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Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Oh goodness. Blogger has changed my dashboard. This should not freak me out like it does. The only reason I am even typing this post is because I wound up on the new post screen while trying to get back to my dashboard. So in all actuallity it isn't even a real post. It's just random stuff I'm typing because I'm lost. Lost in cyber space. Or in Blogger World. Or something. When I do write a real post it's going to be aobut Londyn because tomorrow is her birthday. Also I plan to write one about my PSYCHOTIC neighbor who scramed at my children today while they were playing in their own yard. That one's gonna be a doozy. But THIS is not a real post. Here, since it's not a real post you can at least have a picture. Gotta love that static hair.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

O'Reilly inspired rant

Ever since Hilary Rosen said what she did about Ann Romney not working a day in her life, everywhere I look people are talking about how being a stay-at-home wife/mother is the most difficult job they have ever done. Well, this homeschooling mother of four doesn't think it is so hard.

I love it. I love the freedom that I have. I love how no one tells me what I have to get done. If I'm tired I can take a nap with LillyAnne. If I'm energetic I can work hard. There is no limit to my sick days or vacation days. I'm not working for someone else's benefit. I'm working for my own family. I'm in no way squelching my creativity. I have ENDLESS ways to express that. I'm not being lazy. I'm raising the next generation. I'm not wasting my abilities. I'm putting them to the most worthy cause I can imagine. What is more important than my own family? I don't feel trapped in my home. I feel blessed to be here and am free to leave at any time I want to. There is always MUCH to be done. But if I don't feel up to it, or if I just don't accomplish what I need to there is no one who is going to be upset about my lack of productivity. Heath will just kiss me and tell me he thinks I'm doing a wonderful job.

All over the news now there are women talking about how hard it was when they stayed at home. How they were working. How it was the hardest work they have ever done.

I really appreciate what they are doing. They are saying that what I do counts. They are saying that Mothers are not a waste. They are taking up for people like myself. They are trying to express how important they believe what I am doing is. God bless them! But, for me, I just don't really think it's so terribly difficult. And yes, I work. Just today I have spent most of the morning getting ready for a garage sale and reorganizing my bookshelf. I have had a very productive day. But I'm not working according to someone elses agenda. I'm working according to what my family needs. It's pretty much just awesome. This leads me to believe one of two things, either I am just a complete pro at this and have everything well under control, or (more believably) I am an under achieving housewife who is not accomplishing nearly what these ladies on television did when they stayed at home themselves! ;)

Either way, thanks to all these people on the news for your awesome defense of the stay-at-home mother!

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Fishing

We went fishing yesterday. Well, Heath, Luke, Levi and Londyn went fishing. I'm not really a fisherwoman. I held a baby while grooming a horse. NOT an easy task. Next time they go fishing I think LillyAnne and I will just hang out at home. While they were fishing they had about a 7 ft. long aligator come to stare at them. He quickly swam over and parked himself about 20ft away and just stared. So I took some pictures of him. At one point we heard a splash and Londyn had grabbed a fish out of the bucket and threw it to him. (That's funny stuff right there.) The children caught 6 bluegills and had a blast.

The pic of LillyAnne is just because I thought it was cute.



Saturday, April 14, 2012

The Fair

We went to the Santa Rosa County Fair last night. It has been YEARS since we went to a fair. Luke was like two or something. I never wanted to go because my motto was that fairs leave you with nothing but tired eyes and empty pocketbooks, and it proved true for us last night...BUT...we had a blast. It was very much a country fair and had a nice atmosphere. Levi caught the pig in the pig chase. I knew he would. He loves pigs. He loves catching things. And he has the tenacity of a bulldog. It's right up his alley. The livestock show was awesome and we spent more time in there than Heath wanted to. Unfortunately for him his family is comprised of a bunch of animal freaks.

