Snowcation 2011

We got an unbelievable amount of snow this January, one week after returning to school from Christmas break. It was nice for a couple of days, but I got soooo stir crazy being trapped in the house for an entire week. Now we're having to start school 10 minutes early every day and add 2 days to the end of the year to make up the time! Ugh. But, the kids couldn't have loved it more if they tried! Here they are with their sleds, which actually survived the week! Here's a shot of all 3 of them from the top of our driveway. This makes it look like we live on a cliff! It's really not that steep in person.

And, here are some videos of the kids sledding. There was so much snow and ice that they sledded right down the road. Usually, even if it sticks to the road at first, it definitely doesn't last long enough to sled down it!

Christmas 2010 - Over a Month Late!

So, things have been so crazy around here that even I'm rolling my eyes at that statement. I won't go into it, because, honestly, it's boring, but I've finally found a moment that I'm caught up enough to blog. We had a great Christmas as usual. We did the 50 trips around the world to family members' houses and got some great stuff. Here are the highlights of the holiday at home: Here are the kids running out of our bedroom (we made them sleep in their because they're getting to old to be trustworthy through the night!).

Above is Alli with her baby changing station. She was all about Baby Alive this year - she now has every kind they make - so we got her a diaper changing/bath/feeding station to go with them.

Drew got a new digital camera. Believe it or not this camera was cheaper, but much nicer than the camera I had before my current one!

And here is Evan with his Tony Hawk skateboard and helmet. Any bets on how long it will be until the impending ER visit from this thing? :)

Internet at home is down - more posts soon to come! (Don't give up on me!!!)

Alli's Surgery

Alli had her surgery this morning and she came through it just fine. We had to be at the hospital this morning at 6:25, which meant we left the house a little after 5:00 a.m. After registering, weighing, taking lots of vitals, and then waiting around, Alli finally had her surgery around 8:30. Here she is in the waiting room playing games on Andy's phone. Notice his lovely princess and Strawberry Shortcake stickers. I got to go back in the operating room with her until she went to sleep, so they gave me a lovely cap and gown to wear. Here are me and Alli in our surgery clothes. The surgery took only about 15 minutes, but with anesthesia time and whatever else they do back there, she was gone from us for about an hour. Ugh. That was no fun, even as minor as the surgery was. Here she is fresh from recovery. She was cold and shivering, so they wrapped her in warm blankets. She smiled for the picture, but she was soooo not in the mood to have her picture taken. After she got back, we didn't have to wait around for too long - her vitals were all good and she was ready to go home, so after about a half hour we were heading out the door. She enjoyed the ride in the wheelchair! She's doing completely fine now, 7 hours after the surgery. Since there was no cutting and they just went in through her bladder, you wouldn't even know she had surgery except for one little band-aid where her IV was. She's bouncing around the house like her normal self. On the way home she requested Chick-Fil-A, and after your child has just had surgery you just can't say no. So we stopped and got her some chicken nuggets, and got ourselves some lunch - we were all starving. Since Alli wasn't allowed to eat we felt bad eating breakfast in front of her. We pulled into our driveway to Andy's brother and sister-in-law who brought her a balloon and some flowers and a teddy bear. Andy's mom spent the night with us to get Drew and Evan on the bus for school since we had to leave before they even got up, so she had 2 balloons waiting for Alli and her and Drew and Evan made Alli cards that were laid out when we got here. Andy's dad and step-mom arrived later with gummy bears, which she requested. And, my parents are coming as soon as dad gets off work to fulfill another request - mint chocolate chip ice cream and sugar cones. Yum! I may have to dip into that one!

Happy Halloween!

