Please Pray For Tuesday's Family

I only found this blog Thursday and saddens me to share the news of Tuesday's passing. Tuesday was 2 years old and had a twin sister and 2 older brothers. Please keep this family in your prayers. To lose a child is heartbreaking. There are no words to express how sorry I am for their loss.

It's Report Card Time

It's that time of year again. Time to decide if my children are grounded for life! So far it's still up in the air for Teresa but Taylor and Jaquelyn did very well this semester.
Jaquelyn was almost able to keep her straight A's but went down to a B+ in 2 subjects. We are going to work harder in them to try to bring in back up.

Taylor did well but she is not working quite up to her potential. She is going to work hard and her goal is to make all A's.

Teresa squeaked through all of her classes and might not see the light of day for a long time.

Rebecca is just as cute as always, even though she has broken my heart because she refused to stay 3 forever and ever.

Results Of Rebecca's Birthday

Well I think she had a pretty good day yesterday. She was feeling much better and since it was a snow day, her sisters were around her all day to spoil her. We had her favorite dinner of meatloaf, broccoli and mashed potatoes. Instead of a cake, we had cupcakes and she got to use Jaquelyn's cupcake decorater and frost and decorate her own cupcake (which she couldn't even finish)

She enjoyed opening all of her presents and made out pretty good for only being 4. I was so excited to give her the Smart Cycle. I had high hopes of her loving the game and wanting to play it all the time. My daughter cannot pedal correctly. So much for those bright ideas of mine. I suppose she will pick it up eventually but so far she is only succeeding in pedaling backwards. That results in that annoying "beep beep" noise that big trucks make when they are going in reverse. Lots of fun. She really liked all her presents though. She got a cute little Pucci Pony, a cartridge for the smart cycle, some new jammies & undies, a teddy bear dressed like a ladybug, a set of cars from the Cars movie (her favorite), a plate and book from the Cars movie and of course....the beloved Bendaroos. They were very anti-climactic...I thought she would have been over the moon about finally getting her Bendaroos but she just wanted to move on to the next present. I suppose we should have saved those for last but maybe we'll learn for next time.

Wordless Wednesday - The Birthday Girl

Happy 4th Birthday Rebecca!!

Today is a happy day and a sad day. Today Rebecca is 4 years old. I miss my sweet 3 year old already. I have tried all week to convince her that I was cancelling her birthday because I didn't want her to turn 4. She was not happy but eventually figured out that I was teasing. She is unfortunately still not feeling well but is much better than yesterday where she just wanted to sleep and watch tv all day. She even slept in until 9:45, which she never does. We are in the midst of another snow day but today it is because all the snow iced over during the night. I feel we probably could have gotten away with a 90 minute delay but for some reason no one asks my opinion about these things.
It's hard to believe that it was four years ago that our sweet Rebecca came into the world. She was MUCH more difficult that her siblings and something I would not want to repeat. Most of the time, people say their labor became easier after each child. For me it was the exact opposite. Taylor was by far the easiest, 8 hours, no meds, piece of cake. Teresa - 4 hours, induced, no meds, in GERMANY with too few English speaking nurses. Jaquelyn - 6 hours, induced, epidural (hated it-never again), much too difficult.

And then we have Rebecca - over 12 hours, no meds until they lost her heartbeat and I was taken in for an emergency C-section. This was after a very long pushing session, with no pain medication and then they told me to lay still and stop pushing. Are you kidding me?!? The contractions did not magically stop so that was NOT possible. After what seemed like an eternity to the screaming lady who was in major pain, they put me completely under and the rest is known only to the medical staff. They did not even allow my husband in the room and had not even told him whose heartbeat they had lost!! He only knew I was screaming in pain and they wouldn't tell him anything.

I only vaguely remember waking up afterwards and I think someone showed me a picture of Rebecca but I'm not really sure. From someone who has had both types of delivery I would definitely say I would never chose to have a C-section again. The recovery period was much too long and I felt like I was hit by a bus. I could barely move and driving wasn't an option for ages.

