It's not exactly the way I'd like to spend four hours and $150.

Do you want the long version, or the short version?

I'm going with short, because as I started typing the long, I got bored.

Short:

Night before last, Annie hit Austin in the head with the hard end of a water hose.

Accidentally.

We think.

He got a big ole bump, right between the eyes. We watched him for signs of a concussion, there were none, we relaxed. Yesterday morning he woke up with his bump looking much better, and a 102 degree temp. A fever is not a sign of a concussion, but the doctor told us to let them know if he got nauseous or lethargic.

At 3:30 he threw up.

Then he proceeded to get more and more lethargic.

At 4:40 I decided to call the doctor.

They had closed at 4:30.

I took him to our urgent care, who sent us to the ER.

Austin's first picture in the ER.



4 hours, 1 ct scan, and $150 later, I basked in the knowledge that he was just fine. His fever and nauseousness were symptoms of a virus. Something that I had thought was a probability, but with the possibility of something more serious, I just had to know for sure.

My boy is doing much better today. I always figured he'd be the first one of our children to need the ER. I didn't count on Annie being the one to put him there! Sweet Annie, who in a rare moment of wildness, smacked her brother between the eyes with the hard end of a hose.

They never cease to baffle me.

Sometimes I Think My Life Might Make A Good Reality Show.

I wish you could see my house right now.

Or maybe I don't.

I guess if I really wanted you to see it, I'd go get my camera and take some pictures or video to go along with this post.

But I'm not.

I don't have the energy to find my camera right now.

I was parenting solo tonight. At the last minute a friend called Jason and asked him to go see a movie. I sent him with my blessing, he needs more nights like that. Anyway, in the process of parenting solo...my house was destroyed.

The decorative balls from the dining room vases are in three different rooms.

The couch cushions have been rearranged into some sort of fort.

The playroom looks like a tornado hit it.

There are dirty dishes in the sink.

There are boxes of foil/saran wrap/wax paper in the living room.

There pieces of glue covered paper stuck to the craft table.

There are wet diapers and dirty clothes on my bed.

All of this happened in 3 hours.

Even I am shocked.

There is some good news.

They are asleep.

I never was a morning person.

I am one tired lady!

This week Ellie has gone to vacation bible school. I love VBS, I loved going as a kid, working it as a teenager, and taking Ellie now.

HOWEVER, I had no idea how actually having to wake up at a decent hour, and get out the door, for the first time since school let out, would essentially kick my tail!

It's not like it started at 6am or anything. No, it didn't start until 9:00. Still, I had to drag my sleepy self out of bed every morning, and wake up Ellie from a sound slumber at the early hour of 8:15. (Yes, I pushed it as far as I could!)

I'm not sure what happened to our fantastic sleep schedule this summer! I guess the kids slowly started sleeping in, and then staying up later. I got used to staying up quite late, because nobody was waking me up before 9 or 10.

I have to say, for the most part, I love this schedule. It's just me. It was the schedule I had all through college. Except the one semester I had to take an 8:00 class.

I failed that class.

Anyway, I've been reminded this week that this schedule doesn't work so well with kids. Kids who wake you up in the middle of the night. Kids who need to be taken to VBS. Kids who have crazy demands like breakfast.

So I will be trying to get to sleep before midnight now. Trying to retrain my body to wake up earlier.

It's hard though, because at midnight I don't have to fight anyone for the remote!

Random thoughts on a Friday night.

I put my kids in bed at 7:30 tonight.
It's 10:05 now, and they just fell asleep.
If I had a dollar for every, "MOM", I heard after I put them to bed tonight, I'd be at least $25 richer.
We're having a bit of a tough time with the summertime sleep schedule.
I've been waiting until they're asleep to vacuum Cheez-it crumbs off the couch.
Also to do a sink full of dishes.
I think I'm skipping the dishes.
I'm wondering if Austin took the sheet off his bed again before he fell asleep.
For some reason I really want to go to Target right now.
I won't.
I think I read ten books to Annie tonight, trying to help her wind down.
She hardly ever wants to read.
Tonight was different.
She'll be four in one month.
Ack!
Ellie was just WIRED tonight.
Now I'm wondering if the Lipton white tea she drank at dinner had caffeine in it.
She drank a lot of it.
Now I'm wired.
And I don't know why.
I'm on the big "D" like Alana.
I'm starting to see some results.
But I want to see MORE.
Actually, I just want to be done.
I don't want to say too much.
I'm afraid I'll jinx myself.
I will say this, if you're on the big D, AVOID WAL-MART.
It's a diet killer.
My house has been quiet for twenty minutes now.
I guess I'll go vacuum those Cheez-its.
Good night.

