Paci, Binky, Dummie...

A friend wrote a post about her daughter giving up her paci recently, and as I began to respond, I realized it was getting long and was a whole post in itself, so... here it is.

We called a pacifier, what it was - a Plug! It plugged up the crying, etc... To make it sound a bit cutsier, we generally called it a 'pluggie'.

I USED to think that if you offered (forced) a plug, that you would avoid a thumb sucker! I was firmly convinced of this, and the idea that you could always throw away a pacifier, but you couldn't get rid of a thumb!

HA! I had three paci/plug children, and the next sucked a plug till abt. 3 months old she spit it out and found her thumb! That was it! No more paci/plug!

Then I stressed about the thumb... At about 8 months I noticed one day, she just wasn't sucking on it any more! WoW! How did I get SOOOOOO lucky!?!?! Since then, no more paci/plug babies, the next two just weren't ever that interested. it helped in a pinch in the car seat in the car, but otherwise, they didn't really like it as anything other than a not so fun toy.

Bekah was a serious plug baby! By the time she was a todler, she had to have three pluggies at all times! One in her mouth and one for each hand! I thought I'd NEVER get rid of them! When she didn't want to be in her bed, or woke up in the middle of the night, we'd listen as she fussed a bit, but it wasn't until we heard all three pluggies, dropped out of the crib and clattered onto the wood floor, that we knew we would have to go in and retrieve them all to get her setteled down before she'd go back to sleep.

The other Rebekah plug story is: She liked the NUK pacifier. The Orthodontic pacifier. However, she liked it UP-SIDE DOWN!!! We wondered what it was doing to her teeth! (she did have to have braces, but so have each of the next two and I can already see that the others need them as well, so I don't think the upside down orthodinic pacifier caused that). We used to put it in straight/correctly just to watch her flip it over. She would flip it with her tongue, in NO time at all! It was actually pretty amazing. We would do it for friends and probably strangers... it was our fun baby party trick!

We had heard, read that you shouldn't make too many big changes in a young child's life all at one time. We were moving from Germany back to the US, and I wanted to be sure to get out of country (so I didn't get 'left' behind when the Military suddenly decided to give Bill his orders to be at the school he was going to go to, and I'd be too far along to travel over seas...), so Rebeakh and I left just after Thanksgiving. We spent the time with Bill's parents, where Rebekah got lots of grand parent time. Along with moving away from her 'home' and leaving her daddy behind for the time being, she also left behind her crib, and started sleeping in a 'big girl' toddler bed.

Bill arrived back in country a day or two before Christmas. Bill had to report in at the school in AL, just after the New Year. Since we didn't know how long it would take for us to get housing, and we'd be stuck in a small hotel room, we decided to leave Rebekah in VA with her grandparents. We got housing abt. two weeks later, and so the drove her down and were there to help us get moved into our new 'house', on post.

The next BIG thing in her life was the arrival of her new baby sister on the 1st of March. So, she's had a major move, moved out of a crib, and now she had a new baby to contend with as well. How could I even THINK about taking away her pacifier(s)! As mom's (and dad's) of children who are very attached to some sort of comfort item, be it a blankie, a stuffed animal or doll, or a pacifier, you do not ever want to think about being without that item!!! Because she always wanted the three plug's at this point in her life, we kept quite a plethora of 'extra' pluggies on hand. In a somewhat short amount of time we started comming up a little short on extra pluggies. I remember one sad night, with a crying fussing child who we drug out (or made us head out) at nearly midnight to drive to an open all night grocery store to buy a new pluggie, since we couldn't find even ONE anywhere in the house at the moment!!! (they were hidden in the toy box, etc, etc.
Shotly after that, I started noticing that her pluggies were getting holes in them. I figured they were getting old, or something. One day, a few short weeks after Amanda was born, we were visiting a friend. Rebekah came in to show me that her pluggie was "broke". (she was getting molars and had been chewing on them!) I told her to go throw it away. She went to the trash can threw it in and said, "bye, bye"! That was IT!!! she never had another pluggie! It was the last one we knew where it was, and just said, all of them broke, and somehow, this child who had had to have three all the time for nearly a year by that time, never really even asked for another one. Did I get LUCKY or what!?!?!?!?!?!?!!!!!

