Daybook

March 30, 2009

Outside My Window... very peculiar weather - past 24 hours: 2" snow, hail, thunder, HIGH winds and now snow again

I am thinking... it's time to do some school work with the boys

I am thankful for... my heated home

From the learning rooms... counting by 5's and telling time and reading aloud Mr. Popper's Penguins with Jacob

From the kitchen... philly cheesesteak sandwiches for dinner

I am wearing... jeans (I know, I know, but it's snowing out and I have a very strong aversion to tights, so no skirt today) and a blue top with cream colored flower and vines

I am creating... a chore chart for Jacob (5 y/o)

I am going... to take Rachael for her 6 month checkup in an hour

I am reading... "The Treasure Deep" by Alton Gansky

I am hoping... for real spring weather soon

I am hearing... the boys playing nicely together

Around the house... the kitchen floor needs a good scrubbing and breaksfast dishes need to be put in the dishwasher

One of my favorite things... the zeal my kids have for learning

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week: Michael and I are taking Jacob to see the Harlem Globetrotters on Friday night!

Here is picture thought I am sharing...

You can view more Daybooks here.

Melting a little

This little girl melts my heart in ways I never thought possible.


I think a little of it is because she's my only girl, but the majority is because she's my last baby.

The above photo was taken at church last Sunday. Rachael typically will only fall asleep lying down (crib, play pen, etc.) or in the sling, but last Sunday she just snuggled right in with daddy and had a nice nap during the sermon!!!

I won!

I love looking through my spam folder and laughing at the silly things people try to lure you in with.

Here's a sample of what I've gotten in the last 48 hours:

* My email was 'chosen' for the following prizes (if I pay them a fee or give them my bank account info. and my address....):
~ Maybelline mascara
~ Victoria's Secret gift card
~ Dell laptop
~ Walmart gift card

* I've won $1,000,000 US because my email address attached to ticket #56475600545 189 was chosen. I only have to send this company my personal information and pay the courier fees to claim my prize!

* I won the UK National Lottery

* I have been chosen by William Simon to receive 20% of $7,000,000 (the $7,000,000 will be passed on to charities) because he's dying of esophageal cancer and has no heirs.

* Rachael Davidson wants me to give her some money to reactivate a dormant account in the Bank of Europe so she can then retrieve the 7,500,000pounds her husband deposited before he died in 2003

* I won an Exxon-Mobil email prize of $386,500

I find these things absolutely hilarious. I also find the fact that the email addresses these things come from are SO incredibly obscure, I can't imagine anyone falling for these gimmicks - yet they do...

Take a look at your spam folder some day and have yourself a nice chuckle!!

You Capture

Beth at I Should Be Folding Laundry is hosting a weekly series called "You Capture" and I have been wanting to participate, but haven't been able to find the time to find those perfect shots - until this week.

The theme for this week is reflection. I have the perfect photo! I realize that it's suppose to be a recent photo, but this photo is so perfect to me (and has not been touched up) that I just couldn't pass up posting it. It was taken last fall in Georgetown, Colorado.

And here's a silly one I came up with so I could say I have a recent one to post!!

Holy Smokes! For real....smoke - and FIRE

I just had to call the fire department....

Michael was leaving to run an errand a little after 8pm and happened to notice (in the dark) that a construction dumpster a few houses down and across the street was smoking. It was in the driveway of an unfinished home. He asked me to keep an eye on it and call the fire dept. if it started flaming.

About 10 minutes later I could see flames thru some holes in the bottom of the dumpster and flames out the top. It wasn't out of control or anything, but it was definitely a fire.

I called 911 and let the dispatcher know that it wasn't a life or death emergency, but there was a fire. Told her the situation and by the time I got off the phone with her, I could see a firetruck coming up the streets. No siren, just flashing lights. The entrance to our street is diagonally across from the brand new fire station, so they didn't have far to go!

I looked like a goofy spectator because I sat on my front porch and watched them extinguish the fire and check around the outside of the house.

