Is Something Really Better Than Nothing?

OK. Clearly I am a sporadic blogger. I just have these 4 (somedays 5) creatures that NEED things and time and food and, and, and. And then there is facebook. Such a timesuck but oh, so much fun stalking the lives of people you haven't seen or actually spoken to in more years than I really want to consider. Good thing I never really cottoned to Pinterest I think. Anyway, the frequency of posts is not likely to get better in the near term, but here is what is going on now: May is the demon month. There are school functions every other minute and somehow everyone has a dentist appointment this month on top of any other kind of appointment you can imagine. Really, I should block out the month of May on the calendar for anything other than school related activities. What would I do if I were still working?!? Yep, quit teaching preschool at the Christmas break. Too many irons in the fire and since giving up the mom one or the wife one was not an option I had to go with the preschool one. I miss my sweet kiddos but I am seriously busier than ever!! I get to volunteer at the elementary school which is not essential, but let me tell you, laminating and copying and cutting and binding...it all makes me giddy!! With a little entrepreneurial spirit I could so have been Kinko's!! James and I have been kicking around moving for the last 5-7 years and just have never done anything about it. So about April one of said "We should move." And guess what? We actually started doing things that people who want to move do. De-cluttering, packing, renting a storage unit for the massive amounts of stuff one collects over 12 years in the same house. Lo and behold, the sign was planted on Friday and two showings later we had a contract on Monday. Seriously!! 6 weeks to move out. Well, our planning had kind of stalled out at the deciding to move phase. So we started looking at houses. Found the perfect one on day 1. Day 3 we went back, drew up a contract and a week later found out that it was not going to work out. Up to that point everything had been perfect. Disappointed, tired of looking and floundering we now we have 3 1/2 weeks to get out of this house and have no place to go with kids getting out of school in less than 2 weeks. The tent should be fun with 5 of us in silence as James works in the "other room" ~ you know, the zip-off side of the 8-man tent. Wonder how long Oak Mountain State Park will take to kick us out when the boys start scaring away all the wildlife? Did I mention I don't like sandwiches...wonder if we can haul our fridge out there and rig it up. I think I smell a reality show!! There's one for everything else. Moral: Regardless of what you think you know about your market, think it all through and have some sort of plan so you and your 4 kids are not homeless in the summer. In Alabama it is better to be homeless in the winter. In answer to the title question, you two readers may decide that a snippet of our lives every six months or so is not really better than no news at all. And we have decided that having just someplace to live is not better than having the place we want to call home for the next 20 years. So, stay tuned for how this all turns out. I know I will be excited to see how it all comes out when I wake up from my Xanex-induced trance (just kidding) when it is all over...'cuz McDonald's coke is not going to touch the stress of this thing!!

What a Week! (or Two!)

Bringing back the blog with a BANG! Here's a glimpse at life with 4 kids ~ Warning: The following may not be suitable for all reading audiences, especially those with weak stomachs or inability to appreciate the twisted sense of humor of our universe.

Thursday, October 13th
Eli is admitted to Children's Hospital for a clean out. Yep! Got to go the hospital to poop. X-rays, NG tubes, enemas, IVs, invasive (and I DO mean invasive) testing. The short story is: Mountain Dew has a whole new meaning to me now. All-in-all Eli did great. After the initial shock of being poked and prodded it was so much fun to press the button and order whatever flavor popsicle or Jell-o sounded good at the moment. He endured that last hour we were there and the invasive testing that occurred then much better than his mother could have (heck, I was not doing so well and was just sitting by his head stroking his hair and trying to be encouraging). The things I could tell you about poop....but I won't.

Friday, October 14th
Eli is discharged from the hospital in the early afternoon and requests a "Kristie Kreme" doughnut on the way home. Request granted Brave Boy!! Also, Daddy delivered a new garbage truck ~ a side-loader that raises, dumps and lowers the can ~ when he visited because really, there has got to be a bright spot in this sad tale.

Sunday, October 16th
Bedtime. Rachel scratching her head incessantly. I start looking at her head with a sinking feeling. Yep! Lice. Having never seen it before, we spring into action ~ James Googling and me in the car headed to the drug store. Not my favorite Sunday evening. And the following day's laundry is no picnic either.

