3 years ago...

today, Red broke my water. It was a little tear that leaked very slowly, I got up and went to work with both the kids, it was a Monday morning. I worked at the kid's school in the preschool department. I remember half way through the four hours of work thinking, "I feel like I'm peeing my pants." But I still had 5 weeks until his due date and my last day of work was Friday. So I called the midwife and she said I needed to come in as soon as possible to make sure it was pee and not my fluid that was leaking out of me. Well I went in after lunch and we determined it was amniotic fluid and I should go home get things ready and go to the hospital. The midwife told me the more activity I did the better, we were trying to get the bag to break completely instead of just leaking. Because I wasn't in labor I was able to make phone calls, pack my bag, and do a load of laundry before we went there at 3:30pm on the 16th. We brought GG and Monkey to the hospital with us and they sat and watched a movie for the first 2 hours and then ate dinner grandma brought them. My mil came to be there for his birth. So she was able to help entertain the kids until my dad and step mom got there to take them home around 7:30pm. I was hoping I would have had him by then but things were moving very slowly, as I was scared to have him so early. I was really worried that he wasn't ready to come out and my body wasn't cooperating. I had asked if they would break my water completely but they said it was too risky since I wasn't showing signs of labor and they wanted to avoid an emergency c-section. If I had the midwife I had with my first two she would of done it because she knew what my body and previous labors were like but she lives 4 hours away :) So the midwife put me on pitocin right after the kids left and about 2 hours of that I was rethinking my whole no epidural approach. I hadn't progressed at that point (3 centimeters was all and that is what I was when I came in) and the pain was getting terrible. I got the epidural at around 10:45pm and it kicked in about 11:15pm then they broke my water completely. About 10 minutes after they broke my water my contractions really kicked in, so I was told, I couldn't feel anything! I went from 3 to 10 in less than an hours time. I'm glad I couldn't feel it because I have been told that is very painful to dilate that fast. As much as I wanted her to break my water before the pitocin without the epidural I am thankful the way it happened, fast and pain free. It was about 11:55pm when they checked me because I was feeling pressure and I was complete and ready to push. They started quickly getting everything ready at this point because the midwife thought it would take a few hours to get me to complete even though I told her several times I have fast labors, she was shocked that I was right! They had to get the NICU nurses and doc in the room, and the bed ready for delivery. I pushed a total of 3 times and he was out! He was born on May 17th at 12:23am.

When I got pregnant with Peanut this midwife kept a close eye on me because of my fast and early labors! I hope you got through all of that ;) I wanted to put a picture of Red as an infant and then a now picture but apparently when our hard drive crashed it ate/destroyed all pictures before 2006. I am so sad.

Stuff

Check out what my men did today!

Oh I just have to say that yesterday was so much fun getting to meet Happi! She took a picture with her camera, I forgot mine. The kids had fun but this meeting was for us MOMS. She wrote the nicest post about our get together click on her name above to read it and see our picture! It was so great meeting you Happi. :)

Peanut is just too funny with her socks. She LOVES to pull them off her feet while laying on her back and then she rolls and put it in her mouth. I have been trying to get a picture of this for weeks now and I finally got it... so I'll leave you with this picture.

Excited...

I sit here waiting for the time to go meet a fellow blogger. I am so excited because I love reading her blog and I've talked to her on the phone a few times and she is just super sweet. I would be lying if I didn't say I am somewhat nervous meeting her, but from our phone conversations I think we will be just fine!

Hooky

Today we kept the kids home from school and took them downtown Chicago to the Museum of Science and Industry. (Or as J refers to it as Museum of Silence and Injury) I haven't been there in over a decade. All I have to say is it is more kid friendly then I remember. On the way there I kept telling the kids it probably won't be as fun as the Children's Museum but I think they had just as much fun there. They also learned A LOT! It was cool to here all the things they learned from the different exhibits. We took them to the 3D show of Sharks, which they loved. We wanted to take them to the Omni Max Theater but decided the dinosaurs might be a little scary for Red. There was a little clip of it on their website. I have pictures but I'm sitting on the couch watching American Gladiator and I'm too lazy to go get the camera! If you live near Chicago and haven't gone to this Museum in awhile I highly recommend going. I'm tired and I'm going to veg for the rest of the night!

Oh yeah I had a great Mother's Day. J had the day off and we went out for lunch and then hung around the house playing card games. (skip-bo) Just as we were talking about what to have for dinner my dad called wanting to know if we wanted to go out to eat. I also got some very cute presents from the kids from school and church! From the hubs I got a book called The Power of a Positive Momby Karol Ladd. No it is not because he thinks I am negative I actually saw the book and requested it. I'm always looking for godly book on being a better mother to my kids. I also got a new swimsuit, for our pool passes!

