Update on my assault in the driveway....

So just a quick update about yesterday.  I saw my neighbor outside today and wanted to go talk to her but was a little worried she would be upset with us; so I took a breath, prayed that God would give me the words to say and walked out the back door.  When I looked up she was smiling at me and said "HEY!"  (I was so relieved!)  I said hello back and told her I was so sorry that we called the cops yesterday and that I said something to him but it just got under my skin and I can't let people talk like that about my family.  She said, "oh no, you didn't do anything wrong at all I would have probably been even worse if it were me!"  I also told her that I believe God doesn't waste anything and that if this happened to us because she needed to see his true colors then I would gladly go through it all over again for her!  She said that that is exactly what it did, it really opened her eyes and she hasn't talked to him since.  I also learned he had a lot to drink, and had two other altercations with people at other places before he came to her house and took it out on us.  He has a lot going on in his life so we'll be praying for him that things will make a turn for the better for him!

Assaulted in my driveway.....

So today was suppose to be a great day!  Nathan had physical therapy this morning and then I got the kids ready, and piled them all into the car once he got home.  We went to vote, then headed to the Pediatricians office for a well baby check up for Goobies and Pumpkin.  After their check up we drove the girls over to their swimming lessons and then headed home.  Grandma was coming over to watch the kids tonight so that Nathan & I could go out on a date to celebrate out 7 year anniversary.  (I was beyond excited!)  We had planned to go to the Cinnebistro at Stony Point; the place you can watch a movie while you eat dinner!  I've heard amazing things about it so wanted to try out something new.  Anyways, so we pull in the drive way and his mom had gotten here before us.  She was sitting on the steps and looked a little weary.  When I got out of the car she asks us if we know the guy that is over next door to us?  I told her we didn't have a guy next door but that he was a friend of the lady who lives there, but we've never met him or talked to him.  She says that while she was waiting on us to get home she heard him outside saying, "His mom needs to kick his A** and make him get to work!"  Then she heard him say, "I don't care if they hear me over there or not!"  She said that she stood up and said, "excuse me, but are you talking about my son?" The man told her YES!  He told her that sometimes he sees him walking with a cane, and then other times he isn't, and then he is in the backyard playing with the kids!  She told him that Nathan has a back condition and the guy just went off on her!

As I'm listening to her tell me this I watch his truck drive past our house and into the drive way next to us.  I'm standing on the drivers side of the car but still needed to get the baby out of the other side and was just in shock and furious at the same time that this happened!  I walked around the car and he was looking out his window the entire time glaring at me, so I glared back at him.  I got the baby out turned back around and he was still glaring at me!  The kids were on the porch and the more I kept playing what he said over and over in my mind and thinking "how dare he say that about us and he has no idea what we've been through!"  I couldn't hold it!  I looked back and he was still looking at me so I said, "Do you have a problem with my family?"  And he blew!  He again started saying horrible things, cursing in front of my kids, talking about how he pays for us to live because Nathan probably is paid by the government and one day he has a cane the next day he doesn't etc..  Then he started cursing at me and Nathan stepped down off the porch and said, "DON'T YOU DARE TALK TO MY WIFE LIKE THAT, HAVE YOU BEEN DRINKING?"  (the lady next door shook her head yes)  He then kept going on and on about how he pays for our government assistance at which I replied, "we don't get paid a cent from the government!"  And he just kept going...so ...I told Nathan...Just call the cops!  So he did.  Our neighbor felt we made a big deal by doing this but to me this was not a huge deal because he was assaulting my family, myself and cursing in front of my children!!

When the cops got here they said we should come down to the station and file charges and get a warrant for his arrest.  I told them I'd just like to have them talk to him and make him leave us alone because I don't want to have anyone arrested and have to go through all that but I just don't want him cursing in front of my family!  So they went over and talked to him.

This put a little kink in our anniversary plans. We ended up not going tonight.  I was so taken back by how evil people can be.  I've never experienced things like what we've been experiencing this year and I'm really just taken back by how selfish people are in this world!  I keep trying to figure out how someone who has never met us, never talked to us can spend their tuesday evening sitting on the porch talking about us badly!  This man did not even care to know the truth of what is going on in our lives, what is wrong with Nathan's back, or what we've been through; he just wanted to group us into a group of other people who cheat the system and don't really have disabilities or maybe just take his own problems out on us.  The fact is, Nathan is not drawing any form of disability.  Could he?  YES!  But he doesn't want too!  Does he walk with a cane?  SOMETIMES, because after a long day of work, or when walking around shopping it hurts his back and the cane helps to take some of the pressure off.  Does he play with his children in the backyard?  YES, my husband is a great man who pushes through his own pain and stands for 30 minutes in the yard (sometimes longer) pushing our children on a swing or throwing a ball to them, or watering the garden!  This man has no idea how hurtful it is to me to watch a grown man (nathan) squirm all night long flinching in pain, tossing and turning, too tired to wake up because he never sleeps well, but in so much pain he can't lay still.  Does Nathan go to work? YES, but occasionally he has not been able to because of his pain, or because he had a period of time where he was getting his pain management under control so he could be at work.  DOES AMERICA PAY OUR FAMILY TO LIVE?  ABSOLUTELY NOT!!   He should be ashamed of himself for assuming such things about people without asking.

