Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Happy Birthday Baby!!!

The boy, man now, that I first fell in love with about 15 years ago turns 33 tomorrow! Happy, happy birthday sweetie! I will love you forever!!!

The countdown has begun...

I don't know what the deal is, but the sickness has descended upon the Whitman house. It is not as bad as it could be, though. No stomach issues - to me that is the worst. We have had someone in some stage of illness for two full weeks now. Jack and Jeremy were sick the week before we went to Tennessee for our early Christmas there. Then the morning we left to come back to Kentucky, I woke up with a sore throat. This turned out to be the sorest throat I have probably had in my entire life...and I used to have strep throat about once a year. In third grade I had it and since I knew that the "cure" was a penicillin shot, I decided not to tell my parents. I went to school with a majorly sore throat and a fever for days all to avoid a needle! People who used to know my aversion to needles should be amazed that I have had children. Anyway, Jack's production of green snot has slowed down considerably. Madalynn wakes up kind of yucky, I think mainly because she is so stopped up that she has breathed through her nose all night and it makes her throat sore. Jeremy and I, strangely, feel terrible in the mornings and at night. We feel pretty good during the day, but towards bedtime here comes the stuffiness and sore throats. I am grateful it isn't worse, but I am ready to be better.

We are supposed to go out of town this weekend. We are just going to the Smoky Mountains, but I am looking forward to having him all to myself regardless. We hope to see some movies and I hope to get some sleep. He can watch sports on TV! We only have a few short weeks before breeding season. That's the hardest time of year, every year, for ALL of us. Jeremy's job is like a pressure cooker. No one really understands how much pressure he is under. Wealthy farm owners and horses worth at the very least 10's of thousands if not millions, farm managers that have to make sure they do all in their power to make the farm owners happy, the threat of lawsuits if things don't please someone, and trying to hold on to clients that might be looking for any excuse to hire a cheaper vet; all this while the economy is in the toilet and profits have decreased dramatically. Who wouldn't be stressed?

He and I have had moments of closeness lately though. We went to lunch at Red Robin a couple of weeks ago. It was his idea to get his grandparents to keep the kids here while we got away. Since I got this laptop, I have tried to hang out downstairs with him more. I feel so encouraged that maybe he thinks about trying to make time for us.

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Christmas 2009

Christmas has come and gone and I am now using my new laptop to write my blog entry today. Still working out some kinks, but loving it overall! Thanks to my wonderful husband Jeremy, I can now look up recipes while in the kitchen, instead of running up and down the stairs. I can email teachers from the kitchen while the kids are eating breakfast. I can check the bank account from the couch! I love it.

The kids had a great Christmas. Santa didn't bring everything on their lists. (Madalynn just didn't want to believe that it was simply a suggestion list, not an inventory of exactly what would be under the tree.)Madalynn got a BB gun (Jeremy) with custom painted (with nail polish) initials on the stock. She got a game for her leapster, although she said Diego is a boy's game. She got an Ariel sparkle baby and portable crib. She got a neck pillow, a digital camera, a cap, slippers, underwear, lip gloss, a purse, and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and more.
Jack got a custom camouflage BB gun (minus the BBs)He loved it! He has been wanting one like Daddy's. Daddy bought one as a consolation prize for not getting to take a trip to AAEP and Las Vegas. Jack got a big wheel, (very popular), a set of Handy Manny tools, a bounce back racer, a truck, a tractor carrier for all his little tractors, some underwear, a sweater, a four wheeler, and lots more.
This is the first year the kids got us up. Jeremy's phone rang and in just a few minutes we heard what sounded like elephants being herded down the hall.I had been laying in bed thinking this might be the last time I could go down first and get a picture of their faces when they see what Santa brought for the first time. Oh well, they grow up too fast.
We opened all that Santa brought and then I cooked breakfast. We had waffles, bacon, and pigs in a blanket. We have all been sick so all but Jeremy laid around in our jammies all day watching Christmas movies.
I had cooked dinner Christmas Eve and we opened the presents from us to the kids and I got to open this, (my laptop). I had been wanting one, but hadn't had time to do research to figure out what I wanted or needed. Jeremy did a little research and went and got it. I am very pleased. He didn't make out so well. All I got him was a drimmel tool and some accessories. Oh, well. Too many disappointing birthdays will make a person buy buddy Christmas gifts. Maybe since he did well on the Christmas present, he will get a celebration for his birthday. I always try and do birthdays up big, and had almost crossed him off the list, but I think I will make an exception this time! :)

Sunday, November 29, 2009




Well, Thanksgiving is over and I finally have all our Christmas stuff up. I put up 3 trees this year! I have the big one in the living room with our ornaments. A western or cowboy one with all of our cowboy/western ornaments in the foyer. We have the kids tree upstairs with colored lights and all the homemade ornaments and all the ornaments the kids have made at school. They look really pretty. I kind of wondered why I was decorating and doing so much, and got to thinking. Almost every year I have moved right before Christmas. In 2004 we lived in Texas and it was our first year with a baby. In 2005 we had just moved to Calumet Farm into our second house in 6 months. In 2006 I had a 3 month old baby. In 2007 we had just moved into the big house we bought in Georgetown. In 2008 we had just moved into the house Hill n' Dale built us. So no wonder I have never done this much! I also bought lights and decorated some of the trees outside. We have a lot of little spruce type trees here so they are perfect for Christmastime. I have already boxed all the fall stuff back up and have transported most of it back to the storage building. Not bad for a weekend.

We still don't have the suburban back. I would hate to know how long it would take to fix one that was seriously damaged. I took it to the body shop on Thursday, November 12th. It is now November 29th. I went to pick it up last Wednesday and everything on the outside looked great! I had already had a round with the Enterprise rental people. I tried to get them to come to the body shop and pick the car up, to save time if I got there and there was a problem with the Suburban. They refused. I had to drive all the way out to their office then drive back through Lexington in 4 o'clock the day before Thanksgiving traffic. We get to the body shop, I get the keys, look the car over, get the car seats in, all seems good. The rental guy leaves with the Tahoe. I get in and start to put on my seat belt. They are still locked!!! The guy didn't' realize that they needed to be replaced! So by now it is almost 5 o'clock Wednesday night. He tells me he will try and have it finished on Friday. In my mind I think "Yeah, right!". I hurry and call Enterprise and ask if they can get a hold of the guy that just left because my car isn't finished after all. He was barely out of sight! They try calling him and (of course) he doesn't have his cell phone with him. So the kids and I wait in the car for him to drive all the way to the Enterprise office and then back to where we are. I then have to drive him back to the rental office!!! By the time I walked back into the door at home, it was 6:30pm. When we left, I just got the kids up from their nap and went to get my car. Thinking it would take an hour tops. We finally get home, the kids are starving because in addition to not getting a snack, it is now supper time. We didn't make it to church. Needless to say Wednesday was not my day!

It is now Sunday. I still have no suburban. Maybe tomorrow...
We have had this rental so long, we have driven to Knoxville for another football game. (UT vs. Vanderbilt) We then drove to West Tennessee to do our Thanksgiving with our families early. At least we weren't putting those miles on our car! The warranty is almost out on it so that is one plus to all this.

While we were in Tennessee I drove to Jackson to have lunch with my sister who is due to have a baby December 3rd. We went into a little shop that had some really cute stuff. I got the kids' teachers gifts there. I still need a little something else for them. I have also got to figure out what we are getting everyone else that we buy for. We are doing our Christmas early too. Plus Jeremy and I are leaving for Las Vegas on Saturday. Jeremy's grandparents will be coming to watch the kids for us. Madalynn will have school all that week. She will also have another Christmas program that we will be missing for the second year in a row. This is probably the last year that I will be going to AAEP. I can't keep missing this kind of stuff. I hope Vegas is fun, but when you don't drink or gamble I have to wonder how fun it can be. We do have tickets to the NFR which I am looking forward to. We have never been and Jeremy has splurged and got us some really good seats. So you might see us on TV during the roping on Monday night!

