Happy Halloween

Our town moved Halloween since tonight is a church night...

Happy Halloween!

By the way, I'm in no way endorsing Halloween, in fact, I don't even like it one bit. But, now that I have kids, I use every excuse to dress them up and show them off :)

Dads - DON'T READ

Dear Cori,
Hello sunshine. Just a reply to your comment...
- yes, my IBT's have doubled in size - its called breastfeeding. This is my second leave of absence from the IBTC. I fully expect to be back within a year :)
- Ryan would have loved to check for mastitis only I don't really let him anywhere near those things. They have become a source of food, not a source of fun!

A few Thoughts

1. I just looked back at previous posts and one title said "lying still gets me in a predicament". By that I meant to say that after many years, I still can't get away with lying. I did not mean anything about lying down anywhere.
2. I was checking my blog to see if I'd previously mentioned the lump in my breast. I didn't. However, I just wanna update that he doctor thinks that everything is just fine. However, after just hearing that a local lady just found out she has stage 4 breast cancer after being told the last 8 months that it was just mastitis (she was breastfeeding), I'm going to make sure. So, a biopsy will be done next week on that.
3. Why do doctors think that the world revolves around them and their schedule? Seriously, I can't make my appointments wait at work nor do I think its appropriate to do so. Yesterday I waited for 30 minutes in the lobby while I watched 3 others that arrived after me get called to the back. After 30 minutes, I went back to the desk and questioned the waiting. Some minutes later I was called back. And in the end the doctor didn't have time to do the biopsy that I was told would be done. Grr!!! Now to give him some credit as I do really like the guy, my referral from my doctor said "consult" and didn't spell out the biopsy details. However, he is the specialist and should have thought right away to have enough time to get that done. Grr.
4. One day each week for 3 weeks I'll be taking off a half day to do something at the doctor's office. This is ridiculous!

Beautiful Day

It was a beautiful day yesterday. A tad bit windy and a few bugs but otherwise perfect. We played outside for quite a bit yesterday. Even when I went inside to feed Bethany, the boys stayed outside. At one point, I looked out the window and the boys were sitting next to each other and Ryan was telling his son a story. It was the cutest thing ever and I would have taken video of it if my camera wasn't charging at that very moment!

Junior High Girls Night Out

I work with the junior high awana program. So, we recently had a girls night out. The plan was to hang out and watch chick flicks. It was fun, we ate lots of food, saw a few new faces and some stayed up way too late (6am). But the reason behind my post is this:

One of the girls picked out a few movies to choose from. One was the movie dodgeball. We immediately told the girls that they couldn't watch that one because of the content (in fact I'm embarrassed that we own it and don't think we even watched the whole movie). If you're not familiar with this movie, check out Plugged In's movie review. Anyway, when I was cleaning up after the girls yesterday, I saw that the movie case was out of the cabinet and the DVD was in the player. It appears as though they watched it after all the adults went to bed (3am) even though they'd been told they couldn't. Needless to say I'm quite dissapointed in them. I'm not sure how to discuss it with them. Do I simply tell them that I'm dissapointed? I told Ryan about the situation and he shared that this week we start the "peer pressure" cd for teaching time and we could possibly tie it in with that. I guess I just don't want this to be completely ignored nor do I want to come across as super mean. We're trying to build relationships with these girls. Regardless of how raunchy the movie is, the fact is that they had it in the DVD player after they were told not to.

Thoughts?

WT moment at our Hous

White trash moment at our house on sunday... Ryan was clipping his toenails. And I look over at him to see that he's clipping his toenails through the holes in his socks. Yes, it was bad. But then I did a double-take to see that not only was he doing it through the whole in his socks but he was doing it with the scissors on his pocket knife. Crazy! I had recently begun throwing away the wholy socks. They get wholy so fast with his steel toed boots. But I knew it was time to get rid of the socks; I get embarrassed when others see his nasty socks. So the day before I had thought that I needed to put socks on my shopping list. And after our WT moment, I went right to my list and added socks!!! How's that for a good laugh?

He beats my child

Last night I put Scott to bed early and went downstairs to the youth group. Over the monitor I hear him greet the barking dog. Sure he was out of bed, I went back upstairs to find my child sitting up in his bed and now greeting me with "I'm awake mommy". I coaxed him to lay back down and promised to check on him in a few minutes. Usually he falls right to sleep and I check on him before I go to bed. This time, he stayed awake and began to cry when I didn't come back soon enough. Ryan rescued him from his bed and brought him down to youth group. Okay, my kid really needed the sleep after being up super late at Erin's birthday party (which he was the star of). But, what can you do?

