My Husband "Subvet" says that when our first son "Sonshine" was born the sun rose on our world, when our second son "Gator" was born the sun laughed and when our daughter "Sugars" was born all the flowers bloomed. That says it all.

"Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass...
It's about learning how to dance in the rain."
Anonymous

Your mind is the garden, your
thoughts are the seeds, the harvest can either be flowers or weeds. — William
Wordsworth

Monday, November 30, 2009

Advent Calendar

Last year I created My Advent Calendar. This year I am doing the same thing again and this morning the kids and I made the poster for putting the story pieces on and stuffed our calendar-box. As we were cutting out and stuffing each day's verse Sonshine was telling me the story! Parts of it word for word in scripture. Whaddayaknow? it works! If you'd like to share the Christmas Story in scripture feel free to follow along as we make our way through December to the birth of our Savior.


Here's this year's Advent Calendar ready and waiting for December.....






Sunday, November 29, 2009

Remember the Reason for the Season.

*Twas the month before Christmas*

*When all through our land,*

*Not a Christian was praying*

*Nor taking a stand.*

*See the PC Police had taken away,*

*The reason for Christmas - no one could say.*

*The children were told by their schools not to sing,*

*About Shepherds and Wise Men and Angels and things.*

*It might hurt people's feelings, the teachers would say*

* December 25th is just a ' Holiday '.*

*Yet the shoppers were ready with cash, checks and credit*

*Pushing folks down to the floor just to get it!*

*CDs from Madonna, an X BOX, an I-pod*

*Something was changing, something quite odd! *

*Retailers promoted Ramadan and Kwanzaa*

*In hopes to sell books by Franken & Fonda.*

*As Targets were hanging their trees upside down*

* At Lowe's the word Christmas - was no where to be found..*

*At K-Mart and Staples and Penny's and Sears*

*You won't hear the word Christmas; it won't touch your ears.*

*Inclusive, sensitive, Di-ver-si-ty*

*Are words that were used to intimidate me.*

*Now Daschle, Now Darden, Now Sharpton, Wolf Blitzen*

*On Boxer, on Rather, on Kerry, on Clinton !*

*At the top of the Senate, there arose such a clatter*

*To eliminate Jesus, in all public matter.*

*And we spoke not a word, as they took away our faith*

* Forbidden to speak of salvation and grace*

*The true Gift of Christmas was exchanged and discarded*

*The reason for the season, stopped before it started..*

*So as you celebrate 'Winter Break' under your 'Dream Tree'*

*Sipping your Starbucks, listen to me.*

*Choose your words carefully, choose what you say*

*Shout MERRY CHRISTMAS,

not Happy Holiday !*



Are you getting your Advent Calendars ready??

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Party in Reverse

So I forgot that blogger loads the pics backwards and I'm too tired to fix it....so scroll to the bottom of this post and work your way up






We had a great time. My Dad and Stepmom were here along with Subvet's Mom. Not that I got pictures of them.....ah well. This morning Sonshine is already telling me "And I'll have ANOTHER birthday and I'll have cake and presents and balloons!"

Y'all have a great Thanksgiving today. Try not to exercise too much......



The "shake and race" cars were Gator's favorite present......just don't tell him they're not his!
This globe game is his favorite!! He's learning how to coordinate the joystick with the airplane/globe....






Present time! He obviously had a LOT of help getting into those presents!
Birthday boy gets the first piece.


The cutting of the cake

Before we even started singing Sugars blew out the candle and we had to relight it....so here's Daddy making sure Sonshine gets his chance at it!
Here's the chocolate cake with chocolate icing that Daddy (Subvet) made for the party.

Can't have a birthday party without balloons!

Sugars and my dad.

The birthday boy in his birthday crown from school. He got to wear his crown all day Tuesday at school and since it came home he wore it for his home party too!!

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

eee gads

well, I'd like to say I'm busy preparing for our big party and that's why I haven't been around the blogosphere lately.....but in reality I'm just working and trying to get these Christmas presents done.

