25 Random Things

I got tagged for this little doo-dad on facebook and I have been putting it off for weeks. I decided that I needed a little mental break from reality today and it was actually kinda fun to sit and think about these random things.

Here's my 25 Random Things.

1. I sleep with a heating pad every night.

2. And 4 pillows.

3. I will celebrate 10 years of marriage to my high school sweetheart May 29th. We are still so in love. He is the cheese to my macaroni.

4. All 3 of my children were delivered in the same hospital, in the same room, by the same doctor. One in 2000, one in 2003 and one in 2006.

5. Although I love all of my children with all that is within me, I get sick to my stomach to think of being pregnant or having to deliver another one.

6. After not reading a book for at least 5 years, I have read 7 books since mid December. I'm turning over a new leaf and trying to use those long lost parts of my brain!

7. I have been trying to follow a "Read thru the bible in 1 year" guide for at least 6 years. I still carry the tattered old paper in my bible and check off the days as I complete them. I keep giving up. THIS is my year. I'm gonna do it.

8. I can play Wii bowling in my recliner with my feet propped up and still compete on the scoreboard!

9. I love to go camping. In our camper. I'm not so in love with tent camping. And I wouldn't be so in love with camper camping either if I wasn't married to Mr. Outdoors who takes care of pretty much everything. I do like to be in charge of the food and the clothes. This arangement works
very well for us!

10. I miss Berryville and all my friends very much,(and I think I always will) but I really don't miss living there. I really like living in the "big city". Maybe it's because (see #11)

11. Since 1997, my husband has had a commute of at least 1 hour-1 way every day (with a few exceptions here and there) for work (except for Aug 05-June 06) until this past August when we moved to Springdale. We have spent more time together in the past 6 months than we have in the whole almost 10 years we've been married. I never knew what it could be like to be married to a man who's actually home sometimes! :-) I love it!

12. I knew in my heart that my 3rd child would be a girl before I was even pregnant. God told me so. Jason didn't believe me and wasn't sure about having #3- he relented and gave in to "1 try". It worked! My little princess is 2 1/2 years old.

13. I love blogging. And reading other people's blogs. I'm almost addicted.

14. I do between 20 and 30 loads of laundry a week. Every week. I'm bitter. I hate it. I need to
quit griping about it, but I can't.

15. 2 1/2 years ago, my husband and I started our business on 100% credit/loans. (What 20-somethings couple with 3 children and no hand-outs has the cash to buy multiple trucks, machines, etc out of their pocket? Certainly not us.) There's nothing in this world that we hate more than debt. We have way too much of it. We are on a plan to be completely debt free in 4 years. It's gonna take discipline. And a miracle. If you ask us to dinner and we say no, don't be offended. The budget is strict.

16. If I were to win a large sum of money in a lottery/sweepstakes, I already have every dollar accounted for in my head. I know what I would do with all of it. I have a big, huge "pay it forward" scheme in my head. I think Oprah will want to have me on her show. And I already know what I would say to her. Too many nights when I can't sleep, you say? Yes, indeed.

17. I have a secret desire to home school my children. I could never do this as long as I have to work. There would be no time...

18. Since I started working from home almost 2 years aog, I enjoy being a loaner way too much. I have to be careful not to let myself stay locked in the house because I know it's not good for me. I sometimes get very nervous when I have to be social. But then once I get going, I remember that I enjoy talking to and spending time with grown ups.

19. My kids have never been on a real vacation. Only to visit family and short weekend trips. Those are fun, but I can't wait until I can take them on a fun adventure far from home. Future vacation plans are for snow skiiing in Colorado, Disney World and the beach.

20.I love my car. There's not another car on the road that I would rather have than my own. It has a lot of miles on it-- I hope it will last me a long time.

21. I LOVE to cook. But HATE to clean up the kitchen.

22. I'm a lazy couch potato by nature. I have to make a consicous effort to make myself get up and get things done, go work out, etc.

23. I love to watch almost all sports on tv. I love to watch Sportscenter. I get sad this time of year when I think about football season being over for several months!

