Random...

At breakfast this morning Austin proudly announced, "I know what the bones in your back are called...Bird Brains!!" It was all I could do to not bust out laughing. I did correct him, but I can also see how he could seriously think that was what they are called.

Samuel was sitting up in his bed when I went to get him up this morning. This was a first for him w/o help. He smiled up at me so proud of himself. Next thing I'll find him standing when I go to get him up. He's already pulling up on low furniture and boxes, etc.

This is so short, but I just had to put these down before I forgot to make record of them. :)

If You Can't Be Crazy, You'll Go Crazy

Well, this has not been my best day in a while. When children # 1 and #2 come screaming that I HAVE to hurry and see what child #3 has done I know it is not going to be a pleasant discovery. Leah dumped almost all of a brand new big bottle of Tetra fish flakes in the tank plus I don't know how much Betta food, too. School came to a grinding halt as I tried to save those "stupid little fishies lives." I was digging around blindly in the murky water with my strainer and hands trying to find the fish I knew were there but could not see. I finally got them all, yet. I got both catfish and both plicostimas (sp?) and all the monster goldfish, but the rest are so little that they were very hard to find in the murk. Byron is going to be doing good if he doesn't blow a gasket when he gets home. It wouldn't be as bad if she had never been told to never ever put anything in the fish tank unless one of us told her to.

Victoria did think it was quite funny when I kept telling the fish to "Get over here. Don't you know I'm trying to save your stupid little life!" She's been repeating that all day. Aren't I proud!?

Samuel has been cutting teeth in groups, still. He has seven and the same 3 or 4 are swollen and still trying to break through for over a week. He's felt miserable but has been quite stoic. I'm so proud of him. Now if he only understood what my praise was for. He is also up on all fours. He can only rock or move backward, but I'm sure in a few more days the army crawl will be a thing of the past. He's giving up baby food because he has enough teeth and mommy says table food is much more affordable. Besides I think table food is more fun to eat.

There were a few other great kid mishaps today, but I've run out of time for this blogging pleasure right now.

Same Old Same Old

I just realized that tomorrow will make one month since my last entry. This has been such a busy month but there has not been a lot of excitement. It's just the daily grind with a few breaks now and then. School is all consuming these days. Not that I HAVE to, but I really WANT to finish as close to the same time as "regular" schools and I don't exactly know why I feel that way. It's not like our life is dictated by their schedules. Victoria is continue to progress as she should and that makes me feel very good about what we are doing. On the other hand, I spend so much of every day hounding her to get her work done that I often reach the end of the day with ALL my work left to do and no energy for the tasks. This part I do not like. There are a few things I really need and they are more energy, greater focus, better organization, more self-control/patience (although I really don't want to increase tribulation in order to get this one. )

We are still making plans and preparations to move. It is an increasingly slow process. I've been packing boxes, but have nowhere to put them. So my walls are lined with boxes and things almost look worse than they did before I started packing. Byron still brings stuff in that has no relevance to our daily life, but at least he has not been bringing as much in here. I'm just wondering if I will ever have the house presentable enough to show and get sold. As far as actually selling, we have only put a sign in the yard and two adds online which have both expired so far. We have found a couple of places that could be possibilities, but we can't make a move on anything until we have this place SOLD. So that is what is going on with the house/moving.

Easter was fun, but not a big family affair this year. We gave the kids their Easter baskets before leaving for church. They all had Easter egg hunts at church and then we came home for lunch with Byron's folks and had a little egg hunt here in the house.

Sunday morning I woke up to an invasion. I have not had ants anywhere but the bathrooms around the bathtub/shower and those have been gone for quite awhile. Well, Sunday I walked into the kitchen and there were ants all over my counter on the sink side/outside wall. I've got ant baits sitting on the counter and under the sink and I'm squashing ants every time I'm in the kitchen. Must be scary for those little bitty creatures when they see my thumb coming down toward them. hehehe!!

Samuel is developing a little vocabulary of his own. He's been saying "Dada" for awhile, then he added "Tata" (Victoria), next came "baa" (bye) and finally last week he gave me a big "Mama" and melted my heart. :)) He's crawling everywhere and we have gates and barriers all over the place. The big kids are really into making sure he doesn't get anything he shouldn't have, or at least nothing of theirs.