I have lots to do this week to get ready for our trip and get everything ready for the grandparents to be at our house. Plus I may have a new nephew just any day!!

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Stuff




It has been a while, but everyone in this family is...at the moment...WELL! Healthy, not sick, no major coughs, runny noses, or overall feelings of yuckiness! Well, except I don't feel just right and Jeremy is dealing with yet another horse sale. (Today 2 of them!)So his mood is less than ideal. The economy is terrible and even in this land of horse people who are willing to spend a decidedly CRAZY amount of money on an animal, times are tough. So from now till Thanksgiving, Jeremy will be working a lot and many times be in a not so great mood. On to other stuff.

My good friend, Joni, who had such a worrisome pregnancy, gave birth to a healthy baby girl, Halle, a week ago. She just weighed 6 lbs 4 oz, but came on her own. Joni had 9 months filled with "supposed" medical experts telling her she had a large tumor that needed to be taken out as soon as possible and might necessitate a c-section and a baby born early. Turns out she is fine according to an MRI that was finally done. I can't wait to see Miss Halle again!(I took Joni and Caleb lunch the day they came home from the hospital.) My kids are dying to meet her. (I am hoping this will allow me to put off the need for another little one for a little longer.) I just love babies!!


Halle Grace is by far, the tiniest baby I have ever held! My babies weighed 7lb 11oz and 8 lb 6 oz respectively.

We went trick-or-trunking (at church) and trick-or-treating (at Calumet and the Morehead's neighborhood)this year. Or I guess I should say Micky and Minnie did! Jack really had it figured out this year. He was racing Mady to the doors and knocking if they didn't answer fast enough when the bell was rung! We will still have candy left this time next year.


Jeremy was offered tickets to the Tennessee game on Halloween. Tickets, a ride to Knoxville, a barbecue with the Boosters!!! All for FREE! It takes a good man to turn all that down. Although an opportunity like this probably won't present itself again any time soon, he did the right thing. Micky and Minnie won't be around forever! Well, guess what? We got 4 tickets to this past weekend's Homecoming game against Memphis! Yeah! We not only got to go to a Tennessee game, but got to take the kiddos to experience the fabulosity of Neyland Stadium! They went to their first game last year. Jack loved it! He has carried the playbook around since we got back Saturday night. Madalynn dressed up in her Tennessee cheerleading outfit. We left at halftime, but the kids got a hot dog and a sweatshirt out of the deal so they were happy. Unlike last time, we got there early and got to see all the players run out of the "Power T" and we got to see the band perform. Very Cool! *We also got our picture made with Jay Bush and Duke from the Bush's baked beans commercials. They had some special meet and greet things since it was homecoming. Bush's baked beans is headquartered in Tennessee.

We had car trouble coming home. Nothing major, although I was praying we would get home since it was already late. I took the car in yesterday to have it fixed and although they thought it was a bigger problem at first, I was able to pick it up today. Less than an hour later I was involved in an accident on my way to pick up Jack. Thank the Lord he wasn't with me! (And that it wasn't my fault.) I was stopped at a red light and a guy slammed into the back of me and then I ran into the back of someone else. So my beautiful suburban has some rear end issues and a little damage to the front. I think I am OK, but it shook me up. My neck and back are a little sore, but I think that is from me tensing up because I saw him coming fast in my rear view mirror. My good friend Heather saw me and turned around and even went back to the preschool to sit with Jack so his teacher could leave until Jeremy could get there to pick him up. My car is drivable, but the impact was enough that my seat belts locked up, so they will have to be replaced and are useless now. You can't take a vehicle in to be fixed until the police report has been filed and that wont' be done until Monday at the earliest. So, I either have to sit at home or drive around without a seat belt and that makes me really nervous. I am just glad it wasn't worse.
**Just for the record, everyone should invest in a trailer hitch. I had a drop hitch that stuck out several inches and it kept the other car from doing more damage to mine. When the wrecker pulled the other car off of me, it looked like someone had punched a hole through the center of his car. He hit me with enough force that it bent the bumper hitch forwards and messed up the latch for the back door on the inside. I ran into the lady in front of me and bent her bumper. She was really nice. She let me use her phone because mine went flying during the collision.
All this mess was after being up for hours during the night with some kind of stomach/menstrual cramps on steroids. Don't know what caused them or why. If you had told me I was giving birth to another child I would have believed you. The pain was that bad! Let's just say I haven't had a good 24 hours.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Sickness ...and more RAIN

So big Jack started running a fever Friday night, right before bedtime. Of course, my thermometer chose that night to have a dead battery. So I knew he was warm, but couldn't tell how high his fever was. Some parents would have ran out and bought a new thermometer, but I chose to give him a dose of Tylenol and put him to bed. Well, the next morning he was still hot, so I knew he was going to be sick.

With all the scary news about the swine flu I was scared not to take him somewhere. Being that it was Saturday we headed off to the Urgent Treatment Center. I am not a fan of these places, but when it is that or the ER, I will pick the UTC. What can I say, you get about what you expect at those places. We waited an hour and a half to see the Indian doctor. Nothing against Indian doctors or other foreign physicians, but I like to see an American that I can easily understand when it comes to matters of my child's health. So they don't seem to think it is the flu but say his throat is a little red. They do a strep test, but it is negative. They prescribe us an antibiotic and send us home. We wait about 20-30 min before going to the pharmacy to pick up his medicine. (We went to K-mart and purchases a thermometer.) Only when we get there, JACK hasn't had a prescription filled there before, so me and my sick baby have to wait another 20 minutes for the pharmacy to process the doctor's order. We left home at 10:15am and finally got done with everything about 1:15pm.

Well, that night he isn't improving and seems to be getting worse. On Sunday, he is really making a lot of noise when he breathes, is still running a fever, and feels awful. So Monday morning we take Madalynn to school and I start trying to call and get him an appointment with his pediatrician as soon as they open at 8:30.

We get to the doctor's office at 10:15 and right away the nurses see how sick he is. I absolutely love the staff at Dr. Lagrew's office! They are the sweetest ladies in the world. They give him a saline breathing treatment and right away he is doing better. He was so brave. He was scared of the breathing machine and cried a few tears, but did great! We wait 10 minutes and then they give him another one. We spend an hour there and leave with a prescription for steroids and some congestion medicine. They warn me before I leave that the "roids" may make him mean.


Well let me just tell you... they were right. My normally sweet boy (He wasn't even grouchy while he was sick over the weekend.) is aggressive and mildly violent. Today is the last day he has to take them if his symptoms are better and I will be so glad. He has pretty much laid around and watched Cars about 200 times. I am so tired of that movie. It is all he wants to watch though. I am so tired of being cooped up inside!


Meanwhile Madalynn complained of a headache and her teacher said she wasn't herself at school yesterday. She woke up with a croupy cough and a fever today, so we may have another week of this ahead! And it is raining here...AGAIN!!!!



I did manage to get outside for a few minutes yesterday and cut down my cornstalks from this summer and used them to decorate my gate and on either side of the driveway. I looked up how to tie a floral type bow and made a couple of those last night. I also found a grapevine wreath in the garage that I had put in there for my yard sale, but I am going to put it on the gate as well. I also managed to clean out my craft closet in the spare room. This particular task took most of the day and has been on my "to-do" list for a month. I am also proud that I have managed to make it a priority to have my quiet time each morning to study my devotionals and read my Bible. Not bad for a week like this.