24. I love bacon. I could eat it every single day and every single meal. It's a good thing I have some will power.

25. I have never regretted not finishing college. I honestly don't think I ever will.

You should make a list of your 25 Random Things about you. Maybe it'll help people get to know you a little better.

Back to the real world now!

Kids Are Funny!

We love to laugh at our house and our kids contribute to lots of laughter, let me tell ya! They are down right funny!

Last week, Gracie was still really sick the night the Miss America pageant came on. Jason had taken the boys to church that night and they came in just as the pageant was almost over.

Rhett sat down with me and watched the end. As they crowned the new Miss America, Rhett said very seriously and matter of factly,

"She needs to sew that up."

I was cracking up! Here's her dress, which is what he was referring to.

Maybe one day my little guy will appreciate modesty in girls. Ah, one can hope!

On to the Princess of our household. Gracie is always getting into things. She is at that age.... Curious. Wants to be more independent than she's capable of. Etc. When I'm working at my desk, I must admit, I let her get away with more than I should sometimes- as long as she's being quiet and allowing me to get my work done- so be it. To an extent, of course. And when I haven't heard from her in 5 minutes or so, I go check on her. So, as I checked on her yesterday, this is what I found. She had found Braden's non-washable markers in the boys' room and had done her make-up. Oh, she was so pretty! (I about died and then thanked the Lord that tomorrow wasn't church day so maybe it would wear off before I had to take her in public!) I had to make a video. She's starting to get to the sweetest age where she talks in her own little way.

My digital camera is dead- hopefully can be resurrected- as a new one or too many costly repairs is certainly not in the budget at this time- so I had to take the video with my Blackberry. Thus explaining the poor quality. You may not even be able to make out the "marker face", but this is still a glimpse of her little personality anyway. Her lips were completely blue. She actually did a pretty good job of putting on her "lipstick"!

Oh, and did I tell you? The doctor called this morning to check on Gracie. The results of the mono test that has been at the lab all week.... Positive. That's what's been making our Princess so miserable! She's got Mono! She hasn't run fever all week, but she still has a sore throat and her voice is all scratchy. And she is super fussy most of the time. Webmd tells me this is all normal symptoms. The sore throat and lethargy/body ache can last for a couple more weeks. Lord help her!

One good thing for her is that she won't have to worry about getting it as a teenager! (Supposedly, you can only get this once.) And I hear it's not as serious for little ones as it is for adolescents. So, in my glass-half-full optimism, that's the good side to all of this sickness we've been enduring!

Best and Laziest Day Ever

It was the best of days
and the laziest of days!

I woke up at 7:30 this morning to Gracie screaming her head off in the bed between me and Jason. Since she slept with us when she was sick, we've yet to get her back into her own bed... we're going to try it tonight... I got her a bottle and brought it back to her to no avail. She wanted to get up. God Bless her sweet Daddy because he gladly got up with her and hung out with the kids while I SNOOZED. Until 10. Yes, that's right. 10:00. I woke up with a headache because I had laid down too long. Then, my sweet hubby brought me a big bowl of cornflakes in bed.
Then I got up and messed around on the computer ALL day. Reading blogs.

Totally a wasted day, but I really did need some down time. I feel so guilty for wasting time, but also so blessed. Every time Jason would walk by, I'd tell him thank you for letting me be lazy. And he'd just smile and say I deserved it and he was so glad I was getting to do nothing. And it made me feel so good that he talked about how he's NEVER seen me sit around and do nothing all day. He

I'm very thankful that he notices the hard work.

We have had power all day. So many still don't. Please pray for those with no electricity and especially for those with no heat.

Ice Ice Baby

We are iced in, baby! It started freezing rain yesterday afternoon. The boys got out of school an hour early. We were all home together all day today- as Jason certainly can't work in these elements either. I can't tell you how thankful I am for times when we can be together as a family.

The power went out 3 different times today for a few hours at a time. Thankfully, we have a gas fireplace that works even when the power is out and our city water works so we can still flush the toilet and run water. We just lit as many candles as we could find and we all snuggled in the living room. Braden told us he was bored about 10 minutes after the power went out each time...

