babies.

So, had a HORRIBLE Friday night/Saturday morning.  Didn't sleep but 2 1/2 hours.  However, I did what I had to do and pretty much became someones hero that moment ;)  I am skipping the rest of the details.  Those who know me best will know what exactly went down then.

Saturday morning made up for those annoying wee hours when I get a text from someone who had been trying almost 2 years to get pregnant.  They are indeed pregnant.  Woot!   I felt honored being the first one knowing, well besides the parentals involved.  Ahhhhhh.  A BABY!

Sunday morning, my sister stopped by with my 2 month old nephew.  Ahhhhhh.  A BABY!

Monday morning a little after 7 our 3 1/2 year old buddy and his 1 1/2 month old baby brother came to play with us all day.  I held that baby boy as much as I could until 5 o' clock pm.  Ahhhhhh.  A BABY!

Opened a text earlier from my soul mate with a picture of a fortune cookie.  It read something to the effect "something exciting will happen this Saturday".  It's a fortune cookie her husband got.  My dear friend/sister is pregnant and due with her first baby, a girl, on tax day.  This Sunday April 15.  Ahhhhhh.  A BABY!


Now, I must say and clarify that after my youngest was born in March of 2008 I never got baby fever.  I never ever got it in fact.  As usual everyone around me was having babies including my sister and sister-in-law but I felt no urge to run up to my husband and demand another.  It was until January 5 of this year I caught baby fever.  A dear friend of mine gave birth to her twins, a boy and a girl.  Dang her for doing this to me.  Ahhhhhh. A BABY!  (and)  A BABY!

So...with THAT said!  As excited as I was to hear news Saturday morning, love on my nephew Sunday, spoil a newborn all day Monday, read an exciting fortune today and remember the time I finally caught baby fever  (in this case times two!)...I must say, these people, just to name a few, are very awesome and so special to me for including me in their babies lives.  I can still love babies even if they aren't mine.  I have no idea if we'll add another child.  Only time can tell.  And if it happens, I may not like it because I am content with my 4, but I also feel like I could be ok.  I'd get over the initial shock (because that is exactly what it would be...a shock!) But I'd be ok!  And I'd love every second of it just like I love every second of being the momma to the (now older) babies I already have!     

you should know...

...that today's weather has fit my mood.

I woke up about 4:30 to potty. 6 because my alarm went off and forgot to cut it off for the start of KJ's Spring break today. Then woke up nice and refreshed at 8:30 (kids still asleep btw!) Had my usual morning talk with my KY twin. and during that convo the phone rang. Horrible news the a family near and dear to me had lost a very special 17 year old to a car accident. And then shortly after that got the news from my husband that he won't be home for Easter. About 11 started a cleaning spree. Stopped to take the kids to see John and Ruth. Came back here and cleaned some more. Then started boiling eggs (36 of them) to dye tomorrow with friends and started baking a pizza and making fries for our usual Pizza and FRYday and camping out in the livingroom with movies (tonight compliments of netflix it's The Smurfs!)

So, where's Spring? All of a sudden today kinda felt oddly a bit like Winter to me. I ended up wind-burned a tad.

You should know that I am typing all of this out on my phone and forced myself to have a mini-break to do this! But the kids need me. So long to the rest of this random post!

Fool's Day Critters

"Fool me once shame on you.  Fool me twice shame on me."  A quote often used and one I used as my Facebook status first thing this morning.  Well guess what.  Joke WAS on me.  I was fooled TWICE today.  Shame on me.

Rewind to 4 years ago this May when my husband was in a hurry to leave to go to work and he finds a baby turtle the size of a half-dollar under his car tire.  He scoops it up, brings it to me and leaves.  I am left clueless as to what to do next.  I put it in a box, went online to research and found out it was a typical paint turtle or as we know pond turtle.  We named the turtle Squirt and made it a habitat. A rare find.  And then a year later, September 2009, my husband, our 4 little kids and I were playing football in the back yard.  I had the football and ran and "scored a touchdown" which made me place the ball to the ground and wouldn't you know BAM! Right beside that football? Another paint turtle.  Same size Squirt was when we found him/her.  Of course we kept the baby and put it with Squirt and named him/her (we still can't identify the gender!) Crush!  

