Not Penny's Boat: October 2013

Thursday, October 31, 2013

More Random Rambling

Well, Eden and I slept for about three hours this afternoon. Shouldn't have done it but, I was so.dang.tired that I couldn't help it. I feel much better now, lol! Tonight is trick or treat in Carthage. I'm gonna make some pumpkin face cheeseburgers and Marie Callendar's baked mac and cheese! LOL, my cooking bone has left the building and we have been relying on freezer meals a lot. Not my favorite food by any means but easy and for a tired, lazy pregnant lady, that is good!
The kids all came home from school chattering about their halloween parties at school and promptly sat down with their bags of candy to gorge themselves!! I don't mind once a year! I wish I had been able to make it to all their parties but, there are too many of them!! lol! I did send the treat bags for the whole class in Asher's class. It was fun putting them together even though they weren't that special, really. I hope the kids enjoyed them though.
We are considering renting a house in Nauvoo while we fix ours up to sell or renting ours out. Can't decide. I am so torn. It is hard to know what is best for everyone and everything. We are going to pray about it and go from there. :)
There is a girl on facebook that I am friends with that is going into labor today with her first baby. It has really helped me get excited, for reals!! It may sound crazy but, I love the excitement of labor and delivery. That is the fun part for me....the nine months of pregnancy, not so much, haha!! I think my attitude is good today and I am really looking forward to it all....also I feel great (now that I am rested!)
We have the Kelley Girl Shopping Trip coming up soon and I am SO ready!!!

Eden Playing

I find Eden playing with her toys quietly by herself pretty frequently. A lot of times I will sit down and play with her so that she has another girl to play with. This time, sometime just after her birthday, I had to snap a few pics first.

Yes, she is three years old and we still let her have her paci. Don't judge us, you don't live our lives. Eden is fine and dandy and no child has ever died from having a paci at three years old. I get comments from people sometimes. Like they don't do things with their kids that I wouldn't do with mine but, I try keep my mouth shut because what they do with their children isn't MY business.

Although she gives it to us whenever we ask. And we are going to try to have it gone before Baby # 7 makes his/her appearance. It's not ideal for her to have it but, all will be okay.

Isn't she freaking adorable?!?!

She loves her Minnie Mouse Bowtique toys.

Earlier This Summer

Eden stole Jeremy's Cubs hat one day and ran out on the deck with it. I followed her and she was doing this! I couldn't resist and had to grab my camera quick.

I love her to pieces.

Hopefully she follows in Daddy's footsteps and is a Cubs fan too!

This Morning

Eden was awake the ENTIRE night for the third night in a row. I pretty much feel like my head is going to explode. I just don't understand it. We were out later than normal trick-or-treating in Nauvoo. A person would think that she would be tired. Especially after not sleeping the past three nights. Nope. I have a lot to do today that I just don't know if I can do right now. All I can think is that, this too shall pass. She won't always be this age with this particular issue to deal with. Right?!!? Last night was just her but, the previous two nights was a mix of the other kids too. I started thinking back and going through my blog and old journals.....this sleep nonsense started with everyone when we moved to Carthage. What the crap?!?! I mean Tristan has always been a light sleeper but, we never had this many problems with keeping them asleep once they were asleep for the night.

I have many things weighing heavy on my mind and heart. I am trying my best to be more positive and not worry about things that I cannot control or that haven't happened yet. But, it is hard. I worry about myself, my kids, my extended family, my friends, etc, etc, etc. I don't like to see people around me hurt. It hurts my heart. I don't like to see others getting treated badly or unfairly. And as of late I hate seeing people being so darn judgemental of others when they have little to no information or idea of what is really going on in people's heads. It is exhausting. I am thankful for all the good in my life though. I know there is a lot of it. I want to focus on that and go from there. I want to BE THE GOOD.

I am trying to get more excited about our new baby and not worry so much about what is going to happen. I love all my babies, the ones here with me and the ones that have already passed on. I know that everything happens for a reason and I should accept it and enjoy the process. I think I may need to go baby shopping! I am truly content with either a boy or a girl and I want to stop worrying about what is going to happen and focus on what is happening now.