The ANTS go marching one by one....

I have tried various tricks that I have heard to keep ants out of our house but it isn't working. Now I am turning to the blogosphere and asking...Do any of you have a sure fire way to keep ants out? If so, please give in detail what you use and how, please remember I have an infant that rolls around on the ground and will be crawling soon.

One morning we woke up and they were all over the kitchen floor and this is what I hear...
GG: No don't kill the ants they are God's creatures!
Monkey: But they are EVERYwhere!

I keep the kitchen as clean as humanly possible with small children but I can't see what they are looking for. They are also in our bathroom, what food is in there for them?

Red is deathly afraid of bugs lately. If he sees a spider in one area of the house he WILL NOT go there for weeks. Well when he realized we had ants on the floor he ended up on top of the kitchen table scared to death. J had him pick an ant up to show him they are harmless. But I could tell he isn't that brave yet. He picked one up to show me and once it left his finger and went to his thumb he says, "Get it off of me."

What I'm clinging to today! PTL

In my quiet time with the Lord today I read Psalms 23 among other chapters but this one stood out to me. I'm not sure if it is because I really like this passage or because I found great comfort in reading it today. I had Monkey say it by memory because I strive to have a childlike faith.

These last few weeks have been crazy around here with J's schedule and training for his new position. Just to give you an idea of the craziness of it all...

Tuesday: court 9:30 to 11:30, court 1:30 and then when right to work until 11pm. I saw him an hour.
Wednesday: 8am to 4pm this was nice
Thursday (today): 11am to 9pm what???

I never know from one day to the next if he is going to be on the day shift or afternoon shift. He has been told several times by the guy he is taking over for that he should be off of patrol and training otherwise he isn't going to be ready for next school year. There is only 4 weeks of school left before summer and how can you meet important people and such once school is out? I'm frustrated for him. But with all that said I know that God is in control of this and it will work out fine. The kids and I have managed to make his unpredictable schedule work...and it's not by anything that I'm doing. PTL!

More learning going on here!

The kids had the Race for Education on Monday. Last year Monkey won a trophy for running the most laps of all the boys in his grade. Well it is pay back time for all the toys that Monkey broke of Red's and if you guessed that Red broke Monkey's trophy you would be right! He has been talking about how he wants to try and win it again this year. Here is where the lesson comes in. There were a few boys who didn't stay on the track and cut through the field. I told a few that I saw to go back to the other side of the track because they were cheating. I must mention when that occurred Monkey was no where near me and he had no idea it happened. One of the boys listened and went back the other just stood there looking at me like I was crazy. I nicely explained to him that he needed to go back because he was cheating by not staying on the track. They get sponsored by lap or a flat donation. After I was done talking to the boy his mom who was there was yelling his name and waving him over. I have no idea who this kid was or what his name was. I turned to see this little boy conflicted as to what to do. I asked the women waving at him if he belonged to her and she said yes. I told her that he had run across the field and I told him to go back. As I got passed her I turned around to watch her walk towards him and tell him to just keep going. I was shocked that she would tell her child to cheat and keep going. Well this boy did it more times...per his mom's approval. This is a private Christian school that my kids attend. Anyways, I got sided tracked and went into more detail then planned. The kids were on their last lap and a group of boys (some of the cheaters) ran over to Monkey. I was trying to yell for him to run because I had a feeling they wanted to compare laps around. After they ran away from him he started crying. I ran over to him to see what happened. Needless to say, those boys had ran more laps and were bragging about how they ran across the field. Monkey says, "Mom they are going to win and they cheated." At this point, my heart is braking for my little man trying to do the honorable thing and follow the rules. He is my rule follower and I can so relate because that is my nature too. I had told his teacher about the boy who's mom told him to keep cheating after the second time I had said something to him about it. I found out later they took 5 laps away from him. I didn't know about the other boys until the end. Monkey told his teacher after the race was over about the boys who came up to him and she said, "It's okay." Then when I went to pick him up from school his teacher came over to me and we talked a little more about it. She suggested I talk to one of the boys mom, which upset Jeff because the teacher should handle it. We aren't upset that Monkey isn't going to win we really don't care about that because he did his best and we are proud of his effort. He ran 11 laps that is almost 3 miles in an hour.

