Bittersweet

Sorry for the lack of posting, it's been crazy around here lately...

The last week has been SUCH a whirlwind of activity; it's been a very bittersweet week. We started last weekend celebrating my sisters' graduation from college in Michigan. We were with my whole family for two days and it was wonderful; we ended the weekend with a trip to the zoo with some of our oldest and dearest friends and their daughter. It was absolutely wonderful. We returned home Sunday night exhausted and happy. Monday we had lunch with the Greats and it was *great* We learned a lot of family history; who knew Grandpa the Great was a bit of a rabble rouser in his day!? Or that Grandma the Great's father worked for "the White Owl Cigar" company!? hehe.

Monday night, however, the mood shifted suddenly. Katie came over and asked me to come to Michigan with her, as her momma had fallen ill and they didn't know if she was going to pull through. I packed a bag and got ready to leave when we found out she had passed away. Katie and I drove through the night, in the pouring rain to get to her family.

I'm not sure what else I can even say about the situation; I don't know that I have words that even begin to describe the pain I saw them all experiencing. Four children lost their mother, a husband lost his wife of 35 years, and grandchildren, nieces, nephews, cousins, sisters, and brother lost their beloved Kim. She was a gentle giving person, quick with a smile and would literally give the shirt off of her back if you needed or even WANTED it (I would know, she gave me a jacket once because it looked similar to what I was wearing and she said I looked so cute, I ought to have another!) The world truly lost one of the "good ones" with her passing and my heart hurts FOR their whole family.

I'll leave you with a few pictures, which really show her personality. You'll be missed Kim.

The Days are Long, The Years are Short

HH and I just had our tenth wedding anniversary at the end of July; for whatever reason, I seem to think of people's children in relation to how old they were at our wedding. It doesn't make much sense, but it's how I do it...

There was a gawky kind of awkward 12 year old boy at our wedding whom I danced with. That 12 year old is now 22, has a beautiful fiance, and a baby on the way. Um...how did that happen?

Another little one at our wedding was newly eight and just wanted to dance with the bride; she was a cute little blonde who ended up going home with all of my wedding jewelry (no worries, it was all fake and I made it ha ha) This little blonde? Well you guessed it, she's 18 and just started her freshman year at Iowa State. She's a Hawkeye now...how did that happen?

Yesterday was my sweet little biver bips, er, liver lips, er uh, godson Cameron's 11th birthday. ELEVEN! EEE-LEH-VIN! At my wedding? Well he wasn't there, but he was itty bitty and probably wearing his favorite camouflage onesie. I don't see him as an eleven year old, I see him as a little guy with a dish of spaghetti on his head, I see him as a toddler with the letter "K" from his magnetic alphabet pretending to spray things and clean them, I see him as a toothly 7 year old sprawled out on my bed reading Calvin and Hobbes. Not an 11 year old who can carry on a conversation with his Aunt Chrissi and actually make sense. Not an 11 year old who's headed toward puberty in a big way. Not an 11 year old who is closer to 18 than to being 1 (sorry Amanda, but it's true...)

And my own itty bitty, small, tiny, definitely not closer to 8 than 7 Gabriel McGoochenstein. The other night, he was so sick and ended up spiking a 105 fever. I was panicking because 105 is so high and he's so little...I called the doctor who calmly talked me through my hysterics (I tend to talk and talk and talk and talk and talk some more when I'm hysterical-I talk about 10 times as much as normal which is a lot anyway lol) He calmly asked "and how old is Gabe now?" I said "he's seven and a half and his fever...." he cut me off and said "relax mom, he's a big kid now, this isn't a big deal" I said "what do you mean, he's a BIG kid now? No he is not...ramble ramble". After I got off the phone I realized that the doctor was right, he IS a big kid now. He's no longer my itty bitty needs me for everything guy. He's almost 8; he doesn't even kiss me at the bus stop anymore for pete's sake.

How did this happen? How did ALL of these children, including my own, get so damn old? Furthermore, how did *I* get so damn old? When did this happen? As my mom is fond of saying "The days are long but the years are short" She's right, as usual and I'm betting she feels the same way about me...

Oh My Gourd (and Other Veggie Tales)

The last week has been, in a word, pretty sucktastic. (that's a word right?) I've been writing this blog post in my head for the last 24 hours and still haven't gotten it quite right yet...so bear with me if this post is awkward.

