Take Time to Smell the Roses Tulips

We took a few minutes on Sunday morning to stop and smell some of our yummy tulips. We didn't plant these bulbs. The woman who lived here for years planted them. When the house was sold, there granddaughters (who happened to be our neighbors), asked if it would be alright if they dug the bulbs up.
They did dig the bulbs up, but a few were left behind. They are the most beautiful tulips. I'm always glad to see them breaking through the weed block and river rock every spring. I'm always sad to see the petals fall off...
It was nice for the boys to take a quick break, from the swine flu, money woes, behavioral issues and other such concerns...well, it was nice for mommy to take a break from those things and snap a few pics of the boys enjoying the flowers.

Baseball Shoot...

friend and I have recently decided on a "bartering" situation. I take pictures for her and she does embroidery for me. We both loving doing our respected skills and it gives us a chance to practice. It's a good arrangement. She asked me to come and take some shots at a baseball game. Her two sons play for the team and her husband helps coach. She is hoping to make a photo scrapbook for the kids. I had a great time doing the shoot! I know little to nothing about baseball, so it was a learning experience for me too! I took a total of 951 shots...it was an editing nightmare! Here are just a few random shots:

Blessed

Could I ask for any more! I am so blessed...look at these wonderful, sweet, and handsome faces!

Lessons

I cleaned my sister and brother in laws house for them the other day. They were on vacation in Florida and my sister asked if I would clean for her while she was gone. I agreed. And she of course agreed to provide me with compensation. Yes, folks, I love my sister...I love all of my siblings dearly, but, I also am not crazy enough to clean any of their houses for free. I will help them clean, but I won't clean them on my own while they are basking in the Florida sunshine.

While there cleaning, I was reminded of a few things:

I am thankful for my small house. Although, I often wish for a larger home, especially when I entertain, I was reminded that large homes take a long time to be cleaned.

Their house is significantly larger than mine...a bit more than double, if not triple the size. It's a gorgeous home that my brother in law completely renovated on his own.

The house took me 10 hours to clean folks. TEN HOURS...and I didn't clean nearly as well as I would have liked. Granted, she has five small children and works midnights as a nurse, but TEN hours.

I will be grateful for my 1100 square foot home that can be cleaned in no more than 4 hours top to bottom!

I had several reminders of why I am thankful to only have boys.

The first one being two words: POLLY POCKET
Have you seen Polly folks? She's a tiny little thing. She has lots of teeny tiny little accessories too. Teeny meeny little shoes, small little brushes, little handbags...it's all quite ridiculous. A few of those tiny little accessories, accidentally fell in the trash - per my sister's request.

The second one: NAIL POLISH
WOW! I have never seen so may nail polish spills in all my days. Blankets, their desk top, their table top in their room, a few stuffed animals and even several places on the dining room floor where a bottle fell and broke. I'm not sure how my parents survived with 4 daughters...maybe that 1 son gave them a small break from nail polish...although I think he went through a stage where he painted his nails black, but I digress.

The third: SHOES
Don't get me wrong...my children have plenty of shoes. More than most children need. Girls though, have LOTS of shoes. More than I could count. They had pink shoes, black shoes, shoes with sparkles, shoes with buttons, shoes with bows and shoes with straps...the list could go on forever.

I also learned the following:

If you wash two reg rugs that have NEVER been washed before, do not put them in the machine with ANY rug that might possibly have a light color in it. I already knew this, but seemed to have reached a mental block when it came to that moment.

Sometimes, if you take apart a ceiling fan to change light bulbs, you MAY not be able to get it put back together...your husband may not be able to either.

You can't vacuum blindly under furniture. If you do, you may suck things into the vacuum that you didn't intend to, like socks, plastic barrettes, puzzle pieces and toys.

These are just a few of the lessons I learned on Friday.

Maria Maria...

I did an impromptu photo shoot with sweet Maria today. I think for a five minute shoot I was able to get some great shots!

That Only Happens of TV...right?!?

I had a moment that I thought only really happened on television....

I had put the boys to bed..whoever had the great idea to put all three boys in one room was crazy. They were not cooperating and Matt was at church so I was on my own. I had also been cleaning all day and was finishing up some stuff in the kitchen.

The boys had been warned, discipline, warned and warned again. I told S, if he yelled at me again, he was going to be in trouble.

I came in the kitchen and, you guessed it, he yelled again. I walked in the room and ten minutes later, walked back out. This event in and of itself was stressful enough. If you follow my blog, you know we have been dealing with some "issues" with S lately, and they have been especially challenging for us.

I walked back out of the room and started to go to the bathroom (sorry if this is too much information, I'm just laying the background...). I heard a noise that triggered a "memory" for me. I had left the water running in the sink. Yes, 10 minutes of HOT water running...and on Earth Day no less!

