THE meanest mom that EVER lived on the face of the WHOLE earth......

That would be me!!! Max (age 3) thinks so. For many, many, reasons. Some of these reasons: I won't let him carry drinks all over the house and spill them everywhere. When I let him pick what he wants for lunch or breakfast (I let them pick if I'm in the mood for that since they HAVE to eat whatever I put in front of them at dinner time and usually they want something different than what I want and Matthew is allergic to some things that Max can eat) and then he sees something someone else has and thinks that looks better I won't make that for him too and that is very, very mean!!! I won't let him run all over WalMart like a crazy boy. I make him pick up stuff he knocks off of the shelves. I used to stock shelves at Albertson's and I find that to be very annoying and so rude!!! I make him wash his hands with sanitizer when he touches every inch of the counter and bench in the pharmacy every time we ever go in that area. Germaphobe mommy doesn't go for that!!! I won't let him throw balls in the house. I could go on and on. Well, his latest reason for thinking I'm the meanest mom is that I make him get dressed. Yes, I know. I make you want to call DCFS right?! He would go naked all day every day of the year if I would let him. I let him get by with wearing less during the summer for sure because it's warm and stuff but when it's winter I just can't take it! Last winter he wanted to wear shorts every single day. With snow boots of course. And a short sleeve shirt but NO COAT!!! I fought with him every single time we left the house about wearing his coat! UGHH!!! I NEVER let him wear the shorts and boots out of the house but he wore them constantly at home. This year I packed up all of his shorts to save the fight. Well, now he refuses to get dressed at all. If I can convince him to wear clothes it isn't very long before he starts his slow strip. Each time I see him he has one less item of clothing on until he's right back to nothing but underwear...if we're lucky!! I've been really trying to put my foot down the past few days because hello, THE KID HAS SWINE FLU!!!! I keep telling him he's never going to get better if his body can't stay warm because he's running around naked all the time. He even took a super long nap the other day because I told him to get clothes on or go to bed and he chose the latter and fell asleep for like 3 hours. Maybe I should just go with it and have naptime back in my life! That would be AWESOME!!! Anyhoo, we fought for like 10 minutes this morning while I forced clothes on him and told him that he gets a time out if he takes them off. He's probably buck naked already. He has refused to wear his coat to this point but it's stinking cold out today and I'm sure it's just going to stay that way from this point on until June! So, I'm bracing myself for the argument we'll have the next time he leaves the house. I'm just glad my kids ride the bus and Matty isn't in 4 days a week preschool this year. We absolutely without a doubt left the house at least 4 times a day last year not including errands. At least there won't be quite so many arguments!!! OY VEY!!!!

Swine flu update: Zack has been back to school this week. Matthew went to school today for the first time. Some Dr.s say they are fine to go back to school 24 hours after their fever stops but others say they should stay home for 1 week after first symptoms start. Well, I'm a little concerned about his asthma in this cold since it's already flared up but he's there and hopefully ok. Max is doing a bit better. He ran a fever all the way through yesterday but so far so good today. The wierd thing with this flu is they'll not have a fever for like 10 hours straight and then it's back. It lingers forever! Gracie is still really stuffy and has a runny nose but didn't have a fever during the night. Hopefully it's not back today. I'm so worried about RSV so hopefully she gets all better quick and doesn't have anymore problems. Brian has it too and is still really achy. It kind of turns into a cold at the end with a yucky nose and cough I've noticed with all of them. The fever seems to take about 4 to 6 days to really run it's course and finally leave for good so hopefully Gracie will be fine by Friday.

Sweet Baby Gracie

Gracie has a fever now too so I'm sure she has swine flu. I'm scared because she's so tiny and she's never been sick before and I just hope its mild like Max and Zack's have been!! Please pray for her because I'm a big chicken and I know that prayer is the very BEST medicine she could ever have!!

