Thank Heaven For Little Boys

From This:

To This:



I will never forget the day that my husband and I went in for our ultrasound, pregnant with our 3rd child. We were excited and anxious to learn if we would have a boy or a girl. Naturally, having 2 daughters already I really wanted a boy. Of course we would have been happy either way, either way we were blessed to be carrying a healthy baby after 2 miscarriages.

The warmed up jelly was put on my belly and the lady took a look at our growing child safe inside my womb. "Do you want to know what it is?", she asked us with a smile. I just knew she would announce the coming of our 3rd girl.
"Yes," we both answered simultaneously.

"Ok, you see that little thing that looks like a turtle head?" (What? My mind was racing, confused.) "It's a boy," she said grinning. At that first "b-" that came out of her mouth T and I both gasped and the tears came. We embraced and kissed. We were so excited. Cloud Nine.

I felt like I needed to explain myself to her somehow so I said, "I promise we would have been happy with a girl too. I mean..ugh...," the words wouldn't come.

"Happens all the time," she said. "I am really happy for you."

Just a few months later, after painting everything baby blue our baby boy arrived and I remember being so amazed that he even looked like a boy. Something about his waist, his build. It was different. Actually he has proven to be different in everything, in a way that I'm not quite sure I was prepared for.

I know you have heard many stories on here of my boy eating glass Christmas balls, mascara, toothpaste, Windex, and even Excedrin, playing in the potty, and climbing on furniture. I think that he took me by such surprise and that he is so full-throttle that my days are filled with things like these. However, they are also filled with sweet and precious moments from him....moments that make my heart melt. I love my boy, my "buddy" and I am so grateful for him.

J's birthday was this past Monday, September 28th. My boy is TWO!

To My Birthday Boy:

Here are some things about you now:
-you love to be outside.
-you love balls: footballs, baseballs, golf balls, basketballs
-you love trains, and call them "choo-choo"
-you love your new pet cat, "mow mow" and you named her/you pick her up and carry her everywhere.
-you love to run
-you love to go in the car
-you are talking up a storm and putting 2 and 3 words together.
-you like to climb. anything.
-you like to jump off things.
-you like to collect things in your pockets, like rocks or jellybeans.
-you like to laugh
-you like to be startled (like when someone says "Boo") you think it is so funny
-you like to watch Stuart Little, Thomas the Train, and Winnie the Pooh, but you won't sit for long.
-you like to try every one's food. surprisingly, in doing so, I have discovered that you like tuna salad, chicken salad and even BBQ.
-you like to smell your food before you eat it. If it doesn't smell good to you, you won't try it.
-you saying "Hi" and "Bye" to everyone you see in passing.
-you love your family
-and we love you

Just a Few of the Things that I love about you:
-your toes
-your long eyelashes
-your big smile
-the smell of you
-your adventurous spirit
-your determination
-your sense of humor
-your laugh
-your playfulness
-your energy
-your friendliness
-your spunk
-your hugs
-your kisses
-your "night-nights"

I miss your newborn stage, when I could sit and smell your head and bathe you in kisses. Those times aren't as often now, because you have so much you would rather be doing. I miss those times, but I love seeing you grow into a strong little boy too. You've certainly got me on my toes Buddy and keep me busy. It is an adventure and I am so lucky, even if I have to stop and remind myself of that on occasions. I love you with ALL my heart. I am so thankful your my son. Happy 2nd Birthday.

Love,

Mommy

Can't We Just All Get Along

I am on my soapbox today, and unfortunately you get to here about it.

There have been so many examples lately in the news of people forgetting their manners. We have tennis professionals losing their cool, senators yelling out inappropriately, even singers not waiting their turns in lines. Isn't this everything we learned to do correctly in elementary school? Didn't our parents teach us to be respectful and courteous to others? Why have we forgotten this? Are we too stressed out that we "crack" under pressure or have we become too full of self so we don't care about others anymore? Good question.

I'm only getting started here....

