Massive Marzullo Update.....

Ok - so I've been a total slacker in the last two months and haven't updated my blog in a while... I'm sorry. I've been fussed at for not updating it in so long and, believe me, I've wanted to on many occasions, but I established a new rule for myself back in the fall about going to bed on time and not staying up until the wee hours of the morning "playing" on my blog. Well, I'm blowing that one outta the water tonight but I figured I just HAD to get back on track. I'll just have to figure out some other time of day (heh! yeah right!) to do my bloggin.' Anyway, if you're ready to grab a cuppa joe and pull up a comfy seat, then I'll catch everyone up to date. Ready? ... here we go.....

Ok, since Halloween...

Unfortunately, my sister had a miscarriage. She was around 8 weeks along. She handled it really well though. She has a strong faith in God and said they will keep trying. So, I keep praying that God will bless them with another baby (preferably a girl - she already has two very energetic boys).

Abigail's 3rd birthday party was a lot of fun. Her birthday is actually in October but it's so close to Halloween and we had so much going on that we ended up celebrating it the first weekend in November. It was so cute to see all the kids playing the games and running around. The kids all made their own party hats; we had tricycle relay races (everyone won little gold medals); we enjoyed bubble blowing and of course the big finale was everyone getting to take a whack at the pinata! They were all dying for the pinata to come out. Even more so than for the cake!

The next week we gave my mom a surprise birthday dinner for her 60th birthday. She said that she kinda figured something might be up Daddy's sleeve when she came home from work that day and suggested to Daddy that they go to a different restaurant than the one they'd already agreed on. Daddy said, "no, I really have my heart set on Provinos." Mom thought to herself, "it's MY birthday!" But, she quietly went along and SURPRISE! (the kids all LOVED shouting Surprise!) there we all were! I think she really enjoyed it! :)

That next weekend, Mom kept all three kids for us and let me and John go on a weekend camping trip - - - just... me... and.. John!! Wow - after the hand-wringing nervousness and guilt ridden feeling of "abandoning" my children finally wore off, I soooo enjoyed the peace and quiet and lack of someone always being attached to my leg or needing me to wipe their bottom! It was great! We hiked. We slept in our two-man tent. We enjoyed real conversation with complete sentences! I'm afraid the weekend proved to be a bit more tortuous for Mom since Rachel wouldn't nap. So she was juggling all three kids the entire time - which means constantly fussing at the older two to leave the baby alone for TWO seconds, stay out of her face, stop knocking her over, give back her toy, etc etc etc. I felt really bad for giving Mom such a tough weekend. Of course the kids loved have Nana up so they had a great time!

I have to include this small "event" that occurred the following week. The kids and I had a teddy bear picnic in the back yard. It was such a beautiful day so we spread out a blanket and invited a few guests to have lunch with us. I believe that "Regular Teddy" and "Big Teddy" (yes, we're really original with names in this house) had a good time.

Thanksgiving was wonderful. Our craft this year was a Tree of Thanksgiving. I forget who I got the idea from (someone's blog or some other craft website?) so I'm afraid I can't offer proper credits but we had a great time filling it up with our leaves and reading everyone's answers. We had everything from drawings and thanks for grass, crayons and transformers to thanks for wonderful marriages, great kids, comfortable finances, good health and my grandad put "thankful just to be here!" We were too!!

Thanksgiving weekend, John and I took the kids to a nearby park to play. It was really cold so we bundled the kids in their coats, hats and gloves. As soon as they were released, the older two darted off for the playground while Daddy and I were still wrestling the baby into her coat and hat, etc. We were keeping a close eye out for the older two and once Rachel was set, we too headed for the playground. Unfortunately, in the midst of all the hub-bub, I forgot to hide my purse. So someone came along, busted out my window and stole it!! I'm thankful that it was just a smash-and-grab, no one was hurt and I had my most important items on me (keys, cell phone, main credit card and license). So all they really got was $20 in cash and a bunch of other useless stuff. As soon as we found the van had been smashed, we called the police and the banks. We cancelled everything and got new accounts set up. It was really just an annoyance more than anything. I was more irritated at me for leaving it in plain sight. I know not to do that and I always try to make sure nothing valuable is ever in plain sight but I just got busy and forgot this time. Well, approximately $350 later (new window, new purse, replaced several purse items), we were back in business. Oh but I had to share this photo. It's the sticker that used to be on my window which was now laying in the pile of glass in the parking lot. It says "This Vehicle Protected by Theft Deterrent System." Uh... apparently the thief forgot to read the little sticker and get scared before smashing it to smithereens! I am happy to say, however, that by a neat turn of events, we got a call about a month later (a few days after Christmas) from a gentleman who informed us that while on a walk down near the creek that runs through his property, he found a purse laying in the water! John met him the next morning and picked it up. It seems like it must have just been kids who had stolen it because all of my other credit cards were still there, my checks were still there, everything! Including a couple of gift cards! So, they really were only after cash! Well, they got $20. And I got a stinky, fishy smelling purse that had to be thrown out!!! Oh well.

