie the kids have seen in a theater.
Luckily it was only 15 min or so but pretty cool. It actually
snowed/rained/elephant squirted us/felt the vibrations of a thundering
heard...
I think my favorite part was the sea lions. Robert liked this huge crab
thing, Mary liked the sea horses. Kavitha was going to join us but had to
work on some of her freelance stuff so she stayed home.
Thursday Kavitha's mom and brother joined us (along with Rob and Kavitha)
to go to millennium park where they were doing some kid stuff (a huge tent
with crafts, building stuff, tumbling stuff, hula hoops, interactive food
pyramid, reading corner etc). Then we had a picnic under the trees and
played in their fountains. After that we went to the lego store, to
Starbucks for snack and then american girl store. Robert got several lego
sets and Mary got a bitty baby. We came home and had a fabulous
shish-k-bob supper complete with b-day cake for me!

OK just getting this published-I started it at 6 am! more pics later

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Almost gone!!!!!!!!!!

I cannot wait for vacation! We are all super excited to be heading out soon for Chicago (well to Dayton, OH and then Chicago). This trip that we've been planing, thinking and dreaming forever is almost here and I'm sure in a blink of an eye it will be gone.

And I'm TIRED. I've worked 4 12 hour shifts in 5 days. But I'm almost done and soon I'll be off for a week! Sweet!

We've been cleaning and packing this weekend but took some time off Sat am to go swimming and had a blast. The kids are doing so well in the water. I really want to get Robert into swimming lessons soon. I think he can skip the introduction to the water part and go into the begining swimming stuff. I'll look into it when we get back. With a life jacket on he swims all over the pool (mostly kicking some hands), jumps off into the water and keeps his mouth shut and generally has a good time. Mary is starting to be able to kick around some-learning how to keep her mouth shut and head up is going to take a while and she holds hands when she jumps in. She had a ball!

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Busy weekend!

We had a bunch of fun this past weekend. Thursday Wesley took the kids to the lawn party to see the tractors. Friday we went to the firetruck parade, Sat we went to costco, walmart and to the old car/tractor parade and then the lawn party. Robert really wanted to win a stuffed animal. Wesley tried and couldn't but it had a kids win automatically so we let Robert try and he got one even though he missed (balloon dart). We later let him miss and get one for Mary! Robert wanted a alligator and Mary a little dog. Robert and alligator are joined at the hip. Mary makes the dog sleep outside the door, lol. She has been going to sleep better recently (not crying outside the door) Robert and Wesley told her the Robert's alligator will protect her!

Sunday we went to Heather and Ryans to swim and eat. It was fabulous. The kids had a great time jumping off, swimming etc. Heather and I finalized plans for a marathon cooking day yesterday which went really well. There was a huge storm right before I left which knocked out the power at our house so Wesley and his dad had to get out the generator-and the big one didn't work so they had to use the small one (which we own part of). The power came back on while we were at Nanny's having supper! whew.

We made:
cheesy potatoes
poppyseed chicken
chicken broccoli quiche
chicken nuggets/tenders (5lbs each!)
lasagne
breakfast bake
chicken/pea/rice bake
stuffed shells (160+ of them!)
white pizza
pizza dough
chicken in pinapple/lemon/catsup marinade

It was a long day and I sliced my finger rather badly while cutting the lemons. Yuck. Like hold it over your head for 5 min while holding tight pressure and it's still bleeding. Blech. It kept bleeding a while but has been better since yesterday. I'm def keeping it covered at work!

I've got 1 12 hour shift done and am almost 4 hours into a second. Then a day off and 2 more and we go to chicago!!!!!!!!!! whoot!

Monday, July 12, 2010

watching them grow...

Wesley and I were talking last night about how we don't take quite as many pics as we did-for one we're running around after them and entertaining them but for another they really aren't going though the big milestones anymore. It's a shame that there just isn't a way to capture the developing imagination on film, or the subtle improvements in talking, drawing, playing... Robert has gone from scribbling a crayon across the page to coloring different parts different colors. And then the stories he makes up! Today he had Zurg (the enemy to Buzz Lightyear) attacking me and then he attacked poor little piglet.

