Just some pictures

I took these the other day. I thought they were fun.

Ozzy's hand and foot. He does this a lot these days. I love it and wanted to capture it so I could always remember it.

Lennon pointing out what he sees in the clouds.

Farm tours and snakes

We've been up to a lot in the last week. Our town was celebrating it's bicentennial. It was hosting a whole bunch of events lasting the week. We watched an old street lamp being lite, went to 2 parades, visited an art gallery and the temporary visitors center, toured an organic farm and watched fireworks. We also had 3 picnics. Whew!

School has been going better. We decided to only do every other day instead of every day. This is working much better. We registered for toddler and preschool time at the library. That starts next week. We will be going every Wednesday and Friday at 10:30. I am hoping it is lots of fun and that we meet some potential friends.

Some pictures....

On the wagon ride at the Organic Farm.

Checking out the composting piles at the organic farm.
A little snake that keeps showing up at our house. We had fun touching it.

Day 2

Change is never easy at first. That is what I keep telling myself. I am committed to homeschooling and making it a great, fun experience. But, right now I am asking myself WTF I was thinking. We had fallen into a easy schedule-TV for some of the day, and a whole lot of free play inside and outside. We have cut out TV all together minus the little bit after our night story time before bed with Clint. The kids are cranky-I am sure because their minds are feeling tired. I am cranky-it is so much easier doing "nothing". But, again, I really want to do this and I know it will just get easier. If I still feel as though we struggling in a few days I will just cut back on some things and try them again in a few weeks.

Today we learned about the calendar and our morning exercises. First we stretch all of our body parts, then we do jumping jacks while saying the days of the week and the months of the year. After that we add the next number or date to the calendar, and say the date.

For our Getting Ready to Read skillz we talked about words and how they make a sentence. I would read a sentence out of a book and Corby would put a stone on each word. Then he would remove the stone when I read the words again. Hadley did this a little bit also. Lennon played with the rocks.

Name Activity-they put stickers on paper that had their name written on it.

Focus Game-"The Knocking Game"-I knocked on different things while the kids had their eyes closed. They had to guess what I was knocking on. Lots of laughter with this game.

We read some poems out of "Where the Sidewalk Ends". Hadley cried a lot when I read "Someone ate the Baby".

Tonight Clint is going to talk about each kids number that corresponds with their age.

Millersburg is turning 200 years old. The town is hosting celebrations all week long. We plan on attending many of the events. Tonight we are going to see the street lamp lighting and have cake.

School Started!

The Beck School of Fun and Farming is in session. Today was the official start of the year long test of the Pre-K. Based on how well this year goes we will decide if homeschooling is for us and if we want to continue with K or put Corb in public school. I will be doing the majority of "school" during the day while Clint fields math in the evening.

For our first day we kept it pretty simple. We talked about what school means. Then we read "If you Take a Mouse to School". After we were done reading it I asked Corby and Hadley questions about the story. What happened first type questions and I asked them to tell me about the story in their own words. After we had talked for a little I had them draw a picture of their favorite part of the story. When they finished the picture I had them dictate to me about what they had drawn. I wrote that on their picture. I think my favorite part of the dictation was from Corb "That his Mouse with the blueish green and he has big giant hair all over him".

We did some "Get ready to read" skillz cards. Today I said a pair of simple words like 'Cat and Bat'-if they rhymed we jumped, if they didn't rhyme we sat down.

We started a "Start of School Ritual". We built Cairns. When we put our flower on top we made a wish about what we would like to learn this year in school. Corb wished to read books. Hadley wished to learn about horses. Lennon just giggled.

Clint is going to be doing the number 1 with the kids tonight.

Some pictures of the Cairns.

Corb and his Cairn.
Hads and her Cairn.
Lennon's Cairn. He didn't want to get his picture taken...big surprise.

You know what is funny?

Funny is when you are sitting in your living room watching the NASA channel...

pause for laughter

...and a horse runs past your living room window. Hadley yells "I see a NEIGH NEIGH!!". Clint says "Did a horse just run past our window?" I get up to check, sure enough there is a horse standing in our driveway next to the Jeep. Fancy.

Clint and the Amish dude are out chasing the thing around right now. Who said country life was boring.

Sorry I suck

Major farming updates.

1. We currently have 8 peeps. 4 black ones, 1 full size yellow, 2 banty size yellow and 1 full size red. They were all hatched last week. All from an experimental hatch. I collected eggs for a week(all Banty or Blue eggs). I put them in a carton in my root cellar. When I had a dozen I put them all under a broody hen at the same time. It takes 21 days for eggs to hatch. One of the eggs broke somewhere along the line. That took us down to 11. They were due to hatch the 3rd of August. All of the full sized eggs started hatching on the 1st. There were 8 of them(and 3 banty eggs). All 8 of them had little peeps. 2 of them died shortly after hatching. The Banty eggs started hatching on the 2nd. One of them had a full sized baby in it but never hatched. This was also an egg color experiment. It seems that most of the blue eggs will turn out black peeps(not desired by us) so I don't think we will be hatching anymore blue eggs at this time. Right now we are trying to hatch out hens that aren't black as the black hens aren't good layers. We plan on eating any black chickens and extra roosters when they turn 6 months. That is if Clint can grow a pair and butcher them by then.

