Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Its camping season!!!

And WE are the proud new owners of an 89 Coleman Sun Valley pop up camper!!! We've been looking for one for awhile and my wonderful husband found this one on craigslist the day after we'd spent hours at a camper dealership getting a headache over $14,000 campers and 12% financing for 10 years. We weren't sure what to do but we knew we wanted a camper, and BAD!




This camper is PERFECT for us. We paid cash (hooray!) and it has plenty of room and lots of storage. We looked at another camper a few weeks ago that was smaller and in worse shape and they wanted $1600 for it. Luckily, they sold it to someone else (who incidentally didn't even get there until AFTER us but I figure now it was fate :) ) So this camper is a LOT better than the one we looked at before AND it was $600 less! She may not be perfect, but she's ours and we love her.

Friday, March 23, 2007

Our picnic





The other day it was around 70-80 degrees and Hunter insisted that we have a picnic out in our backyard. So we did, I got out the camera and took some pictures of the daffodils (I think) that are growing, our dog modeling her electric fence shock collar, and Hunter took a picture of me with a flower that he picked just for me!

Oh and Mary, if you're reading, I took the picture of the flowers just for you :)

What a night!

I awake in at 2 a.m. to go to the bathroom. As I move to get up, the baby (who sleeps with Jason and I) starts fussing. If he makes too much noise, he'll wake Jason, who has to wake up for his 1 1/2 hour commute in 2 hours. So I grab the baby and take him with me to the bathroom... Then settle back into bed.

At 2:15 my bedroom door flies open and my 4 year old Hunter is dancing around in my doorway, the urgent "I have to pee right now" dance. So I jump out of bed and turn the bathroom light on for him. Crawl back into bed... 5 minutes later he's calling me from his bed, I try to ignore him. No luck. He gets louder and I'm afraid he'll wake everyone else. So I run in there... oh, he wants to give me a good night kiss (at 2 a.m.) So I give him a kiss and go get once again settled back in bed.

Now its 2:30, I've ALMOST dozed back off when I hear coughing... never a good sign. The coughing continues and then I hear the unmistakable sound of a child vomiting. I literally FLY out of bed, hoping that somehow I can catch it before it hits the sheets and pajamas. My 2 year old Nathan is sitting in the middle of his bed, surrounded by his dinner and crying his little eyes out. Motherly instinct immediately kicks in, most fathers would not even know where to start. Grab the kid, take him in the bathroom, strip him down, wash him off in the sink, get clean pj's and dress him. Get him comfy on the couch. Strip the bed, rinse the sheets, and start a load of laundry. Disinfect mattress, put on clean sheets and ONE blanket, NO toys, and replace child. Preventative maintenance for future expulsions. He lies right down and goes back to sleep.

Amazingly, I was able to make it til morning without further interruption.

Even now, while I type this blog my 4 year old is sitting beside me (I believe he's waiting his turn for the computer!) And the baby is on my lap.

Ahhh the thrills of motherhood. Who needs extreme sports?

Monday, March 19, 2007

No more internet addiction

I'm breaking the cycle. I've spent years (literally) sitting in front of the computer, wasting time, wasting my life away. Missing out on the important things like interacting with my children. I'm stopping it now. I'll occasionally blog but for the most part, the computer is OFF in this house. I haven't been on the internet in almost a week and I'm only on now to get some mystery quilt instructions. No more internet for this gal. My life has been SO much more meaningful since I haven't had my rear planted here.

Peace out.

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Faces of a baby



There's nothing sweeter is there? Even when its a sad face

Hmm... milestones you say?


No, it never even occurred to me that Jeremy is nearing 7 months now and maybe he should be doing something other than acting like a newborn. Its not that he can't, its just that my life is so hectic trying to keep up with three boys and a dog that I hadn't even thought about putting him on the floor to play... usually I'm just lucky if I can keep his brothers from landing on him and the dog from slobbering all over him and his toys.

So I pull out a copy of "What to Expect the First Year" (most of which I think is a bunch of crap but they're our official "toilet reading" books while raising children) and flip to the six month section. Hmm, he should be sitting on his own- check. Protesting when a toy is taken away? Oh yeah I think he was born knowing there would be competition in our house because he's been doing that since day 1. He could be pulling up by now? Whaaa? Oh yeah, now that I think about it, Hunter was doing these things since he was the only child and I had lots of time to push him to grow up too fast. Now I'm pulling in the reins, whoa kids, slow down I'm not ready for you to be independent!

So I put Jeremy on the floor today with toys, amazingly he scoots all over the place and seemed to really enjoy himself. So I bust out the leapfrog learning drum, all the kids have loved it even as they've gotten older. And you know what happens when you get out a "new" toy? Time to pull out the boxing gloves, those kids will FIGHT for it. Well somehow I managed to get them to "share" and so we had a drum circle going on. I just hope if they do this when they're older there is no ganga involved....

Monday, March 12, 2007

My new babies!


Not what you'd think! These are some of the plants we started from seed. They're getting so big I can't wait to get them out into the ground!!! We planted lettuce, tomatoes, swiss chard, basil, oregano, parsley and some miscellaneous flowers from 05 that I wasn't even sure if they would germinate or not but they did!

Who is this kid?


I'm serious. He did this all on his own.... he CAN'T be one of mine! This child hates being dirty, he has to have a washcloth at the dinner table so he can keep his hands meticulously clean while eating. He will start gagging and throw up when he sees a snotty-faced kid if they aren't cleaned up in a timely manner. He starts gagging if Nathan shows his chewed up food in his mouth.

What a strange little boy! I sure do love him though!!

Creating our Garden



It is so fun having the whole family involved in this process. A few weeks ago Hunter and I started our seeds and I put grow lights up on the kitchen counter (hey, we have a lack of space here in our little house) Then Jason got us a FREE tiller and he's been patting himself on the back over it all weekend!!! So this weekend we tilled up a garden spot, added peat moss and compost/manure and tilled that in. Now I have to get my butt out there and work on making the raised beds. The boys are REALLY enjoying helping, its like a huge sandbox to them. My only concern is that they won't understand that they can't dig in it anymore...