Inkling, Here's Some of the Pictures I've Been Promising

This is Bee's room. I love how it turned out. It's so "little girley".


We got the armoire, already painted, for $100 at a thrift store a few months before we left Alabama. It actually was a gift from a friend. We saw it together and knew it would be perfect for Bee's room, but at the time we had no extra money and Bee was sleeping in our master bedroom closet. The two girlfriends I was with that day couldn't stand the thought of leaving such an amazing bargain there, so they paid for it and stored it until we had a place big enough to use it. I miss them!!


Prophet and D.K.'s room. It's hard to believe that they've actually made their beds every morning that they've slept in them since we moved. I know the pictures are dark. For some reason I couldn't get them any brighter. Their border is sports stuff and so's their comforter. As you can see, they are both still into their stuffed animals. They sleep with them every single night... along with their blankies.


These are what's known as "Fatheads". They are basically huge stickers for your walls. These guys are both lifesize stickers. Scarey huh? How would you like to wake up to these every morning? The boys think they're cool and I guess that's all that matters!!

This is the living room. You've already seen the fireplace, but this picture looks a little different. We're still working on getting pictures up above the couch. It look rather bare still I know, but I wanted to get pictures posted or it may never get done.

href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5gjWOGhgrz24P8PAePUKf0R1S2ZZUo-0e8cOzklHHynsYxdsUuphhHaPazXn2fYvRT5znFC0EV2Nl60Sx6ruJ4PjwrOsDXQbSLI0YBHD2OsWGG6z0mAB6fQu13cXfh2Ef1vIvRBgkPl0O/s1600-h/House+009.JPG">
This is our family room. Eventually I will have the same silly window treatment on the window to the right of the room. At the moment it and many of the walls are still naked, but it's a comfortable room.



*I have no idea why that code is above the couch picture. It shouldn't have come up like that. There is no way to get rid of it without the picture disappearing. Strange!!

Dr. Seuss on the Loose

That was the name of the camp that Bee attended every morning this past week at the local Arts Center. Here's pics of today's closing celebration time the kids did to show off their fun week.

The entire group modeling their hats and masks. It was so funny watching them walk in with the masks on because most of them couldn't see thru them so the teachers were directing them along by the arms as they lined up.

Bee's hat wouldn't stay on, so she held it up and put it back on several times while up front.

When she saw me taking her picture she turned on the charm.

These are some of the crafts from the week. There were more, but some of them had her name plastered on them in big foam letters and colored glue, so those were off-limits. Notice the clay green eggs and ham. Those are actually real clay that has been fired and everything. Cool, huh!


I'll have pictures of the boys' celebration and crafts later. Bee's camp was only 9-12. The boys' camp is also Dr. Seuss, but because they are older it goes 9-4 each day. Later taters!!

Another Surgery Done

I'm home, and all went well. I'm soooooo sleepy. Between the anastesia, the pain meds, and the Benadryl to stop the itching from the anastesia, I can't even walk a straight line. It's the funniest feeling!! Thanks for the prayers!!

Just A Reminder

Just to give you an idea of how out of it Inkling truly is at the moment, here is the question she asked me about two hours ago... tonight.... Thursday. "Is your surgery tomorrow or is it Friday?" I said, "Well, it's tomorrow which is Friday, dear." Yep, she's definitely not feeling herself right now. Poor girl!! Hopefully by Sunday she'll be feeling back to herself again.

So anyway, yes my surgery is tomorrow. Smart Guy and I have to leave here at 4:45 am to arrive at the hospital on time. Yuck! I despise that time of the day. One of the ladies from church is coming over at 4:30 to camp-out on our couch until the kids get up. Then she'll feed them breakfast and take them over to another family's home for the day. She will then go back and pick up the boys to take them to soccer camp and then pick up Bee after camp and take them out for dinner before bringing them home to sleep in their own beds for the night. She will then pick them back up on Saturday morning for another day of fun for them and quiet for myself. Mountain mom will be here sometime late tomorrow afternoon. She's not sure what she's gonna do without the kids here, but I told her she could baby me. I figure we can lay around and have girl time watching videos and eating bon bons all day Saturday. Shoot, if she feels that useless there's always floors to mop, laundry to do, toilets to scrub, carpets to vacuum, and loads of stuff to unpack still!!

