The Kids Rooms

Over the past 4-5 weeks I have spent a lot of my spare time working on the kids rooms and re-arranging the upstairs. What used to be the bonus/guest room/office is now the girls room. It still needs curtains, the rest of Katie's things hung up and some type of closet storage but I am almost there.

What used to be the girls' room is now Jack's room. It also still need curtains, a new ceiling fan and a few more items on the wall but he is very happy with it. Yes I painted each wall a different color. I was inspired by his bedding set.

I have not added photos of what used to be Jack's room and is now the spare room. I have much of my craft, for lack of better terms "crap" on the bed I am still sorting through. However, I thought I would share what I have done so far. My hope is to have it finished and all my craft stuff re-organized by the end of the week.

TTFN.......

Kaitlynn's Day.............

Some days I think back over the last ten months and just sigh. I am so grateful that we have made it this far with Maddie's heart surgery. We have almost all of the medical bills paid for. Our goal is to have them paid for by the end of the year. I look at Maddie some days and just cry. Why were we given such a miracle????

That answer will have to wait for another day because today is the day for Kaitlynn. I believe that I mentioned before that Kaitlynn is my Precious Gift, Jackson is my Greatest Joy and Madelynn is my Miracle. Even though all children are a gift Kaitlynn is amazingly special. She was the perfect baby. Let me explain........

Due to Phil's job having little work at the time, he was sent out of town to work close to the due date. Because it was just me I packed my hospital bag and kept it in the car because it was half the distance from my parents house to the hospital than my house to the hospital. I spent a lot of time over there. Well finally Phil told them no more travelling. I never took my hospital bag out of the car. At my last check up before my due date the doctor asked if I had my bag in the car. I told her yes. She said GO TO THE HOSPITAL. They believed I had pre-clampsia. With the due date so close they were just going to induce labor.

When Kaitlynn finally arrived about 31 hours later, she was beautiful. My mom and dad were there and so was Phil's mom. She was perfect. Perfect weight, length, color.......she had the famous Phil Addler eyelashes, blue eyes like my mother, even her birthmark was a kiss from my grandmother. Except for a two week period where I probably walked 2-3 miles a night in a circle in my house while she cried. The first five months of Kaitlynn's life were medically uneventful. Then came my first Mother's day.

I spent it in the ER. Where she had a raging temperature and the ER nurse could not figure why a child with a 103 temperature was not screaming her head off. After several hours at the ER they found nothing wrong with her and sent us home. The next day she was perfectly fine. Kaitlynn was even walking at nine months. She had a playmate that was 2 months older and she was always trying to keep up with her. She was so little when she first started walking. I even have her first steps recorded on video accidentally.

In a 5 year period I believe she has been to the doctor other than a well check maybe six times. Two of those times were reaction to bug bites. If you ever wished for a healthy baby Kaitlynn is it. As long as you spray her with bug spray she will be fine. Even with all that happened with Madelynn, Kaitlynn was a trouper. In December, I had to take Madelynn back to the hospital I cried all the way there for two reasons............

First the obvious who wants to take their heart baby back to the hospital. Second the next day was Kaitlynn's birthday and I knew Madelynn would be there for a few days. So I would miss her birthday. Thankfully, my mother went to the hospital to be with Madelynn for a few hours so I could have dinner, cake and ice cream, let her open her presents and put Kaitlynn to bed before I had to go back to the hospital.

There have been so many times I have had to lovingly tell Kaitlynn she had to wait because Madelynn needed this or that. Even with Jackson and his three surgeries, including the one two weeks after Madelynn was born. She ALWAYS patiently waited. She always waited her turn. Don't get me wrong there are days she has no patience. However I wish God would have blessed me with just half of Kaitlynn's patience. She is such a good big sister and loves sharing her room with Madelynn. I am sure some day that will change but for now I will enjoy it.

