From Bliss to H*ll in 24 Hours..

A little somethin' to make you smile:


So Wednesday was another great day. The weather was absolutely fantastic. Let's see. It was so long ago it seems. Ah yes. I started the day at the gym. I'm attempting the couch-potato to 5K training program. Now, I'm not exactly a couch potato and I have run 2 miles a couple times lately, but I think I take it too fast sometimes. So I'm going to try this approach and see if I get better results. The girls played with their friend Abby. They set up a stand selling lemonade, freezie pops, rocks, and Pokemon cards. They actually ended up making about $12. Devon had his first tee ball practice. When I first told him he was going to play tee ball he wasn't too thrilled about it, but by the day of he was pretty excited about it. I was so happy to see him get right in there and do his thing. He didn't hide out by my side or refuse to join the group. He batted, ran the bases with great enthusiasm, and practiced fielding balls. (OK, really they held their gloves down to the ground and the coach rolled the ball to them. Baby steps.)




Speaking of his coach, I am so excited about him. I really think he's a great coach and the kids will actually LEARN something from him. After so many less than stellar soccer coaches it is refreshing to see a coach who will actually teach them the sport. After tee ball, we grabbed Happy Meals for the kids, dropped Kennedy off at Activity Days and headed to the park for the first event of the summer concert series. The band was Madisalsa, a fun Latin group from Madison. It was a perfect evening for a concert in the park. The kids ran around in the fields and danced with the art teacher from school. When we weren't busy chasing kids we got a few seconds to sit on our blanket in the sunshine and enjoy the perfect atmosphere.





The concert series is sponsored by Lands' End, another great thing they do for the community. They really make an effort to provide some nice perks to the area that wouldn't be here otherwise. So, Wednesday was another great day.

Then came Thursday. I should have known what the day held when I woke up late (8:00) to the phone ringing. It was very dark and cloudy and even at 8 I didn't want to get up. It was my dentist office calling to tell me they had some extra time around my scheduled appointment so I could come early if I wanted to have my fillings done while they had my mouth numb for my other procedure. I decided to do it, but that meant I had to see if my babysitter would take my kids for an extra hour and I'd have to rush like a mad woman to get us all out of the house on time. My gracious friend was willing to take the kids for the extra hour so I changed 2 diapers, dressed 5 kids and myself and rushed out the door. Of course, when we pulled into the driveway to unload kids at Kym's, it was pouring rain. Soaking, drenching rain. In fact, as I stood in her doorway passing off kids, we watched as recycling bins and dumpsters were carried down the road in the run-off. The drive to the dentist was slow-going. The rain was coming down in sheets and I often had to slow to about 40 mph on the highway. We made it safe and sound on the dot of 10. I spent the next 2 hours with my mouth propped open and the bottom of my face numb. And I was freezing. I had gotten drenched in the rain and was chilled right through, even with a blanket over me. After my appointment my neck, jaw and head ached and I began yearning for a nap. We picked up the little ones and went home. It wasn't long before I realized that the chills and aching were because I was sick, not from all the other stuff I had been attributing it too. So my sincerest apologies to my dentist and the 2 other people who played around in my germ-infested mouth. I didn't know! I promise! I spent the rest of the day in the throes of a fever. I could barely function and holding my head up was excruciating. Kennedy did a great job watching the kids and came to wake me up about an hour later to tell me the tornado siren was going off. Everyone sat on my bed and we watched and listened. The siren went off 3 times and then Lincoln called to tell us the internal alarm had gone off at Lands' End and they were sending everyone down to the tornado shelter. A funnel cloud had touched down near Platteville (where we go to church) and the storm was moving in our general direction. In my semi-comatose state I moved everyone to the basement and we turned on the TV. We watched for some time, as it poured buckets outside, until we were convinced it had passed us by. Meanwhile, Jesse, still working on those molars, was screaming his head off. Each scream left me reeling as it cut through my skull. Once I was sure the coast was clear I put him in his bed. Then the kids watched a movie while I slept in the chair. When the weather cleared the girls ran off to play again and I was left with three little stinkers. Jesse, now up from his nap had returned to screaming. I had called Lincoln and asked him to stop to buy infant Motrin on his way home, but knowing he would be very late, I decided I needed to call a neighbor to see if they had anything to stop the screaming. After talking to Kym I determined I could adjust the dose of children's Motrin for him- why I didn't think of that before I blame on the fog I was existing in. Bless her heart, Kym arrived a few minutes later and whisked my kids away and sent me to bed. At this point it was nearly 8:00. I had to go haul the annoying dog in a few minutes later, but then I finally fell asleep, curled up in the fetal position trying to stay warm. I barely remember Lincoln arriving home with the kids around nine and waking up drenched in sweat at some point in the night. But at 7 this morning my eyes popped open and I was feeling worlds better, you know, aside from that fever taste in my mouth and the post-sick blahs. So today is recovery- house, body, spirit.

