Thursday, August 27, 2009

And It Just Keeps Getting Better...

a breif summary:

monday night-
dentist calls to see how i'm doing. i tell him about my ill-fitting cap. he says come in in the morning.
also about this time i realize i'm getting a plugged milk duct from missing a feeding during my long dentist appointment.
i'm up all night with a fever....freezing cold and in pain.

tuesday-
take ty to school (shaeya has tues/thurs off).
drop 2 girls off with dave at his office and go back to dentist with the baby.

i meet some friends at the zoo, and in the afternoon i start feeling pretty miserable again.
pick up kids from school.
in the evening dave has to work, and i baby-sit the nighbors kids. me, 6 kids, and 2 plugged ducts from nursing only on 1 side. fever again.
and my cap falls off.

wednesday-
getting kids ready for school, and a guy comes to my door. starts telling me all about how his college wants him to meet families in peoria. especially families with young children. sorry for his strong accent, do i have 5 minutes to come out and listen to his presentation?
no, i don't- i politely tell him.
when is a better time? he asks.
maybe in the evening when my husband is home.
oh, your husband is not home? what time does he get home?

this freaking anyone else out???
after i shut the door on him (he seriously would NOT listen to me about not having time to listen) i take the kids to school, and then head back to the dentist. this time with the 2 little girls. they reglue the cap, and give me some denture adhesive in case it comes off again.

i make my way back to the school cause i volunteered for lunch and recess duty.
once again bringing 2 girls with me.

after that we make a trip to the grocery store, head home for naptime- during which i give the house a quick cleaning- then back to school to pick up the kids.

another evening alone while dave works (he's fixing a neighbor's deck) and at about 7:30, the guy comes back to my door. i don't answer. i call the non-emergency police number thinking i will just report it to make them aware. they tell me they want to send an officer over to talk to me.
my cap falls off again.
dave comes home, and we wait and wait for the officer, who finally shows up around 9:30. he says he found the guy and talked to him. he's selling magazines. hmm.....wish he would've just TOLD ME that instead of the whole "college telling him to meet families" thing....

we head to bed- me feeling much better about the safety of my children- dave telling me he thinks it's "cute" that i was worried enough to call the police.

i am finally feeling better- no more fever- and fall asleep for about an hour. then i wake up with that wonderful "i'm totally gonna puke" feeling. i end up puking twice. couldn't tell you what that was all about.

so that brings us to today-
wren has a fever. 102. she just wants to be held, and i really want to just hold her......but there are so many other things demanding my time and attention.

i'm feeling better, but my gum -where i had the root canal- is red, swollen, and throbbing. and my cap keeps falling off anytime i eat anything.
(i guess i should explain that i had a root canal done on one side and a cap redone on the other side. so i have problems on both sides.)
and eating is so not worth it. i think i'll just stick to ice cream for the next 5 weeks- which is when they put the permanent caps on.

the upside of it all......i can now button 2 pairs of pants that i couldn't button before monday.

Monday, August 24, 2009

My Super-Fun Monday

well, of all the different ways i dreamed of spending my first full day with only 2 kids, this definitely was not one of them.

3 hours in a chair at the dentist getting a root canal.

but, when they called this morning and offered me 20% off my bill if i found a babysitter and came in today (a bill that was going to be $965.80) i decided to jump on it.

i told them i'd be in as soon as i found someone.

when i came walking in the office with no children about an hour later, they all started cheering.

for some reason i'm very well known there.
i guess not everyone usually brings all their kids with them to get their teeth cleaned?
i think it works pretty well.
i have one lying on my chest- one standing with her face about 2 inches from my mouth periodically cheering for me, asking what the doctor is doing, and yelling, "you're done!!!" everytime they pull away for a second- and 2 sitting on the floor completely zoned out watching cartoons.

i felt terribly guilty leaving the 2 little ones, especially when i wasn't even sure if wren would take the bottle of breastmilk i left with her, but 20%!!!
they know how to motivate me.

and then as they sat me in a chair, told me to get comfortable, and handed me a remote, i decided the kids would be just fine.......you know- ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

it was going great til about the third hour when i started getting kida panicky. i was worried about the baby, and it was getting closer to 3 which is when i have to pick up the kids.
so as they were trying to get a good fit on the temporary cap, i just kept telling them it was fine.
it's fine....feels okay.....i gotta get going.

and now i get to live through the next 5 weeks not able to bite down all the way or chew very well......

so that's that.

here's a few random pictures i thought were cute.



this is wren and her best friend aubrey- they're 3 weeks apart :)



koa actually didn't start her day at 100 miles per hour this morning. i had to capture the moment.





