Carseats, carseats, carseats.

I don't lose sleep over things that aren't important very often. But earlier this weekend I was seriously about to lose sleep over this! I was having a very difficult time wrapping my mind around our current carseat situation. What seats are expiring, need to be replaced, with what type, and with the new baby coming, how that fit in to the situation as well. So much so, in fact that I got my sister to help me figure it out. Thanks Elizabeth!!

I considered writing out all the details of the issue, but since Elizabeth helped me solve it and figure out what we actually need to buy, I'll spare you :) Let's suffice it to say that we have 2 carseats that will be expiring in March and need to be replaced with toddler seats with a harness up to 65lbs or more, and we also need an infant carrier that will hold a baby of 'longer length' since it appears this baby is built much like Kristopher (her foot measured near 2" at 24 weeks!) and he outgrew his carrier at 4 1/2 months. Hopefully that seat will keep baby girl for quite a while, but at the time she outgrows it, we'll need another seat for her and at that time we'll figure out what type- infant/toddler or just toddler, etc... That's hopefully a year and more down the road.

I considered for about 30 seconds saving the $ on the infant carrier and just getting her a permanent carseat that's an infant/toddler one. Then I considered not being able to take her out of the car and set her down unless I had a stroller already out and ready to get the other kids unbuckled- or even to get the other kids IN the car she'd have to be in first and they'd be running away... I'll spend the $$ on a carseat that's a carrier! LOL That is... if we find one that will work for more than 4-5 months that seems worthwhile...

Ok, I promise you that our conversation was about twenty times that long and I really did spare you tons of details!

So in the next 3 months (WOW, only 3 months?!?) we need an infant carrier. Preferrably one that has a length limit of to 32" or more. Graco makes 2 different ones I believe. Anyone else? Has anyone used these? Are they huge and bulky? Does the child seem to actually FIT in them for that long or are they just "allowed" to? Do they use a regular seatbelt to go into a second car of do you have to use the base at all times? Anyone know?? I see a trip to Babies R Us in the future...

And while I'm at it shopping for carseats, I'm doing a 'first through' on the toddler seats too. I know there are more than just the Radian that go up to 65 lbs in a harness now (we have a Radian 80 and LOVE it, but the other seats seem much less expensive and this time we don't need the seat to go rear-facing for B and M). Anyone have experience with the Graco Nautilus? I found the Apex too, but because our big van doesn't have headrests, and the manual says that it shouldn't be used if the child's head is above the back of the VAN seat (behind the carseat), thus not one that I'm willing to buy. I can't find the manual for the Nautilus online even through Graco's website to know if it is the same way. Are there other seats that go up to 65lbs in the harness?

No, I'm not losing any more sleep over this :) PROMISE! But I'd love any info you all have about any of these seats or any others that might fit our kiddos well!

One more week...

On the fundraiser for Brady! We've met our goal of $50 (and exceeded it, thank you!) but I admit, this wasn't a high goal by any means. This is the amount that the necklace would retail for. It was donated, of course, so every penny of this fundraiser will go to Brady's adoption fund, but I wanted to post this reminder in case anyone would like to add their donations and their chance at winning the necklace as well!

Here's the link: http://cornishadoptionjourney.blogspot.com/2009/05/brady-needs-family-give-away.html . THANKS!

How not to shop

Yikes, today was almost quite the experience. I needed desperately to go to Wal-Mart for groceries because we were literally down to ONE cup of milk after breakfast. I generally won't let it get below 1 GALLON at our house since the kids drink a lot of milk. But I did... and at 10:40 I finally decided that I'd had a shower and gotten dressed, all the kids were dressed, and if we didn't leave the house soon we'd be running in to lunch time and naps and I was going to be in trouble.

All 4 kids got shoes on and we piled up in the car. I thought to grab myself a quick drink then decided I'd grab a sweet tea at the McD's at the back of WM once I got there.

That was the mistake.

Pregnant, with 4 kids in tow, 95 degree weather, loading and unloading the car and stroller, pulling a cart, pushing the stroller... I should have had a drink before I left!