Wednesday, October 19th
Sam has had a bug bite on his back/side right where his pants hit his waist for a few days. Today it looks angry. Go to preschool and get several opinions that it looks like a spider bite. Two more opinions come in that it looks like a staph infection. Call pediatrician and get appointment. Diagnosis = Staph. Yay!!

Friday, October 21st
As I am preparing to call to get an appointment to have the wound (which is beyond disgusting now) drained, Sam falls backward, lands on his back and does the deed himself. Blech!! Fortunately, James was a party to the fall and had to deal with the aftermath.

At this point I am thinking the trifecta is complete. No such luck.

Sunday, October 23rd
Eli's heat/moisture rash from sitting bare-bottomed on the plastic mattress (with only a knit sheet/no mattress pad) on the hospital bed looks angry. Weekend trip to the doc. Yep! Staph.

Monday, October 24th
An exhausted Mommy ends up with ear infection and sinus infection.

Wednesday, October 26th
Let the laundry begin again. Emily has lice.

Yes, you can see by the date that I started this post, did not finish and had more to add. Parenting is NOT for sissies people!!

I am certain that lessons were learned during these trials. I know I had opportunities to grow. Hoping I can remember clearly what they were after some sleep. I usually try to be a glass half-full kind of girl (even if I am sarcastic and sometimes snarky) but optimism has seemed to be in short supply as of late. Folks, these two weeks have been rough but I just know that November is going to be much kinder and gentler to the ol' Cannons.

Just Gotta Vent

I hate that my first post in a while (OK, a loooong while) is a list of pet peeves but I just can't let these things go:

Women smacking gum as they drive down the road. I guess it can be a stress reliever, but girls, it is so unattractive when you are giving it your all!

Kids hanging out of sunroofs or windows in car rider line. I know that children want to get out of their seats while they wait and I have even let mine unbuckle on occasion (GASP!), but NEWSFLASH: fender benders happen in car rider line. They may be rare, but they do occur. If it happens to you and your kid is hanging out of the car...well, let's just say I doubt it would be worth the few seconds of whining you avoided by letting them hang out the car!

People jogging along 280. 'Nuff said!

Just because it is made in your size does not mean you should wear it. Conversely, clothing makers should know not to make certain styles in certain sizes. I won't say anymore, but you know that you know what I am talking about!!

And countless other things that bother me...these have just been rearing their heads lately.

I Stand All Amazed

I just need to say that I am utterly amazed the strength and faith of the people who surround me. We are all stronger than we think we are and when tested can muster more faith than we give ourselves credit, but truly I have seen the best examples of love, service and faith in a little family from church over the past few weeks. They have changed lives as their lives have been changed in heartbreaking ways.

We serve a mighty and compassionate God whose love for His children is boundless and unfathomable. Only, we get to have a glimpse of it through loving and serving His children, our neighbors and His children, those he has entrusted to our care in this life. I am blessed to know that families ARE forever and that death will not separate us from our loved ones for long. I am fortunate to understand the Master's Plan for salvation, indeed exaltation. I am not saying that I am there, but I definitely have a strong desire to redouble my efforts to bring myself and my family to celestial glory.

Heaven is a little brighter with the return of precious Brandon to his Heavenly Father's Kingdom. My world is a little brighter with his parents' example shining before me.

Mother's Weekend

First of all, DON'T HAVE A STROKE!!!

I realize that it will come as quite a shock to both of you readers that I am posting after 6 long months. It may have been that long since I last had this much time to myself with no other pressing obligations. I can't promise that it won't be 6 more months before this happens again. I cannot possibly recount the happenings of the last six months, and if I were to, I would soon have no readers. Suffice it to say that there have been birthdays, ER visits, sickness, health, reaching of milestones and much love and laughter. That said....

I have a wonderful husband and children!! Since our Sundays are generally hectic (ok, that is an understatement) James made this Mother's Weekend. He got up with the children on Saturday morning (and I only gently reminded him 3 times Friday night what my expectations were). They brought me breakfast in bed at 8:00 (which IS sleeping in at our house)~ chocolate chip pancakes, fruit and milk. YUMMY!! After a leisurely breakfast, I got up to go to the restroom and immediately 3 of the 4 children were banging on the door to give me a card. Some things never change!

