Kate's Place

Hmmm

2012-02-04T13:43:00.002-05:00

Ever have one of "those" days?

I put baking soda in the pancake batter instead of baking powder... (Jamie had to then do math to make sure, all jokes aside, that Matthew hadn't consumed too much of it-- he's fine btw).

I turned the dryer on, with the clothes still in the washer...

Trying to do my coupon math for today and I can't figure out if it's better to get 1.80 or 1.85 off the ticket... really, my brain hurts from trying to find that stupid nickle...

Let's see if I can make it through the rest of the day unscathed from my own stupidity.

Moments to live for

2012-02-03T08:39:00.002-05:00

Mark and I have been having this "I love you to the moon" "I love you to the stars" "I love you to the clouds" "I love you to the rainbows" thing going on lately and whoever says "I love you to outer space" is the winner. (Meaning Mark normally wins) ... Matthew and I had a similar thing when he was about this age that we've continued "I love you one" "I love you two" "I love you three" back and forth and then the first one to ten was the winner (Meaning Matthew normally won)... Anyhow, this was the moment this morning...

Mark: I love you to the rainbows.
Me: I love you to the moon.
Mark: I love you to the outer space.
Me: Ah! that was fast! I love you to outer space too.
Matthew (not to be out done): Mommy, I love you to each and every star and never stopping all the time to each star Mommy, all of them. And there IS a lot of stars.
Me: (MELT) I love you too Matthew.
Mark: (Not to be out done either put his hands around my face pulling my eyes back to see him) IIIIIIIII love you one.
Me: (chuckling) I love you two.
Mark: I love you three.
Me: I love you four, five, six, seven, eightnineten!
Mark: Heyyyyyy.
Me: I love both my boys so much.
Matthew: Well I still love you to each of the stars.

mmmmm. Life is so worth living for moments like these...

busy busy busy

2012-01-31T09:12:00.003-05:00

Life is just so busy it seems. We are constantly going. Even at the house I can't sit still because a certain small person thinks I should hold him all . the . time . I'm constantly pacing between the kitchen and living room and kitchen and living room and ... you get the point. I will say though that he's such a good baby. He now has six teeth, and you'd never know it. He never cries or complains about them, he's so chill and wonderful. God knew that I needed a little calmness in my life and gave me my sweet Micah bear. Last week, Micah had a playdate with "cousin" Katherine. (translation: Mommy and Laura went walking but you know...) It is fun to watch him watch her. Here's a little before shot.

Also over the weekend, we celebrated Papa's birthday. Check out my cool golf cake I made. I am loving this one! Matthew helped me crush up vanilla wafers for the sand trap (thank you Publix for the BOGO sales!) and decided where the water should be and such. It was really fun to make this cake with my assistant Matthew. Matthew is such a joy these days. He's gotten "grown up" seemingly overnight. He helps empty the dishwasher and other small chores with supervision. He's able to help pack his own lunch and it's fun to send him to the store (stockpile storage room) for things the kitchen is out of. He's so very helpful! We made a trifle for church Sunday, and he helped me layer all the cookies between layers. It's neat watching him be such a big boy. And Mark is so chomping at the bit to help out too. It's fun to give him tiny tasks and watch him execute them. (Ah, I got distracted bragging on my boys... we were celebrating Papa's birthday, right?!)

Papa even took the flag out, lined up the putter (knife), and hit the ball in the hole!

We really had a nice time. The cake was after a super yummy birthday dinner, if I do say so myself. It is so neat to have Jamie's parents close by now. Saturday, after cake and after the boys went to bed, we enjoyed a game of Spades together. Sandy has been joining me for Bible Study and is able to keep the boys some which has been such a neat blessing. Mark got to spend a whole morning doing puzzles and games with Grandma one on one last week and I just love it. And so do the kids.

Christmas 2011 in MO (2nd half)

2012-01-19T13:51:00.006-05:00

And, we arrived in KC... they were excited, can't you tell? We had a rough week to say the least, but we also had some really nice times. Good playing, loving each other, snuggling ... the kids love each other so much... I'll let the pictures do the talking here.

So long Saint Louie, I'll see you in the summer, the Lord willing...

Christmas 2011 in MO (1st half)

2012-01-19T13:25:00.007-05:00

Well look-ee-there! I uploaded pictures! Here's the first half of our MO trip from Christmas. This is the STL side of the trip. Here's Christmas Eve and Christmas Day pictures for you. We had such a nice Christmas Eve day and dinner. It was so sweet. Uncle Denny and Aunt Marty came by, Grams was there and then Brian's family also came: Grandma Pat and Grandpa Ross and Mike, Laura and baby Katherine. It was such a lovely and blessed day. Kris and Brian are so sweet together, I love that they are finally together in married life now! Merry Christmas-late!

Micah, we don't eat Mark's presents...

Grams gets baby Katherine

Grammy and Micah chillin on the couch

Mom standing (on a chair) with her brother, Uncle Den

Aunt Marty got her hands on Micah

Aunt Kris saying goodbye to her niece...

Goodnight everyone! Merry Christmas!

It's CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!

one of those...

2012-01-18T08:10:00.003-05:00

....things you never knew you'd say (or hear)....

Last night while bathing people, I was also on the phone with my Nic...

and she had the privilege of hearing me say "No, I will not play Uno Moo with you right now with all these people naked and wet!"

Mark was out of the tub, dried and jammied already and standing in the bathroom door holding his Christmas treasure asking me to join him. Matthew was still in the tub and Micah was in the middle of sponge bath out of the tub... we both cracked up at what I'd said... I thought I'd let the world have a laugh at it too.

The things that you say as a parent... it's endless !

Thankfulness

2012-01-15T20:39:00.002-05:00

... I'd fully planned on sharing the rest of our trip to Missouri on here and hopefully I'll get a chance to do so still, but uploading pictures is a timely thing to do. Maybe I can do it one night when Jamie is gone.

I do want to share a conversation from this evening... we needed to calm down a little more than normal (Papa and Grandma had been over (yay!) and the boys were a little wound at bed time.) So we sang some of our verses and then our goodnight song but then I asked them back and forth to tell me some things they were thankful for before we did our prayers. I will say the answers are comical and sweet.

Me: Matthew, can you tell me something you're thankful for?

Matthew: Firewood.

Me: Firewood??

Matthew: Yes. Firewood. You know. so we can make a cozy fire.

(He'd seen Aunt Kris and Uncle Brian's fire blazing in the fireplace during Skype earlier. I wonder if he'd have come up with that answer otherwise. Interesting.)

Me: Okay. Mark, what are you thankful for tonight?

Mark: Cats. I like cats. And pigs.

Me: Well that's nice. I like cats too.

Mark: and pigs.

Me: Okay.

Me: Matthew can you tell me something else you're thankful for?

Matthew: Dogs. The kind you aren't allergic to.

Me: That's nice, thank you. Mark?

Mark: Micah. He's my baby brother.

Me: And you're thankful for your brother. That's so sweet.

Mark: Yes. I am.

Me: Matthew do you want to tell me one more thing you're thankful for?

Matthew: Sure. ummmmmmmmmmm snow.

Me: Snow?

Matthew: Yup. I'm thankful for snow. And rain.

Me: Well, I do like snow, but I'm not sure I'm thankful for it. I am thankful for the rain though.

Matthew: Yup. I'm thankful for snow and rain and Micah.

Mark chimes in: And I'm thankful for you Mom.

Me: Thank you Mark, I'm thankful for you too.

Matthew: And I'm thankful for you too.

Me: and I'm thankful for you too.

... Just a little reminder to myself to ask the boys about being thankful and thankfulness more often. We can talk about it besides just at Thanksgiving. We need to be thanking God every day for the blessings He continues to give us.

Christmas morning

2012-01-08T17:05:00.003-05:00

Christmas this year was great. Magical even. The morning started with breakfast together and then we got ready for church. Church was the best part. ... sitting as a family, praising the Lord Jesus, thanking God for sending Him down to us! As I looked across the row, tears streamed down my dad's face and glistened in my sister's eyes. Matthew sat with us and had his head on his Grandpa's shoulder. What a blessing to know that every adult in that row is Saved. Every adult in that row has a relationship with Jesus Christ our Lord and Savoir and will be singing praises to Jesus in Heaven some day. Praise the Lord for answering the prayers my mom and I have prayed for so long. What a beautiful family we have in the Lord. What a beautiful time we had worshiping him. Of course after church we read the Christmas story and opened our gifts and spent the day having fun. But the real magical Christmas moment happened at church. Here's just a glimpse of the morning.

Cinnamon Rolls for breakfast

Jamie reads the Christmas story

Micah's first Christmas

Mark's birth-DATE

2012-01-07T19:07:00.003-05:00

The next couple postings will probably be me playing catch up. I'll start with Mark's birthday. We had a nice time celebrating his birthday with giant red velvet cupcakes! I still can't get over him turning THREE.