T-ball Time!

Ellie wanted to try t-ball this summer!


She had fun and did great!





All while wearing a dress under her t-ball shirt. I actually had someone ask if we were a certain religion because of her dresses. Ha! Nope, that's just my girl and her quirky sense of style! :-)





These two entertained themselves like this...


And finally my favorite pic of the season!


Shelley

One of THOSE days.

I just realized it's Monday.

That makes sense.

We've been having one of those days today.

A day when my children don't want to listen.

A day my son breaks something at Papa and Nana's.

A day I had to take all three kids to the grocery store.

A day when the laundry pile overwhelms me with it's size.

A day when I'm tired of being on the big "D".

I really have no one to blame besides myself. I over scheduled us the last several days. My kids haven't gone to bed before 11pm in 4 nights. It's summertime craziness at it's best. This week looks much calmer, and for that I'm grateful. I'm planning on lots of pool time for my kiddos, and bedtimes around 8pm.

Maybe the lady that sat in front of us at the baseball game last night was having one of those days.

Y'all should have seen her.

Alana did.

Austin was a little active, and bumped the lady and her husband a few times with his foot/hand/hat. After I received several looks from them, I tried to reign him in a little.

And he screamed.

Loudly.

You'd have thought by the lady's reaction that someone blew a train whistle in her ear.

I have never seen anything like it.

Until he screamed again.

I thought she was going to have a heart attack.

I'm sure she had perfect children.

Who never screamed.

Or like I said, maybe she was just having one of those days.

:)

Fishing!

For his birthday this year, Jason requested a fishing day at my Grandpa's farm. We love going there to fish in his pond. We had an absolutely perfect day to enjoy a great time with the fam!

My grandpa even entertained us!


Happy birthday to a wonderful daddy and husband!!!

Overdue blueberries.

So this morning Alana and I were working out at Curves, and she mentioned she had a new post up about blueberry picking. "Oh yes," I said, "we did that too!" Shocked, okay maybe not shocked, I mean, we are talking about blueberries here, so I'll say, Surprised, she said "You did? Did you blog about that?" And my answer was, "Well, no, I keep meaning too, but..." So here, my friends, is my long overdue post about blueberry picking, inspired by my friend Alana, who actually blogs about things soon after they happen, instead of six weeks later.

Six weeks ago...

We went blueberry picking! There is this GREAT little place about an hour south of us that has the most beautiful fields of blueberries I've ever seen. Of course, they're the only blueberry fields I've ever seen, but still. Michelle went last year, and invited us along this year. My girls were SO excited to spend a day with their cousins, aunt, Grammie, and Nana. Austin blessedly stayed home with a babysitter. It would not have been a good day for me had I been chasing him through blueberry bushes. Which we all know I would've been doing. Here we are, all ready to pick some delicious berries! Elaina, Ellie, Annie, and Olivia!


Ellie and Elaina were so cute. They were picking blueberries for each other, finding "good ones" and "keepers". They were blueberry buddies that day!


These two were blueberry buddies too. Wherever Olivia is, you'll find Annie close behind!


Grammie actually had a good time too! I say actually, because, well, my mom is not really the blueberry picking type. I mean, outside, with bushes, in the sun, maybe some bugs...Let's just say I was a bit surprised when she decided to come along. Thrilled, but surprised!


Now, Nana, she was serious about her blueberry picking. A veteran berry picker, she quickly filled her bucket! When I found her, I finally snapped a pic, but that woman was fast!


We hadn't realized it until we arrived, but we were actually there on opening day. They had a fantastic crop this year, apparently we've had prime conditions for blueberry growing. Just look at these!


And these!


Here's Elaina, Annie, and Olivia taking a blueberry snack break. Annie kept eating the green ones, *shiver*, she said they were her favorites!


And here is some of our loot! My girls and I picked almost five pounds. Ellie would've kept going if I would have let her. After two hours, she was just getting started! However, Annie and the cousins were done, and well, so was I!


I have to say, it was a really fun day. I thoroughly enjoyed spending time with family, picking delicious berries, and making great memories! I think we have us a new family tradition!

Talk about your ups and downs.

We've had, well...an interesting day.

Ellie had a small oral surgery this morning. An upper labial frenectomy, to be exact. It's a simple procedure, they just clipped a little muscle at the top of her gum line, that caused her two front teeth to spread apart. She, of course, wasn't thrilled at the prospect, but after mommy bribed her with Moon Sand (God help me!) she accepted it.

Everything went fine. I got a kick out of her as the "Happy Juice" made her relax. She was talkative and giggly. She went under anesthesia for the procedure. Once she was "out" they were done in 15 minutes.