Supposedly, because I didn't see it, but Barbara Walters insulted Paula Deen on the view insinuating that she helps contribute to childhood obesity. Puh-leeze! Does Walters bother calling all the grocery stores and food manufacturers who make doughnuts, oreos, sugar filled cereals that are all marketed for children? No. She does not. Can't WE, as normal people with capable minds, choose for ourselves to eat things, or do things in moderation? People make choices. Bad choices come with consequences. These consequences have to be handled by the person who made the decision in the first place. I say if you want to eat cheese cake with butter on top..then go ahead!

Another incidence in the news that caused a lot of controversy is the mom that drug her kid around the Verizon store on a leash. I feel bad for the lady. Clearly, she might not have made the best decision, but come on... What if she would have instead, picked the child up and spanked him a couple of times to discipline the child? Would people have felt the need to intervene and call the authorities on her? ...YES, they would...it has happened before. Who are we to tell someone they can or cannot spank or discipline their own children?

I admit, when I first heard the news of Michelle Duggar being pregnant with #19, my first reaction was to be very judgmental. Why? It is not my place to tell her how many children she should have. As long as they are providing for them on their own then I do not have a say in that. In fact, it is down right rude that I even entertained the idea in my head to judge her.

Finally, (because I could probably go on and on with examples)who are these people that feel the need to ridicule a mom that blogs about her family? There are actual people that have started their own blogs to poke fun, accuse and humiliate another blogger. They have accused her of lying, taking money and tried to dig up dirt on her and her family. I am appalled. Who cares if someone gets money for putting ads on their blog? I say, "Good for you" and sign me up! We all have our shortcomings and make many mistakes in life. Some people blog about them. Some people keep them private. I'm no genius, but I think if you don't like someones blog, simply STOP reading it.

When someone is eating a Krispy Kreme doughnut, it is not your duty to tell them that it is going straight to their hips. If someone is spanking their child because they ran out in front of a car in the parking lot, it is not your place to think they are not a good parent. If someone wants to have 48 children they should be able to do so without getting criticism from everyone else.

With all this being said, I am not advocating to NEVER step in. It's a matter of good judgement. If a loved one needs confronting because of an addiction, if a complete stranger is in need of help, if you see a child getting bullied, or someone being attacked...by all means I think you should intervene and do what you can. I am (not so) simply saying that we might have become people so full of themselves that we see it our right, even our "duty" to but in and try to help at any time WE think we can. Why don't we just do a better job of taking care of our own children and loved ones and stop criticizing everyone else for being lousy at it. Let's stop being so prideful and righteous. Quite honestly, it's making me sick! (and I include me in this as I have been very guilty of these acts myself)

"And that's all I have to say about that"---Forrest Gump

Trash to Treasure

The other day on my way out of my neighborhood I noticed someone had put some furniture out for garbage day. It caught my eye because it was a lot of wooden pieces. Most of the pieces were broken or in terrible shape, but then I saw this:


I quickly put it in the back of my car and brought it home, knowing I could make this chair look better and give it a good home. I painted it white and sand papered the edges to give it that shabby chic look. I have not yet replaced the brown leather seat on it, but it might be growing on me just the way it is. I have not found the perfect place for it in my home, but currently I have it in our family room so that I can marvel over my repurposed ,FREE chair. Don't you just love things that are free?

(I realize that this is not a close up, but I was actually taking a picture of my room after I rearanged the furniture the other day. Still, you might be able to catch a glimpse of my free chair.) And please, no nasty comments about my large, drab brown and very filthy couches that are in the picture. Now those are two pieces that NEED to go to the garbage!

Now my eyes are peeled to everyone's garbage every week. You never know when someone's trash will become your treasure. The littlest things can make my day.

I Heart Patty.

After much persistance on my part I finally got my husband to agree to have someone hired to clean our house. I have been spinning my wheels forever just trying to maintain the laundry and the toys picked up, let alone keep J occupied, run carpools and do bankruptcy petitions. I never have time to actually CLEAN anything..you know like dust, mop, clean bathtubs, etc.

