A day in pictures

Punky getting the cupcakes ready for the costume playdate.  Don't ask.

It's Batman!  (aka Chicken)

Princess Punky

"The Boyfriend" as Cookie Monster with his cookie.

The whole Halloween play date.  They had so much fun!

What else can I say?

Punky has a pop-up Dora tent that she puts in our living room sometimes.  Today she was playing in it with her stuffed monkey.  I watch as she disappears into the tent and hear the muffled sounds of her (what I know now) hitting it...

"I'm spanking the monkey, Mommy!"

Chicken's first camping trip with Daddy!

Chicken in his car seat ready to go!

Chicken all cuddled up in his very own camo sleeping bag in the back of the van.  They didn't rough it as much as they would have liked to in a tent.  It was pretty cold that night for an almost 2 year old!

The next morning:  Chicken playing with The Boyfriend (Punky's "boyfriend", not Chicken's.)  Such boys!

Daddy and Chicken.  The two men in my life.

Perhaps a little too much manliness for him over the weekend?

Can I PLEASE start over?!?

Isn't it funny how Monday's and Murphy always find me? It's not even 9 am and my morning has been...well, a Monday.

I woke up this morning to Punky next to my bed grinning. "I had a good nap, Mommy!" So far so good.

Then I hear the telltale whine of Chicken awake. Yesterday, he discovered how to climb out of his crib and now has a big strawberry from carpet burn on his forehead. I rushed into his room to make sure he didn't have any broken limbs. Nope, just a bad poopy diaper that left a horrible rash on his bottom. Now he's cranky as all get out. I can still handle this.

Oh but wait. I come in the computer room to drink my tea and read my morning blogs and while reading an email I received confirming more children to my playdate on thursday, I put my tea down and push in the keyboard cubby to get a pin from the drawer. Yeah, the tea was ON the keyboard cubby that disappears into the desk. Now the tea is all over me, the protective mat I have down on the carpet AND on the carpet. I had already had half of it! Now the day is turning questionable not to mention I'm just stupid!

Then I hear something that sounds like a kid choking after I've cleaned myself and the computer room up. Running into the living room, I'm just in time to see Cupcake projectile puke all over her bouncy seat and...oh yeah, my carpet. I cleaned her up and put her in the high chair to chill. She didn't burp well and I thought maybe she choked trying to get air up. Nope. I go back to check on her two minutes later and she's puked again. Then again when I put her on the changing table to clean her up. I'm drowning in laundry from said puking now. Now I'm officially having a bad day.

Ugh. If anything else goes wrong today, I'm crawling in a hole and forgetting I exist.

Pumpkin Cake Recipe and Camping

Well, it's raining cats and dogs outside right now and as of 5pm tonight Hubby and Chicken will be camping with The Boyfriend and his dad. Supposedly the rain is supposed to let up by this afternoon but it's still going to be soggy for them. Chicken doesn't really know what "camping" is but he's excited anyway. He's really been a daddy's boy lately, so he's going to love the one on one. I'm hoping it's a phase. I'm also hoping it's not that he's still a little angry that Cupcake gets a lot of my attention. But I've gotten the impression more than once that he's angry with me.

Punky is getting into the terrible three's. I can tell pretend play is becoming very real to her and she's started getting angry when Chicken messes with her "sleeping" baby dolls. This morning they were both squealing at each other and I walk in to see what's going on and she has Chicken in a headlock screaming, "No, Chicken, don't touch my BABYYYYYYYYY!" If hadn't intervened, she would've taken him down. But trust me when I say the terrible three's won't last long. She's a smart kid and she'll understand Mommy means business when she says not to act a certain way.

And for fall tradition I wanted to post an insanely easy pumpkin cake recipe that my in-laws taught me:

1 box of spice cake mix
1 can of pumpkin
1 cup of milk chocolate chips (optional)
1 container of cool whip

Mix the spice cake mix and pumpkin together (and chocolate chips if you choose) and spread into a greased 9X13 pan. Batter will be thick and hard to spread but put as evenly in the pan as you can. Bake according to package or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Once cake is cooled, spread with cool whip. It's REALLY good and it's weight watcher friendly - if you leave out the chocolate chips! If you try it, I hope you enjoy!

