Movin' on up.

I've moved! Go here!

I'm confused. Very confused. But, my fabulous friend Kellie is helping make everything OK in my world. Be patient with me, please. Join me, won't you?

Reli On Temple Touch Thermometer (review and giveaway)

{Disclaimer - I was selected by MomSelect to review this product and was given an extra thermometer to give away.}

Germs started taking over our house this week, so I figured I'd found the perfect opportunity to try the Reli On Temple Touch Thermometer! Henry (17 months) came down with a fever recently and his energy was zapped. He spent lots of time resting on my lap and this thermometer was perfect for taking his temperature then. It's lightweight, but sturdy and it took his temperature quickly - we had a reading in less than 10 seconds! The digital display is clear and easy to read, too.

I would highly recommend this thermometer for older children more than the younger ones. Stillness is necessary to get an accurate reading and as moms know, it's much easier to get older children to sit still. Henry was quite ill, so getting him to sit still was relatively easy. Now that he's feeling better, I'm sure it would be much, much harder to get a good read.

Overall, it's a great product!

Now, here's your chance to win one! Leave a comment, tell me about your family! I will choose a winner Saturday morning, September 26th. Good luck!!

Helpless

I spent the majority of this week feeling helpless. My baby boy was sick and I couldn't take his pain away. What started out as a low grade fever turned into a knock down, drag out 104.9 fever that rendered my boy horribly lethargic, miserable and in the ER. While we were still at home, I tried Motrin and Tylenol and the fever would come down to 102 and it wouldn't budge from there. Within an hour or so, it was right back up again. We spent several hours in the ER with a resident who was a bit of an alarmist (She walks into the room, takes one look at my boy and rushes out yelling, "I think we need to admit this kid". I immediately start to panic and cry. She comes back in and says, "I didn't mean to worry you." Really!?!?!) Urine tests, chest x-rays and blood work all came back negative. They diagnosed him with a possible ear infection, gave him a whopper of an antibiotic shot and a script for more antibiotics and sent us on our way. Two days later, he wasn't much better, so we went to his pediatrician. He was diagnosed with a throat infection there (docs in the ER said his throat was fine. ugh.). His pediatrician said that he'd start to feel better by Friday night or Saturday morning and that was true - by Saturday morning, he was feeling a little spunky and by this morning, he woke up cool as a cucumber and feelin' fine. I've never been happier to see that boy show me his devilish, little smile. With Henry around, life is always interesting. Hopefully it will be a little less interesting for a while.

This makes me happy

It's the little, simple things, ya know? Roasted broccoli brings a smile to my face every time I eat it.

Yes, I'm a dork.

20 minutes

of tears (from me, not the kids). My boy is now officially a kindergartner. My biggest boy is now a 2nd grader.





That shirt screamed Jake's name from the shelf at The Children's Place on Sunday. I absolutely HAD to buy it - it's his personality - fun and funky. As we were picking out clothes for the 1st day of school, it was between this shirt and a Spongebob one. I was so happy to see him pick this one. It just makes me smile. He makes me smile. It's been too quiet around here today - my newest sidekick has been wandering around, looking for his brothers. I've been able to get some things done, without breaking up fights.

Will was so sweet and helpful to Jake this morning - it's always nice to see that side of their relationship. I will say that I see it much more than I thought I would. I always imagined boys just wanting to beat each other up, tattle on each other and just bug each other. While that does happen (often), the sweeter, kinder side of them shines through a lot. It makes me feel like we're
doing something right.

Breathe in....breathe out....

That's what I'm trying to do. The first day of school is Tuesday. I've met both boys' teachers and I believe they're going to LOVE school this year. That makes me happy.

I'm not sure I can describe the feelings I have about sending Jake to school. I'm just not ready. He is SO ready. I can't keep him here forever (but, I'd like to).

I'm desperately trying to push these feelings away. I want to show him that I'm excited for him to go, excited for him to learn new things and make new friends. I'm certain my eyes will fill with tears on Tuesday morning, while we wait for the bus. I've never been so happy to have transition lenses in my life - I WILL NOT show him my sadness. Instead, I'll hug him tightly, smile and wish him a fabulous day. Once that bus drives away, I can't promise the tears won't fall. In fact, I'm certain they will.

