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I lie

to our pediatrician. Almost every visit. Because I have an approach to kid raising that is different than theirs.

Every well visit they ask me if my house is baby proofed. I say yes. because to me it is. But then they go on asking specific things like "are all your medicines put up" Yes, they are. "Are your cleaners locked away?" yes, they are. "Do you have baby gates" yes- ok, actually, we don't need any here. "Do you have outlet covers in?" Yes. Ok, that's where I lie. See, I have a problem with outlet covers. First of all, they annoy me. They are hard to get out when you need to use the outlet. But the biggest reason we don't have them is because I think they are stupid. Let me just say, if we adopted a kid, or had a kid who didn't have the same reasoning ability or anything like that I would put them in. But here is our approach to baby proofing.

I tell the kids not to touch the outlets. I tell them not to touch medicine, I tell them not to touch cleaners. Yes, we still put cleaners and medicine out of their reach. But I don't put plastic covers on my outlets. My thinking is if my kids always saw outlet covers in the outlets and we went to someone's house who didn't have outlet covers, they'd be more prone to put something in them, thinking there is supposed to be something there.   I guess I think we'd be lazy and not tell our kids that it's dangerous to play with outlets if we had covers in them. If they are open I know I will make sure to tell them. Like when I walk out of my room from putting Josiah to sleep and see caylee trying to put a screw driver in one. Yah, that gets a "Caylee, those will hurt you bad, you NEVER put anything in an outlet." 

I know there is no way to keep all bad things away from my kids, and there is no way to warn them about every dangerous or bad thing that will cross their path in their life. I wish there was.  I am trying to do the best that I can, and hope that when those things are placed in front of them they will know enough to either ask first, or just say no. Who knows if they will be offered ecigarettes or  worse, or when they might find themselves alone wanting to cross the street. (yes, I know crossing the street and having outlet covers are a lot different, but you get the point)

Blogging wave

I've noticed my blogging goes in waves. Some weeks I'll have something to say every day, other times I  don't blog for a month.  Sorry I'm not very consistent. 

Today Josiah had tubes put in his ears, We've known for a month that he was going to get them done, they decided when he was 6 months old that since he had pretty much had an ear infection his whole life, he needed tubes. But they wanted to wait until he was 7 months old because of the anesthesia.

Caylee had tubes put in twice, so we knew the procedure and what to expect. When she woke up out of it the first time she was psycho. screaming, nothing could calm her down, the second time she was older and it was a little better. Josiah was just pretty calm when he woke up, which was nice. He just sat there staring at me with his mouth gaped open for at least 30 minutes.  All in all it went pretty easy. He wasn't allowed to eat from midnight until after the surgery, and he ended up not eating  after 10pm. Poor guy woke up at 3 starving. I could feel his belly growling, we had an hour of fussing before he fell back asleep. I'm glad it was just an hour.  The only thing that really irritated me was that they told us we had to be there by 6. We registered and sat in the waiting room until 6:30. Then it was 7:05 before they even did anything. It annoyed me because to me, if you tell someone to be there by 6, you should be ready for them at 6.  It really only took them about 10 minutes to do all they did before he had to go back into the OR, they took his temperature, blood pressure and the little oxygen level, had us put him in the gown then gave him some medicine to make him drowsy.  At 7:15 they took him back, and brought him to us at 7:40 all dopey. :) Then of course they had to watch him for awhile, we left at 9. crazy to be there 3 hours for a 20 minute thing.

He's been extra fussy today, and has been eating a lot, not sure if he's trying to make up for what he couldn't eat last night or what! The doctor said fluid came out of both ears when they put the tubes in, so there was obvious reason for the tubes. I wonder if he is hearing better now. I imagine he would be if there was always fluid behind his ear drums!  I guess we'll find out soon.

He started waving yesterday, it's pretty cute. If I say HI and wave my hand he says something that sounds like a very breathy "hi" and twists his little hand while moving his fingers.  He's getting so big, I can't believe he's 7 months old already. jeepers this year is flying by!!

