Friday, February 29, 2008

Random Grace

Smart Guy got his head shaved today. We told Bee that the lady put special lotion on his head so his hair will never grow back. She, of course, believes us...five year olds are so much fun!

Our power went out at 6:50 this morning. It didn't come back on until after 3:00. It was around 55 degrees in here by that time!

It snowed again last night! Ugh! Spring can arrive any moment now. Since the middle of January, there's been snow on the ground about 90% of the time! Enough already!

D.K. did what he's calling a "belly slide" all the way around the house in the snow the other day. It looks like an 18 inch wide snake make a circle around the house! He's strangely proud!

Our boys have been with us to do the Meals on Wheels route the last three Friday mornings... we now have to make up snow days at the end of the year!!

Bee was devastated that she did not have school this afternoon. I can't wait to see if she's that happy about going to kindergarten everyday next year!

I just recently found out that at the beginning of the school year Prophet was reading out loud in class and stopped dead when he arrived at the word "stupid", refusing to say it. His teacher told him to use the word "silly" instead... to this day, no one else in the class will use the word "stupid"... only "silly"!

Both my boys scored at a mid fourth grade reading level half-way thru their third grade year.

You know your kids love books when they find out thru over hearing conversation that there's boxes of books in storage and they nearly panic because they may belong to them and they may not have read them yet!!

I finally ordered "The Shack" tonight!

The dog didn't get put in the basement when we left this evening. We came home to a trash all over the kitchen and a hiding dog! Upon questioning if the person responsible for feeding him this morning had done so, Prophet smacked his hand to his forhead and said "Oh, I forgot." To which Smart Guy responded, "Get busy Big Guy!" There was no arguing whatsoever.

Last week after gymnastics class, Bee's coach asked Smart Guy if she ever stops talking?

Yesterday, Bee's swim coach told me that "she did excellent in class today, she never shut-up, but she did excellent."

Tonight when Smart Guy and I went into Great Clips to get our hair cut, Bee walked straight in, sat down next to the obviously pregnant girl sitting alone on the other side of the room and proceeded to tell her everything about our family except the amount of our tax returns!

We're thinking about getting her some therapy for her extreme shyness!!!

Did you know that Immodium A-D taken alone doesn't generally have an effect on the body (other than the wanted one)? Also, Tylenol-3 doesn't generally have an effect either (before you say "what", remember I've been put totally out 8 times since this time last year and taken much stronger pain pills than that). BUT, taken together, they cause a crazy reaction in which I can't hold my head up about 45 minutes after swallowing! The sad part is that it took several times of doing this before I put two and two together and realized the reason why it was happening! Geez!

My heart is currently in turmoil over something I found out yesterday evening. I'm not sure what to do yet.

Inkling called last night and Ruby call this afternoon! I'm getting off of here and calling them both back before I need to go to bed for the night!! Later Taters!!

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Snow, Snow, and More Snow

This is one of the main roads in town believe it or not. When I was out three hours earlier, the roads were totally clear! What a difference four degrees makes!


This is the skylight just inside the door to the swimming pool at the YMCA! It looked really cool, though this picture doesn't do it justice!!

Better Late Than Never

Pics of the boys' Valentine's Day parties at school! I think by chance that they got a little too much stuff by looking at those desks! Geez!!




Thursday, February 14, 2008

Oh Yah!

I've been meanin' to put this picture up for a couple days now! When Mountian Mom and Grizzley Dad were in town for the birthday party last weekend, they gave each of the kids McD's gift cards again (you better watch it Grandma, they'll start expecting it all the time), so we all went to McD's Monday for dinner (the first time since Prophet had the Big Mac). D.K. wanted a fish sandwich and since they are currently on sale at 2 for $3.33, he got two of them! He ate them both and his fries too! He's 9 people! What's he gonna be eating when he 15?

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

Not only is it Valentine's Day, but it's also Bee's 5th birthday! My littlest is 5 years old, oh my! When exactly did that happen! She'll start kindergarten in the fall! Wow!

