I start my job tomorrow!

I am so excited. I will be caring for my almost 3 month old niece while my sister in law and brother in law go to work. I have everything ready for her and am looking forward to the sounds of a swing going again in the house. 

Fall has arrived and with it 80 degree temperatures. I have no clue what is up with that, but will be happy when we can get back to fall weather. I love the smell and feel of Fall. The crunch of the fallen leaves under your foot.

Lauren's speech therapist has left us for the time being. :>(  She is due any day now with her fourth baby who was also a surprise. I am so happy with the work she did with Lauren and I am confident that person she picked to take over for her for the next few months will be just a great. She evaluated her last week and found that she is has about a 9 month delay in speech. It also seems as if she has a processing delay. No big deal right now, but I am so happy i followed my mommy instinct and got her evaluated when I did. I can only imagine how far she might have been with out the last 10 months of speech. 

I have so many crafts I need to get started for Christmas presents, but unfortunately due to a serious lack of funds have not been able to. Which sucks monkey balls, but not much I can do about it. Hmm, I wonder if it is completely inappropriate to give people gifts weeks after Christmas. I am sure I will get things done, but it may lead to many late nights and some swearing. 

Cake and more cake.

So I posted on my blog the cake I made for Alex's 5th birthday party. Well, that was just for one party. We had two for him. You see when you live in a shoe as I do ( You can see what I am talking about here My shoe ) it is impossible to fit both of our families in at one time. I take that back, it can be done, but it is highly uncomfortable for most involved. So I made him a second Jack Skellington cake. The following week, Nicholas turned 8. I can't believe that he is 8, it really blows my mind. It is so true when they say kids grow up in a blink of an eye. He decided to have a friend party at the local bowling alley. He requested a Lego guy cake and I of course was happy to oblige. I am quite sick of frosting at this point as you could imagine, but it was worth it. All the kids at his party oohed and ahhed at the cake. They didn't care that it wasn't perfect or not from a fancy bakery, they all thought it was awesome he had a huge Lego guy on his cake.

An Open Letter of Sorts.

Dear Parents with Different Beliefs,

 I understand your need to teach your children what you believe in and I think it is a wonderful thing. I don't care if you don't teach your children about mythical beings such as Santa, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny or whatever mythical person we enjoy. That is your choice and thankfully we live in a wonderful country where we can believe in anything we want. I don't care if you believe that a large turkey is actually what why celebrate at Easter or it is because Christ rose from the dead. All I ask is that you do not push your ideas on my children. I teach my children about these mythical beings and the reason why we as Catholics celebrate the Holidays. My children know Santa comes on Christmas with gifts just as they know the three wise men brought gifts to the newborn Christ. (Let's not get into the fact they no one really knows if December 25th is the actual day of birth.) See, those are my beliefs and I do not try to tell a that is not mine child any different then what they are taught. I am tired of my children coming home from school telling me that so and so are telling them that there is no such thing as Santa and others.  I think it is ridiculous that my four year old comes home crying from preschool because he is told meanly that there is no such thing. What should I say? I just tell them that I believe and not to listen to what others say. Perhaps we are wrong in lying to our children, but that is our choice. My parents lied to me and my brothers and I don't see that it hurt us. What is so wrong with children believing in a little bit of magic in this world? I still believe in Santa Claus or that is the spirit of St. Nicholas. Does that make me wrong? No. So please, teach your children what you believe, but also teach them that others have different beliefs. Teach them not to tell other children they are wrong just because their beliefs are different. I teach my children that not everyone is the same or has the same beliefs and that is a great thing because life would be pretty boring if that was the case.

Sincerely,
A Mom who believes. : >)

I really wanted to slap her.

