Wisdom Teeth...What's the Point???

Okay, what the heck is the point of making me go through the painful process of growing teeth that I don't need anyway? Not only are they not necessary for my survival, they actually cause problems. Like I need more problems. Yeah, turns out what I thought was a chip in my tooth was in fact a hole caused by a cavity. The cavity was there because my mouth is almost big enough to house these wise teeth, but not quite. Therefor my toothbrush could not reach an upper wise tooth causing decay. Lovely, lovely. So Dr. Gomez, (my awesome dentist) recommends all the wise teeth come out asap to save myself from unnecessary pain. Because that is what unnecessary teeth do, they cause unnecessary pain.

Luckily for me, Miss Mandi Pettit was willing to babysit me on the Big Day (and she was a great babysitter too!). And lucky me, my God is an awesome God and answered my prayer of no bruising and very minimal swelling! Now, what to do with all that Vicodin...

May's Mom of the Month

Amy Hiser is my May Mom of the Month. She is incredible. And inspiring. Not only will she be beginning to homeschool her oldest, John, but she will be doing so while taking care of her daughter who is about pre-school age and her twin boys. Her twin boys that will be mobile by the time the new school year starts.

I love watching Amy at church with all of her children. Twins in the stroller, John and Gracie following behind her like little duckies. So sweet. Amy also oversees the nursery at church. So not only is she taking care of her babies, but she also makes sure all of our babies are well cared for. And she does this with twins (sorry, but the thought of having to do double-duty of everything myself is overwhelming-I just love watching her! If I ever do happen to have twins I will be hiring here for 9 months of training). Amy organizes and executes successful garage sales, has just had the experience of being a T-ball mom, and is always great about finding mind stimulating activities for her children.

Amy is a wonderful mother, her children will surely rise up and call her blessed!

**oh, the only pictures I have of Amy are on the computer that I can not access anything from, so if you have a great picture of Amy, please feel free to e-mail it to me so I can add it to this post!

Sleep is overrated

Okay, so a portion of this was part of a rambling email that I sent to Cindy L. Why did I send out a rambling email?

Oh, that would be because my body/children/husband does not feel it is necessary for me to sleep for more then 2 hours at time. Apparently that is my limit and I should be very thankful when it is 2 full hours. Now, Jeff is currently asleep in the living room with Michael and Caleb, so his snoring should not prevent any attempts of mine to fall asleep. However, there is the matter of Evan. The second I begin to get into that really good sleep (what is it called-REM or something like that) his little baby sensor will go off and he will immediately wake up, toddle to my room, and make an attempt for play hour (or two). If I'm lucky enough to fall asleep, I am guaranteed he will kick me, poke me, or pull my hair.

There is also the chance that Michael will start yelling in his sleep. Yes, yelling. Talking in is sleep isn't enough. It has to be loud. Loud enough to hear him at any point in this house. Full on conversations too. It's great. Especially when he decides to take a walk also (who knew it was so easy to get down from the top bunk while still fully asleep?) Sometimes it is cute to hear what he says. Or to hear him do a full belly laugh in his sleep. Most of the time, however, is evidence of him being the oldest child. I must say he is a little bit bossy in his sleep and I'm not quite sure where he gets that from ... :)

And Caleb. My dear sweet Caleb. His preference is to climb into bed with us (usually about 2 am), fall asleep and then proceed to roll of the FOOT of the bed. I'm not sure how he does this, especially since he insists on laying with his little head aimed at the foot of the bed. But how am supposed to sleep through that? I usually grab one of his legs just in time and drag him back across the bed.

I thought maybe it was hormonal. My face is more oily then normal. I'm breaking out like a 16 year old girl before homecoming night. I can't sleep. I'm 11 days late. So I took a test, and failed it. Looks like I can chalk up my sleep deprivation to environment. I wonder if I can convince Gabe (Jeff's dad) to watch the boys so I can take at 4 hour nap? Somehow I don't see that happening in the near future (I'd feel too guilty).