In the last week, we have seen our pediatrician three times, the dentist twice, my chiropractor twice, I've been to the pediatrician with my nephew twice, the hospital with my nephew once, and we're headed to the dentist again tomorrow.

Katie tripped down our stairs and took Aubrey with her, Bitsy got a black eye playing soccer yesterday, and Gabriel has developed a rather naughty potty mouth. I hit myself in the mouth with a heavy zipper pull and thought I knocked my tooth out. Geo's dad is in the hospital because of a bad reaction to some meds he's on.


This week has sucked...however a lot of other good stuff HAS happened, so the week hasn't been a total wash; we had friends over for a bbq, we had overnight guests and a trip to the flea market, we ate gourmet gelato, we slept in, we took naps, and we watched plenty of movies. We had a surprise dinner guest one night, we went to grandma's house for a bbq, and we spent time with friends and family. HH has been off for five days-and coherent and well rested for ALL of them and that right there is enough to make the week amazing.

At this point, all I can do is laugh about everything that's happened because it's beyond ridiculous; it's beyond believable to most people and yet...here we are, fifty two doctor's visits later...keep Bits in your thoughts if you will-she is having a tooth pulled tomorrow..and also HH's dad (Grampsey Johnny) who's still in the hospital trying to get things figured out.

Okay! Toast It Is!

I keep hearing from people that these are the best days of our lives and that we're gonna miss the "good old days" when our children were young and keeping us busy. I don't doubt that they're right but in the moment it's hard to see it as such. How about an excerpt from a typical day in our house:

I wake up at seven and spend two and a half hours (approximately) getting Gabriel up for school. At 7:22 or thereabouts, he groggily walks out of the bedroom to the bathroom where he splashes his face with four drops of water and looks at his toothbrush and calls it good. We spend fifteen minutes having this conversation over and over and over and over:

Mom: What would you like for breakfast?
Groggy Gabriel: werkoc8a9
Mom: What?
GG: wr823usfsdk
Mom: okay toast it is

If we happen to make it through breakfast without a major catastrophe we call it good. If we make it to the bus stop ON time with a fully packed backpack and lunchbox I paste a gold star on my mom board when I get back.

The feeling of elation at being the best mother in the world (trademark pending) pretty much ends one and a half minutes after Bits gets up.

Mom: Good morning Bitsy, how are you?
Bitsy: (read this in high pitched voice really really fast) HIMOMMMAHOWAREYOUIHADREALLYGOODDREAMSLASTNIGHTBLAHBLAH
Mom: Mhmm, what would you like for breakfast?
Bitsy: (screaming) AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHIHATEBREAKFASTWHYAREYOUOFFERINGMEBREAKFASTWHENYOU KNOWIHATEITDOYOUHATEME?!
Mom: Okay, toast it is.

Breakfast is done and it's time to get on with the business of the day...but not before cat one and cat two get in on the act. I don't speak cat, but I can try and translate what they're saying:
Cat one: meow meow you should probably feed me today
Mom: what would you like
Cat one: filet mignon, caviar, and whole milk fresh from the cow
Mom: okay! toast it is!

Cat two: meow meow, I'm dumb, you could feed me cardboard and I'd be happy
Mom: Okay! Toast it is!

If during the course of the day nothing manages to catch fire, fall out the window, get stuck in the toilet, or end up all over the wall, I call it good. In fact, if I can brag for a minute, I call it an AWESOME day and strut till it's time to miss bus pick up in the afternoon.

Dinner time is utter chaos, in fact if you could hear the noises coming from the apartment, you'd probably think it was either a) a zoo at feeding time or depending on the day b) a wrestling match complete with grunting sweaty wrestlers, I mean, children.

The best part of the night is bedtime. Oh who am I kidding? No it's not. It's worse than the morning. It's loud and awful and stressful and I want MY mom to read me a story by the time it's over.

Mom: anyone need anything before I shut the door?
Gabe: yes, can we talk about jets? what kind of jets do you like? do you like big jets or little jets...blah blah jets jets jets..blah blah
Bitsy: (at this point sobbing) MOMIHATEGOINGTOBEDINMYOWNBEDIHAVENIGHTMARESANDTHECATSDON'TLIKEMEANDIWANT
TOSLEEPWITHYOUPLEASEPLEASEIDONTHAVEABESTFRIENDTOCALLONTHEPHONEIHATEBEINGFOUR

Mom: okay, toast it is!