Running water, in and of itself, is a waste of money and resources. That fact was frustrating. The REALLY frustrating fact, was that I had, PLUGGED THE SINK! Yes, I had left the water running for roughly 10 minutes with the sink plugged.

I have always admired water features, but wasn't looking to install one in my kitchen. I walked into the room and watched my new water fall and did the first thing that came to mind...scream.

I then waded through my new indoor swimming pool and immediately shut the water off. I then quickly emptied off my counter of EVERYTHING and then just stood there for a minute. The water in the sink was terribly hot, but I had to "suck it up" and unplug the sink...talk about a real waste of water.

It took a plethora of towels and several rounds with the mop to get the water up. I then turned on the ceiling fan and ran another fan, pointed at the floor (which just happens to be wood laminate and doesn't appreciate when water seeps underneath).

I then went back into the boys room to deal with another fussing child...and made sure that the water was turned off. Once they were settled, I went back to re asses the damage and realized that the cabinets and drawers were soaked too.

After the initial frustration, I laughed and told Matt that at least the cabinet faces and floors were clean now! He laughed too and then I loaded up for the grocery store.

I came home from the store and my husband greeted me with this phrase: "I think you neglected to check for water somewhere". I thought to myself and couldn't think of anywhere that it could possibly have gotten....I was wrong.

Our silverware/junk drawer had made quite the swimming pool. He said water was sloshing back and forth in the drawer. He emptied it out and then used three dish towels to get all the water out. I came home to a counter top full of silverware and "stuff".

As I was putting groceries away I happened to notice a wet can in the cupboard below the drawer, and then a wet box of pancake mix, and then a wet package of muffin mix, and the list goes on.

Needless to say if was an interesting night. My floor, cabinets and drawers are quite clean now! I really don't know anyone else who has ever done this...I win the stupid prize for the day!

Say What

S - While having a conversation with him about behavior and how we make right choices, just because it's the right thing to do, his reply was: "Why do you always have to go and pull that one out on me?"...What?!?

O - recently asked and tried to "pull" the "Hoccer balls" out from under my shirt, while we were at one of his practices. I quickly and quietly informed him that those TWO things were not in fact "Hoccer Balls", but were attatched to mommy and that lifting mommy's shirt up is never ok - thankfully, I always wear at least two shirts! Remember folks...he just turned 3.

On Sunday, I was quizzing O on his colors, while showing one of our friends how great he was doing with identifying them...I asked him a few colors that he correctly identified. I asked him one more color, he turned to look at me, and with a most serious look said,"Stop it please mom". Another words...quit trying to show me off, I'm not a trained monkey!

M - to post a blog about the things this child says would take days...months possibly. He is CONSTANTLY talking. Jabbering non stop about something. His imagination is quite vivid and he's never at a loss for words!

Today was one of those days. It started out difficult. Running late, rushing around and racing to meetings.

Life has been a little less than easy lately. Nothing huge or difficult, just hard. Lots of things going on, things changing, appointments, meetings...you name it. I try not to complain too often about life. I constantly remind myself that, it can always get worse. The Lord has blessed our lives richly and I am grateful. Please remember that as I whine and complain...I do so with those thoughts in mind.

Today, while at a work meeting (at McDonalds), I was sitting at the table with the boys. It was a newly remodeled McDonalds that had waist high bar stools. I was talking with some of the folks at work and not paying close enough attention I guess...poor O...feel backwards off the stool and cracked his head on the ceramic tile floor.

It was one of those moments in life, where it's like a movie in slow motion. You want to stop what is happening, but you can't. It just happens....

The noise silenced the dining area. People stopped eating and took a moment to look at the boy and the mom who let him fall off the chair. I immediately scooped my crying boy up. I checked him over and tried to stay calm. He had a bump already forming on the back of his large sweet head.

We finished the meeting. I had a knot in my stomach the whole time...trying not to worry and assure myself he was fine. I'm a natural born worry wort, which made this a tough situation.

We headed home and he fell asleep in the van. The doctors office, yes, I called, said it was ok for him to go to sleep as long as I could wake him up easily. We had to go for blood work so we stopped at the blood lab, had his blood work done -which by the way, he handled like a CHAMP! After his blood test, I decided (after calling a dozen people to help me decide what to do), to drive around the building to the ER in the building.

It's a relatively new ER, and it's hardly ever busy, so I decided we'd stop in and just have O checked out. Sheesh...they made me feel a bit like a tartlette to say the least and did very little to help me feel better about the situation. They assured me that he indeed was fine and that no CT scan was needed. They also informed me that all the media hype was nothing to worry about. They then told me that IF something serious were to go wrong the next 6 to 7 hours would be when it would happen...I thought you said he was fine?!?

Thankfully, O seems fine. He's been asleep for several hours and I've been able to wake him with only a few hundred wiggles and shakes. His behavior hasn't changed at all and he's not thrown up at all. I guess that means he's good.

