Category Archives: family

My Monday

Brooke was sick and the doctor confirmed it was strep.  We went to Meijer because the antibiotic is free there, which I didn’t know.  It’s great that it’s free, but I’m pretty sure they put everyone else in front of you, because we were there for an hour.  It was crazy!  Smart on their part, because they more than made up for it with what I ended up spending to kill the time. 

Monday night was the 3rd of our Obedience classes for our dog Logan.  I have to go back and tell you about last week before I can share this week though.  Brian decided that I was the one who couldn’t control the dog, so I went to classes alone last week.  Everything was going well, and I handled the Yogi fascination, was even told I had made a good correction.  Things got hairy when the trainer said we were going to walk the dogs around the inside of the building.  Now it’s a small building, and there are lots of dogs going to be in our space, so this made me a little nervous.  Maybe Logan picked up on that, because he was nervous and agitated too.  He was paying attention to all the other dogs and not me, and then he went after Yogo, and then Maddy too.  The trainer took him from me and she started walking him, but he didn’t like that either.  In the end it all worked out well, and the other trainer had him sitting on the floor in front of Yogi with no problems, but I was totally stressed out when I got home.  To make matters worse, Brian said it never would have happened if he had been there.  So I was upset again.

Logan and I did our homework and were felling pretty confident when it came time to go to class this Monday.  Brian and the boys were making fun of us, trying to get me nervous.  I just kept saying that we were gonna rock the class.  On the way to class I said a little prayer for a positive bonding experience.  After that I felt better, and walked into class full of confidence.  We walked right by Yogi without a hitch.  I’ll admit when the trainer began talking about us doing a lot of walking, my heart rate jumped up.  Just when I calmed myself down, the trainer came over and said she was going to walk Logan for a few laps to see how he was going to do.  After a couple of laps, she gave him back to me and said he was doing fine.  We walked and walked until she said halt, then we would stop and he would sit and get a treat.  Then we started walking again.  God helped us through that class.  With every step I took, I was singing.  Yes Lord, Yes Lord, Yes Yes Lord, Yes Lord, Yes Lord,Yes Yes Lord Amen!  He even learned the Down command.  We rocked the class.  It felt really good to know I could do that, and to come home and be happy instead of frazzled like I was last week. 

Moral of the story, ask God to help you in anything and everything.  In my prayer I even said something like this, in the midst of everything going on in our country right now, and the election tomorrow, here I am praying for a dog, but I believe in You and Your power.

Fall Break

Uneventful and blissful.  That was our fall break.  Thursday we enjoyed sleeping in, and it was a beautiful day outside too!  We went and picked out pumpkins, something that we used to do every year with granny and grampa.  Grampa would take us out to the orchard that he picked apples at, and we’d spend time in the pumpkin patch, then wander over to the blackberries and apple trees.  When we were done in the fields we’d head back up to the store for some apple cider.  With Grampa gone it’s just not the same.  Fun was had and pumpkins were picked, but it was a little sad.  God love Brooke, she was trying to soothe my tears and she said, “you know he’s in Heaven watching us right now!”.  She is so right! 

I did learn about some pumpkins though.  Did you know there are pumpkins called Out too late?  Yep, they look like bloodshot eyes!  How about a warty pumpkin?  You guessed it, covered in warty looking things.  What about a Fairy tale pumpkin?  Well, just think of Cinderella’s carriage.  That’s what it reminds me of.  I picked one of those because it’s purple.  There’s also a peanut pumpkin that looks like it’s covered in peanut shells.  There’s my babies hanging out with the $50 pumpkins!  Brooke already had her hair up in a bun for dance.  She’ll not be happy with me for posting this picture!  Sorry Boo Bear, mommy loves you:)

On Friday it rained, so we went to see Beverly Hills Chihuahua.  The theater was a madhouse, poor planning on my part, apparently some High School Musical 3 came out.  Anyone heard of that?  Yeah, me either!  The first two showings were sold out, as was the first of our movie, so we bought tickets and went to the mall.  Zach got his halloween costume, Brooke got a Twilight T-shirt and poster, and Matthew drug us into Build A Bear for another buddy.  It’s a good thing I had the gift cards for the movies, because we spent our allowance at the mall. 

The movie was very cute, especially since we have two little chihuahua’s.  It was refreshing to not cringe at any scenes or language.  All in all a very sweet movie about friendship, loyalty and promises.

Pre-teen angst

So my daughter is 12, and in the 7th grade.  She has a May birthday, so she’s one of the youngest in her class.  This can sometimes lead to drama, because she’s not really old enough to make mature and responsible decisions.  Lately, she’s exercised her ability to showcase that deficit to me.  She’s made some really poor decisions when it concerns a couple of her friends.  I try to understand that peer pressure has a lot to do with it, but on the other hand, had hoped that I had raised her with enough backbone to stand up for what she thinks is right. 