It was a beautiful day outside!! A little blustery, but sunny and pleasant. Once we were all dressed and ready to go we took off to Lowe's where we built planters for Mother's Day....I built Eli's. He would not even plant the flower. You know, I'm a DIY hands-on kind of mom. So we got home and fed the troops then suddenly, I had a brilliant idea! Just this week I have re-committed myself to taking time to search, ponder and pray each day. I told James that I wanted to take my books and go have a snack in the sunshine and read. It will become important to the story later that I have had severe allergy symptoms for several days leading up to this. So off I went. I had a yummy lunch on the patio of a restaurant while I read scripture. I prayed and shivered as the wind blew across me on the completely shaded patio. After lunch I wanted something a little sweet, but not heavy. So I drove across town to the snow cone stand. Said wind was still blowing and now I had ice in my hands so I sat in the car with the windows partially down so that I could be right in the sun but not get sweaty because the buffered breeze kept it pleasant. I read an entire chapter uninterrupted of a book I have been trying to get through for like a year. I did not want to be gone too long, so I headed home to find James in the hammock waiting for me. It was a beautiful day for lying in the hammock. Unfortunately, he then had to leave to procure the gifts for the mothers at church, but then I got to lie in the hammock for about a 1/2 hour before needing to wake the boys. More outside time!!!! Then we took my mother out for dinner.

Fast forward to now, Sunday morning. I am in the bed with worse allergy symptoms than all last week combined surrounded by a mountain of laundry since I took the day off yesterday. My children are at church singing to an absent Mommy right about now. It was worth it though! To be out in God's beautiful world soaking up the beauty and glory of it all....Happy Mother's Day to me and to all the other wonderful mothers I know!

Big Pile O' Leaves

Another yearly tradition! The first big pile of leaves must be jumped in!

Halloween 2009

When all talk of Halloween began in September my first thought was "cha-ching!" All three big kids wanted to be the same as last year. There is nothing better than getting 2 years out of one costume for the same kid, not to mention 3! (Some of you may remember that I may be the only person in history to wear the same bridesmaid dress in 2 weddings!) I was patting myself on the back for buying those black cat leotards a little big last year. Then last week as the girls were chatting up trick-or-treating, Eli said, "Me be pider-man?" I quickly reminded him that he wanted to be Bob the Builder again. But alas, the boy who has never seen a SpiderMan movie and has no SpiderMan toys had to be "pider-man". OK, 2 repeats are better than none. Then, the day before Halloween I went to get the girls' leotards, tights and kitty ears and tails and horror of horrors, the leotards were missing! Probably sold them at Kid's Market for $1. So then I had to talk up going to pick out a new costumes at he store (no time to make anything with less than 24 hours to go) and was not well received on the first pitch. Finally talked them into new costumes and headed to Wally World. Emily picked a pixie costume without much fanfare, but Rachel could not pick any costume that was actually available in her size. There was not even a long sleeved black leotard to replace the missing one in her size. Grudgingly, I agreed to go to the other Wal-Mart to find a leotard since she was not giving up on the black cat. No luck at the other store either!! She was not having anything that was available. Then, finally, she said, "I'll be a cheerleader." Woo-hoo! We have that at home!! She wanted pom-poms and I said SOLD! Two Auburn shakers later and we were on our way! So here they are, our cheerleader, pixie fairy, bumble bee and SpiderMan.

We Trunk-or-Treated at church in the late afternoon and then headed over to Grandma's neighborhood to do a little Trick-or-Treating. We met up with Keely and Erica and go to get a numch more candy since they had just started! We're now off to gather some our loot to send to a soldier in Afganistan to give to the children there!

PS~guess what I found on the way out the door to trunk-or-treat......

Fall Campfire

Last week we had beautiful fall weather. It has been too wet to actually camp in the back yard though we hope that is coming soon. We were able to have a fire in the fire pit and roast some marshmallows for Family Home Evening though.

The Hiatus is Over!

Well, time totally got away from us this summer! We stayed so busy that I totally forgot all about the blog! Now that I am thinking over it, I am not sure what all the busy-ness was, but believe me, we were running all the time!

