Thankful

I am thankful for so much. It is impossible to write it all down. A lot is private, a lot may seem silly - I truly feel so blessed. I know so many look at my life and wonder how I could call our situation, pretty much my life a blessing. I look at my life and wonder how anyone couldn't call it one! Sure there is a lot I wish would never have happened, things I wish I could change. I often wonder what it would be like if I wasn't so clumsy or scatterbrained, but that makes me me and that makes me wonderful! I sounded full of myself, didn't I? I don't mean to, I am just thrilled to be me. All my flaws - and I have many!!!- all my unique habits, my good qualities it makes me who I am. Sure, I would love to have a supermodel's figure. I would love to have perfect health, well behaved children and great grace and luck. But what fun would that be? I mean really. Life would get predictable and boring. I love that everyday is a mystery to be solved. You never know what is going to happen when you get up in the morning. You could have your day scheduled from morning til night and I guarantee it won't happen that way. What a gift that is! Some of my favorite moments have happened during the spontaneous surprise moments my days throw at me. God has blessed me with so much. He has given me fantastic opportunities, experiences, adventures... He has given me the greatest husband and children and wonderful friends and family. I had every intention of making a list of what I am thankful for, but decided to ramble instead. I guess that was a spontaneous decision too! I am thankful for that!

I hope that you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving and look at whatever the day may bring you as a chance for a new experience. Each day is an adventure. Sometimes the road may be full of speed bumps, pot holes and road kill, but there are also the unexpected pleasant surprises that await you around the bend.

Happy Thanksgiving! I love you all!! Thank you all for being unexpected surprises.

Weekend Highlights Part Deux:

How could I forget the most traumatic part of my weekend????
On Saturday the kids went outside to play. My mom has Koi Pond that is in the shape of a kidney. It is maybe 15-18 feet long and 4 1/2 feet at its widest points. It comes right to the tops of my knees, so it is not too deep. Well the kids know to stay away from it....they are continuously told. I sent them out and was checking every few minutes out the window. All of a sudden I heard Luke wailing. Sean ran outside and discovered a sopping wet Luke standing next to the pond. I ran up and ran a warm bath and we stripped him and put him in the water. It turned cold almost immediately! He was shaken up for not even 5 minutes before he was talking about the whole thing like it was some great adventure. I was not happy. Apparantly the kids were checking to see if the pond was frozen solid. Girls, I was so scared! Caitlin is proud to announce that she is the only one who has not fallen in, but all the other times have been in the summer! I thanked God over and over for keeping Luke safe. Even though the water is not deep, it was deep enough and ice cold!

Well, at least we haven't burned down the house...

So, today I was building a fire - in the fireplace, of course. I know you are all wondering why on earth would anyone let me do that.... Sean was cold enough and desperate enough. It took me a good half and hour to get it started. Don't laugh...the other day it took Sean an hour and a half -no lie! It wasn't a roaring blaze, but it was respectable enough. After awhile Sean went out to the kitchen and smelled smoke. He looked into my mom's basement and it was pretty hazy looking. So he yelled for me and we went down. The stench was horrendous and the haze (some may call it smoke) hurt my eyes. We couldn't find anything on fire and the smoke alarms, which were all in working order, were not going off, so we went back upstairs and turned on ceiling fans and opened windows. My mom got home about an hour later and walked in and gagged. I didn't think it was that bad anymore. Turns out that I somehow managed to get it so smokey in the fireplace that it was coming out into the basement. Oh yeah, I forgot to open the damper thingy for about an hour too. Apparantly that is not good. Luckily my mom had some stuff from the fire department, from the time SHE melted the tupperware containers in her oven, and set it in dishes around the house to absorb the odor. It smells a lot better now.
Yesterday the kids managed to knkock over a large planter that hit some antique dishes and broke one. I was mortified, as I thought that it was from the Belfry, but it was the same pattern that my mom found at a garage sale. Turns out my cousin Sue had the Belfry china on a shelf in her china hutch that inexplicably collapsed one day and shattered all the dishes. Thank God that wasn't our fault!!! So my mom wasn't that upset about the dish. The plant that fell over had come unpotted and Sean, not seeing that it was full of huge thorns, grabbed to put back in and got his hand all pricked up. He recovered. So did my ears! Tonight I was cross stitching and was holding the needle between my lips so I could clip the floss. Somehow I managed to bump the needle and it drove the point right into my gum between my two front teeth. It hurt incredibly for about a minute and then the pain disappeared and the bleeding stopped. Sean seemed to think it was funny.
So this has been what I can remember of our weekend. I am sure more happened, but these were the highlights. I hope that you all have a great Monday!

Please Pray....

I only have sketchy details, but my cousin Karen let me know that she has lost a baby for the second time this year and tomorrow morning they have to do some sort of chromosome testing and then surgery. I am not quite sure what the surgery is for, but I imagine it is not good. Please say a prayer if you can. She could use the uplift. Thanks.