We rode almost all the rides. My neck hurts. I slept on it wrong a couple of days ago and it was almost all better. But then those fair rides happened. I think it got strained trying to keep my head on my shoulders. Londyn was FEARLESS. It's ridiculous. I wouldn't have guessed that. The boys were fearless too, but they are boys and they're older. Londyn is just a little five year old princess.

Heath rode with them for the first few hours while I watched LillyAnne. Then he took her home to go to bed and I stayed with the other children until 10:30. We had to leave because we were WAY under dressed. It got cold!! Levi wore his cowboy hat, a long sleeved shirt, jeans and cowboy boots and even he needed a jacket. Londyn was in a sundress with a lightweight zip up jacket! I didn't think to check the temperature when we got in the van to leave but I'm sure it just said, "way too cold for April", because it was.

There was also this circus thing there. It was called the Rainforest Experience. That was a lot of fun because they had tigers, and monkeys, and snakes and anteaters and animals like that. We didn't watch the show but they had the animals out all night. It was cool because the tigers were just playing like kittens in their pen. I guess they like the freezing weather. I'm not so sure about that snake though.


We went with my cousin Katie and her daughter. When we got to my house she was getting in her car and I said, "Same time next year?" She said yes. I hope we do it.


Thursday, April 12, 2012

More pictures...because I love them.





Sprinkler Systems

We live in a house that I love. When we moved in it had a sprinkler system. Then we rented it out. The renters did a lot of damage. Like, right now the whole house needs to be repainted and refloored. But what I think I miss most is my sprinkler system. They didn't do anything to it. Lightning struck something, like a pole across the street and it took out three houses sprinkler system boxes. So now, for the system to work we have to put in a whole new box. I don't know how much that will be because we haven't asked anyone. I'm guessing it will be more than about twenty bucks and I'm just not willing to do that right now. So most afternoons I'm standing out there with my hose and a spray nozzle spraying until my hand can't open without making squeaking noises. I have a little sprinkler that I can attach to the hose but I just don't trust it, so I usually spray it myself. I just came in from doing that. I really want pretty grass. I don't know why I want it but I do. I weed and feed it all the time. I'm probably going to kill it with all my ignorant zeal.

Also Heath took the oldest three fishing today. Londyn caught a medium sized perch. Luke caught a small perch. Levi caught nothing. They will go again though and I hope Levi gets one next time. Also Londyn broke her cane pole beyond repair so we may be investing in some rod and reels. I stayed home with LillyAnne who was taking a nap. I'm not crazy about worms and hooks and stuff like that. But everyone else in my family is.
Also I had to water the grass. ;)

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

I don't know what to say, and a picture is worth a thousand words right?





Easter night Heath took us to Texas Road House. It was a FANTASTIC Easter!



Levi caught a chicken and put it on LillyAnne in her stroller. Heath started taking pictures. The chicken pooped on LillyAnne's dress. LillyAnne loved it. I was nowhere near all this insanity. Londyn and I were brushing the pony.


Easter afternoon we went to see the horses and my Daddy's 100 new chickens he bought from the broiler house.


LillyAnnen loves chocolate bunnies. She gets it from her mother.




I love this picture.




The children left their baskets of eggs on the porch.

Friday, April 6, 2012

We just finished up dyeing 104 Easter Eggs. We love to dye Easter Eggs. Next year it's going to need to be closer to 200. I just never feel like we have enough, even though I'm sure we do. We have so much fun, and now we have a colorful table.

Egg salad for a month anyone?



Thursday, April 5, 2012

This is Luke at the Hospital

Luke's face.

The abcess did NOT go down. It got bigger. Way bigger. By midnight Monday night his face was huge and he had a black eye. On Tuesday morning we went straight to the dentist. The dentist was just as freaked out as I was. He said "this isn't supposed to happen". He called an oral surgeon and then pulled the tooth right away and then tried to drain the abcess again and doubled Luke's antibiotics. He said to keep in touch and that if the swelling wasn't a whole lot better Luke would have to go to the ER to get some IV antibiotics. At 6:00pm the swelling had gone down a little but the dentist said a little is not good enough and to call the pediatritian on call. The Dr. on call said to take him straight to the ER.

