Readjustment

Mom and Dad left on Sunday and I've definitely felt it. Monday was a good day, but Tuesday and today have been B-A-D. Jaelyn had a small tantrum Tuesday morning and then at bedtime, Jaelyn had a huge explosion while Allie had an emotional meltdown. It didn't help that Jaelyn pushed Allie down in the middle of all of it. I was so thankful for my sweet Caden who climbed nicely into bed and layed quietly.

This morning started about 5 with Allie waking up. I caught her trying to wake Jaelyn up. I didn't catch Caden at 6:30 when he succeeded in waking her up. A large part of our problem is lack of sleep. I know it, but I feel powerless to fix it. Our morning was calm, but Jaelyn came home and immediately pitched a fit because Caden was throwing a tissue in the air and she wanted it. Totally irrational, stomping, screaming, you know the drill. While carrying her to her room, she kicked the wall and I think grabbed the rail...not totally sure, but the end result was me dropping her and falling backwards down a few stairs until I caught myself - and that was even before the tantrum really got going. It's dinnertime now and then baths and beds immediately. I'm tired and so are they.

The Joys of Being a Cat

Wouldn't you love to be able to relax and sleep like this even when a whirlwind of kids were going crazy around you!

I Have a New Skill

I know how to grout! It's that exciting?! Most of you are probably saying, "um, no." Our bathroom floor was in sad shape. The grout was flaking out in places. In other places the previous owners had unsuccessfully tried to fix the problem w/ gray grout (the grout's white) and white caulk. It was hideous and such a mess. I hated the floor. I started scraping the grout out in October, maybe. I've been working on it slowly since then (it's a huge bathroom). I finished it up last week just in time for my Dad's visit. I guess you could say I had a "Daddy Do list."

We regrouted the floor today and it looks phenomenal! At first, Dad did the work and I just watched, but after some prodding (since it's my floor), he let me do the work. We worked together on 3/4 of it, but I totally finished the last part. Next week, I'm regrouting the kids' bathroom! I'm addicted to pretty white grout lines. The rest of my house must have them!

Dad working - he was so not into me taking pictures.

The finished floor. Isn't it beautiful! We'll seal it tomorrow and it's all done. If I'd known it was going to be that easy, it would have been much higher on my to-do list...and on my list, not my daddy do list.

I'm Blessed

It's hard sometimes because it feels like this is going to go on forever. Daily living, surviving, is hard sometimes. I'm blessed though ~ truly blessed. I have family who love us. I have parents who are putting off a kitchen remodel so they can buy plane tickets to come visit us every few months until Dan comes home. I have friends literally all over the world who are praying for us. I have my friends here who are always ready for breakfast and chatting at Ikea or babysitting so I can have a break. I have friends who are so afraid they missed my birthday that they run out to buy me a cake and a card (still enjoying that :p). I have families in Caden's preschool who are asking to send him a care package even though they don't really know us. I'm blessed. We will get through this. We will survive.

Today I was blessed with a package in the mail from a dear friend I've never even met (in real life at least). We met on Hannah's Prayer years ago while we were both waiting to bring our children home (us from Russia, Jessie from Haiti). Even though we've never met in person, we've formed a bond and Jessie truly knows me. Want to see my package? Only a picture will do it justice.
A deployment's supply of chocolate! I'm in heaven!!!!!!

More Birthday Fun

My birthday is in March, but I have a dear friend who read my blog entry about my parents taking the kids shopping for my birthday. She thought she'd missed it so tonight, she brought me an ice cream cake and a belated card. I sooo needed the chocolate too after a yucky tantrum and I got a good laugh out of telling her she was early, not late! Thank you!

