We're finished throwing up!

Well, Mom's birthday was a success. I think everyone had a good time and no one stayed too long so that she could get some rest afterward.

It was great to see my sister and her family. I don't get to see any of them nearly enough. The girls are getting so big.

When we were all there Dad had what he thought was a pinched nerve.......turned out to be Shingles! So, now he can't take care of Mom because she can't be exposed until he's no longer contagious. The good news is that he seems to have gotten his meds at just the right time and is healing nicely. Melissa is riding down here with them in the motorhome on Tuesday, then flying home. Mom and Dad are going to stay for an extended visit (until she has to be back for her next Dr. appt.)

In addition to all the shingle drama, we all, except R, had some sort of stomach virus this week and the entire week was spent with one or more of us throwing up in 48 hr. increments. Poor R was so tired one morning I was trying to get W to eat a cracker at about 6am in our bed (where he had "slept") R rolled over, looked at us and asked if I had given him his enzymes before I fed him that cracker! Now, mixing up which one of your kids has CF...........that's tired!

Wednesday, F had her first ballet class since she was 4. She was so incredibly excited. She loves ballet. It is a 1.5 hr. class. They do ballet 30 min, tap 30 min. and gymnastics the last 30.

I bought new patio furniture today. It is one of those all weather "wicker" conversation sets with the loveseat, 2 chairs and little coffee table. I have been looking at them for at least 6 months now and the sale was really great. (R calls that woman math......"Don't look at what I spent, honey. Look at all the money I SAVED buying this set")

They are all making leaps and bounds with their swimming. F and W go to the bottom of the 8ft side to fish out diving rings now.

It is so hot here! I went to the grocery store Tuesday. One of the things I bought was cresent rolls.......lots of cresent rolls (sale again) from the freezer section. As I stepped out of the store.....didn't even get to the curb, I heard a POP! One of the cans exploded from the temp. change. Two more popped while I was loading the groceries into the car, and another one popped taking them into the house! That last can, we had with dinner, the other 3 were trash.

Faith's vest is on it's last leg. I emailed the vest company tonight. Hopefully it will hold out until we can get another one delivered.

Yaayy WW

Self fullfiling prophecy!............that's the term I was struggling with last night to describe my GG.

Given the fact that R and I are both Pisces, it shouldn't be any surprise that I gave birth to fish..., but it was to me.
More swimming today W was able to jump into the deep end of the pool and swim the distance lengthwise by himself. I am so proud of him. He has been the one that has had to overcome the most fear about the whole swimming thing, but he did it today. He also read quite a bit of his HOP this morning. At first he wanted to call Daddy and Grandaddy to tell them. He told Daddy by phone, but decided to wait to surprise Grandaddy this weekend.....(Dad, if he loses his resolve to wait and calls you, the swimming is what he is talking about)

I think our GG has an iron lung. She hasn't figured out the whole come up for air then go back under to swim thing, so she just swims underwater all the time. Never wanting to be outdone, she swims over half the length of the pool underwater. She can hold her breath longer than any of them. Oh, she is also the only one that swims without goggles and a nose plug. None of those sissy crutches for her! Of course she is still the most brave (foolhearty) one, so now she thinks she can really swim and will get into trouble easily. None of them want to ever wear their swimmies any longer, so my stress level has increased trying to watch them all at the same time.

R called me today to ask me what I thought of Detroit and/or Philly......Are you serious, really? We just closed on the house in Atlanta last week! Besides, neither one of them can compare to Melbourne, house situation not withstanding. He said he wasn't REALLY considering anything, but it was nice to be asked.

That was our day. Love to you all!

I'm Baaack!

A friend of mine emailed last week to see if he was having techincal problems with the site because the last posting he could read was at the end of April. It's been a tough couple of months. In May, I went to PC to help take care of my mom for two and a half weeks. That was REALLY hard. My MIL (the greatest MIL in the world) came to help R take care of the kids while I was gone. It was hard to see my mom in her condition and it was really tough missing my babies. I haven't ever been away from any of them for even half that long before.

Mom is still hanging in there. Daddy is taking really good care of her with "shifts" of help from one of my aunts, my sister and me. My aunt came when I left and my sister arrived today with her family. She will stay two weeks. Her family will stay one. We are all going up later this week to celebrate Mom's bday on Saturday and be with Daddy on Sunday for Fday.

I do finally have some good news to post....we closed on our house in Atlanta last week! Yaaayyy! There were some last couple of weeks melodrama involved because the LP HOA was insane enough to approve a reality show being filmed in our neighborhood. What idiots! The pictures are unreal of what they've done to one of the streets. ..one that you have to drive down to get to our house. Anyway, we were really afraid that the buyers might back out if they drove in for some inspection and saw the debacle. They didn't though, and everything closed as planned. I think as far as home sales go, it was a really smooth one. There are some real nightmare stories out there right now of buyers asking for totally unreasonable and unheard of things, but they were really nice. Of course we lost money, but that was expected since we bought in 2004. There was a page of things found by the home inspector......most minor. They asked that we fix the 2 major ones, we agreed and that was that. It was nice to cancel that autopayment out of the checking acct..

We took the kids to the beach on Saturday. It was the first time since my last post of their ingratitude. The big thing that day was that we saw a sea turtle swimming about 10 yds out from where we were. I don't think I've ever seen one at the beach before, R neither. F wanted to make sure that I included that in my blog tonight. She is going to write about it in her journal tomorrow. She occasionally makes entries and always says she's blogging like Mommy.

Today's big event was W's first trip to children's chapel. It was sad, but not the melodrama that F's first visit was. He had a great time and wants to go back too.......booo! I guess it's a little easier to let go of the second one, plus, he was walking out hand in hand with F so it wasn't like I was throwing him to the wolves. I knew she would take good care of him. My lap was emtpy since both of "mine" were gone. I tried to get G to sit in my lap, but she wouldn't. Her behavior made me wish she was old enough to go, herself....probably not going to have a hard time with that one when she turns 4:) Occasionally, F lifts her hands during the singing in church (not as often as before) but it's so sweet when she does. G raised one of her hands during song today...the one that was holding her baby. For some reason, instead of the vision of the godly servant praising her Lord that F seems to look like, I got this visual of G at a rock concert holding up that baby yelling "Freebird!" Wow, I am really burdening her with some low expectations for life. I should really raise my standards for her before she live up to the potential that her mother has put upon her......and we end up paying for some REALLY expensive therapy:)

Oh, big news on the swimming front. F swims without her floaties on a regular basis now. She jumps in and swims across the pool on her own. I no longer worry about her falling in and drowning. W and G are coming along pretty well too. They can both swim half way across (lengthwise) on their own. G totally underwater and W a little of both. Of course this is really the dangerous time for them to be unattended or sneak out on us because now they all have some sort of false sense of security thinking they can really swim. At least before, they knew they couldn't swim and were afraid to go near the pool without lifejackets or swimmies on. Thankfully, R and I are both really paranoid/overprotective parents............see, I knew those traits would end up as positives sooner or later.

F and R went to their first father/daughter dance a week ago. He took her to her favorite "straunt" the Red Lobster for dinner beforehand. I will post a picture. They were both precious.

Mom, Dad and Aunt Charlene came the same weekend for a few days. It was super to have them here. I am hoping that Mom and Dad will come back after my sister leaves to stay with us for an extended visit. Mom was reluctant at first, but the visit went so well, I'm hoping she will be open to coming back for a longer time. I will post a picture of them from their visit too.

Oh, the funniest thing! The babies have new nicknames. Last week we were discussing chimpanzees. They wanted to see pictures, I found a website of a chimp sanctuary with several pictures. There were a lot of chimps. I found 2 girls and one boy.....all born in the same years as the kids and showed them the pictures. F's chimp is Charlotte, W's, Nelson and G's, Lily. Now they say that they ARE the chimps and call each other and ask others (us) to call them the names too. G messed up the word chimpanzee, so now they are Charlotte, Nelson and Lily

Ch PON' zee. (rhymes with Fonzie)

Also, I think there has been a couple of zoo visits since the end of April, so you can see a pic of that too.

That should just about bring everyone up to date. Hopefully, I can post again in a more timely manner.

Sunday night

Well, I figured out last night that the CF walk, here is Saturday! Yeah, I kind of let it slip up on me this year with everything else going on. Oh, well, we do what we can do....go to the fightcfforfaith link (above) to donate, in case you are reading this and didn't get the email.

I discovered last Thursday the length of time that it takes for the honeymoon to wear off for the beach and children. Approximately six months. These are a few of the things I had to listen to after I loaded up half of this house to take those ingrates to the beach: "It's too hot" Will won't share the shade"(of the umbrella) "Sand is on your hands, I'm gonna get a sandrash" (applying sunscreen) "I don't want any suncream" (different child) "There is sand in my potato chips"...Yes, that's what happens when you dump the entire can into the sand..........FOUR times! "I wanna go home!" That last one was G for the last 25 minutes we were there.......wailing at the top of her lungs. Oh, yeah, and this is a good one.. Me:"Of course there's sun, of course there's sand..........it's the beach! What did we come here for?" Faith:"to bodyboard and go swimming" Me: "Well then, GO!" All 3 in unison: "the water's too cold" I would like to point out that these are the same maniacs that were swimming in the Atlantic in December!

I guess they have aclimated to being true Floridians and now it's too cold at the end of April:)

Friday, we went to the library. They are so funny to me: Their favorite section: The nonfiction science. F wants all the ocean books right now and W wants all the space books. I know it's the area we have moved to. I heard another Mommy at the park on Friday tell someone that her daughter wants to be an astronaut when she grows up. I can't say I really heard that a lot (at all) in Atlanta. Oh, this is the cutest and funniest thing. G wants to be a "Stilts Person" when she grows up. Ask her why, "Because I want to make people smile" Isn't that the sweetest, odd little girl in the world? Oh, I LOVE three! It's my favorite age.

Friday night I went to a clothing exchange at church. I met a few other women there and am feeling a bit more like I'm not completely alone here. (Except for R and the babies, of course)

Saturday we all just lounged by the pool and enjoyed a nice relaxing day.......Those are few and far between around here. Today, church and yardwork....oh, I saw another snake when I was weedeating. It wasn't a poisonous one, but still. What is that? Two snakes in 3 weeks? Gage was a total pain in the ass, but at least we didn't see any snakes while he was in the yard!