We were so hoping that the power would come back on in time for us to watch our tv shows of the night... and they did! We were able to get our Idol and Duggar family fix. Yeah! There are certain priorities in life, you know!

Amazingly, the power is still on, although it has been flickering off and on for hours. It is 9:15pm, and we are getting ready to head for the bed. The earliest bedtime we've seen in many moons.

Jason took some pictures of the ice around the house, but I'm on the older laptop and I can't download the pictures on it. So, those will be coming. As of a few hours ago, there was about an inch of ice on the branches. Tonight it is supposed to get down to 9 degrees and we are expecting up to another inch of ice and possibly some snow.

Mom and Dad have been out of power since 6:30 this morning. Russ and Aggie have been out of power too. Aggie took the kids to stay at the hotel in Eureka where she works because they had power. Russ got called in to work to help Carroll Electric in Jasper. I guess they got it really bad down there and he may be down there for several days. Dad got called this evening and he has to work in Bentonville tomorrow- also helping Carroll Electric. They don't know if he's going to be able to come home at the end of the day or not. Depends on what they get in to. All I know is that there are lots of people without power. I'm thankful that ours has been on and off today and that it is on now.

Good night to all. I better go get lots of clothes on in case we lose power in the night!

Gracie update

FINALLY Gracie is feeling a little bit better. Praise the Lord!!!
She hasn't had any Tylenol or Motrin since Friday night at bedtime. She ran a little bit of fever on Saturday, but not high.
The new antibiotic they gave her on Friday seems to be doing the trick. Since it's easier to take on an empty tummy, she has been able to keep it all down.
She is still very sleepy and just lays around most of the time, but I'm sure that's because she's so weak from not having eaten much of anything in 7 days.
She is eating a little. Mostly snacking. She will pick something out and take a bite and then cry and want something else.
I'm sure her little appetite and taste buds will be back to normal sometime this week.

In the meantime, I relented and gave her bottle back to her because it's the only thing she will drink out of. And, we've not worked on the potty training at all because she just hasn't felt good. Yesterday, she would come to us and tell us she was wet and she needed a new diaper (which was hilarious!) so I know deep down inside she's ready to get on with the big girl potty!

Hopefully this week I can gradually get her sleeping in her own bed again, get the bottle back from her, and begin working on the potty training again.

Thanks for praying for Gracie when she was sick!!

Very Sick Little Girl

This past Monday, the boys were out of school for the holiday and I decided that it would be Day 1 of Gracie's Potty Traning Boot Camp. And to follow the advice of Kate (of the famous and beloved Jon and Kate plus 8) and not leave the house with her (except taking the boys to and from school each day) all week. Potty training would be accomplished this week if it was the last thing I did.

Ah, you know what they say about the best laid plans...

Monday, Day 1: Pee Peed on the big girl potty 5 times! No accidents! She did wear a diaper when she took her nap though. I was pumped and oh so proud!

She began to get fussy in the afternoon and wasn't interested in eating lunch, snacks or dinner. I chalked it up to toddler moodiness. Every day is a new day...

She wanted to take a bath that evening and by the time I got her out, she was shivering like crazy and her lips were blue. Yep-all you moms and dads know what that means- she had fever. Not just a little fever. A 103.7 fever.

Long story short, she threw up several times that night, slept only a couple hours and ran fever anywhere from 102-104.8 all night. And that was with alternating Motrin and Tylenol.

She has been this sick ever since.

We took her to the doctor on Wednesday and after 5 hrs in the doctors office, doing a blood test (the real thing with the needle in the arm- drawing more than 1 vial of blood. The ladies in the lab called her their "little bucker" and it took 2 of them plus me to hold her down. Can you say traumatic?) and a urine test (which they had to catheder her to get because she wore a urine bag for over 3 hours and never peed and we couldn't get her to pee on the potty. She had to be held down by 2 nurses and cathedered by 1. I will spare the details on how traumatic this was... for both of us. Especially since I had to wait outside the room and just listen to her wail...) the only thing we found was that she had strep throat.