I did and if it wasn't for the way my mom raised me, I might have. The incident took place a month ago at a friend's surprise Birthday party. I was sitting at a table with other people that were friends with the birthday boy um, guy. I knew the woman next to me and she had just had another baby a few months previously. I asked her how life with two was going. She said pretty good, but some days are harder than others. She then said how she didn't know how we did it with four. I just smiled as usual, the bitch woman seated across from me had a different reply. With a look of pure disgust she said "You have FOUR kids?!" You would have thought I just said we had 20 kids or that I raise dragons to eat people like her.  I said yes and she replied, "We only have two because there are only TWO of us." *Insert eye rolling here* I told her that she did have two hands. *giggle* At this point my blood is boiling and I could feel my hands shaking.  She then went on and on about how she has a sister in law who has five kids and she never knows where they are at or what they are doing. She included some more stories of her sister in law's apparent lack of parenting. I just looked at her and did not say another word. I had texted my friend that I was going to beat the crap out of this woman because of her comments and innuendos and she called me and made me leave the party for a minute. She reassured me that I was a great mom and my kids were awesome. She also pointed out that this woman obviously has issues and were taking them out on me. Have I mentioned before how much I love my friends? So I went back in with my head held high and tried to enjoy the party. She made it a point to make a snarky comment and talk over me at any chance she got. I finally just had to stop trying to have other conversations. Her husband wasn't too bad, but was throwing back beers like he was in a desert and didn't know when he would get his next drink. After they left to which I pointedly did not say bye to her I felt a huge weight lifted off my shoulders. I could not believe that I had allowed a stranger to make me feel so little. Why do I have to defend that we have four kids? Why do people feel they have a right to make comments about my four kids, but not make comments at those who have only one or two kids? How is it that I become this leper by the mere mention of my having four kids? Yes, I have F-O-U-R kids. They are all well taken care of and from what everyone who comes in contact with them are awesome, caring kids. (I believe that too, but it helps to have a third party comment.) :) So to the bitch who had the balls to make a comment about my kids, who she has never met, Fuck you and the high horse you rode in on.*

*Yes, I swore, no I do not make it a daily occurrence,  but sometimes it is warranted.*

 I need to get one of these awesome shirts. 

http://www.cafepress.com/evilgeniusstore/1225539

What can I say?

I know it has been a while. I have not been blogging because of my lack of subjects, but more because there are just too many things bouncing around in my head to pick one. I think I should just start jotting the ideas down so I can just pick one as needed.

Here we are, the third week of September already! The kids are all back in school and loving it. Allison has always loved school, but I think this year will be her favorite. Come to think of it, I think 4th grade was my favorite too. Her loving school has also been helped by the fact that she has had great teachers. I still am baffled that she is in 4th grade already, I swear she was just clinging to me begging me not to make her go to preschool.

Nicholas is in 2nd and so far it seems to be going well. His teacher is great and I have already had to contact her about some homework issues. Unfortunately by the time he gets home from school his medication has worn off and it takes a while for the second one to kick in, so that makes for a very unpleasant after school routine. I have been letting him just kind of play and decompress after school for an hour before making him sit down to do homework and even that is a struggle. It almost always leads to tears and yelling about how stupid it is. Yesterday's homework couldn't have been easier. He got three words wrong on his spelling pretest and had to write those three words correctly ten times each. Really a no brainer, but you would have thought he needed to find the square root of pi! I think a lot of it was frustration with himself because the week before he got a 100% on the pretest and got out of taking the big spelling test that week. It took about an hour for him to do it and I finally just took it away from him and told him he could finish it in the morning before school.  My poor kid has such low self esteem and is constantly saying how stupid he is, which is far from the truth. We are trying to build him up, but it is hard when he is constantly tearing himself down. He turns 8 next week and he is having his first friend Birthday party. He got to invite 9 kids and handed out invitations 2 weeks ago. Guess how many people have RSVPd? 4! He is getting worried, but I told him that even if those four only show up, we will still have a great time. I put my phone number and email on the invites, how much easier can I make it? Perhaps next time I will put my cell umber and tell them to text me. UGH!

Alexander is in his final year of preschool and is enjoying it. It helps that he is at the same school with the same teachers and some of the same kids. The first day there were tears shed, but he went in and has been fine since.  He turns 5 tomorrow and  has already had one family party. We will have the other half over on Thursday. I choose not to have friend parties in preschool, it would just be too crazy.  He requested to have a Jack Skelington cake and I of course was happy to oblige. While it wasn't anywhere near professional, he loved it.

Lauren is doing good. She is still receiving speech once a week in our home and it really is helping. She can now put words together and for the most part I understand what she is trying to tell us. A few words I wish she didn't know? Boobies! Boobies! Boobies! Which she proudly shouts while holding her chest. Oh yeah it is quite amusing when she points to her chest and says boobies. I say, no you don't have boobies. Then she turns to me and point to my chest and says Mommy boobies, big! Thank you big brothers. :~/  She also says butt head, but not with consistently. How is it that a kid that struggles with speech can say butt head clear as a bell?  We are working on her colors and she knows blue, purple, pink,  black, and yellow.

I finally finished the latest quilt and burp rags I was working on. With the shingles (which I recovered from nicely) and back to school craziness it kept being put on the back burner. Lauren's speech therapist was happy with it and I was glad to make it for her.

Burp rags

All my fabrics were leftovers from previous projects.

Add caption

Not too bad..

Maybe I shouldn't have rubbed his nose....

