Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Awwww

It's the most pitiful thing you've ever seen.



Kitty was spayed yesterday. Now she has to wear this medieval looking cone around her neck to keep her from licking her stitches. Yesterday, when she got home, she acted a little drunk, due to the pain meds and the heavy cone. It was a little funny and a little sad. And you should see the poor thing try to eat with this thing on. It's so sad. It's hard for me not to take it off and give her some relief. The vet said that she'll figure out a way to eat with it on and that she should get used to it. She better. She has to wear it for 2 weeks!

Pumpkin was scheduled to be spayed yesterday as well but had high liver enzymes (most likely due to the dead rat she found about a week ago that had died of poisoning. Although she didn't eat it, I think she did gnaw on it a little and so may have ingested some of the poison. Oops.) So now we have to wait 3 weeks and try again for her.

The vet said to try to keep Kitty calm and not let her play too much. Really? Is she familiar with kittens at all? We kept her in the bathroom last night. Usually she is in the basement at night with Pumpkin but the Dr. said to keep them separate at night so they don't play too much. Evidently, Kitty doesn't need Pumpkin to play. She tore up the bathroom. It's going to take me an hour to clean it all. Kitty litter is everywhere. In her defence, I think the cone is causing some of her clumsiness/messiness.
So, 1 day down, 13 to go.



Poor thing.

Monday, January 24, 2011

A New Cook



When Kristin started second grade, I declared that once one is in second grade, one must become responsible for cooking a meal for the family once a month. So far, this has happened twice. It's my fault. Kristin has been very excited about cooking and asks me frequently about it. I just haven't gotten my head in gear to plan ahead with her so I can be sure I have the proper ingredients for what she wants to make.

My sister gave her a cookbook for Christmas so our excitement has been renewed. Last week, she made "Hula Stir Fry." It was really good. All the kids liked it. She was very proud of herself. I was proud of her. Now even Grace and Elliott want to have their turn at cooking.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

"No, my armpits are not salty"

In my last post, I mentioned how Paul and I had been to see comedian, Brain Regan and how hilarious he was. One of his "jokes" came from sentences you would never be able to string together unless you are a parent. His example was, "son, stop trying to balance your fruit juice between your chest and the dinner table."

So, of course, that got me thinking. What are some weird things I've had to say in the past 8 years, only because I'm a parent.

This could take some thought. I'm sure if I wrote down everything that transpired between my lovely daughters and I in 1 day, it would read like it's own comedy act (or horror show depending on how you look at it). Nothing popped out right away. Then I remembered an interaction that resulted in me saying, "no, my armpits are not salty." That's not something you say everyday.

As it happened, my youngest, Elliott, was in the room with me while I was changing at the end of the day. As I raised my arms up, she noticed white under my arms. To the rest of us, that would be too much deodorant. To a 2 year old (at the time) it was salt. To which she replied, "OOOooo, your armpits are salty!" Sigh. and then the aforementioned, "no, my armpits are not salty" comment.

So, my question is, what is something you've said during your parenting years that you would not otherwise be able to say? Come on, leave a comment! I dare you!

I'm going to keep thinking. I'm sure I can come up with more.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Hilar

Hilar (hill air)- short for hilarious. My sister in law, who is now in her 20s, was barely a teenager when Paul and I got married. In her youth, she was famous for coming up with odd words and idioms. Hilar was one of them. On occasion, I still like to use it.

For instance:

Saturday night, my hus and I went to see a comedian by the name of Brian Regan. Hilar! I laughed so hard I cried and then was sad I didn't bring my tissues. If you aren't familiar with Brian Regan, you should check him out. He is very clean and very funny. He just seems like a regular guy, who might go to your church, or who you might could run into at the grocery store, who happens to have a very funny outlook on life and is at ease sharing that outlook with 1000s of people. I wish I could share some of his jokes and stories with you but I am afraid me trying to tell them would not be good advertisement.
Unfortunately, I do not have a picture to post with this so you'll just have to imagine our good time.

Friday, January 14, 2011

A new sucker


I got a new vacuum cleaner. It's a Dyson. ~Ahahahaha~ (that's the high pitched sound of angles singing in the background). I love it. It really sucks! (he he) It's an "all floor" vacuum. It goes from carpet to hardwoods without having to flip any switches or make any adjustments. It doesn't pitch a fit when I suck up a piece of dried up play dough or a little princess shoe. It just keeps going on it's merry way. And it empties out the gunk it's sucked up so easy. Just hold it over a trash can, push a button and the bottom pops open and out goes all the gunk. And it maneuvers so easily! It almost makes vacuuming fun. Almost. I think our old vacuum (a cheap piece of crap) mostly just spread around the dirt. It was SO heavy and bulky and hard to move around. It's out by the trash now.