(here's what I e-mailed Rob earlier as it was happening)
Simultaneously I'm playing the (small figurine) piglet who is being attacked by a lego Zerg (from toy story lego set). His mommy (a bear dressed up as a pea pod) is giving him a cup of hot chocolate to make him feel better but the cup was so big that he fell in and had to be rescued. Silly piglet! I'm loving Robert's imagination!

I am NOT loving the "why". I think why is a 4 year old NO. It's just as annoying. Or more so.

Well kids are going nuts.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Children

We had a great time today picking raspberries and I have the legs to prove it (all scratched). Wesley of course doesn't have a scratch on him! The kids were really good and stayed with us. (Mary is scratched up, Robert isn't!). They've been enjoying the picnics and being outside. It's really neat to see the world through their eyes-it's all so fresh. Robert's imagination is really taking off and Mary goes through life singing little songs....

Tuesday, July 06, 2010

This morning

I'm trying to write a few lines more often. This morning Robert woke up and then Mary and they all piled into bed with us where we were trying to wake up. We were woken up about 4 with Snoopy barking (who knows why?) and it took us a little bit to go back to sleep. Anyways I digress. Robert left a minute and came back with 4 matchbox cars and handed them out-one for each of us. I got a little car with a surfboard on top, Wesley got a police car, Robert a tractor and I'm not sure what Mary had (didn't have my glasses on). We had a great time for several minutes. I got pulled over by Wesley but he let me off with a warning, Robert crashed into the hill (Wesley's legs), Mary puttered all over Wesley. Then Robert got out a few more tractors and I mowed my pillow and then my tractor and his car went to Flo's (v-8 cafe) for a drink.

Then after breakfast Robert wanted to watch "pictures" so we all (the 2 kids and Daisy and myself) sat in the green chair and watched Robert's first year and most of Mary's....

I love my family! I'm on call for work-the housework is done, the appraiser has come and gone and work has asked me to work night shift on OBV instead of today on Peds. Luckily I have a meeting tomorrow so I have childcare so I think I'll do it. Now off to finish lunch and laundry and try to take a nap!

Monday, July 05, 2010

Fella(s)

there was a clapping song I learned in PE class in Jamaica
"you can do it too cintronella little fella". I can't listed to Robert talk about fella without thinking about it. Who is fella? Well a butterfly or maybe all 4. I dunno. Actually its fella and his mommy and daddy (who hatched after fella but who's counting) and some other relation that hatched later. The kids talk to them in the same voice we would talk to a baby all high pitched and cute "oooooh fella, aren't you cute, aaaaaaaaaaaaaw fella!"

Yes, we finally got around to ordering the butterflies for the kit he got last year for his b-day (oops!). On the second attempt we finally got them and even though I was doubtful they would hatch, we had 4 turn into chrysalis and then hatch into butterflies. The first one hatched Friday and then the rest on Sat and today we let them out into the butterfly bush. We had been feeding them sugar water on butterfly bush pieces which they loved and so they went straight for it and seemed happy. The kids were super excited to see them go... it was a neat experience. I really didn't enjoy the forming chrysalis on my counter part but the rest was OK-especially after they hatched!

Saturday, July 03, 2010

hiking

I can't believe it but we actually went hiking on Sat morning and had a picnic. We went to hone quarry and climbed lovers leap. It was a gorgeous day, cooler in the mountains. Robert did great-walked the whole way there and back. Mary made it about 1/2 way before needed the backpack. And then I carried her most of the way back too (she only made it like 1/8 of the way!). Robert was as sure footed as a mountain goat-we had to keep asking him to slow down and wait for us. Snoopy and Daisy had a good time too. We had a picnic at the top and then played in the 1 puddle left of the creek when we finished the hike. The wild raspberries are starting to produce so we ate a few-and are thinking of going back next week to pick! This is the first time we had been hiking since Mary was born and it felt really good. We headed home for rest time and then I went to work and Wesley took the kids to the free afternoon at the Children's museum. Unfortunately they were in the middle of the parade so that made it a little challenging but he said they had fun.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

