Today Gabe went back to school after spending 2 days home with really nasty bronchitis. The triplets stayed home and we went to the dr. for Johnny's recheck on his head where we found out he had a 102 temp. The other 2 couldn't get in until tomorrow so I take the 3 back again. They are thinking it is just a bad cold. Johnny's lungs are clear and his strep test was negative. That's a blessing!!

Gabe brought his report card home today and it was awesome! All his grades either stayed the same or came up. He had several E's too! I am so proud of him!

I was back on the job hunt today. Nobody seems to want me and I get down. But then I think that it's their loss because they are missing out on a hard working, kind and friendly woman. That should earn me a sticker this week!

The snow stopped Sean and I from getting to Toledo yesterday. We drove for an hour and a half and made it half way there. It was nasty!

I am exhausted...when the kids don't sleep nobody does. I'm sure lots of people experience that.
I am really trying to focus on God and his plans for my life. It's so hard to not be in control and to give up the desire for control. I wish I knew God's reasons for things, but if I knew them and could prepare for situations, life wouldn't be nearly as exciting, right?!

Many moons ago Monday

This picture is one of my favorites of Lura and I.

Amanda pregnant with triplets, Lura pregnant with twins, and Kellie pregnant with one!!! Victoria was present and pregnant with twins, but no one knew yet!

On the left is a picture of Lura, Amanda, Kellie and Rhonda with our waiter at TGIFriday's taken in 1997. We were celebrating Lura's birthday in Mansfield.

"Flashback Monday"

Tanis, Jakob, Steven, Jonathan, Tyler, Caitlin, Luke and Ethan. All two years old at the Willer twins (Jakob and Steven) birthday party.

I don't know why this tree keeps popping up!

This wasn't the picture I was intending on posting, but I can't figure out how to get rid of it! I think that Lura sent her sickness to my house! Gabe has really bad bronchitis and is out of school tomorrow and possibly longer. He is sleeping now, so I hope that he can sleep through the night. He has had a bad few nights with being unable to stay asleep. I wonder if it is possible to write about sleep anymore...

Tomorrow we venture to Toledo. We have to leave at 7 am (ugh) to go and meet with financial planners. We hope that they can help us figure out our poorness! I think that a house with less "issues" would really help, but not financially possible at this time.

Our new sump pump is still working. That is an answer to prayer!

I know this isn't an exciting post, but I want to figure out the picture posting problems! I have some great ones of Lura and Kellie to share!

So - last night around 11:30 Sean noticed a running water sound. We have an older house with radiators, so I assumed that's what the noise was. Was I ever wrong!! A pipe burst in our basement, there was water pouring through the foundation and our sump pump broke! We are starting to really feel cursed. This morning we decided that donuts were in order for breakfast so we ran to the store and then took a ride to the reservoir to see the ducks. There were a ton. I rolled down the window and made loud honking sounds and they honked back, which thrilled the kids. I think they thought I was actually talking to them. Call me Mother Dolittle! As we were leaving, Sean hit some ice and we slid. This caused great laughter from the back, so he did it again several more times. I know, real smart, especially with our luck! Anyways, we saw a man walking a looking at us and Sean and I, mature and responsible that we are cracked up. We are waiting for the letter to the editor to appear about the red van that reeked of donuts and fast food which makes a funny noise when it turns and had screaming kids in the back driving irresponsibly at the local park. I say after our week and then last night, we are allowed to be dorks. Have a great weekend.

Today I got a sticker! Dr. K. was proud of me for keeping a positive attitude during this past week. What else could I do?! I didn't post that Johnny split his lip open yesterday and bled for 20 minutes. He has a fat lip that just looks painful. Then today Caitlin got mad at him and poked him hard in the eye and now his eye is swollen. The poor kid can't catch a break!

I managed to have the triplets asleep in their own room by 7:15 tonight. (I think that deserves a sticker too!) Let's hope they stay. Gabe is up watching a movie and relaxing downstairs. We played 2 games of Sorry and I won both. The big deal about that is that Gabe was a GREAT loser. He has had a real problem with this area. He has had violent tantrums over losing a board game before.

