Still not up to par

I can't believe I'm still not feeling 100%. No throwing up since Thursday (a week ago), and I did feel much better for a few days...but I'm sick again. Now I have a cough, achy, and feel feverish sometimes. What is up with this??? I managed to avoid almost all the bugs the kids had during the school year, but now I can't seem to get rid of all this "STUFF!" It's about to drive me batty. I have NO stamina or strength. Just making the bed yesterday made me exhausted. I could hardly lift the mattress to fix the sheets...usually it's no problem. I've got an appointment at the blood drive this afternoon, but I don't think they want my blood right now. I did feel better on Monday, just in time for Hubby and I to go out on our yearly date to celebrate our anniversary. We went out to dinner, walked around at Home Depot to look at items we need to work on finishing our basement, and then we went to see the new Narnia movie. Prince Caspian is good, but not a kid flick. WAY too much violence and scary stuff. Our kids are disappointed because they LOVE the Narnia series and LOVE the first movie. We told them that as soon as it comes out on DVD, we would buy it and let them watch most of it. We would skip the violent battle scenes and the other stuff that is too intense for them. They are trying to be patient! :o)

We had the youth group over last night for their "SUMMER BBQ" party. We try to have them over here for a party at least twice a year, at the beginning of school and at the beginning of summer vacation. We ate hamburgers, hot dogs, brats, potato salad and macaroni salad (bought from Wal-Mart...I'm not up to cooking lots yet). We then had smores over the grill. What fun! When we were all done eating, we came inside to play games. My kids thought Candy Land was the ideal game, and the teens were good sports and played a round with them. Then we got out the "Dance Dance Revolution" game...now that is fun to watch! They all stuck around until 10:00...and then the party was over. I basically sat on the couch and cheered everyone on. Didn't do the dance thing myself!

Missing out on family...

I live about 4 hours from most of my family. I have gotten pretty used to it, but some days it's very hard. This past week I've been missing my family a lot! Both being sick and missing out on "family stuff" made this week harder than most. I don't care how old you are, when you are sick, you just want your mom to take care of you. I was so weak and feeling so horribly, I would have given nearly anything to have my mom here just to take care of me. My hubby did an awesome job of taking care of the kids and getting them to and from their activities...he also stayed home with me nearly all day on Wed. I appreciated all he did, but there is just something about having your Mom around...
Also this week, my extended family gathered to celebrate my Grandma's 83rd birthday. Grandma and Grandpa live in a nursing home about 10 miles from their "old" home, and all their kids. Grandma is very proud to tell everyone who will listen that ALL their kids, grandkids, and great grans live right there in town, except Andie. EXCEPT ANDIE! Do you have any idea how much this breaks my heart? (Now, I know that this is the place that God has placed Hubby and I for this time in our lives. I know that, and I wouldn't want to move...but I just am missing my family right now....besides, they all live in a big city {yes, Kansas has a few big cities!} and I like living in my little town!) I miss all the family gatherings for birthdays, Christmas, Easter, etc...I haven't seen some of my cousins in years. I've never met some of their children. I probably wouldn't recognize them if I passed them on the street. This makes me so sad. We were all so close growing up!
Ok, enough of the pitty party...my dad was kind enough to send me some pictures from G-ma's party. They all met for pizza and b-day cupcakes in a park not too far from the nursing home. SO, meet my family!

First of all...Grandma and Grandpa. If you look closely, the napkin in Grandpa's shirt says "Party Girl" Someone has a pretty funny sense of humor!Here is my cousin Kailey with her nephew Kaiden. Kailey is the youngest of the cousins, and Kaiden is the youngest great-gran...for a few more weeks.Here is my cousin, Loni, and her youngest daughter, Vanessa. Loni is one of my cousins that I have gotten to know again because of this blog! She has her own blog, and I feel like I know her more now than I have since we were little! Loni is expecting her third baby!Here is my mom with my two nieces, Ella (the blondie) and Ava (the brunette).Here is my brother and Grandma...give her a hug for me!
And finally a picture of my Grandma enjoying her new rocking chair. The sad thing is that the next day she called my dad and asked why she had so many chairs in her room...where did the new one come from and why was it in her room. She is suffering from Alzheimer's and didn't remember that her family had given it to her as a gift for her birthday since her old one was wearing out. Grandpa has had Parkinson's disease for almost as long as I can remember, and now grandma has so many problems with her memory. She tells the same story over and over, and asks the same questions repeatedly. I love them both so much, and it is just so hard to see the problems they have. I wish I could see them more often! I told one of my aunts to make sure she sang EXTRA LOUD and EXTRA OFF KEY so that Grandma and Grandpa would think I was there! :o) Love you all!