It was the coming home part that got interesting.

I made the mistake of thinking we could make a quick trip through the grocery store to get a few things for her to eat. Ice Cream, popsicles, soup... Ideally I would have already done this, but it's been a crazy week. She was acting okay, so I decided to stop. Everything was fine, and we were almost done, when she started to slump.

Literally.

I'm not quite sure why, but it was as if the anesthesia kicked back in. As we checked out, she started to get belligerent. Once we were in the car, her head rolled around until I propped her up with a pillow. At home I carried her, all 72 pounds of her, into the house, and tried to get her into my bed. All of a sudden she was screaming at me that SHE WAS NOT TIRED. She swung her arms to hit me, but missed by a mile.

The next few hours brought many strange behaviors...reaching for things that didn't exist, asking the same questions over and over again, asking me if she was dreaming, wondering why her legs wouldn't wake up. She alternated between almost falling asleep, and getting very loud and mad at me, for about three hours. Finally, about half way through a movie, she started seeming "normal" again. Still very emotional, but much better. By dinner time, she seemed even better, and at bedtime she was back to her old self again.

Whew!

I think it's safe to say that she doesn't take anesthesia well! I think maybe it's her personality. She HATES to not be in control of things, so I can only imagine how all of this felt to her. I hope she wakes up feeling much better tomorrow. I am one tired mommy. And I pray she never has to have anesthesia again! At least not when mommy's the recovery nurse!

Happy 4th!

Happy Fourth of July from our family to yours!

The big house.

Our house has become, The Big House.

In more ways than one. When we bought it, it was a sweet 1700 square foot house. It was cute and it stole my heart the first time I saw it. In my naivete, as a 22 year old newlywed, I thought it would be PLENTY big for us and our future children.

After Ellie was born, I realized that might not be true. I remember being shocked at how much stuff she needed. Our little house soon felt very full, and I wasn't so sure that we could fit another baby. So, when we were expecting Annie, we started an addition to our home. Again, my naieveness came into play, when I believed the builders, and thought our home would be done by the time Annie was born.

This is me and Annie in Annie's room shortly after she was born.


As you can see, it wasn't exactly done.

It was finally done 16 months later.

The next month I found out we were expecting Austin.

He was the first of our babies to have the big house to explore. Annie was never much of an explorer, even amongst the power tools and building paraphernalia. I am SO THANKFUL now that we didn't have Austin during that time!

Austin...well, you know.

Austin is the reason we have these...

Now that our house is bigger, my little turbo man has LOTS of things to get into, that he shouldn't. His two big sisters keep me busy too, and therefore he has more chances to slip out of my sight. We invested in those two gates awhile back, and let me tell you...they are worth their weight in GOLD. Of course he still finds things to get into, but for the most part it's manageable. We've moved everything we can to higher ground, or fixed it so he can't get into it.

HOWEVER, he is a very resourceful child. The other day he discovered something new. The kitchen faucet. We have an opening above the sink, that looks into the living room. Just below the opening in the living room is a couch. He climbs onto the couch, and into the opening, reaches the faucet (which has one of those pull out heads), and proceeds to douse the entire area around the sink with water. After a few times, I was about at my wit's end! The crushing blow came when he soaked everything so thoroughly, that I had to empty the drawers to dry them out. Then came my salvation...in the form of an idea from Jen. She suggested a small gate for the opening. Wow! That had never occurred to me! So, now we have....


Prison.

Okay, it's not really prison. But as you stand in my living room and look around at all the barricades, it can be pretty comical! But hey, it helps me keep my sanity in tact!

And by the way, Jen is having twin boys in a few months. So Jen, I wanted to thank you for your great suggestion, and let you know that when your boys are 18 months old, and start getting into EVERYTHING, you can borrow my baby gates.

I have plenty.

THANKS!

THANK YOU FRAN!!!

She figured it out! I'm so glad I have bloggy friends who are smarter than I am!

Added...Thank you to Lisa at The Preachers Wife for helping Fran so she could help me!

Question...

I have been searching for an answer to this question for a good 45 minutes now, and have exhausted my resources, soooo...I'll ask all of you!

How do I make it so that people (you) can reply to my comments on your blogs? Like via email. I have searched through settings and postings and comments on the blogger website, and I can't figure it out! I thought I had it set so that people (you) could, but have been informed by Alana, that it's not working that way anymore. So...HELP!!!! I am so not tech savvy!

And really, 45 minutes! Mercy! I mean, I have laundry to fold, dishes to do, children to parent...

Maybe I'll search just a little bit more.