TOP TEN PREDICTIONS

2012-01-05T14:47:00.003-05:00

I posted this last year, but I still like it... and it is still true...

FOR THE COMING YEAR

With all the problems the World is facing, it can be unsettling to the mind. Today, I will share with you ten predictions that are true!

1. The Bible will still have all the answers.

2. Prayer will still be the most powerful thing on earth.

3. The Holy Spirit will still move.

4. God will still honor the praises of His people.

5. There will still be God-anointed preaching.

6. There will still be singing of praise to God.

7. God will still pour out blessings upon His people.

8. There will still be room at the Cross.

9. Jesus will still love you.

10. Jesus will still save the lost when they come to Him.

Happy Christmas and Merry New Year. And all that jazz.

2011-12-31T12:28:00.004-05:00

Christmas was so wonderful. I'll have to come back to that and recap later but it was. ... It's New Year's Eve and I'm sitting on my best friend's couch... she's here, holding the baby--who's snoring, my husband is next to me playing angry birds, the older children are down stairs playing trains (ah, the power of a monitor) and cousin Kaitlyn is playing her own game. It's quiet and happy here. The dishwasher is running, the children are laughing (of course there is the occasional "Heeeeey." or "Marrrrrrrk." or "I had that first!!!" but ... that's part of it, isn't it?), there isn't a pressing schedule or an agenda... in fact any plans we had for this trip went down down down the toilet (and I do mean that literally)... being visited by the puke bug ((Which makes TWO Christmases in a ROW for Matthew)) makes any plans made obsolete. There will be other trips for dates and dinners and movies. As I sit here, I'm trying to think of something witty or clever or even sarcastic, but I can't, so I'll move on. It was awful. I'm so glad it's over. Of the five kids, only one hasn't been sick yet. Of the four adults, two. But even amid that, it was a nice trip. As soon as Micah is up and fed again we'll be leaving and perhaps it seems odd to be sitting here, typing about our trip when we're not even left yet, however the opportunity presented itself. The quiet is such a rare thing in my world. So while it's quiet I thought I'd take a glance back at this past year, as it's fitting to do on New Year's.

I'm sitting here without a calendar or anything to refresh my memory, but the most notable thing in 2011 was the birth of my third son. Micah Henry was born in March. He's our miracle baby, our Micah Bear, our love, our joy, the troll and destroyer. . . He's my little blondie. Everyone asks me "Oh, were Matthew and Mark born light haired too?" Nope. Just Micah Bear. This was a very special and precious time for me. My mom gave up so much. She sacrificed quite a bit to help me in this time, for a lengthy time, and I'm so grateful for her help in welcoming Micah to this world. I don't know what we'd have done without you dear Mom.

In March besides adding a newborn to our house, we also added a full time Daddy. Jamie received an interview phone call while we were in labor with Micah-- no joke-- in the hospital. He began his new job at the end of the month! He's been working from home ever since. There is the occasional traveling involved, but mostly he's home full time. It's wonderful. There was a lot of learning to do with a new baby and a new job, but we've learned a new dance in this life and it's a nice one.

There was family coming and going most of the spring. And then the big event of 2011 happened in June... Matthew's fifth birthday... no! Just kidding! on June 25th, my sister married the man of her dreams. I am so blessed by their marriage. Brian is such a wonderful man and she is so happy. I'm so tickled for her and am excited to see what comes their way. God has truly blessed the two of us with such wonderful husbands. I pray that God continues to bless them.

Matthew started Kindergarten in the fall. (eeeeeeeee!)

My dad was baptized in August and visited us in September, and it was the most wonderful trip we'd ever spent together. The Lord was and still is doing wonderful things in my dad's life.

September also brought Jamie's dad who started staying with us weekly while he had acquired his own new job in Atlanta. We enjoyed a sweet season of Papa staying with us, playing and loving on the boys.

November brought us the best Thanksgiving possible.

December gave Jamie's parents a new house.

And here I am, in MO for a lengthy trip and sadly it's been a not so much fun with all the puking, tummy hurting, headaching, yucky stuff going on, but it's still been good never-the-less. Being with family is good. Regardless of what's going on, regardless of who's sick or well, being with family is just so wonderful. So since the small child has woken up and been passed to his daddy from the best friend and I need to feed him... I guess I'll think about goals and such at a later time. I will say this, I'm looking forward to 2012. I can't wait to see how God continues to faithfully bless and grow my family. I'm excited to see where He will take us in this new year. May I remember to keep HIM as my focus no matter what I'm doing. And I know He will see me through anything that is to come.

My (almost) THREE Year Old.

2011-12-20T10:07:00.006-05:00

Since we'll be traveling over Mark's birthday, I thought I'd post this a couple days early. Mark will be three on Friday. Three. Every time it's someone's birthday, I'm just amazed at how old they are, how fast the year has gone, how they have grown and changed so much and this year is no exception with my little bug.

Mark, you are so cute. You just make me smile all the time. You are so smart and so quick. You are so kind-- when you want to be. You're a great eater. You love carrots and tomatoes and any fruit. You like pizza and spaghetti and sandwiches. You're not crazy about chicken or potatoes which have become a staple dinner for Matthew lately. You don't like your socks on when you're sleeping. All the time, I find socks in your bed or on the floor by the bed. You like to take your feet out of your footie pajamas and run around with the arms still in, creating a cape for Super Mark! You like Dora and Little Einsteins and Backyardigans most to watch on TV these days. You used to be crazy for Blue's Clues but that's fading. You love puzzles. It is so neat to watch you with your puzzles. You're getting quite good at the harder ones. You enjoy tracing your ABC's when I draw them for you. You love for me to sing you the "sunshine song" with you prompting me which color to use each verse. We have so much fun. One thing I'm pretty amazed about is your ability to retain information. If I tell you what items we are picking up from the store, you repeat them back to me when we get there. If I'm working with Matthew on a memory verse, the next time we say it, you chime in too. If I tell Micah no no to something, you remember that rule and tell him yourself next time he's doing it. You're memory is so cool. Your love for Micah is also so cool, you just love so much. You are so sweet, such a snuggler, such a love. I love you and the little person you are becoming. I just called you over here, and asked you some questions, so I can capture some of your favorites for today. Here's a peek at our conversation:

Me: What's your favorite colors?
Mark: green and black
Me: I thought they were green and pink?
Mark: Not today, today is green and black like Matthew.

Me: What's your favorite number?
Mark: 1

Me: What's your favorite food?
Mark: vitamin
Me: Vitamin?
Mark: Yup, and cheese
Me: Cheese?! You don't even like cheese.
Mark: Yah, I do.

Me: What's your favorite thing to play with?
Mark: colors

Me: What do you want to be when you get bigger? when you grow up?
Mark: a big boy

Me: What's your favorite animal?
Mark: a cat

Me: Who is your favorite person?
Mark: my matthew

Me: What's your favorite song?
Mark: itsy itsy spider

Me: What else do you like that you want to tell me?
Mark: Well, you forgot one question.
Me: What is it?
Mark: One more questions about children.
Me: What question did I forget, buddy?
Mark: I do like Micah
Me: Oh good. I'm glad you like Micah too.
Mark: Yup. Now that's all. That's all the directions I have for you.
Me: Okay. (laughing!)

Well my little one, I hope you have a great birthday on Friday! Happy birthday to my Markie.

Mark's Gator Cake

2011-12-13T23:51:00.004-05:00

There a things you just never thought when you were little, dreaming about being a mommy some day, that you'd find yourself saying or doing (or hearing, for that matter!)... I never knew that I'd be so obsessed about making the boys' cakes each year. But I am. I'm a little crazy about it. And seriously, since Mark's very first cake -- which I think was my coolest one -- I just try to keep bettering myself. So far he's had a giant snowman cake, last year's decent size Blue's Clues cake, and then this year.... Alligator Cake! The conversation about a month ago went like this:

Me: Mark, what do you think you'd like to have on your birthday cake this time?
Him: Well... I do a Percy Cake.
Me: A Percy Cake?! Why? You want a Percy Cake?
Him: Yup.
Me: Why?
Him: Matthew had a Percy Cake.
Me (thinking... grrrrrreat.) : Mark, you don't even like trains, honey. Why do you want a train cake... wouldn't you like to have something else? Anything else?
Him: Oh. I like cake for my birthday.
Me (thinking... good. we're getting somewhere. let's talk about Mark's likes): You like animals.
Him: Ohhhhhh Yeah!
Me: What kind of Animal do you want on your cake? (I'm so thinking he'll say Cat or Dog)
Him: Well Momma, .... .... .... I do like a Alli-Gator.
Me: (blank stare)
Me: Huh?
Him: (nodding)
Me: Alligator?
Him: Yup I dooooooo like a Alli-Gator.
Me: Alligator.
(I'm thinking GREAT. Just great. What the heck did I just do? I could have made another Percy Train cake, and been done but nooooo... now I gotta figure out how to make an ALLIGATOR CAKE?! SHOOT.)