Halloween this year was much more eventful for us than it has been in the past. Starting on October 23, Andy and I went to an adult-only Halloween party, which was so fun. They decided to have a theme, so everyone was supposed to dress as some kind of super hero. I found a bat-woman costume that didn't resemble lingerie like almost every other female costume these days, so that was what I decided to be. Andy went as Wolverine since he has the hair and scruffiness to pull it off perfectly. Here we are posing for the camera, although I look a little deranged. On the 30th some friends of ours from church had a party for families, so we went to that. Here is the food I took - fingers in bandages! Isn't it gross? I used almond slices for the fingernail. I changed up my costume for this one - I just wasn't feeling up for tights and heels this time. I decided to go as Pippi Longstocking since I loved her as a kid. After dressing in the outfit, I then decided that there's a reason why we don't see Pippi as a grown-up - the outfit just isn't quite as cute on an adult. Andy helped me stick wire hangers in my pigtales. Also in this picture you see mom, who looks a bit like Morticia Adams to me, but is Cher. Here she is with the other part of the costume - Dad as Sonny. Hilarious! Of course I can't leave out the kids! On Halloween night we did the traditional trick-or-treating. Here are the kids in their costumes - Drew is Alice in Wonderland, Evan is some sort of zombie skeleton thing, and Alli is a mixture between a ballerina and a bat - a "baterina".

Georgia Game and an Alli Update

A couple of Saturdays ago we went to Georgia's homecoming game. Andy actually has 4 season tickets for all the home games at the 40 yard line on row 38, so we have great seats. And, since he's gone to so many games the past couple of years he's made friends with the other season ticket holders that sit around him, so he can get extra tickets from them when they don't use all of theirs. So, we got 2 extra tickets from the guy in front of us and took all the kids and my dad with us. We had a good time, and it was a good game for Georgia, thank goodness! Georgia had a rough start this year.Here's Andy with Drew and Evan. No, Andy and Evan weren't drunk, although they look a little out of it! Here I am with my daddy! Here are the kids near the concession stands. We had to go cool off for a little bit - it gets SO hot in the stadium with almost no air flow! Here are me and Andy taking our own picture. I actually got sunburned only on the left side of my face where that tattoo is, so for 3 or 4 days I had a white G on my cheek!

And here are me and the girls. Today, Georgia is playing Florida, and any true Georgia fan HATES Gators. In fact, Gators get ranked with murderers and child molesters and any other detestable beings on Earth. I am so not kidding - I have had Georgia so drilled into my head for the 10 (almost 11!) years I've been married to Andy that when I see someone with a Gator sticker on their car, I have to make a conscious decision not to run them off the road. So, Andy already has a very serious attitude and has revolved his day around this game!

Changing the subject to a more serious matter, I took Alli down to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Scottish Rite yesterday to have a couple of tests run on her kidneys and figure out what's going on with her. They discovered that she has grade 4 kidney reflux (grade 5 is the worst). This means that the tube from her kidneys to her bladder doesn't close all the way, so urine travels back up to her kidneys, which is what has caused her to get all these infections lately. They said she was born with it and we're super lucky she hasn't had problems before this and that her kidneys are still perfectly healthy with no scarring or permanent damage. But, since it's grade 4, she has to have surgery to fix it. The good thing is that at Children's, the surgeon is world renowned and has other surgeons come observe him every time he does the surgery. It's an outpatient surgery and there's no cutting - they go in through the bladder endoscopically and insert what they called a "blob" of protein to close off the tube enough that it won't travel back up. They said they'll have to put her to sleep, but it only takes about 10 minutes, and she should be fine to go to school the next day! So, I'm thankful now that we know what's going on and that it can be fixed and that it's not a difficult procedure. The surgery is scheduled for November 8, so it'll be soon and we can get all this mess behind us! Keep us in your prayers!

The Ultimate Battle

Yes, here it comes...I am about to make what I feel is my biggest personal struggle public to the world, or at least the 7 people that read my blog. I have gained 35 pounds and weigh about 10 pounds more than I did when I walked into the hospital to give birth, and 45 pounds more than I did at my skinniest when I was breastfeeding twins (I knew I should've become a wet nurse) and am completely discouraged with my personal appearance and feel overwhelmed with the idea of weight loss. It is consuming my life right now - the battle between good and evil food. I'm ready to take diet pills or have liposuction or fly to Mexico or somewhere where they will perform gastric bypass on anyone who requests it. I do so well for about a week and make good choices, and then it all falls apart after that because I had an extra long day and dinner comes out of a drive through, or we have a potluck at church, or we're invited to a party or something. I think what discourages me more is that the people I know who have managed to lose weight still have to maintain the weight loss. It's the total life change that really overwhelms me. I'm just frustrated by the whole thing. Who was the idiot that decided food processing was a good idea, or who decided that deep frying something would be a good experiment? And why does unhealthy food taste so good immediately and healthy stuff is an acquired taste? No, it's not that we train ourselves over time to like junk food. Give a baby the option between broccoli and a chicken nugget - the chicken nugget WILL win. I'm just frustrated with the whole thing right now. I've never been good at self-discipline. I procrastinate a lot and clean my house when I can't stand it any more instead of just steadily taking care of business. Maybe I need a psychiatrist, or a hypnotist, or a personality transplant. So, that's my issue right now, and, please, feel free to just give me a little "me, too" so I don't feel alone. I'm the person who will pick the one skinny girl out of a crowd of 5o people who struggle with weight and will think, "She can do it - what's wrong with me?" instead of, "Obviously it's hard for a lot of people - I'm not alone." (Sniff, sniff - a tear just rolled down my cheek...and then dripped onto my fat belly.)