Another Summer Goodie

These goodies were on my old point and shoot camera (yes, I am still going through them, lol). They are from earlier this past summer at Grandma Kelley's house. All the boys were having fun playing in the sprinklers.

I love Cullen's face! He is so darn happy.

Of course Chase had to drop trow and go!! LOL! He is hilarious!

I love that the kids have some of their cousins that they get to see all the time. I didn't grow up around my cousins and only saw them occasionally so, I'm glad they have other family to be friends with other than their siblings.

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Cedric's Lego Lighter

I have about a gazillion pictures of all the cool stuff that my boys come up with to make out of their legos. They are so dang clever it blows my mind sometimes. I don't post them all but, I should. This night Cedric brought me a zippo lighter he had made.

Cool, huh?

Bedtime Piggy Back Rides

Every night all the boys from Liam on down want Jeremy to give them a piggy back rides up the stairs to bed. It hurts his back a lot but, he does it anyway because his is a super duper Dad! They love it!! This night Asher and Cullen both wanted a piggy back ride at the same time and started climbing on him. He laughed along with them and stumbled along toward the steps..........

They didn't quite make it but, they were all laughing so hard!! It was awesome! Love, love, love moments like this....and I caught pictures of it!!! woot!!

Cheesy Parcheesi

One of my favorite board games growing up was Parcheesi. And now our whole family loves it too! We have three different versions in fact. Last year for Christmas Liam got Cheesy Parcheesi ( a mouse and cheese version, lol) and it's pretty neat.
I came home one evening and found these two playing a pretty intense game of it! :)

I wish I remembered to take pictures of moments like this more often.

Great Grandma Boyer's 90th Birthday

A birthday party was planned for Jeremy's Grandma Boyer back in September. It was at the Senior Center here in Carthage. Lots of family came out to celebrate. Jeremy was feeling yucky that day so he stayed home with kids and Asher and I went up to the party.

I didn't get many pictures. Darn it.

I went up earlier in the afternoon to help Debbie decorate.

There were lots of kids around and lots of relatives too.

Daxton was very serious about reading this book, lol!

Monday, October 28, 2013

Carthage

I gotta get out of this town. The End.

Saturday, October 19, 2013

First Days of School 2013

I'm only a little late in posting these....okay it's been two whole months now but, whatever. These are my Carthage school kids....well Asher is in there too because he was going to school that day but, in Nauvoo. Anyway, Tristan started 8th grade, Cedric started 6th grade, Liam started 3rd grade, and Asher started 2nd grade.

They all look pretty thrilled.

Tristan and Cedric are at the Carthage Middle School and Liam is at the Carthage Primary school.

This year we took Cullen and Asher to Nauvoo Elementary school. Cullen is starting Pre-K and Asher is in 2nd grade. It may look kinda like Cullen was picking his nose but, he wasn't, he was biting his fingers because he was nervous. I was really nervous for both of them. I was nervous for Asher in starting at a new school and nervous for Cullen because he is a Mama's boy and would stay my baby forever and ever if we both had our way, lol!

He didn't want anything to do with it at first....

Then we joked around a bit and hid in his shirt........

He was smiling by the time I left and that made me feel better. They all ended up having great first days at school which is awesome!! I was nervous for Tristan going back to Carthage too. Things are going pretty good.

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Sibling Snuggles

Tristan and Eden are good buds! They love each other and it is so cute!
And they look alike, don't they!?

Kate Bush- This Womens Work

One of my favorite songs EVER.

Sleepy Froo

This was Eden on the same morning as Cullen in the cowboy hat. She passed out face first into the couch! They partied all night long! We put Eden in her bed and she got to sleep it off but, Cullen had to wake up and go to school. He was not happy!

The Careful Cowboy

I was cleaning out the coat closet and tossed this hat out onto the floor. We picked it up for Tristan in Alabama on our Florida trip a year or so ago. Cullen found it and has been wearing it around the house ever since. I came downstairs one morning after Eden and Cullen had had us up and down all night and found him passed out like this....right before he had to go to school!! LOL! Something else that is cute....he found a bunge cord that Tristan uses for camping and he puts one end of it in his pants pocket and puts the other end of it attached to the vacuum. While wearing the hat, he drags the vacuum around and tells all of us that he is a "Careful Cowboy"!! I love him!! He says the funniest things!