Stop back by tomorrow night in between chopping celery and washing lettuce to see pics from our day!

Monday, November 23, 2009

Sonshine

well, I've been falling down on my Parent Paparazzi duties. The last couple weeks we haven't taken pictures at Riding therapy.

However, I am happy to report that while last Saturday was rained out, the 2 weeks prior he rode the horse. Not only has he gotten so relaxed and comfortable riding that he was able to lay down on the horse's back, but he also has now consented to ride Bella BACKWARDS!!

I'll try and remember to get some pics week after next when we ride again.


After riding last Saturday we met my mom at IHOP to celebrate Sonshine's SIXTH (gasp) birthday this week. We were enjoying ourselves when the waiters all sang happy birthday to a 17yr old at the table behind me. When they finished singing Sonshine says "Don't forget me!!" We hadn't even thought about having them sing to him....and I was really surprised that he connected all those dots on his own!!

So, of course we asked them to come and sing to him, since we WERE there to celebrate his birthday....I wish I'd had my camera!! He just grinned and giggled the whole time. And he BLUSHED!! His little cheeks were red as apples all through the song!! I've never seen him blush before. OH it just made this mom's heart smile!

We'll be having a party with the other side of the family on Wed, his birthday. I'll be sure and have my camera at the ready!

Sunday, November 22, 2009

oh goodness

well, thank you all for worrying about me.....but it was unneccesary.

I took a Benadryl and was just fine.

I don't think the little drop or two I licked up would hurt me anyway, but tis better to be safe than.....you know.

I'm feeling much better overall, but am still coughing up a storm.


I got all my Christmas shopping and Sonshine's birthday shopping done yesterday so I'm feeling good about staying on time with that. I have 10 more ornaments to cut out and then 16 total left to make before I'll be completely finished with Christmas. I'm not sure that will all be done by Thanksgiving (my due date) but it should get done sometime this week.

Also, I've found a couple of places to apply that look very promising. No calls back yet so keep on a'prayin. Specifically for a job that has hours which will give me more Mommie time while able to handle the logistics of a one car family and at least the same salary as what I'm doing now. I believe in asking for EXACTLY what you want!! ;-)
Lisa, I've already got St Jude and St Gianna working on it, if you wanna add a few more....feel free to storm the gates!

a BAD idea

I'm deathly allergic to penicillin.

The kids are on Amoxil (a penicillin) for their ear infections.

This morning, after staying up 22 hours in order to switch my schedule for work tonight, I'm giving the kids their medicine.

In pouring the Amoxil into the little dosing spoon some drips down my fingers.


I licked my fingers clean........







hello Benadryl, goodnight Gracie.



I'll catch up with all of y'all tonight.

Friday, November 20, 2009

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

I should do this more often.....

apparently bronchitis and it's resultant intractable coughing makes for a great weight loss technique.

So, who wants to enter the cough-mania exercise class I'm holding 4 times a week?? We can have the classes anytime of the day or night....don't even need a lot of room!! Bring your ipod and cough in time to the music YOU like!! And you don't even have to try and figure out what the skinny teeny-bopper instructor is yelling at you!


(yes, I'm serious!! the turtle even MOVED!)

Sunday, November 15, 2009

I don't have television

So I have to rely on you folks to clue me into the stuff I miss.

Here's something Stephanie posted....I find it just hilarious...as do my kids.

I laughed till I coughed....

Friday, November 13, 2009

The Story of my Week. (updated)

Yesterday we took all 3 kids into the doctor. We got there at opening as walkins. 2 hours later we were armed with a mess of prescriptions and diagnoses of 2 with ear infections and all 3 with pinkeye. Then in the afternoon I went to my doctor. Leaving there with another handful of prescriptions and diagnoses of a viral upper respiratory infection that had settled into bronchitis.

So, me being Mightymom, I just had to write a song for you to commemorate my week.

For the tune, play Barney's Dino Dance in the playlist above this post.



OOh Yeah!

Sing it with me!