I have been working very hard at organizing and cleaning. Lura will be so proud of me as I have 3 bags for the Goodwill sitting in the hall. Tomorrow morning we are going to take them and drop them off. This is a huge achievement. Lura can attest to that!!!

I hope I didn't offend anyone with my Banned for life from Disneyland picture. I had second thoughts after I posted it, but I was so proud of actually getting a picture to post!!! I apologize if I offended anyone.

Have a super night...

Finally...my Santa Picture!!!

Here is the picture of my kids with Santa this past Christmas.

I managed to find sweaters that matched for all 4 of them and I was so excited!!!

What were these people thinking?????

I just had to steal Lura's idea....

I have no idea how I posted a picture, but I am going to try and do another one!

How could I forget.....

...Jonathan had to go to the dr.'s in pink pajama's!!! I had put him in his sisters which is what I could find not expecting an adventure....Oh well, I don't think that we scarred him for life.

It's my crazy life and believe it or not...I love it!!!!

First off - God is good!!!!! We have lights and heat and it didn't cost nearly as much as it was supposed to. Still more than we could afford, but we can mange :)
We are now in the 60's for temperature and my mom is keeping the kids one more night. Ah the kids....let me tell you about our evening!
I picked up the trio from daycare at 3:15, went to my sister's to meet my brother in law and niece, Carmen by 3:30 so I could babysit until Amy got back from Scarlett's dr.'s appt. I then took over for Carmen and Scarlett plus my 4 until Scott got home at 5:45. Luke dumped the container of food into the guinnea pigs cage, Caitlin discovered what an ice and water dispenser do, Johnny got hit with the worst smelling #2, Gabe accidentally locked the bathroom door when he came out, so we had no potty, the 6 kids decided to play pull each other down the stairs - when Gabe was finished teaching them karate....I was pretty tired - too bad the kiddos weren't!
After dinner Luke and Scarlett collided coming around the corner. Luke was ok, Scarlett had a dark blue goose egg that immediately popped up over her eye. A little bit after Sean got back the little kids were playing in the step down family room off the kitchen. We still aren't sure what happened but all of a sudden Jonathan started to cry and came into the kitchen with blood streaming between his fingers covering his face. I have never seen so much blood in my life!!!! Luckily Sean and Scott are better at situations like this as I lost it. We git the bleeding to slow enough to find a small gash over his left eye. It bled like crazy. We called the pediatrician and
he had us come to the office where he cleaned things up and used glue instead of stitches to fix him up. It was traumatic, but the fighters that we are, we got through it. God must be bored, or testing us!!!! We give glory to Him that we are all healthy, Johnny's injury wasn't worse, we have light and heat, and I have amazing friends!!! Thanks guys.
I know that tomorrow is going to be a good day. Maybe a snow day??? Wear your pj's backwards everyone.

Some Great News...

Well, Sean and I wimped out at one a.m. and called my sister to sleep at her house. It is a balmy 45 degrees and dropping! Brrr! His Uncle Ken is here and together they are replacing the entire fuse box and circuit stuff (I have no clue about any of that?!) We should have power by late afternoon early evening. Sean and I went to Lowe;s to purchase the items and spent time focusing on God's Blessings. His uncle is a former contractor and neat-o guy who was able to get Ohio Edison to drop the $200.00 fee they were charging us to disconnect to do repairs. We will only have to pay them $15!!!! The electrician who was going to come this morning would have cost us almost $1000.00, Ken and Sean are doing it for about $200. We are 2 months behind on mortgage (ugh) so we don't know if our insurance is effective right now or not. We are thinking that maybe God allowed the power outage because something far worse might have happened and we might not of had insurance. Although a fire would of been a lot warmer! ha ha.
Sean and I got to spend some time together last night and were able to laugh. I got to talk to my sister Amy about a lot of things and it drew us closer. My kids are okay, warm, and fed...I could go on and on. God does work in mysterious ways and we are so thankful. All of the food in our fridge and freezer is gone, but a lot were close to expiring anyways. Ask Lura, I have problems using expired food. I convince myself it tastes terrible and then drive everyone nuts with food poisoning questions!