confessions

I know I haven't posted much recently but it's been a blur. Of work, the hospital move, cleaning up puddles, cleaning up messes, laundry. Lather, rinse, repeat. And then in the middle of it all I had the kids at costco yesterday (we literally had no bread and NO milk). No milk in a house with 2 kids is something akin to a nuclear spill or something. It's an emergency. And since the kids do better at costco than walmart (and that is where we also buy our milk) we went there. Anyways, we were in the eating area having snack (If you can call letting the kids split a ginourmous piece of cheese pizza a snack that is-and believe it or not they actually ate supper too!) and I got up to refill our drink. When I got back the guy next to me said, "your little girl kept calling after you 'mommy, mommy come back, I love you'". Aww! Little stinkers. He tells me that the next thing I know they'll be all grown up and I'll want these days back. Does absence make the heart grow fonder perhaps? He and his wife had 5 kids and home schooled them. They survived and I'm sure I will too.

The kids are all discombobulated from last week and Mary is big time regressing from potty training this week. Sigh. So many freaking puddles in this house! Even when she does pee in the potty she has to empty it herself and today she spilled it all over Daisy. Yesterday Mary made 2 puddles, Daisy made 2 puddles and Snoopy made a puddle. Yes standing right infront of Wesley. She didn't want to go outside and miss the kids eating so she puddled. Argh. And Wesley wanted to know where all the puddle cloths were. Um in the wash that is waiting to be folded-we had completely used up every single puddle cloth! And they are WHINY. Wesley hadn't been home 10 min last eve and he was done so it made me feel better that I was done too!

I hate to admit it but I am ready for the kids to go back to school tomorrow. Wesley wants me to send them full time even if I don't work full time but for some reason that makes me feel really, really, really guilty. Maybe we'll do 4 days a week which will leave us a free day to have fun :) I am tired, my house is a wreck and I've spent days working on it and I am done.

Confessions of a bad mommy

Friday, June 25, 2010

where to start...

It's been a little crazy around here and then everytime I think I'll blog I can't figure out what to say and it seems too overwhelming. It's still overwhelming, so I'll just sum it up

-the hospital move went well. And the last 2 nights have gone well too. We're still learning our way around but over all it's been really great.
-Daisy's doing fairly well. She is still coughing so I took her to the vet and he started her on antibiotics and now she's puking after the antibiotics. Sigh. Need to sort that out tomorrow. Pee accidents have been a little better.
-The kids are in VBS this week and LOVE it! Love it, love it, love it. And daycare has been working on Robert's fear of the vaccuum and he is so much better :)
-Mary is pretty much potty trained and wears panties all day, even at school and even at VBS :) :) :)
-had a good visit with mom and dad over Father's day. Did not enjoy the stomach bug that Mary gave me and then Robert got. But we're all better now!
-did I mention the kids LOVE VBS???
-we were going to go camping this weekend but it looks too hot so we'll just do some day stuff instead

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Daisy Dawg



Finally a (non SPCA) glimpse of our newest family member! She's fitting in just fine with the rest of the crazy/lazy/potty training members of the family (Robert is crazy, Snoopy lazy and Mary potty training!). We had a couple rough days and she and Snoopy still get into it occasionally but over all it hasn't been bad. And she has been PERFECT with the kids. Robert was running a matchbox car on her back while the vet was examining her and she just sat there. The vet was impressed. The vet thinks she is older than 4. 5 or 6 at least but should live to be 15ish with good luck since she's such a small dog (17 lbs). I think that her being older has really helped her settle in well-she is calm and not puppy crazy by any means. She's a snuggle bug, loves to curl up on your lap or sleep at your feet while you're watching TV or reading. We crate her during the day when we're gone and at night. That seems to be working well. She's only barked a couple times-once being today when a salesman came by trying to sell educational books. She had her vet appointment today. Overall healthy, no heartwoms but has intestinal worms. So we are de-worming and scooping poop.