It's the Fall sensation
That's sweeping the nation
And it's called
The Viral Dance

It's not much fun
But stick around
You'll give it a chance

Are you ready now?
Cause it goes like this:

First you cough cough cough
All over the place
Blow your snotty nose
While you slowly lose your voice

Then everybody starts hacking
And wheezing
Please pass me a tissue
I'm sneezing

Oh Yeah,
The Viral Dance.

Well it's not much fun
You must agree
A week or two
Before you're free

So come on!

You know you will do it!

I see you out there....

First you cough cough cough
All over the place
Blow your snotty nose (ah choo!)
While you slowly lose your voice

Then everybody starts hacking and wheezing
Please hand me a tissue
I'm sneezing

Oh yeah,
The Viral Dance

You're gonna do
The Viral Dance

Go get me some drugs!



(I tried to record myself saying "Thank you, thank you very much" in my wonderful 2 octave below normal voice....but I couldn't speak loud enough to be heard.)

update: I was asked about Subvet....he's been coming down with the virus the last 2 days. So he's singing the same song as the rest of us are. ~~togetherness is great~~

fabulous!

Thursday, November 12, 2009

update

Well, I am glad to report that I am just beginning to fell a wee bit better....at least I can breathe now.


I still have a terrible cough and don't have a voice.

Nor do I have any energy. I think I'll go back to wallowing in misery on the sofa.

Catch y'all later.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Hair

You might remember what happened the last time Subvet took the boys for a haircut....





While I was wallowing in my sick-bed Tuesday he took Sugars for a haircut...



Before:




After:






sigh. she's a cute little pixie-girl, but it's a big change for Mommie (aka Ma!).

however, there are some definite benefits to being home sick.....

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Well crap.

I's sick.

sick sick sick

I hate being sick.

Don't you know nurses aren't s'posed to get sick?

Had to call in to work last night and again tonight. I don't THINK it's flu...but I's sick all the same.

This effectively uses up every last drop of PTO that I have. It also puts me over the number of call in's per 90 day period you are allotted. Usually I'm calling in due to the kids, but this time it's me.


I's sick

I hate being sick.


Nurses mad BADBADBAD patients.

Thought for today



Thanks to Lisa, this is right on.

Monday, November 9, 2009

Thong Thoughts

I was wondering why it seems that here lately women are content to walk around with wedgies.

I mean to tell ya, not even the discreet yank down or nuthin!

I notice this most often at church. you know with all that sit-stand-sit-stand-kneel-stand-sit going on people just don't all rise and lower at the same time and sooner or later you're bound to get a perfect view of the girl in front of you's butt....which more often than not has a healthy portion of pant or skirt material stuck up the crack.

It finally dawned on me yesterday at church....none of these wedgie women are showing pantylines....

AHA! must be wearing a thong.

Which explains why they DON'T KNOW that half their skirt is wedged up there. I mean if you've gotten used to material between your cheeks I guess a bit more or less won't bother you too much.

So, I'm officially posting a warning to all thong wearers. Please check your clothes frequently, chances are you're sporting a wedgie unawares.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

from Sarah Palin's facebook page, unedited by me.

The Pelosi Bill Was Rammed Through on Saturday, But Sunday’s Coming
Today at 12:34am
We’ve got to hold on to hope, and we’ve got to fight hard because Congressional action tonight just put America on a path toward an unrecognizable country.

The same government leaders that got us into the mortgage business and the car business are now getting us into the health care business.

Despite Americans’ decisive message last Tuesday that they reject the troubling path this country has been taking, Speaker Pelosi has broken her own promises of transparency to ram a health “care” bill through the House of Representatives just before midnight. Why did she push the 2,000 page bill this weekend? Was she perhaps afraid to give her peers and the constituents for whom she works the chance to actually read this monstrous bill carefully, if at all? Was she concerned that Americans might really digest the details of a bill that the Wall Street Journal has called “the worst piece of post-New Deal legislation ever introduced”?

