Regrets...

I must be on a once a week kick here...oh well.

Ok...since we've been MIA for a week...We got to spend last weekend at Mom's and it was so FUN! The kids got to meet Mary Thomas for the first time ever!!! So special! They kept asking to "pet" her... I asked them if they could believe we were getting ready to have a new baby like that at our house? MW, as she stroked Mary Thomas' cheek, replied with, "I know, but Mama, can't we just have this one?" 

Playing in Bobo's yard...

this happened literally five minutes from the house...

Changing gears...Emily asked a few questions about my camera/photography...No, I'm not a professional photographer (and that question made me smile - thanks!)...though I think that would be a blast! I took a few classes in college. I shoot with a Nikon D70s, and I LOVE my camera!

look what I found...

I'm a little worried about this new baby...little man moved the stool against "my cib" and climbed on in...YIKES! (Bolt the door???)

Little man throwing dirt...

MW is "Princess Pretty Flower."

I know his nose is gross, but I had to include this shot...you'll read why in a sec...

Yesterday I unintentionally made a big mud puddle in the back yard...and the little man jumped in it...shoes, socks, and all...and so I made the mud puddle bigger...and let him play in it all morning!

so much fun!!!!

Ok...and now for the meat of this post...

you know what's coming...

oh...oh...oh...NO.

not a happy camper. (neither was his mama.)

I AM SO SAD. I keep getting teary. And it's really not such a big deal. But I am so sad. 

Yesterday, with my full knowledge and approval, T shaved the little man's head. We're calling it his "once for the summer cut." I know he'll be cooler. Whatever. I can't stand the cut. I CANNOT STAND THE CUT. Just thinking about it makes me get teary. I cried about it last night. I know. It's JUST HAIR. The little guy isn't sick. There's nothing life or death about the matter. It's just his gorgeous, beautiful, "little dude" as one friend put it, hair is G-O-N-E. And I am so sad about it. I regret our decision to shave it (with the longest guard). There's a huge pile of hair in the garbage can outside. I wish I could glue it back. He looks so different. I like the long hair look. I love him, but I do NOT like his hair like this. Great...now I'm crying again. He looks so different. Close friends don't recognize him. He was born with more hair than this. It's never been this short. I don't like it at all. Would it be bad if I was honest and admitted that I HATE this hair cut??? Maybe I'll change, but I think I'm going to be one of those moms who is just fine with boys having longer hair. (Not a pony tail...but longer locks.) I like T's hair longer. I always have. I just like longer hair on guys. I am really sad about this.

There are two things so far that I think back on and feel a stab of pain in my heart over - that stab of pain only a mother feels when she thinks of something she regrets...

1. letting MW stay with grandparents on her third birthday...NEVER AGAIN will I opt out of being with my children on their birthdays. (she didn't have a clue...but I did. - and don't worry - I'm not going to show up on my kids' doorsteps when they're out on their own...just for the 18 years they're under my roof, if I can be there to wake them and celebrate with them - I WILL BE!)

2. letting - make that, being ok - with T shaving the little man's head (until I saw what it was going to look like, but it was too late, then.) (by the way, little man told everyone at school that he hit his head and his hair fell out...)

Silly regrets, I guess. For some reason thinking about them...seeing the little man and his lack of hair... makes my heart ache in a regretful sort of way.

Again. I know. It is only hair. The kid is healthy. Really. It shouldn't be such a big deal. But it is. To me, at least. It's a really big deal.

Ok...wiping away the teary streaks that have stained my cheeks...and heading outside with my children. Wait, is that little boy mine??? Oh...I miss his hair.

The Happy House

MW had a friend over to play for the afternoon...what fun was had! They spent the first hour in the backyard collecting roly polys...then off to pick up little brother from MDO...and on to Lowes...where we got a lot of strange looks and laughs and comments to the effect of: "I bet y'all never have a quiet moment!" One person said, "Three girls (we didn't correct them...)!!! I just hope this one's a boy!" It was like the appearance of three with a fourth on the way unleashed SOOoooo many comments! In passing, we didn't take time to explain that one was a friend...kind of funny. Or, er... scary?

We got home and put little man in his room for his "rest-time." After a short period he was crying pretty good. T went up to check on him and learned he was having trouble getting the bed turned down. Little man wanted to nap!

The girls put on bathing suits and spent the rest of the afternoon in the backyard building a "happy house" and a fort for all the roly polys they collected...they also made orange soup...and talked T into dragging both slides into the pool and got him to set up the sprinkler...it was a BIG time!!! (And they didn't touch their lunches until after 2:30...too much fun to stop and eat!)