Josiah's first camping trip

We went camping this past weekend with my family in Pennsylvania. It was tons of fun, the girls love hanging out with their cousin's, and Josiah got to meet my mom.  It was Josiah's first camping trip and I think he loved it. While we were camping he fell asleep with no problems, he loved being outside, the only thing he didn't love was having to be held all the time, it was really muddy so there was no place to lay him down. Every once and a while I'd sneak off to my sister's pop up and lay him on one of the beds, he enjoyed rolling around.

Watching the girls in the lake reminded me so much of me when I was little. I used to stay in the water as long as possible, no matter how cold I was. Lexi was the same way, at one point her lips were blue and she was shivering but she kept insisting she wasn't cold. I just smiled and said ok. :) Caylee liked playing in the sand more than the water, but she had fun too.

Weight and running

Have I ever mentioned that I love running for weight loss? Every time I run I lose about a pound. (if I run more than a mile or so). I know it's just my body, and I know it stops coming off at that rate eventually, but it's nice for now!  I started trying to lose weight the week before Easter, so 5.5 weeks ago. As of right now I'm down 15lbs. Guess I don't need to look up hydroxycut reviews after all. I'd be a lot better off, but for about 3 weeks, I keep losing weight during the week and gaining it back during the weekend. I've lost the same 3lbs about 4 times now. :) Yah, weekends are bad for me!  I have a feeling this weekend might be even worse, we're going camping with some of my family... and camping is always my excuse to eat junk!  I am bringing my running stuff though, and I've told my sister I want to run 5 miles on Saturday. We'll see how well I do! Hopefully I'll at least run off the extra food I eat! (like the s'mores!)

Swagbucks

Have you heard of Swagbucks? it's a great easy way to earn $5 amazon giftcards. I get about one every month and a half, just for searching things!! Seriously, I have the swagbucks toolbar and every time I need to look something up I just type it in there instead of google. Every few searches you win points, and when you get 450 points you can cash it in for a $5 amazon giftcard. Yes, there are other prizes or things you can win, but that's just what I choose, it's easiest for me. 
If you're really researching something you might have to use google to find what you're looking for, but always try swagbucks first! They have a decent selection of results, so if you're looking for something simple like body acne treatment, you should find something.  It's just the rare items that you have to research on google. The funniest thing about swagbucks, is I tend to win more when I misspell something I am searching for!

A late Easter post

We went to Tennessee for Easter Sunday, but when we returned home we celebrated a late Easter with my husband's family at his sister/mom's house. It was tons of fun, We hung out and ate yummy food, prepared by all. Together there were 26 of us all together and finding a place to sit to eat was interesting! They have a lot of chairs, but there were still people sitting on lawn chairs, coolers and even metal step stools! Having big families is fun, even if you end up sitting on something uncomfortable for Easter dinner. You can't replace the enjoyment of getting together, playing quelf, watching the kids all play and being silly.

We both have decent sized immediate families, The 26 that were there for Easter included my husband's family and 6 friends of his one sister. My family is a big bigger, there are 36 of us- that's just my mom, step dad, siblings and their families.  I wont even go into the size of our families if you include cousins, aunts and uncles!! 

The Battleground

The Battleground had it's first show on Saturday. Unfortunately I was unable to go, between being sick and not having anyone to watch the girls we just decided it would be best if I stayed home. I missed not being there, but I know it was an awesome time, it's great to see how God is putting it all together.  We need to start thinking about things like business cards printing and insurance and stuff like that. All the little details that weren't important before, but will be as time goes on and as we have more and more shows. (not that insurance isn't important, we had event insurance, but we need to get some permanent insurance so we don't have to pay per show).