I also want all of you to know how much I appreciate each one of you. I am so blessed to have found this blog and all of you guys! You mean so much and the love and support you give is awesome. To quote the Wise Miss Sonya : "I'm stoked" about it all!!!

My battery is about gone so I will update tonight if Harris Powerfest 2007 session 1 goes as planned!!

Oh, remember to feed a horse if you see one,

Love, Amanda

When it rains it pours...

Hi friends. It has been ages since I have posted anything and I missed it!
Things have been real hectic around here and our faith is really being tested. I thank God for my sense of humor and I praise Him daily.
Tonight I was making dinner. I had just put noodles into boiling water and reheated the beef in the crock pot when the lights went out. I thought that a circuit thing had tripped, but found that there was No power at all in the house. We have only a cordless phone and I was talking to Sean at the time this happened - boy was he worried when he couldn't get a hold of me! I didn't know hat to do, but remembered that we had just charged the laptop, so I got online to the Ohio Edison site. There were no outages reported, so I turned it off and got dinner ready (in the dark for the kids). I found 17 tea lights and we sat down to a candlelight dinner in the living room. Within minutes the food began flying. I called Ohio Ed. on Sean's cell phone (he came home right before dinner to check on us and left his phone) to see if we had been disconnected or something. While on the phone Jonathan decided to grab my bowl and smash it to pieces. Then he picked up his bowl and dumped dinner over his head. Ohio Ed. didn't know what was wrong so they had someone come over. To make a long story longer, it turns out the main switch to out fuse box is shot. We have to have it replaced which is going to be very expensive. So the kids are at my mom's and Sean and I are braving the elements. We have no electricity, no heat and no hot water. I'll let you all know if we survive!!
Oh - the best part was that a friend of the family offered a generator for us to borrow. It ran for two minutes before it blew up!!! Thankfully no one was hurt, the kids are warm, and Sean and I get some time alone that we have been whining about.

I will post more tomorrow and fill you all in on the past 2 weeks...

Have a good and warm night!

Feed a horse if you see one....

I had a roommate in college named Annie. Her real name was Akane Saito, from Chiba, Japan. She was a riot and we had so much fun. I'd post a picture of her - but you all know how I am at that. Maybe Lura will do it for me (hint.hint.) Whenever I'd leave to go to class she would always give me a piece of advice. Watch out for road construction and Feed a horse if you see one were two of my favorites. She moved back to Japan and we lost touch. Last I knew she was in "training" to become a geisha girl. I pray that she is doing well and I miss her. She crossed my mind this morning and made me happy. I always pass on her words of wisdom (?)!

Sean is outside working on our front sidewalk leading to the porch. He is putting in these really pretty red brick pavers. I am excited to see it done. He has so many projects underway. I was blessed to marry a wonderful man who knows how to do a bit of everything! He is also finishing remodeling our upstairs bathroom and added a half bath and laundry room to our first floor while I was pregnant with the triplets. He is so amazing.

I am having a really bad self image day. I feel so gross, overweight and unattractive. I am trying to start exercising more every day and eating healthier. I think part of it is the health problems that are making me feel so bad. I see the doctor next week to have my remaining ovary checked out. I am in a bit of pain and my belly is so bloated. It is my only ovary and I don't want to lose it, but if it makes all this go away I guess I would do it! It is silly, but I am worried about not being a "complete woman" and also knowing that if this ovary goes, I am finished with children for good. I am not planning on anymore, but I like knowing that it is an option. I feel so selfish thinking that way. God has blessed me with 4 beautiful kids, including a gorgeous little girl who told me this morning that I was her best friend!, and I shouldn't feel like I do. Also the idea of more surgery doesn't appeal to me. I shouldn't worry about these things until I know that I have to. Sometimes I drive myself nuts!!!

There I go rambling again...I am going to go and do something nurturing for myself and maybe a bit of exercising. I know that would make me feel better!! Take Care Everyone!

Any Ideas?

My kids will not go to sleep when they are supposed to. We have tried everything we can think of to keep them in their room, but nothing has worked. I can't shut their door because they can open it. I double gate them in and they climb 2 gates. I am getting quite frustrated. Their bedtime has turned into 11:00 pm or later. Even without naps!!! I am going to lose my mind. The 8:00 - 11:00 timeframe is my relaxtion time, or supposed to be. Does anyone have any good advice???