Mary has been doing great with potty training-no accidents at all today and I even took her to the vet in undies (and forgot the diaper bag so I was sweating a little!). She peed there and was fine. This evening Wesley had her a little while I was next door helping put supper together (we grill together probably once a week or so) and she was quiet and then he heard a noise-Mary had gone potty in her little potty and was emptying it in the big potty! That's what I like to see! She has to pee all.the.time but I'm sure that will improve soon! I think we've been 2 weeks without a poop in the diaper and I've been keeping her in undies (sorry panties as she says!) at home-I just put shorts on if we're going somewhere. I LOVE it! I just bought a big bag of pull ups-maybe I shouldn't have! She's in diapers at night which fit a little better I think. Wesley is hoping she spaces out her peeing before the Chicago trip or it will take 20 hours to get there!

Work has been crazy. We're at less than 2 weeks til we move to the new hospital. I guess we'll be ready! It's been crazy to say the least. I'll be sooooooo glad to be in and settled.

Monday, May 31, 2010

Yet another night shift!

It seems that I only blog when I work night shift! The ED has settled down for now (there is always a big rush from 10p-1ish). And I have my grocery list/menu plan done I think. It's been a LONG weekend. I've decided that I don't like holidays where I have to work night shift. I've spent the day with the kids and doing laundry and keeping them happy while Wesley mowed. He did watch Robert while I took a nap though and let me sleep in this morning. Anyways, they are ready to go back to school and I am ready for them to go! If it hadn't been a holiday they would have gone to school, Wesley would have gone to work and it would have been peacefully quiet at home in between laundry! Robert talked me into playing candyland again, lol.

We had a pretty low key weekend. Nothing really happened. Wesley went to Brad's sat from 1pm-midnight. I took the kids to the park and then out to DQ for ice cream. Sunday was church and then we had supper with Wes' parents and Nanny. And then today we took the old blue van to get it's transmission repaired.

This week is another full time week. I work tonight and tomorrow night and then have super user orientation Thursday and work 7p-11p as coordinator Friday. So 36 hours.

Friday, May 28, 2010

Ta-berries!

You know, ta-berries. Like ta-berry tortcakes tar? (Strawberry shortcakes car!). Well we are a little strawberry obsessed over here. From taberry tortcake (and her tar) to the real deal to the canned taberries I did last night we got taberries!



mmm-taste, smell!


the boxes of strawberries

I think I see strawberry colored toes in our future!

the results of last nights canning-strawberry lemonade concentrate, strawberry jam and strawberries in syrup!
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The Strawberry Farm

The kids and I took our only day off this week and went to the strawberry farm to pick (and eat!). We had a great time!

Riding the wagon behind the John Deere tractor! See Robert likes this!

Mary isn't as sure-she's plastered to me on my lap


They did so well-I was so proud of them. Robert did a great job of picking the red berries. Mary did a nice job of just staying with us and not wandering off. They both managed NOT to break the little flag that marks where you left off. That was a feat in and of itself. Mary picked quite a few green berries but that's OK. She tried really hard. And was really cute.
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Camping etc

Here are a few pics of camping! Mary and her baby (can you tell that baby needs a bath BAD?)

Robert and a hose I guess. Being a boy...

Back home, a very dark but contemplative picture of Robert building legos. He simply CANNOT wait to go to chicago and see the lego store. We think we might just be able to talk big Rob into going with us for that.
And Mary and the leapster. Wow, worth every penny of the used price! They are both loving it and learning quickly how to use it!
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More pics-including 5 months post burn!

Mary in her big girl bed!
Mary 5 months post burn-it is amazing how much better it looks!

All dressed up for church! Aren't they cute! I love to see them go to toddler church!
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Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Big Kids Camping

This past weekend we went to the annual Argus collectors group gathering. We've gone every year forever it seems-since before Robert was born. It basically works that Wesley goes to the sessions and the kids and I camp with Roger and Peggy and join the group for occasional meals and for the photo shoot outing. This year was the best year ever. Last year with a 1 year old and a 3 year old was terrible-as was the previous year with a 2 year old and a newborn. But this year was much better. They slept better, they listened better, Robert played leapster, Mary played baby dolls. They played on the playground but also were happy to just hang out some too. MUCH BETTER. I actually read several books on the kindle while they played or watched DVD's on the portable DVD player. It does kinda feel like cheating when you camp with electric-A/C, DVD player, kindle that can be used for internet since we had cell service. One hot afternoon we got ice cream bars from the store and then had a water gun fight. (LOL, Robert got in trouble yesterday at school for turning something into a gun-oops!). We left Wed after I got up (I worked night shift the night before)-about 2 pm and came back Sun eve. We had a great dog/house sitter which made coming home so easy-Snoopy was fed, medicated and here waiting for us!

