WW # 4 Bat Hats

Both boys made a bat hat for Halloween last year.













Cousin Cole at 6 months wearing the bat hat.

My First Tackle it Tuesday!

I figured this was a good excuse to tackle a job I've been putting off for a while. I absolutely hate going through the new season clothes and putting away the old season clothes, but it has to be done twice a year every year. It's gotten easier now that the boys are older, but it's still a horrible job.

Here are the clothes all nicely piled on the bed as they get sorted.

The first closet is the boys all organized and neatly folded, too bad it won't stay that way.

Next is my closet, also neatly folded and organized. Guess what, it won't stay clean for long either. Like mother like sons. Oh well, it was great while it lasted. Go to 5 Minutes for mom to see other tackle it tuesday posts

A Cold Spring Day

Wow, it's such a cold day. So much for all of the nice weather we've been having. At least it was still sunny and we got some work done outside. Mark wanted to mow, but there were a ton of sticks from all of the rain stoms we've had the last few days so I told the boys I'd pay them a penny a stick to pick them all up. It kept them busy for a good half an hour, and they did a decent job getting most of the sticks. And it only cost me a few dollars.

While they were working Mark took down the old yucky dog house and tilled up the ground for my garden. He also ran the tiller one more time in the garden on the side so I can get ready to plant it. When we bought the house last year this flower bed was very overgrown and with all sunshine plants under a very big tree. So, I've moved or ripped everything out and am working on putting in shade plants that will thrive in this area. I'll keep posting pictures of how it's coming as I make progress and it grows. I've bought a bunch of perenials in bare root so they'll start coming up soon. I can't wait to get it put together. I just hope the weather warms up soon so I can get more stuff in. Happy spring to all!

Boys will be boys

Sometimes I wonder if its just my boys that come with crazy things to do when left to their own devices or if all kids do that. On THursday after school I noticed they were out by the street for an awful long time. So, I went to check out what was so exciting. They were taking turns throwing the frisbee accross the street and chasing it.


Aside from the obvious
playing by and in the road, a major no no. THere was also the fetch side of it. Am I raising boys or dogs that fetch frisbees.

Then of course there was the taking stones out of our stone wall and throwing them into the street. I don't know what they were thinking.



Dylan playing frisbee by himself





Alex playing with a stick. What is it about boys and sticks. Alex can always be found with a stick playing around in the back yard. And the bigger the stick the happier he is. Good thing we have lots of trees and tons of sticks.

WW #3 Is it warm yet?

Update on Cole

Hello all. Well, I'm back home. Cole had his surgery this afternoon and is doing much better. His fever has been much better, only around 100 and the doctors say the surgery went well. Withing a half hour he had a 9 oz bottle, his biggest ever and was itching to get down and crawl around. They disconected the IV this afternoon and he was starting oral antibiotics. Hopefully he will be able to go home tomorrow. My mom came in this afternoon and tonight she's doing a major cleaning and sanitizing of the house and toys. Everything has to be washed or scrubbed down to make sure he doesn't get reinfected. What a scary time, but fortunately he'll be just fine. Thank God!!! Thank you to all of you for your prayers.

Cole

This morning as I went for a walk I had a great plan for a post. Then I got home and the phone rang. It was my brother Brian, with a very loaded question, "So, what do you guys have going on today?" I immediately knew something was up. it turns out my nephew Cole (10 months) was in the hospital with a fever of 105 and an infection in his leg that might be mersa. The important part of that phone call was that Brian was in Las Vegas and Marcella was alone at the hospital with Cole who might need surgery to drain the infection in his leg. So, needless to say I got showered and packed in record time and spent the day at the hospital with Marcella and Cole. Brian got here from Las Vegas this afternoon so I"m at their house for the night and will go spend the day with them tomorrow. Cole is doing much better. They still haven't drained the infection, maybe tomorrow. The fever finally really broke this afternoon. It averaged around 103 all morning, but by afternoon was staying below 100. And by the time I left he was in relatively good spirits and itching to get moving, very difficult for a 10 month old with an IV in his arm and his arm immobilized to keep it there. Please keep Cole and his mom and dad in your prayers.

My First Tag

My friend Kristi tagged me for the first time so here goes.

