Day seven

Today started EARLY. Or should I say that yesterday extended into today, yes I do know that this is the way it normally works, and the day started WAY to early.

Taniyah went to bed in my room.

She tried to throw herself off the bed while in her sleep which effectively woke her from that sleep.

I didn't want to wake the rest of the house SO I decided to let her stay in my bed.

At 1am I had my sweet little 3 year old who came into my room to find the gum that I had moved. Since Taniyah was not asleep, neither was I when my little darling came in. Needless to say she was suprised when I hopped out of bed.

Put her back to bed and turned off all the lights that she had turned on while making the journey to my room.

I tried to bear with Tete. Really I did, but after several hours of her patting my face, kicking me, feeling my nose, etc I just didnt care if the rest of the house was up. At 2:57am, yes that does say AM, I took my lovely little baby to her own bed in her own room. She fussed for a few minutes and then fell asleep. I fell asleep shortly after that. 6am came shortly after that.

After I got everyone off to school I took the youngest four kids to the zoo.

We went through the Children's zoo area and they had fun. I like going on the weekdays as it's less crowded. Today proved that. It was nice and quiet.

Taniyah kept trying to get the goats in the petting zoo to come to her. She would bend down, and pat her legs and "cluck" to them. They weren't impressed but it sure was cute.

Day six

Anyody getting tired of my counting of days yet?!

Today was a pretty typical day.

Getting kids ready for school,

making doctor appts,

making dentist appts,

fielding phone calls,

changing diapers,

cleaning house,

checking e-mail,

making dinner,

doing laundry.

Rod sent me his e-mail address. If you want it e-mail me and I might be nice and give it to you. He's doing well on the ship and has pissed off most of it. They were without a chief master at arms and now he is there doing his job. They don't really like that to much.

He e-mailed me and told me that he was doing daily birthing inspections with the XO and she is really great to work for. I told him that I had hoped there wouldn't really be need for those types of inspections on his ship. He thought it was funny but he really meant berthing inspections.

Not much excitement here but it's good therapy for me!! Since I don't have Rod to talk to about how my day went I can share it here in cyberspace for all to see!!

Day five

Another day, another set of stuff to do.

After getting all the kids off to school I started scraping the wall in Makkiah's room.

All of the walls in his room are plaster but one wall in particualr has issues.

When we bought the house it had boards in some kind of mosaic style.

Those boards came down thanks to one upset teenage son.

So I've decided to scrap the wall and refinish it.

The layers are:

1)plaster

2)paint

3)wallpaper

4)drywall compound

5)paint

6)adhesive

ALL of the layers have to be scraped down to the plaster. I did that for 1.5 hours and got a bucketful.

Then I picked up Ang and Mak from school and headed to the sitters house.

Mak had a pulmonary appt at 2:30 which went well.

A few adjustments in his meds, school action plan and a new diagnosis.

Dr W thinks that we are looking more at allergic croup and told me what to do when he gets croupy. We are really trying to stay away from the high dose oral steroids when possible so we'll see.

Headed off to the pharmacy where we waited for an hour and a half for the eight meds to be filled. Took longer for the meds than it did the doctor visit. AND

we don't have to go back for 6 months!!! If he keeps vomiting and spitting up after we make one med adjustment I do have to call him back so we can look at changing that treatment since he isn't gaining weight very well.

Went and picked up the babies from the sitter and came home in time to pick up the other kids and head off to AWANA.

Another busy day with a few things accomplished. I think Friday I'm going to take the younger kids to the zoo. A change of scenery will be good!

Day four

Today was a great day.

Makkiah had a great in school.

Angie actually brought me candy that she found instead of eating it!!!

Mrs Joyce came so my house is nice and clean.

AND the investigator came out.

She is closing the case with only a few minor violations-

1)the outlets which are fixed

2)the cleaning closet door which is fixed

3)the garden tools behind a locked door which is in progress

4)a door on the babies room which is in progress and

5)the kickwall in the boys room needing to be better stabilized which is in progress.

She told me that when I got these other things done to call and let her know but they are a huge deal as they aren't really safety issues and we are in the process of fixing them. They are actually issues that we created because we are doing work on the house which she understands. SO that is all taken care of. Now the only thing left to worry about is the girls adoption worker and advocate.