2. We are having a massive harvest. We've been eating fresh corn on the cob every night for supper. We've dug up potatoes to eat. Making a lot of tomato products(and canning extra). Watermelons are just about done. Carrots with dinner. It is all so good and fun to just walk outside and pick supper.

3. We are getting 2 sheep. As soon as Clint fixes his truck(I am not going into it)he is going to pick them up. I am so excited. I want to get collars with big ol bells on for them. How fricken cool would that be? I don't know if they are male or female yet. I can't wait to pick out names for them. It will be fun to hear the crowing of our Rooster mixed in with the baaing of the sheep.

Vacation

We leave for vacation in 2 days. I have nothing done yet. I lie, I bought snacks, got stuff together for the kids in the car and washed clothing.

I did find this cool door to take pictures next to. Don't look at Corb's crazy clothing. I missed the door at my old house but I think I like this one even better.

Mother's Day

Mother's Day was fan-bloody-tastic. I slept in until 10am. After I ate a few pancakes for breakfast, I told Clint I wanted to go to the Ned Smith Center to check out some of the trails they had there. I've been wanting to do this since we moved here, just never got there. It was so much fun. We walked around for an hour or so. Ate the picnic lunch I packed. Walked around some more afterwards. We had so much fun.

When we got home I put our steaks in some marinade so they would be ready for dinner. I gave Clint, Corby and Lennon hair cuts. Then I took a nice long shower. After I got out I settled down to read for the evening. Clint made the steaks, mashed potatoes, corn and biscuits for dinner. It was delish. We had cupcakes for dessert. Ozzy even slept through the whole meal so I could eat it hot! After dinner I climbed into bed with most of the kids to watch "The Yellow People". Ozzy was asleep early, I went to sleep early. It was great.

I didn't even have to wash one dish or change one diaper all day. It was perfect.

We might have chicks!

I talked Clint into letting one of our hens have a few eggs to hatch. We are going to let her keep 5 eggs. It takes 21 days for chicken eggs to hatch. I can't wait to see the little babies. The kids are going to be so eggcited(ha!).

Ozzy

Ozzy learned how to smile on May Day. He's been flashing his pinky gums all over the place since then. I haven't been able to catch it on camera yet. He does not like the car seat or car rides. He likes to be held up right so he can see everything. He reminds me a lot of Corby in his alertness. He is staying awake for long periods of time now. His favorite way to sleep is still on his belly, on a pillow in our bed. He won't sleep any other way for naps. At night he sleeps snuggled up with me.

May Day!

May Day didn't go quite as planned, but it was much better I think. Matty called about 9am and asked if we wanted to go to the Dinosaur exhibit at the Science Museum. Since it was raining outside and cloudy I had no choice but to say "Heck YES!" We were out the door by 10.

Corby wasn't very impressed. I think he wanted to see the giant bones all set up. There were four dinos made of metal. They had levers you could pull to make them move. Lennon thought they were fooky and wouldn't go near them. Hadley had fun pulling the levers.

After the museum we went to Strawberry Square for lunch. Clint walked over from work to eat with us. After lunch we walked back to his work so his co-workers could met Ozzy. Ozzy enjoyed the lights in the ceiling.

On the drive home we stopped for ice cream. It was so good.

Clint got home an hour after we got here. I started getting the kids ready to do their May Pole Dance. We made our hair wild, put some glitter in it, put some glitter on our faces and painted our nails with a glitter. Even Clint did it! We went out side and found a nice tree. I tied the ribbons to it. Then Clint and the kids danced around the tree. The kids had so much fun. After we danced we ate a picnic lunch in the grass by the flowers.

Farming update

Broccoli(48 plants), Lettuce(6) and tomatoes(12) are finally in. The onions are coming up grandly. They are about 6" tall already. The peas are pushing through also and stand about 4" tall. The potatoes are taking their time making an appearance. The chickens are popping out 5-6 eggs every day. All of my herbs are in my herb garden-Basil, garlic, chives, oregano, thyme, rosemary and sage.

When we get back from vacation we will finish planting everything with the seeds we have. Watermelon, cantaloupe, pumpkins(big and medium), corn and green beans will go in the big garden. Tiny pumpkins, mini-carrots, mini-eggplant and little sunflowers will go in the kids garden.

We had to pull the 3 "extra" roosters out of the chicken yard/coop. There was a blood bath of fighting going on. We decided to keep the really colorful one. The 2 white ones and the red one are currently living in the extra dog runs until Clint gets up the nerve to chop off their heads.

Hadley saves the day

Saturday morning Clint had the 3 big kids by himself while I went to get the veggie plants for the garden. He said in his mind he had a plan to sweep and mop the living room and kitchen, then help all of the kids pick up their rooms. It went to hell fast. He said it wasn't long before he had sent everyone to their rooms and all of them were crying. Clint said he just sat down on the couch and thought to himself "This is not how I wanted the morning to go. I did not want to yell. None of us are enjoying this".

He called everyone out of their rooms and had them sit on the couch. He sat on the floor in front of them. He apologized for yelling. Then told them what the plans were for the day. Then Hadley was cute. She got up off the couch, threw her arms around Clint and said 'Daddy, I so proud of you".