**** When the fire truck pulled up, I heard someone a few houses down (right in front of the dumpster) say "OMG" really loudly. Then, by the time the fire dept. left, there was some sort of fire burning in these people's driveway. So, I'm thinking those people were the ones who set the fire. For what reason, I have no clue. There could have been something really harmful in that dumpster, for all they knew, and the dumpster hadn't been emptied since Tuesday.

People are ridiculous. Container fires aren't illegal, but c'mon. The container wasn't even on their property and what if one of the construction worker's had put something explosive or chemically harmful in there? Sheesh.

Dance party!

I have boys. Two silly, crazy, goofy, uninhibited boys!

Here's proof:

*** Please disregard my horrible singing voice in some parts of the video - I was trying to keep them on track and didn't realize I'd be able to be heard as much.

Too much sugar

This is what happens when you're playing Monopoly World with a friend (it was me, Michael and Sarah) and you eat too much sugar and drink too much caffeine.

It doesn't take much of either of those to make me a bit crazy! I don't eat a lot of conventional sugar or have much caffeine intake. Michael is pretty much the same way. We went a bit bonkers with goofiness.

Sarah stole one of Michael's hotels on the sly (he was TOTALLY winning and had way too many, anyway)! It then got flicked across the table and this is where it landed.



Want a better view:

Discombobulated

I'm all whacked out. I knew daylight savings time would mess up my kids as it always does, but I wasn't prepared for it to mess me up, too.

We DID remember there would be a time change and we DID set alarms for church on Sunday. So imagine my surprise when Michael woke me up Sunday morning and said we had overslept (fortunately, only by 30 minutes). What... Knowing that I've taught myself how to sleep thru Michael's alarm clock, I never set mine, I always set the alarm on my phone. Saturday night I checked my phone to make sure it would update the time change automatically and then set the alarm, only thing is it didn't update when it was suppose to. By the time it updated, I was already in the shower.

The day didn't get much better from there. We ended up not going to church because Rachael and Eli were coughing uncontrolably. And everyone was just cranky for most of the day.

Later in the evening, after dinner, I went out to run a few errands and my day just got worse. I ended up not getting to go to the two places I really wanted to go (thrift store and Michael's) because they were closed. The extended daylight fooled me and it was later than I thought. GAH!

When I got home (around 9:30), Eli was STILL awake. Michael had put him to bed normal time, but with the time change, his body thought it was only 7:00. We expected it to be a little while before he went to sleep, but it actually ended up being nearly 10:30 and that includes LOTS of discipline to get him to stay in bed.

Yesterday was a very exhausting day....whew.

Thankfully, today has been quite a bit better and I'm praying for a normal day tomorrow.

Bittersweet

After 6 months, it is time for Rachael to bid adieu to mommy's milk. If you've been reading here for a while, you know that she hasn't nursed since we were in the hospital, so that means that I have been exclusively pumping for just under 6 months - and I have three kids.

In the early days, I thought about just giving up (cold turkey) EVERY SINGLE DAY. I just kept telling myself I could make it another week and up until recently, it worked. After some recent out of town travels and full day outings, I've realized that it's just too much to keep up with now. Imagine keeping up with 3 kids, the house, running all of the errands, feeding the baby AND pumping every 3 hours - 5/6 times per day - at roughly 30 minutes per session (this includes rinsing pump parts and storing milk). Lugging my pump around and pumping in really odd places (the van, grandparents' home) and having to plan so much ahead for everything has gotten the better of me.

I've cut back to 3 times a day and I'm dropping one pumping each Saturday. In just over two weeks will be the end for me. Rachael has been receiving a bottle of formula at bedtime since she was itty-bitty and I have enough milk stored to gradually switch her to formula over the next month.

One of the more difficult parts of this change is that I will never again have the pleasure of providing this type of nourishment for a child - because there will be no more children for me (at least not biological children). In the end, I know this is what is good for my family right now. I am thankful that I have been able to provide the best nutrition for her as long as I have.

Overboard

Do you think I watch this show just a tad too much???

Jacob got a piece of paper and pencils out to draw and this is what he came up with, all on his own.