My bookends

Sam and Drew have both given me a great deal of laughter recently.

Yesterday I was at the computer and Sam was behind me crying, so I turned around to get him and couldn't find him. But I could hear him crying, then I saw something moving through a little slit, he had fallen into the toybox and the lid had shut on him! LOL

Drew came home from work today, he takes care of a kid. He supervises his soccer then drives him home. Today it is raining. Drew comes home and tells me "OK, it's really wet out there. So I took shelter under a tree, which really wasn't shelter at all. And the tree is covered in moss. And that moss, when it gets wet, smells like butt. I smell like butt."

I have been rolling since he told me! It is just so comical! He keeps saying "I smell like butt." because it makes me crack up.

Things I have learned about parenting~ part 1

There are many things you can do to prepare to be a parent. You can learn to change diapers, how to prepare a bottle, and even take CPR. You can even read tons of books on getting your child to sleep at night, how to potty train, and gentle discipline.
But there are things you just have to learn on your own. Things books can't teach you. And things you really can't teach others because each child is unique. Ok, so you may have a text book child, but keep going and you are bound to get one that doesn't fit anything you've read about.
I have learned the kids make up their own rules. Trinity let a big fart rip last night and after she got done with her huge guffaw I asked her what you say after you fart. She said "Essuu...ora." I wasn't sure what she was saying, but I knew it didn't end in "me" like it should. So I told her to say "Excuse me" and she said "No, I say 'Dora!'"
I learned that whatever you enjoy they will destroy. I used to collect glass vases, the more beautiful etching the better. One day I heard a horrid sound of breaking glass when Drew was about 1 1/2yo. I went running to find the sound and saw Drew standing there in only a diaper, bare feet, surrounded by glass. And he was gleefully smashing vase after vase. I couldn't yell to get him to stop because I didn't want him to take off running and get his feet cut up.
I learned never to fall asleep before your kids. (as a bonus lesson I learned not to talk in my sleep!) My friend Sheree was letting her little 2yo brush her hair while they watched some TV together. She was so relaxed that she fell asleep. Later she woke up and found her hair laying next to her. Not attached to her head. She was so devastated that he had cut her hair off! She started to yell at him through the tears and he started crying "But I asked! You said I could!" Mmmhmm. She gave him permission to cut her hair in her sleep! Sometimes God teaches us through other people, thankfully!
I have learned that kids are very sneaky and love getting their siblings in trouble very, very early. When sweet little Kaytlin was born Drew seemed to be a little jealous, because when we'd leave the room he was hurting her, making her cry. So when she'd cry we'd yell at him. Grandma came to visit us and she was watching them from just out of the room. Kaytlin was alone in the playpen and Drew came in the room, walked right by the playpen and Kaytlin started screaming like he'd stuck her with a pin! Donnie and I started yelling at Drew. Kaytlin started grinning from ear to ear. She was 5 months old. But she was not the exception. Lately Trinity has been on a baby kick, drinking Sam's bottles and such. Devon was getting mad at her and yelled at her for it. He turned away. I watched Sam dangle the bottle in front of Trinity and give it to her. Then he started screeching and Devon started to go after Trinity! And Sam stopped screeching and smiled.

What have you learned about parenting that books don't teach you? I have lots more that I'll eventually post, I don't want to get too windy here.

Today is the day!

Kaytlin and her friends Samantha and Rachelle and I are going to go see Beverly Lewis! The girls are getting out of school early and we are going to a book signing! Now if only I could find my camera............ Please, Lord? Please, can you direct me to it? Thank you!! (and I do realize I will have to get off this computer in order for that to happen.)



I have a TON of laundry to do. I was going to go to the laundromat today, but I'll probably have to do it this evening. Or tomorrow. I don't want to still be there when I need to get the girls for the book signing, and I have to get to Devon's football game after we get back. The laundromat closes at 9pm, though. So maybe it will have to wait until tomorrow. It looks like rain today, so I can't get things on the line. I guess I can take the diapers up to get them dry in a dryer. One load to dry wouldn't be too much time.