I want one of those...

I was going to write this post 'one day' and it was going to have a completely different slant on it... But as 'fate' would have it, Liam has prompted this one, so here goes.

Liam was watching Clifford the Big Red Dog show... I wasn't really paying much attention to it at all, but apparently, at the end of the program, they showed...

Several different children and with them? Their dog(s).

When Liam started saying, "I want one of those..." I wasn't really sure what he was talking about, and I asked him what he'd said. He said again, "I want one of those" and pointed toward the t.v. I looked up and was slightly afraid of what he was indicating. I asked him what it was that he wanted. He said, "one of those dogs..."

Good Grief! Does he even know what he's saying? (Rebekah heard him from the other room she'd just walked into, and said, "Did I just hear him ask for what I think he asked for?")

O.K. to begin with, I am not a dog person (or a cat person, or an animal person in general). I have never wanted a dog or cat at my house. When Bill and I first got engaged, that was a source of teasing from his parents, that I would not let their son have a dog!!! He's always had a dog! and a cat or several of each, and a Pony! yes he had a pony as a child. It was an Ornery pony, and hard to do much with it, as when Bill would ride it the pony would run him into the trees to swipe him off it's back and onto the ground!

Secondly, I am not a fastidious housekeeper, I'm sure you've all noticed! (I have a lot of clutter, or as I once heard it put... 'I'm Horizontally Surface Challenged' I also have a problem with out of site out of mind... If I have something I need to get to, or a project I have to get done, and I put it away somewhere??? It's gone for months/years!) but that being the case, I have six kids and a crazy house and I do not need an animal in the mix! Besides, if I had an animal, it would have to be an out door animal, since that is how I was raised, and I just don't do indoor pets.

Thirdly, (do I really need to go on???)

Liam is afraid of animals - mostly! He will cringe - more of a whole body shudder - cower, and often completely freak out when a person's pet, usually a dog, (but he has been known to come unglued at the sight of a cat crossing a room as well), comes anywhere near him! (within his sight or hearing) For a little while when he first started talking, he would ask if anyone had a dog as we pulled up to someones house to play or visit, etc. He would be cowering behind me, and asking, do they have a dog? I would have to pick him up even as I reassured him there were no dogs at 'this' house... or that they would put the dog in a room or something. Some friends have witnessed this freaking out, whole body shaking, crawling/clawing his way into my arms as high and fast as he could possibly get... on more than one occasion!

Now in the past we had a couple of gold fish (Simba and Nala is what Rebekah and Amanda named them). We took a long vacation home to visit Bill's parents one summer while Bill was at a military school for 3 months, and so I sent them to my friend's house to live in her nice large 100 gallon aquarium for the summer. When we returned, she indicated on several occasions that we could have them back... I was fine with their continued absence, so they never did return to us.

Sariah attended a nature camp at Camp McDowell last year when she was in 6th grade. Bill went with, as a chaperon. I remember him coming home and telling me how she had held a snake and how her eyes 'just lit up'!!! I thought, that's nice, but, so what!

As Christmas approached that year, she had asked for and Bill was pushing for her to get a snake. I was definitely NOT convinced! By Christmas they had worn me down, and so Santa got her the whole set up and she got to go pick out the snake she wanted (a small baby corn snake) the next day. It has been interesting over the past year + to watch as it has changed and shed and grown. I believe I've actually held it once.

The same year, Rebekah had a class with a teacher at the High School who had several snakes in the classroom. Many of the kids became very accustomed to the snakes, and we'd hear about how she'd go to class, pick up one of her favorites (Checkers - a corn snake, thus named because of the checkered pattern on the underside of the corn snake) and drape him around the back of her neck and have him crawl about her and crawl into her front pocket of her hoodie, or what not, all throughout class. For Rebekah's 17th birthday, that year, she too got a snake - another baby corn snake...