I discovered her fever at 3:00 a.m. and so far she has been ok. The ibuprofen and Tylenol have been keeping control of it. I hope it stays that way! With Zack, Matty, and Max their fevers were low grade and controllable the first day. Zack's and Max's stayed that way but Matty's spiked on day 2. The worst day seems to be day 2 or 3 for everyone whether the fever gets higher or not they just feel horrible!! So if the fever doesn't spike tomorrow or Tuesday I think she'll be ok. Brian is sick too. He thought he just had a cold and went to the football game an hour and a half away yesterday and was running a fever and feeling really bad by the time he got home. At least he had fun, huh?! I just hope he didn't spread it to anyone. It's hard to know at first if it's the flu or a cold if you are having a more mild version of it. Matty has been doing so well! I am so happy! He finished one of his steroids today and still takes Albuterol and Pulmacort. From what I understand he should be out of the "danger zone" by about Wednesday. Zack is totally back to normal with a very mild cough hanging on but otherwise good. Max is really good. His fever is only at around 99 degrees and he seems to be feeling a lot better. I'm so glad that they had the mild version of it! Such a relief! On the bright side...if you get it once you never get it again, or so they say, so we can hope that's true and we don't have to deal with "swine flu" again!!!!

We took him off of the Tamiflu. We're just praying he does ok without it!!! He had his last dose at dinner last night. Then we saw the news where we found out about Tamiflu. Other than acting INCREDIBLY strangely when he got his dose of albuterol this morning he's been fine so far. Apparently Tamiflu has strange reactions to interactions with other medication so once its out of his system we think he'll be fine! I just hope he doesn't get viral pneumonia!!! My 3 year old has the flu now but so far its more mild like our oldest sons bout with it. Baby and I are the only ones who haven't had it. I hope she doesn't get it! Too scary!!!

We've been giving our son Tamiflu and he's having crazy side effects which we now have learned are very common if you take this. Hallucinations, hives, they can have seizures, neurological stuff, and even death. I'm freaking out because he's having some of these. They say not everyone should even use this stuff. Just the ones with asthma and heart disease. I'm not sure he should even with the asthma. Scary!

Swine Flu + Asthma = 1 very sick little boy!!!

My 9 year old Huey came down with a low grade fever and a cough last Saturday. I wondered if it was the swine flu but then it was so mild I was not worried and thought it might just be a little cold or other virus. We just kept the fever down and he was fine. We know several people that have had it and they all had varied reactions and intensity to their flu. My little Dewey and I have asthma so I have been quite concerned each time I hear that someone has died from H1N1 because of other underlying conditions they had when they got the flu. Each time they have said what that condition was it was ASTHMA!!! One of the first people that died was near my age and had asthma and had just recently had a baby. Well, that describes me and has worried me. I do not want to leave Brian with 4 kids to raise alone and I'm certain he doesn't want me to! I have been especially worried about my little Dewey! When I heard the other day that the reason people with asthma have been dieing is because they contract VIRAL pneumonia I became quite concerned! Well, I don't like the idea of the vaccine because I feel it was too rushed and they don't know long term effects of it and stuff but I decided it was important for me and Dewey to be immunized since we have asthma. We went down there Monday and got our shots. Tuesday night he started having a low grade fever and coughing. Wednesday his fever was 102.3 and his cough was worse. During the night I was alternating Tylenol and Ibuprofen every 3 hours and it still wasn't controlling the fever. He was really wheezing and his breathing sounded terrible! I kept giving him puffs of my inhaler since we are out of medicine for his nebulizer and he didn't really have asthma problems much in the last 2 1/2 years. Well, I took him to the very weird but super nice and very concerned dr. in our new town. She gave him a breathing treatment with no improvement so she prescribed pulmicort, liquid albuterol, prednazone, and Tamaflu. Apparently they have found that if people with H1N1 start using Tamaflu in the first 48 hours of symptoms their reactions aren't nearly as bad as if they don't use it. He has been doing so much better! He isn't pale as a ghost! He stayed in bed yesterday and barely ate anything but today he has been up and playing, eating, fighting with his brothers and just doing really well. He obviously isn't 100 % and has a ways to go before he is over it completely but he is breathing and that is a VERY, VERY, GOOD THING!!! We are so grateful for the prayers of our family! We hope he continues to deal well with it! I just thought I would share so that if any of you or your children have asthma you know to seek help immediately if you think you might have the flu! It takes 4 weeks for the immunization to take effect so even if you have had the shot or mist you still aren't completely out of the woods for 4 weeks! She said that she thinks that the fact that he had the shot on Monday will help him not have as severe a reaction as if he didn't have it. Also, the main reason people die is they wait too long to seek treatment! We found out that 8 of the kids from Huey's class were also home sick on Monday. And the teacher was absent, not sure if he's sick or what. Anyway, I hope none of you or your children get it but if you do please be careful!!!

