Good night

Every night should be like last night.

All 3 kids were in great moods...no fussing, no talking back, no crying, etc. All 3 played well together.

Everyone, but Emma, ate all of their supper. :)

After supper, we all sat in the living room playing together.

The girls went to bed without any fuss. Josh went to bed without any fuss (even though it was pretty late when he went to bed). :)

On top of all of this, I managed to get a little bit of packing and cleaning done. Yes, one of these days, we're going to move (ha). Right now, we are packing up alot of stuff in my office so Phil can move his office in there, too (and give the girls a bedroom). We're giving our piano to a friend, so I had to clean that up (it's because a good storage place). I packed up my curio cabinet (to make room for the stuff on the piano). LOL

Every night should be like last night. :)

Awesome Hairdryer!

Okay, I admit, I haven't finished unpacking from this weekend (including my hair dryer).

I've been using an old hair dryer (because I'm too lazy to unpack my good one??). At any rate, it's a cord keeper hair dryer...so, I push a button and the cord comes out and goes back in.

Well, Josh saw it this morning and was overly impressed with it! He exclaims, "Whoa!! You have an awesome hair dryer!!!". :)

I was glad to know that I had an awesome hair dryer. He's so cute!

Weekends...There's No Place Like Home

We went to Kingsport this weekend to visit Phil's family. The visit really was wonderful. The kids love visiting everyone.

However, everyone gets all out of sorts during a weekend trip...not enough sleep, not much routine, etc. You get the picture.

Josh was very cranky by Sunday. After church and lunch, he had to come back and take a nice, long nap. Surprisingly, he didn't fight it too much.

The girls are still out of sorts...trying to catch up on sleep and such. Poor things.

I'm still trying to catch up on sleep! HA!

We set off bug bombs when we left Friday afternoon, so when we got home at 8:00 Sunday night, we had to change the sheets and gather anything that was laying out up to wash it.

Phil washed all of the sheets yesterday and then I came home and did a load of the girls' laundry...I haven't even pulled out the dirty clothes from our trip yet!! I guess that will be tonight's task.

I'm looking forward to this weekend. I think it's going to be a nice, long weekend! :) I do love holidays!!

We may try to take the kids to the Splash Pad again.

We're having a family cookout on Tuesday (4th of July), but other than that, no plans!! Woo hoo!!

I'm pooped!

Sometimes, I really hate going out of town.

We're going to Kingsport this weekend to see Phil's parents. Now, I really don't mind going to visit them, I just really hate getting ready to go visit them.

I picked Josh up around 4:30 yesterday, went to Walmart to pick up a few things. As soon as I got home (almost 5:30), I fixed supper for the kids, paid the bills, did a load of laundry, got Josh's thank you cards out and started the getting ready for bed process. I barely had time to give the girls a hug.

Both girls decided they didn't really want to go to bed. Callie finally went down a little after 8:00 and Emma finally gave it up around 8:30, I think.

After the kids were in bed, Phil and I finally got to eat supper! I was pretty tired and cranky by that point. :)

I started packing for the trip around 10:00 and finished at 11:00. It takes too long to pack for 5 people!

Anyway, I really am looking forward to the visit! Josh is, too. He was so excited that we're taking a "vacation" today. He's so funny.

He also asked if his 2 friends, Nick and Grant, could come with us the next time. He's really going to miss those guys once school starts. :(

Tick!

YUCK YUCK YUCK!!

When I started washing Josh's hair last night, I found a tick on his neck! YUCK!

I called Phil in and told him to get the tweezers...wrong thing to say! Josh started absolutely freaking out! I think he was afraid he had a splinter or something. I kept trying to calm him down telling him it wasn't a splinter and it wasn't going to hurt.

I could tell the tick wasn't very far in - it must have just gotten there...YUCK!

We had to get Josh out of the tub and lay him on the couch because he was kicking and screaming so much. Nothing we did could convince him that it was alright.