It has been interesting to see the two of them, as they have grown at different rates, and they have slightly different personalities as well. Sariah's is very calm and mellow, and Rebekah's is a bit more tense... doesn't like to be messed with all that much, which is good as she knows a bit more how to handle them, and Sariah can totally hold and pass her snake around to all the eagerly waiting children that want to hold it.

Liam has been from day one, FASCINATED!!!!! He loves to touch/pet the snakes, and visit, look at the snakes. He loves for it to crawl on his arm and wrap itself around his little hand and arm. I bought some small little toy snakes for a rain forest diarama Sariah had to do for school once, (Liam added Woody) and the extra snakes have become Liam's to play with. He will occasionally ask for me to wrap them around his little arm... they are his "nake's". He also found a little plastic Lizard that he plays with as well. We worry a little bit about him 'finding' a snake in the wild... and havig NO FEAR!!!!!

The snakes over all have been quite painless as far as upkeep go. You buy food and feed them once a week and that's about it! (O.K. so I don't buy the food, Bill or Rebekah does that part. I don't watch as they are fed! I don't want any part of that, but the fact that it only has to be done once a week or so, is a nice thing.).

I was going to do a whole blogpost titled:

SNAKES on a TRAIN!!!!!

Notice the checkered pattern on the underside of the snake that is curled around the bridge (if you click it it will be larger and easier to see)

Notice the one snake inside the 'barn', and the other one going along outside it.

Over the past year when Bill has gone to the local little pet/creature store, for food, frequently, one or more of the younger siblings has gone with him. Hannah started checking out this Bearded Dragon Lizard that they have there. She wanted a lizard, and started saying that was all she wanted for Christmas. Again I fought it... and again, I 'lost'.

So, this past Christmas, Hannah got a small little Bearded Dragon. I have to say it is kind of cute (in a weird sort of way). The lizard, takes more time and attention than the snakes... you have to feed it greens, like kale - daily, in the morning. Then in the afternoon you have to give it some crickets as well. So, now we have to keep crickets as well! They die like crazy! You have to feed them these little cubes of food and water so they are well hydrated, as that is part of the Lizards, fluid intake daily as well. Good grief! What have I gotten myself into!?!?!

Shortly after getting Hannah's lizard, I said something about, "How did I ever end up with REPTILES!!!!!?????? at my house?????" The very quick response from one of my lovely children was, "Well, you wouldn't let us have a dog!"

THANKS.....

I have an awesome family!!! and Fabulous kids!!!!!

I've been busy the past little while.
Last week I began teaching a Naturally prepared Childbirth Class... it was sort of dropped (thrust) into my lap, if you will. The gal who was going to teach the class for my friend at her store, backed out sort of at the last moment. So, when my friend/store owner found out (realized) I was actually a certified Child Birth Educator, I was asked to teach. So, this is new and hard for me. I do alright one on one, with couples talking over their pregnancy and their birthing options, but I don't particularly like to stand in front of a group (for any reason), and teach them, and be 'the Authority' on things.
So last week I taught Childbirth classes, had Hannah's Surgery, and attended a birth. By the end of the week, I was readying myself for Bill to go on another trip TDY, to Ft. Bliss in El Paso, TX, the onto Washington D.C. where he will be speaking to Congressmen. On Friday night the other mom I had due this month, contacted me to say they were planning to induce her on Monday morning (after she was there for cervical ripening over night).

Saturday, we had a very busy day... Sariah was doing a service fundraiser for the Beta Club at school. You bought tickets and then went to a pancake breakfast at Guthrie's. So off we went to that first thing. Then we attended New Beginnings for the Young Women at Church. After that we rushed the kids home so that we cod go back and take the kids to the primary activity day! On top of that we had some errands to run, and go on post, and then hit the commissary. We were able to make a deal with S. (Thanks S!) we dropped our kids and a few of hers at the church for the activity. Then she picked up the kids and brought them all back home.