Monday and Tuesday I got up early to hit the gym before work. Monday I taught new employee orientation and then helped with IV therapy for a while. Tuesday I had new hospital orientation which was really fascinating. I am SO excited about the new hospital! So today is my first day home alone with the kids in a long time. I had worked full time the week before last, then they were at school mon-tues-wed until we picked them up before we left, then we were camping... then I went straight back to work. I'm off today and tomorrow and then work fri/sat/sun. I'll prob have 38 hours this week. This afternoon I still need to go to the gym and get groceries.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Living

We live, we love,
we forgive and never give up
'cause the days we are given are gifts from above
And today we remember to live and to love
We live, we love, we forgive and never give up
'cause the days we are given are gifts from above
And today we remember to live and to love

I'm pretty sure I blogged about this before-when the song had just started playing a lot on the radio. I heard it again today and it was a reminder to slow down. I've been kinda stressed today as I think about all the stuff that needs to be done before we leave. And worrying about how the kids will do-will I be horribly tired with crazy kids-will they refuse to go to sleep? Will I be functioning on like 4 hours of sleep? This was a reminder that each day that I have is a blessing-be it here at work, with the kids, whatever. I am blessed to live this life. This weekend with time to just play with the kids (no housework, no projects) is a blessing.

Monday, May 10, 2010

Garden, Mother's day and UVA visit

It's been a busy week outside! We've gotten a lot of projects completed mostly thanks to mom and dad and their help both with the projects and with kid wrangling! The square foot garden beds are done and filled (finished that today!), the area out back under the trees is done and mulched (and wow what a difference it makes!), and best of all-the plants are no longer on the freezer! I even moved the blueberry bush into a bigger pot and outside (and gave it acidic food per instructions!). We're getting a few strawberries here and there and the lettuce is really going well (in the flower bed). The peas and beans are popping up (how cute is that!) and I have tiny lettuce and spinach and basil in the square foot garden. I have a 4x4 square foot that has: lettuce, basil, peas, spinach, thyme, beans, strawberries, yellow squash, zucchini,





Then the 8x4 has:


tomatoes-16 Roma, 2 cherry, 2 slicing, squash plants (the 4x4 has squash seeds), cantaloupe, rosemary, sage, cucumbers (salad and pickling), watermelon. I grew the Roma's from seed and they don't look anything like the plants I got from the greenhouse. I'll be interested in seeing how they compare.





Anyways, those beds were my mother's day wish and I am sooooo happy to have them done! Wesley has decreed that dirt ISN'T cheap! At least compost, peat moss and special dirt with moisture beads isn't! But this is the only year we'll have to do that (for these beds-I can totally see adding another bed next year! Wesley was also able to get the camper cleared out for our upcoming trip on Wed to Eden NC and a trip to the dump and got mulch!



Mother's day was a nice day. Not a whole lot different but still nice. We had lunch with the Furr's-mmm Furr BBQ and then grandma over for supper. We did grilled chicken and grilled asparagus wrapped in bacon-YUM, rice and salad and brownie pudding. I also did a bunch of housework and the week's laundry (after realizing that this week is going to go really quickly with working 2 12 hour night shifts and a trip to UVA!



Today Mary had a 8:50 apt with the plastic surgeon and an 11:00 with the physical therapist (Leslie). The plastic surgeon gave me some tips to try to work on the area on her neck and was very happy over all. She came away with a handful of tinkerbell stickers from him. Leslie was ecstatic over how well her burns were "settling in" and thought her neck looked better than she thought it would-she did not recommend a compression neckpeice and further thought that we might be looking at just a year in her shirt and not 2! She gave us 2 bottles of elta sunscreen and 2 tubes of elta. We also squeezed in a quick trip to Toys R Us and a nice lunch at a local pizza place. AND Mary went poopy on the potty TWICE today!