I'm Cold

Last night went really well. The kids went to sleep just like they are supposed to. I've figured out the trick, for now, I'll share another day. Alyssa came at 8:30 and we were in bed by 9:00. She doesn't like to sleep, but stayed very quiet in her bed till she finally dozed off after 11. I woke up about 6 freezing cold. Lyssa was the first kid up followed quickly by my 3, who were so excited to discover her. When we went downstairs, I went in search of the reason for the coldness...the heater is broken! Arggghh. I even had it serviced so this wouldn't happen. Instead of a fun outing to Ikea this morning, we are waiting at home for the heater man to come fix it. It's pajama day for the kids (plus sweatshirts of course). We have a portable heater in the living room along with an electric blanket to climb under on the couch.

Catching Up Before the Craziness

We've had a fun visit with my parents. I've even gotten to eat at Longhorn's two times (you know how I am about eating and vacations - well, technically, I guess I'm not on vacation, but let's not get technical). We've done a little shopping. I've even read 2 books.

Sunday, my parents took the girls shopping. Jaelyn has been asking me if Baba would take her shopping to buy me a birthday present (she has such sweet moments). They came home and made a huge deal about making me go to my room so I wouldn't see what they'd bought. They wrapped everything up and hid it. Next thing I knew, Allie snuck into my room and told me I could go hunt for my present to open. I kept asking her if she was sure I supposed to be opening my present already and she assured me it was okay. I opened her present (a Panera gift card - one of my favorite things) and was working on opening Caden's when Jaelyn came up and had a fit. Apparently, Allie wasn't quite correct. I was supposed to wait, but since I started...you know. Caden got me a strawberry pot so we can grow strawberries this summer. I can't wait. Jaelyn picked out a collage picture frame that is already hanging on my wall (minus pictures - next week's project).

My friend Kelley is being induced on Wednesday so her daughter will be with us starting tonight. Should be fun!

PS - Dan, in one of my shopping trips, I bought you (us) a 22" flat screen HDTV for our bedroom. The 19" just looked too tiny and I thought "what would Danny tell me to do?" Why, buy a bigger, more expensive TV, of course! :p So I did!

Here Comes the Bride

My parents were married on September 9, 1967.

After that, my mom packed up her wedding dress and didn't look at it again until we were planning my wedding. It was a size 0 or maybe a -2. My 108 lb body couldn't even fit into it. My arms literally could not go through the sleeves and I needed another 2-3 inches of material to zip it in the back. The dress was tiny. My mom worked hard to get it clean, but it tore in the process. It's been packed back away since them.

At Christmas, Allie saw a little girl's dress-up wedding dress at Cracker Barrel and asked my mom for it. My mom didn't buy it. Instead, she went home and altered her dress so Allie could wear it. Hemmed the dress and shortened the sleeves. Then took the appliques off the bottom and used them to patch the torn areas. Amazingly, it fits Allie exactly around the middle. It's beautiful and perfect for Allie. She is thrilled with her new dress. Now, all we need is a groom.

The Calm of Thursday Nights

Last time Dan was deployed, my parents would come to our house for what my mom called Bath, Bed and Beyond. I loved it. One night a week, it gave me the excuse to cook a "real" dinner, then I had help with baths and bedtime and usually ended up with my dishes or laundry done for me. Some weeks, it got me through the week! Today has felt like a bath, bed, and beyond day even though it's only 1:00. I took a shower without having to referee a fight in the middle. I've had moments where I sat on the couch with absolutely nothing to do. I feel calm and peaceful. My parents will be here for 9 days and I'm going to take advantage of every minute.

I was looking for another picture that I'll post in another entry, but while I was hunting, I came across this funny picture. We met my parents at Mammoth Caves in Kentucky when we lived in Ohio in about 1997.

Telling the Truth

I've been thinking about this post for a while. If you like happy, go-lucky roses and rainbows type posts, stop reading now.

I know I have many readers who love to have a peak into our lives, but I don't blog for you. I blog for me, Dan and the kids. It's my creative outlet to laugh, cry, scream or do whatever I need to do. I am saving my entries and publishing books for the kids so that they'll have a true picture of what their childhoods were like. I try to be as "real" as I can be for them. I'm sharing my blog with you because I'm looking for support, not advice.