Here's to hoping they'll all sleep well tonight!

Keeping the Humor

(this pic is totally random...

MW picked up the camera from inside the car and took a picture of us...

more like about twenty pics of us...)

This morning found me and the little man at Target...trying on a maternity dress...that a few nights ago T  had said he really liked. (He NEVER makes comments like that about clothes)...which is why I was there, trying it on.

So anyway...we make our way to the dressing room. I had just taken the dress off when the little man unlocked the door...and ran out...

Without thinking...I too ran out...and grabbed him by the back of the shirt...and backed back into the dressing room. I explained to him in no uncertain terms exactly what would happen should he open that door again.

Now, I had a choice to make. To either cry and die in there of embarrassment (which in my hormonal pregnant state, made sense for a splitting second), or laugh it off.

I decided the only logical choice was to laugh it off.

Let me just say that at six and a half months pregnant, there were some really lucky shoppers in the clothing/shoe department of Target. (I am being COMPLETELY sarcastic.)

However, I don't think I'll take the little man in the dressing room with me again. EVER.

Swings, Bread, & Strawberries

Sweet Scout...

What a refreshing day! 

It all began with a full night's sleep!!! (I've been having a little pregnancy induced trouble with the sciatic nerve in my left leg...sort of wakes me during the night...but not last night!) Thank You, Lord!!!

Not to mention, I vaguely remember my husband sitting on the bed beside me early this morning...he was praying for me as I slept...that is pure sweetness.

Roof wise, T talked with the adjuster...didn't really get anywhere...so we've pretty much decided to re-roof the portion of roof above my office. T is going to build a "cricket" around the fireplace, which should take care of some issues there, and will also require replacing a good bit of shingles around that area...which, if I understand correctly, need replacing...and the jury is still out on what we'll do on the third leak...it's on the newest portion of roof...the one we paid for out of pocket a few years ago. However, there is TREMENDOUS peace that accompanies making a decision regarding the other two areas. I find I don't do well at all while in limbo.

I also spent time on the phone with Adobe today and got all my software questions answered...and so the decision regarding purchasing software has been made...which also brings TREMENDOUS peace! 

Yesterday knocked me to the ground in terms of really realizing that I am totally incapable of parenting my children in my own strength. Since bringing MW home from the hospital I would have said I couldn't do it in my own strength to anyone who asked, but I'm learning it for real. Like, in the depths of my heart. As in...really, I cannot do this on my own.

Today...has been fun. I baked a few loaves of bread...I'm pumped with this new recipe from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day. It's the buttermilk bread...so yummy. MW can't get enough!!! A neighbor shared a loaf with us and I was hooked...and have been baking it ever since. She gave me some great tips...like, buying the 25lb bag of flour at Sams, and then I realized I could get yeast and butter milk there! Hooray!

yummy...

Out of the blue, Monday morning, MW asked if we could PLEASE make chocolate covered strawberries...so we did that this afternoon. MW "cleaned up" for me by scraping the bowl clean with pretzels...

And the swing...oh the swing. I am head over heels for this swing! I saw a swing in a magazine that sparked the idea. T and I studied it and talked over the pros and cons and finally, we drew out this design...T drew it out to scale and proceeded to build it. And paint it. And hang it. It was so fun for me. Like...SO FUN! I got to sketch out what I wanted, then my engineer husband kicked it up a notch with some "engineered/design improvements and suggestions" and went to work. I made the cushions (the bottom one needs a little work...well, let's just say I know how I'd do it if I had it to do again...) and before I knew it, it was up! Originally I'd planned to slip cover it, but after seeing it, I got intimidated at the thought of making a slipcover that complicated, so I resorted to cushions...which I really like better than what was in my head...and I tell you that because T was gracious, but let me know that he would've spent a little more time on his craftsmanship and the way he constructed it had he known the wood would be exposed...however, I think it looks FABULOUS!!! The kids and I sit on it every morning and read while we wait for carpool and often we curl up on it post rest time, and then again while we wait for T to come home from work. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it! I LOVE it!!!! T, you outdid yourself! It's so fun to sit on something YOU built!

Ok...happy day!

A Tough Few Weeks...

Hello.

I've been missing this whole blogging thing...we've had so much going on...I was going to do a short little snippet with the "highlight" (aka EMERGENCY) of each day since my last post, but it's just been too long.