Anyone Still Out There???

Ok, so it's been entirely too long since my last post, and I must apologize to Evan for leaving his bad hair up way to long! As much as I hate to say this, because I always say this, I have just been so darn busy, it's ridiculous. As usual, the school system is all about change and improvement, which means tons of extra work. Plus our grade chair is going on maternity leave, so the principal asked me to act as grade chair in her place, which made me feel great, but has been a good bit of extra work. Also, the school governance council asked me to be secretary, so I'm doing that, too, all while being a mom and a wife and juggling knives.
The school year started out with a bang for sure. Of course, there was the Justin Beiber concert, which was a lot of fun. He's a pretty good performer -- no crazy amounts of nasally, whiney singing, but actual talent. Here's Drew with her friend that she took waiting in line to go into the arena. Check out Drew's awesome outfit, bought special for the concert. Here they are before the concert started, stopping the random squealing and screaming to smile for a picture. And here's Evan. He concluded during this event that girls are weird, and popcorn is just as good as Justin Beiber, although I did catch him singing along a few times.

So, at the beginning of the concert, Alli started complaining that she had a headache. I mean, it was super loud in there, but for a little girl to complain of a headache during Justin Beiber is a little strange. Eventually she started running a fever, so she spent most of the evening in Andy's lap half asleep. When he finally started sweating too much to take her fever anymore, I took her down to the medic station to get her some Tylenol, and went on out to the car to let her sleep. Still, though, I didn't think much of it. I mean, kids randomly run fevers, so, since the next day was only the 2nd day of school, I texted mom to see if she could keep her for me, rather than me trying to get a sub and deal with all that. The next day around lunch time I sent a text to mom asking how Alli was doing, and mom said her fever was going up and she wouldn't keep any tylenol or anything down. By 1:00, mom was starting to really worry, and at 2:00 mom called me and said she just took her temperature and it was 105.2 and Alli was delirious, and she was calling 911. My school is almost right across the street from the hospital, so I rushed out of the school and was there before the ambulance got there. By the time Alli got there, they had her on a cold IV and her temperature was 105.9! Alli had no idea who we were and was making no sense - she even smiled for the x-ray machine because the lady told her she was going to take a picture of her chest. In all the times I've been to the emergency room I've done an annoying amount of sitting and waiting with few people appearing to be in any kind of hurry to help. This time there were tons of nurses and doctors all around her, and even whispering behind the curtain and everything. It was AWFUL! I am not one to worry, but I was flipping out a little. When they got her fever down to 103, we were excited. They made us stay until her fever got down to around 99, and then they told us to wake her up every 3 hours to keep Tylenol and Motrin in her system. They concluded that she had a severe kidney infection, and now, after 3 rounds of antibiotics, countless doctor visits (Alli is now a pro at peeing in a cup), and an ultrasound of her kidneys and bladder, just this past Friday we got the word that it's all cleared up and that now they want us to go to a pediatric urologist in Atlanta to check everything just to be sure there aren't any serious problems, so that's coming up next Friday. Here's a picture of her that mom snapped with her phone as she was getting in the ambulance. She was so out of it that she didn't mind going with them at all - they wouldn't let mom ride along for insurance reasons. She doesn't really remember any of it now.
On a lighter note, Evan and Alli had a field trip today, so I took the day off to go with them. We went to a gold mine in Dahlonega, and it was pretty neat. The kids got to pan for gold, which was really just a bunch of rocks and gems, but the kids thought it was great. After that we got to take a tour of the gold mine and it was really neat. They showed us holes in the walls of the mines that were chiseled out for dynamite, and lots of places where there were still tiny flakes of gold, and different types of granite. Here are a couple of pictures of Alli and Evan, and a tiny little bat, which had me pretty freaked out:

After the panning and the mine tour the kids sat around with their gems and compared and traded them. Then a friend of mine and I checked the kids out early and took them to Chick-Fil-A for lunch, which was much nicer than sitting with 80 other kids having school sack lunches!