Bug Hunt

Yesterday we I said screw the yard work and we all went on a bug hunt instead. The kids had their magnifying glasses with "pinchies"(tweezers). We found worms, little black bugs and ants. We fed the worms we found to the chickens. It was way more fun than pulling weeds.

You say potato

The potatoes are in!

We failed to get the green beans and broccoli in. We will try and beat the rain and get them in this afternoon.

The menu for our belated birthday tea party on the beach was planned yesterday. I think that is going to be a lot of fun.

Ozzy was a crank yesterday. He did not want to sleep at all. Not even in the sling. He was just cranky.

Hadley broke out in SNL "Janet Reno's Dance Party" quotes yesterday. She kept telling me "I sick of your lies". I was laughing so hard.

Sunny Day

Yesterday was beautiful! It was in the 80's. Hadley had a Farmer appt in the afternoon. She is growing well. She had an official "she is just a clutz" diagnosis. We asked about her falling over all the time. When she is running, walking, standing, turning...if we hear a THUD we know it is Hads. Her oogly toes are also fine.

After her appt we hung out at my parents house. We planned the menu for our vacation in a few weeks. We are going to Chincoteague Island I can't wait. Hadley is going to love it! She talks about going to the beach with the horses all the time. Lennon has never seen the ocean. I think he will love it. Corb is excited, too. It is going to be a lot of fun.

Today it will be nice for most of the day. The plans for today is yard work as much as I can do before Clint gets home with the kids around. Lunch when he gets home. Then he is going to get the garden ready for us to plant the potatoes, some more peas, green beans and a few broccoli plants that we got.

And, we're back

Hads and the Lemon are finally over the fever part of the cold and they have moved onto the snotty coughing part. Not great but better than a fever. Corb, Ozzy and I seem to have escaped the evil germs. Clint is in the throws of it now.

Let's see, fun fun weekend was had. Saturday we went to Clint's Grandma's birthday gathering. It was such a nice day outside. In the mid 70's and sunshine! Everyone took toys for the cousins to play with outside since his Grandma doesn't have much in the way of kids toys. They had bubbles, baseball, balls and their favorite-water guns. They had a lot of fun with those. The big kids joined in, too. After the party Clint's Aunt and Uncle followed us to our farm. They have never been here and they wanted to bring some tomato stakes up for us. They loved it! I hope they come up again soon.

Yesterday was good and not so good. Clint's Dad came at 7:30am to help Clint cut down some dead trees. They were cutting them up and stacking them for firewood this coming winter(I know, sounds very Little House on the Prairie). My parents came up to help me with the kids so I could get some work done outside, too. Mom brought some purty flowers for me to plant.

After Clint and his dad had been working for an hour or 2 Clint started to get a migraine. He was then down and out for the rest of the day. I felt so bad for him. My Dad ended up helping Clint's dad with the wood. It was funny to listen to the 2 of them, they are so different.

I got 2 of my flower beds done. They are just waiting for mulch. Happy Mother's Day to me!(Mulch is my MD gift. HA!) I can't wait to get some more flowers and finish the rest of the beds. It feels so good to be outside doing stuff.

Down and out at the farm

Last night was not fun. I can't even count how many times we were up overnight between Hadley, Lennon and Ozzy. Then everyone decided it would be fun to get up at 6:30. Bunch of freaks, don't they know they are supposed to sleep when they are sick? Lennon went back to bed after being up for about 2 hours. He seems to have it the worst right now. It is so sad. Hadley is at least getting off the couch and playing today. No one ate much for breakfast. Ozzy is napping in my bed. He is still clear of any signs of illness. Thank goodness.

We have people coming over this weekend and the house is a disaster. I don't know if I'll be able to whip it into shape before the weekend. I want to do so much but I just don't feel like I have the energy to do it yet. Good news! My Dad is going to come up and spend the day with me tomorrow. He can hang out with the kids while I shove some things under the rug and into the closets so it looks half decent.

Corby is not flushing the toilet. He always did really well flushing and washing his hands. Now it is a fight to get him to do either. I want to get back on track with their chores, too.

Busy weekend!

Hadley had her birthday party on Saturday. It was lots of fun. Hadley and her cousin were born on the same day so they have a combo party on Clint's side. We also had a Easter Egg hunt at the party. Hadley kept asking why there wasn't any money in the eggs.

In this picture are all 7 cousins, yes most of them are ours. From L-R:
Dominique, Brayden(Ian's brother), Lennon, Hadley, Ian, Corby and Ozzy

Sunday we didn't do much of anything. It was a rainy windy day. My parents came up for a visit. They helped entertain the kids so I could clean up the kids rooms. I got Hadley's done. We moved her bed back into her room. She has been sleeping in her bed, in her room since Sunday-no complaints! By the time I got done with her room Lennon had been put down for a nap and Corb had crawled into his bed and fell asleep. I didn't get into their rooms yet.

Monday Ozzy had to go for a hearing retest. They couldn't get him to pass on the left ear in the hospital. I wasn't worried about it. When Clint is holding him and farts the poor baby jumps every time. It is funny. Anyway, he passed. Then we headed to my parents house for dinner. After dinner my Mom, Matty and I headed to Old Navy. I wanted to try on clothing. That was a mess but I did find an outfit to wear.