We finally got him still and Phil pulled the tick straight out. I believe we got all of it - it looked completely intact. Josh finally stayed still long enough for him to do that and then realized that we were right and that it wasn't going to hurt (except the one time Phil accidentally pulled his hair). :)

Phil burned it and flushed it down the toilet. It was right after that, he realized we should have kept it - just in case Josh got sick! Yikes!

I told them at daycare about it, so hopefully, they'll check the kids when they come in from the playground now. I'm not saying that's where it came from, but it's the most logical place.

I am a wimp no more!

I just got back from the doctor's office and I was very brave. LOL

The dr took an x-ray of my foot!! For a splinter!! She was afraid it was a piece of metal and since she couldn't see it, she wanted to see if it would show up on an x-ray - to let her know what it was and which direction it was going.

Well, it didn't show up on an x-ray. After a little digging, she finally found 2 itty bitty pieces of glass! It had gotten a little bit infected, but nothing neosporin and a bandaid can't cure. :)

My foot feels so much better! It's stinging a little bit where she "opened" it up, but at least it doesn't hurt to walk.

The good thing is, it didn't really hurt! I was actually surprised. This doctor has a very gentle touch because it was never too bad (unlike when Phil was digging for it).

Note to self...keep some flip flops upstairs for moments like this and never go outside barefoot again!

Going to the Doctor

This is so embarrassing! Last week, I walked across the road with Josh so he could retrieve his ball from the neighbor's yard. I was outside all of 2 minutes and guess what? I got a splinter (from the street, not the grass).

Well, Phil tried and tried to get it out, but it was just to small to get a pair of tweezers around. So, he had the big idea of adding some Aquaphor to it to soften it up. He did that and the little thing just shrunk up inside my foot. I've tried for a week to get it out, but now the skin has grown over it (it's in the side of my heel where the skin is tough anyway).

So, I'm giving up and going to the doctor to try to get it out. I wouldn't bother with it, except that it's beginning to bug me. If I step on it in just the "right" way, it downright hurts!

I have a feeling I'm not going to make a good patient today. I'm such a pain wimp. Never mind that I've had 3 children, I just don't think I'm going to handle them pulling this splinter out of my foot today. I sure hope they'll numb it before messing with it! LOL

Happy Birthday to Me and Happy Father's Day

I think this is the first time my birthday has been on Father's Day since Phil became a daddy! :)

So, we've shared the day. It's been a fairly low-key weekend (for once). I've done lots of napping this weekend...I think I've needed it in a bad way!

Mom's coming "back to work" tomorrow after her heart attack. She's going stir crazy, so she's coming up to keep the girls tomorrow. We'll see how she feels after that before committing to another day this week. She seems to be doing alright, though. :)

We grilled out some yummy shrimp we got at the Shrimp Dock last night. We also got some fresh corn on the cob. I was so full after that meal...who knew shrimp and corn could fill you up so much?! The kids had fish sticks. HA! They thought they were in heaven with that. They love fishsticks!

Breakfast outing funny

This morning, we went to Mimi's Cafe for breakfast (fabulous, by the way). Anyway, Josh ordered pancakes (looked like Mickey Mouse) and it came with a bunch of fresh fruit.

Well, he was going through the fruit at the end and he came across a piece of orange. He looked at it and said, "I did NOT pay for this orange! I only paid for the pancakes!". I thought Phil and I were going to lose it.

Almost a trip to the ER

Josh and Emma were playing yesterday afternoon. Emma was in a child's rocking chair, while Josh rocked her (not so easy). I told Josh to not rock so hard, so he backed off a little. Well, 2 seconds later, Emma landed on the ground.

Typically, the fall would not been bad - she barely fell.

Well, I picked her up and settled her down. After a couple of minutes, Josh told me there was blood all over my shirt. I looked down and Emma's mouth was bleeding all over the place!

I managed to finally get her cleaned up to see where the source of blood was. I THINK she bit herself when she fell. She bit right through that little flap of skin between your front teeth. Because of her cleft, it looked worse. It was all puffy and almost on the outside of her mouth. We couldn't see how badly it was cut because of the blood.