This was a great opportunity to talk to Monkey and even GG about cheating and how it affects everyone involved. Why it is wrong and that if you are caught there are consequences like getting 5 laps taken off your score card. How God knows if you cheat even if you don't get caught. We talked about not following the pack when people are doing the wrong thing. We also talked about how we can't control what other people do like cheat the only thing we can do is what is right. I really hope these talks have sunk in. We have been having great conversations about it for the past two days.

Thank You

We've been talking to our kids a LOT about saying Thank you after someone does something for you. Whether it is getting them a drink or snack or giving them a ride home from school or taking them somewhere fun. It was getting to the point where we didn't want to do anything fun with them because they didn't say Thank you and only complained when we had to leave. Very frustrating as a parent and so begins the talks.

Well today it seems that the talks are finally paying off! After church today we went to lunch we a few people from our Sunday School class and on the way to J's parents house both the older kids told us, "Thank You for taking us out to lunch." To which J replied, "Well that just sealed the deal for ice cream when we get to grandma and grandpa's house." The looks on there faces was priceless. They were shocked and happy about that. When we got to there house they didn't have any kid friendly ice cream so we told them we would walk to DQ after Red took his nap.

At about 4:15 we had to wake Red up, he must have been tired because he took a 2 hour nap! We got to DQ around 5pm and had our ice cream. A couple of my friends have had ice cream for dinner and I thought what a great idea for today. So I announced to the kids as they were eating their ice cream that this was dinner. I think I confused them!

GG took the longest to eat her ice cream but kept saying, "I have to finish my ice cream because it's my dinner!" Then I think it was GG that said, "Mom don't you think we should have something more nutritional for dinner?" I got a kick out of that. I'm trying to raise them to want to eat healthy. :)

The Baby loves water...

Peanut loves playing in the water and usually throws a fit when we take her out. She got to go swimming Friday morning and I didn't have my camera to capture all the smiles. I gave her a bath today and took two videos of her playing in the water! These videos captured the way she waves, splashes and sucks the water off her toes, and I loved it!




A few days ago I entered a photo contest for Mother's Day. I was not a finalist. There were over 400 blog entries plus I don't know how many email ones. It had to be a tough choice and I'm glad I didn't have to make it. But one of my blogging buddies is a finalist! So if you could be so kind to click HEREand vote for Flip Flop Mamma, she has no idea I'm asking for your help. Her little girl is holding her baby in a child size sling. It really is a cute picture! The voting ends Friday, May 9th.

Squeaky wheel...

Sometimes I look at my blog and think I hardly ever write about Monkey, which I know isn't true. It just seems like the other kids are the squeaky ones or that they get more blog space! GG is the oldest and is total girl drama, Red is just saying so many funny things lately that I want to write about them, and the baby gets lots of press because well she's the baby!

Well my Monkey is the sweetest little boy. He still loves to cuddle with me and he is going to be 6 years old in three months. This picture shows how he got the nickname of Monkey ;)

I wish I could capture his imagination on video but when he sees me he stops playing. But there have been many days I have stood outside his bedroom door just listening. I should record him like that! He is a huge helper around the house and with his siblings. Here he is putting the clean dishes away, he puts his laundry away too!

The last time he went shopping with J he walked in the door with flowers for me. J said that he saw the flowers and asked if he could get them for me, he loves his mama! He knows how to give a good compliment. I was in the kitchen cooking and he looks at me and says, "Mama your little." I asked him what he said because it through me off, he got a little Monkey grin on his face and said, "Your little, you know short and skinny." It was really cute and humorous. I also love the way he lights up when I ask him if he want to go out on a date with me. We are hoping to go swimming on Friday but I don't know if our passes will work that soon. Got to check into it. Otherwise we will do something else. Just look at that sweet little face, how could I not love and adore him! I love you my sweet baby boy!


***Just a side note I started this post two days ago but had many interruptions squeaky wheels that pulled me away from the computer.***

Mother's Day Photo Contest!

5 Minutes for Mom is hosting a contest and the winner gets $1,000.00 yes that is right one thousand dollars! You go to their site read the rules and post your picture of what motherhood means to you. Here is my picture, I don't feel I need to explain, they are my joy!

I've been tagged!

Kari tagged me for "7 random things about myself". I have been trying to think of 7 interesting facts about me since Saturday night. I'm really not that interesting of a person! But I will try to find 7 interesting things...

1. When I was ten I was stabbed with a pitch fork, in my knee, by my cousin, on my grandparents farm.

2. Speaking of the farm. They owned a dairy farm and when growing up and still to this day I can't drink store bought milk. It taste gross to me but I love the milk right out of the barn. It is so rich and creamy.