Tonight I'm working on peds (7p-7a) and tomorrow night I'm working as coordinator (7p-7a) and then we'll leave some time Wed early afternoon to head to Eden for the argus gathering.

Friday, April 30, 2010

Spring!

Garden update:

Ahh spring. When tiny seeds you sprinkle around suddenly turn into little plants and some into edible ones! I think I could live to be 100 and never grow out of the amazement of little plants sprouting out of the ground. I ate the first tiny handful of lettuce this evening-mmmm. Just enough to cover a hamburger! We built a 4x4 square foot garden bed and planted strawberry plants, beans, peas and basil. I'm planing on having the guys build a few more next weekend when dad is here. I got a few more seeds too to plant more lettuce and spinach. I also bought a bunch of herb plants today too. I'm happy to see that at least some of them are perineals. I'm tired of replanting every year! I can't wait until I can really plant the garden (and get the plants off the freezer!) and better yet start eating! I have a bunch of roma tomato plants that I've grown from seed and they've made it so far and have really branched out the last week or so (I've been letting them hang out outside some pretty days). The strawberry plants mom got didn't fare well though so I had to replace them today :(. I feel so bad! The blueberry plant is doing well though. Have I mentioned that I can't wait to move them outside?!? I've also got sunflowers growing outside and some wildflower seeds I planted that are popping up. We got some plants last weekend at the native plant sale that JMU hosts that are doing pretty well too. I love my gardens!

Mary update:

I can't believe that it's been over 4 months since Mary's accident. I have some pics that I need to upload but I'm at work so I can't do that here! We go back to see the plastic surgeon and the physical therapist May 10th. Her shirt has been rubbing her raw in some areas-not on the burns but she has 2 places on her belly (now just 1) and one under her left arm that are pretty red/scaly. Wesley had decided to not do the elta twice a day... I've been soaking them with vit E oil in addition to the elta and that seems to be helping. I've also been trying to really get all the residue out of her shirts and rinse them well. I still don't love handwashing those things but it's now just part of the routine like the twice a day elta cream. Speaking of elta we have gone through a 16 oz jar of it and I've had to order another jar! It should be here this week. Her scars are looking really good IMO and I'm curious what the plastic surgeon/PT will think. She is really working hard at potty training. Recently she has been telling us when she is starting to poop and doing it/finishing it on the potty! She isn't reliably telling us when she needs to pee but really knows how to let pee out. I think we're pretty close!

She sings ALL THE TIME. Does "taper, taper" (a french song) with the motions in the car and with her dolls, ABC, twinkle twinkle, ba ba black sheep... she can count to about 13 and loves to show off. She's still either clueless about her colors or very color blind-all colors are red or pink, lol. She loves pretties-necklaces etc and will wear them awhile and then takes them off. She has a box of (hand me down) shoes that are still too big and loves to parade around in them or in my shoes. She def has a shoe thing! She loves to snuggle, plays the monkey game on the computer, can put on her own shoes ON THE RIGHT FOOT with velcro and all. She is a grandma's girl and worms her way into their house at any opportunity. Her crib has been converted to a toddler bed and she's done fine with that. She's very social, waves to people at stores, talks to strangers and has such a beautiful smile that people comment on how happy she makes them. She certainly blesses us! She can climb the rock wall by herself and go down the slide and she loves blowing bubbles. She is doing very well with keeping her hat on and reminds you that she needs it!

Of course she is also 2! So strong willed, runs away giggling when you're trying to do something, into EVERYTHING. She is a good eater-they both love their fruits and veggies. She still puts pretty much everything into her mouth which is pretty scary. I have to be very careful what is in reach. Especially since she now knows how to move chairs. I made the mistake of letting the kids smell the vanilla bottle last time we were making banana bread together and the other day I was washing dishes and looked down and Mary had the vanilla bottle (large plastic squeeze bottle from costco with a flip lid) open sniffing it going "mmmm smells 'lishous mommy". Sigh. Now where to put the vanilla... She's doing well at school, has no problems when we leave, seems happy and came home with the cutest painted butterfly today. I think her favorite part is the peice of candy they get when they leave if they still have all 3 shapes up next to their name. She certainly has a sweet tooth! I wonder where she got that?