At this point cat one and cat two get in on the act;
cat one: meow meow get those damn kids to sleep so you can pet me, brush me, and attend to my every need in the manner I've become accustomed (he's rather articulate for a cat, let me tell you)
cat two: meow meow, yeah what he said...oooh what is that shiny thing?oh hooray a moth. oh look over there....*crash* cat two has run into the wall and knocked himself out...at least someone is sleeping in the house.

Obviously this is a *slight* exaggeration, though at one point in our lives all of these things HAVE happened (other than the cats speaking, man that would just be too weird)

I love my kids, but as Geo and I were talking about last night, sometimes when you're in the thick of it, it's hard to see the humor in what's happening, it's hard to see the memories we're making. He said that after two days of us being gone on vacation, he was so bored and lonely, he could barely stand it. As he said "at first it was wonderful. No one making messes, no constant laundry or vacuuming, I could listen to whatever I wanted, watch whatever I wanted and no one cared! WOOHOO it was wonderful until the third day and I realized that the kids are what keep things interesting around here" (the cats don't speak to him, apparently) and he's right, the kids DO keep it interesting, our lives would be incredibly dull without them. I mean, I would NEVER have to listen to an explanation of the screen being knocked out on accident at six am (that was this morning, I was woken up to Bitsy crying, quietly saying "momma, I knocked out the screen in our window accidentally getting my pig out of the window" and oddly enough, I knew what she was talking about because I'm mom and mom knows these things! there WAS a pig in the window last night, he needed some air!) I wouldn't ever get to hear jokes from Gabriel like "what did the zero say to the eight? Nice belt!" and then hear him laugh hysterically about it.

I think this quote says it all:
While we try to teach our children all about life,
Our children teach us what life is all about.
~Angela Schwindt

Okay! Toast it is!

Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed

or something like that...

I have one basic rule for the kids getting dressed: their clothes must be clean and fit them properly. (wait. that's two rules, isn't it? hmm) Ok, I have TWO basic rules for the kids getting dressed: their clothes must be clean and must fit properly. Lol

As a general rule, the kids pick out decent looking outfits. I try to make sure that most of their clothes are interchangeable so that they can just grab and go. Gabe is partial to shorts and sleeveless tees in the summer and jeans and tees in the fall; he's easy peasy. Bits on the other hand is, um, crazy. She likes to wear dresses...and skirts...at the same time. Every single time she puts on a dress, she throws a skirt on under it. She likes to be poofy, she likes to twirl and be very twirly while doing so. She dresses in layers and makes tons of laundrylooks super cute.

Lately, though, she's been on a "wear Gabe's clothes" kick, even if it's just his socks-though her favorite thing to wear of his is a blue dinosaur outfit. Today, though, she decided to really "kick it up a notch" as far as her outfit went. She, quite frankly, looked like a colorblind hobo. *shakes head* I am glad she loves to wear colors and patterns, but sometimes I wonder about her choices. Today's outfit was a pink and white striped shirt, a bright orange SHEER tutu (from her recital), brown gaucho pants under the tutu, Gabriel's black and yellow batman socks, and blue and white flowered shoes with random yellow spots on them. She looked like a hot mess...but a HAPPY hot mess and that's really all that matters. People who saw her (we went to the gym this morning) grinned and made comments about how cute she was and how happy she was, so I suppose the color blind hobo outfit wasn't too awful after all, was it? You can be the judge-I'll post this awful cell phone picture of the two goofballs this morning.

Picture Post

A bunch of pictures for your enjoyment...the kiddos, the flowers and our new friend, Mr. Toad!

Summer Time and the Livin's Easy

Summer has *officially* begun! Yay! Our garden is in full swing, the days are getting longer, and we've brought out the sprinkler more than once already.