Leah is still showing NO interest in going potty. I've tried every method I used with the other two and she just has no desire. I've decided to wait on "formal" training until school is out. Then I can focus on it without distraction or at least as much distraction. The other two were so easy and so much younger. I used to say I would never buy size 6 diapers and it has come back to haunt me. I just had to get her size 6 because the 5s just wouldn't do the job anymore. URGH!! One nephew who just turned 2 is already asking to go potty and a friend at church was talking about her little guy who is only about 18-20 mos. and is starting to go potty. It just frustrates me, but I'm trying not to act that way about it with her or I could just make the issue bigger and more difficult. I know she will get it and will be in panties way before she turns 4, right?!?!?

There's not that much to say about dear Austin. He just keeps getting taller and skinnier and gaining in his coordination skills. He's started "school". A few days a week he sits down with us and works on some number and letter pages that I have for him. I never go longer than he is interested. I want him to want to come back and do more.

Byron's scrap business has been hit and miss, but we are staying afloat for now. Sometimes it looks like things will really take off and then some set back occurs and we have to wade out of it.

That's about the best update I have on us for now. Hopefully, I'll get on here again before another month passes me by.

I'm Not Going to Work!! + a few pics from Jan and Feb

It never fails that when one of the kids asks me to do something I respond much like this, "Just a minute, I'm right in the middle of something. I'll help you as soon as I'm done." Yesterday, after just such an answer, Austin asked me why I was always working or busy. I told him that all grown ups had to work either at their jobs or at home or both. He thought for a minute then said, "Well, when I grow up I'm not going to work, I'm just going to play all the time." I told him that would be just fine, but he had to understand that if he didn't work then he wouldn't have a house or a car, he would have to sleep outside wherever he could find a place to lay down, he would have a hard time getting clothes and he wouldn't be able to buy food. He would have to go dig through trash and eat other peoples left over food they had thrown away." He quickly said, "Ewww, I think I'm going to work after all, and I'll work hard!"

Samuel is trying extra hard to crawl, today. YAY! Now that he is over being sick, he's eating like there is no tomorrow and trying to get all grown up on me, too.

Now here are just a few pictures from Jan/Feb events....

Mamaw and Papaw with the grandkids at one of the Christmas gatherings.

Leah turned 3 in January

Austin turned 5 in February

Defenders of the Fort

Better "cake" picture

No, she didn't load him in the dump truck herself...but he sure thought it was fun

Are We Done, Now??

The entire month of February I have had at least one child sick. This past week was a real doosy with three throwing up and two with lovely diarrhea. Byron and I each got a touch of it, too, but not very bad. Samuel had the worst of it and lost either 2 or 3 lb that Mr. Skinny sure didn't have to lose. We all finally were well by Fri. evening. I'm so exhausted from this whole month that I really don't know whether I'm coming or going and my thoughts struggle to make sense to me.

My packing came to a screeching halt last Sunday when Samuel was the first to start puking. I just couldn't keep up. I'm trying to get back in the swing of things. Yesterday I got one box packed and Saturday I packed 3 boxes. I don't know if I will ever be able to get this house presentable enough to sell. I'm just going to have to pray for a miracle buyer to come, look, not care and just buy. We can't afford a storage unit and the warehouse where Byron is starting up a metal business doesn't look like a very good option for long term storage of all our items like boxes of books, clothes, dolls and stuffed animals that rodents from the surrounding fields would love to eat and make nests out of. We have an oppressive amount of work to get done before a move can take place and I so often feel confused about just where to even start. If the weather holds and Byron doesn't drive the limo this weekend we will be having a yard sale. We plan to have all three allowed by the city before we move out of the house.

We have had just a few "well" moments during the month. One of those moments was Austin's birthday. Kyle and the boys and Papaw came to our house for a little party and the cousins had a blast playing. It was such a nice day they got to spend a lot of time outside playing. About a week and a half later Michaela and all three kiddos came for a little play date and I got my hair colored at the same time. "Thanks Sis" I had at least 2" of gray at the roots and it was looking really rough. The kids had fun that day too, but they were stuck inside because it was wet and cold.

Our days go much like this...get up, eat, get daddy up, shoo him out the door, start school, put two in front of the TV and one on the floor in my sight, repeatedly say "leave Samuel alone and let him play", feed Samuel and put him to bed, fix lunch and eat, get V back on school and have projects for the other two to work on, put the other two in separate rooms and keep doing school, put the other two back in front of the TV and keep doing school, eventually finish school and get Samuel up to eat and play, try to figure out what to do for supper, all the while constantly doing loads of laundry, sweeping, vacuuming, doing dishes, changing diapers, wiping noses, picking up messes or following around the one who is being told to pick up their things, wiping up the toilet seat from little boy splatter, and the list goes on. Right now, I'm sure I should be doing at least one of the things on this list of daily activities.