Monday morning I dropped the little girls off to school on my way to the Hosp. for the birth, Bill got Liam up and ready and dropped him off at H's (thank you H for helping me out!), and then he was off on his trip.

The mom I was helping didn't deliver her baby till midnight, and I didn't arrive back home until 4:30 a.m. after waiting on mom to get out of recovery and helping her get BF'ing started, once she finally got to hold her baby...

The main reason for my post title today is that during all that time away from my family, and KNOWING dad wasn't even here, I knew that I was able to go about what I was doing with very little worry about my family at home. The kids all worked together and helped each other out and took care of what needed to be done. When I arrived home exhausted, I knew that someone had Liam and was helping with him - and didn't find out till later, that it had been a bad Liam night!

Liam occasionally has bad nights with his foot/feet/legs... He will wake up and cry out that his feet/foot hurts, and he needs some one to 'Rub' it, for him! So I do some foot massage. Or he wants you to rub it with, 'queem!' (cream), "I, need queem!" or, "I need some wotion!" or then sometimes he will get to the point with me that he will just need/want you to, "Hold it!" and he will reach out and find your hand and put his foot into your hand!

I can sometimes pinpoint that he had too much activity that day without wearing his 'hotdog' (orthotic) shoes... and so his feet are aching. Sometimes if I KNOW he's not had his shoes on his feet enough in a day, I will even dose him up with Tylenol before he gos to bed, and he will sleep much better. (sometimes he will complain of foot pain, in the evening before bedtime, that is a BIG clue). He however doesn't like the medicine most of the time. He doesn't care for the chewable tylenol usually (although occasionally we can convince him it is 'bubblegum' when it has that flavor...). Or we tell him the grape flavor liquid is 'grape juice'... bad I know in the big picture, but it works for us in the moment - sometimes. It is usually more successful when he is fully awake, than in the middle of the night when he is actually crying out in pain! The trick is knowing when he is going to be in pain and need something.

This can be a one time occurrence in a night, OR it can be the better part of the night. The girls said he woke up almost every hour on the hour, 1 o'clock, 2 o'clock, 3 o'clock, (at least those are the particular times I heard about) needing his foot rubbed or needing, "Queam!". They had to find the 'blue emu' muscle ache cream we use on his foot/feet, they had to run around and find the tylenol, and try to convince him to take it. They had a LONG night with him, and yet they were up and taking care of things, breakfast, and each other. When they went to bed, they didn't actually know if I would even be home or not... I did send them a message at midnight after the baby arrived to let them know I'd be home, so they would see it in the morning, when they got up.

In the morning when the alarm went off (after I'd had barely an hour of sleep) I woke up the little girls, then I laid back down on my bed, and Rebekah actually made pancakes for breakfast and they made sure everyone got out the door to school on time.

I ended last night and the end of two LONG days, with a trip to the store to buy supplies to make valentines (why do I continue to get magazines with cute idea's in them!?!?), and then Amanda and I took a trip out to Harvest/Toney to a friend (former doula client) who sews, (I just didn't have the wherewithal to manage this one this week), because Amanda brought home her new band uniform - dress- and needed it hemmed. it has a lot of fabric and it is a nice dress (considering), and I just didn't want to screw it up! I knew my friend sews, but didn't actually realize she sort of has a little tailoring business - in the middle of her 4 kids, and homeschooling, etc. She has made custom bridesmaid dresses (from scratch, no pattern).She is asking her husband a gorgeous tailored long dress coat - it is on the mannequin dress form thing. Wow It looks great! Anyway, so aside from making time to hem this dress that Amanda NEEDS, for a band competition thing on Thursday!!! My friend can certainly do the job, almost a no brainer! it is obnoxious fabric to me, and I just didn't want to screw with it.


Thank you, thank you, thank you, to my family for being AWESOME!!!!!!!

I posted some other things about my silly boy...

On my other blog -

Kids Say the Darndest Things!

Check it out at

http://wendyrfulkids.blogspot.com/

ELVIS is in the house... and other life happenings.