Today we are all laying around. Hadley woke up with a fever, I discovered Lennon also had one later in the morning. I am trying to keep the Ozman far, far away from them.

For dinner tonight we are having Chicken, sweet potatoes, brown rice and fruit.

Sleep Thief

What does a sleep thief look like?

Peas and Onions

We planted onions and peas 2 weeks ago. The kids had a lot of fun helping. I wish the weather would get nice again so we could plant the potatoes. We also want to transplant the strawberries. And soon the broccoli and lettuce(we need to get the plants). There is so much to do outside, I can't wait. Flowers, I can't wait to plant flowers! The kids are going to have their own garden this year, too. They will be able to plant whatever they want in it. Corb has a potato "growing" on his window sill right now and they tried to plant an egg. I want to get them some carrot seeds to put in their garden. We are making so many changes outside to the different flower beds and so forth. It is all starting to come together but we still have a long way to go.

Lennon planting peas.

Ozzy expressing his feelings at not being able to get down in the dirt to help.

Corb and Hads planting peas.

Dewey watching over it all.

Lennon upon hearing there were no more peas to plant.

Happy Birthday Haddy!

Happy 3rd Birthday, Hadley!

3 years ago, an angry little pixie came shooting out of my ute at 10:38pm(6 hours after her cousin was born earlier that day). She was just 4lbs 15oz and 17 3/4 inches long. She was so tiny and so perfect. Now, she is a rambunctious, funny, stubborn, bossy 3 year old who loves strawberries and horses. I can't believe it has been 3 years.

Hadley the day we brought her home.

First Birthday

Last year, second Birthday

Watch this space for a 3 year old picture....

Alone, sorta

Today is my first day going at it alone. Granted, it is more of a practice alone since it is only until noon and it is just Hadley, Lennon and Ozzy. Clint's boss asked him if he would like to come back to work a week earlier and work half days for 2-3 weeks instead, extending the time before I have to go back to full days alone with the crew. I told him to go for it.

Easter was fun. The kids really liked their bug stuff. Too bad we got a freakin inch of snow Easter morning. The spent the morning catching pretend bugs in the house. My Mom's Easter Bunny gave the kids suitcases(for our vacation next month), an outfit, and water shoes. The big boys got Thomas Easter trains. Hadley got Charlotte's Web(can't wait to watch that today). Ozzy got a Cookie Monster and some cash.

Ozzy's raisin fell off on Easter. Hadley asked if we were going to eat it. Get out of here little Tom. He had an appt. on Friday to check his weight and billi levels. He was up to 7lbs 7oz and his billi level was down by 4 numbers. Now he doesn't have to go back until his 2 month check.

Ozzy's Post

Ozzren Landis made his debut on March 23 at 10:53 pm. He weighed 7lbs 5oz and was 19 1/2" long.

He has been spectacular! He had a little bit of jaundice but it is going away now. He isn't looking so yellar. He enjoys flipping us the bird, sucking and being the poster child for "How you shouldn't let your baby sleep". His favorite way to sleep(other than being held or in the sling) is on his belly, on a pillow, with a big fluffy blanket.

Yesterday was prolly one of his personal worsts. It all started with his first diaper change after I had gotten him dressed. He looked kick ass sporting a black and white striped onesie, a black hat, black baby legs and for a pop of color(and to remind Clint what day it was)his purple "Tuesday" socks. So, the first diaper change. I was wiping his barely there tushie when he started peeing. He got himself right on the face. Golden Shower anyone? I felt so bad. He got pee all over so I had to change his outfit. I would have a shitty day if I pissed on my face first thing, too. He stayed cranky for the remainder of the day. I got him sleep for a little at one point only to have him piss out of his diaper. All over his new outfit and blanket. Finally at 5pm, he fell asleep in his new favorite spot(the whole belly routine) and slept for 2 hours. Oh yeah, that is where he is now. Sleeping on his belly. I was able to take a shower and type all this out. Giddy-up.

A few funny comments about Ozzy from his siblings that can talk(Lennon just grunts at him and points out his eyes)

"I am going to take him back to the Dr's and tell them to put him back in your belly!"-Corby, when we mentioned he might have to share a room someday.

"Why is he all red?"-Corby, when we brought him home.

"Why does he cry all the time?"-Corby, when visiting him at the hospital.

"It's a raisin!"-Hadley, when I asked her what his belly button stump was.

Chickens

One of the fun things I did yesterday was take a walk out to the chicken house. Clint built nesting boxes for the chickens over the weekend. We have eggs! I think it is so much fun that we can go out there and just get eggs straight from the chickens ass. The kids have fun getting them, too. It is like an Easter Egg hunt every day. Hadley also likes to help feed the chickens.

3 weeks left, how long will I go?

Who wants to start a pool?(pronounced PULL). Clint doesn't think I will make it beyond this weekend and that I will have to be on the nasty Mag. I am holding onto the hope of going on my own or asking for an induction at 39 weeks. I hate the idea of asking for an induction though. I really, really, really wanted to go on my own this time. My Mom doesn't think I'll go past this weekend either. Bunch of spoil sports.