Byron is now operating out of a warehouse where he can sort his metals to scrap one kind at a time and be able to get top dollar for that particular metal. He plans to open and operate a small scrap yard himself where he will by aluminum, copper and a couple of other metals. He is quite excited about this and I really hope it works out the way he thinks it will. If this succeeds, then I think he will have finally found the perfect job for himself and something he can do for years to come. Until the business takes off, we have to figure out how to come up with the rental payment for our half of the building, but at least all that metal stuff isn't in our yard and house anymore. {BIG SMILE}

Random thought...my kids say some of the funniset things and I wish I was together enough to write them all down. I always forget by bedtime which is when I thought I'd jot those kind of things down in a notebook that I'm keeping.

I Spoke Too Soon

Well, Samuel does seem to feel a whole lot better, but he still is not eating like he should. He's already below the bottom of the weight charts and sure didn't need to lose weight. I hope he starts taking in more calories soon.

After getting a full night's sleep on Wed. I thought I was home free. Yeah, right. About midnight last night we discovered Leah was running fever. She'd been coughing off and on all day, but I just hoped we could get by without anyone else getting sick. I was up very late because of her.

Then once I got to sleep a loud noise woke me up. The police helicopter was flying around our neighborhood from about 2:30 - 4 AM, shining it's spotlight all around and making a huge amount of noise. I bet our lovely neighbor 3 doors down was calling the police dept. telling them to stop making so much noise. That's just the kind of person she is. I've heard her yelling at the cops before to shut off their sirens after they had jumped out of their cars to pursue criminals on foot. O.K. here's the way I think...I'd rather them catch the bad guys before they got in my yard or house than have them take the time to turn off their sirens. She's a REAL WEIRD COOKIE.

Oh, one more thing, Victoria and Austin have started coughing some as the day has progreessed. I just hope I'm not up in the middle of the night with them coming down with fevers too.

Progressing Slowly But Surely

Things are progressing, though rather slowly. Byron and his dad got a warehouse today out in Forney. Byron can move his trailer, metal bins and all his other stuff out there. We will also move boxes out there as we try to sell our house, so this place will look less cluttered and more appealing. We have a for sale sign in our front yard and have listed the house ourselves in several locations on line. Once we have the clutter gone and the place easy (yeah, right) to clean up in a hurry we will list it in the paper and really push to draw in prospective buyers to look at the house. Hopefully, we are pricing it low enough to move it fast once we get people through the door. It does need interior paint, carpet (if the spots won't come out in the LR), screens on most windows (didn't have any screens when we bought it) and one garage door needs fixed. (The door that fell on me just two days before my 2nd miscarriage...no way to tell if that is what caused it.) So the house is in reasonable repair, just needs some little things done to it. Enough to give someone a great deal, but they could move in immediately and live with it if they needed to.

I have been set back by sickness. Samuel started running fever last Fri. at 2 AM and I finally had to take him to the dr. on Tues. He just wasn't getting better and then started acting like his ear hurt. Thankfully he didn't have the flu, but it was some sort of virus. The ear was a secondary infection and there may have been a bit of a throat infection, too. The dr. didn't check his throat because she said the same med would be used for both and there was no need to "torture" him with further exam. Now nearly 36 hrs after starting the Amoxicillin he is fever free and slept all night last night. YAY!!!

It was funny or cute, when I brought Samuel home from the dr. Leah came running up and touched his face and said, "Oh, Sammy, I was so worried about you! You be O.K.?"

My brother and sil just had triplets and I'm dying to go see them. It's just killing me to know they are a week old and all I've been able to do is see pictures. With sickness all around me, I can't got visit and carry germs in on my person. "Tyler, Whitney, Hannah your Aunt Lisa loves you and so does Uncle Byron and your cousins. We pray for you to keep getting bigger and stronger every day so you can go to your own home with your mommy and daddy. I'll see you as soon as I can."

Now I'm off to get back to school with Victoria. If I don't stay right on top of her, she starts to piddle around and can make school last till late in the evening. I like to try and get school done while Samuel naps.