Anyhow, now that I have completely bored everyone and probably shared way too much information, I will share some pictures of Rebecca through the years and you can actually enjoy the rest of the post.

Snow Day Fun

The kids all had a good day today. Snow days are the best. (as long as there aren't too many of them) Here are the various activities the kids took part in today.

Sledding with the neighbors
































Watching a movie with Paul












Playing video games











Napping because she is still sick

It's A SNOW DAY!!!

No school today! Yippee! It's snowing. For those of you that live in the cold, snowy climates you will be appalled at the amount of snow our schools close down for. It is almost embarrassing. If it sticks, we close. It is really a good thing though. Even though we get snow every year, there are still people out there who do NOT know how to drive in the snow and should NOT be out driving. So closing schools keeps a few of them off the road.

Friend Making Monday

I am going to try to do a blog carnival that I noticed on another Heidi's blog, who noticed it on another Heidi's blog who found it at Kasey's blog. Gosh I love that I know how to link things now. It's so cool.
Anyhow, this blog carnival is a 'getting to know you' type thing. Today's is:

List 10 random things about yourself that people might not know or you just want to share.
I am going to assume they mean general people out there in bloggy land, not relatives and friends who happen to read our blogs. (I couldn't think of many because my mind went blank so I borrowed some from the other blogs that were true for me too)

1. I was in the Army for 8 years. I spent three of those years stationed in Germany and one of those deployed to Bosnia. I was sent to Bosnia again one year after I left the first time.

2. I have a tattoo of Winnie the Pooh on my right ankle. (my husband HATES it)

3. I am a HUGE bargain shopper. I can't rest if I think I might be getting a better deal somewhere else. I use coupons everywhere and haunt Target for clearance's on everything they sell from clothes to shoes to food. I also love thrift shops and garage sales. Who needs something new when I can get it for 50 cents and it is nice and worn in and comfy. Especially kids clothes.

4. I sleep with a red & white stadium blanket with the Wisconsin Badger on it that I got from my Aunt Dianne when I was a teenager. I take it everywhere I go, even when I was deployed in the Military.

5. I love, love, love Christmas music. I listen to it all year long. It drives my husband and older kids nuts. I have NOT gotten Rebecca doing the same thing. (oops I mixed up my Monday carnivals)

6. I have never been stung by a bee and I am absolutely terrified of them. Probably because of the fact that I have never been stung and I have built it up in my mind that it is worse than it really is.

7. My husband and I are very different when it comes to the kids and watching/keeping an eye on them. I have a tendency to be more laid back and he is ever vigilant. I suppose we balance out and keep each other from driving our kids insane.

8. I am very picky about my checkbook. Everything has to be my way and entirely in pencil. I can't stand when my husband writes in it because he always uses pen. I am the same with the calendars I use, everything must be in pencil.

9. My favorite ice cream is vanilla. Plain vanilla. Not vanilla bean or french vanilla or anything but plain old vanilla ice cream...especially from the Schwan's man. mmmmm yummy.

10. I have been in 43 out of 50 of the US states. This would be counting driving through states and lay overs. I have driven from Massachusetts to California and many, many others.

Anyone want to join in can head over to Kasey's to read the rules and check out Mr. Linky.

It's My Birthday

Nope, not really. It was just pointed out to me that my sitemeter was on the year of my birth so I decided that it was post worthy....although maybe I should not confess to how old I really am.

Just Another Not Me! Monday

I am once again happy to direct everyone to MckMama's website to take part in our weekly therapy session known as Not Me! Monday.

I have not found a new blog to read and enjoyed it so much that I went back and started at the beginning of her blog and read the whole thing. I did not enjoy it very much.

I did not stay up until after 1am two nights in a row because I was reading said blog instead of doing my work on my computer. I am much more responsible than that and always do my work right away.

I did not find a list of Not Me's from last week that I forgot to post about because I couldn't find the paper I wrote them on. I don't have to write everything down to be able to remember it.

