And baby makes 9..........

Samuel Isaac has arrived! October 27, at 5:11pm, weighing 6lbs 2ozs and 19inches long.
He was scheduled for a c-section today, but we are home already.
My water broke Thursday night, but after 15 hours labor didn't start on its own, so in we went for a c-section. It went very well, though. A nurse held a mirror for me so I could watch him enter the world. That was so meaningful for me!
One of my friends from church had her baby boy that morning, too, so our sons are 12 hours 7 minutes apart! Our pastor joked that our church grew by 10% in one day, lol.

Ratchette and Clank

Ratchette and Clank is one of our family's favorite video games. Our first dog is named Ratchette after the main character, which is a redish brown fox. Now we got a new dog who is named Clank after the small grey robot in the game, lol.
I know, we are nerds around here, lol. My son said its now official, naming our dogs like that lables us nerds forver.
Clank seems to be a good dog. He's housebroken and pretty well mannered. He does beg for food, jumps on the kids for it, even. We'll have to break him of that quick. But he's a lover, he wants lots of attention and from anyone. He even loves two year old attention. And Trinity seems to think the dog belongs to her.
I'm having trouble getting a picture to upload today.

Carnival of Kid comedy

The new Carnival of Kid Comedy is posted and there are lots of funny posts! I even got the honor of having a post included! My little Trinity, she's a funny one! I think next week I'll have to post about my oldest and one of the funniest things any of my kids have ever done and said. I'm sure my 17yo son won't mind me telling his story to the world online.... LOL
That reminds me of my favorite saying "I was put on this earth to embarass my teenagers in front of their friends."

Our new hero!

Here is a picture of our dog, he is now our hero and not just our dog!
At 4am today he started barking up a storm. We just happened to have brought him in for the night, which we rarely do, and he was chained to the back door. (he likes to roam the house and poop in the kids' rooms) Apparently something disturbed him from tearing the clothes out of my suitcase (packed for a trip to the hospital!). Donnie went out to the kitchen and checked out the windows and didn't see anything, so he came back to bed after he got the dog calmed down. And I praised him but good because I want a dog who will let us know if something is going on at night.
We laid in bed and talked awhile, we couldn't sleep because we know that Ratchet does not bark at nothing, he has never barked in the house, not even with our kids sneaking in and out of the house or strangers knocking at our door at 2:30am! I wanted a "real dog" that would bark if something was going on!
Then, at 5am the dog starts an even bigger barking ruckous! We look up and see flood lights beaming into our house. Donnie looks out the window and sees a police car out there and someone walking in our yard! As he gets dressed to deal with things I went to calm the dog down but found someone at the back door shining a light in our house! But he turned away as I was coming in the room, so I looked out and it was the policeman. I opened the door after briefly debating on whether he was really a policeman or not. Oh, my dog wanted to take him out something fierce! How dare he snoop in our home!
Our neighbor behind the alley had a car window smashed in! So the officer had looked around our yard too, and found Donnie's car unlocked and what looked like a gun in the backseat. It was his hunting bow, actually a borrowed one, in a case. The door would normally be locked but Drew used the car and forgot. Had he locked the door the window would have been smashed. The burgler had been in the car digging through the glove box, but apparently didn't have time because not even Donnie's watch was stolen out of there.
I feel bad for our neighbors. Maybe if we'd left the dog outside the burgler would have been frightened away and not messed with their car. But, if we'd left him out he may have broken off his chain (he's one BIG brute of a dog!) and attacked, or been injured/killed by the burgler.
At any rate, I feel so much better now that I know our dog will alert and protect us. And I feel so very blessed that things happened the way they happened for us, we weren't robbed, and no one was hurt and our window was not smashed in, which would have to be immediately fixed since its freezing weather here in MN. And none of our other vehicles, which we never lock, were broken into.
Ratchette, our hero!
But, I still want a little yippy dog who will bark at every little move made in the house at night. I want to know when the kids come and go, when the mailman comes, etc. Donnie has been turning me down on getting a little dog. He said that I can get a little dog when I am finished having children. We won't know I am finished until I hit menopause, helloooooooOOO. But tonight, a close friend's daughter came up to him with a flyer about a small dog that needs a home and instead of telling her to hide that thing and NOT let me see it, he actually SENT her to me to ask! He's still not sold on the dog, but I think I'll try to convince him tonight! ;-)

