Fitness On Friday - Not So Good

Originally all I was gonna say on this post was "Don't Ask!!!" However, since this is my accountability station, I feel it necessary to tell ya... I have gained a pound in the last two weeks. I know it does not seem like much, and considering that at this moment I could not even BEGIN to tell you where my food journal is, I am grateful for that! However, I am a little disappointed in myself. So I gotta use that to hop back on the wagon. Back into the game.

Big, gigantic weekend though - Birthday party, graduation party AND baby shower. YIKES! Pray for me to be strong. And to find my journal. And to be strong.

Did I mention I need strength?

Yeah!

A Little Of This, Little Of That ...

Our church had a blood drive on Monday. Since I am now a SAHM (that is "stay at home mom", for all of you behind on your blog-ese lessons) and cannot, at this season of my life, take off on short term mission trips or be a summer camp counselor on a regular basis like I did in my single days, I look for opportunities to give back, while not straying too far from the people who need me most. So, I jumped at this chance.

Now, I am not a big fan of the needles. I am more often that not, what they like to call a "hard stick" - meaning they have trouble finding a vein and, usually, when they do it is either buried beneath all of my "fleshiness" (I think that this is a polite phrase for FATTY CELLULITUS TISSUE!!), it does not hold still - did you know that veins can roll?!?!, or it is very small.

"Very small" is what we had this time. She was not sure that it would last for a whole pint. I had heard that before and everything had been fine, so I decided to go for it. And I was wrong. It WAS too small. They only got about a third of a bag before it started flowing so slowly that it was clotting before it reached the bag.

Clotting quickly - good should I ever, ya know, lose a limb or something. Not so good if you are trying to fill a big ol bag o' blood with the fluid flowing in a puny little vein!!!

That being the case, I did not receive the highly acclaimed "I Gave Blood Today" badge of honor. Instead, I was stuck with the sad little "I Tried" sticker and this lovely "Badge Of Honor" ...


Pretty, huh? I know YOU want one!!!
(Guess my career as a druggie will not be very fruitful. What with being forced to walk around with the arm that says "please arrest me and send me for a urine test IMMEDIATELY - I promise I will fail. And I don't even have to eat a poppy seed muffin!!!")

In other news, Sophie is not sleeping well again. This time it has NOTHING to do with her sinuses. She just wakes up a LOT!!!! She is not hungry - the most she will drink is MAYBE two ounces. She cries till someone comes to her. Continues to cry until she is given a bottle - which, as I mentioned, she barely touches before drifting back to sleep.
Yesterday we went to see the doc to be sure that it is not her ears or anything else and, after she took one look at the bulging luggage beneath my eyes, she asked me around four hundred and eighteen questions about Sophie's sleep patterns. And then she gave me a verdict:

Trained Night Cryer/Feeder

So, basically we have a LOT of work ahead of us. See, Sophie - even though she weighs in at just over 24 pounds, is not a big eater. We are lucky if we can get her to eat more than 6 ounces at a feeding. I never thought too much of it, since she get the recommended amount in on a daily basis. However, she gets it in a little at a time. This means that she eats smaller amounts more often through the day. SO, she is used to having feedings closer together. And this is why she wakes up. She is not hungry - she has eaten enough through the day - she is just used to eating more often. It is a comfort, so she cries for it and needs it to get back to sleep. SO, I now have to increase the time between feedings - and thus the amounts of food - through the day so she can go longer between feedings at night.
We also need to help her be able to soothe herself back to sleep at night. She is fine with this at nap time and when she first goes to bed. We turn on her music and the thing that puts fishies on the ceiling and she goes right to sleep (even without the fishies at nap time, because it is too light to see them). But at night, if she wakes up, she cries for a bottle and some attention.

SO, here is where I need your help. How does/did your children get back to sleep in the night? Any products that helped - a crib soother (hers sits on a table, where she cannot reach it to turn it on herself), special music, tricks or ideas.

PLEASE, I need any idea I can get! Ask your friends, send em my way. I will take any suggestions I can get. ANYTHING at all!!! I am tired ... and desperate!!!

Thank you in advance. You are rescuing us all.

Picture Perfect Monday - Yay For Technology

Where would we be without the modern convenience of things like cell phones, without which we would never be able to share random moments, like when Hattie decides to bestow "princess-ness"on her sister ...

... or Sophie and her daddy decide to take a snuggle break in the middle of COSTCO ...

... or the girls decide to go for the X-Treme closeup ...


... grab for the camera ...

... or just share a quiet moment on the front lawn?

Yep, technology is good!