Pray that we get a large, family friendly adoption worker so that we have a chance at adopting these girls.

The ship is already nearing their halfway point. Pretty good for us since Rod just left.

Tomorrow will be a busy day with a trip to the pulmonologist for Makkiah.

Day Three

Today was a long day.

I got a lot of little things accomplished while the girls napped.

Cleaned the front porch,

Put the cable wire under the stairs.

Taped some wires down,

Discussed a door for the girls room with John,

as well a post upstairs to stabilize the wall,

folded ACTION shirts,

and generally picked up.

Then I got everybody ready for the ACTION fundraiser and showcase.

Still did get it taped.

They sent my camcorder back but didn't fix it.

They cleaned it and serviced it.

Did a full diagnostic, but didn't fix the darn thing?!

Talked with the girls social worker-

this is going to be a long, uphill battle.

I'm off to bed.

He made it

Rod called this morning to let me know that he had made it.

The ship is underway so it was a short call.

Long enough to hear his voice,

know that he made it safe,

and to say I love you.

Oh and to find out what time it was here and which day of the week!

Day two

Two days down.

This was my first day at church without Rod there to help.

And they had a potluck.

And I survived.

Barely!

Then I came home and did some projects.

Tyreque put covers on the outlets.

I installed a door in the cleaning closet.

Then reinstalled the door in the cleaning closet since the door was to tall.

Did three loads of laundry.

Picked up the house.

Gave the kids all extra chores to do.

Watched Extreme Makeover with the kids.

And now I'm headed off to bed.

Tomorrow is a school day and I have to get up early.

Day One

Rod has been gone for one day.

Nothing has exploded, died, plugged, clogged, starved, broken down, and fallen apart - yet!!

There was a bug (not just any bug but a BIG bug) in my living room.

I had to squelsh my fear of big bugs YUCK and, thankfully it was on a basket, take it outside and kill it.

My Mom says I should have just shoo'd it off but...

what if it was some mass reproducing bug,

or a bug with a homing instinct,

or just a big UGLY bug?

I played it safe and smashed it - DEAD!

And thankfully I was not attacked by an armegedon of big ugly bugs, cause then something would fallen apart - ME!

But alas, we are all still in one piece and hopefully they will all stay that way, at least for a few days longer!!

I got all my supplies to finish my "projects".

The ones that have been so loving bestowed upon me due to the well meaning indivdual in my life.

I'm sure there is a reason that God has put her there but I'm not seeing it to clearly right now.

Maybe after the sawdust cloud dies down I will though!!

Off to make sure all the doors are locked.

Then off to bed, again, by myself!

Nosy people

I have a love - hate relationship with Children's services.

I think that the work they do is for the benefit of the child - most of the time, although I've had kids that I felt should NOT be in the system.

Then there are times when I feel that they are just nosy.

Or that they are foloowing up on things that nosy people feel they need to call and talk about because they have nothing better to do with their time.

I had CPS come to my house last night.

They got a call on the hotline about me house.

The allegations:
1)paint peeling off the walls
2)hanging wires in the living room and kitchen
3)no safety plugs in the outlets
4)cleaning supplies left on the floor
5)a generally messy house
6)to many children for one person to take care of

So they came and went through my house, which was not messy, by the way, when they made their surprise visit. There is no paint peeling from the walls, no hanging wires anywhere, no cleaning supplies on the floor, and only half of the outlets had safety plugs in them (so shoot me).

They decided that there were a few things that I needed to fix
1)safety plugs in ALL the outlets
2)putting a lock on the porch with the garden tools because they might use the garden tools to bury each other out back
3)A door on the babies room because they need privacy -I guess the fact that I change them in the living room wouldn't go over to well!!!
4)Moving the cleaning supplies up a shelf - the regulation says they have to be up and out of reach but that leaves the interpretation as to how high and what's out of reach. The fact that they are on a shelf over the kids head was not reasonable to her.

They also didn't care that the one bathroom upstairs is not functioning since we are redoing the floor. I guess the fact that we have FIVE other bathrooms in the house makes up for the ONE half bath that's not operative at the moment.