Later... at Thanksgiving we repeated the story and my sister, who was trying to guess his cake, goes "Do you want a Giraffe cake?" I about smacked her! Don't make it any harder! ... he goes "Ohhh YEAH!" Fortunately she got him to want his Alligator back... ha! Can you see me making a giraffe cake? I know I don't have the counter space for that thing!

Anyhow... so, here we are... we celebrated Mark's birthday a little early this year and he got to enjoy his very own Alligator Cake. Here's a few pics from his party...

it's begining to look a lot like Christmas!

2011-12-09T09:36:00.003-05:00

Since we're leaving for Christmas this year, we decided not to deck all the halls this year... We have put up our advent calendar, our mantel decorations and this year we opted for a mini tree, since we live with Micah-the destroyer currently in his crawling/pulling up/pulling down things stage. And that's really all we're setting out. I love our little tree. He's so cute. And it's not as "charlie brown" as I thought it might be. We normally do colored lights, so the white lights are new and fun... plus, it will mean less clean up after we get back into town after the holidays!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

more from Thanksgiving

2011-12-05T08:06:00.006-05:00

When I was writing the other post, I had my time on the computer cut short and so I only posted a few pictures, but I wanted to get a couple more on here. We really did have a great week. Kris and Brian took the kids to a bouncy place one day, to the park another day... they had so much fun. And there was all the track making too. We made in total 7 pies and had a whole pie song too. It started with simply pumpkin pie but then added more pies to the tune. "We gonna have pumpkin pie! We gonna have apple pie! We gonna have chocolate pie!" We played 20 or 30 games of train. We visited with our sweet friends, Dan and Deb from church. We laughed and laughed and laughed. The visits with my family are just getting better and better, sweeter and sweeter each time, each trip.

Uncle Brian's so cool. He's getting more and more
comfortable holding those little ones...

Micah with "cousin" Baby Katherine

We again cooked our Thanksgiving Turkey under a bucket!

This picture makes me so happy. Matthew has come so far. Last Thanksgiving, it was torture to get him to even eat his nuggets... this year he had his chicken fries, apples, a bite of peas, a bite of sweet potatoes, a bite of ham, a bite of turkey and pie. SO proud of him. He's come so far. It's a slow process, but we sure are getting there. Bite by bite.

Mark of course, has no trouble eating!

Kris took a really neat pictures -- it's not often
I get all three of my boys with me in one shot.

Oh, this is what happens when you put a basket in
my way, I'll just crawl up into it. HA!

(too much angry birds)

better and better

2011-12-02T07:36:00.003-05:00

There is just something wonderful about having your family
all around you time and time again. Thanksgiving this year was wonderful.

if a picture is worth a 1000 words...

2011-12-01T00:06:00.001-05:00

then what are these two saying?

I hope you cracked a smile... I can't help but to!

Cool Cars Race Track

2011-11-30T00:31:00.004-05:00

Oh it was like Christmas morning... Grandpa and Grammy had given the boys a present while they were in town (more on that later) and man alive, you'd have thought it was Christmas morning. As much as Matthew loves his trains and track... he hasn't built a single track since these cars were unwrapped and set up. What was funny is that I'm not sure who had more fun with them last week... Mark and Matthew or Uncle Brian! Uncle Brian happens to be the BEST engineer you see. Matthew has said more than five times now that he NEEDS Uncle Brian to help me. I am not doing a great job of track building. Today it took a while to get the split in the track going the way it needed to go to make the loop work... bah! It's beyond me. But they love it. We sat in the play room today for a lengthy time, Mark being a tunnel for the cars to pass under and Matthew and I working the tracks out. We have discovered that the little cars can push balls on the tracks. So now it's funny to see what else they can push and what makes them crash... any how, here are some of the first pictures of these new cool cars.

Oh yah, and I did I mention that they are even
super fun to play with at night... in the dark....

pictures at stone mountain

2011-11-29T16:49:00.008-05:00

Jennifer has done it again. Thank you thank you thank you. She has captured some sweet memories and precious moments of my family loving on each other this past weekend at Stone Mountain. Here's a small sample. If anyone in the area needs a photographer, I'm telling you, she's it!

pass the peas

2011-11-18T11:39:00.001-05:00

This is what we think of peas...

He wasn't a fan.

But he sure is cute!

Transi-TION! Trans-ition!

2011-11-15T13:27:00.004-05:00

(To the Fiddler tune of "Tradition!")

I wrote this post in my head about two weeks ago but never got the time to get it up on here. My mom informed me yesterday that my blog was lacking updates... And I realized I blew right past Halloween without an update or the fact that we've had a pretty cool "guest" living with us for a while. Papa (Jamie's dad) has been staying with us Sunday evenings through Friday mornings for the past several weeks. If you remember, I'd posted about Papa's visit back in September. Well, that visit was an interview that turned into an offer and a job! So Jamie's parents will be moving to the Atlanta area soon. In the mean time, while they are putting their house in Charleston on the market and all that, Papa has been traveling back and forth, working here and staying with us, and then driving back home on the weekends. It has been a cool transition on our end. We know that they have a lot going on and a lot to accomplish with moving from one state to another, but we've been thrilled to have so much extra Papa time! The boys LOVE when he's here! With thanksgiving around the corner... I just can't help but be totally and wonderfully blessed with the amount of family surrounding me this year. I love it. I love having Jamie's dad here. I love the knowledge that both Jamie's parents will be close by soon enough. I love our family. We can't wait to get Grandma up here to join in the fun too., we miss her!

Fall Fun

2011-11-14T17:39:00.003-05:00

The weather has been just gorgeous lately so we've been enjoying more time outside before we're forced to stay indoors due to the cold that is creeping closer day by day. We normally just chalk. My boys could spend days out there chalking up the driveway, but today Matthew decided he wanted to rake the leaves. I, of course, find nothing wrong with this plan... I stroller-ed Micah and gave Matthew the rake. He got a decent size pile, then the raking was called off, and the jumping began! I so love lovely fall days.

Mark, not to be outdone, needed his turn.

stopping to watch an airplane...

GO CARDS!

2011-10-29T10:05:00.004-04:00

In 1982, the year I was born, the Cardinals won the World Series... do you believe that they didn't win again until 2006, the year my first born was born! Here is Matthew in 2006, sporting his Cards jersey while we watched the winning game! I may be living in GA, but I'm a Cards fan through and through.

Three cheers for the Cards in 2006...

And this is him cheering today!

Today, in 2011, the year my third boy was born, the Cards did it again! GOOOO CARDINALS! Here's Micah decked out in Matthew's jersey that has been hanging on the wall since 2006! We found Grandpa's old Cards hat and the boys had a great time cheering the Cards for another victory!

Christmas Crackle 2011

2011-10-22T13:36:00.002-04:00

I have my first batch of Christmas Crackle in the oven!!! Mark was asking for some "Christmas Candy" so I said, "SURE!" Mmmmmmmm.

For the recipe, go HERE!

What’s in a name?

2011-10-18T16:27:00.003-04:00

Lately, a certain member of my family has been extremely cranky. He’s been rude and loud and angry … a lot. Now, it could be that he’s two. And two year olds operate a little differently than other ages. But the meanness and the crankiness has got to stop. Two or ten, it isn’t allowed. I had something gnawing at me about his name lately… and I couldn’t remember for sure what Mark meant so I looked it up again. I was thinking it meant war-like or something which right now was all too fitting… As it turns out, in some places, Mark simply means “Warring.” Awesome huh? In some it only translates into things related to the planet Mars or the god of Mars such as “From Mars” or “Red like Mars” or “of the War-god from Mars.” The one I like the best says that his name means “Warring, polite and shinning.” That is the one I’m going to claim for him. I believe that he can and will be a warrior. But I also think he can be polite and shinning. The cranky crank monster has got to go. And I do know that he’s two. And usually, we are aware that the second half of the year is worse behavior wise, as they get closer and closer to the birthday… but buddy, I’m about to pull my hair out with the meanness. It’s got to stop. So, Mr. Warrior… I’d like you to be a kind brother please. ...I like the shinning part of the meaning. Shining. Ooo shining. It makes me smile to say it. I wonder what about Mark will be shining. His personality already is. I wonder what else. Hopefully his conscious, if we can get past the warring, will be. I need to teach my little buddy to be a polite shining warrior instead of a warring meany.

Do you ever think about what your child’s name means? Does it fit nicely like a glove? Or is it comical? (My dad’s name is comical… Paul means small) Is it true? Could it some day be true? Do you pray that they’ll grow into their names? Or have you ever given it any thought at all. This is just something that I’ve been thinking about lately. Back “in the day” there was a lot of thought given to names. In biblical times, the meaning of your name told your story. I’m thinking specifically of Naomi and Ruth here. Naomi means pleasant. She wanted to change her own name to Mara which means bitter be/c she was so bitter about her circumstances but only she referred to herself as Mara. God did not. He continued to call her Naomi. And Ruth… Ruth, her daughter-in-law, her friend, her only family… Ruth means “Companion, friendship.” Oh isn’t that neat?! Doesn’t it just give you chills to know that God, the Author and perfecter of our Faith knows our names. Even in the womb He knew us and called us by name? (Ps. 139) Doesn’t that just make you feel loved!?

