Eating Pain Pills For Lunch... Ew

I am slowly healing. That is what my new high risk pregnancy doctor said. My back is real bad though. Kind of like getting mugged and beat the crud out of. She told me to take two of my pain pills, PLUS 3 Ibuprofen every four hours. PLUS, my antibiotics four times a day. It's so gross because I feel like that's what I eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. No wonder I've still only gained five pounds being 7 months along. Ha ha.. No seriously. To top it off, my medicine is not letting me sleep so I'm up really, really late writing this and I'm not the least bit tired. I have to go to church in the morning. I BADLY want to be there, I haven't been all this month so far because I've been in and out of hospital. I will go even if I only get 2 hours of sleep. It's just that, in the last 6 hours, my stomach hurt so bad from having contractions that I had to lay down half the evening to rid of them and it didn't work. Well, eventually it did but my stomach felt so bruised from it. Everytime Caleb kicked, it made it tighten and hurt all over again. If I have contractions in the morning, I am not allowed to go to church.

I loooove this Cartoon! Ha ha! I love Blogging and Facebook so this is totally me. Especially being in bed so much. Ever since my friend had moved in with me a few months ago, I have become a drill sargeant about cleaning. So my husband hasn't been able to keep me down. My back hurt SO badly around lunch time (every time pain meds wear off) that I had to lay down and wait for the horrible pain to go away again with more medicine. As SOON as it did, I got up, cleaned and did dishes. Then I organized the boys room, threw away tons of stuff, and vacuumed even inside of closet. It looks spectacular but that's how I got the onset of really bad contractions. My husband chased me back to the couch to lay down and I was so bummed. :( I had so much more to organize. I haven't been able to do any laundry since being gone. What on earth are they going to wear to church?? Their swimming trunks?

Hospital Visit Gone From Worse To Better

I know, that sounds exciting! Ha ha.... :)

I had already talked about my other hospital visit where they said I had a kidney stone. I kind of had my doubts about it because I've experienced so many kidney infections and know what they feel like. I mean, I've had kidney stones. I just wasn't sure about this time. A couple days later, in the morning, I was bent over and my back was going from sore to unbelievably horrible. By the time we got in the van the pain was so bad it was just like when I was in labor before. I cried all the way to the hospital, which was a half hour away, to the one I liked. Where I gave birth to all our babies. I told my husband just to drop me off in the emergency room because I knew it would be too hard for the kids to be there. When I got there, they immediately got me in a wheel chair and I went straight past to the labor and delivery since I'm 7 months pregnant. When I got there, I thought "whew, I made it". Not so. :( They called my doctor who is majorly mean. I quickly found out within this last month. I didn't know that in labor and delivery, they are subjected to the orders of your doctor. I was in the room for EIGHT hours with no IV and no pain medication. I cried and cried. I twisted all over. I needed help so bad and I was throwing up water. They tried monitoring my contractions but because my whole body was so tense, they couldn't pick them up correctly. I was definitely having them. After the test the mean doctor (who was only dictating over the phone the whole time) told them I was fine, had a urine infection, and to just send me home with antibiotics with NO pain meds. I just cried when the nurse told me that. I couldn't believe it. In fact, she told the nurse to just give me some Tylenol. My labor with my last baby wasn't even that bad because with contractions, you at least get a break before the next contraction comes. The pain was that bad. I begged them to give me an IV but they couldn't because my doctor wouldn't allow it. She believed I was FAKING it. My mean doctor. I had recently been in the hospital a couple days prior and they found no infection (which is why they diagnosed a kidney stone) so my doctor thought I was just wanting some Vicodin. Even worse, she ordered I be tested for drugs right then and there. I was so offended I just broke down crying. To be whittled down to just a "druggy" who's faking it to get medicine was so insulting. Of course my drug test came back clear. I wasn't a Vicodin druggy. Finally, 7 hours from the start, as they were going to release me, I was so hopeless and in pain. The hospital's rules are that a