Fast forward to months ago.  My girl, let's just call her Kasey, had asked me about our turtles and said she had been thinking about getting one for her son.  I had told her it's too bad we can't find another. We hadn't been that lucky.  So then last week let's just say she wanted a turtle still for her son's birthday but couldn't find one so she gets her son a puppy instead.  That was that or so I thought.  Last night I was watching a movie with Dan and there was a turtle on it named Shelly and I told Dan that Shelly was the perfect name for a turtle.  And then I flashbacked to when we found our turtles and thought how rare and we'll probably never again find turtles like that again.  Well, unless of course our turtles lay eggs and then we'll know for sure their gender LOL!  Watched another movie went to bed woke up this morning made my coffee get on facebook THE usual morning start for me!

So, April Fool's 2012...no joke was played all morning.  I thought I was safe.  Well imagine my surprise when my neighbor/friend comes in our house with A TURTLE just like Squirt and Crush and the same size they were when we found them!  Oh my goodness!  I had just had that flashback last night and the talk with Kasey last week.  She said her dad had found it in their backyard and didn't want him/her.  So, as much as I wanted to keep the baby, I knew I couldn't.  I don't "think" Squirt and Crush would try to eat this baby but I was afraid they'd be bullied.  I knew the baby needed a home.  Kasey!  Of course she agreed and the rest is history!  And then no more than I find that baby a home I am grabbed by the arms of my kids (ok, not that dramatically) across the road to visit with another neighbor.  He's messing around and moves a cinderblock and Landon's natural bug looking dirt digging instincts kick in and he finds a Tiger Salamander!  Of course in his eyes that Salamander became our 6th pet immediately! 

I pretty much spent all afternoon researching and trying to build a habitat.

Complained later to my friend Kasey because pretty much "this day was a joke!" and I had so much I needed to do this afternoon but I didn't get around to any of them yaddy yaddy yaddy and she said and I quote:

"But these are the things they'll remember, ya know? 

They won't remember the piles of laundry. They'll remember the day Mom spent making a home for the gecko they caught."  And I reply with "

Very true! But, I do need to do one load of kj's clothes at least because she may remember the day we did all this but I had to send her to school in her pj's the next day bwahahahahahaha!"  

As much as I joked back, she was right!  April Fool's Day 2012 will be one to remember indeed! Here I thought the joke was on me...2 rare finds and in turn which the Salamander put me behind on things...but in all actuality the joke was on April Fool's Day itself because I made memories.  And I will keep these memories until the day I die.  Whether or not my children even remember this day.  I don't care.  But I will!   

And with memory on the brain I must run and do said laundry above really quickly!  Weekends fly!

I leave you with "fool me twice" pictures!

Disclaimer:  No animals were harmed by my children and we are very aware of salmonella and other diseases reptiles and amphibians carry!   : )  

struggle

We all struggle.  ALL OF US.  Dan calls me on pretty much a daily basis the "one man wolfpack" because 6+ days out of the week I hold down our fort by myself.  (Well, with the help of our neighbors who all seem to love my kids as their own! Can NEVER thank them enough for that!)  I used to complain.  Oh yes.  A LOT!  However, I can't really tell you the last time I complained.  You know why?  Because one day I took a break and stepped backwards and looked into my situation and thought this is my job!  It is Dan's job to be away from us for days at a time.  Doesn't mean he loves us any less or is any less involved with our kids as the ones who's children's dads come home on a nightly basis from work.  People don't mean to I'm sure, I hope, but there are times I get so sad because I feel like I am made to feel like my kids dad doesn't "love" them as much as their kids dad does because they are home every night.  Yes, my kids are missing out on their dad but their dad is missing out as well.  However, I stop feeling sad and smile when I think about how he is doing this for us!  So I can be a stay at home mom and can homeschool.  We can keep a roof over our head.  In my opinion, this is just our life and I do what I have to do and it's the best I can do.  Your opinion simply shouldn't and doesn't matter.  Pretty sure 90% of us get to choose our careers.  Almost 10 years ago I chose my job of Stay At Home Mom.  Dan 2 1/2 years ago CHOSE to become a truck driver in such a shot economy.  I never, not once, have heard him complain about his job and the things he has to do.  Yes, as I stated above, I used to complain all the time.  And not just about the things I had to do but about the people who let me down it seems, the weather, etc etc.  But stepping back and focusing on what I have to do really helped.  I had to suck it up and just do it and just ignore the people who only want you on their terms, when they are bored and lonely because their SO isn't around at that particular moment.  I have slowly outgrown these friendships because it is what I had to do to make myself happy!  It turns out THEY were sucking the life out of me, not the fact the kids need me, this zoo needs me, the house needs cleaned but can never stay cleaned.  It was them.  Good riddance!  Pretty much, I love you, friend, if I talk to you on almost a daily basis! MUAH!  And the weather?  Can't do much to change that!