Ryan brought him downstairs as youth group was ending. Well, my husband starting screwing around with another leader. He picked up a shoe and was pretending to hit the other leader. Ryan raised his hand as if to threaten Ben with the shoe, only he was holding Scott. As he raised his fist, he nailed Scott in the face with it. The edge of the shoe caught Scott on the bridge of the nose and in the eye. He screamed. For awhile. So much for getting the kid to bed. Ryan felt horrible and we stayed up for another few hours watching Veggie Tales and snuggling all the while his eye was swelling and he wouldn't even use a cold cloth on it.

This morning I stayed home to let the kid get some sleep. Poor baby. It gave me some time to clean up from the party since I didn't get to do it last night as Scott wanted my full attention.

Partied Out

For the last 3 weeks, we've had something going on each night of the week. I'm tired and ready to hang out on my couch with my family and my blanket and maybe even a movie or a book.

Lying Still Gets Me in a Predicament

Erin's birthday is today. Another girl and I planned a surprise birthday party for her at my house. To help with the surprise, I was taking Erin out to supper and then back to my house for the party. Sunday I spoke briefly with Erin, enough to know that we were still on for Tuesday night. Monday and Tuesday I called several times to finalize times, locations, etc since we had to be back at my house by 7pm. Erin isn't the best at returning phone calls and I felt like I was stalking her. I even sent her a text message which is so not my thing. I was getting a little nervous when Tuesday rolled around and I'd still not heard back from Erin. The cake was made, food at my house, decorations up and friends planning to come over. The following occurred:
mid morning - sent a text message to Erin
1143am - text message from Erin asking to reschedule since she now had to work that night
1144am - I freak out a bit and google Kristen's work phone #
1144am - call Kristen and chat about options
1150am - text message Erin asking if we can reschedule to 7pm (I thought she would work till 9pm but wanted to make sure)
noon - googled Erin's work # and called her supervisor for help. Opted not to leave a voice mail
after lunch - called her several times and impatiently waited
130pm - tried calling her supervisor again
215ish - sent text message to Erin saying "I need to talk to you ASAP, call me"
230pm - text from Erin saying she'd call at 245
3pm - picked up the phone to call her again, she was calling at the same time

The poor girl thought that something was seriously wrong with me or the kids since I'd called so many times. I assured her that I was fine but that I couldn't reschedule. She, of course, was confused since I'm not a high maintenance person. So, I finally told her the truth, that she was about to ruin her surprise birthday party if she worked. Simple enough. Things work so much easier when you tell the truth. Erin was able to reschedule her work which caused a written warning and made it to supper and her surprise birthday party.

Amazes Me

I remember my first trip to Iowa. It was the middle of the summer and foggy. I was quite surprised by those conditions as it is only foggy in the central valley of CA during the dead of winter. I have since become accustomed to the summer fog although I still think its a bit odd. It was a beautiful morning to sleep in - dark outside, a light fog covering the crop land. This morning I was again amazed by the "different" weather. As I drove to work, it was raining and slightly foggy. Now how does it rain and still be foggy outside?

Hmm, foggy weather makes me think of Christmas time and fresh oranges. Oh how I'd love to click my heels and be back to the town I grew up in for a few days!

My kids are so adorable!

We had a nice, and for the most part, quiet weekend. Hubby was home, I was home and we had fun with our kiddos. I asked Ryan not to go cut wood, go mow his folk’s lawn, etc. I just wanted to be home with my family. We did a whole lot of piddling around. My house didn’t get super clean, in fact I didn’t even vacuum. But, I had a great time with my husband and kiddos. We even slept in both days! But, the noteworthy things from this weekend are about my growing little girl and her adorable big brother.

Saturday we played with Bethany. I was tickling her and she laughed out loud several times. Ryan could hear her from the other room and came in to watch her laugh. She didn’t laugh too much but it was cute to see. Another fun moment happened after Scott and Ryan had been gone taking recycles and other errands. Scott came home and usually makes a big deal of his sister. Curious of what his reaction would be, I said “scott, Bethany really missed you while you were gone”. His response was priceless. He ran over to her, practically lay on her and started talking to her. He kissed on her and told her “Bethany, I love you, I missed you”, etc. And then last night in the car he told her “Bethany, you’re so beautiful”. Now maybe he’s repeating things he’s heard us say before but its so stinkin’ cute!

Pike's Peak

We headed to Pike's Peak on Saturday. It's a beautiful place set along the Mississippi River just a few miles off the main highway. There are walkways and waterfall and even a few indian burial grounds in the shape of animals. The mosquitos were taking a break (thank the good Lord) but the "no-see-ems" were out in the sunshine. As long as we kept moving, we were fine. Just wanted to share a few pictures from my adventure with two kids and Sarah.