A couple of months ago Patty came to my rescue and I am delighted! She does a fantastic job and is very reasonable. We only have her every other week, but that seems to help out a lot. Patty came this morning and J and I ran some errands. As we returned home the overwhelming smell of cleanliness infiltrated our nose. Ahhhh...so pleasant. Apparently I wasn't the only one with that feeling, because as I turned around to look at J behind me, he was down on the floor and his nose was buried in the carpet smelling it! Funny, funny boy.

First Kiss

They grow up too fast. Plain and simple. While I feel like I am on auto pilot most days, I think my kids are on fast forward. My sweet K, who is in kindergarten this year, proved my theory correct the other day.

When the kids got into my car after school they were saying, "Teller kissed K! Teller kissed K!" K had a sheepish grin on her face, but held her chin low as so not to make real eye contact with me. Later that night my husband and I questioned her about THE KISS. We asked, "In the mouth?" K replied, "Ugh, No. ON the mouth." Ok, good. I think I asked that wrong in the first place. Good to know it wasn't IN the mouth, just ON. I then asked, "You didn't like it did you?" She looked at her Daddy looking at her and she shook her head No. With that her Daddy gave her a big hug. She looked at me while peering over his shoulder, still in the embrace, and with a huge grin she mouthed to me, "I really did though".

Fast forward I tell ya. Could someone grab that remote and put us in slow motion for just a while? Mainly so that her Daddy can have time to get prepared!

Slumber Party

I don't know how she manages to do it every year, but M always seems to stretch her birthday celebration for days. On her actual birthday I took cupcakes to her class. Later that night we met my in-laws for dinner at a Japanese restaurant where the kids were truly entertained with the chef's tricks. They didn't particularly LOVE the food, but they certainly enjoyed the entertainment and it was a memory made. After dinner M opened up her present from her Gran-re and Grandaddy. They gave her two outfits and as she opened them she squealed with delight and said with a lot of sass, "Oooohhhh...I am SO wearing this one to school tomorrow!"

On Friday night I allowed her to have a couple of girls over to sleep over. Everything went great. We ate pizza, made pillowcases and friendship bracelets, played American Girl, had a dress up party, and ate birthday cake. After they all finished up their cake they washed up and got on their pj's. I popped on the new Hannah Montana movie for their 1st flick of the night around 8:30 or so. About 10 minutes into the movie and once everybody had their choice of topping on their popcorn, the power went out. Joy! No electricity. 3 movies to watch and we can't. A possible minute or two where this mommy could take a breather, but NO, didn't happen. Instead I became entertainer of the year, leading games of charades and pictionary by candlelight. Ghost stories might have come in handy, although I don't know any and UNFORTUNATELY I couldn't Google it because the POWER WAS OUT. All in all, we had a lot of fun playing those games in the dark. The girls settled down and decided to go to bed after getting bored with all of my games, I guess. They went to sleep fine, despite a lot of worry and concern, not to mention the rising temperature in the house. Luckily the next morning we had power, so we all sat around and finished the movie together.

M's birthday officially ended on Saturday around lunchtime when our company found their way home. It was a fun couple of days, I have to admit.

9 Years Ago My Life Would Be Changed Forever

It seems like only yesterday, that two very young and nervous people were on their way to the hospital to have their first child.

After only 4 days of teaching the new school year in 2000, I awoke on that Friday morning in August knowing that I wasn't going to make it to work that day to teach many small children, instead I would become a mom that day. Though I struggled through 20 hours of labor, over an hour of pushing, and eventually an emergency c-section, it was all worth it. At 12:14 am our 1st child entered the world...a beautiful baby girl. Weighing in at 8 lbs and 6 oz, she was a healthy and hungry little girl, right from the start. We were finally a FAMILY.

My 1st child, that precious baby girl, is NINE today. I am sitting her trying to wrap my brain around the idea that nine years has gone by in the blink of any eye and hoping that life will slow down somehow.

