hard labor

this past saturday i was able to coordinate childcare for a full day off. well not really. my military wives bible study group did a day of community service. we all built a house!! we worked on a habitat for humanity home for about 8 hours. crazy work. crazy. talk about lifting, nailing, cutting... what a day! it was beautiful outside, we all worked so hard, it was quite rewarding. we literally built an entire house, the exterior walls, interior walls, trusses, roof... no messing around here! here are a few pictures. the chick in the white hat (theresa) ran the boston marathon and did awesome! way to go theresa!

the perfect one

first i wanna say thanks, again, to all my fellow followers. i love reading your comments. thanks for the virtual hugs and pats on the back. i enjoy writing and enjoy telling you all about my crazy (but funny) life. saying that, most of you who know me know that i don't get embarrassed talking about things... so here goes to trying to...

after being pregnant or nursing since 2003 (thanks eric ;) ), i am nearing the end of this great sacrifice. thinking that i deserved a little something, a few months ago i bought a new bra. not a nursing bra, not a sports bra, but the perfect one. you girls know what i am talking about. ms. victoria herself told me her little secret. her new bra is a pretty good one, i must admit. after wearing nursing bra's forever - WOW. a good bra is worth every penny! {getting there guys, hang in there} so monday on our way out of our favorite place (nope not cici's pizza) the doctor's office, kambel was quite upset. she had to get a shot and couldn't come to terms as to why she had to have one. as i was carrying her in one arm, pushing ty with the other arm, and having kadence hold on to the stroller, kambel was crying all over me. she was rubbing my face with her hands, hugging me, and trying to get control. she did eventually on our loooong walk out. as we walked thru the parking lot she found what i am so thankful to ms. victoria for. she starts rubbing my chest, i was not really paying any attention to it, i was just focused on making our way back to the car that was parked so stinkin' far away. oh kambel jude, you monkey. as she was still rubbing my "na-na's", with soldiers walking around, she says "mom, why you got big na-na's for?" you have to know kambel too. if there isn't an answer quickly, she will ask and ask and ask... i guess i didn't answer quickly enough, so she asked again and again. i mean, do i break the childs heart and tell her they really aren't big, it is just the bra or what? i gave a very thoughtful explanation and she was satisfied. i was laughing, as was the soldier that knows what na-na's are.

give me your booty

just wanted to drop a few notes on the monkeys...

kadence

is doing so well. she is loving being outside now that it is officially warm outside. she is doing well in school and is really taking off with her reading. she is great at telling me what the speed limit is too ;). she says "mom, you can go 5-0." funny. she is such a big sister. she will not let anyone step out of line. if they do, she is quick to let me know. she is taking her own baths, washing her own hair, of course picking out her own outfits. i remind her that i get to pick what she wears when we go somewhere special. kadence does miss her daddy and talks about him often. she can't wait to get to have slumber parties again with him (sorry honey, your secret is out).



kambel

is so cute! she has grown so much - literally!! she skipped an entire size (from 2t straight to 4t), wow!! she is beginning to ask why? why? why? for everything. i remember when kadence went through that stage. i thought i was gonna go crazy... she too loves being outside. she finds 'flowers' (aka weeds) and picks them and then will try to plant it and say "mom, look at my flower i planted!" she is funny. she looooooooooves to swing. she really loves the dirt! kambel is such a happy person, and truly only gets grumpy when she is tired. she loves to sing songs, over and over and over and over and over. i will have to catch her on camera... i did get this on camera too funny!!!

ty

now you wanna talk about someone who loves being outside! this kid! he wants to be out there doing something all the time. we try! he loves to play with his bike and all his balls. he loves swinging too, as well as climbing up the slide and sliding back down. his favorite has to be riding the lawn mower. he will point to the shed and say "ooo? ooo?" i know what he wants... on a dimmer note, still we are fighting his ear infections. mainly it is his left ear, but basically since october he has been treated 6 times for an ear infection. finally we got a referral to an ear, nose and throat doctor. first we will go to the audiologist, then to the ENT to see what treatment is necessary. the family doctor mentioned that half of the kids who get tubes are like ty, they have reoccurring ear infections that do not clear up and the other half of the kids are those that have trouble with speaking/hearing. i don't think ty has issues with his hearing because his receptive language is awesome. he has several age appropriate words (mama, dada, dog, wow, uh-oh, ball, thank you, yes, all done, bite) which are all good signs, we just need to get the infections under control and see why his ears are not draining correctly. this said, he takes it in stride and is a champ at taking medicine!! lol. SO you knew these pictures were to come. he HATED it! ha ha! eric is gonna kill me...

personal best

the 5k took place this past sunday. i was pretty pumped for it. it was pouring down rain, when i say pouring i mean pouring! the winning male finisher wore goggles!! lol. it was a short run, the rain kind of gave it a 'fun run' atmosphere - it almost took the competition out of it. but as soon as the gun went off, it was on! there were over 750 runners for this local tradition here in clarksville. i finished 5th in my age group (something like 25 in my age group) and 75th over all. my time was 24.48 - my best ever! i was pretty stoked! now i need to tuck a few more 10k's under my belt to nail down the half marathon.