So why is it too many people complain?   If you don't like something then CHANGE it!  What set me off on this rant is because of earlier I saw someone who CHOSE their career act all cocky, as usual, and pretty much put down others because we think our jobs are so hard when we pretty much have no idea what hard is because we didn't chose the career they did! Oh please!  You have never been a SAHM or a truck driver or worked in HVAC or performed brain surgery, worked in a factory.  You have no idea how hard someone else's job is until you spend a day in their shoes.  A whole day.  We're all oblivious.  We all have hard jobs!  (well unless of course you are unemployed, lol!)


 Be the job great or small do it well or not at all.

Just do!  Do your job, hard or not, and don't let people brainwash you into thinking they have it "so hard" in the same manor they were evidently brainwashed in.  Remember, even when you don't ask, someone will always throw their opinion your way.  It is your choice to ignore it or voice an opinion back.  It took me a while but I just simply ignore opinions that I didn't ask for and I try to always see the positive in a situation.  Took me a while to get to this point without struggle I admit but I worked hard for it.

So again, just do.  Do your job, hard or not, and don't let people brainwash you into thinking they have it "so hard" in the same manor they were evidently brainwashed in.  Because, I have no doubt, that whatever career it is you chose or possibly didn't choose at all, only one person can do it and that person is YOU!

4

4:  The number of kids I have.

4:  The number of years it's been since I was last pregnant as of yesterday.

4:  The age my youngest turned said yesterday.

4:  Is a bittersweet number to me now.


My babies are growing up.  All 4 of them!  Yesterday, as mentioned above, my youngest whom I always have and always will call my baby baby turned 4 years old.  Never in a billion years did I understand that time would start flying the second my oldest child came into this world.  How do you freeze time?  Has anyone invented that yet?  LOL! I think yesterday was the most excited ever Lauren has been to celebrate a birthday...heck, it actually started Halloween 2011 when she finally "got" holidays and other special occasions and her excitement to me is something I just adore!  She woke up and exclaimed "It's my birthday!"  Got showered with presents, went out with friends for a special birthday lunch, picked her birthday dinner of baked chicken and french fries. Topped it off with making a wish and struggling to blow out the candles because they simply would not blow out.  Her favorite present you ask?  A pack of gum!  Simplicity at its finest.  We had an absolute blast celebrating with our baby baby yesterday.

This morning it's back to the school routine because weekends fly.

4:  The number of school days in our week this week!


We start studying plants this week and we are going to start our flower and veggie gardens.  We love all things nature.  Love to be outside!  We LIVE to be outside actually!  So glad tomorrow is the first day of Spring!

I must get going now but I leave you with one more.

4:  As my husband believes "fourth time is the charm" and I truly think he's on point!  4 IS pretty lucky and not such a bad number afterall!  As bittersweet as it is, I would never have it any other way!

to blog or not to blog...

...that WAS the question!  The answer is I need to be.  I was a whole different and less-stressed momma when I blogged on a daily basis over 4 years ago.  Thanks to another person I admire tons that is also crazy enough to have 4 kids...I took the plunge and signed up!

Time to introduce (re-introduce to a  few of you!) my kids!

My first girl is Kaitlyn who is 9.  She goes to public school and is in the 3rd grade.  Landon is my only son and he's 7 years old.  Our biggest shocker ever is another daughter, Kendall, who is 5.  Lauren is my youngest child, my baby baby, and she turns 4 years old tomorrow.  I homeschool my 3 youngest.  Don't judge!

Whatelse?  Life is chaotic but that's all I know and I am content and would not have it any other way!  Thanks for following my journey from today on out!

Cheers to a first post and a Happy St. Patrick's Day!