I grabbed shampoo and made it toward the back of the store, through the baby section for baby food for micah and grabbed milk at the back of the store. Picked up a cup of popcorn shrimp for the 3 older kids to munch on since it really was pretty much lunch time and I got in line at McD's to get my drink. And I started feeling weird. Hot, all of a sudden, and as I waited there I realized I was about to black out. I sent K and B to sit at a table right near the line and eat their popcorn chicken. Somehow that lack of movement next to me and not having to hold B's hand (as she was insisting) was a little helpful. I just leaned on the stroller, ordered my drink, filled it, grabbed a lid, and considered going to the table without a straw because I felt THAT bad. I did grab the straw, though and then made B get out of her chair so I could sit down- and asked K to grab another spare from somewhere because the table for 4 they'd sat at only had 2 chairs at it.

I hate that feeling of blackness creeping in, especially when I've got 4 kids with me and I'm in a very public place. Better than somewhere isolated, but still... I haven't felt that way in a LONG time. Probably the last time was when I had a fever of 105 and the flu! I sat and drank my sweet tea and the kids munched on their chicken and Micah fussed on and off (mad that everyone but him had something, but goodness, he doesn't eat/drink any of those things so there was just no option there).

In about 5 minutes I felt ok and decided we'd grab the other 4 essentials and go home. I didn't feel wonderful but I no longer felt like I was going to collapse.

Then Mike called me as I was headed out of the store and said he was bringing a friend of ours home for lunch. Very good... so long as the friend doesn't mind that I didn't actually SHOP and we'll be eating PBJ or egg sandwiches for lunch because I didn't think today was such a good day for shopping anymore! (The friend didn't mind and we enjoyed their visit. Brianna LOVES him so she was so happy to see him at lunch time LOL.)

Next time, I'll run back in for a drink before I leave!!

Baby is a...

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Keeping the first things first...

Sometimes in the mess of life it becomes scrambled and first things end up being put off as last things and the middle things push their way to first.

No idea what I'm talking about?? :)

#1 GOD
#2 Spouse
#3 Children
#4 Job/Church/ Extended family
#5 Everything else

Yes, #4 is 3 things, but those three often need to be mixed and matched, all given the appropriate amount of time, respect, and availability... but there's no way to say that one should come ahead of the others every time. Job generally comes first, but not at the expense of the others, and vise-versa.

Just a reminder, in case you need it as much as I often do!

This and that

The weekend was a lot of fun visiting with our friends :) We went to Sea World on Saturday and spent Friday and Sunday just hanging out. They all headed home on Sunday evening. On Monday we worked on the house here and there. Mike mowed the lawn and I attacked the playroom. Kristopher can now have his toys back out instead of in his closet and the little guys toys were switched out with some I had put away for a while.

Emma had therapy (yep, on a holiday) and then Mike and I took up his parents' offer to watch the kids and we went out for a nice evening in Orlando- just the two of us :) It had been a while and was nice to have that time alone. Important, too! Not only that, on our way he found a Visa gift card in his wallet he thought had about $7 on it and when I called in to find the balance it had over $90! So instead of a quick inexpensive dinner that we'd planned on doing, we went to the Cheesecake Factory and enjoyed a nice sit-down dinner together and even brought dessert home for later. It was great to have that time alone.

Tuesday I had a dr's appointment in Orlando to check on the baby's heart. I left home with an hour and 15 minutes to spare and a 45-55 minute drive ahead. I get there with 15 minutes to spare after grabbing some lunch at McD's and pull into the parking lot. Then I realize it's 8 spots, nowhere to turn around, and an ambulance also parked in the only space that is probably usually used to turn around and they're trying to get a young child out of it and into the Cancer Center connected to the cardiac building. This was just the beginning of an awful experience LOL!

