We are THAT family is hosting a blog carnival which lets us share some flashback pictures and anecdotes. I thought I would use this as an excuse to pull one of my countless unphotogenic pictures from the archives. Maybe they can finally be put to good use.
My husband and I are high school sweethearts. We went to a small Christian school with only 44 students in our graduating class. Because our last names were on opposite ends of the alphabet we never had home room together. Because he took all the smart “math” classes and I took all the “smart” English classes, we never had a class together. Ironically enough we were both named Most Congenial in our Senior Class but the two of us had only had two conversations up to that point of high school…. prior to having our photo taken for the year book.
Since I was editor of the yearbook, I was making sure that no unphotogenic pictures of me appeared in that years edition. Those of you that know me well, know that is no small feat. This was back before digital photography so we had weeks between “photo shoots.” We had to have our Most Congenial Shot retaken 4 times for the yearbook.
In the first picture my eyes were closed. No problem, retake the picture.
This time we thought we’d go for something cute, so he picked me up in his arms.
(slight problem here b/c I was wearing a dress and this picture was X rated)
This is the third picture. Cute huh, both smiling, all good… wait…
look closely at my hand, particularly my finger. OOPS!!! Can’t post that in the yearbook!!! Not as Most Congenial!!!.
I was so embarrassed when I went to get Scott again from class to take another picture.
“I thought we already took that picture,” he said. “three times…”
“Yea, there was a slight problem,” I replied.
“Again?” He asked. (Keep in mind I had never let him see, or explained to him, my un-photogenic mistakes from before).
Finally, we got it right. And boy did we get it right….. 11 years later here we are happily married with TONS of would be great pictures IF ONLY my eyes were not closed.
Here’s Looking at You!
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Keeping three kids happy while waiting at the doctors office is a difficult task. Usually we get through the waiting room without a problem… the kids can rearrange the chairs, roll around on the floor, take magazines off of the shelf and occasionally sit quietly in my lap and read a book. It’s that tiny examination room that presents the problem. I know they keep the place clean but the bottom line is that doctors offices are where sick people go and I would rather we keep our germs to ourselves. To accomplish that I let the kids pick toys (or costumes) from home to bring and play with while we wait. Typically we bring matchbox cars, magna doodles, or some other SMALL item they can play with QUIETLY while keeping their hands occupied. Once our pediatrician comes in I bring out stickers and crayons to entertain the kids who are not actually there to see the doctor. Notice I didn’t say stickers, crayons and paper. Each doctors office comes will a large sheet of germ free paper on the examination table, right off the roll. They think its a TON of fun to stick stickers all over that sheet. It gives the kids a big surface to write and play on and the staff doesn’t care because they just rip the sheet off and throw it away after we leave anyway. Sometimes we’ve even drawn roads on the paper for the matchbox cards to drive on. This typically works well for me and it keeps them playing on the paper. However, even with the costume and my bag of tricks, our well visit this week was QUITE EVENTFUL. If you have a minute to read about that circus like experience, click here. I think you’ll find it worth the read.
To find out what works for other people, visit Rocks in My Dryer.
My oldest and youngest had well visits today. Our trip to the pediatrician’s office was a circus act in and of itself. I made the appointment for 8:30a.m. The nice thing about early appointments is that we don’t have to wait long in the waiting room. The hard part is that it takes an insane amount of work to get the three kids fed, dressed (they can’t exactly show up in dirty underwear and pjs) and in the minivan by 8:10…not to mention the fact that I usually try to look presentable myself which means I have to actually shower and do something with my hair. Thanks to my wonderful hubby we were backing out of the driveway by 8:19. Thanks to the fact that the office clock is slower than the minivan clock, we were only 3 min late.
I wish I had a picture of how we looked as we walked into the office this rainy morning. I was carrying the baby, and holding my 2 year olds hand as well as my purse, my diaper bag, and my bag of tricks (toys, crayons, stickers to occupy them in the waiting and examination room). Straggling behind was my son dressed in his camo pants and shirt, wearing his superman “goggles” and his red cape and carrying his Lighting McQueen umbrella. The funny thing about that umbrella is that the girls and I get more wet than normal waiting for him to put it up and take it down. Oh well, he enjoys it and we are used to getting wet b/c I never bother with an umbrella… I’d need a third hand for that and if I had that I am sure one of the kids would just end up poking me or each other in the eye with it!
We signed in and sat down. As soon as we are seated and got the books off the shelf and the kid chairs arranged, our name is called, which means it is time to gather it all up. My little superhero leads the way down the hall. My two year old is in the middle calling for Dr Hackett. Mommy and baby and our boatload of stuff were trailing behind.
