Copy Cat

A friend of mine once posted on her blog a birthday request that I think I'm going to do, too.

She said for her birthday, she wanted those who read her blog to leave a comment telling her they do so just for laughs and giggles. 

If you read my blog and care to do so, leave me a comment telling me that you do.   

I can request such things because, hey, it's my birthday.  ;)

On this day of my birth...

My littlest son woke up an hour earlier this morning than was really necessary and my daughter quickly came in to ask me if I could put him downstairs with them.  I jumped all over that for a chance to get another hour of sleep. 

When I finally woke up TWO hours later, but still in time to get my morning going, I went down and thanked my two oldest for "babysitting" while I slept a little longer, to which my biggest son replied: 

"Yeah, the only time I should have to babysit for real is if you died." 

I lightheartedly argued a little and then my two oldest were debating amongst themselves something or other when my biggest son chimed in again with:

"Yeah, it wouldn't really work out if you were dead.  We'd have to take Quin to school with us." 

Then Natalie, with her brilliant mind, says, "No, Daddy would have to take him to work with him."

Andur:  "That would be a mess.  I know! We could send him to Beth's house."  (FYI - Beth is my poor, unsuspecting friend/neighbor who lives a few houses down.)

I laughed and told them I don't plan on dying anytime soon.  :)

Glad to know it "wouldn't really work out" if I did, though.  HA!

Qu'est-ce que c'est?

So the other day I was using a toothpick to stab my french fries and dip them in ketchup to eat them...

Natalie was desperate to do this, too, because, according to her, that's how french people eat.

I told her fine, but she has to say "bon appetit" before she takes a bite, you know, to truly eat like the french.

To that she quickly replied, "What's a bone apple tea?"

Just another mountain...

I was driving home from a meeting yesterday and the thought occurred to me that my world is turning green again! No matter how bad things get or how slow work is or how tight money is, the world still turns green again; spring always comes.  It's almost as if hope is sprouting right out of the ground along with the flowers and grass and trees... like God's own personal reminder that He's still there, still with us, His hand in all things.

And as if that wasn't enough to reassure me that all is well in the grand scheme of things, the song "The Climb", by Miley Cyrus, came on the radio.  Generally, I think that song is cheesy, but it was very fitting at that very moment.  Although, I have to disagree with her when she says "Ain't about what's waiting on the other side..."  It is about that.  It's all about that.  This life, this sojourn on this earth, is "the climb" and it very much so matters how we climb, but what's waiting on the "other side" should be what's motivating us to keep climbing and to climb well. 

Trials are going to come.  They're for our good.  It's what we do with those trials that defines who we are.  But no matter how bad the trials get, it's as Hemingway said:  "...you knew there would always be the spring...".  He also said:  "The first and final thing you have to do in this world is to last it and not be smashed by it."

The economy can't take away my "spring".

In a nutshell

I haven't been into the blogging thing as of late.  I've actually been doing house stuff rather efficiently and have even been enjoying it! I'm hoping to keep up on that trend, but I'm forever changing, so we'll see how it goes. 

Quin's been mimicking words more lately and trying to repeat things we say, so I'm thinking the speech thing was just a little late to the party.  I love how he communicates so well and is learning so many things! I almost forgot how fun it was at this stage! He still shows no interest in walking, but really, I'm so good with that.  He gets into enough trouble via crawling. 

Things are slowing down at Matt's work, so we're thinking a second job may be in the works.  He's still working full time but there are other guys who are starting to work half days until things pick up.  We've been so blessed to even still have a job, so really, I'll take the half days. 

I've been reading so many articles lately about trials and enduring them well, I knew this had to be coming.  The Lord saw it fit to prepare me and I'm glad He did.  I was terrified to even think about having to face something that didn't fit into our normal, safe, comfortable life we've been living, but after reading these articles, I'm almost ashamed that I was.  To fear something that would make me stronger and even want to avoid it is simply sad.  I'm still a little wary about what the future holds, but I do know that if we do all we can to be prepared, both physically and spiritually, we'll be able to handle whatever comes our way.  We have before.

That's all for now.  I have laundry to switch over.  ;)

Deep ponderings...

As I sit here and gaze at the whimsical blog background I've chosen for the week, I can't help but wonder...


Haven't I chosen this background before??

Actions speak louder than words

Quin can say "more" in sign language! I've been working with him the most on this one.  I've started to add "please", too.

And, as of yesterday, I'm thinking his first official word is "go".  Very cute.  He'll say "Go! Go! Go! Go!"

Oh, and he got his SIXTH tooth yesterday, too!

Toothy #5

First it was miserable.

Then it was exciting.

Sort of like Mambo #5, only backwards.

Fruitless

Last night's post was not the "icing" on the cake. 

My moldy strawberries were supposed to be. 

So, not only did I have to substitute some regular boring cake fixin's for the angel-so-called-fluffiness, I also had to substitute regular boring frosting (with sprinkles) for the pineapple/pudding/whipped topping/strawberries on top frosting. 

So much for making her special bring-to-school cupcakes that she requested, but dang it, I tried.

Believe it or not, I was laughing at all of this this morning.  Probably due to my lack of sleep.

Angel my eye!

Why is it I have the most energy and/or desire to be awake when I should be sleeping?