Oh yeah, due to weather the girls' last soccer game was cancelled. Here's a team photo.

Time Flies...

It doesn't SEEM like it's been getting away from me, but when I uploaded pictures from my camera I realized I had a ton that I had taken with the intention of posting here but just haven't gotten around to it. So here we go.

This is why I don't need air conditioning.



This past weekend we had our first severe weather of the season. Severe is the codeword for tornado. Kids don't get freaked out by severe, but the panic flashes to their faces when you say tornado. On Saturday when the kids heard there was a tornado watch, they apparently thought they were personally responsible for watching for it.

(What you can't hear on the video is Devon's adorable way of saying tornado- mataydo. Kind of like how he says potato. He had no idea what we were looking for, what was coming to get us. "Mom? What does mataydos say?" If you crank your volume you might be able to hear him say it.)

They ran out the back door to watch from the deck, then through the house and out the front door to watch from the porch. Back and forth back and forth scanning the clouds and looking for the sure sign a tornado was approaching, according to Kennedy's friend who was here at the time- orange bubbles in the sky. Just as we convinced them a tornado was not imminent the tornado siren went off. Wanna talk about panic? The sky was full of thunderheads,



but nothing else seemed too worrisome. No wind, no hail, not even a bad thunderstorm upon us. Later that afternoon we were in Madison. Lincoln was at a meeting at church and I was shopping and killing time with the kids until he was done. Wouldn't you know it, another tornado siren. The weather at the time was a little more stormy but it passed quickly with nary a funnel cloud.

Saturday night at about 10, Lincoln and I were watching a movie. Even above the sound of the movie we suddenly realized the wind was howling. We ran upstairs from the basement and the wind was whipping through the house howling and knocking stuff over. We ran around closing windows, wondering if we should move the kids to the basement. Lincoln stood at the back door for a minute watching and then turned with a wild look in his eye and said, "Let's just move them." So we ran to the kids rooms and pulled them from their beds. Jesse was drenched in diarrhea and by the time I cleaned him up and we changed his bed it seemed the threat was over. We put everyone back in their beds and none of them had even awakened enough to realize what was going on. We tucked them in and went back to our movie. It was funny that there was no siren that time. So we are whole and well, though not all of Wisconsin's residents can say the same.

We have the most beautiful sunsets here. Remember through the winter when I kept posting pictures of the snow? Well it looks like the summer thing will be fabulous sunsets.




I mentioned in an earlier post that Julia learned to ride her bike. Here's the proof.



Yesterday, Day #2, was a very pleasant day. I was able to go for a bike ride in the morning before Lincoln left for work. I thought I was going to die. Wisconsin is very hilly. We went for a walk mid-morning and then at 1 we went to the park for a playgroup. The kids had a fabulous time and I am pleased to report there were no injuries on the death-trap merry-go-round that got Jesse last time we were there. I was too busy following Jesse around to get any photos, but I made up for that in the evening when I took the kids to the state park to play at the lake. I really enjoy watching them play at the lake. When I was a kid we did all our swimming in the river. The only time I ever swam in a pool was in school or at a friend's house. Funny thing though, I actually preferred the river and lakes. Especially the river. Pools seemed so boring. There were no currents to swim against in the pool, no rocks to play on, no rapids to sit in as the water rushed over your shoulders. One especially fun spot was called The Dynamo. There were two channels in the river here. One was a small section 8 feet wide that we would cross to get to the small island between them. The other side was the main portion of the river. We would stand on the flat rocks which dropped off abruptly on either side. On the river side you could jump off the rocks and the swift current would carry you down a bit. When the rocks started to rise up out of the water again we would scramble up them back to the flat rocks. We'd run back up to the beginning and do it again. You can't do that in a pool. So when I see my kids swimming in the lake I remember the sound and taste of river water. I love the muffled sound under water of rocks rolling and crashing against each other. I also love to hear the sound of a rock galumping into the water. I think I could maybe do a whole post on swimming holes. Maybe I will. For today, you have lots of pictures to look at. Enjoy.