Micah’s name means “who is like God.” This could mean many different things. There are many attributes to God and of God’s character. Henry means “Ruler of the Home.” I see this going many different ways as well. Already, he rules my home. My day is set about based on his nursing schedule. We’ve also given him the nickname of Bear and isn’t that the truth. He’s the loudest of the bunch and he’s still so small. Hopefully he’ll grow into a Teddy Bear and not be a Grizzly Bear.

Matthew means “God’s gift” and that he is. He is my sweet gift, my first born, my first son. Christopher means “Christ bearer” and how I will pray that this name will be truth. I pray that he will grow in the Lord and bear Christ. I pray that he will truly learn to love and know the Lord and know Christ as his personal Savior and proclaim the truth. What a powerful and wonderful name he has. I am so thankful for my gift from the Lord.

Mark’s first name I’ve discussed, but his middle name, Edward, means “wealthy guardian, protector.” Now isn’t that cool? My little warrior is also a protector to be. And hopefully a guardian over wealth. I can pray that he doesn’t become a squander-er but a guardian.

Besides your children’s names… do you ever think about your own name? I do. Especially my middle name. As it means bitter. And so often I am. I try not to be. But I hold grudges awful. And I’m bitter and broken about a lot in my life. I wonder how much is because of the name given to me? Perhaps learning this meaning can help me to remove some bitterness in my life, to free myself from it. I can hope so. I am praying about it. Katherine means pure. I love this. I think it’s a very special and pretty meaning for my first name. It’s funny together “pure” and “bitter” but it’s who I am.

I really had some fun with this and continued to look up names of loved ones… Here’s a list I’ve compiled.

Nancy—gracious

Paul—small

Krystle—clear, brilliant glass

Marie—bitter sea

Brian—strong one

Jamie—supplanter

Thelma—ambitious

Ray—wise protector

Mildred—mild strength

Len—like a lion

Sandy—helper of humanity

Chuck—manly, farmer

Kimberly—ruler

Rick—powerful, rich

Deb—honey bee

Dan—God is my judge

Esther—star

Nicole—victory of the people

John—God is gracious, merciful

Jonathan—Gift of God

Allison—of Noble Birth

Anna—gracious

Lee—Sheltered from storm

I love how my mom’s name means gracious and how her middle name, Janette, means God is gracious. I wonder if my grandparents knew. I know I’m grateful for her. And she is such a gracious person. Doubly fitting.

I find my dad’s name comical.

I see my grandpa… both grandpas names as truth in their names.

I’ve really enjoyed this little quest I’ve been on for a couple days.

Signed…

Pure and Bitter

Mother to

God’s gift and

Warring, Polite, Shinning and

Who is like God.

Lilburn Daze 2011

2011-10-17T12:43:00.005-04:00

Something we've started as a tradition each year is to go to the Lilburn Daze Festival. It's like a huge outdoor craftfair/carnival thing. Matthew can't wait until he's old enough to do the bouncy/bungee jump ride, while I am secretly glad he's not old enough. There is a tractor/hay ride and petting zoo area and pony rides and Home Depot sets up shop and lets the kids big enough to wield a hammer build something... there is face painting and balloon making and crafts for sale and crafts to make. This year, the boys made a mask to wear, a decorated leaf to hang up and a cupcake to eat. They also enjoyed the petting zoo and the pony ride. Micah enjoyed a nice morning nap in the stroller. (It doesn't seem all that long ago when we were pushing Mark in the stroller...) I really enjoy this time of the year, to be outdoors but not be unbearably hot or cold. It's a fun season.

squash

2011-10-13T14:20:00.002-04:00

publix rocks

2011-10-11T10:40:00.003-04:00

Lately Publix has been doing awesome sales with their BOGO deals. I've come to the conclusion that I can not buy anything from publix unless it is on BOGO sale AND with a coupon. This week I got 5 ranch dressings, 6 boxes of oatmeal, 6 boxes of cereal, and one box of dishwasher tabs. I spent $30.45 and saved $45.42! CHA CHING! I love saving more than I spend. I also have a goal not to spend more than 30 each "deal" buying, so going 45 cents above that 30 works for me. Yay publix! Thank you for continuing to stock that stockpile!

Teeth

2011-10-11T10:08:00.006-04:00

Since Tooth Number Two is popping up, I thought I'd mention that Tooth Number One was sighted last week! My small fry turned 7 months yesterday. How fast the time does fly. It just keeps zooming right along. I love my little Micah Bear. He's so sweet and happy. He's such a good baby. He's becoming more and more mobile by the minute... we have to pull him off the fireplace a lot and he tries to eat the handles on the side table. You can't leave shoes in the living room, as he'll find the laces and eat those. The big boys can't set a cup down on the floor as he'll bee line toward it in hopes of finding something in them. We started jar food... I'm trying my best to delay the baby stuff, but he's doing his best to plow right through the mile markers and find he can break new ones. He's such a joy. We truly are so blessed.

belated birthday

2011-10-06T20:59:00.002-04:00

While my dad was here, we had a little belated birthday party. Dear friends, Deb and Dan, had come over to celebrate. We had a nice meal as a family... I heard a story told about my grandparents I'd never heard before, which was fun. We shared stories and laughed for a while. Then we had some ice cream and opened gifts from Ms. Deb and Mr. Dan. This was a very sweet time. They'd purchased Matthew a train gift and hadn't had a chance to give him it yet so we had a little fun time. Grandpa was able to get it set up and Ms. Deb actually got down and chugged with Matthew. He loved it. He walked around holding his new James for a couple days afterwards. Mark really enjoyed his little computer game too. It's so fun to have sweet friends to share in some special times with us.

publix finds

2011-10-05T12:38:00.002-04:00

This past week at publix was a pretty good deals. I got some frozen veggies (9 boxes) and salsa (4 jars) and ragu sauce (6 jars) and a couple other decent finds today. I have been very pleased with publix ads lately. I hope they keep it up. I spent $38 today on all deals and saved $42! Yay. I love when I save more than I spend! I didn't think to set it up and take a picture until after I had it put away, but that's alright. I'll try to remember next week-- which is also looking to be a great sale. Thank you publix!

Grandpa's visit

2011-10-02T20:23:00.005-04:00

My dad had a couple extra days to take off from work, so we enjoyed a visit from him this past week. I thought it would be hard without my Mom with him... and it was different but, I will say, we had a blast. We played like 22 games of our favorite Train game "Ticket to Ride." Dad and I played in and around the kids napping/school schedules. Micah was a pretty good exersaucer camper while we played some of the time. We watched silly tv and movies. We talked. We played with the boys. It was nice just spending this sweet time with him. And I will say, though he may be embarrassed, it was really the most wonderful time I've ever spent with my dad. I've never spent such a just sweet and fun time with him. The Lord is truly blessing us and I'm ever so grateful. Here's just a few pictures that I took of him being Grandpa.

Walking back from the bus stop with Matthew

Letting Micah find his whiskers

Reading books every night

Playing "Simon Says"

Playing "Uno!"

Thank you Dad for being so wonderful with these boys.
They love you. Matthew's already counting down the days until Thanksgiving.

Seven Years

2011-10-02T07:01:00.002-04:00

Wow. Seven years. It doesn't feel like it's been that long already. And in some cases, it feels like it might as well be ten... with all we've gone through, all that's happened. Seven years ago today, I met the man of my dreams at the alter and through happy tears of love and joy promised to love him forever.

Thank you Lord Jesus for allowing me to have the kind of husband that Jamie is. Thank you for bringing such a man of character to my life. Thank you for letting him love and cherish me. Thank you Lord, for allowing us to have children and grow a family. Help me to be the kind of wife he needs day in and day out. Help me to be like it says in Ps. 128:3 where the wife is a fruitful vine in the home. Let me be a fruitful vine. Bless us today, Dear Lord and grant us many more years together. Thank you for his love. Thank you even more, for your love. Thank you for the cross. Thank you for your Son. Amen.

it's a tooth!

2011-09-26T17:06:00.002-04:00

Micah wont be the toothless gummy grin face anymore, today I felt a tooth popping through! Pictures to follow, of course.

Papa's visit

2011-09-23T12:41:00.005-04:00

Jamie's dad, Papa, was able to visit with us for a couple days while he had some meetings in the area. This worked out wonderfully, since Jamie has been in San Fran this week for work. Papa got to meet Matthew's bus one day and take him to school this morning. They all enjoyed Hide and Seek together and much more!

We love you Papa!

Messy Micah

2011-09-22T18:31:00.001-04:00

All betters

look who's STANDING!?