Maybe there's a service where you can just rent a hunting dog for the day to run through your yard....Of course, that would mean it would kill all our cute little bunnies. They are pretty brave, but not brave enough that I worry about the kids getting too close to get bitten or anything. Actually, the snake was trying to get away from me (well, the weedeater) when I saw him too. It was a big joke when we moved here, but now, I'm a little worried about the rainy season and alligators in the yard.

Lung culture results

The CF center called with F's lung culture results. She, once again, only grew out normal lung flora.....YAAAYYYYYYY!
Mom seemed tired, but not yet sick from her ordeal today.
The floors are ALMOST done on the other side of the house.
All good news for today

Floor pictures

Here are the floor pictures, as promised. Now, F's room is done, minus the closet, W's room is done, and G's room is 3/4 done. I painted the quarter-round to put at the edges, but none of it has been done. Overall, R's done a fantastic job!

Reality check: I'm not being too strict a disciplinarian for insisting that they NOT throw food at one another at the table am I? I didn't really think so. What are those people thinking? I know who's coming to mind here.....W and G...........Nope, it's F and W! F is going through some particularly rebellious phase right now. Not sure why, but hope I figure it out soon before I have to do bodily harm:)

Mom re-starts her chemo tomorrow. I spoke to her tonight and she is in good spirits about the whole thing. Please pray for her and my Dad.

Dr. Appts.

F and Mom both had Dr. appts. yesterday.
F is up to 42 pounds, her allergies are bothering her, so Zyrtec has been added to her regiem. The PFT machine was down, so no scores there and we have to wait until next week for her lung cultures. Overall, I think it was a good appt. since they scheduled her next one for 3 months. If there were something that concerned them, we would be due back sooner. Her next appt is the yearly with all the tests at the hospital.
Mom had a somewhat positive appt. She still has cancer in 3 lymph nodes and the ribs, but is starting chemo on Monday. It is still too soon to Petscan her brain since that radiation just ended, but her swelling is down so much that they are taking her off of all the steroids. She will do chemo in 2 wk. increments instead of the normal 3. Then petscan again in 6-8 weeks.
F's bedroom, and the hall are done with the wood. We started on W's tonight. I am so pleased with the floors. I know it will not only be more pleasing to the nose, but will be so much healthier for the kids. W's allergies have been really bad every morning lately and even G has had some sniffling. I took pictures and will try to post them soon.

Happy Easter

Christ has risen!...The Lord has risen indeed!

Hope you all had a good Easter. We began with the standard basket, chocolate celebration; then on to church. Why do we do that to our kids? Give them chocloate for bfast, then expect them to sit still in church for an hour and a half? After that it was lunch, egg hunting, swimming, trip to Lowes. We went to Lowes to get the wood flooring for R to install on the kid's side of the house.

Here are some pics of our day:

Maundy Thursday

Well, happy Maundy Thursday, and you're probably reading this tomorrow, so Happy Good Friday. MUST we call it that? I always have a difficult time with that name. F asked me this week why we call it that. I himmed and hawwed over some official religious explanation someone told me once, but the truth is, I feel the same way, so I don't think I was that convincing. Our new church is hosting an Easterfest on Saturday for the community complete with an egg hunt, bouncy house, clowns, face painting and pony rides etc. The kids (my baby goats, I hate that word everytime I use it for them, but it's so common....) and I volunteered at the church today stuffing candy bags and preparing flyers for parents about the church. I was so proud of them...yeah, I know, one of the seven deadly's....but they really were extraordinary. F and W actually finished a job that I wasn't even sure they should've been entrusted to handle together in record time. Even GG was helpful once I gave her direction that a three yr. old could understand.
We colored eggs today...2 dozen. We are providing potato salad and deviled eggs for the above event, so I figured we could use them for that. They wanted to "play" with them afterward, so we went to Target to get plastic eggs for playing. As you know, all the packages come in the same colors: blue, orange, pink, purple, green and yellow. Of course our babies immediately divided by color. The color coding in our house does help to make life easier in a lot of ways, but sometimes it gets annoying. Oh, funny F story...she is such a literal child. I told her today to fill the bags at church with one piece of candy in every bag. She actually opened a snack package of Easter M&M's and started putting one M&M in every bag! Poor legalistic F. She is too much like me sometimes. I remember when the nurse told me to breastfeed on each side for 20 minutes with her. Of course, I did, for 20, ............everytime...not 19, not 21, but 20 exactly. I think I was actually on the second child, W, when it occured to me that the 20 minutes was an "about" 20.
Oh, I have to share the most moving youtube video with you I have ever seen. It's also very appropriate to the day.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naajYZSbWdw
Please go to this link and take the few minutes...it will be worth it.
We missed out on the range. The guy sold it to someone else before we were able to get it. I am dissapointed, but am trying to see it as God intervening to save us from ourselves. We all need that sometimes.
I do still want the floors done.
Well, happy Easter in case I don't get back before then.

Palm Sunday

Happy beginning of Holy week! We began the day with church and ran some errands afterwards. R is considering laying hardwood himself in the kid's wing and our room. I am really happy about the prospect of having it done, but am not sure how he's going to do this and work too. We should make friends with this project taking a while:) I'm not sure how I ended up even searching this, but I found a gas range on Craigslist that I am in love with. Me! In love with a range....actually, as soon as I saw it, I thought "Oh, R will LOVE this!" http://spacecoast.craigslist.org/hsh/1092828651.html
R called the guy today and apparently the reason this 8000.00 dollar range is available at this low price is due to a home forclosure. They must have been some of the people who's homes we looked at when shopping for a home that were forclosures and gutted as much as possible by the former owners. Of course the main problem with this range is the extended size. We will have to cut out counter and cabinet space. Then, the rest of our appliances are white, and will have to be changed to stainless. This will force the cabinet upgrade, too, then the countertops will need to be granite..... You can see where this is going, can't you? It will be "the range that the whole kitchen is designed around". We wanted to make all these changes when we bought the house anyway, so this is not completely out of left field, but all home improvements were put on hold until our house in Atlanta sells...........and yes, it hasn't sold! So, we may just get it and set it in the garage for a while. Replacing the carpet is the priority right now. Although I don't like an electric stove, I can live with the one I have more than I can live with the carpet.

We went to the beach yesterday afternoon. What a relaxing afternoon...but only because I had the beach bag packed ahead of time. I have decided to just keep the bag packed except for the cold water the same way I used to keep the kid's backpacks packed in Atlanta so that we could leave at a moments notice if need be. Also, I finally got around to finding the library this afternoon and getting a card. The children are so funny about new library books.......it's like Christmas around here. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy they love books so much and that something free can make them so happy. It's just funny to me.

Catching up.....Once again

Well, last week was a nightmare. We found out that Mom's cancer has spread to her brain and almost lost her at one point, but she's a fighter, she was back and decorating before you knew it:) So, we are home again this week. My sister is with Mom and Dad. Also, my Dad's sister came to help.

F and I are both on antibiotics for some sort of throat thing.....hers has been accompanied with lots of "snotty" too. You haven't lived until you've seen a person with CF and a cold do a sinus rinse. It' hard to believe that all of that is in that child's head! G is trying to catch it, but can't really decide what she's going to do. W is surprisingly the healthy one this time.

R is back to work and things here have been pretty slow since I'm trying to nurse F. I thought I had Easter outfits picked out, but have changed. I wanted to make a bunch of pillowcase dresses for the girls to put on coming in and out of the pool, and leaving the beach. So, I got on ebay and started looking for inexpensive vintage embroidered pillowcases. I found a lot of cute ones this time including the ones I made into Easter dresses. Here are a couple of pictures:

Isn't that the most precious little pillowcase ever? It's hard to see as well in these pictures, but it has lavender crochet along the bottom and picture in the center is Jesus with a lamb in his arms and one sitting at his feet. Since they were pillowcases, there were two matching ones which was perfect. I went with lavender for the ties at the shoulders and found W the only lavender polo shirt on the entire internet in his size. So, now it's decided, lavender is the color for this Easter. What in the world will R wear?

F has her quarterly appt. in Tampa the week after Easter. I hope she is over this cold by then. I don't think I've ever taken her to this new care center without one. What an awful mother!

Summer came down with a case of tonsilitus the same day my throat started hurting so bad, so we really haven't spoken this week. Isn't that funny? She emailed me the night I couldn't speak to tell me that she had it and couldn't call the next day.

It's been really hot here this week and the pool is finally warm enough for Mommy to float on her raft IF no one splashes her:) Of course that's a big "if". That's about it for now.....I have to catch my Duggers!

Happy Birthday Aunt Joey!

After a tirade to the fence salesman and someone on his staff on Monday, the fence is finally done! Yaaay! Why do some people insist on not doing the right thing until I have to get ugly? The dog ran away, TWICE today. The first time he came back on his own in about 5 minutes...I don't go after him anymore. The second time (and I was sure he was gone for good this time) some nosy do gooder neighbor brought him home. How in the world did she find us? There are no tags on his collar! At the risk of sounding ungrateful, the poor woman went door to door until she found someone that told her they thought he was ours. If the kids hadn't been behind me in the doorway, and I'd have been a little faster on my toes, I would've said "No, I've never seen him before in my life."
G has 2 favorite new songs. One is the Veggie Tales theme song and the other is Zacchius. She loves for you to sing her the song, then read the story. It goes"Zacchius was a wee little man and a wee little man was he. He climbed up in the sicamore tree for the Lord he wanted to see. And as the saviour passed this way he looked up in the tree, and said "Zacchius! You come down, for I'm going to your house today" W heard me sing the song to her this afternoon and exclaimed, " That's just rude, telling somone you're going to their house when you haven't been invited!" How funny is that? I know Jesus has been thought of in many ways, but up until now, I've never heard him be referred to as rude!
The last two days of school have been rather light. Maybe we all need a Spring Break, what a great idea! Why didn't I think of that until now? I think we are all suffering from the lack of a grandparent in the house. We have had one or two with us since Christmas all but about 2 weeks. Come on grandparents, don't you want to come live in paradise? There is a house for sale in our cul de sac......