Ups and Downs and The Craziness Inbetween

OK, first off - may I ask you all to pray for my sweet friend Rachel and her family. Her Mom passed away this weekend. She had been dealing with many medical issues lately and they knew it was coming. Somehow that does not make it easier though. She was a believer, so what does make it easier is knowing that she is now enjoying a perfect, HEALTHY, Heavenly body and resting in the presence of Jesus! Rachel is a blogger, her site "Devoted" is listed in my link list on the sidebar (I can't get the link thingy to work!) if you would like to read about her mom. Thank you for your prayers - I know I can count on all of you!!!

Secondly, another friend and her hubby recently lost their pet dog. Now, this was no ordinary pet. My girlfriend Carol is a retired police officer and her hubby John is still active and has been on the canine unit for a while now. For the past 5 or so years he has partnered with Baloo. Last Monday they were following a bad guy through a construction site and Baloo fell in a hole and died. These people are SERIOUS pet lovers and Baloo has lived with them the entire time they have worked together. They are devastated by the loss. Please pray for them as well as for some choices regarding John's career that they are now facing.



And thirdly, today is my Paula's birthday. She would have been 38. It still seems so foreign, this world without her. I have to stop and remind myself that she never met my girls, never got to see me be a mom. That hurts. She was an AMAZING mom. At least once a week I wish, more than you could imagine, that I could ask for her advice and input and HELP!!! I miss her every Friday - we had guitar lessons, ice cream dates, movie nights and/or shopping at Walmart on Fridays. When she was doing chemo, it was on Friday and I would sleep over to help her through. More often than not, the next day she was ready to go garage saleing. I would have to explain - AGAIN - that they were FULL of germs and other people's filth. We would argue - AGAIN. She would win - AGAIN. And we would go to Einstein's Bagels for an "everything" bagel and a large "frosty beverage" and be on our way. She could sniff out a garage sale a mile away. She was great at finding a bargain, but mostly we just found some fun and a few laughs. I hate that she is not here with me anymore. I LOVE that she is in Heaven. I miss her like crazy every single day. I can't wait to walk on those golden streets and see her walking toward me. She is saving the mansion next door to hers for me - 'cause she promised she would. I can't wait to see how she painted the walls. I bet there is at least one pink room ('cause she knows I would secretly want one - though not QUITE as pink as Faith's room), one muraled wall and one sunflower SOMEWHERE!!! She wouldn't have it any other way.

Did I mention I miss her?

Yeah, I thought so.

Freedom ROCKS!!!!!

So, we had a fabulous Fourth - how was yours?

Here is how ours went down:
We spent the day at John's house (Hubby's bro). He lives right off of the lake and it was beautiful! Hattie got to show off her new "big girl" swim suit! Now that she has successfully potty trained, she does not need the swim diapers anymore. May I just say that she ROCKED that suit! She completely enjoyed the Slip-N-Slide.





She would run up to it and screech to a stop at the beginning. She tried the sliding part once and landed on her back. After that it was run, run, run, STOP and walk gingerly to the other end. Much to the amusement of her cousins!

Sophie enjoyed being spoiled by her cousins and her grandma, and then she took herself a nap.





We all enjoyed some yummy BBQ - thank you John!!! And then we went back to the fun! Hattie divided her time between the slip-N-slide and the kiddie pool.




While Sophie got to know Bella the dog.





Uncle Harry worked at Holding Sophie without her crying (which, thankfully, is working!!!).




And then the girls, the puppy and the daddy got in some quality time.






We came home before it got dark - had to avoid the mosquitoes. Didn't want a rematch from last weekend!! But the folks in our sub must've gone into debt at the fireworks stands, because we got QUITE a show right in our own front yard. We played with sparklers and then watched the rest of the fun from our living room window. It was great ... aside from the fact that Hattie has yet to learn the S.L.O.W. wave method of sparkler fun and had her sparkler going so fast it burned daddy's shirt AND some of her hair off. NOBODY was hurt in the process, her hair just aint smelling so hot!!!

We forgot the camera for sparkler fun, so we will try again tonight!

I hope you all had a great day as well. I am so very thankful to live in the freedom this country offers. I know that there is a LOT wrong with things right now. (I do not talk politics, so that is all I am gonna say about that) However, we have the freedom to make our own choices, go where ever and do what ever we like, and worship the way we choose. This is something I will NEVER take for granted. Thank you to the men and women who have given of themselves to attain and protect these freedoms. And thank you to the Father for all of the Blessings He bestows upon this nation. May we strive to Bless Him right back.

Sleep ... Not So Much

OK, I must warn you now. I am likely to ramble. I do that when I am tired. And, golly bob howdy, am I tired now! Ya see, Hattie decided at 3AM that the whole sleep thing is highly overrated. And she decided, further, that if she was gonna be up then so was everyone else! And, being the efficient girl that she is, she promptly got everyone else in the house up with her.

