We Don't Eat Poopie (Warning: This Post is NOT for the Squimish!)

It really bothers me that Honor has recently begun telling me "We don't eat poopie" when she "accidentally" poops in her big girl diapers (she does not have pooping accidents anymore...she knows when she is going to poop and sometimes she chooses to poop in her pants...FRUSTRATING!). It makes me think about the few times when she has made artwork out of her "brown clay" and gotten it all over her hands. Now why does she suddenly think it is important to tell me that we shouldn't eat our poopie??????

Bunk Bed

Ooh...I think I found one I like. Oh I forgot to mention that we are no longer putting Honor and Ariana together, but rather Connor and Honor (at least until Samuel is old enough to share a room...then it will be girls and boys separate). This one seems fairly unisex and I like the stairs. What do you think?

Best Friends

Tonight during our family Bible time, we went over the story of Ruth and Naomi. The children's Bible that we read refers to them as best friends. After I was done telling them the story, the question that the devotional asks is "Who is your best friend?" I asked Connor and Honor. Honor said her best friend is Ariana. Connor said his best friend is Daddy.

She knows her name!

Ariana said "Honor" for the first time tonight! Up until tonight, Ariana called Honor, "NonNon" and Connor, "ConNon". I still haven't heard her say Connor correctly yet...

I Want My Pumpkin Bed!

We went bunk bed shopping today. We did not find a single bunk bed I liked. Honor spent the entire ride home yelling that she wanted her pumpkin bed! More bunk bed shopping to come.

ARRRRR Matey!

My pirate name is:

Captain Mary Kidd

Even though there's no legal rank on a pirate ship, everyone recognizes you're the one in charge. Even though you're not always the traditional swaggering gallant, your steadiness and planning make you a fine, reliable pirate. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.
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Forgot to review Veggies

I forgot to add what I thought of the Veggie Tales movie... Well, one of the reviews I read said it best: "This has got to be one of the oddest things I've seen from the VeggieTales franchise. The Pirates Who don't do Anything isn't a bad movie, but it certainly comes across as an odd departure from what we've learned to expect from the franchise over the years. ... Again, this is an entertaining film, but it just feels like something is missing when the Biblical references are pretty well absent from a VeggieTales film. The result is a movie that's entertaining, but not terribly different from the slew of CGI films for children that have flooded the marketplace over the past few years. Why the producers chose to play down the very elements that made the franchise a successful one is something I'll never know. ...The only thing wrong with this film, in fact, is that it strays from it's roots. Whether you love the VeggieTales franchise or hate it, you've got to admit that it's strange to think of anything from that franchise not spreading the Gospel at every given opportunity. The Pirates Who don't do Anything, then, offers us the chance to see what the franchise is like without all of the preaching. And, folks, it seems just a bit hollow and too much like a lot of other things out there."

And that just about sums it up. It was a good movie, but it was missing what we know and love from the Veggies. There was a subtle Christian theme if you look into the symbolism, (the King provides for all of their needs), but no obvious mention of God. And Bob only made a VERY small guest appearance!
Although I still think it was a great first movie for Honor and Connor, I don't think we will be buying this one.

First Movie

We took Connor and Honor to their very first movie: "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything". $25 later, they loved it! We got to the movie late, but still ended up sitting in the "perfect" seats...front row of the stadium section of seats right in the center. The kids got to split a Mega Cinnamon pretzel, I dutifully withheld from any theater treats and my husband got a popcorn and pop (another $14 in food!). The kids stared at the movie, Connor occasionally got scared by the "evil cheese curls" and Honor tried to eat food off the floor (and steal Daddy's pop). In the end, Connor lifted his little fist in the air and cheered, "Yeah!". During the credits there was a final "silly song" and Connor "played guitar" along with the music video, "Rock Monster". All in all it was a good movie and good time with the kids and both children thought it was great fun!

Sometimes you just have to let them cry

I am of the opinion that men are definitely the weaker gender. They cannot handle hearing babies cry. Now I HATE to hear Samuel cry as well, but I know there are times when it is inevitable--such as when I am in the restroom. When Samuel was a newborn, I would put the "big kids" to bed while my husband would put Samuel in his pj's. By the time I was ready to come downstairs to feed him, Samuel was usually crying. I always went potty first before feeding him. Without fail, my darling husband would come pounding on the door a minute after I entered yelling, "hurry up, the baby's crying, he needs you!"