 I am just excited to see how God moves and creates this venue, this safe place for the youth to hang out!

sleeping animals

Yesterday I went to the North Carolina zoo with my 3 kiddos, my niece and a bunch of people from a homeschool group. We had fun, Wet, chilly fun. It rained almost the entire time, one moment it would be pouring, the next minute it would be ok, then it would drizzle and drizzle and drizzle.  We bought 3 ponchos, one for me and Josiah (since he was in the sling), one for Gabbie and one to throw over the two girls in the jogging stroller. I like our jogger, but a new baby jogger city select would be nice. Actually a few of my friends have a newer version of my stroller and it is nicer too. Not that there is anything wrong with the one I have, the best part about the one I have is that it was free!! you have to love free!

I think a lot of the animals must have been sleeping or hiding from the rain because we didn't see a bunch that we were supposed to see.  The giraffes weren't allowed outside in the rain I guess, there was a sign saying that. But I don't know what happened to the Elk and other animals! The Chimpanzees and Gorilla gave us a nice show, as well as the sea lion. My favorite was the polar bear, although he did nothing but lay there... they are still one of my favorite animals!

There was one chimp that really liked Lexi, it came right over to the glass and was sitting about a foot from her, it even told her hi. It was really fun to watch, they also had a baby chimp that was born on her birthday last year, it was really cute too! The gorilla scared a group of people, it was walking back and forth in front of the glass then just turned around and jumped up and with all four legs it pounded on the glass. It was humorous to hear everyone scream from a few exhibits down!

Old Time Market

Today I went to a little grocery store just a few blocks away. I think it's 5 blocks... over one, up 4. anyway... it's this little small town grocery store that reminds me a lot of the IGA that was a few miles from my home when I grew up.

You know what I'm talking about. The one where everyone knows everyone, they carry a lot, but not a lot of brands of it, if they need a price check they can just yell "how much are the bags of vidalia onions?" and someone yells back "2.99".(That actually happened while I was there.) There isn't a barcode scanner in the middle of the store to tell you the price, you have to ask an actual person. Who is more than friendly, and more than willing to help. It was cute, and so close, I'll most definitely be using this store for the "whoops I forgot to get x,y,z" trips!

My Mother's Day

I was so excited about Mother's day. I had made a triple batch of ham and potato soup, cheese cake and my yummy mint melt away brownies. We woke up, got ready for church, and walked the two blocks to church.  Half way through the music I started feeling not so swell, I was freezing and shaking as well as my whole body was aching. I decided to leave, walk home and get some rest while the kids and Eugene stayed at church. I'm glad I did, I barely made it home, and curled up in bed trying to stay warm. After a few tylenol and a rest I started to feel a little better.

We had plans to bring all that yummy food to my mother in law's house and enjoy mother's day with her. After checking with them we decided to just go over anyway. I enjoyed some of the yummy food, despite feeling like crud.

At the end of the day I went to bed early and slept very well. I can't say it was the best mother's day full of flowers and fruit baskets, but it was still good. Any day full of homemade soup, bread, salad and cheesecake is good!

Mother's Day!

Tomorrow is Mother's day. Normally it's not that big of a deal for us here, I might get a small present, and it's the one day of the year I normally get away without cooking or washing dishes. I made it easy on my husband this year, instead of him trying to think of Mother Day ideas, i told him I wanted a new pair of flip flops. :) I even ordered them myself. Made it extra easy on him.

This year is a little different, I'm not getting out of cooking and probably wont get out of cleaning, instead I am cooking for his entire family. This is the first time in years his mother has been close enough to celebrate with her. You don't realize how much you rely on your mother until she is half way across the country... I miss you mommy!  Anyway... I made up a triple batch of cheesey ham and potato soup, I'm also making mint melt away brownies and cheese cake. Yah, not making it easy this time!  That's ok. it will be worth the cheese cake.

Shopping anyone?

I am so in the mood to shop, I don't know what it is, but I just want to shop. not go out and go to stores and shop, but shop online. I'm always cautious when ordering from new sites, I'm always afraid I'm going to fall for some fake store scam. Today I got to order my Mother's day present, a new pair of Teva flip flops. I was excited, but once I bought them I just wanted to buy more and more stuff!