We have an extra, small person in our house this morning. She's a friend of Bees. Her mama and I have become friends so we swap kids occasionally so each of us can get something accomplished without short people taggin' along! After properly greeting Bowzer (who will not be ignored), Bee and her disappear soon after she walks thru the door! It's quite nice havin' someone to occupy her time other than myself on occasion! As I sit here, I can here them very dramatically acting out the book "How Do Dinosaurs Get Well Soon"! When they got to the "get sick in a pail" part they were both hootin' and hollerin' like they are great comedians! Too funny!

Last night, the boys and I spent quite some time working on their Valentine's for school! We bought pretzel sticks, small than actual pretzel rods, but bigger than the thin little sticks that you usually see, and then we dipped them in melted red candy and swirled them with white melted candy! they turned out really cute! We put three into each little bag, cut out little red tags for the "to" and "from", tied those on with silver twisty ties, and called it a Valentine! They are really cute and unique! I'm working on Bee's right now! I decided since her friend is here, that I'd do the pretzels and she can do the labels later this afternoon!

Bee is trying to talk her friend into going downstairs to play in the playroom, but we make the mistake of referring to it as "the basement" like we normally do in our family. Now she just insists that there are goblins down there and won't go down!

This afternoon, Bee and I will head to the boys' school for an afternoon of running back and forth between their classrooms for their parties! I love days like today! They are memory makes for them and me both! I know they're busy, but the air is so festive and fun! I have to take juice for D.K.'s party and celery for Prophet's class! D.K.'s class is having a pizza party for lunch today... they won the penny drive to celebrate the 100th day of school! All the pennies were given to two different groups here in town. One for abused woman and the other to supply books for small people who need them! The school raised almost $500. Not bad for a one week drive in one of the poorest neighborhoods in town!

Later dudes!

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

D.K. and Bee's Big Day

We had Bee and D.K.'s birthday party at the YMCA swimming pool this past Sunday afternoon! Everyone had a blast! We had 14 small people come swimming with us and about 5 adults got in! Total with everyone we had around 25 people hanging around having fun! The kids each picked their favorite cake.... D.K. had sopapilla cheesecake (yum) and Bee wanted something with chocolate and strawberries, so I changed up my peppermint hoho cake from Christmas and added strawberry jam to the cream instead of peppermint oil. The result was requested by everyone there! It was yummy too! But I definitely like the cheesecake better!!

Jumpin' off! (Bee is on the right!!)



Bee and her friends!!



Grandma (Smart Guy's mom) with her two girls!!!! (I'm gonna have to beg forgiveness and wear a bullet proof vest next time I see Mountain Mom after posting this picture of her, but it's an excellent picture of them all)





Poor Prophet! He's the headless one being held down by the kid in the back!! Don't worry he came up laughing!



Those are Prophet's feet at D.K.'s side!



I'm not sure how these boys got away with being so rough in the pool, but I think it may have something to do with the fact that the lifeguard on duty on that side of the pool is currently D.K.'s swim coach! It could also have to do with the fact that I was in the water calling them down every 30 seconds! They were a little crazy a few times!!




Bee and I swimming!



D.K. and his giant t-rex balloon!



Bee with her Strawberry Shortcake balloon!



I love this picture. He had just peaked down inside the bag and saw that it was something that he'd really wanted! He couldn't get it out fast enough!!



Bee's sweet little friends!!


D.K.'s motley crew!!

Just So You Know

If you ever take an hour-and-a-half drive to a dr.'s appoitment with all five of your family members in the car on a day that the kids have school canceled because it's so cold, and you pack your car with blankets, candles, water, and food just in case your car stalls and you don't want to freeze or starve to death, and then you forget that the peanut butter has been left in the van overnight until you are making your boys pb&j sandwiches for school the next morning, so you have your hubby run out and get it only to find that it is rock solid from the freezing temps outside, so you decide to pop it into the microwave for a few seconds to soften it back up...... make sure you have removed the entire original foil and paper seal from the rim of the jar!!!! Yep, I had fireworks in the microwave this morning folks!! Scared the shit out of me!!!

