Tahoe Summer. Tahoe Winter

Tahoe Summer:






Tahoe Winter:











Since it's been a ridiculous almost 80 degrees here lately....hello, it's JANUARY!, we decided to hit the slopes since the roads would most certainly be clear. After all, who on earth wants to buy snow chains 5 months before you move to Alabama?! So we set our 4 precious children atop 4 sleds on top of the mountain and away they went. It was a breathtakingly beautiful day! I bought a do it yourself cast kit at Target so I could be prepared for the broken arm/leg/neck that would surely occur but thankfully they all came out in one piece, so I shall put the kit away for a rainy day.

Nerd. Defined.

Out of curiosity I looked up the definition of nerd today. In case you too were curious here it is:

Nerd.(n) One who, in a rush to get of the house in the morning and get the kids to school, mistakenly puts on one brown boot and one black boot and then doesn't realize the error until standing in line at Starbucks with 20 other people who were surely noticing her mismatched boots.

Nerdness is typically pictured as follows:


Interesting definition don't you think? What kind of idiot would do such a thing?

Day 9 and a new best friend

Well, it's day 9 and if I may take this opportunity to thank all of my amazing friends for your support, texts, messages, and of course Facebook posts! You all have kept me uplifted in what was kind of rotten week. But alas, I must inform you I have a new best friend. It never called me, never left me a message or dropped off a meal, but I am now choosing it over all of you. If you are offended, I understand. If you want to meet for coffee so we can discuss why I like this friend more than you, that's fine. But I thought I would at least post a pic of my new best buddy just so you can have a visual of my new BFF. So here you go:

Here she is in all of her fluidy glory, my new friend...I call her Ivy.
She is tall, she is skinny, she is full of life giving nutrients and fluid. This is why I like her....a lot. She made him go from this:


To this:


Which is why I like her so much. Though Ivy has her strong attributes she is kind of dull to hang out with. She's not much for shopping or going out to lunch and she is a sincere bore to talk to on the phone so I still need all of you, you are all loved and a blessing to me!

Day 9

Day 8...NO PUKE! Thought we might be done and that the anti-nausea meds worked!
Day 9...woke up and hurled and is continuing to do so.
I wonder what losing your mind feels like.....I'll let you know.

Day 8

Well, it's 3:15PST, day 8. We've just returned from the pediatrician's office for our follow up appt and learned the MRI is normal! Praise the Lord! Now onto our continual search for the cause of the vomit machine. He usually starts throwing up between 4 and 6.....dun, dun, DUN! So, I wait. I clean, I get dinner ready for the other kids, I get everything done in this house because once 4pm rolls around it's Bean time....soon to be renamed barf time. It's weird, it's heartbreaking to watch, it's stressful because Hello! 3 other kids still need stuff, it's tiring and it's just plain yucky. He actually ate something today; he had a container of yogurt...this is big! Thanks to all of my friends for the support, you guys rock! Here he is again as a baby bean, I heart him.

WARNING INAPPROPRIATE IMAGE AHEAD!!!!!

Warning, warning!!! Most inappropriate picture ahead! Warning!!!!

....are you still reading? Okay, your choice...but don't say I didn't warn you!!

....Okay

....Here

....We

....Go

.....Last chance to look away..................

.....Okay, you asked for it!


I warned you! Here is how we started out Day 5 of throwing up. Yep. Notice the splatter all over the wall...Mmmmmm...isn't that great? I had given him a water bottle with some pomegranate in it a couple of hours before...uhhh that was dumb. At the time I was consumed with thoughts of hydrate him, hydrate him, hydrate him and if it's a pomegranate water bottle he wants, then he shall have....or had...again, on the dumb scale that was pretty high; this I now realize. We are off to the pediatrician tomorrow morning and so help me if they tell me it's a virus and give me advil I just might deck someone. You don't mess with a tired mommy who has gone through an entire bottle of carpet cleaner in 5 days....I hope they taught them that in medical school.


This picture is a gift from me to you in an attempt to erase the previous picture from your memory. It's a cutie! Do you forgive me now?

Yesterday was Day 4

Grrrrrr....day of 4...it just keeps comin. 12 years of parenting and I have never seen this before! He is pretty much fine the entire day and then like clockwork 5:00pm rolls around and we barf for the next 6 hours. What the?!!!! Here he is before he learned to throw up....sigh...I'm off to wash the sheets and get out the carpet cleaner...again.

Day 3

We are on day 3 of puke! I will spare you the pictures but please pray for beans, he is miserable! He throws up all early evening and night, lays around all day and then repeats the process. We are going to start a I hate puke club. I am highly caffinated and bleary eyed to say the least but I feel sooo bad for my boy! He is such a champ. Here is my all time favorite pic of him....he was yawning here....not puking in case you were wondering.

A side benefit

I learned a side benefit of homeschooling last night at around 2am. When your kid is home all day, with you, with you who washes her hands frequently and sanitizes often, your kid doesn't get sick. And then you throw them in here:


with lots of these:


A puking kid yee shall have. He has bounced back tremendously today but I think we are just experiencing the shock to his poor sanitized system with the snot and bugger picking and non potty handwashing that inevitably occurs throughout the first grade. So we spent the day playing Tinker Toys, Guess Who and, happily napping. Ahhh, motherhood. The puke, the buggers, the germs, the glamour of it all.

Things I've learned

Things I've learned from the three days I have been home with all of the kids in school:

You can pee with the door open.
1500 square feet feels A LOT bigger when you are the only one roaming around.
1500 square feet is very quiet when you are the only one roaming around...sniff..cry.
You only run the dishwasher once a day...instead of three.
You can be up to date with current events because you have 20 minutes to watch the news instead of the Disney channel.... Did you know there is a war going on in Iraq?!
You don't eat chicken nuggets and macaroni and cheese for lunch.
I learned I miss them....sniff....cry....boo and a hoo.

