Prayer Warriors

I am not up to posting much except this...I have a young girl I am friends with, barely 21, and today at 9AM she lost her almost 3 month old son Jonathon. She is so lost right now and I hurt for her loss...it's so big! Her arms ache for her baby... Please pray for her and her family and pray for me for guidance in how I help her and the right things to say. Jonathon was such a sweet and handsome boy with a head of hair that any girl would envy! He was a happy and good baby and he will be missed more than these words can express by his momma. Please keep her in your prayers, I would appreciate it!

Thank you Prayer Warriors!

Photo Challenge~The End

The end of our camping trip. By this time we are all very tired and ready to be at our house and looking forward to sleeping in our beds! Camping was good but my own bed is always better...

Photo Challenge~Flag

In Memoriam: 2 stars for my grandfathers and 3 stars for Frank's grandfathers. We miss them all so much and are thankful for their service to our country.

Photo Challenge~Red

One of many scrapes and bumps on Lee's body...the child is covered in band aides. Pretty much told his grandma she needs to invest in a box of band aides a grandkid...they all had an array of them on their bodies while camping.

Photo Challenge~Beverage

Dru's fruit punch drink while we were camping.

Photo Challenge~Shoelaces

I finally put the bells on Eli's shoes and now I can hear him wherever he goes. This comes in especially handy when we are camping, he's the only one there with bells on!

Photo Challenge~Bowl

I had Dru make a bowl with his hands.

Photo Challenge~Annoying

Don't examine this picture too closely but what I find annoying is that my kids leave the toilet seat up or they pee on the seat and they don't take care of it. they leave it for me to 'find' ...GROSS!

Photo Challenge~Mail

I think I will mail this nasty kid to his Auntie Nikki...he is TROUBLE (and he's been playing in the dirt...right up his Auntie's alley).

Photo Challenge~Love

I can't decide if I like Nerf things or if I like that my kids can sometimes play nicely together with out hurting one another.

Photo Challenge~ My Choice

Today my mother in law treated her daughter in laws to a pedi, to get us ready for Memorial weekend and sandal weather. It was also her gift to us for Mother's Day. I think we all had a good time...certainly won't be going back to the place we went to though. I've had better pedi's else where! I went with Orange because that's Dru's favorite color and he's always so fascinated with my feet after I have a pedi.

Photo Challenge~Shoes

These are my sandals I wore as a baby/toddler...I don't ever remember my feet being that small. Kinda weird to look at them really. I cherish these shoes because I have VERY little from my childhood in my possession and my grandfather gave them to me before he passed away. I don't have many things and so I do love to look at my sandals and show my boys.

Headgear

On Wednesday Ian went to the Ortho and had his appliances put in his mouth. Well he only had one appliance put in...his expander. With this expander he will have headgear to go with it. This is something we are doing to work his upper jaw to get even with his lower jaw and make sure his teeth meet for a better bite. To do this expander it had to be fitted to his mouth and then cemented in his mouth. This expander has hooks on it that will have rubber bands attached to it, which he will then attach to his reverse head gear. All in hopes of expanding his mouth and bringing out his upper jaw. This will take a year and a half and he needs to wear it 14-16 hours a day. How realistic that is I don't know but as long as he's at home and not eating he'll be wearing this.

So here is Ian in the dentist chair...I can't remember if they have already cemented in the expander or not...but seriously when did this kid get so long? He's ultra cool with the shades on!Getting the headgear slightly fitted to his head...the Orthodontist will fit it more properly to his head. Tonight will be the first run of a few hours with his head gear on. Oh and we also have to widen his expander every day for 14 days. I will tell you right now that's an experience! Making sure everything looks like it should and the chin part moves like it should while he's talking. Thankfully it comes in blue and not just pink. All in all Ian did just fine. He was a little nervous but after they started I think he realized it wasn't going to be bad like having his teeth pulled. Right now he's having to learn to eat with something huge in his mouth and the amount of saliva his mouth is producing is amazing. His speech is a little impeded but that's to be expected, in about a week or so he should be eating and talking like normal.

I'm slightly jealous of Ian getting all this work done on his teeth, I have wanted straight teeth for as long as I can remember. My time will come soon...

Photo Challenge~ Children

I am someone's child and I a child of the KING!