It's amazing to me all the things you can buy online, seriously, you can find anything. Once I bought baby turtles. I'm not kidding either. you can get food, toilet paper, shoes, clothing, furniture, you can even buy gold coins online. I'm starting to wonder if you even need to leave your house. You can even order a pizza and have it delivered. Crazy what this world is coming to. Soon we will all be a bunch of hermits who don't really know real people, we just have online friends, and online conversations. I already catch myself saying "I know someone who..." when in fact, I really don't know them, I just read their blog, or am friends with them on facebook.  Where are all the personal relationships going?

Another round of babies

no, not me. People all around me are pregnant. Not as many as when I was pregnant with Josiah, but I still know a lot of people who are pregnant! Soon dad's will be breaking out their dutch master cigars to celebrate the birth of their new babies.

I met a woman who I think is going to become a pretty good friend. She was watching Josiah in the nursery on Sunday. We have a lot of things in common, we both are mothers, use cloth diapers, breastfeed, homeschool... we had a play date the other day and our kids seemed to get along pretty good too, it was nice to see Lexi interacting with other kids. She has 3 kids and is due in the end of July/beginning of August. 

She also told me about the homeschool co-op that meets at the church, the La Leche League that meets a few blocks away and a story time that meets a few buildings down from me! It's nice to know there are things going on around here. It will give the kids and I some things to look forward to, anything for some socialization with other mommies!

Grilling season

Grilling season is here! I was so excited on Saturday we met Eugene's mom at Lowes to help them pick out a new grill. Since we have no place to grill we live through them. (plus we get to enjoy the food every once and a while). I couldn't believe the selection of grills though, they had something for everyone, if you had $99 or $799 there was a grill for you. Some had LED light up nobs (I guess so you can grill in the dark!?) the girls loved turning those on and off, some had searers, some had burners, some had an infrared heater, rotisseries... all sorts of fancy things.

I'm pretty sure when we finally have a place to put a grill we'll go with a simple gas grill. I can't imagine needing all the fancy bells and whistles. I want a grill to grill on, amazing concept I know.

Either way.. bring on the meat!!  (yes I am aware that there are plenty other things that taste great on grills as well..)

Sheet swap

Have I ever mentioned how much I hate making beds? As in changing the sheets. It's especially bad now that we don't have a dryer and when I wash them we end up with sheets hanging everywhere, draped over every chair, shower rod, curtain rod etc.  Also, the girls have bunk beds... that makes changing sheets very, very frustrating.  Maybe if I had some nice peacock alley bedding, maybe I'd enjoy changing sheets better. but I doubt it. 

I think it took me 45 minutes to change our 3 beds today. Caylee has been wetting the bed almost daily either her diaper leaking at night, or peeing during nap time. it makes me hate changing the sheets even more!  Oh another issue with them is we have these really odd waterproof mattress pads on the girls beds, they must be too big or something because they don't stay on very well at all, and when you're trying to stretch the sheets over them it normally ends up pulling them off the corners. Yah, I hate changing sheets so much I can write a whole blog post about it.

Travel books

My bestest best friend is moving to California for the summer. She is going to be spending about a week in a van with her 3 children, so I decided to try to find some simple games to throw together in a book to help keep them busy.  I found a car bingo game online, and created some games myself, then printed off 3 copies of everything. I'm so glad our printer is one of the few hp printers that has cheap ink.

I then began the cutting, laminating, cutting, whole punching and putting together the books, then I realized it was 4:20, and the post office closes at 4:30. So I woke up my sleeping child, changed her clothes because she had peed the bed, and all four of us ran to the post office. got there just in time to get it in the mail! what an adventurous day.

it's back...

While I was pregnant with Josiah my adult acnehad gone away. but it's back again. came back a few months ago. In fact the only time I think I've ever not had acne was while I was pregnant with him. and it wasn't through the whole pregnancy, just part of it. I broke out worse when I was pregnant with the girls, but for some reason with him it was a little better. I just wonder if I'm going to be dealing with these zits my entire life, or if they will go away... maybe when I'm a grandma they will be gone. Guess I'll have to wait 30 more years to find out.

