Currently...Firsts

The past couple weeks we've had a lot of firsts in our house:

 Currently... The night before her first day of first grade Brooke lost her first tooth!

First day of school!  And guess what?  She lost her second tooth on the first day of first grade!  She was very excited because she is the first one that gets to go on the "tooth chart" in her class.

So that night when she went to put the tooth in her little tooth pillow - she dropped it!  We searched everywhere but could not find it.  She wrote a note for the Tooth Fairy saying she was sorry and luckily the Tooth Fairy took pity on her and gave her money anyway.  She even left some fairy dust behind!

Don't worry though, we've since found the tooth and little Miss TF swung by and made a pick up. 

Currently... the girls started soccer.  But what is extra exciting is this is Ava's first year on a actual team!

Go Comets!

Currently... we converted Parker's toddler bed into a big boy bed.  Yikes.  I'm not going to lie, there were some tears shed when we were taking it down.  It made me a little sad that our "baby" is no longer a baby anymore.  Don't get me wrong; I don't want another one.  I just wish the ones we have would slow down a little bit.  

Wasn't it just yesterday that I was a slightly insane Mother of three children under the age of three?  How did I make it out alive?

Currently... Parker and Ava started school.  Ava is going Monday through Friday and Parker is going Tuesdays and Thursdays.  

I so miss those faces during the day but I know they are having so much fun.  Ava has been looking forward to this for so long and her excitement is so fun to watch.  

Currently... I have Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9-2 to myself!  I have not had a kid free day like this in over six years.  This is a big deal people!  I am loving the break right now but it's only been two days so far.  I know it'll get harder the more it goes on.  The count down is on for when they are all in school full time and I'm fully aware of it.  I am cherishing every minute I get with these blessings.  

Speaking of blessings, our first born- Chester is excited to get some more one on one time.  On our first day home together he requested a nice long walk.

We are both going to work on getting back in shape while the kids are at school.  He had good results this Summer and doesn't want to backslide.  I'm pretty sure Chester's the only one who goes to the Skellenger Family Doins' and looses weight!

Above is Chester's amazing results from California Chris' Fat Camp for Pups.  And yes my dog is giving me a high five.  He's just that awesome.  

  

On Being Human: This Is The Stuff

Today has surely been "one of those days" and I just need a minute to be human for a second.  Since this afternoon I've had this song on repeat in my mind.  I had to just to make it through.  

I had a hint that it was going to be "one of those days" when I woke up in a puddle of urine...

Don't worry, it wasn't mine..  Although I'm not sure which would be worse?  

Parker woke up again last night with a fever.  And by fever I mean 104.5 burning hot lava fever.  Needless to say I wasn't sending him back to bed when he was that sick so we let him sleep with us.  I had been pumping him full of ice water trying to bring the fever down and keep him hydrated. Well, this morning it back fired on me... literally! 

Long story short here's the summary of my day:

*Two kids with fevers

*Two kids with Strep Throat

*One kid that had to get two shots today and literally had her first ever  full blown, knock down, drag out fit right in the Doctors office because she was so scared.  I've never seen her like that. 

*One kid pooped in the bathtub

*One kid "accidentally peed" in her sisters bed because she was too busy to stop playing

*I accidentally pulled out the stitches in my mouth from my surgery last Monday

*I lost the paperwork for the kids school so I had to run around town and get those all filled out- again

But none of that, not even all of that together was as rough as having to say good bye to a cherished friend this morning.  

Friday a Pastor at our church, passed away unexpectedly.  This man and his family have truly been a blessing to me and our family since we've moved here.   I often joked with him that since his grand babies live far away and my kids grandparents live so far that he was our honorary PawPaw.  And that's what we called him, the "PawPaw Pastor."  That's what everyone called him.  

My kids are forever trying to talk me into going to their frozen yogurt shop by sweetly saying "Mom, can we go visit PawPaw Wayne and Mrs. Margret?!"  I'm pretty sure they love Wayne and Margret as much as the yogurt.  I know I do.

It's moments like today when you really have to stop and put things into prospective.  Yes- I am exhausted: physically, mentally and emotionally after today.  But even now, as I'm getting ready to end this crazy day with swollen eyes from crying and a pounding headache I am going to bed with a smile and a humble heart. 

*I smile because I had the privilege to know Wayne.  For him to be my mentor in children's ministry.  To call him my friend.

