Friday, April 17, 2009

Per Usual



...the last month or so has been very busy around here. My last post was...well...low key. ALL of the kiddos were sick. Well after a couple of weeks and a couple, or three, visits to the ER, we finally got all of them well again. Nile and Noah ended up with double ear infections and Bronchitis. James and Jonah both had double ear infections and Jonah's ear drum had actually ruptured from all of the congestion. I felt horrible! We are such bad parents! When the doctor told us about his ear drum, I just thought of all the time that Jonah was so fussy and crying (even with tylenol) and any one of those times he could have been in just dire pain from the pressure on his ear. My sister Lela's ear drum busted the same way and she said it was extremely painful. Like someone sticking a knife in your ear. Until it ruptured, then it was immediate relief. But just the thought that Jonah was going through that and there wasn't a thing I could do about it...and we had no idea. {Sigh}

Anyway, we had four kids on three different kinds of antibiotics. And I have to say, James and Jonah did much better with taking their medicine than Nile and Noah did. So after about day two of antibiotics, it was like day and night with the kids. They were eating normally, jumping around and fighting with each other. N/N were eager to get back to school and J/J actually started sleeping through the night again. Whoo hoo! Next week is their checkup and hopefully all is well.

And so...just like the passing of this random sentence...my birthday slid by with an...eh (shrug).

April is here and it's already the middle of the month. On the 11th (Saturday) Mom had her confirmation with the Catholic Church. It was a very nice (but long) ceremony. Sunday (the 12th) was Easter and we had a really nice day. Lela and Lee were here. Lee was riding out with Ken at work. Iris and Lily stopped by on their way back from Glaydys's house and stayed all afternoon. Sharon and Mom had cooked the night before so we had some deeeeelicious food for lunch and Sharon stopped by on her lunch break from work. Mom's birthday was coming up on Monday (the 13th) So Me, Lela, Noah and Nile made some cupcakes and decorated them with some candles and sang happy birthday to mom. It was a nice day and I really didn't have to do much cause there were so many people here to entertain the little ones that it was quite a relaxing day. The clean up on the other hand was a real chore. But it was worth it. So I have some pictures ...I just have to remember how to put them on the blog. LOL
And here we are...J/J are napping...will be up any time now. And N/N are playing outside in the mud. We have had a couple of really rainy days and they are taking advantage of the...yuck outside. Oh! I have to tell you about the latest additions to our family. I don't think I posted about it last year, but around November/December we found two praying mantis. We found them about two weeks apart from each other. The first one was a green female that was affectionately named Spike. We kept her for about two weeks. She was awesome to watch. We kept her in a plastic container with holes in the lid and some sticks for her to climb on. We caught bugs for her everyday. And she ate ALOT! Her favorite were flies. Which I absolutely hate. They are disgusting! Bleh! So catching them (in a cup) and feeding them to Spike was honestly...FUN! Those flies had no idea when they came into this house that we had one of the coolest fastest predators on the planet, in our kitchen. It was so cool to watch her stalk and strike...and eat. So anyway, she got fatter and fatter and fatter. She looked like she was going to explode. {I think I have some pics somewhere} So about a week or so later, she stopped eating. Then one morning, there was an egg sack on one of the sticks. So I did some internet research which said that female Mantis die shortly after laying their eggs. And so...I had to let her go. She had to be free in her last days. (sniff sniff) So sadly I released her on a plant outside and slowly walked away. I didn't cry. Really. I didn't. Now during her time in captivity. She was an absolutely delightful pet. The boys took her to school for show-n-tell. And they watched her and fed her everyday. Well, about a week after her release, we found another female mantis on the back deck. This one was brown. She was affectionately named...Stingray. LOL And so the cycle began again. And believe it or not...she layed an egg sack too! So, we had these two mantis egg sacks in a little plastic container with holes in the top. We kept it in our kitchen window. And because the sacks have to (winterize) we left them in the window all winter long and into spring. And believe it or not! One of the sacks hatched. Yesterday. We had about 30-40 tiny praying mantis running around in the container. Then they started escaping. Anyway, they have to eat really small things like fruit flies. Well, I don't have the time or energy to try to catch that many fruit flies everyday, so we released the babies this morning. They are happily laying in wait on our garden plants. They are so cute too. We did have to keep some though <-- you knew that was coming right?! So we have five baby mantis in their little habitat. And Noah found some tiny bugs on our basil plant, so we put them in there. FOOD! Hopefully they'll be able to eat something soon. They normally eat aphids...which...on a normal day, we have a ton of on the dandelion plants in our yard. But! since we've had a ton of rain lately, we have no aphids. Anywhere. Hopefully they'll return soon so I can feed our babies. Cause if they don't have food to eat...they will eat each other. Bleh! I never thought I'd be happy about aphids in my yard! LOL And yes, we still have one more egg sack left. Hope they hatch! (grin)
So that's that for an update. Hope to have more soon.
Luv ya!