Rebecca is not sick AGAIN! She has not been sick almost constantly for the last 2 months. This time is not just one week after the last round of antibiotics for pneumonia. I am not starting to think there might be something wrong that the Dr. just isn't catching because she is always getting sick over and over.

I did not show up at Rebecca's doctor's on Thursday for our 11 o'clock appointment, on time for once, only to be told that we didn't have an appointment and the doctor wasn't even in that day. I was not rather irritated since I just had to drive an hour for NO REASON AT ALL! (ok, I so was)

My husband did not just call and tell me to hurry up with my Not Me! Monday post because MckMama just posted hers. Nope!
My husband did not just call again to remind me of one of my Not Me's and say that he only said if I was going to post I should do it right away.

I did not forget about the eggs boiling on the stove that I told my husband I would take care. When I heard the front door open, signifying his return, I did NOT run into the kitchen and try to make it seem like I had been watching over them all the time. He did not totally catch me and give me a hard time about it.

Have fun with your not me's!!

A Fun Sunday Afternoon

Today was a relaxing day where we all just hung out and had fun.(Until Jaquelyn and I had to do the door to door cookie selling in the sub freezing weather again but that's a whole different story) Jaquelyn had a friend come over for a while and they discovered the fun of paper airplanes. Kids these days are severly disadvantaged. The two of them had no idea how to make a paper airplane. They look on with wonder as I folded the paper and asked me how I learned to do that. Don't kids learn anything in school these days?! Where are the priorities?! This is an important part of growing up and every kid should know how to make a paper airplane.

Washington DC

Friday my older daughters had a day off school. My friend Pam home schools her daughter so we try to get together and do something fun. We brainstormed a bit and decided to head down to DC to go to a few museums. I decided that it was totally educational so Jaquelyn could skip school and join us.
We had planned on visiting the Holocaust museum and the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and then see how much time we had left. Jaquelyn really wanted to see the White House while we were there too.

Ahhhh, the best laid plans. By the time we actually got 3 teen aged girls moving, into the DC area, on the Metro and finally to the Mall, it was close to noon.

It was surprising how busy it still was from the inauguration. There were still large crowds everywhere we went....and porta potties as far as the eye could see. We decided to go to the Holocaust museum first since the other one was closed from 10:45-12:30. The line was not too bad but it still took about 1/2 hour to get in. We decided to split up once we got inside. Pam took the older girls through the regular exhibit and I took Jaquelyn through the children's exhibit. She seemed to enjoy it and it really helped her "get" more about what happened back then. She has learned very minorly about it in school but this opened a whole new understanding. She even wants to write a report about it for school for extra credit. The older girls enjoyed it too and really felt they learned a lot more than they had in school.

When we finished, it was too late to do much else so we just walked over to the White House, took some pictures and headed home. Silly me, I completely forgot that it was Friday afternoon...traffic out the ying yang. Luckily, there was an HOV (carpool) lane shortly after we got on the highway so it wasn't too bad for us. We got to FLY past everyone else who was just sitting there. Gotta love a minivan.

I didn't take too many pictures since you are not able to take pictures inside the museum but I did get a few outside. Enjoy!

Wordless Wednesday

Not Me! Monday #16

Time for our weekly therapy sessions. I will list all the things I did NOT do just to get them off my chest. Cause I am a terrific mother and would never do any of these things. If you want to read what everyone else hasn't been up to this week, head over to MckMama's and enjoy!

I did not start my morning off with a few Reese's balls that my daughter made the other day. They are not sooooo good and even better than the candy they are named after. I would never eat junk food for breakfast.

We did not decide at 5pm Saturday night to jump through hoops to make it to 5:30 mass. We did not make it there by 5:28 only to find out that the pipes had burst and all masses were cancelled until further notice. Since we were all dressed up with no place to go, we didn't decide to go out to dinner instead.