So, we got antibiotics and headed home. For the past 2 days, we've had more of the medicines thrown up than we have gotten in her stomach.

She hasn't eaten anything to speak of since Monday morning at breakfast. Most of what little we have gotten her to eat has come back up...

After 4 doses of the twice per day antibiotic, her fever was still ranging from 99 to 101.7. We finally decided there must be something else going on. She is weak, miserable, black around her eyes and on the verge of being dehydrated- as we can't get her to drink much either.

After a whole week of this, I'm just at my wits end and not feeling too hot myself. Julie came up last night to spend the night and help out and my mom came to spend the day today after Julie left to go back to BV to go to work.

Mom and I took her back to the dr today and after 3 hours and more blood tests (this time they remembered their "little bucker" and it took 3 nurses plus me to hold her down) we discovered that there is now an ear infection to go with the strep throat, but nothing else is showing up. The dr gave us another antibiotic that is a little easier for an empty tummy to take and only has to be given once per day, so hopefully that will start to kick in and help.

They did a mono test and the quick result was negative, Praise the Lord, but the Doctor sais she sent off for the more in depth mono test also. If she's still running a fever after the weekend, I'm supposed to bring her back and that's likely what we're dealing with. That is so scary to me!! I'm praying that's not what this is.

Aside from a couple of bright spots last night and this morning, when the doubled up medicine was kicked in just right, she is still miserable. Fever is still 100.9. She's starving. She tries to eat something and screams when she tries to swallow it.

Poor thing. I feel so bad for her.

I just took a picture of my usually photogenic little angel and this is the best she could muster up. Please say a little prayer for her to get well!

Ball Playa

For those of you who know my little 8 year old Braden, you know that he is a ball player. By that, I mean baseball, basketball, soccer...you name it.
Last year, he was 1 of only 2 1st graders asked to play on the Carroll County All Star baseball team.
He played his 2nd ever season of soccer this year and was excellent. He played U8 and was one of a few asked to play in some U10 games with the older kids. Right now, he is best at goalie/punting. He can punt the ball from his goal to the other teams goal without much problem...
It just comes natural for him. He's just like his dad. He's good at every single sport he tries.
He's played golf and tennis a few times each. Awesome at both since he was 4 years old.
We go bowling- almost out bowls me.
Aunt Jill and Uncle Bruce from Pennsylvania brought the boys Lacrosse sticks and balls (I have no idea if that's the correct terminology since that's not a sport we rednecks play... :-) last summer and they were just messing around with them in the yard. He was catching and throwing that little ball in that little net within a few minutes.
He can't wait to play football competitively. That'll be this coming fall. He can punt the ball a mile. He can throw a perfect spiral and can also catch very well from far distances.
I'm not bragging, just stating the facts. The child is good at everything he tries. And he loves it. He's just ate up with all things sports and athletic.
He played Upward Basketball in Bville as a kindergartener and did very well. We skipped in 1st grade because we just had too much going on with other sports, etc. This year, in 2nd grade, he definately wanted to sign up to play again.
He is doing SO great! He has played games the past 2 weeks. Tomorrow is his 3rd game. He has received the best defender title each game so far. He is so agressive. In Upwards, they are matched up with a player on the other team of like size and ability and they get matching arm bands to wear. They plan man to man defense against their matching colored opponent. He gets in trouble for guarding everyone on the other team... If they've got the ball, he's all over them. He's getting better about remembering that he has to just do what he's told and if another guy scores, he's not responsible for it... :-)
Anyway, I say all that to lead into this little video I took last week at the game. My camera broke shortly after this, so this is the only one I was able to take. It's a clip of his stealing the ball and passing it to Braden to go down the court for the fast break. He happened to miss this particular shot. It was the first couple plays of the game and it was his first shot. For the record, I think he scored around 10 points this game by the time it was over. He is #14 in the white jersey- on defense for the first part of the clip.
We are so proud of him and mostly so glad he has so much fun!