1. I am a musician who does not enjoy listening to music. I much prefer having the TV on or silence. Live music is great and I love to go to concerts, but I don't enjoy the radio at all.

2. I am horrible at all basic English skills. My grammar is awful, punctuation worse, and if it weren't for spell check nothing I ever typed would be decipherable. How do you spell that again?
My husband always has to proof everything I type for anything job related.

3. I love gardening. I'm not very good at it, but I give it my best shot and absolutely love it when something I plantedf comes up and looks good.

4. I'm positive I have undiagnosed ADD. I can never finish a task until I've started at least 3 more in between. I drive my hubby absolutely nuts because he'll come home to 4 or 5 started and not finished projects. He keeps telling if you did one thing at a time you'd accomplish more. That's no fun though. Besides I can't stay focused on any one thing that long.

5. I am a horrible housekeeper. I have no clue how to take care of a house. It's always either all or nothing. Spend all day cleaning the whole house or do nothing until it's so bad no one can stand it.

6. I love to read, but don't dare pick up a fiction book unless I know I have nothing on the calendar for several days. Once I sit down and start I can never stop till it's done. Even if it's a bad book I'll still get sucked in until it's all done.

7. And last but not least I'll take an idea from Kristi, I can sleep anywhere anytime. I found myself dozing off yesterday at my sons speech class. I sleep in the car, couch, in the middle of the day while my kids are running around, on the swing on the deck, pretty much anywhere. I have to be very careful to have something to do to keep my hands busy or I'll fall asleep. That's where my knitting is invaluable. It keeps my hands busy, but I can still pay attention to what's going on around me.

That's all for now I'll try to do a regular post later. Have a great day!

WW #2 Doggy B (mommy @ 4) and Doggy D

A Big Moment

Ok, so Dylan and I have been working really hard the last few weeks to really find a way to end some of the problems we've been having. Both attitude and behavior. The timer has continued to work great and he loves to beat both it and me out the door in the morning. He also had a major milestone last night. I said no TV when he didn't finish his dinner and he turned the TV on anyways. So, I looked at him and very firmly said turn that off. So, he turned it off, but then slammed down the remote. He then proceeded into a major temper tantrum, but then he picked up his blankie and headed into his bedroom where he managed to get himself under control. So it was still a major behavior moment, but he listened when I told him no and he's learning to remove himself when he's losing control so I counted it as a major achievement. Of course then dad stepped in to scold him when I had just said how proud I was of him that he got himself under control without any help from me that didn't help things. We need to work on getting on the same page on how we handle things.


On a personal note I'm having a really good week this week. My big concert at church was Sunday and it went really well. I'm just really glad it's all over. It was a TON of work and I spent most of the weekend at church. Have I said yet how glad I am that it's over. Between that and the fact that the sun is finally back out makes it a good week.

Even More Spring Drama

Well isn't this an exciting sight. I was washing dishes and looked out the window to see that the wind had blown over the swing again. Now it's pulled apart and clearly the canopy was ripped by one of our chairs. I'm not sure if we'll be able to save the swing at this point. It also gouged a big spot in our composite deck. I'm not really enjoying spring very much this year. Way too much drama.

More Rain Drama

Well so far this has been a lovely spring. I think winter was much less eventful. So, let's see. The roof appears to have stopped dripping and the ceiling seems to be drying and no there was no collapse. So, not the end of the world since the kitchen ceiling needed painted anyway.

So, then this morning I glance out the dining room window and see a green swing leg sticking up where it doesn't belong. I walk away and think, that was weird and walk back. And see our swing has blown over the rail and off the deck onto the flowerbed below. A very strange sight I have to say. So I call my hubby and he says try to set it up so it doesn't break any further and we'll deal with it later. Oh, and take a few pictures. So I go out in the rain, since it's not supposed to end any time soon, and take pictures and tip the thing up on it's feet. I just hope it doesn't tip any farther into the fire pit. What a week. So here are the pictures.

So this is where the swing is supposed to sit. If you look close you can see the feet in the air right on the other side of the rail

Don't adjust your set. Yes the swing is upside down. Yikes!

I"m not sure how it got over the rail, but the wind must have been really strong to do that.