Dumbfounded!

My 3 year old "Louie" is such a handful!!! I couldn't begin to tell you all of the crazy things he has done in his little life! With his brothers Huey and Dewey I could tell what they were thinking just by looking at their faces. I could see what their next move was going to be and stop them before they could get into too much trouble. Most of the time anyway. Well, Louie is like nothing I've ever seen before in my entire life!!! Since we have lived with my mother in law since September 26th he has been at the top of his game! I am afraid she is going to get so tired of his destruction she'll kick us out! He broke a glass door on her book case that she has had for years and years, thankfully not cutting himself but gee thanks we could not have possibly thought of a better way to spend money than to pay to have this door fixed! He has clogged toilets, written on her garage floor with sidewalk chalk, written on her kitchen floor (that is now just concrete since the linoleum is now gone as they are prepping the floor for tile) with a black sharpie. He broke a plate one day. He put stuffed animals and metal lids in Dewey's fish tank he got for his birthday and killed all the fish. He started to poop in the backyard but was caught too soon THANK GOODNESS!!! I could go on and on and on!!! Well, tonight after dinner we were all in the family room visiting and watching t.v. when I heard an unidentifiable noise and asked Brian to investigate since I was feeding Buttercup a bottle and he was just "innocently"going to the bathroom. Not 5 minutes later it was discovered that he had removed one of the hinges off of a door frame with a screw driver (the one just above his eye level). YES!!! HE'S 3!!! WHAT......THE........CRAP!!! And people wonder why I'm CRAZY!!! I have to try to think like HE DOES all...day....long..............in vain!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Brian's mom jokingly asked if we have ever considered a cage. Then she said of course he'd probably just take all the hinges off and escape anyway! At least he makes us laugh too!!!