Okay, that sounds a little kinky, but I assure you it is not. I am after all talking about Mr. Lincoln, that is President Lincoln, you know the 16th president that got assassinated 146 years ago. You see the family, myself and the in laws went to Springfield, Il. to take in the sights and Illinois State Fair. We had a good time although there was a lot of whining from me the kids about all the walking and such. I had a pain under my right arm that I thought was just a pimple that was being irritated by my bra. More on that in a minute...

So anyway, we left on our final day to go to Lincoln's tomb to pay or respects. The day before hubby ad father in law had to replace some wires in our van thanks to a piece of metal that decided to shoot around under our hood much like a pinball game and tear up some wires. So that crisis averted, off we went to the tomb. We visited, and left. No sooner are we on the expressway that our battery light comes on. WTF! I just had to take it last week to be replaced. sigh Maybe the wires came loose again? So we get off and the town had roughly 515 people. Ever seen the movie Doc Hollywood with Michale J. Fox? I was totally thinking about his movie. So we decide to get back on the expressway and go to one of the towns coming up that is a bit bigger. By this time we unplugged everything, shut off the movie (the radio had already went off by itself) and turned off the air. On the expressway again and the car just did not want to work. Pretty soon every warning light on our panel is on and the lights on the instrument panel are fading. yikes. So we get off the expressway at the next exit, smaller town maybe 89 people or so. We then took side streets to the next town which was much bigger and had a Dodge dealership. We pulled into a gas station to transfer the kidlets to my in laws car when our van decided it had enough and died. :( Sigh. So in the end, we were stuck in this town for many, many hours, but our can was fixed and we made it home last night, just 10 hours after we had left our destination. We were so thankful that our in laws were with and were able to help us out. We took the kids to see the Smurfs in this cute movie theatre right out of the fifties to kill time. The kids loved our little side adventure.

Now, about that sore.. So it was getting worse and I noticed a new spot had turned up. By the time we got home last night, I told hubby that I needed to go to the doctor today because I was worried it was infected. We of course he Googles what it looks like and tells me he thinks I have shingles! WTH, the thought had sort of crossed my mind earlier, but I just shoved it aside, after all it is an older person's illness! Well, we discovered two more red blistery spots on my back. Off to the doctor I went today and Dr. hubby is correct, I have a classic case of shingles. Yippee. Doctor called in a prescription for an anti viral medicine and some pain relievers because as she said and I quote, "You are going to need them." I'm guessing she is right. Since this morning, the pain in that area has gotten worse, not unbearable, but enough to where I can barely lift that arm.

So maybe I should have rubbed Old Abe's nose for Good Luck, perhaps he jinxed me.

Yes folks, that cow is completely made of butter! Just one of the fun things at the State Fair.

21 gun salute at Lincoln's tomb during a flag ceremony.

That Damn nose! 

Outside the tomb.

I like to label this one, Oh Shit!

So many crafts, so little time!

I have a scrapbook I want to finish and 3 or 4 quilts I need to get done. I have been going back and forth for a couple of days which one I should do. Finally last night, I made a decision. I am making a quilt for Lauren's speech therapist. She is pregnant with a boy and due in October. This for her was also a very surprising fourth pregnancy and oh how I can relate to that. In fact she had absolutely no baby stuff left, I told her that was her down fall. Most women know that you should always keep some sort of baby item or it will definitely lead to a pregnancy. So back to the quilt, I have a ton of baby boy type fabrics left over from other projects that I am using. I figured I might as well do the project that I don't have to put out anymore money out on, plus I don't know how long she will still be coming. So last night I cut out 218  4 1/2 inch squares, I was a bit sore after that since my Chiari doesn't like me bending over a lot. However I told it to shove it and continued, something I sort of regretted last night while trying to get to sleep and my shoulders and neck were on fire. LOL

I am doing a little redecorating around the blog and trying to pull in more readers. I am not looking to make money, just maybe be able to connect to others that have similar stories. So, please feel free to share my blog with other people who might enjoy it. ☺

3 years ago yesterday

I started my blog and what a journey it has been! This blog have seen me through a very surprising fourth pregnancy, the loss of my mom and now the genetic disorder that I have. Wow! If you would have asked me that day so long ago if this would be my life, I would have thought you were crazy. Just goes to show you that you can't predict your life. I never would have thought that my mom would be gone. She was such a force in my life that to even imagine her out of it was unfathomable. Now though, she has been gone 2 years, 4 months, and 18 days. Then again who is counting? Some days it seems like yesterday when I told her my last goodbye and then some days it feel like years and years have passed. The fact is though that she is never more that a thought away. I think of her everyday if not numerous times a day. When I see a butterfly for example, she is first and foremost in my mind. She loved butterflies and I always think of them as her way of saying hi. I just pray that she is proud of the person I am. Even though I know I will never be as great of a person that she was, I hope that I'm a fraction of what she was. 