Happy fall everyone!

Need a hair bow?

I think we're all better...for now. Apparently it's going around. Another little girl in Punky's bible class got sick last night so as usual, we're spreading the love. Thankfully, Punky and Chicken were only sick yesterday morning and they acted relatively normal the rest of the day. I felt REALLY bad last night but had some left over nausea medicine from pregnancy that I took and went to bed. I woke up feeling ok this morning. Of course, I had a migraine yesterday, too, so that could explain the nasty stomach.

In other news, I finally got my ebay store set up. You can access it here. I'm going to be adding a ton of new stuff soon, so hopefully I'll start getting some traffic really soon. I'm anxious to get started. Hubby even ordered me a polo shirt with my logo on it for craft shows. How cool is that? Thanks Hubby!

That's really it for today. Got lots of stuff going on and I'm avoiding doing it just by blogging and wasting time online. Hopefully when the kids go down for their nap I can finish up a few of the items on my to do list!

Not Cupcake but Punky!

So apparently my record for sleeping at night lately is limited to 4 night stretches. Murphy is back and residing at my house during germ season. I love it when that happens. After two hospitalizations in the last 18 months with my two eldest, I figure we're gearing up for another rough winter.

Cupcake slept through the night again...she's now broken her own record I'm happy to say. But....

Punky came into our room at 5:30 this morning acting funny. She said she had to pee pee but I knew she was acting weird and was pretty pale. She started shaking and acting like she was about to throw up. I let her stand there for a minute but she never did anything. Then she told me her stomach hurt and she had to potty. Thinking maybe she had to poop, I put her up there but she still didn't do anything. She's been known to stall so I finally went to grab her off the potty and she pushed me away and acted like she was scared and said she had to pee pee. I gave her a minute more then she got down. I sent her back to bed. It wasn't more than 30 minutes later I heard the telltale wail from her room and knew she was puking. This happened three times and when she was done with her off and on puking it was 7:25 and time to start our day.

I sat down and wrote the first sentence of this post and heard Chicken wailing. Yup, he was throwing up, too.

They both had breakfast and are acting relatively normal. I keep waiting for them both to start going at it again, but so far so good. I'm not keeping my hopes up though. Hubby is already gone for the day and since Murphy knows me so well, he MUST know of my phobia of puke and will do whatever it takes to make sure I have to face it on my own. But see, his plan is backfiring...the more I'm exposed to it the more I'm able to handle it. I actually held back Punky's hair this morning (when I'm normally cowering in the corner of another room until it's over).

Take that Murphy, you jerk....

Now on to my morning cup of tea. I'm already three point five hours into my day and I'm exhausted.

Hotdog, I think she's got it!

Cupcake started rolling over about 3 weeks ago stomach to back. She would ball up her legs underneath her and kick so she would flip over on her back. It's the funniest thing! But of course, that opened up a whole new can of worms in the sleep department. I've gone against the rules and put all of my reflux babies on their stomach's early. They've all learned to roll over stomach to back fairly quickly. But the problem is, it's usually MONTHS before they learned to roll back to stomach so in the mean time they're like turtle's on their backs and their eyes pop wide open and they will not go back to sleep. None of my kids got used to sleeping on their back until they were old enough to roll onto their tummy if they weren't comfy.

I stopped swaddling Cupcake about a week and a half ago and moved her to her bedroom four nights ago. I started putting her on her stomach to sleep at night instead of swaddled on her back, resigned to the fact she probably still wouldn't sleep through the night since she can still flip over. Surprisingly, the night she turned 3 months old, October 17th, she's slept through the night and hasn't offered to flip over in her sleep...YET. I know it's probably coming, though.