Well, we no longer have to deal with that since Samuel has grown a little more patient. However, there are still times when he has to cry. One of those times was last night. (BTW I HATE visit days!) Samuel's nap schedule was all messed up yesterday so his night was messed up. Around 10 he woke up for the first time. Then again at 12:15. From there it was every 15 minutes after I laid him down. Finally at 2:40, I had to let him cry: I had fed him, burped him, gave him Motrin for teething, gave him gas medicine to make sure that wasn't it, nursed him, rocked him, walked him around, bounced him and he was still jumping out of my arms. So I allowed him to cry for 20 minutes...with the contingency that if I heard a panicked cry I would intervene. About a minute into the crying, my husband turned to me and asked me if I was going to go get him (he apparently didn't realize that I'd been up with him for 2 hours!). I replied that I was going to let him cry for a little while to make him tired. Another minute later, "you need to do something!"...I ignored him. Two minutes later, "he needs you!"...I ignored him. Five minutes later, "how long are you going to let him cry??????" BTW the entire time he'd been crying his "angry" cry, NOT his "Mommy I need you cry". "15-20 minutes," I replied. "Babies are not supposed to cry that long!"...I ignored him again. A minute later, "He has been crying for half an hour!" "No, he's been crying less than 10 minutes." "He needs to be fed!" "No, I just fed him." Another minute later, "he is panicking, go get him!" I ignored him. Samuel stopped crying for a few minutes. Daddy got up to use the restroom. Samuel started screaming. It was now 2:55. I got up and nursed Samuel for 2 minutes and he drifted off into peaceful sleep land until 7 am.

I have the hiccups

I have had the hiccups all day today and they won't go away! UGH! My darling husband would say that it is a mind over matter thing and I must just have a weak mind...maybe I do, but I sure wish they'd go away anyway! (BTW...every time HE has the hiccups, I remind him that he must have a weak mind too :-D)

I'm a pear!

I just noticed today that my body is pear-shaped...and an hour glass...didn't know you could be both, but somehow my body managed that! I have wide shoulders which give me the hour-glass appearance, but if I lift my arms straight above my head, it goes down, down, down, BLAM...not that this has anything to do with anything, but I just thought it was interesting.

Honor is getting so big!

At night when it is time to tuck her in, she tells me "just one minute, mom" and takes her "spare" pillow, places it along side her pillow, lays her three stuffed bears side-by-side on the pillow, and tucks them in with her blankie before laying down to be tucked in herself.

The saddest thing a mommy can do

I HATE having to tell one of my children (usually Connor--he's my little cuddle bug) that I can't hug them right now because a. my hands are full with one of the other children or b. my hands are gross from cleaning something or c. (THE WORST) because I am just too busy at that second. I always give them "make-up" hugs, but I hate telling them no for giving them loves EVER. I wish that we had a remote where I could just pause life just to hold my little ones for as long as they will let me because I know that any day now they may decide they are "just too big" for hugs from their mommy.

Boiled eggs should not be crunchy!

I dutifully ate my egg whites and grapefruit for my eating plan breakfast this morning (don't have to eat egg whites/grapefruit everyday, but sometimes it is easier) and the third egg was crunchy! I didn't clean it well enough apparently. That is a nasty surprise! UGH!

I'm Tired!

That's it...I'm tired...that's all I want to say.

Abortion

I'm EXTREMELY against it. I have 4 beautiful children who remind me everyday why abortion should be illegal. Don't even bother debating me about it because there is absolutely no way of changing my mind and we'll both just end up angry. However if you are interested in knowing just some of the reasons why I am against abortion, read on.


I know I'm supposed to come up with the blog information, but I liked this article so much that I'm copying it here. I cut out some of it for length (not a lot since there wasn't much that I felt I could cut out!) The original article was written by Brad Frese.




35 YEARS AFTER ROE
THE FAILED PROMISES OF ABORTION

On January 22, 1973, the United States Supreme Court handed down its decision in Roe v. Wade, effectively legalizing abortion throughout the country. Women could seek abortions at any time throughout a pregnancy and for any reason (or for no reason at all).

Advocates for abortion-on-demand shouted loudly about how abortion would make life so much better. Unfortunately, the promises have yet to come true 35 years later.