physician within the hospital has too see me and my condition before I am to be released. He came in. He looked so kind and he had a nurse with him. He took a look at me and said "you don't look good"! He asked me how I was feeling. I just told him that the pain had got to the point where I had to just focus on the wall and try to make my self delirious to handle it. I told him I had not held down even water since the day before. He felt my back and asked where the pain was. I jumped when he hit the part over my left kidney. I told him that I've had so many kidney infections that I can recognize it right away. He said my test only came out that I had a urine infection but he said that since I've had so many kidney problems, he's gonna trust me. He said, "I'm gonna go have a word with your doctor". He called her and told her she needs to come out and see me for myself. He was not happy about it. Whatever he did worked because the nurse came right in and said, "we're getting you some medicine". They took me back to my own big room and admitted me. I was immediately hooked up to an IV and given pain medication. At first they gave me Percoset but it kept me up and wouldn't let me rest. I was so relieved though! It still didn't totally take away the pain. But still, it took eight hours, but I finally got relief in that way. Later, since the medicine wouldn't let me sleep, they gave me the same medicine that they give C-Section patients (Toradol) along with another pain killer and it worked so wonderfully and even better. That's when I just completely passed out. I was out of it for the next day also. They saw I was having contractions so they had to keep giving me Toradol to relax my uterus. They told me a sign of a Kidney Infection was a fever and since I didn't have one yet they were just waiting. Sure enough, the next night after I was admitted, I had a really high temperature and while I was passed out they rolled me over and put me on a cooling pad hooked up to a machine to keep it cool and then they pack me with ice (inside wraps) all over me. I was so passed out that I vaguely remember it. Ha ha! Good thing too because that would be incredibly uncomfortable. For basically 4 days I just slept and I only woke up when my phone rang next to me. The good Dr. saw that I was telling the truth and believed me. I was ever so grateful. I told him he was my angel and I couldn't imagine what would of happened if they had sent me home in my condition. He told me he couldn't believe my doctor accused me of drug abuse and especially after "drug" tests came out completely clear. The nurse's were all talking about it because they couldn't believe it either. Adding insult to injury, my mean doctor had a drug counselor come and question me the next day after I was admitted. The problem was that I was so out of it and exhausted that I could barely talk to her. They had wanted me to sleep because my body had been through so much. She kept trying to get me to admit that I overly loved Vicodin. I tried telling her that the only time I used it was when I had oral surgery (one week) and then when I had to go in the hospital last week. THAT WAS THE ONLY TIME. She kept questioning me and questioning me to the point that I just couldn't take it. I was too exhausted to argue with her. My husband fired my doctor of our service when he found out. He was so angry. A nice doctor came and checked me out, told me I in fact had a kidney infection and needed to stay in the hospital several days. She offered to take me under her wing and I gladly accepted. She was a high risk pregnancy doctor. I was so happy. Especially because no mom wants to continually be put down like that and accused. It was so hurtful to me. All I was asking was help for the pain and an IV. Throughout that time, they were feeding antibiotics into my IV. One night I woke up and my hand was swollen so badly that the tape on my hand became too tight. Turns out that the IV had saturated under my skin and saline was leaking out. It was pretty funny looking. LOL. I kept looking at it. It looked like when you take a doctor's glove and blow it up like a balloon. So they had to switch hands. 5 days later I was released. They wanted to keep me 6 days but I wasn't sure at the time who was going to care for my kids one more day. Thankfully, my mom came the next day and completely took care of everything while I slept in bed. She woke me up a few times to feed me which was so nice because I would've just starved myself! :P The next day she cared for me again. I'm ever so grateful. I'm feeling better day by day. I'm just so grateful for my angel doctor who rescued me and my new angel doctor who'll care for me and baby till end of pregnancy. :)