So... my day was going to consist of going to visit a friend I haven't seen in a long time...
But! My phone rang at 4:30 am... the mom I was working with - her water broke. No contractions yet. I managed to wake up and get moving, and started to get my ducks in a row. I left the houe at 6 something for H Hosp. It was a long day, but... it's a boy, 9 lbs 6 oz, and 22 in. and he's a CUTIE!!! As the dad made his phone calls to share their good news, several people commented that it was Elvis's birthday! (also one of the nurses commented she'd heard it on the radio comming to work that morning).

We want to thank K (mom) for being so willing to let Liam come play! Bill said that he pouted, dragging his little Diego backpack all the way up to the door and was saying, 'daddy, don't WEAVE me!'
He seemed to have a great time, and tonight when I asked him what he did today he told me, "play with K (little sister)! K is my best fwiend!" Sooo sweet!

Rebekah has started taking a College class this semester at UAH. So, she has class in the morning (m-f), and she has her college class monday and wednesday afternoons. So... she had an idea! She went to Hannah's school and ate lunch with her today. How fun is that?! She'd like to be able to go eat with Marissa as well, but her lunch time is earlier, and Rebekah gets out at the same time or 5 min's after it starts, so... she'd miss it. She thought perhaps she'd come with dessert for her or something, sometime.

Anyway, so Rebekah had lunch with Hannah, and then checked her out of school for us, because she had a Dr's appointment. Bill picked up Liam from K's and then met the girls at home and took Liam and Hannah to the Dr. (they both had an appointment with the orthopedic Dr.)

Liam pretty much has scar tissue that is causeing his hip to not fully extend. The Dr. told Bill he's seen it before, and gone in for another surgery to remove the scar tissue, and it really didn't make any difference, so rather than go through a surgical procedure for no reason... (essentially). His little ball hip joint is growing at a slower rate as well. He suggested we just continue with Physical Therapy as needed, and continue what we're doing.
They removed Liam's pants and the Dr. undid the Diaper to check the hip joint, and then put it back together... He then had Bill sort of walk around the office from room to room to get Liam to follow him so the Dr. could see how he walks. At one point Liam got ahead of Bill, ripped off his diaper and RAN giggling around the office hallway. Bill said it was pretty funny seeing his little butt cheecks sticking out from under his shirt, just running away! He told me all the nurses were just laughing, which of course fed my little streaker's enjoyment and he ran and ran around. Oh my goodness!!!!!!!!!
Hannah is a post for another day...

Hope all of you had a great day!

We're not proper people...

Do you ever look at your family, and sit back and ask yourself...

Where have I gone wrong?

Didn't I teach these people anything???
Today we were sitting eating dinner, we look over, and one of my sweet darlings, is eating with her fingers. Now, I suppose you could try to say it might have been a finger food, it was fried potatoes after all... however!!! they were not french fries! They were slices and fried in the frying pan.

Dad called her on it and told her to use her fork. Mere seconds after being told by us both to use a fork, she is pulling all the potato pieces apart and eating with her fingers, AGAIN!!!

I got after her, and told her NOT to eat with her fingers...

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Her response?

"But mom, We're not Proper people!"

Bill just looked at me and said, that is blogworthy! :-)

S- then went on to say that just because we are not into 'High Tea' (she didn't say that part, I added it), but implied that because we don't sip our drinks with our little pinkie finger poking out... doesn't mean we shouldn't have manners.

Thanks S~! perhaps I haven't failed completely...

I laughed, I cried, I wanted to cheer and clap...