I did get out thanking God I'd borrowed mom's van and not brought the big van (Mike forgot to leave me his van and took it to work). I made a 3 point turn in the 1 1/2 lane lot and back out 3 blocks to the parking garage. The only perk to the day was I didn't have to pay the $4 parking at the garage because I had a pass for the cardiac center :)

Then I had no time to eat my lunch and instead walked the 3 blocks to the office, signed in, and waited about 10 minutes. I'd arrived at 1:40 and was in the room at 1:50 for a 2pm appointment. They set me up with a towel to keep the goo for the ultrasound off my pants, laying on the bed with the machine and said the dr would be right in. 10, 20, 40, 50 minutes, and then an HOUR went by. I'd gotten up, buttoned my jeans, gotten my book and gotten comfortable. WHAT IN THE WORLD?

Finally a nurse came in and said "oh, the page didn't work, I'll call his cell phone, so sorry". Um... yeah, that'd be good. 10 minutes later he came in and let's just say it wasn't a great experience. He was knowledgeable and his bedside manner was ok, but he came across as having a need to defend himself and his practice since I see another cardiologist with our other 2 kids.

The highlights of the visit would be when he told me that last week he diagnosed a child w/ an AV Canal and suggested his parents get an amnio as there's a 90% chance the child has Ds... so they did and they terminated. WHY WOULD YOU SAY THIS TO A PATIENT? AND ESPECIALLY ONE THAT YOU KNOW HAS MULTIPLE CHILDREN WITH DS?? Another great point for him was when he started telling me that the perinatologist must not have known what she was doing and seen "this little hole here" (as he shows me on the echo) and I replied with "that's the PFO, that's fine" and he looked at me, shocked that I not only knew what he was showing me on the echo, but knew the term and that it was a good thing... and he thinks that the perinatologist saw that and thought that the child's heart was messed up because of that. Forget that I told him that due to positioning she couldn't see the upper part of the heart. The perinatologist must be incompotent. Of course...

Then there was his highest moment, possibly, when he asked where my daughter's heart was repaired (after being SHOCKED it wasn't by his practice) and went on to tell me how inferior that hospital and team of surgeons is to his team here and statistics and everything else about how much better they are than the people we see.

Hmm... makes me think that someone feels he has something to proove... that he actually is having a difficult time feeling inferior because we see a different set of doctors and went to a different hospital... He knew his stuff. He, I'm sure, is a great doctor. But there's a certain amount of tact that was definitely missing from our little adventure together and I'm glad to say there is no follow up appointment needed!! Baby's heart is perfect! Except, of course, for that PFO LOL (all babies have a PFO in utero to bypass some of the heart and it should close after birth... but 25% of the population has a PFO as an adult and the only complication is that it CAN be the cause of a stroke later on...). So he says at the end "diagnosis... what am I going to write for diagnosis?? Ah, PFO" and with that I said "I'd hope so, if there wasn't a PFO I have a feeling we'd be in more trouble." "True." And that was that. All done with that visit!! (Thank God!)

FIVE hours later I arrived back at the house.

Today was relaxing, if you can call 4 kids, 2 school runs, and a lot of work with Reece's Rainbow, 2 calls from hospitals for billing and thinking one was a scam because they were both the same hospital and couldn't figure out why there are 2 separate bills... and being woken up by the bug man during the 5 minutes I actually got K to settle down and be quiet. Ok, maybe it wasn't so relaxing... But I was at home a lot of the day so that is nice.

Tomorrow I go back to the perinatologist and MAYBE just MAYBE they'll be doing another echo and we might get to peek and find out whether this little one will be sporting more pink or blue in the fall! Waiting for the Speech therapist for Emma and Micah to get here... One of these days soon I'll get another adoption update up, so much going on I desperately need to update on families!!

Memorial Day 2009

Reach out...

This week our family is grateful for how God's plan has come together for our friend and we are thankful that he is headed home this weekend as his family takes a second step of faith.