3. I knew the moment I saw my husband (he was 15) I was going to marry him. I knew nothing about him. It's amazing how God works! We were at Moody Bible Institute on a youth conference.

4. He proposed to me in a dark alley in downtown Chicago after his Senior Banquet (Prom) they didn't call it Prom. I messed up his plans for the proposal. But I think we have a cool story to tell our grandkids someday about it :)

5. J and I went to a Less Than Jake concert (we liked going to them before kids and maybe one day will go again!) on my birthday and the drummer handed me one of his drum sticks for my birthday because it was his too! That was pretty cool.

6. During the summer of 1998 I went to Cornerstone and saw MC Hammer in concert! He was totally NOT the reason I went to Cornerstone, I actually didn't even know he was going to be there until I got there and figured might as well go see him. He now is a gospel singer...very interesting concert ;)

7. I hung out with Alkaline Trio in college before they became HUGE. A friend of mine went to high school with one of the members and they played at WIU several times and we (J and I) got invited to the after show parties. I never even thought about them becoming famous! Not that they weren't good because they are.

Ok, I have way more concert stories but I've already done my 7 and I don't want to bore you! I now have to tag 7 people. I will tag; Corrie from ka-chow, Amber from Jason and Amber, Kelly from the Wells clan, Kristen from 3 Kids=chaos, Heidi from Chris, Heidi and Eden, Lisa from The need for Hope, and Crystal from Crissybug's Crazy Clan!

Why do we do this?

When our kids get to a certain age (about 3 years old) they start asking questions about driving. Like, "why are you stopping?" J and I trying to be good parents explain to them that we are stopping because either the light is red, there is a car in front of us, or we are at a stop sign which ever the case is at the time. Well this has led to many back seat drivers. Red for the past three weeks has been the worst at this. He yells and screams if we go when he thinks the light is red or we stop and the light is green. I have tried to be patient with him on this as he is only 2 but I'm about to crack. My standard answer of late is, "I know how to drive and you don't so trust that I am driving right." Then comes all the buts...the light is red or green and so on. I am hoping this will make him a good driver when he is old enough but for now it is just nerve racking as I am driving.

But on a cute note: my phone rang the other day and I was nursing the baby and it was for J. I had Red take the phone to daddy and as I hand him the phone he looks at it then puts it up to his ear and says, "Who is in there?" It was pretty funny!

Scrape the Driveway!

GlamorGirl came home from school the other day with a book she had written. She was so excited about it and couldn't wait for me to read it. As I read it she was looking over my shoulder wanting to know what I thought. Here is her story with spelling and punctuation the way it is...

The mother said to the father scrape the driveway please o please. No I want! (should say won't) please. Scrape the driveway and do what I saw. (say) Scrape the driveway No Way! Now. No. Scrape the driveway. Scrape the driveway? Oh I thot (thought) you said take the trash out I will scrape the driveway Yippee ya.

By GlamorGirl

It's not prefect but I think it is very good for a 1st grader! She almost spelled all the words right and had most of the punctuation. By the way, I laughed at the end when the father says Oh I thought you said take the trash out :) Pretty funny mind that one has but makes me wonder if that is the way her dad and I sound to her?!?! Hmmm

Love this AGE! and then notsomuch...

I don't know if I have mentioned this before, but I love the age Red is at right now because of the funny things he says. Two examples come to mind right away. The first is from Friday night. I took the kids to the High School Variety Show, we've gone every year, one of the host came out at the beginning in a batman costume. Red was very excited to see batman there ;) Well after the first 4 acts went on he looks at me and says, "Batman is going to come out again." I told him, "I don't think so." Well the host came back out on stage, not wearing the costume and this is what Red said that made the whole row in front of us laugh, "BATMAN! See I told you batman was coming back. Silly goob ball." (Yes, he says goob instead of goof!) Red knew that he had the batman costume on earlier therefore he was BATMAN!

The second happened today while we were grocery shopping. The place we shop for produce is the same place the firemen usually shop as well. Today there were two firemen walking around the store. The first one we saw Red says, "Look daddy a policeman." Of course, we corrected him and told him he was a fireman and he doesn't have a gun. Apparently, we his parents, don't know anything and he had to find out for himself. He basically yelled, "Does you have a gun?" The fireman was very nice and half smiled/laughed when he answered Red's question with a no. But I think Red's face was the best part as he actually got embarrassed that he was wrong and we were right! About 15 minutes later when we were checking out we came across the second fireman and captain obvious says, so EVERYone can hear, "He is a fireman, not a policeman he doesn't have a gun." Then J asked him if he knew what firemen do and he answered, "They drive the firetruck!" And these are the examples of why I love this age and here is the reason I detest this age...