I guess it means I'm a grown up now. I used my Christmas money (and a little photography money) to by what... a vacuum...and....I'm excited about it. I'm not sure what to think about that.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

The party

As I said in my last post, my oldest daughter turned 8 last Saturday. I always struggle with what kind of party to do for her birthday since it is in the dead of winter. I'm not a fan of home parties (too much work for me and a lot of mess) and something outdoors is not an option since we never know what the weather is going to be like. My other 2 kids were born in May and June. It's so easy that time of year to have a party at the park or the pool. We have to be a little bit more creative when planning Kristin's parties.

This year she decided she wanted to have an ice skating party. We said she could invite 4 friends. They all met here at the house, we had cake, opened gifts and then took off to the ice skating rink. It turned out that 3 out of the 4 girls we invited had never ice skated before. 2 brought helmets. I couldn't help but laugh out loud when I first heard that one girl was bringing a helmet. However, as it turns out, it might not have been a bad idea for her to wear it. She was a bit like Bambi on the ice. I've never seen someone so determined to ice skate and fall so much. In the end, she was returned to her father with 2 shiners on either side of her face. Yep. She looked like she'd been in a vicious fight. And lost. She was a very good sport about it all and was determined to skate by herself. I just hope her parents let her come over to our house again.
So on Saturday, we had 7 little girls at our house. All talking and squealing at once. It was loud. Kristin had a good time though. All in all, it was a good party.


Kristin and her friends at the skating rink.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

8 years ago


Last Saturday my oldest daughter turned 8. ( I intended on posting this sooner, but the snow derailed my plans).
My pregnancy with her was not a smooth one. Around 12 weeks, they discovered a cyst on one of my ovaries that looked suspicious. They decided it needed to come out. So at 15 weeks pregnant, I had surgery to remove this cyst. By God's grace and mercy, it was not cancerous as some of my doctors had feared. They surgery was successful and I was back teaching in 4 days. That was the first hiccup.

The second came at 25 weeks. I went into preterm labor. They were able to stop it, but I had to go on medication, a home monitor and bed rest. Bed rest for 12 weeks. Ya. Fun, fun, fun. So, I had to quit my job as a first grade teacher to stay home and rest. The only time I was allowed up or out was for my weekly Dr.s visits. I have never been so happy to see my GYN (and have not been since). At 36 weeks, my Dr. took me off of the medication and predicted then that she would arrive in a week. 7 days later, at 10 PM, just as we were about to turn in for the night, my water broke. After racing to the hospital that was all of 5 minutes away, 12 hours later at 10:14 AM, we had our first born child. She was 6 lbs. 9 oz and 19 inches long. She had a mess of black hair and the cutest little squished up face you've ever seen. It was an exciting and scary time.

Now, a short 8 years later, we have a beautiful, young lady. She's gotten to that age where she doesn't quite look like a little girl anymore. Her face is maturing. She's got grownup teeth. She wants to do her own hair. She has her own style. She has an air of intelligence about her. She's very logical and loves to explain her logic in excruciating detail. She loves to explain everything in excruciating detail. She's a morning person. She's a talker though most adults outside our family may not know this. She's shy with adults but makes friends very easily with children. She is very social. She loves her friends but says her sisters are her best friends. She loves our cats. She is passionate about a lot of things. She makes it a point to try to eat healthy. She is very conscientious. She's the boss, or at least thinks she is. She's a little OCD. She likes things a certain way and that way ALL the time. She is organized. She loves to read. She loves school. She's a people pleaser. She's a good big sister, often encouraging her little sisters when they are scared or nervous or when they need a "good job." She's very loving. She likes to hug and snuggle. She loves the Lord. She's a good daughter.

We love her more than words and are very proud of our not so little girl.

Kristin wanted chocolate on chocolate for her birthday cake. We also got these really cool candles that had different color flames.

This is the group we took ice skating. They all seemed to have a good time. Kristin loved it, so I guess that's all that matters...and that no one came back with a serious head injury.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Snow, snow, snow!


Ok, Ok, Ok. I guess since we've had the biggest snow storm since I've lived here, I need to do a post about it.
We are on day 2 of no school. I am 1/2 way not expecting to go to school tomorrow. The roads still look pretty icy to me. I've seen them cancel school for a lot less reasons.
Although, I do kinda need to get to Target. Well, not need to go, more like want to. Since we've been stranded at home, I decided to make use of my time and organize the girls' rooms. It's a MESS! Our upstairs hallway is virtually impassable. I've made a list of several bins and organizational type items that I need that would really help me finish knocking this job out. I guess we'll just have to live with the mess until I feel brave enough to get out on the road.