Yesterday seemed to be movie day.
Sariah started the day out, going with friends to see some scarey movie...then, Hannah was invited to go see HSM 3 with the neighbors. We decided that perhaps Amanda and I could take Marissa later... It turned out Sariah got home in time to go with us as well.
After spending the day with Amanda working on her YW in Excellence project, we got ready and headed off to Bridge Street. We arrived just in time and got in our seats as the last preview was showing.
I remembered reading 'D's blog post about going to see High School Musical 3 and hwo she loved it. I thouught it started out a little bit slow, and then... WoW! They did an awesome job! I loved it! I seriously had to hold myself back, I wanted to cheer and clap throughout the whole thing!!! We were in a small crowd, but other than laughter, there wasn't a whole lot of noise, and I would have been very noticeable! I just clapped silently to myself.
I think one of my favorite parts was The Boys Are Back! http://www.clevver.com/movies/videof/225491/high-school-musical-3-senior-year-video-clip-the-boys-are-back.html

http://video.aol.com/video-detail/high-school-musical-3-music-video-us5-the-boys-are-back-hq/3236085977

So cute!!!

I literally wiped tears away at parts of the movie! Perhaps it has something to do with the story line of it being their senior year in high school and they were all graduating and moving on with their lives, and it made me think of Rebekah and how in just a few short months she will be leaving home. When faced with the reality of my baby going out on her own I know it will be hard and I will miss her so much. She, I'm sure, has NO idea how much I love her and I truely will miss havng her around. It has been an amazing journey being a mother. To watch my children grow and learn and to become amazing people. To wonder what kind of people they will be when they are grown, and what they will ultimately do with thier lives.

O.K. so this got pretty deep, but back to the original reason for this post... I LOVED HSM3!!! We have probably all seen other movies, where after the first or second in the series, they just seem to go down hill. There is at least one or two kids shows in particular that I can think of that I can watch the first, it's cute. The 2nd, also cute. But by the time they hit the third movie??? It's as if they ran out of idea's and yet they just keep trying to keep us pulled in, based on the success of earlier movies of the same name. With this one? I think it was the best one yet, and I am sad to see these kids (the show) grow up - and move on.

Bravo... great job!!! If you haven't seen it yet, and you liked the original Disney Movie.. Go see it! soon! I think I could see this one over and over. Now to get the Sound Track!!!

Some days are very very good...

Back in March/April when we painted and fixed up Sariah's room we had some things that did not get done. Before we did her room, Sariah had a bunch of things stuck to her walls with thumbtacks. After patching all those holes in the walls before and while I painted. I told her she was NOT to put any thumbtacks back in the walls!!!!! I told her we would make a nice bulletin board.
Her first week in Y.W. the leader had them make wallhangings/plaques. Sariah was so excited. SHe made one that was the colors of her room, and said her name and I Am A Child Of God on it. So cool! We had wanted to paint something or hang something over her door. This was Perfect!!! We finally got something on the back to hang it up, and it looks so good!

At some point when I helped my friend L move from her rental house into a nice house down the road a ways - she had a bunch of things the previous owners had just left behind. One was a bunch of movie posters and a bunch of large picture frames 24' x 36'. She gave me one of the big frames, and I thought it was a great start to make the bulletin board.

It took us quite a while to finally get all the things together for it. I had been promising Sariah we'd work on it... well, the time was FINALLY here! I had told her last weekend as I worked on something for the other kids, that this Saturday was THE DAY!!!

We went out and bought some of the remaining needed supplies, came home and worked and worked. Sariah made thumbtack buttons, way cute! We covered some squares with fabric, some parts are cork board, some are white board, and two of the fabric area's are also magnetic.

Sariah got a cool new bed for her new room, but she felt like it was taking up too much of the room and really wanted to get rid of the bed altogether and get a small fold out chair or something for her bed. Well, after spending the money on the bed, Dad said she was keeping the bed! We did take the dresser she didnt' want, out, and gave her a smaller dresser that fit in her closet to give her more room and we moved the bed to a different wall (in front of the windows, which seemed wrong to me... but, after talking it through, I agreed to let her try it). It actually did open the room up and make it seem much larger. We also took off her closet door (it is behind her bedroom door and if it was left open - which it ALWAYS was, and then the doors would bang into each other... Very annoying! I reused a shower curtain we had when the little girls were in the big room, for the curtain over the closet doorway, and it matches and looks really cute.







Bill told me this morning as he was getting ready to leave for a trip to Orlando, when times are hard, Remember the good days. Yesterday was a very good day!
















