I Hate It When. . .

. . . I am overly confident in what my pantry contains and flippantly assume that the ingredients for the meal on my menu exist in my house and arrogantly continue to knit . . . only to discover that I was sadly mistaken.

Like Mother, Like Daughter

I hate shots. I freak out at the sight of needles. I can't watch when they draw blood, put in an IV, any of that stuff. Epidurals are out, they involve a needle right-IN YOUR SPINE? Not doing it-I don't care how bad the pain is! But when it comes to my kids I can't and solemnly refuse to let my fear be adopted by them. So I put on the brave front and shrug it off for them, hoping that they don't notice I'm not watching the nurses and that my knees are knocking. That intro brings us to today.

The older two have been due for their annual well-childs for over a month now and I finally remembered to make the appointment. I knew that both were due for the 2nd round of Hep A, but wanted clarification about the chicken pox booster since I'd been hearing conflicting things and since there has been a tiny outbreak at church. So now they are up to two shots a piece and they are a bit nervous, but I tell it's no biggie, we'll go out for ice cream (which next to chocolate, makes everything better). Thankfully our doc's office has the nurses tag team so it isn't one shot after another and each girl does great.

As we're headed down the hall for the stairs, I realize that I have to go to the bathroom. again. But God used the stop for good, because as a result, #3 (of course) had to try it out first and I took a look at the girls' arms in the meantime, and noticed that #1 had a huge hive under where the band-aid was. I took off the band-aid thinking that the nurse misplaced the band-aid and was going to move it, so none of us (read: mama) had to look at the injection site. It wasn't the injection site. Then she began to feel dizzy and got real pale. So I quickly got out the "propaganda" from the CDC and read that she had almost all the symptoms of a moderate to severe allergic reaction and that we should immediately see a doctor. Thankfully we were 5 steps from the office, so we piled back in, the nurse saw us and the doctor too. After about 20 minutes, some Tylenol, a shot of benadryl, cold compress, and some m&m's we were back in business. And I'm happy to report she is back to herself, for better or worse as the case may be.

FAQ's

This may end up being a series of posts, who knows?! But as I'm sure my friend Laughter Thoughts can attest, the more kids you have, the more at liberty people (friends/family/complete strangers) feel to ask you personal questions or make assumptions. Thankfully for the most part, my personality is such that I get a big ol' laugh at most or can at least see the humor in the situation later. So here is my attempt at answering some of those burning questions!

Q: Congratulations!! (then using a slightly hushed, more dramatic tone): Was this a planned thing?

A: Aren't all babies planned on some level? Seriously, this has been our most prayed for, agonized over, PLANNED pregnancy. With #1, I did all the lobbying and then God softened my husband's heart and there she was. With #2, it was a done deal, Lord willing, we weren't having an only child. With #3, I really wanted another one, husband was skeptical, and then there she was! With #4, back in February my husband asked me to pray with him about our family size and then in May we decided that we would step out in faith and see what happened. And there you go.

Q: Where on earth are you going to put this one? You'll probably have to add on to the house, right?

A: Funny how it works, but sharing a room with your sibling(s) doesn't kill you, I know totally weird, huh? I am living proof, as are my sisters, as are my girls. It's also funny how you don't know you are a boy or girl until about age 2 or 3 and even then, it's because someone told you that you were. So I think we'll be just fine with our three bedroom home.

Q: But what if it's a boy? (said again with the slightly hushed, dramatic tone)

A: Have you met my family? Would you like to see our track record with conceiving boys? Oh you have, then why the concern. Really, what better way for a boy to learn to treat women the right way than to be surrounded by sisters? Wouldn't he be spoiled rotten, you bet, but then we tend to spoil all our babies rotten!

Q: You're going to have to get a bigger car.

A: To quote my husband, "They don't come much bigger than this one."

Q: You should know by now how that happens. (pointing to my belly)

A: To quote Laughter Thoughts: "Why do you think we keep having them?"

The Cat's Out!

Well, it is safe to say that most everyone who reads this blog and/or who has had a visual sighting knows that the Queen is having baby #4. If you didn't--surprise!! We are about half way there, due in February '09, and if this little one cooperates we will know he or she (who am I kidding with the "he" right??) on Friday.

Today at Soccer Saturday, I had taken off the baggy, dark-colored (hopes of a slimming look!) sweater, and then saw a mom from Princess #1's previous team and her jaw dropped when she saw my "bump". To say she was stunned would be putting it mildly. Secretly, I found it hilarious and even more so when she was hustled off to the "potty" by her 4 year old before she could say anything more than a breathless hello. I suppose it's something to look forward to for next week.