My daughter's birthday is tomorrow and she gets to bring a special treat to share with her friends at school.  So she picks some cupcakes on the cover of a Kraft magazine I get once in a while.  I find the recipe... easy enough.  Angel food cake? Check.  Whipped topping? Check.  Fruit? Check.  Pudding? Check. 

So I go to make the wretched things and turns out angel food cake isn't as easy as I thought.  I'm by no means a baker.  I can make certain kinds of cookies, only because I took the time to perfect them.  Surely I can make a cake mix, right? Wrong.  Not this kind, anyway.  It was so chewy and the edges overflowed and burned a little... not good.  So, I resorted to using the cake mix we were saving for her actual birthday cake.  Much better.  Now I have to go out tomorrow and buy her another cake mix.  Just not angel food. 

My last batch is finally done (it's after midnight) and I have no desire to go to bed.  None.  I'm going to be cursing myself tomorrow. 

Well, later today, I mean.

Argh me mateys!

Got a cast today.  Very cool.  Matt overheard Andur telling Natalie this (if I remember right):

"Having a broken arm is cool and kind of like being a pirate because pirates have a hook on one hand and can only use one arm and pirates are cool."

I found out it wasn't his radius AND ulna - just the radius.  It sort of buckled.  Ouch!

Five weeks.  May 10th is the big de-casting day.

Inventive

This is our version of baby proofing.  For now.

I love this stinker-face!

(He's getting FOUR more teeth, two about to pop through!)

He's wanting to be down stairs with his siblings.  So sad.

I'm working on teaching him the stairs so I don't have to invest in a gate or anything.  He hasn't figured out how to move the chairs (yet) and the spatulas are doubled because he already figured out how to remove one. 

Look who's NOT talking

I took Quin in for his well baby visit today and here are the results:

• He's 21 lbs., putting him in the 45th percentile for weight.
• He's 32 inches, putting him in the 97th percentile for height.

He's fine in all areas of growth except speech, which I'm not too worried about.  My other two were pretty proficient in the talking area by now and were well above the three words they want them to be able to speak, but Quin says "dada".  And that's it.  And I'm not really sure he's referring to Matt when he says it, either.  SO we have to bring him back in three months for a re-check to see if he's progressing at all.  I'm not too worried because he communicates quite well, just not with words.  He likes to point at what he wants and shakes his head no or bats things away if he doesn't want it.  As the doctor put it, the two older kids do all the talking for him.  ;) He even makes a certain sound for trains, I have it recorded.  At first I wasn't sure if he was doing it on purpose, but then he did it a few times after it when he saw trains of some sort.  So, I'm going to step it up a notch in the teaching him words department.  He knows what a lot of things are (knows what we're talking about when we say certain things) so I know his wheels are turning, but he has a few too many people catering to his every whim, which is another reason why I think he didn't feel the need to crawl.  Anyway, he's healthy.  His glands were a little swollen, but I'm not surprised with the two very feverish days we fought through this past week.  And he's just so cute, so, you know, that's what really matters, right? ;)

Eventful

Friday 3/26/10:

Dentist appointment for routine cleaning.  Find cracked tooth on one side, and gaping hole where filling used to be on other side.  Very painful to chew and very expensive to fix.  I say time to diet.

Later that day:

Quin's 1st birthday! We don't go big on birthdays around here, but we do take lots of pictures and have cake and give gifts.  All good things.  Unless you don't like cake:

Or you're sleepy:

(He was moving, can you tell?)  (That or I was....lol)

 

This was after the happiness of presents.  Notice a theme here?

He's getting his 5th tooth.  At least. 

He loves to clunk the shoes on the floor.  And stick foam letters in them.  Always fun to find a "Q" in your shoe.

Grandma, this is when you were singing to him:

And when he was screaming because we wouldn't let him have the phone:

Saturday and Sunday, nothing special.

Monday:  Garden prep and yard aeration (thanks to my rockin' husband!)

Gotta love a goose poopy yard.  ;)

Two large gardens for my veges and such...

...and an "L" shaped one in front for perdy fowlers.  :)  Again, thanks Matt!!! You rock! (Glad your back's better!)

Big helper:

A super cutie face:

And, you know how when you go to Walmart for one thing and end up leaving with 50 million other things? We did that, too.  Except I'm thinking we could've done without this extra item:

Long story short, his genius mother said he could run around the empty garden center, he tripped on a roll of shrink wrap, his loving parents made him try to twist it all day to see if it was really hurt, then finally took him to the ER that night because he couldn't sleep.  He broke his radius and ulna. I expect my Mother of the Year Award in the mail any day now.

Yesterday, we got to see a funeral procession for a fallen soldier.  That was quite awesome. 

AND FINALLY, to top off my super fun week of events, Quin got his 1 year shots yesterday (one in each arm and each leg - ouch!) and he spikes a fever of 102.9 yesterday evening.  Then he starts crying for something like 20 minutes straight.  His doctor says he was probably coming down with something as the 1st year shots typically don't invoke a reaction that quickly. 

I made him a little bed in our living room today so I could put him down for a minute.  I'm exhausted because I saw every hour on the clock last night at least once AND he woke up at 6:30am.  My kitchen's a mess from the few days previous happenings, my laundry is behind and I'm wearing sweats.  I'm clean, though, so life's not too bad.  ;)

And that's my life in a nutshell.  Oh, did I mention it's spring break and snowing? Yeah.  My kids are going stir crazy.  I told my husband the house would be clean when he got home today.  We'll see.  :)