On Saturday I went to the Salvation Army thrift store and got a bunch of clothes! I got 4-5 pairs of pants, 5 shirts and a vest for Sam, a vest and a dress coat for Kaytlin, a winter coat for Hope-Anne and 4 sweaters and a sweatshirt for myself for under $36! I was looking for warm blanket pajamas for the little two because its cool out and we haven't had the furnace looked at yet, so I want to keep them warm in the house. I ended up getting them new jammies at Walmart, 2 pair for $9.77. Not bad. I'd prefer to get them for $1, but you can't get everything you want, right?



And then I found out there are videos of both of my teen boys that I MUST see and put online! I have to track down the owners of the videos! Devon did a "Big Stranger Rodeo" stunt this weekend. I have told him not to do it, I don't want him jumping on some poor guy with a bad back or a heart condition. But he got a 20yo young guy. I want to see it.

Drew and Kaytlin had to do a video for French class. They were supposed to interview a celebrity, in French, I assume. But anyway, Kaytlin's group is doing Lucille Ball. Drew's group decided on Brittany Spears. Guess who they had dress up and be Brittany? Oh yes!!!! I am going to get the video!!! Hey, John Travolta dressed up as an old fat lady, Drew can still be famous and cool, right? I planned to post it on here, but Drew said if I do get it and post it, he'll shut my blog down and lose everything on me. I'll have to find a really, really good password if I get my hands on that video!

Today I have become something new

Today I became the parent of an adult. This is new territory for me. While I am proud of Drew, I am not looking forward to the new challenges.
AnDrew Jaimes was born September 14, 1989 in Landstuhl, Germany. I woke up one morning a week before my due date with a very wet bed. I thought he must have kicked my bladder and I wet the bed. But no, it was my water. I called my husband's work, but since they didn't have office phones I had to call a payphone in the hall and hope the person answering it knew who he was. A Colonel answered the phone and I asked for Donnie, and he asked if it was "time." I said it was, but that I just needed Donnie to call home. I started getting ready, waiting for him to call. I wasn't even having contractions. A few minutes later Donnie comes bursting in the door! He started throwing my maternity clothes in the suitcase, no undergarments or pajamas and nothing I could wear after having a baby, lol. And he had left the car running, which isn't legal in Germany. I calmed him down and we got ready more slowly. It wasn't an easy labor and an even more traumatic birth, followed by a 16 day separation in different hospitals. But after we were brought back together, everything went wonderfully. He took right to nursing.
Drew grew so cute and big and special to us. He didn't like to talk until he knew a word perfectly, but he did have one word he would say that made no sense at all. Whenever he wanted to ask a question, no matter what it was, he would say "Baloopah?"
Later, Drew got a baby sister. We took them to France to Smurf Wallaby Park, and he got the desire to become a Smurf. He also liked very much so to break vases. I liked to collect vases. It was not a match made in heaven. For me.
Drew has done many lovely things over the years. He super-glued his eye open. He drank a bottle of Windex with Vinegaurd. He drank a bottle of infant Tylenol. He drank his sisters Albuterol. He crawled way, way up into a top shelf up near the ceiling and took a nap, and I was on strict bedrest and could NOT help him down. He turned into a little terror for a couple of years, but then he turned around. He became a little preacher. He would preach in the bank, he would preach to parents of his friends. (this started at age 4) He grew into such a tall and wonderful young man.
Now he is in his Senior year of high school and is a DEP for the United States Air Force. I have 11 more months to call him my baby, even though he is a man.


Happy Birthday, AnDrew! I'll try to remember you are not my baby. You try to remember who pays for your food.

Train them up right

I have a desire to not have to do anything to raise my kids to be able to take care of themselves. One of the ways I prepare them for that is by having them learn to cook. They decide what they are cooking and sometimes even get to shop for the ingredients. One night a week each child, who is old enough, is forced to gets the privilege to cook for the family.

Well, Drew and Kaytlin have been taking cooking and baking classes at school. Kaytlin is now in advanced foods, and Drew is just starting. But they get inspired in those classes. Kaytlin has made some interesting foods, shrimp stir fry, coconut shrimp like at The Outback, and some yummy desserts.
Last night was Drew's night to cook and he called me from school to tell me he was planning to go to the store to buy ingredients for supper. He made homemade salsa and quesadillas, but not just any quesadillas, quesadillsa with BACON. And let me tell you, that is a welcome addition! It is better than chicken. It is amazing, and I really thought I would not like it. His salsa was pretty good stuff, too.