IT'S OFFICIAL!

Reservations are made! We are going to DISNEY!!!

YIPPEE!!!!

We're going to meet THE MOUSE, himself!And see HER fly!And eat breakfast with these beautiful ladies!
And ride a fun ride with this guy!
And spend lots of time laughing and having a GREAT time with these people!
Here is a picture of my parents when they went to visit Mickey a few years ago! :o)

update on tummy troubles

Here's a tip...after suffering a stomach bug, don't let the first solid food you eat be a bagel...it will NOT settle down and digest nicely. Your stomach will cramp so badly you will WISH you were pregnant and in labor...until you throw up that offending bagel, then you will feel MUCH better. It is now just about 11:00 pm and I am getting ready to hit the sack for the night. I have kept down a handful of grapes, 1/2 a ham and cheese sandwich, and a small chocolate frosty. (Boy, Grandpa was a GENIUS in figuring out that chocolate malts will cure whatever is ailing you!) I have lost 8 pounds in the past 36 hours. I know I have wanted to loose weight, but this is a bit ridiculous! I know it's all water weight and most of it will be back soon, but it would be nice if it stayed away! I have not weighed this since before I got pregnant with Bethany...so even though the flu is horrible, there is a bright side :o).

Abbigail is away at a girl scout lock-in...it is so weird only having two kids here! Plus, I am officially done with the child-care thing. I will miss my CC families, but it will be nice once I have all the "baby" stuff put away and we can make the house our own once again.
Well all...I'm signing off for the night. Hopefully we are ALL DONE with the sickies for a LONG time! Please remember the Chapman family during this terribly hard time. I can't even imagine the pain they are enduring...I just can't imagine. My heart aches for them.

Terrible Tragedy

I just received an email from Steven Curtis Chapman (I'm on an email list to receive emails about various projects, etc...it was from his manager, not him personally). Steven and MaryBeth's youngest daughter, Maria, was killed last night in a terrible accident in their driveway. What a tragedy! Maria just celebrated her 5th birthday. She was the youngest of their 3 adopted daughters. I remember reading about how Steven 'found' Maria in China. He was there doing some touring and met up with some friends who work in China with many orphans who need medical attention. Maria needed heart surgery. She was very frail. I remember reading that Steven fell in love with her and could not get her out of his mind. He kept remembering the song he sang many years earlier called "Maria" One of the lines in the song says "Who's gonna love Maria?" and all SCC could think was that HE would! What a terrible tragedy to loose a child...any child. Please keep the Chapman family in your prayers.

9:20 pm

Well, I can't even remember how many times I've run to the bathroom today. I do know that I weigh about 5 pounds less tonight than I did last night...possibly more.
Around 5ish this morning I was trying to put a video in the VCR so Bethany could watch. I remember being frustrated that I couldn't get the tape to go into the VCR. I remember thinking I felt very weak and out of it. The next thing I know, Bethany was rubbing my shoulder and cheek and asking if I was ok. I must have fainted. I have NEVER fainted before in my life. I told Bethany to go get Daddy. He came out and helped me up, just in time to run to the bathroom again. What a night. What a day. I have spent almost the entire day on the couch, or on the floor. I slept a lot. I still feel pretty horrible, weak, shakey, and very thirsty. But if I take more than a few sips I feel really sick again.
My grandpa always said that a chocolate malt would help whatever was ailing you. So, this afternoon I sent Hubby to Wendy's to get me a frosty. That is the only thing that I have managed to keep down today. Bethany held down a pnut butter sandwich, some crackers, lemon-lime soda, and part of my frosty...but the chocolate milk came right back up (while I was on the phone with my dad..sorry dad!)
Hubby had a "date" with the youth group tonight to see Narnia Prince Caspian. The kids and I were all supposed to go with them, but decided to stay home. We'll go as a family this weekend. Hubby won't be home till 11 or so, but the kids are in bed and I'll be heading that way very soon.
I felt just horrible that I couldn't celebrate the end of the school year with the kids. Hubby did such a great job of getting them both up and around and getting them to school on time. He's such a great dad and husband,I truly don't know what I'd do without him!
Abbie was invited to a swim party for this evening and my great friend Jacque was kind enough to come and be Abbie's transportation. I just didn't think I should be driving in my condition!
My family in Wichita was all gathered to celebrate my grandma's birthday. I called to tell her happy birthday (my dad's cellphone) and that's when Bethany lost her chocolate milk. So after I got it cleaned up I called back and got to talk to both Grandma and Grandpa. Grandma gets quite weepy quite often and of course couldn't even talk to me for a few minutes. She wishes we could have been there...I wish we could have, too...but I told her that we were sick and she didn't really want us around. She is suffering from Alzheimer's, so she tends to repeat herself a lot, I miss them all! On a day like today you REALLY miss your family!
I'm sorry for the scattered brained post...I can't think strait. Good night all, I hope we ALL get a good night's rest.

