"but this one is just right..."

When Nanaw and Papa visited in March for Bubbas birthday, they surprised him with a desk. It's literally old school..my great grandpa gave it to me when I was little. Its so old that it's metal with a wood/ laminate top, a metal frame and actually has a lift top. It's adorable and he loves it. He uses it for puzzles, to draw/color and enjoys having his own spot. But, as it happens when you have more than one child, the other boys were jealous/upset. So I've kept an eye out for one and as luck would have it, Sunday night I found an ad on my buddy Craig's list, where a former home-schooling mom was selling not one, but 2 old wooden desks. Yeah I immediately emailed her....I wanted those desks. Well she contacted me and said they were ours for just $15/each....score! So after work yesterday, B went and picked them up!


Is that not the cutest thing you have seen?

Seriously?! Look at their little faces:

Now granted, they're not done yet...I am planning on refinishing them back to how they looked originally (Bubbas is in original condition). I'll have to sand off the green and pink spray paint, then Pooks will probably be re-painted to the gunmetal silver (depending on condition, since his is metal) and if the original wood on Peanuts is nice, we'll stain it. If it's not, we'll paint it again (but it won't be pink with hearts).

I think this is the push we needed to get refocused on home-schooling. When we moved to this house, we lost our "classroom" basement and we didn't have an area to kinda settle down and focus in. Well, now we do. Granted it's in our dining room but eh, we'll take it! As of now we will still be enrolling Bubba into Kindergarten this fall but I will teach Pooks and Peanut at home for preschool (unless Pooks somehow wrangles a spot in Pre-K...he desperately wants to go to the big school with Bubba we just don't know if he'll qualify). The boys are excited to go get Alphabet posters and workbooks, so off we go!

I am jonesing for a new craft project.

For reals.

I haven't crafted something in a long time. I made a wreath at Christmas and I made our stockings but then...well then I didn't make much. I did make some potholders (out of a super cute M&M fabric) for my aunt but I never took photos. I painted a bow holder for all of Sissys bows but that took like, one evening and I have yet to even take photos of it (or even hang it up. It may be sitting on her dresser holding all her bows. Maybe). One night I made up some of my Stroller Buddy handles and even created an Etsy shop with a few listed {I made up a bunch but listed a few...Etsy charges for listings and I wanted to see if they'd sell first}. But I really really want to refinish something. I read all these cool blogs where people buy a dresser or a nightstand for $10 and it is the UGLIEST thing ever but then they sand it, paint it, switch out the handles and viola, totally gorgeous new piece of furniture for less than like, $30.

Case in point, look at what Kara did over on Craftastical...
She took this freebie (totally yuck, right?)

 and turned it into this by sanding, painting and switching out the pulls. Seriously!

I want to do it! Except I don't need a nightstand. What I want to do is find some big beefy buffet or long dresser, strip it, sand it, paint it/stain it and make it into a new TV stand. Something that I can hide puzzles, dvds and books in but it'll look gorgeous without spending $500 (or more) on a solid wood "entertainment center". I am searching Craigslist and cannot wait to find a piece that "speaks" to me! Right now I have my eye on another little project but I'm waiting (impatiently) to hear back from the seller as to see if it's still available!

Weekend Adventures!

Okay so when we moved here, one of our goals was to use the weekends to really explore the area around us. Get out and do fun things as a family and see what this new city/state has to offer. And we have, just last weekend we went to Corpus Christi and Port Aransas. We've done the Riverwalk & Sea World. We visited the famous Gruene, TX. But more often than not our weekends consist of hanging around in our pj's, watching movies, heading to Costco...just totally vegging. And that's perfectly fine, sometimes. But I do think we need to get out more. We don't know if we'll end up living here for a year or 10 years but we should continue to have our mini-adventures. One of the things that I've wanted to do was find a good local Farmers Market.

Yesterday, we did just that. First we googled and came up at this website: http://www.pearlfarmersmarket.com/

It was the nicest farmers market that I have personally ever been too. Live music, pet friendly, hot foods for sale, honey, soaps, fresh cut flowers, tea, coffee, fresh breads PLUS produce, herbs, honey and sauces. Very cool! We bought {and immediately began eating, cibatta bread and the best fresh peaches)

 After the farmers market, we headed over to another free attraction: The Japanese Tea Gardens

While our timing could have been better (11am on a Saturday), the gardens are gorgeous. It was a bit crowded but none of us seemed to mind. The water was clear with tons of koi fish, the stonework was amazing, the bridges, steps, the flowers, birds...all of it was really pretty. The boys LOVED it.