MOTHER BEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Once upon a time...I used to eat nuts all the time! I LOVE them!!! Reece's Peanut Butter Cups, peanut butter cookies, SCOTCHEROOS, Nutrageous, Snickers, m&m's, PEANUT m&m's, cashews, chicken pasta salad with a whole can of cashews thrown in and tastes so stinking good it isn't even funny, peanut butter and honey sandwiches, p.b.&j sandwiches (either of these on regular bread or toasted...YUM!), those cute little peanut butter cookies with the Hershey Kisses in the middle, I could go on and on and on!!! I LOVE nuts!!! My second son used to LOVE m&m's! One time when he had just turned one year old I decided to give him a Reece's Pieces and it LITERALLY flew out of his mouth across the room! I looked at him strangely and slowly put another into his mouth and it FLEW across the room, too! It was as if someone scooped their hand into his mouth and flung it out with their finger tips. It was a little freaky so I decided, ok, no Reece's Pieces for you! One day a few weeks later I gave him a peanut butter sandwich. He wouldn't eat it but only played with it. I was trying to shove a piece of it in his little mouth because sometimes if they just taste something they like it but his teeth were clenched like you wouldn't believe so I just gave in and decided to give him something else. After a few minutes I noticed that his whole body was covered in hives. I called the Dr.'s office because I immediately wondered if he was having an allergic reaction to the peanut butter. They said since he wasn't having a problem breathing to just stop by some time and have his blood tested for nut allergies. Brian gave him a bath and the hives went away. We should have also given him Benedryl but didn't know. Anyway, they tested him and sure enough he is allergic to peanuts. They said ONLY peanuts but not other nuts. Several months later Brian gave him a pistachio when I was picking up our oldest son from kindergarten. When I drove up he came running out to the car with my almost 2 year old baby in his arms covered in hives and doing this weird clearing his throat thing like my sister Stephanie does when she has an itchy throat and ears from allergies. We rushed him to the E.R. which thankfully was only like a mile from our house. They immediately rushed us back to a room. Only me and my baby because there could only be one other family member with him. The Dr. came in immediately and told me they would give him the epi pen and at least one other shot and a breathing treatment right away. I sat in that little room watching my rambuncious little perfectly healthy boy go from having a little problem to writhing around on the bed with a panicked look on his face as his throat swelled more and more closed. He was grabbing for me, sitting on my lap, going back to the bed, writhing around some more, grabbing for me again saying, mama and looking like 'aren't you going to help me?' It seemed like an ETERNITY before the nurse came in. When he started to be LETHARGIC I ran out and said HE NEEDS HIS SHOT!!! She ambled in and took her time getting his shot stuff ready and giving it to him chatting away as if I was there for a yearly flu shot or something. I was absolutely TERRIFIED!!! He had to have a medication for a week after. They said if we missed even a dose of it his reaction would be much much worse than the original reaction. It seemed like hours between the time he ate the nut to the time he got the shot, but it was only about 15 minutes. I thank my Heavenly Father every day that he was ok then and beg him to help us keep him safe every day! I firmly believe he has a little guardian angel that shot those Reece's Pieces across the room a few weeks earlier! We took him to an allergy specialist that did the scratch test and said that he is allergic to all nuts except almonds. Try finding almonds that aren't cooked in peanut oil or with other tree nuts. He's not allergic to the peanut oil it's the protein in them but I don't trust that peanut oils are refined enough. Apparently he is REALLY, REALLY allergic to cashews as well. The welt from the scratch test was huge and lasted for 3 days with him taking Zertec for it for the entire 3 days. The Dr. said, "don't EVER let this child have a cashew!!!" about 10 times while we were there so we're really careful about cashews too! Think of a peanut. Think of how yummy and salty and delicious they are! Now think of when a little peanut breaks in half and there is that little tiny piece of peanut right between the two halves at the end of it. Now imagine that if your baby had even that much of a peanut his throat would swell shut and he would die unless he is around someone at the time that knows he is allergic to peanuts and can give him an epi pen shot and rush him to the E.R. Ok now imagine that now he's 6 years old and in all day kindergarten and eating at school now. Every day the "other option" for picky kids is an Uncrustable PB&J sandwich. I talked with the lunch room lady and his teacher and they decided that every day he would sit on the end of a table and the lunch room teacher assigned for his class would make sure that no one ever sits by him that has a PB&J sandwich. Now imagine that 6 days this month they are serving peanut butter and honey cups with their rolls at lunch. I decided on those days I'll send home lunch for him so I can make sure there isn't any cross contamination or anything. I don't take chances! Not worth his life! Now imagine a lovely little student sitting next to him waves his peanut butter and honey cup in your sons face TRYING to hurt him KNOWING he is deathly allergic to peanut butter. What do you do about that?! Some mean kid was trying to hurt my sweet, little, quiet, shy, son!!! Thank goodness his lunch room teacher saw and put a stop to it and punished him when they got to class. The MOTHER BEAR is awake!!!!!! LOOK OUT!!! I didn't find this out from my son. I found this out from a concerned parent of another sweet little child that was so freaked out by that kid doing that that he talked to his mother about it. The only reason they have the peanut butter and honey cups is that the nutritionist for the school district has decided she can justify putting mac-n-cheese on the menu if she throws a little protein in the mix. She also believes that ketchup is a vegetable!!!! What the crap?! Anyhoo, they don't offer a peanut free table or anything. I am so freaked out! Now, I have heard so many people over the last 5 years act like it is such an inconvenience for them that my son is allergic to nuts. They act like it's just me saying please don't let my kid have mustard because it might stain his shirt or something. Now I know you have tons of stuff planned with mustard but don't let my kid anywhere near it because I don't like dealing with stains. It's not just some fluff thing it's literally LIFE OR DEATH!!! How would you feel if it was your kid?! Is a peanut or having peanut butter honey cups worth a child's life? I mean really!!! I know a boy that if he is in the same car or room with someone who opens a peanut candy bar he automatically starts going into anaphylactic shock. Putting that nut cup in his face could have killed him! My son has to either eat it or touch it to have a problem. I am just so freaked out! I don't know what to do! When he was 18 months old and started going to nursery at church the teacher told me maybe I shouldn't bring him because she didn't want that kind of responsibility and she liked making pb&j sandwiches for snack time and bringing Reece's Peanut Butter Cups for snacks. I for one thought it was more important for him to be there learning about Jesus than that the other kids get a freaking sandwich!!! So did the Primary President, thankfully! It was decided that I would make a very very long list of all the many things he CAN eat and they would stick to that list! Hello....ever heard of Goldfish crackers?! Since then I have read many articles and watched many news programs on the subject. I know that people who like their kids to eat peanut butter are just as adamant (for some weird reason) about their kids getting to eat peanut butter as I am about my kid NOT eating it! If that is the ONLY thing your kid will eat...you've got some REAL problems!!!! I have NEVER expected people to stop having nuts in their lives all together because of my son! I only say that at family functions I would appreciate it if people would just tell me if the dessert they make has it in it so I can keep him away from it. I did think it was wierd that less than a week after I sent the family letter out telling everyone about his allergy when he was almost 2 asking everyone just to let me know if nuts were in something they make, that at a family function there was a very, very large fruit bowl full of peanuts in the shell on the counter for everyone to eat. SCARY!!! Just leave a loaded gun on the coffee table why don't you?! I also find it weird when people bring peanut candy for all the kids to eat and touch my kid with peanut covered hands knowing it could kill him but I don't say a word, not one single word. I just try to warn him as best I can and pray a LOT!!! His teacher asked if the classroom needs to be peanut free since they use a lot of candy for counting and stuff? I said not necessarily. I said he can eat quite a lot of candy. I offered to bring a bag of different kinds of candy for him to have when the other kids have peanut candies. I bought skittles for him to use for counting when they use m&m's, etc. I am not a jerk about it I didn't expect her to buy it even. I am his parent. It is my responsibility to make sure he is safe and I obviously need her help and knowledge when he is at school but I try to not make it a huge pain in the butt since I know some mothers are jerks about it. I do, however, love my child with all of my heart and soul!!! What would you do and how would you feel if you had watched your son almost die in your arms from an exposure to nuts and you knew that it only takes 15 minutes for your son's throat to swell shut and like 20 minutes for him to take his last breath? It's not just a little annoyance....it's my son's LIFE!!! It feels like I'm letting him run and play in a busy street and crossing my fingers that no one speeds down the road and runs over him or something. It's just so scary to have to trust that total strangers will keep your son safe. If I didn't think I'd lose my mind I'd consider home school........
Needed to vent all of the thoughts and feelings I am having right now! Thanks for listening!!!

