My Lonely Little Petunia in An Onion Patch

I'm so glad I get to see more of this lately. The cocktail of acid controllers seem to be working a little better...finally.

Stephen says all the accessories that come with girls are silly. HA! He has no idea what's comin'. I've decided to condition her. She gets a bow everyday, whether we leave or not, so that way she'll be used to it and maybe let me put them on her for longer. I know eventually it'll get pulled off the second I put it on, but if it's just part of life maybe I'll get a little longer.

I just like this one.
This is the first day-time nap she's taken in her own bed *not* the swing. That's something else she'll need to get used to. Someday she's going to weigh too much for the swing and have to know how to sleep in a bed.

Sleeping Like a Baby

Do all kids do this??

I've found both the big boys with sound asleep with their jammies filled. Now Lincoln's doing it. The big boys preferred soft stuffed animals. I don't know what Lincoln was thinking putting a bunch of hard toys down the legs of his jammies.




I fished all these out of his jammies...all the way to his ankles.

Dear Global Warming,

My kids loved the snow that fell in the desert! Keep the up the good warming. Although, the frozen and busted pipes at the in laws house was a bit excessive.

Notice our little early bird is already dressed while the normal sleeper is still in jammies. These were taken much earlier than anyone should be awake. :-) I'm NOT a morning person and had been awake since 2:00 am when Lynneah woke up and stayed that way for a while. Stephen had to work so I spent the rest of the "night" at the other end of the house. Fun. It was worth it to see their excitement.

I watched throughout the morning in hopes that the snow would slide down and fold over itself at the bottom. Never happened, not enough snow I guess. (That would be carpet at the bottom of the slide to cushion Lincoln's rear end when he smacks the ground....Stephen's funny idea.)

They were funny to listen to and watch. I let them check it all out. Made hot cocoa in sippy cups and put them back in their bedroom till it was late enough to face the day. Where's Lincoln? SLEEPING.
I'm not a nice enough mom to wake a sleeping toddler, especially with church later in the day.

Bubble

I need a size 7 *slim* bubble.

My Gabriel is BREAKING my heart. I've spent more nights than I can count awake, thinking, crying, trying to figure out what course of action to take for my baby boy. I know, he's not a baby anymore. Just as I think maybe, just maybe, we've got it something new happens. Why are kids so dang mean by age three?!? Church, school, general public--there is no escaping for the target.
I hate it!!
I swore many times growing up and as a young adult that my kids would NOT experience the feelings of being unloved, unwanted or tossed aside. They were not going to have crappy childhoods. Now here I am watching the crappiness unfold before my eyes. I can't stand it I want to wring some little necks! He doesn't have his Mama's "I'm gonna get you before you get me" mentality (that's good it didn't serve me all that well). I can tell it's getting worse because he's spiraling out of control at home faster and faster.

I'm pretty sure a bubble that I can wrap him up in and regulate all that he sees, hears and learns will solve all my problems.

This meanness isn't supposed to toughen them till later. For a long time now I've felt that kids need some tough times to steel and ready them for missions, adulthood and the mean nasty workforce, but come on kindergarten/1st grade? No, now is not the time for that. I'd love to find those little brats and kick 'em in the butt when no one was looking. I'm sure that makes me childish...gotta get to their level.

(deep breath)
Off to write another email to the teacher and get the other kid's side of the story before I decide which course of action will be taken on the most recent incident.

FLU

Don't worry this doesn't come with pictures.
The current flu going around is HORRIBLE! Monday Stephen spent the day taking and installing a new stove in his parents' house. The current state of them and their house is rapidly deteriorating. He had Lincoln with him when he picked the new stove up and just kept him when he headed down. There was some serious nastiness going on. I think the flu might have already hit them. They came home and Lincoln proceeded to puke all over the carpet Stephen had just shampooed after I spilled milk all over it. We cleaned it, and him, the best we could and hoped for the best. Later that night I could tell...er...smell the stench continued to linger.

I told Stephen we'd need to rent the carpet shampooer again the next morning. By that time I was feeling pretty darn awful. Stephen skipped morning basketball so I could sleep while he got the boys ready. That is a gesture of true love. He. Never. Skips. Basketball...unless I'm actively giving birth. When he went to get the big boys up he found that Garrett had puked all over his bed and onto the floor. Poor kid hadn't even told us, he just layed on the floor and went back to sleep. I woke up SO sick! Stephen cleaned and scrubbed their room down. Then started the shampoo marathon. It might be because I'm old, but I've not been that sick in a long time. I didn't eat anything all day. It worked wonders on that stress grazing gut I've been growing.