Today was the Primary Program at church. I always LOVE the primary program! Seeing and hearing the little kids is so fun! They are all so darn cute!!!!! I knew Marissa was singing a solo of the first verse of I am a Child of God, but I didn't realize how much she was doing! She and 4 other little girls got up right at the beginning, no introduction or anything, and started singing. She was First on the whole program! She sang the whole first verse by herself, then the other little girls sang with her the second verse and then the whole primary sang the third verse. She did a great job! She didn't even look or act nervous at all! I was so proud of her!

Sariah has technically graduated from Primary, but until January is till there for closing exercises, the talks, and singing (since we have three meetings in the same building that over lap, we have sac. mtg first, then PH, RS, and YW, 2nd, then after that we have sunday school). Anyway Sariah sits with the sunbeam class (which is a very active sunbeam class), and helps with the kids. So today she had the role of helping them sit reverently and had one if not two children sitting on her lap the entire time. She had also promised the kids that if they did a good job durring the program he would give them a treat. She fixed little treat bags for each one of those little 3 yr old sunbeams. Bill commented that he doesn't know what they will do in January when Sariah leaves primary altogether and is no longer around ot help out.

This afternoon, we stayed for a baptism (there are a lot of 8 year olds in our ward!). Then we came home and Amanda suggested we have a picnic. The kids wanted to eat outside, but after making all the sandwhiches, etc. it was getting close to dark and I didn't want to volunteer myself as Mosquito food, so we spread the blanket out and watched a movie and ate our pinic inside. While we were getting ready, Liam came into the kitchen and announced he'd 'gone' potty or something... Amanda rushed to find out what, and he'd put a ball in the toilet, and flushed!!!!! Luckily the ball was too big to go down and had holes so the water could flow through it and it didnt' block anything up, I'm just hoping that was the ONLY thing he put down the potty!!! UGH!!!!!! What to do with this boy! We keep everything locked most of the time (to where it's hard to get in the bathroom when someone REALLY has to go!!! we have to find the metal stick/key and unlock the door! This one time someone left the door unlocked, and wouldn't you know it, he found out!

Oh wait! He's upstairs, and everyone is in bed, and I think I hear him in my room/bathroom! YIKES! I didn't lock my door!

missing pictures

here are some of the pictures that were missing from other posts. I downloaded them from my camera, and they went to another file and because of my computer illiteracy... I couldn't find them.
So... here we are blueberry picking. Yum yum yum!




Here is Liam asleep in my shower! Silly Boy!
Here are our goodies that Bill brought back for us from Rome.

Blueberries... YUM!!!

Yesterday we were invited to go Blueberry picking at a small farm just north of us in Harvest/Toney area (G&N berry Farm).
I personally have NEVER in my life gone blueberry picking, and feel a little silly even saying that. I loaded up the three little girls and off we went. They gave me 3 buckets to go out and pick berries in. Of course each of the kids wanted their own bucket. I picked berries and put them in Liams bucket. I really hadn't told him anything at first, thinking he'd just hold the bucket for me to put my berries in, and then he just started picking berries himself. He was so cute! He only picked the ripe ones. Pretty good 'free' help.
Then he would wander a little bit away from me, and he was picking berries for his bucket, at this point I'd have to hold a handfull and chase down one of the girls to deposit my berries into their bucket Then Liam decided he was done, and dumped his bucket all over the ground! and ran off with his bucket... I had to pick all of those berries up and then I put them in one of the girls. Then Marissa wanted to combine them all to see hwo many we had picked and Hannah was unhappy since she couldn't see how many 'SHE' had picked by herself... so she didn't really want to pick anymore, and I took over her bucket, while she chased Liam down. Then Marissa gave up on me too, after eating quite a few. She ended up playing with the little girl who was part of the family at the farm, about her same age.
By this time I wanted to fill a whole bucket, no idea how much it would weigh at all, just for the challenge of it! Hannah and Liam were tired of waiting for me, and so eventually I had to give up, and be finished, whether my bucket was full or not. I can't remember how many pounds I ended up with, but they cost me about 4 dollars or something like that. When we got home, marissa must have eaten a whole cup of them, I ate several handfulls as well, Liam at a few, and then I measured and bagged them up and I had 8 cups to freeze for later, a bunch to eat, and some to make in yummy blueberry muffins (when I get time).
I have a yummy recipe posted on my recipes blog http://www.wendyrfulrecipes.blogspot.com/
scroll down a little.
I have pictures I took at the berry farm, but can't find where they downloaded to... Oh well.