So for all you NOSY people out there - GET A LIFE!!!

He's gone

I took Rod to the airport this morning at 6 am.

He's flying to LA, then to Japan, and then on to Singapore where he's meeting the ship.

He should be there sometime tomorrow night.

Don't know what the time difference is.

I don't think the reality has set in yet.

Probably will happen when the little kids realize that Dad hasn't been home in a few days.

Friday is the day!

It is official. Rod will be leaving on Friday morning. I'm not glad that he's leaving but I am glad to finally have a date. It's been hard with this every day could be the day thing. With bags packed and sitting in the guest room waiting, wondering. I'm thankful that he'll only be gone for 4-5 months instead of the anticpated 18 months. I'm also glad that Ahma and Poppa from over at Sea-Ami will be coming to stay with us for an extended stay. Will be nice to have the help and not have to be a single parent for to long!!

Flowerbeds are finished!

I've spent the last few days filling the beds the rest of the way up and planting flowers in them. It's so nice to walk out the door and smell the flowers or relax on the porch swing and enjoy the front porch. It's hard to believe that when we bought the house the front porch was so dark and uninviting. Defiently NOT a place that you would want to sit and relax. Now it's one of my favorite places to sit. I can't wait for the flowers to grow and fill in the beds.

I also hung the hose holder that I bought but haven't put it to use yet since we are still having to turn on the sprinklers every day to get the grass to grow. Once the flowers grow and fill in the beds they should hide the concrete "block" that makes our porch. It was so ugly to look at before. Now instead of seeing it you see the flower beds and the flowers. The next project will be to put in a path in front of the beds that goes across the front yard. Trying to decide if I want to gravel or just large stepping stone things. I'm leaning more towards stepping stones since the kids can't remove them as easily as they can gravel.

Another project while Mom was here

This was actually one of the first projects that we did. We moved the library to where all the clothes had been. Here is picture of all the bookshelves with the books back on them. Can you tell that I love books. I also love teddy bears and have a bunch of them on the tops of the shelves.

Then we moved all the clothes storage shelves to where the computers had been. Now they are round the corner and not one of the first things that you see when you walk into the room. This area used to be a second kitchen when we moved in. All of that has been removed but the walls still need to be redone. These shelves hide that well for now!
Than we got rid of the two small computer desks and moved the computers onto a long table where the bookshelves used to be. We also moved the tv with the Gamecube and the PS2 into the corner of this space. They used to be along the wall where the short bookshelves are now. When people played it was hard to get past them as they were in the middle of the walkway. Now we can see what people are doing on the computers and the tv and they are not in the way. So everything is still in the same room but it all shifted walls and makes a lot more space.

Cleaning the back porch

On Saturday we cleaned the back porch. This is where our washer and dryer is and also the freezer. It had been used to store stuff and we had never really cleaned and organized it. There was a variety of stuff back there.

We went through the boxes that were out there and got rid of a bunch of stuff.

Cleaned off the steps and reorganized the shelves.

Got all the stuff from behind the washer and dryer.

Put together a cabinet to hold stuff that needs to be locked (bleach, paint, etc).

Put up some hooks for the garden tools.

In the end it looked much better.

Quiet

Amah, Poppa, and WB headed off to the airport at 3:30 this morning.

I said my good byes before I went to bed as that's just a little to early for me.

Rod left for work around 6:30.

Took Brayana, Destini, and Jaleel off to the schoolbus.

Took Angie and Makkiah to school.

Took Ladaria to school.

Tyreque left for school the same time I left the house since it was a late day.

Then I took Jaleel's meds to the school and tried to register Kiah for kindergarten.

Their copier was down and one of his shots had been left off his shot card.

Headed off to the doctor to get his shot card fixed.

Stopped by the house to make copies for the school.

Went and picked up Angie and Kiah from Headstart.

Brought Taniyah, Angie and Ellie home to stay with the neighbor.

Took Kiah to his appt at the hospital where I was told that he's a classic ADHD kid. Hey at least now I know that he's not psychotic or anything!!

Headed back home to watch the little kids while Rod took the other kids to practice.

Did laundry.

Cleaned the living room.

Finally sat down in the living room which was not quiet.