Yesterday wasn't such a good one. Twice my BP spiked. The first time I thought I was for sure going to have to call the farmers. I felt awful, like I did the day they admitted me with Lennon for preE. But, then it came down and I felt much better. It happened again in the afternoon. That time I didn't feel as bad. Seemed like it would go up anytime I wanted to do something other than sit on my ass. I will be more careful today, but there are some things I just have to do(like feed and change the kids).

Mom is bringing Corb up today. I miss the little bugger. We are going to all play outside. Well, they will and I will pretty much just sit and watch. I can't wait to see him riding his bike outside. He is going to have fun.

It is so frustrating to feel pretty much fine but have to just watch. I hate it. I hate putting all this stuff on Clint. We usually do it all together. I feel like an ass just sitting there watching. I want to just get up and help. He has to keep reminding me to sit down. I have to keep reminding myself just a few more weeks. Not long at all really. I can do it.

Lots happened in the last week

Last Wednesday I noticed my BP was up a little. Not good. The next day I saw "sparklers" of light in front of my eyes. Again, not good. Decided to call the farmers. They put me in L&D for 6 hours to be monitored. While in there my BP stayed up for a little but then came down. McRib looked awesome and I had 0 ctx's. My pulse was high but they couldn't figure out why. Blood work came back in the normal range, no protein in my urine. All excellent news. They told me if I could "rest" as much as possible at home they felt ok letting me go home. I told them I would do my best. I got sent home with a potty hat and pee jug to fill for a 24 hour urine catch.

Friday, I had a Farmer appt. They did the oh so lovely GBS test. My BP was up a little bit. Trace of protein. Farmer told me to just keep resting as much as possible and to have lots of sex. Don't they kind of contradict? I asked him at what point they would stick me on that nasty Mag Sulfate during labor. He told me if my BP got to 140/90 and/or I started spilling a bunch of protein. I do not want to be on that Mag. It is horrible.

Saturday, spent the day obsessed with thinking up ways to get McRib out. By evening I felt guilty. He isn't going to come out unless he is ready anyway. Decided to give up those efforts as they would prolly just frustrate me resulting in raised BP which is what I want to avoid in the first place. Instead I am going to just chill out as much as possible in an effort to keep the BP stable where it is now until McRib comes on his own.

I know, "Rest as much as possible? How the hell am I going to do that with 3 kids?". Well, this all went down at a lucky time. My Mom has work off this week so she is keeping Corb for me this week. And, Clint is going to be working half days(until 11am) until McRib comes out. I just feel so lucky to have all this support from my family. They are wonderful. Clint's work is awesome that he is able to work this schedule. I am going to get to spend a lot of time with the kids until McRib gets here, that is good, too because once he is here it is going to be crazy for a little while.

I know I am doing a lot of baby talk

But that is what is on my mind. I keep having dreams that I have bloody show. Nice, huh? I don't feel like cleaning today. I just feel restless. I think I might load up the kids and go visit my Dad.

Clint is getting more wood tonight since it is colder than a witches tit outside and it supposed to stay that way until Saturday. We might get some snow tomorrow.

We've started talking about the garden. Not too much, just what we want to have in it this year. We can soon plant peas and onions. I can't wait to get out there. Next year I want to try my hand at starting seedlings inside. This year we are just going to stick with buying plants.

36 weeks, but who is counting?

Only me. 4 more weeks seems soooooo long sometimes. Like last night when I couldn't get comfy to sleep. 4 more weeks also seems like such a short time. Like yesterday when the kids were driving me nuts and I found myself thinking "WTF were we thinking? And, only 4 more weeks to figure out how the hell this is going to work?". I think overall, I am ready. Now, to just wait for McRib to be ready. He has been kind enough to remove himself from my ribs for the majority of the time. The trade off is peeing every 5 seconds but I'll take it. I suggested eggplant parm. for dinner one night this week. Clint said no. Guess he isn't as ready as I am.

Nesting is still in full swing. I've felt like this since last, Thursday? Wednesday? Ever since he dislodged his butt from my ribs. I want to clean everything. My house is disgustingly clean. I cleaned the wood stove last night. Hell, I took our fan apart and vacuumed it. It took me an hour but that buggar is clean. Clint drew the line at me wanting to get out the pressure cleaner to clean the outside of the house. He told me I can do that when it is warmer.

I gave everyone hair cuts yesterday. I have to get pictures of the kids. We also finally got the border put up in the hallway. It looks almost done! I love it. Clint just has to put trim up and it will be done. I am going to get a picture now though because who knows how long that will take. It might be a McRib arrival project.

On the lookout for a purty dress

Even though Hadley has made her feelings on dresses overly obvious she is getting one(or 2) for her birthday parties. She is getting something horsey for her party with her cousin(it is horse themed-giddyup). Her small family party(with my parents, brother and his g/f) is going to be a High Tea. It is for my brothers g/f, too. Her birthday is a few days after Hadley's. I want a fancy dress for that. We are going to wait until May to have the High Tea. We might just do a whole May Day thing, too.

I am excited and just in the mood to shop. Clint pissed me off this morning. I shop at my best(or worst if you are Clint) when I am pissed.