It's Just WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, so, I'm old! I get it! I accept it! I just don't know what to do with this knowledge. I don't know what is age appropriate to wear. Or what is age appropriate for my hair. I still feel like I'm 19 on the inside. I'm 36 now and I see adorable stuff at the stores and I think oh that is SO cute!!! But am I too old for it?! I mean, I know I'm not 80 or anything but I'm just confused! I need a style. I need to be more hip and cool in a 36 year-old kind of way. I don't want people to think I'm like a total loser in my outfit that looks like a 19 year old has more business wearing it than I do. I also don't want people thinking, nice outfit, grandma!! I was at Target a few weeks ago and I was wearing a (what I thought was) cute t-shirt I bought a few months back at Old Navy. It was one of their $5 tees. Well, I'm feeling cutish in my little t-shirt when an 85 year old lady comes walking by with a grin from ear to ear, wearing MY shirt! I didn't know whether she was wrong or I was wrong or if we were both right. I just know that it felt terribly, terribly, WRONG!!! I miss my friend Melissa! She used to live next door to me. We lived in townhouse apartments and our doors were literally like a few inches from each other. She is adorable! She is also a hair stylist. I was always knocking on her door asking her if this was cute or that was cute or if I looked freaky! I ask Brian now and it just isn't the same. He'll tell me I look cute and then I see myself in a picture and I'm completely mortified!!! I don't know if he really thinks it's cute, doesn't have the heart to tell me I look like a freak a deak, or what but it's just not the same, that's for sure! I've been keeping my eyes peeled for a cute shirt lately and I have seen a few that I think are great but I don't have the confidence to just buy it. Maybe I should just get a new pair of shoes! I LOVE shoes!!! You can't really go too wrong with shoes and a new pair of shoes always makes me feel better!!!