Ah, and of course I can't forget to mention the loooovely stomach bug that visited our house the next week. Oh how fun that was! Abigail started throwing up (in my van no doubt, THREE times! I guess she wanted to make sure it was well coated...) around 6pm. I started getting sick around 9:00pm. Jared joined us as 2:00am. John had a peachy time taking care of us all night (while trying to keep Rachel isolated away from us and our germs) until he decided to join the party around 9:00am the next morning. What a lovely bunch we were. Thank GOD it was only a 24 hour thing and also that it skipped Rachel! By the time John started getting sick I was able to at least stand upright enough to take over. Hopefully that was our complete dose of ICK for the year.

Jared's school Christmas program was absolutely adorable!! Our son was the little boy on stage shouting the lyrics at the top of his lungs. There's always one in every performance and he was it this time. He was so cute. He did a great job. We were so proud of him!

Somewhere in December we went for about about two weeks without a microwave. Ours died and I never realized just how much I rely on that wonderful invention until it was no more!! It's amazing how much I use it for everything from re-heating my coffee, to heating the baby's food, to cooking Jared's hot dogs, to defrosting meat for dinner and then cooking that same meat in the micro. I'm too lazy to prepare dinner more than an hour ahead of time so I rely on the micro to nuke it fast! We got it fixed and our now back in business with a new appreciation for this wonderful invention!

My grandad and dad both had surgeries in mid-December. Thanks be to God that they were both successful and both gentlemen are healing nicely. My Pop had a roto-rooter procedure done on his main artery in his neck. His doctor found that he had a very large amount of blockage in that artery so they went in and basically performed a roto-rooter cleaning and scooped out all the goop. Lovely image, I know, but I thought it sounded rather odd - never heard of that one before. Thankfully, he did beautifully and was home the very next day! Daddy had his surgery two days later to remove all of the hardware that the doctors put his ankle back together with last year after it was crushed by a bob-cat (tractor). His body had been fighting having all that metal in him all year so they decided to take it back out. Here's an x-ray of what his ankle looked like before the extraction. After the surgery, the doctors handed Daddy a little container with the plate and all of his screws rattling around in it. I thought it was funny because it looked just like what you'd go to the local hardware store for. Nothing fancy - just average Ace Hardware type screws. Personally, I think Daddy's having fun carrying his hardware around and showing everyone. ;)

Just a few days before Christmas we went on a family hike in the mountains. I carried Rachel in the backpack and put John on chasing duty.

I'm a horrible aunt to forget the birthday so soon, but somewhere in November my sister-in-law had her baby. A healthy, bouncing baby boy named Connor. Two days after Christmas, my cousin had her baby. A healthy, sweet baby girl named Mattie. Congratulations to both Mommies and Daddies!

Finally, New Year's weekend, (yes, I know the date on this post is pre-Christmas but that's when I started my draft. I'm actually finishing and posting on 1/8/08... or actually 1/9/08 since it's the middle of the night by now!!) my mother-in-law kept Rachel and let John and I take Jared and Abigail on a weekend vacation to Rock City, TN. We thoroughly enjoyed Rock City in the daylight and then went back after dark to see their lights display. Our accommodations that night were our new 8-man, mack-daddy, Ritz hotel of a tent. John and I felt so swank! Quite an upgrade from the small 2-3 man tents that we use when hiking the Appalachian trail. For those occasions, the smaller the better. But we had elbow-room on top of elbow-room here! The kids had a blast using their little lanterns and head-lights (flash lights that you wear like a coal-miner on your forehead). They loved camping and then exploring the next day while we broke camp. On Sunday, we rode the Incline Railway and played on top of the mountain before heading back home. We had a great time!