I have been praying for my kids to feel better soon! My nephew is sick too! There is so much sickness going around. I sure hope Jeremy and I can avoid getting sick. I have been taking my vitamins and I am going to go drink a big glass of orange juice!

Saturday, September 12, 2009

The Best Taco Soup


It is fall! I can finally start thinking about cooking cold weather foods. Jeremy will only eat soup if it is below freezing outside and even then only about twice a year. I like a good bowl of soup now and then though. So today I cooked some taco soup for lunch while Jeremy was working the sale at Keeneland. I don't usually cook lunch, but I was craving this stuff so I did. I love it! I got the recipe from a lady named Pat Bradbury when I taught school in Texas. She was the cafeteria manager. We used to have a really good salad bar there and sometimes the ladies would fix soup for the bar as well. It is delicious with a nice kick. It is also very quick. The recipe says let it simmer for an hour- I can never wait that long. I think it can be eaten as soon as all the ingredients have time to warm through. Yum!

Taco Soup
1 lb. of browned ground beef, drained
1 medium onion, chopped and sauteed
1 can of Rotel- do not drain
1 can of *ranch style beans*
*In some areas, like ours, you have to shop around to find these
1 can of kidney beans
1 can of yellow hominy
1 pkg. of taco seasoning
1 pkg. of dry, ranch-style dressing mix
2 c. of water

Do not drain the canned ingredients. (I do drain and rinse the kidney beans, I just don't like that slimy liquid they are in.)
Mix everything together and simmer for one hour.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

What do you do all day?

Days like yesterday are the norm for a stay at home mom. These are days where you don't know where you would find the time to GO to work! I got up yesterday at 6:30 am and put a load of clothes in the washer and one in the dryer. I finished loading the dishwasher and started it. Then I got the coffee pot ready and waited on its caffeinated goodness to finish percolating. I didn't cook breakfast yesterday morning, so that was a little quicker. We just did frozen waffles. I folded a load of clothes and sipped my coffee.
By this time it was a little after 7 am so time to get Mady and usually Jack up. Mady got up fine, big Jack decided to sleep in. Enjoy it while you can man! So Madalynn and I go downstairs and I talk to her while she eats her 2 1/2 waffles with honey. (Personally, Yuck! honey, I am not a fan. The kids get that from their daddy.) We then go back upstairs and she gets dressed while I make our bed and her bed and I finish getting ready. We do hair and wake Jack up in time to catch the big black bus to take Mady to school. (The big black bus is what I called our suburban when Madalynn asked if she could ride the school bus to school. She was disappointed to find out it was just our car.) Anyway, we head off to school to drop her off. I just want to say the car drop off line is WONDERFUL! I love it. I have always had to get up extra early to do hair and makeup so I could walk her into preschool without shame...no more.
Jack and I return home and I fix him a waffle and straighten up the house. I get him dressed and make his bed. I plan out our menu for the week and get my grocery lists together. I sort through a bunch of recycling and get hangers together to take back to the cleaners. I start another load of clothes.
About 11 we head out to do our running around. We drop shopping bags off at Kroger because I had a huge amount of them and didn't have room to wait until we went to shop. We went to the dry cleaners and the recycling center. Then we headed to Lowe's to return the gas grill burners I had bought because they were the wrong kind. We head to Kroger to do the grocery shopping. I am forced to get one of the "racecar" grocery carts. I hate those things. I always feel like I am driving the grocery store equivalent of an 18 wheeler down a six foot aisle. Jack loves them though. I usually put him off by telling him we only had a few things to get. On this day I was not so lucky. We finally get done shopping.
I run through the drivethru at Sonic because when we walk in the door I want to have something to slap on the table. So about 1 pm we finally get home to eat a quick bite and get Jack a nap in. I get about a 20 min nap after putting all the groceries away. We get up from nap and head to get in the car line to pick Madalynn up. I come home go over what is in her folder, question her about her day, the kids have a snack, and then I make them go outside to play. The weather here the last couple of days has been spectacular!! I fold a few loads of laundry. I am the room mother in Mady's class and have needed to write my parent letter for about 4 days so I go upstairs and finally get that done. I clean up the playroom...again. Mainly because my children think it is an Olympic qualifying sport to see how fast a toy room can be trashed. By this time I need to start supper. Lasagna, rolls, and salad. I had laid out the rolls earlier in the day, so they were ready to bake. By the time dinner is done, it is 6:45pm. We eat, I clean up our dishes and then head out to start mowing the yard.
I mow while Jeremy takes Jack on a walk. He returns and asks if I want to go to Walmart. I want to go to the tanning bed and it is next door to Walmart,so we load up. Well, as we turn into the Walmart parking lot, Jacks says he needs to pee pee. About 1 minute later, as the vehicle comes to a stop we find out he has already peed in his clothes and car seat. So Jeremy and the crew wait while I tan since Jack now has wet clothes. I return and Jeremy goes into Walmart to get his hunting license and other assorted hunting paraphernalia. By this time it is after 9! My kids are usually bathed and ready or in bed by this time. We can't very well skip the bath since Jack wet his pants so we do a quick bath and get PJs on. I just read a page from the Bible ABCs book and we say our prayers and the kids go to bed. I put away laundry, get myself a shower, and clean up supper.
I fall into bed about 11:45 pm.

So when someone asks with curiosity or wonder "What do you do all day?" sometimes I would like to punch them.

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Random Thoughts

Well, we are about to start the third full week of school around the Whitman household! I'll be honest, I didn't get alot done around here the first week and a half. I just felt weird without Mady here! She usually is my shadow and is never at a loss for something to say... or three things to say at one time! Jack and I both missed her terribly at first. He kept saying things like when we went to McDonalds to get him a sausage and biscuit - "Mady don't need one, she at school." If I cooked anything during the day he thought it was supper and worried that "Mady no eat supper?" He still brings me toys. "I brought one for me and eww (you) one too. So I know he was lonely at first. You have got to think that he is almost 3 and this is the first time the two of us have been alone together for an extended period of time. When Madalynn was in Mother's Day Outs 2-3 mornings a week, A. We were running errands or B. He was in school too. We have never had just normal days of being alone together. One morning that first week, we sat on the couch and watched Cars. I haven't just sat and watched an entire movie since before I had kids! I am enjoying our time though. Every child needs time one on one with their parents. Jeremy hasn't been terribly busy and he has taken Jack to work with him for a few hours at a time. Jack loves that.
It seems like while we were on vacation he really took up with his Daddy. We had the great-grandparents along on the vacation and one night he and Madalynn both came back to the hotel to stay with us!
I have to get started planning on what we are doing for his 3rd birthday. It is about a month away and I think we will be traveling to West TN that night and visit for the weekend. Not sure yet what we are doing though. Maybe a construction vehicle theme. We did a tractor theme last year. I may even buy a cake pan and make his cake again this year. Last year the tractor cake I did turned out really well.
I am supposed to be the room mother in Madalynn's class this year. So I hope it works to bring Jack along! I have got to get my letter to parents done...tomorrow. I also want to get my menu for the week done. Plus the ironing of M's uniforms for school. We have had 2 birthday parties this week. School, family was visiting last weekend. My garden is finishing up. Playdates with Jack's friends Nico and Zachary. Plus all the "normal" stuff. Lots to do, lots to do.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Our First Day of Kindergarten!





Whew! I am glad that is over and no tears were even shed! This is a major feat both for Madalynn and myself. I have to admit there were times I feared that we would ALL be crying like babies. No so though!