Why do we keep Hadley around?

Because she is funny. Even blurry that picture is funny. And now for some choice quotes from the "toepie".

"Daddy wiped all the poop out of my butt"-after having her diaper changed

"Dresses, Dresses. I don't like dresses, I don't like dresses. I like sweatshirts and shiiiiirrrrrts"-a song she made up when I put a dress on her this morning.

Sleep eludes me

I slept really shitty last night. What sleep I did get was polluted with freaky dreams so I feel like I didn't really sleep. It is too hot to sleep, even with the window open and the fan blowing on me.

I will clean the bathroom today. It smells, though apparently it only smells bad to me.

Lasagna for supper tonight.

This whole thing looks like a bad poem.

35 down 35 to go

35 weeks down and 35 days to go in my last pregnancy ever. Bags are packed, arrangements for the kids and the dog have been made, baby clothing washed, everything is ready. Everything but a for sure name. We have 3 that we are going in with(and 2 different spellings for one) and no middle name. I am sure we will come out with something fan-bloody-tastic.

Something fun I noticed with McRib that I don't remember noticing with the others. Very set sleep and wake patterns. He is usually very active between 9pm and 10pm, then he will sleep most of the night minus the obligatory "You woke me up, bitch" poke when I get up to pee or roll over. He gives me a real good wiggle first thing in the morning. Doesn't do much most of the morning. Late morning to noonish he gets really active again. Quite again for a good part of the afternoon. Then up again around supper time.

I always read how you can feel a baby jump sometimes at noises but never experienced it. McRib sometimes jumps when I fart on the toity. It is quite funny. That is one for the baby books.

Funny quotes from the kids:

"It was all cracked and broken and really screwed up"-Corby on the broken windshield.
"Bye boys! And the big one!"-Hads, saying goodbye to her brothers and Clint

Baby News

First I want to say that I am very, very happy to have my Daddy home again. I was so worried about him.

Onto the Farmer Appt. update:

I had an ultrasound first to check on his growth, since Hadley was so small I get growth scans now around 34 weeks. I was 34weeks 4 days yesterday. I watched the tech measure his head, it was measuring a few days behind. Didn't bother me, all the kids had small heads(thank goodness!). She tried to get a good shot of his profile but he was more worried about making sure we could see his penis again to give us a good look at his face.

She moved on to his abdomen. That measured 35w and some odd days. Whew, he won't have a problem with being small. She told us then that his abdomen was measuring in the 95th percentile. Excellent.

When she finally found a leg that she could measure it measured 36w 4days long. I suspected this kid was going to be long for a while now. He just feels long. She said it was hard to get anything because he had all his limbs jumbled up in front of himself.

Finally, she told us his estimated weight. 6lbs. I said to her "is that average?" She said she didn't know. Lennon weighed 6lbs even at 36 weeks 1 day. What do they say? 1/2 lb growth a week from now on? That puts this kid up there with Corb. Clint keeps saying "That isn't so bad". STFU, you don't have to push that out. Of course I come home and google. I found a chart, pretty cool-Average fetal stats.
34 week average weight is 4.73lbs, 35 week average weight is 5.25. Giddyup.

My next appt. is on March 9th at 8am. I get a GBS test wake up call! That is 2 weeks, almost 37 weeks. I wonder if I could get him to "stir things up".

In other baby news: I packed my bag. I've packed a bag for 3 babies now and do you think I could really remember what to take? Nope. I kept having Clint check my list. We are washing tiny baby clothing, too. It is so cute.

I can't wait to smell baby head and hold him. We are all going to have so much fun.

On the happier side

Happy Donut Day! Ah Fat Tuesday how do we love thee? Saturday was our annual donut making day. It was another successful year. Corb, Hadley and Lennon were excellent helpers. We ended up making 49 dozen donuts this year.

Worst weekend ever

This was the worst weekend I've had in a long time. While I am very thankful it was not as bad as it could've been, it still was not fun at all.

It all started Saturday morning. We left to house to go to my parents. We had a birthday party to go to after we dropped off our things(we were staying the night because Sunday was Donut Day). We get about half way there when we see a huge chunk of ice fly off the top of tractor trailer truck. The sucker had to be about 4ft across and 2ft wide. Clint slowed down to avoid it. The same time it was impacting in the other lane about 100 feet in front of us there was a loud crash. A chunk of ice that neither of us had seen smashed into the windshield. Right in front of me. I am just so thankful it didn't come through. There wouldn't have been any good outcome from that at all. As it was it just shattered the windshield and cracked half of it.

I get on the phone with 911 to report the truck. Clint sped up so we can get the tag numbers and try to flag the guy down. Fucker ignored us completely. We were right next to his window honking the horn and motioning him to pull over. Totally ignored us. The 911 guy told us we needed to pull over. We get stopped and a cop comes to do a report. They don't know if they can find the guy because we got the trailer tag number and not the actual truck tag. Now we know for next time. The kids were freaked out, I was freaked it. It just wasn't a fun experience. I am just glad we are all ok. We sat at a gas station while we waited for my Mom to come and haul us around. We took the van to Cindy Rowe for repair. We had to wait until yesterday for it to be done.





