My awwwww moment.

I promised a house update today too, but I'm too emotionally wiped to go through all the update again! Another day, another time!!!! So for today, I shall just share about the kids! (yes, I do realize that they can be just as draining sometimes!!!)

My Awwwww moment was with Kendyl. I've been doing alot of boxing things up and getting things ready for when we move. And Kendyl and Kaleb have been AWESOME about it. They've been playing really well together, and haven't been too needy. Which, given the situation, I really appreciate. Kendyl came to where I was with the boxes, and she had her arms FULL of baby dolls. And when I say full, I mean FULL. 6 of them maybe? Could have been every doll she owns!And she says "mommy, these are my sisters." I just had to think "awwww. I'm sorry baby! I wish you could have had a real sister!" I know she'll love growing up with her brothers, and she'll be the princess of the castle, but still, I'll always be a little sad that she never had a sister of her own!!!! It was really a cute moment though.

Then, I had another Gabriel issue yesterday. The teacher stopped me to talk to me after school, and said she'll be calling to talk about Gabe's learning. That he seems very unconventional with his learning style, and she'd like to work with me to find what works best for him. I'll update more on that when I have that call with her.

And for today? I'm off to Walmart to get Kendyl some pants for fall, and then heading to Chili's with the twins for lunch. I'm craving some chips and salsa. Yum.

Way back When-sday!

Today's way back is dedicated to Gabriel. I figure since I'm just getting started with these I'll get through all the NEW born new born pictures, and then go from there!!! This was Gabriel the day he was born! He was by FAR my easiest pregnancy, with my only major complaint with him being the pre term labor that I had. Other than that I wasn't sick, I wasn't swollen, I wasn't miserable. I had many many many doctors appointments though, like ultrasounds once a week to check cervix length because of the cerclage and to check on him. The doctors were really worried because I'd just had Dallas 6 months before I found out I was pregnant again. Surprise surprise! Who knew that baby hormones could help a lady who has a hard time getting pregnant, to get pregnant!!! He was born July 8, 2002, exactly 14 months, and 4 days after Dallas. Weighing in at 6 pounds 11 ounces, and was 19 inches long. He was my biggest baby, but was STILL a peanut! The onsie he has on in this picture was a preemie onsie!

This was my only baby that I was alert enough after the c section to sit up and hold him. Todd told me that I looked like a completely different person after this one in comparison to Dallas's delivery.

If you want more Way back When-sday fun, check out Twinfatuation.



Coming tomorrow. . .an update on the house, and an awwww, moment from Kendyl.

Mommy moment Monday.

Ok all you mommy bloggers! I'm hoping to start something new on my blog today, and if you feel like playing along, please do!! I'm hoping that on every Monday, I can start out my week with a mommy moment or two from the week previous. Just things my kids did that made me say "awww!" Or things I shook my head at and said "only my kids", or even bad things, if I need to, but things that made me feel like a mommy. There are so many photo days of the week, I thought I'd start one that could be with, or without pictures, but all about being a mom!!!!!


Here are my moments from this last week:


I'm going to start out with Dallas. Every night at dinner we ask each boy to tell us their one favorite thing from the day. This usually opens up the talk about the day, and how things are going. Its worked really well for us so far. Well, last week Dallas says: "mommy, I wish you worked at my school." So I asked him why he wanted me to work at his school. He said because then he wouldn't' miss me. And if that wasn't enough of an AWWWW, he went on to say "you know that feeling you get in your stomach when you miss someone? If you worked at my school I wouldn't have that feeling, and I could see you, so I wouldn't have to miss you. " I was almost in tears, it was SO sweet!!! He really is my sweet sweet little boy!!!!



Next is Gabriel. And unfortunately my mommy moment for Gabriel this week isn't a very good one. I'm so at a loss with this child. I think I talked earlier about how much he snitches, and how we finally had to explain to him that what he was essentially doing was stealing. And we came up with a solution of taking one dollar from his piggy bank every time he did it. And it seemed to be working, because he hasn't snitched in almost 2 weeks. So we thought we'd hit the nail on the head, and with how important money is to him, we'd gotten a fix. No such luck. This morning i got a call from the school and it was Gabe's teacher. She started out by telling me that Gabe is such a sweet child and she needed my help to figure something out. She said he came in this morning and gave her 20 dollars, and she asked him what it was for. So I was wondering if he found it on the way in, and was giving it to her? Nope, then she continued. He's walked to the other teacher and gave her 20 dollars. At this point I'm getting confused, and starting to worry. She then goes on to tell me how he walked to the next teacher and gave her 10 dollars. . . and it hit me what he'd done, and my stomach just sank. Last night Todd had given me 50 dollars to take to the bank today. . . two twenties and a ten. . . and when I ran to look sure enough he'd taken them to school with him. My stomach STILL hurts thinking about it. What if he'd given it to other kids? What if it wasn't his teacher? What if . . .the list could go on and on. . .that money has to cover a check I need to write. And we'd have been at a loss. I just don't know what to do, or how to handle it. this child is proving to be very worry some, and I'm starting to think I may be doing something wrong. Is it just the middle child thing? Is it more than that? I don't know.

