Lost a Tooth!

Now, while a picture IS worth a thousand words, I feel that I need to describe my tough-as-nails little boy, determined to lose his first tooth. I have had a slight delay in posting the pictures, because he wanted the experience to be a surprise for Daddy, and the losing of the tooth occured last Thursday night. The tooth started becoming earlier in the week - we noticed the permanent tooth coming in the weekend prior. Yup. You read all of that correctly, as in weekend before last.

So, on to the story. On Wednesday night he asked for some string to tie around his tooth so that he could put the string on a doorknob and slam the door shut to try and get the tooth out. I said, "No." Instead, I suggested that he simply wiggle his tooth using his fingers. So he did.

On Thursday night he again asked for some string. So I relented and gave him special tooth string, AKA dental floss. He asked me to help him wrap it around the tooth so he could pull. I did. He kept pulling up, and the string kept sliding off of the tooth. I reminded him that if he continued to pull up, that the string was going to keep sliding off of the tooth. He had an epiphany, and asked me to put the string UNDER the sides of the tooth, so that he could pull down and pop the tooth out. I did, and he started pulling down in a very determined, controlled fashion.

Sure enough, he popped that tooth right outta' his mouth!

The look of amazement on his face, then horror as he realized he was bleeding was priceless. Had I actually thought he was going to go through with it I would have been capturing the experience on video, but I really thought the pain would be too much for him! Silly mom, he sure proved me wrong!

We cleaned up the gums, rinsed his mouth out repeatedly, cleaned the tooth, then discussed the tooth fairy. He let me know that the tooth fairy brought small toys in exchange for teeth. Who knew? I told him that I thought he had to stay in bed so that the tooth fairy could use her fairy vision to double check that the tooth under the pillow matched the hole in his mouth.

At any rate, Kellen has lost his first tooth, and he did it in a Herculean way! Way to go, Kellen!

Reminder

I don't know about you guys, but I considering that I've been out of commission for almost three weeks now, I certainly need a reminder that I cannot do it all. So, I went through my old posts and am linking this Pursuit of Perfection post as a reminder to myself. I haven't been able to do much lately because of the bronchitis and getting over that...and it's showing, but I have to recognize my limitations, and realize what is REALLY important in life. And it's certainly not whether or not my kids can eat directly off of the floor.

Great ending

I picked Tatum up from school on Friday and headed home. As I pulled into the driveway and hit the garage door opener, Kellen ran out to inform me that I had to stay in the car. After persuading he and Daddy to let Tatum and I come inside to put an end to her screaming to get OUT of the car, and after promising to stay away from whatever surprise they were working on, they acquiesced and let us come inside.

A few moments later, I was shown the surprise.....a print out of a picture Daddy had taken on his phone, indicating that...

Kellen was chosen as the Junior Klub Kid of the Week!!!!

So, we scrapped any ideas we had about making dinner (it was going to be a somewhat 'fend-for-yourself night anyway), and decided to use some coupons we had and treat Kellen to CiCi's as a reward - but as a surprise!

He was thrilled, and even moreso when he was able to 'pay' for the entire family himself!

I'm so over-the-moon proud of him!!!

The best cure for a rough morning

So how sweet is it that when I'm having a rough morning that included a variety of kiddo mishaps and poor choices (although all normal in nature, the combination of them all in one morning makes for one "rough" morning) that as I stop, put my head in my hands and take a deep breath, Kellen remarks, "Mommy, are you having a rough morning?"

To this inquiry I reply, "Yes, Kellen, I just need a minute."

His response, "Mommy, do you want me to pray for you?"

You can melt now. I sure did.

My response, "That would be wonderful Kellen. Why don't you say a prayer."

And he did. It went something along these lines...(and I'll have to paraphrase, but I'll get it pretty close), 'Lord, help Mommy to not have such a rough morning and help me and Tatum not to frustrate her. In Jesus name, Amen.'

And you know what, our morning went much smoother after that prayer was uttered.

Diagnosis: Bronchitis

Well, I'm on Day 8 on my illness, and "IT" was officially diagnosed as bronchitis yesterday morning by the doctor. He also commented that I'm 'very sick'. It was so nice of him to confirm that for me, and I'm truly not being sarcastic at all. You know it's bad when the doctor winces as he's palpating your glands. That's all I'm saying.

So, armed with a myriad of Rx, all of which were of the much stronger variety than the OTC things I had been taking, I went to Kroger to get them filled. It was there I was told that many of them required lots of fluids and water. People, do you not realize that the sole act of swallowing has actually been waking me up for the past week? As in, fall asleep...NOT swallowing for 30-45 minutes, swallow in my sleep, which then would actually wake me up from the act of sleeping. At that point, I would coat my throat with throat spray and repeat this process. It has NOT been a fun week.

And I'll also mention that I just love getting sick at the beginning of an insurance plan year...for those of you who have to meet a prescription plan deductible, you'll know what I'm talking about. I no longer have to worry about meeting mine for the year after this illness. It's just too bad that it's an individual and not a family deductible, you know what I'm saying?

At any rate, with a wide array of new and improved drugs coursing through my veins yesterday, I DID feel much better yesterday afternoon and evening. So much better, in fact, that I put in a few loads of laundry and had the energy burst to make dinner last night and actually ate with the kids! Yay for me, more than one meal in a day, which has been what I've managed to swallow this past week, if that. This morning; however, I woke to the realization that the evenings energy burst and feel-good sensation was, in fact, drug induced. The drugs had worn off throughout the night and this morning I opted to take it easy, continue to stay home and rest, let the drugs kick into my system a little longer, and try to recover today and through the weekend before heading back to work. Luckily, because I haven't run a fever through any of this, the doctor indicated that I haven't been contagious, so the two attempts I've made to go into the office haven't been detrimental to anyone's health.

I will say that the kids have been really sweet through this...Kellen has said quite a few prayers asking for Mommy to get better. Tatum has gotten the doctors kit out and used it on me and has given me lots of hugs and pats to try and make me feel better as well. And I have no idea how many cups of hot tea Matt made for me when he was home with me on Monday. They're just so precious!

Scheduled

Kellen is sufficiently scheduled for the semester.

He's participating in Awana's again through the church, and has been reading his Spark's book and listening to the CD every night. We had the family night Sunday before last and it officially starts up this coming week. He's SO EXCITED!! I'm just amazed at how well he can memorize scripture. It blows my mind and melts my heart.

He'll also be continuing with Tae Kwon Do once a week during Kids Club. He's already moved up two belts, and really enjoys that...it's a little later than it was in previous years, if I remember correctly, finishing up at 5:30 this year. I just have to be sure and not arrive earlier than 5:30 to pick him up on those days.

We'll do Flag Football again this season, and we requested a different night from Tae Kwon Do. We did the same last year, but apparently there weren't enough folks to run those nights, so we got bumped to different days last year. I'm hoping that doesn't happen again this year, because going from Tae Kwon Do to football made for one VERY tired Kellen. We should hear about that sometime next week, I believe...there is a coach's meeting next week.

He wanted to play soccer, but apparently the soccer league runs year-round here, so we'll look at getting him into soccer once football is over and before T-Ball begins. I asked him why he wanted to play soccer this year and he replied something to the effect of, 'I've never played it and I want to try it out.' I couldn't have asked for a better answer than that, now could I?

He's of the age for Cub Scouts now, and we went to the introductory meeting tonight. We're all signed up for that as well, but I'm not sure what the time commitment is on that one...Pack meetings once a month, and there is another meeting next week where they're going to split up the den's and go over that stuff.

Whew. Quite honestly, I'm tired just thinking about all of the stuff that he's into! But he's excited, and we talked about making sure that he got enough rest so that he would be able to make good choices at school and Kids Club and listen to his teachers and counselors, etc...

As for Tatum, we're also looking at Kindertots, a dance and gym program through her daycare. She's already taught herself a front somersault and dances to ANY music that she hears - either for real or in her own mind. I need to call and find out which day it is held, because I don't want it to interfere with her being able to visit Maw Maw and Paw Paw during the week for story time at the library. Considering that she sings when she runs out of things to actually say, it might not be a bad idea to consider some musical things as well, but let's start small, shall we?

A little slice of heaven...

In case you're wondering, a little slice of heaven today includes snuggles with my sweet little girl, who is celebrating her 2 1/2 year birthday today, as I was rocking her and putting her to sleep. It also includes listening to my 6 year old read to himself from down the hallway in the meantime.

It's a good way to make up for not being able to make it to Ladies Night Out tonight...God sure knew what I needed, huh?

The kids were well behaved, finally agreed on a movie, ate their dinner, and didn't even balk when I had them get ready and go to bed before the movie was over. Now I know Wall-E isn't the most interesting movie in the world, but they both enjoy it and neither wanted to be through watching it, so it means that they were really being behaved and obeying tonight. And after the week I've had, I really needed them to behave so I could have that little slice of heaven tonight.