Sunday

R's mom left this morning. It was great to have her here......come back soon, Shoes! After that it was church and home for the afternoon of hanging out by the pool. Something remarkable happened this morning in church. You probably all remember the heart wrenching Children's Chapel post.....well, except for when we were out of town, she has chosen to go back every week. (BOO!) However, she is painfully shy and hasn't really spoken to anyone all this time. Well, after a pep talk from Mommy, yesterday, and a prayer this morning to Jesus to give her the strength to be brave enough to speak to another child, she came back a different child. When the kids come back into the sanctuary they all go to the front and talk about what they did and learned that morning before coming back to their seats. Needless to say, she has not chosen to participate in this little performance in front of the whole congregation and just sat off to the side. This morning she came in last, right in front of the teacher and I figured I was going to have to give the speech about how God always answers prayers, just sometimes he says "no" or "not yet". When they got to the front, they all stayed standing while the teacher asked them prompting questions. Well, she raised her hand for them all, and answered as many as the teacher would call on her to answer. Then.....THEN, she "passed the Peace" to the whole congregation. For all the non Anglicans/ Episcopalians/Catholics that's where normally the pastor says "May the peace of the Lord be always with you" and we all answer "And also with you" and then turn to our neighbors and wish them peace individually. In Baptist terms, it's more like when you are called to say "Good morning" to those around you. So, today, F was the one that said "Peace of the Lord be always with you"! Into the microphone and everything! Wow, when Jesus answers HER prayers, he REALLY comes through! Of course we (R and I) teared all up etc.....Apparently she made friends with a little girl named Sarah during CC, too.

G decided to trust her arm floaty things today. She said she wanted a pair (like her "pig kids"....no, not a typo, that's how she pronounces it) but wouldn't get off the steps with them on until this afternoon. I'm sure her "Diddy Daddy" jumping into the pool with them to play had a lot to do with it. BTW...he's a crazy man....that water is still COLD! W enjoyed playing in the pool, but other than that, had a bit of a whiny day. It started out badly when he forgot to bring his baby to church. (never had to get through a service without it before) Then lunch was a hassle, jumping in the trampoline was dramatic (still never found out what that was all about) and dinner began with tears too. He did finish strong and got a peanut butter milkshake for his reward. So, the pool was his only bright spot...poor little guy. Tomorrow is G's real bday. I cannot believe she will three. It seems like only yesterday I had three, three and under. We are going to have a light school day and then a trip to the beach.

Mom had her first chemo yesterday. (Well, for this round, anyway) She seems to feel much better with the drugs they are using this time. When I called to check on her last night, figuring I would just be talking to Daddy while she was passed out with all the subsequent drugs for nausea etc., but no, she was up.....couldn't come to the phone to speak to me because she was in the middle of cooking dinner! So, I called again this morning and spoke to her. So, all in all, a good day and fun plans for tomorrow.

Happy Third Birthday G O'Darby!

We had G's little party today. She was very pleased with everything and we all had a good time. R put up the trampoline for her today, F and I went to AG bookclub this morning, and other than that, it was a really laid back day. Here are some pictures.

Getting ready for the big bday

G's main present came in the mail today. I am so excited about this. She told me she wanted a girl Eddie for about a month. (She was putting in the context of when we go back to the baby hospital..) For those of you who don't know, Eddie is W's Cabbage Patch (splash) kid. I think, sure, how hard can that be to find? I am so glad I got on this last week because they have stopped making the things! I found two on amazon for 125.00 a piece and one on ebay with a 6 day auction. I emailed at the beginning of the auction asking for a BIN price because I didn't want to cut it so close to her bday. The owner emailed back saying there would be no BIN price for the item. So..I wait the 6 days and some odd hours which ended Sunday night. I came on with a couple of hours left before the end of the auction and was very pleasantly surprised to see that no one had bid on the thing all week! Of course I was still nervous for the next two hours thinking the bidding would go crazy in the last few minutes. BTW, the thing ended at 1130pm! Long story long, I ended up being the only bidder and got it for her starting price. I bet she was UNhappy. Of course I ended up paying more for the priority shipping that I needed at that point, but it was still a good deal. New and in the box! I hope she is excited as I am about the thing. I went to Target tonight and picked up a few more things for her.
G wanted to ride bikes this morning, so I took them out after we finished up with school. It was still in the AM and I was frying on the driveway pavement. Finally, I said, "Well, you kids let me know when you get too hot out here and we will go to the back and swim." Of course they all jumped on that, so it was much more pleasant after that. My point........it's only March and I was frying on the driveway like that egg (brain) on drugs! The county still hasn't come through with the building permit on the fence, so I'm annoyed about that. That's about all since yesterday.

GG's new hair

Keeping up with the "Joey's"

Well R's sister, Joanna updated her blog since her last posting on Halloween. Now the pressure is on. My MIL has been here for a week. We are all so happy to have her. The kids all love their "Shoes" and it has been a huge break for me! (oh yeah, I love her too:)) Thanks to Mom and Dad giving us their pool blanket, the kids have actually been swimming this week. Saturday was a day at the beach (literally) complete with sunburn! It was the first time they have really gotten to use the bodyboards they got for Christmas. F has a big motivation to stay healthy these days since she can't get into the water if she's sick. We got to go out w/out the babies on Saturday night, too, thanks again to Shoes. G's bday is the 16th, but we will celebrate this coming Sat. so that R's mom can be here for the party.....she is leaving Sunday...BOOOO! Thankfully, G's favorite color is "geen" so it's really easy to find decorations and such this month:)

Mom and Dad are still in Houston waiting for test results. Keep praying for good news.

Here are a few pics taken at the beach on Saturday.

two weeks later...

We were at Mom and Dad's for the past two weeks. No blogging..no time. Here is a picture that was taken on their livingroom couch. While we were there we went to the kids favorite park in the whole world.....Under the Oaks. Where not just one, but TWO coughing kids decided to latch onto mine. I know I made the mom of the first mad, but what the heck? We went during the afternoon on a school day hoping to miss that sort of thing. My theory: The only reason he was there was because he was too sick to go to school that day! The other big event for them while there was getting to ride in the motorhome to the AFB for some errands. Mom is doing well, considering. She was in a lot of pain when we first got there, but once the radiation kicked in it seemed to lessen. She has an appt. at MD Anderson in Houston on friday. Pray for her.
Today was spent just trying to get into the swing of things. While we were gone W's first spelling book came in the mail, so he was anxious to get started on that first thing this morning. Well, our "first thing in the morning" at least. He did a really good job and it was nice to see him so excited about it. Coincidently, he was up to his next HOP book, so he had a pretty huge day. We did our first science experiment today. She worked up to it while we were there, but one of them involves keeping a running temp. chart, so we waited until we got home so that we didn't have weather from two different places messing it up. History was done up to a craft activity, so that waited until we came home too. So, F did a little spelling, then the rest of her day was just the fun stuff. R taught them how to play kickball in the cul de sac yesterday so we did a little of that too. I cut G's hair last night. It's in a short little bob like last spring and is so cute! Her hair get so ratty as it gets longer. She really looks better with it short. Shoes (MIL) comes on Wednesday and we can hardly wait! We haven't gotten to see her since the end of last summer. She hasn't ever gone this long without seeing the children. I hope she recognizes them! Anyway, she is staying almost two whole weeks. Maybe R and I could actually get away one night and go to dinner or something. Coming home to the carpet in this house has given me a renewed sense of urgency to replace it. It is so disgusting! As you can tell, my thoughts are a bit scattered tonight. I think I'll end this now and put us all out of our misery:)

Alarm!

So, tonight is the first night without R and an alarm system. I didn't really expect to be nervous, but with disgusting predators just coming in and taking kids out of their beds at night, here, in central FL..........I wish I had the alarm is all. Thank goodness we didn't buy in the Orlando area.
I am trying to get everything together to get us all to PC but I forgot a major snag in my plans until the last minute. R is not here to pack the car! That has been a major setback.
We started the new science program today. I am having second thoughts about putting W in with F in the program. I had to do a LOT of "getting him up to speed" to do. He did learn a lot, but it was a concept that with all her prior knowledge of the subject would've taken about 5 minutes to do with her. Maybe I will just not worry about him getting it all. Just let him listen in, and put him through, again, with G when it's her time. They are closer in age and by the looks of things will be a lot closer to the same level until W gets over his testosterone and makes up the time. He read a whole page of his HOP and did really well today, but I have to admit that I shouldn't try to sit with him through it without my medication:) The attention span of a four yr. old boy is alarmingly PAINFUL! And I am in love with the little guy! My heart really goes out to elementary teachers that have a whole classroom of them. I should go to bed now to wait on the middle of the night G visit and the subsequent meltdown when she is reminded that her "diddy daddy" is not here.

Rest of the week

Well, the other 2 ended up getting F's cold and we couldn't go to PC on Friday as planned. Not only did it move our trip back, but poor Shoes has to move her trip back, also. So, mostly this week has been snot and fevers for everyone. Gage ran away one day. He ran straight to where the kids were having a picnic in the backyard and left the food there to get out of my reach! So, it was just like in PC, minus the canal swim. He went around the back of the cul de sac in everyone's yards, then out onto the next neighborhood street. At that point I just said "Have a nice life" and the kids and I went inside. I was thinking.......we're new here, no one knows us, no one knows our dog, he has never been on a neighborhood walk, so that will be that. The kids and I came in and were cleaning their rooms when F yells out "Gage! Gage is in our backyard". Her room is at the back of the house and faces the tree where we tie him and let him back into the enclosure. She saw him out of her window. I told her to go out and get him if she could, thinking he would run away from her too as soon as he saw her. ...Well, as it turns out, he was just waiting at the door of the enclosure to be let in! So, not only am I aggravated at him, nothing unusual, but now I'm mad too. A lot of times when he gets on my nerves it is hard to actually be mad at him because afterall, he's just a stupid animal and can't help it......Not anymore! He just ran the neighborhood until he got tired and came home for a drink of water. That's not stupid...stupid is not being able to find your way home........in a new neighborhood no less. (Did I mention this is a new neighborhood for him?) That's just bad..........a bad bad dog! The good news, R did our taxes this weekend and we get to have the fence built! I have been organizing the babies clothes. A job that's needed to be done since we moved here. I really just threw everything in the closets and decided to sort it all out later.....Well, now is later. This weekend has been very low key trying to get babies well. R has a national meeting this week, so he won't be here to help after tomorrow morning. Pray for us all:)

Happy Anniversary!