Resting...Will Be Back Soon

I got a few messages from my dear blogging friends and I'm so sorry I wasn't able to respond. I promise I will soon. Just after I did my last post, I had to go into the hospital. The pain in my back went from 0 to 100 within half an hour. It was so bad it was worse then when I gave birth to my last baby with no meds. They kept me in the hospital for five days. I was pretty much in and out of consciousness during that time. I'm back home now on lots of meds. (Had bad kidney infection, prelabor, and fluid in my lungs). I have really crazy story to tell. :) I'm in bed now though and super tired. Thank goodness for my mom, she is coming in the morning. I can't get out of bed. So tired. I promise I'll respond soon. My husband is amazing for all that he had to go through and take care of while I was gone. My mom helped out too. I'm so, so, so grateful. I'll be on antibiotics the rest of my pregnancy. I'll write later. :) Just don't have the strength right now.

Help Me Pull My Kids Out Of The... (((Zone)))

Seriously, from the time my boys woke up till meal time... they were game crazy. As soon, and as fast, as they could finish, they bolted back to their rooms to be the first to get to the games. Then, on to lunch, then on to dinner. You should see when we'd pull up in the garage. I had to TELL the kids to never open the door until the van is completely stopped. Well, the other day, I had had enough. I, of course, talked to Charles and TOGETHER we decided that it was time to pull the plug for awhile. They were no longer playing together as brothers which was making them more selfish. It was all about "me". Everything I had worked so hard on with them, just learning behaviors and how to treat each other, was just melting away. In the store, it's like they were still in front of a game. Things just didn't move fast enough for them. They weren't having as much fun as they would at home on their game. Now, nothing sounded fun to them. They just always wanted to go home.... and play games. So, thankfully Charles agreed that things had gotten out of hand. Back to training again. Not all over. Just some damage control. This is the same way I feel about TV so I'm not knocking just games. TV can be a babysitter for parents too. This why ADD/ADHD is on the rise. Of course, even before we had games, Chaz had issues with this. But NOT allll my other kids. They've always done great. Today we had to visit an electronics store for something I needed to use in homeschooling and Chaz was salivating over the fact that there was a game system demo he could play on that was within the same store. It's like his eyes were twitching. No joke. His hands were twitching. He was talking nonstop, actually babbling. Something about games. It's just.... not normal. He gets CRAZY about games. When I pulled the plug on him before, during my last homeschooling year, Chaz did much better. In fact, His signs of Aspergers had went down greatly and so had his ADHD. It was there. But not crazy there. It was managable. It's just breaking my heart to see my kids throw so much out the door so they can sit in front of a tube and exercise the living daylights out of the thumbs. Today was one of our training days since taking them off of games. I believe it's only been 2 days. Keep in mind that I had done this before, taking them away from games, and then had to retrain them in certain things. I can tell you that games have a huuuge effect on behavior, concentration, listening skills, etc. No, I CAN'T just say that at these certain times they can play in a day because they have their own countdown and it drives me bananas. They just talk about it. I have to pretty much pick a game day out of the week and let them have at it for awhile. So, we're thinking about it. I just know right now it's a MAJOR retraining time. It's like I'm taking them out of a weird time warp and trying to pull them back into reality. I saw another kid like that in the electronics store today. His parents were dressed fine but their boy LOOKED like a game fanatic. His clothes were too small. He had untied shoes with no socks. His clothes were all badly faded. His hair was crazy. This kid was so crazy about games he literally jumped in his dads tracks to make him stop so he could wait a turn after my boys. He talked nonstop about wanting to play. I only let my boys try the game for 5 minutes a piece and then quit but this boy looked like he was gonna jump out of his skin waiting. His parents were so unaware of how their "game boy" looked. But it was a flash in my eyes that I don't want my kids going down this road. I don't want to throw games at them because it makes my job easier. I've see how "game crazy" guys dress with their unkept hair and terrible social skills. It's like their stuck in a weird time warp and they don't notice anyone around them. Chaz so badly wants me to buy an XBOX 360. I said "no way". Sorry dude. You already have a Wii and Game Cube. I have to say the Wii is actually mine. I have my exercise stuff on there. So it's not like I bought it for them because I wanted to spoil them. Of course they used it. Sigh... You understand what I'm saying? I'm not trying to be a jerk mom but sometimes you just gotta step back, look at your kids and say to yourself, "is there anything they are doing that I'm not proud of? Are they doing ANYTHING that I'm proud of (besides beating the next level and doing their chores when reminded)? What are they learning from this? How is it going to help them later in life? Does it make them look at learning like it's dull in comparison? It's not like I'm selling the systems. I'm just taking a step back to see what needs to change and change it. When I was homeschooling a year ago (and had cut off games for awhile), I was shocked at how much changed. When I went to the grocery store, I used it as an opportunity to teach them how to act in a grocery store. Proper manners in a restaurant. Respectful behavior in church. Learning to pay attention in homeschool. Etc. But when kids are stuck in TV or games, it's like you have to give so much energy to pull them out of their time warp that so much time as already passed and you're tired with feeling like you're talking to a wall.

....................................Break.........................

(My husband and I started talking while I was writing this and we ended up chatting for two hours. Ha! That is so funny. That happens to us at night when we're supposed to go to sleep. We'll end up talking for hours and then we're so tired the next day.)

Anyhow, I'm trying to get back on track. It's not like we've had games forever mind you. It's just been like this the last six months. My husband and I were just discussing some ideas together. Our own pow wow. Whatever you call that. I'm more excited now since we had a chance to really talk about it. I DON'T want to accept mediocre. I WANT my kids to see life the way I got to see it. I didn't have TV or games growing up. I rode my bike, had friends over, played board games, played (or fought) with my sisters, looked forward to going places with mom and dad. Was excited about outreaching and Sunday School. I'm so grateful. :)

Wow.... I can't believe this is such a long blog. My mind needs to stop talking and go to sleep! Tomorrow is a new day. I'm ready for it. (Ouchie back or not) :D

Kidney Stones Are Not Nice!