Sam turned 1 on July 10th! He loved his cake and could have cared less about anything else. Since he's the 4th kid and I knew that he wouldn't, we just had a little family celebration which turned out to be just right! Can't find those pictures though. Will post if I find them.

A few days after my last post we got a difficult phone call. James's grandmother had passed away suddenly. For the last couple of years she had been battling lung cancer that was spreading. We were beginning to make preparations to visit in her in a couple of weeks anyway, which made it hard to tell the kids as they were already very excited to go see Mauzy. It was not until we were there, I think, that they realized they would not be able to talk and play with her this time even though we were staying in her house.

Emily took it the hardest of the children. They were very close and Emily has many fond memories of Mauzy. She will still say sometimes that she misses Mauzy very much and that it is hard not to be able to talk to her. Rachel is very matter-of-fact about these things. At the viewing she came to me asked why we could not touch Mauzy. I told her that we could if she wanted to, so she and I went and held Mauzy's hand for a minute. It did bother her that the lower portion of the casket was closed and she could not see Mauzy's legs. A friend asked if I had the funeral director open it up. I'm happy to report that it was not necessary, she accepted my explanation that her legs were still there. As I reflected on this little bit of Rachel-ness, I realized that I should not have been surprised. She wanted nothing to do with Sam in the hospital until she could see his body~his head with the hospital cap poking out of the burrito blanket just did not cut it for her! Eli remembers Mauzy and knows that she died. We saw her house listing on the internet the other day and he knew it was her house. I hope he will always be able to remember her at least a little. Sam only saw her once, last fall when we made a last minute trip when we found out that the cancer was back. I am so glad we went then!

We stayed in Maryland a little over a week. It was a tiring trip for this poor(as in bad)traveler, but good to see family even under the circumstances. We had a "picnic". That's what Mauzy called a big get-together with 40-50 folks eating crabs, pizza and hot dogs under the carport and playing in the yard. It was strange without her there giving us all little jobs to get ready, but an appropriate way to celebrate her life. She loved nothing more than family and friends and a friendly card game!

When we got home, there was a lot of planning, organizing and preparations to be made for heading back to school. We got it all done and went back to school without the first picture being made! Another accomplishment to add to my Mother of the Year nomination form.

Sam also began walking during those early August days. Now he can keep up with those big kids...as long as a gate doesn't get in his way! Just a couple of weeks ago he went down the stairs by himself. One of those gates didn't get closed. He's always wondered what the sibs were doing downstairs in the playroom...now he knows! We're pretty sure an unseen hand was helping him out!

So now we're in the school and preschool routine. Emily is in 1st grade and loving it. Rachel and Eli are in preschool 3 days a week and Sam and I go to preschool 2 days a week. We've had pink eye. We've had swine flu. Poor Rachel missed her trip to Old Baker Farm that everyone else is posting pictures about, but maybe she'll be done with illness for the year. We'd like to get on with the fun stuff of fall now. Football, Pumpkins, Crisp Air, Apples, Halloween and Thanksgiving. Autumn is upon us. We're going to enjoy it!

Vacation 2009

Two days after the unfortunate finger-door thing, we left to go on our first extended family vacation in Gatlinburg. This one included Grandma and my sister's family. We rented a house (they like to call them chalets, but you know it's Tennessee and I just can't go there) from my friend Donna. Fortunately it was a big house with plenty of room and even a basement rec room, but by Tuesday I was missing my girls. They were always in the basement playing with their cousins and when we went somewhere they rode with them too (necessary car seat move that just didn't get fixed until the night before we left). I would get them dressed in the morning and read to them at night, but really missed our quality time during the day. Poor Eli was suffering from an pretty severe UTI (103 fever and sometimes severe abdominal pain) but kept giving us intermittent details of the symptoms and, just so you know, medical care is spotty at best in the Garlingurg/Pigeon Forge area. I was missing the Birmingham medical community by Sunday morning! By the time we saw the doctor the unrinalysis showed what the doctor thought was the beginning of the UTI, it was actually the end. If you know Eli, you know that he is pretty darn smart and he has a drinking problem. "Mommy, I sirsty" is the first thing I hear every morning and he'd like to have a cup in hand all day. He quite quickly put together that the more he drank, the more he needed to go and that hurt. So he carried his cup around (we really wanted him to drink now) but it was always full and he started going 12 hours between bathroom visits. We had to bribe him with "Special Special Juice" that only he got. We all survived and even had some fun. We hiked, rafted, visited the national park and Cades Cove, miniature golfed and more. I was a little nervous to have the whole family vacation experience, but I'd do it again.

