Self Portrait at Going Bonkers

I took Abe to "Going Bonkers" today. It's an indoor play place.

Sleep is for the weak!

My baby Abe never sleeps. OK, maybe not NEVER, but not nearly enough. He has a habit of getting up at exactly 3:18am and staying awake until around 5am or sometimes just staying up! Despite my best efforts, he usually doesn't fall asleep in the evening until around 10pm. I usually stay up until midnight or so doing chores, studying and putting back everything Abe has gotten out during the day. Then at precisely 3:18am, I am awoken to the feeling of someone digging their baby toenails in my back, a bottle being poked in my eye or a wet diaper sitting on my face.
Yesterday I noticed Abe yawning at around 8:30pm. I actually felt giddy inside thinking that he might go to bed early. I tucked him in as usual with his lullaby light and water bottle. His eyes slowly closed and then suddenly opened wide, he sat up, hurled his bottle across the room and RAN laughing through the house and literally did not stop running until 10:30pm.

Time, it goes so fast (when you're having fun)

Hmm, already the middle of the month and no posts since November? What's been going on here? We have had a few visits from friends and relatives for the holidays. We had a fabulous HumanLight and a nice New Year at home. Kids went back to school on Monday and they have only 7 days of school before they get 3 half-days in a row and then and 2 days off. How am I supposed to get anything done? Oh well. Resume vacation time!

My New Car

Just kidding. This is not my car. But it's the car I wish I had. When I went to the dealership to look at the minivans (what else), I saw the Cruiser. The salesman took me to the back lot to look at more vans.
"Which one do you like?" The salesman asked me.
"I like that one!" I say, pointing at the Cruiser.
"It is a nice car..." the salesman agreed "...but not for someone who has 4 kids."
I ignored him and stood on my tip-toes to peer into the windows.
"Uhh, Ma'am?" he said while jangling the van keys.

The next week, while driving my new minivan, Ada commented that it was such a typical "mom" car.
That it is.

One of my many talents

Over the years I have developed certain skills which have proven to be quite helpful in dealing with children. I have learned how to change the sheets on a bed that a child has has been sick in while the child is still in it without disturbing the child!

It'll hurt if I swallow.

Remember the little kids voice on that old commercial? I've had a sore throat for the last few days and it is the worst sore throat that I ever remember having. When I swallow it feels as though my throat is squishing out my ears.

Birthday Treats

I decided to make birthday cookies this year. Then my neighbor surprised me with cake. It was delicious!

Birthday Presents

Face your fear and look at the light

I had Lasik done over the weekend. Here is a picture of me while waiting my turn to go in. I had the guy next to me take it with my phone. I was waiting almost 4 hours before going in. I was nervous about the procedure and asked several people coming out about it. Even with as much as they told me, it was still not the same as experiencing it myself. When it was finally my turn and I was lying under the laser with my eye lids taped open, I started to freak out a little. I tried not to show it, but apparently I was moving around a bit. It felt like every movie I've seen of aliens torturing an abductee. The Dr. kept repositioning my head and reminding me to look at the flashing light. On the second eye he just held my head in place and said "Look I know you're nervous, but you have to face your fear and look at the light". Afterward, they taped my eyes closed and I had to sit in a chair for a while to recover. I could hear the people around me waiting to go in. One of the techs asked me "How was it?" "Scary." I replied, while I sat in my chair shaking.

Lightly Nerdy

Stamp Table

My table was getting a bit torn up after several craft mishaps. The kids and I decorated it with stamps.

When I went to Good News Club

I'm trying to remember how old I was but I think I was around 10 (5th grade) when a neighbor of ours hosted Good News Club at her home. My neighbor did not teach the lessons, it was another lady. It was pretty fun. We heard stories, sang songs and learned bible verses by singing them. If you could sing/say the bible verse the next week you got to pick a prize. I remember that when we would sing songs the lady had large cards that had the words on them and the cards were colored with markers so meticulously. The time she must have spent on them impressed me.

One day we were discussing why God lets bad things happen. The teacher told a story of how she had a miscarriage and how sad she was about it. She had wondered why God would take her baby away. She told us that sometime later a friend of hers had a miscarriage as well. The teacher was able to comfort her friend during that time. She finished by saying that after her friends miscarriage, she knew why she herself had had one. The reason was so that she could support her friend.