Adoption isn't a clear-cut experience. Seeing photos and a small write-up of a child is one thing, but bringing this 'stranger' into your home and making him your son is a whole different thing. Most of the time the families that adopt through Reece's Rainbow come home and after a period of adjustment, the family and child experience their "happily ever after". Not without trials, since these children all have special needs and, well, they're KIDS :) But families find their 'rhythm' and their joy and their family makeup is a wonderful gift from God.

Occasionally, though, the child and family do struggle after coming home. Especially if the child has "hidden issues" such as additional syndromes, major medical issues, or attachment issues. Autism, another 'hidden' thing in institutionalized kids, is another kicker. And sometimes the going gets... well, TOUGH.

After a year home with their new son, our visitor's family knew that things were not falling into place as they should and that each day continued to be a struggle. Instead of throwing in the towel and saying "this isn't what we signed up for", they reached out for help from others that have "been there" and asked for help. I have the utmost respect for this family for asking for help when they needed it! Not that this family would turn to this... but a lot of abuse of adopted children comes from families not reaching out when they need help and simply trying to do it on their own. Reaching out when you need help is the best way to receive the help both the family and child need to work things out!

It's not easy to say "I can't do it" or to say "I need help" or even more so, to say "I'm scared." This family reached out and in response received the help that they needed to get some distance, some perspective, some training, some much needed rest, and an opportunity to have a fresh start with their son. When they may have thrown in the towel, they now have support set up for when he comes home and are prepared to deal with all those things that before were 'surprises' and instead are 'understood'.

During this month of respite our little guy's family has made their home into an environment that will better accommodate their son as well as help them in their daily lives to have less stress due to his special needs. They've sought counseling since before the respite time and will continue to do so once he is home. They've taken some time to be a husband and wife and some time to re-connect with their other children and set up their family environment knowing that their son will be returning to them just as he left them, struggles, trials, and all. And now they feel more adequately prepared to deal with it all.

What I want to make most clear here is that if someone needs help, there should be no shame or guilt in looking for and accepting that help. We all need reminders of this in our everyday lives. Whether it's in regard to our children, our habits, our lifestyles, whatever... when someone reaches out for help, don't turn them away saying they must have been wrong to be in that position, or that you wouldn't seek help in their shoes...

Luke 10:30-37

In reply Jesus said: "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. 'Look after him,' he said, 'and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.'

"Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?"

The expert in the law replied, "The one who had mercy on him."
Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise."

This weekend

We're transitioning back to a family of 6. Please pray for us, for our little buddy whom we will miss, and for his family who is so excited to have him coming back home!

Have I really given it my everything?

Have You?



This is what it's all about. Not about what we think we can handle. Not about what we know we can do. Not about what won't be hard. Not about what won't take more energy. It's about giving it your everything. Stepping out in faith. Knowing it might hurt, and doing it anyway. Just in case you were wondering what was on my mind today :)...

Here's the lyrics...

The Motions by Matthew West

This might hurt, it's not safe
But I know that I've gotta make a change
I don't care if I break
At least I'll be feeling something

‘Cause just okay is not enough
Help me fight through the nothingness of life

I don't wanna go through the motions
I don't wanna go one more day
Without Your all consuming passion inside of me

I don't wanna spend my whole life asking
What if I had given everything
Instead of going through the motions?

No regrets, not this time
I'm gonna let my heart defeat my mind
Let Your love make me whole
I think I'm finally feeling something

‘Cause just okay is not enough
Help me fight through the nothingness of this life

‘Cause I don't wanna go through the motions
I don't wanna go one more day
Without your all consuming passion inside of me

I don't wanna spend my whole life asking
What if I had given everything
Instead of going through the motions?

Take me all the way
(Take me all the way)
Take me all the way
(‘Cause I don't wanna go through the motions)

Take me all the way
(Lord, I'm finally feeling something real)
Take me all the way

I don't wanna go through the motions
I don't wanna go one more day
Without Your all consuming passion inside of me

I don't wanna spend my whole life asking
What if I had given everything
Instead of going through the motions?

