Happy Birthday Big Nate!

In the midst of all flu drama at our house this last week, we had a huge milestone. The herd will no longer have a 3 year old in its midst. I'm sad. I like 3 year olds...a lot...especially 3 year old boys. But, as Joe has now famously put it, "we are raising adults, not children!". So I guess it is for the best that my baby turn 4. He was certainly excited about it. Here's some Nate facts:

Favorite food: marshmallows

Birthday cake: Strawberry with white icing (yes, I made my 4 year old boy a pink cake for his birthday. In my defense, he requested it over and over and over again!)

Favorite candy: You can take the chocolate and anything else sweet as long as you give me GUM!

Favorite toy: his electric guitar

Favorite pasttime: playing dress-up...it doesn't matter what as long as it isn't his normal clothes

Favorite TV show: old superman cartoon

Favorite stuffed animal: Rosie the bear, of course!

Here's my now four year old in his new birthday outfit:

Here's how poor Sara spent Nate's birthday:

It's amazing how something invisible can totally take everything out of you...

Last night was the first night I've slept through the night since I had the flu. Yeah, that sore throat last weekend wasn't strep, it was the first stage of the flu. So I woke up this morning feeling really, really great. I spent about the first half hour with my cup of coffee and coughing...coughing a lot. But I hadn't woke up coughing in the night (NyQuil is really, really great!) so I didn't really mind coughing this morning. The sun came out which, frankly, has been a very infrequent occurrence lately. So I got out my to do list and at the top was to rake the leaves that are piled everywhere around our house. I took the kids to school (except for Sara...she has the flu now) for the first time this week, came home, changed my clothes, and promptly sat down to catch my breath. But I was still feeling pretty good and was very tired of sitting on my couch staring at all those leaves. So I went outside, started the fire in the pit, and tackled those leaves. After about 5 minutes I realized this was going to be much more draining than I realized. Okay, so I'll lower my expectations and only do part of them. I cleaned off the driveway (you couldn't even really tell where our driveway was) and then I was done raking. The gutters had to get cleaned out before it rained. So now it is 10:38, and after many breaks (helping Sara with her homework) I raked the driveway and cleaned out 2 of the 4 gutters. And, yep, I'm done for the day. It's back to the couch to stare at the leaves for me.

The secret to good cooking

I spent most of my weekend on the couch. The body couldn't hold off the germs in the house any longer. I'm doing much better now thanks to a great husband who kept me medicated with ibuprofen and tylenol all weekend (and made sure I didn't OD on any of it as I kept asking for me). Almost back to normal except the excruciating pain that I have whenever I swallow. My throat is so very sore. Ahh, swallowing is overrated. Joe keeps hinting that a doctor visit in my future. Anyway, since I was on the couch and Joe was watching the herd I got caught up on a lot of my DVR'd shows and then some. I'm fairly TV'd out at this point. I actually watched QVC for part of the weekend. They were selling Rachael Ray's kitchen equipment so I didn't feel like I was completely wasting my time. And I picked up a very important cooking tip. It is the secret to great and perfect food. Cooking food in Rachael Ray's stoneware makes the food taste good. Who know that was all it took? I'm sure it's true...the sales lady said it so matter of factly. And here I've wasted all that money on my cookbooks. I just needed good Rachael Ray stoneware! I bet my kids would even eat creamed spinach if I just made it in that.

It's confession time

Joe and I are fairly responsible people. Our children get 3 meals a day and snacks if they are hungry. They go to bed at a decent time. If you ask us to do something for you and we say we will, we do it. We had good parents that taught us how to arrive on time and go the extra mile. However, there is one area that for some reason we fail every time....movie rentals. Yep, I think I can count on one hand the number of times that Joe and I have returned a rented movie on time. I don't know what it is about returning the movie to the video store or the library that turns us into completely irresponsible adults. I'm also not sure how many movies we could have actually bought with the amount of fines and late fees that we've had to pay. Because of this we usually go through spurts of renting movies...after two or three late returns we stop borrowing them. And then Joe usually says to me "We should just join Netflix. They don't have due dates on their movies." And then I always say "No! That will cost us a lot more money then we would typically spend in a month on movie rentals." And then Joe says "Really? How much did we spend this month including late fees?" And then I say "But I know we can return them on time the next time!"