Bu-Bye Stitches

(update: I hope you can see in this pic just how far the cut went, it gets blurry when I get up close to the ear.)
Last time Trin had stitches she totally freaked out whenever we'd even try to look at them to clean them. Taking them out of her finger was OUT of the question! It took us almost a week to get 4 stitches out of her finger! The last one we finally did while she was asleep, and it still wasn't easy!
So what happens now that she has one stitch in her ear? She takes it out herself after 24 hours! We have no idea how she got it out, she must have been playing with it and it untied???? Dr. must have tied it four times, so we are completely baffled.
But I took her to our regular doctor today and he said it would hold, but she'll scar for sure, so keep it soft with bacitracin or something.
Gotta love toddlers!
Dr. F let Trina use the doppler and find baby Sam's heartbeat today! It was really cute! I don't usually bring her with me.

Never boring in a home with kids!

Last night right at bedtime Trinity came running full speed ahead into the living room and went down hard. Her sweet sister picked her up and brought her to mom for loving up. I saw a little bit of blood on her neck so I did a quick check for bloody nose or bit lip/tongue, nothing.... So I start searching for the source, under the long hair, along the neck, up the neck, right to the top of her ear where it was split wide open! (about where someone would get their cartiledge pierced) It was quite obvious that stitches were in order, so kids started running around for tissues to soak up the blood while trying not to frighten her.
I am ever so glad to have kids who can drive at times like this. I didn't want to dress her with all the bleeding, and I really wanted to get moving and not make things worse, so we wrapped her in a blanket and headed to the car, which wouldn't even remotely turn over. So, out and into the van........ Drew was driving and I made Kaytlin call her dad at church to meet me there because Trinity had split her ear wide open on the floor. (Kaytlin had heard the commotion but didn't know what was up yet)
Drew drove while I held my poor bleeding baby and tried to explain to her that we were going to the doctor to get her ear fixed like we'd had her finger fixed a few months ago. So, this sweet little 2yo says "Oh, go to the dr and fix ear, I get a popsicle! I want a red one." She remembered the popsicles they gave her while waiting for stitches in June and didn't care about the whole stitches thing at all!
Drew dropped me off and then was heading to the church to make sure dad could be found. But before we even saw the triage nurse Donnie was in the ER with me, Drew had run into him in the parking lot! LOL But he was told that Trinity had lost a part of her ear on the floor! LOL He was much relieved to see the ear was all there.
It took a couple of hours of waiting, and Drew bringing us some clothes since it turned out Trin was naked, completely naked, just like in June when she needed stitches in her finger, lol. The nurses gave her a total of 3 popsicles and a stuffed kitty that she named Blackie. So when the dr. came in to stitch her up we laid her on dad's chest with her bad ear up and she just laid there as the doctor stitched her up. Not only didn't she scream or cry, she didn't flinch or even bat an eyelash!

Praise God, the ear went together in one stitch, even the doctor thought would take more than that! We were pretty sure it would take 4, but the perfectly placed stitch happened to line everything up perfectly and all was well! Now we just have to be sure of not getting it infected as cartiledge "melts" when it is infected, causing a deformed ear.

On the wonderful front, our house is nice and warm now with a working furnace at a wonderful price! Warm enough for a potty training 2yo to run around naked, lol.

Cold, Cold weather..........

Its already snowing here in Minnesota! Granted, its not going to stick, but its that cold. And we don't have heat. Something is wrong with our furnace. While it is very cold in our house, around 62 degrees, I am thankful that we found this out now instead of it breaking down in January when its below 0. We have a friend who is in the heating/air/plumbing business and he is stopping by to see what the problem is. Hopefully he is able to fix it on his own so we don't have to hire someone, he doesn't want that either, because most businesses rip you off. I'm praying its something pretty easy and cheap, and that it won't take too long to get it going, we're not enjoying these cold days in the house, lol.
Sounds like he is here! Yea!!!