Don't hate me because I am lazy smart.

This morning's discussion on Coolness

Who is actually the cool one?

This morning I caught Drew in a room alone and thanked him for being so nice to Devon lately, including him in things and not fighting. Drew's like "Thank you, I think??"
We discussed it a little that I liked to see him letting Devon hang out and them getting along, now that they are both in high school it is important. Drew is a senior Devon is a freshman.

Drew says "Yeah, Devon's cool factor goes up hanging with us."
I said "I think your cool factor will go up hanging with a jock."
Drew "No, Devon is a freshman hanging with seniors, his cool factor will go up."
Me "Umm, Devon is a jock who lettered in varsity sport before high school, and his cool factor will go up hanging with senior DRAMA geeks?"
Drew "Yeah, and were not all drama geeks, Joey is a senior football player and Tyler is a gangster wanna-be, so that will bring him down some, but.."


Last week at lunch Devon was eating with some new friends and they were talking about girls for some reason and Devon told one of them to just go talk to the girl. And they were all hemming and hawing as freshman boys do. So Devon says he would talk to any girl. So they dared him to talk to the next girl that they saw. So he did. He starts talking to a girl and she says "Oh, I wish I had seen you earlier I wanted to give you the rest of my lunch." It just so happened that the next girl was Kaytlin and her friends! LOL But his friends don't know she is his sister, they just know he talked to some Juniors and they liked him!

Why God put me on this planet....

God put me on this planet to embarass my teenagers!

I do my best to fulfill my God-given role. Yesterday I took the boys school clothes shopping. Again, we went to Plato's Closet. Devon and Drew grabbed some clothes and headed for the changing rooms. Drew is too hard to embarrass in public, he has to be around friends. But Devon, he is easy. He comes out in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. We don't know for sure what size he is, so I ask him if he is sure they fit. (I have to do this, years of jeans hanging half off his butt have mandated it) He says they fit fine. So I lift his shirt in the front, he pulls it down and tells me they fit. He turns to leave and I grab the back of the shirt and say "Let me see how it fits in the butt." There is a line for the dressing rooms, lol. He gets a little feisty and insists that he can figure out if a pair of pants fit him without my help and shuts the door on me. I turn around to the other mom and say "It is so much fun embarrassing them!" and she completely agrees, I can tell by her stifled giggles.
I kept it up with the other pair of pants, too!
We also had some embarrassing moments at Target, but he would kill me if I repeated that. But just after that was done we are walking towards the underwear and Drew points out a big novel entitled "The Quickie" which is about what it sounds like, judging by the apparently nude people on the cover.
I discuss the weird and inappropriateness of him pointing it out, and Devon says "Umm, whats really weird is the fact that the book is called "The Quickie" but is two inches thick." Ironic, isn't it?

Kaytlin is easy to embarrass, too. I just have to be around for that to happen. But what I really like to do is get on her IM when she leaves it up and her friends start talking to her. I tell them things like "I'm so pretty!" and I have really fun conversations with Drew's friends, but he doesn't get embarrassed, I think it is because his friends think we are so funny and cool because of it. I changed the name on Drew's IM to "I'm a Loser, Love me anyway" and he thought it was funny and left it up!

I'm working hard to fulfill my duty to embarrass them, but Drew is a tough one. Any ideas? He doesn't even mind the nudie baby pics, so that doesn't work. He even gives me permission to tell the goofy things he did when he was little.

Drew Enlisted!

Drew did sign on the dotted line today with the United States Air Force. I don't understand all of what transpired, and I'm not really sure I'm happy with it, but Donnie and Drew were. So, I will be meeting with the recruiter later this week to sign the papers since Drew is still a minor for another month, and I'll get all my questions answered then.
Basically, he gets sworn in next week, then he's delayed entry until next summer/fall. He gives them a list of career paths and they choose from there for him. (we'll pray for God's direction there, since Drew doesn't actually have any one path narrowed down) IF Drew has a year of college credits the first year in the AF, then he can apply for ROTC. That is what I am not happy about, but he has $38k GI Bill for college, and that is nothing to sneeze at. Worst case, Drew does his time, does college online or after he gets out, and it gets paid for by the GI Bill. Best case, he goes ROTC, becomes an officer, and has a bit better edge for a career later.
Now, does this mean I have to start treating him like he's an adult?