I now enter a new state of life with my daughter. It's the tween years. The time has come to start growing up a little, learning a little more. It's also a time of insecurities and self-consciousness that we are embarking on. I hope that I will be able to maintain a good relationship with my tween (and teen soon enough). I know that I will often be embarassing, talking too loud, saying the wrong things, not wearing the coolest clothes or shoes. I will be looked at many times that I am mean or unfair through these times, but it will be all out of love for my daughter.

And Mom, if you are reading, let me take the time to apologize for telling you that you chewed to loudly back when I was a young girl. And sorry for walking 25 feet behind you and Dad in the mall because I was too embarrassed of my parents. I am sure I will be paid back very shortly for all of my eye rolling and smart comments. Thanks for sticking with me and loving me anyway during those times, as I will with my daughter.

Happy 9th Birthday M! You are a beautiful girl who is loved so very much!

For Your Blogging Pleasure

I am a little delayed in this post, but I wanted to introduce two new blogs that I am following.

After months of persuasion by many of her friends, my neighbor and friend Michelle started a blog and she is too darn funny! She is a mom to four, two of which spend a whole lot of time over here at my house. Her daughter, A, and K play together every single afternoon. They can play Barbies, house, and dress up for hours together. Her experiences with her older two children, that are both in high school, are to my advantage..getting to see what's ahead of me is nice and how she handles the situation. I am taking notes. Check her out over at Lassoing The Chaos.

After months of ME persuading my Dad, who is an excellent writer, to start a blog he finally did with a little help from me. When my Dad moved to Vermont this summer I was even more eager for him to do the blog so that family could keep up with all his adventures. So, I set up is blog spot and told him exactly how to use it. Every day I would check to see if he had yet written anything and was disappointed most days, until one day there was this post and it was the sweetest post about me. I cried and cried reading it. His next post had me in tears laughing! I don't know how often he will write, but I hope more and more. You can find him at Seize The Day.

Hope you'll check them out!

3 Women, A Mattress and a Kitty

Last week did not disappoint in the craziness factor. Just as the week before had drama with the road rash event, this week had to find it's own random and completely crazy events, however it all happened on one day...Thursday.

My sister has recently relocated here from Texas. She has spent time cleaning and fixing up a little rental house and she was sleeping on an air mattress until last Thursday. On that day, she and I borrowed our uncles truck, a huge Ford F250 and drove about an hour away to my mother in law's house to retrieve a mattress and box springs for her. After my sister and I had a nice lunch with my mother in law we loaded up our goods onto the truck. Because my uncles truck had a tool box on the back, the mattress wouldn't lay flat so we had to prop it up a little on the box. This meant no visibility through my rear view mirror and to top it off his side view mirror on the passenger's side was already missing. This left me with my one driver's side view mirror. As we left the neighborhood and my mother in law was following behind in her car, I suddenly got nervous. I asked my sister if she thought the mattress would be ok and not fly out. She assured me that it was too heavy and I trusted that, but I did warn my mother in law behind me to watch for any movement. Not too long of being on a busy highway at lunch hour, I looked out my one and only side view mirror and there behind me, in the middle of the road was our big pink mattress. My mother in law had stopped about 3 inches behind it. PANIC! TRAFFIC! MATTRESS! As I backed up the truck my (very sophisticated and well dressed) mother in law was pulling that mattress to the side of the road all by herself with traffic rushing by. We hopped out and helped her, loaded back up the mattress and much to our surprise a good Samaritan stopped (WITH BUNGEE CORDS) and proceeded to secure our mattress to our truck. This man even put himself in harms way, standing on the side of the truck closest to the other lane and the traffic. He didn't let us pay him or anything, he just accepted our gratitude and we were on our way. It's really nice to know that there are still many kind people in the world, willing to help someone in need. We are still laughing at ourselves for this, thinking that's what we get...3 women doing a man's job.