Aahhh... I love my blog because it's here where I can share my heart and things we as a family go through. (Mostly) I keep it toned down though. :)

Monday was a very stressful day. We were running around, getting some stuff for baby Caleb (in my tummy) and so we ran a lot of errands. We got new items (literally) off of Craigslist so we had to run to different people's houses. I'll talk about that later. When we got home late that night, my chest was really tight and it was hard to breathe. So I laid down on the couch with some pretty piano music trying to calm down. Just as I felt like it was easier to breathe, my lower back started to hurt really bad. I kept twisting and turning thinking I was just have a sore back from being pregnant like I normally get. By midnight it was really intensifying. Then by 1:30am it was getting really, really bad. I thought it was possible I had a kidney infection. I had not had a bladder infection so I was wondering what's going on. It was my kidney though that was really hurting. Because it hurt bad but was bearable, I told Charles I would drive myself to the hospital since all the kids were sleeping. I wanted to go to the one that was a half hour away where I am going to have the baby because it's a really nice hospital. By the time I was driving 5 minutes, the pain was so bad it was comparible to being in hard labor with a baby. ((Bad)) Then I was worried about crashing so I just had to stop at the nearest hospital. :P I made it in there and they brought me straight back with no wait because I was 6 months pregnant. In the ER they told me they weren't gonna monitor me or anything on my stomach even though I told them I was starting to have contractions. I thought that was weird because it's supposed to be bad having contractions so early and so many of them. Finally OB came and got me. They insisted on bringing me back thank goodness. Once I was actually admitted into the hospital in the labor and delivery section, that's when they starting checking everything out. I had a fever, they took tests and said I had a kidney stone. No bladder or kidney infection. I passed several kidney stones when I was having baby Ashley almost 2 years ago so I've had a history of them. They gave me a shot for nausea first befor getting rid of any pain. In fact, the nurse only gave me Tylenol. TYLENOL for a kidney stone! I thought to my self, "Are you serious?" They put monitors on my stomach but I was twisting and turning from the pain in my back. They had to keep adjusting the monitors. FINALLY, six hours from the time I was admitted (8 hours total in pain), a new nurse came on the shift. She saw me in pain and instantly said, "Girl, I'm gonna go get you some medicine." She harrassed the pharmacy in the hospital for an hour before they got me the medicine I needed. Then I finally got a shot of Demerol that was gonna put baby and me asleep AND take away the pain. I was ever so grateful. I slept for 2 hours. When I woke up, they asked me if I knew that I was having constant contractions. I was so passed out I didn't know. They had to give me a shot to stop the contractions. They hooked me up to an IV and just pumped fluid into me. The pain meds only last 2 hours but it took away half the pain for awhile longer. Then they drew blood to check more thorough for any infections which there was none. After fishing around for awhile she was finally able to get a little bit of blood. It was enough though for the tests. :) I slept overnight there and then stayed the day and they finally let me go. I had to let all the pain meds out of my system before I could leave so I could drive. I went home and my husband took the kids to get my pain medicine. Can you believe that they had a note on my name at the pharmacy that said I am suspected of abusing pain meds???? My gosh! It's because I just had oral surgery and had to have medicine recently and now this. The ONLY other time I had pain meds prescribed was last year when I had that ankle injury that was really bad. That's it. No other time that I know of in my life. So they are questioning whether or not I'm faking it to get meds. Huh? My gosh. If this is abusing meds, then I wonder about a lot of people who get it way more than me. So weird. This did tell me they are having to crack down because people have been abusing them too much. I slept all day and next night. I tried to get up and walk around today but it just brings way too many contractions so they said I have to stay down a lot. :( Oh man. I'm too hyper of a person to have to do that. I think at least I can sit down and homeschool. I'll just keep all the stuff next to me. I'm more bummed that I can't keep up on the house and stuff. I'm gonna have to really have my bigger boys helping me. They said I most likely don't have one large kidney stones. Just smaller ones so they'll all eventually pass. That's why my back is a lot better but still in pain. Thankfully it's slowly getting better as time goes on. If I get another fever, I have to go straight back in. :P I think things will look up from here. At least my kids are healthy! :D

6 1/2 Months Preggo!

That "1/2" means a lot there when you are pregnant. You can see my pregnant tummy in picture. Wow! Does time fly! Does life slow down? I look at my little ones, like the picture Charles caught of me showing the kids something cute on the computer, and I worry that it'll all go so fast that I'll blink and they're moving out. Sigh. My time with them is limited. My training time seems so short. My goodness. I love cute things the kids say. The other day at the park outreach our church did, the cops were called out because of the noise. What do you know! The cop that got called out on us is from our church. So as he was "taking a report", my eight year old said, "Mom look! Robbie is a policeman now. He's not a human anymore"! Ha ha! Or little Kyle coming up to tell me that he's not gonna be afraid in the dark anymore because he knows that God is with him all the time. Chaz reading the bible to his brothers and sisters while they are in bed. Ryan sneaking in my room to make my bed for me when I'm not looking. Or Ivy telling me when she grows up she's gonna marry daddy. Ashley running up to me with her lips puckered and her big blue eyes waiting for me to kiss her back. Or Caleb in my tummy kicking me every now and then to remind me he's there. Awww! This is why I blog. I want to remember it all! At least as much as I can. I'm in love with this life that God blessed me with.