Rainy Day Thoughts

I don't recall people scrambling to want to see my kids or snuggle them or offering to watch them all the time on facebook....like ever. What does that mean??? I feel like they are awesome, cute, perfect little people. I love being around them (most of the time, lol). Seems like we get the shaft a lot as a family. It's a good thing that there are plenty of us right here that we don't need all the aunts/friends/ cousins etc. offering to snuggle or hang out. Do people really not like us? Why?
I really want to just give up facebook because it makes me feel like crap on a daily basis. There was some study done recently about social media and the results were that people on social media were unhappier than those not on social media and depression was some crazy percentage higher for social media users. Crazy. Since I suffer from depression already, it may be wise to give it up. What is really sad, is that more people don't use it to lift others up. I'm just as guilty of it as anyone else, I suppose. Ugh. Deep thoughts on this rainy, dreary day.

Just Like Socks

I could buy 42 million sippy cups and still never have one for the child to drink out of. Crap Almighty, might as well buy stock in em. I'm gonna start labeling them and chaining them to my child's wrist. Yep.

Friday, October 11, 2013

Our Baby

Today I went to the hospital for my ultrasound and blood work. I thought it might be one of the yucky "inside" ultrasounds but, I lucked out!! The lady said she would try regular ultrasound first and if I was far enough along then we wouldn't have to do the "yucky" kind! And it turns out, I am further along that I thought! My new due date is now May 18th!! Which happens to by my sister's (Susan) birthday! And Cedric's is the day before on the 17th! Susan had her oldest son (Zack) on my birthday and then wanted me to have Cedric on her birthday but, he came one day too soon!! I texted her and told her and she said "You will probably have it on the 19th and surround my birthday!!" Bahahahaha!! That is hilarious!

Jeremy to the Rescue

Last week sometime, on a particularly annoying day, I accidentally dropped my phone face first on my living room floor. It shattered the whole screen. Stubborn as I am, I decided that I was not going to spend money on another new phone that I would hate, and I would keep using that broken phone. Which I did. Well, the next day or maybe the day after the next day, I dropped the dang phone in the toilet to seal the deal! UGH! We put it in rice but, I really had no hope because the screen was already broken and I knew that water for sure got into it. Jeremy ordered a new screen for me and thought he could fix it. I thought he was plum out of his mind! But, guess what!?!? He fixed it!!! My screen did get water behind it but, it has a new one now that won't slice my finger open and I can deal with a few specs of water behind it!! He said if I was real customer he would have spent the extra time to get all the specs out and make it right!! Bahahahah! He knows I don't give a rats butt...all I care is if it works!! And it does! Sweet!!

Motherhood

“You’re a stay-at-home mom? What do you DO all day?”