Cupcake is a certified thumb sucker. I've always wanted a thumb sucker as it insanely adorable and it keeps them little longer. I know I'll regret this when she's say 12 and still doing it, but right now it's nice. She refuses pacifiers now and only needs her thumb to go to sleep. I don't even have to rock her although I admit I do just to have some one on one time with her. Life is too short to stress about her getting used to falling asleep on me every day. I know she won't. After three kids, holding her a few times a week until she falls asleep will not a habit make. All of my kids have healthy sleep habits.

So for four nights now, she's slept through the night, 7 am to 7 pm. Four nights is her record, we'll see tonight if she's got it for sure. Unfortunately for me, I'm suffering from some kind of allergy crud (we all are except Hubby, the lucky dog), and I haven't got to really feel rested yet. It'll be nice when I'm feeling better and can wake up all refreshed. Right now I still feel like I've been hit by a truck. Cupcake even has it, too, as I suctioned bloody snot from her nose this morning. Looks like she's going to have the family allergies, too. And of course, a stopped up nose in an infant has the potential to break our new pattern of sleep, so I'm really hoping it doesn't get any worse than it is right now!

A tough weekend

We go to a church of over 300 people. Not long ago we lost a dear sister in Christ who had touched many lives. Since then, we've found out so many more have cancer - one who is fighting a battle (and winning so far) of advanced lung cancer. This past week, we found out one of our elders has a brain tumor. He's only in his 50's, too. This man is one of the smartest men I know. He's so nice and educated about God and has taught many people. Why his brain? Why should he have to go through that when this man IS his brain? We will probably never know God's reason and probably aren't supposed to know but I can tell you that each day we're given is a blessing. Every smile from our children, every hug, every I love you. My biggest fear is dying before my children are grown and never seeing them become Christian adults. I get angry with mother's who take their children for granted. Who stand in our church building and complain because they're selfish and didn't get to do the things they planned on doing. Everyone has bad days, I get that. At some point, we all wish we had more time for ourselves.

But I can say with 210% certainty that not one day has gone by with each of my kids that I haven't thanked God for my children. Not one day hasn't gone by that I haven't thanked him for all the many blessings I have in my life, regardless of the kind of day I've had. I'll admit sometimes I don't necessarily feel blessed on a morning like I had in my previous post, but that doesn't mean I'm not. I'm human and therefore have selfish days where I would love a few hours to myself to write, to do my nails, to soak in a hot bath, but that doesn't mean I would change my life in any way, shape or form.

When faced with our very certain mortality, I stop and appreciate everything I've been given. Seeing these loving, special families go through these difficult times is hard for me, so I can't even fathom what it's like for them. It could easily be my family or someone we're close to. We could be next. We just never know. Why waste a day letting other very human things bother us when, in the grand scheme of things, we have only one goal and that's to get to heaven? Does it really matter that the dishes aren't done or the laundry isn't folded and put away? Does it really matter you haven't dusted or vacuumed?

So all of you reading this: Go hug your loved ones. Look them in the eye and tell them how much they mean to you. None of us are guaranteed tomorrow or even an hour from now. Write them a letter, just do something. We often take the people closest to us for granted.

This man who has only 6-15 months to live lovingly places coffee and toast on the kitchen table for his wife every morning. He teaches people the word of God. He fulfilled his christianly duties by serving God as an elder of our congregation. He's leaving behind three children and several grandchildren. He's lived an amazing life from what I've heard. And he will fight with everything in him until his body can fight no more.

Are we fighting to make sure each day counts? Are we doing all that we can do so that tomorrow, if we're diagnosed with a fatal brain tumor we have no regrets? Have we lived our life in accordance with God's will so we can look forward to the day we're with Him in heaven?

I hope we all meet each other there.

Can I start the day over?

5:49 am: Cupcake wakes up for her normal fussy spell for 30 minutes. Must.figure.out.how.to.stop.

5:51 am: Hubby removes himself from our bedroom to take up residence with his new best friend - Couch.

6:20 am: Cupcake finally settles back down and finds her thumb. Must.figure.out.how.to.help.her.realize.its.attached.

6:35 am: I finally fall back to sleep. Need.Sleep.

6:45 am: Punky comes in bedroom butt naked. Note to self: Don't let her wear zip up footy pajamas anymore.