2011-09-21T08:42:00.004-04:00

HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE!?! Saturday he mastered sitting upright without leaning like a tripod or flopping over. Then Sunday, he started over to Jamie, hop-crawling to the couch, and then pulled up like he was a 10 month old. And he hasn't been sitting since. He goes back and forth from my chair to the couch to pull up, stand and laugh at himself. It's the most funny thing he's done so far. Pull up, stand there and chuckle. HA! Look what I did Mom! Ha. He's not so good about getting out of the standing though. He's not coordinated at all yet and doesn't understand gravity but he's standing. In a month when I write that my seven month old is walking, shoot me.

Mark saw me taking that picture and wanted to be in one, and it couldn't have been a cuter, sweeter pic if I posed it. Then he pulled up a book and was showing Micah the pictures in the book. Oh the sweetness. I love happy filled darling moments like this to make the mornings worth it all.

free pineapple bites

2011-09-18T21:23:00.003-04:00

This week there was supposed to be free pineapple bites from Walmart. I had saved my Walmart and CVS trips for Saturday so I could do them kidless. Shopping with coupons is so much faster kidless. However, Friday morning found Mark snotty and by Friday night I had a headache and sinus pressure of my own. Saturday morning, wearing my Christmas pj's and my fuzzy purple robe, in between sneezes, Jamie and I had this conversation:

Me: But it's (aaaachhhoo) sup pode to be free. I had (snnniffle) free pine abbles to get today. (Aaachhoo).
Jamie: You don't even eat pineapples.
Me: But they were apode to be (snifffff) free.
Him: I don't care about free pineapples.
Me: So you wont (cough, hack) go (sniff) get them? Mark lides them.(sniff)

As you can imagine, this conversation ended with me going back to bed and no free pineapple bites in this house. Maybe next time.

Any good or great deals you've had to leave at the stores recently?

My crazies

2011-09-13T12:05:00.003-04:00

6 Months

2011-09-12T12:51:00.002-04:00

How is my baby six months old?

This will probably be the thought process at each new month marker. HOW is it that already? It goes so fast. Micah is starting to crawl. He's very much like a hoppin toad though, trying to lunge out not really crawling just yet, but he is moving now. And woe to the brother who leaves a cup on the floor, he spots it and starts at it, snake style, slithering fast! It's funny. He also started sitting upright at a kind of leaning position on Friday. So far no teeth yet, but I'm sure they are coming. Everything goes in his mouth, but not quite thinking he's "teething" yet. He's such a joy. I love this little bear so much.

Thank you God for this sweet baby to love and have and hold. It is really hard to believe that half a year has already passed. And equally hard to remember life without this blessing in the house.

Are you ready for some Football?

2011-09-11T20:29:00.002-04:00

It's Football season in this house....

Micah got to watch his first GT game.

Thankfully, they won!

coupon ramblings

2011-09-08T17:03:00.003-04:00

Some people have asked me recently (different people at different places) if I'd do a class or something about couponing. I've held one "mini workshop" before and shared with some friends what I'd been doing/learning. I liked this. It was neat. I'm no expert and I don't have wall to wall storage but I do enjoy the couponing game for sure.

If you're starting out, I'd really suggest deciding first what method is best for you. There is a binder method which is pretty popular, where you cut out all the coupons in the inserts or a folder method (which is what I do), where you keep the inserts whole.

Then the next obvious step is to start collecting coupons. We get two double papers most weeks. That's four papers on Sundays only. Then I purge out the inserts (Red Plum, Smart Source, Procter and Gamble) and put the inserts into folders labeled with that week's date. There are other places to get coupons: friends' papers, recycling, the internet... Please Note: Dumpster Diving is ILLEGAL in GA and several other states.

But then after that, find yourself a good site to get the deals and sales on (I live and breathe by Southernsavers.com) and use the information that's out there. There are so many blogs and sites it's just crazy, but sift through and find what works for you!

Also don't think you need to go out tomorrow, armed with 200 coupons and try to buy your whole shopping list at one time. Creating a stockpile is a slow process. And let me tell you, it is even slower if you're operating your coupon game on a budget. You can't just go buy jelly be/c it's on sale. You need to buy jelly when you have a coupon and it's on sale and it's the rock bottom price you want to spend on it. Then get *cough* ten or however many you have coupons for. I'll be getting **cough** ten or so jellies tomorrow at Publix. Along with four pasta sauce jars, four deodorants, an unknown number of chefboyarde and four 4 packs of yogurt. Now, can I feed my family with jelly, pasta sauce, deoderant and yogurt? No probably not. But, when it's time to buy more of those items, I don't have to buy them... I simply go to the storage room and get one off the shelf. Last week I bought eight dressings, eight shampoos, and eight boxes of cheerios. The amount of items purchased are usually small. The amount of those items purchased are dependent solely on the amount of coupons I have available to me for those items. Sure, I still have to buy meat and milk and produce. But each week I aim to only buy those type items and then "deal" the rest. I don't want to spend full price money for anything I don't have to. .... ah, but I've rambled on. Sorry. I meant to stick to this theme and my thoughts got carried away... Keep it small. Don't try to get the whole sale ad with coupons just be/c things are on sale. Get what's on sale AND at it's lowest best rock bottom price when you pair a coupon or two with it whenever possible.

Another popular question is "How much time does all this take?" Well... usually it takes me about an hour or so per store I'm dealing with. By the time I go through the sale ad, select the deals I want to do, sort through my coupons/print online coupons, organize the coupons, do the math with the deals to make sure it IS the deal I want it to be and then get to the store, actually shop and all. I'd say an hour or so per store. Often I'll do a lot of leg work on Wed after the Publix ad is out for the next week so that I can go to the store Thurs or Fri armed and ready for savings! Then I'll also spend time working on Sunday for the regular ads at other stores so I can go on Mondays to what's good deals. I don't go to each store every week. And if you're just starting out, I'd recommend focusing on ONE store for a while until you have it down. If you overwhelm yourself with store hopping at the start, then you're going to become burnt out fast.

Anyhow, these are my thoughts, hope they help someone.
Feel free to comment, I'll try to answer any questions if there are any.

Fun Run

2011-09-08T16:53:00.004-04:00

Matthew participated in his first school fundraiser for the PTA last week. He raised $255.00 for his efforts. He walked/ran 29 of the 36 allowed laps for the walk. I was really impressed with him. He ran most of the time. Here are a couple shots of him from the event! And of course brothers were there to cheer him on too.

How He Loves Me

2011-08-30T14:18:00.005-04:00

Oh. How He Loves Me Oh.
Oh. How He Loves Me. Oh.
Oh. How He Loves Me. Oh.
He is Jealous for Me. Wind like a hurricane, I am the tree. ...

Have you heard this song?

go here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzfPHnoT0-0

I can't stop singing it in my head. Our church did it Sunday and I've of course heard it on the radio before but never has it touched me in such a way. OH. HOW HE LOVES ME OH! God is Jealous for you. Do you feel it? Do you see Him? Do you feel His love?

I am so thankful that I do.

The exersaucer and Mommy time

2011-08-29T15:46:00.003-04:00

Recently Micah has been trying out the exersaucer when he's awake and it's time for the family to eat lunch or dinner. He seems pretty okay in it. The first few times were short lived but he's getting better at staying long enough for us to eat without passing him back and forth. He's getting so big. I love him so much.

Also, just for fun... this was what our Friday night looked like. I'm usually the one snapping pictures but, since I had all three boys with me, I had Jamie take a few. Micah was sound asleep and Matthew and I were watching a show. Mark was uninterested in the show but couldn't be left out, so he crawled up with his letter cards.

I wanna sing!

2011-08-22T13:47:00.002-04:00

I wanna sing sing sing!
I wanna shout shout shout!
I wanna sing.
I wanna shout.
PRAISE THE LORD!

I love this little song that they do at our preschool. It stays in my head and it makes me happy. Today I'm extra happy. This is my favorite day of the whole year and today, this year, it's even more special. Today my heart is a little more happy. My step is lighter. My head is singing. Today I know that without a doubt, my daddy will go to Heaven some day. I know that I'll see him there in Glory because yesterday he obeyed Jesus and was baptized in believer's baptism by submersion.

I'm so thankful for this day.

God has answered my heart and heard so many prayers.

I'm happy today!
Oh yes I'm happy today!
In Jesus Christ, I'm happy today.
Because He's taken all my sins away!
And that's why I'm happy today!

I have been singing all day long. And what a beautiful reminder to myself. This is how it should be. I should be happy. I should be singing praises. I should be grateful and thankful and cheerful EVERY day. I should be praising the name of the Lord because He is worthy to be praised.

Help me Lord to remember to praise you daily. In the normal times, in the bad times, in the hard and bumpy times and of course the good ones. Thank you Father, for answering prayers. Thank you for your timing and your will being perfect. Thank you Lord, for today.

Visiting NM

2011-08-20T13:53:00.009-04:00

Last weekend, I visited Kris in her new home in NM. I will say "wow." All I did each day was stare at the clouds. It's so pretty there. The clouds are so full and so beautiful you could just almost touch them. Kris has a lovely home and I was happy to spend some time with her. Mom flew in too and we had a great girls weekend (plus Micah). We played games, ate, sat on the patio swing, threw Rocky the ball, and walked a lot. It was a nice relaxing weekend.