Friday, August 21, 2009

First Day Of School













i remember "yesterday" just before wren was born thinking that this could be a really busy summer for me.

seriously.....that's it? it's over?
HOW does that happen?
how is my baby almost 3 months old, and ty and shaeya are starting school?

it's been a blur of a day, starting at 6:00 this morning.
sweet little wren woke up hungry then, and shaeya came upstairs shortly after- excited and a little nervous.

we all had a nice morning together and actually made it to school on time. i guess things DO go more smoothly when you get up nice and early.....almost makes it worth it.

i took the kids inside and to their desks. i said good-bye to tyden, and gave him a big hug- then moved on to shaeya. she hugged me really tight, and neither one of us really wanted to let go. she leaned and whispered in my ear, "remember this morning when i told you i was a little nervous??....."
we both teared up, and i told her it was okay to be nervous. and that tyden was there with her and she could find him if she needed to.

well, when i came back to pick them up at noon, i asked shaeya how it went. she said she had tears in her eyes when i left, but she didn't really cry. and she had fun cause they have a REAL frog in her classroom.
and tyden had fun also- even though he is the ONLY boy in his class......it's just his lot in life.

as we walked back to the car- such a picture perfect moment leaving the school with ty and shaeya beside me, wren in one arm, and a kicking/screaming tekoa in the other-shaeya looked up at me and said, "i just feel really grown up."

i don't know how i feel.....

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Back To Just 4

destiny's home now. it was a fun, but tiring week.
we had a lot of good times, and laughed a lot at the funny things they all said and did.

the kids and i stayed pretty busy during the days. we did lots of swimming- desi LOVED the swimming part. every morning she would wake up and say, "gut vonin! i git my spimmin svuit on!!!"
which translated into, "good morning! i'll get my swimming suit on!!"





and speaking of swimming suits.....





we went to a couple of different pools.











and then spent a day at the lake-





no skiing for me :) i still can't straighten one leg all the way.







monday night we went to a birthday party for my neice kali.
by this point desi was calling my mom grandma, too. so cute.





desi and koa were roommates for the week- they had fun going to sleep and waking up together.
i'd hear them having deep discussions in the mornings before coming to find me. :)





church was good, but it was sure hard to keep track of and feed them all.





then we had a nice sunday night dinner at mcdonalds :) with grandma and grandpa k.
it really was really nice. nice to let the kids run around. nice to have some adult conversation. nice to drink a big iced coffee.....





then yesterday we drove desi home.





it was sad to say good-bye, but it's good for me to have a few days to re-group and to get ready for SCHOOL which starts on friday.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Tragedy At Breakfast

so, we picked destiny up last night.
such a sweety. i can't believe how much she's grown!
i was a little worried she'd be hesitant to come with us, but she hopped right in the van and said, "love you mom, go away."

we got home pretty late, and they all went right to sleep.

as dave and i lay in bed we were talking about a fish tank that my brother wants to give us.
i told him, "it sounds nice, but i don't know if i can handle the rat and a fish tank."
and dave said, "well let's just get rid of the rat."
to which i said, "i would love to, but the kids would be devastated. and shaeya just said this morning, 'our rat is sure living a long time, mom' . and i told her that yep, mom was doing great with this pet."
(if you remember from an earlier post- i don't have such a good track record with pets)


so then this morning........
the kids were all sitting at the table,



and i was cooking (yes, cooking) breakfast.
and tyden says, "mom, you better come look at ratty.....something doesn't look quite right."

i walked over, and this is what i saw.....
(because i just KNOW you would want to see it too)








nope- not quite right.

very sad- but i had to just laugh after all that talk about her yesterday.
i said, "oh! she's dead!!"
and tekoa and destiny thought that was very funny- they kept saying all day, "she's dead!! she's dead!! ratty's dead. she died and she's dead."

so then i did what anyone would do-
i took a picture of her, and then of the kids.



then i had to retake the picture of the kids and tell them that maybe they shouldn't smile, cause their rat had just died.



much better.

then i called dave to let him know-
and to make sure he had nothing to do with it.
(c'mon, the thought crossed your mind too).
and i set her cage out on the deck so we could finish our breakfast.

i really didn't mean to leave her out there and let her bake in the sun all day.
(no picture needed)


after all that drama we decided to head to the pool and meet up with some friends.

i make that sound so easy, but it actually took quite awile to get everybody ready and all our stuff together and our lunch packed.



as fast as i was getting things done, everything in the house was getting undone.
but we made it there eventually- (i should of taken pictures of what the house looked like as we walked out the door)
and we had a really nice day.









note to self- if you take a picture with water drops on the screen, they will show up on the picture



