Resolutions

I actually made a few this new year. I don't usually because past experience has shown me that I do not stick to them, no matter how bad I want to. Something this year "felt right", so I made a few. I resolved to not curse. I don't do it a lot, but a little is too much. It's just not lady-like, Christian-like, its yucky. So I am doing great in that area.

I also resolved to lose weight. For some reason, all of a sudden I'm tired of being overweight. It's no secret my body took a hit when I was pregnant with the girls. The added weight from the medicines I took to get pregnant, stay pregnant, etc. didn't help either. The triplet pregnancy completely wrecked my abs. My abdominal muscles are completely seperated. You can stick your fist in this. This makes me unable to do a sit-up, but there are other things I can do. So I have been trying to eat better. Heck, I do good to actually eat at all. Sometimes I'm just too busy, I forget. I used to think my mom was nuts when she said she forgot to eat...now I understand.

So I've been trying to eat breakfast and lunch and dinner and have healthy snacks. You know pretzels, apples, etc. It's going well. Probably the best I've ever done. I'm down about 4 1/2 pounds in nine days. Woo hoo! I have been doing a walking/jogging program on the treadmill. Walk for two minutes, jog for a minute. I am finding that I dread it less and can actually run the whole minute without feeling like I'm going to puke, pass up or die, generally in that order. I strap on my headphones and get to it. The 30-minutes I do for now actually goes fast. When I first started I was at about 1.3 miles. Then I was up to 1.5 miles, then 1.6 I am now up to 1.75 miles. I am increasing the speed and even ran for two whole minutes the other day at 5 mph! My husband is surprised, yet pleased and encouraging with my progress.

The girls are good about watching a movie on my bed while I do the treadmill since it is in our bedroom. The first day I got on it the little girls informed me, "That's not your treadmill, that's daddy's treadmill!" Uh sorry, not any more girls. The other night at the end of my workout, Kori informed me, "Hey you did good mom. You were running good, you didn't look like you were going to pass out or nothing". Uh, thank you????

At any rate it is January 12th and I'm still at it. I can't wait until I can actually see the results, or feel the clothes getting more roomy. Woo hoo!

Dear Winter...

I am so very much over you. The white Christmas was beautiful. Very nice! Loved it! I especially appreciated it because I did not have to go out in it. The snow over the school Christmas break was a nice touch! Kori had a ball playing in it!

Then you decided more was needed. And more. And more. And yet even more. Then to just be even more cruel you threw in some sub-zero, freeze your hiney off temperatures. Not cool!!!

So Christmas break was extended by a week. A whole week. Not to mention it was too cold to let anyone play in the beautiful snow you sent us. So I had four kids with extreme cabin fever. Definitely NOT cool!

I am now a bit concerned that I am finding the thoughts of temperatures in the 30's to actually be appealing, and thinking they actually seem warm. There is something seriously wrong with that.

If you could whoa down on the dramatics, the rest of your season will go much better and we will appreciate you a bit more.

Signed,

Me

What Happened???

So today was what I thought a pretty good day. Aside from me pulling our wooden blinds down from our bedroom window off the brackets and onto my head (oh man did that HURT! I have a knot to show for it and wouldn't be surprised if I didn't have a mild concussion), it was a pretty good day. Even though we woke up to freezing cold temperatures and 3-4 more inches of snow.

We met Jason's dad and step-mom for breakfast before they headed back to Iowa. That went good. Everyone ate well. Nobody cried, yelled, spilled, fought, hit, kicked, punched, or otherwise caused any negative attention to us. Success in my book!

We got back and Kori and Jason and I shoveled the drive and sidewalks...again. (Have I mentioned I am very much over Winter??? -- If I haven't, let it be noted that I am, very much so!)

The girls played nicely, always a bonus.

At about 2:30 Kori and I left to pick up Becky and we headed to our long-standing, eagerly anticipated, group date to see New Moon. Hey, better late than never huh? We had a nice time, no issues.

Got home and did some stuff. Wrestled in the floor. Gave the little girls a bath.

Kori came in to take her bath and I noticed she'd been crying. So I ask her what was up? I assumed that something must have happend with daddy or Alexis, because they were the only two that had been with her, Kamryn and Morgan were in the bathroom with me.