More rambling...

~I have noticed that a lot of people in our new little town have the Kate from John and Kate Plus 8 haircut. They vary in length and color and such but basically the same haircut. Some of the people look SO cute. Others look SO weird! And still others must have cut their own hair and look very, very BAD!!! Many of them look like boys I must say. I've decided that that particular haircut, like all haircuts, looks really good on some people and not so good on others. Halle Berry can pull off a haircut that is basically bald but most of us just can't, you know. My mom's hair is similar to the "Kate" cut and she looks so cute and always fixes it so cute and is pretty so she can pull it off really well. Others, however, are just not so lucky.
~It is sometimes really, really hard for me to focus at church on what the people are speaking about when I have my referee hat on trying to keep my 3 boys from killing each other right there in the middle of church. It is even harder to focus on what they are saying when I notice little things about people like the fact that the chickadee in front of me today had OBVIOUSLY colored her own hair since it looked like she was a calico cat. Also, there was a man there that I graduated high school with that all the girls thought was really cute and he is like pretty big now (so am I, I know!!! I'm just sayin) and has a lot of gray hair now and he looks really old. Older than Brian. That is OLD! hehehe I know I'm probably going to H...E...double hockey sticks for not paying better attention to what I should be but it's really hard for me sometimes. Do you think I have A.D.D.?
~I love living in a small town again! Here are some of the reasons why...Brian comes home for lunch every day. -It only takes like 5 minutes to get anywhere in town.- I can drive to WalMart, shop at WalMart, and drive home from WalMart in the time it used to take me just to drive to and from WalMart. -I almost always see someone I know when I go to a store here. -I filled my tank up a week ago Saturday and I still have half a tank. Doin a dance!!! LOVE it so much!!! Hated having to fill the car up at least once or twice a week!-I get to shop online again. Not that I couldn't before it's just that I didn't do it so much when I lived up there. I love, love, love, getting boxes in the mail!!!! -I don't feel so bad when I have to run an errand and I don't look like I just stepped out of a magazine. Not that people look like crap here or anything (well not everyone anyway) they just look realistic. You know. I swear where I lived before people were always wearing 4 inch heals to the store and stuff. -Brian, his mom, and I went to lunch with our son at his school as a belated birthday lunch during Brian's lunch break the other day. I used to have to drive an hour each way if I wanted to have lunch with Brian where we lived before. So nice! -When I think I'm running late I'm still usually at least 5 minutes early because I keep forgetting it only takes 5 minutes to get anywhere. -Give me a few weeks and I'll probably have a "Things I hate about living in a small town" list but for now I'm enjoying it!
~Halloween is the coolest! I just love it! I love the decorations, the candy, the treats, the scary movies, the scary music, and the fun the kids have with dressing up!
~I don't know what this "lick my lollipop" thing is on facebook but it creeps me out! Especially when someone sends this request to my HUSBAND!!!! Not cool!!!!!!!!!! DELETED....IMMEDIATELY from friends list!!!!!!!
~I'm pretty boring these days can you tell?! Just me. Taking care of the kids. Doin' laundry. Washing millions of bottles. Changing millions of diapers. Running errands. Cooking. Cleaning. And thinking I really should get out more. And I don't mean to WalMart! OOOPS! I forgot...that's all there is here...WalMart...that will probably be at the top of the "things I hate about living in a small town" list!!!!

My husband won't stop touching me!!!!!