Posted on October 9, 2013 by The Matt Walsh Blog

It’s happened twice in a week, and they were both women. Anyone ought to have more class than this, but women — especially women — should damn well know better.
Last week, I was at the pharmacy and a friendly lady approached me.
“Matt! How are those little ones doing?”
“Great! They’re doing very well, thanks for asking.”
“Good to hear. How ’bout your wife? Is she back at work yet?”
“Well she’s working hard at home, taking care of the kids. But she’s not going back into the workforce, if that’s what you mean.”
“Oh fun! That must be nice!”
“Fun? It’s a lot of hard work. Rewarding, yes. Fun? Not always.”
This one wasn’t in-your-face. It was only quietly presumptuous and subversively condescending.
The next incident occurred today at the coffee shop. It started in similar fashion; a friendly exchange about how things are coming along with the babies. The conversation quickly derailed when the woman hit me with this:
“So is your wife staying at home permanently?”
“Permanently? Well, for the foreseeable future she will be raising the kids full time, yes.”
“Yeah, mine is 14 now. But I’ve had a career the whole time as well. I can’t imagine being a stay at home mom. I would get so antsy. [Giggles] What does she DO all day?”
“Oh, just absolutely everything. What do you do all day?”
“…Me? Ha! I WORK!”
“My wife never stops working. Meanwhile, it’s the middle of the afternoon and we’re both at a coffee shop. I’m sure my wife would love to have time to sit down and drink a coffee. It’s nice to get a break, isn’t it?”
The conversation ended less amicably than it began.
Look, I don’t cast aspersions on women who work outside of the home. I understand that many of them are forced into it because they are single mothers, or because one income simply isn’t enough to meet the financial needs of their family. Or they just choose to work because that’s what they want to do. Fine. I also understand that most “professional” women aren’t rude, pompous and smug, like the two I met recently.
But I don’t want to sing Kumbaya right now. I want to kick our backwards, materialistic society in the shins and say, “GET YOUR FREAKING HEAD ON STRAIGHT, SOCIETY.”
This conversation shouldn’t be necessary. I shouldn’t need to explain why it’s insane for anyone — particularly other women — to have such contempt and hostility for “stay at home” mothers. Are we really so shallow? Are we really so confused? Are we really the first culture in the history of mankind to fail to grasp the glory and seriousness of motherhood? The pagans deified Maternity and turned it into a goddess. We’ve gone the other direction; we treat it like a disease or an obstacle.
The people who completely immerse themselves in the tiring, thankless, profoundly important job of raising children ought to be put on a pedestal. We ought to revere them and admire them like we admire rocket scientists and war heroes. These women are doing something beautiful and complicated and challenging and terrifying and painful and joyous and essential. Whatever they are doing, they ARE doing something, and our civilization DEPENDS on them doing it well. Who else can say such a thing? What other job carries with it such consequences?
It’s true — being a mom isn’t a “job.” A job is something you do for part of the day and then stop doing. You get a paycheck. You have unions and benefits and break rooms. I’ve had many jobs; it’s nothing spectacular or mystical. I don’t quite understand why we’ve elevated “the workforce” to this hallowed status. Where do we get our idea of it? The Communist Manifesto? Having a job is necessary for some — it is for me — but it isn’t liberating or empowering. Whatever your job is — you are expendable. You are a number. You are a calculation. You are a servant. You can be replaced, and you will be replaced eventually. Am I being harsh? No, I’m being someone who has a job. I’m being real.
If your mother quit her role as mother, entire lives would be turned upside down; society would suffer greatly. The ripples of that tragedy would be felt for generations. If she quit her job as a computer analyst, she’d be replaced in four days and nobody would care. Same goes for you and me. We have freedom and power in the home, not the office. But we are zombies, so we can not see that.
Yes, my wife is JUST a mother. JUST. She JUST brings forth life into the universe, and she JUST shapes and molds and raises those lives. She JUST manages, directs and maintains the workings of the household, while caring for children who JUST rely on her for everything. She JUST teaches our twins how to be human beings, and, as they grow, she will JUST train them in all things, from morals, to manners, to the ABC’s, to hygiene, etc. She is JUST my spiritual foundation and the rock on which our family is built. She is JUST everything to everyone. And society would JUST fall apart at the seams if she, and her fellow moms, failed in any of the tasks I outlined.
Yes, she is just a mother. Which is sort of like looking at the sky and saying, “hey, it’s just the sun.”
Of course not all women can be at home full time. It’s one thing to acknowledge that; it’s quite another to paint it as the ideal. To call it the ideal, is to claim that children IDEALLY would spend LESS time around their mothers. This is madness. Pure madness. It isn’t ideal, and it isn’t neutral. The more time a mother can spend raising her kids, the better. The better for them, the better for their souls, the better for the community, the better for humanity. Period.
Finally, it’s probably true that stay at home moms have some down time. People who work outside the home have down time, too. In fact, there are many, many jobs that consist primarily of down time, with little spurts of menial activity strewn throughout. In any case, I’m not looking to get into a fight about who is “busier.” We seem to value our time so little, that we find our worth based on how little of it we have. In other words, we’ve idolized “being busy,” and confused it with being “important.” You can be busy but unimportant, just as you can be important but not busy. I don’t know who is busiest, and I don’t care. It doesn’t matter. I think it’s safe to say that none of us are as busy as we think we are; and however busy we actually are, it’s more than we need to be.
We get a lot of things wrong in our culture. But, when all is said and done, and our civilization crumbles into ashes, we are going to most regret the way we treated mothers and children.
******
Find me on Facebook.
Twitter: @MattWalshRadio