I kind of think we should leave the swing right here. I nice view of the firepit and backyard. Or, maybe not. I'm ready for this weather to end. And maybe an end to the drama for a few days.

Happy Spring!?

Update on the drip!

When was the last time you saw your husband pouring water out of your kitchen light fixture. He thinks the leak has stopped and most of the drips were coming from the water built up in the fixture. More later.

Drip, Drip!! OH NO!

Well we're sitting at dinner having lasagne and having a nice dinner and I hear drip, drip. Now I had looked at the ceiling a little bit earlier during dinner and had noticed a spot on the ceiling, but didn't pay much attention to it. Then I heard the dripping right onto Alex's plate. Yes you guessed it, the ceiling is leaking. Now since it's been raining hard all day and should for the next 24 hours I'm a little nervous. Since I know 2 people who had a small leak in their kitchen and woke up the next morning to find the ceiling had collapsed I"m a little nervous right now. I'm sitting here listening to the drip, drip, drip of the water running off of our light fixture. I sure hopeI still have a kitchen in the morning. Of course the place where it's dripping is part of the house that doesn't have an attic so my husband can't even go up and see if he can find the leak. He tried clearing out the gutters to see if that would help, but it's still dripping. I'll let you know tomorrow what happens next.

This is the light fixture in the kitchen that the water is running off of. Wish us luck!

Dylan day 8

WEll, it's day 8 and things are still going pretty well. Today he protested a little bit, but still got ready when I started the timer. After school he insisted on not wearing his coat home, but carried it without protest and got all wet since it's raining here today. He's starting to push it a little bit, but he's still technically following the rules. I'm not forcing the issue yet, but we're going to hit a wall soon I"m sure. Truthfully I"m surprised it's gone so well up to now. Here's hoping for a little blow out now a major blow up. Have a great day!

A new beginning!

Well, here goes. I hadn't decided whether or not todo this post, but I need to write it. The hard thing is that my mom sometimes reads this blog and this will be major news to her. Maybe this is the easy way to let her know (at least for me) and why I"m doing this now. Yesterday was such an exciting day for me. It was in part because it was the first time out this spring working in the yard and finding green things coming up. The big thing for me was that it was the first time in a long time that I felt really happy and wanted to be up doing something. The big thing for me right now is that I've been dealing with depression for a long time. I finally started seeing a counselor before Christmas, but about 6 weeks ago I started to crash in a big way. So my counselor sent me to a psychiatrist and now I've been officially diagnosed with clinical depression and am on Zoloft for about 3 weeks. I went back on Thursday and the doc doubled my dose. On Saturday it was the first day that I really felt better. I felt so much lighter. Today was another good day. I got to be outside in the sun having lunch on the deck while everyone else was at their events. WHat a pleasure and I really enjoyed it, then I got to be outside working and again it was fun. I haven't really enjoyed anything in a long time. At least not on the inside where it counts, just on the surface where everyone else can see it. I've gotten really good at faking happy, it was just so good to really feel happy again. Wow I sure have been rambling a lot in this blog. I just needed to get all of this out and don't dare go back and edit or read it to see what I said or I might chicken out and delete. Have a great week!

Signs of Spring!!!!!

Well they're here the first signs of spring!!! I'm so excited. We bought a new house last fall and the previous owners had said they didn't have spring bulbs planted, so I had resigned myself to enjoying spring flowers vicariously through the neighbors flowers. Now why this was so difficult was that I had planted 100s of bulbs at our last house and had loved watching them come up so I was really bummed about not having any at our new house. However, this weekend was thing the upper 50's so we were out cleaning up the flower beds and look what I found, blooming crocus, tulips and my daylilies are all coming up yipee!!!!!





Look, green stuff coming up!!!
















Crocus blooming!








Daddy spent the day cutting down a tree in the front yard. He's a lumberjack wannabe.










Dylan spent the day playing in the dirt and "helping" mommy pull out dead and not so dead plants.











Daddy spent the day cutting down a tree in the front yard. He's a lumberjack wannabe.





And Alex, well he spent the day playing his new Pokemon gameboy game. Normally we'd make him go outside, but he just bought it today so we made an exception just this once.