Every Child a Wanted Child

One of the favorite slogans of pro-abortionists was “Every Child a Wanted Child.” By aborting “unwanted” babies, society was to rid itself of one of the most horrific of evils – child abuse. You would be right to question the twisted logic of killing a child to prevent him from being abused, but what if we take the claim at face value and assume that the argument has validity? How do we stack up in the area of child abuse since Roe v. Wade?

According to a 2006 U.S. Department of Human Services report, nearly 900,000 children were the victims of maltreatment in 2005, a rate of 12.1 per 1,000 children in the population. Of those, 16.6 percent were physically abused, and 7.1 percent were psychologically maltreated. A report of child abuse is made every 10 seconds, on average, more than ever before.

In 1970, the infant homicide rate was 4.3 murders per 100,000 children under the age of one. The rate climbed to 9.1 in the year 2000. Since legalization of abortion, the infant murder rate has more than doubled. Apparently killing babies in the womb doesn’t drive down the rate of abusing them or killing them outside the womb. Devaluing human life anywhere devalues it everywhere and at every stage.

So far abortion doesn’t have such a great track record. But while we’re on the subject of “wanted children,” is there really such a thing as an unwanted child? Each year parents seek children to adopt. Many wait for years on waiting lists. Some are forced to go to international sources for adoptive children and spend a small fortune in the process. The truth is, there are more willing adoptive parents than there are babies to adopt. The “unwanted child” is nothing but a myth.

Women’s Health

Another favorite claim of abortion advocates is that abortion is necessary for “women’s health.” Variously cited statistics state that “abortion is seven times safer than child birth,” others say 11 times, and still others claim a number up 20 times safer than childbirth. But none of these numbers have any basis in fact. Official government figures show that less than one in ten thousand pregnancies results in the mother’s death.

While government statistics show that death by abortion is even rarer, the numbers ignore the fact that childbirth statistics are very accurately recorded. There is no uniform system of reporting abortions, much less complications and deaths from abortion.

What is even more disconcerting is that it seems as if the Centers for Disease Control cooperates with abortionists in covering up and minimizing negative information about abortions.

For example, a reporter named Kevin Sherlock searched through autopsy records in Los Angeles County and found 29 abortion deaths between 1970 and 1987. In a book that he wrote after his investigation, he reported that “Four of these deaths occurred during a one year period in which the CDC reported zero abortion-related deaths for the entire state of California and only 12 deaths in the whole country.” (The entire story can be found in Sherlock’s book, Victims of Choice, published in 1996 by Brennyman Books.)

Abortion can cause injuries that show up later, causing complications such as ectopic pregnancies. A maternal death caused by one of these ectopic pregnancies would be counted as a result of a pregnancy, not as a result of the abortion that originally caused the injury.

But even if you are willing to put aside the issue of maternal deaths, abortion is a loss for women’s health. Abortion is the cause of significant heartache, pain and injury in the lives of many post-abortive women.

Abortion is associated with a greater risk of alcoholism, depression, problems bonding with subsequent children, and problems relating with men. Post-abortive women have a suicide rate that is six times higher than women who had given birth in the previous year.

Physically, abortion causes complications in about 10 percent of women. One-fifth of these complications are life-threatening. Complications include infection, excessive bleeding, embolism, uterine perforation, cervical injury and endotoxic shock. Minor complications include fever, burns, chronic abdominal pain and Rh-sensitization, which threatens the health of the mother and children in future pregnancies.

Abortion increases the risk of subsequent ectopic pregnancies. It raises the risk of Pelvic Inflammatory Disease and can also raise the risk in future pregnancies of a condition called placenta previa, which can be life-threatening for both mother and child. Abortion increases the risk of subsequent miscarriages and premature deliveries.

A related claim is that legalized abortion brought abortion to sanitary doctor’s offices from the “back alleys.” Planned Parenthood stated in 1960 that “90 percent of all illegal abortions are presently done by physicians.” Even if there were “back alley abortions,” all that legalized abortion has brought us is death and misery in alleys to death and misery in a doctor’s office.

The assertion that abortion is needed for the health of women is patently false. Abortion confers no health benefit to women, and in fact causes great mental, spiritual and physical harm to many post-abortive women.

Abortion Frees Women

Yet another promise to women was that abortion would give them “reproductive freedom.” What this boils down to is “sex without consequences,” but if you believe it brings freedom, who does it really let off the hook? In the end it frees men from the financial responsibility of raising a child or paying child support. It destroys the evidence in cases of child rape and incest, freeing criminals from paying the consequences of their actions.