And that pretty much catches us up to date. I hope I didn't bore you to tears! I will try not to go so long between posts again. And I hope you'll come back real soon now, ya hear?

Boo, Y'all!

Happy Halloween! Hope yours was as fun as ours was! We had a great time. The kids were so excited to dress up and get CANDY!!! I had pirate costumes ready to wear and since Jared loves to play with swords I just knew he'd love it. But no, he wanted to be an elephant! An elephant?! Yes, an elephant. Okaaaay. After several days of casually asking him every so often what he wanted to be for Halloween and getting the same response, "I want to be an Elephant!" I thought ok, I'll do it. I went online and found instructions for making an elephant costume, made my list of needed supplies, called WalMart to make sure they had plain grey sweat suits (to be cut up and transformed) and I was ready to do this. I picked Jared up from school and in the WalMart parking lot confirmed his request one last time. Yes, he still wanted to be an elephant. Abigail pipes up and says, "Me too! I want to me an elephant like Jared!" Jared balks. I said, "Ok, you can both be elephants but as soon as we go in there and buy the stuff for it, there's no changing your minds." "No, I don't want Abigail to be the same as me! I don't want to be an elephant!" (roll eyes) "Ok, then what do you want to be?" "A power ranger!" ... and off to Party City we go. Jared wanted to be every picture he saw but was fairly consistant on choosing the Power Ranger once I narrowed down his choices. Abigail wanted to be everything she saw and had no consistency whatsoever so we finally left with one blue Power Ranger suit and a decision that we could just dive into the dress up box and put Abigail in whatever suited her fancy 5 minutes before we walked out the door for trick or treating. I had this cute princess / fairy dress that I thought she'd love but alas that stayed on only 5 minutes before she said she wanted to take it off and be Tigger. So, our final selections were: 1 blue Power Ranger, 1 Tigger and 1 Pumpkin Pooh. The funny thing is that when Jared was an infant he was Pumpkin Pooh for Halloween. When Abigail was a baby, she was Pumpkin Pooh and Jared was Tigger. This year, Rachel was Pumpkin Pooh and Abigail was Tigger. Too bad I didn't have a Rabbit, Piglet or Eyore costume for Jared! Anyway, here's how my crew looked:

((( By the way, if anyone can tell me why I can no longer click on my photos to see a larger version please send me a comment and let me know. In my earlier posts you could do that but in my last post and this one, you can't??? Thanks!!)))

Here's our crew - ready to go! Tigger, Pumpkin Pooh and the Blue Power Ranger

We went with our neighbors - the kids loved it! Well, all except Rachel who wasn't too thrilled at this point!

Rachel traveled the night in style - Giddy Up, Daddy!

Note Jared looking in the window - "Hey, I KNOW you're in there!"

Jared and Abigail in hot pursuit of the next handful of sweets, leaving Mommy and Daddy in the dust!

John, trying to get the kids to hold up.

Rachel - "Hey, who turned out the lights?! Oh, there you are...."

Abigail trying to manage her load on the way home! The kids racked up and those bags were rather heavy by the end of it all!

We stopped by Miss Ashley's house for one final handful of goodies and some fun. Since we live in a ranch on a slab, the kids are in HEAVEN any time we visit friends that have *gasp!* STAIRS!!!! Over and Over and Over, they leapt over that five or six steps at top and then relished every bump and thump as they did belly slides down to the bottom. Jared is doing some sort of Power Ranger pose here.

Aahhh, one semi-calm moment as they pause their sugar-rushed craziness for a photo opp.

A 4x9 Meme

"What's a meme?" you may ask? I hope someone else has to ask that question because I did. So, I looked it up on m-w.com - Webster's online dictionary. Meme: an idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture. Well, I've seen all sorts of these little things all over the blogosphere and I have hence been tagged by Natalie (Yes, Jenny, you also tagged me and I promise I'll post on your meme as well! Sorry!)

Here goes...

4 jobs I've had in my life:
McDonald's cashier
county tag office clerk
apartment leasing agent
business analyst
(and my favorites - Wife & Mommy!! ok - so that's five and six but who's counting?!)

