The best laid plans, HAHA!!!

Yesterday, Devon turned 17 years old. (he is the boy in the white shirt in the picture)

Devon called home sick from school yesterday. He puked twice and the nurse was sending him home. So when he gets home, he walks in the door and sprints up the stairs and I asked him how he is. "Fine!" Really? He didn't feel sick, he just puked. OK, then.

Within an hour he was dressed to leave the house and started to walk out the door. Um, where do you think you are going?

"To the swim meet a little early." (yeah, 3 hours early??)

"No, you are sick, you are not going anywhere."

"No, I'm not sick, I'm fine, it was something I ate."

"Trinity, Sam, Hope-Anne and now you are all puking, it isn't something you ate."

"Ugh! I'm FINE!!!"

"Not going. But even if you WERE fine, you haven't done your chores yesterday or today, and that means you aren't going."

So he stomps off threatening to stay in his bed the rest of the night.

Pretty soon he comes down and asks to go because he really isn't sick.

"I didn't throw up."

"What do you mean, you didn't throw up?"

"I lied to get out of 4th hour so it wouldn't ruin my birthday. And now you won't let me go to the swim meet."

"How do I know you lied then and are not lying now?"

"Um, you don't."

"Wow, that plan sure backfired on you then, haha. You are not going, besides you still haven't done chores."

"Ugh!" (stomping and door slamming.)

It wasn't fun having to do that on his birthday, but I had to. But it is kind of funny!

Conversation with Devon

Last night was a special purity rally at another church instead of youth group. Devon was the only one of our kids who went, since the rest of them were working on fixing the car. We were down to one car, so Kaytlin and Drew were taking turns driving everyone around. Devon to the rally, Hope-Anne and Trinity to AWANA's, and Donnie to his Bible Study.

Around 9pm we hadn't heard from Devon. We assumed he would take the shuttle bus back to our church, since that is what we do with all activities. But, no. He wasn't at our church and the other church was looking empty.

When he finally came running in the door at 9:45 I was freaking out. 1. He was late, and we didn't know where he was. 2. Because he was beat red, gasping for air and holding his chest and sides like someone had beaten the tar out of him.

Apparently no one had beaten him up. They left that for me. He was playing basket ball with some kids, which was fine, IF HE HAD CALLED ME!!! OH, and the kicker, he had my cell phone with him the whole time, without asking for it.

So, Devon is asking why I am spazzing at him about it, he was just at the church playing ball, and whats the big deal if he walks home in the dark without a coat in November in Minnesota?

Then it looks like a light bulb came on in his head and he grabs his magazine from the rally and starts showing everyone WHY I am freaking out and he isn't. This handy-dandy little hormone chart was in there. Apparently, they are telling the boys that we are psycho because our hormones are constantly changing and theirs, albeit high, are at least steady, so they don't have mood swings. Nice.

Here is what I have to say in reply:

If I were a cat, I'd have one less life...

First, I'll quickly explain the hand injury, then the title to this post!
The end of May I went to the zoo with my two best friends, Sarah and Jody. I rode with Jody in her blazer or whatever it is. (sorry Jody, I know its cool, but I don't remember vehicle names) Anyway, I was putting her oldest son DJ and Trinity in the back seat in their carseats and as I put my hand on the middle seat to pull myself out of the back, my hand slipped and my thumb bent WAY back. I was sure I had broken it. But who breaks their thumb by bending it backward? So, I let it go for months. Then in September Trinity ran into my thumb and jammed it again. It hasn't gotten better since. So I went in. The doctor thought a tiny bone was out of socket, so sent me to an orthopedic surgeon today. He had me move my hand in a weird position and oh my word the pain! And not where it has been hurting. So he says "Ah, that makes much more sense. You have tendinitis." I injured the tendons in my thumb, well, the base of my thumb and wrist. So, he injected the tubes that the tendons are in with cortisone and put me in a splint for 6 weeks.