So, this past week I have tried to reward Kaitlynn for all she has had to endure. It is not her fault she is the healthiest. I thank God for that every day. She always seems to be last, this week I tried to put her first. On the days I did not have to work I kept Kaitlynn with me and sent Madelynn to daycare. We met with Kaitlynn's god-mother and had lunch and spent the afternoon with her. We ran errands together. Just spent some mommy and me time together. She loved every minute of it.

As I look at her today she is so big and ready to take on the world. I don't think any little girl is more excited about kindergarten than her. We met her teacher and walked the classroom. So as she makes the giant leap to "big girl school" I made something just for Kaitlynn. I wanted her to know that my most precious gift is never forgotten and I love her for her patience with all of my heart. I will enjoy watching her make the leap to "big girl school" and savor every minute.

Good Luck Kaitlynn.............I love you more..........

TTFN

Off to Kindergarten.............

Goggles for School

Back in July, Jack had a fun month at school. We were given a calender that shows the something different they were doing every day of the month. Mondays were color days where they wore a specific color shirt, Tuesdays were Silly days, Wednesday were water play, Thursdays were Movie days and Fridays were ice cream (of some kind popsicles, sandwiches, etc).

One of the silly days the children were to wear goggles to school. Jack did not have goggles. So Mamaw took him to the dollar store and he came home with the bottle pop glasses that looked like goggles. HILARIOUS!! All his teacher could do was laugh.


Well I kind of forgot about them. Recently, Jack found them in his room and came downstairs with them. All I could do was laugh. However, I will let you be the judge. All I can say is that it was all I could do to take these pictures because I was laughing so hard I could barely breathe and I was crying all at the same time.



Enjoy!!!!


TTFN.........

All for $35.00...........

Today was one of the first Saturdays in a while Phil did not have to work and we did not have to be anywhere. So the day started out with Pilbert making pancakes for the kids and getting ready to go out for a while. We have collected money and gift cards for the kids from their birthdays, Christmas, not to mention a few on-line coupons that were about to expire. So we decided to take a small adventure.

We started out at the Build-a-Bear factory since Jack had a gift card to make a bear (Thanks, Ray and Linda). Actually he created a dog that is just too cute. I would take a picture but "Max" is currently wrapped in Jack's arms as he sleeps. So that Katie would not feel left out I allowed her to pick out one new outfit for her Build-a-Bear's already at home. Outside the store at the mall there was a big play area where the kids could play and run for a little while. Before leaving the mall we stopped at the chick-fil-a for lunch. Did you know Maddie likes waffle fries?? I didn't.

Next we went to Toy's-R-Us where Jack and Maddie had gift cards to spend (Thanks, Uncle Ted) and Jack had a little cash (Thanks Jacque and Tony). Of all things Jack picked out a Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story. He has been watching that lately. Something Maddie needed was shoes. She has become quite the walker. I have been allowing her to be barefoot to learn. However with cold and flu season quickly coming it will be better that she learn in her shoes. Due to clearance sales I was also able to get Maddie a bathing suit for next year (for $1.00) and some new jammies.

As we were leaving the second Mall area Phil remembered he had a Panera bread gift card from Christmas still in his pocket. So, he stopped there and got some goodies (bagels, bread, etc) for a special treat. As we were driving home, I remembered a Cheesecake factory gift card that has been in my purse for about two years. I confirmed it was still good and went and splurged on special treat for after dinner. The kids were very excited about the cheesecake.

So for all of you that contributed to the gift cards and birthday cash THANK YOU SO MUCH. It ended up to be a pretty fun day and it only cost us $35.00. We have been very lucky that the kids have know idea how hard some days have been for us and your gifts make it so much easier.

TTFN

Lady Girl............

Since 1998, Phil and I have had this beautiful black and brown dog...Lady (see photo on right). She has had a pretty interesting life. Up until fall of last year Lady had a constant companion Leia. Not to mention the six cats she tolerated. Leia was put to rest after 12 years of life. At least once a week I still think about her and miss her. Since Leia left us we were also forced, do to Jack's allergies, to get rid off all of the cats.