4 movies I'd watch over and over:
(I'm going to change this one to movies I HAVE watched over and over and expose my cheesiness):
The Sound of Music
Pretty Woman
Out of Sight (Jennifer Lopez/George Clooney)
Ronin (Robert De Niro/Jean Reno)

4 places I have lived:
Georgia
Georgia
Georgia
Georgia

4 TV shows I watch:
Heros
Grays Anatomy
Little Einsteins
Backyardigans

4 Places I've Been:
Cozumel
Cancun
Grand Canyon
Washington DC
(all pre-kids)

4 websites I visit daily:
my email account (several times daily)
my friends' blogs
my credit card company (to keep dibs on my monthly spending - trying to keep in budget)

4 of my favorite foods:
my mom's BBQ chicken
chocolate cake with chocolate icing (Duncan Hines, Betty Crocker)
milk
french toast with peanut butter and lots of syrup

4 places I'd rather be right now:
in bed sleeping but I can't seem to tear myself away from the brain suction of the computer
on a beach in Cancun (with my husband)
on a cruise ship (with my husband)
hiking / camping on the A.T. (with my husband)
(can you tell we could use some adult-only vacation time?)

4 bloggers I now tag for this:
Jenny
all of my other friends who have blogs have already been tagged so anyone else who wants to leave me a comment and link to their meme on their site

Jared's got a girlfriend! Jared's got a girlfriend!

Is this the cutest thing or what?! Jared has been coming home from school for weeks now talking about this little girl, Jordan. I worried that it may be a one-way thing but then he got an invitation to her birthday party. I email her mom asking for gift ideas and through our discussions I learned that his infatuation was most certainly a two-way thing. Her mom said that if nothing else, him showing up would be birthday gift enough! Jared has been looking forward to her party all week, asking daily, "When can we go to Jordan's house?" This morning, as we drove up to her house, we saw Jordan standing, looking out her front door (glass storm door). As soon as Jared saw her he said, "There's my girlfriend!" As soon as Jordan saw him (his mom later told me) she said, "I think I see him! He's here!" As we walked up to the house Jordan hopped and skipped down the front steps to greet him. They were so cute all morning at the party! They hugged good-bye at the end. And, of course, John and I made certain to get a photo of them together. She's looking at him in the photo but oh, you should have seen the love in his eyes as they looked at each other after the photo was taken!!

Can't you just see the little cartoon hearts pip-popping overhead?!

Thankful Thursday Thirteen

Rather than sitting quietly and having disciplined daily prayer time, I'm more of a scattered pattern pray-er. I'll shoot up a prayer here and in an hour I'll shoot up another prayer there. I shoot a few more up later in the day here, there and yonder. My prayers are probably about 50/50 - "Thank you God" and "Please Gimme Gimme." I don't think my Gimme's are too bad - not like I'm asking for riches or fame, just continued health and safety for my husband, my kids, and myself and of course a quick sale of this house because I dislike being in limbo. Today I thought I'd join so many other bloggers and start my own Thankful Thursday list because I really do have so much that I am thankful to God for.

I thank God for:

1. healthy, happy, strong, loving children
2. a husband who loves me, supports me, shows me daily how much I mean to him and how much he needs me, who is smart, loving, funny, sexy, and my best friend - I thank God for crossing our paths and leading me to him
3. parents who have always been loving, encouraging and supportive, who have been a wonderful example for me to watch and learn from (as parents, as husband/wife)
4. a wonderful sister who I'm so grateful to also call my friend, always there for me, understanding, loving, encouraging, supportive
5. wonderful in-laws - my mother-in-law who is so loving, giving, and always so happy to see you; my father-in-law and step-mother-in-law who are the most wonderful spiritual examples and teachers (I want to have their faith and love for God), and they're so much fun to be around
6. my grandparents who are so sweet and loving, full of stories and memories, never a cross word, always so thoughtful, a wonderful example of a long-lasting, loving marriage of 60-some-odd years, still so sweet sitting together on the couch side-by-side (close together too, not far apart), taking care of each other in love
7. my health and the health of my family (physically, mentally, spiritually)
8. my God, who, as hard as it is to imagine, loves me even more than I love my own children (and I could just eat them up!), who has blessed me over and over and over again
9. my faith in God, which as much as it needs to grow, has helped me through tough times - thankfully my faith turned me toward God when we lost our daughter Jessica, rather than allowing me to turn away in pain
10. our financial position - God has blessed us financially and is allowing us the freedom to try to sell our house for a larger one closer to John's work, to make the necessary repairs and upgrades to this one, to replace the broken digital camera without hesitation when it breaks so that we don't have to miss any priceless moments, to feel free from stress, strain, worry over bills or debts
11. the extra $10 that I found in my pocket today after praying that God would send me some extra cash, to send one of those little paychecks from the church or something since I used all my cash yard saling last weekend and can't dip into my checking account right now
12. I'm thankful for how much Jared and Abigail LOVE Rachel. It totally stresses me out when all three are trying to play in the same room because Jared and Abigail are constantly smothering Rachel and fighting with each other over who gets to play with her. I usually have to pick Rachel up to "save" her from her brother and sister. But it's just so wonderful that the stress is because they ADORE her so much. They want to play with her, make her smile and laugh, feed her, "help" her (more like drag her).
13. those sweet times when I can just sit back and watch the "show" and listen as the imagination flows from Jared and Abigail as they play together.