 

 

Thank you random lady for snapping a good family pic :)

 

 The same lady who took our pic, also gave the boys some fish food to feed the koi fishes...those suckers were eager to eat!

 

 There is suppose to be this gorgeous waterfall but the severe drought around here dried it all up! Here is a self-portrait we took near the rocks where the water would cascade down

And after we walked up the stairs, wound around the ''waterfall'' and back down this gorgeous flower path, there was this small bench made of rocks...I had to get a pic of the kiddos...

all in all, a great morning exploring our new city :) Now I have to get searching for things to try next weekend!

Ka-Chow!

Cars 2 hit theaters today. Our boys have been anxiously waiting for this moment {going on 2 years I think!} and like a smart Mommy, I went and bought advance tickets yesterday so that we wouldn't have to wait in line today. The show started at 11:15 but we were ready for it by oh, 8am. They were a bit excited:

So we managed to keep them corralled at home until 10:30am when we finally left for theater. We skipped the looonng line of people waiting to buy tickets and went and found seats. Even at 10:50am, it was already filling up! B kept an eye on the kids (and our up front, all togeher, row of seats) while I went and got snacks. I'm proud to say that because of different coupons and promotions, our family of six was able to see the movie for $2.50. Add in the large popcorn and medium drink (that I also had a coupon for) and our total for 4 tickets on Premiere Day + snacks was $9.25! Woohoo!

The boys had their popcorn in special Cars2 cups...they ate a cupful each before the movie had started!

I have to say that it was a really cute movie. I think that the storyline was a bit harder for them to follow {lets just say it involved oil companies vs eco friendly ''alltinol''} but they were so intrigued by the racing, spies, and funny parts that they didn't seem to care. All four kids sat through the entire movie without needing a potty break or throwing a fit. Granted Sissy did fall asleep 5 minutes into the movie and wake up 5 minutes before it ended but it worked out perfect.

In the Theater's lobby afterward

After the movie we ate a late lunch at Red Robin. After Red Robin the boys wanted to go see it again. Needless to say, that didn't happen. But we went home and took a nice long nap and now at 9pm, they are all back in bed asleep. All in all, a great day!

I could use your help!

Remember a couple months ago when I shared these pictures:





I took them after Sissy had her toenails painted for the very first time. We used Piggy Paint for her first pedicure because it's completely natural and non-toxic. Unfortunately, I don't own any...a friend had the color "girls rule" and painted her little piggies for me.

Fast forward to now. I entered the upper photo in a contest to win a "Beach Bum" gift set from Piggy Paint via a Facebook contest. Well it ends tomorrow and we're in second place. So while I usually wouldn't do this, I'm asking for your help!

contest has ended...sissy placed second! she won a free bottle of polish...thank you to all who voted!


Right now we are in second place by about 20 votes...can you help a little sister of three brothers out? Thank you!

I feel like there's a monkey on my back

Oh wait, there sorta is.


Sissy is teething and is very clingy...she won't let me put her down for anything. Yesterday was especially difficult because about once a week B takes the van to work and it's our day to stay home; this way he enjoys the "luxury" the swagger wagon offers in comparison to his old pick up and I get things done around here. So I was busy cleaning bathrooms, the kitchen, the floors, doing laundry, and attempting to cook dinner. By 3:30 I couldn't handle sissy's whining and how she was crawling after me. So despite my horribly red sunburn, I popped her in my carrier and set to work on the kitchen and making dinner. She promptly fell asleep after this photo and I wore her for two hours before her daddy "rescued" me. I love baby wearing but baby wearing with a sunburn..ouch!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Happy Father's Day

We made a drive down to the gulf yesterday, we thought it would make for a nice Fathers Day. B has been wanting to go since we moved to Texas. And it did. If you ignore the leaky diaper on the way down, losing the camera at the beach and Bubba puking all over himself and the van on the way home. Honestly it really was a lot fun, but once we realized the camera was gone I was bummed. We still don't know what happened to it. B had it on the towel with sissy, then I took sissy to the van to grab floaties and B was with the boys...this took all of 45 seconds but the camera was gone. We had high hopes of finding it in the van but so far, nothing. It really sucks because I had so many cute pics of the kids enjoying the beach for the first time. But, I made myself shake it off and we started looking for seashells. Today I rinsed them all off and I have to say, the boys did good!