Micah got to meet Sweetie

Mom and Kris took turns having Micah.
It was pretty relaxing for me to be somewhat off duty.

We spent some time loving on Sweetie. It is so good to have Sweetie with Kris now after so long they'd been apart. Sweetie is her happy place. The world seems a bit better, brighter when Kris is by Sweetie's side. And I think that goes true for Sweetie. When Kris comes, it's like being home. It makes me so pleased to know that Sweetie is right where they both need her to be.

Yay for the timer on the camera to take all our pictures since
at both the restaurant Saturday and Church Sunday,
we forgot to have someone else take all three. ha.

Krystle's wedding pictures take two

2011-08-20T12:53:00.009-04:00

I know I already shared some wedding pictures but OH MERCY! while I was visiting Kris in NM last weekend (those pictures to come), I was able to preview the ones from the professional photographer's motherload from the wedding... and they are AWESOME. Here are some of the ones that shouldn't be left out!

The first day of Kindergarten!

2011-08-09T16:28:00.007-04:00

After breakfast, before school...

Dressed and ready to go!

Saying goodbye to Markie.
"See you at the bus stop!"

getting out of the car

And this is where I started crying...
He didn't even look back at me! Just off he went!

LATER THAT DAY!
AT THE BUS STOP...

Micah waited.

Mark waited.

And waited...

Daddy waited.

And Mommy waited...
We all waited for the bus to come!
And Matthew came running off it!

He had a great first day!

BACK AT HOME...

one of the last firsts

2011-08-05T08:48:00.006-04:00

I can hardly stand it... My sweet baby boy is about to be five months old next week. He'd been really eyeing the spoon usage lately as we all sit around him eating. I decided last night that we might as well start. So, Micah had his first rice cereal. It's really made me start thinking (again) about how this is the last (probably) of another first. Micah is really going to make me enjoy each and every one of his milestones because more than likely they will be the last "firsts" we see in this house. So I pulled out the camera last night to give to Jamie and he captured Micah's "first" with the spoon. And I got a little caught up in it being the last time I feed my children for the first time. ... that said... Micah really enjoyed it. He wanted to hold the spoon, so eventually I just gave up and gave it to him and got a new one to keep feeding him with. For our first try, we were pretty messy of course and had to go straight to the bath. It was fun. I love being a mom.

Just for fun...
This is the scene that was before me this morning.
I put Micah on the floor to change the pack and play sheets.
When I came back, Matthew was completely entertaining him.

and here's Mark, of course.

YAY for peanut butter!

2011-08-04T14:31:00.004-04:00

I love when Publix has awesome BOGO sales and I love it even more when there are rockin coupons to pair with the sales! This week at Publix Skippy Peanut Butter is on sale BOGO and with a the rockin $0.75/1 coupon in this past Sunday's paper, the final cost was $0.49 cents EACH! I bought four jars today, utilizing the four coupons I had. I have ordered ten more coupons from a clipping service for $1.99 total. (Hopefully they will come before the sale ends next week Wed so I can get ten more!) And, my mom and a friend from STL are sending me their lovely Skippy coupons, so that's another 5 more from them! I'm pumped. We go through the peanut butter in this house, that's for sure. All in all, I'm hoping to spend around $11.30 total for 19 jars of peanut butter! We'll see what happens next week when the coupons come in!

It's been a while since I've been active in the coupon using, deal scoring scene... and I can say that I'm HAPPY to be back in it!

Today at Kroger I also scored some pretty ding dong cheap Hamburger Helper--nine boxes to be exact and feel pretty stoked about replenishing my dwindled stockpile with some good go-to items.

You'll see more coupon posts coming week by week, because I'm back at it folks!

Pizza Pat

2011-08-03T16:21:00.006-04:00

So, to help Matthew try things without it being a battle each and every night, I have started something called "try it Tuesdays." We had our first one last week and he tried.... something I'm sure. But right now I can't remember what it was. Oops! Anyhow, for August I have a whole list typed up of the things we're going to make on "try it Tuesdays" for trying. This doesn't excuse the other six days of the week-- when there is something new on the table he still has to take a bite of that food. He's gotten so great with corn. He doesn't gag on his bite of rice anymore. Bites of spaghetti still have gagging and choking effects though and same with the mac-and-cheese noodles. Besides the trouble foods, he has done so well though. I mean truly truly so much better. I can't believe how far we've come putting our OT skills to work this year, not having therapy anymore. We no longer do a sticker chart but we still use the calendar. He's just been doing so great. I can't believe all the choices now as opposed to where we were a year ago, begging for OT to start and still eating bacon and bars at each meal. I'm so proud of him. We have come so far. One of the things he's gotten great at is pizza. We started with a small tiny one bite once a week. Built it to two bites. Built that more and more and more and.... and he's even eaten a whole piece now with hamburger on it! --not even just plain ol' cheese. SO...

Back to the title of the post, Pizza Pat. Have you ever read the book Pizza Pat? Well, it's a favorite here. I'm going by my sleep deprived memory with Mark talking in the background, so this might not be exact, but it goes something like this:

Here is Pat.
Here is the tray that Pat bought.
Here is the dough all stretchy and floppy that goes on the tray that Pat bought.
Here is the sauce all gooey and gloppy that goes on the dough... that goes on the tray...
Here is the cheese all stretchy and sloppy that goes on the sauce... that goes on the dough... that goes on the tray that Pat bought.
Here is the sausages spicy and choppy that goes on the cheese... that goes on the sauce....

...you get the idea.

Well. So. For "try it Tuesday" last night, we made our own Pizza Pat pizzas.
Here was the deal: You make it. You eat it.

First, we got all the ingredients we needed ready to go. Then we tried pepperoni. Which at first, was sad. Matthew took a tiny nibble off the edge and wanted nothing to do with it. However, in the end peer pressure won out and Mark was using it, so he wanted to. I made him take a good bite before he put it on the pizza... And, he found himself liking it.

Oh yah, this is how Micah spent the pizza decorating time...

Mark really liked this. He did a great job!
Matthew added cooked bacon to his.

And in age order left to right, here's our pizzas:
Mark's had a mountain of cheese on top of pepperoni and sauce with bacon on the top.
Matthew's had one with pepperoni on it and one without, little cheese and lots of bacon.
Mine is plain cheese. (surprise surprise) Though, to please the boys, I licked a pepperoni, I didn't want to bite it though.
Daddy's is double decked pepperoni.

Matthew eating his pizza (after it had cooked and cooled of course)Mark enjoying his.

Matthew really having fun eating it.

I was tickled that this was a success.

Micah woke up and moved to the table...

And enjoyed chewing on a spoon.

And that completes our first film captured "try it Tuesday"... honestly, I can't remember what the first one was last week, so I checked the calendar. It said "rice" ... oh yah. I remember that didn't go well... Mark did NOT approve of the new plan. LOL.

Hopefully I'll have more "try it Tuesday" success stories to share in the weeks to come.

changes

2011-08-03T09:06:00.002-04:00

My blog is currently undergoing some changes... please forgive for any confusions. Yesterday I tried out a red background but my daddy said he couldn't read the words. And my husband's response was "You shouldn't have red and black anyhow." Riiiiiight. I sometimes forget about the whole sports team thing. Oops. So today it's got a purple thing going on. However I don't love the book thing going on at the top, so don't be surprised if you see more changes sooner or later. I'd had the same background for so long now, I was feeling a little bored with it. Forgive me as I play with things.

Matthew’s birth story

2011-08-02T07:56:00.010-04:00

When I started this blog… I was attempting to survive the first of two of the darkest places I’ve ever been mentally and spiritually. In surviving the loss of a tiny baby, I began writing this blog as therapy… a place to vent, a place to talk, a place to distract myself… And as time continued it became so much more than that. This blog became a way to connect with family and friends far away. A place to share my life with anyone who wants to read it. A place to continue to vent and clear my head, but also a place to shout my joys and celebrate life! And when Mark and then Micah was born… I did that… on here. I celebrated their lives, and shared the story of their births on the blog.

I noticed last year in doing Matthew’s four year old party postings that I’d never typed up his birth story all in one spot. I’ve shared it in pieces to several, but I’ve never written it all down.

So, as my “newborn baby” is now FIVE YEARS OLD… I want to tell the story of his birth. It’s a shaky story. The details are very fuzzy (and not just for time’s removal of them, you’ll read) but it’s a good story. The story where I met the first of my three sons. …

< And, since the details are fuzzy, I asked Nic (my best friend/honorary sister) to fill in some of her own memories here, helping me to remember my own. So when you get to it, the bold is from Nic’s ~~pen,~~ er, keyboard. It’s taken a little while for her and I both to write this story, but I’m pleased to get it on here for him to have someday to read how he was ~~born~~ …saved…>

Matthew’s gender was a surprise.