Evan's Hair

We've decided to let Evan's hair grow out this summer since long hair is stylish now and he's getting a little older. He has such pretty golden, blond hair, and when we fix it it looks nice and smooth and shiny. This is what he looks like on a normal day. He's showing off his lost tooth here, and it was very hot that day, so he's a little sweaty, but, overall, the hair is decent.Now, this is what he looks like after a normal night's sleep. Nothing strange was done the night before. He didn't go to bed with wet hair or anything. This is what it looks like every morning, without fail. All he did was sleep.And -- prepare yourself -- this is the back:

It's enough to make you scream. He said this morning that he thinks he should just shave his head. Thank goodness this is not an issue we have with the girls!

Drew's 10th Birthday

We celebrated Drew's birthday this year on the Friday night before her actual birthday. I can't believe she's really 10 years old! By the way, she commented that she was in the worst clothes ever when I took these pictures - her and her friend had just come in out of the rain and were looking a little ratty. Drew's actual, pre-middle school comment was, "I look poor." Ugh. She had a friend over to spend the night, and then we all went to see The Sorcerer's Apprentice, which was pretty good. But, enough about the party. We were all just super excited because, for her birthday...are you ready...we gave her tickets to see Justin Bieber in concert (if you click his name you can see his performance on American Idol just in case you aren't familiar with him). We're all so excited, even though Andy tries to act all manly like he's just tagging along for the sake of his daughter (by the way, he and I sang a Karaoke version of Miley Cyrus's "Party in the USA" at a party last weekend and brought the house down - oh yes, we BOTH know every word). Here's Drew with her cake - a cookies and cream ice cream cake - yum! And here's a little video clip of her opening her tickets. She admitted later that she wanted to cry because she was so excited, but held back because of her friend and the video camera.

My New Love

Since neither of my sisters will fulfill my baby needs, I've had to look elsewhere. This is Sebastian. He belongs to Andy's brother and sister-in-law, and I love him. We went to the pool with them today (which explains my lovely attire in the picture) and I spent more time smooching his little cheeks than swimming, which I do whenever I'm around him. He's just the sweetest little poopsy ever!

Ahhh, Milestones

Did anyone else hit their thirties and realize that sleeping in the floor with the kids is just no longer an option. As a kid, I was booted out of my bed many times for out-of-town company, and, honestly, I'd usually just cram myself in a bed with my sisters, but sometimes I got sent to the floor. I thought it was just out of consideration and hospitality for our guests, but I now realize that those guests wouldn't have been able to walk the next day had they been the ones sent to the floor. I tried to "camp out" with the kids in the living room the other night, but after they all fell asleep, I had to sneak back to my bed. I know good and well that I am NOT bonier than I used to be (if anything, the bones are now more cushioned by a nice layer of fat), but I never realized how every bone in your body can dig into the floor at one time. So, not only is the floor just not an option any more, but my bed isn't cutting it as well, either. I don't think it's any less comfortable than it was a couple of years ago, but for some reason I'm waking up several times a night with my arm or leg asleep or my neck in a terrible position, and then it's almost like I creak out of bed in the morning. What's up with that?! Am I prematurely aging, or is this normal? And, please don't give me the speech about vitamins and exercise and junk like that. I've heard it from all those related to me who are now in their fifties - another milestone I have to look forward to, I suppose. If that's my only option, I'll just have to wait until my 50's when the kids are gone like you all did!!!

A Day in the Life...

Yes, this is a normal occurrence in our home. As a kid 8 years older than his brother, Andy had to adjust to this, asking me what was wrong with our kids. I explained that I feel like this is normal. My sisters and I did this kind of stuff all the time! This was after rolling down the stairs and landing at the front door. And, just so you know, they're both laughing.