My little "Fixer Uppers"

Today we trekked on over to the Home Depot and took the boys to their first ever ''Kids Workshop". Originally B was going to take them as a Father-Sons thing but I wanted pics so I tagged along and ended up helping. It's actually a good thing I went because 3 excited boys with hammers everywhere...well, it could have ended up not so pretty. They had a blast! Each made their very own toolbox. And looked so cute decked in their orange aprons. They even earned ''achievement'' pins. The aprons are theirs to keep so they can take them with next time. Too cute! Thanks Home Depot!

 

Pooks was a little too enthusiastic with his hammer...

Bubba is naturally cautious and did great with his hammer.

Peanut was more than satisfied letting daddy help him.

"I'm sanded mom."

 

Pooks was the first finished and was proud to show his off

 

Telling the employee "thank you"

 

 I love my boys!

Nothing like a little meningitis scare, to stir things up!

So on Tuesday night (though it posted Wednesday) I blogged about my migraine. It was pretty bad Tuesday night. I woke up in pain several times and ended up taking a Percocet to help with the pain...it didn't help.

It was horrific on Wednesday. Now I know that I tend to over-dramatize and exaggerate a bit but I seriously wasn't sure I was going to make it. I cried, a lot. It felt like someone had bashed my head with a baseball bat. Like my head was 4 sizes bigger than what my neck could support. And it wasn't just the migraine...I was exhausted. My back and neck hurt, I was so nauseous and was vomiting up everything. Water, crackers, 7up...nothing would stay down.

I let the kids watch Scooby Doo at 7am and when they wanted popcorn for breakfast I rationalized that it was okay because I mixed in Crasins and I made them drink soy milk with it. By 7:50am I actually cracked down and called the doctor because I just knew something wasn't right. Yeah, we'd been up less than one hour. The earliest that the office could get me in was 3pm and I may have called B, begging, crying, pleading...to come home and just watch the boys for me. It wasn't that he didn't want to but he had missed part of Thursday last week, all day Friday, all day Monday and here it is Wednesday morning and I can't hack it. He felt horrible for me but also bad for his job, he was way behind. So we agreed that he would meet me at the office and watch the kids, rather than drive 20 minutes home so that I could hop in the van and drive 20 minutes (the opposite direction) to my appointment.

By the time 3pm rolled around, I was sure my head was going to explode. The doctors nurse took one look at me, then closed all the blinds, dimmed the lights and asked if I wanted to lay down. Seriously, I looked like $h!t. Doc comes in, asks me the ''when did it start, on a scale of one to ten, what have you tried/taken, etc" and I responded ''it's on day 3, i'd put it at a 11 on the pain scale and I have tried tylenol, 800mg ibuprofen and percocet left over from childbirth which I didn't use at the time of childbirth". I explained the severe nausea and vomiting. Seriously an un-medicated, natural childbirth was less painful than this migraine, no joke. I have a high pain tolerance but after three days, I couldn't take it anymore.

Well it turns out my vitals were all fine, my eyes passed whatever flashlight shining/tracking test they do, and it was decided to treat this migraine ''aggressively'' and they would be giving me 2 shots: one for my nausea (Zofran...I think) and then 5 minutes later, one for my migraine (Imitrex). He said that by the time I left his office, I'd be virtually pain free. Well long story short  shorter, I had a bad reaction to one of the drugs and started vomiting. So they watched me for another 10 minutes. Nurse came in, had me sit up slowly and I vomited again. Nurse told me to lay down, they brought me water and said that the doctor wanted to keep an eye on me. They took my blood pressure again (it was normal) and after another 20 minutes, I hadn't thrown up and my head felt a little better...not so sensitive to the light/sound but still a headache,  so I was sent home with strict instructions to call if I got worse.

I got home, ate 2 chunks of watermelon, fell asleep. Woke up, threw up aforementioned watermelon and fell back asleep. Woke up again at 8:30pm and felt like death. My head hurt much, much worse. B had taken all the boys to see Kung Fu Panda 2, Sissy was sleeping and I decided to call my mommy. She said I needed to go the ER. I didn't like that so I said I'd wait it out til B got home. B gets home...well, whenever he got home and I woke again at 10:30pm. Again, I vomit. I'm crying yet not really crying because it hurts to bad to cry. I have a fever of 101.8. Not only am I in pain but I'm worried about staying hydrated enough to keep nursing Maggie. In 5 hours, she had nursed 8 times. I know my supply was down. I had tried twice to supplement with formula and she wouldn't take it. So I call the doctor. He said that I had two options. Option 1: he would call in a different anti-nausea drug for me because it sounded like I was dehydrated and/or had meningitis. Option 2: I could go straight to the ER, get IV fluids and find out if I had meningitis. I chose option number 1. I really did think that I was dehydrated. I mean, I hadn't kept down hardly any fluids in close to 36 hours {the only thing that I had kept down were those Freezer Pops...3 of them} and I was still nursing Sissy. So at 11:30pm, B left for Walgreens and I fell back asleep. He woke me a little after midnight, I took the anti nausea and sipped some water.