Sign Language

I love teaching my kids to Sign, sadly I only started with Lee and even then I didn't start soon enough because he was not as interested in it as I wished he was. So I started with Dru and started when he was very young. Dru could sign at least 20 things and it was SO cool! I again started with Eli but he has proven to be more difficult...of course! But with in the last few months he's really started to pick it up. Of course my favorite is Eli signing to me that he loves me!

Photo Challenge~Bubbles

Bubbles in Ian's eggs for dinner.

Booger Patrol

Well as some of you may know I have some boys that are sick, turns out 2 of them have Strep. Ian has the worst of it, by far...the weird tongue issues, the Scarlatina rash. I did get up at one point and congratulate him for at least getting sick big time. If he was going to do it might as well do it up big...and he did! Way to go Ian! Lee also has strep but not as bad (he has no tonsils, which makes it already not as bad). And on top of those two for giggles we put Eli on meds too. Well not really for giggles, but because he is acting a little more 'off' than his normal.

So 3 out of the 4 kids are on meds. Which, if you haven't guess, means they are home with me...again...for at least one more day. Thankfully, Frank and I managed to scrape together some change so I could go rent a movie and we got a movie for free. So I have two movies they haven't seen yet and that should help a bit tomorrow also. I rented Astro Boy and The Legend of Zorro. Just an FYI, there are more than 2 movies in the Zorro series, and I of course got the one I thought was the first one only to find out it's the second one...

So here I am today and tomorrow on Booger Patrol. I job I do not relish and one I'd toy with relinquishing to someone else for a full day and night of rest...in a hotel...or someplace I can't hear children. One thing I have learned about myself from having children and being married. I am not a very compassionate person when it comes to whiny sick people. They absolutely drive me up a wall and make me want to tear my hair out. Makes me shiver just thinking about it!

Well there is my cue...Eli is up fussing and crying so I should perhaps go and be/do the mom thing.
Good night all!

Photo Challenge~Silver

Frank's new camera he got for Christmas from me...just means that I need (OK want) a new camera...I keep fooling myself that my camera might be slowly going.

Proper Protocol?

A few things:



My washer and dryer are here and I, finally, today have found the bottom of my laundry pile! The new ones are great and have been fun to 'play' with. All kinds of cool buttons to push. So the kid shave found out too. Thank goodness for child locks! Lots of clothes have been washed and dried!



Baseball is going good! Both boys are doing well and having fun! The weekend was good and the weather was gorgeous! We got some yard work done and Frank got my washer and dryer installed. That was quite the ordeal for that!



When I got home Frank and his brother had gotten the appliances in and Frank was busy working on getting everything set up. He got the dryer going and was doing the dryer duct test. The test failed...several times. We rigged something up to see if we couldn't pull lint out of the duct outside and then did the test again. Fail! We are at a loss, what to do? We decided we needed to go get a snake thing for dryer ducts. So the family loads up and we go to the first store in town. After that, we should have clued in and just did what we ended up having to do. Not one store in town carried what we needed and so we had to go to Bonney Lake to Home Depot. Well that was bust! Frank was so annoyed with them...a place that sells washer and dryers should first of all know what he's talking about and to also carry the product. Well not so...so off we go to Lowes and hope they carry it. Thankfully they do!! $40 later and a car full of cranky, hot kids we decide to stop off at Sonic. They were having happy hour and half priced drinks. Yummy slushy's had by all!



On our way home we go and at least 3 hours later we have finally gotten the duct all clean. I am shocked at how much lint we took out of there, we are so lucky we never had a fire. I keep my lint filter very clean and the dryer...never in all my life did I imagine what we took out of that duct! One whole grocery sack full!! FULL! I did my first load at 7pm...they came at 10:25am. Today I am caught up...tomorrow is a different story!

To follow up on that, I have two boys that are home sick with the flu. Well that's just this mom's diagnosis. This morning Lee woke up complaining of his throat hurting and his ear and he was dead set against going to school and put himself back to bed at 7:30am. Guess that decision was made. Ian said his throat hurt but he and I didn't think anything of it...we were outside all weekend, the weather has changed or allergies. He had no fever and was acting fine. Off to school he goes and he's quite excited because today is the day for the much anticipated field trip around town! Weeeellllll.....apparently he wasn't as well as I thought! I got a call from a friend of mine and they were at the library. It wasn't pretty or good. She told me he puked in the library. When I got there to pick Ian up, she then told me not only had he thrown up in the library (and who knows how bad that was, I never did go in) but he managed to throw up all over his teacher's back and on a friend of his. I feel so horrible!! I can't imagine how Ian must feel, although he seems OK...more worried about his friend's coat though (I'm of course worried more about his teacher).

