Now what?

I find myself sitting here in my bedroom at 7 in the morning....and Ive been "up" since 5am.
Ryan decided he wanted to be fussy and not sleep, then he wanted to play...but now he is snoozing in his swing (also in my room for JUST such an occasion..thank God for big bedrooms, eh?) I'm not so lucky to fall back asleep like a baby though.
I didn't really sleep well last night anyways..I was tossing and turning long before Ryan had me dealing with him. I woke up at 3:30 from a bad dream involving Kathy Bates hiding in my bathroom, and trying to stab me with a giant butcher knife when I realized she was in there. She had the big crazy eyes, an evil sinister smile, and everything when she was pushing it into my chest. I'm telling ya, it was so realistic....I had to turn on the light before I walked into the bathroom to use it...even if might wake up the sleeping baby. It was creepy..and the funny thing. I haven't seen Misery in a good 5 years. The last movie I saw her in was Disney's Annie for crying out loud!!
I'm not in a great mood today either, and I don't really know why. I'm feeling quite full up on emotions and that annoys me. Before Ryan was born. I was perfectly able to keep emotions, especially mine at bay. I'm not comfortable with them. I don't show or share them well, I don't deal with other people's well.....they just plain make me feel uber uncomfortable. I wear emotions like a nudist would wear a woolly pair of underoos. Anyways...Before Ryan was born...I could keep it contained. Then, I delivered the beautiful baby boy, started crying tears of joy and now...6 months later... I cant seem to stop em. The dam has blown and the floods have torn through. Emotions- to me, make me look weak. I don't see them that way with other people, but for me I guess it is different standards.
So...much to my dismay....I'm feeling a bit swamped by them, and at times I feel as though I'm drowning in them. I'm not sad. Not at all. I'm a happy person. I love my husband, I love my children. I love my friends. I love my life. I'm not depressed....I just don't know what to do with all the emotion. They aren't all sad emotions....so don't go thinking that I'm some sort of crying, weeping, miserable fruitcake. They are emotions, period....The question is? What do I do with them, and why now?

Rubber snakes and a cranky baby..

Gracie and Daddy went on a field trip yesterday to the state forest with Gracie's second grade class. Apparently forests now have gift shops, because...

Gracie came home with a rubber snake, and not just any Ole' rubber snake. Nope, this one grows to 4 feet if you soak it in water for 4 to 5 days. Soooooo, now I have a rubber snake growing in my bathtub (he comes out at bath time) Gross!!

Yes....most folks have nothing growing, lots have the scum, a few have some mold. I...have a rubber snake ***eye roll***

P.S.

Ryan is cranky. What a life

We've Come A Long Way Baby!

FROM THEN...... TO TODAY.....

Ryan is 6 months old today!

I can not believe that this precious little baby boy has been a part of our family (not counting the nine months I carried him of course) for 6 months, half a year, 182 days!! Where has the time gone?

It is exciting but bittersweet, because unless God knows something I don't Ryan is the last little baby for me, the final addition to our family, the piece that completes the puzzle. As Steven Curtis Chapman puts it.."Eeny, Meeny, Miny and No Mo'!" 3 kids. we are full up.

To some 6 months may seem like a lifetime, to others a blink in time. For me it is both. It seems to have flown by so fast, and yet I can barely remember what life was like before this little piece of heaven was here on earth with us. I do remember one thing though. It wasn't nearly as sweet.

How fitting a tribute to your life and the gift from God that you are, that your dedication was just two days ago. I cant wait to see the amazing things I know God has in store for you and until then ....

May the Lord bless you and keep you: May the Lord make His face shine upon you, and be gracious unto you: May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace." Numbers 6:24

Happy 6 months little man! May the next 6 months and beyond be as full of love and new learning, fun and family as these last 6 months have been for you. We love you Ryan!!

It is inevitable...

It is inevitable.. bound to happen and there is no way I can get around it.

Grace is going to tick me off. That is a given on any day, but today specifically because along with everything else.....

It is inevitable, that they will not only destroy my house.....

It is also inevitable that I will run out of patience LONG before the day runs out of time, That the dishes will go undone until the wee hours of the morning tomorrow BEFORE they awaken for the day, the laundry will yet again remain unfolded and not put away.

It will happen that I will not get a chance to take a shower until 1am in the morning when EVERYONE is sleeping except me because I just finished eating my dinner....that I cooked 5 hours early and fed to everyone else.

It will happen that Grace will somehow find a way to antagonize the snot out of Hailey to the point that Hailey (a normally very patient child) will blow her top and yell, resulting in Ryan being awakened from his nap early and screaming. It will happen.

It is expected that they will NOT clean their room the way I asked them and I will find dirty clothes shoved in the back of their drawers when I go to put their clean clothes away (if I ever get around to fold it that is)

I will have a headache by noon. Unless of course it just decides to stick around from the day before.

They will be bored. They will have absolutely nothing to do. Even though we have over 100 cable channels 7 of which are exclusively aimed towards children 24 hours a day. We have the Internet with endless possibilities for entertainment. They have a HUGE collection of very expensive toys in their bedroom that they only 3 months ago INSISTED they would DIE if they didn't have in their possession. They have bikes and scooters and a swing set to play on outside. Not to mention friends out there to play with as well.