Fortunately, since we just had Christmas and Kristin's birthday, the kids have plenty to do here at home. They have kept busy playing and occasionally braving the cold to check out the snow.

Here are some pictures of our outdoor snow day adventures.

This is a table on our deck. It seems that we got about 4-5 inches of snow.



We can't have any amount of snow, be it a dusting or a blizzard without a few snow angles.







We even got come sledding in, southern style, on a plastic bag. Don't judge. It worked!





We even managed a snowman. The original plan was to make one as tall as me but building a snowman is a lot of work! I decided pretty quickly that this was not going to be a grown up snow man. It's cute though, right?

We ended each snow venture with hot chocolate by the fire. Yummmm...

I just heard that school will be cancelled again tomorrow. Yeah because I get to sleep in. Boo because I am getting a bit of cabin fever, not that I don't have plenty to do, I'm just ready to get out.

Saturday, January 1, 2011

I resolve to have no resolutions


I've never been a new years resolution kind of girl. I am, however, a girl who can appreciate a fresh start. And what time better to get a fresh start than January 1?! The holidays are wonderful and magical and loads of sugary fun, but let's face it, CRAZY might be a better all encompassing word to describe it. Any semblance of a schedule or routine is thrown out the window a few days before Thanksgiving and in our house anyway, does not even begin to creep back in until school starts after the Christmas break. There is just too much shopping to be done, parties to attend, food to make/bake and then eat, presents to wrap, houses to decorate, then messes to clean up, new toys and gifts to organize, family to visit....I could go on and on. I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. School starts in 4 days. Not that I'm so excited to get rid of the kids, but the start of school brings with it routine and normalcy. Ahhhh.... I can almost breath again.

Like I said, I do like a good fresh start. I wouldn't say my husband is a resolution kind of person either, but he is a goal setter. That's one thing I simultaneously like and dislike about my husband at the same time. He is always pushing er uh, encouraging me to be better, do better, do more, etc. There is no status quo. We've always got to be striving to be better people, better parents, better spouses, better Christians. Which is good. I know it is. It's just exhausting sometimes. I have a hard time keeping up. Sometimes I feel like I've got to a good place and I'm happy not moving for a bit. Not with Paul. I find that the times I feel content are the times when he is feeling like "go go go!" He's always reassessing our lives always wanting to set goals for our family. You go, hun.

I on the other hand am a little skeptical about setting hard and fast goals for myself. I'm a little pessimistic about actually being able to achieve any of these goals, so why set them. I don't want to set myself up for failure so it's best to just stay put, right? (hint of sarcasm here).

So, instead of setting goals, I'm going to set some plans. After all, plans are thwarted all the time, right? So it's no biggie if my "plans" don't work out, right? I plan to lose some weight before the summer time. I plan to exercise 4 days a week. I plan to blog more often (cause I know yall are always, "why doesn't Katie blog more? I LOVE reading her stuff!") I plan to read the Bible everyday. I plan to spend more quality time with my kids. I plan to be better organized with my time so that I can spend quality time with my kids. I plan for my husband and I to spend more quality time together. I plan to do a lot of stuff.

I know these don't sound like lofty plans but one thing I've learned about myself over the years is that if I am going to set any goals or make any plans, I need to set small, attainable ones. I can get discouraged easily. I'm also a cynic in some areas. I know this doesn't help in my aspirations but it's true. That cynicism that says "you might lose 5 lbs, but you'll gain it back. Just thank the fried foods and sauces you some times crave or Coke" , that cynicism is there and it's stubborn and won't go away.

But I do have plans. Maybe if I talk about my plans out loud more I'll be more apt to keep them. If I could just some how figure out a way to add just 2 more hours in a day then all this would be easy! Setting hard and fast goals would be a breeze.

I do realize as I reread through this before I publish it for all the world to see, that I sound like a wussy, little noncommitted, lazy waif who is just content to wallow in her extra pounds and messy house. NOT true. (cue the rocky music). I know I can do it!! right? YES I CAN! do you think? Sure! GO, Katie, GO, GO, Katie, GO!

All kidding aside, these plans I have for myself are not only plans, but prayer requests. I am confident that nothing I strive for can be achieved but for the grace of God. His plans are the only ones that really matter. That is a bit of a relief. I am glad it's not all up to me. I am a sinful human being who continues to fail time after time. I will disappoint. But He won't. Amen! He still loves me. That's my ultimate plan/goal; to love like Christ loves. If I can do that, what more could I ask for?