My crew is heading to Columbus, Ohio tomorrow. The boys and I are going to the Columbus Zoo on Saturday morning while my husband and my in-laws go to the Navy/Ohio State football game. I didn't want to sit around here by myself for the weekend, so we invited ourselves :) I'm geeked, the boys are even more geeked and I need a day or two in some new surroundings.

Pictures will follow in a few days.

Happy Labor Day!

Life

It and some of its struggles have gotten in the way. I apologize. I need to take a few days to rest my mind.

I'm still around - you can find me on Twitter, if you need me. I'm Mommy23boys.

In the blink of an eye

We started here:



and 7 beautiful, fabulous years later, here we are:



To my sweet Will,

I hope 7 is a magical, fun filled year for you. Enjoy every day.

Love,

Mom

On a picket fence

I was blessed to be born with the ability to sleep anywhere, at any time. Literally. I never had to be lying down or even comfortable. I could sleep sitting up, if necessary. My mom used to say I could sleep on a picket fence.

This blessing had been one of my favorites. Sadly, it has left me.

Nothing is bothering me (well, other than having to get my house ready for the 25+ people coming to my son's birthday party next week, my husband's softball injury that *might* require surgery and having to ship this one off to Kindergarten in a few weeks.) I toss and I turn and I do it a little more. I listen to my husband snore (maybe THAT's it - who am I kidding, we've been together for 8 years. I've almost tuned it out completely.) and I listen to the fan make these very odd noises.

People, I need to sleep. I require more sleep than most human beings on the planet. I enjoy staring at the backs of my eyelids. I DO NOT enjoy drinking my weight in coffee, just to function throughout the day.

Maybe.....just maybe I'll relax a smidge after the birthday party is over. But, then, school starts....

Ain't she a beaut? - Wordless Wednesday!

Vacation, way back when....

Is summer really almost over? School starts in 36 days. It's not really felt like summer here - the weather has been quite wonky this year. The idea of cold weather moving in makes me want to cry.

I'm reliving our vacation (in my mind, at least), so I thought I'd share some of the fun with you!



This is one of my favorite days - we spent the whole day on the beach with my sister and her family. The adults sat and chatted while the boys played for hours in the sand and ocean. We left Tank at home with my mom - he's not quite ready yet! My husband is trying to help the boys find sand crabs.



The only thing that would have made this picture better is having my baby boy in it. Maybe next year :) We were waiting to be seated for dinner and I decided to snap this shot of my boys.








I rode these exact rides as a child! The boys love hitting the boardwalk when we're there because they know there are lots of rides and games to play. It's a pint sized heaven on earth :)




"The Lake" is one of my favorite places on earth. My husband's aunt and uncle have a house on Deep Creek Lake in western Maryland. We go for the 4th of July and it's wonderful. I love watching my boys REALLY play - baseball and fishing and football and swinging, etc. etc. It's good, clean, healthy fun - no electronics involved. They slept harder than I've ever seen them sleep - the fresh air just does a body good :) Henry was the same way - his fun was a little bit more contained, but he still loved it.



See what I mean about "really playing"! Friends at the lake have this contraption set up with their riding lawn mower. The boys did this for hours during our time there. It does my heart good to know that they'll have these memories as they get older.

The Boots to my Dora.

The Bert to my Ernie. The Patrick to my Spongebob (this one would be his favorite).



My middle child. The child who plays that role VERY well. The child who has been by my side more days than not. The child who will plant himself outside of the bathroom, so he knows the second I walk out.

I'm sending him off to Kindergarten in 49 days. I'm heartbroken about that. He's my shopping partner, my helper, my snuggler during quiet time. He loves to hold my hand, just because. He's an excellent big brother and will entertain Henry when he gets fussy and I can't get to him in time.

What am I going to do without him? I suppose I'll continue to prepare him the best way I can and be proud of the fact that he's a good boy with a very tender heart, a feisty personality and desire to please and do well. I can think of nothing else I want in my children.

Winners!

We chose the winners the old fashioned way - I put all of your names in a bucket and my son picked out 2. He thought it was the COOLEST. THING. EVER.

Thank you to all who commented! It was nice to "meet" you all.

The winners are:


Jen Holt

Omaha Mama




Congratulations and you'll be hearing from me soon!