the local newspaper, the leaf chronicle, snapped a few pictures of the runner's crossing the finish line at the 50 yard line at austin peay state university. there is one of me (yea!). i attached the link, i am the 44th picture. ha! you may have to cut and paste the link...

http://www.theleafchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Avis=DA&Dato=20090419&Kategori=PHOTOGALLERIES&Lopenr=904190805&Ref=PH

this is me before the race, courtesy of kadence

thanks for letting me brag...

digging for gold

this is gonna be a short one, but omg.
this morning on our daily trip to the gym ty was eating a ritz cracker in the car. no biggie, it was like his fifth one, so he was becoming extremly bored with them. too bored. about a mile from our destination i look back and he is picking his nose, hard - truly digging for gold. i (being a responsible driver and mother) was able to see the white chunk in his nose so i reached back and pinch his nose to see if it would squirt out. it didn't. he starts to sneeze. good, it should shoot out now. it didn't. his eyes start to water and his finger goes back into the tiny nostril and begins to dig. arriving safely at the gym, i get him out first to see if the ritz cracker has desolved from all the snot that was running around it. it was not a ritz cracker. it was a piece of candy the girls had from the easter egg hunt from the previous day. basically a corner of a hard candy, all sugar, but not desolving. what do i do? i don't have a nose sucker with me, i can't send him in the childcare with something lodged in his nose. sneezing didn't work. pinching didn't work. aha.
sucking will.
i closed the opposite nostril with my hand an put my mouth on his nose and sucked two times and ta-da! i got it.
at least it was sweet.

got a new drug

remember the old huey lewis and the news song "i want a new drug"? i found mine.
running.
i may get myself in trouble for saying this, making it public that i really do enjoy running, i may be held accountable now.
the fear in it. the challenge in it. the reward of it.
by no means am i a seasoned runner. in fact, i don't ever remember running more than three miles at a time, and that was in college when running was mandatory. yes i was an athlete and running was part of the gig, but not like this. this is personal. i feel like i have done something. i have come from way behind and caught up. 76 pounds ago i would have never dreamed of running, but i did. i tried the new drug and now it is my drug of choice. i feel so good after a run. (i say this now - training for the half marathon has not gotten underway yet) i find doing something for myself hard to accomplish in my situation, but to set goals, achieve them, and continue to challenge myself makes the reward so much sweeter. i have a 5k sunday, i will inform ya on the adventure.

lately i have learned to admit to myself a few things that i am just not good at. i have tried to figure out why i am not, but i can't come up with a good explanation. i suck at weed eating. suck. the only part i am good at is starting the weed eater. i can not measure and cut. i can measure. i can cut. i can not do them together. wood, fabric, whatever - i just can't get the two together. i can not do nothing. i wish deep down inside that i could just sit on a couch like a vegetable and watch tv, but i can't. if, by some chance i am sitting, i am thinking of a million things i could do. one more thing (i am sure others would have a ton, i am just naming a few as to not bruise my ego that much) i am not good at is asking for help. sign of weakness? i can do it better? i don't know. i love to help others, i truly do. i will be the first to sign up, but i find it extremely hard to ask for help. on that note, it is so nice to have help. so nice. today my dad came over and did some drilling (and for that matter measuring and cutting), so nice. this time apart from eric has God right in the middle pointing out our weaknesses that we both need to work on that pushes our marriage to the next level. yes being apart sucks. yes we miss each other dearly. yes our love is stronger because we are apart. yes we are better individuals which makes our marriage better. only 79 more days. i anticipate the reunion at the airport to be so emotional. but remember that real world we live in? he will probably fly in at 2am and with three cranky kids in tote we will receive him in the baggage claim, with his eyes hardly opened due to a 20 some odd hour flight - but you know what - i would not have it any other way. can't wait to see you baby.

anatomically correct

before ty was born we (mainly me) began searching for the correct word to call ty's private. after quizzing several mothers of little guys and becoming quite frustrated with all these different names to call something quite simple, i decided it was time. time to teach the kids the correct names for all these body parts that we try to minimize by calling them something else. so one by one the girls learned the real names of our tee-tee's and our na-na's. after this, they had the choice to call it what they wanted. of course when nursing, we still say na-na, don't ask me why but of course it has just stuck. they, of course, think it is so cool to say that girls have a vagina and boys have a penis, and we both have buttocks.

after leaving the gym awhile ago, a younger guy held the door for us. probably from the local university here, but you could tell he was a gym rat. kadence instantly got weak in the knees, smiled and said thanks. kambel, oooh kambel. as we were making our way to the car this young man passes us - the get along gang. kambel, normally very quiet, had a light bulb go off. it must have been real bright, because she was loud. "mommy! him a boy, him got a penis just like ty-ty! and me and sissy got buttocks-es." yes dear. now where is my truck.