I could go on all night but I'll leave it at thirteen (only because it starts with 'th') :)

When Can We Go To The Hospital Again?

Yesterday morning, Jared and Abigail were sitting at the table happily devouring their morning waffles as I stood at the kitchen sink. Jared says (out of the blue), "When can we go to the hospital again?" I asked the obvious question, "Why do you want to go the hospital again?" He lifts the fork to his mouth for his next bite as he says, "I want to have another baby if God will let us." I just smiled and said "Well, honey I don't know... Why do you want to have another baby?" "Because they're cute." I said, "Hmm, well, I'll let your daddy know." "Okay."

I'm a Christian

I love this poem I found on another blog. I've pasted it below to make sure all will see. It's wonderful! May you all be blessed!



When I say…”I’m a Christian”
I’m not shouting “I’m clean living’.”
I’m whispering “I was lost,
Now I’m found and forgiven.”

When I say… “I am a Christian”
I don’t speak of this with pride.
I’m confessing that I stumble
and need Christ to be my guide.

When I say… “I am a Christian”
I’m not trying to be strong.
I’m professing that I’m weak
And need His strength to carry on.

When I say…” I am a Christian”
I’m not bragging of success.
I’m admitting I have failed
And need God to clean my mess.

When I say…” I am a Christian”
I’m not claiming to be perfect.
My flaws are far too visible–
But, God believes I am worth it.

When I say… “I am a Christian”
I still feel the sting of pain.
I have my share of heartaches,
So I call upon His name.

When I say… “I am a Christian”
I’m not holier than thou,
I’m just a simple sinner
Who received God’s good grace, somehow!

Birds and the Bees

I was crying I was laughing so hard the other night when I found this post. Please click here and see how this mom's birds and bees discussion went with her son.

Then click here for Part II of that discussion.

Thank God I don't have to have this discussion with my kids for another 6-8 years. But when I do I hope that I can be so frank with my kids. Way to Go Anne!

The amazing things kids do!

I found this hilarious post on Stretch Mark Mama's site. I don't know which reaction I would have first: the Bust-A-Gut-Laughter-Call-Daddy-At-Work-And-Tell-Him-What-His-Crazy-Kids-Have-Done reaction or the Gasp-Of-Fright-Coupled-With-The-Please-Dear-God-Don't-Let-That-Be-Permenant-Ink reaction! Too Funny!!

I'm going to be an Aunt - Again!

My sister floored me the other day when she called me on the phone. I clicked over to her, told her I was on the phone with our cousin and asked if I could call her back. She said, "Sure! I didn't want to take too much of your time. I just wanted to let you know that I'm going to be needing some advice from you soon since you're already experienced with having three kids."

... pause....


"You're NOT!"

"I AM!!"

... and then I think I said about, oh... 568 Oh My Gosh's! I just couldn't wrap my head around it! I thought (as did most everyone) that they were done!

So, HEE HEE!! My sister's having another baby!!! I keep praying to God, "Please dear Lord, let this be a healthy pregnancy, a healthy baby, a healthy delivery and mommy... and Lord? Can I ask for a girl?"

I guess we shall soon find out!!

HEE HEE!!

Drill Sergeant Mom - Part II

Now... having said all that good, mushy (and very true) stuff in Part I, please let me tell you a little about my afternoon yesterday. It's funny that two of my friends recently posted blogs about having a day that deserved a little "bottoms up" at then end of it (here and here)! Last night when hubby came home I said "I'm done!" He asked if everything was ok and I said "I deserve a Corona tonight!"