Thank you, Lord.

Evolution

And we wonder why girls have image issues?

Check out these series of Dove videos online at the link below.

http://www.dove.us/?dl=/features/videos/default.aspx%7Ccp-documentid=7049579&source=shareBlogger

Week in review

Well, this was an incredibly busy week for us!

The week prior to classes beginning for TAMU is always hectic for me, and my Monday began with an all day New Graduate Student Orientation. Yes, the same day as Kellen's first day of school and Tatum's first day in her new daycare. The rest of the week seemed just as crazy, but it was pretty usual, so we'll just ignore it.

As for Kellen, he's LOVING first grade, enjoying his teacher, and having a good time of things so far. Kids Klub has been great, and he's even asked me why I have picked him up before it was over. Um, I thought getting me getting off of work on time to get you was a good thing?

And Tatum, she seems to be adjusting well except for a slight reverting with her potty issues. She started out the week with quite a few more accidents than normal, did progressively better until Thursday when she had ZERO accidents, then had lots of accidents on Friday. She'll get there! Socially, she's doing great...the teachers and other students with whom I see her interacting really seem to enjoy her, and she enjoys them, so I feel comfortable with the transition. I just have to get used to packing her lunch and preparing extra snacks in case they're serving something she can't eat. But from her end, she feels so independent carrying her backpack and lunchbag into that school! I can tell that it brings her such joy and that she feels like such a big girl with just that little bit of responsibility!

Training is still training, and the end of my borrow month is coming to a close. I have had the pleasure of borrowing a wonderful bike to train on for the month of August and I believe I am now spoiled to this bike. I am so grateful for the opportunity and generosity of the loan! We're really pushing ourselves, and it's nice to be working out with other ladies that will push....this has been a really good experience. We all have our "off" days, but luckily they're never on the same day so we all end up encouraging each other!

I pray that the kids have another wonderful week! We have a lot in store this week for various members of the fam...Texans game, Astros game, first Aggies game (anyone catching a theme here?), and Mommy also gets a Ladies night out this week!

1st Day of School

Well, I'm glad that the kids are excited about school.


Kellen, at 4:30 AM this morning, excitedly declared, "This is the BEST DAY EVER! The first day of first grade!"


(I told him it was NOT wake up time and to go back to bed. I know, I know. I'm a kill-joy. I figured Daddy would have not been happy if the two kids would have been awake as I was leaving for my workout.)


Not to be outdone in the quest for independence, Tatum simply blew me a kiss and nonchalantly said, "Bye, bye, Mommy!" when I dropped her off in her room at her new daycare. Amazingly enough, she remembered a girl, by name, from visiting the school last week (she was there for 2 hours on Thursday) and Tatum seemed quite a bit more at ease this morning than the girl she tried to befriend!


I guess it's a good thing that they can adjust easily to new surroundings, right? It just kinda takes me aback when I realize that Mommy and Daddy are doing a good job of teaching them to be independent. The other side to that coin is that they are independent - as in - they didn't really need us all that much today.


And THAT, my friends, means that my kiddos are actually growing up. When did THAT happen?


Here are some pictures of Kellen before leaving for school. Pay special attention to the apple. It was a must-have for the first day of school. Why, you ask? Because as everyone knows, you give apples to teachers. "That's what first graders do."

Officially on vacation....

Yes, you read that correctly. I have taken the week off. The WHOLE week.

Officially, my last day of work before the vacation was a long one...beginning at 6:45 AM and lasting until 6:30 PM...and I only ended the day because my co-worker stayed and helped me, despite me trying to make him leave. It would have been a much longer day without him. We began with graduation breakfast, then lining students up for graduation, then ran to get something to eat ('cause I had more attend the breakfast than had RSVP'ed, and the food was perfect for the students and their guests, it just didn't cover faculty/staff very well), then it was a mad scramble to finish everything on my list that needed to be done before I left and prepared for me for when I get back...back to a full-day new graduate orientation.

I'm so kind to myself, aren't I?

Anywhoo....I finished working, made it home, packed up, and headed back out....to a Ladies Slumber Party!!! The ladies from our Sunday School class have decided to really try and work on some fellowship opportunities lately, and this was just an "extra" thing that was scheduled. It was a lot of fun, and I am so glad to be getting to know so many more ladies around here!

Saturday was pretty relaxing...headed back home, hung out with the kids, tried to keep the laundry going and clean up the house, you know....normal Saturday activities. I think there might have even been a nap in there, too.

Sunday I had a nice combo bike/run workout (~6 miles bike/15 min run) with my ladies at 6AM, then after church and naps, we loaded up all of the swim accessories, headed to a friends house for a cook-out, set up the pool and slip n slide, and let the kids have at it while the adults chatted. After the kids were through playing, we then exposed them (and me!!) to their Wii...and played bowling. I just WISH I could bowl that well in real life! Kellen was doing great, Tatum liked it, but wasn't grasping the letting-go-of-the-button aspect, and Matt, well....watching Kellen and Daddy play was quite entertaining.

Monday morning, my first "official" day of vacation, began quite nicely...4:30 AM to get up and meet some ladies for a long bike ride (~9 miles). It was a good ride, despite having some equipment issues and falling off of the bike when I stopped (not even a cool story!). Honestly, it was good for me to fall off, considering I'm terrified of doing so. I did it and it wasn't that big of a deal. Not to say I want to do it again, but hey... We also learned that we'll have to evaluate our bike routes for our 5 AM rides...it was fairly dark for a ride that early, and many of the street lights weren't actually on.

Anyway, we got ready and headed out to Waco - destination: Cameron Park Zoo. Our plan was to meet up with Jules & her kiddos. We left about 45 minutes later than I had intended, but considering that there was no real schedule anyway, I guess it wasn't that big of a deal (Jules may disagree). The kids were SO well behaved in the car on the way there...there were no random outbursts from Tatum, Kellen played his Leapster with his headphones in, and everyone just chilled out. When we FINALLY got there. The directions on their site are slightly misleading...it's difficult to get there from University Parks Dr unless you know where to turn. I didn't know where to turn. I knew I was close, and was driving around looking for 4th street or an entrance from University Parks, had the kids singing, "Zoo, zoo, where are you?" I finally found an entrance, from neither of the streets the website had indicated...5th Street!! They had a GREAT time at the zoo, and we finished up in there shortly after 1:30 PM, and headed to Cameron Park for our picnic lunch and playing. We were on the road headed back to the motherland by about 2:45, and the kids were O-U-T by the time I got onto Hwy 6, and slept the entire trip back.

Last night we watched Underdog, then ate dinner, and everyone was in bed fairly early, including Mommy!

Today, my second day of vacation, began slightly different than yesterday. Other than the normal Kellen-in-bed and Tatum-crying-at-5:30-and-needs-to-go-back-to-sleep, I was truly awoken this morning by Tatum handing me her pullup (we tried it yesterday and last night...worked great! Stay tuned for how her skin reacts.) with a "present" in it - "present" side up and pullup completely off of her body....It was like she was handing me something on a silver platter, and it's quite a bit different than breakfast in bed. Needless to say, I was up in a flash!

My plans for today are a little more laid back than yesterday...perhaps some playing in the backyard, the pool, a walk to the park to feed the ducks, and throw in the laundry now and then to keep it going. The dishwasher is running, and I might get energized and sweep, mop, vacuum, but who knows? I told Daddy that I was on vacation, meaning that I wasn't going to houseclean, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to make good on that one (not that Daddy will mind). They both wanted to play with cars this morning, and then asked to watch Cars, so that's what they're doing right now.

When the software decides to cooperate, I'll upload some pictures from yesterday...

Mental Health Day

Today I took almost a full mental health day for myself.

I slept in, and luckily so did Tatum, then got ready and I took her to school. I decided that I would do a combo training workout this morning, so when I got back to the house, I drove a path for the bike route - a 1 1/2 mile path. I headed out on the bike, did the path twice in 17 minutes (I have NO idea if that's a good time or not, but considering it's the first time I've been on a bike since Crazy Mike's Bike Tour in Munich, Germany in 1996, I'll take it). I then put the bike in the garage and headed out for a jog. My initial goal was 2 miles, but I quickly changed that to a 1 mile jog when a I realized that the two pieces of lead attached to my hips weren't working very well. I think the third day of three consecutive days of working out has finally caught up with me. I'm BEAT!

I made it back home just as Matt and Kellen were pulling into the driveway. Kellen and I changed clothes into our swim gear, and we headed out to our pre-planned, pool play date. We were scheduled to meet his kindergarten teacher and her son at their neighborhood pool today at 10 and just hang out all day, or at least until I had to leave to get ready for the REU poster presentations late in the afternoon. So we made a quick errand stop and got over there around 10:15 and started our lounging and playing.

It was quite the day. Just what I needed. Lounging, basking, playing, and a whole lot of nothing.