Gluten Free update 3 weeks

It’s been a bit over 3 weeks since we eliminated gluten from Caylee’s diet. I really didn’t notice a difference in her personality or sleeping or eating until Saturday night. We went out to eat at Famous Daves and ordered her mashed potatoes and corn on the cob. What I didn’t know was that they give a little pack of oreos with kids meals…. The oreos started a break down that had half of the restaurant staring at us. She was way too hungry to calm down (unfortunately she gets that from me… there’s a certain point of hunger that nothing can be reasoned with). So we let her have an oreo, then made her eat some mashed potatoes and corn on the cob. she didn’t want them. She ate my corn muffin. then ate her second oreo…. that night she woke up about 8 times, Sunday she was way more whiny than normal too. Eugene at that point looked at me and said “no more gluten, EVER”.
So now I am certain, it does affect her sleeping, and her attitude. She’s not eating any better though, in fact I think she’s more picky. She is asking for different things though. We ate Easter dinner at a Mexican restaurant and she asked for a taco. we got her one with fries because I had my doubts about the taco. She wouldn’t touch it. but at least she ordered it! And yesterday on the way home we stopped at mcdonalds and she asked for a burger. I ordered her one without a bun. Again, she didn’t eat it, but I will happily give her food when she asks, even if she doesn’t eat it. I’ve heard you have to put food in front of them several times before they actually try it. One of these times she’ll try it.
This morning I made some pancakes out of a Pamela’s Gluten Free mix that my friend (The Natural mommy) sent me. I used coconut oil as the oil instead of canola or vegetable oil. She ate 2 of them, I ate one to try it. I think it was the best pancake I’ve ever had. I don’t know if it was the coconut oil that made the difference or what, it was SO good.
She’s still eating the GF substitute foods fine without noticing a difference, with an exception of the Van’s GF frozen waffles we got, she hates those…. I was really nervous when I made pizza though, because her pizza was square and ours was round, I thought she’d notice a difference in the shapes of the pieces and throw a fit. I’ve made pizza 3 times and she hasn’t said anything yet!

I was wrong.

not that it doesn't happen often, because it does... but a few minutes ago Lexi showed me this:

That's a clump of her hair. She held it in one hand, and the scissors in the other. That was her way of protesting that I took the glitter away. She now is without scissors AND glitter.  Luckily with her curly hair, it's almost impossible to see where she cut it from.

The reason I was wrong is because I really thought Caylee would be the first one to cut their hair... she's the more adventurous one. I just hope that she doesn't think you're supposed to do that now.

Gluten Free update

Caylee has been Gluten Free for a week and a half, so far I notice no difference in anything, other than the fact that she is peeing ALL over the floor ALL the time. but I don’t think that’s related to taking gluten out of her diet.
The only thing she’s been asking for that we haven’t found a GF version of is poptarts and toaster strudels. We found two different brands of GF chicken nuggets, she liked one, the other she wont eat. We’ve given her the GF waffles twice now and she wont eat those either. I had gotten some before that she ate, but for some reason she wont eat these.
It’s been pretty easy, some things we’ve just known to keep out of the house (like Oreos) I’ve yet to make any bread for her, but she hasn’t asked for a sandwich or anything so I guess it’s ok.
I made her GF pizza and she loved it. I was really afraid she’d notice a difference in looks and not try it, but she ate it, infact she ate three pieces. She also had the rice spaghetti and didn’t seem affected by the difference.
Hopefully next Friday I’ll start seeing some improvement in her behavior and maybe, possibly, her eating habits?
I did notice that she hasn’t said her stomach hurts as much, I think I’ve heard her say it once and it was immediately followed by “I’m hungry”, so I don’t know if it was a hunger pang or a hurting pang.