On to a more happy moment. ..

Kaleb is next. We went in to get him up this morning, and he was awake with All his things piled up on his lap. And Kendyl was sleeping. He told me he had made a "fence". So he'd found something quiet to do while his sister kept on sleeping. It was SO cute!!! I had to take pictures! He was so proud of his masterpiece!



Kendyl woke up while I was getting my camera, and had t o make something for mommy to take a picture of too. So she made "a mountain." I have such cute kids, how could I NOT take a picture??



My moment with Kendyl was last week when I gave her her first ever REAL hair cut. We're talking REAL hair cut here people! Like I cut off probably 4 inches of hair! I went to do her hair, and it just kept snarling. So I said forget it, and I set her up for a hair cut in the kitchen. I think it turned out ok for my first ever go at cutting a girls hair! Boys are easy. Get the clippers, and you can't go wrong. I was nervous with the scissors though! But man was she proud of how she looked after that hair cut! She just beamed!!!!

this is before, you can see how long it was!





An after one, before we dried it , and curled it!
All dried and curled! Doesn't she look adorable?? I just love it, and so does she!!!!


If you decide to play along, and share your mommy moment(s) let me know, and I'll link to you here!!!!!!

What a busy weekend!!!!

This weekend has been CRAZY!!! Friday started with me going and doing some grocery shopping, and getting some much needed FOOD! We were running very very low, and I was so relieved to see pay day get here, so that I could get my family some food again!!!!

Then Friday night I made some kabobs on the grill, and some rice, and the kids and i headed for the new house. The goal was to clean clean clean before the crew got there on Saturday. Todd had been at the new house every day that week until at least 11 pm, and it was safe again for the kids to be there. We ate, and then cleaned a lot. Gabriel and Kaleb were AMAZING! I'm so proud of them. They kept going the ENTIRE time. Gabriel collected any lose nails into a bucket that he saw in the house. This was the perfect job for him, because he LOVES to collect things. Kaleb was on a "garbage mission." That little boy went all over the inside and outside collecting any lumber scraps, plastic, or paper he could find. He had a blast throwing them in the big dumpster! If someone beat him to something, he cried, because he wanted to be the big helper, and do it all!!!! Kendyl followed Todd around like a little lost puppy. She was so unhappy that he couldn't just drop everything and play with her like she wanted him to. Then there was Dallas. Dallas complained the ENTIRE time. ENTIRE time. Then we found him crashed on the floor. Todd had to carry him to the car. He's SO not into helping with ANYTHING physical. Its such a struggle. He reminds me a lot of Todd's brother that way. Todd said he thought the same thing!!!!!

I got a few cell phone pictures from that night. Sorry for the quality!!!



This is Kaleb doing the shop vac. He cried, and was scared of it until I asked if he wanted to try. there was no stopping him after that! He was a trooper, and wouldn't give it back! He did the whole kitchen. . well, kinda. Mommy had ot RE do the kitchen, but he did a great job!!!


Do you see the dirt on his face? He worked REALLY REALLY hard!!!

Kendyl had to try, because Kaleb did. She didn't last long though!

Dallas, all passed out on the living room floor!!!Then yesterday we were able to get the windows done in the babies rooms, and start re framing to get the windows in the new bathroom. I'm still not stress free. There's SO much more do to, and we're busy the next TWO weekend. . .yikes. I don't know what I'll do. But yeah, things are still progressing.

Oh the drama.

Drama. . . like high school girls teen gossip drama. And I'm SICK of it!!! Seriously. And what makes me even more sick of it? Is the person that its coming from. You'd think this person would be old enough now to NOT have to do this crap. To NOT have to tear someone down to feel good about themselves, but I guess not.

Things with my mother in law have been strained since the day I married Todd. We used to get along great, but apparently there was something about me MARRYING Todd that didn't agree with her, and things have just never been the same since. I've always felt like she was mad at me for "taking her baby." Since Todd is her youngest, and how she still treats him, it just seemed to fit. I don't know for sure, but its my theory.