My trio did just fine in the morning and we even got to school a few minutes EARLY!!!! And for those of you who know me, you know that this just DOESN'T happen! That afternoon I picked my little man up from school ... and then it all began. First he didn't want to stay in his room for nap/quiet time (this is Mommy's well deserved daily break - Mommies deserve quiet time too!) so I got onto him over and over. After naps were over he kept bugging, annoying, aggrivating Abigail (just as big brothers are supposed to do, I know) and so there was the constant whining, crying and shouting from her to "Sop it! Wee me awone!" Next he's trying to dump out the entire twenty-four ounce tub of raisins and won't obey when I tell him repeatedly "that's enough, no more" (sounds minor enough but we're building here...). Then he begins to pour his milk out on the floor (thankfully I grabbed his cup in time to ask "WHAT are you doing?!"). This is followed by his taking my yard stick, which he "rides" galloping around the house as his horse (I was fine with that) and then pounding the living daylights out of it with a hammer, sending splinters of wood flying around my room. "ENOUGH! Go sit on the couch and DON'T MOVE until we're ready to go to the store!" I get Rachel up and change her diaper while she constantly tries to flip over and crawl off the dresser. The phone rings. As I'm simultaneously trying to get off the phone with telemarketer and pin Abigail down to put on her shoes I hear a crash (eyes roll). I go into the living room to see our only remaining lamp (you guess why it was the only remaining one) laying in the floor broken into MANY pieces! Needless to say he hadn't been sitting still on the couch as I had instructed. Trying to keep my cool (after slamming the phone down, thereby killing the digital display screen - it won't display numbers or anything any more), I respond to his apologies with "I know you didn't intentionally break the lamp but I'm NOT happy that you disobeyed! If you had been sitting still the lamp wouldn't be broken, now would it?" (Deep breaths. It's only a lamp. Who cares? Chill out!) Proceed to the grocery store with all three in tow. Listen to an hour long barrage of "he's touching me" "stop!" "move over!" "Moooooom" "Can I have a gumball? Why not? I want a gum ball. Mooooooom!" All the while I'm threatening them to dare not get up out of their little blue buggy seats and to stop poking the baby!

So, as you can see, it's not that the infractions are all that severe as much as they are just one after another after another after another after another after another after another after another after another ... get the point? So by the time we pull into the drive (the entire car ride home was filled with questions - why this? why that? why this? why that? Moooooom!), and see that Daddy is home, I'm DONE! .... It may not sound that bad to you... I know that I'm a little tense and need to chill out... But I DESERVED a CORONA after dinner!

Drill Sergeant Mom - Part I

Oh my Gosh! I just found a post on a fellow blogger's site that states what I have so often felt about myself as a parent!!! Drill Sergeant Dad captures the questions I have wondered about myself -- Who is this person yelling and being so impatient?! These beautiful children should be relished for all of their energy (Lord knows Jared has enough for an army), for all of their inquisitiveness (I would love to get one of those ticker things so that I can click it once for each question he asks during a day - heck, during one car ride!!), for their impulsiveness (I'm way too reserved, boring and unimaginative!), and for all of their attention seeking silliness and play (Jared is my clown and Abigial is my performer). Instead, I all too often hear such a harsh, impatient voice barking orders. I always make it a point to never put them down personally but I do complain way too often about their not listening or obeying or thinking about what they're doing. I want so badly to be a good mom. I want to be that super-mom that never raises her voice, is always so patient and loving and encouraging. I pray daily that God will give me the wisdom to know how to best raise my children. I try to teach them manners and proper behavior. My fears are that I hold on too tightly and don't let them "breathe" enough as children but then I fear that if I don't keep a hold on them, they won't learn proper behavior or responsibility. I pray that I don't "screw them up" as so many adults cry about how their parents messed them up. I realize now how difficult it really is to be a parent (and am that much more thankful for my own). But I try - I really do. And I hope they will always know how much I love them - I love them to bits!!

Getting ready to move...