Mommy Grace - Erasing Your Mommy Guilt (review and giveaway)

Mommy Grace - Erasing Your Mommy Guilt, by Dr. Sheila Schuller Coleman

In this season of my life, mommy guilt is all around. There's guilt about not reading to my boys enough, not feeding them more veggies and not sitting on the floor enough to play with them. I deal with mommy guilt from the moment my eyes open in the morning until the moment they close at night. When I was approached to review this book, I knew immediately that God was at work!

I read this book over many evenings and EVERY evening, I was met with "a-ha" moments - reading personal stories from Dr. Coleman that often mirrored my life! Many of these personal stories left me shaking my head in agreement and left me feeling like I truly wasn't alone.

Dr. Coleman writes about, with perfect detail, the many different types of "mommy guilt" moms are faced with on a daily basis. The book is simply written and very easy to understand, with concepts easy to grasp. It's written in such a conversational tone that I often felt like I was having a chat over lunch with my mommy friends! At the end of each chapter, Dr. Coleman gives a bible verse that goes along with the chapter's content AND writes a beautiful prayer to compliment it.

I don't know that anything will ever completely erase my mommy guilt, but this book went a long way in making me feel better about where I am right now.


*********Giveaway*********

There are 2 copies of Mommy Grace - Erasing Your Mommy Guilt up for grabs! Just leave me a comment to be entered. I'll choose a winner on Wednesday, July 15th. Please make sure I have a way to contact you :)

Hello.

I'm Tina, remember me? I've been all over the place these last few weeks and I believe I'll be staying put for a while now.

I like living here. I don't love it anymore. The vicious winters have taken their toll on my psyche. I suffer from SAD (acronym fits nicely). Here, winter lasts 6 months. That's 6 months of dark, dreary, cold and snowy days. I loathe snow. I'm petrified to drive in it, which means I'm stuck at home A LOT.

I also have no family here. That's probably a good thing most of the time. But, I have 2 nephews and a niece that I miss terribly. I hate seeing them only 1 or 2 times a year. My boys and my nephews get along famously and it's so much fun to watch them play together. My niece's 2nd birthday party is this weekend and we won't be there. That just makes me sad. I was able to spend lots of time with them when we were back a few weeks ago and it was lovely - really lovely. It's getting harder and harder for me to leave "home" and come back here. I'm trying really hard to "bloom where I'm planted", but I'm struggling (and I've already been here for 2 1/2 years).





My cousins are significantly older - I never truly "grew up" with them, even though I knew them. It warms my heart that my boys have cousins that are SUPER close in age to them (my oldest nephew and my oldest son are 10 months apart and my youngest and my niece are 9 months apart in age) and I could watch them play together all day.

I miss them so much. I miss the area where I lived - where I married, where my first baby was born. I miss the ocean. I REALLY miss the ocean. I was able to dig my toes in the sand and watch my boys play, just like I wanted. It was a little piece of heaven on earth for me. I watched my husband truly relax. I watched my boys and nephews play together and I was able to laugh with my sister - something I haven't done in ages.

It felt good - really good. I don't know when I'll do it again. I keep telling myself that I need to bloom where I'm planted. I wonder how many times I'll have to repeat that to myself.

I haven't fallen off the face of the earth.

I'm here - haven't had internet access until today. I'm on vacation with my family - we spent all day on the beach yesterday. It's been fabulous so far - I really miss it here.

blah....blah....blah

Life has a tendency to get away from me. I feel like I'm in survival mode most days, having 3 boys here with me all day instead of just 2. It's amazing to me how much more food is eaten/laundry is used/messes are made when all 3 kidlets are here. Three children also require a BUTT TON more energy from me - I'm still adjusting to that.

Vacation is in 3 more sleeps - YAY! I'm not a fan of the 10 hour drive (one way), but it's nice bonding time with my husband and it's fun to play little games with the older boys while we're on the road. I'll get to spend some time at the beach, ON the beach, with family and friends. I'll get to watch my sweet nephew T play some baseball and I'll get to relax....I think we (especially my husband) need that part more than anything. We need the chance to get away from HERE. Away from the auto industry, more foreclosure signs than I care to ever see again, stress. As much as family drives me nuts sometimes, I'm thankful that we have a place to escape.