*I smile because there was not a dry eye or an empty chair in that huge church today and I know he meant as much to them as he did to me.  He truly was a legend and he left a great legacy to prove it.

*I smile because God trusts me to take care of these, His children when they are sick.  

*I smile because we have the resources and the ability to take care of our children when they are sick.

*I smile because I have an amazing support system that allows me to take a day or two and be real about the hurt/anger/sadness I feel towards losing my friend.  But they also rejoice with me knowing that he is surely in Heaven with our precious Lord.

*I smile because somehow through it all I was somehow able to get 4 loads of laundry done; including both sets of pee soaked sheets!  

I'm not going to lie.  I did my fair share of crying today.  I cried over spilled water cups, I cried over having to clean up pee for what felt like the hundredth time today.  But you know what?  This is the stuff that He is using to show me that this "stuff" doesn't matter.  As much as it feels like it in the moment- in the end, it doesn't really matter.  (Quick!  Name that song.)  Does that make sense?  

Our Pastor said it best today during the service, "When it comes down to it, the things that matter the most are:  Who you love and who loves you.  That's what you should live your life for.  That's what Wayne lived his life for."  

"Live Simply, love generously, care deeply, speak kindly and leave the rest to God."

That was Wayne's favorite saying and he sure lived every bit of it.

Family Picture Day

I forgot to add these two pictures on my last post.  Krekles is the local burger joint in Brian's home town.  I began my love affair with it on my first trip back there years ago and it was love at first bite.  The burgers are juicy and the ice cream is divine.  

Grandma and Ava waiting on our order.

We spent lots of time playing in the water in Grandpa and Grandma's back yard.  It was hot!

One evening while we where there my Mother In Love had arranged for us to have some family pictures taken.  We got to the spot a little early so I had to sneak a few pictures of my own while everyone was all dolled up.  This doesn't happen everyday so I had to get proof of it!

Cousins!

Brian's cousin Amy was our photographer.  I so wish we lived closer so a) our kids could play together more and b) so Amy and I could play together more!  I wish she could teach me everything she knows because she is an amazing photographer.

One more little tid-bit that we learned that evening.  The kids pointed it our actually. Matt and Amy's three kids and our three kids all have the same eyes.  All three of my kids have different colored eyes; brown, blue and hazel.  So do hers!  How crazy is that?!

It was good to see you and the kiddos Amy!  Can't wait to see the pictures you got.  I know they'll be amazing!

Vacation Rewind

Guess who got to go in for emergency dental surgery this morning because she broke her tooth on a Swedish Fish...

You read that right.  A Swedish Fish.  Those chewy candies.  

Yeah so I had a tooth that had been having some sensitivity problems since last year.  We did not one but two root canals on it and they had just decided our last chance to salvage the tooth would be to put a crown on it.  They put a temporary crown on while the permanent one was being made.  I was given strict orders not to chew anything chewy on that side or it might just pop it right off.

Well, I momentarily suffered short term memory loss and I grabbed ONE Swedish Fish and popped it in my mouth.  After a few bites I bit down on something hard and heard a crack.  My first thought was "What the heck was in that fish?  I am so going to sue that company!"  Then I spit it out of my mouth and looked at it.  It took me a second to recognize my temporary crown, or what was left of it. 

I had cracked it!  Luckily I called the Doc and they said that they had just received my permanent crown so come on in and they'd get it on for me.

So yeah that was fun... Then we went on to California and I didn't think anything of it.  Until that tooth started hurting that is.  By the time I got home the tooth was swollen and the gums were bruised around it.  X rays confirmed sure enough it was infected and apparently I cracked not just the temporary crown but also my tooth on that dumb fish!

Ugh!  Anyways, all that to say - I got my tooth pulled out of my face this morning and now I'm home resting under the care of Dr. Brian and his 3 assistants.  I figured I'd take advantage of this time and try to get caught up on my posting about all our shenanigans from this Summer.  We've been so busy having too much fun that I haven't had time to keep up with things around here.

When I last left off we were still in Illinois having fun with Brian's family.  There is a great zoo just down the street from Brian's parents house and the kids loved it!  Heck, we all loved it!

We got to feed the goats.

Or rather the goats kind of helped themselves to the food Chris purchased.

One of the kids favorite parts was riding the train around the place looking at the animals.