Step aside Kobe

Twins started their basketball season last week....homeboys got skilllllssss...Justin has actual basketball skills and Jack has the ability to bounce up and down and all around the court and talk the ear off of the referee...skillful to say the least. He was selected as the "captain" of their first game and the usual 1 minute handshake and rule review in center court turned into a marathon session of Jack asking questions and making conversation completely unrelated to basketball with the ref.

I think the poor guy wanted to just walk away from him and begin the game already but didn't have the heart to do so. So funny.
The game began....FINALLY.....and Justin shot and scored the first points for his team! They must have a REALLY good coach.....I think I have a picture of him....let me see....oh yes, here he is:


He's a great coach, I'm thinking of asking him out. Do you think he'd go steady with me?
I'll let you know what he says, meanwhile here are some pics of the game!

Justin v Apple Dip

Justin. Apple Dip. Mess. But a very cute mess at that. In my new found free time of 4 boys in school all day and not much to do I have come up with some lip smackin after school snacks everyday....okay it's only been two days but I am so far 2 for 2! Yesterday I made the good ole fashioned mini chocolate cookies and cold milk that was waiting for them on the table when they got home...today brought fresh pears and apple dip. This time I made the mistake of allowing them to have a picnic snack and watch Phineas and Ferb....a mistake I shall not repeat as evidenced by the following pictures.




If anyone wants to try it here is the recipe!

A blob of Cool Whip...in my home it is an entire container of Cool Whip but for normal people it is a large blob.

A scoop of peanut butter....again, mine is half of a jar...grrrr....

Sprinkle of cinnamon

A small container of vanilla yogurt....if you don't have this it still tastes good without it.

Slice up some fresh apples or pears and waaa-laaa! Hope you like it, it's a fav in our house! I was going to take a picture of the finished product for you but I turned around and it was all gone...so ummm, here is a picture of what it looks like when your kids eat it all...and then proceed to polish off what is left of the peanut butter!

Why do I care?

I care about a lot of things.
I care about God and whether my actions and words are pleasing to Him.
I care about the salvation of my friends and family.
I care when my newest Rachel Ray magazine will arrive so I can try out a new recipie....I also care that I cannot apparently spell recipie.
I care about my husband's fantasy football stats because I like it when he wins because it makes him happy.
I care who wins the Super Bowl this year...okay not really, but I do care what appetizers I will cook for my family while they watch the Super Bowl...does that count?

Here's what I don't care about:



No offense to the American Girl people, I'm sure they are lovely. But really? How much does it cost them to send this to me every month or two? People! I HAVE FOUR BOYS. I am not going to order ANYTHING from you. Your dolls and their dresses and loads of accessories are beautiful, more power to ya! Enjoy what you do, make little girls happy, make their parents broke because I can see how much you charge for a pair of plastic doll shoes, go ahead!God bless ya! But please, please stop sending this to me! I don't care what Kit and Pollyanna and Maryanne are wearing this season. I don't care! Now, if for some reason you decide to go into the business of stain removal or how to cook 45 pieces of French toast in 20 minutes or less, then sign me up! I'm your gal! But anything to do with dresses, pink, things that smell good....unfortunately I am not your target market. Just a thought.

The tooth fairy is SUCH a loser!

Justin lost his first tooth.
Justin was INCREDIBLY excited about this tooth and has been eagerly anticipating the loss of the tooth for WEEKS...yes, WEEKS this thing has been loose.
Justin lost it while I was at the commissary yesterday.....I missed the big event. Grrrr.
Justin put his tooth under his pillow last night in his special tooth case.
Justin went to sleep........
So did John and I.

A 6 year old ticked off at a mythical creature is not the way you want to start your Saturday let me just tell ya.
I feel HORRIBLE. So the tooth fairy wrote him a quick note, left him $2($1 for the tooth, $1 to attempt to allieve the tremendous guilt the fairy feels) AND a lollipop...because the guilt is not waning.

I'd like some honey on my biscuit

There are many, many, many things we are looking forward to as we head south. These for example are at the top of our list:

Big Baptist churches are everywhere in the South

Also near the top are these:

No explanation needed there, they are just plain delicious.

On the side of deliciousness there is also lots of this:

Ahhh, sweet tea. So sweet.

So in addition to all of these known factors regarding heading back toward good ole southern living we have discovered some unknowns. John is always in charge of sportingness when a move approaches. Where are they going to play baseball. Are they going to be able to play ice hockey? Where are the nearest pro/semi-pro teams so we can go watch on a lazy Saturday afternoon...you know, the important stuff. I take care of schools, he takes care of sports and a happy family yee shall have. So in his searching he came across the big news that Montgomery has their own minor league baseball team. Yippee! We love that! Well, now we love it even more because guess what their name is.......


Yep, the Montgomery biscuits. How cool is that? Who doesn't love a biscuit? Here is their mascot because I know you were wondering!


I don't really know what he is.....a biscuit eater perhaps? Much like an ant eater only with biscuits? One can only imagine. As excited as I have been for this move; this big breaking biscuit news has pushed me over the excited edge! Can we leave tomorrow?!! Biscuits anyone?!

Christmas threw up

Christmas has puked all over my back patio....and it's a moving year so you know you can't just throw everything back in the shed and close the door. No, no, on moving years you must ensure each little thing gets wrapped and put exactly into the proper container so that when the movers come and dump your stuff at your new house you don't find Christmas ornaments in your underwear drawer....because really, nothing says welcome to your new home like Santa in your bra.