6:46 am: Redress Punky, put her back to bed and threaten her within an inch of her life if she gets out of bed again. No one in our house is allowed to be up before 7 am. It's grounds for adoption.

6:50 am: Sleeping soundly.

7:10 am: Hubby comes in after his lovely night of sleep and gets in the shower. Complete with hacking, clearing of the throat and dropping of the soap - which by the way has the potential to give you a heart attack when you're half asleep.

7:15 am: Pass out from exhaustion regardless of noises coming from elsewhere.

7:50 am: Cupcake wakes up again ready to start her morning. Hubby exits the shower - seriously, what can a bald man have to do in the shower for FORTY MINUTES? We've been married 7 years and I still haven't figure it out yet.

7:55 am: See Punky's light on in her room. Can't.be.good. Find her in her room making "bows" with my craft wire and ribbon I left on the kitchen table last night. Wire is everywhere. Guess she'll be carrying on the family "business."

8:30 am: Down a large cup of tea for a jolt of caffeine I'm seriously going to need before the end of the day.

TGIF.

Puppy Dog Tales

Hubby helped me get started setting up my ebay store. I'm excited to get my little "business" off the ground. We did well at the craft show with our hair bows and now I'm extending to dog bows. It's unreal the people we saw. Can you believe we had 4 people ask us for dog bows? D.O.G. bows. Now, I understand the empty-nesters might cling to a dog to fill the void, but these were families with children to take care of. How do they find time to dress themselves, their children AND their dog? I reckon they're just stupid, eh, super talented like that. And why not capitalize on their stupidity, er, interests?

Now, I love animals. I really do. I used to be the proud owner of two of the sweetest little cats you've ever seen. But I had Punky and the cats got shipped off to a good home. I simply couldn't take care of it all, not to mention I couldn't stand all the cat hair wedged between her chubby little fingers. Super woman I am not. But I mean these crazy, um, eccentric people had STROLLERS for their dogs...yeah! I'm not kidding. A stroller with a zip up visor to "protect" them from the sun. Good grief. Oh, and not only that, a man walked by with a medium sized dog strapped in a dog snugli. D.O.G. S.N.U.G.L.I. What happened to letting the dogs walk? Is American going to be the leading country for obese dogs now, too?

I'm sorry, but I'm just overwhelmed by some people. I do think the little dogs that are furry are cute with one little bow in their hair. If I was ever dumb enough to get another animal and it was one of those, I'd probably stick a bow in it's hair some time. But a stroller? A snugli? Sorry, now I know why the economy is going to pot and that's because people are wasting their money on that kind of junk and can't pay for their house. C'mon people. Feed your dogs. Walk 'em. Love 'em. Stick a bow in their hair and I'll even give you a sweater in the winter but leave it at that. A dog is a dog is a dog. IS.A.STINKIN. DOG.

So, if you need infant, toddler or dog bows, I'm your gal. 'Cause after all, they're one in the same, right?

Never EVER tell a toddler...

...that you're taking her to see the Nutcracker (aka Ballerinas) during Christmas BEFORE Halloween.

That's all that needs saying about that.

Because I have nothing witty to say...

I'm going to post just a general update of our very mundane life...

Ok, so in 8 weeks, I've lost approximately 5.5 lbs. Not great, but at least my butt hasn't found that many extra pounds, either. I did really good this last week and it paid off, 1.5 pounds of that total this past week alone. I'm finally able to see a difference in my pants and I'm back into my size 8's that I wore right after Punky was born. As a whole, I'm satisfied. I'm not able to exercise and I'm losing based on nothing but my eating habits. Not too shabby. Once I'm back in the 130's I'll be even happier. That means the 120's are getting closer!

Of course, if I had been die hard about my eating over the last 8 weeks, it would have been a lot more. I haven't really counted my points to a T. On weekends I cheat...a lot. Like when we go out to eat and Hubby suggests a cookie. Do ya think I'm going to turn it down? You enabler, you. Don't get me wrong, he's been great about reminding me of my points, but he had a weak moment last night after I had cheated already once that day and got me that stinkin' cookie at McAlister's. Enabler. Yes, you, dear Hubby.