Globs of Tissue

Perhaps the most deceptive promise of all was that abortion simply removes “a blob of tissue” or “products of conception” from the mother. It’s not really a baby, so it isn’t that big of a deal.

That may have been an easy lie to tell 35 years ago, but modern technology has revealed the truth. With modern “3D” ultrasound techniques, images of the baby within the womb can be depicted with startling accuracy and beauty.

The images, which can be obtained as early as 10 weeks into a pregnancy, clearly show a developing human. At ten weeks, the ultrasound images show well-formed fingers and toes. The mother can clearly see the baby making a tiny fist, and can see the child’s tiny ears.

Other medical developments have worked to kill the myth of the “blob of tissue” as well. Doctors now regularly operate on tiny babies just 26 weeks into a pregnancy. Physicians have also been able to save tiny preemies only 18 to 19 weeks along.

Effect on Society

Legalized abortion was supposed to bring so much good with it. It was supposed to reduce child abuse, but instead child abuse has only increased. It was supposed to make women healthier but has only brought additional health burdens. It was even supposed to reduce poverty, but we still have the poor with us today.

Abortion’s promises have returned empty. But even worse, it has eaten away at the soul of a nation. We saw from the evidence above that devaluing human life anywhere devalues it everywhere. Along with legal abortion comes a general disrespect for human life. It not only shows up in child abuse statistics; it crops up in every other area of life as well. Many scientists now eagerly experiment on human embryos. The rationale, of course, is that the experiments may someday bring cures to this disease or that disorder, but what it comes down to is a willingness to destroy human life for the benefit of others. Without legalized abortion, would we have even given such experimentation a second thought?

There are many now who advocate for physician-assisted suicide or even euthanasia. Oregon has legalized physician-assisted suicide in the name of “death with dignity.” Every year, advocates for physician assisted suicide try to bring it to Arizona.

Roe’s ultimate effect has been to devalue all of human life. Many of society’s problems with murder and violence can be traced to our failure to protect the most helpless among us.

The good news is that Americans are beginning to reject abortion and the afflictions that it brings with it. A November 2007 Fox News Poll found 50 percent of Americans oppose legal abortions, while just 39 percent supported abortions. Ten percent of the public is unsure where they stand.

More and more women are beginning to speak out on the trauma, pain, and injuries that their abortions have caused them. Silent No More, an organization of women dedicated to speaking out about their personal experiences with abortion, are using billboards, television and radio ads to get out the message about the effects of abortion on women.

Undoubtedly, hearts and minds have begun to change on the issue of abortion. This alone should give us encouragement to continue to persevere to end abortion, the greatest of American travesties.

I MISS MY HUSBAND!!!

He works swing shift so I don't get to spend evenings with him. Then his mustang's brakes broke so he's been spending every morning working on that. So I've only spent about 30 minutes with him every day this week and that was spent with him eating lunch and taking a quick shower before diving out the door so he wasn't late for his carpool! :-(

Surprise Surprise

I actually am learning to LIKE veggies plain without any butter or garlic salt on them. Who knew???

I think I am finally ready to wean

See the Okay...maybe we're not back to normal... post. That combined with the fact that he seems to prefer the bottle now since it flows faster tells me it is time to wean. So I will only be nursing now when I NEED to nurse (for those non-breastfeeding people out there, it gets painful if you go too long without nursing) and eventually my milk will dry up and he should be weaned...we'll see if it is really that easy.

Okay...maybe we're not back to normal...

Last night Samuel was a bit naughty again...