Please keep us in your prayers!!

Project Completed

Before:

After:

Our living room paint is called "hot chocolate" and all the furniture, minus the piano is black! I knew almost from the second we saw the house that I wanted to paint the firepleace black! Of course now my hands are covered with little black spots that refuse to budge!! But it was worth it! I think it looks great! Although I notice in the pictures that you can't even see the opening now that it's black. The candles seem to help that though!

Here Is a Picture of the Sprayground

Wet 'n Wild

We went to the sprayground in town this afternoon. It was really cool. This was the first time we've used our pool passes since we moved here. When we got there, the early elementary age YMCA summer childcare kids were there and it was packed. After about 45 minutes and just about the time Bee had bonded with a six year old little girl, they all left. Then there were only about 3 families left playing. We pretty much had the place to ourselves the rest of the time we were there. It was so much easier keeping track of all three kids at the sprayground than at the pool, because at the pool, the boys wanna be in the deep water, and Bee wants the shallow. This makes it very difficult for one mom to keep track of her brood!!

Here's some pictures of our afternoon!!!

And He Scores

Prophet scored two goals for his team during soccer camp tonight. He was very proud of himself!! It had been raining for three hours when they left for soccer this evening and it continued to downpour most of the hour and a half they were out there. They were soaked to the skin and their hair was plastered to their heads when they came in afterwards, but they were smiling and happy campers. They had a blast. When they walked in I told them that they were in need of hot baths, and D.K. said that he'd said the exact same thing in the car and wanted to know how I knew he had said that exact thing. I said it was just a mom thing to know what her kids need! He was impressed. Apparently he's easily impressed, huh?

I think we might be making an impression finally about not being so aggressive and competitive with Prophet. He got another speech from us during dinner tonight about it. He got very quiet afterwards. I actually thought for a minute that he was gonna cry, but he didn't. We'll see how he does tomorrow night.

Thru The Eyes of a Child

The area we have moved to has the largest Amish population in the country. That said, I've wondered how long it will take for my kids (okay, I admit it, me too)to not stare when we see them in a store or restaurant. They drive their horse and buggies around town slowing down traffic. Someone enevitably tries to go around them. I've seen a couple of near accidents already.

Well, yesterday while we were at Aldi, an Amish mom and two daughters came into the store. They all three had on simple blue dresses and black bonnets. The mother and the older daughter, maybe 12 had on black shoes. I happened to notice them walk in right behind me, so when Bee excitedly (and loudly) said "Mommy look at that little girl," I immediately assumed she was pointing out what is a very obvious wardrobe difference between them. I tried to quiet her without making a big deal of it. I'm sure they tire of the stares and comments at times.

The next thing Bee said made me realize that little ones don't see the world the way we do as grown-ups. She simply said, "But Mommy, she gets to go barefooted in the store. I want to not wear shoes too. Why can't I go barefooted when I leave our house?" Uuuhhhh..... she didn't see what I saw. All her precious little eyes saw were the barefeet of a peer who was doing something she loves to do... go barefoot!!

If only we all could see past our differences!!

The Trouble She Gets Herself Into

I went down to the basement to put the laundry into the dryer and suddenly heard Bee screaming her head off like someone was trying to strangle her. I could tell she wasn't hurt, so I just hollered up the stairs to see what was going on. She said "I'm stuck" and continued screaming her lungs out. This is what I saw when I got to the top of the stairs. She had climbed up on the stepstool to clean a piece of fruit. When she jumped up to reach the faucet, she apparently kicked the stepstool out from under her. She didn't think about the fact that she was only a few inches from the floor. The camera was on the table so I grabbed it and snapped real quick before the rescue. The funny thing... the first thing she said when her feet hit the ground was "Are you gonna put that on your blog, they'll all think it's cute." Oh my goodness!!

Does This Really Need A Description

What you can't see is the pink tennis shoes on the wrong feet and her very bright blue and green flowered skirt. Her daddy took her to Lowe's looking like this!!