The kiddos are still on a mission to make sure my patience run thin every day. Cupcake has been screaming through her feedings. i thought I had it figured out (aka, she just wasn't hungry!) and moved her to a four hour schedule. Well, she's doing much better, but she's still having a feeding or two a day that she doesn't want to eat more than a few ounces. She's the total antithesis of my first two. Already rolling over, too, which makes naptime (as she sleeps on her stomach) interesting. She flips over and can't get back to her stomach yet so she's good an awake by the time I run interference.

Punky has got potty training whipped. She even goes to pee herself half the time without me knowing. She'll come to where ever I am with her pants and underwear in tow, "Mommy, I already went pee pee!" Ain't nothing cuter than her bare little bubble butt. Just makes me want to pinch it.

Speaking of pinching, some days I want to pinch Chicken's head off, but he's been doing pretty good lately. I can't complain, but I do think most of the credit goes to Hubby. He's taken the wheel with him and gotten him in line. Today was the first day in awhile that I've had to discipline him and even then it was because he was doing something Punky initiated. Be a leader, not a follower, Son!

Well, it's about time for my soaps (wouldn't be a SAHM if I didn't watch them!) so I must go!

The truth about lies...

So it's no secret that Punky had trouble potty training. It's also no secret that she lied many times to us about whether or not she had to go or if she had already gone. Often times, we would explain to her that what she said to us was a lie and make sure she knew she wasn't supposed to tell them. I questioned how much she understood, but since we never KNOW, I forged ahead and didn't use the old excuse, "she's just too young to understand."

Fast forward to today. After lunch we have a daily Bible study and sing songs. They love playing "bible class" with me and it's their own special time with me where I won't let anything interrupt us. It's made me feel better about spending more time with them and in the process they learn about God. What better way to utilize our time together?

We've been studying about Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Esau. Today's lesson focused on how Jacob lied to Isaac when he was old and pretended to be Esau so he could get nice things. At the end of the lesson, it has follow-up questions about what I just read to them. Punky's a pretty smart little cookie and can tell you the correct answers to almost all of them. The question today was: Why did Jacob lie to his father? Punky looked at me and thought a minute.

"Because he poo pooed."

Lots of things to think about...

I had a very busy week preparing for a craft show to sell my hairbows in and keeping up with my kids.

As for the farting breadsticks...it's actually nothing very unique. I just thought it made for a good game. Spinster made the comment that after she ate at Olive Garden, she farted breadsticks (smellwise) for a week. I found that hilarious and told her that was going to be the subject of my next blog. She reads this and we all thought at the time it was hilarious. With a little time since then, I can see the reveal is probably a let down, if not gross to most of you. I promise I don't have an obsession with passing gas, it just happens to be something that happens quite frequently in my house (Hubby!) and the subject of many good laughs. What else is funnier than your butt cheeks flapping together to make a sound!?!?! ;oD

Something interesting happened to me yesterday. I have an account with myspace.com and I had a friend request from someone that I guess you could say was an enemy in high school. Not really enemy, I had no beef with her other than she was a bully to me and I was too chicken and insecure to stand up to her. She was an ex's girlfriend who took a liking to making my life miserable. If only she could have been in my shoes for a week...she would have never said or done the things she did. I understand that insecure people are the ones who bully most of the time, and I did feel sorry for her. People told me she had a bad home life and such. My ex boyfriend was probably the only thing she had to hold on to.

The funny thing was, I think she thought I still wanted to date the ex. We were "together" from 8th grade until 10th. It was a very innocent relationship. I was miserable with him and didn't know how to break it off as it was my first real relationship. He cried every time I tried to end it, manipulated me until I gave in. I even had physical problems from the stress of the relationship. The moment I finally put my foot down, my life was instantly better and I never looked back.