Jeremy was able to come back home in time to drive to school with us. (It is only a few miles from our house.) We walked in and she was the first to arrive in her classroom. The room looked very cute! Their class mascot is the monkeys. That is perfect for kindergartners. We tried not to stay long, but long enough. As parents, you often have to find the line between just long enough and too long. Stay too long and the waterworks are sure to start. She was supposed to have a friend from preschool in her class, but she is a twin and the mom wanted to separate them so of course the girl was the one switched out. I wasn't sure this would go over well with Madalynn, but she did fine.



I hope we have made the right decision about the school she goes to. We chose a small private Christian school here in town versus the public school. I am not against public school and I never thought I would send my kids to private school, but with the public schools we were looking at upwards of 25 kids in a class. Mady has 12 in hers. Everybody says "well it is just kindergarten." It is, but I think it still matters. We will see how this year goes. I want to find time to volunteer in her classroom and maybe others so that I can get a first hand look at what goes on and how things are done. That was something that was strange. Before, I have always been on the inside. I knew what the procedures and routines were; now I am a parent on the outside looking in. Getting in depth info from a 5 year old is like questioning a wall so she isn't much help at this age.

Jack ended up going to work with Jeremy when we got back to the house, so I had ...gasp...FREE TIME. I didn't know what to do with myself. I cleaned the playroom, stripped all the beds and put clean sheets on every body's bed, went to tan. Then I just sat around thinking how weird this was. To not have somebody talking to me or strewing toys around that I just picked up. Weird. Maybe I need another baby. I am not sure I like being the parent of a school age child. Makes me sound old. I can't be old...

When we got home, she was bouncing off the walls! Apparently she loved it! Hallelujah, my prayers have been answered! I am not sure how to break it to her that she has to go to school every day for years. :)

Sunday, August 9, 2009

OK. I hope I am ready. At least I hope I am getting there. My baby girl, my Peach, my Madalynn Kayte will start school in exactly 2 days! I have purchased all the necessary school supplies. The monogrammed backpack, the crayons, markers, lunchbox, etc. Today Jeremy went to rope with a friend and took the kids with him. I struck out to Wal-mart to get last minute breakfast and lunch box items.

She is not excited...AT ALL! I have tried to tell her that she already knows some of the kids in her class, she will love it, it will be so fun, that this is the year she will begin to read- on her own, and she will be a Big Girl now! The other part of me wants to cry all the time and tell her ..."You are right! Let's just not go!"
I worked for about 2 months after she was born during which time I brought her to school with me in the afternoons and then was off for the summer. (I taught elementary school.) Then I taught school for a year longer. When we moved to Kentucky, I never went back to teaching. I hated the idea of being in a new state and knowing not a soul in this town and certainly having absolutely no one I would trust to take care of my baby like I could. It was hard - in more ways than one! We were lucky to have savings from when we both worked and had no living expenses. (That is another story) If we hadn't had money in the bank I would have had to go to work doing something. I also wasn't used to being alone with a small child ALL DAY EVERY DAY! It was hard. but like everyone says "If you can stay home when your kids are little, you should!" That is so true. The past 5 years have flown by!

I have been very conscious of this being our last summer of freedom. We have taken trips- Dollywood, Tennessee to see family, Knoxville to the zoo, and Yellowstone National Park. We have camped out, roasted marshmallows, and slept late. We have watched movies, ridden horses, and attended the "Happy Hour" at Sonic more than once. We have played in the pool, had picnics, and playdates at the park. It just isn't enough though. I am not ready to loose this wonderful freedom we have had, she and I, for the last 5 years. Sure we had days of appointments and days of preschool at mother's day out, but nothing like this 13 year journey we are embarking on.




I am trying to keep up a good front like all moms of kindergartners do. I am planning to decorate the kitchen like I do for birthdays, complete with streamers and balloons for the big day. I am baking a cake with pink icing just for her. I want it to be a party. I couldn't feel less like being happy or partying, but that is what moms do. They make it all look hopeful and fun and exciting, when inside they just want to crawl into bed and cry all day that day... that day their baby goes off into the big world. I pray that we have made the right decision on where to send her to school. I hope she opens up and just blooms into this beautiful little person who loves to learn when she is there. I hope we get really lucky and she loves it from the get go. I hope I can say the right things if she doesn't. I hope she knows how much I will miss seeing her face between the hours of 8:30 and 3:30 each day and hearing her constant chatter in the house.
Her world will never be the same and mine won't either. I hope she knows that when I turn and leave Wednesday morning, I will hate to go as much or more than she hates to see me go.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Jack's First Playdate

Today was a busy one, but a good one. I have a friend from church that was suddenly sick and needed a babysitter at the last minute. We had already planned to get together with another friend later today and take the kids to the park. So I got up earlier than I usually do and kept her little boy who is Jack's age till about 10 am. We played with Jack's tractors, ate pancakes, and watched a little Dora on TV. Then we all got our picnics and headed to the park. I would have never found it if Karen hadn't been leading the way. We had a really good time. The boys and Mady played for a while and then we ate lunch. We headed home about 1 o'clock. I had a really great time today and hope I can invite them all over for a play day here. they both live in neighborhoods in town and have small yards. We live on the farm and have a gated space with plenty of room to run around. The kids could play with the toys in the playroom, the swing set, even the little pool if we were feeling brave.

We went to the grocery store and picked up a few things and then took a nice nap. Once the kids were up they played outside with the new kittens. Jeremy was nice enough to bring home 2 kittens yesterday. After all I had only told Madalynn about 1,000 times that we would get a cat when we had a barn. I asked him the afternoon he brought them home if he had purchased some property I didn't know about. (He had not.) I worked on dinner and enjoyed a quiet house for a few minutes.

After dinner we all rode around looking for a farm Jeremy had heard about. We didn't find it. The kids went with Jeremy to sit on one of the farm's tractors. While they were doing that I sprayed some round-up, mowed just a bit, and harvested my zucchini crop. I had a few that were so big they were scary when I lifted up the leaves. I had no idea they were ready, let alone of huge proportions! When the kids got back we all roasted a few marshmallows and then came in for baths and bed.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

I think I am going to make it

I have had the crud all week this week and part of last week. I first thought it was just a runny nose Jack had had earlier last week. Apparently not. I have had full blown stuffy/ runny nose, coughing, sore throat, sneezing, headaches, and ears that feel like they need to pop but won't. I am glad to report though, I am MUCH better today. Finally! There is nothing that makes me appreciate being healthy more than a few days of being sick! We all that are healthy need to realize how big a blessing our health is. Jeremy and I both know how quickly that can change.

Anyway, I have actually felt good enough to catch up or attempt to catch up on our laundry. All moms know - one day down and it begins to heap up. I have experienced what 4-5 days of that can look like in the past week. It looks a lot better around here now. I weeded in the garden, straightened the kitchen, dealt with the builder who was here working on our front door lock, worked on some school type stuff with Mady and run a few errands today. In addition to the required feeding and tending of children. Those two things I just can't get away from.

We will miss tonight at Bible school though. I have missed all week, but the kids have been attending. Jeremy said he would probably be working late tonight since he was off yesterday. He has been picking up the kids after I drive them to church and drop them off. I was supposed to be helping this week. My assigned duties were to be the 1 year olds, the 2 year olds, or refreshments. In the state of my health this week, not a good idea. I appreciate sick people trying to keep their germs to themselves, so I am trying to follow this advice. I am not obsessive about it, I just hate to have healthy children that get exposed to people that know they are sick and choose to be around others anyway. I am still coughing like I have TB so I didn't figure I need to go spread germs all over small children. The kids technically don't know they aren't getting to go tonight. I know there will be a certain 5 year old that will have quite the dramatic reaction when given this information and I am delaying that performance as long as possible.