3:23 am

warning...those with weak stomachs, read no further!

Why am I posting to the blog at 3 am?? Because I'm up. Abbigil was sent home from school on Monday because she threw up. She threw up a few times through-out Monday, but she was fine on Tuesday...she even went fishing with Daddy. I thought I felt funny last night before I went to bed, but I thought it was just too much salad...nope. Bethany crawled in bed with me sometime during the night and at 2 she was very restless. I told her to lay still or go back to her bed. She said her tummy hurt REAL bad. I handed her the "puke bucket" I had taken to bed with me and told her to go to the living room. She didn't make it out of the bedroom before she used the bucket. After she was done, I got her cuddled in a blanket in the living room just in time to run to the bathroom and puke myself. Now, an hour and a half later she has puked 3 more times, and I have done it once more.

Please keep us in your prayers. I'm feeling pretty weak and very tired.

But, in good news, Hubby and I have been working pretty hard on eating better and exercising. As of yesterday morning we have lost a total of 12 pounds...now I bet I've added a few more in the past couple of hours. ick

For the Birds

We have 5 new family members! The kids noticed a few weeks ago that there is a bird's nest on Abbie and Bethany's window sil. We went to look at it, and there were 4 tiny blue eggs in it. About a week later they hatched. They keep growing and growing! They now fill the entire nest and they only hatched 9 days ago! They are full of feathers, except their necks (as Abbie says their necks are still bald, skinny, and LONG, especially when Momma comes to feed them!) We an look out their window and keep an eye on them, but when we go outside, the momma sits in the tree and yells at us! :o)
Now...here's something interesting! The first two pictures were taken with my old camera. The one of the newly hatched babies was taken with Abbie's camera since mine was broken. The last one was taken with my new camera. Can you see the difference? :o)

Princess Bethany

So here are some of the pictures from Bethany's birthday yesterday. My mom and dad sent her a cute "fruity" dress and a princess tiara and jewelry. Of course they are a huge hit. The picture of Bethany talking on the phone is when my parents called to sing her "Happy Birthday"...a fun tradition that we all look forward to. Since they can't sing in person, they call to sing to whomever is celebrating. My sister-in-law and brother-in-law from ND sent Bethany her first Webkins...a curly pink poodle. Bethany has named it Princess Pinky. I forgot to take a picture of it (sorry Jenny...she really does love it!)
We had cupcakes A LOT last week since both Abbigail and Bethany took them to school to celebrate their birthdays. So, since we were "Caked out," Bethany had a birthday brownie instead. Boy were they yummy. Warm out of the oven with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on it...MMMMMM! Nice and gooey, just how I LOVE them! Bethany has beautiful blue eyes. I just love how bright and sparkly her eyes are. Especially when she is smiling. Don 't you agree that her eyes are just gorgeous?!!? Happy birthday my baby. I love you so much. Thank you for always wanting to hug and snuggle. I love your giggle, it always makes me smile. You have a very loving heart, and a mind of your own. I pray you use your mind and caring heart to be a wonderful leader and help those around you. Never forget that you are loved more than you'll ever know, not only by Daddy and me, but also by Jesus. I love seeing how much you love and trust in Jesus at your young age. Thank You, God, for the gift of my youngest child.

Happy Birthday Bethany!!!

Yes, today was/is Bethany's birthday. What a bad momma I am. It's nearly 11:00 and I'm just now posting about her. I'm too tired to post much, just that it's my baby's birthday! She's 4!!! (Guess who just wandered out here because she can't sleep???) Anyway, I took some cute pictures of her today, I'll try to get them posted tomorrow.
Happy Birthday my Little One!! I love you so much! Thank you for always loving me!

If you want to read about Bethany's birth, see last year's birthday post...here.

Blessings to all...now I have to go get this little 4 year old to bed...and get to bed myself!

Happy Mother's Day!

To my mom...Thank You. Thank you for loving me and showing me what being a mom is all about. Thank you for being there for me when I need advice, love and support when I need it in this wonderful, yet difficult task of mothering. Thank you for showing me that the most important thing I can do for my children is love them and pray for them. Thank you for loving me, and praying for me continually!