I'll be back soon with some baseball/tball tidbits AND a book review/giveaway.

Hope you guys enjoyed your weekend!

I'm tired.

Baseball and Tball are kicking my ass and I'm not even the one playing the games. I can only imagine how I'm going to feel when my boys are older and playing more than 1 sport.

It's hard for me to put into words how I'm feeling about the rest of what's going on in my life. I'm blessed - I have a good life and I don't take it for granted at all. We're all in desperate need of a vacation - time away from HERE, time to spend with each other and time to relax. There's so little relaxing around here - time is spent worrying about jobs and what's right for our family. I don't want to worry anymore. I want to dig my toes in the sand and watch my boys play on the beach. I'm tired of worrying.

Pardon my construction

With my incredibly limited skills, I'm trying to redo some things here. So, please excuse my mess.

Together.

We set out to make this weekend a complete family weekend - EVERYTHING we did, we did as a family. (I did bust out a bit by myself yesterday - with a family full of boys, taking them to a craft store sounds about as fun as a root canal.) It was really nice.

We loaded up our gear and went to the park on Saturday - we planted ourselves under a tree and just hung out. The weather was spectacular. The boys were very well behaved and fun was had by all. It was definitely needed. (My husband works for GM - life in our area isn't fun AT ALL. It's rather depressing, so a break from work AND beautiful weather was welcomed.)









It was one of those days that our souls craved. Time without phones and computers and technology. Time completely together as a family, laughing, joking and playing.

Here I sit, counting down to the next vacation. 29 days.

I could eat him with a spoon.

Ensemble from Target.

You Capture. Sweet.

Every little bit helps

As my walk in my faith continues, I'm always amazed at the ways God gets my attention. It's almost as if He slaps me on the back of the head and says, "DO THIS".

That virtual slap on the back of the head came this afternoon, when I read this.

If you can help, please do.

You Capture. Colors.

 

This week's You Capture is colors. This rose was the second thing I thought to snap - my eyes were the first, but I couldn't do it alone and the 5 year old couldn't help too much. I'm not feeling terribly creative, but the roses ARE beautiful.

Go visit Beth - see her groovy colors and the colors of others! You Capture. Colors

Beauty from my beasts :)

(Side note - I rarely call my children by their real names. I have numerous nicknames for them and some may sound odd and not terribly motherly, but hey, that's how we roll around here. So, if you see things like "beasts", please know I call them that with more love than you could ever imagine and they know it!)

My wonderful husband took some vacation time on Friday and took J to play some putt putt. I decided that napping with Henry was far more my speed at the time, so I snoozed for a glorious 2 1/2 hours. After putt putt and during my nap marathon, B and J shopped for these. I received them later Friday afternoon, after Will came home from school.



2 dozen of the prettiest red roses I think I've ever seen.



















A BEAUTIFUL geranium patio pot! (it's sitting in the garage because the weatherman suggested we bring plants inside last night.....stupid Michigan weather.....)


I had the best Mother's Day! An awesome church service started the day and then it was off to buy MORE plants (I bought a lot on Saturday, too!), eat some lunch and then come home to weed the garden and watch my beloved Tigers whoop up on some Indians tail. We ate yummy Chinese take out for dinner and watched AFHV and Extreme Makeover Home Edition as a family. It was truly a fabulous day. For those of you that are mothers, I hope your day was fabulous, too.

Now, please say a little prayer for that geranium patio pot and its contents. I have a black thumb despite my best intentions and I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY want those plants to thrive this summer. I purchased SO. MANY. plants this weekend for pots on our deck, so say a little prayer for those, too. They definitely need it.

I love this game!

God knew what He was doing when He gave me boys. I always wanted to be a mom to little boys. He knew that when this stage of life rolled around, I'd be ready for the challenge and REALLY soak it in. He was right and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it! It's time for some organized sports, my friends.

My time is no longer my own. My time now belongs to the LC teeball Atlanta Braves and the LC machine pitch Cleveland Indians. I now have to wash actual uniforms and **gasp** "protective gear" for my older boy. I sit in a folding chair on the sidelines, in the rain and wind, and cheer on my babies. I tell them to keep their eye on the ball and to "RUN! RUN! RUN!"