The weather has been great here this week, so I hate that I haven't felt like doing more. It would have been a good week to go to the park or something, but I just haven't had the energy. I weeded a little in the garden today and dug potatoes Monday night. The rest of my garden seems to be in slow motion. It will probably all be ready the week we are in Wyoming. Temperatures of 70's and 80's in late June and early July just don't happen that often. Oh well, I am just thankful I am feeling better and it isn't something more serious.

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Summer Time



We have been having so much fun lately. I don't know if it is because I have kids that are older this summer or the knowledge that one of them will go off to "real" school this fall or what, but I am really enjoying our summer this year.

We have traveled to an amusement park and stayed in a hotel, visited family, camped out, attended VBS, swam and played with friends, enjoyed cookouts, and enjoyed sleeping in the past few weeks. We also each took one child on a date this past week. Jack and I went to sit on tractors at the local dealership and Jeremy and Madalynn ate at Applebee's complete with dessert.


Jeremy actually took me on a date Saturday night too! I was so impressed. We went to eat at Steak n' Shake, to Kohls's and looked around, (he never goes shopping) and then to a movie. It was so fun! If I hadn't been sick we would have really had a good time. I hope he does this more! I keep asking what he has done, because this is highly unusual! (ha ha) He has been very good yesterday and today about offering to go get the kids at VBS so that they didn't have to miss or me spend 30-40 min on the road dropping them off and picking them up. He also had a day off today. THE FIRST DAY OFF IN THE YEAR 2009! He had camped with Madalynn last night. (Although they got an early morning wake up call courtesy of Dr. Caleb! Gotta love being a veterinarian) Anyway, we all went to Cracker Barrel and had a good breakfast this morning.

We have attended a rodeo here in Georgetown and the kids and I have been to rope with Jeremy a couple of times. We are also doing the summer reading program at the library and trying to do a little "schoolwork" so that Jack and Mady's minds stay somewhat focused.




We still have our real vacation to Yellowstone National Park yet to go later in July. I am dreading the worry of the flight, or should I say FLIGHTS but other than that it should be fun. We are meeting Jeremy's grandparents out there. They are driving out with some of their friends and staying in their camper trailer. I just hope my kids don't get eaten by a bear or something. Jeremy wants to let the kids stay with the grandparents, but I have reservations. (No pun intended) I just don't know that all of us folks from West Tennessee, especially the older ones, take the threat of wildlife that could eat you seriously enough. I would feel better knowing I was the one in charge of keeping a close eye on them. I think bears are less likely to be found in hotels than in campgrounds.

I have apparently been blessed with the crud. In summer no less! I really didn't feel good yesterday, but the weather was great and so I fixed up an old sheet as a "tent" in the yard and made the kids a picnic lunch. They loved it. Jack at one point had taken his John Deere pedal car out to the tent and had it parked underneath. Priorities you know!





I am trying to enjoy each day with my little ones, because I realize it will all too soon be just a memory. It won't matter if my laundry was caught up (it never is), or if my house was clean, or even if we had leftovers or fast food for supper. I want my kids to remember the things we did with them.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Summer Fun

Well, I must suck at writing more than once a month, because here I have done it again. I think I might do better if my computer were downstairs or if I had a laptop. Those might just be excuses though.

Jack is up to his normal tricks. He has fallen several times and sported various bumps, scrapes, and bruises. Last week it was a HUGE knot on his head from falling out of a kitchen chair onto the tile kitchen floor. This week it is a big lip from falling out of the swing. He wasted no time on this one. We got home from running errands I walked in the garage door the kids went around back. I used the restroom and by the time I could do that and walk around to the kitchen he had already managed to fall out of the swing and bite/bust his lip. It looks terrible, both inside his mouth and on the outside. (He likes to do things up big!) He is also quite mouthy. He likes to say naughty words and talk back to me. This is not cute at all. He does have moments where he redeems himself though. We were driving the other day and out of the blue he says "I love you Madalynn". How sweet!

Madalynn has learned to ride a bike with no training wheels and managed to have the worst bicycle wreck I have personally seen. That is not saying much, but it was a terrible accident. She and I were riding bikes behind the house and I made a real dumb decision to ride down a hill, figuring if it was too much for her she would drag her feet and slow herself down. Not so much. She also wasn't wearing a helmet. She had quit wearing it around the house and I forgot to make her put it on before we left to ride around on the farm. (It is pretty hilly, so I was really stupid for forgetting the helmet.) She fell and had a bad scratch on her elbow and scratched up her face, busted her lip. (The lip was so big it really changed her looks as it swelled up.) She was very upset about how this made her look! She is fine now and you can barely tell anything happened.

Last week I took the kids to Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee for a few days after Madalynn finished up preschool. I had my doubts about taking 2 kids on a trip by myself, but it was all for nothing. We had a great time!! I really wasn't ready to come home and neither were the kids. We got to relax, have fun with an old teaching buddy of mine and her boys, and swim! Three things we don't seem to do often enough. Poor Daddy had to stay at home and work. He was also about as sick as he has ever been so we missed that! It was a really fun trip and I can't wait to do it again! It was cheaper to buy season passes than tickets for two days so that is what we did. Now we must go back!

Friday, May 22, 2009

Look Mom Two Wheels!

I originally wrote this post back in May. I am not sure why I never published it? Maybe I didn't have my camera handy to download pictures?


I have to brag on my little girl! She turned 5 in February. Well, Wednesday (May 20, 2009) we took the training wheels off the bicycle she has had since she was 2 1/2. I had finally gotten my bike down and was riding it. She decided she wanted to take the training wheels off of her bike to be like Mommy. On Wednesday she got pretty good at riding with me holding onto the bike and for a few seconds at a time on her own. Steering wasn't much of a priority for her yet.

Yesterday, Thursday, I explained that the next step was for her to learn to get herself started.

This initially didn't go over very well with her. After all, what could her mother have to do that is more important than bending in half and running alongside a tiny bicycle for an hour? The housework fairy comes in and does all the cooking, cleaning, errands, bill paying, laundry, etc. ...right?! Well, after catching her in a dramatic moment out in the driveway crying because I "wouldn't help her", I informed her that she could always just put the bike away. Apparently, her calmer side prevailed and she began to practice pushing herself off to get started.

Well, this morning I have been watching my beautiful 5 year old daughter ride her 2 wheeler all by herself! She is so awesome! There is no limit to what she can accomplish when she puts her mind to it. I am so proud of her!

She has a goal in mind, though. Next Wednesday is the last day of preschool and the kids are allowed to take their bikes. She wants to be able to show Mrs. Tiffany her newly found skills. We will see...

Thursday, May 14, 2009

This week...


Well, so much for being good about posting regularly. Oh, well, such is my life. For someone who from all appearances should have a life conducive to having a regular schedule, I most certainly do NOT. Since the last post, Mady did lose that tooth and didn't freak out quite as badly as I had imagined. She was very impressed with the gold dollar coin that the tooth fairy left since it was her very first tooth. I made sure to tell her that this may or may not be the case every time she loses a tooth. I am unsure if the tooth fairy has access to gold dollar coins for all teeth or just the first one.




This has not been the best week. My Mother's Day was not what I had envisioned. My husband who had been getting home around 3 or 4 in the afternoon on Sundays, did not get home until 6:30 pm. It had been a beautiful day and I had hoped maybe since the kids aren't baby babies anymore I might get to do something with my family - Including the HUSBAND. Don't get me wrong, but at this stage, I see my children all day everyday. I do not see my husband very often. This was not to be.