So, after my lovely day with the concern over Sam, and then my lovely splint, things got even better!
I was about to head out to the store with Kaytlin and my mother in law when I went to get Sam to leave with a big kid. But we couldn't find him. We searched and searched the house, the yard, the garage. We checked the toilettes for drowning, the laundry chute, the oven, closets, cupboards. Nowhere.
We searched the alley, the sidewalk up and down the street. Nothing.
I called my friend's house and asked if they could reach the kids, Hope-Anne was on a walk with them and maybe she took him?? The strollers were all here. But maybe. Drew came home and I sent him out looking for them. Kaytlin took off in another car looking. My mother in law walked over looking for Sam along the way.
Then my friend drove up with the girls. And no Sam. I lost it. I just saw a horrid nightmare flash before my eyes. A life of investigations, a missing child, years of searching, finding a dead child. How could I face that? I fell to the ground in tears.
Then my phone rang. Devon had taken Sam and not told anyone. He never takes Sam. Kaytlin had come across him at their school, where I had sent Devon to go get something he left there. She told him I was going to kill him and he better call me and let me know Sam was safe.
I was THAT close to calling 911. I couldn't stay standing for some time.

I want to thank my friends who are leaving messages of encouragement and prayers for Samuel. I will work on the iron. I have no idea when they will let me know about the test results, but I covet each prayer for Sam. He has been eating SO much better tonight after seeing the doctor. Doesn't it always go that way? LOL

It's a great day!

Devon is our little athlete. We expected him to do pretty well with football this year, but he really hadn't been saying much or playing much when we were there. But the varsity coach told him to tell his coach (the 9th grade team) to put him as wing man (is that right?). So he did. And yesterday he got a new nickname. They call him Adrian Peterson. I didn't get it, but when I told Donnie, he went nuts0 "That's my boy!" and a bunch of grunting and Tim the Toolman Taylor stuff. Apparently Adrian Peterson is a Viking player who kicked butt on Sunday's game. And now he gets to do a practice with varsity and dress for the game and sit with them, *maybe* even play, but probably not.

And then, I found a way to hear my favorite song in the world! Thank you Wordless Wednesday! I went to More Questions than Answers and found this great vid! Now it is a great day. Praise the Lord!

Whats up with men?

I have been working so much lately. Not that it is anywhere near the amount that Donnie works, but it is still a ton for me with still having to do the rest of the things I have to do. So yesterday, even though my house looked worse than a tornado had gone through there (tornadoes don't dirty your dishes), I decided that I was not going to do anything on my day off. And I didn't, include getting dressed. Until Donnie called me at 4:30 and told me that his men's group was at our house at 7. I knew it would take a super hero to get my house clean in time! But we worked so hard, and it was a lot of work, but we got the main rooms that they would be in clean, and I though they looked pretty nice. I even ran a mop over the bad spots, sprayed pretty smelling stuff around, took all sorts of computer part boxes and stuff out of the room. I could not get the kitchen decent because I was missing two kids and it took us so long just to do the rest of the rooms. But they don't go in there anyway.
Afterwards I asked Donnie how it was and he said "It was alright." He doesn't get why that made me mad, he said it was "alright." I'm sorry, I worked my butt off on my only day off because you couldn't tell me two weeks ago that it was here, and its only "alright?" How about "Man, you worked hard! I know how bad it was, thanks so much!" Nope, I should have done a better job on the desks and not let our bedroom door be open the 1 inch it was and so on. Am I mad? You bet! Kaytlin totally agreed with me, and Devon even said he agreed, and he hadn't been home to help us. If he were smart, which obviously he isn't when it comes to women, but if he were, he'd bring home chocolate tonight.

Our praise is that we had a friend look at the furnace tonight and it will probably not cost even $50 to get it fixed, if the transformer is the only problem. We expect it to be the only problem, because that makes sense for it to be that part because it died after the power company cut our power off and turned it back on. ("accidentally" of course!) Think they'll pay for it? I don't think so either. But I am thrilled that it isn't going to be a huge expense for us!

Strangely enough, we got a last minute foreign exchange student coming to stay with us. I'm debating on whether we should have him stay the full 3 weeks, or let him stay with a teacher for one week and with us for 2. He flies in on Saturday! The plan is for us to get him after a week, that will give us time to get rooms ready, we need to put a second bed in Drew's room. He's from Germany and Devon is so excited. He loves taking German, and we thought it would be way too difficult for him.

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!

Wordless Wednesday

This is Devon, and if you put a wig, glasses and a dress on him, wouldn't he look like his great aunt Mary, who is the middle of the bottom row? Oh, yeah, it is funny! My dad is in the middle back row.