I love this moment I caught between Brian and Parker.  Parker talked the entire ride.  He was Daddy's own private tour guide.  Who needs the tour guide conductor when you have Parker around?

My girls!

Parker was not very fond of the "crock-e-dial."  Daddy had to carry him past that part because he froze up and said "Crock-e-dial going bite me!"

Here's Brooke doing her very best Prairie Dog impression.

And my little Avers.

And this cute little man.  I just can't get enough of him.

All Things Abe... Lincoln That Is

We're baaaack!  We finally made it home last night about 1:00 am.  It was a long day of driving but I just kept thinking, "In a week we're going to be doing this all again but the next trip is going to be twice as long."  Yikes!

Well, here I am sitting up at 12:15 wide awake.

I think it's a result of staying up until the wee hours of the morning for the past week playing this.

While sipping on this.

Well, if I'm going to be awake I might as well make myself useful and try to get things caught up around here:

We had a great time exploring all things Lincoln-like earlier last week.  

First we toured the Lincoln's New Salem Historical Site in Petersburg, Illinois .

It was a really cool place.  Abe himself lived here for six years when he was young.  

They did a great job of recreating what the town probably looked like during that time.

Here's my Sister In Love Jen being the teacher in the school house.

After that we headed over to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Illinois.  Here we are just hanging out with the Lincoln's.  This picture was taken at the end of the day.  Can you tell?  Parker and Ava were beyond done. 

Brooke got a clipboard when we first arrived with a list of "detective" questions.  She was all over that. She took it VERY seriously.

Grandma and Auntie Jen helping.

There were so many cool things to see and I really learned a lot in the time we where there.

So did Brookie.  She turned in her answers and she got an official "History Detective" certificate.  What a great idea.  

After we got done there we all headed over to The Cracker Barrel for some dinner.  And that's where I saw these little beauties.  That's high class white trash right there!

Sorry we're not home right now. We're vacationing with family, so leave a message and we'll call you baaaack!

Well it's that time of the year again; Vacation Time!  Every Summer I warn ya that I might not be hanging around here much because I'm preoccupied with making memories with my family.  Looks like this Summer is going to be no different.

We left Texas Saturday morning at the butt crack of dawn and didn't stop driving until we landed ourselves in Illinois late that night.  

After having gone to bed at 1 am the night before, and getting up at 4:30 to a early start on the road- this Mama was wiped.  Starbucks on this day was a necessity not a perk.

Oh and this picture is really fuzzy but I had to post it because Brian and I about died laughing at one point during the trip.  You might remember that we had a DVD player installed in our car right before we left.  Well wireless headphones will work with it so I ran out and bought some for our trip. Brian said he absolutely was not listening to Strawberry Shortcake our whole trip(s).  

Well a little while into our trip I laid my seat back to try to rest a little and the kids were watching Cars.  Right when I started falling asleep Parker started hollering up to the front seat "Hey Mom!  You wike dat song Mama?  You hear dat Mama?" over and over again.  Brian kept telling him "Quiet Mommy is sleeping but I don't think Parker could hear him with those headphones on.

Finally I sat up and looked at the TV because I do remember there is some music in that movie but I didn't think there was that much.  I told him to pass up his headphones so I could hear what he was listening too.  He kept telling me "No!  I wistening to da music!" 

Well when I finally got ahold of those things and put them up to my ear all I heard was some kind of Chinese rap music.  It was hilarious.  He must have hit the scan button on the headphones and picked up some kind of radio station along the way.  He had probably been listening to that for at least a good 30 minutes.  We all had a good laugh about that.

One of the stops we made along the way was to see Brian's old Frat house.  They had just got done doing some renovations to it and he wanted to check it out.  It was storming really bad and the poor guy got soaked just running up to the front door.  I mean it literally looked like he had stood under a garden hose.  Unfortunately no one was there so we didn't get to go inside.  

We went by the Arch in Saint Louis just as the sun was setting and it was beautiful. 

By the time we got to Grandpa and Grandma's the kids were worn out.  This is how I found Brooke and Ava that night when I went to check on them.

We've been having tons of fun every day since we got here. 

And Parker finally has a little buddy to play boy toys with!  

And he's a cutie.  I am just loving spending time with this little guy.  He's the cutest little thing ever.  I'm one lucky Auntie!

So much fun!