I didn't wake up again until 6:30am on Thursday morning! I didn't vomit. My head felt better, but I still had a headache and was incredibly tired. I took another pill and some ibuprofen, then fell back asleep. I slept until 1:30pm, waking only when B brought me either medicine or Sissy, who wanted to nurse. {Obviously, B took the day off.} He was a Saint though all of it. I don't know what the kids did. I didn't hear them, I didn't see them, no clue what they ate, where they went...nothing. I was comatose. When I woke that afternoon, the only way I can describe feeling is hungover. Obviously, I wasn't but I had that kinda disorientated feeling, my head was kinda heavy and everything still seemed fuzzy. I showered and felt much better. So we got Rudy's to go (no way was I eating in a crowded restaurant) and after eating a few bites of turkey, I felt human. By the time we got to the peach cobbler, I was pretty sure the worse was behind me.

Today I still have a lingering headache and my appetite is down. But I've been keeping my fluids up (making a pitcher of limeade helped that!) and I feel better. We still don't really know what I "had". It was either a really bad migraine and dehydration, a stomach virus that lead to the migraine or it could have been some sort of viral meningitis. Who knows? Really...who cares? The important thing is I'm better and no one else go sick. I am so thankful for that, as well as for B who really did a stellar job with everything. Me, kids, laundry, meals...all while worried about work. Oh and did I mention that today is his birthday? Thanks hon, for everything that you do for us!

A note to my children

Mommy loves all four of you very much. You are very close in age and keep mommy and daddy very, very busy especially when you are sick. Last Thursday Sissy was pulling on her ears and I took her to the doctor (she weighed 16lbs15oz by the way) but she checked out fine, just a Cold. However when we returned home, pookie you had a fever of 103 degrees and wanted to do nothing but lay down. You didn't even eat dinner! Then Friday sissy had a fever. Then Saturday sissy and bubba had fevers, then Sunday mommy, bubba and peanut had fevers. The only other symptoms were a headache with chills and tiredness thrown in. But Sunday and Monday, mommy and and Ryan both were throwing up. Now it's tuesday and you are all better, hooray! But mommy is not. Mommy had a very, very bad migraine today and you all were very, very loud! I think it was triggered by lack of sleep and a surplus of stress! Because i am still nursing sissy, i can't take anything much stronger than Tylenol. You made it impossible to rest and I instantly thought of nanaw who suffered from migraines a lot when uncle Matt and I were little. We also, failed at being quiet.

Today I realized I was getting a dose of karma. Now I'm blogging about it so one day, when you all have a super bad headache (I am in no way wishing one on you, but I'm sure it will inevitably happen) and your children will not settle down, you will feel as guilty as did today.

I am glad you are all feeling better, and I love you but please let's try not to share all of our germs with each other for a very long time!

Wordless Wednesday

8 months!

Well, it's that day of the month again....Today is the 4th and Sissy, that means you are 8 months old!

"What?!"

 I know right? I can barely believe it myself! But it's true, you are officially an 8 month old. That means just four more months til your BIG birthday! Would you believe that I'm already planning it? That I already have the cake pan and the shirt you will wear? It is true, I'm on it!

So what are you like at EIGHT months you ask? Well, you are a ball of energy! You are here, there and everywhere. You crawl like it's no body's business; belly fully off of the floor and you go wherever you want to. Now that you can stand, you get yourself into a lot more trouble...

 Honestly size-wise, you're the same. You are definitely eating more than you used to; table foods and still the occasional puree {applesauce, bananas & oatmeal} but I think you've offset your eating by all your crawling and I doubt you've gained much. At 8 months you:

-are in 9 or 12 months...both sizes in Carter's clothing fit you well
-are still in size 4 diapers
-don't usually wear shoes but the ones you have are size 6-12mos Robeeze
-are not sleeping through the night at all. In face you usually wake 2-3 times so we are co-sleeping. This way you get to eat whenever you want and the rest of the family still gets decent sleep. Honestly I would try to break you of this habit but you nursing so often helps keep my endometriosis from flaring so it's win-win at this point.
-will finally drink from a sippy cup! only those with straws but i still think that's pretty good ;)
-say both "mama" and "dada" though you don't seem to say it directly to us

-are starting to really interact with your brothers. you chew on their cars while they are playing with them and you follow them all over the house from room to room

Can you guess who?