We left there mid-afternoon and headed back to the house. On the way, Kellen said, "My eyelids are heavy," and seconds later I look back and he had fallen asleep. When I got to the house, I woke him up, asked him to change his clothes and just lay down until I was ready to go. He did, and then konked out on his bed - under the covers and all. When it was time to leave for the poster presentations, I attempted to wake him up, then had to spend a few minutes calming him down. When he gets REALLY tired, he gets worked up and it takes a while to get him calmed down once he's upset. It's a learned trick that requires patience, and is incredibly frustrating, even if you KNOW he's tired and that his being tired is the root cause of his behavior. This didn't last very long, but long enough for me to be reminded that he's still my little boy that needs his Mommy every once in a while.

Anyway, we got to the poster presentations and he sat down and played his Leapster, ate the snacks I had packed for him, and was on his best behavior. He was GREAT! So great, in fact, that after it was over and we had picked up Tatum, he got a treat of McDonald's for his behavior. Lucky Tatum, she got to benefit from it as well, since they both received Happy Meal's and were able to eat it picnic style while watching Veggie Tales because of the deal! That is such a treat for them....any food, in the living room, picnic style.

He and I snuggled some more before he went to bed, after I rubbed lotion on his sunburned face (it's not too bad, but I do believe it's his first ever sunburn). His face is red and his shoulders are a little pink. As for me, I just underestimated the sunscreen for myself altogether. I'm totally sunburned and you can see the outline of the bathing suit I was wearing. Kellen looked at me tonight before getting ready for bed and asked what the outline was (around my neck).

My response, "That was the color that Mommy started out today. The other color is how sunburned Mommy is now."

Kellen: "Wow, Mommy. It's really RED! I'm not laughing at you because you're sunburned, but it's just really RED!"

Bless his heart! He remembers my REALLY BAD sunburn from last summer (our river float adventure) and brought that back to my attention tonight. As in, 'It will be ok, Mommy. You had a sunburn last year when we were at the rock house and you got better. You will get better this time, too.' And this is nothing like that one. I anticipate that by Thursday or Friday this will have tanned itself out.

At least that's what I'm telling myself. :) I've already peeled once this summer and once is my limit.

Kellen's Birthday - My little boy isn't so little!

In preparation for Kellen's birthday party, I asked him where he wanted to have it and who he wanted to invite. He thought about it, and told me he wanted to have the party at McDonald's, then proceeded to dictate the guest list.

Since it's a summer birthday, and I didn't have the foresight to get the class list and contact information while he was still IN school, I contacted his teacher for the contact information for the kids he wanted to invite.

We went with a superhero theme (surprise, surprise) and I worked up the evites and went with it...I commissioned a Spiderman cake as the "surprise" cake for the party, and we were pretty well set (I love not having to stress about party's when the location does all of the work for you!).

After church and naps, Kellen was SUPER-excited, put on his special 'birthday boy' shirt and was counting down the minutes until it was time to GO! He just had such a good time with his friends!

I look at him and honestly wonder where the time has gone...how has it been six years since he was born? He is growing into an amazing young man...so caring and compassionate, attune to other people's feelings and hilariously funny. Don't get me wrong...he's ALL BOY as well, as his many scars and my many phone calls from counselors can attest to, but he's certainly my sweetie and I love him so much!

Hmph...and it continues

2 Miles this morning (speed drills, what a thrill), and my body doesn't like me today. I picked up the bike I'll be borrowing from a friend for the month of August to practice on, so we'll see how that goes.

I'm taking almost a full day off from work tomorrow and Kellen and I will be lounging by the pool, having a pool party play date. I'm going to try and be a good girl and work out before hand (we're supposed to be there at 10, so theoretically that gives me plenty of time to get an initial bike ride in while Matt is here to watch the kids in the morning, right?) We'll see how that goes.

Whoo hoo!!

Here we go...

I am now participating with a group of gals from my Sunday School class who are training...originally for a 10K, now for a tri. Not a full tri, but a tri sprint. And tonight was my first night to train with them and they kicked my tail! It doesn't help that my longest run lately has been 2 miles and they were planning to run 4-5 (or for about an hour) tonight, or that it was a night run (I typically run in the morning), and it was after dinner (I typically run on an empty stomach). So, I was destined to have a rough time of it.

But it was a great workout! We did a 1.2 mile run, drills, another 1.2 mile run, another set of drills, then ended with another 1.2 mile run. It felt great, even though it was horrid! If you work out at all, you completely understand what I mean.

I have my alarm set for 5 am and am planning on a short run for the morning.

Now, can I learn to swim and bike in less than 3 months?

We're well...

We're well, and it takes 7 viewings of 5 movies to make 1 princess well. And that many to make her mommy ill. Yup. Tatum is really good at sharing! Isn't that sweet?

So let me recap quickly the last few weeks for those of you who might be interested....

The Tuesday after Tatum was ill she went back to school and I went back to work. I started feeling poorly that afternoon and decided to call it a day. I took her to school the next day and I stayed home that day as well....and slept virtually all day long! I never ran a fever, but my stomach was upset and I basically didn't eat for a day and a half, save for a few pieces of toast and a hot cup of tea Matt made for me. That Thursday, Matt took Tatum to Conroe since it had been a while since she had visited her MawMaw and PawPaw, and since Kellen was already there attending Bible School, I was able to fully regain my strength.

I went there on Friday after work, as I was planning to attend a baby shower for a friend that Saturday with MawMaw, and Matt was going to take Kellen to a birthday party here in town. Those plans changed somewhat when, on that Saturday morning as Matt called to get directions, we learned that our friend was in the hospital with kidney stones! So, I brought the kids back to town and took them both to the birthday party.

The next day was Kellen's birthday party, and I'll devote another post specifically to that event. Suffice it to say, he had a BLAST! I cannot believe that my baby boy is 6 years old. We gained our friends daughter (the one who was in the hospital) after the party that night for a slumber party.

Kellen's birthday was Monday the 20th, and at breakfast we all sang another round of Happy birthday to him before we headed out for the day.

Later that week we had a pool play date with his kindergarten teacher and her kids, and it was a surprise to Kellen. He was so excited about it and both the kids had a blast at that pool!!

And on that Friday (the 24th) I was supposed to take a group of students to Schlitterbahn, but we ended up having a Seinfeld car rental experience. You know, the "I know you can TAKE a reservation, but do you know what to DO with a reservation?" one? Well, we had THAT experience. We had reserved a van 2 weeks earlier and the day we were supposed to pick it up, they didn't have one for us. So I had to make a 'go no go for launch' decision about the trip...and we had to postpone.

That weekend (last weekend) we had another party to attend at a splashpad hosted by one of Tatum's friends at daycare. They just LOVE the water!

On Sunday, I realized that over the last week, Tatum has cut a molar all the way through and is starting on another one (top left all the way through, bottom left partially).

Tuesday, MawMaw and I attended Chalk Talk again. They adjusted the way they organized it this year, and I'm still processing it...I enjoyed it, but I'm not sure I learned a whole lot. Wednesday, we had dinner with our dinner group from Sunday school at Chick-fil-A and had a great time there as well.

Yesterday was the rescheduled Schlitterbahn trip. Boy oh boy. What a trip that was! We had SO MANY ADVENTURES! I can now recognize how a certain girl in our group looks before she passes out, because she did so. Twice. And I know how the lifeguards and medics react when you HAVE to get them quickly. Because we had to. Twice. And I now know how they clear the rides when there is inclement weather and they have to clear the park. Because they did that just as we were finishing up our third ride of the day. Yup, our third. And we packed it up and made our way out to the van in the torrential downpour that ensued. And got about as wet by the rain as we did in the rides.

Oh, and then there were the Code Maroons that I was dealing with as well. Did I mention that virtually all of Bryan was being evauated because of a chemical fire at this same time, and that they were closing the very routes we were planning to take to get back into town? And that the private dorm where the students were housed had been evacuated? Nice, huh? Especially considering that I was the one in charge of them making all of the decisions.

So we made our way from New Braunfels to Sam Marcus, stopped at Cracker Barrel to get something to eat, and I spent virtually all of the time on the phone with a variety of individuals trying to get the latest and greatest information on road closures, evauation information, etc to make the remainder of our trip plans. Whew! Luckily, we had ZERO time constraints, so by the time we had finished with our relaxing dinner, stopped by Best Buy to get me a car charger (because by this point in time, my phone was rapidly dying) and got back on the road, the route we had originally taken had opened back up, so we headed back the way came. Unfortunately for the students, their dorm was still closed, so we still had to drop them off at Reed Arena, which is where many people who were evacuating were taken. However, they were released a short time later, around 9 PM, to go back to their dorm.

Needless to say, it was QUITE the adventure. And I was quite done today. I went to work in shorts and flip flops and virtually refused to make any decisions beyond what I absolutely had to make.

Then I left early. Matt and I needed to run some vehicle errands, so I left, and Kellen and I played at The Childrens Museum while Matt took care of the errands. Just what I needed after THAT kind of day!

