It's that time of year....

Why do oreo cookies go so well with coffee?  I know, so unhealthy. I guess I will just have to make up for it tonight by eating some extra veggies.  Life is good.  Even with a cold and two sick babies, I can enjoy just being alive.  Brian and I were Baptized in the lake this last Sunday.  It was a such a beautiful, just have a good time, kind of day.  It's nice to be back home, close to friends and family.  I have missed this and I think Brian has too.
I can feel Fall just around the corner.  I know this because I have this unexplainable urge to bake.  I am ready for the smell of pumpkin spice and cinnamon. Orange and red everywhere you look. Weather cool enough for hot cocoa. And college football!  Yes, over the years Brian has turned me into a true fan.  I just love watching a good Razorback game on a cool Saturday while eating chips and homemade salsa.  I love Fall weather clothes!  All the sweaters and hoodies.  Big piles of leaves for my littles to jump in while I snap memories with my trusty nikon.  I. Seriously. Can't. Wait.

Busy

Hello blog, old friend I have been neglecting.  I have been so consumed in this mad house-hunt that I have let little things that I enjoy go.  Here we are, two weeks until Brian's start date and still no house.  That's how God works though.  Just when something seems impossible, he swoops in like superman and saves the day.  Only he's not superman, he is much bigger than superman.  He is God.  He is the creator of all things good.  He is the creator of the creator of superman!  So, even though I have been incredibly frustrated, I'm still holding onto my faith.
This is going to be one busy week.  I have lots of phone calls to make and we are going to attempt another house-hunting trip.  Oh how I dislike that drive, but it has to be done.
I am currently in the process, and it's a long one, of filtering through our things.  I am determined not to drag a bunch of useless junk to Arkansas.  With all of the back to school sales right now, I have no problem finding the organizational tools I need to get the job done.  Wow, that sounded just like something someone would say on a Wal-Mart commercial.
Anyway, I have a little man who wants to be held and another little man who needs help with a computer game, so I guess that means I'm done writing for today.  Hopefully, by the next blog I will have a new house to write about.

A little bit of crazy

Can it be?  Only 7:30 and all of my children are asleep already.  Score! I just hope they stay that way.  Especially after the stressful, yet kind of funny and not all that uncommon for us, chain of events that unfolded in my house earlier.  Okay, first off, we have been invaded by fire ants.  For some reason Ethan's bedroom floor is covered in the little suckers and they are venturing out all over my house.  I have no clue where they are coming from.  Honestly, if it were the nice little kitchen ants that simply wanted food, I wouldn't really care too much since they don't bite the crap out of you.
Ethan is very allergic to them.  I found this out last year after an attack by them in our Florida front yard that ended up in a trip to the emergency room when his face swelled up fifteen minutes later.
Anyway, Ethan came to me earlier  with two fresh bites on his knee.  He was crying and told me the ants were on his leg and now his leg was really hurting. I gave him a dose of Benadryl and pulled out my anointing oil to rub on my hands and pray over the bites.  About two seconds after we were through praying, I looked up just in time to see Alex fall over and bump his head on the bottom of a chair.  I immediately ran to pick him up.  I proceeded to pray for him as I walked into the kitchen to fetch an ice-pack from the freezer.  Once I sat down to hold ice on Alex's head and comfort him, Adelyn walked in.  I saw some kind of substance covering her arms and legs and then realized she had been into my anointing oil.  I must have forgotten to put it back in my purse.  She then showed me where she left the empty bottle and the rest of the oil.  My kitchen table was also covered in it.  "Sigh."
I sat the baby down on the floor to use both of my hands to clean up the mess.  I instructed Adelyn to go wait in the bathroom for me to give her a bath.  When the table was clean, I needed to check on the baby.  Low and behold, he was covering my phone in drool.  Luckily, it was not destroyed.  This all happened in about a twenty minute time slot.  I sat down on my bed to text Mandy and make sure my phone was okay, when Ethan said, "Mommy, Adelyn ran out the front door naked."  Are you kidding me?  Okay, so I jumped up and flew out the door to grab her before the neighbors decided to call the police and report us for having a naked three year, who is covered in oil running around our front yard.  She didn't get very far from the porch and I picked her up and walked back to the door, only to realize I locked myself out.  Yep, sure did.  Ethan was nice enough to let me in this time, rather than laugh and refuse to open the door.  I think he must have really wanted a piece of his Daddy's birthday cake.  And I also think some days, my life would make great reality t.v.  Although, I would never agree to such a thing.  I guess you all will just have to settle for the blog.  :)