I did not go totally bonkers because I was mentioned on MckMama's blog, actually mention it on my blog and IRL to everyone I could think of. When I didn't mention it to my mother and didn't mention how MckMama & Prince Charming are from her home town, she didn't mention that she knew Prince Charming's family. I am not sooooo pathetic that I got excited at the fact that I probably met them both as children because they attended the same church as my Grandparents. That would be a bit stalkerish and freaky and I am much more mature than that.

I wasn't laughing at my husband the other day when he made a comment and then followed it with "Not Me!". My family doesn't think in terms of Not Me! Monday on a regular basis.

I am not eons behind on laundry and dread even walking into my laundry room. I always stay on top of the laundry and make sure it is clean, folded and put away.

I did not decide that our heating system was not working properly because it seemed to be running ALL the time instead of cycling on and off. I did not turn it off for a few hours when the temperature was a nice 20 degrees out. I absolutely did not realize that it was my fault because I had put a vent cover over the vent closest to the thermometer so it wasn't getting up to the temp we had it set at and therefore staying on endlessly. I am much smarter than that.

I didn't forget to change the date on the post the first time I posted this and wonder where the post was.....then find it logged two days ago. I am not THAT much of an airhead.

It's Almost Rebecca's Birthday

I am sooooo excited about Rebecca's birthday next week. Not because she's turning 4 since I would be happy if stayed 3 for the rest of MY life. This has been such a great age with her and while I am enjoying watching her mature and grow up before my very eyes, I would rather she stayed just like she is.
Anyhow, I digress. The reason I am so excited is what I managed to snag at Target today. I just stopped in to grab a few things that Taylor needed for a school project and was wandering around while she found them. They have a gazillion toys in the back on clearance. So I was looking around to see if there was anything that I thought Rebecca might like. While I was searching the aisles I found a Smart Cycle in the area that was marked 30% off. I was intrigued because I really wanted to get one of these for her for Christmas but just couldn't see paying $100. So I slid it off the shelf to see how much it was and......it was only $49.99. Oh My Goodness. I was tickled pink.
I called Dan to make sure he was ok with the purchase, left Taylor and Teresa to guard the game in a cart, went home to get my Target credit card and came back and bought that sucker. I still can't believe it. I have been wanting one for quite some time but the price made it impossible. I am such a bargain shopper that I couldn't see paying that much for a video game that would only be able to be used until they outgrow the weight limit.
I can't wait until her birthday to see if she likes it as much as I do.

Chilly Today Hot Tamale

OK, I know there are many places out there that are colder than where we live. Today was a balmy 15 degrees out. Warmer than some areas colder than others. I feel that the degree of coldness is relative to what you have to do while it is so cold. If you are inside it's not too bad. If you have to go somewhere in your car, it is cold but not too bad once the car warms up. Then there's those of us that have to be outside.
Guess what time of the year it is here in Maryland...Girl Scout Cookie Time! That's right! Today, Jaquelyn and I spent 2 hours walking door to door in our neighborhood asking if people wanted to buy cookies. Could our Girl Scouts PLEASE pick a warmer time of the year to sell cookies?!? And I don't even want to get into next month when the kids have to sit outside at cookie booths for 2 hours at a time.
I have heard all the reasons they sell now such as they don't have anywhere to store the cookies in the warmer weather and the United Way uses the fall for their fundraising and doesn't want the competition. I sooooo don't care when I am freezing my tushie off walking through our neighborhood trying to convince people to ignore the New Year's resolutions they JUST made to lose weight because it's more important to buy cookies.
Soooooo, anyone want to buy some Girl Scout cookies? (I am totally kidding, we are NOT allowed to sell over the internet)

More On Presents

While I did finish showing off the Christmas presents we made for my parents here, I wanted to show off share the present I made my mother for her birthday. Last year my friend Pam came over and showed me these cute templates for miniature house she found in a magazine. We made a few and had some fun. She suggested that I try to make one for my mother for her birthday.
So I had my mom send a picture of her house to me, under the guise of showing her new paint job off to Pam. I printed off a picture and went to work. I think it came out ok but I might be a bit biased.


Here is her house.





















Here is the finished house.