And today is also PawPaw's birthday, so Happy birthday PawPaw!!

Productivity...a different perspective

Today was a different type of productive from what my "normal" work day is like. By 8:30 AM, I had consoled a sick little girl - once at 10:30 PM, and then again at 5 AM (which was fewer times than I actually expected), snuggled and gotten her back to sleep, rejoiced that she wanted water after a day of coaxing her to drink water or 'pink juice' with no luck, eagerly got her the requested water (twice, but just a little both times), only to go from happiness to utterly helpless when less than ten minutes later she was getting down off of the bed telling me, 'My tummy hurts, Mommy' and trying to make it to the toilet to throw up. She barely made it with my assistance.

I then cleaned up (bless her heart, she actually did a great job, so there wasn't much to clean up), and we snuggled some more, made some phone calls to Maw Maw and Daddy, then I tried to figure out WHAT I could give her to appease her....'cause she was STILL begging for water. There is a fine line you must walk between hydration and not giving a child something you know is going to come right back up. So we started watching Yo Gabba Gabba and I distracted her for a while with that, and after some time had passed, got her started on some ice chips and cheerios. By the third Yo Gabba Gabba (thank GOODNESS for DVR's), we were still keeping down ice chips and cheerios, and we had a moderately happy Tater-tot.

And it wasn't even 8 AM yet.

While she was watching one of her episodes, I asked permission (yes, you read that correctly...she's sick and I'm no dummy!) to go and take a shower. At a few minutes after 8, I asked if she wanted to go for a ride, and boy-oh-boy, she was ready! We went to McDonalds, and before you burn me at the stake, we simply paid the deposit for Kellen's birthday party and got me an vanilla iced coffee (oh-so delicious!!!). I then asked her if she wanted to be my helper and go with me to the store or go home - her choice. She wanted to go to the store.

So, we had a very quick trip to the grocery store...her vitamins and more Tylenol were high on the list since with one more dose of Tylenol, we would be out...Let me tell you what, this little girl is a charmer! She charmed the socks off of both the lady checking us out and the lady sacking our groceries. Since we had gotten her medicine and her vitamins, she wanted to hold them, and then she gave them to the lady at the checkout and asked for them back. Bless the lady's heart, she rang them up, sacked them, and immediately gave them back to Tatum to hold! Oh my, Tatum was in heaven! She was telling them ALL ABOUT her medicine and her vitamins and everything else that we had picked up....her crackers and her graham crackers and....well, you get the point.

We got back to the house close to 9 AM, and put in Cinderella to watch. Tatum decided that she wanted to call her Grandpa, so we made a phone call to talk to him. While they were on the phone, he prayed over her to feel better.

Fast forward to lunchtime, and it was obvious that Tatum was beginning to feel better. So I decided to get some video....She has been absolutely precious today.







After lunch and naps, we snuggled for a while. When we finally got up, we played and played...we played in her room and weeded out many of the 'baby' toys. They are now in a bin outside her doorway. She played dress-up, complete with headgear and every purse she owns. We read books. Lots of books. Over and over. We played with her dolls. I dressed her dolls. She undressed her dolls, then brought them to me to dress. Then she undressed them again. Repeat.

And throughout the day, I did manage to get a few loads of laundry done, with a wonderful assistant to 'help' me fold and put away what we had done. And the kitchen has some semblence of clean to it - at least the dishwasher is running and the counters are somewhat clean. But the most productive things I did today were WHATEVER TATUM NEEDED FROM ME, regardless of what that meant for the rest of the world.

And I still haven't figured out how many movies it takes to make my princess well...our total count is up to 7 viewings of 5 moviews (2 viewings each of Kung-Fu Panda and Cinderella; 1 viewing of Bolt, Pinnochio, and Finding Nemo). I'll let you know tomorrow if that's the number.

How many?

How many movies does it take to make one princess feel better? I'm not worried about how many licks it takes to get to the center of a tootsie pop. I want to know what I can do to make my Tater-tot feel better!

She had a rough night, and then wanted to crawl into bed and snuggle with me at 6 am this morning (her normal wake-up time). We snuggled until almost 7:30, then finally crawled out of bed. I took her to the potty, then as I was getting her to wash her hands, she and I got into a little battle of wills over washing her hands.

Totally unlike her! To clarify, the unlike her part was the problem with washing hands, not necessarily the battle of wills part....

As I was 'helping' her wash her hands, she commented that she didn't feel well, and I realized just how warm she really felt. So we called to our resident expert to get the thermometer and 'take my temperature'. Sure enough, she was running a verifiable low grade fever.

And wouldn't you know it, this was our Sunday to work in the nursery during second service. Ug. A phone call later, that was worked out and rescheduled.

So, we tried to get some fluids in her...water didn't work, 'pink juice' didn't work, even though we tried to tell her it was just like kool-aid (she wasn't buying what we were trying to sell), nada. She decided she wanted to watch Kung-fu Panda on mommy and daddy's TV. We obliged. Sometime during the movie, I went in to snuggle with her and there must have been superglue on me somewhere, because I was no longer allowed to leave her side. Even after she fell asleep nestled into me, as I unfortunately found out when I tried to get up after she had been asleep for a while.

Bad move on Mommy's part, in case you were wondering.

For our movie count...we're at two viewings of Kung-fu Panda, one viewing of Bolt (paused due to the urgent but albeit shortlived need to go play in the pool - and yes, we thought the cool water would feel good to her!), and are currently viewing Pinocchio.

Hopefully I'll have an answer to my question soon, but as the movie count rises, so does her temp. *Insert my sad face here*

Family fun day

Today has been quite the family fun day, and it isn't over yet. However, in the spirit of trying to remember the funny events, I'm posting...

As we were playing in the backyard, Matt was spraying water in various directions...up in the air to splash us, straight at us, etc...now, before you think this classifies as some sort of abuse, our sprayer is COOL! It has various types of spray strengths and streams...all the way from a straight on stream to an umbrella looking sprinkle. So it was quite nice in the extreme temperature today to play like this outside, even while we were in the pool.

Well, Kellen was in a little trouble (not going into that, but to give you the backstory) and sitting on the bench while the rest of us were in the pool playing. Matt was splashing Kellen with the hose, and after a short while, Kellen exclaimed, "Make-up!"

[If you need further explanation, Kellen gave Matt a Bugs Bunny DVD for Fathers Day, and they've been watching that together lately]

Kid funnies

I should try and do a better job of writing these types of things down as they happen...but that's mommy guilt that I'm trying not to let myself shoulder...

Here are some that I can recall from recent times...in no certain order...

*Tatum LOVES the story of 'Pocono'. I bought her a short board book of the Disney favorite (there's your big clue) for Easter, I believe (perhaps even last year??) and over the last week or two, it's been a huge hit. We must read about Geppetto, Jiminy cricket, etc. And I will probably cry when she begins to pronounce this word correctly, because she's incredibly verbal and rarely mispronounces things.

*Tatum is a girly girl (as if that hadn't already been established time and time again on this blog) and as of last night, her toenails were plain. She declared to me, as she was eating dinner, that she wanted pretty toes, AND FINGERS. So last night, after dinner, I painted her toenails and fingernails as she sat in her pink princess chair. As a sidenote, she's doing much better with sitting still during this process. I should have gotten a picture of her sitting there, with the wet nails, perfectly still, watching Yo Gabba Gabba as they dried. A little while later, she looked at me and asked, "Are they ready now, Mommy? Can I move?"

This morning, daddy asked to see her pretty fingers, and she showed him, then exclaimed, "And my thumbs, too!"

*Tatum has mastered her vocal range. And she tries to use this to her advantage when throwing a fit. Unfortunately, she hasn't learned quite yet that this works against her in these times.

I'll post more as I think of them...'cause these kiddo's regularly keep me in stitches over here!

Shall we bring back the nickname?

At one point in time, Kellen's nickname was Crash. Given his adventures the last few weeks, I believe it might be time to bring back the nickname.

We've already gone over the incident at the bowling alley that resulted in the split chin the Friday prior to the 4th of July weekend. So we're clear on that one, right?

Well, I received a phone call on Monday from daycamp, and when they use the words, 'front flip cannonball' when describing the incident, you just HAVE to know it isn't a good thing!

Apparently, Kellen decided to do a front flip cannonball off the side of the pool INTO the water. He made it (for those of you adventure freaks wondering), but managed to hit his head in the process. HE says he hit his head on the bottom of the pool, but no one is sure if that is actually what happened (since he was wearing a life vest at the time).

I'm really glad I don't overly freak out when I get these phone calls...Really!

So I got the call, asked if it actually knocked him out, asked how bad the bleeding was, about the head injury, etc, etc. He was, at the time of the call, eating lunch, and the counselors had treated and bandaged it up and were simply calling to let me know. Once I reiterated the facts as I understood them - that he had basically scraped his head on the side of the pool and was, for all intents and purposes, fine, I let them know that I would just look at it when I picked him up after work.