Today is our wedding anniversay. Eight years! It seems like only yesterday....well, actually, it seems more like 2-3 yrs. When R and I first started dating and he was so wonderful I always told him "Of course you're great now, it's still in the first 6 months......Anyone can behave for 6 months." Then very shortly after the 6 month mark we became engaged. Then I told him he was just being wonderful because we were engaged. Engaged is the best, isn't it girls? So, after we got married and he was wonderful I told him one day that it was just because we were still on our honeymoon.......I was still waiting for that other shoe to drop. He told me that day " You know, we could be married for 50 years and I remain as just as I am now, and you would say to me "yeah, well it's always that fifty first year that it all goes to hell!" So, he committed to the 50 year "I told you so, then."
This morning we woke up and said Happy Anniversay, then he said "Only 42 more to go until I can say 'I told you so!"
So, Happy Anniversay Lovie and I'm still waiting for you to blow it on that 51st:)
We went to the park yesterday to meet up with some other homeschoolers. It was nice, but the group was actually a little too big to get to know anyone. One funny thing did happen, though. W got his first "boy scolding" and you should've seen the look on his face! There were only 2 big kid swings. Another boy, a little older than F was on one. F ran over an got on the other one. W wanted to swing and F wouldn't get off and let him have it. I was watching from the edge of the playground. He was talking to her in his unkind voice telling her to get off and let him have the swing. He then picked up some mulch (this playground's covering) and threw it towards her. It didn't go very far since he thew it into the wind and he got more than she did. I got up to go over and have a close face to face about mulch throwing and just as I got there the other boy was saying to him (in HIS unkind voice) "Hey, don't you throw that at her. That's not nice. You leave that little girl alone and let her swing!" I'm not sure whether or not he realized he was rescuing her from her own brother or not, but I really seemed to have an impact on W! Oh, and he's REALLY embarassed about the whole thing, so if you see him make sure you ask him about it:)
F woke up really snotty this morning..... The a reason I don't like crowded playgrounds. I am starting on the whole aggressive treatment thing today. More later..

Big Milestone

We passed a major milestone in our family today. We let F go to children's chapel during church. Yes, I finally caved to all you crazies who keep telling me that she needs more friends than just W and G. I had a talk with the teacher before the service, of course, but still........it's not like I KNOW her! It seems like just yesterday, when we did we did VBS, last summer. I called my friend, Summer crying from the church because everyone was just dropping their kids off with me and the other teachers.....and LEAVING! Those people didn't know me! How could they do it? So, church today. The kids come in for the opening prayers and songs, they all leave during the sermon then are brought back for communion. I was telling F during the opening prayers that if she got scared at the last minute and wanted to stay with me that it would be perfectly fine. R heard me and scolded.......said I wasn't being supportive or some nonsense. Anyway, it came time for them to all leave, AND SHE DID. Just left with all the other kids! I was watching her walk out and beginning to cry. Trying to stop myself, I looked over to R for some assurance that she would be okay.............and HE was crying! Not a lot of help! So, we alternated going back to peek into the classroom to check on her.


So, I know, what you're thinking.........."Enough about you, how did SHE do?" Well, that's the worst part........she had a great time and wants to go back next week. This is where it all starts, isn't it? Tomorrow, off to college........... CChurch is for 4-6 yr. olds. Now W wants to go, and of course she wants him to go with her. R doesn't want him to because he doesn't want her to have that crutch. Can you believe? Her own brother and best friend.....a crutch. Who is this man that just wants to throw my baby to the wolves? And what has he done with MY husband? Also, some scank..uh, I mean little girl in cc asked F when W was coming! What interest would she have in my WW coming? Tramp! Nothing good can come of this.....I still can't believe I let this happen. What was I thinking? Oh, and the best part.......when we were riding home G turned to her and asked her (in her best 2 yr old scolding voice) "F, why did you go off with strangers by yourself?" I said, "Thank you, G, I was just thinking the same thing!" F just turned to her and said, "I wasn't by myself, God was with me." Why didn't I think of that? In church of all places! It was only the other day, possibly my last post, that I she spoke to another kid on the playground besides W and G. Now, she's just going off with strangers. BTW, in case you didn't know, none of them have EVER done anything that R and I didn't involve ourselves in and had them in sight at all times. So, that was her (our) big milestone for today. As you can tell, I am much more scarred by the whole thing than she is. We spent the afternoon just hanging around and doing some yard work. Mom, we finally freed the oak trees from the neighboring vines at the back of the yard.


That's about all we've been up to. Oh, yesterday R took them all to the "doughnut straunt" for breakfast then to Home Depot for the monthly build. Now, that's REALLY all we've been up to the last couple of days.

School update (bragging)

We've been busy rededicating ourselves to our studies this week. I went to a park this morning to meet up with the Brevard Co. HS group. We were the only ones that showed. We had record low temps last night, so I warned the kids ahead of time that might be what would happen. Another family did show that we met, though. They just moved here from Columbus, GA, had a little girl, almost 5 and a little boy that looked to be a little younger than G. Anyway, they just moved to Suntree (renting while house hunting) from GA and the dad sells medical supplies in basically the same territory as R travels. ...Different products, not competitors. Small world, huh? I was so proud of F, she went right up and introduced herself, they played and when the little girl was leaving, she told her it was nice meeting her. We've been really working on her painfully shy nature lately. Maybe some of it is finally paying off.

Will is doing very welll with his reading. His concentration still isn't what I'm used to working with.............I know, I know, don't compare them.........but he is doing well...........slowly but steadily. He is up to 5 books with his HOP program. I finally realized that he does much better first thing in the AM, so I try to catch him then. We also work with his numbers 1-100. I am going to order his first spelling book this afternoon. .....oops, maybe we should work a little more on handwritting before I start throwing written spelling work at him. I guess he reallly is doing very well for his age, and with the handicap of the testosterone, is remarkable:) G is working diligently with her ABC's. She came up to me two nights ago and said "There are too many books in here that I can't read!" She was so indignent, like there were some that she COULD read, we just didn't own them. I explained that that was the reason we did ABC's and that she could start trying soon. She really is pretty amazing. I lay out all the cards and ask her to give me a specific letter. When she picks it up, she has to tell me the sound and a word that starts with that letter. She can do that with almost all of the upper case; we haven't started lowercase yet. I don't remember exactly, since that time is all such a blur, but I think that puts her about on track with F. Now F... As I type this, I am giving her the last spelling test for the second grade. It's Homonyms......hole, whole, dear, deer, right, write. etc. She already knew them all when we got to this lesson. I'm not sure how except from just all the reading that she does (the worst punishment you can dole out to her these days is to take away her reading time when she goes to bed)and asking here and there for some clarification. I know we've never sat down and had a discussion on the subject. She's over half way through first grade language, chpt12 in first g history, and somewhere around the end of second grade math. (She's gotten into multiplication) I picked out a sciene program that is for age ranges 5-8 and I am going to start her and W together on that. Also, she knows more geography than most adults...sadly that doesn't take much these days. Now that I think about it, W may know more than most adults:) G is so funny. She is the only two year old that goes around discussing ancient history in the middle of Target. F insists that if she is going to go around saying their names that she must know who they are.......therefore, she goes around yelling Shamshi-Adaad- ancient Assyrian ruler.....Hammarabi-ancient Babylonian ruler! The only thing funnier is to see the looks that we get from fellow shoppers!


Went to Old Navy yesterday because W needed jeans and khaki pants and it finally occured to me that it would be a good place to find some decent, plain, girl LS and ss tshirts. (see earlier post) So, if you are having the same problem with your little girls, you can go there....they do still have the "stylish" (trash) but you can find some cute, decent things there too.


Must go now, the natives are getting restless........

email change

We left comcast in the move, so if you didn't get the email address change yet, my new email is dunlappartyoffive@cfl.rr.com . Make sure you save it in your contacts..........

Odds and ends

We rented a movie last night that I HAVE to tell everyone about. Move over "When Harry Met Sally" and "An American President" I have a new all time favorite movie! The name of it is "Fireproof" and I cannot say enough good things about this movie except that you HAVE to see it and if you need to use the bathroom, pause it and come back. Don't even miss a minute! I had heard extraordinary reviews on it, but never really imagined that it could live up to them. Well, it did and more. Everyone should see this movie, but if you are married, you can't afford not to. So, run, don't walk to your local store (skip the rental and just buy it......you'll want to anyway) and get this movie.

This is my SUPERCOOL new soap dispenser for the kitchen. I just found a wine bottle that was the right size with a label that I really liked ( this wine is called "the 7 deadly Zins" and in lighter letters that you can't see in this picture, it lists the 7 deadly sins.....hilarious) and put in a pourer that you can find in any barwear section.
Instructions:
Drink wine
rinse bottle
put in soap
put pourer in the top
Super simple, super cool and really pretty





I recovered the diningroom, kitchen and familyroom chairs (the two at the two desks) I love this fabric, and am very happy with the way they turned out.











Did you wonder why there where SO many of these beachcomber hats in the bathroom? I ordered them from Oriental Trading Co and they had to be ordered by the dozen. I left 3 out because this is just too funny! They wear these around the house singing "Welcome to Hawaii. Welcome to Hawaii" doing the hula.

Yeah, I know the post started with this paragraph, but I wanted to make sure that you read it, whether you came in on the beginning or the end.