My hubby walked past Samuel around 12:30 am and he started fussing. Hating to hear him fuss, and wanting to be a good husband and let me sleep, he figured he'd pick Samuel up and walk him to sleep. Unbeknownst to him (since he normally sleeps through Samuel's middle of the night wakings), the fuss was a "I might wake up, but probably not" fuss. As soon as he picked him up, Samuel let out a "you're not the Mommy, where is your boobs!!!" panicked cry. This quickly subsided as he realized it was Daddy, but he was now too far awake to be soothed to sleep by my hubby so I was "tagged" so to speak. I then proceeded to TRY to nurse him to sleep/walk him to sleep/rock him to sleep for the next 2 hours (since I didn't want to have to take him downstairs). Finally in a fit of desperation I took him downstairs, filled up the SNS with formula (the special device that attaches to my breast so he can nurse and get extra stuff at the same time) and turned on the TV. He seemed to be finally falling asleep, but "Mr. Grabby Hands" pulled the tube out of his mouth. When the liquid stopped pouring into his mouth, he apparently got angry. I received a VERY painful bite to which I responded by letting him know enough was enough and at around 3 am I put him down in his crib. He fussed while he was trying to get comfortable for about 10 minutes and finally settled down. At around 5:30 am, he woke up again...just as I was about to get him back to sleep, Ariana woke up screaming from a nightmare (she gets those occasionally after visit days). I put him down and rushed into her room. She calmed down, he started screaming. I went to get him, she started screaming. Finally I brought him into her room...since it was almost 6 am, I offered to turn on a video for her in her room (we NEVER do that!--side note: I am firmly against TVs in kids rooms, but this was a left over from when the room was an office and we just never took it out since she's still in her crib...). I then took my now wide-awake son downstairs, laid him on the floor on a blanket with tons of toys around him and hid from him on the couch under blankets before he could turn around and find me. If he can't see me he doesn't get upset if I'm not playing with him. Thus hidden, I was able to sleep until 7:45...naps are nice! :-D

Last night

I think Samuel is back to his old sleeping patterns FINALLY! He only woke up 2-3 times last night instead of the 6-8 times he'd been waking up at night for the last 4-5 weeks. So glad those teeth are finally in...only 18 more to go!

Phone Conversation

Honor brought her new cell phone to the dinner table with her the other night. After she was done eating, I hear her pushing the annoying buttons that make the ringing sound. Then she tells me that Bryan is calling. The conversation went like this:

"Hello"
"Hello" (says Honor in a deep "male" voice)
"Hi, Bryan!"
"Hi, Honor!" (again in a deep voice)
"How are you?"
"I'm sick" (again in a deep voice)

"Mommy, Bryan's sick!"

Dry

Connor stayed dry all day today!!! First time he stayed completely dry at naptime even! YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Siblings

One of the funniest things about the kids is how they can attack each other one minute and defend each other the next. For example, Honor will get in a huge fight with Connor over their new toys, but when Ariana steps in to try to play with "Honor's toy", Connor will hold Ariana back and say, "That's Honor's!"

Cute story: while we were getting vaccines on Friday, we did Samuel's first while Ariana watched. While we were holding him down and he was screaming :-(, Ariana was sitting there demanding that we "stop it, don't hurt baby!" :-D (Samuel was fine btw). What a good big sister :-D

2nd Tooth

Forgot to mention Samuel got his second tooth sometime on Saturday night....thought it had poked through with the other one on the 2nd because I had felt the bump at the same time, but realized later it hadn't poked through (hard to tell since he doesn't let me look for very long!)

Getting dressed

Why is it that Connor can put on his own "big boy" diapers, pants, shirt, blanket pajamas and put his shoes on the correct foot (most of the time), but he cannot put his socks on correctly to save his life! They always hang out over the top of his feet or the heel is on the top, but he proudly shows me his feet anyway, "look, Mommy, I did it!"

Mornings

There is nothing like getting up at 6 am with a little boy who woke up 5 times the night before. You want to be angry at him since you only got about 4 hours of sleep, but he thinks the world of you and smiles every time you look his way. That smile could melt the coldest of hearts and the laugh that accompanies it when you smile back energizes you like a jolt of coffee. It sure is a great jump start to my day!

New Eating Plan

For the next 6 weeks or so I will be on a restricted eating plan. Some may call it a "diet", but that kind of implies that I am being extremely limited/starving myself and that once I lose the weight I will stop the diet. I don't feel I am being extremely limited (despite the fact that I currently cannot eat any dairy products, salt or bread) and I eat 6 times a day to stave off starvation. Plus I plan to continue eating a modified version of the eating plan (they refer to it as Living Lean) once I reach my "goal weight". So far so good...I've lost 5 pounds and I feel really good. I think cutting out all of the caffeine and drinking 100 oz of water/day has really helped. The first couple days were really hard though as I went through detox. I'm now on day 5 and doing great. I'll let you know how it goes...

Baths

Most relaxing thing in the world for me and also up there on the most stressful things for me right now...LOVE taking them, HATE giving them (to the children).