Our Day

Well, we got back into town from Mom and Dad's yesterday afternoon. Last night when nine o' clock rolled around and we still hadn't made it to the grocery store, choosing to play outside instead, we decided that we'd go out for breakfast and then go grocery shopping. We ate breakfast at a little cafe' across the street from the church. Bee ordered the children's meal with one scrambled egg, two slices of bacon, and one slice of wheat cinnamon-raisin toast. When the meal came, the egg was huge, there were three slices of bacon, and two huge pieces of cinnamon-raisin toast. I said "that is more than one egg." The waitress said, "We just have big eggs." Uh, this one scrambled egg was huge. So, Bee of course ate all the bacon, one slice of toast, and several bites of her eggs. When the waitress came back to see if we needed anything, Bee said to her "You must think I'm a much bigger girl than I am, " she stands up and with a stroke of her hand from her head to her toes says, " See, I'm just a little girl, you brought me way too many eggs." Everyone around us laughed and the waitress stole Bee away to the kitchen to speak to the cook. Bee marched into the kitchen, looked at the cook, and said "You must have thought that I was a much bigger girl than I am. See, I'm little. My mommy only makes me one egg at a time." Then she grinned at him while he laughed with everyone else within earshot. She then turned around on one heal, hand on hip and very proudly walked out and back to the table. It was hilarious. She will never be forgotten at that place.

After we left there, we went to the Natural foods store for a few things we needed, then to the church to drop off our milk and kefir we'd just bought, then off to Aldi to shop for the rest of the week, and then to kmart for a madd sprint to look for the shin guards the boys needed for soccer camp. They didn't have the right size, so we ran home, took the groceries in, Daddy took the boys to camp, Bee and I ran to the sports store to get the shin guards and then ran to camp a few minutes before they finished their barefoot drills and needed to pull on their shinguards for the rest of the session. I then sat down in the lawnchair stashed in the back of my van and took a deep breath. Forty five minutes later it was Bee's turn for her soccer camp to start, so I moved over to the next field and put my chair between them so the boys could run over and get their drinks while I also watched Bee. About that time, I got a phone call that completely thru my evening for a loop. Bee scored her first soccer goal tonight. She's so excited. Prophet was as usual on the ground as much as he was on his feet. He's the kid on the field that drives everyone nuts because he's so freakin' aggressive. It drives us nuts, but no matter what we or his coach say to him, he won't stop doing it. I'm afraid it's gonna take someone deckin' him to get the point across, but I sure hope not. Everyone finished up soccer at six o clock, we came home. Smart Guy left for a 6:30 meeting at church. I called Inkling and made dinner while we talked. I unfortunately was craving something that took a bunch of chopping... 3 kinds of peppers, zuchini, mushrooms, carrots, and garlic. It would have had onion too, but that apparently didn't make it into my cart at the grocery store, ugh! Then I had to take the tails off of a bunch of shrimp before throwing them into the pot. It was very yummy! I finally got off the phone with Inkling around 8:00 my time, fed my kids and gave them all baths. Then when Smart Guy got home from his meeting, he ate dinner left in the pot on the stove, we all sat down together for a bowl of ice cream and all the kids were put to bed. This is the first time they've all slept upstairs in their own rooms since we moved in here two weeks ago. Of course, we've been gone for a week of that. I'm nervous having them up there while I'm downstairs. I actually pulled the old baby monitor back out so we could here what's going on up there. I know, I'm paranoid, but I've never been that far away from them at night before.

The last two days, I've been using a new pillow on Bee's bed as leverage to get her to do what I want her to. It's a "very cool" butterfly shaped pillow. Well, I notice this evening when I went into her room, that it was no longer on her bed. The little devil hid it so I wouldn't be able to take it away from her. She really has to work on her hiding skills though. I found it in about two seconds, under her bed. I made her get it out and put it back on her bed. She wasn't happy, but she did it.

Please pray for me. I feel very strange... not physically... about things happening right now. Things that need to happen, but hurt so, so bad that it almost makes me ill. Actually, pray for the situation more than me. Please pray for acceptance, admittance (is that a word), and healing, (in many angles). I know I can count on my blogger girls for this! Thanks!!