This shocked most people (and the fact we did two more surprises [if you’ve been a follower for long know] shocked most people all the more). Everyone wanted to know what we were having, everyone wanted to know if I knew what we were having… but I’m getting ahead of myself. This may be the problem with writing it now.

I’ll try to start over.

People often cringe when I begin to tell my story of how Matthew was born. So brace yourself….

…I was nine months pregnant. Five days away from my due date, Thursday morning, June 22^nd 2006… and I fell in the shower trying to get my ~~large tree trunks~~ legs out of the bath. I of course screamed and Jamie came running in. I had managed to turn my body so that the tummy didn’t land on the tub, but my head smacked the wall and my leg was cut somehow smacking the faucet. Trying to remember right now I can see myself laying there thinking that I must have injured him. I remember sitting on the bed, trying to call the doctor. At that time, I’d just started my relationship with Kendra but she was already “my” midwife. I remember she wasn’t in. And I was to come in straight away and see Lisa, the other midwife at the practice.

I got to the doctor’s office within the next 40 minutes or so. Jamie went on to work expecting me to call him later/soon with an update.

Later/soon was less than 30 minutes later when I was driving the five minutes from the doctor’s office to the hospital, telling him that we were having a baby that day. My heart rate had elevated sky high (I can’t remember the numbers now) and they were sending me to be induced. Lisa would check on me after I’d gotten settled and start the process. Kendra would be with me in the morning. Okay. I can do this. Okay.

Ha.

Like five attempts at an IV and 1000 family history questions later and NO one on the whole freakin floor believing I didn’t know what I was having, I finally got underway. I recall one nurse coming in… OH! I think the u/s tech actually, I remember now, I was to have an u/s to make sure everything was good in there and it was. She asked “so what are you having” and me still in panic mode, not really realizing she meant girl or boy, I say “oh a baby!” She said, “yes, the baby, is it girl or boy?” I told her that I didn’t know and she asked a couple times. She was good though, and said “the baby” when referring to the ultrasound.

Going back to the story… Jamie had got some tape and we taped up my focus verses up across from the bed and then we waited for someone to do something. I remember we did cervidil at some point. Maybe around 7pm-ish. At some point in the night I had to be put on oxygen, Matthew wasn’t doing well. I really don’t remember much of this at all. But as the contractions grew, his tolerance lessened when finally with every contraction I had, his heart rate started dropping. I was told nothing. At some point in the morning… I’m going to say between 6 and 7:30 am, people started coming and going quickly in and out of the room. Somewhere between 7 and 7:30 I was given a shot to stop all contractions and was told I would be having surgery. I remember getting on the phone with my mom and before I could finish telling her I was going to surgery, I was being wheeled down the hallway. Everything happened so fast. And yet there were also moments that seemed to stand perfectly still.

I don’t remember times well because I was getting my details from afar and in the midst of trying to rush to pack, but I feel like they started the Cervadil later than 7? And was there Pitocin, too? Or maybe they just talked about that and didn’t get to it. (I don’t think we ever got to Pitocin, just talked about starting it in the am) I know that when I got on the plane, at like 4 or 5 am my time, I thought things were just slowly getting started and that I would make it there with no problem at all, but that’s about as detailed as my memory gets…

I remember lying on the bed inside the OR, screaming for Jamie for what felt like an hour but was really probably 15 minutes. No one explained that Jamie would have to wait outside until I was fully prepped for surgery and then he’d come in. I remember a friend of mine at the time worked in the ICU and she’d come up to check on me, to find me being prepped for surgery, got scrubbed up and came in the room with Kendra. I was a sandwich at one point, Kendra and Susan both pressed against me holding on to me. I remember Susan saying something to Kendra about sorry for being in her space, but she wasn’t leaving. God I miss her. and Kendra, thus began Kendra and my closeness. Kendra just stayed. She did what she does best, and she held my hand, and stayed. I’ve been through some crazy things and through it all, Kendra stays put, holding my hand, being an anchor for me.

And when we were all ready, the doctor let Jamie in (I’d learned later that Susan had left to get Jamie some scrubs and help him get suited up) and my darling baby made his arrival at 8:51am on Friday morning, June 23^rd 2006. God had given us a boy, Matthew Christopher Hobbs! Matthew weighed 6 pounds and 13 ounces. He was so tiny and so precious. Oh and had SO much hair. He had this precious front cowlick from day one. (and I still love it)

I don’t remember this, but people have told me that I made it clear that I wanted the doctor to tell Jamie what the baby was… and that I wanted JAMIE and Jamie only to tell me. And he did. Jamie was able to tell me that “Matthew was here.” I wish I could remember that, but I don’t. I have the memories of what Jamie and Nic have told me. (A theme I carried to each baby’s arrival—Daddy has been the one to tell me who was born each time).

And that brings me to Nic… who because of the previous day’s events, had booked the first flight out of KC for Friday morning to be to the hospital long before an induced baby should have made his or her arrival… however, she’d missed my dear boy’s first cry by moments. When she landed, we were out of surgery and when she called Jamie, she had to hear him tell her that I’d had a c-section and the baby was already there.

I don’t remember what time I landed, but I know he had been born within 20 minutes of it so you can calculate it there. (So around 8:30am) I remember basically running through the airport, trying to get to somewhere that my cell would have service, which was up the escalators and heading for the rental car desk. I didn’t go to the luggage area because I just had a carry on. While I was waiting in line to pick up my reserved car, I was able to reach Jamie’s cell. I asked “How’s she holding up” and he got quiet and I remember my heart rate sped up in a massive quantity. Just as I was to freak out he said “Well, things have changed while you were in the air. It’s ok now, don’t freak out, but things got scary and they had to do a c-section. The baby is here.” I remember that by the time he said “don’t freak out” I had tears running down my face and I was just looking around the airport feeling TOO FAR even though I was within 30 minutes of the hospital. I asked if the baby was ok and he said “Yes, he’s fine. We have a son, it’s Matthew Christopher.” I remember thinking that I needed to not sound upset because he was an excited new daddy and deserved to be congratulated… even though 90% of me was beside myself worrying about you and being in utter disbelief that I had tried SO hard and still missed it. So I congratulated him and said I’d be there as soon as I could. I got my rental car and sped through Atlanta trying to not get lost and to keep from crying. I succeeded at the first part…

I remember I was in recovery for what felt like years. Years. Lots of years. But besides that I don’t remember any of the next part. What I’ve been told is that I kept asking over and over for Nic. I was upset that I didn’t wait to have Matthew until after she’d arrived. Right now I can’t remember if this is actually my memory or someone else’s telling me, but I was screaming at the nurses for cutting my toes off. I remember they told me that I couldn’t see the baby, I couldn’t leave recovery until I’d been able to move my toes. Well. I couldn’t feel my toes, I couldn’t feel my legs. I was convinced that someone had cut off and removed my toes. I hadn’t seen my baby (that I remember) and I don’t remember seeing my husband or moving to that room, I hadn’t seen my best friend yet and seriously, SOMEONE HAD CUT OFF MY TOES!

When I arrived and got to the waiting room, I barely got seated before I saw Jamie. I went to hug him and see how you were and he said “She’s in and out of the anesthesia still.” I started to sit down with his family and he said “She wants you.” I kind of stutter stepped because I had just been told that no one could go in other than Jamie… but he just kind of gave me a look and turned around, so I followed him. When I walked in, you were sleeping but not peacefully, I remember you seemed agitated. Jamie headed back out with some comment about how he knew you’d be ok for a bit and I just held your hand. You turned your head to me, opened your eyes and burst into tears. You managed to gush out “They wouldn’t let me wait for you, I tried to make them wait for you” and then we were both crying. I managed to convince you that it was ok that he came before I got there and I didn’t leave your side until they were ready to wheel you out. I remember at one point wishing I had seen the baby [I saw a picture on someone’s phone or camera, but hadn’t seen him yet], but I decided that I didn’t need to see him in person before you did….

At some point though, I was released from the recovery and finally united with my new son.

And a stream of visitors.

And you’d think all was well. Whew. We survived an emergency c-section. Found out later that the cord had been wrapped around Matthew’s neck or shoulders. I forget…

I believe it was neck, that’s my recollection. Wrapped 2x, to be specific.

(Dear God, I don’t remember that! Really?! Then it was a miracle that we did the c-section emergency or not!)

God’s plans are ALWAYS better than our own. Even if we didn’t know we needed something to happen not the way we wanted… Having a c-section probably saved Matthew’s life. It was by the grace of God that I didn’t try to push him out. Yay for us!

However, in anyone else’s world that would be true. (the Yay for us! part)…

Instead in the next some number of hours, we’d found out that what they gave me for pain… I’m apparently allergic to. I remember being on the phone with my mom and all of the sudden, the room started spinning and I’d passed the phone. Bugs were climbing on me and were crawling all over the walls. I was so sick to my stomach, I thought I was dying. In a matter of moments I went from super tired but fine to freaky Friday’s horror show. I can hear my mom asking what they’d given me, telling Nic on the phone that Kris gets ill with Percocet.