Prayer for my friend

Please be in prayer for my friend Cindy who is trying to get a good job (the one she is at right now really stinks!). She is going in for the interview on Monday so please pray that she gets it!

Doctor

Took Ariana and Samuel for their well-checks today (2 year and 6 month). Despite the fact that I have to physically hold them down for their vaccinations, I love taking my kids to the doctor. I love to see how they are growing (and hear what a wonderful job I'm doing :-D). I especially like learning how much Ariana has grown since when I got her she was negative off the charts for her weight. Today she is in the 45th percentile! :-D She weighs the same as Connor and Honor and is only an inch shorter than Connor--which still only puts her in the 25th percentile for height--Connor is short :-D. Samuel has also increased in size. I was worried about him at first since we had such a hard time breastfeeding in the beginning, but he's right on track where Honor was at 6 months: 87th percentile in height and 20th percentile in weight (that's up from 15th percentile). The weight always surprises me since he doesn't look skinny. Anyway...they are both doing great (and neither of them has any junk in their lungs so that's good too!)

Yeah for Today!

Today has been an awesome day! It started with my hubby actually getting up with the kids for a change and letting me sleep in!!! The best part was that I didn't even ask him to! Then when I came downstairs I found out that not only had he let me sleep in, but he had also set up the playroom and cleaned! Then the best part...our case worker called and said that the courts had FINALLY ordered the case plan for Connor and Ariana to be changed to severance and adoption! YEAH! Almost 2 years in the making...now all we have to do is wait for the actual severance...

Samuel

He's doing much better. I gave him Motrin and his fever went down. He's now playing on the floor and acting very normal...snotty, but normal. He might actually start crawling today...he's very close!

Samuel's sick :-(

Actually all of the kids except Connor were sick, but its hitting Samuel hard and there's nothing I can do about it since he is too small for medicine. We bought a new humidifier for his room (our room) and we've been spraying saline drops up his nose and I've been nursing him frequently. Hopefully it will pass VERY soon!

I'm a Mexican...

Apparently I am a Mexican...or at least that is what Connor and Ariana's biological mother tells her family members. I was told that she refers to me as "that [insert curse word here] Mexican foster mother". When her aunt heard this, she thought it was quite funny since she just saw me on vacation and noticed my white as white could be skin color, light hair and blue eyes....Scottish Mexican maybe?

Check-out line

Why would anyone think it is cute to teach an approx. 13-15 month old boy to say "go away"? The mom in front of me was playing the "go away,", "no, you go away" game with her little boy and after doing that for 5 minutes, she had the nerve to say to her son, "that's not nice to say to Mommy. It hurts Mommy's feelings when you tell her to go away."

In addition to playing the "go away" game with her son, she felt the need to give him chocolate milk while he was riding in the cart and in the check out line he pointed to the chips and rudely said "give me chips". Different moms....different styles...

Our Vacation....The Good...

Samuel got his first two teeth on January 2nd! He is growing up so fast!

I got to see a lot of my friends and family and actually got to go out twice without any kids!

I really had a great time hanging out with my mom...I sure miss her!

The kids had a great time hanging out with their cousin Abi.

The kids got a ton of new toys!

Mom liked the new phone system we got them for Christmas.

The visit with Connor and Ariana's aunt and uncle went really well. They strongly agree that we should adopt the children and intend to tell the court that. The uncle saw the kids about a month and a half before they were put into foster care and he said compared to now they are completely different children. He is convinced that had Ariana not been removed, she would not be alive today.

The drive both ways went really well for the most part--as long as the kids were strapped in! :-D Thankfully we borrowed a portable DVD player and that helped out a lot.

...The Bad...

Samuel got his first two teeth! In addition to having a difficult time putting Ariana down to sleep, Samuel was waking up every hour or so in pain from his teeth...so I ended up sleeping with him in a chair the entire trip.

The caucuses! My parents received at least 40 calls a day from the various campaigns...

Before heading out on our vacation, I warned my mom that she needed to "toddler proof" the house. I told her if there was anything even remotely breakable, that she needed to remove it from "toddler height" because Connor would try to take it apart. She responded naively that she would simply tell the children "no" and they wouldn't touch it. After several attempts to persuade her that the children most likely wouldn't be reasonable, I finally said okay and dropped it. By the end of the first day, Mom was rearranging her house to keep the kids from touching things...you can't really reason with a 3 year old...