Now, off to bed to prepare for another busy day tomorrow. Although I don't plan to run around so much. I've got about 300 boxes still waiting in my basement to be unpacked and lots of things still to hang on the walls!!

Moving In!!

Hey everyone! I don't have alot of time to sit and write, but I wanted to let everyone know that we're Ohio and doing good. The carpet was in when we got here. The paint was almost done. The painter had to come back on Monday morning to finish the family room, but the rest of the rooms were finished. I've been decorating everything this week. That's usually the first thing on my agenda. It's much more fun to unpack boxes and put stuff away when your house looks good. I've decided that it's okay if it takes awhile to get things all put away. I'll do six or seven boxes a day until it's done. I get tired real quick right now and it's not worth it to push it when there's really no dead line. I'd rather get worn out playing with my kids.

Speaking of the kids. D.K.'s really lonely. Prophet has been with Mom and Dad since last Thursday before we moved. They went to the Smokies on vacation. I feel sorry for him. The boys are always together. They play together. Ride bikes together. They've slept in the same room since D.K. was two months old and moved out of our room. They're best-friends. He's told us he misses Prophet several times. Prophet, on the other hand, has been having a blast with Granny and Pa's undivided attention. Right now, they're in the Nashville, TN area at my uncles's house until Sunday morning. The kids and I leave for Mom and Dad's in the morning, so we'll be there when they get back from TN on Sunday. Next week is my home church's vbs and it's a tradition that we always go home that week so my kids can go. So, we'll be there next week. I looking forward to a relaxed week. Mom doesn't have any babies due this month, so we plan on walking to the library to read and relax everyday. We'll probably go to the state park five minutes away too. We may even go camping. Although Mom and Dad just went this week, so they may not wanna go again this week.

We finally got a new computer. I'm so excited. It actually stays on when I want it to. It's very cool! It actually has a place to insert my camera's memory card directly into it. This is apparently a common feature to most these days. My mom wasn't really impressed with that, nor was my cousin. But it's new me and therefore amazing! So, you should see more pictures of us in the future as soon as I figure out how to use it. Maybe I'll even get pictures of our new place on here.

I had an appointment with my new colo-rectal surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic last Monday. Unfortunately I have to have surgery again on July 20. At least I know ahead of time this time around. The last three times they were last minute things that I barely had time to plan for. She said she'll change the setons to a different material that they use there so they'll be more comfortable. She also told me that there is no need for me to "floss" the setons. Apparently there's two school's of thought on flossing... "to floss" or "not to floss"... that is the question. She comes from the school of no flossing. Hurray!! I still have to take to sitz baths a day, but that's okay. The flossing wasn't fun though! The church here is finding someone to keep the kids the day and night of the surgery so it'll be quiet here and Mountain Mom ( my mil) is coming over some time Friday and staying all night to help. We didn't even ask the church for help, they just jumped in when Smart Guy mentioned to someone I was having surgery again. What a concept!

They also decided that we shouldn't have to pay for our own pool pass for the local pools, so they are reimbursing us for that. They are also paying for our carpet, and possibly for the painting and the fence. Wow! When we pulled in with the moving van last Saturday, there were about 20 people here waiting to help unload the van. There were snacks and drinks. Someone brought dinner to us four nights in a row and we've been to two cookouts this week. I haven't cooked yet. I actually put one of the casseroles in the freezer for later because there was so much food! They've definitely made us feel welcome!! They seem to be a wonderful group of people! Please pray for me as I work on trusting them to do as they say they will!

One of the female leaders in the church asked me about my blog tonight. She said she'd been trying to find it and couldn't. I simply told her that she would never find it by typing in my name and left it at that. I hope she wasn't offended when I didn't give her the address. I told her that it was basically my journal and private.
Well, I think that's all! I'm sure I'll think of more, but right now I've gotta go pack. We're leaving at 7 am and I haven't started packing yet!! BTW, Cleanin' Cuz found out today that she's having a girl. So, that'll be two girls and a boy!!