Oh, and I finished yesterday with a fun Girls' Night Out.

Day One...

For any of you who are following along at home, we survived day one. And it went amazingly well, actually.
We read scriptures together over breakfast, the girls completed their morning To-Do list, we went for a walk, I got a shower, we went shopping, Jesse took a long nap, Julia had a friend over, Kennedy played outside most of the afternoon, I made a yummy dinner, Kennedy went to a birthday party, the girls did their chores and completed their evening To-Do list, and everyone was in bed at close to 8:30 (some a little before, some a little after).

I only had to yell at them once for playing in the hose (again!), once for playing in the car and painting the dashboard with fingernail polish (how do they come up with this stuff!?) and a couple times for sneaking Gummy Worms. Renie peed on the floor once, Jesse is cutting molars, and Devon continues to refuse all food but fruit, bologna, and ham. Julia rode her bike into the curb in an attempt to avoid a collision with Kennedy, resulting in some serious crying, a Not-Visible-To-The-Naked-Eye scrape, and the chain coming off her bike.

So all-in-all, not too bad. We'll chalk it up on the Good Day side.
Now, on to tomorrow.

My Destroying Angels...

So my kids may look cute, but...

In the last few days we have discovered the following items destroyed at their hands:

My paperback copy of Anne of Green Gables, yes the one I read repeatedly growing up. The cover and all the pages before the story actually begins were snipped into confetti by a safety-scissors wielding Renie.

My potted geraniums flanking the garage door. About 10 heads, full of buds, ripped from EACH pot.

A row of coral bells plants along the side of the garage. This was accomplished another day AFTER a strongly worded talking-to about not destroying Mommy's plants. The tops of the plants were ripped off and tossed to the wind.

My full-length mirror. Devon and Renie laid it on the floor and danced on it, shattering it. Luckily they danced on the back of it so they didn't fill their feet with glass. Just my carpet.

Our water bill. The kids turned on the hose, which has a nozzle on the end, and then left it on the ground. The nozzle being cheap, leaked all day. The entire backyard was soggy.

All the clothes they were wearing. On Saturday they managed to find a mud hole. They completely caked themselves with mud. There were globs in their hair and all over their clothes in addition to the mud mask on their arms and legs.

The lawnmower. Lincoln went out to the garage on Saturday to start the mower, only to discover that SOMEONE had cut the line to the pull-cord. It was just sitting there, unattached. This one is still a mystery.

And today is the first official day of summer break. This should be fun.

Hometown Heroes Walking Among Us...

Or Balloon Fest 2008. (I'm not just adding Fest to all my titles to make them more interesting, that's really what the event was called.)

I think it was about 5 years ago that I was first struck by the desire to live in a small Midwestern town. I had this idyllic picture in my head of Little League games on summer evenings, played on a dazzling green field under a clear blue sky in the warm glow of evening sunshine. I imagined a town where everyone knew each other and community events were driven by patriotism. I pictured small town parades where you knew everyone on every float and probably helped build half of them. I could almost smell the corn fields in my dream and savored the heavy, sweet scent of them. (My cousin, when I expressed my love of corn fields commented, "You can take the girl out of the country but you can't take the country out of the girl." So true.) I pictured family and community being one and the same and folks just being...happier.

Well, here I am. I am living the dream, baby. Last night we went to the annual Bloomfield Manor Balloon Fest. The theme for the event- Hometown Heroes Walking Among Us. Let me try to paint the picture for you.