Jake plays teeball. Jake only plays teeball because Will plays baseball. Jake doesn't particularly care for the game. He's far more interested in the snack at the end of the game. In fact, he asks about the snack before the game even starts. B and I are fully prepared for his participation in this sport to come to a crashing halt soon. He's got the talent for it, but he's far too "eh, whatever" about it. He has fun playing the game and he's a GREAT sport about it - he goes where the coach tells him, hits when the coach tells him to hit and he cheers his teammates on throughout the game. This obviously isn't his niche though, so we're going to roll with it for the time being. Our boys are taught to see a sport through if they choose to play it, so Jake is prepared to play the rest of the season. I have a feeling he'll be choosing bowling next :)



Baseball is just one of Will's niches. The boy lives for this game. He's definitely my boy. It turns my stomach a bit to see him in a Cleveland Indians uniform instead of a Detroit Tigers uniform, but I can't get everything I want. He just wants to play and he doesn't care what position he plays. He's got skill. He's determined. He cheers on his teammates. It's so much fun watching him do something he loves.

The season ends at the end of June, so my life will revolve around that until then. I wash uniforms, etc several times a week and eat dinner at a ridiculously early hour, so we can get to the ballpark by game time. I schlep the Tank and his gear to the field and watch him toddle around and shake the fence along the 1st base line. I think it's his way of cheering on his oldest brother. he eats crackers and drinks milk when he's at Jake's game - he must be channeling Jake's true feelings. Jake would rather just eat, too.

I LOVE this game!

It's a sickness, people.

My sweet friend Jolyn got me REALLY hooked on couponing. She's a real pro at it - I'm learning little by little. It's hard for me to explain the joy I feel when I get a good or REALLY good deal on something. Like I told Jolyn and our friend Stacey (who is also quite good at the whole couponing thing), I squeal inside and come seriously close to dancing out the store. I now look for deals on everything - before, I bought things when they were on sale. Now, I will only buy them when they're on sale AND I have a coupon. It's a sickness, really. But, a good one.





2 Hormel Compleats
1 box Band Aid brand Band Aids
1 St. Ives Apricot Scrub
1 bottle Vaseline deep conditioning lotion
1 Clorox toilet bowl cleaner
1 box Soleil razors

I paid $6.36 for all of this stuff. $6.36 The razors by themselves were $5.29! This stuff came from Kmart - last week, in our area, Kmart doubled coupons up to $2.00! $2.00 off became $4.00 off instantly! That alone makes my head spin.



I paid ABSOLUTELY NOTHING for this. All of this toilet paper was FREE! Each package was a dollar this week at my local Kroger. I had a 50 cents off coupon for each one and Kroger doubles up to 50 cents - that makes it all FREE :)

I've become addicted to this. I never buy anything I won't use. I know of women who will buy 20 bottles of Robitussin just because it's on sale and they have coupons for it. I wouldn't use 2 bottles of Robitussin before it expired, much less 20. I understand donating to charity with stuff like this, but I'd rather buy 3 to donate and use the rest of the money to buy stuff I'd use.

Here are my 2 trips last night (no pictures though - I was too tired to do it by the time I got home and half of it is put away now).

4 boxes of Chex Mix Chocolate Chunk bars - $1.00 EACH - $4.00
2 boxes of Betty Crocker Fruit Stickers $1.00 EACH - $2.00

This store doubles coupons up to 50 cents. I had 4 coupons for 50 cents off a box of Chex Mix Chocolate Chunk bars. These coupons doubled to make the bars FREE!

I had 1 coupon for 50 cents off 2 boxes of Betty Crocker Fruit snacks of Fruit Stickers. That coupon doubled to $1.00 off 2 boxes. That made each box 50 cents.

I paid ONE DOLLAR for 6 boxes of snacks for my kids!

Next, on to Walmart.