Well, our anniversary is May 11th, but based on most of what my husband did that day you could not tell it. For him it was just another day. From a woman's perspective that doesn't hate her husband's guts, this should be a special day. He knows that he doesn't have to spend a lot of money, but a little effort, a nice card, that is MY minimum. On this, our 13th anniversary, I got a whole lot of nothing. He will claim he said Happy Anniversary back to me when I said it as he was leaving for work and I got an invitation to a stressful dinner out with 2 misbehaving kids. Not the picture of romance I was hoping for. I made a comment with my level of pleasure of the Mother's Day/Anniversary combo this year on Facebook. He was less than thrilled at being (in his words) "slammed" on FB. I wanted him to know how disappointed I was and since I see him awake without kids around about 5-10 minutes a day, I did not get the chance to tell him to his face. Let's face it, during those 5-10 min he is usually working on going to sleep.




This time of year is so stressful for us. He thinks he is the only one that has any right to be stressed though. He has never been one that is good at putting himself in another's shoes. He doesn't think I have anything to complain about. I understand getting up at 4 or 5 am and working until 7 or 8 pm is not a walk in the park. He does this 7 days a week. (He works 7 days a week most of the year for that matter, but the start and ending time vary a little. ) Neither is dealing with two kids that don't see nearly enough of their father and proceed to act like freaks when he does walk in the door. Kids need more time with their father. Jeremy thinks that by working like this he can make us more able to afford a farm for the kids to grow up on. I am worried that while he is working himself to death, the kids are growing up without him.




I will be honest, I wish we still connected as a couple. We don't see enough of each other to do that. The kids went to Tennessee and stayed with Jeremy's grandparents for a few days the first part of May so I could go to the Oaks and so our kids could make an appearance at the decoration at the church Jeremy's family attends. I loved it this year. Last year all I did was cry because I was not used to being at our house without them. This year, I would have probably enjoyed more time apart. During those few days it felt like Jeremy and I were the old us. It was great. He invited me to ride along to some of his farms, we went out for a nice dinner. It felt like we were friends again. I usually feel like everybody's mama because he is too tired to do anything when he gets home. So instead of his arrival from work taking the pressure off, it just seems to compound it.




I can't make him see that while his job affords us a lot of things, it creates at least as many problems for our family. I bought The Power of a Praying Wife and it was a great book. I am going to try and read it again and hope it gives me a better outlook this time of year. I bought The Power of a Praying Husband and wanted him to read it. He ignored the book on the nightstand for months. I finally just placed it in a drawer. I bought a book a few weeks ago, that has tips from couples who have been married for 50 years and asked him to read a page a night. He has yet to read page one. I have tried talking to him and he only sees it as criticism and nagging. I just don't know what to do.




Also, this week, my father who has remarried proceeded to place a headstone for his current wife NEXT to my mother! Not on his side of the double headstone they have, on my mother's side. #1 He is her 4th husband, this may or may not last. #2 he placed the current wife next to the dead wife the week before Mother's Day. My sister saw it for the first time on Mother's Day when she went to put flowers on our mother's grave. How classy is that. Who does that for a 50 something year old woman when she is healthy and on her 4th husband?! That is what my family has become- a bunch of people who are led by spite. They want to keep things stirred constantly. I am so tired of this. I am able to distance myself both physically and otherwise, but my little sister isn't able to do this as easily. I really hate that for her.




We have a little baby at church, cute as she could be whose daddy found her blue and not breathing the day after mother's day. They got her revived with CPR, she was taken to the hospital. The outlook was never good, she was having seizures and had to be sedated. She passed away last night. Her parents are a young couple whose parents both attend our church. They had grown up in church together. It was their first baby. She had a head full of hair and pretty blue eyes. She was 5 months old and is gone. She was a healthy baby Sunday.




It has not been a good week. I hope for a better week next week. I am thankful I still have a husband even if our situation is a lot less than ideal. I have 2 healthy kids and I thank God for that in my prayers every night. Jack took a fall down the stairs last week and I am thankful it isn't us planning a life with an impaired child or a funeral. You just never know...


Be thankful for what you have; you could have it so much worse.

Monday, March 16, 2009

Who said you could grow up?

I have a problem when I have to think about my babies growing up. I have someone almost weekly tell me that my "baby" boy isn't a little baby anymore. He is even loosing his humongous cheeks that he has had since the age of about 2 months. I am so sad to see them go. Jack's cheeks and eyelashes are the #1 thing people comment on. Now the cheeks are going...

My daughter has her first loose tooth! Need I remind you that she JUST turned 5! Like 1 month ago! She came screaming and crying into the bedroom Saturday when she was supposed to be taking a nap. At first I could not understand what she was saying was wrong. I finally got her to calm down enough to get "my tooth is loose." She is the dramatic type anyway. ( I blame that on my little sister. They are far more similar than she and I.)

Anyway, you need to know that recently we had another person in our household who had a loose tooth. He is only 2 however! She remembered what a big deal we made over him and how a 2 year old with a missing front tooth is a problem. Well, she naturally assumed that ALL loose teeth are a problem so she was hysterical! I wiggled it and it wasn't bleeding and then it hit me. She is old enough to loose teeth now!!!! I just wanted to cry. This can't be. She is my little baby girl. Not some almost kindergartener with teeth falling out.

Over the next day or so, she managed to chill out alot and began showing everyone she saw her wiggly tooth. I think everyone at church saw it at least once. Of course, little brother (whose tooth was knocked loose a few months ago while running and hitting the coffee table) has a loose tooth too. (Not really - his tightened back up even after he tried to knock it out twice more in the two weeks following the initial incident.)

She keeps asking me when is it going to fall out? When is the tooth fairy coming? Where does the Tooth Fairy live? What does she look like? Typical Madalynn. Questioning everything and everything about everything.

As of 8:30 this morning when I dropped her off at school, it was still inside her mouth. I have instructed her to try and pull it when she is at home. I am afraid any amount of blood that is involved may cause a major dramatic performance and scare all the other kids! I also would like to be there when the first one comes out. I remember when the first one came in. (Well, not really. I know that is sad, I should remember it, but honestly - I don't really remember the actual event. Blame my 2 kids and loss of brain cells.)

Friday, March 13, 2009

Date Night

Last night Jeremy and Madalynn went on a "date". They have been out to the movies and stuff by themselves before, but this is the first time we have called it a date. M was very excited. Jeremy was on the farm back behind the house and called and asked if I thought she would want to go. I assured him she would and set about getting her ready. We changed into a cute outfit, curled her hair, even put on perfume and found a purse.

She says her favorite restaurant is Applebee's even though she might have been there 5 times in her life. So that is where they went on their date. Up until last night she had been asking her Daddy when they were going to "go datin". She got to order Sprite to drink. This is a rare treat at our house. She got to order a corndog and they even had a chocolate meltdown for dessert! She loved it. She was really hopped up on sugar when they got home.

Jack and I did one of his favorite things while they were gone. We did this not necessarily because he understands what the deal is, but to keep the crying over Daddy leaving him at home to a minimum. Jack LOVES tractors. So we went to what he calls the "tractor shop", otherwise known as Tractor Supply. We sat on lawnmowers outside for a few minutes on the way in and out. We tried out all the mule/ranger/gator type vehicles inside and purchased a John Deere t-shirt, a small tractor and a cowboy hat that was on clearance. We did this to make up for the fact that the two of us ate leftovers instead of a chocolate meltdown.

Monday, March 9, 2009

Busy Day

Today was a busy one. We have had a few days of spring like temps and no rain so I have tried to take advantage of it. Especially today.

This morning I actually got up at 6:30 am. I had to set my alarm for 6 so I had time to hit snooze a few times, but I was up by 6:30. I made the bed! Shocking I know. I washed my hair, got dressed, made coffee, put a load of clothes in the dryer and one in the washer and started the dishwasher. I then went upstairs and read my "thought for today" from my Joyce Meyer book and my prayer page from my Stormie Omartian book and said my prayers. I am trying to do better with telling the Lord how thankful I am for all that we have. I have especially been touched lately by how lucky I am to have 2 healthy children. My heart aches for those who can't have kids, who have lost kids, or are sitting in a hospital with a sick child, or worrying over a sick child. God bless you.