Every one thinks that Sissy looks like one of her brothers...but which brother is debatable! Some people say "her smile is just like Bubba's'' some say ''oh her eyes are likes Pooks'' others say that she is ''Peanut's mini-me". Well....can you guess who is bearing the striking resemblance below?

 

Leave your answer in the comment section...winner gets....well, nothing but the peace of mind of knowing you're awesome :D

Self-feeding and slurping through a straw

Yep, another video of Miss Sweetcheeks....she will be 8 months old in a few days but has already mastered her pincher grasp and drinking through a straw. Now, this is mildly ironic since I couldn't even get her to eat baby food pureed until she was 7 months old. Sissy won't take a sippy cup, a bottle or even a pacifier but she loves to drink water from her straw cups. I giggled when I bought them because they are "Stage 4" cups for kids over the age of two. Just further proof that she will do what she wants, when she wants!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

being *that* mom

Sometimes I look back on my life before children and I laugh at how naive I was. I was so sure that I was going to be this wonderful, calm Mom who was full of Zen and never yelled, who was very go-with-the-flow and I was of course going to have these Angel children who didn't yell and hit but were polite and had wonderful manners. I was going to be the young {white} version of Claire Huxtable. I would be able to turn my nose up at those screaming kids in the super market... I mean geez, who cannot handle their own children?

Maybe I just interrupt myself and say, okay I wasn't naive, I was down right stupid.

I mean seriously, these are not pets. They are children. Tiny people with their own thoughts, feelings, actions and DNA. They have their own wants and desires and their own personalities with unique traits that are all their own. They can't be molded into what I want, they are their own person.

But still, I think I handle my kids quite well. After all I do have four children in less than five years, three of which are boys. We've only had one split lip, only one broken bone, no stitches, no 911 calls and only one poison control call.  Up until recently, I thought I was doing pretty damn good. Not Claire Huxtable but not too far off.

Then sweet Sissy came along. Finally our family was complete and how lucky were we that we were blessed with a little girl. At first, I rocked the whole ''mom to four kids'' thing. I mean Sissy was sleeping through the night by like, two months old. I was getting a full nights sleep, I was super busy keeping up with preschool and playdates and a newborn and I handled it well.

For awhile.

Now, I am home with all four kids, all day long. There was no preschool program here that I could put both of the older boys in that was anywhere near our price range (hello I am not paying $250/month for 2 day a week preschool). I had the idea that I would go back to the home-school route and plan lessons and activities to keep them busy and learning. It's a great theory but very hard to actually do. Afterall I have a baby girl who doesn't take a morning nap and a very active 2.5yr old who could care less about preschool. I have laundry piles that quickly turn to mountains. I have dishes that fill the dishwasher to ''full load'' status daily. I average about 7 hours asleep at night but I am usually woke 2-3 times by various kids. Whether it's to breastfeed or to change sheets after or an accident or to remind Peanut for the 4,302nd time that he cannot get up at 3:30am.  I have to go grocery shopping for the 3 starving boys and the hubs. I barely have time to blog (which I love) let alone scour the internet for crafty projects for the under 5 set.

I have quickly morphed from a Claire Huxtable wannabe, to a full on twin of Lois from Malcolm in the middle.

If you've never seen the show, you tube it. But poor Lois have FIVE boys and spends her days screaming, cleaning and chasing boys. Much like, yours truly.

I never imagined that I would yell so much. And it's not like I'm yelling because I'm just pissed off (although sometimes I am) I have to hell just so everyone can hear me. I yell to get their shoes on, I yell for them to clean up. Some of the things I yell, I would never even imagine saying. I mean, I can't make these things up. I say things like ''We do not ride on your sister'', "The sofa is not a trampoline", "Get out of that doggy door!" or "S'mores are not for breakfast".  We go through a bottle of soap every WEEK in the boys' bathroom...not because they are so hygienic but because they play with the bubbles. They play with their food, their sister's food, dirt, bugs, you name it and they'll play with it. Bathtime went from being enjoyable to a nightmare. Bedtime is ugly. I mean we get them in bed at 8pm and by 10pm, one of them is still up. While they aren't yet daring each other to jump off the roof...I see that day coming.

I know that I am blessed having four healthy children and I thank God for them everyday. But Mama is tired. Daddy is exhausted. I just want them to listen. And I will be the first to admit that screaming doesn't even work. But it's like I think that if I can just yell loud enough, maybe it will get through to them.

(I'll let you in on a secret...it doesn't).