She told me, through her tears, that she feels like she isn't part of our family sometimes. HUH??? I asked her what made her feel that way. She told me that she feels like I favor Alexis and I don't make her feel like she's part of our family. It was all I could do to not burst into tears at this point, but I didn't want to discourage her from sharing her feelings with me if something is bothering her. I told her that as mothers we are gifted with the ability to love all of our kids equally, no matter how many we have, and that's how I am. I love each and every one of my girls exactly the same. No more for one than the others. I just was so shocked as to where all of this was coming from. I hadn't fussed at her or anything all day?????

I have been feeling a little "Cinderella-ish" lately as I've been the only one to do things around here. I have been doing everything, with little or no help from anyone else. I just had a conversation with Jason about this a few days ago, but it only helped for a day or so. Apparently my family thinks I'm their personal maid. I am tired of picking up after everyone, all the time. There is rarely a day I get to sit down and relax with all the laundry, housework, dishes, cooking, cleaning, etc. etc. etc. that I have to do. Every night I pick everything up that is left out, because it drives me crazy to leave it out. Surveying all the things I pick up 99% of them are NOT mine. They belong to Jason and the girls. So now on top of feeling like Cinderella, I also apparently am not being a very good mother.

Man this parenting thing is so hard sometimes. The days I try and schedule "family fun time" someone is grumpy or uncooperative and it ends up being "family not-so-fun time" and backfires on me. I try and make sure that I am loving an attentive to my kids even though I don't have a minute for myself, and that apparently is not working out so great for me either.

Feeling very much like flying the white flag of surrender right now.

Okay...pity post over now I guess.

Patience???

Why is it that my husband has so much patience with so many things, and yet not so much on other things???

The man will sit for HOURS on doper time, waiting for the drug deal of the century to go down, nabbing the suspect in the process.

He will sit for HOURS waiting for a suspect to reoccupy a stolen auto, thus nabbing the suspect in the process.

He can sit and watch baseball or football for hours, never losing interest.

He golfs for goodness sakes. One of the most boring "sports" on the planet (sorry golf lovers). It certainly takes patience for that.

Give the man a gingerbread house and all patience goes out the window.

So without further adieu, (for the sake of my kids feelings, please, no laughing)I give you our 2009 Gingerbread "Creation":

So glad...

That this holiday season, well most of it, is behind us. I was so happy in fact that on Saturday after my last family guest left, I took my tree and all the inside decorations down. I put my tree up just before Thanksgiving so I was ready for it to come down and have my living room back.

Christmas Eve we took the girls to see Alvin and the Chipmunks -- The Squeakwel. It was super cute, and the girls loved it! Even better they all sat in their seats quietly and watched it.

Admission for the six of us: $35.00
One large soda, one large popcorn, one small popcorn, one order of nachos and one pizza for daddy: $32.00 It would have been more but I smuggled juice boxes in for the girls.

So $67.00 later, our first movie out with the 6 of us was a success!!!

We hurried home since the rain was turning to sleet. Then came the snow, lots of it. Add in the winds that made it a blizzard and man was I thankful to not have to go anywhere. I had a mini-breakdown reminiscing about my dad, but was thankful to my hubby for helping me through it.

We watched Christmas Vacation (the girls watched Santa Buddies) as is our tradition every year. The girls were eager to go to bed so that Santa could come. So daddy read 'Twas The Night Before Christmas and off they went.



They camped out in Kori's room in anticipation of Santa's arrival:





And sure enough, Santa came!!! They got lots of goodies and had a great morning opening gifts. We had a big breakfast, complete with homemade waffles, thanks to my new waffle maker.

It was a nice relaxing day. We would have been snowed in if we would have had to be anywhere, but we didn't so we were happy to stay home. We stayed in our jammies all day and played with our new loot. It was blissful!

Saturday we had a "Mexican Fiesta" here with my family. It was nice and relaxing, which is sometimes unusual when my family gets together. There was no drama and good times were had by all! Woo hoo!!!

So now we look forward to 2010. I am ready to put 2009 behind me!

December -- Thus Far

Nothing too exciting happening in December. Kori is two days into Christmas break. Everyone has received the first booster of the H1N1 vaccine. Kori turned eight on the 17th (I can't believe it!!!!), and lost a top front tooth on the 18th (thanks to daddy pulling it). Times they are a changing!!!

Christmas shopping is done (Thanks Becky and Jason for keeping the crew so we could get it done!) It hasn't been wrapped but that's okay, I still have a little time. I have done lots of baking and I'm trying to psyche myself up for it all. It can be a bit overwhelming.