I don't wanna go through the motions
I don't wanna go one more day
Without Your all consuming passion inside of me

I don't wanna spend my whole life asking
What if I had given everything
Instead of going through the motions?
Take me all the way
(Take me all the way)
Take me all the way
(I don't wanna go, I don't wanna go)

Take me all the way
(Through the motions)
Take me all the way

I don't wanna go through the motions

In the kitchen:

Kristopher is on a chair at the table getting hand sanitizer.
Emma is sitting on one side of the chair on the floor.
Brianna is standing on the other side of his chair.

K: Patience please, you need to practice patience.
B: no no no no no,
K: You will get your turn, but you must wait, patience my dear

Hmm... I guess at least he's paying attention?

In case you're wondering, everyone wanted some hand sanitizer and he apparently was the keeper of the bottle... go figure... :)

Change is in the air!!

SUMMER IS HERE!

Maybe not officially on the calendar, but at our house it is!

First off, the every-day rains have set in (tho right now they're ALL DAY not just in the afternoons like they will be soon.... but we do need the rain!).

Second, yesterday was Kristopher's last day of Pre-K!

Today will be Emma's last day of "regular" school but she will continue to have her teacher come out to the house one hour a week during the month of June for Extended School Year (ESY).

Last week ended Kids' Adventure Days (KAD) at our church, which is like a Mom's Morning Out program that Brianna and Micah both attended 2 mornings a week. My kids missed the last week (Brianna 2 weeks) because they were sick :(

And the 'real' end to the school year comes on Monday when Brianna and Emma both have their last day in public school. Brianna's K-3 class is having a 'water party' that day and Emma has two therapies that she'll go to.

In addition to all of the different schools finishing up for the summer, our little visitor is headed home this weekend.

So... the busyness of our home is about to be cut down dramatically in so many ways all at the same time. I always look forward to the summer break, but this is the first year that any of my kids have had "real" school outside of just KAD, so this year even moreso I'm anticipating the wonderful lack of schedules for most of the week and just having a few therapies for Emma and Micah that will continue for the summer.

Micah will have his OT eval tonight... which we know he qualifies for... so he'll probably have 30 minutes a week at the house for OT when that is set up. He will continue with his 30 min of ST at the house as well and Emma piggy-backs her private ST on to that since they're already at the house so we don't have to go to the Center for hers. Then Emma will have 2 PT sessions each week for 45 minutes each. Most of these will be at the center, but our PT will be coming out periodically to keep up Micah's services, so when she comes to the home for him, she'll also see Emma at the house.

I'm also looking forward to a long weekend in Minnisota in a few weeks and our church summer "daycamp", Summer CHAOS that will kick off in mid-June. This is what we do in place of a VBS type of program and this is the 5th year we've done it. I'll try to make a separate post about it soon, it's a GREAT program that has been a lot of fun!

Warning:

Do not say to a little boy whose clothes and diaper were just removed "now go to the bathroom." He might. Right there on the floor.

I sent M and B toward the bathroom in their birthday suits then got our visitor undressed and sent that way and went to get Emma out of her highchair when the above exchange happened. Thankfully, Mike was home AND it was on the tile :) The 4 little kids enjoyed a quick bath and I felt like I was running an assembly line washing faces, heads and fannies! But hey, they were all clean when we were done and my back wasn't nearly as done-in as when I do them one at a time!

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Want to know the difference between a good morning, an ok morning, a difficult morning, and a really hard one??

A good morning only dry cereal is spilled/thrown. An ok morning liquid spills but doesn't get on any people. A difficult morning is when the spill gets a kid dirty (and we have to start over dressing). A really hard morning is when you're trying to get out the door for an appointment with 4 children and one of them takes her cup, holds it above her lap, turns it upside down and watches as it gulps its way out of the cup, down her chest, all over her lap, chair, and the floor.

Guess which one was today?? :)

Our morning

Yesterday I got a reminder call that three of the kids have ENT appointments this morning. Oops, that one hadn't made it to the calendar! Ah, well, thank God for grandma's (and other forms of babysitters...) because my mom came with me +4 kids .