Saturday Night Fever...No Fever, Just a Spider

It's Sunday again and I am always amazed at how fast the weeks fly by.  I spent my Saturday night hanging out with Brian and the kids, as usual.  I believe it was about midnight before I was finally able to get Adelyn to stay in bed.  Her agreement for sleep time came after a long conversation we had where I tried to explain, that her Daddy and I are not brother and sister.  I don't think she ever quite caught on to all of the different family bit.  When I told her that Aunt Mandy is Daddy's sister, she laughed at me and said, "No, she's not."  She finally just told me that I'm a girl and she's a girl and left it at that. 
Just as I was drifting off to sleep on the fresh pillow case covering on my pillow that I had just pulled out of the closet, I felt something on my shoulder.  I reached up with the opposite arm to try and figure out what it was.  I was half asleep at the time, so it took me a minute to register the fact that feeling something moving on my shoulder was not normal.  I grasped my hand around it, only to realize I had a rather large spider loafing around on my bed, or on me I should say.  I quickly tossed it up in the air and off of my bed with my bare hand in the dark and sat up.  I demanded Brian to turn on the light so that I could look for it on the floor and kill it. But by the time the light was on and I was up, which was only about a minute, the creepy crawler was gone.  It took me a while to go back to sleep. 
So, now here we are, Sunday morning.  There's a spider hiding out in my room, and I have done something horrible to my back.   Our bird wants Alex to be his friend, and Alex wants to chase her and squash her.  Ethan is watching Spongebob, again.  And Brian and Adelyn are, of course, sleeping in.  Life is good.  Strange sometimes, but good. 

I like coupons.

I finally bought my sun hat.  But isn't it just my luck that the sun has not shone since I walked into the store to buy it?  I found a very nice little, white one at Target yesterday, I knew they would have some. I would have preferred it to be on sale, but it wasn't, so I paid the full price of $12.99.  I don't like paying the full price of anything, even if it is at a price some might consider cheap.  One of the benefits of moving to Florida was meeting my very good friend Donna.  She introduced me to the wonderful world of couponing.  Think what you want, but until you have experienced saving forty, fifty, eighty dollars on your groceries, you just haven't experienced shopping.  I'm not one of these extreme couponers you see on TLC, although I do admire them for their effort and the amount they save.  I don't have a stock pile of groceries in my garage, even though sometimes I wish I did.  I just have three hungry children and I like to save money.  Plus, it's just fun.  I actually had a cashier at Publix tell me that coupons should be illegal once.  Sad girl. I guess she was spending too much on groceries.  I will be sad to leave behind Publix, but I am hoping they eventually extend over to Arkansas.  It really is a pleasure to shop there!
Pictures of the sun hat are coming soon, if the sun ever comes back out.  Happy Friday!

Sweet Babies Always Grow Up...

I am up early today.  I have actually been up since 4:30 due to Ethan waking up screaming from a nightmare. He never would tell me what it was about, he usually never talks about his dreams.  If they are anything like mine, they are very strange indeed.  Needless to say, he refused to go back to sleep and now he is running around like a wild animal while trying to force Rufus (our poodle) to hop around and play.  I think Rufus, like me, wants to go back to sleep.  Four and a half hours just isn't enough.

However, I am determined to enjoy this day. Alex is officially seven months old, and I must get lots of pictures. How has it been this long since that miraculous day I gave birth to my sweet baby boy?  And why does each passing year seem to fly by so much more quickly than the last?
Sometimes I want to pray, Please Lord, just slow this down a little, let me enjoy this stage of our lives a little longer, I'm not ready for change.  It seems like yesterday he was merely a sleeping newborn babe, but today he is trying to pull up on his feet and stand like a man.  Of course, I know in reality if these fleeting, wondrous moments that we cherish so much lasted any longer, we would not know to appreciate them the way only we can as mothers.
I am so thankful that our Father has helped me realize that this time I have with these precious gifts he has given me is short.  Sometimes we get so caught up in day to day frustrations that we forget to stop, breathe, laugh, and love.
If you are mom reading this today, take some time out to really treasure this time you have with your wee ones.  Today will be gone tomorrow.  

Someday...

So, this one time at band camp.....just kidding.  I know, that was so 1999.  Anyway, I love farms.
The other day Mandy and I took the kids to hang out with some farm animals at Oak Mountain State Park.  I take my kids there a lot, it's cheap entertainment and really close to my house.  We love the outdoors and all the little farm animals running around in the barnyard.  But this time, it was the first time either of us had ever seen a male peacock with his tail feathers fully extended.  They are such beautiful birds.  I want one, in fact I want a farm.  Oh how I long to move out into the country somewhere with lots of land and fruit trees.  A few goats running around, some chickens for fresh organic eggs, a big fluffy collie (I used to own one and they are the best dogs ever), a little pond stocked with catfish and a couple swans, and of course a peacock running around.  Maybe a male and a female.   I could grow a big garden full of peppers, tomatoes, carrots, and potatoes.  We could live in a an old, completely restored plantation style home.  It would be painted white and yellow, and have a giant wrap-around porch with rocking chairs.  And I can't forget the white picket fence to go around the front. I could have a room dedicated to homeschooling my seven children, (yes, I know I only have three at the moment, but who knows what the future holds).
Ah yes, that's the stuff dreams are made of.  One day...  But until then, I am going to enjoy my home, it may not be huge, or on a farm, but it gets the job done, and I love it just the same.