Is it Over Yet?

Well here it is 9:00 on Saturday and I'm really ready to send ALex back to school again. My boys have been fighting since school let out yesterday. It started with the lego racer that Dylan bought yesterday with his birthday money. First they were fighting over who could use it, then last night Alex launched it across the room and broke one of the pieces. Of course with the thousands of legos we have you'd think we would have that one piece, but no we told ALex he had to buy Dylan a new set today and that therefore he would not have enough money to buy his Pokemon game for his gameboy that he's been waiting for. That prompted 45 minutes of heartbroken sobs. Fortunately I finally found a piece that works and all was right with the world by bedtime.

Then we started the day with don't sit next to me your shirt smells funny. Mommy make him move. All from Dylan my child with the sensitive nose that is the only one in the house that can smell the chocolate in the shirts that grandma and grandpa brought from FL that are dyed with real chocolate.


Can I go back to bed now? Of course it's made all the better by this nagging thought in the back of my head that there's something going on this weekend that I've forgotten about and we're going to miss something big. Anyways have a good weekend everyone.
Then still at breakfast it was all out war over looks. YOu know the old He's looking at me routine. Of course Alex ended it by hitting Dylan. Such a delightful way to start the day.

Award

I'm so excited I got my first award from Kristi. It totally made my day since I'm so new at this. Thanks a bunch Kristi.

Alex

I thought it was only fair that I do a blog on my oldest son Alex. Alex is 6 years old and in Kindergarten. He's a great little boy and a very hard worker. The best description of him is a people pleaser. He's always working hard and hates it when he's corrected for anything at all.

He's also my sensitive child. He's very aware of other people's feelings and is frequently reduced to tears by life's ups and downs. His teacher also says he's always a nice boy and is choosing other nice boys to be friends with. In other words he's my easy boy. I think that's why I get so frustrated with Dylan, Alex has always been so easy.

In the picture above he was wearing his glasses from his Halloween costume
to decorate Christmas cookies. Now the glasses would make you think Harry Potter, but no he
dressed up as Jack from the Magic Tree house books. He absolutely loves to read and has astonished me by reading the Magic Tree house books independently.





At Christmas we always do a 1000 piece puzzle. Alex loved helping and was pretty good at it.










Alex's school had crazy hair day for Spirit week. So we painted it blue. Boy was that fun!












Alex loves his cousin Cole (9 months) and can frequently be found entertaining him. And Cole thinks Alex is absolutely hysterical.



So that's my post about my big kid Alex. Who never ceases to amaze me.

2 Good Days

Well, 2 days down. I've been following the dr's advise and am giving Dylan 10 minutes to get his shoes and coat on in the morning. We've been ready in record time the last 2 days. YIPEEEE! Now I'm just waiting for the bad day I just know is coming. I figure either today or tomorrow I'm going to be putting him in the car with no shoes and a major screaming fit going on. I sure hope I'm wrong.

WW #1 Wild Things

Dylan Trouble

Well, I'm sitting here this morning as I knew I would be writing about Dylan in trouble once again. Yesterday was his 4 yr well check up. Halfway there he decided he wanted his v-smile and wanted to go home to get it. When I refused since we were already late he started screaming and crying. When we got to to the doctor's he continued to scream and cry and hit me, so I sat him in a corner of the lobby while I checked him in. Of course while he was sitting there screaming 2 "very nice ladies" were praising him. Talk about sabatoge. Like he needed praise at that point. So then we went down to pediatrics screaming and went into the exam room, you guessed it screaming. So I talked to the dr about what to do with all of these temper tantrums and also my worry about his obsessive need for everything to be just right. He always has to have his clothes, shoes, and coat on perfectly even, straight, tight or whatever is the problem of the day. It can take 30-45 min for him to get ready with a lot of crying and screaming mixed in. So the dr said don't buy into it. It's probably just to get some control and that I shouldn't buy into it. Give him a time limit and if he has to go without his shoes or coat and get cold or wet it won't hurt him and he'll learn that he can't get away with delay tactics. So today it starts he gets 10 minutes this morning and if he's not readyhe'll go in his socks and get wet feet. It could be a very interesting day.