I'm Back

I have been thinking about updating my blog for quite awhile. When I have had the time, I have not had the brain power to put coherent thoughts on paper. When I have had the brain power, I have not had the time. Finally, life is working itself into a nice little routine and I am able to think...and even express those thoughts to you. :)

I noticed my last post was before the craziness I call summer really began. So, first, both of my sisters and their families came to visit. Well, except Chris, he had to work back in NC. Penny and Olivia came and then Patti, Bill, Jared, and Caden all came to stay for 10 days. And the kids all had swimming lessons together! They all did really well at swimming. Each of them did have their moments of whimpering, grumping, whining and/or outright yelling as I recall. They gave Ms. Jayne a run for her money, but she conquered them all. The days were mostly taken up with swimming lessons in the morning/early afternoon. One day we went to Boomerangs, a big place with tons of bounce houses. The kids loved it! Another day we took them to Going Bonkers. Both the kids and adults went Bonkers! It is a huge indoor playplace, the kind you see at fast food places, but it's cleaner. :) And goes up 2 1/2 stories high! The rest of the time the kids swam and played and all had their fair share of arguments too. I think they made some great memories. It was fun to spend all that time with Penny and Patti and Bill, too. Patti and Bill amazed me in the kitchen! They are quite the team! When they go to clean it up they are machines! Unfortunately, towards the very end, Penny and Olivia started to get sick. O woke up in the middle of the night throwing up. We attempted to quarantine her for the day, but that was just impossible. Miserable for her and mommy and well, since she seemed just fine after a little rest she came out to play with the rest of the kids. It was torture to Olivia! So much fun to be had and she had to stay in her room. But they both got better in time to fly home.

The next week I spent winding down from all the excitement and then gearing back up for another visit. :) My parents came to see us/work for us for 7 days. I didn't quite intend for that to happen...them working and helping me out. I hadn't made any list at all for them unlike previous years! :0 No, I thought, they should just come and relax and enjoy their time hanging out. Well, my mom just can't do that. She will just find things to do, which was GREAT! My laundry room shelves, pantry, under the kitchen sink all got cleaned up and at least 3 kitchen bags of stuff was throw out! I never knew I had to much stuff in there! My mom also took care of the trimming of the bushes and the palm tree. I think there were about 15 bags (at least) of trimmings ready for the garbage man that next week. We also did some planting of flower pots. Then came the garage. What were we thinking??? Matt had been talking about replacing the shelving in the garage. So while Matt was off to Home Depot to get supplies, mom and I were busy unloading the shelves so they could be taken down. So, can you see piles of wood and 15 bags of garbage all lined up along the side of our driveway waiting for Thursday? And it was only Monday! I was slightly concerned that the grass underneath might die! No, not really, but it was a ton of stuff! Just for the record, Matt did finish the shelves in 2 weekends, but they have not been restocked. Are you surprised? You shouldn't be. Give us a year. Maybe we will have it taken care of by then. ;) Then I put my dad to work by asking him to do all sorts of little projects around the house that I just never could get to. Things like, handing up hooks to put our pool equipment on, putting up hooks in Emma's room that I have had for several months just never got them up, and other things like that. He was busy every day! So helpful! I can't tell you how they inspired me. I just felt so bogged down by all these little things I just could not get to and felt bad about it. But after my mom and dad helped me get things under control and organized again I was inspired to keep it that way. And I'm doing a pretty good job! Not only is it easier to maintain and do the basic things, but I have even managed to fit some exercise in. Yay! And I think they even managed to have fun while doing all their chores. :D

After my parents left I decided not to think for about a week. I was just going to relax and get my kids back in line. After that week, I was looking at the rest of the year and remembering that I had been wanting to get the kids up to MI in the summer, it was clear that we needed to take our MI trip very very soon. In two weeks soon. So, we told them we were coming and drove on up! I will tell more details in my next post. Been a long time since I've thought like this....my brain is starting to hurt. Which reminds me, After day 1 or day 2 at school, Ethan said, "Mom, I think school is making my brain work too much. It hurts!" I feel your pain, son.

They're Coming!

My sisters are coming to visit for 10 days!! Yeah! We are all getting together at this time of year so the cousins can take swimming lessons together. It will be a busy week in that regard as we will have 3 classes of swimming lessons each day starting Sunday. Austin and Caden will be taking a class together. Emma and Olivia and Zaynah will be taking a class together. And then Jared and Ethan and Jereme will be taking a class together. So, three classes and three hours. It seems like we won't have much time for anything else. There are some other fun things in the area that we can do it we want. There's a place called Boomerangs which is full of giant bounce house type things. Then there is Going Bonkers...well, you can imagine. ;) It is a huge indoor playplace like you see at McDonald's or something like that. And then there are a couple pools around here that have waterslides. We can't go too far anyways as we will only have the van and will have to make a couple of trips! ha ha! And then of course my sisters and I have to have our girl-time together. There are some movies to been seen and Bellini's to be had! It will be a fun and busy time! Can't wait!