Yesterday was hot, about 80 degrees. It was also pretty humid after the night's storms. (Humid by Wisconsin standards, not North Carolina. I haven't had to use my AC yet). By 6:30 in the evening, however, the air was cooling enough to just comfortably wrap you in its velvety embrace. We drove 3 miles out of town over the rolling prairie hills, headed west into the hazy evening sunshine. We passed cows grazing on the hillsides and meadows of restored prairie grasses. We knew we were close when we saw the cars parked up and down the shoulders of the road. We parked down the road some distance and piled out of the car. As we walked the last bit to the festival grounds we passed people we knew who were on their way out. Not even to the grounds yet and we were seeing people we knew.

The driveway to Bloomfield Manor (a retirement home) was guarded by a two story inflatable Uncle Sam. Assisting him were a couple of cheerful ladies in their 60s or so, handing out programs and admiring babies. We stopped for a moment to check the lay of the land. The large front lawn was speckled with tents and picnic tables. A tent for purchasing tickets, the game tent, the performance tent, and the food tent. An ice cream stand in the back, a cream puff (we DO live in America's Dairyland)stand to the far left. Way off to the right was a petting zoo, pony rides, and a big inflatable slide. Folks were scattered all over the grounds with their lawn chairs and blankets, or pulled up to a picnic table eating brats. Kids darted in and out of the game tent, begging for more tickets for one more game. The smaller set paid their 2 tickets at the inflatable slide and then jumped and bounced and slid to their heart's content. We purchased a slew of tickets and began wandering among our neighbors. We determined we would eat right away since we had not yet had dinner. We bought the biggest hot dogs I have ever seen in my entire life and hunkered down at a table to eat them.




The girls ran off with their friends and we enjoyed the simplicity of it all. I remember going to community events in Matthews, NC. Matthews was supposed to be a small-town community near Charlotte. Don't misunderstand, I loved Matthews, but it was no small-town. I remember going to events there and being hot hot hot and claustrophobic among the throngs of people. In fact, it's hard for me to get over that mentality. I sometimes forget here that I don't have to dread the heat and crowds when I go to a festival- even though the whole town is attending.

As we were eating our dinner the local one man band, a guy armed with an electric keyboard programmed with his own harmonies, began performing. Between him, the band that played later and the music the cloggers danced to,

Lincoln commented that he'd heard more Johnny Cash songs last night than he had since we last listened to his greatest hits collection from beginning to end.

At 7:30 the parade began. They looped from behind the building up the driveway on the right, out onto the road, back down the driveway on the left, back behind the building again.




The floats were decked out in red, white, and blue and the colors were proudly displayed by the local veterans.






There were even some WWII vets in the parade. I was touched to be surrounded by a generation of folks who know what it means to be patriotic. As the veterans passed carrying the colors, elderly men and women from the nursing home struggled to their feet applauding them. I felt for a moment like I was transported back to the 1950s when times were simpler and patriotism burned fiercely. I thought of how I wanted my children to feel that burn in their own bosoms, to have a swelling of pride in their hearts when they see Old Glory, a reverence for it and appreciation for what it stands for. I realized how much that will depend on Lincoln and me, because it just isn't taught in school like it once was. But I have hope, because here, in this small community, I feel it.



As we walked back down the hill to our car last night, I breathed deeply, filling my soul with the prairie. I looked out across the waving grasses to the cows under a tree on a far off hill. I looked at my children, sweaty, sticky with ice cream, pockets bulging with candy gleaned from the parade route and I loved them with every bit of my being. Lincoln pointed across the hills to the cows I had been watching. "Look how beautiful..." And I loved him too.

How can I be productive?

If I sit downstairs at the computer, my kids will play happily in the basement. But as soon as I go upstairs to clean or do something productive, they follow me up and commence whining about everything they can think of. Especially if I'm doing something in the kitchen, they think if I'm there it must be time to eat something. Everyone is happier when I am being completely unproductive. Has anyone figured out how to keep their kids happily engaged without sitting at their side? Or do we all do our housework followed around by a trio of whiners?

Barf Fest 2008- A week-long event

We had a blissful puke-free day on Tuesday only to have Wednesday dawn with more puking, this time from Jesse. His first one was just a dribble down his front, I caught the next one in a towel, and the last one was in his crib- gotta love those plastic mattresses! He did have some very loose stools, but at least that gets caught in the diaper every time! So, if the pattern continues, we should have a day off before the next kid starts barfing. Who will be next? It's like a game at the fair. Where do I place the puke bucket?