Anyway, fast forward over the years. There have been incidents of her sending me emails meant for other people, usually her sisters. She'll send them, and then realize she sent it to the wrong person, and back track by leaving messages saying "don't open that, it isn't for you." Or calling Todd to try to get him to head me off at the pass. Umm, yeah, didn't work. One was while I was pregnant with Dallas and on bed rest, and I had refused her being down there ALL. THE. TIME. She wanted to be in control, and I just didn't need her there. She sent one to her sister saying " I know she's young and pregnant, but I just want to slap her." Yeah. Didn't speak directly to her for 6 months after that one.

Then we fast forward to the start of all this house stuff. Todd had made a comment that "if Jamie could make this house work and be happy, than I'd be happy." (meaning the 1,000 sq foot house we're currently living in and are miserable!) This apparently opened the flood gate for the "trash on Jamie" Olympics. Because for the next TWO MONTHS all Todd heard was trash talk from her about me. It included things like "She's just an unhappy person and you'll never be able to fix that." or "I think you guys need to go to therapy to discuss your marriage because obviously there's issues." This is coming from a woman who sees us together MAYBE once a month? MAYBE? This coming from the same woman who's tried many many things to drive a wedge in our marriage. I have a feeling its so that we would be as miserable in ours as she is in hers. (another long story. She loves her husband, but there are issues) And its NEVER worked. Todd and I are way too strong for that. Always have been. And the kicker of that last bout was that I wasn't supposed to know about any of it. She told Todd in "confidence", and expected him not to tell me. Ummm, yeah. What kind of marriage would we have if we didn't talk about EVERYTHING like we do? Todd asked me not to say anything to her about it, because it would hinder the house buying process (a story I have yet to actually disclose) and he didn't want to do that.

So, I sucked it up yet again, and just had to deal with it. And now, we fast forward to this last weekend. I walked into Church and found a spot in my usual side, so that when Todd is done playing drums he can get to me easily and we can sit together. His mom and Grandma got up from where they were, to come sit by me. As the music is going, she leans over and hands me a check for 150.00 "so that I can take Gabe to the doctor." She then proceeds to tell me that she feels like I'm doing nothing short of torturing my son because I haven't taken him to the doctor for the pooping issues. And, because we're in Church, I can't say two peeps about it. I had to work nursery after that service, so I didn't get to say anything. The rest of Sunday was busy, so was Monday. Last night Todd's Aunt comes over for her weekly visit. This is my mother in law's sister. I ADORE her. She's awesome. She's always told me that she knows what its like to live with her sister, and if I ever need to talk, know that she's a safe place to talk. I've often said to my mom, that I wish she were my mother in law, vs. who I DO have for a mother in law. Just because we click.

That brings me to the conversation last night. I told her about the drama from Sunday and how much that bothered me. Todd's aunt then began to tell me something, like it was something I already knew. So I just listened, and bit back my emotions. Apparently my mother in law told Todd's Aunt that she feels we treat our children unfairly. And that if it were Dallas with these pooping issues that we'd have had him into the doctor and checked out and a solution found. She all but called me a bad mom. And that ladies and gentlemen is where I draw the line. As I told Todd's aunt, we're doing everything the doctors told us to do. We're working on getting him regular, so that we can rule that out as part of the problem. I sit for 20 minutes EVERY NIGHT on the bathroom floor with him trying to get him to go, so that he doesn't get too backed up. I'm TRYING. To make that kind of a generalization about me or my family without even knowing the real truth is just INSANE to me. She really has no clue!!!

Todd and I talked about it last night after he got home. I guess she laid into him on Sunday too about it between church services, but this was the first chance we could talk together about it. She said everything to him just like she did to me. And he told her that she was DEAD wrong. And that he thinks we're doing a really good job of raising out children, and that she doesn't know what she's talking about. I'm so proud of him for sticking up for us like that. We've decided to give her back her check, even though it would pay for an appointment should we need to make one, we just don't want her money. Not like that. No way no how.

Its just funny to me. My mom rags on me (in a good natured way) that I'm too fair with my kids. If one gets something, they all get it (within reason of course!). Like if one kid gets a prize for something great at school, or a reward of going to dinner or something, we go as an entire family, not just one kid. I think we're building family bonds, and my mom just sees it as being too fair, and not giving enough to just the individual child.


Damned if you do, damned if you don't I guess.



Sorry for being rambly and negative again. This stuff has just been eating at me lately, and i needed to get it out.