So that's the past couple of months for us in a nutshell.

Merry Christmas!!!!

November

Well it went by like a big ol' blur. It ended not so great. But now here it is,three days before Christmas?!?!? How in the world did that happen?????

The majority of November was pretty uneventful. It ended with a bang if you will. Thanksgiving was nice. Very sad for me without my dad. It was typically "our day" we have always loved Thanksgiving. So for me it was especially bittersweet without him here with us. He didn't come strolling in like he usually did with the specially holiday section of the paper in his hand. For the past several years he brought it because he'd found some recipe he thought "sounded good and maybe you'd like to try it too". That was code for I want you to make this for me. He was right, it usually was a pretty good recipe. I missed that so much this year. I thumbed through it but it didn't hold near as much appeal as it did in years past.

Dinner was great. Jason deep-fried a turkey and we had ham as well and all the trimmings. We had a little "family drama" but hey, it wouldn't be our family if we didn't. I'm over it and trying to get everyone else to let it go as well. **Sigh**

So the day after Thanksgiving we headed out for family portraits. I had ZERO expectations this year. Last year I assumed since the girls were 2 it would be easier. NOPE! Except for Kori there wasn't a smiling kid in the shot. Thankfully this year was MUCH better!!! Everyone did so good!!! Hard to find a bad shot. We went to see Santa and ride the Christmas train at the mall and then headed to Five Guys for some burgers for lunch. We came out of lunch with Alexis claiming that her back and throat hurt. She asked for a nap when we got home, even though everyone else was going to be outside riding bikes and "helping" daddy with the outside Christmas decorations. After her nap she was warm so I gave her some Ibuprofen. As the night wore on the fever went up. Finally at 103 degrees and 8:00 pm I took her to Urgent Care. After an extensive wait she finally was taken back and swabbed for the flu's. She had a chest x-ray because the doctor thought he heard something in her lungs. We left with four prescriptions and a diagnosis of the flu and pneumonia in the left lung we got home just before 1 am. Saturday she spent most of the day in my bed watching TV but seemed to be responding to the medicine good enough. Sunday she was up and playing a bit and ate a little. Monday, not so good. Back in bed. Fevering again. Rapidly breathing. Unable to stay awake. Finally about 1 pm I called the doctors and got her back in. Her oxygen saturation levels were low and her lungs still sounded bad so we got sent to the Emergency Room at the local children's hospital to get checked out.

I dropped Morgan and Kamryn off with Jason, who had picked up Kori from school, and then headed off to the hospital. We were admitted since her fever was still very high and her oxygen levels were very low, even with oxygen. No problem, I figured a day or so, they'd figure out what it was and fix us up. Well her new x-rays came back clear from pneumonia and two flu swabs were negative. We kept hearing what she didn't have but not a lot of what she did have. Jason stayed with Kori and Kam and Morgan and I stayed with Alexis at the hospital. I came home for a bit on Tuesday for a shower and then Wednesday to see the other girls for a while and hang out with them. Finally Thursday afternoon she was stable enough and was deemed to have "some sort of infection" and we were on our way with new inhalers and a follow-up appointment with our pediatrician. She slept lots once we were home but no surprise there. We were both exhausted and so glad to be home.

Friday night Morgan woke up about 1am complaining of her "face" hurting. After giving her some Benadryl (she gets a rash on her face sometimes -- I thought that's what it was) she then complained it was her ear. Some Ibuprofen and she went back to sleep with no problems. Saturday morning she professed her ear to be "all better" and no need to go to the doctor. I should have went with my "mothers intuition". Well about 12:30 p.m. Kamryn started complaining about her ear hurting. Off to Urgent Care we went. Her left ear was infected and we were given more "pink medicine". I no sooner walked in from the Pharmacy and Jason left for off-duty before Morgan started crying about her "ear hurting too". Seriously????? So I take Alexis, Kori and Kamryn to my mom's and off Morgan and I go to Urgent Care. The staff was so surprised to see me, yet again. Morgan's right ear that had previously been declared "all better" was infected to the point of the ear drum bulging and the left side looked "angry and red" as well. So more pink medicine and we were off to pick up sisters and search (in vain) for a drive-thru liquor store for me.

So in a span of about 10-days there were: Three Urgent Care visits, two Pediatrician visits, $120.00 in co-pays and $170.00 in prescriptions co-pays. Thankfully everyone is healthy now and I've regained some of my lost sanity back.