Not in a good way, either! Let me explain...when Brian and I got married we slept in his king size bed that his mom handed down to him several years after her husband had passed away and she decided to downgrade to a queen size bed. I was all into snuggling when we were first married and he was all into his own space. He would snuggle me for a few minutes and then he'd be like that's enough. Have you ever seen the episode of Friends where they were trying to figure out how to unsnuggle once the girlfriend fell asleep? At least they were nice about it. :) Well, I just still snuggled with my stuffed animal I used to sleep with before we were married and it was all good. Yes! I still slept with a stuffed animal. It was one of those huge bears from Penney's and was so soft and snugly. Anyhoo, a couple of years ago he went through a snuggling phase and sometimes I really enjoyed it! Other times I was thinking...seriously...get away...I can't sleep with you touching me!!!!!! But after being married that long I was trying to be grateful he still liked me at all and didn't say anything...just suffered in silence. ;) We had our oldest son sleep with us until he was 2 and once we got our bed back I swore I would NEVER do that again!!! And we haven't! Just the occasional sick kid in the bed or snuggle time with the baby after a night time feeding where the umbilical cord doesn't seem to stretch all the way back to the bassinet that was pushed up against the side of our bed, once in a while. We moved in with Brian's mom until we can find somewhere to live down here and we live in her basement that has a large family room, 3 bedrooms, and large entry type thing, and a bathroom. Louie has his own room so his brothers can actually fall asleep at a decent hour without him bugging them for hours after bed time. We took the room with a queen size bed and room for the crib and Brian's beloved television. We put the other boys in the room that has 2 queen size beds in it so they could each have their own bed and there is still plenty of room for dressers and stuff. How do people sleep in queen size beds?!?! I can't sprawl out! I even know of people who share a double bed. NOT ON YOUR LIFE!!!!!! We'd probably kill each other! I steal the covers all night. Which isn't any different than when we sleep in our king size bed other than the blankets are smaller so there is less chance he'll have anything left to cover up with at all. We keep touching each other in a totally Nacho Libre kind of way..."a nice pile drive to the face, or a punch to the face." Not on purpose of course but after 16 years of having plenty of space to sleep you have a hard time remembering when you are sound asleep that there is someone RIGHT THERE and you elbow each other, kick each other, and basically get on each other's nerves A LOT!!! Well, I'm thinking of trading the boys! Just think of all the space we'd have to ourselves if we each slept in our own queen size bed?! It would be heavenly. It's not too far to go if we need a little "private time" (cousin Eddie, Christmas Vacation) then you just go right back to all that glorious space!!! Hey, if it was good enough for Rob and Laura on the Dick Van Dyke show, by gosh, it's good enough for us! Right?!

Where did all the letters go?

I remember when I was a little girl my grandma lived two states away and when I was being baptized she sent me a sweet little letter about the importance of baptism and expressed her love to me. I was on cloud 9! I remember getting birthday cards in the mail from my grandmas and that made me feel so special! I became pen pals with one of my favorite cousins, John, who also lived two states away and that was so much fun! His family even sent me a really cute shirt in the mail that said someone in their town loved me and I wore that thing until it fell apart! I also remember when we moved two states away from my hometown right before my junior year of high school that lots of my friends and family became pen pals and that really helped me through a very difficult time! I wrote to friends and family who served missions. I wrote to my grandmas. I totally got into decorating the envelopes really cute and I was really into stickers and would stick them all over the place too. Now my kids think a card in the mail from grandma is pure gold! The other day my mother-in-law received a letter from my nephew, her grandson, Jordan who is serving a mission. She was THRILLED!!! She read and reread his letter. He is quite a character and joked in it and she laughed and read it to us and we laughed and then she folded up the letter and sat it down and patted it and said how nice it is to be getting letters again like she used to get from her sons when they served missions. At that moment I suddenly became really sad! I thought of all the lonely grandmothers out there that don't have email or don't know how to text on a cell phone. I thought of the movie The Mailbox that my mom used to show us to motivate us (guilt us) to be better about thinking of our sweet little grandmas. I remembered how wonderful it is to receive a HANDWRITTEN letter from someone you love. Now the only time we get anything like that in the mail is at Christmas and a lot of people have stopped sending Christmas cards out. It's kind of sad I think! Today I'm going to write Jordan and I'm going to have my boys write to him too or draw a picture. I know it gets hard when you are a missionary or you are a military person or you are facing anything in your life that you need a little support and encouragement to help you along. And I also know that getting a letter from someone gives you a much needed boost and puts a big ol' smile on your face that stays there for a long time! I can't wait to get my first letter from him! It will be so fun to have an actual letter again! There's nothing like it! :)