* for some reason my pictures won't load, I'll try again later

"Yep"

We've had several people move into town from Kentucky. I joke that the South is taking over. But each of these individuals are wonderful and we're glad to call them friends. The other day Chris was pointing out all the words we say differently around here. And he commented that the others from Kentucky had really noticed how much people say "yep". As we chatted, he had his own Texas-ism (he's originally from Texas) and we all got a good laugh. This week I've really paid attention to how often I say "yep". I say it A LOT!

Yesterday I was on the phone with Sarah (from KY) and in the conversation said "yep". Immediately I clenched my teeth as if I shouldn't have said it. So I laughed and explained to her that I knew she noticed how much it was said and had been watching how often I say it. She really didn't care but thought it was sort of entertaining. As we got off the phone, the following was said:
me: okay, I'll talk to you later
S: yep
And then lots of laughter as it has rubbed off on her too!

Nine Days

Nine days since I've posted, wow. Here's a quick glimpse into my past week:

- Bethany held her own bottle the other day. Its not a regular thing but we caught a picture of it.

- Bethany also really enjoys standing now and is pretty good about putting weight on her legs for a short while.

- Scott has learned parts of two new songs in the last two days. He can now sing ABC's, count to 19, sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Jesus Loves Me and the Vegies Tales theme song.

- My cousin Sarah came to visit last Friday and left Thursday morning. I was a bit unsure of how the visit would go since we've not seen each other in a while but it was a great time. I love my cousin and was bummed to see her go. We visited Pike's Peak State Park, shopped in Decorah, hung out with my friends, ate a lot of good food and chit-chatted a bunch. Good times.

- My evenings have been cram-packed with activities. Last Tuesday I had a work meeting. Wednesday is youth group, Thursday is bible study. Friday-Tues morning I had my cousin and last night we went to a friend's house. I'm tired today! Tonight is youth group and tomorrow is bible study. I can't wait until Friday

- I have a doc appointment today. My c-section incision is not normal. I originally thought it was just irritated from my jeans rubbing and my belt pressing against it when I sit. But, its getting worse. So Dr. Ryan will check that out and we're also going to discuss my tailbone issue. Its been painful since February and I'm so sick of it.

- I've been out in the field for work a few times lately. That's been nice to get a break from my desk. I'll be out tomorrow and Friday so I'm hoping it warms up a tad here.

Hard working Hubby = Tired Family

Another weekend when my husband was hard at work helping out our check book. Because of how we choose to prioritize our finances, we try to watch how we spend our money and make sure we're not being wasteful. One way Ryan does that is by cutting wood to burn during the winter. For a while it seemed like every free hour was spent out in the timber when it was hot and muggy. But he's been able to cut wood for free and save us some serious cash by being able to use the wood burner in the evenings.

This weekend he had another idea. While up mowing his parents lawn on Friday, he stopped at the neighbors apple orchard and gathered about a 55 gallon barrel's worth of apples. Saturday, after cutting wood all morning, he started in on the apples. He spent 5 hours making apple sauce. All the while, I was in the house cleaning and preparing for our company next weekend. He did all his work outside which limited the mess. Scott stayed outside all afternoon and had a blast playing in the water and helping his dad. Sunday afternoon was much of the same. He made quite a bit of apple sauce but its a long and laborious process for the amount of apple sauce you get.

The good thing, we have lots of organic apple sauce in the freezer that didn't cost us anything. The bad thing, I would have loved to pay for the apple sauce and have Ryan at home working on my honey-do-list.

Both nights we had company for supper. And each night things got a little crazy around 630. Saturday wasn't bad but we were hungry and had to prepare a different meal as I was missing an important ingredient. Instead of Chinese food, we had grilled chicken, mashed potatoes, broccoli and something else. Sunday afternoon at 430 I decided we should have company again since our house was still clean. I called a few friends, made a run to the nearby grocery store and made it home just before it started to rain. I was inside trying to make grape salad, do dishes and pump before our guests came when it began to pour down rain outside (where Ryan was working). Thankfully our company arrived and was able to help Ryan. Ali, who'd been over all afternoon helping, was a great help with dishes and the grape salad while I did other things. In the end, we had 7 adults, 1 HS kid, 1 Jhi kid and 5 little ones eating grilled brats, chips and salad. The 3 younger boys picnic'd on the living room floor. I was thankful that I put down a blanket for them as all 3 spilled their drinks and chips and one managed to get ketchup everywhere. After the meal the guys headed to the living room to play xbox and us ladies sat around and visited.

It was late when everyone left and I was more than ready for bed. We finished up the apple sauce labels quick and I took the kids upstairs while Ryan took apple sauce to the freezer. Gave Scott a quick bath, fed Bethany and headed to bed. It was just after 11pm. The alarm was set for 5am - I knew I'd be tired. During the night I woke up twice with Scott (Ryan got up with him the first time while I layed there) and 3 times with Bethany. Fortunately, they seemed to coordinated their awake times pretty close to each other. Today, I'm tired.