Lauren, my fourth baby and the best surprise of my life has been quite literally a God send. She was the reason in those dark hours after mom was gone that I continued to get up and live. After all, how could I leave a helpless infant to fend for herself? 


My brain, ugh that thing. What a complication it has become. Haha While I am happy for a diagnosis, it doesn't make it any easier. The diagnosis didn't take anyway the pain or the fatigue that I am prone to suffer. It just is what it is. While I am trying my best everyday not to let it define me, some days are a lot harder than others. 


So here I am, three years later with a couple more followers (thanks) and still babbling about my life. Sure it isn't always interesting, but it is my life and I wouldn't change it for the world. maybe just a lifetime supply of chocolate

I needed to share my latest creations.

Granted, they were a super easy no brainer, but my boys love them. It started with the last quilt I had made. Nicholas was touching the fleece fabric and fell in love. He immediately asked if when I was done with that blanket if I could please make him one with the soft fabric. How could I say no? The boy has more blankets than is necessary, but really is that a horrible thing?  So the fabric went on sale and I had an additional 20% off, off to the store I went with the two younger kids. Of course once we start checking on the fabrics, Alexander perks up and asks if he could have one too. (I should have seen that coming.) I couldn't say no, so he helped picked out Nick's fabric and then his own. I just made simple tie fleece blankets, nothing special. I had both blankets done and laundered with in 10 hours or so. They both love them and even though it has been a sizzling 90* outside, Nick brings his downstairs with him every morning and lays wrapped in it as he watches the morning cartoons.

Alex's poisonous frogs. As you can see Bella wants one too. 

The back folded over the front. 

Nick's sharks, back folded over front. Yes she liked this one too. 

I wish I could take away her pain.

My oldest child is sadly a lot like I was when I was a kid. She is a homebody and sensitive. Which is not a bad thing, but can make her feel left out of fun things that her friends like to do. I was a Momma's girl through and through, seriously, ask my brothers. I couldn't tell you the amount of times I called in the middle of the night at a sleepover because I wanted to go home. That being said, I am completely sympathize with what she is going through. She had a birthday party for a friend at a local water park and had been looking forward to it for weeks. This park has a tall tube slide and body slide. They also have a diving board another slide. The tube and body slide empty into a less than 4 feet deep lazy river, but the diving board and other slide empty into a 12ft pool. Allison is a decent swimmer, no formal training, but can keep a float. I discourage my kids from doing the diving board or the slide that empties into the 12ft pool because they are not accomplished swimmers. I don't want them to plunge under water and panic if they don't pop up immediately. The other tall slides I have no problem with. Nicholas will go down them all day long by himself  and even Alexander who last year screeched in terror at the thought of going in the pool now loves them. He goes down the tube slide with my husband with a huge grin on his face. Allison? Not so much, she is scared to death. However at the prospect of being with her group of friends, she really wanted to try it. She made it to the top and freaked out, she said that once she looked down into the tube and saw how dark it was, she decided she couldn't do it even though she was going to go down on a double tube with her friend. She was a bit upset with herself, but tried to brush it off. Unfortunately her friends weren't so willing to just forget the incident. They were in no way shape or form purposely being mean to her, but were trying to encourage her to try it and to face her fears. Poor Allison just kind of cracked under the peer pressure and she was able to keep it together, but she asked to leave the party early. As soon as she was in the car, the floodgates broke open. It broke my heart. She was more upset with herself than anything. She said she just wishes that she was not so afraid of everything and such a "baby". I tried to reassure her that it was okay to be afraid to do things, but I know that it didn't help much. I told her of my experiences growing up and how eventually I overcame my fears. Well, at least most of them. lol I reassured her that there is absolutely nothing wrong with who she is and to be proud of herself. She is one of the most caring kids I know and I am not just saying that. She insists on making her friends birthday cards and she includes a picture she drew and an original poem. She tends to be a mini mommy at home, trying to help the boys stop fighting and fixing Lauren's boo boos. I try to get her to see herself through my eyes, but I am just mom. However I will encourage to tell her all the great things about herself. We are going to be enrolling in swim lessons this fall/winter and I am hoping by next summer she will be ready for the slides or diving board. If not, that is fine. There is nothing wrong with keeping both feet on the ground. As much as I wish I can fix everything for her, I won't since it is a part of growing up. While I want her to face her fears, I will NOT force her to do it. I will encourage her though and pick her up when she falls.