Well the proverbial straw broke the camel's back this week. We returned our movie night video Star Wars: The Clone Wars three days late! Yikes! That's a lot of late fees. So yesterday I signed us up for Netflix. We'll see if I can get them to the mailbox! I mean, seriously, it can't be that difficult to put it back in the mail, can it? But then again the video store is on the way to church so you know how often we drive past it...

So I published this post and the google ad that showed up on my page after it posted was for Netflix...very funny...

The signs that the flu...

outbreak, epidemic, pandemic, whatever you want to call it has officially hit our small town:

I counted only 12 walker/rider kindergartners coming out of school one day. There are four kindergarten classes at the school. (Remember that many ride the bus, but just the fact that I could count the walker/riders is a sign)

I was on hold with the pediatrician's office for 15 minutes this morning. Honestly I was feeling fortunate it wasn't longer. Kind of scared to actually visit the office later today...

The topic of conversation everywhere is the flu...who's had it, who's not had it, what the symptoms are, the extent to which people are going to not get the flu, to vaccinate or not to vaccinate (which is kind of a weird question since we are talking about who has it and who doesn't have it in the same breath)...I could go on and on

My kids get their temperature checked every morning and extensive questioning on possible symptoms that would make a CIA interrogation officer proud.

So, you may be thinking have we been sick? Yep, everyone but me has had some level of sickness (Go mom's immune system! That and I'm surprised I'm not drunk from all the GermX I've used in the last week.) John is still feeling under the weather hence the doctor's visit. Is it "the flu"? clueless on the answer to that one. Does it honestly matter? Nope, I'm just thankful that we've not had whatever it is as serious as some of my friends and feeling blessed that I get a few sick days to hang out with John-John.

Week wrap-up

Hello November! What? It's not November? I was fooled by the November like temperatures, the forecast for snow (earlier this week) and flu season. I thought we'd avoided that last one until last night. I guess my kids' bodies can only fight off so much. John's finally succumb to a fever. It really was only a matter of time...one of the other kindergarten classes at his school had a substitute teacher and only 6 kids in the class one day. The word on the street (very reliable sources...other moms) is that it lasts about a week and yes, my suspicions on this one were correct, you are contagious before the fever hits. We may only have 2 to go instead of 3...Ashley already experienced the sore throat for 2 days so I'm thinking her immune system kicked it before it overtook her.

We had parents night at AWANA on Wednesday night and it was a proud night. Sara earned her t-shirt and the other three all came home with their first patches. I love seeing them soak up God's word.

John learned all about spiders and bats this week. He thinks they are so fascinating. I think those creatures were made for little boys.

We got the older three's school pictures back. Nathan wanted to know where his were. He still is convinced at times that he should go to school and experience all that it has to offer. The pictures reminded me that it was a windy day. John's hair looked great. The girls...well, it was a windy day.

We said good-bye (actually see you later) to a dear friend this week. You can hop over to Joe's blog to read a tribute to Wally.

I'm off to family night at church (which I'm in charge of) by myself. The girls are off to a girl scout camp out and the boys, well, should be quarantined for awhile.

The incident we will call "The Whopper episode"

I tried to order a Whopper yesterday at our local Hardees. Really? It's a Hardees? Ever since we moved here over two years ago I have thought it was a Burger King for some reason and obviously keep forgetting. My coffee had worn off by lunch time. I was on an adrenaline high from a good morning Bible study. I thought I would treat my hubby to a Whopper (he's had a long week). So I pulled into the drive thru, was very confused that the Whopper wasn't on the menu, but would not be deterred so I asked the lady on the other side of the speaker "Do you have a Whopper combo?" After a pause she responded "This isn't Burger King." I was slightly dismayed and then my brain kicked in. She was right this wasn't Burger King. Evidently I couldn't get it made "my way".

recent mom moments

I had to dry John's socks to wear to school with the hair dryer because I didn't get them in the dryer on time. Yes, he has a lot of socks and they were all dirty!

Ashley informed me that I'm no longer allowed to lick my thumb and then clean her face with it. She was pretty grossed out the last time I did it and I would probably be grossed out if someone did that to me.

On Saturday I was so proud of my kids and somewhat proud of myself as a parent. They were so very good on a marathon shopping trip I took them on...for clothes. Sunday was perhaps my most humbling day as a mom...not a good day and ended the day wondering why God made me a mom. Maybe that's why He gave me Saturday as a reminder before the storm hit.