Adventures in Toddlerhood

Today has turned into a day worthy of blogging twice.
Trinity is something of a computer genius for a 2yo. We have many times found her on the internet on gamesites and just don't know how she's getting there. She can turn on the computer, log in, and start playing games on her own. And does so as she pleases. Since she loves the computer so much I have started using it for potty training. (after sitting on my computer chair that had been peed in one too many times) If she pees in the potty she can play on the computer, if she pees away from the potty she can't play anymore.
Yesterday she peed in my bed after waking up from a nap in a bad mood. So, no computer. Today I tell her she gets to use the computer again if she uses the potty all day. She readily agreed.
I put her in the bath and told her "Do not poop in the tub, the toilette is right there, get out and use the toilette." "Yes, poop in the potty, don't poopoo in the tub." Two minutes later, she's pooped in the tub, and I haven't washed her hair yet.
A couple of hours later she peed on my bed! I don't know why. Was the show that good? Did she want to see if I would really take away the computer? I change her clothes and remind her no computer today. Later I see the bottom of her pants wet, but she was dry, so I remind her of using the potty. She quickly pees her pants.
Then we try cuddling up together to get her in a good mood. She wants to use the waterproof pad I am using to cover the pee as a blanket, I won't let her. So we fight and she gets put in her bed for a nap. I put a pull-up on her because apparently this is going to be a problem today. I tell her not to throw her stuffed animals on the floor or her books, and I leave the room.
After things quiet down, I go check on her. She is quietly reading a book. Oh, sweet! "Are you ready to get up happy?" "Yes, happy!" So I start to get her up and notice she is not wearing the pull-ups. She's taken them off to PEE IN THE BED.
Ok, yesterday she used the potty most of the day. What is going on? This is so frustrating! I know this will pass, but I hope this baby comes soon so we can get past this jealousy thing. I think she is getting nervous as we prepare for a baby. She'll love the baby, she's such a little mommy!

The clock is working!

Well, I broke down and bought a new clock mechanism and went to all the trouble to remove the old stuff and put the new parts together and get a new battery installed. Of course, it didn't keep time! What is it with that clock?! So today I took it down and attempted to reassemble it, and lo and behold, you have to not have fingernails so you can tighten it enough, lol. My son got it tight and now it works. Amazing! I have my pretty clock up and working. I took a picture but the batteries died between the picture taking and getting it on the computer.

Now for something funny........ My husband is pretty non-violent, he hunts, but it isn't easy for him to kill. He doesn't dream of hurting that really aggravating person like I do. He's even way more patient with the kids than I am, rarely spanking, and feeling bad for having to do so.
On the otherhand, he is quite jealous of my doctor. He doesn't like me getting all clean and shaven for my annual pap smear. And heaven forbid I chew a piece of gum for fresh breath! LOL All because he overheard a friend and I talking about how he was not only a wonderful doctor, he was a bit on the cute side, too. (He's probably 10 or more years older than I am, too)
So today he says, "I dreamt that I punched your doctor." I cracked up! So did our son, who is 17 and knows all about this jealousy thing. I asked him what happened to cause that, because even in his worst dreams, he isn't the violent type. He said something about my delivery not going well, but wouldn't elaborate because he didn't want that picture in his head. Turns out I died, the baby lived, and he punched the doctor who had somehow turned into House. If you've ever watched House, you could see why he punched him, lol. House was the last thing we watched last night.
I found this hysterical! I offered to switch doctors after the baby, and he jumped on it, lol. He's never done that before, so he must have been pretty disturbed. Its nice to know that he loves me enough to be jealous of my doctor! I hope he changes his mind, I love my doctor. On the bright side, maybe he will come around and help me with the whole going into labor early thing so I can go to the cities and have a natural delivery and not have my doctor, lol.
Oh, I don't think I've mentioned yet that on Monday my doctor said my uterus was right back where it is supposed to be! Amazing! I managed to grow 4 weeks worth in one week! Still on bedrest, but I don't listen to that very well.

Homecoming week

It's wacky hair day for homecoming week at the Elementary school! Cody needed a hair cut pretty badly, so we talked him into the mohawk for wacky hair day. The rest is coming off tonight, lol. Doesn't he look awesome, though?! We actually all love it and think he looks great with a mohawk, but we won't be keeping it. Devon even liked it so much that he lent his precious leather jacket to complete the look!

Devon has been wonderful for a few weeks now! I don't know what happened, but he is trying his best to be responsible, get his school work done, he's even doing his chores without being told, and doing a really good job! We've NEVER gotten this from him before! Getting him to even DO the chore was a screaming match, and then it was only what he could get by with doing! Funny what a little money can do........ we put an allowance out there, and we do dock it if the work isn't done, and we don't allow computer or games or going out unless its done, so he just does it!

Now, if only we could get Drew back there...... sigh....... Kaytlin is even jumping ship and being a little snide some days.

Today is my sweeties birthday! He's 37! Who would have thought 20 years ago that these high school sweethearts would still be together? I know I didn't. Of course, it took that long to get to this point, where we are actually happy with each other. Its worth the work, though. Happy birthday, sweetie! I hope you have a wonderful day today!