The kids have been super entertaining in their "expectant states." Anything the little guy can get under his shirt is a "baby." (Including the insurance adjuster's tape measure...)

So here's the short version (which is, guess what? Kinda long)...we celebrated little man's birthday with...

our precious neighbor

Grandpa

Bobo 

Grandpa J

Grandma

and JJ

(T and I were there, too.)

The b'day boy ATE UP every second we spent singing to him!

(Don't you love MW's dress? It's "dress up" - and the little guy is still in his pajamas...some days are just like that, huh?

digging in...

(Uncle M, that's the tractor you bought him hours after finding out we'd had a boy!)

And here he is scooping cake with the bucket on the tractor...

Grandma helping the little guy open his gifts (only, he wouldn't put the soccer ball down...)

This shot is from his actual two year birth day...

Ok, back to "catch up:"

...three roof leaks (that I had to handle on my own - lots of towels and water and buckets...man handling my desk out of the way...) because T is working another outage... insurance co. won't cover the roof damages, but has agreed to cover the interior damages (what is up with that??? it still leaks every time it rains) - can I just say STRESS!!! Do we fork out for a new roof? Do we patch away? Do we switch insurance companies...um, I think so. (Without going into a rant, both T and our roofer have replaced shingles that blew off, etc. to temporarily prevent further interior damages...the adjuster said, "to us, that's fixed. You just need to calk a bunch." But as the roofer pointed out, "what he and T have done is not meant to be a permanent fix." It's a "get you through" fix." And as T pointed out, "you shouldn't have to calk a roof. Especially not the portion that is only two years old!!!" (that we paid out of pocket to have re-roofed, that began leaking during the hail/thunder storm that brought on all three leaks) T has officially taken over in dealing with the roofer/agent/adjuster...did I mention we're on year 11 of a 20 year roof? UGH!!! 

Anyway...

And here the children read Peter Spivey's children's book, Rain. How appropriate.

And my car got water in it...twice...thanks to heavy rains and me not realizing the windows were down...it finally smells ok.

Um, and then there were other things...my computer died...had to be sent away....we ordered a used mac with a promise from the guy at Apple that we'd have a seamless transition (this is a backup for work) and well, the transition has been anything BUT seamless...we'll be purchasing new software...someone told me I can legally sell my old photoshop, illustrator, etc. software on ebay...anyone know if that is actually legal? Like - if I deleted it off my computer, and sold it with the registration/serial numbers? As in, not a copy, but the originals?

And then my little sister A got married. She and B kept it small...just the two of them on the beach at sunset. I don't think I'll ever forget reading to my children on our front porch swing and looking at my watch and seeing that it was 6:30 and the sun was setting...and knowing my little sis was standing on the beach beside B, entering into the holy covenant of marriage...wow.

And there were other things that tugged at my heart...

oh and I finished seven yearbooks and got them all delivered to the printers. Whew...the kids ran around the house cheering!

I will be SUPER glad when we figure out what we're going to do about our roof leaks...that's been a drain emotionally...no pun intended.

Oh, we moved T3 to a big boy bed...he's given up his afternoon nap. I have no children who nap. We're doing "rest time" and they are required to stay in their rooms (mw can play in the playroom...).

Here he is on his first night in the "big boy bed," receiving instructions from T..."Do NOT get out of this bed." He has obeyed perfectly at bedtime...naptime is another matter entirely...which is why it is now "rest time."



I got put in charge of MW's class Easter Party...now if the party was JUST for the children, I wouldn't mind at all. However, I think we all know those table decorations, etc. aren't really just for the children...know what I mean? That's all I'll say about that. So um, anyway, a few moms agreed to help hide eggs...and didn't show. So I got to hide 150 eggs...and at 6+ mos pregnant...well, you can imagine...

Little man got a haircut...and his screams actually brought one neighbor over to "check on us." (Evidently T3 has nerves in his hair...he sees the scissors and places both hands atop his head and starts screaming "OWWW!!! NO!! NO!! OWWWW"...not a pretty thing.)

I hope to post some pics of some of what we've been up to house-wise lately...that swing I'd mentioned...

Little man has built a "boat" out of kitchen chairs and has "docked it" against the sink and is playing in the water. He's soaked. He's already had his bath...we did that this afternoon...I pulled him from the tub and told him to head to his room so we could go ahead and put on pajamas...he stopped in the playroom to tinkle...in MW's ballet shoe. (I really think it was coincidence...as in, he was standing there and the shoe was in the right spot...) Anyway...

Happy night.