I find people's reactions to this pregnancy very interesting. In fact, I should put up a FAQ's post sometime!! So anyway, the cat's out of the bag and I can now bore you all to death with baby updates. . .

I Didn't Think It Was That Bad

So got up yesterday morning, and am getting ready to hop into the shower, when the youngest princess marches in and without even so much as a "good morning" informs me, "Mama you need to brush your hair!"

I reply that I will after my shower, but that is not good enough for this little rascal. She very calmly hands me the brush and says, "Here."

Good Car Music

I had the "family" car all to myself tonight! (Did you see those stars align??) Anyway, usually I keep it silent, just soaking in the peace and alone time. Tonight however, I decided to turn on the music and each song that played was perfect! Have you ever had that happen--when each piece of music is the one you needed to hear to lift your spirits or encourage? I hope so.

I must say it was the icing on the already delicious cake of time to myself!

Ode to the Magic Eraser

Oh, how I love you, my Magic Eraser.
With just a little water and a quick swipe, the sticky finger prints that decorate ALL my walls at the 3 foot and under mark, "magically" disappear.
When I shudder at the state of the bathroom floor, I can just grab you, drop to my knees and the nail polish tracks disappear.
I don't know how you do what you do, but please don't ever stop. I just couldn't live without you!

Shhh, Don't Tell!

I told the girls that school would commence right after I check email. Of course, they know I use the term "check email" loosely! So after a couple of minutes. . .

Princess #2: Mom is school going to start soon?

Queen: Yep, just need to check yahoo mail and we'll start.

Then I overhear in hushed, flushed, tones:

Princess #1: Why did you have to remind her? We could have played a lot longer!!

Of course, now they did get to play longer, since I had to blog their conversation-we all win!

You Know You're Old When. . .

. . . the local radio station announces that there is going to be an Amy Grant "Lead Me On" 20th anniversary tour coming soon, and you think wow, she's still kickin'.

. . . and then you realize that you went to the original, 20 (yikes!) years ago!

Bad Mommy!

It was just sitting there on the counter, the one token piece of chocolate in the entire house, waiting to be put in my Bunco gift, and I ate it. I didn't even want it, but I ate it. It didn't even taste good, but I ate it. Very naughty. Especially since that means that at some point between now and Tuesday night, I have to find a replacement for my gift, with all three in tow. That right there my friends, is my punishment.

Dinner Laughs

While discussing the title of a Veggie Tale movie, the king mentioned one of the characters was named the "Italian Scallion". Immediately the girls jumped on the word scallion. Then the discuusion turned to what a "stallion" was.

I answered with: A male horse.

Princess #2 pauses, and says: Oh so it would be a horse that delivers the mail! Like in the olden days.

Then she couldn't figure out why mama was trying to conceal her laughter (and failing miserably, I should add)! Before she could get upset, we assured her that it was that pesky English language that was so confusing and funny-not her definition.

Say What?

Today at lunch, Princess #3 was inspecting the ketchup bottle. She looked up from her study to ask: "Does ketchup have cheeseburgers in it?"

And being the helpful mother I am, only half-listening, while cutting up #2's lunch say: "No it just has ketchup in it."

My Destiny??

My Dad sent me the link to the following youtube video and it is too funny!! Even if you don't homeschool, it is still a hoot. I needed a laugh this morning-thanks Dad!

Confession

I have a little 'fessing up to do about my ironing. It should probably remain just between us friends.

I don't iron the backs of my skirts and/or dresses.

If I lived close enough to walk to church or my shopping destinations I would probably give the backs a taste of the heat, but since I gotta drive, why bother to unwrinkle what is going to just get wrinkled up on my way! And that was my little secret to getting to the sewing faster yesterday!!

Don't say you've never done it or at the very least thought about it . . .

Bribing Myself

So I hate ironing. It is a loathsome chore to me. I will usually let the items that need to be ironed sit until I have at least an hour's worth of work, you know to make my time worthwhile, it's not like I'm procrastinating or anything. Uh-huh.

Well, today we had nice cooler weather, good sewing weather I thought to myself during school. However, my mom and I have the same deal, no sewing til the ironing is done. So once school let out I attacked the pile. Got the ironing done, the knitting blocked and even a bit of sewing done. Nothing like a little bribery to get a detested job done!

(Note for Friberg girls: I even did it without a stash of green m&m's and pretzel sticks!!)

In A Perfect World. . .

. . . school would have been taught and the garden tended. However, here at the castle the world is not perfect, it is real, and things didn't go according to my plan!