FREE Movies... and a lot more FUN!!!!

During the Summer the Movie Theater shows a free movie weekly. We've gone a time or two in years past. Well this year they are showing the free movies at thenew nice theater at the Monaco. They are also showing them on Mondays and Wednesdays (at 11:00)!

This past wednesday we went (for our 'school' field trip). Our friend D didn't feel well so he and his grandma stayed home, but we invited our new freinds -here from Germany. We saw Ice Age - the Melt Down. The kids had all seen it at some time before, but I hadn't. It was so funny~!

We bought one lg. bag of popcorn and two bottles of water (and I had one from home in my diaper bag). We asked for extra cups and we just filled all the cups and everyone had their own popcorn cup to eat out of. We did this whole production line with the popcorn. I was sitting at one end of our group and the kids would pass their empty cups down to me and I'd fill them up and pass them back down the line. We went through two bags of popcorn before the movie even started, since you have to get there early to get a seat (and since we needed eight, I wanted to make sure we were there in plenty of time!). The kids made several more runs to refill either popcorn, or water bottles from the water fountain. Of course then they had to take several bathroom breaks! We went through four large bags of popcorn by the end of it... thank goodness for Free Refills!!!

After the movie we walked around Bridge Streeet for a while. We rode the Merry - Go - Round. Liam thought that was a Lot of fun! Hannah and Bob rode in a tea cup so they could spin around, and Marissa rode in a separate tea cup, so she could spin really fast! I could hardly look at her it was making me ill! (I don't do well at spinning round and round and round).

After the Merry - Go -Round the kids wanted to go check on the water fountain. The kids had a great time getting soaked as the water shot up from the ground. I tried to get them to sit out in the sun for a few minutes to dry off a bit before we went back to the car and came home... the water was way too fun and kept drawing them back in. Luckily I had a blanket in the back of the van for them to sit on. I just stripped Liam down, and changed the 20 lb soaking wet diaper.

Later we had popsicles at home then Sariah and Hannah went to our friends to sleep over... they got Birthday cake since it was 'S's birthday. Happy Birthday S!!!

Meanwhile, Amanda has spent every morning this week at Rookie Band Camp. She has been learning how to stand, hold the instrument up for around 8 minutes - without dying! and how to March. Next week on Monday she and Rebekah will be at Band Camp every morning and every evening for about 3 hrs each, getting ready to March at Football games this fall.

Amanda plays the French Horn, however, that is not a Marching instrument, so last week she got the Melaphone (I don't even know how to spell it...), which is supposed to be the smaller marching band equivalent. Well... it is quite a bit different she found out! It is a bit more like a big trumpet. She has to completely learn how to play a new instrument. You play it with your right hand (whereas with the French Horn, is played with the right hand and the left hand goes into the bell of the horn to help hold as well as muffle the sound). The fingering, along with being the opposite hand is also completly different as well. She is doing well, but it has been a long week.

We have had a busy, long week. Bill went to Dallas for 4 days. He got home last night, and leaves tomorrow morning for 8 days for Rome.

Rebekah left last saturday for Virginia for a week. After sitting around and missing flights, etc... due to weather conditions both here and in Atlanta where her conection was at, she finally arrived in Richmond, where her grandparents picked her up. Then Monday they drove her to Southern Virginia University where she has spent the week attending and Especially For Youth, conference. We've missed her, but I'm really glad she has been having a wonderful time. She comes home Sunday.