We rented a movie last night that I HAVE to tell everyone about. Move over "When Harry Met Sally" and "An American President" I have a new all time favorite movie! The name of it is "Fireproof" and I cannot say enough good things about this movie except that you HAVE to see it and if you need to use the bathroom, pause it and come back. Don't even miss a minute! I had heard extraordinary reviews on it, but never really imagined that it could live up to them. Well, it did and more. Everyone should see this movie, but if you are married, you can't afford not to. So, run, don't walk to your local store (skip the rental and just buy it......you'll want to anyway) and get this movie.

from 5 to 6(slut)

We went to the mall today to take R's shoes to the cobbler. While there, I decided to go look for a few things for the kids. Between my sewing and hand me downs, I can't tell you the last time I bought any of them clothes. (besides sweats at walmart)
So, I was hit with the style change that comes with the move from the 2-5 girls clothes into the 6-10. Wow! What a huge difference! I don't even know where to begin. I guess first of all, it was a bummer that G and F couldn't just get the same outfits in different sizes to match. That however, was not the major dissapointment. When was it decided that my baby, barely 6, should put on these clothes? I couldn't even find a decent pair of shorts with a matching tshirt! I went to Macy's (which was actually the best place because they still grouped 2-6) Dillards, Children's Place, Gap kids and JCPenney. I was so discouraged that no one got anything. Will really needed some new shorts and shirts, but by the time I got around to him, his behavior prevented him from getting anything.
So mom's.......where do I go to get my baby some clothes (besides dressy dresses) Just some playclothes.....Just a tshirt for that matter without the horrible graphics?
Something without sparkly stones or smartass sayings on them. Let me guess............the boys dept., or have the powers that be even ruined them? So, you all get the gist........I guess you even got it by the title of this post and there was no need for my further diatribe tonight.

Mom

I have been debating on this post, but I guess if you read us on a regular basis, you should know something this significant.

My mom has been diagnosed with stage 4 breastcancer. It is in her bones now. She will start radiation in early February, do that for 3 weeks then onto 6 months of chemo to try to put it into remission. Yeah, it sucks as badly as you can imagine it would. Please pray for her and my dad during this time. Here is a picture of her playing "Sorry" with my kids on Christmas.

More catching up

Okay, enough house stuff. You've seen the whole thing except our bedroom and a couple of boring bathrooms. Our bedroom isn't done and probably won't be until 3 months before we end up having to move from here. (That's what happened in Atlanta)

So it was the Saturday after Faith ran the Mickey Mile. We took the kids to the Magic Kingdom. Faith's favorite ride was the Winnie the Pooh house, Will's favorite thing was getting to hug Tigger and Gracie will tell you that her favorite thing was riding the monorail. They also really enjoyed the parades. We took them on the Pirates OTC ride specifically for Will because he had decided to be a pirate when he got older. About 1/4 thru the ride, not only did he no longer want to be a pirate, but he was ready for even the ride to be over. I sat beside him with my arms around him. The poor little guy's heart was about to beat out of his chest!

They also like the Swiss FR treehouse, since they know that story. Faith will tell you that she liked the "ballerinas" What are the ballerinas you ask? The Disney Princesses. Since we don't do the DP's because of their poor example, they had no idea who they were. The only frame of reference she has of girls in dresses like that is at the ballet. So, she called them the ballerinas and we went with it.

John and Kristen met us there with BabyDow and Madison. The whole reason for the weekend, in case I didn't say earlier was that it was race weekend. Richard and John ran the Marathon on Sunday. We loved being able to catch up with them a bit. BDow has gotten so big and Madison and Mary are just grown! Richard finished his marathon in four hours and eight minutes. I thought it was a super time! Well, I thought just finishing the thing was superhuman to be honest. So, now we are blessed with two winning runners and W and G are already talking about when they can run the MM. G is still a little too young and let's face it, W's too lazy. I will love giving him the chance, but he moans and whines about having to ride his bike a mile. When we would go hiking in GA, he was always the first one to start complaining. We'll see how things go when push comes to shove.

We all have colds (again) this has been the worst winter for them that I can remember. How ironic, since we now live in the warmest climate ever, for us? It is going to be 80 on Thursday! We went to the beach yesterday for a picnic and let the kids run around. I dressed them in clothes because it's been unusually cold here lately. (The man next door said it was the coldest he's seen since he's lived here.....20 years!)

We went to a new church this morning. I think we all liked it and will probably try to stick with that one for a while. It is an AMIA church named Prince of Peace. (POP) For those not familiar, the AMIA is the Anglican Mission in America. I started to try to explain it here, but decided to go the website and just copy/paste what it is........lest I really screw it up and never hear the end from John Richardson:)

The Anglican Mission in the Americas is a bold missionary strategy born seven years ago in response to a crisis of faith and leadership in North America. We are driven by a compelling vision of reaching the 150 million individuals in the U.S. and Canada who have yet to respond to the Gospel of Jesus Christ by building communities of faith and transforming lives.

The crisis of faith and leadership in North America it is referring to the Anglican Church in America (AKA the Episcopal church)

It is getting late, so let me post some pictures from Disney and to to bed.

The children's bathroom!

Finally, my favorite room in the house it done..........the kid's bathroom. This is the most fun I have ever had doing a room (and I was pretty stoked about Will's HD room) The pictures loaded backwards, so bear with me. This first one is the soap dispenser. I wanted a close up because it's so cute and you may not see it in the other pictures (there's a lot of other stuff going on:)) The next two are the little rugs I found. Have you ever seen a cuter bathroom rug than that little woody with the surfboard on it? Of course, the other one is a surfboard rug. The next one is from the bathroom door, then so is the next, but with the door that opens onto the enclosure. After that is the shower curtain that I found the fabric for and made. It is hot pink with light pink hibiscus and green, blue and red/yellow surfboards all over it. I also bought white towels and washclothes and sewed the same fabric onto the ends. The next few are pretty self explanetory, but see the coconut on the back of the potty? Shoes and Juddy mailed that to Faith from Hawaii when she was a baby. The other side of it actually has her name and our PC address written in magicmarker. The 3 white picture frames around the round mirror are of of 3 of them taking their first baths. They were up in the Atlanta bath. I replaced the stickers on them and now the tops say Riding my first wave with the names on the bottom corners. The white board almost at the top of the ceiling is some weird thing that I've never seen before. There are floresent lights in there and it deflects the light from coming straight down onto you. Anyway, across that board is stenciled Surf City......2 girls for every boyyyyyy! I was planning on doing some song lyrics there, but I had more of "Surfin' safari" or "Catch a wave" in mind this whole time. For some reason "Surf City" just came to me out of the blue the other day and when I got to the 2 girls for every boy part, I thought.."Perfect! That's what it HAS to be. On the shelf below the round mirror are their 3 teeth brushing cups. I found these neon green, blue and pink shot glasses at a party supply. They are little tiki poles, and so cute. Yes, I know, shot glasses? Really though, they are a great size just to rinse your mouth with after brushing.

2 long days

Wow, the last two days have been long ones. Why is it my children insist on behaving inexcusably awful for about 3-4 days a month? Why is it always around the same time? Maybe it's the lunar phase........hmmmmmmmmmmmm:) Yesterday G refused to eat her breakfast, threw her food on the floor, smashed her brother across the nose with a soccer trophy that left a nice gash and pee'd in her pants TWICE! Then proceeded to pour a cup of water all over the kitchen floor and herself while I was on the phone complaing to my Mom about how awful they were behaving! F broke a lamp, so now there's glass on W's floor that I can't clean up because the vacumm cleaner that I ordered last week still hasn't arrived. His room is off limits to them all until it comes in. Will is just his usual passive/aggressive self with a lot of whining today because he got up at 530 this morning. He threw up before breakfast, but has been fine since.It really must have been something in the air because Aunt Joey called and said Jenna (G's soulmate) was having the same kind of day.

Today was a little better until I decided to take them out in public, then it was just one embarassing moment of threats and disobedience after another. I watched the inauguration today. Faith actually acted like she was 16 instead of 6 and took care of the babies for me because she knew I wanted to see it. Wow, President Obama can sure deliver a speech! Did you notice he bungled the oath, though? I am still not sure how I feel about him. I want him to be everything he seems and not the antichrist, but now Newt Gingrich is on board with him! Newt Gingrich for crying out loud! That's just another brick in the antichrist wall testifying to his charisma and how EVERYONE will buy into him.

Anyhow, here are some more pictures of the house.
These 3 are obviously of the kitchen. The red wall runs the length of back of the house. It looks burgundy in this picture, but it is really Cranberry...REALLY cranberry:)

These are the diningroom. the one facing the chinacabinet is the view you get to your right from the foyer. We brought the cranberry from the other room into here below the chair rail. I have to recover the diningroom chairs.

This is the entry foyer.

These are the livingroom. It is to the left from the foyer. The one facing the couch is taken from the familyroom. The one facing the familyroom (fireplace) was taken from that couch. The plaid chair and recliner are in the livingroom. The chaise is in the familyroom to tie the two together.

I took some more the next morning. As you can see, the familyroom is open to the kitchen. There are two sliding doors on this wall. One from the familyroom and one from the kitchen.

These are on the back porch. Top left is right outside the kitchen door taken toward our room. Our room is the third slider onto the lanai. The small door with the smoked window is the kid's bathroom.The other 4 are, obviously, the pool.

It is not heated, so I haven't been in, but my penguin children braved it the first week.





So, that's it for tonight. More later

As promised

Welll, I made it back in less than another month, just as promised:) Where did I leave off? After F's race with pix, I believe. I wanted to go back to tell you a little about how the house turned out. I took some pictures tonight, but keep in mind, it's night and the kids rooms were picked up by them and the beds were made by them too. I have been wanting to take some pictures in the day to post, but the messy rooms are even worse then. These pix are after bedtime pickup. The first ones are of W's room. I really love how it came out. His theme is tools, specifically, Home Depot.These first 2 are as you are standing in the doorway. I re-did that dresser to look like a tool box and found the craftsman logo to stick in the right corner. Those brown pieces the tools are hanging on are pegboard, just like a real workshop. I put the real, more dangerous tools at the top, a couple of his projects that he has done at the HD, and his play tools at the bottom. You can't tell from the picture, but that is the cutest little toolbox lamp on the corner of the dresser.