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.

State Fair

My mom's group trip to the zoo was cancelled due to rain, but that did not stop us from going to the State Fair! Donnie really loves going, and this is his only day off. Rain or shine, we were going. We bought umbrellas and barely needed them! But we were glad to have them.
I have one major goal at the fair, and so does Donnie. He wants to try all the food on a stick there is, and I want to get all the freebies. He also wants to go to the political booth, and I want to hit the local Christian music station booth. We managed to get it all squeezed in.
We started with the most amazing new food, Scotch Eggs! It is a hard boiled egg wrapped completely in sausage and deep fried and on a stick, then they offer a selection of dips, maple syrup, ranch dressing, honey mustard sauce. Oh my gosh, it was amazing! We are going to try to make this on our own.
Then we had a deep fried Snickers bar on a stick. They put batter on them and deep fry them, oh so good! And that was Sam's favorite! Next we had a pork chop tenderloin on a stick with amazing barbeque sauce. Oh, it was sooo tender!
We did not stop there! We had to have the deep fried macaroni and cheese and the sloppy joe on a stick! The mac 'n cheese is wadded up and battered and deep fried, the sloppy joe mix is put in a hot dog casing and then battered with what they say is hamburger bun, but not sure about that, then deep fried and on a stick with a side of the tomato sauce. Way too good. I do not like mac'n cheese, so you'll have to take Sam and Donnie's word on it being good, because I think its nasty.
Then we had a foot long corn dog on a stick. And a thing of garlic fries.
What we didn't try was the Hotdish on a stick at the Ole and Lena booth! I heard it was great, though. Or the "New Egg Sandwiches." Or the gator on a stick. We did the gator last year, it was ok, but not worth buying again.

Sam was awake until we were walking to the car. He had a great time waving at everyone! He also did not nurse the whole time we were gone today, and only nursed a little bit when we got home. I have decided that I am going to nurse along with giving him some more foods and milk in a bottle. He was not all that excited about the chocolate milk, but today he had strawberry milk and was ga-ga over it! I am going to work on not nursing him at night, just before bed and then his breakfast time around 7am. (he doesn't actually get up then, or I would make it a bowl of oatmeal or something) I refused to nurse him last night, and it did work. I had to get up and walk him a couple of times, but I did not nurse him.

I had a great time getting my freebies, I am actually going to have to go and count all the free bags I got. No less than 3 from colleges, probably 4, and at least 2 others, I'm thinking 6, not including what we gave to my mother-in-law. And two from the radio station. Tons of pencils and college information for Kaytlin. 4 seedling trees, Sam got a pair of sunglasses. We got a ruler, a pen, and who knows what else I got!

Then we got to go to the airport. We made it there about 15 minutes before we expected Devon's plane to arrive. Donnie was tired and has to work in the morning, so I left him to sleep in the car and Sam and I head out to find Devon. He plane info says he is on time. And we have no idea if he tried to call and say there was anything wrong or delays because the kids did something that unplugged the phone all afternoon! Well, after the plane was 1/2 an hour late they finally updated the screen and said the plane would be just over an hour late! The time went quickly for me because Sam was entertaining person after person and having a grand time with all the attention!

Then Donnie came in to see what was up, and soon Devon's plane landed. Oh, the joy of seeing Devon! Sam just hugged him and squealed! He couldn't stop grinning! But his joy could not match the exuberance of Trinity's first sight of Devon when we got home. She started squealing "Devon" at the top of her lungs, in spite of it being nearly midnight. In spite of the neighbors being asleep, and some not having A/C, so they have their windows open.

Apparently my mom embarrassed Devon quite thoroughly at the airport before he left. I warned him it was coming, but it still surprised him. My mom is a crier. She cries, no, bawls, whenever we have to part. We feel so bad for her that we hardly want to see her to make her cry that hard! Devon said he was getting all settled and everything was fine, and then she was bawling, sobbing, loudly. Drew and Kaytlin went through it, too, and they did NOT warn him or want to warn him. And mom said that she cried so hard that when he got out of sight she had to go sit down to get through it. I can honestly say that no one in our family ever wonders if my mom loves them.

Can it really be over?