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Catch Up Time

Hey there everybody! My name is Grace and I am pleased to accept the "Worst Blogger of the Year" award! Thank you very much!!

I have been asked to update my blog! Of course that was about 4 days ago now! Bad blogger girl, bad! I've had the time, just not the will! Pain pills will do that to a person, ya know!

So, who out there has had some part of this horrible weather half the country has been getting the last few days? Fortunately most of our little town sits slightly elevated, so it's not too flooded... bogged down, but not flooded. But today when I drove Bee out to preschool and went down the hill that leaves town to head for the church in the country where the school is, the site before me was scarey. Roads closed, water almost 2 feet deep up to the roads on both sides and a bridge over a creek that has concrete walls on both sides where the water was as high as the walls on each side. The area looks like a lake that happens to have a road down the center of it! There are many schools that have been canceled and delayed in the counties surrounding us! My family down in TN saw many horrible storms in their area as did Lauren and her family! Please keep them all in your prayers and the people around them clean up from the horrible devastation! I can't even imagine...

Speakin' of pain pills, I have finally gotten off of them as of about 3 days ago. The pain isn't totally gone, but my patience with being high is gone, so I've switched to Tylenol with the occasional Tylenol with codeine! Last night I took my last antibiotic pill (cipro), so the horrible taste in my throat should continue to lessen in the next 24 hours! I HATE antibiotics! They are so bad for us! Yes, they kill the bad stuff, but they also kill the good stuff in us! They don't care what they're killing! The only time I've had them since'97 when I had my first bout with Crohn's has been the four times I've had to take them since last March! They are wearing me down and I'm afraid that eventually my body won't respond to them the way it should! I am very proud to say that my kiddos have had very few antibiotics in their systems ever. Prophet, maybe 3 times (after leaving the nicu)... D.K., twice... and Bee, never! There are so many other ways to get your kiddos over what they have! Many things that our kids get that the docs say they NEED antibiotics for, they don't! Did you know that they are now saying that ear infections don't usually need antibiotics... same with most sinus infections! Besides that, some docs don't actually do the tests to be sure that our kids have what they say they have, therefore they should not be on those drugs! Don't think that because my kids haven't had antibiotics that they haven't been sick... they have! Really sick a few times! But I have found more natural ways to deal with it than pump them full of the crap that quite often makes us sicker than we already were! Yes, it takes a lot more time and persistence, but for us it's definitely worth it! Before I get hate mail, yes there are times when they are needed, I'm proof of that! But guys, my situation has been severe many times with my Crohn's! With all the issues that myself and two of my children have, we have enough medical things that we HAVE to do to ensure our health and safety in the future. It's important to me that we take care of the stuff that can be fixed with time, patience, effort, and natural stuff at home, so that we don't have a constant flow of crap thru our bodies!! Just because the doctors say something is right or safe, doesn't make it so! Okay, off my high horse! Just something I feel VERY strongly about!

Tomorrow is D.K.'s 9th birthday! I can't believe it! We will be taking Jello jigglers into his class for the fourth time in his school career! That's what he has asked for every single year since kindegarten! They have to be blue raspberry flavored every year too! Smart Guy is starting a new tradition with this new year. He's going to take each child out for breakfast on their birthday starting with this first birthday of the new year! They are gonna get up and leave at 7 am to head for Panera's to have some really "bad for you" pastries before he heads to school!
Tomorrow starts the half of the year when I get much pity from people when they ask the ages of my children... 10, 9, and 5 (next week)! Nobody thinks much about children spaced two years apart, but when they are stair steps, everyone admires you for your patience, stamina, ability to show-up in public fully clothed, smelling descent, hair done, and somehow finding a way to keep all children alive and fed! Yes, it was crazy up until age 4 or so, but it got easier after that! They are awesome kids! (notice I did not say perfect, because that would be considered shameless bragging, and it's also not true)