Short version, everyone behaved, Brianna needs surgery (adenoids removed and new tubes), Micah still has 2 ear infections and is now on antibiotic ear drops in addition to the oral anti's he's been on for 5 days already and he goes back in 2-3 weeks to recheck, and Emma's tubes are sitting there but non-functional but she has no fluid or infection so we'll leave her be and pray she's outgrown the need for them!

Tonight we have some young families coming over for our monthly-ish dinner get-together. I haven't done any prep work and I'm not sure I'm going to :) We're doing a "pasta bar" and I'm boiling pasta and others are bringing, chicken, sausage, sauces, veggies, etc. and each providing a drink of some sort. A simple fun way to get a bunch of families together and spend some time with each other!

The art of husbandry...

We've been married for almost 8 years now, and I have to say first that yes, I'm just as much (and MORE) in love with my husband today than I was 8 years ago and even 11 1/2 years ago when we first started dating :)

Now, that was the preface to the rest of the post...

This dear, sweet, loving husband of mine was watching TV on Hulu.com on Mother's Day and ever so kindly called me over to watch some clips he thought were funny. Though neither of us like this TV show because it is both rude and, well, not something that we agree with, this was in a list of "Mother's Day picks" on Hulu and we watched the one minute and 16 second clip, thought "well, yep, kinda funny, and yes, that's why we don't watch that show" and went on with life. (posted below)

But this morning... well, let's just say Mike was trying to make up for not being around at all lately and when he was around- not being particularly... helpful... with the kids this last several days. I hadn't complained, much... (does putting Brianna on the bed and turning the light on at 7am and telling him "4 kids are up, goodmorning!" count as complaining?) but he somehow realized that caring for 5 kids, several of whom were sick and grumpy and had faucet noses and myself being pregnant, a bit more tired than usual, and not feeling on top of the world myself for a few of those days, well, it's a lot of work!

And so he got the grand idea that I could go take my shower this morning since he didn't exactly have to RUSH out the door to be back up at the church by 10. I took him up on that and even thanked him for it because that meant, of course, that he was going to get all the kids dressed while I was in the shower, right?

Um... right... Did I set out clothes for them? Nope, here's where to find clothes that will fit each kid. And off I went.

So, he comes in while I'm showering to ask me where to find shorts for the girls. I tell him again, bottom drawer of the dresser or on top of the dresser. I get out of the shower and I see Emma in Brianna's capris. Isn't it a bit, HOT for that? And, how did you fit her into 18 months pants? Did they fit over her hips? (she wears smaller size shorts, but pants and capris she wears a 2t or 3t)

Then Brianna comes out of her room. Wearing LONG PANTS? It's 95 degrees out here. Long pants are only worn if there's no possible way to wear shorts and capris really are only for days that the shorts are in the wash (oh, wait, that's mine-- the girls have plenty of shorts ;) ).

It ended up that he "couldn't find shorts". So we walked into the bedroom, opened the bottom drawer, and found it filled with shorts- way more shorts than I believe are necessary, in fact, to the point that I should go through them and figure out which ones will really be worn and thin it out a bit. But regardless, there were plenty to choose from. "I wanted jean shorts and couldn't find them." So on top of the dresser we go. Jean shorts for Emma, Khaki for Brianna. Quick and easy. Hmm...

We changed the girls (hey, at least he stuck around to help change them, right?) and I reminded him that if he was trying to find a way for me to not ask him to get the kids dressed again, his plan wasn't working... in fact, I think he just needed more practice! We both laughed it off, glad that 4 of the kids were dressed (one was eating... again...) and he went to take his shower :)

Ok, now I'm posting this clip here because it sparked the entire conversation and was too funny considering the circumstances. But I will say I don't like this show, don't watch this show, and if you think you might be offended, well, practice some self-control and don't watch it :)

Red and yellow...