This out-of-control bureaucratic mess will be disastrous for our economy, our small businesses, and our personal liberty. It will slam businesses at a time when we are at double-digit unemployment rates – the highest we’ve seen in a quarter of a century. This massive new bureaucracy will cost us and our children money we don’t have. It will rob Americans of more of our freedom and further hamper the free market.

Make no mistake: we’re on course to have government commandeer one-sixth of our economy. The people who gave us Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac now want to run our health care. Think about that.

All of us who value the sanctity of life are grateful for the success of the pro-life majority in the House this evening in its battle against federal funding of abortion in this bill, but it’s ironic because we were promised that abortion wasn’t covered in the bill to begin with. Our healthy distrust of these government leaders made us look deeper into the bill because unfortunately we knew better than to trust what they were saying. The victory tonight to amend the bill and eliminate that federal funding for abortion was great – because abortion is not health care. Now we can only hope that Rep. Stupak’s amendment will hold in the final bill, though the Democratic leadership has already refused to promise that it won’t be scrapped later.

We had been told there were no “death panels” in the bill either. But look closely at the provision mandating bureaucratic panels that will be calling the shots regarding who will receive government health care.

Look closely at provisions addressing illegal aliens’ health care coverage too.

Those of us who love freedom and believe in open and transparent government can only be dismayed by midnight action on a Saturday. Speaker Pelosi’s promise that Americans would have 72 hours to read the final bill before the vote was just another one of the D.C. establishment’s too-common political ploys. It’s broken promises like this that turn people off to politics and leave them disillusioned about the future of their country.

But despite this late-night maneuvering, many of us were paying close attention tonight. We’ll keep paying close attention. We need to let our legislators in Washington know that they still represent us, and that the majority of Americans are not in favor of the “reform” they are pushing. After all, this is still a country “of the people, by the people, and for the people.” We will make our voices heard. It’s on to the Senate now. Our legislators can listen now, or they can hear us in 2010. It’s their choice.

- Sarah Palin

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Prayer Request

Prayer Request: I need a day job that pays as much as what I'm doing but has hours that will allow us to negotiate transportation in one car. Hubby is currently at ER with Gator-boy who fell off playground equipment and hurt his arm (again) and I had to wake up after only 2 hours sleep to get Sonshine off the bus. This means I had to call in to work for tonight, which I can't afford. I'm tired of being tired. I need a DAY JOB!!

from Mary

Ever tried to do a writing exercise? I haven't since college. But I did enjoy them back in the day...before I had grey hair!

So Mary at Mary's Writing Nook, who is a professional-published writer (don't we all envy her!?), did one that looked like fun. I asked her for an assignment and stuck it away in the draft folder for just such a night as this. Work is "pleasantly paced" and I'm having trouble staying awake. Seems like a good time to let the imagination wander!

ready? go! (my 2 yr old has been boycotting "set"...)

The writing exercise we were given tonight was based on travel. We were to use the following sentence to write something and then we had to pick a mode of transportation out of an envelope. The sentence was: "I knew it was a mistake to travel by ------when...


Your mode of transportation is a camel. LOL See what you can do with it. It is a fun exercise. Thanks for participating.



I knew it was a mistake to travel by camel when I realized how tall they are in real life. Being a good sport I crossed myself with both right and left hands, then climbed up on "The Princess Ride" aka "Expect". In an attempt to keep a sense of humor I joked about how if our camel train ran off it's tracks I, for one, was in no danger of falling off thanks to the snug fit between Expect's humps. Then she started to stand up, and kept standing up, and up and up....I was beginning to wonder if I'd gotten on the elevator camel instead of the walking camel when she finally reached her full height of 42 feet from the ground. Or at least that's what it felt like to me. Someone hollered what I assume was Giddyup in Egyptian and away we went. As we trekked snake like across the desert I began to wonder. If my camel was "The Princess Ride" and I was riding her...wouldn't that make me the Princess? And if so, of what, precisely, was I the Princess?

Dramamine, perhaps, since I was really wishing I had a big bottle of it the longer we rode and the warmer it got. If horses walk like Fred Astaire then camels walk like John Wayne. Lots of sway and swagger!