By the end of the day we had a couple loads of yucky laundry clean family room carpet, and a very stinky boys' room. We've checked, scrubbed, thrown the plastic mattress cover away, and still can't figure out why that room is still so gross. GAG! He did a really thorough shampoo and scrub, but even he can't deny the lingering stench.

It seems to have exited the house...I hope. At least it's a fast moving one and Lynneah escaped it.

Annoyed...

I seem to be annoyed about a lot of things these days. Things like Stephen works every Fast Sunday till May. If we wait till then to bless Lynneah she won't fit into her dress anymore and we can't bless her on any other day. The whole it can only be on Fast Sunday drives me crazy! It's just plain stupid. Garrett had no one at his blessing because we weren't allowed to move it up one week to be on the same day as Sarah's mission report. So, everyone came to the report... It's been a problem with every single kid. Ridiculous. The list goes on...it's making me stress eat and distracting me, both, with devastating consequences.

Lynneah doesn't maintain her oxygen levels as well when nursing so I've had to pump all but two of her feedings everyday. I loath pumping, but also feel strongly about the importance of all the good stuff nursing provides....so I pump several times a day. Every time I'm tied to my machine it forces me to just sit there...dangerous. My annoyed mind starts thinkin'...also dangerous. I think and think, and usually yell some, "Stop fighting!", "Don't make your brother cry!", "Would you focus and eat?!?", "Stoooop screaming!!" then I think and think some more.

There really wasn't ever a time after she was born that we were able to get a good sufficient supply up and running. I feel like I'm fighting a losing battle. I'm frustrated that I'm losing ground and not able to completely pump as much as she needs. I'm having to dip into the frozen stockpile to top off the bottles, despite taking supplements the Dr said might help increase production. All that thinkin' is distracting me like crazy.

Yesterday I'd actually managed to pump a full 8 oz, more than enough to give her a full feed. I was so excited. The next thing I see is that entire bottle spilled on my carpet, pump bag, and chair cover! Dang!! (I have to admit there were a few other select words that crossed my mind too) I really have no idea what happened. I cleaned it up the best I could and thought at least there was still the other side to pump; hopefully it would be enough to fill her up for a little while. I managed 6 oz, not enough but would hold her till we got back from school drop off. I was getting all her medicine ready in the kitchen and the next thing I know, 4 oz was all over the counter. Dang!! ( This time the other select words left my mouth.) I wanted to run to the corner for a good cry and pout.

Dang! Dang! Dang!

Everything had spilled and I'd have nothing more for hours. More frozen gold had to be used. Just too distracted... Then I remembered the huge spill on the carpet. Breast mild STINKS something fierce. Gabriel was late by that point. I'm so lame he's been chronically late for two weeks now.
I suck.
I sent Stephen a "Good Morning" text and warned him I was in a seriously foul mood. I was just the kind of wife any guy wants to come home to after working for 24 hours straight. I didn't care---I - had - milk - all - over - my - dang - carpet.

We rented one of those super duper rug shampooers from Home Depot. He pre-treated the spot and went over it several times. Then he shampooed the rest of the room. We had it for the morning so I vacuumed the other rooms quickly and he shampooed those rooms too. There was still cleaning solution left so he finished it off going over my spot a ton more times.

That evening I checked it...

It was already stinking!! The dang carpet is ruined!

I'm beyond annoyed. We already have our turd neighbor complaining about the fence between our houses (because, apparently, we exclusively own it and his yard draining into ours couldn't be making it worse) a leaking 30+ year old roof, water heater that can no longer provide enough hot water to make it through Sunday morning showers and baths, van with no AC, in addition to a couple legitimate mechanical concerns, Lynneah's medical bills *fun* and now my carpet is
r u i n e d.

Just live with it you may say... Well, let me tell ya about old rotten milk in the carpet during monsoon with nothing but a humidity inducing swamp cooler.

N A S T Y !

I have a SUPER sensitive nose I can smell things no body else can. Smelling that stench all summer will have me committed by August. Grrr! {:'-E (That's my made up "grrr" face)