Earth Day 2008

Happy Earth Day!

I made the kid's get all dressed up to take pictures outside. Anthony said that it felt like I was getting them ready for church. lol

So here are my monkeys....I love these pics, they turned out so good.

This is my favorite one. I'm going to print it up and frame it.

My first set of pictures of the kid's against the tree I had accidentally moved the little dial that lets more light into the lens, so the pictures came out too bright. But they still look kinda cool.

Emma with those bright blue eyes!! I'm tellin ya, this child has the blue-ist eyes ever!! And red lips, naturally! She will never need lipstick, her lips are perfectly rosy on their own.

Gardening

I am so loving spring right now. We have the prettiest backyard, it is so green. There are trees all along our fence line so it's like a little wall of green. With exception of the fence that we share with our neighbor, no green there.

Here is a picture of one of out big trees. You can only really see the hummingbird feeder, but we also have another bird feeder and a bird house in there.
This is the corner of our backyard that is along the street.
Here is the other corner that backs up to 2 other yards.
Our newest bird feeder. $5 at Walmart-you can't beat that!

My mom gave me this birdhouse. I think it's charming. I have more somewhere still packed away. Maybe when my mom is done unpacking her house she will give me some of her collection (and she has quite a collection...hint hint). lol
This feeder is pretty cool. It attaches to the window and on the other side it has a temperature gage so you can see what the temp is from inside the house.
Still have yet to catch a hummingbird using it, but the level keeps going down, so they are out there somewhere!
Ok...now on to the gardening. I decided that I wanted to grow some veggies. I wanted them to be grown in containers, but I think I might have to find a spot in the backyard for them. We will see how it goes.

Here are the girl's helping to put garden soil in the pots.

Emma checking out the plant. Notice how it's already growing. I knew that the only chance of me growing a vegetable was to get one already started!!

Here is Emma yesterday with all of the plants.

Sara was taking notes on the veggie's progress on her clipboard.
From left to right: strawberries, jalapeno's, roma tomatoes, Bonnie Original tomatoes, green bell pepper and strawberries again.
Here is the bell pepper plant. It's actually a pretty cute plant.

Now the kid's freaked out because they could see a bell pepper coming out. Can you? Okay, if you look in the center of what looks like a dying flower, that is the tiny little pepper starting to come out. It is sooooo small! Totally cute. I think I will get some red and yellow pepper plants too.
These are my tomato plants. I don't think I have a big enough container for them and that is why I might have to actually create a garden in the backyard. Which sounds like a lot more work than I wanted this project to be! lol
My jalapeno plant. It's supposed to be "monster" jalapenos, which isn't what I wanted, but they were out of the regular jalapeno plants.
Some strawberries growing. I'm gonna need more than 4 plants if I am gonna have enough strawberries for Emma and Aaron.
I'm also on the lookout for a berry bush like blackberries. Aaron and the girl's love blackberries, and that is my favorite kind of jelly...or jam...or whatever the Smuckers kind is. lol

The Storm

We had a storm tonight. Tarrant County got it really bad and if you are in the DFW area, you know all about it since they didn't play any shows, just broadcast the weather all night. North Richland Hills was getting hit really bad with rain, winds over 60 mph and baseball sized hail. We live a block away from the border of North Richland Hills so it was scary.

So I decided to go to Walmart and go shopping. Hey, the sky was getting dark but it wasn't even sprinkling yet and I really needed a Magic Eraser. I left Anthony at home and me and the girl's went. We were almost done getting our stuff when someone came over the intercom and said that there has been a severe weather warning issued and all customers should go to the center of the store. Scary huh?

So I immediately called my neighbor Melissa and told her to go get Anthony and make him go to her house. She said no problem....then I thought, what the heck am I doing at Walmart, I'm outta here! I didn't have much stuff so we quickly went through self checkout and went home.

It was still awhile before it started raining, so we were okay. But, it made me think of the day after Anthony was born. He was born at the Lewisville hospital and the maternity ward (back then) was on the 2nd (top) floor. The nurse came in and said that a tornado was headed our way and that all of the babies had to go back to the nursery and that the mom's were being put into the hallways for safety. I thought "there is a tornado coming and there is no way in hell I am leaving my baby". I was the only mom that went to the nursery with her baby. No tornado came but it was definitely a defining moment for me as a mom.