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I took the next one from sitting on the bottom bunk of his bed towards the closet, and the last is right next to his bed with the doorway just to the right. There's not one from the closet back to the bed, but it's just his bunkbed with light brown corduroy looking covers and pillow. There is a HD apron hanging on the corner of both the top bunks. This next room is G's. Of course the walls had to be painted green, but I chose what shade. She inherited the dollhouse bookcase and all of the white furniture and accessories.

This next one is from the window looking back at her bed. Daddy hung lattice work and we wove a little rose garden vine through it. The quilt is sort of a Shabby Chic patchwork with little roses. This was F's bedroom set at one time and before that it belonged to Madison....thank you Aunt Kristen. (I brought clothes for BDow to Orlando and forgot to give them to you)

These next two are taken from her doorway.

The pink and yellow is, of course, F's room. The first 2 are taken from the doorway, the next, from the closet corner (next to the Babycare center) She has butterflies and tulips. I should mention here, that every picture, shelf, curtainrod, and cornice you see was hung by my Daddy. If you know us though, that news won't shock you. There's no way we could've done all this by ourselves. That does it for the kids rooms. I'll do the living space next time.

Where to start?

Okay, I know it's been a while and it might take me a few of these to catch up. When last I blogged, we were in house negotiations that got a little ugly. We ended up getting the house and closed on Dec. 19th. (Friday) We also celebrated Faith's bday that afternoon on the back porch. She had a totally Kailey (AG) birthday.

The next day, we all packed up and went to PC (the kids and I) and to Atlanta (R to meet the movers and work like a dog for the next 3 days)He came to PC on Christmas Eve, we had a great Christmas with Mom and Dad. I will post catch up pictures, too. Of course the kids got way too much. Thank you to everyone that contributed!

Right after Christmas we all came back (Melbourne) including M&D to meet the movers here. The next two weeks were nothing but a blur of boxes. We all got sick with wicked colds, (thank you patient zero.....Gracie) but didn't stop. My poor parents worked like illegal immigrants getting the house set up for us before they went home on Friday. It was all worth it in the end. I love the new house, even though it needs a fence around the yard and a heater for the pool. One reason M&D stayed until Friday was because F had a Dr. appt. in Tampa on Thursday. They stayed to watch W and G for me. They got to go to the zoo and to a park at PAFB. They left not long after we did and didn't get home until right before us. Anyways, they all had a blast, Gommer and Grandaddy, included, and were all bushed....including G&G:) F had been pretty sick and they had called in an oral steroid for her inflamation. BTW, it's not pretty! I kept waiting for her to start her period any moment with the mood swings and unreasonableness. Yes, I know unreasonableness is not a real word, but that was what she was. She had gotten mostly better by the appt., but they still put her on an antibiotic and we are giving her the adult doses of Albuterol and Pulmicort during the healing. The good new is that when I called today for her culture results, they were completely clean again! Even for the MRSA. I just knew it would rear it's ugly head since colds usually start a flare up. So that was super news! This past weekend was race weekend at Disneyworld...yes, DISNEYWORLD. Faith ran the Mickey Mile on Friday. (mom and dad stayed to watch, then went home from there) She did really well, esp. considering that she had been sick and not run but once since leaving the camper. I ran with her that day, and was sore for a week:) So, F and Daddy ran the Mickey Mile together. Of course we wouldn't have let her run alone (up against 13 yr olds) but it was a good thing he went for an unexpected reason. Apparently, some little boy was hitting on her during the race. Yes, I said DURING the race. R said he finally had to get between them running to get rid of him. Oh, and he was older too....at least 8 or 9. Is no where safe? I will post some pictures of tonight's diatribe and continue another time.

So far, on track

Wow, it's been a busy week. We are set to close on the house on the 19th of December, F's bday on the 20th.......we'll be driving to Atlanta that day because the movers come to the house there on Sunday the 21st to pack. Three days there to pack the house and truck then onto PC on the 23rd for Christmas. Everyone back here (mom and dad too) by the 29th for the movers to unpack in Melbourne. In the mean time, our realtor is handling her own Christmas, the painters, the vent cleaners, the fence builders, the carpet cleaners, and professional housekeepers so that it will all be ready for us when we get back. She also found a place for us to store our camper today and got us a deal on a pool heater from her guy....Oh, and I'm also using her hairdresser...talk about above and beyond!

A Will funny: I heard him telling R about the potato chips in his laptop that Mommy told him run the computer...Too funny!

Saturday AM is the Home Depot build. I am taking Fatih to the Nutcracker that afternoon for part of her bday. I am so excited about her bday presents this year. I accidently happened on the fact that the 2004 AG girl was named Kaylie and her thing was body boarding. (F's new love) So, I found one on ebay with a bunch of her accessories in the lot. She has sunstreaked blonde hair like Faith's with brown eyes. When she came, she was even more beautiful in person than in the pictures!....R makes fun of me because I refer to the doll as a "her" instead of an it. I was able to get her little wetsuit that looks like one of F's bathing suits, another swim suit, her snorkle set with the mask, fins, and snorkle, an underwater camera, a pair of sunglasses, her "meet" dress with sandals and bag, her dog Sandy that barks when you press her paw, and the piece de resistance,,,,,,her own little bodyboard in with it's own case. I also bought her the Kailey book so that she would know who the heck she was. I was going to save some of it for Christmas, but am considering just unloading it all for her birthday. She is getting robbed even more than usual with the Christmas bday this year. Because of the house purchase and moving schedule, we are going to be on the road driving to Atlanta her whole bday.

Gracie is coming more into her own everyday. She's no longer just the little "me too" girl. She is getting her own personality and leads the trouble a lot of the time. She has started announcing her awakening every morning with "A Gace is awake!" or one morning it was "Daddy, your Gace is awake!" at the top of her voice waking everyone in the camper that isn't already awake.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all!
As I reflect on my gifts to be thankful for on this day, I believe I may be more thankful this Thankgiving than on any other in my life.
Two years ago this time of year Daddy had a triple bypass. Last year Mom had cancer, and of course there is the ever present worry of Faith's health. Today I got to spend this holiday with all three of them in addition to the rest of my wonderful family. Dad's annual cardio appt. went so well this month that he didn't even have to have a stress test. Mom got the all clear on the cancer earlier this fall and Faith just had the best CF check up of her life. I told before about her weight gain. R called the new center yesterday and the nurse told him the results of her sputum culture. She grew out only normal lung flora! The MRSA didn't even show up! Super news!
R got this great new job after being home since March and we will be moved into our new house before the end of the year, and of course I would be remiss not to mention my other two sweet babies, W and G. They are both growing fast. Sometimes I can even see the changes from day to day.
I have great friends and family that couldn't be with us today, and I love and miss you all, so once again, Happy Thanksgiving and onward to the celebration of the birth of our Saviour who I thank everyday for these blessings and more.

More News

Faith's appt. went really well. Of course she didn't weigh as much as they wanted, but that's always the case. Her BMI was in around the 30th % which is higher than it's ever been. We really liked the new center and all the staff. They seem to really be on the ball and handled Faith very well. The respiratory therapist looks like Shoes and is a really sweet woman. We finally took the plunge and decided to put a bid in on a house even though the one in Atlanta hasn't sold yet. The camper life lost it's charm sometime around the beginning of last week and we are going with our faith in God that he'll take care of us. So, that being said, we decided on a home in Melbourne. It' s the one I spoke of before that went off the market then came back on. It is a nice house in a good, yet little older neighborhood with the best backyard in Florida. A 4/2.5 with a family, dining and living room. A great outdoor lanai with a screen enclosed pool and did I mention the great backyard?

Catching up

Sorry it's been so long. Last I wrote, I was relieved that Will's illness was just a stomach thing. Well, R brought home a real cold the next day! Will went first, then Grace. Faith and I put up a good fight for almost a week, but both woke up this morning with sore throats. Poor Will ended up with both at the same time. In the meantime, the house that I have been telling you about in Melbourne went under contract without us. It was very depressing for me. We have been continuing to look in the East Orlando area, but it is some sort of haven for members of the sex offender list. The last house I liked had 19 within 2 miles and one as close as less than half a mile! Poor Jessie Lunsford still haunts me to this day, so we won't be doing that. On the fun side, we saw the last nightime shuttle launch Friday evening. I am posting the short video clip of the launch, but mostly it just looks like a bright light in the distance.


Santa was at Publix last week when we were shopping. Will asked me why that man was dressed up so funny. Later, when telling Daddy about the day he came up with "A snowman" when asked what the man was dressed like. Then Gracie said, " He was dressed like a snowman because it's Halloween!" Yeah, Yeah, I know, scarred for life blah blah blah.....I promise I've never said he didn't exist, I just don't make Christmas about him.


Oh, Faith has been practicing "The Atrocious" song. I will post that clip too. I will be so sad when she finally gets the words right.


She has her first appt. with the new CF center on Thursday. Won't it be nice that we will take her for her first appt. with a cold? Of course there will be all that news on Friday.
Okay, now the video's aren't posting. I will try again later.

Great News!

No, we didn't sell our house, but in our family, this news is even better. Will's illness turned out to be totally gastro, no lung/head stuff, and he seems better now. So far, everyone else is fine. His temperature threw me off yesterday. Who runs a fever with a stomachache? Apparently, Will. Gracie tricked me with her sleepy/cranky mood with a combo of sniffy allergy stuff. Once she got her second wind, she was fine.
So YAAAAYY!
The campground cranked up the heaters on the pools today, so I guess we will be going there on a regular basis again. There is a leak under the bathroon sink that a guy is coming to fix in the AM. Not much activity today. I stayed close to the camper (camper's bathroom) this morning, but got out a little more and over to the pool once I was confident that Will was going to be okay. I will spare you the details of the midnight spontaneous combustion of our son last night, but in the lessons learned catagory, if your 4 yr old is suffering from gastro problems already, don't feed him an apple for his dinner. In this case, an apple a day, blah blah blah is not a good prescription.