The kids are thoroughly enjoying the garden. They check it three times a day, usually, though sometimes it's more than that. More than once we've gone out to "check" on it and end up sitting next to it for a half an hour or so, talking, laughing, and just enjoying the nice weather. Gabe has been watching a particular bean stalk in the garden to see if it's going to grow taller than him...and it has. Yesterday when we went out to check the garden before going to the butterfly garden, the bean stalk was just a hair taller than Gabe, this morning it's over the edge of the fence and definitely taller than him :P

It's been SO warm that the fireflies are out like gangbusters this year. It's so much fun to sit and look out the window at dusk and see the green lights all over our yard and in the fields. It's already been warmer this summer than it was all summer last year and you can definitely tell just by the sheer amount of fireflies in the yard. Our Godson Christian had a ball trying to (and actually succeeding) catch one in a bottle. Such simple pleasures for little ones :)

The crops around us are HUGE. The old saying [corn should be]"Knee high by the 4th of July" has been completely blown out of the water. The corn was knee high by JUNE 4th this year. It helps that we had such a warm spring (warmest in 30 some odd years actually!) and the farmers were able to plant so much earlier than normal. Hopefully the weather will continue to be conducive to good growing-the farmers could use it after last years' rainy harvest screwed things up so badly. I heard one farmer say it was going to be FEBRUARY before his corn was ready to be sold :( Hopefully it won't be like that this year!

We're getting ready for some excitement around here...the Michiwits are moving in! The second weekend in July we are going to Michigan to see Aunt Buzzy and to help them load their moving truck up so they can come down! In the meantime, I should probably get my butt in gear getting the spare bedroom ready for people to be in there more than one or two nights! The closet is a mess. It's become a catch-all for everything that doesn't really have a spot. I foresee a yard sale in our very near future :P

Hope you're all having a lovely summer thus far!

Overheard From the Living Room

A Bitsy voice: "but Gabe, come on, marry me I'm a princess!"
Unintelligible mumbles in a Gabe voice
A Bitsy voice: "Come on! I'm wearing a princess dress, we HAVE to get married, you are a prince!"
More mumbles in a Gabe voice and footsteps...
A Bitsy voice "Come back here and marry me, Gabe. I'm a princess, I'm wearing a princess dress, you HAVE to marry me"
In a clear loud Gabe voice "I said no, let's go play cars"
The last Bitsy voice "Okay, let's go, you got some cars then?"

What a goofy goofy goofy girl.

Sunday Already?

Jeez, the week goes by so quickly! During the summer we don't go to summer because there is no Sunday school. Mr. Ants-in-the-pants McGee cannot sit still for long enough to sit through a church service, so generally we stay home during the summer. Hopefully Sunday School will start next Sunday and we'll start going back...Bitsy is old enough to be in her own classroom this year :O Whether or not she'll actually stay there is the question.

SarahAnne is one of the most shy children I have ever seen. She is so shy that when she is with a group of people, even family members (other than Geo, Gabe, and I) she rarely speaks and doesn't really interact with anyone. At her birthday party in March, she actually spent most of the day in her bedroom by herself, chatting to her stuffed animals. If we have family over, as we did a few weekends ago, she will check everyone out, then retreat to her room for a while. She gets overwhelmed quickly and some of our family still doesn't "get it" If people don't try to hug and kiss her and get into her face, she is fine. A lot of times we hear "she doesn't like ANYONE except you Chrissi" and the ever so popular "You need to stop breastfeeding her then she'll come to other people" (Yep, still nursing at 17 months ;) she's slowed down to only a few sessions a day but she is still nursing! yay) Just because Gabe has always been VERY social and willing to go to anyone and everyone (and still is) doesn't mean SarahAnne is the same way! Jeez oh pete's people, she's been this way for nearly a year and a half...

We decided to take a nice long walk this morning, we stopped for pancakes, hit up hallmark, and then went to the pet store. We are "regulars" at the pet store, ha ha, they know we don't have pets at home (big no no in our complex) so we go there a couple of times a week to get our pet fix. This morning we pet kittens, rabbits, guinea pigs, and a poodle. I believe Gabe pet a chinchilla as well. SarahAnne, as usual, was fascinated by the birds. They moved their display so the birds were at eye level for her. She was quite excited.

How about a picture of my sweet shy girl?