I would also like to Officially Declare that my four year old son is completely potty trained. We are not offering bribes- er, rewards, anymore, we don't have to ask him if he has to poo, we don't have to force him to sit on the potty as he cries, he just DOES it, on his own. In fact, he had pooped yesterday but at bedtime he told Lincoln he needed to go again. Lincoln, thinking it was a delay tactic, told him he didn't have to go right then, he could wait until morning. (Yeah, a month ago we would NEVER have said that!). But Devon told him, "I need to listen to my body, Dad." Glad to know we got that through to him. He sat on the potty and did some toots. Anyway, yeah, he's doing it. He's even learning to wipe himself. I know, I know. He's 4 and you're not that impressed, but it's been such a long struggle in our home, we're rejoicing.

And in other milestone news, Julia learned to ride a two-wheeler yesterday! She has been very reluctant to try, but lately I guess she decided she was ready. I think she got sick of running behind all the other kids on their bikes. The girls have several neighbor friends and they all get together to play. The entertainment of choice is to start in our driveway on their bikes, ride down ours, across the street, up the neighbors driveway, back down theirs, across and down the street to the next driveway, zigzagging back and forth all the way down the hill. I'd look out and see them snaking down the street with Julia in the rear, on foot. Sad, really. But she picked it up quickly. By the time I got to the cul-de-sac with the three little ones to watch, she was riding on her own. Lincoln suggested we just wait with all of our kids to teach them when they're almost 7, they pick it up fast at that point! Kennedy was the same age when she started riding. Speaking of Kennedy, she and Brandon, a boy from Julia's class who lives next door, came to watch Julia learn too. I was so proud of both of them. They were very supportive and encouraging, clapping and telling her she was doing great. They never laughed at her mistakes and they didn't try to coach her or tell her how THEY do it. She really appreciated them, I could tell.

Last night we had a doozy of a storm. A huge clap of thunder woke me up at about 2:45. Cheyenne was freaking out and had managed to push open the door from the garage and was heading to our room. Lincoln got up and put her back in the garage. He crawled back into bed and we could hear her throwing herself against the door and scratching. I remembered that all the garage windows were open so I got up to close them, thinking it might shut out the noise a bit for her. As I walked out of our bedroom I met Renie heading in for comfort. I put her in with Lincoln and went to the garage. I closed the windows and then stayed with Cheyenne for a while. She was frantic and I was pretty convinced she was going to have a heart-attack. I stayed with her for 15 minutes, until the storm subsided a bit. I went back to bed and about 45 minutes later, as I was finally drifting off again, another flash and deafening crash sent Kennedy running to our room. She was almost as frantic as Cheyenne had been. I took her back to her room and decided to just crawl into bed with her, you know, since she had me in a death grip and there was no escaping anyway. So I spent the remainder of the night in bed with her clasped tightly around me. As I lay there, trying to fall asleep, I thought, "Where did these long legs and arms come from? When did she get to be almost as big as me?" The last time I slept with her she was just little it seems. Time flies, that's for sure.

WARNING: This post is gross and humiliating for me- but funny

My husband will be mortified that I'm sharing this with the world. I''ll do it as delicately as possible.

So we went to Lake Michigan a couple weekends ago. When we arrived at the park I was in dire need of a bathroom. Anyone who knows me well probably knows that I occasionally have what we non-descriptively call "Bathroom Issues" in our home. This is especially true when I have eaten out or the deadlier combination, eaten out and am traveling. So when we arrived, I was feeling crampy and anxious to get to a restroom. Lincoln had to use the restroom as well so he went ahead to go before I got there. (This was not a lack of consideration, he knows I'm often in there for a while and he wanted to get in and out so he wouldn't have to wait.) When it was finally my turn I rushed in to find a typical disappointing park restroom. Dirty, small, scratched up mirror. I quickly scanned the three available options. One door was closed with an out of order sign, one was unflushed and nasty, and one was just park restroom dirty. I chose the last. I rushed in, closed the door, and got to business. I was in there for quite some time, interrupted a time or two by other ladies coming in to use the stall 2 doors down from me. Just as I was feeling able to wrap things up, Kennedy came in to see how I was doing. It was right about that time that I flushed. It didn't really go down so I flushed again. This time the water erupted up, splashing the seat, and then proceeded to rise steadily toward the rim. As it began to spill over the edge I made a run for it, narrowly escaping the flood waters. As I came screaming and running out of my stall Kennedy said, "That's why you weren't supposed to use it, Mom." Yes, sure enough, there was an out of order sign on that stall as well. I had missed it because the door was open and I was busy looking at the toilets, not the doors. So my question is-