Is tomorrow the day?

Tomorrow Drew and Donnie head to the recruiters office. We felt it was to negotiate for what Drew wants and for some perks, like college money. But the recruiter thinks he's signing on the dotted line. "Bring your certificate of birth abroad, drivers licence and social security card."
Is tomorrow the day I become the mother of an adult? An adult who is heading off to the military? Not that he would leave yet, he has his senior year left. But he turns 18 in September and would be signing up in the Air Force with college plans, and ROTC plans.
I am really comfortable with our boys being in the military, I completely believe in our sons serving their country. But I'm not sure I'm ready to stop being "mommy" and start being his mother. KWIM? I'm so proud of him, and yet I'm also well aware of his immaturity and faults. I don't think he's ready to be out of our house. Granted, he would still have another year here, but still......
My husband will be with him and helping him negotiate for a great college plan.
The neat thing is that in talking with the recruiter today I found out we had our babies in the same town in Germany! Kind of funny!

*Update*
I am not worried about Drew joining the military or going to war. We have always told the boys that they need to serve their country, it is important. We know it will help them grow up, mature, see the world, and get a deeper love for their country. Young men should do it if they are able. (that is MY opinion, and I'm sticking to it!)
What concerns me is that Drew may be pressured into a field he is not interested in to fill a quota. Or that they will lie to him, or say that he should do this and that he can then apply for this and he loses out on schooling. If he doesn't go in as ROTC the Air Force can send him straight to war, but if he starts ROTC he has to be able to finish college first. And I want to make sure that life doesn't get in the way of college. Drew is a very intelligent person and he should go to college.
As a mom, I want him to focus on education and then head for a career and THEN start looking for a wife. He thinks I am trying to keep him from life, but I am actually trying to encourage a good life. Waiting for a spouse is a good thing, and being secure and mature only helps a marriage. Obviously it can be done in reverse order, I was married before I graduated high school, and I am still married to the same man. But it was ROUGH. And AWFUL at times.
Thankfully my husband is with Drew right now on their way to the recruiter and Donnie was "redirected" to a path they wanted to fill telling him he could cross train into what he wanted later, but he couldn't. They lied. Donnie was not able to have a military career because they did away with his position, and it was a high intel position that he was not allowed to cross train out of. Basically he was forced out of the military later on.
First things first, Drew has to figure out how to get out of joining the German Army, lol. He has dual citizenship and at 18 he has to join their Army, or denounce his citizenship.

Our day trip

Wordless Wednesday is the post below this one.

Yesterday I had to bring my niece home. Its a good 2.5 hour drive each way. By the time we got to the nearest town, Sam was just livid with being stuck in his car seat just minutes after waking up. Poor guy! So we stopped at a Burger King to play in the play ground. Trinity and my niece needed the play time, too.

Here is Sam looking down at me, he did not like it at all! Scary!

Kaytlin took him through the tubes, which he liked unless she put him down in them. So she had to crawl through tubes made for 6yo's with her 16yo body while carrying a baby under her arm, lol. That's love! He didn't seem to mind the slide, too much.

He sure is smiling about being OUT of the play ground! Actually he was having fun and it was a good break. We got back in the car and he went to sleep within a couple of blocks.

We got close to where we turn out of town and I told Kaytlin to get in the other lane so she cold turn at the next light. She didn't listen to me. So I repeated it. "Get in front of that truck so you can get over, that stop light up there is our turn." She still didn't listen, she kept driving right along side the truck. Finally she listened to me! And as she was getting ahead of the truck we saw a turn lane and got confused about which one it was and she whipped in front of the truck and put on her brakes while pulling into the turn lane. She scared the you-know-what out of him and he slammed on his brakes which ended up causing him to skid into the turn lane and rear end us. We were stopped at that point and fully into the turn lane when he hit us. It was barely a bump. (and it was the WRONG turn lane)
But because he had this HOOK sticking out, and our car is made out of FIBERGLASS or something, it broke into the car. Otherwise we would have exchanged paint.
So, our trip got a 1.5 hour extension.

While we were waiting on the officer to make the report we got to see Sam broke through his very first tooth!

The mystery of his grumpiness is solved!