25 Years and Counting

Well, it's Tuesday night, way past my bed time, and I can't sleep.  I don't know if it's due to the fact that I feel like I am in abeyance this week, the excitement from my new Wii microphone and Glee game, or just because I had two cups of coffee late in the evening.  Either way, I figured since I am up anyway, I may as well write a blog.  The reason I have been MIA the past few days is because I have a house full of guests.  I had a fabulous birthday on Saturday.  My sister-in-law, Mandy, and I took the entire day to shop.  I can't begin to express how nice it is to go to the mall without little hands constantly tugging on my shirt.  After we decided that we could not possibly walk anymore without our legs popping off we headed home to relax a little.  I came home to find that my incredible husband had not only watched six kids all day, but had actually managed to bake me a cake and cook dinner!  Tell me I'm not married to superman and I won't believe you.  I must also mention that this was the first time he has ever baked anything.  Everything was delicious.  Once we fed the herd, we all headed out to see the firework show.  All in all my turning 25 rocked, and I am so blessed to have such an amazing family to make it all worth while.


Here is a picture of Makayla (my niece and the other birthday girl), who was cool enough to let me take pictures of her wearing a fake mustache.  Isn't she adorable?  Look at that gorgeous red hair!

Eleven Reasons I have kept a smile all week...

1. Brian and I have been exchanging sweet emails all week.
2. He has also been reading my blogs all on his own.
3. My house was the quietest it has ever been yesterday with my children actually awake.
4. Alex has kept a smile on his face in spite of  his fever, diarrhea, and the worst diaper rash ever.
5. And even though he has been feeling so under the weather, he started to crawl with his tummy off the floor.
6. Mandy and I have realized that our friendship is even stronger than we thought.
7. Ethan held up a french fry from McDonald's and asked, "What is this called again, Daddy?"
8. Adelyn yelled at her princess puzzle yesterday.  Out of the nowhere she shouted, directly at Sleeping Beauty, "I don't like your boobies!"
9. The temperatures outside have been incredibly pleasant.
10. We get to see our Family today.
11. The Lord has shown me how much I have changed in the past few years and really made me appreciate everything he has so generously blessed me with.

"Growing Up" doesn't end at 18

   I'm not sure where to begin this morning.  I have had a couple hours to myself to really think about my life, past, present, and future.  When I think about my past it's not a pretty picture.  My childhood was pretty rough, but I don't have any anger or even negative feelings over the first 17 years of my life.  Sometimes people just don't have the best circumstances.  The anger and shame starts to seep in when I think about the decisions I have made since becoming an adult.  The bad examples I displayed in front of my 1 year old.  The crappy wife I was to my husband.  The alcohol I consumed in my body so often because I thought it was fun.  The kind of people I let myself get caught up in.  Why did I make such shitty decisions?  After everything I had been through with my own parents, why would I put myself on that kind of path to destruction?  I really don't know.  I don't think I will ever have an answer as to why I was constantly running away from my family to hang out with people who never cared one bit about me as a friend.  I know that God has forgiven me. I think it is always hardest for us to forgive ourselves.  So, I will say it, moving away from what I picture still as our home is the best possible thing we could have ever done.
   Let's skip ahead to the present.  I have such a beautiful life, even though there are times when I don't always recognize it.  I get so caught up in the little frustrations of my day.  My home is never completely clean, no matter how hard I try to get it that way.  My kids eat a lot of junk food, even when I attempt to force veggies down them.  My husband and I never, ever get alone time.  I think these are the things that most moms deal with from day to day.  I feel like I grow a little every day.  My children amaze me in the most unexpected ways.  My husband proves his love for me through so many small gestures.  I am growing in my Faith.  I may not be perfect, but I am sure not who I used to be, and that is an accomplishment all in itself.
    For our future, I want to be thankful ALL of the time, not just when things are going good in that moment.  I will pray more and complain less.  I will appreciate every moment I have with my children and husband, even when we are in the midst of total chaos.  And I hope that one day we will be able to make it back home to be close to our family and true friends.
Enjoy this day.

Oh Happy Day, the Baby is Better and Life is Good!

After a very stressful two days, the baby finally woke up with a smile this morning.  It was 3a.m. when his fever broke and he was ready to play, but I didn't mind.  I was both exhausted and incredibly relieved!  :)  I don't have much else to say this morning, other than I have the best husband.  Even when I am completely stressed out and feeling like I am on the verge of nervous breakdown, he stays calm.  I can be quite mean sometimes, and he just laughs at me, gives me a kiss, and says, "You know you love me."  And he's right, I do love him! So much!  My love for him has grown every day for the eight years we have been together, and it continues to grow.  I don't know what I would ever do without him.  Happy Hump Day Everybody!  I can see the weekend from here, and it is going to be So. Much. Fun.  Peace and Love and all that!

1 Peter 4:8                                                                                                                                           Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.