Summer seems to have just flickered into and out of my life this year. Usually we are so busy it speeds by, or soooo bored that it drags by. But this year we did nothing and it still sped by. Is it because I have little ones again? I know those years when my older kids were little just sped by.
School starts next week. I hate spending all that money, but I am very, very thankful it isn't as bad as Chicago according to Jessica the Rock Chick . In addition to that post, which was just her high school kids' costs, they were told to buy $100 calculators per kid! So I shouldn't complain. At least we weren't asked to buy toilette paper for the school.
Yesterday the girls and I took off for some school clothes shopping. It was pretty fun. Plato's closet only got Kaytlin a pair of black pinstripe pants for her new waitressing job, but I got Devon some great shirts and a hoodie, which Drew stole today before Devon even knows I bought it. I got 4 shirts, including AE brand and Hollister brand, a pair of pants and a hoodie for $45! Then we slipped next door for a little thrift store that was beyond overpriced and I got Hope-Anne a pair of Sketcher tennis shoes and a cute pair of brown culotte type pants. Then on to Payless so they could each get a pair of sneakers. Believe me, Hope-Anne needs at least 2. On to Walmart. Kaytlin got a really cute black dress, and we got some other underthings and t-shirts. Plus school supplies. Then to Old Navy. That was expensive! But Kaytlin finally, finally got a pair of jeans. For the last 6 years we have not been able to find a pair of jeans that Kaytlin would buy, or if we did buy them, it was just because they "fit" and were barely acceptable. But these jeans, the Sweetheart from Old Navy, not only fit, but she was EXCITED about how they fit and how comfortable they were! I have NEVER seen her excited about a pair of jeans! PLUS the jeans come with a free tank top. So I bought two pairs of jeans in different shades of blue, and got two free shirts. Plus she got a cute shirt and a darling hoodie and Hope-Anne got a great shirt to go with her brown pants and Trinity got flip flops, which she was soooo excited about getting.
Now, all that, and I still have the boys to get through. Thankfully Cody is going to school at home, so his wardrobe is not going to be so important! Devon's is mostly done, just some pants and shoes. Drew probably doesn't needs much, either.
Sorry for boring you!
Devon comes home tonight! After 2 whole weeks in Maine. Drew and Kaytlin "like" my mom's husband, but can barely stand some of his psychotic behavior, and they are both pretty easy going. So they thought Devon would go bonkers on him and get in trouble. But Devon thinks he's "fine" which means he doesn't mind him at all. The big 2 were shocked! Devon sleeps all the time, and I cannot stress how much I mean "all the time." And the Captain makes every get up by 6:30am, unless Grandma forces him to let them sleep in, which is 7:30. Devon had no problem getting up! Which is weird because we can't get the turd out of bed, it takes 3 trips to his room, some yelling, and sometimes threats of cold water, before he will get up.

I may be taking a little trip to the State Fair on the way to the airport today. That should be fun. I'm exhausted right now, I was up way too late last night, so I don't even want to think about going to the fair.

Don't forget about my Little Miracles Give-away! It is also not too late to enter my Thursday Thirteen~ Blogaversary Contest, entries need to be in by tomorrow night, midnight!

The end of summer must be here

Two of my boys started football season today. (did I mention that on my list of things to do? No? That's because they didn't TELL me it was coming up!)

We had to do some running to get Cody enrolled in football and get him a helmet. Devon had one at his age, but we can't find it. We have the pants and pads and shoulder pads, but no helmet. But really, Cody has a bigger head, so it may not have fit him anyways.

Devon shouldn't need anything because he is in high school. Just a cup, hopefully.

Cody was asking me how to wear his cup, over or under the boxers, and I'm like, ummmm, seriously dude, I don't have one of those things, so covering them is NOT my hobby. Ask Dad, Drew, Devon........ not the mom. Drew is not into the true contact sports, as he had no idea how to wear it. Drew was in tennis, then gave it up for speech and drama. Devon is the contact sports dude. He said it didn't matter, but probably over, and Donnie said over.

So, Cody comes home from practice and reeks! Bleeeahhhh!!! This should be fun, two of them reeking up the joint, I'll have to do their laundry every day.

I won!

Apples'n'Oranges had a give-away for the opening of their new store, and I won! This adorable sleeper/outfit is going to look so cute on Samuel, and I am so excited to get it for him! Go check out their store and also their new give-away of a really cute shirt for a little one.