Yes. You had passed the phone to me and then just kind of slumped over sideways and started slurring your words and feeling horrible. Your Mom was telling me that Kris was allergic to Percocet so Jamie found a nurse or called the nurse or something and I yelled at the nurse that there was a family history of Percocet allergies.

Low and behold, that’s what I was given. Only ill is a nice word, nothing that truly described what happened to me. So, here’s this new mom, with this tiny baby (who is where at this point? in daddy’s arms? in the bassinet?) (I’m pretty sure that Jamie or I had him until you slumped and then I think we must have put him in the bassinet… Unless Sandy was still in the room and she had him….) who is literally fallen in half with pain. The nurse walks in and says “she needs to get up and use the bathroom.” She needs to what?! I thought the nurse was loony tunes. No way I could get up. No way. But, for whatever reason it worked, and once I had been to the bathroom, (sorry, if that’s TMI, but then why are you reading a birth story?) the hallucinations stopped and my meds were switched. Crazy huh?

And, if that wasn’t enough, given all the stress and anxiety, my blood pressure still hadn’t calmed down so not only was I on normal pain meds for a major surgery, I was also now on a magnesium sulfate drip for the next three days due to the high blood pressure. Bleck.

Needless to say, we were in the hospital for 5 or 6 days.

In those days I ~~was molested by a lactation nurse~~, um learned how to breastfeed, and I am proud to say that at least we did something right. Matthew was a nursing champ!

It may have started roughly and went down hill but it ended beautifully, because when it was all over, I had the thing I wanted more than anything else, a sweet tiny baby in my arms.

And THEN we got to start our new happy life together.

And I’m so thankful for my tiny babe. I truly am. He has brought me such joy, such love. I never knew I could love something/someone so much before. There is nothing like the love of a mother and a newborn babe.

Thank you Lord, for my Matthew. Thank you for his safe arrival, bumps and all, he was perfect.

And now he’s five. How did this happen?

My tiny newborn babe is going to KINDERGARTEN in one week!

Thank you God for Matthew. My sweet boy. You are still Matthew. We haven’t ever shortened your name to Matt not for one moment of any times I’ve ever said your name are you Matt. You are my Matthew and what’s funny is that as people meet you they look at me and ask “Matthew?” Yup. Matthew. or at the doctor’s office or the dentist last week, it asks for a nickname. Nope just Matthew. I hope that as you enter school, you’ll keep your full name. I’m glad you are my Matthew. My tall man. My monkey boy. My first born son. Matthew.

Thank you Nic for helping me remember things I don’t remember.

a picnic with Jesus

2011-08-01T16:09:00.003-04:00

Saturday, Matthew was gone on an adventure with my dear friend Nancy. While he was gone, Mark decided to have a picnic in the living room. Jamie was on the couch and I was on the floor with Micah. Mark went after play dishes and play food and gave us all some. Even Micah had a plate of food. It was really sweet...

Then after sitting down and singing "The School One" blessing,
he said "OH! I forgot Matthew.
So he went to fix Matthew a plate for when he got back home.
Then sitting down again, Mark said, "OH! I forgot Jesus."
and he scampered off to get Jesus a plate.
He came back and sat down and looked at me... "Jesus come my picnic?"
I answered "yes. Jesus can come to your picnic if you want."
He looked relieved. "Oh okay," he said.
We took that window he created to talk about how Jesus is always with him and He can come to his picnic any time or his room or his school, that Jesus will go wherever Mark goes as long as Mark wants him to, He will be there.
After chatting about it for a few minutes, I said, "Mark, where does Jesus live?"
He looked at me proudly and patted his tummy. "Me heart!"

...

that boy sure does make me smile!

who knew

2011-07-30T22:59:00.003-04:00

School shopping is not for the faint of heart, that's for sure.

After grabbing the couple items at Kroger and Publix on sale cheaper than Walmart's ad, I made my way to the mega store this morning with my list in hand. I will say it was pretty cool to have gotten the list last week and first, walked outside (I can't seem to figure out how to spell the past tense of the word mosey) to the storage and began a decent size pile from what was already in the stockpile. Ziplock bags I remember being BOGO at Publix a while back were added to this pile. What's a box of tissue or two from the leaning tower of Kleenex? This was a very cool feeling. About a third of the list I already had at home! Next year my goal will be to have half if not most of the school items waiting for school to start. Anyhow, I derailed. So... making my way up and down the "back to school" aisles at Walmart with all the other crazy moms there, I've got some general observations from today's experiences.

I'm sure glad I did not have my kids with me. I will continue to do "school shopping" WITHOUT my kids with me in the future whatever it takes. Wow. It's hard enough to manage the shopping cart without running into anyone else or being blocked by someone else or blocking in someone yourself when you're solo. Can you imagine three kids tramping along (not that Micah tramps yet).... aye. The moms there today that I saw had ten year old kid A saying "I want this folder, can I have this folder, I need this folder" and five year old kid B saying "Let me pick my own crayons, Mommmmmy I have to have my own box" and 7 year old kid C saying "I don't like that notebook. I don't like any of these notebooks." I'm so not kidding. The lady today that made me laugh and actually I really had to stop myself from laughing out loud was with 5 year old kid D saying "I don't need glue. We not gonna glue Mommy. You don't like glue. Why you put glue in there? I not gonna glue. I get sticky. Mommy why we buyin glue?" Can't you just see that unfolding before your eyes? And just think, if I had my kids with me, you know I'd have been one of those ladies. I will admit, I did call Jamie and ask to talk to Matthew (which I'm sure he thought was silly) and asked Matthew which lunch box he'd rather because I couldn't find either of his favorites and had to substitute in second and third runner ups. And I will also say that I was super grateful for the Experienced Mom in the store. When I was down to literally my (second to) LAST item and I couldn't find it, after walking up and down three times each aisle deciding it HAD to be SOMEWHERE... I started asking "Excuse me, sorry, this is my first time shopping for school supplies, do you know where to find X notebook?" I got two blank stares and then the Experienced Mom stepped up. "What kind of notebook?" she asked me. "Um, this Mead Primary Journal, I think it's like a composition book, but I don't know where to find it" she goes "Oh, it's one aisle over, on the left." I stared at her. "Really?" She said "Yup, I'll show you. I have three kids, the youngest is six." I said, "I have three kids, the oldest is five." She smiled so nicely at me as if to say 'you crazy fool, ha ha ha, I'm done with that.' No, in all honesty, I was glad for her help. She knew right where it was and she wasn't snarky about helping which is really nice in a world where like no one wants to help anyone ever.

I did have to go to Hobby Lobby for the last item on the list but that's okay, I knew I was going to go there, they have the cheapest plain white t-shirts I've seen so I hauled myself over there after the walmart craziness was over.

But! At least I'm done with that!
Matthew has a rockin' new backpack and (non-matching) lunch box.
Both Matthew and Mark have new "rest" towels.
All three boys acquired new clothes today. I couldn't help myself ... there was a onesie that said "stud" and had the picture of a muffin on it. So yah, Micah's got that waiting on him for the right size. $3 dollar clearance item!
I have crayons and colored pencils and markers and erasers and gluesticks and folders coming out my ears! BUT... I do not have to suffer the masses with the children in tow! And for that I'm thankful.

we survived...

2011-07-28T14:41:00.003-04:00

.... The DENTIST!

I was not a very eager parent to take my toddler or even preschooler to the dentist. (tisk tisk, I know). But, in order to get into public school, Matthew had to go. We talked about how the dentist was going to count his teeth and tell me how many he had. I was told sometimes on the first visit, the child can be anxious, so he was welcome to sit in my lap if he or I wanted... HA. Not this big boy. First, he was told to pick out a color of HAND PAINT. And he got to put his hand print on the wall. Pretty cool if you ask this five year old. Then after washing that off, a nice crazy lady came up to him and said she was the fairy princess here to clean his teeth. He laughed at her. She introduced him to "Tickles the Tooth cleaner" and "Mr. Thirsty the spit slurper". He cracked up. He sat proudly in the chair by himself and wore his cool sunglasses just like he'd done it 100 times before. He held my hand the whole time but I was so shocked. Thank you so much to my friend T for giving me this recommendation. I was floored with this practice. And we got to check off another first on Matthew's list. I can not believe that Kindergarten registration is next week. ACK! .... Maybe I'll be brave enough to take Mark to the dentist before the week before he's in kindergarten now that I know it's not that scary.

Charleston trip

2011-07-26T16:21:00.007-04:00

We had a great time this weekend with Papa, Grandma and Kiki...

at the beach

at the house

at a fun park

what a fun way to end summer! Matthew starts Kindergarten in less than two weeks and he had a blast!

bath times three

2011-07-21T09:39:00.001-04:00

How many little muffins can we fit in the tub?

as promised...

2011-07-20T21:07:00.002-04:00

...us, as cows