Our day only got better though. Donnie didn't have his insurance in his car, and I don't know why. Thankfully we did not get ticketed for that, or the broken windshield. The officer was wonderful, he encouraged Kaytlin, told her its all part of learning, if she only knew how many cars his boys have gone through cutting across traffic, too, she needs to get back behind that wheel and not be scared. He was great! Even told me how to tell her how to drive so not to stress her out..... The driver was nice. He looked like a big biker dude getting out all ticked off and started to yell at her "What did you think you were doing?" I asked him not to yell at her, and he said "I'm not swearing." I said I understood that but I did not want her yelled at. He stopped! He did not traumatize her, he was mad, but he was very good about it. I thanked him for it, I told his company about it, too.

When I got to my sister's house I called Donnie to have him call the officer with our insurance info. When he told the boys about the accident Drew fessed up to rear ending our van with our other car on Sunday! So, ALL three of our vehicles have been in accidents since Sunday. Drew broke a blinker cover and didn't even mention it to us. Uh huh. He says its Kaytlin's fault because she parked the van badly.

Wordless Wednesday #12 Filling Daddy's Shoes

Drew, wearing his father's Army uniform. He actually is a bit too tall for it!

Drew's Birth Story

*Edited!

Don't forget, I'm having a contest! Tomorrow afternoon I will be announcing the winners! Share your birth story with me! Here's a link to the Birth Story Contest!

This picture is of T on the left, a friend of Drew's, and Drew on the right. They are in France in the mountains. Yes, I'm jealous. They were on a mission trip.

Drew was my teen pregnancy. I was 17 and still in high school when I found out I was pregnant. (I was 18 shortly before I gave birth.) We were planning to get married, we'd set the date for Sept. 14. Well, since I was due on Sept. 21, we thought we'd better move that date. It was good thinking on our parts.

When I was 7 months along I moved to Germany to be with Donnie. It was an uneventful pregnancy. Minor morning sickness, and no braxton hicks as far as I knew. Since he was my first I was pretty sure he'd be late. But I was all prepared, I took my Lamaze classes and all. But, since I had come to the military base far into my pregnancy there was no room for me, they only took so many deliveries a month, the rest went to a German hospital.

Donnie was in the middle of this big military exercise mid September. He was MI, and it was a wargame simulation. They didn't have phones in the offices for some reason back in 1989, so I had to call a hall phone if I needed to find him, but usually he just called me to check in.

Well, on Sept 14, Donnie kissed me good-bye and left for work and I went back to sleep. At 8:10am I woke up with a drenched bed. Darnit! I peed myself! What the heck? I went off to the bathroom and had a full bladder. Hmm, that's weird cause that kiddo in there must have kicked me and made me pee the bed. Ok, so I smell it. It doesn't smell like pee. That's good and bad.

So, I called my mom in the states and asked her if your water could break before you've had the bloody show and mucous plug, because those are supposed to happen before you go into labor, you know. She said yes, and so we figured out my water had broken.

I wasn't having contractions yet, so I had plenty of time. I called the base to get my husband to start getting out of work. A colonel answered the phone, and when he found out it was me he asked if it was time. I said yes, but just have Donnie call me. I started getting things together and getting ready to take a shower and Donnie comes flying in the door! He's all worked up, he didn't take Lamaze with me, you know. He starts packing my bag, filling it with maternity clothes, no underwear or pajamas or anything useful. I finally convince him its not an emergency and he calms down. Pretty soon our landlord knocks on our window and points at the car. He'd left it running in his excitement! But its illegal to let your car run in Germany. Haha!

Well, the contractions started a few hours later and we headed out. But since my water broke, I couldn't go to a store, and we needed things like suckers to suck on, you know, cause I took Lamaze. With every 3rd contraction I would get a gush of water.

As we sat in the McDonald's drive through I told Donnie something must be wrong because the contractions hurt. The Lamaze instructors said it didn't hurt to have a baby, there was just this burning like if you put your fingers in your mouth and stretch out your lips really far.

The doctors wanted me to walk the halls, but, uh, helloooo, my water was broke and I was busting all over the floor and myself! No thanks! So I sat in the hall until they gave in. Somewhere around this point I decided it was a good thing we were in Germany, because had we been stateside I would have left the hospital and hunted down those Lamaze instructors and killed them. Or at least pulled their lips out until it was past burning and into the level of pain I felt for real.