Luckily she did come to me and divulge some of the incidents that happened.  Now, I want us to be able to talk about anything, so I was glad that she decided to share the info with me, but I was trying not to freak out!  I didn’t want to scare her off from ever confiding in me again, but I also wanted to let her know that I disapproved of her behavior.  It was a tough situation to be in!

The next conundrum, if you will, was whether I should tell my friend, and Brooke’s friends mom.  I felt like if it were the other way around, I would want to know.  I really struggled with that, and in the end waited too long and something else happened.  Now, nobody got hurt, but someone could have.  I shared with my friend, and she had a discussion with her daughter.  We both learned a few things that had been lied about, and then we talked to the girls again.  It’s an ongoing process where I am learning, and praying.  Praying for good, Godly friends, and the courage to stand up for what is right.

Sickness

My poor baby girl woke up in the night throwing up, and she hasn’t stopped.  Now she’s burning up with a fever and trying to sleep.  Keep her in your prayers.

Single again…

Matthew wants to break up with me because I got mad at him for throwing the dog.  He said I can marry daddy again.  That was as short lived as some celebrity weddings!

Will you marry me?

Matthew, my 5 year old, snuggled up with me last night and asked me if I would marry him.  I told him I was already married to daddy, and that one day he would grow up and meet a nice girl to marry.  He asked where he would meet her, and I said church!  We talked about him bringing her home to meet our family and he asked where she would sit at the table since we don’t have enough chairs.  (Where does he come up with this stuff?) 

He ended the conversation by asking me to marry him and break up with daddy.  What can ya say?

School and Germs

The two go hand in hand.  It never fails that when school starts, so do all the infections.  They run rampant through the halls of education, seeking a warm body to inhabit.  This time they’ve found my Boo Bear!  Brooke is sick, and the doctor said it’s just viral, but did give us a prescription for eardrops.  Thank you God for our health insurance, because the tiny little bottle of ear drops only cost us $15.  The paper on the outside of the bag says our insurance saved us $184!  What!?  That just seems like highway robbery, or price gouging, or just completely ridiculous!!!!!  Is it liquid gold? 

It had better make her feel like dancin’ soon!

Working Mom

Today I am a working (away from home) mom.  Brian owns his own business, and I used to work with/for him.  I was put on bedrest with Matthew our youngest, in June of 2003, and since that time I have been a stay at home (working) mom.  I feel very privileged to be able to do that, and I love my husband dearly for the hard work that he does to provide for our family.  I also miss seeing him throughout the day like we did when we were together at the shop, and have toyed with the idea of going back once Matthew goes to school.

Brian thinks he is Superman and lifts things that should really require 3 men to lift.  Due to this, he is laid up in bed today with severe back pain.  As I was trying to help him out this morning, he asked me to do him a favor.  I, of course, said “what?”.  Well, he asked me to go into work to help them out with answering phones and stuff.  (Big pause here for you to breathe and digest.  That’s what I needed to do, so I’m allowing you the same.)  At the time he asked, I had been cleaning the kitchen, and was in the midst of mopping.  I had grand ideas of all the projects that I was going to finish today, and I was really going to do it.  Not like most other times!  I was motivated, and then this dropped in my lap.

I didn’t let it get me down though.  I spritzed myself with deodorant, took the sweats off and got dressed, left the hair in a pony tail, and came in.  So far it’s not been bad.  Dare I say I’ve actually enjoyed it?  Umm,, yeah.  It’s been good.  Kind of slow for me, but I do have blogging to do!

Maybe tomorrow I’ll still be in the mood to clean, but I seriously doubt it!  I’ll probably just do what has to be done, and spend time playing with Matthew.  I do miss that little ball of giggles!

School Supplies

The majority of our afternoon was spent between Office Depot and Wal-Mart for back to school shopping.  We went with lists in hand that were supplied by each school, and were checking things off as we went along.  Office Depot had folders for $0.05 each, so we scored big with those.  Paper Mate 10 packs of pens were $0.25, so we bought 4 packs.  Of course the pencils that were on sale were not pretty enough for Brooke, so we had to get the decorative mechanical ones that were, like, $6.00.  All in all, and don’t tell Brian, we spent over $300 today on backpacks and stuff to go in them.  I honestly don’t understand why the school system cannot supply some paper, pencils, erasers, and folders.  I’m not saying the teachers should.  I’m saying the school system.  Don’t we pay enough taxes for a little school supplies?  And what’s with the 3 large boxes of Kleenex?  What’s next, a family size pack of toilet paper? 