WHY DON'T THEY PUT A SIGN ON THE INSIDE OF THE DOOR AS WELL?????

So we made haste getting out of there- grateful that no one else was in the restroom at the time.

And one week later...

Not bad huh? I'm amazed at how quickly our bodies heal. Notice in the first picture the huge welt running down the side of his face? He ran into a door casing. Seriously, there's always something!

Barf Fest 2008

I thought I had missed this year's event. While I was in Myrtle Beach Kennedy and Jesse had the barfs. I figured I was in the clear, at least for a while. But no, a month later here we are again. So this morning I had to take Devon to an eye appointment 40 minutes away. His appointment was for 9:30. He is a new patient so I knew I should arrive 15 minutes early. My target departure time was 8:30. Monday mornings are a pain in the patooty anyway. Lincoln has to be at work an hour early so I have to take the girls to school. Unfortunately, Lincoln's car is a piece of junk and it occasionally gets upset with us or something and decides not to start for a couple weeks. I think it's the car's way of getting into the shop for some TLC. Cuz here's the thing. We get it towed in, they look it over, they call us with a list of 426 things that need to be fixed, we pick a couple, they do the work, we pick up the car and then drive it for several months or so with no problems, then it does the exact same thing again. So they can't be actually fixing the problem. Yet it works fine after its rejuvenating spa week at the shop. I think right now maybe the car is sulking from me backing into it a couple weeks ago. Whatever, it was an accident and I apologized. It gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "high-maintenance friend."
So anyway...

Lincoln left a little before 7. I got the girls ready and sent them down to ride to school with some friends. Then I started getting the little ones ready. (Lincoln was planning to come home and get us and we would take him back to work so we could have the car. Have I mentioned how grateful I am that we live a mile from work?) I was planning on bringing the other two kids with me until I reread my info this morning and realized that we were to "expect the appointment to take a couple hours". Ugh! With 3 kids? So I called my friend Bethanie and she graciously agreed to take Jesse. I figured Renie would be more of a pain for someone to watch, but I would be able to entertain her easier while we waited. So we dropped Lincoln at work and Jesse at Bethanie's and jetted off toward Platteville. We were just pulling up at the hospital when Renie barfed. (We were gonna make it on time too.) She threw up on her clothes and her carseat, making sure to drench the buckle area so it could dry and harden in all the little crevices, and of course make me want to vomit myself when I had to touch it to unbuckle her. As luck would have it, my car is like a junk drawer. You know, a junk drawer that you throw french fries and soccer cleats in. So I found a towel to mop up the puke with and a jacket to put on Renie after I stripped her down. The rest of the appointment was pretty uneventful, I mean, besides chasing after Renie the entire time and making a quick trip to Walmart while Devon's pupils were dilating so we could buy Renie some nonpukified clothes to wear.
Renie had a quiet afternoon, but I did have to go get Julia from school. She showed up in the office with a bucket in hand and they called me immediately. She never did throw up but played all afternoon, becoming an invalid only when there were chores to be done. We went to pick up Lincoln at 5:30 and wouldn't you know it? Just as we pulled up at work Renie puked again. I needed to stop at Piggly Wiggly on the way home and sure enough, she threw up a couple more times in the car, just for good measure. (I had spent the afternoon cleaning the car and her carseat so this time there was nothing to sop up barf with, not even a soccer cleat.) So after throwing up 3 more times around the house (and once actually in the toilet!), she finally fell asleep on the couch and I'm praying that barf fest is over.

And I'm sure Bethanie is thanking her lucky stars that I chose to leave Jesse with her and not Renie.