At 3 AM!

That is three o'clock. In the MORNING!

Still dark. Still s'posed to be sleeping.

But, oh no. Not in our house.

Hubby and I actually argued over which one of us would go up to get her to quiet down. It was something like this:

"You better go, I can't guarantee that I won't harm her sweet little self"

"Oh no, YOU better go, 'cause I can pretty much guarantee I WILL!!!"

Before you call the authorities, please know that she suffered no harm whatsoever. Which, in and of itself, is a miracle. Ya know, considering the fact that she woke us up and all.

Did I mention that it was THREE IN THE MORNING!!!!

It was!

So, now here we are at 11:32 AM and we are all still awake. Sophie is the only one who got any sleep at all. Hattie is going strong. I am fading fast and Hubby is hooked up to a caffiene IV at work. Bed time is coming early tonight!!!

So, other than that, I have some heart wrenching news to share. And, it could be the LACK OF SLEEP, but my heart is simply broken. Crushed.

Sophie is afraid of muppets. I KNOW!! This from the child of the girl who LIVED for the muppets. Who has every single muppet movie in the video collection - some still on VHS even! Who could not wait for the day that her children were old enough to justify watching Sesame Street on a daily basis.

It started yesterday when we were at the Christian's house for a playdate. They have a Hokey Pokey Elmo. And the thing scared the tarnation out of my girl.

Now, frankly, the dancing Elmo's are not my favorite either. So I didn't think much of it. But then today we were watching Sesame Street and she cried each and every time a muppet came on the screen. Cookie Monster. Grover. Rosita. Zoe. Elmo. And, the most heart wrenching of all ... Ernie.



And, I tell you, I almost cried. I loved Ernie when I was a child. And I mean LOVED him. I thought he was real and just KNEW that I would marry Ernie someday. At one point I embarrassed my entire family with my unbridled affection for Ernie.

See, my sister had just gotten married and I was her flower girl. I was four years old with an up-do to end all up-do's. I was looking good y'all! After the wedding mom and dad packed us all into the car for a road trip to Grandma's house. The dress had come up over the hair. A turtle neck sweater had gone down over the hair and I had slept - for hours in a car - on the hair when we pulled into a truck stop to eat. I still - mistakenly - thought I was lookin' good. I am told that I - in actuality - looked like a crazed orphan. Anyway, there we are, sitting in a booth on the other side of the restaurant when in walks a tall dude in a striped sweater with crazy black hair stickin' up all over the place.

I went NUTS! I started screaming at the top of my lungs "ERNIE!!! ERNIE, IT'S MEEEEEE!!!!" And with that I jumped from my seat and ran across the place to get to him. Still screaming and still calling the poor guy Ernie.

Waitresses were on the floor laughing. My siblings were under the table hiding. And my parents were having an argument that went something like this:

"You better go, I can't guarantee that I won't harm her sweet little self"

"Oh no, YOU better go, 'cause I can pretty much guarantee I WILL!!!"

Hattie and I are both alive. We HAVe to live. We have a LOT to teach sweet Miss Sophie!!!!!!

Repeat after me - "muppets are our FRIENDS!!!"

Picture Perfect Monday - Shower Fun

Hattie has discovered the joy that is in a shower (although she still overwhelmingly prefers a bath), as well as the even greater joy of shower CLEANING!!!




PS - I am pretty sure that there are child labor laws against this kinda thing. Please be aware that she did this BY CHOICE!!!

PPS - this was before the grea mosquito tragedy of '08 which left her looking like this:

PPPS - How cute is this?

OK - I am done now!

Fish Flys and Swollen Eyes

Here in our little corner of the world we get a little visitor every June. Behold, I give you the FishFly:


They come in swarms



And then they die



And they leave the town smelling like dead fish for about two to three weeks!

Isn't that fun? Yeah, we think so too. So we like to throw a little party in their honor. A little thing we like to call the FishFly Festival!!

Now, I am gonna show you pictures of us at said festival, but before I do I gotta warn ya. Hattie had herself a little run in with a few mosquitoes on Friday night. And, sad to say, but I think she lost. Ya see, it seems our girl is allergic to mosquito bites. This is why we don't go out much when they are out in force. We like to play outside when it is dry and breezy. 'Cause wet and still brings 'em out in mass quantities.

Little bump and kinda itchy you say? Oh no, it is much bigger than that...




She still had fun, even though she was hopped up on Benadryl. It may not look like it in theses photos, but she did enjoy herself!!






Yeah we had fun.

Our girlie just woke up and now cannot even open her eye. We are off to the Urgent Care.

Have I mentioned her inordinate fear of all things medical.

This is gonna be even more fun than the Festival!!!
(pray for us please!)