So what is proper protocol here people? Gift card to a dry cleaner? Food? What? I feel like I should do something but I'm not sure how one goes about this delicately.

Some other things of note...Eli tried to snort/sniff yogurt with his nose today. Was a bit surprised when he couldn't really breath. The look on his face was priceless!! I'm still laughing!

Ian rented the movie Toothfairy...Dru has watched it several times and he now has a loose tooth. He's bound and determined to have a loose tooth so the toothfairy will come and visit him. Goofy kid!

We recently had some friends move and we miss them very much...Lee and I are having a hard time...we are going to try and go next summer to their house. Miss you Bennett Family!!!

Well I hope tomorrow goes better...I can only hope that no one else gets the cootie here!!! We have a wedding to go to this weekend and I have a nephew to love and hold this weekend! People had better get with it!!!

Photo Challenge~Something in your backyard

I have a lawn in my backyard that is finally getting under control...pretty sure I had to bale it the last few times I mowed!

Photo Challenge~Phone

My life line! Well not as much as my computer is but just as important!

Photo Challenge~Leaf

New leaves on my Camilla plant...

Photo Challenge~Water

I need water to use this and thank goodness we've progressed to be able to use water this way. Otherwise I'd be hand washing dishes until the cows come home!

Photo Challenge~Pink

I haven't ever used this stuff and pretty sure I ever won't (knock on wood). I can't get past the color and I'm pretty sure I couldn't get past the texture. It would stop me COLD!

Photo Challenge~Flower

Today's word is flower...this flower has a lot of meaning for me. This Rhodie came from my grandfather and he's been gone now about 2 years now and I miss him VERY much. I don't get to see my grandmother as much as I would like so this reminds me of them. What I love so much about this flower is that when it's getting ready to bloom it starts out red and then it turns yellow! Absolutely beautiful!

Photo Challenge~Mirror

I still get a small chuckle over those words : Objects in mirror are closer than they appear. Especially, since it reminds me of the movie Jurassic Park...there's a seen where those words come into play.

Photo Challenge~Home

He is my heart and my heart is where home is. It took some doing to get him agree to letting me take his picture. I love this man!

Photo Challenge~Time

This is where I have been wasting my time of late. My washer has finally decided to die it's last breath and my dryer has been dead for a week and a half. So for that long I've been here at the laundr-o-mat off and on. My new washer and dryer was suppose to be there tomorrow...buuuttt...they won't. They won't be here until Saturday...that's the latest I've heard...it could change...Murphy's law is always in play at our house!

$10 to wash 5 loads of laundry and $8 to dry all that laundry...we have spent over $40 in a little over a week and a half! So annoying!

Bad Momma

So I know this is a bad picture but it does show the color and how much his eye got swollen. Want to know how that happened and put me on the list of whose not going to win the Mother of Year Award...for a long while.

Today I was working out and had no idea how close to me he was. Well he was that close. I kicked him in the eye on accident. I feel horrible! I guess I'm glad we aren't taking Mother's Day pictures or anything!

Poor guy! I can't bear to look at it! I kicked him so hard.. See I have a theory...go with me on this. I've had some experiences only I could come up with. For instance, I managed to get all tangled up in a treadmill and fall off it. That's a story. I've have also managed to tear 3 of my 4 tendons in my ankle from working out at Curves. Then there is today...I've now taken that extra step and taken to hurting others. So here's my theory (I had a point before I started rambling here) that working out and being fit really is dangerous to my health and others!

So if you need an excuse you can use that...Lord knows I think it all the time!

Photo Challege~Pet

This is my dog. He cracks me up...he is in my flower pot sunning himself...This dog cracks me up!

Some of my Faves

Grover...I love this lovable guy! His humor is right up my alley. My favorite book of all time is "Monster At The End of This Book". He is truly my all time fave! Here's Oscar...also a fave! He always has the nicest things to say.

The Count Von Count....1 bwahahahaha...2 bwahahahahaha (you get the idea)

And then there is Grungetta...she epitomizes everything about me some days...the attire and the look on her face. The dazed look...you've seen it.