Here I was, Princess Drama, perched atop The Princess Ride swaying our way across the desert when suddenly we topped a hill and there before us were those fabled pyramids I'd longed to view.

My double humped elevator started it's descent and soon I was standing at the foot of the pyramids in awe of ancient technology.

As I was walking around The Princess Ride in preparation for the journey back to my hotel I stopped and asked the camel wrangler why she was also known as Expect? He shrugged and said, "Because that's what she likes to do...." Before I could ask him what it is that a camel would look forward to I was hit on the top of the head by a large clump of something gooey. Putting a hand on my head and turning around to see what had hit me I saw the topic of our discussion standing right behind me.

The camel wrangler started chuckling and said, "yup, that's what she likes to do...Expectorate!"

As I gave The Princess Ride's knees my most withering "No! No!" look I remembered what Subvet always told me about visiting far away lands.....

"Just get a subscription to The National Geographic and save yourself some trouble."

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

I Dare you to Share your Greyness!

My friend Lisa got to talking about grey hair on her blog....after she DELETED my first comment! **gasp** I figured I'd up the ante and dare to share.

Here's my comment...the one she didn't delete (note: Jungle Mom, you should commisserate with poor Lisa about deleting my comments!):


can I shoot MS I'm 47 and hardly have any grey hair? can I?? PLEASE????


I'm 34 with *almost* more neon silver than brown these days. And yes, it's all along the part...which is why I no longer part my hair. These days I pull it straight back...however I've noticed that the grey is becoming quite noticeable even when I do that.

However, I refuse to dye my hair, or consider any of that anti-aging crap.

My favorite people on this planet had both wrinkles and grey hair. matter of fact I remember sitting next to Grandma in the car on a road trip "pinching" up the skin on her hand and moving her veins back and forth. I think I must have done that for an hour....her response?? SHE LAUGHED and told me how my "twin-cousin" (each of us cousins in that family has a twin born the same month..some just a day or two apart!!) did the same thing. Now that my hair is officialy "saltnpeppa" and my laugh lines don't dissappear I'm watching my hands...waiting for the day when I'm ready to laugh as my grandchildren play with the loose skin and veins.


and yes, this is a separate comment in case you ball my other one up and throw it back at me! ;-)









So, oh wonderful readers of mine...I dare you to share your thoughts and pictures about YOUR grey!!


by the way...the comment she deleted said "just wait till your pubic hair starts to turn grey, then you'll REALLY feel old." :-)

Monday, November 2, 2009

about those medication side effects



Monday...Monday....

a 5am wakeup call

a 5:30am ambulance ride




While I am grateful for the ER's

Albuterol Nebulizer Soln
Atrovent Nebulizer Soln
Racemic Epinephrine
Prelone liquid


I must say, now that we're home again.....I'm MOST thankful for being able to toddle off to bed and Dad deal with the side effects of those fun drugs in Gator-boy who is a wild child without meds!




so, who guessed croup?

Our Halloween

I never did sit at the sewing machine and sew the fronts to the kids' costumes, so just before dress-up time I saftey pinned the silly things together! I guess I could have spent a little more time taking out the extra elastic to make them look less sheety....but I just didn't feel like it. So there you are.





The other two didn't want their faces painted.....and they were quite scared of the Sonshine-ghost....

nor did they leave the socks on their hands.......

We're thinking we should have called this one a Dominican Brother, rather than a ghost! What do you think Fr Philip??


The obligatory group picture attempt.






For the safety of our trick-or-treaters, all candies were pre-squeezed and their freshness verified.

We had to put this one in the reject pile on the dining room table...




All 3 hooligans had a great time "giving candy to the kids." I'd told them that I had SPECIAL CANDY just for them once we were done with "the kids". So afterwards we sat a the table for our Reeces peanutbutter cups and called it a night.

I'll leave you with a taste of Sonshine's first view of himself in full ghost attire as he runs through his dress rehearsal of spookiness.......(you have to listen past Miss Ham's chatter to hear him though)