This Scripture Changed My Life

"Don't make friends with someone who easily gets angry. Don't spend time with someone who has a bad temper. If you do, you may learn to be like him. Then you will be in real danger." Proverbs 22:24-35

I know we know this. We've heard it a million times. Seriously think about it though. You are who you hang around. I had written previously thinking about this topic. Something God had put on my heart. I read this scripture today again and since I really applied this scripture to my life, I've seen such incredible changes in my life. Towards God, towards my elders, towards my good friends I had once looked up to. Even towards life in general. Words do matter. Who you hang around does matter. Charles said that he's seen such a big change in me since I applied this scripture awhile back. I used to distance myself to people. Questioning everything to the point of becoming just downright cynical. Eventually, so much life felt drained out of me. Pick your friends wisely. Do they encourage you when you are down? When you are astray in your actions, do they direct you back to His word? Do they speak well of others or are they always putting people down or reminding you of mistakes? Really, really think about it. Honesty is a good thing if a friend has a purpose of caring about your soul. I pray that God will help me to lift a friend in a time of need. Not just help them complain. But to have a purpose in bringing them back to Him.

Why Am I Baking Like We're a Family of 3?

You think I would get this after so much cooking but I haven't. Well, I really like to bake more than I like to cook. baking comes very easy to me. Cooking doesn't. I can cook, but goodness gracious, I never remember things. I always have to reference back to recipes. So anyway, I really like to bake bread. The problem is that as soon as I take it out of the oven, it's consumed by my herd. Okay, I know I don't have that many kids. At least it's my little herd. One day I was visiting a blog of one of those supermoms and I noticed she had like 5 loaves baking at a time. Oh duh.... why didn't I think of that? My husband went out that very day and bought me another loaf pan. I actually need more than two but I'm just so happy he did that for me. He probably did it because he would like more than one slice of Banana Nut Bread sometimes. Oh, that picture of Ivy holding the heart is cool. We were having so much fun playing with the "Jigglers" I made that we had to take pics. We made all kinds of cool shapes before we ate them. We had a person shape too and the kids thought it was great that they could eat the arms, legs, and then the head off. Ha ha! Crazy people.

The Day They Kicked God Out Of The Schools

This Is Why I Luv Blogging

Seriously, look how neat it is to look back in previous years to see how much has changed. I've blogged for 3 years now. I used to always, every month, look back exactly one year to see what was happening. How much just one year changes!

So here is JUNE 2008!!!! Just click on link. :D

Yeah, Come On Over!

Do you ever find it actually easier to invite a kid over that is a friend? My kids can get bored with each other and bicker at times. As soon as I have a little friend come over, now they are all buddies and their day is made. Roger came by (my husband's best friend) one night with his son. They were all gonna leave to go study somewhere. I begged him to let me keep Michael because I knew that my kids would love me for it and also that they would all have so much fun playing together. Plus, Michael has all sisters so he probably loved playing with the boys. He's a good kid too and doesn't destroy things so I can totally trust him to just play and have fun. They all played with guns and swords till like midnight that night. I NEVER let my kids stay up like that but, what the heck, we don't have buddies over that often. Ummm, don't be scared of that picture of Chaz on the top. He's just posing for the picture. LOL They kept wanting me to retake the picture to see who can look tough. Of course Ivy came running in and just wanted to stand there and look cute. Oh, just for the record. That is not a TV behind them. That is their game monitor! LOL. Today the neighbor kids knocked on the door. I said "yeah, come on in!" My kids were happy playing for a couple of hours. My neighbor was happy. All is good. :D

What Is That???!

One night we didn't have anything planned. Charles asked, "so what do you want to do?" I said, "let's have an ice cream/game night!" So he went to the store and bought 3 different gallons of ice cream and toppings while I set up Junior Pictionary. We had just bought it so we hadn't showed the kids how to play it yet. We set up two teams with three people on each team. Charles and I each had to have one little kid and one big kid on their team so he got Kyle, who's five, for the little kid and I got Ivy who's three. Ashley was sleeping by then. I knew it'd be interesting when it came to be Ivy's turn to draw. It was so funny because Ivy had a card that told her to draw a stop sign so Charles (in the picture) is explaining to her how to draw it. When Ivy started drawing, we were yelling out anything from a flower to a dinosaur. She was trying to draw a car next to a stop sign. When we didn't get it right, she started to cry. She couldn't get why we didn't see what she was drawing. LOL!

Thank You For The Help, Lord!