INSANELY NASTY

That's what the ER was. There were sick people moaning and groaning and what appeared to be dying everywhere. I told Luke that he was going to come in with an abcessed tooth and leave with the bubonic plague. The nurses were borderline rude. They said the wait would be at least 3 hours. They told me (without listening to me telling them that both the dentist and the Dr. had told me to come to the ER) that this was the EMERGENCY ROOM not a place you come for minor things "like the toothache".

Frusterating.

They sent me to Emergicare. The Emergicare was nice. There were no people in agony and the line was very short. Luke said being in the ER waiting room was making him sick so we signed ourselves in. When we were being registered I told the lady that I thought we were in the wrong place. She assured me that this was the place for "minor issues". We were taken back almost immediately. When the nurse came with her clip board to find out what was going on she said, "You are in the wrong place, this is serious stuff."

HA!!!!! I KNEW IT!!!

But since we were all signed in and in a room we could stay! Hooray for rude nurses!!!! The Dr. came and he had to have a CAT scan and they started IV antibiotics. They now think that the "abcess" was probably a cyst. At 3:00am we got to his hospital room. He had to stay until this morning so right about 36 hours. He was never in very much pain and still got all the excitement of going to the hospital. Sacred Heart Hospital is definitely the place I would take my child again. The staff was EXCELLENT (excluding the ER nurses who appeared to be completely overrun with sick people). They have play rooms with all kinds of awesome toys for the patients and their siblings or visitors. There is a reading room full of books. They have a game room full of high tech video games that only Heath could work, plus board games of all kinds and puzzles and such. Luke had a fantastic time at the hospital! However Heath and I were COMPLETELY EXAUSTED. The running back and forth between the hospital and home trading off with each other combined with caring for the other three was a lot. It was one of the most exausting things I've ever done. It definitely gave me a new appreciation for people who have to do this sort of thing on a regualar basis. I am so blessed to have such a healthy family.

The swelling is almost completely gone tonight and he only has the smallest amount of bruising. When he was released from the hospital today and came home he immediately started riding his bike, jumping on the trampoline and hunting for turtles...he is doing very well. :)

Monday, April 2, 2012

Starting a day off right

Last night Luke had a loose tooth that was sore. This morning when he woke up his face was all swollen! He had an abscessed tooth. I took him to the dentist first thing. He had to have the abscess drained and he has to have antibiotics until Thursday and then he has to have the tooth pulled Thursday morning. It has been several hours and the swelling has not gone down any.

After that things did go better though. Heath took me to lunch at Chili's and then we went to Target to do a little shopping. That was nice.

Sunday, April 1, 2012

"Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord." Mark 11:9

Happy Palm Sunday!

Guess who is feeling better this morning? ME!!! And I'm super excited about this upcoming Easter week! I'm going to try to do something Easterish every day this week.

Starting tomorrow.....

HaHa!

April Fools

‎Heath told our children tonight that he was sure they did bad stuff throughout the day that he didn't see, so every night before bed he was going to start spanking them for it because he couldn't let them get away with it. He told them to line up in front of the refrigerator and get their spankings from the oldest to the youngest. They did it while whining and talking about how they don't do bad stuff when we aren't looking. They started to cry as he got out a spoon and drew it back. As he pulled it toward Luke's rear he said "APRIL FOOLS!". I REALLY should have video taped it. Poor children. They were so stunned. They thought it was hilarious though. Londyn said, "It was so funny because I never do bad stuff." Luke said, "Man, he got us!" I laughed until I cried. I would feel maybe a tad bad except they have been torturing us all day. The worst was when Levi came to me and said, "Mommy, there is a big pile of dog poop in my room." Oh the horror!!!!

It has been an eventful April Fools day!