Anyway, back to my day. I woke the kids, made eggs and toast, got Madalynn dressed, and we headed off to school. Jack had to wait to get dressed until we got back home, we just ran out of time. We took Madalynn to school and then came back to the house. I sorted through a mountain of recycling, cleaned out the garage and trashed some stuff. By this time it was 10:30. I got Jack dressed and we headed out to do errands. We went to Kroger to drop off some plastic grocery sacks for recycling, and dropped off some stuff at Goodwill. We went to make the storage payment and put the baby bed in the storage building. :( We went to the cleaners, the car wash, Wal-mart (quickly), and picked up some Chinese food for lunch. Picking up the food made me about 5 minutes late for picking Mady up though. :{ Sorry Mrs. Tiffany! We came home ate lunch, took a nap. After the kids woke up they went outside to play and I sorted through some of the kids artwork. I bought some black frames and I had a couple of places I wanted to frame some of their work. I unpacked some boxes that had been in the garage. Can you believe I am still unpacking after moving in December?

After I finished the art project, I rearranged the back porch and swept it off. I put the grill back together (Jeremy!) I swept out the garage again! Please Lord send us grass! I scrubbed the car seat Jack had puked in back in January. What? I was waiting until I could clean it outside and not freeze to death! I then decided to plant some bulbs I had bought back in the fall. I have no idea if they will bloom this year or not. They were sprouting in the package. I don't know that that is a good sign. I planted enough bulbs that I rubbed a blister on my hand. By this time it was almost 8 pm! You can tell the time has changed. I hurried in and started hamburgers and oven fries. Dinner by 8:30. Kids baths, story, brush teeth, and to bed. Hallelujah AMEN!

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Growing Up




Today Jack took his first nap while wearing "big boy" underwear and he woke up DRY! (Never mind that he later pooped in them.) He is getting so big. It is happening so fast. I finally talked him into wearing underwear all day yesterday. It seems like just yesterday that he was nursing. I miss having a baby in the house. :(









In the last week I took the front off the crib. Then put up the toddler bed and removed the crib completely. (This is the first time we have taken the crib down and not known we would be putting it back up in a few months.)



He really seemed proud sleeping in bed when the front was off the crib, but when we switched to the toddler bed, that was a different story. I would have kept using the crib, but I couldn't figure out how to make it into a toddler bed. I know it converts to one but I am sure the instruction book is long since gone. Plus after moving it 4 times, I know we probably don't have all the bolts.



The first couple of days he really didn't like sleeping in the toddler bed. He really doesn't like it much better now! He does it without as much of a fight though.




I was looking yesterday on Etsy and all the cute little baby girl things. Kelly at http://kellyskornerblog.com/ has really made me miss having a baby girl. There just isn't as much to choose from for 5 year old girls and 2 year old boys. I think I want one more baby and even then I think I will be terribly sad that it is our last. I just hate to think that the part of my life I dreamed of all my life, is over. I know there will be great times to come with school age children but it is still hard.



I think we will probably have one more though. I have told myself that I have to lose weight and get in better shape before I do. If I gained baby weight on top of the baby weight I haven't lost from #2, I would weigh 200 lbs! I can't let myself do that. (Jeremy up until this point hasn't really wanted a third, but the other day Jack was doing something cute and he said "I'm about ready to have another". I couldn't believe my ears, but when I asked him to repeat what he had said, he said "Nothing."



Oh, well I know I can wear him down. I am not ready now anyway. I want Jack to be a little older. Madalynn and Jack are 2 years 8 months apart and get along great for the most part, but I want a little more space between #2 and (hopefully) #3. We will see...

Saturday, February 28, 2009

Our First "Real Kid" Birthday Party










I have to say a lot of thought and worry went into whether or not we should begin having a real kid birthday party. What I mean by that is a party at a child related place, invitations to several children that are not related to us, presents my husband and I didn't have to buy, the whole deal.



Well, I need not have worried.....IT WAS AWESOME!!!! We have some friends at church who have a little boy born the same year M was on the same day no less! (They just happen to be "boyfriend and girlfriend" to boot!) She and I had discussed having a "real" party last year and maybe doing it together. Well, this was the year we were talking about some short 12 months ago. I brought up the subject in January to see if she still wanted to go the "real" party route and if she wanted to do something separate or together. She was all for doing it together, so we went to work. Actually she did most of the work, she ran around looking at places in town. We wanted something more than just Chuckie Cheese's. More of an activity place or the kid's museum in town. We finally decided on Bounce U!


Let me just stop for a minute and sing the praises of this wonderful place. They took care of everything! You can opt to do as much or as little yourself as you want. We decided on letting them do cake, juice boxes, and balloons. You can add decorations for the table, pizza, cokes, gift bags, you name it! It just depends on how much you want to spend and what all you think your party needs. We thought cake and juice was enough for our age group and time of day. 3:45 is a little early for dinner, too late for lunch, and since we HAD to have cake there is only so much a 4 or 5 year old is going to eat with so much excitement. We had right at 25 kids and a lot of parents stayed and played too. (Adults are free and can use all the equipment too!) Everyone had such a great time.


They gave us "helpers". You usually only get two with the party package we chose, but we got an extra since one was in training. These college age girls were very helpful. When we first walked in, they helped get the kids onto the equipment. We had several younger sisters and brothers there who were too small to play on the equipment alone and they jumped in and took the little ones to play and have fun. We got to bounce for an hour and fifteen minutes and then moved to the party room for our Madagascar cake and juice boxes. Logan and Madalynn shared a cake and each had 5 candles on one side. We sung to both of them. After all the eating was done, we moved on to presents!


Madalynn and Logan were so cute. They took turns opening one present and Logan would just watch Mady and oooh and aaaah over whatever she unwrapped. He is such a little doll and will make a good husband someday!


I think this was a glimpse into the future for Jeremy. Our little daughter had no qualms about holding Logan's hand while standing beside her Daddy. Several times she went down the slide in her Daddy's lap holding Logan's hand!! Jeremy was caught between shock and wanting to cry.

I need your prayers! If she has the guts to hold hands with a boy at 5 WHILE sitting on her Daddy's lap, Lord help us at 15!


Overall we had a great time and I would highly recommend Bounce U to anyone looking for a place for a birthday party! The best part is we got to split the cost! The kids and adults for that matter had a great time. I would definitely do it again.

Monday, February 16, 2009

5 Years Ago

This is the year that my beautiful, outgoing, creative, loving, dramatic, talkative little girl turns 5! Five years ago tonight I was staying in a hotel waiting for 5 am to roll around to go to the hospital. I was a nervous wreak! I am tearing up as I write this. She shouldn't be this old! The time has gone by too fast. Is it normal to want to scratch and scramble and get those years back? I just seem to flash forward to when she is 10, 15, off at college. I don't think I am ready. I know nobody is ever ready for their babies to grow up.

This is the year that all the days fall the same as the year she was born. The year she was born Valentine's Day fell on a Saturday and it was snowing in Guthrie, Texas. Monday, the 16th that year I had a doctor's appointment in Lubbock and had gone ahead and taken the day off from school. I had been having high blood pressure and was supposed to be on bed rest anyway. (I disobeyed doctor's orders and just sat and taught rather than waste my precious maternity leave days on me instead of my little girl.) We lived so far from the hospital we were inducing anyway. My principal already knew that depending on what the doctor said, my maternity leave might begin immediately. I had everything all set up for the sub that would cover for me.