I realize this man was probably going through some troubles of his own and needed someone to take it out on, so I hope that the fact that he ruined our anniversary tonight was enough to make him feel better.  As for us, well, I'm still in shock that people I don't even know are making such horrible assumptions about my family, I'm happy I was brave enough to question him because I will not tolerate people saying horrible things like that to or about my family!  I'm not angry at him (now), but I do feel upset that my kids had to hear such things being said about their father and mother.  I'm sad that just because my husband has a condition that MOST people do not understand the severity of they are quick to judgement.  But I'm praying this happened for a reason.  I believe that God never wastes our pain and whatever reason he had for us to stay home tonight, feel threatened and hurt by this man I'm sure was worth the sacrifice of our date.  I just pray that there can be peace and restoration between us and our neighbor after this incident.  Maybe I shouldn't have called the cops, but at that time I was shaking, crying and didn't know how else to get him to stop.  Maybe I shouldn't have said anything to him, but that is my family!  I don't know I keep going over and over it in my head trying to figure out why this happened and I have no good answers.

Baby #6 ????

Naaaaa.......Crazy last few days!  So we had our first false alarm this week, we've never had quite an experience like this.  Most people have two questions that they eventually ask us, (1) "are you gonna try for the boy?"  and (2) "Do you use birth control?"  Well here are those answers for the entire world to see..  (1) we have never tried for any child we have, they have all been given to us graciously, and (2) no we do not use the pill.  These two things are very difficult for people to swallow because America is about convenience and it's never convenient to have five children in seven years!  All my life I've heard about having "peace and quiet" and "relaxing" and "having ME time"  and well...who knows maybe this is my way of being rebellious; with five children you don't get any of that, but it's still great!!  So this week I was late...I began to get a little scared because I'm NEVER late unless....  So sent Nathan to CVS and took a test...it looked negative but I could see a light blue line that would make it positive.  So...I took the second one...same thing but a little darker.  So yes...I began to go pregnancy test nutty and bought like one of each type and took about 7 in one day!  All the rest were negative!!  2 (lightly positive) and 5 negative!  I just couldn't understand it!  So I waited till the next morning and took another...negative...the next morning...negative!!  It was making me crazy!  So finally I was able to positively say this morning that we had two false positives and I pray that I never have to go through that again!   What a horrible trick to play on people, especially when it's baby #6 and you have to start preparing right away because 8 people means: 12 passenger van, larger kitchen table, moving the kids into the master bedroom so they all fit in the house....it's a lot of preparation!   I do have to say I did feel sad when I finally found out it was negative, even though life would be outrageously crazy if that did happen again so soon...well it would be outrageously wonderful too to be blessed with another mini-Cooper!  They are all so great!!  However having a little break is more than okay with me right now, but If God decides the time has come for #6 I will be more than thrilled!

So Friday was Hobble-bobble's 3rd birthday!  That girl is just the sweetest kid ever!!  She is obsessed with Veggie Tales; Larry Boy in particular!  We are completely running out of Veggie Tales toys to get her for her birthday's and Christmas!  Hopefully they will come out with more later.  So this year for her...she doesn't get a huge party...we invited a few of our friends over next saturday for a cook out but other than that...we had cupcakes and gave her gifts as a family.

Friday was also the Homeschool Convention.  It was awesome!  The used book sale this year wasn't as great as the last few years but we did get more time to check out all the vendors this year and the last two years we have not.  The girls really enjoyed it this year, they met a few homeschool children who were their age but in a family of 8 kids!  They really liked the music booth where they could try out violins and instruments.  Nathan and I bought a parent package from www.doorposts.com while we were there.  It is amazing stuff!  I've always said that If only I had a step by step program that told me how to discipline for what offense, I'd be great!!  That is exactly what this is!!!  I'm so beyond excited.  It's a book that is split up by offense, when a child lies, steals, is selfish, disobedient etc.. you open it to that page and read scripture to your child about that subject and why it's not good to do.  They also have a chart to put on the wall that tells the child what their consequences are for certain crimes.  We started out doing this today, we still have to work out a few kinks with it but so far so good!  By the end of the day it was "here comes mom and dad with the bible book again!"  lol   but they are getting it and we are able to discipline the way we've always wanted to through prayer and scripture, it's been great!