kadence and kambel being silly before bed.

just hanging out.

ready to ride.

the great escape

the weather here has been such a tease. absolutely beautiful, then days of rain, then snow! what?? regardless we are having a blast when we are outside. i can't even explain to you how much ty likes being outside. he will bring me his shoes and says "oooes" and will sit down and wait for me to put them on. he knows how to work the battery powered cars, will sit on them and drive until he hits a wall, will run and bring me a bike helmet to put on him so he can ride around - even if it is a princess helmet. we broke down and bought him a hot wheels one, although he does have to ride the princess bike. i tell you, he has no fear. he will walk to the end of the drive way and i make sure i tell him to stop and sit down, which gives me plenty of time to get him and tell him we don't go out in the street - the same thing i have done with the girls. there are plenty of times that i have my back turned, doing something in the garage while all three kids are playing with chalk, riding bikes, looking at bugs, whatever. they are never out of my reach to help in an emergency. this past week i was folding laundry (the laundry room is right inside the garage door) with the door open. all three kids were playing with the chalk and playing really nice actually. i finished up, closed the door and joined the girls who were right inside the garage now. "where is your brother?" OMG i take off running like none other. he was all the way down the street!!! now mind you we don't live on I-24 instead a quiet dead end street with only 15 houses on the whole quarter mile stretch - but he is 13 months!! i just about died. i was speechless. within .34 of a second i had him in my arms, frantically looking around to see who was dialing 911 to turn me in. i was horrified. my mind was running like a train out of control "who saw him out? who called the police? what if he fell and i couldn't find him? what if someone picked him up? what if a car would have hit him?" after appropriately beating myself up, i began to calm down and gave thanks to God for watching my son for me. i am not used to this curiousness of this precious little child. i will not be folding clothes anytime soon.

just some of the many adventures that this young man finds himself in. he is a climber. i don't encourage it, although i do try to find the camera so others will know how i died. even though he will give me a heart attack, he is a cutie...

cool band-aids

oh where to start! so much has happened in a week. a week!

back tracking to kadence getting ready for kindergarten - aka booster shots. oh lord. if i wasn't so evil i wouldn't still be laughing. making our way to the doctor, i still did not disclose to her that she was in fact getting 4 shots. kadence was asking often and i would just comfort her and let her know that the doctors would look at her records and let us know for sure. i didn't want to have her truly upset before we even left the drive way. i had to pick my battle here. so here i am deflecting it as long as i could when the doctor finally gave us the answer. "yes dear you are getting shots today." "how many, how many, how many???" kadence desperately asks... i reassured her that we would find out from the lady who gives the shots - remember now i have ty and kambel with me too, i am trying to avoid a huge meltdown here. i get kadence calm in the waiting room prior to walking back to the immunization room. i remind her to remember what her daddy told her on the phone. he told kadence to tell the doctors that they can only give her shots if they have cool band-aids and to make sure they saw her muscles. having these things fresh in her mind, i was certain we would be okay and she would just suck it up and move on. welllllllllll. as i made sure ty was buckled tightly in the stroller and kambel understood to stand where she was and not to move, kadence had maneuvered herself to the far end of the room, placed herself on the floor and wrapped her arms around the computer chair and held on for dear life. great. i make my way over, tell her it is okay, remember what daddy said and begin prying her fingers off the chair. the whole situation was rather irritating, but i was laughing. hard. i must have been out of my mind, but i was laughing!! i get kadence in my arms and, well, all hell broke loose. she began to hit me in my face. wow. i could not stop laughing. she has never hit me. i totally should have reacted differently, but i was just beyond control at this point - sick isn't it. once i gained control of myself, i told kadence that we are lying down and getting the shots and leaving. right before i laid her down, crying and shaking like a leaf, out of desperation she said "wait! wait! looooook!" she was flexing her muscle - just like her daddy said. sorry chick, didn't work. expecting an even more dramatic experience with the actual shots that was about to occur, the nurse pinned her legs down and i held her upper body (the shots to go into the thighs) and..... nothing. not even a sound. she was a champ! the anticipation prior to was a killer for her. and for me to, black eyes to prove it (just kidding).

seeing clearly now

let me clarify a few things here for all my fabulous followers.

~if you would like to comment on something that has been written, you may! at the bottom right of each entry there is a comment button and just follow the prompts and leave what you may.

~eric will be home in july for 30 days and then will have to return to korea to complete his one year assignment. as of now he will be home from korea in mid november and will be stationed here at ft. campbell. however, his unit will be deploying to afghanistan in march 2010. we will be lucky enough to have our hero home for 4 months before he heads back out. i will update any further information as it comes (or should i say as it becomes official) in.

~i will do my best to keep the hiliarious, heart breaking, heart warming and mind boggeling events up to date. between eating bon-bons and drinking my wine, i try my best to get this blog done weekly.