Honor learned right away what she was not supposed to touch, so she decided to hide things and take them into the other room to play with them. One of these was a marble--which she "hid" in her mouth. Thankfully daddy found it!

We spent the first day everywhere we went "retraining" our children who felt the need to "test" the adults to see if they could get away with stuff...although we were much more lenient than at home, they learned that they still could not get away with stuff on vacation.

I wasn't really able to relax too much when my kids were around because as soon as I was distracted they chose to act up...how dare I try to have "adult" conversations while they were in the room!

Someone I really respect dropped slightly in my viewpoint for doing extremely stupid stuff and thinking they were hiding it from me. I still don't know if I should confront them about it or not...

It was too short of a vacation to see everyone that I wanted to see for as long as I wanted to see them--if we missed seeing you, please know it wasn't because we didn't want to!

...The Ugly

Liberal Kansas.

On the way up we decided to spend the night at an Inn (which shall remain nameless) to get a "good night's sleep". We wanted one that would allow pets. The Inn we found sounded nice on paper--was not so nice in person. The lady I checked in with was smoking as I was checking in--that should have tipped me off! It was one of those hotels where the doors are on the outside and there wasn't much insulation and no bathroom fan to block out noise. I could hear the neighbors clearly. To top it off, Ariana didn't want to sleep--I think she was overly tired. So she screamed for 4 hours straight--not exaggerating! Connor, Honor and Samuel were able to sleep through this somehow, but as soon as she stopped crying, Samuel woke up. Then once I got both of them asleep, Connor fell off the bed and hit the wall really hard. The funny thing was, he didn't wake up! His little butt was still on the bed and his head was on the floor, but he didn't wake up :-D. So I had to make a bed on the floor out of the blankets. The "drivers" had about 2 hours of sleep apiece--we basically paid for a horrible $50 shower.

On the way back we drove through Liberal at around 1:15 am. I was driving. The road we were on was one of those that went from 65 mph down to 30 mph in towns and then back up. I was holding to the speed limit religiously the whole trip--to the point where I was obviously irritating the driver behind me who tailgated me for 20 minutes (at one point I couldn't even see his headlights he was so close!). This got me to think about what I would do if this person were a police officer and I started imagining scenarios in which I had to tell him that my husband had a license to conceal carry and that is why we had a handgun in our glove box. When we finally got into Liberal, I slowed down to 30 and woke up my husband to have him help me find a gas station. We found a Shell and pulled in only to realize it wasn't open. While I was looking for the hours of operation on the door, flashing lights turned on behind me! I honestly didn't know why because I was trying so hard not to speed. My husband quickly hid his gun (never once did I think of doing that in my day dreams) and instructed me to turn the car off and roll down the window and keep my hands on the wheel...I think he has watched too many "COPS" episodes. There were two policemen and they almost were doing a good cop/bad cop routine. The shorter one came up and said "The speed limit is 30 not 39" (apparently while I was looking for a gas station, I got anxious and started to speed--leave it to me to get pulled over for ACCIDENTALLY speeding when my husband speeds habitually and never gets pulled over!). The "bad cop" took my license and insurance (thankfully he'd taken the gun out!)and while he was checking us out, the taller one was carrying on a friendly conversation with me about Iowa, work, foster care (he asked about all of our children), etc. and then pointed us to the ONLY open gas station in town. Eventually they found out we weren't felons and thankfully released us with a verbal warning.

We went on to the gas station and got there around 2 am. I had to use the restroom really bad so I got to pre-pay the pump. As I walked in, there were 4 big guys with scary tattoos all over their arms talking to the cashier (who was also scary looking!). They all turned to watch me walk to the bathroom. While in the bathroom I could hear them talking about the local strip clubs (that wasn't how they were referring to them) and comparing the chest sizes of the "dancers". When I went to pay, they apologized for "being guys". Then commented on the size of our truck and asked me about my kids--at which point I was told I have a death wish for having 4 kids under 4. Then my husband made me sit in the truck and not get back out until we were out of town as there were several other "scary" guys hanging outside smoking. At 2 in the morning, you can never be too safe.

All in all, Liberal was pretty ugly!

We're Home!

We actually made it home Saturday around 4:45. We drove straight through from IA 27 hours!