Happy Mother's Day to all those out there who mother, nurture, and love. All those who are mothers, all those whose deepest desire is to mother, and those who have mothered. This used to be the hardest day of the year for me. During our nearly 3 year struggle with infertility, I dreaded Mother's Day. I usually spent as much of this day in bed crying as I could. I pray God is comforting the hearts of those women and men who desperately want a child.

I have been so blessed. I thank God every day for the gift of my children. I pray He gives me strength, wisdom, patience and love so that I can be the best mother my children deserve. I thank God for giving me these children to love and nurture.

As for my Mother's day...we celebrated it yesterday since Hubby has to work all day today. Being a pastor, and especially serving two congregations, he doesn't usually have a lot of time to spend with family on Sunday. So, yesterday after both Abbigail and Andrew played their last soccer game, we went to town to go out to dinner, buy Bethany a new carseat (she will turn 4 this week and can now officially ride in a BOOSTER! Of course the one she chose is PINK with little crowns all over it, VIP...Very Important Princess, that's my girl!), and look at cameras. My Hubby is the best husband in the world! We went to look at the cameras, and walked out with a great one! I love it already. It is a lot smaller than my old camera that I broke last week. It has 3 more mega pixels, and is just fun to use. I'm still trying to figure out all of the settings, but it's fun so far! His card to me was sweet and sappy on the outside, and hilarious on the inside...so perfect for us! The kids' card to me was a musical card that plays the chicken dance and says something about me "ruling the roost." I, of course, made the kids all line up and do the dance...now that was fun!

One tradition we've started as our family is to take a picture of me and the kids on Mother's Day, so here it is!We asked one of the gals at church and she snapped one with the ENTIRE family! I don't remember the last time we were all together on that side of the camera!I also took pictures of the kids as they ran around having fun after church. And I actually got the kiddos to sit down for one picture together!

My middle name is Joy...Not GRACE!

I am so blessed. I have been given an unlimited supply of grace. I have been (and will be) forgiven for every time I make a mistake. Yes, I have TONS of grace! However....I am NOT gifted with the "other" kind of grace. You know, the kind that means you can dance, walk and talk at the same time, or just about anything that requires any amount of coordination. I've known this my entire life, I've never been "graceful." But, the past two weeks I have become EXTREMELY NOT graceful. Wanna hear just a few examples of my gracelessness? Here goes...

• I wrecked the van. Noone was hurt (just my pride). I was backing the van out of the garage and hit the side of the garage. The side mirror is made to fold back against itself, but apparently I hit it "good." Yes, it flipped back, but the glass and the mechanism inside to move it around were broken. Way to go slick! Hubby was able to find an after-market replacement for $80 and fix it himself. Thanks honey.
• After Bethany, Hubby, & I got home from the lake on Monday, I picked up my camera bag...sounds innocent enough. It was open, and upside down. Out came the camera and CRASH on the driveway. I picked it up, put it back in the bag, took it inside and didn't think much more about it. This camera was purchased more than 4 years ago and has been dropped numerous times. Unfortunately, it's nine lives were apparently used. It won't turn on, and it doesn't just need new batteries. Thankfully, all the 178 pictures that were on the camera were just fine on the memory card! (Guess what I'm asking for for Mother's Day!??!)
• Our kitchen light was falling. I never noticed it, but Hubby noticed last night that it looked like it was hanging away from the ceiling. Apparently the people who put it up just screwed it directly into the sheet rock....not a stud! They did put a small anchor on the end...SMALL! Once we got up there we realized they had apparently pulled down at least once before. Hubby decided that it needed fixed, of course (he takes such good care of us!) He, being taller, could reach the light fixture and ceiling by standing on a chair. Me, being the shorter one, had to stand directly on the counter in order to reach the height. No problem, we got it disconnected, knew what we needed, hubby decided that he needed to make a run to the store to get a BIG anchor (didn't feel like crawling up into the attic to reposition the light at this point!). He went back to the bedroom to change into jeans (he was in his comfy pants) and I started to get down from the counter...yup, you guessed it. Graceful me FELL off the counter! I knew he would have heard and would come running. I yelled "I'm OK!" But here he comes running with his pants half on/half off. The girls both crawled out of bed and came running. I landed on my right hip, right hand/arm and my back hit the cabinets on the other side of the kitchen. OUCH! Oh, and the back of my head hit the cabinets, too. I was really worried that I would be very stiff this morning, but I really wasn't that bad. I even walked 2.25 miles this morning...walking on the treadmill wasn't so bad, coming up the steps after the treadmill...OY! My hip was hurting then. Ok, I thought I was doing fine, until I picked up my childcare kiddos. Brought them home and got them out of their car seats. When I picked up the baby, OUCH....my back was very tight and sore. I am feeling much better right now, I think I will take some more ibuprophin before I go to bed! Had enough yet? I've got one more for you!
• I found some frozen cinnamon rolls in the freezer yesterday evening, sounded great for breakfast. They smelled SO GOOD while they were baking this morning. Went to take them out of the oven and burned my hand. Way to go! I tell you what, I think I need to just lay down before I hurt myself or something else! :o)