Poor Baby Nam

Well, Sam has had his first trip to the ER at the ripe old age of 11 months. Poor little guy's mommy closed his left ring finger tip in the laundry room door and almost amputated it! Sam is such a trooper. After the initial shock of pain, he calmed down very quickly and just went with whatever we needed to do without much fuss. He did get tired of us holding his hand for 4 hours and he was terribly hungry after not eating for 11 hours (and he only got a few syringes of nasty blue gatorade when he did get something), but all in all he was the best patient Children's ER has seen in a long time!

I was throwing something away in the laundry room because that is where we have to keep the garbage since Sam has decided that the garbage can is his toy box (yuck!!). I heard the little thuds of his crawling toward me on the hardwood. My mind said back up and close the door quickly. I did not turn around to see that he had made it to the door and put his hand on the jamb to pull up. Critical mistake!! I felt the resistence too late for that tiny little fingertip~the edge of the door just cut right through it just below the nailbed I think (it is still swollen and stitches everywhere so can't really tell too much). I got a quick look between snatching him up and wrapping a towel around it and it looked really bad to me. I screamed for James and then Mommy adrenaline took over.

Tender mercies from above~I have my ped's cell phone number (this was about 4:40pm), and I have a great friend and neighbor. The doctor said Children's ER is the only place that could handle it. I called my friend and said "can I bring you my 3 oldest children" (panicked, shaky voice). She said "I'll come get them". That's it, she did not mention that she was childless for the evening and had commitments, she just showed up, packed them up and took them with her (then brought them home and put them to bed and hung out until 11pm). What a blessing!

After a 45 minute drive to downtown Birmingham Sam was triaged before we could even sign in and was immediately taken to a room. The doctor came in within 10 minutes. Niether the triage nurse nor the ER doc were overly concerned about the severity of the laceration. It didn't look so bad after having pressure on it for an hour. We were impressed and got a little too happy too quickly. All of a sudden everything stopped. They got a trauma and apparently the whole city came in right after us. After a while he had an x-ray to confirm that the tiny little bone in his fingertip was broken. Once the trauma was taken care of, they decided to call in a plastic surgeon so as not to tie up 3 docs in one room because Little Man had to be sedated and you have to have the surgeon, the treating doc and the attending for that. Finally at 8:30 we met the surgeon, a plastic surgeon on the hand team no less!!, and they got busy.

I held Sam as they sedated him. Only one word can describe this scene~DISTURBING! The drug they used knocks you out quickly but you don't close your eyes. So the doc pushed the drug and Sam was looking around then suddenly stopped and felt kind of stiff. As I moved him off me to the bed with his eyes open and his arms still raised (the dr was moving his fingers around in front of Sam's face and he was reaching for them) the only thing I could think was that he looked like a taxidermied Baby Sam.

After the procedure, both docs that were still in the room when we cam in admitted that the injury was much more significant than they thought once they cleaned it up. We finally left about 10:00 with a club-handed, hungry, tired but patched up baby. As hungry as he was he fell asleep about a block from the hospital and did not wake up until 3:30. He has done remarkably well with all this. He has given no indication of pain, the badages don't bother him or slow him down, and he has figured out how to eat one-handed. It's all good to Sam! I have never felt so blessed to live in one place ever. I've always thought it was a good idea to live close to a Children's Hospital if you have kids, but it is a requirement for us (Eli has had us there 4 times). If this had happened on our vacation that we left for 2 days later he would surely have lost his fingertip. I'm even glad they got busy and got behind because we got a hand surgeon. I realize he did not have to reattach nerves and all that, but you have mommy guilt, every little thing helps!!

The Age of Fear

As Emily, our oldest, is pretty fearless and always has been, childhood fear is not something that we have alot of experience with. My sister warned me a few years ago that 4 is the "age of fear". As noted, we made it through a 4-yr-old no problem.