So, if it seems like I can not connect the dots, or like I am not very focused in a conversation, it might not be the diabetes. I might just be very, very tired. Is it wrong of me to request my own bedroom with locking door? :)

NO WAY!

Happy Birthday to Me!

I can not believe it. A KitchenAid Mixer. For me. All mine. NO WAY! I am so excited! I can not believe that I got one for my birthday. Seriously, this is something that I did not expect to ever own for like, 25 more years of my life. But I own one now. And it is so beautiful! I'm going to have to repaint my dinning room around my mixer. Because it is so cute. So my wall needs to be cute with it. Thank you so much to my husband, sons, the Moore's, the Pettits, Mom and Dad, and Rachel!

Now the only question is what do I make first? Cookies, cupcakes, muffins or meatloaf? Probably the cookies first since I've been promising my them to my boys. Either way I feel like I am walking in fantasy land. And now Jeff can take a nap when I'm baking, because he doesn't have to be my KitchenAid mixer for me!

My Brave Little Friend

I know we live in a fallen world. I accept that life is not perfect--or even close to it, but it is still so hard to grasp why bad things happen to children. It was hard to be diagnosed with diabetes at 25, but at 5? OH! It makes me want to CUSS--the really bad ones too. My brave little friend, Ian, has been diagnosed with diabetes. WHY? He's going into kindergarten this year. His concerns should consist of: making sense of numbers and words, trying to make his swing go the highest, running away from girls with cooties. He should not have to worry about what his blood sugars are. He shouldn't have to be learning how to give himself injections or how to test himself 5 times a day.

He should get to be like the rest of the kids. The "normal" kids. Trading lunches, eating just the icing off of the cupcakes, diving after candy from the pinatas at birthday parties. It isn't fair and it is a bunch of CRAP! He should NOT have to deal with mood swings that are dictated by the sugars in his body, or memory problems (Nate and Angela, please, please, show him extra grace in those areas) or disruptive sleep and all the other infections your body gets from diabetes. His favorite meal should be Macaroni and Cheese. Not whole wheat linguini with zuccini and tomatoes.

Ian has a hard road ahead of him, and the only ones who can truly understand it are those traveling the same way. Ian is my brave little friend, not for something he did, but for the things he will do.

Duck...Duck...GOOSE!

Okay, so I have to confess that it was sooo much fun playing Duck, Duck, Goose at church, with a bunch of grown ups, to kick off our Summer Small Group meeting. I have not played in years (by the way, I am apparently the only one who knows how to play school yard style--tagging without standing up would have totally qualified on the school yard), and it was just so fun! There were a few crashes, a few burns, almost some dropped pants-what better way is there to see 30 grown adults make fools of themselves? That was my Sunday night. Loved it.

So, Jeff came home from school really early tonight. Yeah! Extra daddy/hubby time! So we told the boys we would play a game with them. What do they pick? You guessed it: Duck, Duck, Goose (hey, you're really smart!). Jeff, Caleb and I sat in a circle (Evan was already in bed-he loves sleep) while Michael started off as the "ducker". Now, when you play DDG with Michael and Caleb, duck and goose are not necessarily the animal of choice. It could be crocodile. Or crocodile head. And you do not get "goosed" unless you are making sure to yell, "Pick me! Pick me!"

Two totally different nights of playing DDG, two totally different styles, and both of them were so much FUN!

The Avila Barn Experience

Avila Barn...so stinking cute. It is such a fun place! I love having family outings there. My boys enjoy the petting zoo and I enjoy the fresh produce and the all of the cute country living kitchen knickknacks and such. They had such cute aprons...that I couldn't buy. I just couldn't find a way to justify spending $22.00 on an apron to Jeff when he was with me the time I got my apron for $4.00 at Ross. Darn it! They were such cute aprons too! And such cute bread boxes! And colanders! And....

Okay, so the other cute thing at Avila Barn was watching my boys feed the animals. Caleb was excited about seeing a donkey, you know, because of Shrek. Evan giggled every time an animal would lick his fingers in their eagerness for the nearly wilted lettuce. And Michael thought everything was "So cool, Mom. Isn't that cool Mom?"