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.....

We have a date for surgery......

We've had a rough couple of days this week.  Nathan got his last shot for a while on Tuesday which has caused him to not feel very good at all the last couple days.  I don't know if it was the shot itself, the combination of the shot and his medication, or maybe he is coming down with the virus we've all had; but whatever it was he has not been himself.

Tuesday we packed up the kids and drove to St. Mary's for his last shot for a while.  The girls and I waited in the car while he went inside.  From the moment he got back in the car he was a mess.  His back has been in so much pain he cannot move!  Every time he has had a shot the next few days have been really tough pain wise.  One of the side effects is that his pain will become inflamed and this time that has been an understatement.  For two days, he has felt hot and cold, nauseous and restless, and has not been able to do anything.  My mother in law has been coming over to help watch the kids when I have errands to run because he can't do it anymore which has made things pretty tough.

 We also spoke with his surgeon's office Tuesday and they let us know that his surgery is scheduled for October 5th.  It has been a little emotional for both of us to actually have a date now when it will take place, but then again it's a little bit of a relief that he will not have to be in so much pain for much longer.  We will go back to Charlottesville in August for one last appointment before the surgery.  We will get all the details of surgery day and accommodations for the girls and I then.  They will also be taking a CAT scan of his spine then in order to plan out his surgery.  But for now we are trying to keep him comfortable which has been proving to be more and more challenging every day!

I wish we would have re-scheduled his shot for next week instead of this week with all we have going on!  Little Bear had recital photos yesterday, today is rehearsal, friday we have someone coming to give us a 2nd estimate on our fence for the back yard, and Saturday we will be running between recital and a wedding.  His shot put a little kink in things, so far as, him not being able to keep the kids when we go to rehearsal, and photos, and the grocery store etc.  But my mother-in-law has been a huge help.  She picked up some milk for us last night and took her lunch break yesterday to be here with Nathan & the girls so I could take Little Bear for pictures.  I've been really thankful to have her help!

So today Nathan will have physical therapy this afternoon, before we head to rehearsal for Little Bear.  I'm praying that he will feel well enough to at least sit in the car with them while we are there!  Meanwhile, I've been chasing Sweet-pea around the house all morning long trying to keep her diaper on her!  lol  This kid (21 mo) is determined to use the potty, and I'm determined she is going to wear the diaper!  Ever since Hobble-bobble has been going potty, she has had to be a big girl too!  She will pull off the diaper (poop and all) and sit on the potty until I come in a make her put on another one.  Five minutes later I find that diaper laying in the hall and her sitting on the potty!  lol  I am just so scarred from potty training Pumpkin that there is no way it can be this easy with Sweet-pea!

On the upside, I received an email last night from Liberty University, that I have made the Dean's list!!  My GPA was a 4.0 this past summer semester!  This is HUGE for me considering I haven't even made honor roll since Elementary school, and it's been 12 years since I graduated High School!  I never thought I'd actually be in college, let alone that I'd be on the Dean's list!  I just hope I can keep my grades up that high throughout the next 3.5 years!

So with that here is hoping our day goes smoothly today!!

Accidents happen.....

So a few weeks ago, I was in the dollar tree and saw the cutest green Hawaiian grass skirts for the girls!  I bought four of them, along with a bunch of the leis.  The girls were so excited when I got home and they were able to dress up!  After about a day of them playing rough with the grass skirts, I started to notice pieces here and there around the living room; after a couple more days it got worse!  They were stuck to butts when we changed diapers, stuck to feet, legs, and hair.  I was pulling these green pieces of plastic grass out of the washer, the drive way, and our car!!  So tonight as I sat on the couch next to Nathan I look down and he has a piece entwined around his leg hair!  LOL  He says, "YOU better never buy something like that again!!"  hahaha!!

So again as we sat next to each other on the couch tonight, I was in a silly mood.  I have been trying to drink 64 ounces of water a day in order to help with my weight loss journey.  As I sat there tonight I began blowing bubbles through my straw and on the top of the lid was a hole that the air was blowing out of.  Nathan looks at me and was like "what are you doing!?"  lol... Me being silly said, "When I blow in my straw the air comes up and hits me in the forehead and it feels might delightful."  he just rolled his eyes and shook his head.  Then out of no where this huge stream of water flies up out of the straw and spills all over the front of my shirt!!  I started laughing so hard I knew that if I didn't run, I would not make it to the bathroom!!  I've had this horrible thing my entire life that if I laugh too hard, I cannot control myself!  And sure enough I felt it crawling down my legs turning my grey sweat pants black before I made it to the bathroom.  It didn't matter how hard I squeezed it was determined!!!  The whole way down the hallway all I hear is Nathan gasping for air in between his laughing!  Once I finished cleaning myself up, I came back out and sat down in my spot.  Nathan looks at me and says calmly, "I will never be able to forget that!"  haha!!  