So, I say all that to say...This deployment sucks. I've tried hard to come up with a different, more polite way to say it, but I can't seem to find an expression that fits better. This sucks just fits. This is by far the hardest thing we've ever had to do in our lives and I don't say that lightly. This is harder than moving over and over again (10 cities in 11 years), harder than the years of infertility, treatments and negative cycle after negative cycle, harder than going from no kids to a baby and toddler over-night, harder than moving said baby and toddler to a foreign country and adding a newborn when we had nobody to help, harder than an 18 months separation from Dan. Some days, I think it's harder than all those years combined. I don't have a clue how I'd make it through on my own. Thankfully God's getting use through and He's going to bring Dan home safely to us. I believe that. I just wish He'd pick up the pace!!!

PS - Reinforcements are coming TODAY so next week will probably be pretty good compared to all the other weeks without Danny!

A Crush at Dinner

I took the kids to Ruby Tuesdays for dinner last night (Joan :p). It's only the second time I've taken them to a sit down place by myself since Dan's been gone. Our waiter was in his early 20s and Allie decided he was "very handsome." Jaelyn, it turns out, is a blabbermouth because when he came back with our drink order, she said "my sister thinks you are handsome." He got a big kick out of that, laughing...and then I watched him tell the hostess and the bartender what Allie said. She was shy, hiding behind me, but not so shy that she didn't pop up to stare at him whenever he was away from the table. In the middle of dinner, Allie decided she wanted to marry Darrin (we had to learn his name). Jaelyn once again announced "my sister wants to marry you." It was so funny. I can hardly deal with 5 - I'm not looking forward to 15 and REAL boy crushes.

A Poem From Danny

This is too funny to not share. I think Dan needs a good food care package! :p

Off I go to eat my dinner
It'll probably be another "winner"
Rovioli no one eats
Spinached stewed with rotten beats.

Chicken with their feathers on
Potato eyes and celery fronds
Fried cheese sticks without the cheese
Dumplings boiled with banana leaves.

Raw spaghetti is the best,
I like its served with seaweed zest
I wash it down with super hot sauce.
I hope it stays down... and does not toss.

Who Knew All I Had To Do Was Sit on Her

Allie used to take medicine so well. I'm sure it was those 9 months on INH. At some point, she had to take really bad cough medicine and that did her in. After that, she started clamping her mouth shut, hiding and spitting it back out at me (which makes my mom laugh since apparently, I would blow it off the spoon as a child). It's taken some effort and bribing, but I can get the basic medicines in her (tylenol, benadryl, even that super sweet tasting bubble gum antibiotic). She has drawn the line at saline in her nose.

She had a sinus infection a few weeks ago and her cold returned last week followed by a really weird smell on Friday. She was so congested and stopped up so I decided the smell was from all the mucus trapped inside of her. Cold medicine wasn't working so I decided it was time for saline. Oh boy! Those first few times, I sat on her chest with her arms pinned down by my legs. I held her head with one hand and sprayed the saline with the other. NOT FUN! Who knew though, that it would only take a few times of that and Allie is now squirting the stuff up her nose as well as Caden does. She even giggles while she's doing it. We used the saline every few hours all weekend and things are loosening up. That funny smell is finally gone. I was going to take her back to the doctor today (and she was unhappy because it's her 100th day of school), but I'm going to give her a few more days to see if we can get her cleared up on our own.

The joys of crazy wintery weather - yesterday was high in the 60s, low in the 30s.

I Hate Weekends

Why is it that the kids sleep till 7:30 on week days, but wake at 6 on weekends? It makes me very tired. On top of that, Jaelyn is lacking sleep so she wakes up like a bear being woken from hibernation (NOT HAPPY)! Unfortunatley, Allie and Caden have been watching Jaelyn's antics and are starting to copy some of her behaviors. I have had non-stop tantrums today. Jaelyn has lost a pile full of toys and her beloved cocoa puffs until Wednesday, Allie has spent time on her bed in time-out and Caden has been in tears a small handful of times because he has decided it's more fun to copy the girls and play than to listen to mommy. It's like they've tagged teamed me all morning. When one gets it under control, the next one flips out. I know a few people suggested to me that my parents cancel their trip to help out because the adjustment after they leave is hard, but I am so thankful they are coming to visit again on Friday. I need all the help I can get!