I bought:

12 boxes of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese Crackers $1.00 EACH - $12.00
5 boxes of Pillsbury Brownie Mix, Family Sized $1.00 EACH - $5.00
1 box of Lucky Charms - $2.50 (impulse buy..I'll admit it - no coupon)
4 rolls of Bounty paper towels $1.00 EACH - $4.00
1 gallon of Tank milk - $1.98
1 dozen eggs - $.98
1 loaf of bread - $1.52
1 bottle of pancake syrup - $1.79

(The milk, eggs, bread and syrup were Walmart brand)

I paid $20.13 for all of this stuff. The crackers were 50 cents a box. The brownies were 65 cents a box (1 minor mix up - someone had put a cake mix down with the brownie mix and I picked up that instead. The cake mix was 88 cents, but I still got to use the coupon, so I only paid .53 cents. I paid 50 cents for each roll of paper towels.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this! I've always created my own kind of fun though...lol I got some great deals on stuff at Meijer last week, but I won't bore those of you who couldn't care less about this. :) However, I now have enough Capri Suns AND crackers to last me the rest of the school year and well into the summer!

If you're interested in learning more about couponing, go to www.couponmom.com and register. It's free and you'll learn A LOT. Also, register at www.afullcup.com. The women on that board are AMAZING at this kind of stuff.

Pink eye, baseball and stupid broken computer cord, OH MY!

In my effort to become a better homemaker, wife and mother, I've neglected this blog. I am H.O.R.R.I.B.L.E. with the balancing act. It's most definitely a shortcoming of mine. I was so much better when I was younger - I worked, carried a full 18 credits EVERY semester in college AND graduated in 4 years.

Fast forward several (ugh) years and here I sit and I can't do it anymore. I just need a schedule. I'm sure that will help. Yep, I'm sure of it. I'll work on that today.

So, here we are - Monday. We're coming to the end of a week full of antibiotics for the Tank. He contracted pink eye from his FIRST EVER visit to the church nursery. In fact, it was the first time WE'D ever been to that church. It was such a nice gift. Couple the pink eye with the head crud that came pouring out of his nostrils and we had a mighty fun and DISGUSTING week on our hands. He's on the mend now and back to his old self. Jake now has pink eye. I give it 2 more days before Will has it. I've already cleared it with the doc to use the same drops on all 3 kidlets - saves me duckets on the office visits.

Our baseball/Tball season has started - we're doing 2 practices a week for EACH child. I'm less than impressed with the league we're in - this would be the 2nd one we've tried. Organization is KEY to things like this and they have zero, zilch, nada. J's coach *believes* the season starts this Saturday, but she's not sure. Um....really? W's coach has no idea when the season starts. Um....really? Neither child has a uniform yet, either. Don't get me started.

On top of all of this, my stupid computer cord broke again. I have to order another one. I haven't ordered it yet, so I'm on B's computer. I like it fine, but I want MINE.

I promise, that as part of my effort to pull my arse together, I will post more. In fact, I'm going to work on a post about the $$ I saved last week. Couponing is a sickness, my friends. Just wait :)

So, yeah, THAT was fun!

Life hasn't been remotely interesting - that's why I haven't been here. Well, that, and Easter and family visiting.

So, my mom left on Sunday - we hung out as a family all day and it was lovely! I packed for our mini vacation. You might want to grab a cup of coffee or something to snack on - this is gonna be a long one.

We left Monday morning - our destination was 3 hours away. We got things situated when we arrived and B took the big boys downstairs to swim for a bit. I thought I'd put H down for a nap and enjoy the peace and quiet. I got the hotel crib set up - put it where he couldn't see me. I put him in it, just like I'd do at home - he stood up and screamed bloody murder. NOT. LIKE. HIM. at all. So, after 30 minutes or so, we headed downstairs to see B and the big boys - I saw no sense in keeping the poor kid up there if he wasn't going to sleep.

He headed out to explore about 45 minutes later - H fell asleep in the car almost immediately (he never does that either). He slept for about 25 minutes. We had dinner and headed to the mall that was near our hotel - they had a GREAT play area for itty bitty ones like H. He crawled around like a mad man for a good 40 minutes - I thought that would be a perfect thing to tire him out. Not so much.

We went back to the hotel and B gave him a bath. I brought everything from home to keep the routine the same. After his milk, I put him down in the crib and he stood up and screamed bloody murder. Again, not like him at all. My wonderful husband did everything in his power to get this kid to go to sleep. He walked, he sang, he bounced, he ignored. NOTHING worked. By 10:45 p.m., we knew that this child wasn't going to sleep and if he did, he'd wake numerous times. So, we packed up and came home!