Mom's in town right now visiting! Basically she had to come out and see for herself that I was indeed alive and not going to die from this last bout with Crohn's a couple weeks ago! Apparently my word over the phone was not enough! Actually, if you wanna know the truth, I think she just wanted an excuse to come out and visit for awhile! By the time she leaves, she will have been here for 9 days and it will go by way too fast for both of us! I admit, I get a little spoiled while she's here! Last night, we went out to dinner, just the two of us while Smart Guy had all three kids at the Shrove Tuesday dinner at church! We went to a little cafe downtown that as of a year ago was an abandoned building. Now it's a really cool little restaurant with the best organic, free-range, chicken salad on foccia (sp) bread on the planet! And of course, there's the pecan pie with creme anglise! Wow, I'm drooling just thinking about! Then tonight, we had our girls night out with Bee at Red Lobster! We've been doing that since she was still being toted around in her car seat and the only way she got any shrimp was while nursing while I was dining on them! Now she gets her popcorn shrimp and clam chowder and is one happy little girl to be with us! She repeats many times "I love girls night out!" It's cool to see her loving,treasuring, and expecting our traditions!

Sunday is D.K. and Bee's birthday party! Yes, we are having a dual party! I said when Bee was born a week after D.K.'s 4th birthday that I would never have a dual party, but alas it is happening! We are renting a section of the pool at the YMCA! We are paying one price for both parties! Each kid invited their friends, about 4 each, and they will have separate tables for the desserts they each picked and the decorations they chose.... dinosaurs for D.K. (of course) and Strawberry Shortcake for Bee! Neither one of them seems to care about sharing. They are just excited about the party! I can't wait!

Bragtime.... both of my boys were chosen for Student of the Month in their classes last month! Cool, huh! They both have certificates and t-shirts announcing their official status!

Oh yeah, while I was away for the past almost two weeks, Bee had some major work done on her poor little mouth! I'm talkin' bad enough that they actually took her into the OR and put her under kind of work! Apparently the poor kid just has bad teeth, and there really wasn't much we could have done to prevent it! The nurses we had were all absolutely wonderful! I couldn't have asked for a better day in the hospital (ya know, if you have to go) than we had! They were all amazed at how Bee handled the entire situation! Of course, she's had procedures done that have involved hospitals since she was a baby! She's old hat at them by now! She walked in there and practically started telling them what to do! When the nurse was explaining to her how they would put her to sleep by giving her gas thru the mask that she was allowed to coat with her choice of lip smackers lip gloss to make it smell good, she said "I know"! When the nurse told her that the mask would be attatched to a balloon-like thing with Sponge Bob on it, she said "Oh no, Sponge Bob is bad, we are not allowed to watch Sponge Bob at our house!" (I give Sponge Bob much of the credit for many of the rude and obnoxious children in our world today. He is horrible and absolutely not allowed in our house at all!) To which the nurse replied, "Well, maybe we can find a Cars balloon." When the nurse told her that they would put a needle in her hand after she was asleep from the gas, so they could give her the medication to sedate her for the procedure, and that it would still be there when she woke-up, she said "I know"! The nurse kept asking her if she was sure she was just 4 years old and not in 4th grade! It was hilarious! Of course while she was waking up from the anestesia, she told the nurse that we have four children in our family! After a short discussion, we realized that she was counting Bowzer as one of her siblings! Too funny!

It's been a busy few weeks in our house! Pre-op visits, surgeries, sedation, antibiotics, pain pills, Benadryl, a REALLY bad respiratory thingy with Prophet, small colds here and there for the rest of us! Hopefully we're all on the upswing!

So, goodnight friends, family, and lurkers! Maybe I'll make it back before two more weeks is up this time.... don't hold your breath though!!