As I sat on my couch the morning of February 16th, 2004, I dozed and took a little nap before I had to get ready for my hour and a half drive to the big city. I thought to myself this would probably be the last time I got to nap when I wanted.

I got to the doctor and found out my blood pressure was still elevated (Yours would be too if you were a first time mom that had to take at least a half day off work and drive 3 hours round trip each time you had a doctor's appointment.) and I was starting to dilate. My doctor said she would call and get me scheduled to be induced the following day. So a little later I made the call to my husband back at the Mare Barn in Guthrie to tell him that he would need to get my bag and everything together because...we would be having a baby tomorrow!
To say that I wasn't ready and that I really would rather have gotten everything together myself was an understatement. It just didn't make sense for me to drive all the way back and then us drive back to Lubbock again. He did really well though. He had a list of things to do and pack about a mile long and the only things he forgot were my hair dryer and my wedding ring. ( I hadn't been able to wear the one for months and let's just say the horrendous hairstyle I had at them time looked the same + or - the hairdryer.)

We began the process at about 6 am on Tuesday. As I was pushing, she would move back up a little bit after each push. I still figured this wasn't anything out of the ordinary. After an hour and a half of pushing, our little girl came into the world; all 7 lb. 11 oz of her. She had the cord around her neck and this was the reason she kept sliding back up as I was pushing. I had a "reaction" to the epidural and was somewhat out of it. This was really a blessing in disguise because had I had all my faculties, I would have realized that I should be really worried. I remember thinking to myself "She looks like a little grape." Not necessarily the color fruit you want associated with your newborn!

We each got to hold her and then they took her off to the nursery. I had never done this before, so I had no idea of what "normal" was. She was born at 3:11 pm and I would not see her again until about 9:30 pm. By that time I was coming around and thinking she shouldn't still be gone. Jeremy had been back and forth to the nursery to see her since then. I finally made him go ask when they were bringing her to the room. Finally, after more than 6 hours they brought her back. She had so much hair. Not like a crazy amount of baby hair, but alot. I remember I just stroked it over and over.

I still doesn't feel like Jeremy and I should be old enough to have kids. Now we have not one, but two. I hope to someday have another.

So to my firstborn, I love you so much. You know I love you now, but you won't really get it until you are holding that new baby of your own. I want so many things for you. I pray every day that you grow up and become a good Christian girl and that you make good decisions. I pray that you get to live a long healthy, happy life. I want you to go to college and get a job you enjoy that makes you a good living. I want you to find a great Christian man that loves you more than life. I hope you are blessed with children that are healthy. At the very least, I hope that your life isn't always a struggle. I hope I am around to get to see and spoil grandkids! I know you are too young to understand all this, but I just felt like writing it anyway.

Happy Birthday Mady!

I'll update you on the first real "kid" birthday party we had over the weekend. It was great!

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Another Busy Day

OK, I realize that I am not doing as well at keeping my blog up to date as I had hoped. This has been a busy week!

M has school 3 mornings this week and J goes on Tuesday mornings. This is the first time in about a month that she has had school all 3 days! Hallelujah!! (As I mentioned previously, we have not had good weather lately to say the least.) I didn't know what to do with myself. I thought I spent too much money all those days it was too cold to go outdoors and there was no school. Let's just say I cyber-browsed a lot at Gap, Target, etc. Not so much browsing as buying. I do have some great black (and brown) boots to show for it though!

Well, I thought the cabin fever spending was bad until today when I made a trip south to Hobby Lobby. Not a good choice for my pocket book's sake. I had a long list of places I needed to go in the 4 1/2 hours the kids were at preschool. I dropped them off and started with the place that was the furthest away- Hobby Lobby. I planned to stop in for a few minutes and then move along.

Well, I arrived at 9:30 am and did not leave until.....12:00 pm!!! That is terrible! Do you have any idea how much you can spend in 2 1/2 hours in a beautiful place like that? ALOT! I did however pick up some good stuff for the shelf above my front door, a great idea for a certain 5 year old's birthday, and a lot of half price ribbon. I am majorly feeling a crafty streak lately.

Anyway I spent so long there I had to bust it to get the stops I had to make done. M has a birthday party coming up Saturday so I was out buying her a new outfit for the occasion, plus birthday presents for a couple of her friends that have birthdays the same day and the day after. (By the way what do 5 year old boys like? Power Rangers I hope! )

This has also been the week for Valentine's day parties at school. I got the bright idea to make white chocolate dipped pretzel rods for all the teachers at our preschool at church and M's other preschool teacher. This was all fine and dandy until I figured out how long it took to melt chocolate, wait for the chocolate to cool down enough to actually stay on the pretzels, sprinkle pink, red, and red and white sugar on the ends of each one, place them in the freezer to ensure the chocolate stayed put, remove the first batch only to realize the baggies I had for this project were not long enough, and I didn't have enough pretzels for all the teachers anyway! Another trip back to Wal-Mart, more pretzels, different bags, and about 4 1/2 hours of hard work later, the teachers had a beautiful gift that screams thoughtfulness and too much time spent doing "projects" rather than housework!

Tonight I took it easy. I just did laundry, helped M decorate her Valentine box for tomorrow, hung some ironwork and things on the wall, unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher, cleaned out J's closet, cooked dinner, baked and decorated cupcakes for M's party tomorrow and updated my blog! And people ask me what I do all day!??!

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

How I got to this point




This is just an experiment.

I am sure I won't be able to keep up with chronicling all the things my little ones do on a daily basis. But I have decided to try. (Yes, I realize that I shouldn't begin a sentence with but. (or end one with but either)

There are some really great blogs out there. This is a new discovery of mine. In the past 10 days or so I have discovered the previously unknown world of blogging. Why does a mother of a 2 year old boy and a girl who is 5 going on 15 have time to read blogs you ask. Two words...winter weather.

I grew up in western Tennessee. (GO VOLS!!!) I am a "REAL" southerner. I remember one "major" snow in my entire childhood, as well as one big ice storm. When my husband entered vet school and moved us to the other end of the state, we got a few decent snows in the 3 1/2 years we were there. We lived in Texas for a few years and experienced a very cold wind many days, but usually only a light dusting of snow once or twice a year.

A few years ago, we moved up north. Central Kentucky that is. My husband and I have lamented before that you know we are living too far north when you can be in Cincinnati, Ohio in an hour and a half. You can be in our hometown in Tennessee or in Chicago in the same amount of time. In my world that just sounds crazy! Well, as all you geography buffs are well aware, Kentucky borders Tennessee on the north. Up until this point we have had relatively similar weather conditions. Not so this year! I am now enjoying week 2 of cabin fever. Last week it was 4-5 inches of freezing rain, sleet, snow, and a little more sleet. This week it appears that snow and lots of it are on the agenda. This morning when I left to take the kids to school, nothing. By 11 am the roads were covered...again. So in an effort for the three of us to make it home alive, I picked them up early from preschool. I had time to run into Gordmans, get my hair cut at Super Cuts, and quickly walk through a discount furniture store before returning to pick them up. I had appointments made and lots of errands to run. Instead, I enjoyed a scant 2 hours of "mommy time".

Tonight I look out on possibly 3-4 inches of snow. Just LOVELY! Now don't get me wrong, I like to sled as much as the next person. I own some great winter clothes. I even bought my kids snow suits. I do not, however, have the need for my kids to "get the wear" out of these snow suits. I have a need for a few "kid free" hours in my week. Snow/Ice = NO SCHOOL. So that is how I got to this point.

I go to my computer and read about other peoples lives in an effort to escape my own for a minute or two. ( I have also been doing some internet shopping, but let's not tell my husband.)

Just look at the snow drifts in the driveway, never experienced that before....