Having so many to take care of can be overwhelming for moms in the cleaning department. Well, at least for me! I don't know about you supermoms out there. :D So of course we have chores systems around here. I don't want my kiddos to be any lazier than they so badly want to be (that's an understatement). I decided recently that with the huge mounds of laundry I have to do, I think the boys can fold and hang up their own clothes after I have washed them. I already have mine, Charles', linens, and the girls clothes to wash and put away. So I gave the task to Chaz and Ryan to put away all boy's clothes and, boy, Ryan went all out. He not only put the clothes away, he organized the whole closet. Notice the picture of white hangers, how the hangers being used are on the right and unused hangers on the left? Well, I color code the hangers for all my kids. Chaz and Ryan are the same size so they have always had blue hangers (as you see in picture) , Kyle has white. In the girl's room, Ivy has pink and Ashley has white. Well, Ryan went a step ahead and put all of Kyle's clothes on the right side of the closet and all the blue hangers on the left side of the closet that hold their own clothes. He spent so much time doing it and has kept it up. My goodness. At this rate, you can bet they are folding and putting away their clothes from now on! I love it! (That's what they get for doing the job so perfect). They want to do the dishes but I'm afraid because of all the glass. I might buy a whole set of plastic dishes just for lunchtime so they can be in charge of lunchtime dishes. Sometimes I see mommies that are so overwhelmed and I can understand why. I used to make the same mistake. I did all the work, and my kids just played. Once they turn 3, they get a chore. The older they get, the more resposibility they get. I made a list called "Hero Helpers". Big hint with boys. They like the "Hero" factor. I used to work my butt off trying to clean up after everyone. One day I got it. My dimmed "duh" light turned off and my "idea" light turned on. In the olden days, didn't kid help out around the farm? Or were they just chasing chickens all day? (What the heck did they do?) Maybe play and trade marbles? I don't know what down time was like for kids. I bet, they helped milk a cow, feed the chickens and collect the eggs. On and on. Girls helped out too. My kids don't have to have a lot, just take care of their own part. Once everyone took care of their part, my part was so much easier! I mean, I used to work all day long. Now, homeschooling doesn't seem so monstrous. I mean, now, I have way more time on my hands and the idea of homeschooling is actually inviting. Not just another chore. Or "more work". Before, when I homeschooled, I felt ran over because I did EVERYTHING. It was either I homeschool OR I cleaned house. One or the other. Never both in the same day. Now, I have much more time on my hands. Thank you God FOR KNOCKING ME OVER THE HEAD and making me see that kids need not be so dang lazy and make mom just do it all. The plus side.... Ryan likes to surprise me by doing extra chores. Every now and then, I'll walk into my room and my bed is made. Or Ivy's room is picked up. I'll keep fighting to trap and tackle those lazy bones that all kids tend to have. Now they are thinking about other people besides themself.

Late Fun For My 30th

Kyle was trying to make me proud here with his really nerdy smile. Ha ha...

I know my birthday was on the 14th but I didn't get a chance to get together with my sis and family. I invited a couple other friends too. :D My sisters are not affectionate, that's why I joking in that picture like I'm gonna kiss Tammy. If I did, that would be death for me. Ha! After we were done my sister Tammy took Chaz and Ivy home with her. Ivy got spoiled when they went to the mall. Tammy has two boys so I'm sure she enjoyed buying "girlie" stuff. She bought her pj's, an outfit, earrings, bracelets, girl panties, play phone, and a little purse. Ivy even slept with Tammy that night. Chaz was happy to just play games with his cousins. :D That was his dream! When Ivy came back, she just kept telling me how nice Aunt Tammy is. "She is nice. Soooooo nice, mommy".

Love For Nie

You have to read this story called "Love" (that is the link) from Nienie. This is the couple who went down in a plane crash and both survived. She tells a piece about when he rescued her from the plane. I cried because the way she tells the story and what he risked to save her. Their love for each other is amazing. They've gone through so much together and he totally takes care of her with such a loving heart. Wow. You have to read! This picture is of her before the crash. She was burned over most of her body. It's amazing they both survived. The pilot didn't.

My Little Helper

Is it just me or in the 2 weeks that I was down and out did my kids get really sloppy? It seems like they think they no longer have chores and they aren't paying attention to things they leave out. If they think it's gonna stay like this, boy are they in for a surprise! I'm getting back on my feet. I have to whip this place back into shape, get caught up on laundry, and start homeschooling by July. No more sick mommy in bed or on a couch. This is my little helper Ashley. She always, always has to be the one to put the clean silverwhere away everytime I'm unloading the dishwasher. She insists on putting it away so that's her little chore. So cute!