S continues to struggle with going to school, church, soccer practice...anything that is out of the norm and away from me. I feel a bit like I'm at my wits end. It's been difficult for both Matt and myself. It's a fight every morning for school...but thankfully, thus far, it's not gotten any worse. He has a doctors appointment tomorrow to rule out any physical problems and we will go from there.

His behavior has even changed quite dramatically lately. It's a struggle for us to identify what is a "show" and what is genuine. Poor behavior is never acceptable and we know that, but discipline in these situations has proven to be difficult.

I still wonder why children didn't come with a full manual. An individualized one at that!

New Venture

Well...I've decided something....I'm going to try something new.

I LOVE taking pictures. I enjoy it immensely. I love the challenge to capture something great on film. I especially enjoy capturing great memories on film.

I would like to begin taking pictures of friends, their children and their families and charge a small fee. $25 for children and $50 for families. I will edit the photos as needed and then give the family a CD of all of their pictures. I will give them all rights to the photographs and allow them to print whatever size and quantity that they desire.

If the location they wish to shoot at is a bit of a drive, I will figure in the mileage and add a small fee.

If you know anyone who is due for a photo shoot, let me know! I'd love to give it a shot...no pun intended!

Below are a few pictures I've taken recently...

Let's Go Fly a Kite...

Up to the highest height,
Let's go fly a kite and send it soaring....
Up to the atmosphere,
Up where the air is clear,
Oh let's gooooooo, fly a kite!

Which is exactly what we did this weekend. We had a gorgeous Saturday. Complete with light breezes, a temperature in the mid 70's and bright sunshine. We bought the boys each a kite, for a $1 each, I might add. They flew much better than Matt and I thought they would!
The kids had a great time and so did we! I think daddy and I had the most fun though!

O, had the unfortunate opportunity to have one of the kites crash land on him!

S was a kite flying pro! His kite stayed in the air the longest and was always the highest!






O spent the majority of the time chasing the ribbons around and getting caught in the string. We'd hand him the handle, once the kite was up in the air and he'd throw it...then he'd chase it around the yard until the kite would fall...it was cute!

Not Me

I know that MckMamma is on a hiatus from this blog carnival, as she continues to face the battle they are facing for their sweet little Stellan, but I have actually had several requests to post a not me Monday...so I'll have at it. I do have one request though...before you read this blog, please take a moment to pray for sweet Stellan, his parents and his siblings, as they all deal with the difficult situation they are up against. Pray for healing for Stellan and wisdom for the doctors. Pray for peace and strength for his parents and an extra dose of calm and understanding for the littlest ones.

I did not, pee in a McDonald's cup, in the back of my van, while my mom drove around looking for more yard sales. I never have to pee that badly and I can hold my urine.

I also did not dump that cup of urine on the street when we stopped. I did not make my middle son M, hold the cup of urine while I rushed to get my pants back up. That would not be disgusting and I don't do gross things.

We did not battle with our six year old this week. We have not had to drag, pull, carry and lie to him to get him to go to school, junior choir and Sunday service. We have not been battling this for 3 weeks now and I do not feel like I am at the end of my rope. I am always a pillar of patience (insert hysterical laughter here).

I definitely did not sleep on my shoulder wrong. In not doing so, I certainly did not do something that would have caused me pain for days on end. I am not old and our of shape and I am no sitting with the heating pad on my shoulder as I type this blog. I am, after all, too young for that.

I certainly did not buy an umbrella hat at a yard sale. I wouldn't waste money on that. I also didn't wear that hat to several yard sales after that...because I didn't buy it..remember.

I most definitely did not tell my child the following this week: "Shut up, shut up, please shut up, be quiet, M please just stop talking, no...shut up!". I never talk to my children like this and never let them push my buttons so much that I resort to saying something to them that I try to NEVER say.

I did not smile and chuckle with my six year old told me that his "pants bed" fell out. It took me several minutes to figure our what he was speaking of. I had to ask him...and he said, "you know, that thing my pants sleep in, it fell our of my dresser"...he was speaking of his drawer. I also did not, not correct him, because I found it so adorable.

An Early Morning Surprise

Today, Matt woke up before the kids, to get ready for a breakfast meeting with a friend. He opened the closet door and I heard, through my sleepy haze, him exclaim, "NICE". I asked him to tell me what and he insisted I get up and look. I fumbled around for my glasses, seeing as I am half blind, and when I walked to the window, this is what I saw:





The junior high group at church had an all nighter last night...bless those youth workers crazy little hearts, and this was one of the activities they did to kill time.
They have the privilege of being the first group to ever successfully toilet paper, or wrap, our house. We once had a thwarted attempt a few years back.
These pictures don't show the full affect of the job...they did a good job, considering we have close to an acre of land! They even tp'd a bike that was left in the yard.
Thanks, kids...remember, the old saying though about paybacks!