Whew! It's been a whirlwind around here since we got back from vacation! I never knew it would be so involved to sell our house! Or rather to get it READY to sell. We've interviewed several real estate agents and selected one. We've had our consultation with the staging people and are looking forward to getting their proposal on how to really swoop prospective buyers off their feet! We've decided on all of the flooring selections - we're getting the flooring replaced in three rooms (which we've been wanting to do for years now but been too cheap to spend the money before now). We're going to get a quote tomorrow from someone for painting our bathroom and REpainting our CRAYOLA YELLOW kitchen to a more neutral tone (a few years ago we painted it what we thought would be a pretty, cheery yellow. We got started and thought "oh how pretty" and then we kept painting and thought "oh.... um..." and then we finished and ever since then we constantly think we've left the lights on in the kitchen because it's so BRIGHT!). I ordered a new dishwasher today - ours decided to die shortly after we returned home from vacation. We've made several runs with the truck and van both packed FULL of boxes of CLUTTER! Our house hasn't changed much - but there are approximately 50 boxes of STUFF in our newly rented storage unit and our garage. How does this happen?? We still need to call the handy man to come do a handful of other things around the house like the caulking and a few small repairs that we just don't have the time or gumption to tackle. And I have some serious scrubbing to do to clean the baths and kitchen to look like new (and to remove the grimey yet cute finger prints and smudges off the walls). UGH! Well, I guess if this is what makes up the stress that I have in my life (that I've been blessed with the finanacial ability to move, a loving husband and active (and THANK GOD healthy) children that keep messing up my stacks and taking up my packing/cleaning time, then I'll GLADLY carry my lot. Thank you Jesus for all of these blessings!

Oh and if anyone has any tips on selling your house or trying to sell while having three tots in tow let me know!! I'm open to all kinds of advice!!

Blessed Be Your Name

This morning I read an update on a fellow blogger Amy Whilhoite. Sadly, she passed yesterday after fighting a battle with leukemia. Her faith in God was so inspiring and I encourage you to read her blog.

Then this afternoon I recieved this verse in my email:

Hebrews 10:35-36 Therefore you mustn't lose your courage and confidence, for it will bring you a great reward. You see, you must patiently hold on to your faith so that you will do what God wants and thus receive what He has promised.

It seemed fitting for her and others who are fighting their battles and holding so faithfully to God's promises.

Additionally, I thought it very interesting that when Amy was originally diagnosed with leukemia the song that she said was stuck in her mind was "Blessed Be Your Name." That song gave her strength to deal with her horrifying news. That is the same song that played over and over in my mind when we lost our baby Jessica. The chorus of it ran over and over in my mind that first few days. Then about a week or so later the other verse popped into my mind, "He gives and He takes away." It was interesting to me how I remembered the part about blessing God's name even in the midst of our heartache and then later I remembered that additional verse and it seemed so appropriately timed... Anyway, that song helped me a lot.

Squeeze your little ones and your loved ones tonight and love them with all your might. You never know when God will call you (or them) home.

Hilarious Ebay Listing!!

This is hilarious!! You gotta click here to read this ebay listing from a mom of six! Too Funny!

Update on our Vacation, Etc.

Hey y’all! Sorry I haven’t blogged in quite a while. I’ve been busy, busy, busy ever since we got back from vacation!

Back in the late spring, John and I had been talking (again) about selling our house and moving closer to John’s work. We’ve talked about selling many times in the past – we’ll sell this year… in five years… no, next year…, no, we’ll stick it out another three years… ok, next summer…. Well, while we were on vacation we finally decided that we were both ready to go ahead and move this year. We’d both been praying about it, asking for God’s guidance and both felt that we were getting the same word. So, as soon as we got home I started making phone calls to real estate agents, staging companies, moving companies, storage companies, handy-man services, flooring repair companies and starting to de-clutter our home (and Oh My Gosh do we ever have clutter!!). Jared also just started Awanas club and preschool. I’ve been attending the teacher training sessions for each of the three MOPS programs that I’ll be working childcare for this year. I’ll be a Discussion Group Leader for the Night MOPS program that I’ll be a member of this year and have been trying to learn what I missed during a meeting I was out of town for. I need to make about 10-15 phone calls for that. I’m the president of our homeowners association and on the social committee. We’re trying to join a new small group through our church (so I'm trying to find a babysitter) and I’ll be joining a new bible study group on Wednesdays while Jared’s at Awanas… so… I’m having a hard time keeping my head on straight right now!! And I have SO much packing and cleaning to do that I don’t know where to start!

Now, having said all that, let me back up a little. Our family photos taken before we left town turned out great! The kids did beautifully! The photographer was very good with them. He and the guy who helped us pick out our selections were Great – especially considering how late we were (John couldn’t get out of work as early as he’d hoped and traffic was bad). We ended up picking our selections after their closing hours and left the mall when all of the stores were turning off their lights! But they were so patient with us with whole time! I’ll see if I can scan in the photos later. We don’t have a scanner but I can go to the UPS store around the corner and get that done when I have time (???).