Over the weekend here the temps were sweltering, true August desert weather--100+ temps daily. Soccer games were watched, but just sitting in the sun sucked out so much energy that the normal weekend routine was interrupted! So that left weekend chores for today. So we stripped beds/remade them, and went grocery shopping! Not to mention the normal Monday of chore of laundry-til-you-die!

School will start tomorrow (I hope!) . . . in my perfectly real world!!

More Giggles

My girls make me laugh, which is a great thing! Finding my life amusing is the next best thing to knitting as far as keeping the queen sane! So I share two separate conversations with Princess #2 yesterday that still have me giggling.

We're at the table eating dinner, which happened to include rice. She stops eating and says, "Mama, when I grow up I am going to learn how to speak Chinese a little bit and go over to China with someone who knows how to speak Chinese and Washington, and I'm going to tell people in China that you can eat other things that aren't rice. That way they can have something else to eat." Too funny. Washington.

And then at bedtime, Princess #3 had a tiny thorn or sliver in her toadie and we were soaking it a bit trying to get it to work it's way out without assistance. When Princess #2 saw that our efforts were not working, she immediately ran to mama's bag and got out the "twizzlers", so the thorn could be taken out. I bit back the giggle then because she was so worried about her sister and her willingness to try and help was so sweet, I didn't want her to think I was laughing at her help.
(Twizzlers is "Washington" for tweezers, doncha know?)

Hope you had a laugh now too!

Time's a-ticking

Over the weekend I had the girls' clean up their rooms. P#1 has her own room and the younger two share. P#2 got right to work and put books back up on the bookshelf, and the library books in their place. It was great! I look across the hall to P#1's room and she's curled up on the guest "futon" reading a long lost Archie magazine! Like mother like daughter--those darn sidetracks especially in the form of books or knitting. Anyway, I offer to help and we begin to tackle her room.

From the vantage point of the hall, it sure didn't look too messy, but boy-howdy is that girl a pack rat! We found all kind of things that could be thrown away OR kept in her "special things" box. Well, among the things we found was her calendar, crammed under her desk. I flipped it to August and hung it up again. Then something caught my eye on it, a sticker on Monday August 18th. I leaned in for a closer look and it reads "School Starts". WHAT?! No one told me, and I'm the teacher!!!

Then I remembered the logic of having her put the sticker on that date. We'll be involved in our homeschool co-op again this year, and that sucks up a day of school a week starting in October, and then in September we're expecting company and school may or may not get completely done each day. Soooo, we're starting early. And as I'm reaching for the brown bag to breathe into, I remember, I did all my lesson plans, all I have to do to get ready for next week, is to organize their worksheets for the week. Hooray!

Now, I'm eager and excited to embark on this next year of learning adventure and fun. The smell of newly sharpened pencils to quote "You've Got Mail" has got my nose twitching and ready to see how third grade, first grade part deux, and keeping an eager preschooler busy will work exactly.

Please, be a friend, and remind me that come January when I'm pulling my hair out and ranting to the gods, I wrote this post about how excited I was for school to begin!

Princess #2 is 6!

In news better a week late than never, Princess #2 is 6! The long-awaited day finally arrived. She had a great day. And I love that she always chooses take-out for her birthday dinner, so nice for mama!

It's hard to believe that this little "preemie" has developed into such a lovely, funny, silly, fancy girl. She is my one that consistently runs hot or cold-there is no middle ground with this girl! However, I must say despite the craziness of having a personality like this in our family, it is part of her charm. Her world is black and white and I love that about her, everything is an absolute. She loves very deeply and has friends everywhere! She runs into more friends on a trip, well, just about anywhere, than I do long-lost high school acquaintances at Costco (and that is saying something my friends)!

When I think back as to how scared we were that we could possibly lose her in the womb or shortly after her early arrival, I feel so blessed to have her in our family. My parents always remind us when we get frustrated with her, that once all that energy and fire are channeled in one (positive!) direction, she is going to be a force to be reckoned with, and I have to agree. I am eager to see where the Lord leads her in life. For now, she wants to be a veteranian and a people doctor, and set up practice on Nanny's farm, so that she can take of the animals and her grandparents, how sweet is that?!

Home Sweet Bathroom

We are still (or maybe it's just me) that is recovering from our journey to the Midwest and back again, so I apologize for the lack of posting. Here's one quick one from the day we returned.

Once we all piled in through the door, the happy exclamations began from the older two: my toys! my kitty! my room! air conditioning! and so on. Princess #3 didn't have too much to say, just kind of wandered around. Then she heads into the bathroom to take care of some business, and we hear this shout of excitement: It's my same bathroom and my same potty and my same stool!! Oh thank you Mommy that I'm home!