Just call me Grace! :o)

Happy Blogiversary to ME!!!

Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday dear BLOGGY! Happy Birthday to YOU!!!!

Can you believe I've been blogging for 1 year?? I can't! But in other ways it seems like I've been doing this my whole life. I love the idea that I'm chronicling my families' life. I love to scrapbook, but I just can't seem to find time to do this anymore...maybe someday. But at least now that I'm blogging I can write down these stories so that I won't forget. I love looking back and reading what my kiddos were up to, and rereading my "Thankful Thursdays" posts are a great way to remember my blessings even on the tough days. (Gotta get back to doing those TT posts!!) Through my blog I've 'met' some wonderful women. I've read that I'm not alone when my kiddos misbehave. I'm not alone in my blessings, either. God has blessed so many of us with so many blessings...it's so fun to read about others' blessings, and to cheer them when they have tough days. This blog has also made a great way to connect with long lost family and friends. My parents get nervous and call to check on me if I haven't posted in a few days. My sister-in-law in North Dakota even checks once-in-a-while. I have an awesome cousin, Loni, who has begun her own blog about her family. I hadn't seen or spoken to Loni much in the past few years (no problems, just life kept getting in the way!)...but now I check out what she is doing at least a few times a week, and I know she reads my blogs and leaves me little notes. I have aunts and uncles all over the state that read my blog...though they don't leave nearly enough comments!! :o) Come back soon...I have many blog posts swirling around in my head...here are some teasers!

• My middle name is NOT Grace.
• Children are starting to take ownership of their chores! This is AWESOME!
• Blastball, T-Ball, and Softball oh, my!
• Bethany turns 4!! (May 14)
• Making up with my treadmill
• Hubby and My 12th Anniversary
• Narnia, Prince Caspian (comes to theaters on May 16...we are SO EXCITED! Can't wait to see it and tell you all how WONDERFUL it is!)

That's all the teasers I can think of for now...Bethany has to get ready for school...she's celebrating her birthday there today with pink cup cakes. I'll try to take a picture of her with Abbie's pink camera..(why not my own camera? You'll find out in the post to come about my middle name).

I am alive....

Yes, I am alive. I'm sorry I have been gone from my blog for so long. I've had a rough week. I'm not feeling like sharing it all right now, just know that I've had a pretty tough week in the mothering realm. Prayers are always appreciated! Tonight was a much better night, I hope it is the beginning of a much better week.

I hope to return to blogging soon. When I return, please be kind when I tell you of my week. I need advice and ways to deal with certain behaviors, but I also need love and acceptance for being the mother that I am. Thank you all for understanding...

On a completely unrelated note...I noticed that my "blogaversary" is coming this week! On May 8, I will have officially been blogging for a year, and Oh, what a year this has been! (Gifts are welcomed! ;o))

Andie

Garage Sale is FINISHED!

Well, my first garage sale is over. It went ok...not great, but ok. It was WINDY and cold last night, so we kept the garage shut and just used the side door. It was crowded with stuff, and quite a few people came. We both sold our high chairs, so that made me HAPPY!
We both sold quite a bit of clothing, but still have a bunch left. We noticed that people were (of course) buying more spring/summer stuff...so we are planning another sale for September. We have everything sorted and priced already so it shouldn't be so much work to get it all organized. Plus, we'll have time to go through the rest of our homes to get other stuff besides just kids clothes and toys. After my purchases (;o)) I only made a total of around $50, but that's ok, I got Bethany some cute clothes from my friend...so some of my profits went to that. But hey, that's $50 more than I had last week, and just for cleaning out part of the basement...not too bad I think. Like I said, the weather was pretty rotten yesterday, and it started out pretty COLD this morning, though it did warm up towards the end. We'll sell more next fall when we get our winter things out!
I'm off to cook for my family, I haven't done that all week...feeling pretty bad about that! However, they seem to have survived just fine! :o)