Robert Update:

Robert continues to grow up daily-in every way. I swear he's grown another couple of inches! He is more social, talks to strangers, seems more confident every day. He still is a little clingy at drop off but almost like it's a game now. He likes school and is learning stuff every day. Although when you ask him about his day he usually talks about lunch and nap! Today he talked about sight words and writing so I guess he's absorbing more. They certainly come home with piles of papers every week. His pictures are more colored than they had been and it looks like he's making some progress with writing his name. He flat out refuses to write for me, lol. He plays daily with his legos, loves books and the national geographics kids magazine subscription he got for his b-day. He is very excited about clearing out upstairs/finishing the upstairs so he can move up there with his geotrax! Now to get Wesley motivated. He loves playing outside and is doing a great job riding his bike. I can't wait to go camping with him (there's a parking lot that is pretty much unused-it's for boat parking that I think will be great for bikes!). He pretty much knows his boundries and stays in them and asks to go somewhere else. He talks so much now and pretty involved stuff about what he's been watching or what happened. When we converted Mary's crib he decided he didn't need toddler bed rails anymore so we took them off and he's done fine without them. He's completely potty trained (night too) and sleeps in underwear which makes mornings so much easier! He dresses himself except his shirt (hasn't figured out how to get it started-we need to work on that) and undresses himself. He can do his shoes and we were pretty close to putting on/zipping his coat-I'm sure he'll have it next fall/winter. He's still really sensitive about loud stuff-vacuum cleaner, lawn mower, food processor. He completely freaks out about the vacuum cleaner. He's doing great with cleaning up his toys (with prompting) and the house has been looking a lot better recently. Of course getting rid of about 3 large bags of stuff helped... He loves to help in the kitchen-mainly with baking/pizza dough making. He has a healthy fear of the stove. Boy I wish Mary did! She's still right under foot! Recently he has become more of a snuggle bug and will crawl into my lap and say "I love you mommy". The first time he said that out of the blue I nearly cried. It was sooooo sweet! Now he tells me that daily! He's my sweet little boy!

Snoopy update:

Snoopy seems to have settled in with her meds and is doing pretty well. It takes her a little longer to pee-mostly at the end she stands there like she feels like she still is peeing/needs to pee. But she really isn't going out more often than before or having accidents. She is frisky (sometimes too frisky when she has her nose on the table trying to get the kid's food!), happy and looks good. I gave her a bath this week and she looks beautiful-so soft and shiny. She goes for her anual checkup next month. The vet says we could re-ultrasound at some point but I'm not sure whether we would do that anytime soon (there isn't a local place-we have to take her to Waynesboro for ultrasound). For now I'm just greatful for each day with her! We finally found a house/dog sitter for our trip to Martinsville in a couple weeks and I'm relieved about that! We generally put her in a kennel but I'm not sure they could do 2 meds 1-2 hours apart and I'm afraid she wouldn't eat and start puking again... So it sounds like for about the same money a friend is willing to stay at our house and take care of her :)

Work update

RMH is at 59 days until the big move to the new hospital. It's pretty hectic at work and there are lots of changes going on. I'm working a mix of coordinator/float pool and peds and that's going pretty well. It's good to be back to peds some. I've taken over a blood bank monitor that I do 1-2 times a month where I review when people don't do the documentation for blood transfusions right and create a table with the details. It's an interesting job. I've also re-joined the professional practice comittee. I've started sending the kids to "school" the day before I work night shift and having a chance to rest the day before has made all the difference in the world! I feel much better. It also gives me some time pretty much every week to do some housework and some me stuff. Whether cooking/gardening/errands/reading...

Well since I probably lost most people a paragraph in I guess I'll stop. This is me on starbuck double shot... lol. I keep a few cans in my locker for night shift.