My place to ramble... on and on and on .....
just because I can!!! 
Happy Easter !
. I hope you feel better now.
soon,smile. Sounds like u-r- having alot of exhausting fun!Safe and happy journies!
In Language he had to listen and remember. NOT his strongest area! lol He did well though. He doesn't look like the is feeling well. I'm hoping he is just tired..and not coming down with what Shai has had.
sleepy
She was burning up last night.
Her fever has come and gone today. Poor thing. She is handling it well though.
It didn't take but a moment for that to sink in..even though I have a ton of stuff going on and have only been half listening to them most of the day. 


, and 2 new ties...the kids each picked one out ) into gift bags, (Shai stuffed hers with toilet "tissue", I stuffed the tackle box gift with Wal-Mart sacks and Matt stuffed paper towels on his. No time to search for REAL tissue! lol) We placed the cake on the table, put the gifts behind it and then while I placed candles on the cake, Shai watched the front door. (She wanted to jump out and yell "Surprise!" )
Let me tell you something I learned today.....when you have 30+ candles, those "magic re-light" candles are NOT a good idea. Shai really wanted to get them for him...b/c he has done that to them a couple of times. I thought it was only fair.....but that was BEFORE we nearly burned down the house!
Picture 33 candles blazing
on top of a cake and they will NOT go out!!! We ended up having to get a bowl of water and it took Jade and I both carefully but quickly removing the candles and tossing them in the water to make them go out. On a positive note...the cake should stay good for a little longer...it has a nice waxy layer on top!!!!! 

...very loudly....to him. It was so fun! He turned a "little" red. )
sillySo much to say.....and so little interest in typing it all out! 
I have to share a few funny things that the kiddos have done lately....if nothing else.
As you know...I recently had a minor surgery. My house is in a total state of disarray right now. 2 kids, 1 husband and 1 dog and NO ONE to clean up after them. It's kinda scary!
Okay...not QUITE that bad..but close. I've picked up a little (very little) and the kids are fairly good at picking up after themselves.....after I remind them two or 3 times. That just leaves Jade and Cricket...and as Cricket only has a couple of toys and doesn't make much mess, I guess that means this entire mess is Jade's fault. Yep...sounds good to me!
Annneeewayyy......back to what I STARTED to say. Our house is on well water. I love well water, for the most part...but this water tends to be a bit...."dingy". It leaves a dingy residue in the toilets, etc. And while I was down with my surgery (and I'll admit....I'm not the best at keeping up with "toilet cleaning") the toilets got a bit...well, dingy. I finally got tired of it and cleaned them. (
WOW! I know I know....bear with me.....I know this toilet cleaning thing isn't all that big of a deal...considering it took me about 5 minutes total..to clean 2 toilets...but I'll get to the good part in a minute, and it is WORTH IT.) The kids were gone to their GG and Papa's house when the urge hit me to clean the toilets. And when they did come home...at least one of them recognized all of my hard work. Matt came looking for me...and he had a question for me... concerning the sparkly toilet. He said, "Mom, did you clean the toilet? How did you do it? Did you use MAGIC??? Because you had to use magic to make it THAT clean!" Yup....made me feel like a terrible house keeper/mom/wife/human being. But it also made me laugh like a crazy person.
Shailynn has already written letters to Santa Claus, Mrs. Claus, Rudolph
and Clarice. (For anyone not aware of the "goings on" at the north pole, Clarice is Rudolph's girlfriend. By the beginning of July she had written each a letter and colored them a picture. She IS expecting return letters...since it isn't their BUSY time of year!
I love my children! REALLY, I do.
Although..........
By 10pm last night I was ready to strangle two very short people. I love them dearly…but they were seriously trying my patience…plus I was well beyond tired. By 9:00pm they were grounded for 2 days. By 10:30pm we had bumped it up to 3 days. Shortly after that….they were out of bed again…but this time I couldn’t do much about it. Matt had FINALLY lost his tooth. (Why doesn’t that ever happen at a convenient time?) Soooo, what ensued was an all night ordeal. And unfortunately I have to take credit for at least part of it…..although I really don’t want to. You see, when Shai lost her very first tooth…it was a VERY BIG deal. Our baby had lost a tooth. And believe me, it isn’t that we weren’t JUST as excited when Matt lost his first tooth….it just so happens that my explanation must start with the first tooth Shai lost. The tooth fairy thought it was a really big deal too, and did something that seemed like a really COOL thing at the time. (hindsight leads me to issue warnings to any parents of young children!!) She left a note for Shai about how exciting it was to lose her first tooth, keep brushing, yada yada. Shai, of course, LOVED the letter…and expected one each time. So, of course she got one, regardless of the time of day or night she lost the tooth and the amount of sleep the Tooth Fairy had to lose in order to write these letters. And then Matt started losing teeth too. I remember one week I think we had 3 visits by the tooth fairy. For some reason, I was VERY tired that week.