A Day of Firsts

Gabe had two firsts today (ok, in the past 24 hours if you want to get technical!) Gabe had his first "sleep away" at Grandma's house last night and then, about a half an hour ago, he had his first bloody nose. He was so calm and collected about it. He came out of his bedroom and said "Hmm, Mom, there's blood in my nose" and his face was covered. WHAT? Of course your face is covered kid, your nose is bleeding like crazy. He said to me "I don't know what happened, I was fine and then there was blood, can you fix it?" Of course I can ;)

He had fun at Grandma's house, which was a good thing. He's spent all of one night away from us in four and a half years-other than the first 16 days of his life. I was nervous and nearly cried, nevermind that he was a mere 20 minutes from us, it might as well have been halfway around the Earth! He didn't want to leave Grandma's house this morning for Occupational Therapy. Grandma and Grandpa have video games, something Geo and I don't normally allow him to play and he was playing a car game happily when we came to pick him up. Poor Gabe ha ha ;)

Bitsy was BEYOND happy to see him this morning. She kept trying to kiss him. She was lost without him last night. She actually fell asleep an hour before her normal time to fall asleep! She slept in as well...Geo and I think we'll be sending him away more often...lol not really ;) They've been practically inseperable all day, which is cute. Sometimes Gabe acts like he can't stand her...but deep down it's apparent that he adores her. The feeling is very mutual.
A few new pictures of the kiddos
SarahAnne looks SO much older than 17 months when her hair is in pigtails!



I swear, if I could get Gabriel to open his eyes FULLY for a picture, I would fall over in a stupor!

Four months?!

I had such good intentions when I started this blog for the kiddos. *sigh* what's the old saying about the road to hell being paved with good intentions?

Gabe and SarahAnne are getting so big...and are a joy to be around...and they are a handful. Ha ha. Gabe is no longer four, in fact, if you ask him, he will tell you that he is four and a half Bitsy is 17 months, and really not that bitsy at all. How did they get so old??

Gabe was downtown last week at Children's Memorial Hospital to have his kidneys checked. They are perfect according to his doctor. He is finally 40 inches tall and weighs in at 38.5 pounds. He's a beanpole, pants fall off of him and shirts are always too short. He wears a size 11 or 12 shoe, depending on the brand and whether or not he wears his braces. His current obsession is camoflage gear. I believe he has four pair of camo shorts now, green camo, that is, he also has one pair of BLACK camo. As we started shopping for fall, he just HAD to have a pair of camo cargo pants, as well as a pair of khaki cargos like Daddy wears ;) He loves muscle cars and can identify a Mustang from a block away, just from the way the engine sounds. It's to the point where we don't question if he is right or wrong when he identifies a car because he is NEVER wrong. Case in point, last night there was a classic car show by the house. From a distance he saw a car and said "That's a Shelby Mustang" I said, "Ok sure" and didn't think anything of it...until about ten minutes later when we ran out for something and ended up with the car in front of us. He said to me "oh there's the Shelby Mustang I saw" Of course, he was right, the plate had a holder on it that said "Shelby Mustang" *sigh* He's always right about cars.

SarahAnne...oh my little Bitsy. She is trouble. Capital T trouble. She is a climber, a jumper, a screamer, and a little lover. I have more grey hair on my head because of her than anything else in my life. She is shyer than shy around people but talks your ear off if she knows you. When you ask her if she wants something, she cocks her head and says "Hmmm, hmmm, um, yeah" and then will point to it, or if she knows the word, will say what she wants. She has started using the word "please" however, she seems to think that saying please will get her whatever she wants, even if it's something she is NOT supposed to have. She will repeat "please please please" in her breathy little girl voice until she gets what she wants OR until Momma tells her no enough. Ha ha. She adores Gabriel and loves nothing more than to climb up into bed with him and snuggle. Whenever they sit in the living room together, Gabe sits up on the couch with his long legs dangling over the side and she sits between his feet and more often than not, falls asleep there. She calls him Gabe sometimes, but mostly calls him "bruh bruh" Gabriel refers to her as "Bits" or "Bitsapova" (as in Sarah Bitsapova. She has one outfit that looks like a tennis outfit and Geo, the sports nut he is, jokingly said she looks like Maria Sharapova...instead she's Sarah Bitsapova...we're dorks, I know) She is scheduled for her 18 month check up in three weeks, so I don't have any recent stats on her. She's tall and chunky. She has rolls on her thighs and big chubby cheeks...our little Bitsy, such a little love.

I'll leave you with the promise that I will start updating more often...