So today, we woke up early and cleaned up the house.  The girls and Nathan helped me in the living room, and hallway, and then I started on the girls room while they ate lunch.  When we were finished they all went down for quiet time while Nathan worked on tightening and replacing screws on the swing set outside, and I started packing for the pool.  I laid out swimming suits, towels, cut veggies and fruits for snacks, filled up cups, packed a diaper bag, packed clothes and underwear for afterwards, made a bottle and found shoes.  When we got to the pool I lathered the kids with sun screen and they were off!!  Three hours swimming and we were headed back home to play outside!  We ordered pizza and sat on the back porch an ate.  Then Nathan and I laid on the trampoline while the girls jumped around us and we tried grabbing them and pulling them down on top of us to tickle.  Once we got inside it was 8:30pm and I filled up the bathtub for all the girls, washed them, dried them and sent them to pick up toys in their room.  We all then laid in Little Bear's bed together while I read a story to all the kids and then they were sound asleep!!  We wore them out!!!`

Our week has been filled with so much that I haven't even made it to start on my school work that is due monday night by 11:59pm!  I have two days but I'm SO exhausted!!  Monday will be our wedding anniversary.....so we may have to put off our celebration till Tuesday instead.  I'm so thankful that I've been able to have the last eight years with the love of my life!  I could not have asked God for a better man!  I'm so undeserving of him, yet thankful I have him!

~HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!!

Potty training is not one of my strengths......

Gosh it seems like forever since I last posted, but it really was only a few weeks.  We are in the middle of operation: "get through the first three weeks of June" right now and still chugging along!!  Our busiest three weeks of the year!  Little Bear had her recital on the 2nd, she did fantastic!  She knew all her dance moves and looked beautiful on stage!  I think her favorite part was getting to put on make-up and then getting flowers from daddy and grandma afterwards!  She loved her flowers!!!

We left the recital right after her performance and rushed everyone back home.  Grandma came and stayed the rest of the evening with the kids while Nathan & I dressed up (super) nice and headed to the Jefferson Hotel for my sweet neighbors wedding.  I'm totally going to miss my neighbor Michelle across the street!  She has been an amazing friend the last few years that she has lived there; but I am EXTREMELY excited that she has found the love of her life and is happy!  Her wedding was beautiful!  She was exquisite!  I don't believe I've been to a wedding that fancy before in my life and it was the most fun I've had since my own wedding!   It was nice to get out and have some time to dance, and have a nice dinner, and celebrate the beginning of her new marriage!

On Monday,  Pumpkin & Little Bear had their first swimming lessons!  They were so excited to swim; Pumpkin did great!  She went under the water, jumped in and kicked around on the kick board.  Little Bear was a little more difficult but she is coming along slowly.  She is so afraid to put her face in the water!  So tonight after three days of lessons and her still having trouble, I filled up the bathtub and put her in it.  I figured out that she didn't understand what they were trying to tell her about blowing air out under water and holding her breath.  So I knelt down next to the tub, showed her how to hold her breath, showed her how to blow out, showed her how to blow bubbles and then before she knew what happened I closed my eyes and stuck my entire head under the water.  When I came back up her eyes were HUGE!  lol, she said, "wow mom your hair looks horrible!!"  LOL!  I told her that I wanted to show her how easy it was to go under water.  She finally started putting her entire face under, and then a little more of her head.  We aren't all the way there but we have made progress!!   I came out of the bathroom my hair standing straight up and wet and my shirt soaked all the way down to my pants.  Nathan was like, "what in the world are you doing in the bathroom!!"  hahah!!

So over all today has been a great day!  My friend Anya came over and watched the kids play outside while I got to clean up the kitchen.  I'm so excited to have them coming over once a week or so to play and then go to the pool with us!  Life will be so much easier once I have that little bit of extra time during the day to clean up without having to chase the kids around.  She has been a lifesaver!

So the rest of the week, we are in double time still!  Tomorrow we have swim lessons again, Friday we have the homeschool convention and Hobble-bobble will turn 3!  Saturday...we are going to the pool and somewhere in between the next three days I need to go to the grocery, get Hobble-bobble a present, write my list of curriculum I'm looking for at the convention, and finish my school work!

I've also decided to put Hobble-bobble back in diapers!  I knew it was too good to be true that she decided to potty train herself a few weeks ago!!  She was doing great and then....her room started smelling like pee!!  Her panties kept going missing, or she would go through like 10 pair a day!!  We figured out that she would sit on the potty WITH her panties ON and then pee instead of taking them off!!  THEN, it began...just like Pumpkin...she started peeing EVERYWHERE!!  Our carpet sounds completely like pee! It's so nasty!!  So we will be having a carpet cleaning SOON!  So she is back in the baby diapers!!  I'm also fighting with Sweet-pea because she is desperate to go potty like everyone else, but I forbid it!!  She keeps taking her diaper off everytime she pees or poops in it!  When she poops, she takes off the diaper, throws it over the gate into the kitchen, (yes with the poo still in it) and goes and sits on the potty....with poop all over her butt!! I'm cleaning pee and poo ALL THE TIME!!  I HATE potty training!!  So I think I may make a trip to Michaels and buy some pretty duct tape and secure these diapers already!!

So I'm off to finish out the week strong!!  Till next time.....