Nothing I could tell you could be nearly as entertaining as Crystal's post and the "Lewis blew us away!" comment! My stomach hurts from laughing so much today!

Hope you all have a good night

We are official house renters.

We signed our lease this morning. We move in December 1st. I am really excited for that. Too bad it is a Monday, but anyone in the area who wants to come on the following Saturday to help Sean and I avoid divorce court and move big stuff is welcome. Somehow I always manage to make moving big furniture an unpleasant experience for Sean. I can't imagine why.....
Kevin, if you are reading this, I am sorry about the horrible fixture related injury you sustained recently. I am also sorry for laughing so hard I cried, but the first explanation was a riot! I even have to admit to chuckling at the real reason. I hope that you are feeling better and that the scarring will be minimal and not in the shape of a toilet paper holder!
I have to go do homework, but I wanted to say hi and give you all my wishes for a tremendous day!!!

Passion Pants

Sean and I listen to the Elvis Duran morning show after we drop off the kids. It is always good for a laugh - today was no exception. On stupid news they told of a women in England who was hospitalized because she wore her vibrating passion pants to the store and became so aroused that she fell and hit her head and knocked herself unconcious. How embarassing is that?!
I have never heard of passion pants, but I can only imagine!
Have a good one!

WE GOT THE HOUSE!!!!!!

Maybe some good news to share....

Thanks to Victoria we got a lead on a house. We went and looked at it and are putting in our application this afternoon. It turns out the renter knows both our families and said it would be a pleasure to rent to us! They are waiving the application fee as well. It has a huge yard and a paved!!!! driveway that is the longest I have seen. It wraps around the house and there are two entrances. I am excited, I think we have a good chance of getting it. We would try to move in around the first of December if we get it. Oh, it has 3 bedrooms so Caity-Grace would get her princess room! I am going to put it all in God's hands, after all he knows what is best for us. Oh, one other exciting thing is that it has coathooks!!!! In two places, none the less! We didn't have any at the house. And it has a large laundry room....I could go on. I don't want to get too excited until we know for sure, but I can't help it. It will be a real bummer if we don't get it, but I am going to remain positive!
Love you guys!
Crystal....I hope that you aren't feeling funky today. You are an amazing person. I love you dearly!!!! May today be a great day for you.
Carrie....I hope that you can read this! I hope that your eye is better and you are feeling very comfortable. EYE think about you often and EYE hope that you are feeling "SPEC"tacular today!!!! Love you too!

Nutsy!!!

That is how I feel today. Completely nutsy!
Sean and I had to run to Lowe's this morning and since we were all the way over there we stopped in at Target. The dollar section at the front was filled with Cars, HSM, Camp Rock, Hello Kitty and Disney Princess things. We got some stocking stuffers for the kids.
Last night was the triplets school night at Burger King. It was a horrendous experience and I have banned anymore. The kids were rotten! Gabe complained about everything and I could do nothing right! I thought it was supposed to get better when he hit ten... Caitlin threw a tantrum when we tried to leave and laid on the floor in the crowded restaurant. The boys behavior was awful, although Luke did not throw ketchup at me this time.

WHAT AM I DOING WRONG???? AM I REALLY THAT HORRIBLE AT PARENTING????

I am being more consistent than ever, I am doing everything that I know to do and it is only getting worse. I am so frustrated right now that I am ready to give up. I never will though, I love my kids too much to do that.

Dropping the triplets off this morning was terrible and the boys turned off the alarm clock so we had half an hour to get everyone dressed and off to school. No one got breakfast this morning because there was no time. Luke blamed us, he said if we didn't want them to turn off the clock then we shouldn't have one. WHAT?????

Thanks, I just needed a minute to vent.

Have a good day.

Thursday...

Hi ya guys!
Happy Thursday. Well Carrie should be out of surgery by now. My thoughts and prayers are with you! I can't wait to hear how everything went. You are doing "spec"tacular I am sure! I am sure that you are going to be so relieved to have this all done and over with.
Luke went into school with out incident this morning. What a relief. He also had a green day yesterday, that means he behaved well! Yay Luke!!!!
Gabe had night terrors last night. He hasn't had them for a while. I don't know what was bothering him yesterday. It was really strange and he did a lot of yelling in his sleep and sleepwalking too. I hate when that happens. It is scary. He doesn't remember it happening which is good.
Luke didn't sleep well last night, he wanted to chat a lot. Jonathan threw up twice and Caitlin had a stomach ache. I slept on the floor in the living room with 2 and 2 slept on the couch. If anyone wants filled in on what happened on Nick at Nite just let me know. I saw almost all of it!!!
Gabe had a good birthday yesterday. He got sang to 3 different times and was the center of attention a lot. He enjoyed that!
I managed to de-install two programs yesterday and install Microsoft Office by myself! Well, Lura was on the phone to be my troubleshooter, but no one was here with me! It was a feel good accomplishment. I am almost done with my section on Word, then I move on to Microsoft Excel and Powerpoint. I am back on track with my schoolwork and am so looking forward to getting a job!
I hope that you all have a fantastic day!