Rachel is now 4 1/2. She has definitely entered the age of fear with at least one phobia-grade fear~toilets over-flowing. Wonder what the shrink term for that one is? Anyway, she has never witnessed an overflowing toilet. She has never experienced the aftermath of a toilet overflowing. She is just suddenly terrified (and that is an understatement) that any toilet in her vicinity is going to overflow. She will not go to the bathroom by herself anywhere but at our house, even at church or anywhere else that she has always been comfortable going by herself.

I think I have finally discovered the root of the problem. At the end of softball season both toilets in the girls restroom had issues. We were forewarned and did not enter the offending restroom, but Rachel had to potty and the men's' room was occupied and, well, she experienced the tickle of the weeds for the first time. I think she is afraid of having to have the nature experience again and she is just preoccupied with the threat of it! She stayed with a friend while I went to the dentist last week and had just started whining for me when I drove up. I talked to the mom for a few minutes and Rachel was becoming more agitated by the second and was finally crying to go home. I realized that she needed to potty so I told her to go before we left. At this point she had a complete come apart. I have never heard her cry in this manner before. The problem was, she had gone into the bathroom but another child had put alot of paper in the toilet and Rachel was afraid that it would overflow if she flushed it so she did not go. Rather than tell the adult about the problem she was suffering in silence. I felt so badly for her.

Fast forward to yesterday, when James replaced the flushy-thingy (a very technical and correct term) in the toilet upstairs because it was running. Well, the chain was too long and when you pushed the handle it didn't actually flush; it just started to flush and made a noise that if you were a 4-yr-old who is deathly afraid of toilets overflowing would scare you silly! Poor Rachel! She was up in the middle of the night to potty and we had issues. So James just fixed it and we encouraged her to watch to maybe help take some of the fear out of it. She thought it was pretty cool that daddy can fix things, but she was still a little unsure even with him in the room with her.

Wonder what the boys will be afraid of...

Yay!

Thought everyone would want to know: Eli pooped in the potty today!

Admit it, you've been waiting for this post as anxiously as I have been waiting to post it! No pictures though. It's just not done. Really I'm just happy for some progress in a fairly dismal PT week. Maybe I can get this is Celebrations newsletter at church...

"It Make Me Feel Better..."

Eli: Want dat key.
Mommy/Daddy: No Eli, that is not your key. (Like today at the library with keys just hanging in the door knob)
Eli: It make me feel better.

Eli: Want cookie.
Mommy: It's supper time.
Eli: I want it. (sad puppy face)
Mommy: I'm making your plate right now.
Eli: It make me feel better.

Eli: Want dat hose. (swimming pool cleaner hose)
Daddy: No touch.
Eli: But I want it.
Daddy: No Eli!
Eli: It make me feel better!
Daddy: You'll just have to feel bad.

I remember one day recently when Eli was feeling badly or was having a hard time waking up or something and he was curled up next to me and he looked up and said, "want you Mommy". I said something like, "does it make you feel better if mommy holds you?" Now look what we've got! Any time we say no the child he says "It make me feel better." It is cute and I can't wait 'til he uses it on the folks at MDO. Watch out Kim, you're in for it now! Well, at least he is using his words...

Welcoming a new member of the family

Freaked you out a little with the title right?!

As we were trying to appeal to something within Eli to obey us yesterday he rather clearly answered the request (whatever it was...there are so many) with "No Edward want to." No what? "No Edward want to." Emily caught it first. "Edward [is] a frightful boy" from a book that is pretty new to the Cannon Library (The Boy Who Would Not Share). You would think that with as many people as are scurrying around this house no one would need an imaginary friend. This is still in the cute stage right now (the way he says it is priceless) but I'm already trying to ignore Edward since he does not seem to want to do anything, especially the important things like potty, eat, drink milk, go to time out or nap. I'm trying to figure out if this really is an imaginary friend thing or if Eli just knows Edward is a brat and would answer that way so Eli will too. I've asked him where Edward is and he has said that I am Edward or just kind of ignored the question. When asked if he is Edward, Eli says, "No! Me Eli!" Edward has served one purpose, Eli will now say his name.

The girls threw Edward into the woods at lunch today, but he apparently found his way back because he did not want to potty after nap. It may take until Kindergarten to get Eli potty trained, I really hope Edward will get with it soon and help me out! Open to suggestions on dealing with imaginary friends, 'cuz you know I don't really need another kid to take care of....feeling blessed each day to do this well with the ones I've got!