As far as our family vacation…. We stayed at a time share on Singer Island in Florida in the same place as John’s dad, step-mom and three sisters. Our rooms were not facing the ocean like I usually “require” for a beach vacation but that turned out to be perfectly fine. Our room was less than 10 feet from the poolside – if you walked out of our door and didn’t turn you’d fall in! The kids had a blast swimming constantly. We were able to sit and relax at the tables in the shade, talking with family, watching the kids and listening to the baby monitor which easily picked up in our room while the baby slept – SOOO much better than if we had been trapped in our room while she napped or if we'd had to torture her (and us) by keeping her up and out with us when she was tired. This also turned out to be a real blessing when our 2 yr old popped up out of the water and yelling “POOPY!!!” and needed to run to the potty! I was so glad we weren’t in some high-rise where we had to search for a potty or worry about packing up ALL of our stuff to make the trek to and from the pool every time. If we wanted something we just stepped back into the room to get it.

The beach was beautiful!!! From our room, you walked through this beautifully landscaped path with trees and bushes and then down a sandy path through the sand dunes. It was so beautiful! This was also the time of year that the sea turtles were hatching. Scattered all up and down the beach were sea turtle nests that had been marked off with caution tape so that people wouldn’t disturb them. Unfortunately when the little babies are born at night, they all too often get confused by the street and building lights and head back up the beach towards the hotels rather than out to the water. So we had several exciting trips out to the ocean whenever someone found a baby turtle by the hotel. I also joined several of John’s relatives one morning as they went out for their daily sunrise walk and watched as a volunteer dug out the rest of a nest that had hatched the night before. She dug out the remaining babies that hadn’t made it out yet (still alive), counted those babies who didn’t survive, counted the remaining unhatched eggs, and counted all of the hatched eggs to determine how many babies made it out of the nest. The baby turtles were so cute as they worked they way to the water!

I think the best thing about the entire vacation was being able to be with family for the whole week. It’s nice to have family reunions and gatherings but the time is too short. When you spend the whole week together you have the chance to really talk and hang out. All together there were 15 of us – the five of us plus John’s dad and step-mom (Frank and Jill), his three sisters (Lee Ann, Amy and Kelly), his step-uncle (Tim) and his two girls (Erika and Ana), his step-Grandma (Bobbie) and Amy's boyfriend (Matt) who joined us for a couple of days. Another great thing about family is BABYSITTERS!!!!!! Having family around at the pool allowed us to relax – more eyes on the kids. One afternoon my father-in-law kept the kids so that we could go out on Tim’s sailboat. (AAaaaahhh!!! So Nice!! I just sat back and relaxed in the sun and watch the view while the guys talked.) And one night, John’s sisters kept the kids while John and I went out to a nice dinner with his folks. Wonderful food, wonderful company!! Yep – family is GREAT thing!!!

Anyway, now that I’ve written a book – I’ll show you some of the photos!! There are just so many great photos it's hard to choose so here are LOTS! (click on the photo to view a larger image)

The waves were huge the first day at the beach

Hopper - check out the water trails from his feet.

I love this shot

Aunt Lee Ann shows Abigail a turtle she just found over by the pool. We all scampered down to the beach to set it free.

The volunteers digging out a turtle's nest that hatched during the night. See the empty egg shells?
... And they're off!!

Aaahh! At last!

My Beauty!

The sunrises were just gorgeous!! Every five seconds the colors were changing!
This is the path through the sand dunes.

Thank you God for your Creations!

Having a Blast with Grandpa in the pool!

Jared learned to swim without his floaties!!!

Daddy's got his girls!

Party time!

My two quackers!

We got to see one of old friends Chris and her son while we were on her end of the world! It was so great seeing her!! And Jack is such a cutie!!

I love this shot!

We're Back!

Hey y'all! Sorry I haven't posted anything in a while. We got our family portrait on Friday, the 17th (they turned out Wonderful - thank you for all of the feedback on which outfits to choose!) and then we left town the next day for a week long vacation in Florida. Oh, it was so wonderful!!! I'll post a couple of photos here and then offer more play-by-play and more photos later. Needless to say I'm having a hard time getting my brain back into "reality" mode!