Double Digits at last!!!!

Today Gabe turned 10!!!! My baby is a big boy. Ok, so according to Lura, he hasn't been a baby for years. He has had a good few days of celebrating. I just can't believe it has been so long. If I could I would post pictures of the day he was born. Lura was the back up coach. When I can post pictures again I will do a post about his birth. It was quite an adventure!

This morning we let Gabe pick out what he wanted for breakfast. He chose donuts. Okayed by all but Luke. Luke chose to have a temper tantrum instead. From 8 oclock until almost nine he screamed and threw his shoes at me in the van. What a child. When we got to school to drop them off Caitlin and Johnny got out okay, Luke laid in the parking lot kicking and screaming at the top of his lungs. Everyone outside was staring at us. Sean took the other two in and put Luke back in the van so we could take him with us to drop Gabe off. He screamed across town while we dropped Gabe off. When we were pulling into Gabe's school the cell phone rang. It was Amy telling me that my niece Scarlett had wet her pants and could I PLEASE bring her some clothes. So we ran to my mom's, down the street, and grabbed clean clothes, ran back to school so I could run Scarlett's clothes in - Luke was screaming the entire time. We got Scarlett taken care of and had to go back across town to take Luke, now tardy and screaming to school. We finally got him settled down and Sean took him in. When they got to the classroom his teacher came out in the hall to talk to Sean. (She is aware of our discipline troubles) and when she asked Luke to come out he wouldn't. So she went back in and took his hand to walk him out and he dropped to the floor. So the teacher half carried, half dragged Luke who had started screaming again out into the hall to talk with her. When Sean left he had finally calmed down and stayed on green all day.
That was how my day started. Fun, huh?!
Have a good night.

Live Your Life

I am sure many of you question my taste in music. I am one of those people who love a little from every category out there. Showtunes, rap, country, heavy metal, Christian, pop, rock, you name it - I listen to it. This song is by TI and Rhianna. He wrote it while on house arrest. I know, sounds like a winner, huh? I really like it. I hope you listen to at least a little of it....get past the yodeling sounding part, although I admit to liking that as well!
Hope you all have a great day~

We had a really neat weekend. I wish I could post pictures, but can't on my mom's. Maybe I will haul my junk over to Vic's and see if I can connect there and post some.
Saturday we took Gabe out for a mom, dad and Gabe day. He chose that over a party for his 10th birthday which is Wednesday the 12th. We went to Dave and Buster's for lunch and played games. He ended up with 1613 tickets, so he got to enjoy choosing lots of fun stuff. Then we were going to see a movie, but he wanted to go to Toys r Us instead and spend some birthday cash from Old Grandma and Old Grandpa. He chose a collector's tin of Pokemon cards. The deal was he could pick whatever he wanted and I had to keep my mouth shut about it. Then we went and got sickening sundaes at Dairy Queen - we were going to do a dessert with them singing at D& B's but he didn't want any, too excited to play! On our way home we went to Jamie's flea Market and found 2 vendors that sold yu gi oh and pokemon cards so he bought 126 more. whoopee! We came back to town, grabbed dinner and spent some more time with just us. He had a ball being the only child for the day and the center of attention. Sunday we had church, Gabe's birthday lunch here with my family and then went to Chuck E Cheese for Tanis's birthday party. That was quite an experience. The kids had a ball and it was good to see them all having fun together. I have pictures from that too.
I am so sleepy, so I am going to end this. Maybe I will have a more exciting post tomorrow! Hope that you all had wonderful weekends and a great Monday. Love you!

Well....

I am still not caught up in blog world. Hopefully tomorrow I can read everyone's. I love you all and hope that you are all wonderful and having a good night!

Ps. I didn't break the display at the store when I walked into the shelf of glass knick-knacks and floral arrangements, just scraped up my arm! It was the sneezing guy who didn't cover his mouth that steered me off course. If I had broken anything would it have been my responsibility or the unhygenic guys?

Hey guys-
I haven't had a chance to read any blogs so I don't know how any of you are. I hope that all is well and that you are happy and healthy! If not, cheer up and feel better! I feel so disconnected from everyone and everything right now. I just had therapy too - can't tell, huh?! I think it is just the situation. At home I could get online whenever, post pictures, easily check blogs and mail....here it is an ordeal. Oh well, it is temporary and what good will complaining do?!
Are any of you as disappointed in the election results as I am? I am trying to remember what I told Sean...God knew who was going to win long before yesterday. This result is all a part of His plan. I am not thrilled with the idea of a president who doesn't oppose partial birth abortions as well as several other areas I feel strongly about, but God knows what He is doing and we just need to have faith and trust in Him.
We have not broken anything major - with the exception of 2 shovels and a sledgehammer - lately. I think maybe we are in a streak of good fortune?! The kids are doing well, staying relatively healthy and getting decent marks in school. They are driving me bananas, but that is to be expected, right?!
Hope that you all are having a good day.
Love you guys!