Well, our Anna has been sick these last couple of days. Not sure exactly what it is...could be teething...could be something else that's going around. She has had a nice temp the last few days, but seems to be much better today. Just warm instead of leaning towards 'hot'. And I must say, Anna is not good at being sick. She is a fussy whiny sick little one. I didn't realize how 'good' Ethan was at being sick. He just lays there in silence. Not so much with Anna. Lots of yelling and crying and holding letting me know exactly how she feels. It's kind of funny really.

On another note, Anna is finally starting to try and say words. She can say her version of 'bite please', 'thank you', and of course mama and dada. Oh, and she also has some sort of call for 'meow'. She still prefers yelling and she is pointing more which helps. It's a challenge as I am used to my kids talking by now. I was always thankful for that when I saw how difficult it can be for those whose little ones aren't communicating by that age.

Those are all the updates I have for now. :)

Just to update, as of about 2 weeks ago I have a brand new neice, Charlotte Pearl. :) Awwww!

On another note, if you can believe it my kids are already in the pool! Have I already mentioned that? Just Ethan and Emma are the bravest ones. Austin went in one day but that was it. And I have not put Anna in as I am not ready to go in myself! Speaking of Anna, she is attempting to say words...sometimes. She is not big on vocabulary....she IS, however, big on yelling to get what she wants. She is also big on climbing. I found her on top of the kitchen table the other day!! And she had a very guilt look on her face as well. She knew she wasn't supposed to be there! Stinker! As I said, "Anna!" She immediately started trying to find a way down. I have to laugh now, but she is going to be trouble when she gets bigger. This climbing is new for my family. The other three were not climbers. 

Well, Imagination Movers is almost over and I still need to finish my coffee. The kids get one more show to watch and I get 20 more minutes. :)

New Niece/Nephew Yet?

I am waiting the arrival of my newest niece or nephew. This child is taking it's time! Two weeks past the expected due date. I wonder if this is going to be the habit of this child in life? Watch out Julie! ;) Whenever I hear of a new baby coming it makes me stop and look at my children in amazement of how big they are and how far they have come. Little Anna was a newborn just over a year ago. So much has changed since then! Now she is running around the house getting into everything and getting into trouble for it. ha ha ha! Getting at her brother's and sister's things! It is entertaining and it is a lesson in dealing with little ones for the bigger kids. A lesson of accepting that things don't seem fair even tho mom says they are fair. It is good for them to accept that. Austin has had the hardest time transitioning during this last year. Ethan and Emma were thrilled to have Anna! But Austin, well, I think he liked her b/c everyone else did, but it also dethroned him as 'the baby', a very cherished spot in his mind. Therefore, it has been a tough year for me and him. I have HAD to put all the kids and even activities on hold quite a bit in order to take care of Anna. I will admit, that I have even had to put dealing with Austin and his issues on hold just to try and deal with the immediate physical needs of everyone. I felt bad, but didn't know what else to do at the time. Didn't feel that I could do any more than I was already doing. That first year is just exhausting! Plus, in my mind, Austin still was a 'baby'. I couldn't reason with him like I do with Ethan and Emma. So, I had to be up and literally running around after him to tackle the issues that needed to be dealt with. And I did not have the energy for that. So, now that we are in Anna's second year, I get sleep at night and feel like a human being again, and I am also feeling like I am getting back into my game. :) And Austin is going to be 4 years old on Sunday....he is just that much older that I can start to reason with him. And I can give him and the other kids the one-on-one time that they miss. A new phase in this season of my life has started and I am already loving it. 

Anna's First Hair Cut

My baby girl got her first haircut at 15 months old. The fine baby wisps are all gone and now in a plastic baggie. Not sure what I might do with them...but I ought to keep them, right? :) Anna did surprisingly well during her hair cut. I expected yelling, flailing of arms, more yelling and attempts at crawling out of her chair. This is one time I am glad she proved me wrong. Sat there like and angel! There are pics of her at my Picasa Web Album site. I have trouble downloading pics to this blog so I am keeping them on Picasa. 

Twitter-pated!

Tweet tweet! I succumbed...I am now a Twitter-er. ONLY because Matt has been having trouble getting reception with his phone at work and I was having trouble getting a hold of him. I only found out what was going on when a friend from Oklahoma called to talk to Matt (b/c he thought Matt was home from work), I happened to mention that I couldn't get a hold of Matt, and Steve tells me that Matt's having reception problems and he found out on Twitter. Good grief! I can't even keep up with Facebook so I am not sure I will keep up with Twitter. You never know, I may surprise myself. After all I do now use the Things application Matt bought for me for the iPhone. It helps me get things done. Instead of having lists on paper all over the house I now have them on my phone...most of the time. He wore me down until I finally tried it. It does help.  Back to Twitter, the most surprising thing I found out was that my IN-LAWS are on Twitter! I am way behind the times if they beat me to it! Now you have to update your status mom. :) I'll be watching for you!