It is inevitable...because it is spring break, because it is April, because it is the 1st Tuesday of the month and the full moon was in the sky for 14.6 hours the other night, because she is wearing blue today, and I am wearing pink. Because I said so, or just because. Because I am Eight and eight-twelfths. Because she is 5 and three quarters. Because I feel like it. Because I don't feel like it. Because I can.

It is inevitable because she woke up on the wrong side of the bed today. I think I'm going to move her bed away from the wall.

Dedicated

On Sunday, March 29th......

Ryan was dedicated at church. Our most favorite pastor, Pastor John Dick did the honors. Thought ya'll might like to see.

We are so blessed!

Pocket full of..Posies??

Why do my baby's pants have pockets?

What do the designers of these outfits think they will be needing them for?

His wallet? His checkbook? Perhaps his cell phone? Maybe they think they will be useful for a handful of cheerios in case he gets hungry along the way.

Maybe they think he will want a safe place to tuck away his pacifier until he has the urge to use it.

Any ideas on this?

The only useful infant pants with pockets that I could come across (I googled FYI) were these ones..

A United States Patent 7089598 (no picture to share...sorry) followed by a definition for patent purposes...

An apparatus for infant pants having knee pads permanently or removably mounted to an inner surface of the pants or to an infant pants inner liner. The infant pants or pants liner have internal pocket panels that extend substantially horizontally from seam to seam and are sewn by vertical, substantially parallel stitching to define generally rectangular pad pockets of desired dimensions with upwardly facing pocket openings. The pockets have retainer panels to secure a replaceable protective pad within the pad pocket. The pants have replaceable protective knee pads that are removably contained within the internal knee pockets to provide protection for crawling infants against bruises and abrasion of the knees during crawling activity.

There is a pocket, I'm sure my infant son would find useful as well. Until then, at least we know where to keep his little baby wallet. Now, if I could only find an infant wallet

Credit goes to Brigette, for bringing up such a blog worthy question =0)

Plastic Eggs..

Soooo..

Plastic eggs and Paradise. The explanation I'm sure you've all waited for.

Spring officially will be sprung tomorrow morning at 7:44am EST. With spring comes warmer weather (in Michigan this is an eventual happening that rarely ever coincides with the actual start of spring, more so a month later) With spring comes Easter. I love Easter Sunday church service, the children are all adorned in their traditional little Easter attire and toting the stuffed bunnies and critters that the Easter Bunny left in their baskets. The girls have on shiny unscuffed white Patten leather Mary-Janes, some of them are carrying tiny little matching purses with their little Lip Smackers lip gloss safely secured within. The boys look sharp in the pastel colored dress shirts and neck ties, It is just an around precious little site! I seriously think I can feel Jesus smile at the site of children in their Easter morning church services. (cheesy? I know..but tis truly how I feel)

With Easter comes one of my most dreaded nasty little nemesis'....the plastic egg. I HATE THEM! I swear...People say that bunnies reproduce faster then we can blink, but I firmly believe they must hatch out of these plastic eggs. We all know eggs cant reproduce themselves, but somehow I always wind up with an overload of these darn things in my house. That is the only logical explanation that I can come up with.

Why do I dislike them so? Well, first off....as I just mentioned the mere number of them I wind up with. I know, I know what you are thinking. If you don't like them...then don't buy any. But, what Easter basket is complete without at least a couple of these stuffed within? I buy, ONE 8 pack a year. No more, no less. It doesn't matter though. I start out with 8, and I end up with 39.

It takes me ALLLLL year to hunt down and destroy the 39. I'm fairly certain that I JUST threw away numbers 38 and 39 last week when I gave the girls room its quarterly annual major cleaning. This will give me 3 glorious plastic egg free weeks, before I start the war once again.

Those plastic eggs, are painful. How can a rounded object be sharp at the same time? Ive asked myself this question while applying many a band-aids. The answer lies in two ways. One would be the lip in the middle that holds the two pieces together. Someone (usually Hailey or myself) get sliced by part of this every year. The other way, and usually the way hubby ends up bleeding as a result is when they get stepped on and they crack and break into several sharp little slivers of plastic death that like to embed themselves in the bottom of the foot, or in the knee, and the ever so embarrassing hinney cheek or whatever other part of the body comes in contact with them.

The annual Easter Egg hunt. I have my own, this particular one doesn't include the children though. The girls don't get left out of the fun despite the fact that I don't include them on mine, they always end up participating in several. I help organize them at church, I do my best to find the perfect spot to hide the eggs. I enjoy watching them run around excitedly looking for the eggs. I just wish the eggs stayed at church.

My egg hunt isn't as fun. I swear, these little oval shaped villains are shifty and move on you, because I can never seem to find them all. Perhaps next year I will just place them all on the ground at church and tell them all to go hide themselves, because they do a far better job of hiding on their own then I do of finding a spot for them.

Long story short...I may temporarily win the yearly battle against these darn things, but I'm doubtful I will ever win the war. I'm sadly outnumbered by at least 1 to 39.

The Paradise.... I guess I will save that part for another day and another blog