So as of about October 2008 we were now a single pet home. We really should not have Lady due to Jack's allergies but he seems okay with her for now. Lady is almost 12 and has seizures so no one would take her. She still has a good quality of life with us so we will keep her till it is time for her to go.

Now think of things from Lady's perspective....She gets extra love and attention and she really loves it from the kids however she is very attached to me some days too attached. When no one else is at our home we let Lady sleep in our master bath floor. She has some strange attachment to the bathroom rugs. I thought having Katie, Jack and Maddie I would never get a moments peace or pee alone again but Lady takes the cake.

At 5:15 in the am I am sitting on the toilet peeing and I always get a cold nose or wet tongue on my arm. I tell her to go lay down she licks my arm even more. So I have given up stopping the behavior and just tell her good morning. She then proceeds to the closet with me to make sure no one is going to contact the fashion police on me as I pick out my clothes. After we both agree I will not be arrested today she follows me back to the shower and lays on the bathroom rug while I shower.

The funniest part about it is when I get out of the shower she goes in the bedroom and lays on her blanket as if to give me privacy. She also knows the instant I am dressed as she comes back in and lays back on one of the rugs. She remains there and watches the chaos as I get myself ready, Katie and Jack dressed and check Maddie's diaper one more time before leaving to drop the kids off.

However, one day last week her routine was totally disrupted because Phil and I overslept by about an hour and a half. We were running really late and trying to get everything done as quickly as possible and Lady kept getting in the way. At one point I am trying to put lotion on after a shower and Lady is standing right in the way. Believe it or not if you say, "Excuse me Lady." She will move.

So here I am repeatedly, "Excuse me Lady, Excuse me Lady." But Lady just stood there. I finally look down and there is Lady tied up in a bra that was hanging on the back of the bathroom door handle. She was so upset and just kept getting in the way. Finally, I thought maybe she would be better off outside till chaos settled down.

Well I arrived at work only about 15 minutes late. But I had called my neighbor because in the crazy morning I forgot to pull something out for dinner. I asked her to go across the street and pull something out of the freezer. When my neighbor called me back she told me she did and let Lady in and locked my back door.

So not only did I try to hang the dog, I left her out in a day that was to be over 90 degrees and left my back door unlocked. Needless to say THANKS DEBBIE and SORRY LADY. I try not to think about what Lady thinks of me because it just makes me laugh.

TTFN

Relentless Mother

As usual my hope for daily accomplishment was more than there are hours in the day. Today was a busy day, what day isn't when you have three children under six. My hope was to clean the house, paint another wall in Jack's room, and spend a little one on one time with Maddie after her therapy. I actually achieved most of it with one strange delay.



My dryer wasn't working properly. This is a big problem considering that I have had the dryer for less than three months. My OCD was starting setting in that I would have to make a service call and wait for them...how long...what about my other goals for the week everything would be messed up. Then I remembered the birds nest that was in my dryer vent. A few months back we pulled a nest out of the dryer vent that was about a foot long. Unfortunately it had eggs and baby birds in it. We put the nest we pulled in a nearby tree. The mother killed them.



I felt really bad. So a few weeks ago I noticed this unrelenting mother rebuilt her nest in the dryer vent again. Today was the first day the dryer wasn't drying. When Phil came home I told him the dryer wasn't working. He was upset because he knew this would mean killing more babies. We were relieved to find the nest empty of the mother and live babies. All we found was one bad egg. Attached is a photo of the second nest.






As I typed I was reminded of a similar story my sister shared. Back in May my sister told a story about a family of rabbits, see link here. It is a good read.

A little side bar........I have two walls painted in Jack's room and will have photos to share when I am done. In trying to make his room more fun and different, I am painting each wall a different color to match a cool comforter I found. He is getting very excited. Since everyone is making a big deal about Katie going to kindergarten in about ten days I have been really talking up his new room and he is very excited.

TTFN