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Happenings As of Late

I am really down in the dumps emotionally and also really in the dumps physically. I hate it. Yesterday, Jeremy took me to the Ivy Bake Shoppe to confirm the date and menu for Sarah's baby shower that we are doing for her. Then we went on to Hobby Lobby to pick up a few things for some projects I am working on. On the way back home, near Ft. Madison, out of nowhere, I got severe cramps and major dizziness and my eyes were blacking out. I couldn't even sit in the car so I made Jeremy get off the freeway and stop at Shopko. I thought maybe I had to go to the bathroom or something...or that I was going to miscarry again. Jeremy bought me some rolaids thinking that might help. It didn't. And we had to get back to Carthage because Jeremy had a 2:00 appointment with a new client. It was one of the longest rides of my life! I had really never felt pains like that except when I was miscarrying or in very early labor. Jeremy dropped me and Eden off at home and went to his appointment...even though he didn't want to. I laid down on the couch with Eden and tried to rest. The entire rest of the night was awful. Major dizziness. Pukey feeling but, no actual puke. This morning, I still feel dizzy but, I am going to try eating and see how I feel then. I have to keep a little something in my stomach constantly or else I feel absolutely horrible with this pregnancy. I don't think I have ever GAINED weight in the first trimester of pregnancy...I always LOSE weight because I can't eat. Weird. I think I feel better already.....mmmm, saltines. Breakfast of champions!

This week I have had Misty and my Mom over doing projects for me around the house so we can get it listed. I have to have them stop because I have pretty much spent most of my Christmas club though. They have scraped, sanded, and repainted the garage door. Scraped and repainted all the lower windows on the outside. Cleaned up all the weeds and dead plants outside, trimmed all my bushes, replaced the broken window in the garage door, sanded and primed the upstairs hallway, finished the yellow paint on the stairs and some other little odd and ends jobs. I am grateful that they could come do that for me. I wish I was a gazillionaire!!

I have a billion posts to catch up. Why won't my brain work to do them?!?!?

We took Asher to the doctor this week for a check up on meds. They are referring him to a psychiatrist that can better diagnose him. Which is fine by me...I have never been totally on board with the ADHD thing. It causes for a lot of worry for me though. I just want him to be happy. Today we get to go get shots for Tristan, Cedric, Asher, and Cullen. Cullen is freaking out. Poor kid. He gets so worked up over things.

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

First Prenatal Appointment

My first prenatal appointment was yesterday. I have gained 7 pounds since I found out I was pregnant about a month ago. Ugh. I have a tentative due date of May 22, 2014. They are having me do an ultrasound on Friday. And then I get to go back to the doctor again next Thursday. I am trying a new doctor here in Carthage. I hope it goes well.

Sunday, October 6, 2013

Tristan the Big Foot

I needed a quick pair of shoes the other day and saw Tristan's flip flops laying in the closet. I quickly grabbed them thinking that I would just stuff my feet in them, run outside to the car and deal with the discomfort. Holy crap! That kid has bigger feet than me!! They were too big and kept slipping all over! When the heck did that happen!?!?!? Boys size 6 and 1/2 is bigger than what I wear!?!??! What kind of sick and twisted universe do we live in!??!

Friday, October 4, 2013

Tyson and Vanessa's Family Pics

I got some more practice in with Tyson and Vanessa's family! They got some cute ones in there I think! I took 726 shots of their family and there were more than this but these are the best. The more people in a picture the harder it is to get a good shot. I am learning more and more as I go. I have been doing some online things to learn but, I would really like to take a class. I don't know if I will be able to squeeze that in though. I might do an online class. Anywho, I digress, this was a ton of fun! I hope they enjoyed them too. I think my family is gonna get sick of me taking their pictures but, they have to be my guinea pigs! haha! Next on my list is Trisha and Josh's family!