Recently I have been on a winning streak, and it stopped for a bit, but hopefully its back because with the Dog Days of Summer Bloggy Give-away hosted by Rocks in my Dryer starting today, there are a ton of blogs prizes to be won all over the net! Get out there and sign up like crazy! I can tell you my house won't be getting clean any time soon with all this fun going on!

There is a really cute diaper bag giveaway at Facipiers and Stinky Toes, go check them out!

Whoa! I hope to win this adorable baby shirt and babylegs from My Rockstarbaby, on Fina' Drea. This is not part of the bloggy giveaway.

This one is a very unique prize give-away! From Life is Just Ducky, Kool-Aid points! I seriously would love them!

Check out this contest for a Lavender and Vanilla Bath and Body Works Lotion and body wash, plust TWO books at Are We There Yet? I have to make a trip to Bath and Body Works just to smell that lotion! Yummy! A combo of my two most favorite lotion scents!

* A very important note! Today was the best dental associated visit I've ever been to! I took Devon to his orthodontist appointment and she said his teeth are fantastic and that once his baby tooth is removed the permanent one should go right in place with no braces!

Random things said around here lately

Kaytlin was driving along when she turned to me and said "If the police arrest someone who has no hands, do they use handcuffs?" Out of the blue! We hadn't seen a police car or anyone with no hands.



When we were waiting on the police to write our accident report, coincidentally 10 minutes after Kaytlin had asked that question, we were all switched places in the car amusing ourselves. I decided to nurse Sam so we could get the next 1 1/2 hours of driving straight through. My niece, Morgan, turns around from the driver's seat and sees me and says "THAT'S how he EATS?" "Morgan, you've been at our house for a WEEK and you just now figured that out?"



Same trip, must have been a record funny trip, lol. We drive by a skunk smell and I say "Morgan! Did you have to fart?" and she says "Trinity and Sam are asleep, so they didn't do it." Hmm, we don't fart in our sleep? I need to tell Donnie that one, because he does it all the time.

We finally got Morgan home, hung around talking for awhile, then had to leave. We load up the car and I start it up. Trinity starts to yell at me "Don't leave Morgan at that house! Don't leave her at that house!!!" LOL They fought the whole week.

Yesterday Trinity was on a roll. She wanted to go for a walk so bad. Sam was just a royal grump because he is teething, and walks always distract him and put him to sleep. So I bribed Hope-Anne to take them for a walk by sending them to the Dairy Queen. We told Trinity to change into a short sleeve shirt, because a turtle neck in July is just not good. She changed. Then I told her to go get her hair brushed. "I hate brushing my hair, I don't wanna!" "Then you can't go to Dairy Queen." "I LOVE brushing my hair!" Crying to happy in .0003 seconds.

Then, last night she walks up to me and looks me in the eye and says "I don't wanna drink outta your boobies, I hafta drink outta the fridge." (she has not nursed since she was 9 months old, she doesn't even remember it.)

Then there is Devon. The king of avoiding work. Usually when we are working on something, he disappears. So we made up a song for him years ago, and it still fits him. The Scooby Doo theme song "Devy, Devy Doo, Where are you? We've got some work to do now." We reminded him it was his night to cook, he went down to the kitchen and soon came back up and sat on the couch. This went on a couple of times, arguing about making burgers, the pan wasn't clean, etc. Then finally, in one last attempt to get out of it he says "But there's this car, and it runs on WATER, man!" It was so funny! "Go cook!" "But it runs on WATER, WATER, man!" "Now!" "Dude, WATER." He then went and cooked us burgers.

Trinity does it again!