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

When you've got the sickies...

Well there is a hush in the house that's kinda ...kreepy. I have all four kiddos home with me today. N/N are home sick from school and right now all four are taking a nap. I don't think that has ever happened in this house before. Unfortunately it's due to illness. There is some bug that's going around and it just keeps making the rounds with our kiddos. I foresee another night-time run, for ear infections, to the ER in our future. (sigh) Poor things. They are misserable and it just has to run it's course for the most part. On top of that...I went to rent some movies for them cause I knew they wouldn't be playing much. So I got a new release and when we tried to play it...guess what...it didn't work. And my mom had already left (she watched the kids so I could go) and I wasn't about to call her back over so I could run up and replace it. Uggghhh! So annoying.
Anyway, that's what's up here. Hope everyone out there is doing well. TAke care.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Oh yeah! I've got some recent pics I've gotta post so check back with us...

I can't believe it's March of '09...

...and I haven't posted since last year. Isn't that horrible. Well, let's take the time to catch up...
November- went well. we had Thanksgiving here at the house and had a few friends/family come to visit.
December- came in with a bang. We all got really sick. Everyone except James and Jonah. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, we didn't all get sick at the same time. Nile got it first, then Noah, then Ken and then Me. And when I say sick, I mean we were sleeping with puke buckets sick. It was horrible! But, it passed in time...a couple of weeks and we headed into Christmas time. We went to Houston to visit Kens mom and had Christmas there. It was a nice visit and the kids had a blast playing with their cousins. Then we headed home and had our Christmas here. How is it, as parents, you try to limit the amount of ...well...crap your kids get and somehow you end up with a lot of crap anyway. Curse you Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles! Oh yeah! .... you too Santa.
January- came around and it was time for Nile and Noah's 5th birthday. It was simple and sweet. And they got a lot more of the afore mentioned crap. It was a nice day and I will cherish these simple birthday parties with just family because I know as they get older they will want something more elaborate and expensive and loud. They've already asked us what Chuck-
e-Cheese is. (Sigh) Will someone out there invent a television commercial blocker? Something that just blanks out the dredded comercials during kids shows.
My brother in law came to live with us for a while. He has moved back to Texas from one of those Yankee states and is getting back on his feet. So I have been honing my cooking skills (LOL) by cooking for three adults and four punks. But...as long as someone will eat it...I'll cook it.
My sister Julie also moved back to Texas and has taken up residence somewhere in the Austin area. Whoo hoo! we're glad she's back too.
February- was relatively uneventful. Our Nephew Brad came home from Iraq and stayed with us for two weeks. It was nice having him here...and safe...but he's a typical 20 something and pretty much ate, stayed in his room and chatted on the computer. LOL He left about a week ago and we hated to see him go. But the military is something he seems to enjoy and we are very, very proud of him. We love you and pray you stay safe Bradley and we can't wait to have you home again soon.
Alas, it is March. And here we are...
The month has been flying by. The boys are all doing well and growing fast. N/N are in K-4 this year and love going to school. J/J are now 18 months old and talking up a storm. They aren't forming sentences yet but have alot of words. They love hanging around N/N, but they tend to irritate their older brothers more than anything right now. Nile is doing great with his Physical Therapy and we're hoping to have him walking full time by the time they go to Kindergarten this fall. Ken is back on reserve status and is doing his "one weekend a month and two weeks a year" training. But he enjoys being back at the PD and being home everyday. As for me... I pretty much do the SAHM thing...get kids ready for school, load them up and drop them off, come home and grab something to eat, clean up "morning mess" change diapers and put little ones down for a nap, hope that they sleep for at least an hour so I can get some household chores done, don't get as much done as I'd like before J/J wake up, feed-change-play with J/J, load them up to go get N/N, pick up kiddos from school, come home and put J/J down for second nap, try to get more done while N/N have afternoon snack and watch T.V. for a while, babies wake up, start getting supper ready, start "night-time routine" which lasts for about four hours, put J/J to bed, then get N/N ready and put them to bed, clean up, get a shower, try to relax with cup of tea and watch something on the DVR, realise I'm exhausted, brush teeth, check on kiddos, kiss husband goodnight and try to crawl into bed at a decent hour. Lather, Rinse...REPEAT!
(Sigh)