Phil called the nurse's line and she basically said that if the cut wasn't any bigger than the side of a dime, they wouldn't do anything about it.

So, we just applied pressure until the bleeding stopped and gave her some Tylenol.

Phil said it's still kind of puffy today. We'll keep an eye on it and see if we need to do anything. It's close to where she had surgery, but I don't think it's quite in th same place.

This poor girl needs to quit falling! This is the 2nd time that she and Josh were playing and she got hurt in the mouth area!

New Words

Callie has several words she can say (and then all of a sudden quit saying them), but she's starting to "talk" again! She does babble alot! She's babbling alot of different sounds now.

She loves saying "Teeth"! Everytime we get her toothbrush out, she starts saying, "teeth! teeth! teeth!".

Words Callie can say:

Ball
Book
Josh
Teeth
Sock
Bye Bye
Daddy
Tent (oh yeah - another new favorite)

I think there are 1-2 more, but can't remember them right now.

Emma has been a little slower to talk, but she's starting to say real words now, too.

Her latest is nanana (banana). We were looking at a book the other day and she pointed to a banana and said it!

Emma says:

Mama
Emma
Nanana (banana)
Bye Bye

That's about it for her right now. She points and laughs alot, but not many words.

I can't believe they're almost 16 months old!! Yikes!!

Kindergarten Physical

Phew - it's over and Josh survived the shots (barely).

Josh is 46 lbs and 45"...75-90%. He's a big guy, but the doctor said his weight is good for his height, so that was nice to know.

Josh is perfectly healthy...passed his vision, hearing, urine and iron test. He did well on his developmental questionnaire, too. He did get pretty shy when the doctor asked him to repeat some words for him to see how his speech is. He didn't talk very loudly at all, but said the words properly.

I'm glad that's over! He was able to get 2 extra stickers to take to his friends, Nick and Grant, at school, too. That made him very happy! HA!

Josh's 5th Birthday

Josh's birthday was Saturday (June 10). He had a BIG day!

He decided he wanted donuts for breakfast, so Phil went out at 7:00 Saturday morning to get some (that's when the kids decided it was time to get up).

After eating a donut, I made deviled eggs and then cleaned the house for that evening (Mom, Dad, Scott & Cindy came over for a cookout).

Josh's party was at 1:00, so at 11:00, Phil went to pick up the cake and other stuff from Sam's. Somehow, we managed to get out the door by 12:30 to go to Events at Sherlake.

Josh had about 20 friends there!! Wow!! I had 17 kids RSVP and 1 of those didn't come (sister of one of Josh's friends), so we had 4 extras. Thank goodness I made enough treat bags! :)

Josh had a Spiderman cake.

He had a blast! He and his friends ran around that place like wild men! He didn't even ask Phil or I to slide with him (which he always does).

He got a TON of gifts!

I managed to put up most of his old toys yesterday to make room for his new toys.

I bet I only sat down for about an hour all day on Saturday (until everyone left that night). I was pooped!

Even though it was an exhausting day, it was fun. I bet Josh will always remember his 5th birthday party (his first friend's party).

5 days shy of 16 months

Emma is finally walking! She's been taking 2-3 steps for a couple of months now, but has never really gotten brave enough to let go.

Yesterday, she did it! First, she just stood there and then got all excited when we all clapped. So, then she stood there and clapped herself! LOL

She side-stepped her way across the living room - you could see the concentration on her face.

Oh boy! Now that both of them are walking, will I ever be able to keep up?!! Yikes!!

What day is this?

My days are starting to run together.

I went by Party City yesterday to get lots of party stuff! :) Actually, I just went there to get treat bags...I was being the good mommy and bought Power Ranger bags...and then a bunch of stuff to go in them.

Well, when I got home, I finally got in touch with the Sam's bakery (they wouldn't answer earlier) and was told that they didn't have Power Ranger cakes! WHAT?!! Yikes!!