No, she did not play in her excrement again, lol. We appear to have gotten through that, though every time I say that she does it again. So, we'll see about that in a few days......
My 5yo niece is staying with me for a week, she's almost 6, and I'm going to try to keep her another week, but fighting her mom could be scary, lol. This has been an easy week for me, Hope-Anne and Trinity have been playing constantly with Morgan! They are up late at night, and sleep in until 11am, lol. (My sister does not read my blog, so I can admit to all sorts of this stuff!)
Last night the three of them were sitting on pillows with their feet in the pillow cases and sliding down the stairs. (again, glad my sister doesn't read this!) They were having so much fun! But it was getting close to 11pm so we told them to get ready for bed, and they begged for "one more ride" down the stairs. Well, ok, of course, but just one more time.
Then we hear Trinity falling down the stairs, she's obviously not going down correctly and is screaming. We run to the stairs and pick her up. I took her in the bathroom for some better lighting to see if she is hurt. She has blood on her bottom teeth, so we were searching for where she got hurt. It took some time, but we located a tiny scratch inside her bottom lip. She was crying as we were looking for her owie, then she says, while still in tears "I need to do it again!"
Oh my heart! This child is a female Devon.
Devon had been sitting in the living room while they were sliding down the stairs saying how dumb it was to do that. But when Trinity got hurt and then wanted to do it again, he agreed to do that stupid (that means boring to him) stunt with her so she wouldn't get hurt. He gets to the bottom of the stairs and decides that's a sweet ride, and he does it again!
If the bottom of the stairs did not lead directly to a WALL, I could see them throwing themselves down the stairs like it was a Slip and Slide.

Good news

Devon is home and willing to take care of himself and follow our terms.
We let him spend the night at a friend's house to think about what he wanted, and those boys have been in foster care before. I don't know what they said to him, or what their dad said, but he was home when I got home from work. We hugged for at least a full minute, and then walked to the DQ. As we sat there he said he didn't sleep well last night because he really wanted to be in his own bed. Really bad.
I'm so glad! He knew that if he came home that he had agreed to the rules. Things don't process quickly for him, so a little cooling off and thinking time are great.
Laughing Mommy, Devon will be able to take care of himself no problem, he will just have difficulty keeping a job and relationships if he doesn't control his anger. He just says things without thinking or care about the consequences. (Like Thursday "I'm going to find a new place to live!" He didn't want to move out, and didn't think we'd take it serious, he wanted us to be afraid of losing him and then agree that he was right for kicking his brother in the back over a game.) We used to be very afraid he would not make it through school. He could not read beyond a very basic baby book, which took a LONG time to get through, "Ball" "Apple" , at 4th grade. He knew all the phonetic sounds and rules but could not put them together to read. We finally got a specialist and she did WONDERS with him, then the chlorella came along and he is almost caught up. He actually does well in his reading level, its all in the speed, he takes too long to finish things because information from paper to brain and brain to paper gets lost along the way without the Chlorella.

In other news, my blog had more traffic yesterday than I get on my Wordless Wednesday posts or my Thursday Thirteen posts! And my techonorati score is in the top 150! But where were the commentors? :-(

My Golden Keyboard Award

You can now see my lovely Golden Keyboard Award on my sidebar. I shall display it with pride!

I decided to check out my stats from my Thursday Thirteen post, and I saw that early this morning 25 people had already been by. This baffled me because Friday is not a heavy traffic day for me. So I looked to see where they were coming from, and it was overwhelmingly from Owlhaven. Now, I checked again this afternoon and there have been almost 70 visitors here today, and no one new has left a comment. So, all you visitors from Owlhaven, please leave me a "Hello!" in my comments so I can drop by and visit you, too.

Besides, I could use a "pick-me-up" today.

One of my children has an immunization injury. Its really hard because 1) he doesn't look or appear to have any problems and 2) doctors will NOT help you discover the problem if it is immunization related. I discovered it while doing college research. We knew there was a problem, but we didn't know what it was.
He has many, many symptoms of mercury poisoning. Irritability, Fits of Anger, Memory Loss, Lack of Attention, Depression, Low Self Confidence, Drowsiness, Decline of Intellect (actually has learning disabilities), Insomnia, Low Self Control. Lack of coordination of movements, such as writing. Impairment of speech. Skin rashes. Mood swings.

That was enough to do some more searching. I found something that removes heavy metals from your body naturally and we started that. Its a whole food, natural product, the side effects would possibly be intestinal upset, and bathroom problems. But all his side effects were positive! His grades went from ALL F's to ONE F in one report card! His anger and violence levels were so infrequent that we could trace them to forgetting the supplement. His mood swings were almost non-existent. He sleeps better, he eats better (not better for our grocery bills), feels better about himself, is able to pay attention and remember what he is doing, he isn't irritable all the time.