Wild Blackberries & a Future Farmer

Andy's Papa Gene, Evan's great-grandfather, is one of Evan's favorite people. He's told his papa that he wants to be a farmer like him. So, Papa Gene sectioned off a pretty good-size chunk of his garden to be Evan's garden, and Evan helped him plant lots of vegetables out there, and goes over there periodically when things are ready to be picked. His MeMaw and Papa even humor him by buying things from him, like squash for $1.00 and beans and things like that. Evan feels like a serious farmer selling produce over there. Well, at our house the back yard drops off in a pretty steep cliff. Technically, the cliff is on a Georgia Power easement, which means that our property line goes half way through the easement, and Georgia Power has the right to do whatever they need to do to get to their power lines, including tearing down a fence if we happened to put one out there. So, we've never fenced off the cliff, but just let the edge of it grow up really high so if anyone were to get too close and fall off, they would be caught by tons of thick, wild shrubbery. This year, we happened to have tons of wild blackberries show up in all that shrubbery, which Andy's grandparents just love, so I went out and picked about a half gallon of blackberries to give to them since they've done so much with Evan in the garden and we're reaping the benefits of lots of fresh, home grown vegetables. I went as far as I could stand in the thorns without falling off the cliff and cutting myself up too bad on all the thorns that come with blackberry bushes, although I did spend a little time picking thorns out of my hands, and even the back of my neck from leaning in a little too far at one point. Andy's grandparents were thrilled at the blackberries, but when Papa Gene heard that there were a TON more that I couldn't get to, he asked if he could come over and give it a try. So, this morning he showed up bright and early, and he and Evan went out in the mess to get as many blackberries as they could. I love seeing them together. Here they are heading out to the edge of the yard. (Of course Daisy has to tag along and be right in the middle of everything!) Here they are heavy into berry picking! And, here they are interrupting their berry picking to pose for me!

A Much Needed Update

Sorry I've been away for so long. I've rebelled against all my normal routine things and have spent time cleaning, keeping laundry caught up, and just generally laying around. It's been really nice, except that I think my body is punishing me for not doing this sooner. I have started clenching my jaw all night long, which has resulted in waking up to an incredibly sore jaw and a headache every morning! Ugh! I don't know what to do about it, besides go to the dentist and get a night guard. I'm sort of hoping it's temporary and will stop soon.

Anyways, on to more exciting things... Drew's softball team was undefeated this year and took first place in the county tournament. They had amazing pitchers, which was probably their biggest strength. At the end of their last game they had a little trophy ceremony on the field.Here is the whole team lined up waiting to get their trophies. Drew is in the middle (to the right of the girl with the little boy) and Andy is the coach on the right. Here is Drew getting her trophy from the head coach. And here is Drew holding up her trophy. What a cutie. And, finally, here's the whole team with all their little trophies and the big first place trophy. Drew is to the left of the big trophy, and Andy is the coach standing on the right who's all sweaty (it was unbelievably hot and muggy that day!).

So, ball season is over and now we're just enjoying a relaxing summer...sort of. As relaxing as life gets with 3 kids! :)

Railroad Days Parade

Every year the town of Lula has a little festival thing called Railroad Days because the railroad runs right through the center of town. The train tracks actually run right across the street from the school and when I worked there the ceiling tiles would shake every time the train went by. So, along with the festival, of course there's a little parade that goes along with it in the morning to kick things off. All 3 of the kids' ball teams were in the parade (yes, we have 3 kids on 3 different teams this year, which has been interesting).

Here's Alli with her T-ball team. Her best friend was doing t-ball again this year, and Alli is in it more for the social side at this point (although she's turning into quite the little ball player), so we put her in t-ball for one more year. Their team is called the Bad News Bulldogs after the Bad News Bears, but since the school mascot is the Bulldogs they changed it up a little.

Here is Evan with his team. He's playing coach pitched baseball this year and does pretty well if say so myself. He's a good hitter and always goes after the ball. He mostly plays first base during the games, but I think the whole team's favorite part is sitting in the dugout and playing around. They're pretty cute to watch.

And here is Drew. She's playing fast pitch softball this year, which can get intense at times. She actually hit her first homerun this year and does really well. Andy is coaching her team with another lady, who is actually the head coach (Andy likes the job without ALL the responsibility), and so far they're undefeated. By this age they're really weeding out the girls that only play for their parents, so they have a good little team this year with several hard workers and serious players. Of course, with girls comes the drama and tears, but Andy and Judy (the other coach) handle it well.