Later that evening, after arriving safely home, my kids heard a strange noise outside around our cars. It was obvious it was coming from my husband's Cherokee, but what was it? After some careful listening, my husband says, "I know EXACTLY what it is! It's a cat!" He explained that earlier that morning he was driving through town and he saw this little black puddle in the road, but upon getting closer he noticed it was a cat that wasn't moving. He swerved around it carefully, got out of his car and went to check on it, but it wasn't there anymore. He looked to the sides of the road but he saw no cat running away. He recalls getting out of his car he heard a small "thump" but thought nothing of it. Apparently, cat had hitched a ride and rode around with my husband all day and eventually home with him that evening. We finally located the cat underneath his car. You could see the little cat by looking above his rear wheel and it was sitting on his gas tank underneath. We tried to lure the cat out with tuna, cheese and many "Here kitty, kitties" but nothing worked. Finally, my husband brought out the MAGIC GLOVE, that has been known to help abandoned animals in the past. With the glove my husband, the hero, was able to get the cat..only, it was a kitty. A tiny, solid black kitty with little green eyes. Needless to say, my girls were absolutely thrilled at this hitch-hiker kitty telling their Daddy that "We have to keep her because she obviously wanted to come home with you."



The next morning I took "kitty" to the vet to get checked and she is in great health, not a flea on her, not hurt and she weighs about 1.5 lbs. She is just about 6 weeks old. We are letting the kitty stay for a while, until she can take up residence with another family member. She sure is cute and I think all of us are quickly becoming more and more attached to her.

Our main concern and why we don't want to keep her permanently is because of J, our 2 yr old. He has given the kitty the name, "Mau Mau" (pronounced like now, but with an M instead of an N) That's his version of Meow, Meow. J is wanting to play in the kitty litter and carry her by the neck.


Pretty soon, Mau Mau herself might look into getting out and start hitch-hiking again, just to get away from him. In the meantime we are enjoying our new little friend.

I wonder what this week has in store for me!

One Week Down

Last week it was back to school and back to routine. Everything went pretty good, although there were some occasional resistance to going to bed before it was even dark and having to come in early from playing to get baths. It was an adjustment for all of us.

Toward the end of the week sweet K didn't want to get out of bed in the mornings. As a matter of fact on Friday morning as I woke her up she declared that she didn't want to go to school and she had decided she didn't like it anymore. She proceeded to pull the covers back over her head and I told her she must, in fact, go to school.
"Why?" she asked in a very cranky tone.
In which I replied, "So that you can learn things, be smart, and grow up to be anthing that you want to be."
"I don't WANT to be ANYTHING," she came back with quickly.
Brief Silence/Pause
and then she said, "On second thought, I do want to be something. I want to be a SLEEPER!" With that she once again pulled the comforter back over her head as I laughed out loud at her response.
If only you got paid for sleeping, because I want to change jobs if that's the case!

On Wednesday afternoon we visited cousins in their new neighborhood. M and her cousin were playing on the scooters outside and M took a dive on the pavement and has a pretty serious injury from it. She basically has road rash and the top layer of skin peeled away from her leg. Ewwwww...I KNOW! After a trip (or four) to CVS and about $75 later I now could run a small infirmary. Not really, because I have to use all that to clean her wound and change her bandage twice a day!
(A small diversion here....Why in the world when I was at Ga Southern preparing for nursing school did I have to take Field Biology? Seriously...No amount of bird watching or bug collecting prepared me for anything nurse related! And I must say that I am so glad that I decided to go in to teaching instead of nursing because if this wasn't my daughter then I would pass out at the sight of this leg! )
The wound seems to be healing rather nicely, but having to change the bandage on it in the mornings before school means we have to wake up 10 minutes earlier and I'm not a big fan of losing my one and only snooze!

Hopefully this week, the second week of school, will be free from injuries and we will get a better sense of our new sleeping routine. Here's to being a mommy!

And here are pictures of the road rash
(I have to say that it looks a lot better on this picture than in person!)


And my excellent bandage..Aren't you proud?

Everytime I have changed M's bandage, she has looked at me and said, "Mommy, I love you."
It's always nice to know someone is there to care for you, isn't it?