Sunday ended up being pretty uneventful. We made donuts and all was well. Then Monday began part 2 of our sucky weekend. Since we were stuck at my parents until the van was done I decided to with my Dad to his Farmer appt. Our family Farmer died a month ago(that sucked big time) and I wanted to get my chart from his office since we are going to try and find a farmer closer to the house. I am so glad I went with my Dad. He has been complaining about his leg hurting. Charlie horse type pain and it was swollen. His farmer said she felt a mass in it and wanted him to go for another u/s right away. He has been having the pain for about a month now, he had an u/s 2 weeks ago to check the blood flow and it looked good.

We get to the place for the u/s. As he was getting it done he asked the tech if the blood was still flowing. She said "No, not like the last time". I could tell Dad got nervous then. I was watching what she was doing. From the little I know of u/s I could see what I thought was less and less blood flow as she went down his leg. When she was done she told him we would have to wait until the Dr. looked at it and gave Dad instructions. We waited. His instructions....you have a significant blood clot. Go to the ER right away to be admitted to the hospital. Holy damn. I could tell my Dad was nervous. He said to me "What do you take?". I told him a toothbrush and some deodorant. He called my Mom who came home from work right away to take him to the ER. Clint and I had to go and pick up our van. I called my brother. He decided to take off of work so we could both go down to the hospital and be with Dad. While Clint and I are picking up the van my Mom calls. They got to the hospital alright but on the way there the power steering belt broke on their truck. Super.

Matty and I get to the hospital. The dr. is in with Dad talking to him. Dad really did not want to be admitted and he was scared. The Dr. told him he could either stay and get the blood thinning medicine started or he could go home and have a visiting nurse come twice a day to check on him and help him give himself shots. He was struggling to decide what to do, but ended up deciding to go home. He figured he would be more comfortable there. He was nervous about recognizing signs that the clot came loose, that would kill him. The dr. told him what to look for and he said they would be checking every day. He can't go to work for the next week or so until they get his medicine figured out. My Mom is staying with him today, my grandma tomorrow and I am going down Thursday and Friday. It was scary but seems to have ended well. Thank goodness they caught it.

Now, I just hope we are done with this kind of stuff for a nice long time.

Snow Day

We had a blast in the snow on Wednesday. My brother, his girlfriend and her brother came over to take the kids out to play. This was Lennon's first really big snow. He was unsure about it all and he couldn't walk at all in that snowsuit. Hadley doesn't really like the cold. She will be out for a little bit and then start crying that she is "frozen". Corby had a lot of fun joining in the snow chunk fight between my brother and his girlfriends brother. He took it like a man when he got snow kicked in his face while he was on the ground yelling for help. He got even when he hucked a snow chunk in my brothers nuts.

Lennon and Hadley in the sled.

Lennon not so sure about it all.

My brother playing with Dewey.

Corb on the ground just after getting snow kicked in his face.

When I was 2.....

Yesterday Corb said this to us at dinner:

When I was 1, I was little
When I was 2, I was a girl
When I was 3, I was a boy
And now I am 4
When I am 5 I will go to school

Happy belated Valentines Day

Only a day late. We had a good Valentines Day. The kids loved their boxes. Clint liked his magnet Valentines with the pictures below. We had pink heart shaped pancakes for breakfast. Heart shaped sammiches for lunch. Heart shaped pizza(pictured) with pink milk for dinner. And cookie and ice cream sundaes for dessert.

We got almost a foot of snow Tuesday and Wednesday. The kids had so much fun playing in it yesterday. I am going to post pictures soon.

That white shit is back

Yup, it is snowing. Should be a decent amount followed by ice. We are going to spend today making cookies and Valentines. Then I am just going to sit around on my ass since I've been feeling funny. Clint will be leaving early today. I have my fingers crossed for a snow day tomorrow.

Snow?!

The newbies weren't too bad. We've decided to see them again. Dang, it is like dating a couple or something.

The first big snow of the season has been forecasted to begin tomorrow early afternoon and last until Wednesday afternoon. With 6-12 inches of snow possible. Giddy-up! We may get to take the tags off of those snow pants after all. We are hoping it happens and it is bad enough for Clint to stay home from work. Wouldn't that be fun for Valentines Day?

I put the 3rd coat of paint on the hallway yesterday. It still needs another one. Bastard color. I just want to get the boarder and trim up so I can see it all done.

I have everything on my list for McRib. Anything I get now is just a bonus.

Today's plan:
*Take pictures for Clint's Valentines
*Make Valentine "snow" Globes
*Make our Mail boxes this evening after dinner
*List stuff on ebay

Menu:
B-Cinnamon Toast and Yogurt
L-Hot Dogs, peas, cheese, applesauce
D-Stuffed chicken boob, herb spaghetti, roasted carrots, strawberry shortcake

Newbies

We have newbies coming over on Saturday evening. The dude works with Clint. They live about 5 minutes from us. Thank goodness I've already been cleaning like a nut. I have minimal to do for tomorrow. This couple does not have kids. We are a little scared that our kids will scare them. It is always weird to have non-kid people around. Anyway, I am thinking this could go 2 ways. 1. They could be really cool and it would be awesome to have some people around that we know(that aren't Amish). 2. They are desperate suckage people and it will take years of us nicely blowing them off before they get it.