At one point he decided that he was doing great and didn't need that stuff anymore, so he quit. Things declined, of course. He still refuses because he doesn't want to take pills to make himself likable, he just wants to be likable on his own. Then we discovered that chiropractic helps incredibly, also. But it did not fit in his schedule when school started, she wasn't open when he could go, and we couldn't afford to take him out of school 2-3 times a week with being in special ed already.
But, we discovered accidentally that SPORTS works to release the gases, too! Sports are over.

So, Devon is not getting anything that his body needs to deal with the mercury, and he is acting pretty intolerable to his family, who, in turn, is not being kind to him. It blew up last night and Devon got the short end of the stick and left. That's why I am upset. It genuinely had nothing to do with him, but he's an easy target, and it happened.
Now we need to work things out to make sure he will follow a health plan in order to stay at home, and we need to get some more empathy and understanding out of his siblings.
Its hard to be a parent and see your child hurting and sabotaging themselves. Life is easier for him when he takes things to remove the mercury, why wouldn't he want that? We try to force it, but he feels like we are trying to make life easier for us. I can't imagine how horrible that feels.
He understands, when he is taking his meds, that his is like his "thorn" to deal with in life. That God is going to take this and teach him things, to prepare him for something special in life. He knows that God is going to use him.
My heart breaks for him because if his disability was noticeable, like a physical handicap or Downs Syndrome, people would treat him differently. But because his can't be seen, it seems like he is just a jerk, and is treated like he is. He is not a problem child, though. He is actually a very good kid, a very intelligent and strong young man who will stick to what he feels is right no matter what.

Power's back!

The power is back on, less than 48 hours. No big deal. It got a little stuffy last night, but otherwise we survived just fine.

We were able to cook, just not in the oven, because its electronic ignition. The burners worked fine. The grill worked. But we just sent meat over to my friend's house and ate supper over there with her. It was fun! They have a projector that makes movies the size of a wall, the kids had lots of fun pretending to be at a theater.

Lots of playing in the kiddie pool.

There was no baby making, Yofed! Um, besides the fact that the kids slept with us the second night, with no power the house is QUIET and you can hear everything, like little squeaks in the floor boards I didn't even know were there, lol.

Devon is getting better, but as his steroid level goes down his hives start coming back. If they get bad again we'll have to do something because we have VBS on Monday and he is one of the main characters all week, and we don't want to freak out the kids, I mean Devon would be embarrassed to go in front of everyone looking like that. He actually got worse than this picture, too. He is much better now, just hoping it stays that way.

I want to go blog hopping, but there is a line behind me to check emails, Trinity is crying to get on Barbie.com and there are clothes to wash.

Friday night fun at our house

Devon does not like his sisters to wear anything that doesn't cover all their skin. He hates seeing them in swimsuits or anything short. (believe me, we are pretty strict in that area already, so short is not short to most people, lol)

Today, Hope-Anne was wearing a swimsuit that Devon felt was too small and he was chewing her out for it. Kaytlin was defending her and saying it was just fine, it wasn't too small, Hope-Anne was pretty upset about it. But she wouldn't change. She didn't even go put shorts on.

Later they got in another argument over it until she got so mad that she left the house. After about an hour in the garage, she came back in wearing pants. (she found some that were in storage in there)

So we had a discussion about appropriate clothes and appropriate ways to talk to people about it, etc. And we all agreed, except Devon, that wearing a swimsuit is not immodest. So he says "So, you all think wearing a swimsuit is ok, huh?" and he walks off. A minute later he comes in wearing his super slim fitting swim suit from the swim team. (the tiger striped ones in the picture) He stands right in front of Hope-Anne and bends waaaaay over, so we could actually see the white of his buns through the material, lol. "This is still ok?" He stands right in front of her (and I was sitting next to her and got a front row seat for the show) and Hope-Anne says its fine.

Drew decides to "help" by telling Devon to clench up. And he clenched up! Hope-Anne turned away then "Ewwww!" And Donnie and Drew were "helping" the situation some more. "Make 'em dance! One cheek at a time!"

I was in tears laughing so hard!

Point made.

Score one for Devon.

(I'm not laughing now, though, because Trinity just ATE a cake I am making for a friend's child tomorrow! It was cooling on the rack and she came out with big hunks of it in her hands!)