So anyway, we cleared out Anthony's closet and put blankets and pillows and Sara's mattress up. We even connected Caleb's leash to the clothes bar to make sure if something happened he would stay with us. We never had to get in there (all it did was rain here and not even that hard), but the girl's enjoyed the thrill of it all.

Here is Emma with her scared face.

Oh yeah....and the ever so important shopping trip loot! The reason we just had to go to Walmart! Not pictured is the Magic Eraser and some lemonade. We also got some bubble bath, toothbrushes, kid's bar soap, Febreeze (I love the vanilla and lavendar scent) and a bathroom cup holder. Yep, all items worth risking your life for, wouldn't you say? lol

nothing much

Well there isn't too much stuff to update on here this week. I need to take pics of our little veggie plants. Anthony is finally getting carpet in his room on Friday so I can finish unpacking this house!

I have plans for our summer to be pretty busy. The girl's have 2 different Vacation Bible School's they are going to. Anthony will start basketball in June. Plus he wants to volunteer at the library helping kid's to read. The last 3 weeks of July all 3 kid's will be going to day camp. It's from 7:30-5:30 (I'm not sure they can handle such a long day!). I am going to be so bored without them here.

We have planned on taking the kid's to Scarborough Faire this year. I picked May 3rd since I have a Homeschool Book Fair to go to on the 10th, then Anthony's birthday is the 31st...hopefully he can take the time off.

Oh yeah, he is no longer the GM of the Colleyville Papa John's. He got 103 on his MC test (no clue as to what exactly it is, but 103 is damn good) and so they gave him a better store. He's the GM of the Southlake PJ's now. I'm so proud of him....he deserves it, he works harder than anyone else I know.

So that is pretty much it for now....been trying to fix up the house some and get things taken care of (soon will be scraping the old paint off and re-painting the outside). Going to be putting some flowers into the flowerbeds out front....I plan on spending a lot of time outdoors this year (saving for a pool!!!)....so that's it for now.

chore chart

I got the basic idea for this chore chart off my mommy message boards and tweeked it a little to fit for us. And instead of each kid having their own, all 3 kid's are sharing one.
Here is a close-up of the things we expect the kid's to do everyday. The other side of the circle says Done!

Here is the list of extra chores they can perform to earn money. Most are set at 50 cents, but there are a couple that are $1.

Here are the 10 cent clean up's. If the kid's are playing with something and put it away before moving onto the next thing, they can earn 10 cents. Hopefully this will eliminate leaving one mess to create another.

Game coins are $1.00 for 30 minutes. So in order to get computer or Wii time, they have to pay $1...and to earn that $1 they have to do chores. So it's win win (to me anyways)....I get help around the house and the can earn their game time. And I have a digital counter to make sure they get only 30 minutes at a time.

This is the section where they move the chore tabs to once they have completed them. This way I know who did what and how much to pay. There are also smiley faces here. At least they start off that way. If they get out of line, the face turns over into a frown and they get time-out. Three frowns means you don't get game coins that day, even if you have the money to buy them.

I am going to be making the kid's "time cards" to keep track of their earnings daily (since the chores get reset every day). That way on Sunday I know exactly how much we owe them and what they spent on game coins during the week.

update on Jo-Jo

Yes, Jo-Jo is my nickname for Rachel's new baby Joseph. She will call him Joey and I will call him Joseph.

Anyway, the poor little guy is still in the hospital. He is jaundiced and they are still trying to get his level's down. The doc's are a little concerned because they don't know what is causing it. They had to put an IV in to give him extra fluids so he is in the NICU and I can't go see him. Poor Jo-Jo.

He will get antibiotics until the 14th and then they might let him out! That really sucks. Emma was jaundiced too but she only had to spend an extra 3 days in the hospital and then she was okay.

So, send out your well wishes and baby prayers for him!!!

my surgery

So I had my surgery this morning. They took out 3 wisdom teeth and 1 broken permanent teeth. The had to knock me out completely and it only took like 45 minutes. Apparently once they gave me some funny gas I thought that I was quite the comedian.



The oral surgeon was trying to find a vein in the back of my hand and she was slapping it. She said "they don't want to come out" and I said "maybe it's because they don't like to be spanked". lol Yeah I crack myself up. Then she told me I had small veins and I said "that's what she said" and the nurse started cracking up and that made me crack up. But what she didn't know was that the other nurse really had told me that so it wasn't meant as a joke...but her laughing got me going.