We drove 3 hours to eat dinner at Red Lobster, look at Lake Michigan, go to the mall and swim in hotel pool. We got home at 2 a.m. I put H down in his crib and he rolled over and went to sleep. He slept until 9:30. Turd.

So, we decided to take the lemons we'd been given and make some lemonade. We had a STAYcation instead of a vacation! On Tuesday, we headed to a local outlet mall and B and the big boys played indoor glow golf while H and I walked around. Yesterday, we went to a Tigers game - H's first Tigers game. He was less than impressed, but I was in heaven. My beloved Detroit Tigers won 9 to nothing. I'd go to every home game if my wallet would allow it. Our spring and summer date nights are always Tigers games. Always. I wouldn't have it any other way.

B went back to work today - boo. Will has a few days left of spring break - we're headed to the park tomorrow with some friends. Today was going to be a garage saling day, but H isn't feeling too well. J has tball practice this afternoon, so we're going to lay low today. The windows are open and we're enjoying the fresh air. It's a gorgeous day!

My own crazy.

I don't know whether I'm coming or going as of late. There are just far too many things running through my brain right now. Excuse the randomness - it's my own kinda crazy.

My family needs a vacation in a bad, bad, BAD way. We are going away for 2 days early next week and while I'm happy about that, we really need to go somewhere WARM - somewhere where there's no threat of snow in APRIL.

I have to go grocery shopping tonight. I don't want to. I do the bargain shopping/coupon thing, so that requires a trip to 4 different stores. I love grocery shopping and I adore going by myself, but I just don't feel like going tonight. My mother is coming to visit tomorrow, so I must go tonight. I need to buy wine.....LOTS of wine.

I have the mother of all backaches right now - I think when I put H down for a nap, I'm going to have J sit on my back for a bit.

J won't stop talking - he talks incessantly. He didn't utter a word until he was 2. He must be making up for lost time.

H took 2 steps yesterday. I'm not sure how I feel about that.

I love Elmo. I could watch him all day. Elmo and Peep - have you ever watched that show on Discovery Kids? Google Peep and the Big, Wide World and listen to the theme song. I can guarantee you will sing it in your head for DAYS. I lurve it.

Me thinks I'm going to schedule a massage soon - I've not been a big fan of those before, but I'm thinking it might be a good idea now. Ya know, before my head explodes from all the stress.

I'm looking forward to May - May will bring to a close a volunteer position I've had since last summer. This position has caused me far too much stress. I'm happy to be done with it.

H can fake cough - it's pretty funny.

I just remembered that there are cookies left over that my MIL brought last weekend - YAY! YAY! YAY! I need something because I ate all of my Dove Truffle Eggs.

I need a nap.

I have books upstairs that I long to read.

My beloved Detroit Tigers aren't starting off well AT ALL.

1 more school day and I'll have all 3 boys here with me until April 20th. God help me.

A mighty funky diaper is calling my name right now. Ick.

Wordless Wednesday, but with LOTS of words

One year ago today, this sweet little boy entered the world. Once I put him on my belly and started talking to him, he stopped crying and stared at me. The love affair began right there.

I've done my best, as his mother, to soak up EVERY. OUNCE. of this year. I've patiently dealt with all of life's upheavals when a newborn joins the family. I've spent many, many hours just sitting - staring at him, smelling his hair, playing with his feet. I needed to memorize all of him.

This year has gone so amazingly fast. I vividly remember every detail of his birth - my water broke at exactly this time 1 year ago (1:34 p.m.) - I remember where I was and what I was doing. It's so surreal to me that all these months have passed and we've hit one year.

ONE YEAR.



I have a bond with this boy that I didn't know could exist. Don't get me wrong, I adore my big boys. They both hold very special places in my heart and I have bonds with them that I don't have with Henry.

I didn't sleep well last night - there was a yucky pit in my stomach. It was inevitable - he was going to turn 1, whether I wanted him to or not. I'm happy and excited on the outside, but a little piece of my heart is breaking on the inside. I just wanted him to stay little forever.



Staying little isn't going to happen. I'll continue to enjoy every bit of this. I'll keep that little broken piece of me on the inside and celebrate this year with my family tonight and let him grow.

Happy Birthday my sweet boy. I love you more than you'll ever know.