Red has boycotted decided over the past few days he doesn't need to take naps anymore. He will lay in his bed for about 5 minutes and then get up declaring, "I'm awake!" To which I have to be the mean mom and say, "You didn't sleep, now get back in bed and close your eyes." Then comes the slew of excuses for why he can't sleep...I'm afraid, I have to go potty, I can't keep my eyes closed, and so on. It is extremely exhausting and if he didn't need the naps I would let him stay awake but he does. He was in his room yesterday for an hour and a half driving me crazy fighting sleep so I let him up. By 5pm he was a monster but if I put him to bed too early it would be a disaster. So I kept him up until 7pm when the other kids go to bed and guess what he did? He wouldn't go to sleep. He started in with all of his excuses and by this time I have had it with him and he is beyond exhausted. It was terrible. He finally went to sleep at 8:30pm. Oy! Right now it is 1pm and he is sleeping because J laid with him. This would be fine if I had the time to lay with him everyday but I usually have 3 other kids that need me when he is sleeping. Ok I'm done with the whine portion of my post! I really do love his age though. I think the cute funny stuff he does outweighs the bad fighting sleep part.

Oops, I totally forgot to say that he will be 3 years old next month. The 2 and 3 year old is one of my favorite ages!

Evolution of Dance...too funny!

Beautiful

That is what the weather is like outside today! J and I have played tennis the last two mornings and it has been so much fun. I am really sore, shows me how out of shape I really am. The village is doing the 100 days of fitness again this year and we signed up again to participate. I forgot how good it feels to work out! Yesterday we had told the boys that we would have a picnic today if it was nice out. We left the house and forgot to pack a lunch so when we got home the boys got their bikes and we walked/rode to subway for lunch and then walked home. Then Monkey did his homework outside and Red blew bubbles as Peanut watched. Have I mentioned that I love this weather?!?! Here is Monkey doing his homework, I didn't get any of the bubble blowing.

Just so you all know that the Pump It Up party was a blast! We had a lot of fun and the only part that was difficult was when it came time to open presents. It is hard to write who the gifts come from with 3 kids opening at the same time! We got home and went through the presents and asked the kids who they got them from and they didn't remember! Thank yous might be a little generic this year.

I am trying to decide if I should take the kids to the soccer game today. I think there is a double header so we might have dinner and go later?! IT is just too nice out to be inside. Here I leave you with Peanut in the swing! Sorry that you have to hear me I was trying to get her to smile :) I have still shots of her but blogger isn't letting me post them right now so maybe later tonight or tomorrow.

Big Birthday Party!

This year we decided to do all three of the older kids birthday parties at the same time. I figure one big bang! Less stress for us all and today is the day for it. We are having it at Pump It Up, I'm too lazy to link it up. Anyways, I'm excited and nervous at the same time. It's weird. This place has huge inflatable slides, obstacle courses and jumping jacks. I'm excited because the kids will have fun but nervous because I've never done a party like this and afraid someone might get hurt. You have to sign a waiver to participate. Hopefully I will have pictures soon!

Children's Choir!

Here are small little videos I took from today's performance of Hans Bronson. This first song I thought was just too funny with the girls acting like they are going to faint! I don't know why there is no picture but if you click the arrow it will play. The second is GG's solo, I should of started it a little sooner, but you get the idea!

Fighting for your Marriage

Mindy is doing a series on fighting for your marriage. This week she has asked us for our advice on how we fight for our marriage.

About two years ago J and I went through a very bad part of our marriage. There were times I felt I could not be in the marriage any longer. But God is a great God and he gave me the strength and wisdom to preserver through the bad time and the motivation to fight for my marriage. Jeff and I sat down and came up with guardrails to protect our marriage.

*The first one was that we were to never be alone with the opposite sex. EVER.
*Do not give the opposite sex a hug
*Should not be good friends with someone of the opposite sex that you would confide things in them
*check in with each other through out the day
*be open and honest
*respect and courtesy with one another
*not fighting in public

Another thing that I believe you can do to help fight for your marriage is pray for your husband on a consistent basis. It is hard to be mad at or mean to someone you are praying for daily.

And keep porn out of your marriage, I'm surprised how many Christian women think it is ok for them or their husband to look at that garbage. It is toxic and can ruin your marriage.