Things soon took a nose dive. The contractions were really, really hurting. They just kept getting worse and worse and Drew wasn't dropping. At one point I was just wanting to die, and they had an oxygen mask over my head that whenever they put it on me I felt better, so I just was trying to get that mask on so I could be knocked out. But I was screaming (with an epidural!) and they told Donnie to hold my mouth shut because I was scaring the new mom in labor in the next room. Things were really bad.

Drew's heartbeat kept dropping to the low 60's. They needed him out now. So they got me to sign for a c-section. But just as the anesthesia guy walked in the room Drew must have dropped because they went for a "natural" delivery. They cut me really deep, seriously deep, and put a vacuum extractor on him and we pushed and they pulled. He was finally born at 9:18pm. When they finally weighed him they said "Three thousand five hundred and..." At that point I just said "Oh my gosh, I gave birth to a quarterback!" It sure felt like it, but he was only 6lbs 15 3/4 ounces, lol.

He was taken to a different hospital for the bleeding from the vacuuming so it wouldn't bleed on his brain, but later I found out they were checking him for a heart condition. I didn't get him back for 16 days because of jaundice, at least that is the amount of medical English they knew to tell me about him. I was still able to nurse him right away when he came back! I was STILL in the hospital myself. All sorts of horror stories with that, but no one wants to hear that, lol. Lets just say loss of blood, a surgery and physical therapy to learn to walk again, and leave it at that. I begged to go home at 19 days, and a very new intern who was afraid of the tears let me go if I stayed in bed another week. I couldn't take being in there and only seeing my baby 5 times a day for one hour each time. I missed him so much and I needed him. And those nuns found him every time I tried to hide him under my blankets and told them "Nicht baby here, nicht baby here." They laughed, moved my blankets and took my baby. (The nuns were Bavarians working in a German hospital. So they spoke German, but the dialect was so different that they couldn't understand my American accented German. That was fun.)

Now Drew is 17. And I still want to hide him under my blanket and not let him go. But this time he is fighting to get out and into the world. Little bugger, he'll soon wish he'd stayed at home.

Rememberings #2 Things Drew has done

Things Drew has done over the years.

Drew is a little stinker. He started out a very cute, sweet baby. He was a happy fella. Then he turned 1 ½.

He used to hate being left anywhere. Then he decided he never wanted to return home and would scream all the way home from whereever we were leaving. One time someone even stopped me to make sure he wasn't injured or kidnapped! Another time I was in premature labor and not allowed to pick him up, so I had to hold onto a tiny bit of hair so that he wouldn't throw himself on the ground or run off on me because he didn't want to leave the playground.

He drank everything. There was no place to put things he couldn't reach. And 17 years ago you didn't have access to as many child locks as you do now, and not overseas, and no internet for the most part. He drank a bottle of infant Tylenol. He drank his sister's albuterol. He drank a bottle of Windex with Vinegaurd. (same symptoms as the flu, and not nearly as big a deal as the Tylenol!)

Did I mention nowhere was safe from Drew? He superglued his eye OPEN.

While we were getting ready to go somewhere, he took his blow-up swimming pool and went for a walk. A friend was staying with us and happened to be out for a walk and found him! We had been searching all over for him!

He liked to break my vase collection one by one.

He liked to color things blue. I woke up to blue handprints on my back one morning. And blue lines on my walls and head board and hallway. Not to mention the Little boy blue....... incident.

He also had a knack for bumping his head. Always had goose eggs.

He tried to "help" me iron one day and burned his hand really bad. It blistered. My cousin told him it was teenage mutant ninja turtle ooze in there, so he popped it. She was no longer the favorite cousin.

When he was 7 he told me "When I grow up I'm going to save the rainforest." I asked him why, since we are not "tree-huggers." He replied in all seriousness "Well, I have a mom and 2 sisters and I plan to get married one day, and the cocoa bean grows there. We don't want to run out of chocolate." Seriously. I didn't know whether to laugh, or cry because I am that bad.

Drew has been a preacher/evangelist since he was 4. Telling people in bank lines about Jesus, and friends very feminist minded mom's about Jesus, anyone who would listen got to hear. He's still doing it, too.