Time to strip the baby to be weighed and convince my son to take off his shoes and cape for the scale (I don’t really know why the MA was insistent the cape had to come off for this.. how much could it weigh really?). I was able to convince my son to brave standing on the scale and then attempted to put my baby on the scale without her falling off even though she was trying to grab my shirt the entire time. Not sure how accurate her measurement was, but she said it was good enough.
Next on the agenda was holding the hot compress on my baby’s heel so she could get a heel prick. Not too hard. Holding her down for the heel prick while the MA is squeezing her foot like crazy to get the blood out (next to impossible)! Changing my baby’s diaper is like bull fighting. I am not exaggerating. She is constantly flipping over and flailing the entire time… Now I am attempting to hold her still while someone squeezes blood out of her. The whole time I am convincing the other two that “it is ok.” Meanwhile my 2yr old is watching wide eyed and saying over and over “uh-oh” “uh-oh” b/c she sees all the blood on the baby’s foot. My son is singing “Jingle Bell Rock” (not sure why he thought that song would comfort his sister but it was a valiant effort).
The MA then takes my son off for his vision and hearing tests. [You know your want more…]
….Flushed Poop…..
Yes, you read that correctly and if bathroom talk/humor is not your thing, then I suggest you skip this post.
The following incident actually occurred in my house today. Sometimes I wonder, “What will I write about in my blog today?” Or I worry if I will have enough stuff to write about to keep blogging far into the future… then things like this occur, and I think, “Well, that’s today’s post!”
After going potty this afternoon, my son excitedly called me into the bathroom.
“Look Mom, my poop looks like Mickey Mouse!”
(It actually did, big ball with two little balls on top..)
“That’s cool honey,” I replied, then I wiped his butt and did the unthinkable….
I flushed the toilet. (What WAS I thinking, this was a work of art here!)
The tears came, “Mommy, you flushed the toilet!”
uh-oh
“I wanted to show Daddy!” (clearly poop like this NEEDS to be shared with the world)
I instantly got down on his level, looked him in the eye and apologized. I didn’t realize he hadn’t shown Daddy yet. (Who would’ve thought that one day I would be asking forgiveness for flushing poop down the toilet?)
Daddy came in the room then and was quickly filled in on the situation. His response, “Don’t worry bud, maybe you’ll make mickey mouse poop another time and I can see it then.” (We encourage our children to truly strive for the best in life, push them to the highest levels…) It was all I could do not to laugh out loud right then.
I don’t know if poop like this comes around twice, but if it does I will be sure NOT to flush before everyone in the house sees it first!
I think all of the nice spring weather has thrown a wrench on my meal plans… last week we ate hot dogs three times in 5 days… the weather was so stinking gorgeous that we had to grill and all I had in the freezer was hot dogs, so the kids were VERY happy. When my 2 year old sees hot dogs in the fridge she says, “hot dogs daddy make” (Truth is Daddy makes anything that is on the grill, but hot dogs is the meat of choice for the kids) Anyway, here’s to more than just hot dogs!!!
[You know your want more…]
I started a policy at our house a few months ago which said, “Dessert only on Weekends.” My son is a great policeman on this and will ask throughout the week, “Is it the weekend yet?” If I serve dessert during the week, he often calls me out on it, but always happily partakes. I must confess the last few weeks I have really gone lax on this policy… it was his birthday, or we had company over, or ummm we had leftovers….. Yesterday, the excuse was, “Mommy just craved chocolate.” I wanted some chocolate. I know what you’re thinking. I had a weak moment and opened a bag of Oreos. Nope. There were no Oreos in the house (remember, its wasn’t the weekend). So, what is a girl to do? Turns out some sugar accidentally fell into the mixer. It’s curious but if you add some oatmeal and a little choclate you’re almost ready to eat some no bake cookies. The no bake part is important. How can someone go so far out of her way to break the very rule she created? Not me. I’m a woman of principal, I certainly didn’t bake. Does that make it any different then opening a bag of Oreos?
So I got busted on this too. After dinner my son asked if he could have a cookie for desert. My husband, intending to support my policy, replied, “No, it isn’t the weekend.” I then had to confess… “Um I kinda made some cookies.” BUSTED! I had no excuse, I didn’t accidentally grab the butter, pour the oatmeal and mix up the cookies….
Mothering takes a lot of hard work and a lot of late nights. While I only have four years of experience to look back on, I’m pretty sure it is moments like these that I will cherish when I’m old and gray.