Outreach To The Park

Last Saturday we attended our church "Family Fun Day" which is really an outreach to reach out to people. There is live bands, drama, BBQ, fun Bouncy things, face painting. This time Charles and I were in charge of the balloons. After a few of them popping I started getting so scared with the helium machine. My gosh! I'm such a jumpy person as it is. Ha ha! Kids started really lining up and I was getting behind when Charles had to go run errands for Roger (who is in charge of the outreaches). By the time he got back, I was out of balloons but thankfully he bought more. So more kids lined up but this time I had Charles' help so we were able to keep up. It's so cute seeing the kids come up and pick out a color and wait for a balloon. Ashley patiently waited (at times) next to us in her stroller. I gave her a couple of balloons and yummy food to keep her happy. Actually, Nancy brought me some yummy food since we were so busy. Thank you, Nancy! In the end, 7 people had prayed (pastor came up though and told him there were more but I can't remember how many). That's what it's all about! Seeing souls saved for Christ. :D

Excuses For Swimming

Any reason to get together and swim is good in our weather. Even better when my sister joins us because I don't get to see her and my nephews that often. My dad brought over some yummy pizza, with my mouth hurting or not, I found a way to eat it! Ha ha! In the end my sister invited my son Ryan to stay over for a couple of days. Boy, was he in Heaven. Tammy really made his day. He said he played games, watched Spiderman, ate out at a buffet, played on a trampoline. He really like Aunt Tammy and Uncle Geoff so he was telling me about things they talked about. He was happy about not having an early bedtime. LOL. I missed him incredibly and couldn't wait to see him two days later. When he came home, I ran to hug him and hold him close for as long as he would let me. :D

I Love Fellowshipping With Friends

I love to fellowship with friends! Our friends, Ramczi and Aron, have 6 children and they invited us all over one night to swim and have yummy ribs. We brought over some snacks and corn on the cob. I couldn't really eat with them that night (which explains why I'm six months preggo and have only gained 5lbs) but we had fun talking and watching all of our kids play together. Together we have 11 kids (soon to be 12). The kids get along great and love to swim so it was a fun night for all of us. :D I wish I had been more talkative with Ramczi but I couldn't because of the pain I was having in my mouth. Darn. I feel bad about that. I'm gonna have to invite them over to my house soon to make up for it. :)

I Turned 30!

Flag Day is my birthday so Sunday was my birthday this year. I didn't do much because I'm still totally exhausted from everything that has happened the last 2 weeks. It was very hard just to wake up for church and get ready. Thankfully I have a wonderful husband who popped out of bed early and got everyone ready. He wanted me to take my time. He asked me what I wanted to do for my birthday and being that I can only eat soft foods, I opted for Hometown Buffet over my favorite Chinese buffet. We went there by ourselves and had a wonderful, peaceful time. My five year old son Kyle was witnessing and telling everyone he passed about Jesus. He was giving them witnessing tracks. He does that wherever he goes. I'm so proud of him! After we ate, I just wanted to go home and sleep. I don't feel like the same person these last few weeks. I don't have much energy and I don't last awake very long. We went home and we all slept for 2 hours while the older two boys played video games. We woke up just in time to get ready for the evening service. I felt much better and more refreshed and we had a great church service that night. :D I had a nice and peaceful day. On Saturday, we are actually going to have a party for my 30th birthday just because it's an easier day and I'll be feeling much better. I can't believe I'm 30! A new chapter in my life. I pray that this chapter will be even better than the last. I made some pretty dumb decisions in my twenties. LOL. Then again, my relationship with Jesus grew so much better in my twenties. I hope to mature in the faith and grow closer to Him.

More Stitches???!

Finally, yesterday I was starting to feel better. I don't sleep well at night still from the pain but the dentist refuses to give me any more pain medicine. He basically told me "you'll get over it". Four days later and the day times have been so much better for me. I'm able to eat again, duh, which is good since I'm pregnant. Normally, my dentist said people don't take this long to heal and have all this bad stuff happen. I was just one of the lucky ones to have one thing go wrong after another. Today, I started to clean up my garage and get clothes ready to take to the laundry mat when I felt something pop. Then I could feel the soreness in my mouth. I looked in the mirror and sure enough the stitches came undone and there was a big hole there. My other side is still okay. I thought, "great, just when things were getting better". I called my mean dentist (who I will never visit again after this) and asked what I should do. He said I can come in tomorrow morning and have the stitches redone. He said he doesn't know why I'm taking so long to heal and that I must be taking Aspirin or something. I told him I'm not because I'm pregnant. I only take Tylenol. That's it. He said I can leave the wound open and just eat shakes the next few weeks or I can get stitches again. So, here I go again. Ten more shots, and more stitches. I'm so tired of this dental work (and scared). More bedtime. I think I will clean a lot tonight, as much as I can, just to make sure the house will be clean. My birthday is on Sunday but I know I'll just be at home in bed. Geesh, you think with birthing all these kids I would just be strong and not be scared about more needles. But isn't something just different about having needles in your mouth? By tomorrow I will have had 35 shots in my mouth within 2 weeks. I don't want to look at needles anymore.