Brothers

The best thing about having to sit backwards is always seeing the brother that loves you!

Pensacola and the Beach

James's grandmother, Mimi, moved into an assisted living living room from her independent living apartment at the same retirement facility last week. There were still some, OK alot, of things to go through and some furniture to be moved as she was moving to a much smaller space. Since the last day of school for Emily was void of all learning and James had to go down on Thursday do take care of some banking items, I checked Emily out early and loaded up the four children and off we went. James had left a few hours earlier to make sure he got there in time to take care of the business stuff. Yes, me and 4 kids on a 5 hour trip. It took us an hour and a half to get to Clanton due to work on the side of the road. It had not even started to rain yet! Potty breaks were interesting as the five of us herded into the restrooms at the rest stops (no way was I taking all of them into a place of business). We did have to stop at a store in the middle of nowhere, where I did leave everyone in the car except the pottier~Rachel, of couse, whose bladder can sense the most inconvenient time/place. We parked next to a sherriff's cruiser so I felt pretty safe as I paced between the bathroom and the front door. At long last we made it. I had the beach as a behavior bargaining chip for part of the way until James called and said the weather was not looking good. At that point I decided I'd better let the subject rest to keep it fom being a bigger deal if we did not get to go.

When we arrived James had completed his "musts" for the day and we decided to take a chance on the beach as Friday's weather looked worse. It poured on us most of the drive over and we considered turning around. I am so glad we didn't. The beach was perfect! A little overcast with sun breaking through and a cool breeze. The water was cold though. Disclaimer: I am not a beach person. It is a pile of dirt with international cess pool washing up in my opinion. You do not have to agree with me, I just don't like the beach. Too bad for me, my children love it! Eli does not remember earlier trips to the beach and of course this was Sam's first. He thought it tasted fine! Here are the pics~see if you can tell when Eli stopped liking the water and never went close to it again.

End of the School Year

Another school year has come and gone. I guess this was our first real school year, like we could be in trouble if someone doesn't show up, but we've been doing the preschool thing for a while so that's close. Anyway, it is always bittersweet. It is good to have a break from the daily grind, especially for mommy~she is so tired of packing lunches at 6 am. It is good that the children have grown and changed and matured through the months. It is hard to accept all that change and growth; escpecially for me since I don't live in the moment well, I blink and the children are a year older and so grown up! Really gotta work on that!

Emily had a fun-filled last 10 days of school. She had field day, her musical performance and party, splash day and pajama day. The non-themed days were filled with movie watching. I am sure there was nothing left to learn! She has had a great year with a super teacher and a really good class. My baby is a first grader and I am sure she will not like that as well. Something about all the work 1st graders have to do. We'll deal with that in August.



Rachel also had a great class with most of the children having been in her class for the last 2 years. Next year, as they move into 4-K they will be spread out among more classrooms and it will be a little sad. But this year she has learned so much from her wonderful teachers Mrs. Joy and Mrs. Lanette. They were perfect for this little girl who is so full of life that she would exhaust just one teacher. Though they say that she was the calmest, most quiet child in the class. Ummm....no.



Eli went from being "the sweetest little boy" to being a little handful. He really started to own being a 2-yr-old mid-year and threw everyone for a loop. He too has come a long way, especially with speech. It was so hard to teach the class next door and have outside play and chapel with his class. He is such a "mommy boy" (his words) that I actually had to stop going to chapel with my class because he could not behave with me in the room. On the playground, he would call to me and give me sideways glances as he would go to do something wrong. Totally frustrating and totally Eli all at the same time. It is hard not to spoil him~he is just the cutest thing and knows how to work it. A little easier for me than some of the staff though, he so has them wrapped. They just hand over their phones and keys when he walks in the room. One is even at his beck and call for snacks when the school day is over. Ridiculous I say!


Well, Sam still sleeps most of the time he is in his classroom. The other time is mostly spent eating. If you've met Sam, you are not surprised. He did learn to sit up, crawl, pull up and say mama (that's right, not dada) during the last 8 months, but you know, he's a baby and would have done that anyway. Sorry Amanda, you get no credit other that keeping all your digits in tact while feeding him bananas!