Yesterday and the day before we rearranged our bedroom and Lennon's room. I say we, but I mean I demanded-um, asked Clint nicely to do it for me. Everything looks much better now. I went through the kids dressers and pulled out all of the outgrown clothing. Then I looked into the "next season" clothing bins to see who needs what. Corb needs shorts, he has 2 for at home and that is it. Hadley needs "good" stuff for spring and summer. Lennon should be set. I still need to get into the attic and see what I have up there. McRib should be pretty good also.

I've been a shopping fool. I ordered 2 shirts for McRib from Little Show Offs, 2 pairs of BabyLegs, and 3 outfits from Zutano. I got McRibs Little Giraffe blankets yesterday and they are divine. I think I am going to get one of the fur ones for Lennon from McRib. Lennon was very excited when I opened the box with the blankets in yesterday(he has his own LG blanket that he loves). He ran over and exclaimed "Woooooooooooooooooooooow!". I gave him his blanket and hid the others.

Corb cracked me up the other day. Hadley was talking to me about strawberries. She said I would have to get some more at the grocery store. I said yes, that I would get some when I go. She said she wanted to go with me and I said Ok. Corb got all serious and said "Mommy, you can't go to the grocery store, there would be no big ones here". I laughed. He uses "big ones" for adults. I love it.

I think Lennon is starting to have nightmares. He will wake up once a night at a random time screaming like he is scared. He doesn't want anything really. One of us just goes over to him, holds him for a minute and he goes back to sleep.

We hope to get the last coat of paint in the hallway today or tomorrow. My Mom is coming up on Sunday to help with the fooky crow boarder. I can't wait to see it. I think it is going to look fantastic. Next room on the agenda is our room. I hope we can get it painted before McRib gets here.

Today sucked

And that is all I am going to say about it. But, I did get out the camera and played around for a little. Lennon looked so adorable sleeping in our bed and Hads was being goofy. Enjoy.

Hearts-notice a running theme yet?

We are talking about Valentines Day a lot around here. All of our activities are all V-day based. On the calendar today.

Making Glue Hearts
Playing a Heart Match game
Dancing with red, pink and white streamers
We are going to read "Emily's Valentine Party"

Our menu for today:
B-Leftover Pancakes
L-Grill Cheese and Homemade Tomato Soup
D-Spaghetti(homemade sauce), Salad and Homemade Bread

What else is going on today? I need to find something to do with the 2 over ripe bananas I have. Clint is making me wait to finish painting until he gets home. He is afraid I will pass out from fumes or something. How sweet. Baking another loaf of bread. Yesterdays was good but I cooked it too long. Cleaning the kids rooms should be done, Lennon's(thanks to Corb) and Hadley's rooms are disaster areas. Finding a name for McRib would be nice.

PS-I miss the Blog of Logs

Pink Hearts

These are from our project(s) today. We talked about what colors make pink. Then we mixed red and white together to make pink. While we mixed we sang "When you mix red and white you get pink". Guess what the song of the day has been for the rest of the day.



After we were done mixing up the pink I painted their hands with the paint and they made "Hand Print Hearts". It takes some imagination to see it but they had fun. I cut them out after they were dry and hung them up. I can't wait to get my bulletin boards up so we can have a better place to hang up their artwork.


We also made Banana bread and regular bread today. It was forking cold, cold, cold outside today. The baking helped keep the house warm. Before we ate lunch we read "Arthur's Valentine".
Oooo, and I got the first coat on in the hallway. This color is MUCH better. It is going to look bloody fantastic with my fooky crow boarder. I can't wait to get it up and have it all done. So much better than what was there before.

All rolled into one

1. No pictures of the paint yet. The other color is awful. We went yesterday and got a darker color. I've grown to like the yellow since it no longer looks green. I'll get some pictures after we get the new color up.

2. 32 weeks down, 8 to go. I still have to get some things. I plan on ordering some of that soon and doing some in store shopping.

3. Menu for today:
B-pancakes with strawberries(this is my fav. lately)
L-Fun colored veggie noodles
D-Hearty bean soup

4. Plans for today:
*Mix pink paint, sing a pink song and make hearts with our hands out of the pink paint.
*Make banana bread
*Maybe clean out our bedroom
*I might try to paint
*Get diapers ready to mail out

Painting begins

Painting in the hallway has begun. I am excited. My fooky crows are going up in the hallway. The nice butter yellow paint I picked out looks yellow green right now. We are hoping it is because of the pink paint that is underneath and that after another coat it will look more yellow. Oh well, anything is better than pink. Pictures to come soon, I hope.

What's in a name?

Who knows. I don't know what to name our kid. Clint doesn't offer any suggestions at all. For real, I ask him and he has nothing. Ever. I am on the verge of going with something completely random, like Fooky Danger. That sounds hot.

Something more positive. The other night Corb and Hads were pretending to have a campfire. They took a flashlight into Hadley's dark room for their "fire". Then they asked me for some smarshmellows. I got them a bowl with some blocks for pretend smarshmellows, they each had a plate and a fork. It was adorable.