Yes, we live in a pretty wooded area. No, I don't like when wildlife tries to mess with me :)

Tonight the dog was barking in the garage and Mike went out to find this:


I didn't take this picture, I stole it off the Internet. Mostly because although I will photograph half-dead opossum babies, I don't enter the garage when there's a snake in it!

Thankfully, as the rhyme says "Red and Yellow, Kill a fellow, Red and Black a friend of Jack". And this is a KING snake, not a CORAL snake. Our first Christmas here there was a coral snake on our playground area though, so you can never be too careful.

In fact, several years ago when my parents lived here they found their cat under the dining room table playing with a snake. My dad caught it and put it in a trashcan and called Animal Control. That one was a Coral Snake. IN. THE. HOUSE. The cat was fine, smart kitty she is, but the animal control lady wasn't quite as bright. She looked at my parents said "this isn't a coral snake, it's a king snake." Having lived in this area for a long time, my parents protested and said they were sure it was a coral snake. Smart animal control lady reached into the trash can bare handed and picked it up and put it in her bag and was on her way.

If I remember correctly, it wasn't much later that my parents left the neighborhood and found that the animal control truck was parked just a few houses down. The 'finding out' part I'm not quite so sure of the timeline, but essentially the lady got a few houses down and realized that she was wrong-- that was, indeed, a coral snake, and she'd been bitten. She stopped at a neighbor's house and called 911. She was taken by ambulance to the hospital...

My parents were contacted by our local news crew and I felt pretty bad for the rather unintelligent animal control worker that made a mistake that would certainly cost more than a bite... but be a lick at her pride as well.

Anyway, Mike looked up the snake on the Internet before he decided to go out there to get rid of it. What, he doesn't trust his wife? Ah, well, can't be too safe I suppose...

Except that instead of catching it and tossing it away or killing it, he checked the Internet and the snake got into a crack in the concrete and as I type this is still in my garage. Poor guy is going to be up all night keeping the dog happy because she KNOWS it's in there and will likely bark incessantly several times overnight.

And it kind of freaks me out to know I went out there barefoot in the dark to feed the dog just about 30 minutes before the snake incident... even though the snake IS safe... I don't do snakes!

Ha, that makes for a lot of blogging in one night!!

Yesterday at the park...

   

Spaghetti pics!

And guess who's OFF THE BOTTLE?!?!

Edited to add, for Joann, I didn't actually cook dinner... My parents, after spending FOUR HOURS at our house helping out (Mom emailed this morning and just said "we'll be there at 10:30!" I didn't actually ask but I won't turn down an offer like that!) they then went to their church fundraiser dinner and brought us by spaghetti dinners all around. THANKS MOM AND DAD AND ROBERT!!

Before and After

This is the 'before' photo, but it's also the after... It's before I cleaned it, after the tornado hit :)  There was a step ladder in the one "open" place (over where the picture frame is now thrown) which I moved to show the disaster behind it... The bins (on the right) were also all knocked over, but they'd been fixed too.

 

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And after... after an hour and a half cleaning anyway :)  Ready for company! 

YAY!

I feel accomplished! :)

My parents and my brother came over today. Mike was gone all morning, but my brother finished pressure washing the pool deck, my dad did some major weed pulling like taking vines out of the 'island' of trees separating our yard from our neighbors, and my mom watched the kids and helped with dishes and laundry.

What did I do? I locked myself in the back bedroom and CLEANED IT! It is now ready for company, AND the kids can get to their toys again :) It hadn't been touched since it was destroyed and it hadn't looked too great before that, so this is a HUGE improvement.

When Mike did come home he brought burgers and fries for everyone and we all took a break. Then I tackled the master bedroom and bathroom! It was LONG overdue! Now all the laundry is done (well, washed anyway), dishes are clean, and the only rooms left to clean are the kids' rooms and 2 bathrooms-- all of which I can do with the kids hanging out next to me and really they get done pretty often. It was the two rooms that the kids don't really go in that I couldn't get clean with 10 hands "unhelping" :)

Maybe I'll post some pics later... if I can take pics before anyone "gets to" those rooms! You know... when I have time... after bed!