My children get very excited when the tooth fairy is coming.
And they both have VERY BIG hearts. And if the tooth fairy leaves THEM a letter, then they MUST leave one for her too. And then there is the thing about leaving cookies and milk out for SANTA. Shouldn’t we do something like that for the Tooth Fairy???? Of course we should. So we always do. It’s just nuts. The Tooth Fairy must really LOVE stopping at our house, late at night.
So it took a MILLION years for them to get everything together for the Tooth Fairy last night. And it took them FOREVER to go to sleep. I even snuck in to read their letters to the Tooth Fairy (You never know what kind of vital information they might hold) and accidently woke up Shai. So I tiptoed back out and read my book in the living room. It seems Matt left her Apple Juice, and pennies, in case she needed to buy things in Tooth Fairy Land. And he had LOTS of questions for her, such as, “How do you get in?” and “How do you get the tooth without waking us up?” Shai left her an Apple and play money and told her to feel free to take a nap, watch TV, use her lipstick, etc. (The kids thought it funny that the Tooth Fairy had so much to do while she was here that she didn’t have time for a nap or to watch TV!!!) Eventually they went to sleep. I’m guessing the Tooth Fairy showed up somewhere between 4am and 4:30 am …b/c I didn’t climb into bed before 4 am. (I had an urge for apple juice and an apple, myself, and I had a couple of letters to write of my own.) At 4:30 am Jade raises up in bed….I was just drifting off…and says, “Are the kids awake?” His way of saying….get up and go check on the kids. I get up, the lights are all on and Shai and Matt are running all over the place. I asked the obvious question….WHAT ARE YOU DOING UP? They smiled…very excited little smiles…and told me they were looking for Fairy Tracks!
relieved it's over!Well, it is Saturday. I had my gall bladder surgery on Thursday. I feel pretty good considering. I was told to wait at least 48 hours before I took a shower. I tried. I’m about 4 hours shy of 48 hours. Lol I just got out of the shower. I feel better, at least! These crazy incision bandages are WEIRD. They are clear…so all seepage/blood is clearly visible. And they aren’t well sealed. I know some water from the shower got inside the bandages. I couldn’t see any way around it. I tried putting some “Spiderman” band aids over the “holes”, but it didn’t seem to help at all. So for now, I feel clean, and I just put some gauze over the “leakiest” of the 3 incisions. When Mom gets up, I’ll get her to look at the other 2 and see if she thinks they need the extra gauze as well.
Jade is still in St Louis with Clif and Lora. Things have gone from bad to worse there. When they got to the house they were supposed to be moving into…well, long story short, it was a nightmare. So they REPACKED everything back into the moving truck and found a hotel. Today they are going to try to find another place to live. I worry about them….but one of my sweet aunts reminded me today to stop worrying about them, take care of myself and let God take care of Clif and Lora. So that is what I’m going to try to do today.
And why is it…when you CAN’T do anything that you suddenly get the urge to do everything. I need to add water to the fish tank…but I can’t do that at the moment. I desperately need to sweep my floors, and I can’t do that right now either. I also realize that once I AM able to resume completely normal duties, I’ll have lost all interest in these things and will have to make myself do them! Lol I am so hopeless! Hehe
My computer is also on the fritz. I don’t know if I have a virus on here or what, but it is so incredibly slow. UGH. It makes me crazy.
Shailynn is writing a new story. This one is about a puppy. I have no idea what made her decide to write another story, but she is. She didn’t win the contest that she entered. She got her certificate in the mail, for entering, the other day though. She was excited about that, although she would have preferred the new laptop or tv or MP3 player! Lol I can’t say that I blame her at all! Hehe
My mama has been a real champ, staying with me, taking care of me and the kids. I have the greatest parents. My daddy NEVER calls me, yet he called me yesterday to check in on me. He is not a “phone person”, so it meant a lot that HE made the effort and called me. I need to kick my Mom out of here by tomorrow though. She has been on the go for quite a while now, and I know she’s ready to get home. For some reason she and Daddy like spending time together…so I know they are missing one another. I love having her here…and she is a tremendous help…but I know that she probably wants to be home.