He does; however, have a slight bald spot where the abrasion is...it basically scraped the hair off! Now don't get me wrong, I watched him closely all night and continued to ask if he was dizzy, if he had a headache, etc...

But he was fine, really....and played with Tatum and a friend that we had over for dinner Monday night like nothing had happened.

And speaking of his 'friend'.....oye. I had a friend and her daughter (Kellen's age) over on Monday night. By the end of the night, Kellen was telling her dad that he was her 'boyfriend boyfriend' and she was his 'girlfriend girlfriend'. Did you know that if you only say the word once that it means you're just friends? If you say the word twice, it means that you want to marry the other person.

Um. Hello!! They're 6 years old! (And I'm giving Kellen a few weeks by making that comment here...)

And here I was thinking Kellen still thought that girls were yucky and gross.

4th of July fun

Ok...so it was really the 3rd of July...but it was in CELEBRATION of the 4th....and it was the holiday weekend....so enjoy the photo story with some explanations thrown in for good measure.

Both Tatum and Kellen were amazed at the juggler...Tatum even helped when he 'dropped' his pins. I'm not quite sure that Kellen could figure out how he was that tall....

Then Tatum thoroughly enjoyed the musical entertainment...you may not be able to tell from the picture, but she's dancing to the drum and fife - and did so EVERY time she heard this. She was so sweet to clap for them every time their numbers were over...She has music in her future somewhere.

We were handed flags upon entering, and Tatum had great fun in waving her flag to the beat - either heard or in her own little mind!

Kellen, on the other hand, had woken up from an unplanned nap (in his defense, we HAD just finished with 2-3 hours at the pool) and seemed to have woken up on the wrong side of the nap mat...or carseat...unlike his sister, he took a little while to get warmed up to the festivities.

Here is our Hapes clan during one of the songs.....

Kellen was quite entertained with the fans handed out at entry as well...there is a small see-through area that enthralled him...apparently, when you look through it, the world becomes rainbow-like. No wonder he was entranced!

And well past Tatum-tot's bedtime, she was fighting for all she was worth to stay awake...

In case you're wondering why you're going blind with this next photo, it's actually the canon going off...They used live canons for the 1812 Overture.







And here is Tatum NOT LIKING the canons, and Kellen trying desperately to console his sister. He later turned to where the canons were located and remarked, "I don't like you! You scared my baby sister!"

Tatum still recovering from the canons....


Houston Sympony at The Cynthia Mitchell Woods Pavilion in The Woodlands....

And then they ended the night with a fireworks show....Kellen loved it, and Tatum....well, let's just say that she was really tired and hadn't gotten over being scared of the canons. So fireworks weren't really high on her likable list. But the rest of the gang enjoyed them!

And for the ACTUAL 4th of July, we spent another several hours at the pool, which is pretty much Kellen and Tatum's favorite past time....then had hotdogs and they C-R-A-S-H-E-D after the late night from Friday, and an early morning Saturday morning. Sooooo, that meant no fireworks display on the actual 4th for us...but we had a fabulous weekend, full of family fun, which is really what was important!

Banged up...

After our memory making Thursday night, Kellen went off to daycamp on Friday, ready to round out the week full of good behavior. So I was a little nervous when I received a phone call, then a voicemail, from the number I recognized as the daycamp cell phone. Only when I listened to the message, it had nothing to do with his behavior. It was one of those, 'Ms. Hapes, Kellen had an accident at the bowling alley. He's ok, but you may want to come and get him a little early today.'

When I returned the phone call to find out what happened, I was told that, 'We've stopped the bleeding, but some of the counselors think he might need stitches.'

On my way out of the office, I put in a phone call to the pedi's office, checking to see if I could bring him in after I picked him up from camp. I left a message with the nurse and she was slated to call me back.

I walked in to the bowling alley, went over the Kellen, and checked out the cut. It was a pretty good one, but not stitch-worthy. As I'm making this determination, Tatum decides she wants to call and talk to me ('cause she's spending a few days with Maw Maw and Paw Paw), so I have to break her heart and tell Maw Maw that I just couldn't talk right then. Then I get the return call from the pedi's office telling me that I could bring him in for the stitches that I had decided he didn't really need. So I let them know that it wasn't necessary. Then Matt calls to tell me to take a picture of said wound and send it to him.

One at a time people. One at a time. I'm in the middle of trying to actually handle this perceived crisis here...Because of course, my phone is ringing while the poor counselors are trying to talk to me about what actually happened with Kellen, and he's trying to tell me what happened, and they're trying to get me to sign paperwork.

It was quite the chaotic sight, I'm sure!

I told the head counselor that I had been expecting a phone call of this nature, and then gave Kellen the option to either stay or come home with me (by this time, it was shortly after 3 PM). Needless to say, he wanted to come home with me!

So after a quick stop by Whataburger to pick up a consolatory milkshake, we headed home. Milkshakes make almost anything better, don't they?

Sorry you missed it...

If a house is clean and no one is there to see it, was it ever really clean?

I'm beginning to wonder. Because you can't really tell I did all that much work last week. *sigh*

Such is life with kids and a crazy, full schedule. At least one when you don't work your fingers to the bone and are trying not to put too much pressure on yourself, huh?

I got up this morning, looked around, and lamented that my hard work and effort hadn't stayed visible for longer than it did. Then you know what I did about it tonight when Kellen and I got home?









Nothing.


We ate cereal (his dinner request), changed clothes, and went to the pool. We had a BLAST, came home, played a game of Investigate (AKA Go Fish), read a book, then I tucked him in bed.

So, if you happen to stop by my house, it was clean last week - sorry you missed it!

The verdict...

Yes, Matt was COMPLETELY shocked, amazed, thrilled, and wondered HOW and WHEN I managed to get the project done.

Oh, and he also wondered WHAT POSESSED me to get ORANGE rugs and towels for the bathroom. (How well do I know my husband??)

I actually beat him home on Friday, so had a chance to do a few of those things that I had run out of time on (take out the kitchen trash, tidy up a bit more with some of the toys that inevitably had managed to spill out of their 'homes', you know...just some general stuff). No, in case you're wondering, I still didn't get the bedrooms done.

He walked in as I was putting Tatum to bed with a sleeping Kellen on his shoulders and the first words out of his mouth were, "The house looks GREAT!"

My response, "I'm SO GLAD that's the first thing you said to me!"

After we got the kids down, I asked him to tell me all of the things that he noticed that I did. With a deer-in-the-headlights look, he pointed out a few things, then just begged me to tell him the rest. As I rambled through the litany of things I had managed to get done throughout the week, his mouth continued to drop in amazement.

'WHEN did you get all of that done?'

I then had him then close his eyes and walked him to the bathroom. He reacted just as I thought he would....'Orange? Why did you get orange? Orange? Really?' And the rest of his comment was something along the lines of, 'You HAD to know I wasn't going to like that, didn't you?'

Instead of getting upset, I just laughed, and told him it was the KIDS bathroom. I reminded him that he had wanted a FUN bathroom for the KIDS, and that the orange was the PERFECT accent.

Then I told him about the project, WHY I had done it, and had him read the blog. And then laughed when he got to the part where I knew he was going to flip over the orange.

All-in-all, it was a perfect reaction and he LOVED it!!

And it's confirmed...

I have been wondering about Kellen's insane ability to hoarde large quantities of food and eat nonstop for large periods of time - hours, really. I was going through various options in my head...tapeworm, hollow leg, growth spurt, you know...all of the "normal" things, right?

Well, it's been officially diagnosed and confirmed. Growth spurt it is!

Matt had measured him on the 3rd of June and then again this week and he's grown a 1/4 inch in that amount of time. Yes, a quarter inch in a span of barely two weeks.

Goodness gracious!

He and I just went through all of his t-shirts and weeded out the ones that are too small for him. Luckily, I hit a sale not too long ago and stocked up on shirts in what is currently his size (who knows how long that will last). If you are a mom, you know the sale drill, right? One shirt of each color in the appropriate size. I bought 10 shirts. So perhaps we'll be set through the summer at least.

Final project status

Just in case you're wondering...the bedrooms didn't get finished. But, everything else on the list was completed.

WHEW!

I did a little "sprucing" before I left the house this morning, ran the dishwasher, and since Matt will most likely beat me home, he should be pleasantly surprised.

Might have been nice if I would have remembered to take out the trash, but hey...it's good enough, right?

My project reflections:
What really struck me throughout this project though, is how much pressure I put on myself. Yes, I gave myself a large project (for what I think is good reason - a nice gift for a reasonably small pocket-book price...a labor of love, a gift that cost time and effort, not $$$). But even as I reached completion of parts of the project, instead of feeling satisfied, I continually found things that I thought would be good to add to the list. WHAT's THAT ABOUT???

