Exhausted

Over the weekend we made a trip to Arkansas to find a house, only, we didn't find one.  The seven hour drive on Saturday was draining, but not nearly as bad as the seven hour drive back home yesterday.  I had been looking forward to spending time with my mom, but things didn't go as planned.  She came down with a nasty stomach flu the day we drove up and it lasted the entire time we were there.  Being the good daughter that I am, I was making trips to see her anyway and to take her medicine, gatorade, and ginger ale.  Sunday night my stomach started to really hurt.  By Monday morning I realized I too had come down with a stomach virus.  Isn't it just my luck to be sick on a day we have to drive seven hours home?  Yes, we had too.  Brian's boss made it abundantly clear that he had to be at work Tuesday (today).  So, I took a combination of imodium and emetrol to try to settle the horrible cramps, nausea, and other symptoms I would rather not talk about.  I told Mandy how I was feeling and she called me so we could pray about it together.  We did and I felt better.  Good enough to eat at least and get to our scheduled house showing for that day.  Once we looked at a house that we were completely disappointed in, we headed back home.  Although I was not throwing up, my stomach felt terrible.  I will admit it could have been much, much worse, but either way that drive was not fun.  I was exhausted from not getting sleep the night before, and the kids made it impossible to fall asleep on the way.  The sun went down about two hours before we arrived home, just as we drove into some very heavy rain and lightening.  The rain pounded down on our van, only leaving about two feet of visibility for us.  Cloud to ground lightening surrounded the area we were driving through and it was so bright that it was blinding.  Talk about conditions that are hard on the eyes.  I prayed and stayed surprisingly calm through the storms and once they passed, I climbed in the very back of the van, curled up with a blanket, and went to sleep.  I know that's not safe, but I was desperate by that point.
I am feeling better today, but still recovering and very tired and looking forward to a good night's sleep.  As far as the house goes, I hope something pops up soon.  I know it will, but I'm still not fond of this whole waiting thing.  Good night and sweet dreams, I'm going to la la land.

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.  :)

After Dinner and Before Bed....

This is what they do...

 Never a dull moment in this house.....

 Just look at that sweet face...

Today is Friday, it's Brian's birthday, and it's going to be a fabulous weekend!

Taking it easy

So, we still haven't found a house, but I'm just leaving it alone and giving it to God.  I know that He will work it out, He always does.  My day was very sluggish. I could barely drag myself out of bed this morning. I felt as though I had only had two hours of sleep.  I seem to be feeling better now, and have taken this evening to snuggle my kids and read blogs.  I am totally hooked on the pioneer woman.  I can relate so much.  As I'm sure many women can, since she is quite possibly the most popular blogger out there right now. She is very inspiring.  I am especially enjoying all of her photography posts. 
I am hoping that, with a lot of practice, I can achieve that professional look in my photos.  So, here are some of my favorites that I have taken lately.

                                        Adelyn looking at the pond below. I love bridge photos.

                                     
                                      My two nieces having their fashion show.

                                   
                             My niece, Makayla, I just love the rawness in this picture of her.
                                     Beautiful...

                                
                                              My Ethan man after he had been playing in the rain.

 
                                    And Adelyn, the lighting was not great here, but her hair was extra curly
                                    and I didn't care about anything but getting a picture of it...

A little discouraged....

We have less than one month before Brian's start date at his new job, and I am growing increasingly frustrated as I search the net for rental houses.  One thing I forgot about small towns, they are behind the times.  There are all of three property management businesses that rent out houses there, and only two of them have their listings online.  None of which look very promising.  Our family is just too large and rowdy to attempt apartment living and buying right now is out of the question.  I suppose I should call it a day and check the same websites again tomorrow for new listings.  Maybe we will find more on the house hunting trip, which will hopefully be very soon.  For now, I think I will just have a late night snack and zone out in front of the television with the man who doesn't sweat the small things.  At least one of us is sure we will find a decent house. 

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.