This Just In...

Andy FINALLY had a mediation hearing this morning with the guy who threw the brick at Daisy. The last time Andy talked to these people, the wife came to the door with a video camera telling Andy that Daisy was barking viciously and trying to attack, and they thought she was rabid, so they were defending themselves. She wouldn't even let her husband come to the door, and then called the police on Andy for trespassing (which is funny because the cop totally agreed with us). Today when they met, they wouldn't let the wife stay in the room, and it was no contest. We gathered several statements from people who know Daisy and know that she is about as far from vicious as they come, and we also had the statement from the neighbor that witnessed the whole thing, but without the wife in the room, Andy said the guy was all shakey and kept starting to cry, and just agreed to pay the whole thing. Since it was a mediation and we started this whole ordeal trying to be somewhat nice about it (we even chose the cheaper surgeon and didn't charge for the gas we used to make the 1 hour round trip drive every week for 3 months for bandage changes) they agreed that he would pay for it over 6 months. Andy said when they walked out of the room and the guy walked over to his wife, he finally did start crying. What a goober!

Birthdays and Spring

Evan and Alli celebrated their 7th birthday this weekend! I can't believe they're so old. When Drew turned 7, I felt like she was so grown up, but Evan and Alli are still my babies. On Friday night they each had a friend over to go to the movies with them and spend the night. Four 1st graders in a house at one time is an adventure in itself. On Saturday, Andy and I actually got a night away from the kids and went to see Hall & Oates at Chastain Amphitheater, outdoors in the pouring rain. We went and bought rain suits and were really prepared and ended up having an awesome time! The concert was GREAT. We went with my mom and dad, and during one of their best songs (She's Gone), mom and I actually sneaked our way up to the front about 5 feet from the stage. It was great! After a fun, but long and exhausting night, we decided the best way to top it off would be to have a bunch of family to the house to grill out and celebrate Alli & Evan's birthday some more. We had grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and neighbors over, and since Evan and Alli are their own unique people, we had a cookie cake for Alli and an ice cream cake for Evan. It's so nice to get to have a birthday party where you actually have a legitimate reason to buy 2 different kinds of cake!

Here are all the kids right before they did candles.

Here they are blowing out the candles.

And, here they are with some of their gifts.

Also, just because I'm proud of my flowers, this year our neighbors gave us some strawberry planters, and Andy bought some bright colored spray paint to paint them with. I went and got some flowers, and I'm so excited about how pretty they turned out! I wanted to take a picture of them, so Evan hopped in the picture and posed. I'm not sure why he's only wearing one shoe - this is a problem we've had with him. He wants to go outside so badly to play that he either makes it with no shoes, only socks, or socks and one shoe. Thank goodness for the steam setting on the washing machine!

Elementary School Prom???

At the school I work at now, our big fund raiser is called the CRCT Prom. The CRCT is our huge standardized test that requires you to give all but your first born child to ensure that your students will pass, and then if they don't you still might have to sacrifice your child to the state or whatever idiot it was that decided that this was the best way to measure learning (yes, I am SICK of the pressure!!!) and is coming up in April. I have no idea why the prom is named after this, but it is. Anyway, the way it raises money is that each class has a prince and princess to represent them, and then the students and parents raise money in whatever way they want, and whichever class raises the most money is the winner of prom king and queen. The parents at this school are completely uninterested in buying junk like cheap-o wrapping paper and over-priced candles, but, by golly, they'll go to all sorts of lengths to get their baby to win king or queen. We raised enough to buy a good bit of playground equipment, which is pretty expensive if you've never looked into it. Andy had to go out of town that night, so I took my kids with me and they had an absolute blast. It was a pretty fun night for everyone. Here are the few pictures I managed to snag with my phone, although they're not that great because it was hard to keep anyone still and I don't have a flash on my phone.

In this picture, the big girl in the middle (who is actually a year younger than Drew!) is the sister of boy in my class, and then there are 2 little girls in my class along with Drew and Alli. Alli made best-buds with a little girl in my class who is about the same size as she is. They were cute together.

And then here I am with the same 2 little girls in my class and Alli there in the back!