When I left, I was not pleased. I have a crap load of gauze in my mouth, I was thirsty and having a lot of trouble swallowing because my mouth was so dry. I begged the nurse to rub an ice cube across my tongue but no such luck. Oh, and here's the strange part. When I came to right away I asked the nurse if she had 2 sons. She said yes. I then asked her if they were 8 and 6 years old and she said yes. I told her that they came to me and told me that it was going to be okay.

Seriously, how freaky is that?! Aaron asked me if she had told me before or if I had seen any pictures and I told him no, that I never talked to her before and there weren't any personal pictures in the office at all. Strange but cool.



I kept the gauze in as long as possible. But from my eyes down my entire face was numb and I couldn't feel my bottom lip at all. The inside of my cheeks were so swollen I accidentally bit them. Not too bad though. The swelling has really gone down now but the stitches HURT!!! And my cheek bones hurt and so does my head. She gave me some 7.5's and that is perfect.



What sucked is that Aaron had to go to work. He was supposed to have today off to hang out and help me out. But some big wig's are coming through to his store (today or tomorrow I guess) and he has been cleaning it like crazy.

Well, I am feeling sick and ucky so I am gonna go lay down.

yes more Horton

Okay, we are totally stocked up on kid's shampoo for awhile but I saw this today and I HAD to get it. How can I have Jo-Jo's and the Mayor's shampoo and not get Horton himself? lol
For myself I got some Bed Head Self Absorbed Shampoo and Conditioner (the conditioner I used on the girl's and it's great for tangles). I also went and got some Ego Boost Leave-In Conditioner to make sure their tangles don't give me any trouble. Loooooove Bed Head!!!! And Horton!!! lol

Dr. Suess

Okay, I have been obsessed with Dr. Suess lately and it has definitely been fueled by seeing Horton Hears a Who. I loved that movie and can't wait to buy it.

The kid's all (yes even Anthony) love Dr. Suess books so I signed up for the Dr. Suess book club and this is what we got in the mail.

1. Tote bag
2. Horton Hears a Who
3. One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish
4. Go, Dog, Go
5. Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You?
6. The Tooth Book
7. Are You My Mother?
8. And To Think I Saw It On Mulberry Street
9. Horton Hatches the Egg (not pictured)
10. The Cat in the Hat (not pictured)

Then when we went to Target last night, I saw this coloring/activity book and got it for the kid's.

Joseph Jay

Introducing Joseph Jay!!

Isn't he cute? This is my best friend Rachel's new baby. He was born April 5 and weighed 6 lbs 2 oz. (that is what I weighed when I was born). He looks just like Rachel and is absolutely adorable! I plan on spoiling him to death, he is so freakin cute!!!!

Cousin Sara

Cousin Stephanie
Uncle Jeremy (Rachel's brother)
Cousin Emma
Aunt Amber

Daddy and Joseph

Proud Papa
Big brother Jacob, Rachel and Joseph
Mommy and Joseph
Perfect little boy

oral surgery

Went back to my oral surgeon today for a 2nd consultation. I went a year ago but didn't have the money to pay for my teeth to be taken out, so I had to go back again today. Yep, still have to have the same teeth out. lol

It's 3 wisdom teeth and one permanent tooth that has broken off. She said that my teeth look better now than they did last time and that my broken teeth on top have moved down some and that should make it easier. I have 2 harmless cysts in my sinus cavities (like golfball size, they are huge!) and one of the teeth was stuck up in one of the cysts and it looks like it has moved down so that is great.

So next Thursday at 9 am I get to have surgery. I am so looking forward to it, it's been a long time coming. I will be put totally under and loopy for like 24 hours. My mom is watching the kid's for me and my plan is to just sleep for those 24 hours. lol Maybe eat a ton of ice cream....and soup....just soft stuff.

So that's it. Oh yeah, it's been almost 7 months since I quit drinking soda, and my best friend Rachel is having her baby via scheduled c-section tomorrow. For the last one I was up at the hospital at 6 am or whatever hellishly early time it was....this time, I will be there around 2:30 pm on my way to Anthony's doctor's appointment.

I already advised her not to have anyone call me...I know you are having a baby, I know it's a boy, I know his name....I can find out time and weight and all that good stuff after I wake up at my normal time...really it's okay.