Sunday and sick

Yesterday was a good day. F and I enjoyed the AG bookclub. She met a little girl that attends the Space Coast Ballet Academy, so we got the rundown on that. F asked me when we found out we were moving if I would find her a ballet school here. The little girl (she's 10, not really little) also lives in the neighborhood of the house I like in Melbourne. I spent a lot of time talking to her mom. She's British and has 4 children: Girl, G's age, Boy, F's age, the girl that was there and another boy, 14. She gave me her name and number in case I had any questions about the area. I enjoyed speaking with her. The afternoon was spent playing soccer and running around the campgrounds. This morning W had a stomachache after breakfast, but I thought it was the 10 or so mini powder sugared doughnuts he ate. This afternoon we went to Orlando to look at some homes. I should've known when he was being so well behaved, but didn't clue in until he went downhill fast around 330. By 6, I was ready to pronounce G officially sick. Now I guess it's only a matter of time.....

Post game wrap up

Well, even though our guy didn't will the election, I can apprieciate the historical implications of it. I just wish it was a historically pivitol candidate that I didn't suspect might be the antichrist. I pray he's not and really will be a great president, and I guess even if he is, that's still part of God's plan too.
While I'm on the subject, I have said for years that out of the "isms" in our society. sexism is still by far more of a problem. A-AM- got the vote before women, A-AM- got the civil right act approved and still no ERA, A-AM-got to the Supreme Court before a woman, and now President.
Now I will get off my political soapbox.
Not a lot going on today. We left the ancient Assyrians and Babylonians in history and moved onto ancient India; Math and Spelling. We went on a couple of walks/bike rides and that's about it. There is an older woman here, at the campground that spends most of her day walking briskly with weights in her hands. Her husband follows faithfully on his bike...Anyway, she stopped today to ask if I home schooled the kids (she walked by the other day while F was riding her bike and being quizzed on her multiplication tables) When I said yes, she told me that she, too, had homeschooled. Judging by her age, she was one of the pioneers of the movement. Her youngest son just went to college last year and her oldest, a daughter, was the first home schooled student to be admitted to Vanderbuilt.......with a scholarship! Now she's a Dr. there. Mommy is, and rightfully so, very proud.
It's suppose to be sunny and 80 tomorrow. If the pool, here at the campground doesn't have the heat turned on, we may go to the beach.
I found an American Girl book club at the Barnes and Noble in Melbourne. I called last night to RSVP. Yes, it seems a little more put together than the one in Atlanta. Anyone could just drop in there. The club is Saturday morning at 10AM. Saturday afternoon is more house hunting in the east Orlando area.

No go on the house

I spoke to the realtor in Atlanta today and it seems that the couple has backed out. Yes, it's disappointing, but we'll just start over tomorrow. A new neighborhood has come to our attention. (thanks Alysa) It is a little east of "East Orlando", so it's a little less expensive, and closer to the coast which, to us is good. Most of the backyards are too small, as usual, but there are a couple of corner lots with potential. The main thing right now is getting the LP house sold. Not a lot to report tonight and since it's OUR superbowl, I will go now to watch the election returns. This is the first year since we met that we are cheering for the same team. Somehow, it's just not as exciting.......maybe because ours is the underdog:)

Flu shots........finally!

Well, we had to drive all the way to Orlando, but finally got everyone flu shots today at the minute clinic. G was so brave! She stepped up, volunteered to go first and only whimpered a little when the needle went in. W was next. A tiny less brave to step up, but did really great when it came time. F had to display some drama to get her out of the stroller and to the lap. Kicked and pushed her (nurse's) hand away, but once we got her restrained, did fine with the actual shot. I tried to tell her not to wait until last because it was worse to sit there and think about it, but what do I know? Afterall, she IS almost 6!
She ran with R this morning. She did very well considering she's only been once before since leaving Atlanta. Her lungs seemed healthier when she was going on a regular basis before. I hope she gets back into it.
My sinus rinses seemed to help. No headache this morning, and clear all day!
We looked around at some more neighborhoods when we were over there. We do love our "civilization", but not the tiny yards to go with it.

Today

We started the day as usual, breakfast, medicine, therapy, but then went to the Home Depot for Kid's Workshop Day. After that, R suggested we go to the Brevard Zoo down in Melbourne. (Close to the house I like) I have to admit here, to a true "Atlanta Bias" that you hear so much about in the rest of the south. I figured it was going to be a big dissapointment for the kids. However, they got to feed giraffes and parrots, ride the train and see a whole section on Florida wildlife. We warned them ahead that there were no panda's, so the only real dissapointment they had was the lack of elephants. I think the feedings more than made up for it.

Girls, can we talk? My husband, who is usually so great about these things really threw me for a loop this morning. Getting ready.....Trying to get everyone out the door. I was inside boiling the nebulizer..........after making breakfast, feeding the dog, doing F's meds and dressing 3 children and doing their hair, in addition to myself. So, I am in the camper, everyone else is outside (around the car) and R asks me when we can leave and if there's anything he can do to help. (good things) I tell him, "Get the kids in the car, and I will be out when this finishes." We have 3 children. Since putting in the two new boosters, now they all need help with the seatbelts (ie: doing it for them) He got them in and comes back to get something. I think "Wow, that was fast" only to look out and see that although all 3 kids are in the car, they are all wandering around and NONE of them are strapped in! I know that I didn't specify strap them in, but come on! They could've open the door and let themselves in! Does that REALLY have to be said?

Answer: apparently so.

Who is this man and what has he done with my husband? I would like to add that this is the second "man move" that he's made in 2 days....Perhaps the close living quarters are having a little more effect than I thought.

On a good "husband note", KCI gave him a new phone (theirs) that he has to use for business. Now we have 3 cell phones and need to do something about it. He decided to cut my service, (but I still have the same number, thanks to him calling and handling the transfer) and give me his phone. Here, I should explain that I had the free Verizon flip phone that you get with your sign up. It's the same phone that KCI gave him....but his isn't pink. My new, inherited phone? A blackberry pearl that I can also get my email through! It was his dream phone..........and he gave it to me. I guess I can forgive the strapping thing.....it really does all come out in the wash.

Mom called tonight; they are back from their NE leaf trip. They went all over, saw a LOT of history and had a great time. I am glad they are finally able to enjoy some retirement.

F has a cough I'm getting concerned about. It was getting better, but now it seems worse again. I will keep you posted. Maybe R can get her to run with him tomorrow and clear her out. OH! I can't believe I forgot to post this:

I think hell must be a little cooler these days, well on it's way to a freeze. R has adopted Gage as his new running partner! Wonders never cease.
We spent all afternoon trying to get flu shots. With all the hype about how important they are, you would think it would be easier. Honestly, I have been trying since we left Atlanta. No pediatrician will give them unless they are exsiting patients and all the "flu drive" places we have found only give shots to people over 18. Of course, they are the ones we are most concerned about, F in particular, and would like to get her a pneumonia, in addition. If we knew where we were going to live, I would just go ahead a get a pediatrician, but that isn't happening either. Maybe if we sell our house soon, I can take them to their ped in Atlanta.
I have a sinus infection. I am going full force into the sinus rinses and hoping I can clear it myself. Pray for us all on this as my constant headache effects (or is that affects, I never can remember........Shoes?) everyone. More updates later....

Snag

There is a snag in the house contract. Financing on the buyer end. It may be resolved; they are still working on it, but credit is so tight these days. Keep sending the prayers. We are taking a break from house hunting this weekend......I'm getting a little burned out. Besides, until we hear more from Atlanta, there's really no point. So, no plans for the weekend.

I was able to get F's birthday and part of her Christmas today. Summer told me she was done with Christmas shopping last week and sent me into a panic...So, now I'm on it. I sure hope we won't have to have it in the camper......No room for the tree!

Good News (Maybe)

I hope this announcement isn't too preliminary, but we MAY have a contract on the house in Atlanta. Send all your prayers this way on that subject.

We are still looking around here. There is one possibility in Melbourne, but at the southern end of his territory and the price of the home, considering the age, R's not really sold. I went around today in another area (a more centrally located area) with the kids. There were some interesting ones, but nothing that I walked into and said, "Oh, this is perfect".

I did see a floor plan that has been my favorite so far, and it was large.... It had the master on the main with a great loft area at the top of the staircase, along with all 3 kids bedrooms and a bath with Jack and Jill sinks upstairs. It was done by a "builder" with the same floor plan in other neighborhood homes. I would have liked the backyard to have been bigger, but it wasn't not "do-able". It was a home that was only built in 2006. It is more in the East Orlando area (a little NE of there). Oh, and it's on a cul de sac. The neighborhood is more like what we are used to. I guess we will just have narrow our priorities. Someone today said, and it's true, if our house is sold in Atlanta and we don't get anxious here, something great at a great price is bound to come along. It will just be a matter of how badly do we want to leave the camper. I'll update on the Atlanta house tomorrow.

Good School Day

Today was good in the school day dept. F and I actually got three subjects in, without too much drama. Language, Spelling with 100% on her test and one missed on the bonus words, and Math orally while bike riding. She is pretty good about being able to mix addition, subtraction and multiplication as given. The last time the CF center wrote her prescriptions, they made a mistake and wrote the albuterol and pulmicort in nebulized form instead of inhaler. This initially seemed like a giant pain since it adds so much time to her already time consuming treatments, but it has really had it's benefits. F has no choice but to sit still during that , and when she's done, she wants to play, play play. This extra nebulizer time has given us extra school time without any arguments. Will is only one review page away from reading his second Hooked On Phonics book and G loves to do her ABC cards and is becoming quite good at them. Not only is she recognizing most, but can also tell the sound and some words they start with. She is, without a doubt, currently the most enthusiastic. It's all about being a Big Girl with that one. Big kid means school, so that's what she wants to do.
We looked a couple of homes in Melbourne this afternoon. I liked one of them a lot, but R isn't as sold. It is an older home, (1989)but has a nice lot. All the newer homes have no yards.........a complaint you've already heard. Besides, it was built since I have been out of HS....., and that wasn't so long ago...........RIGHT?

Long Day

It was a very long day and I typed the whole thing out, but to top off this day, my internet connection failed before I saved it all. One day I will start saving as I type.
Short version:
Went north on the coast- One home excited about was a huge dissapointment.
Daytona Trashy!- Staying south!
Beach tomorrow
More homes on Tuesday.....one in "the country" on an acre....house beautiful, but don't know if we're country people.
Gage moved inside at night......doing better than W or G. Thinking of boxing them instead!