Kyle's Kindergarten Graduation

Isn't this so cute? I think it's funny how they do Kindergarten graduations. Maybe to show them what's ahead if they finish? Is it because the first year is so hard, compared to playing at home with mommy all day, that they need a pat on the back? Remember their first day to school? They used to be able to wake up at home at whatever time. Eat breakfast, play all day, be with mommy. Then they are put in school with a schedule, more rules, different life style. These days they are in school all day. (I prefer half day Kindergarten). I had a headstart graduation so I have pictures of that. :D This is a cute picture. Had to share. They even had a ceremony and everything with the kids and parents cheering them on. I wish I could have been there!

Stitches and More Medicine

These past eleven days have been really hard in so many ways. Getting my wisdom teeth pulled is something I would have never thought could cause so many problems. I appreciate my hubby more and more seeing him take care of me patiently along with taking care of the kids. I know it's been tough on him. Most of the time, I'm just in bed. When I stated in my blog that I went in to the dentist and had that packing done, it turned out to only be temporary. By the next day, the pain returned and I was back in bed with Vicodin. I had to wait through the weekend for Monday to graciously and finally come. Right away I called the dentist and mercifully was able to come in. The dentist told me I had a really, really bad case of two dry sockets where bone is exposed. When he told me he had to irritate the gum area again and cause it to bleed, I cried. I was so tired of pain. He told me I had to get some shots and I warned him it would take a lot to numb me. Finally, after the tenth shot, I was numb enough to work on. He scraped the gums in both sides where the wisdom teeth had been pulled. Inside of it. Then he put dissolvable foam in there and then stitches up the holes on both sides. He warned me that when the novacaine wears off, I would be hurting so he gave me another perscription. I drove home and stupidly took Tylenol/Codeine which never worked for me before. Charles had to take me and the kids with him to an appointment (for a job he's getting) since he couldn't leave me alone with the kids. The pain was worsening beyond belief. We sat in the car for an hour and I just cried and cried. Finally he took me to the pharmacy and they told him I could not take any Vicodin for another hour since I had taken the Codeine. I lost it and just cried. An hour felt like forever. He bought me a Yogurt Parfait from McDonald's in hopes that I would be able to eat that since I hadn't eaten for a day. (Man, that was good). We waited in the Walgreens parking lot for the prescription to be filled for another hour. As soon as it was time, I took my pill. Charles had to get a physical right away but I begged and begged him to take me home and just lock me in a room with all the kids so I wouldn't have to sit up anymore in the van. Thankfully, the kids did well and I passed out on and off. Ashley was usually climbing on me so I would get woken up constantly (she's so cute though). The vicodin only takes away maybe half the pain. I still can't talk but the dentist said this should solve the problem for good. Thank God! My hubby's home from his physical and he laid me down in my bed. What happened to me can happen to anyone who gets their teeth pulled. I know several who had this happen. It's just that mine has dragged on so long and gotten worse and worse before the issue was solved. I can't wait to be over all this. I just told Charles how grateful I am for him. He's taken care of me graciously and with patience for awhile now. I don't know what I would have done without him. When I'm all better, happy Virginia will be back blogging. :) For now, I hope sleeps claims me so I won't feel the pain.

Sneaking Up On The Girls

I heard Ivy singing in the bathroom so I went to go see what is going on in there. Ivy is sitting on top of the counter USING her brother's toothbrush to clean her pants. Ashley came walking in (carrying her daddy's sock with her pants falling down) flushing the toilet over and over. So cute!!! I warned Chaz about his toothbrush when he got home from school.

Fireproof Movie

Click here to view ful video playlist
This is a great movie on marriage that we saw at church. They had this in the theatres. When you are finished, they have the other parts to watch all the way to the end. Great movie that will bring you to tears.

My Dentist Fixed Me

My Dentist fixed me! Last minute, before the weekend came, I checked to see if maybe I needed packing done where my wisdom teeth were pulled. Turns out I needed it badly and I had exposed bone where it was supposed to me healing. On top of it, an infection was there. Good thing I went to the ER two days ago because they gave me antibiotics just in case that was happening. After they put medicated packing in, I felt 80% better. Yes! Ahhhh.... no more complaining from me guys. :D

More Birthday Party Fun

My friend Ramczi has 6 kids and she was celebrating two of her daughter's birthdays at a park with a splash pad. Several families from church were invited so it was a great time of fellowshipping and playing with the kids. I love, love, love the pictures of Charles with the girls. He pushed them on the swings for awhile. The boys were usually off playing with their buddies and having a blast. As you can see, my daughter Ashley was still healing from her black eye. She had fell in the bathroom when I was trying to help her get ready for a bath. I felt so bad! I almost edited the photo to not show the black eye in all these last week of pictures but I decided to keep it authentic. This is a journal about daily life! So, there's her sweet little face with a black eye that is finally healing nicely. :P