Having gone through a miscarriage myself I understand what a lonely time it is. However, even when I was a 10 year old I thought something was wrong with my teachers story. My 10 year old mind wondered why God didn't just save both babies and spare everyone such grief.

Can't stay away from Target

After quite a bit of fiddling around with it, I finally got Ben's game working. Ada wanted to buy some jeans for school at Target and Ben had a gift card he wanted to use so I decided to give Target a 2nd chance. Of course as any Target shopper will tell you it's hard to leave without spending a bunch. I called David when we got home. "We just got back from Target." I told him. "We got jeans, a game, and $200 of other things". Actually it was mostly school clothes and pajamas. Tommy wanted to wear his new pajamas as soon as we got home. "How do you like them?" I asked. He happily rubbed the pj shirt and exclaimed, "It's so soft and it smells like Target!"

Brick

Yes, I am a poor sport.

Abe and I started taking "Parent and Tot" swimming lessons this week. Yesterday was a lot of fun (even though it was raining). We sang songs like the "hokey pokey", let the kids play with some pool toys and helped them kick their legs. Today the teacher said "Ok, we are going to do underwater submission." She demonstrated with a doll how to count 1, 2, 3! and dunk your baby under. I refused to do it and I was the only one. There are 10 in the class. I was rather shocked that all the other parents just did it. Most of the babies came up crying. Abe happily splashed in my arms while we looked on at the screaming babies getting dunked 3 more times.

Rain

Checking the weather, here is my 10 day forecast:

T-storms
T-storms
T-storms
T-storms
T-storms
showers
showers
T-storms
T-storms
T-storms

This has been going on for the past month! I am usually not one to complain about the weather but mix 4 kids and summertime with this rain and I am going crazy.

Luckily, the rain is not continuous so there are actually long periods each day where it is not raining.
Unluckily, the rain starts pretty quickly.
Like today when we went to the pool and were there for about 20 minutes when a t-storm started and so the pool threw everyone out.
Luckily, the rain stops pretty quickly.
Unluckily, the rain is usually so hard that it is a flash flood and so even when it stops the ground is soaked. My backyard is flooded. A few of the local 4th of July activities are being canceled because the fields/parks are flooded as well.

Whatever happened to customer service?

Recently, I have noticed the lack of good customer service in my area which is starting to irritate me. I would have to say my biggest pet peeve of those employed in the retail/phone/customer service industry is the lack of people who are able to speak clearly. This is especially annoying on the telephone. So many times when calling a place I hear: "Thankyouforcallingourbusinesswherewe'renumberonethisisafasttalkingmumbler-
howcanIhelpyou?"
And I'm not really sure what they said or if I have the right number so I say questioningly,

"I'd like to order a pizza?" or,
"There's a problem on my bank statement?" or,
"You say that I have a video out, but I turned it in?" or most recently,
"I need to schedule a dentist appointment?"

Seriously, is there no professionalism anymore? When I was at the bank a few days ago dealing with my own issue - apparently depositing a check when you haven't deposited one in awhile flags something in the computer for the teller to treat you like a criminal depositing a fake check. So while I was dealing with that, a phone call came in and I watched the teller do the fast talking mumbler routine from above, pause and then say harshly "Yes, this is Bank of Mumbler, how can I help you!" Then proceeded to make a series of confused and exasperated faces while listening to the callers problem. She tried to blow the caller off, but ended up transferring her to someone else.

Today when grocery shopping I had my hands full at the checkout with Abe and my wallet. I was annoyed, but not surprised when the checker began handing me the full grocery sacks instead of taking 1 step to the side and putting them in the cart for me. I suppose I could have sweetly asked "Would it be possible to put those in the cart for me?" But my mind was screaming expletives, so I just silently took the bags.

12 years ago today...

June 6, 1995, at 3:44am a baby was born. "Is it a boy or girl?" I asked David. "It's an Ada." he said.

That seems like such a short time ago - but our baby is long gone. In her place is a wonderful young lady. I couldn't imagine life without her. Happy Birthday Ada!

More cell phone

Upon closer inspection of the phone, I found that the ringer doesn't ring anymore, it only vibrates; and the camera doesn't work.

I "heart" Yahoo! Answers

You really can find the answer to any question there. I mean it, anything!

http://answers.yahoo.com/