Tell me it will grow back!

R gave W a haircut last night. Although I will be the first to admit that he needed one, this is a little too extreme for me. What do you think? In his defense, we left our clippers in Atlanta and Mom gave us the pair she bought to use during chemo. It was a different set and while I always insist on an 8 guard on top and 2 around sides and back, this set only had a 3 as the largest guard.....but geez! Do you have to run it along the scalp?

In the picture F is doing a new math program (cd) that accidently came with a workbook I bought her. She is loving it and wanted to do math all day! So, tell me that's okay and that I'm not a slacker calling that her math time for school.

We are looking at one house tomorrow that seems to have a lot of promise. Wish luck!

Catching up

We are back in Titusville. Our time in Panama City flew! We had Will's birthday (twice) dinner with the Alands, lunch with my girlfriends from the bank and spent the day at Pinnacle Port with John and Kristen who were also in for the week. Here are some pictures from our day together. As you can tell, they all still idolize Madison and baby Dow is growing like a weed.

We drove down to the Melbourne area on Sunday to look at houses. We are trying to explore all of our options in R's new territory. A friend of mine from Atlanta ( hi, Maggie) is from Rockledge and told me about a new community in the area named Viera. She said that she would look there if she were moving here, so we drove over to take a look. It is one of those "master planned" communities and we accidently ended up in the "over 55" neighborhood. I wondered if you live there if your grandkids are allowed to visit overnight:) Mom and Dad are having a great time in New England. They finished the leaves in NH, Vermont and the Boston trip and are now in Amish country back in Pen sla vain ya as G calls it. They decided to skip Niagra Falls because of the weather forcast and head back this way. Enjoy the pictures......all the kids had a great time, but F discovered a passion for "surfing" as she refers to it. It is making me think that maybe we should look closer to the coast and not as much in East Orlando. I guess it's not all bad that it is taking our house longer to sell. The more time we have, the more options we open up to as possibilities here. Today I hunted realtor.com for places in New Smyrna/Port Orange/Daytona Shores. I went out on a limb with the search criteria and started considering some other options. What if we didn't live in a planned community like we thought? What if we went a little out and got more land? What if we went the Beach condo route as our primary residence? Okay, so the last one is really out there since the only thing we can afford in an Oceanfront condo is a 2/2. Wow, I'm crazy, but I thought, well, it would seem like a palace compared to what we're in now:)

amendment to He's Baaaack!

I spoke to my Daddy today who told me that my Gage story had to be edited. Mr. Strickland is, in fact in his 80's, not 70's. Also, he does not have a wooden leg. He did have a wooden leg when they moved to Florida, but (and I swear, this is the truth) it got termites in it and has been since replaced by a regular prothstetic device. (leg) Seriously folks, you can't make this stuff up!

Happy Birthday Will Will, Again

Today was Will's actual birthday so I wanted to do something special for him. PC has this Pirate Ship that looked like something he would love. It is a two hour cruise around Shell Island and up the coast. I have to admit, I was thinking it was just going to be some overpriced cheesy tourist trap, but I have to say, it was worth every penney! That's really saying something for me since I'm so cheap. One the way to the ship we passed Gulf Coast Community College and saw a bunch of firetrucks in the parking lot. We had a little time, so I pulled in to see what was going on. Turned out, it was the annual Firefest Weekend and they had emergency vehicles from all over promoting fire safety. The regular trucks were there that you would imagine, all the gear layed out, but there was also the Forrestry Service (with a digger, no less) and Smokey the Bear. Some firepup thing from the regular fire dept., ambulances, Civil Air Patrol, K9 units, the Air force with their specially equipped trucks, and others that I can't remember. The pictures at the bottom are of that. What a nice bday surprise for him!

Next, it was on to the Pirate Ship. Yes, I know my kids are the only ones wearing lifejackets..........it always amazes me the number of parents that could be charged with child neglect on a daily basis:) Onboard, the crew was all in costume and character and they were great. You can see by the pictures that the kids had a blast! I tried to go through the pictures and remember all the things they did. So, not in this order, they had a water gun fight. Yes, their first introduction to those.Swabbed the deck, ate,got their faces painted and were given hats, had a sword fight, ate,watched dolphins(Faith was the most excited about that), ate, fired cannons, followed the crew doing the chicken dance and a conga line with tamborines and ate and ate. (Yes, these are the same children I normally have to beg to eat) At one point Will and Grace were fighting over a hotdog because the lady couldn't get them cooked fast enough.....It was the second one for them both.They took them all down below deck and told them some story of pirates and buried treasure, then sent them back up top to look for the treasure they told them about in the story. Apparently they had a buoy out there tied to a treasure chest that the kids spotted and all helped pull up out of the water on a long rope. Then there was the opening of the chest, the treasure getting (which was done in such a nice orderly way none of the smaller kids got trampled) then they wrapped up with pirate tatoos on the hands. I know, who am I? Water guns? tatoos? Then, we went back to the beach for a little swimming and sand castle building before heading home. Needless to say, we are all exhausted...........Mommy most of all, but it was worth it. Will had a wonderful birthday that he won't soon be forgetting. I am sure that he will be nominating me for "Mommy of the Year"..........at least he'd BETTER BE. So, enjoy the pictures and videos.

He's Baaaaack!

Gage decided to open the door to the deck and escape yesterday when we were all out on the deck. I didn't notice it at first, but when I did I told the kids (who were in the pool) to get out and find some shoes and we would go look for him. By the time I found everyone's shoes and put them on, Faith had gone out to the backyard and said "Mrs. Strickland said he's over there." He was two houses down walking along the canal. Yes, the one with alligators. So we called and of course he didn't come. We chased him down to the end of the street (dead end) through all of my parents neighbors' yards. At the end of the street, he crossed and went to the neighbors' backyards across the street. Two houses down, Janette (aka Mrs. Strickland) found him........SWIMMING THE CANAL! This is a dog that HATES the water with a passion. The neighborhood is kind of like fork prongs with canals running down the streets along everyone's backyards so that they all have access to Deerpoint lake. So he swam across the canal with me yelling at him the whole time, kids in tow, in their lifejackets, sandals, and Grace actually only had on a pair of panties in addition to her vest and sandals. All this time, I'm thinking "well, it wouldn't be so bad if an alligator swam up and took him down right now, except that my children are watching and that might traumatize them." So, now he's in the backyard of the neighbors across the canal, which means the next street over with a busy road linking them. Off we all go back to the house, put the kids in the car, take the lifevests off, strap everyone into their respective seats, go in and find the keys blah blah blah. I figure by the time we get over to the next street he will be 5 streets over and I'm home free. We drive down the next street looking between all the houses (I should mention here that I had to have "the talk" about the possibility of him lying on that busy road, dead to the kids on the way out of the driveway. Faith seems to be able to handle just about anything as long as it's not a surprise.) Okay, now we're on the next street looking between all the houses. One of the backyards has some caged hunting dogs which is where he crossed the canal to get to them. I listened for those dogs still going crazy and they seemed to have subsided a bit. I pulled into someone's driveway, got out and went as far as I could by the house still having the car with my children inside in sight. I saw him two more houses over trotting down that canal away from the dogs. Back into the car, follow the road along the canal. It is also a dead end with a curve to the left. We went to the end and waited for him to emerge. Never did. Well, I am certainly not leaving my babies in the car to go look for this dog, so I tell them he is going to find a new family to live with and would be fine. They took that well, I texted R "dog gone" and started to drive home. When I got to the end of the road (I'm still on the next street over) here come the Stricklands flashing their headlights. I stop, they have come to help with doggy treats and their own dog's leash in hand. (nosy do gooders) The Sticklands are the retired couple that live next door to my parents. They are dear friends that we all treasure, but come on, already! I turn the car back around to follow them because I can't let them go looking for my dog without helping. By the time we get back down there, the hunting dogs are going ballistic again. We all stop, Hank (Mr. Stickland) gets inside the outer fence of these people's yard and goes chasing after him. At this point in the story I must pause again to let you know that Mr. Strickland is in his 70's and HAS A WOODEN LEG! So, with Janette there to watch the kids I go help him because anyone that knows Gage, knows that he is NOT coming to someone calling his name. Hank finally traps him in a corner, gives him a treat and slips the leash onto his collar. Now we have to get out of the fence, that I jumped to get in with the dog and the elderly man with the wooden leg in tow. Fortunately they didn't have the best "security" and we found our way out. By this time I am so mad at this dog AND I have to lift his sorry ass into the back of the Sequoia because he's now too old to jump in by himself. Yeah, not to old to jump off a retaining wall, swim a canal and scale the opposing wall and hill 20 minutes before....He may never leave his kennel except to go to the bathroom again. I wouldn't let him out then except that then I would be the one that had to clean out his excrement. Oh, and two, he needs ANOTHER bath because he swam the canal! This was yesteday. Today the kids and I went to the beach and had a blast. We are going back tomorrow. More then

First Dentist Trip

Although Faith has seen an orthodontist a few times, she nor Will had ever been to a regular dentist for a check-up. Yes, I know, I'm a horrible mother for that. So , in an effort to redeem myself, I made appts. with a close friend in PC who's a dentist. I am happy to report that all is well with the dental hygiene of my children. They had professional cleanings and an exam by Pete. He said, "Whatever you are doing, just keep doing it." He did say that Faith's other top front tooth is loose. If it comes out before those bottom two come in more, I don't know how the poor girl will eat. That will make all four front teeth, top and bottom, gone for those of you not keeping count. Their behavior? Faith was socially unresponsive to his attempts to make conversation, but was a compliant patient. Will was charming, funny and compliant once I got his sunglasses out for him. He has the most light sensitive eyes. It was funny seeing him get his teeth cleaning and exam in his shades.Grace whined and wouldn't open her mouth. (Expected)
I have a new favorite website for planning and home school printables. It is DonnaYoung.org. She is another mom that has been at this for years and has started this website to benefit others. Even if you aren't home schooling, you could get some great printables and worksheets for your kids. That's about it. It rained all day, so they are bouncing off the walls and I need to put them to bed.