Instead of looking around and enjoying what I had done and accomplished, I looked around and thought, 'Well, the next to-do list I make should include the top of the TV, and I should really tackle cleaning out the closets, and....'

How did the perfectionism get so ingrained? And how long will it take for me to un-train and re-train myself to finish something and then REST, while waiting on direction from the Lord for HIS next project for me?

I might be overthinking things here, but hey...these are just my musings anyway...

Day 3 project update

Well, I'm officially running out of steam. It was bound to happen, considering the magnitude of the project goals.

This morning I managed to get the baseboards, trim, walls and vents done in the master bathroom and unload/load/run the dishwasher (yeah, no real big feat there).

I added a "side" project to the list, and while dinner was cooking tonight, Tatum "helped" me clean the kids bathroom (she cleans REALLY well with a wipee, let me tell you, and did a GREAT job on the decorative wooden fish that sometimes serves as a doorstop in the bathroom), in preparation for the new decorations that are now in place in there. She did that while I attacked the baseboards, walls, trim, swept and mopped, and cleaned the mirrors (how is it that I always look at them, but rarely think about cleaning them? anyone else?) then she then opened the new shower curtain hooks and helped me string the new shower curtain (BRIGHT fish theme) onto the hooks. I then hung it up while she named all of the various marine creatures on the shower curtain.

It was great!

After the floor dried, I layed out the new, bright orange floor mats down. Yes, orange. Pick yourself up off of the floor. They aren't in any way, shape or form burnt orange. They are BRIGHT orange and match the bottom of the shower curtain, therefore staying with the theme. They also match the set of towels that I got for the room.

Matt is gonna flip that I got orange and the kids are gonna LOVE it. Tatum was already laying down on the new mats saying they were "hers" and feeling of them.

It's amazing the difference in new versus old mats...even cheap ones, 'cause hey...it IS the kids bath, and we know what's going to happen to those rugs, right? And lets face it, the old ones were O-L-D...they were from my college days and predated Matt. You do the math.

So now that I've established that anything having to do with Tatum's room is off the list, basically, I still need to do the baseboards/trim/walls in the master bedroom and Kellen's room, mop the kitchen/entry and master bathroom and then vacuum the master bedroom and Kellen's room. Oh, and put away all of the clean laundry that is now piled on the couch, loveseat and the green chair. Have I mentioned my tendency for piling clean laundry?

I've just Febreezed the curtains that can't be laundered and "spritzed" them up, and now that I've written out the remaining "to-do" list, it doesn't actually seem that bad. I think I can do it, but if it doesn't get done, the house is in better shape than in was on Sunday. And that's pretty much what I was going for. Matt should still be surprised and I think he'll appreciate the effort.

Substitute

I have to share this absolutely adorable thing that Tatum has been doing this week....Kellen is attending a sports camp at Maw Maw and Paw Paw's and his sister misses him terribly. So, her substitute is the Baby Jamz video that he is a part of, and we watch this over and over and over and over and over and...well, you get the idea.

"I watch Kellen on there (pointing to the computer)," and "More Kellen song," are two phrases that I have become increasingly familiar with these past few days.

It's really adorable, and it's a good thing that I can handle the songs. Really.

Project update

Just in case you're wondering how the project is going this evening...

I've gotten two additional fans cleaned, leaving a lone fan left (again, not counting the one in the living room). Since it's the one in Tatum's room and she's asleep, there is a very good possibility that it's just not getting done. Oh well!

The kitchen curtain is in the washing machine as we speak, awaiting an empty dryer. Thankfully, I was warned to check the capabilities for laundering on my curtains PRIOR to actually washing them, and am unable to launder the living and dining room curtains myself, so they'll just get dusted/vacuumed off. (Thank you, Maw Maw!!)

And completely OFF of the to-do list is polishing the wooden cabinets dispersed throughout the house. I've done the kitchen cabinets, the wet bar, both bathrooms, including the hanging storage. You know what I'm talking about, right, the cabinets above the toilet... I completely forgot about them until I was looking into the spare bathroom in wonder and amazement at the difference a little furniture polish can do and realized they were wooden cabinets too! When I finished it off, it seemed like it was a completely different bathroom!

I guess the wood was thirsty. Who knew?

Realistically, I'll get the mopping done in the kitchen and possibly the bathrooms, but will probably not get all of the baseboards/trim/walls done in all three bedrooms and in the master bath by the end of the week. The master bath stuff is a maybe. I can't do ANYTHING in Tatum's room, really, considering that very shortly after we get home, she's going to bed. So scratch anything having to do with her room off of any list.

The laundry will most likely get done, but really and truly, is laundry EVER really done? I'll say I accomplished my goal on this one (at least the washing part of the goal), since the majority of the sorting baskets in the laundry area of the garage are empty, and all of the baskets inside the house are empty. You can't wash a load with one item by itself, now can you?

Now, if I can just get it all put away.....where did I put that easy button? Oh wait...we're going for excellence, NOT perfection, and good enough is ok, right?

Great, then I'm taking a break. Blue Bell is calling.

My project...

6/16 - AM UPDATE: I feel the need to explain WHY I'm doing this project...It's actually part of Matt's fathers day present, hence the "shhh" part of the original post.

So far, I've gotten all of the baseboards and walls wiped down in the entire house, save for the 3 bedrooms and the spare bathroom (but I JUST did that when the toilet EXPLODED a couple of weeks ago with Kellen - and I was thorough, at least with the baseboards).

I've also cleaned both hallway fans, and the fan in the kitchen. I still need to do to the ones in the bedrooms, and I'm skipping the one in the living room because it's too high.

I vacuumed the front hallway, dining room and living room, but didn't do the hallway between the bedrooms or any of the bedrooms since Tatum was already asleep when I was vacuuming (I'm not COMPLETELY crazy!).

I cleaned both of the bathroom toilets and scrubbed both of the bathtubs and got two (I think) loads of laundry done and put away. I put another load in this morning before I left to take Tatum to school and come to work.

I feel like I'm on a roll...


Shhhh...don't tell Matt. (I can post this on here because he really doesn't read this blog...)

I know I just ranted about the fact that I don't clean, right? And about the fact that I'm working toward excellence and "good enough." So here's my project for the week...

I want to see just how much of the house I can get REALLY CLEAN to surprise Matt. And I'm not talking "picked up" kind of clean, I'm talking spring cleaning kind of clean.

My primary goals:

• wipe down all baseboards and walls (include tops of trim & doors)
• clean all fan blades (exluding the living room, since there's no way I can reach it unless I got the ladder out, and I think he might have my head if I did that)
• launder all curtains & rehang
• polish all the cabinet doors (kitchen, wetbar, bathrooms)
• all laundry done and put away
• general cleaning (bathrooms, vacuum, mop, etc)

If I have time:

• go through kids clothes that they've outgrown and package for give-a-way

So whatcha' think? Will I be able to get this done in three nights?

Pursuit of perfection

I have come to the realization that the pursuit of perfection is paralyzing. Or at least I'm trying to remind myself of this as I make a mental shift from pursuing perfection to striving for excellence.

• In the pursuit of perfection, nothing is good enough...I overanalyze to find the "perfect" way to do something. The "good enough" way is just fine and still gets the job done. For the most part, the only one that's going to know the difference between the two is me.
• In the pursuit of perfection, I constantly compare myself with others who I think have it more "together" than I do, and then feel inferior and/or guilty that I can't do what they do, how they do it. God didn't make me THEM, he made me ME. I'm not SUPPOSED to do things the way they do them per se, or live their lives the way they live it. I'm supposed to live mine the way HE WANTS ME TO, to the BEST OF MY ABILITY, allowing HIM to shine through me, ESPECIALLY in the areas of my deficiencies, so that HE is glorified.
• In the pursuit of perfection, we mask our true selves. We don't necessarily allow others to get to know us, warts and all. How can we grow, or allow ourselves to be used in others lives if we don't walk with them...through both the good and the bad? How do we know that our bad times aren't being sent for the purpose of helping a brother or sister in Christ? If we pursue perfection and mask our pain, our difficulties, our deficiencies, don't let others know what we're experiencing, how can those experiences help them?

I really think this is the area that God is working on me with right now...striving for excellence, not perfection and just doing the best that I can do without stretching myself to the point of breaking.

I'm ready to be really real. I have a full life. A really full life. I am a wife, a mom to two kids, a full-time employee (read: mom to another 300 or so students). My husband has had a crazy schedule for our entire marriage that has rarely involved working in the same town. Cleaning is a low priority. News flash...if you drop in on me, my house is probably messy, there are probably clothes on the couch. They're most likely clean and laid out, waiting to be put away, but they're there.

That isn't how I envision my house in my head. I WANT it to look like a picture out of a magazine. I WANT it to smell like the "correct" scent for whatever season it is. I WANT to have all the ingredients for homemade cookies all of the time so that I can just "pop" them in on a whim. I WANT to always have the stuff for the cutsie crafts for me and my kids to do.

But hey, that doesn't happen.