*I just pulled a fully dressed Luke from the bathtub full of water and Gabe!!! Why do they do that???

One of those days...

2 posts in 2 days...I don't know what's wrong with me!!! You are all probably in shock. :)

Sean had an interview for a second/part time job today. They seemed impressed with him and he was really pleased with how things went. They will be contacting him in a week or two. PLEASE pray that this works for us!

I am having one of those days. I am feeling down and out. I did have some laughter when I was being "sexy" for Sean, who was trying to get work done, and I flipped my shirt over my head and got my lip stuck on a button. He pretended not to know me. I'd like to say that it has never happened before...unfortunately I can't. I am the queen of not unzipping hooded sweatshirts and then getting my head stuck in them when trying to take them off. I blame my body - our kids pediatrician said that our children were out of luck as Sean and I both have rather large heads. I was quite offended!! I also managed to get a prescription pill bottle stuck in my hair over the weekend, and a few weeks ago I got my sleeve stuck in the tube at the bank. But - notice that I admit to these things. (Maybe that's where I go wrong.) I am noticing a trend though. I could fill an entire post with things I have gotten stuck to, under, over or in! Lura and Kellie could probably add to that list. Girls - you don't really need to.

Back to my down and out...I tend to get off track easily anymore. Must be the 4 kids, wacky husband and old age. Or it could be the lack of sleep, diet coke and chocolate. I am feeling really stressed out about finances and am having some health issues. I am trying to pray about it and turn it over to God, but I have such problems with the control aspect. I want to know when and how things are going to be resolved. How do I deal with that?

I am trying to be a better Christian woman, a better wife, mother and friend this year. I monopolize conversations too much (sorry Lura!) and I also apologize too much. I don't think that I will be getting my sticker this week. And no doubt I will apologize for that too!
I think that I am the only 32 year old woman who gets stickers from her therapist! But - it makes me happy. One of those little things.

Thanks for reading my ramblings. Sometimes it makes me feel better to write about nothing.

Happy New Year Friends!!!

Happy New Year! I am really looking forward to 2007. Sean and I are approaching the upcoming year with excitement, positivity and openess. We feel that this year is one of promise and that God has good things in store for us and our family.

We had a nice Christmas, hosting 39 people for Christmas Eve at our house (including 2 5 day old babies) and we had a fairly relaxing Christmas day at my mom's and then my grandma and grandpa Pool's. The kids, as well as Sean and I, were spoiled but compared to last year it was good time.

We have four new members in our family. A snail named Gary, and 3 fish...Mary, Joseph and Jesus. I am not sure about the names for the fish, but Gabe was insistant. Mary #1 passed away the day after we got her, but Mary#2 is surviving!

Gabe did a super job in the church Christmas program. He provded a bit of comic relief when a panel of the wall behind him fell on him during the program! What a hoot!!! He had such a look of terror on his face - the "boy did I do it now" one- and was rescued by 2 of the adults helping out. My sister said he was just carrying on the Emmons tradition as my dad had dozed off one Sunday in the choir loft and a banner on the wall fell down and covered him, waking him up! Those who knew my dad knew that he was a professional napper. Gabe on the other hand, was wide awake!!

Tomorrow Gabe and the triplets start back to school and daycare. I am looking forward to my quiet time again! Sean is hoping to have the upstairs bathroom done in the next 3 weeks. I can't wait!

We have recovered from New Year's Eve. Gabe went with my sister, Scott and the girl's to Pastor Edna's where he got to play with his friends. Sean, the trio and I went to Kellie, Brian and Tanis' house and had a ball. The only bad part was the 2 hour crying fit when tiredness set in, that and we missed the ball dropping because the Teletubbies were on!!
But it was fun, and nice to be with grown ups. The four kids have so much fun playing together. Tanis and Caitlin insist that they will be getting married. (They are 3!!!!) They are all just so cute. Thanks Kellie and Brian for a fun night!!! (WE HAD PLANS!!!)

I have to go and use my mean mommy voice on some little monsters.... I hope that you all have a blessed New Year.