During my 11th and 12th grade years, the years this person made things unbearable, I was depressed, got a mild form of what I would call anorexia (but that's really exaggerating - I was just so stressed out with my life I never thought to eat and if I did, I didn't have an appetite), but I did get down to 90 pounds at my lowest point, and I thought a lot about what things would be like if i hadn't been born. I had a new boyfriend that at the time helped me through it. Turns out that relationship was quite toxic, too, but in a totally different way. This was all compounded by the monstrous problems I had with my mother and her verbal abuse and an absent father. Those years were the worst of my life but yet looking back, they were some of the best times, too. I'm still not sure how that works but maybe it was the newness of life, of beginning adulthood, new relationships, discovering life. I made drum major of my high school band those years, too, and it was an accomplishment that I was so proud of. I had never really accomplished much and that was something I had my sights set on since I joined the high school band in 8th grade. I got a scholarship to Jacksonville State University my senior year for the band playing the flute, and I was the only one from my class. I never used it in the end, but I know that was the path I was supposed to take now.

I guess my question is, how do you get over it? I try not to hold grudges and I know this person is probably completely different. I just obsess over what I could have done differently, things I could have said to make her understand how she hurt me. People like her are one of the major reasons I personally decided to homeschool my kids when they're old enough. I know you can't shelter kids from bullies, they're everywhere, but I can certainly keep from ruining their whole high school experience just because they're focused on a bully instead of learning. If I hadn't been bullied I wonder where things might have gone. Who I could have been. What I could have done. The confidence I would have now. I might not have cried so much. I might have cared a little more in college and actually finished. I might have done something great.

Don't get me wrong, I had friends. I enjoyed what I could. I cherish the friends I had in high school that made me laugh when I felt so low. Stuck by me even though I was a total downer and pessimist. Yes, I was the "outcast" of that "group" I was, but they never really made me feel that way. I just knew I was. That's kind of carried over into my adult life, too. I don't really fit in anywhere, despite my effort to the contrary. I guess in a way you could say the bully won. I hate to even admit that, and she wasn't the only reason I say that, either. My mother had a lot to do with who I am now, too. She was a big contributor to the low self worth and pessimism.

I guess you could say I have done something great, though. I'm a mother, the only thing I really wanted to be when I was little. I have a great husband, one who deserves much better than me. We have a great marriage, although it's not without it's faults. We have a great life together. I have friends. Not many CLOSE friends, but friends who tolerate me even though I am who I am. I'm not like them, but I've accepted that. But most of all, I'm not the person I used to be in high school. Yes, I'm still needy emotionally, yes I'm still more insecure than any adult should be, but I'm a totally different person. I have a faith in God that I didn't have ten years ago. I have a positive reinforcement, called Hubby who grounds me most of the time, although I'd never admit it to him. I'm not around my mother much anymore although I still crave a relationship I know I will never have. I haven't talked to my father in 3 years and haven't seen him in over 7. I've eliminated most of the toxicity from my life. But that still doesn't heal the scars or wipe the stains away.

Did I accept her friend request? I did, on principle alone. BECAUSE I'm not the same person. I can forgive her for the things she said. We were young and immature. She made the first move and that proves she's different. I haven't thought about her in years. She has a little girl now and is apparently pregnant again. Just hearing from her brought up all these feelings I never want to think about again. I wonder, too, if she's afraid for her children to go through what she put me through? Or is she training them to be a mini-me and carry on the tradition? Has she had someone in her life like I have with my husband who changes her life and makes it better so she doesn't think about those things anymore? Has she found a peace within herself about what she did to me and probably others? For her children's sake, I hope she has. Not many people can rise above their raising. It takes a strong character and lots of humbleness and encouragement from others to want to change, much less make it happen.

As the years have gone by, ten in fact, I realize I'll never get those precious years back that molded and shaped me into who I am today. They were spent wishing them away, for better days. For a better life. Well, I'm there. Welcome to the present with my three beautiful children, my wonderful husband and a life I never dreamed possible ten years ago. I won't waste these days away wishing for something else. I won't let anyone in who doesn't belong. Not anymore. My kids deserve better than what I had and I'll give it to them no matter what it costs.

Were you bullied? If you were, how did you get over it?