I make cupcakes from the box. We colors in coloring books. We use sidewalk chalk. Matt buys whatever scent candles he wants, because somewhere, I have a wonderful wickless candle and warmer set that hasn't been plugged back in since the move (yes, almost a year). Kids craft magazines come to my house with wonderful ideas for me, and *someday* I'll get the stuff for them and we'll do them some weekend.

Let's just get real.

Misbehavin'

Well, Kellen rounded out last week with two days of misbehaving. Arg.

Thursday he decided to reconnect with his friend from the afterschool Kids Klub. You may remember her...she's the one that the counselors had to continually separate him from and, oh yes, the very same one that professed her love for him at the beginning of the school year. Oy. Those two. The two of them got into a variety of michevious trouble...nothing too terrible, but enough that it was brought to my attention in addition to the other items to be mentioned (I informed the lead counselor that things might be better if the two of them were simply split up, if possible). He also talked another boy into holding down the flush valve on the toilet in the bathroom and creating a waterfall. Yup. That's my boy. (They did make him clean it up, which he thought was gross.) But the icing on the cake was when they told me that he ran away from the rest of the kids and the counselors. Um...no. That's a safety issue and completely NOT ok with us.

Don't get me wrong, the other issues aren't ok with us, but they're to be expected from an almost 6 year old. Safety issues; however, are in no way, shape or form tolerated in this house.

So he was greeted with, "I guess you made some pretty bad choices today and we aren't going to the pool after all." And we had a stern talk-to at the house.

I apparently didn't work, as I get a phone call on Friday from Matt, who is on his way home with Kellen after he's picked him up. Kellen, the aforementioned girl, and another unnamed girl tried to sneak out of the gym.

WHAT??

So Matt dealt with him primarily Friday night, and I made a point of asking Tatum if she wanted to go to the pool near him and she and I got ready for the pool in the living room, so he could be reminded of what he was missing (again) because of his poor choices. And then Tatum and I proceeded to have a wonderful time at the pool.

I'm trying to figure out the root cause of it, and I really think that it might be a lack of quality time with both Mommy and Daddy...dunno...we'll test that theory a little to see if things get better.

Spaghetti, anyone?

I had forgotten just how much the kids like spaghetti...As I type, Kellen is on his 4th plate and Tatum is on her 5th plate of spaghetti.

Seriously...where are they PUTTING this food?

Tatum has abandonded her fork in liu of her hands in order to shovel the food in quicker. When she gets through with a plate, she asks for more and then calmly tells me that her, "...hands are yucky, Mommy."

Ya, think, dearie?

They are both piling on the parmesan cheese as well, and I'm rapidly running out of that commodity. I truly thought I made enough pasta to have leftovers for them for tomorrow night, and now I'm not so sure about that.

Growth spurts, perhaps? Hollow legs was suggested as another alternative for food storage. Hmmm...Pictures would prove that I don't starve them, but I think the camera might be covered in sauce at this point in time.

Weekend bliss...

Saturday...
Full of outside playing, naps, then to the movies to watch UP in 3-D. If you haven't seen it, take your tissues. I was bawling like a baby, but it was SO GOOD!!

Sunday...
Unfortunately, both Mommy and Daddy were a little under the weather to start the day off, so we both slept in and missed church. We recovered, had some more outside time, naps, then headed to the pool (FINALLY!!) for a while. We had to cut our pool trip a little early due to an *incident* that luckily, neither of my kids caused - the pool had to be closed for 24 hours. On the bright side, that resulted in rain checks - so it was basically a free trip to the pool! YAY!

I have a sunburn today to show for all of the weekend fun, but I did it to myself! It's not that bad, so I'm hopeful that it was tan rather than peel.

As for today, Kellen started his daycamp here in town and really seemed to like it...he has three of the same counselors, which I like very much! He was happy to see them, too! He came home just talking about all of the games that they played, and thought it was really fun that they just played all day long!

Lucky him! Tomorrow they go on their field trip for the week.

And to finish off the day, Chick-fil-A reinstated their Milkshake Mondays for June and July, so we're putting THAT back into the mix for our Monday night dinners! I mistakenly thought that 3 'milkshakes' (for each milkshake you purchase, you get a free 8 piece nugget) would be sufficient for all 4 of us, but I was sorely mistaken. I think Tatum ate 12 nuggets on her own. Uh huh. We DID share the milkshakes, but I made Daddy a few sandwiches for dinner, which he never seems to mind anyway...

Kellen's summer begins

from Maw Maw:

'Three days and nights at Mawmaw and Pawpaw's. Chocolate Chip Cookies for breakfast (but a good breakfast of some combination of toast, cereal, fruit, etc. in addition), hot dogs, two trips to the park including a great deal of squirrel chasing, snacks in the park, an Astros game, CiCi's, sword fighting, playing on the deck with dinos and zoo animals, Hungry, Hungry Hippos with Daddy and PawPaw, coloring, play doh, The Chipmunks meet Wolfman, Tarzan - whew!

Which might explain why he almost feel asleep at CiCi's tonight and was gone before we made it to Walgreens a few blocks down the road. Yes, at about 7:00 p.m.! He is in bed and hopefully will stay asleep until morning.'

****************

And she neglected to indicate that he threw up last night because, in his words, he "ate too much junk." Now, I have NO idea if that is accurate or not, but it was an interesting way to start off my morning as I was driving to work and trying to get the play-by-play of the 'Stros game.

He is, according to him, missing his sister, as he wanted me to pass the phone to her so that he could talk with her, and then when I couldn't do that (I WAS driving, after all), he accepted speakerphone so that he could talk with her. He also passed a hug through the phone to me for her.

Now isn't that just precious?

Happy Birthday!

...Cute things Tatum has done today...I need to tell the Happy Birthday story...

Today is Grandma Gerren's birthday (Happy Birthday, Mom!!!), so on the way home, I told Tatum that we needed to call and sing Happy Birthday to Grandma. Well, she proceeded to do so the ENTIRE way home. I actually lost count of how many times she sang the song, and we don't live that far away from where I pick her up AND the college students aren't here, meaning the traffic isn't that bad...

And as soon as we walked in the door she was crying to call Grandma so that she could sing to her on the phone. So we called, we get Grandma on the phone and she proceeds to sing the Happy Birthday song to her grandma, and yes, it's every bit as precious as it sounds.

Well, Grandpa gets on the phone and she gets excited, says hi, but then oh-so-clearly makes sure that he knows it's 'not your happy birthday, grandpa...it's happy birthday grandma, not grandpa, oookkkaayy?'

But then she clearly followed that up with "I love you's" all the way around, just to make sure no one got their feelings hurt because it wasn't their birthday.

What a precious and sweet little girl. I am so blessed to get to spend some one-on-one time with her this week and am just enjoying it tremendously!

Hmmm....

Interesting fact about Tatum.

She has reserved Eskimo kisses SOLELY for her Daddy. Yup. They're HIS and HIS alone.

I made the mistake of trying to give her some tonight before bed and boy-oh-boy...did I get a look.

(And I should know the look...I frequently give a much perfected, similar one, myself).

Then she ever so clearly corrected me by stating that, "Eskimo kisses are Daddy. NOT Mommy. Not yours. OoooKaaaayyyy?"

'Yes Dear. Thank you. I understand.'

Growth spurt, anyone?

I'm wondering exactly how much food that Kellen can actually consume.....he's really going to town over here! For the past couple of weeks, he's eaten nonstop for dinner from about 6-8 PM. And I pretty much mean nonstop.

Take tonight for instance...

We got home and he was hungry, so while I was getting things warmed up, he ate a banana. I finished warming dinner up and he ate dinner (about half of a VERY LARGE sausage dog, corn and green beans). He and Tatum got a bath, then he told me he was still hungry. So he ate an apple, then another banana, then another apple. He's now eating a bowl of grapes.

So he's pretty much been eating continuously since 6 or so, save for the short time he was in the bath. And this has been our pattern for the last two or so weeks.

Whoa, buddy! I'm just waiting for him to shoot out and up. Really. I'm expecting to go into his room one morning and to have him have sprouted overnight. At least I'm trying to prepare for it, anyway.

New 'do

While I'm updating...(and going in reverse order) I should make a note about my haircut.


I got my haircut last Wednesday. Really cut.


As in really short.


Really.


Way shorter than the picture I took as the 'model' for Valerie. I think she was just overly excited because it was obvious my normal rules were out of the window. And this is what I ended up with after she was through.







This is the original picture of the 'model' that was to be used for the cut...Slight difference, don't you think? (Julie, the link is just for you!)


I fix it a little differently, but since everyone (but Kellen) seems to like it, we'll call it a success. And since Matt thinks it's the best haircut he's EVER seen on me, and he's known me since '96 and his opinion should be the one that matters most (other than mine, of course), I think that's a pretty good sign, don't you?