The whole thing stresses me out.  As we were walking through one store, Brooke asked me why my neck was red.  I told her because stress makes me break out in hives! 

Tomorrow we have the nightmare of registration, where there will be 10 different stations to write separate checks, wait in long lines, and have school pictures taken.  Then we’ll go do it all over again at Brooke’s school.  AAaahh, school is bliss.

Matthew was so cute today.  He wants to/doesn’t want to/isn’t old enough to go to Kindergarten.  He misses the birthday cut off, which doesn’t upset me at all.  I will love to have him home with me for another year!  But he wanted to get some things too, so I told him he’s in Pre-K homeschool, and we picked out a couple of workbooks and colored pencils for them.  He also wanted his very own art box and back pack to keep it all in.  I did manage to talk him out of the lunch box, but I’m toast if they don’t have that particular one next year! 

Lord, please grant me with patience and knowledge when it comes to our Pre-K homeschool experience.  I have a feeling my limits are gonna be tested!

A few days late

I said I’d be back Monday, but a family vacation happened.  Brian and I flew home on Saturday, so all of us slept in our own beds for 2 nights before we left again.  Brian actually took a week long vacation, and we left on Monday to head over to Kings Island.  We planned on just hanging out in our room and relaxing that evening, but the room was not so nice.  We chose to save $10 a night and opted for the Red Roof Inn, instead of the Super 8.  Note to self-pay the extra $10!  Anyway, we decided to head down the road to check out the Bass Pro Shop.  A good time was had by all, and three out of five of us walked out with new shoes.  HHmmm…..

All of us were hungry, and Wednesday was going to be Brian and my 14th wedding anniversary.  We knew we’d be busy at the parks so we decided to do a nice dinner early.  We found this very nice Seafood restaraunt, and the food was great.  Zach had the fried crawfish, Matthew had catfish, and Brooke had shrimp.  Brian ordered the calamari for an appetizer and we had a little fun with letting them eat it before we told them what it was.  Evil, I know! 

On Tuesday we opened up Kings Island, and left 10 hours later.  Matthew was 2 inches shy of being able to ride most of the big rides, so Zach and Brian paired up and did the roller coasters.  I got away with only riding Vortex, and one of the indoor coasters with Zach.  Matthew kept saying “I love Kings Island!”  He got to meet SpongeBob and Scooby Doo, which was truly a highlight!  There was very little wait time to get on the rides, so I was thrilled with that.  We pretty much walked onto everything except the Rugrats Reptar ride in Nickelodeon. 

The highlight for me was finally getting to do the Xtreme Sky flight.  I’ve always wanted to do it, but never could get anyone to try it with me.  When we walked by and saw the sign that it was only $5 instead of $20, I took that as a sign.  This is where they hook you up, and put you on a zip line that goes up 160 feet in the air, yep that’s 16 stories, and you pull the rip cord and it’s like sky diving and hang gliding.  So Awesome, I’ve always wanted to do it.  I convinced Zach and Brooke to do it with me.  We did have to wait for a while because they only had one side running.  When we finally got close, they started putting the special suits on us and asked who would be the one to pull the rip cord.  Since I was the biggest, I had to be in the middle, so it had to be one of the kids.  Brooke immediately volunteered Zach, and he agreed.  We got up on the platform and they were hooking us all together when Brooke decided she didn’t want to do it.  It was up to Zach and me now. 

We started ascending, and boy was it high!  It took awhile to get all the way to the top, and part of me was thinking/screaming in my head, WHAT ARE YOU THINKING, RISKING YOUR LIFE AND YOUR SONS!!!  But the exhilaration won out, Zach pulled the rip cord, and we were flying.  Flying through the air was so awesome.  We both had so much fun.  What a memory. 

The next day we went to the water park.  Brian, Zach and I all burned the bottom of our feet on the concrete, so that made walking and waiting in line on those horrible rubber mats terribly painful.  Matthew had a blast riding down those huge slides all by himself.  He was making up for being a little short the day before.  We stayed for about 5 hours, then went back to the room for a nap.  Feeling a little rested, we decided to go back to the park until they closed.  The big boys rode the racer and the Beast, while Brooke, Matthew and I made it to the Monster and the Fairly Odd Coaster.  We saw the fireworks and then headed out. 

I was thoroughly exhausted, and so were the kids.  They almost fell asleep at dinner!   We were all excited to sleep in our own beds on Thursday night, even if Brooke and I had to get up early to get her on the bus to cheer camp.  Zach slept in until 10:30 on his 10th birthday, and Matthew didn’t get up until 11:00. 

Summer vacation is coming to an end quickly.  I wish it could go on and on.  It doesn’t seem like we’ve had much time.