Luckily, Josh was just as excited about Spiderman (whew). So, off to Party City again today to exchange Power Rangers for Spiderman! Oy!

We're going to Mom and Dad's tonight. Mom's suppose to be taking it easy, but I think she's going stir crazy. Dad said she was doing laundry this morning. :) Well, sorting clothes anyway. Hopefully, she let dad do the lifting and such (not that laundry is that heavy).

We have a babysitter for 2-3 days next week! Yay!! The ladies at church hunted one down for us. That was very nice of them!! Everyone else we've called either has a job, on vacation or just too busy.

Callie has discovered hugging is very fun! She wants to hug her sister ALOT! She wraps her arms around Emma and says, "Awwww"...just like she hears us saying when we hug her. LOL She will give a few of us hugs, too, but she's very stingy with them.

When we got home yesterday, as soon as Callie saw Josh, she ran up to him to give him a hug! AWWW!!! :)

Emma just thinks all of this hugging stuff is funny. She just cracks up everytime Callie gives her a hug.

Good weekend gone bad

My sister came in this weekend for Josh's birthday (even though it's not until next week). Well, we made plans to go to the Splash Pad, but all of a sudden, the weather was iffy. So, we made quick plans to go to the Children's Museum if we needed to.

We were to meet mom & dad for lunch on Friday and then decide what to do. By Friday morning, the weather looked decent enough to try the Splash Pad (Leslie - this is the BEST place to take the kids - I'll email you more info later). We got a call from Dad and he said they were either going to be late or not at all. Mom wasn't feeling well - her blood pressure had shot sky high - again. Anyway, we decided to wait and see if they were coming. They did - about 30 minutes late, but that's okay.

We went on to the Splash Pad and the kids had a blast. Callie had the most fun I've ever seen her have - she was very bold about the whole thing (and she's our cautious one).

Anyway, Friday night, I got a call from Dad. He had taken Mom to the ER because she was having chest pains and her BP went back up again - this was fairly late, so we didn't really know what was going on until the next morning.

Mom called Saturday morning and confirmed she had had a mild heart attack Friday night! They took her straight down for a heart cath. The doctor said if 1 artery was blocked, he'd do a stent, otherwise, it was going to be bypass. Luckily, there was only 1 artery blocked, but it was the main artery and it was blocked 99.9%. They put 3 stents in that artery.

She's doing much much better today. She had a small episode where she thought her BP was dropping too low (because of all of the medicine), but it wound up being her blood sugar. It was too high. She's suspected that she's had a problem, but hasn't done anything about it. That episode passed pretty quickly and she was feeling much better.

She's suppose to come home tomorrow night, we hope. Thank goodness, it wasn't any worse than it was.

Birthday Party and such

Josh's birthday is next Saturday (June 10) and we're having a party for him at Events at Sherlake. Well, I sent out invitations on Tuesday and we got our first RSVP today.

I told Josh that 2 of his friends were coming to his party. His response?? "What are they bringing me?" Oh boy! Have we created a monster or what? LOL He's all about the present! I guess we've told him one too many times that he will be getting alot of presents (we tell him that everytime we're in the store and he wants something). :)

Wendy is coming in today (yay). Josh is so excited. He keeps asking if she'll be there when he gets home (probably so).

Emma has another doctor's appointment today. It's time to turn the screw in her mouth appliances. YUCK! I hate having to do this. :( But, it's expanding her mouth so her gums will eventually come together.

Since Wendy is coming in today, I am taking tomorrow off. We were going to take the kids to the Splash Pad (have I already written about this?). Well, it looks like it's going to rain and not be quite warm enough! Argh! It's been 90 degrees all week! So, we're trying to come up with a Plan B.

I'm thinking about taking the kids to the Children's Museum in Oak Ridge. We haven't been there before and Josh loved the one in Chattanooga. I'm not sure what else there is to do inside (that's as fun as that). I really don't want to do the Chuck E Cheese or Zuma thing. Josh really isn't into the video games that much. Plus, that doesn't sound like a good time to me. :)