Kellen originally told me that he liked me, but not my hair. When I asked him why, he indicated that it was because it stuck out and was spikey. He's now changing his tune and told me this morning that he liked it. I guess he's gotten used to it.


Unfortunately, I seem to be the one that it taking the most time to get used to it! And I'm immensely frustrated that I cannot find my pommade that I like anywhere...I've had the stuff for, like, 5 years or so now (probably longer, truth be told), and NOW...when I really need it for styling, I can't find it anywhere. Grrr....

My birthday weekend

Considering the weekend I had, I have to entitle this my birthday weekend rather than my birthday...simply because the celebration lasted all weekend long!

It was such a wonderfully full, but relaxing weekend!

Friday night started with Kellen's last t-ball game of the season (*sniff*), then my parents and brother came over for the weekend to celebrate my birthday, my dad's birthday and my mom's birthday.

Saturday my dad cooked breakfast (YUMMY!) and I took my mom and Kellen to get me a birthday present, then I had a baby shower to go to, and when I got back, we hung out a little and Matt cooked steaks on the grill (oh my..so VERY YUMMY!!! I could eat steaks like that so very often, but it would be oh-so-bad if I did)

Sunday Matt and I went to church, and came back to my parents and brother cleaning up the house as a surprise for me...my brother vacuumed, they cleaned up all their stuff, made all of the beds, cleaned both of the kids rooms (which, of course, only stay clean for about five minutes), cleaned the kitchen, you name it...then Matt cooked sausage dogs on the grill and we had lunch, cake and ice cream and our birthday celebration. Then they had to leave...the kids went down for their nap and then I went down for mine. And my Maw Maw was on her way over.

I woke up from my nap...



wait for it...





4 hours later!!!!

to an empty house.

15 or so minutes later, I heard them all pull up, then saw Matt running to the backyard with something in his hands. My MIL and the kids came in, and a few minutes later Matt came in and found a reason to ask me to go out to the backyard, where he had put together a HAMMOCK STAND for me!!!!! We've had a hammock for years, but I've never had it up....and I have it now!! I'm thrilled beyond belief!!

I, of course, immediately went and laid on it, and then had two munchkins join me, and Matt pulled another HUGE box from the side of the house....it was another present from Maw Maw and Paw Paw...a storage unit/seat bench for the deck...and he started putting it together. So, now all of the kids toys have a place to go on the deck, AND it can double as seating! I LOVE IT!

Maw Maw wanted to take us out to eat, but I said I would rather have her watch the kids and let Matt and I go on a date...so we went and watched Wolverine! It was GREAT!

Then today my office had a small party for me this afternoon (cake and ice cream)...so I feel totally spoiled right now!!

But...today is Daddy's day......sooooooooooo

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DADDY!!!

It finally happened...

I'll update on my wonderful birthday later, but for now...some grossness...

It finally happened...After almost 4 months to the date from my half marathon...one of my toenails fell off today. And surprisingly, it came off all in one piece. Odd.

Another interesting fact...it had already grown 1/3 or so of the way back underneath the other (dead) toenail. And there's a thin psuedo nail covering the rest of what should be my nail...so I was actually able to paint my toenail to disguise the ugliness that now is my toe.

Hahaha

Details about my lovely birthday to come...I must go eat some of the left-over steak...YUMMY!!

Why is it...

...that chaos ensues in this house when Daddy is gone? Now this isn't necessarily to say that chaoes doesn't occur when he's here, 'cause, hey...it's Daddy we're talking about. The walking embodiement of Murphy's Law.

But really...

Last night:
How many times can a toilet explode in one night? And at the EXACT moment when I'm trying to put Tatum to bed? And try as I might, neither my Wonder Woman bracelets, nor my Super Woman cape saved me from the mess that my slow response time created. And let me remind some of you that I was a sprinter in high school (i.e., I don't have THAT slow of a response time). However, in the amount of time it takes for Kellen to yell for me, and the amount of time it takes for me to realize that he's screaming for me because the toilet is exploding, for me to run in there, get him out of the way (which wasn't too hard considering he was trying his darnest to get to the highest point possible so as not to get ANY liquid on him), and to reach around the aforementioned exploding toilet to turn the valve OFF, it had managed to overflow (it types out much longer than it actually was). And wow, it overflows quickly, just in case you were wondering.

But, last night was a cleaning night for me, and it simply added to my to-do list. And now the bathroom is REALLY clean...nice clean floors, clean baseboards, clean toilet, the works...'cause if I was cleaning up after that I might as well make it worth it, right?

And as if last night wasn't enough, here's tonight:
Kellen was cleaning his room, after Caleb and he had a wonderful time playing in there (it wasn't nice and orderly before they played, and was in dire need of a picking up and cleaning anyway). So I decided to have him clean up his room and treat him when he was through to a 'special' night...our code for movie night. A short while later he runs out crying, holding his hand to me, asking for a band-aid. He had apparently burned his hand on his lightbulb in his lamp on his nightstand...and he burned a little smaller than a dime size area on his thumb. And he was HURTING!

So I had him run to the bathroom and run cool water over it while I called Matt to see if we had any burn ointment in the house, which we didn't have. So I loaded both the kids up and off to Walgreens we went for burn ointment and 'cool' band-aids. (We ended up getting camo!) The line was long, and he was in so much pain that I put the medicine on him in line. Here's the even sadder part...he was worried about me getting in trouble because I opened up the medicine and band-aids before I paid for them to put them on him! Oh my goodness what a sweetie I have in that little boy!

And back to the house we went...for what I am determined to make into a relaxing night. He asked for cereal for dinner. I obliged. And he and Tatum are now watching Wall-E.

As promised...

Here are some pictures of the Mommy Make-over. They are the fruits of Kellen's labor, the after shots of his make up efforts. I didn't think to take a picture of my manicure and pretty purple nails, and didn't get any shots of him during the process, since I was unable to take pictures of myself and all of the other adults were in the middle of their make-overs as well.





This was such a cute idea and Kellen was still talking about how glad he was that I came to his school at various points in time today!

Mommy Make-over

Kellen's class had a Mommy Make-over today...and I walked into his room, which had been transformed into a spa. This morning, before I left for work, I asked him what he wanted me to bring for the make-over.

My list was as follows: make-up, fingernail polish in red, green and blue (yes, he specified those colors), and lotion. My ACTUAL items taken included my make-up, fingernail polish in light purple (sorry, I just didn't have all of the specified colors), fingernail polish remover, cotton balls, lotion, and a LARGE junk towel.

I walked in, was greeted enthusiastically by Kellen, given a bottle of water and offered a cookie, then escorted to my seat. He proceeded to paint my nails, then gave me an arm massage with lotion (which, is actually VERY nice...have one of your kids try this at home). He then went to work on my make-up, and did a nice job! I have pictures to prove it and will post later. He ended my pamper session with a back rub and scratching, which I absolutely adore! We had to cut that short for our parade.

Yes, we had a parade through the school to show off our kiddos efforts. Picture a bunch of kindergarden mommies walking through the school wearing the fruit of their kids efforts, to the theme song of Pretty Woman, no less. We were the highlight of the day!

He was having a very 'exclusive' day, as many of his friends wanted to assist him in his make-over efforts with me, and he was having none of it. I did finally move him from saying something along the lines of 'go away!' to 'I want to be the only person helping my mommy, please go away.'

I took him home with me, and on the way to the car, he told me how much he enjoyed me coming to his school and spending time with him. I'm pretty sure his main love language is quality time.

Things I've learned...

Things I've learned since becoming a Mommy...(watch out, these are really random, and in no apparent order!)

1. Poop can defy gravity...and go all the way UP a baby's back while they're sitting upright. Don't ask me how, but I know it's true. And if you're reading this and you're a parent, you know I'm right.

2. Bodily fluids can go a L-O-N-G way coming from a baby...pee, poo, spit up, throw up. It's amazing how far some of those things can travel. There should be an Olympic sport, and it could be judged on both distance and force. My kids would, at the very least, medal.

3. Girls can projectile pee too. Seriously, this one threw me for a loop. I didn't know it was physically possible, but it is.

4. The person who invented the saying, "Don't cry over spilled milk" didn't breastfeed their child. They would understand the value of that stuff and cry if it got spilled, too!

5. 12 pounds was heavy when I was in my 20's and working out with it...another rep sometimes seemed impossible. Now, "more" is sometimes the phrase of the moment and my kids weigh MUCH more than 12 pounds. I should cut myself some slack on the 'official' part of working out and simply play with them more often.

6. Sometimes a kiss and a hug really DOES fix everything.

7. Boo boo ice solves mystery illnesses, random bumps, and other assorted owies.

8. Love buckets need to be filled the most when those that need the filling seem the least lovable.

9. Taking a deep breath is good. Taking five or ten is better.

10. 'I help you' - Letting your kids help can actually be productive, so long as you don't expect them to live up to unrealistic expectations, and don't set them for yourself either. (I'm still trying to live this one out, especially the last part of this one...)