S.S Rubber Duckie and most of the gang! This really was a good show and I personally had a good time. I don't know whether it's troubling I knew most of the songs or that Dru was embarrassed by me singing and asked me to stop. Sometimes they start so young!

Dru was talking to me the other day, as we were driving somewhere. He was talking about how excited he was about having gone to see Elmo and how glad he was that he could go with his dad and take his dad's truck. Well I thanked him for letting me come along and how much fun I had. Then out of nowhere he mentions about how it was a surprise. I asked what surprise...a surprise for me or him. And he matter of factly said no, for Elmo. I looked at him and said what? It was a surprise for Elmo that we were there? He said yes! He thinks awful highly of himself! Cracked me up!

Well I hope all are doing well...Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Photo Challenge~What's in your purse/bag...

You know...before I had kids I had small, dainty purses. Now I have purses that double as impromptu diaper bags. I'd like to think I'll progress down to smaller purses again. It has taken several years to get used to a purse and to not leave it everywhere. If I couldn't fit it in my pockets then I didn't need it. Not so now!

Pretty Bird

The past few years I have had my bird feeder up, in front of my window. That way I get a good view of the feeder and the birds. Also my boys like to watch with me and they enjoy letting me know when a 'pretty bird' comes to the feeder. I love that Eli can sign to me and tell me 'pretty' bird...well he signs bird. I have loved teaching Dru and Eli Sign Language, but that's a whole different story.
Back to the Pretty Bird. Anyway, this year we have a new bird as you can see at our feeder. It is bigger than a finch and way more color on him/her. A very vibrant yellow on this bird, beautiful! His wing is got something funky going on with it. I get two new birds visiting my feeder

this year. This one is WAY up in my Cherry Tree biding his time to get to the feeder.

Imagine...Again

Here we are again at the Opadopa Dome waiting for Elmo and Sesame Street. You know the gang right? Big Bird, Oscar, Grungetta, Abby, Grover (my personal fave), and the list goes on. We were in the 6Th row from the stage...very cool!
Dru and his date...He was quite excited to go with his dad and to take his daddy's truck. Dru and his tag along. I was allowed to come after Frank asked if I could come if he came and if they could still take the truck. So Dru said I could come, originally I thought it would be fun just Dru and I. He, however, did not think that was a good idea.

Well....here's the man of the hour. Yup, there's Bono...I mean Elmo. Elmo came out on the stage and you would have thought Bono or Bon Jovi had walked out for a concert! The screaming and crying that ensued was. And here's the kicker...it wasn't the just the kids I heard it was the parents too. That was the funny part, cracked me up.

Dru during the intermission another picture of Dru...by this time he was more interested in going home and staying up. Until I told him if we went home he'd have to go to bed...he was not keen on that. So we stayed and he enjoyed it.

Love the spilt popcorn on the floor...thank goodness we weren't the only ones with something spilled on the ground!

Today turned out to be a really nice treat weather wise! The kids got to play outside and Ian had a baseball practice. While he was at practice the other boys played at the park...we ran energy off!! OK well when I say we I really mean them, just so long as we get that straight. Here's to hoping tomorrow and the weekend hold good weather! I am loving the weather allowing us outside and me getting me some gardening done!

Photo Challenge~Bump

My boys 'bump'ing each other.

1-2-3 Imagination

Yesterday, Frank and I took Dru to go see Elmo at the Tacoma Dome. This was Dru's second year going and he had such a blast last time with Frank. I had to bribe Dru a bit this time around. He really didn't want me to go this time because he just wanted to go with his daddy and take the truck. I had to bribe Dru with his dad. Originally I wanted to take Dru...he wouldn't agree to it unless his daddy could go. I conceded. We had so much fun, although I think this might have been last time that he might be really into it. We'll see though.

This is Dru in the infamous truck on our way to get something to eat. We ate at Sonics and it was yummy. Dru and I ate WAY too much and our guts hurt...we were pretty much uncomfortable the whole night. Note to self: just cause the food is there doesn't mean we have to eat all of it.

The dome...or as Dru likes to say...the Opadopa Dome :) Love when they can pronounce things so well.

This is Dru's new t-shirt. He got white this time since he had black last time.

Well this is just part 1 of the Elmo installment. Look for the next one tomorrow!

I hope everyone had a great day!

Photo Challenge~Landscaping

My strawberry plants