5 Minutes for Mom is hosting a Mother’s Day Photo Contest asking bloggers to post a picture that defines motherhood; I knew right away that I had to recycle this previous Wordless Wednesday. It’s hard to capture the happiness my children have brought to my life, but this picture comes pretty close. Click here to see others mommy moments or to enter yourself.
I fear I have become a gadget person. I don’t know how or when it happened, but recently I have noticed the signs. Two weeks ago when on my date night with hubby, we had some extra time after our Toys R Us date, so I asked if we could run in the mall to look at the new iphone at the apple store. Yes, you read that correctly. I asked my husband if we could go look at technological equipment that I knew we couldn’t afford and weren’t going to buy, just b/c I wanted to play with one. This is not good.
My fascination with the iphone started last month when I saw my husband’s cousin’s itouch. He was showing us how you can scroll through pictures and albumn covers and even zoom in and out just by using your fingers. Prior to this I have been totally against PDA’s. I have prided myself on the fact that I keep a mental calendar. Ask me when Flag Day is, I can tell you. When is the first day of summer, got that too. Hey honey, what are we doing on the 21st of next month… “ah let me see, that is a Wed… you have a sailing race..” When my husband got a used $40 PDA a few years ago, just for fun, I rolled my eyes and complained. “Why do you need a PDA when you have me?” Eventually he stopped using it b/c the battery didn’t work right and he kept losing the info and having to rely on yours truly. But this itouch, this is different. They lulled me in with the pictures. In case you haven’t picked up on it yet, I LOVE taking pictures of my kids. I’ve got them scrolling through on my screen saver, and digital picture frame, in addition to lining the walls of my hallway. The iphone would allow me to carry around GIGS of pictures AND videos of my kids to look at whenever I wanted. AND I can check e-mail, compulsively check my blog for comments, listen to music, talk on the phone (imagine that using a cell phone for actual phone conversations) and even check the weather! All this and I can carry it around in my pants pocket. It’s awesome! Maybe I could even remove the useless calender function to leave more space for pictures 
. Of course, my husband pointed out the fact that it costs more than an actual laptop. hmm…..small detail I thought…. and THIS proves that I have become a gadget person. We’re in trouble!!!
Last week as we were running errands the Christian radio station played one of those 60 sec minisermons. The person was speaking on 1 John 4 and read the passage which states, “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”
Son: ” Mom, why did she say we don’t love God?”
Me: “They were saying that we didn’t love God first, but that God loved us and then we loved him.”
Son: “Well I have always loved God. Since I was a baby I knew that He was my Savior.”
Me: “How did you know? Who told you?”
Son: “I just knew”
Me: “What did He save you from?”
Son: “My sins”
Me: “What is sin?”
Son: “The bad stuff we do”
This conversation touched my heart on many levels. Since before my children were born, it has been my prayer that they would know Jesus as they Savior from a young age and that they wouldn’t ever know a day where they didn’t know him as their Lord and Savior. We’ve had several conversations over the past few months about death, Jesus, sin and my husband and I are both convinced that our son recognizes he is a sinner, knows that He needs a Savior and knows that Jesus is the one who took the consequences for his sins. My son’s statement have showed me that God has answered that prayer in His life. It was awesome to hear him say, “Mom, I’ve always known that Jesus is my Savior.” I thank God for that answered prayer. It is a thrill to watch the Lord working in his life.
Thoughtful Thursday:
Those of you familiar with my blog know that my posts typically relate funny anecdotes about the happenings of a stay at home wife and mom with three kids. While i suspect my days will seldom be “normal” enough to leave me without a “post worthy” moment, I intend to take some time on Thursdays to highlight something from my week that’s a little more “thoughtful” and significant. God is such an integral part of the way I see the world that my “Thoughtful Thursdays” will often reflect on the Lord’s work in my life and in the life of my family. If you had a post from this week, or choose to make a specific “Thoughtful Thursday” post, that relates any significant development/observation in your life (spiritual or not) please feel free to post a link to that blog entry in the comments section. I’d love to see how others are developing as well. (Oh, and please don’t feel like you have to have a blog or post a link to leave a comment 
)
I have been singing the praises of oxiclean for some time now. It has gotten poop, tomato sauce, mud, and spit up out of my clothes for years. This Easter I REALLY put it to the test. We were dying eggs with the kids. My two year old had just plopped her egg into the red dye when she tipped the mug to peer into it and check out her handiwork. I am sure you can imagine where the story goes from here. I thought the shirt was a goner, but we decided to try and soak it in oxiclean just in case.
Oxiclean worked for me, hope it works for you too! Check out Rocks in My Dryer for more Works for Me Wednesdays!