School Updates

Monday will be the 100th day of school for the girls. Allie, especially, is very excited about it. She has to bring in 100 of something to share as a snack and is begging for mini-marshmallows. I have a whole bag and while I don't necessarily want her eating them all, it would be nice to get them out of my pantry. Jaelyn had to make something with 100 somethings on it. We bought a package of cute shimmery pom poms and hot glued them on a baseball cap. It turned out really well. She's worried about having to count them in front of the class and losing track (since they aren't in rows). I told her as long as she ends on 100, she'll be fine.

We learned some sad news about her teacher yesterday. Mrs. M has been out on maternity leave and was supposed to be back in March. She's decided to stay out the rest of the year. I'm thrilled that she'll be able to stay at home with her baby girl, but I'm sad for Jaelyn. She was doing really well with Mrs. M and not having any of her chatty, not focused moments like last year. Well, report cards came home yesterday and there was a note from Jaelyn's new teacher, Mrs. W (who's out for 2 weeks with an emergency surgery - so we have a sub for the sub) and her reading teacher that they are both having trouble with her being chatty, silly and not focused. She's still doing well though. Her reading is continuing to improved. They don't give the kids real grades (maybe that'll start in 2nd grade). Instead they give CE (consistently evident), D (developing), NE (not evident). Jaelyn's marks were split between CE and D. She's having the most trouble with telling time in math, but according to the teacher's notes, everyone is.

I was super impressed with Allie's report card. In language arts, she's split pretty evenly between CE and D, but in math, she has almost all CEs. I think the biggest thing for me to see were her marks in personal and social development. She got Ds for "managing change" and "shows increasing self-control." Everything else like "follows rules," "completes work independently" and "interacts positively with classmates" was CE. That's huge - especially when I think back to that first month of school.

Caden loves preschool. I was going to switch him to afternoons next year. It was totally selfish - I just can't seem to get things done (mainly grocery shopping) with our current schedule and next year will be 3 days instead of 2. I had to turn in his registration a few weeks ago and not a single one of his friends was switching so I caved to peer pressure and I'm letting him stay in the mornings. It'll make starting again next year with a new teacher easier if all of his current friends are there with him.

School Updates

Switcheroo

When we got the girls' bunk beds, we told them the directions said the oldest child had to sleep on the top. We knew Allie, being "the fearless one," would want to sleep on top and at that point she was barely 4. She accepted the rule without any problems. About a week ago, the girls decided to switch beds. So far so good. Allie has been very quiet and still on top and it's so much easier to get Jaelyn out to go potty at night now. I'm going to buy Jaelyn a pet net and a new shelf to hang so she can store all of her treasures.

Lost Another Tooth

This is old news that I've been forgetting to post. Jaelyn pulled out her second top lateral. I don't know what's come over her with the bravery. She's gone from not wanting to wiggle teeth (or let me touch them) to pulling them out all by herself. She pulled this one one evening while trying to go to sleep. Well, I guess she wasn't trying very hard. According to my tooth expert (aka Mom), this is the last baby tooth she'll lose for a while. That's good because Allie is itching to lose a tooth and get to use her ballerina bunny tooth box she got as a baby gift. The tooth fairy can't afford for everyone's teeth to fall out at once :p!

An Age Funny

I was just looking at the picture and descriptions of my family on the side bar of my blog. If I include the cats in my stair steps, right now, I have a 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 year old! LOL!

Broke 200...

...Finally. I don't really have anything to say about it, other than it happened. 2 months down, 7 to go!