Oh my gosh!!!! NO WAY!!!! YIKES!!!

Seriously people, I'm a little freaked out right now. Sara and I always take the kids to the park at the school right after school. We hang out and visit while the kids play. And today was like any other day. . . lots of older kids walking home from school, little kids playing etc. That was until we say a couple of squad cars pull up to the baseball field at the school. . . ok, you've got my attention. We then see two officers get out to talk to these two teenage boys while a third car pulls up. Ok, now Sara and I are brainstorming what could be going on. Did they rob a house? Break into a car? Get in a fight? The list could be very long in the area we live in. But really, these two boys didn't look like much trouble, so we just kept watching.

The officers asked the boys to put their stuff down, and step back. So they put their sweatshirts down that they were carrying, and stepped back. The officer opens up the sweatshirts and makes some very large hand gestures. So, ok, I thought maybe drugs? Could they have been walking together doing something with drugs??? Yeah, what I saw next had my chin on the floor. Sara and I were watching them, and keeping an eye on the kids to make sure the kids were blissfully unaware of what was going on. And while watching, we watched the officer reach over, and lift up a gun. A GUN people. Then after removing the clip he set it back down, and I said "oh my gosh! Those kids had a gun!" Just as I said that, he pulled up a SECOND gun. GUNS people! As in MORE THAN ONE!!!!! These kids couldn't have been more than 16. HOLY CRAP! Guns, on a school yard. WHERE MY CHILDREN PLAY!!! Do you realize how startling that is??? GUNS!!!!

It isn't that I'm terrified of guns. We have guns. My husband owns 3 hand guns actually. But they're properly taken care of where children can't get to them. These were guns in children's HANDS! ON A SCHOOL GROUNDS!!!!

They took their time searching them, and eventually took off. We sat for about another 20 minutes and here comes another car. I told Sara "I wonder if one lived around here and they're coming to talk to a parent?" Because we thought for sure there was NO way they'd let those kids go home right away. That's a gun, on school grounds. VERY VERY VERY serious. The cop gets out. And then lets the kid out, with no hand cuffs or anything, and walks him to the door. The cop is in there for about 5 minutes, and then leave. HE LEFT! What on earth? No way. That kid just had a gun on the school grounds, and you're going to give him a slap on the hand, and send him home?

NO WAY, NO HOW!!!

You better believe I'll be watching EVERY kid that walks by my children there now. What on EARTH were those boys going to do with those guns? That thought scares me too much to think about.

Yikes.

Way back Whens-day.

I thought I'd play along this week. Its way happier than the post I'll do later, and I really need that right now!!!!


This picture is of Dallas, shortly after he was born. My pregnancy with Dallas was HELL! I almost lost him at 20 weeks 5 days because I was already at 4 cm dilated. We would later find out that I have something called incompetent cervix, and that the only way I could sustain a pregnancy was by cerclage. They were able to put one in, and by the grace of God I was able to carry him on strict bed rest (think ultrasounds, and nurse visits at home strict!) My water broke at 34 weeks 5 days. Poor Dallas and I endured quite the battle that day! They couldn't get the cerclage out, I wasn't contracting enough, so they did many attempts to get the cerclage out, the gave me pitocin, and I went through labor all day. At 9:00 pm that night they decided one last attempt at the cerclage, or it was to be a c section for me, since i was scarred to the 4 that I was when they put the cerclage in. The last attempt didn't work, and I was headed for a c section. At 9:38 pm on May 4, 2001 my first baby entered this world. 6 weeks early, but a little fighter!!!!! This picture was actually taken while they were still working on me. They'd taken Dallas to the Level 2 nursery, and Todd went with. My mom stayed in the OR with me while they sewed me up. It took a lot longer because I felt everything, and things weren't going well at all.

Dallas weighed in at 5 pounds 15 ounces. AMAZING for 6 weeks early. He was in the Level 2 nursery for only 1 week. He was able to breathe on his own (thanks to steroid shots earlier in the pregnancy since they didn't think I'd make 30 weeks, let alone 34!). His troubles came with eating, and maintaining his own body temps. We also had issues with Bradycardia. We knew he had that before he was born, because it was on every monitoring they did with him. He went home at 1 week old with an apnea/heart monitor that he had to wear for the next 6 weeks.
The only "preemie" complication he was left with was a cataract in his right eye that was removed this last summer!!!!

Today he's my big strong 7 year old! Wow. . .the time sure has flown!!!


If you want to play, head over to Twinfatuation and play along!!!