So in an earlier post I was talking about Hobble-bobble and how she was potty training this week.  She has done excellent.  But she had a little accident today.  I hear her yell at me and I walk into the bathroom and see the huge turd laying on the floor in front of the toilet, and she was sitting on the toilet!!  I said, "Hobble-bobble what...how...how did you do that?"  She says, "I was done going pee pee and when I got up it just fell out!"  I was DYING!!  I did take a photo of it and then posted it on my facebook page.  People were just roaring over this picture, it was so gross but it was unbelievable that you just couldn't stop looking at the darn thing!!  I eventually took it down because I started to feel bad posting a photo of my daughters poo for all to see but it is definately one "I will never be able to forget!"  LOL

****happy monday!***

Almost peed my pants....

So the last few days have been pretty stressful, but we are getting there.  Hobble-bobble had to put her boot back on tonight.  She fractured her ankle the first of April.  She fractured it in a growth spot and so they said the hardest thing for us is going to be keeping her from re-injuring it!  She wore a boot for 3 weeks and then they said she was able to take it off and try to regain strength.  They said it would take about two weeks.  But still she limps, some days worse than others.  She still stands on the bunk beds and jumps off onto the floor, although we tell her not to.  She came in from playing outside today and said it was hurting.  When I looked at it, it was swollen again.  So I put her boot back on and will keep it on her till Wednesday when she has her re-check.  I think if it's hurt again or they want her back in the boot for a while longer I'm going to ask for a cast this time since she thinks she is a super hero!

She also finally potty trained this week!  I do not try to potty train my kids.  I know most parents want their kids out of diapers as soon as they can, but for me I learned early with baby #1 that I'm not going there until they want to!  I would rather they keep their diaper on until they turn four, that way I can say, "happy birthday- by the way you get to use the potty now!"  and they knew exactly what I was talking about!  When Pumpkin was a baby, someone told me that the easiest way to potty train was to take off their pants and let them wonder around.  They said if I did this they would sit on the potty because they will not just stand there and pee.  Well, they were wrong!  I found poop in corners, in her toy guitar, in her sink that goes in her play kitchen!  She opened drawers and stood in them on her clothes and peed all over them!  And then one day....it happened...she had her door closed in her room, I walked in and opened the door and there it was!  A HUGE pile of poo was behind the door; when I opened the door it went over the poo causing it to embed itself into the off white carpet, and spread like butter while oozing under the door and sticking to the bottom of it.  Being mad was an understatement!!  I put her diaper back on her, and told her until she started going potty herself we were not taking it off!!  She eventually got the idea.  It took her the longest out of all my kids to potty train, and still she was in a diaper until just this year (6years old) at night time!  Little Bear trained in a week!  The week she turned 3 years old I told her if she went to the potty I would sign her up for dance class.  By the end of the week she was even trained at night!  And now Hobble-bobble, she has trained the earliest!  She wont be 3 until June so I'm super proud of her!  She wants to wear panties all the time, even at night but I had to tell her she can't do that yet.  She is so cute!!  So that is my strategy just wait till they go on their own one day...it saves so many headaches!!

So today I went to the library to start on my 1200 word essay that is due by Monday.  As I sat there something out the window caught my eye.  There were police officers combing the woods behind the library!!  I started to get a little nervous, but still I pecked away on my computer.  A few minutes later I hear the sound of police radios inside the library!  They were walking around searching the library!  So then I really started to get nervous!  As I was walking out to my car to leave a few hours later, I remembered that I didn't lock it.  I started to think that would be the perfect hiding place in someones car!!  I walked up to the van and saw this old man had just parked in front of me.  He was walking around my van on the passengers side.  When he got to the back of the van I began to open my car door, and the man sneezes so loud I jumped and seriously almost peed all over myself!! lol  

Anyways, so while I was doing my research for my paper I came across a website of people who lived green lifestyles!  This woman was pregnant but because she was so worried about saving the planet, she had an abortion in order to reduce her carbon foot print!!  Then another woman talked about how the only thing she cares about was keeping the earth healthy and in order to do so she is getting sterilized so she won't have any babies!  They say that basically baby + stuff + extra room in the house +babies the baby will have = pollution!  YES that is right they called babies pollution!!  Seriously!!  I was so disgusted and outraged by this that I couldn't even write my paper!  Do people not think that if everyone lived this way...humanity would die out!  Well, my babies are far from pollution.  "They is smart, they is kind, they is important!"  What makes these people think their life is anymore valuable than a child?  Anyways, I need to vent that out!  I know people can believe some crazy stuff but this was just shocking to me!

So for lunch today, Nathan and I took the girls to Grandma's for a few hours.  We went to Panera for some salads (since I'm watching the calories) and then to Starbucks for our "meeting."  We sat down and picked out curriculum for next year and scheduled appointments and put things on the calendar.  It was nice to finally have little bit of a plan for next year...once we finish school this year!  We are about halfway through this year and we will eventually get there!  Looking forward to getting the new curriculum for next year!!