We were working on memory verses for AWANA and I got corrected by my kids (more than once) and I had the book! I guess it helps if I look at it.

I remember at 3pm today that I would need to fix supper tonight and had no idea what I was going to fix.

I found four more gray hairs while I was waiting in the car this afternoon for the kids to come out of school.

I have recently broken 1.) the door sensor on the dryer. You can now open the dryer door and have it continue to run. It's a good thing I no longer have a toddler in the house who would jump in for the ride. 2.)the door knob on Ashley's door while I was trying to unlock it. It was easier to break than you might think.

I have a dead mum in a pot sitting on my front porch. I think it lived for a week.

Needless to say, this hasn't been my most successful month as a mom, but I also can say that I've managed to laugh my way through most of these which has been nice. Maybe I can use them in a stand up comic routine someday.

Thursday randomness

I have a bunch of random thoughts rattling around in my brain so I thought I'd share...

It is Thursday and I'm not mopping. I haven't mopped on Thursdays for awhile. I figured life is short so why spend every Thursday mopping. Instead it has turned into coffee with a friend day. And today it had an added surprise involving John Denver. It was kind of God's way of reminding me how much He loves me. He never ceases to amaze me.


Sara told me the other day that she thought we had a weird last name.


I don't understand snooze buttons. I never have. Normally they aren't a big deal because I hardly ever wake up to an alarm clock and I'm usually already up when Joe's goes off. Let's just say the other night someone remaining nameless kept me up watching a movie until 11ish (we still haven't finished it) and then the alarm clock went off at 5AM and 5:04 and 5:08 and..then he (I should say we) got up at 5:11. So why didn't we just set it for 5:11? Again, don't understand the snooze option. The attempt was made to explain but I hadn't had my coffee yet.


A friend and I came up with a great idea this morning to take a day each month and swap each other's kids so that we could clean our houses throughly or do cleaning projects that never seem to get done. We were both very excited and then realized how lame we had become that we get excited over cleaning by ourselves for a day once a month.


I'm reading The Life You've Always Wanted by John Ortberg and really enjoying it. We'll see if I get all the way through it. I'm kind of very skilled at reading 3/4 of a way through a book and then not finishing it.


Ashley's mouth is not cooperating with her new head gear. We will be making the third trip to the orthodontist in 2 weeks on Monday. A back bracket refuses to stay on her tooth.

Joe & I got to hear the testimony of our dear neighbor tonight. God has truly been doing amazing things in her life! She is meeting with the elders on Sunday to become a member of our church. So exciting and feeling so blessed that God let us witness her transformed life.

Catching up...

Well, I hate resorting to bullet points, but unless you want 12 different posts about completely unrelated things, bullet points are really the only answer. Here goes....

• The girls had a weekend of firsts...their first sleepover at a friend's house and their first football game. We are within walking distance of the high school so I'm not sure why it took a sleepover to get them to a game. The boys are feeling fairly left out so I see a football game in our future.
• Last week I forgot the pin number my debit card. The debit card that I've had for over a year. The pin number was completely gone. I don't know where it went but every time I went to the store I was completely blank. So I had to look it up. Nope, thankfully I didn't shred the pin number like you are suppose to. Otherwise we'd have taken an embarassing trip to the bank.
• Soup weather has arrived! I had brocolli cheese soup and wild rice soup over the weekend. So very good! And, no, they weren't homemade.
• I think I'm going to have to put my flip flops away soon. They are calling for frost this week. As Joe can tell you, it is a sad day in our house. I love flip flops, but when there is a chance of frost bite occuring I guess I should actually put on socks and shoes. And it is rather difficult to explain the girls why I'm allowed to wear flip flops and they are not.
• I sorted the boys' clothes this last weekend and I'm not sure which vegetable it was this summer that they ate that made them grow so very much. It was probably zuchinni. My zuchinni plants are still producing zuchinnis. I've lost count on how many quarts I have frozen. If it was the zuchinni then they will probably grow that much this winter as well because we'll be eating it all winter. For now I just need to find John some jeans to wear to school.
• I put my pants on wrong side out this morning. Yep, that is possible. Zipping them up was rather difficult. That was the first clue to me that something was wrong. Not really a good sign for the week.