Monday, August 10, 2009

Lake Weekend

OW!!! ow ow ow ow ow.
this is why you should never get old- and why you should never try slolam water skiing when you haven't done it for like 5 years and when you're out of shape cause you just had a baby.
(i know, i know- i can only use that "just had a baby" thing for so long...)

i feel like i've been hit by a truck.

but we had a really fun weekend at the lake. we invited lots of people to come, and some stayed the whole weekend with us.

we swam, water skied and wake boarded, did the big water slide and the rope swing, and played some intense volleyball- so much fun.
i loved having a million kids there- and babies :)

i really wish i would have taken the time to take some pictures. but i was just too busy.
too busy having fun, holding babies, playing/helping with kids, cooking food, cleaning, and watching/dealing with tekoa- who's still working on one of those molars.
(i really am sorry about the knife punctures in the new seat you made for the mule, amy.
guess i wasn't watching her quite closely enough....)


speaking of tekoa....her latest trick at home is trying to climb on the banister over our stairs. because it's just so thrilling to balance 12 feet in the air over a staircase.
i don't know how she has lived as long as she has.

she is cracking me up today, though.
this morning i was nursing the baby, and she came up and asked me for some "brefthist". i told her wren was getting her breakfast first, and then it would be koa's turn. she gave me a really funny look and said, "I DON'T WANT TO NURSE!!"
and when she says it, it sounds like "nuth". so funny.

then later, shaeya was being punished for something (shocker, i know) and after her punishment she asked me for some gum. i told her she could have gum if she gave me a hug and said she was sorry first.
but before shaeya had a chance, tekoa ran up to me, threw her arms around me and said, "i'm so sorry, mom!"

one last one- i gave tekoa some raisins in a little bowl before her nap. she looked at them and said, "can i have too much, mommy? can i? please? can i have too much??"

so cute....but so exhausting- that pretty much sums her up.




but anyway- back to our weekend at the lake.
it was totally worth all the pain i'm in today.

and one of the highlights was my grandma going off the rope swing.
she's been lifting weights to gear herself up for her big jump.
way to go, grandma!

and katelyn and jordan- so fun to have you and the thames' with us this weekend. my thoughts and prayers are constantly with you both.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Destiny



















lots of fun with cousins lately.
but poor tyden just found out cousin #10 on the herman side will be yet another girl.
that makes 2 boys and 8 girls.
can you say drama?
seriously though, they have so much fun together. we just feel bad for tyden.
shaeya is his best friend til she's with her cousins, then he's completely forgotten.
it's pretty hard for him to handle sometimes.

......what he REALLY needs is a brother, right dave?


so, the big news right now is that our goddaughter destiny is coming for a visit. i think we pick her up on tuesday.
we brought her home from the hospital when she was born, and kept her for a month while her mom was finishing serving her time.
now she is 3. she lives with her mom, and comes to visit when we can work it out- about once a year for a week or so.

tell me she is not the most beautiful little girl you've ever seen.































can't wait to see her again. i'm sure she'll be so grown up. and i'm sure i'll post lots of pictures :)

now i've got to go check on my first attempt at zucchini bread......

Saturday, August 1, 2009

The Last 2

i'm blaming my blog silence on tekoa's last 2 molars. she's been a train wreck. but praise Jesus these are the LAST 2!

i've been in a whirlwind of catching up on cleaning and organizing, and buying school supplies and school clothes :( i can't believe it's only 3 weeks away. i'm not ready.
okay, most days i'm not ready.
-i just broke the news to shaeya that at her new school she can't wear sweat pants or "soft pants" as she calls them- she's pretty much devastated. so nice not to have to fight that battle this year, but so hard to find time to buy them their whole new uniform wardrobes.

i just feel like i'm so BUSY. i never wanted to be so busy doing things that i don't ever get to just be with my kids, but i feel like i spend so much time on their physical needs - and on the house- that a lot of the heart issues get passed over. how do you fix that?

today i deep cleaned bathrooms and the kitchen, cleaned out a cupboard in the laundry room, finished up some work on photo albums, pried a screaming tekoa off the shelves in the fridge, did 2 loads of laundry, bathed the baby twice- why doesn't the poop ever stay in the daiper?- scrubbed all the ink from an inkpad off tekoa's face and hands, broke up 2 huge fights, pried a plate full of brownies out of tekoa's hands while she screamed that she was "keeping them safe!!!", fed the kids lunch and then recleaned the kitchen, and then washed all the baby magic off of tekoa's arms and hands......
you get the picture......busy.

i had a night out with my cousins the other night, and i used that time to organize pictures and get them in albums, scrub the half polish off my toenails, and i had kari give me a (long overdue) haircut. they were all making fun of me, and i said- do you KNOW what it's LIKE at my house?!?

.......i KNOW it'll get better when those teeth come through, i just KNOW it :)