The last day in my class was much harder than I thought it would be. I am exhausted and have been eagerly awaiting the end of the year. I started out the year on "maternity leave" and came into the classroom a month into the year. There were challenges, but for the most part everything went as expected and really was good. I just really need a little break from all the busyness. So the last day, the director had us watch the video that was shown to the parents at the recognition program two days earlier before the children came in. I had already been a little sad, but I just got so emotional watching the pictures from early in the year and realizing how much they had grown (my kids' pictures were in there too). At the party later that morning I wanted to say nice things about the children, but got choked up on that too. I am an admitted crier, but this was a bit much even for me! Anyway, I will miss my sweet little class, but move on they must.

Strawberry Picking & Carnival

We took the kids to pick strawberries a few weeks ago and had a great time. They liked chasing the farmer's dog as much as anything else, but it was a great chance for them to realize in an interactive way that food does not just come from the store. The farm is in Clanton and we arrived just before I thought my head would explode from the "when will we be there"s. (A thousand apologies Mom and Dad for each such utterance in my youth.) Everyone grabbed a basket and was off! The girls did a great job choosing berries while Eli and Sam kicked back in the stroller. We let Eli out for a bit (you know, the photo op) but out of concern for the entire patch we had to keep him reined in.

On the way back we remembered that a local school was having it's fundraiser which is a carnival. We have taken the girls the past couple of years and thought it was time for Eli to join in the fun. So we drove straight there without mentioning it to the kids. As we drove through the parking lot Emily said, "What are we doing here? This place makes me think of the carnival." Then she looked up and saw it all and got super excited! It is a small thing, but it has become a tradition. Emily and Rachel ask throughout the year when the carnival is and Eli talked about driving the motorcycles (one of the rides) for several days. I love that they look forward to these times together. I love even more being their mom.

Softball: I Survived, I Deserve a Prize!

Well, I totally intended to post something about softball before the season was over, but alas the season is over and somehow we survived. First of all, I was expecting one practice and one game per week like all the other sports we've done or inquired about. Not so! 6 & under softball requires at least two practices per week before games start and up to 4 games per week once the season get underway. Already grumpy from this schedule, when someone mentioned that we had to travel I was ready to scream. I mean, I love my children and I want them to have fun and experience things, but a traveling 6 year-old softball team is a little hard to take. Lucky for whoever is in charge they did not make the 6U girls travel this season. We did however have some 7:30 games on school nights. Can you say "Happy Mommy"?

Two of the four teams at Chelsea were coached by Softball Board members and so were pretty advanced if you catch my drift. We had evaluations before the draft (yes, I am using these words for 6U) but they were certainly not used to make things fair. Truly, this is not just sour grapes! I am not all about winning, but I do think that all the teams should have some chance to win sometimes. Our record was some big number-2 (one win was a forfeit, the other by the skin of their teeth) so Emily and Rachel did have to learn to be good losers and it was not a wasted experience. Our girls, the Chelsea Heat, played with alot of heart and by the end of the season were making some good plays. I am proud of all of them and grateful to our 3 coaches for being positive with the girls in a tough situation, especially since other coaches were teaching their teams to be extra rough (push the runner off the base, shove the runner to the ground when tagging them out in the baseline, etc) even though they outweighed our players by a good 15-20 pounds. Seriously, in the last game if Rachel had had a white flag she would have waved it. She just stopped running and threw up her little hands to try to keep them from doing bodily harm. It was cute, but hard to see her give up. I can't blame her though, these girls had knocked her down hard too many times to risk it again.


Rachel at bat; I know this is her because she is so tiny that the socks go right into the shorts that you can't really see because the shirt is so long.


A great level swing from Emily at a poorly thrown pitch (sorry Coach Jim); that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

That said, it wasn't all bad. We loved going to the fields and the sense of community you get there. Eli loved that he got a little freedom running between neighbors in the bleachers and later on just running. Even Sam thought it was pretty cool just to be chillin' outside in the stroller. Will we play again next year? If the girls want to. They had alot of fun with their teammates and cheering (did not know there were softball cheers) in the dugout. I'm told things will be a little different next year and I did my part with my ballot. So, we'll just have to wait and see.