Mom said she thought I would enjoy having only the two babies and everyone else gone today.

I don't think I stopped long enough to!!

Can't wait for them to come back in June.

I definetly get more accomplished with them here than I do with them gone.

Happy Easter!

Just wanted to write and say Happy Easter to everyone.

We started out the day at 5:30am.

Had to get the oldest 5 kids to a presentation by 8am.

That entailed making sure that all the kids were dressed and fed.

Making sure that everyone had clean ACTION shirts.

Doing the twist in 3 girls hair.

Getting the youngest 4 dressed and ready for my mom who was bringing them to the presentation.

Getting the van seats back into the little van and the 4 car seats buckles back into the seats.

After everyone was dressed and fed we left for the presentation.

The ACTION team and the ACTION juniors were asked to present at an Easter egg hunt.

The event started at 9:30 but we usually get there an hour early so the kids can run through any songs that need work, set props, and get on makeup.

They didn't wear the mime makeup as the church was concerned about scaring the preschoolers.

Jaleel plays Jesus in one of the songs and he wasn't allowed to show any emotion as they didn't want to scare the preschoolers. He did a great job of keeping a straight face. I was impressed!

After the presentation, the youngest 7 kids participated in the Easter egg hunt. All I want to say about that is - Some parents can be REALLY greedy about some small egg shaped plastic that is EMPTY!! Some of the eggs had prize slips in them so the parents were popping the eggs open trying to find the slips.

After the egg hunt we went over to our old church for their Easter service. We had missed the service at our church and thought it would be good to visit friends over at Faith. Some of them we haven't seen since we started going to New Seasons. It was nice to see them and we also chatted with Pastor Mark and his wife.

After church we came home and I cleaned out a few more boxes from the storage shed and then spent some time with Mom. She was packing for part of the day so I cleaned!

In all it was a fun and productive day. My house is FINALLY starting to come together, getting organized and in order.

Hope everyone had a great Easter!!

Shoe shopping!

My Mom took all the kids shoe shopping for Easter.

We made one trip with the youngest four. Got their shoes and were done in about 30 minutes.

Went home and got the oldest five.

Before they could go get new shoes they had to clean the storage though!

After the storage passed inspection we headed off with them.

Four hours and three stores later they all had shoes that they were happy with.

So at the end of it all these are the shoes that Ahma bought for all the kids!

Shoe shopping accomplished!!!!!

A few more comparisons

Here is a picure of the bottom right of our yard. The green grass is the neighbors yard. Our yard was covered in weed barrier and bark mulch.We took out the mulch and the cactus and the trees. The tall grass and tree are in the neighbors yard. We still need to replace the fence on this side of the house.
Here is the right side of the yard before we worked on it. There is grass in the picture so we've been here a while when I took this picture.We took out the fence which really served no purpose as you go around both ends of it. We cut down the yucca tree and other trees that were dead. The yard was tilled and we will be putting down new grass seed. We also painted the house.

Some transformations

I thought I would give some perspective pictures. We've spent a lot of hours working on the yard. Many hours of Rod and Poppa putting up siding, Mom and I priming, Rod and I painting, Rod and Dennis replacing windows, Rod and I replacing the door, Rod and I doing the front porch, Mom and Poppa babysitting while Rod and I did work, taking out the old fence, tilling the yard, putting in the flowerbeds, cutting down trees, breaking up blacktop, etc.

With the help of the Mom, Poppa and the kids we have gotten a lot of work accomplished and the house is starting to look great!

Very different from when we first bought the property.

Here you go.

Here is a picture of the house when we first bought it. Here is a picture of the house at the end of the day today from the same angle. Here is the front yard when we bought the house.Here is the yard from the same angle at the end of today.

Busy continued

Today we continued on with our busy stuff.

Rod went and rented a rototiller.















We tilled the yard on one side of the house from front to back.














We also leveled it so it's not so lumpy and bumpy anymore.














We also leveled out the front and raised the dirt up into the area that I created yesterday with my wall.














We also built the larger of the two flower beds in the front and side of the porch.














Tomorrow we are doing family pictures and then will continue on with our work.

Things are looking really good around here.

Busy, Busy, Busy

We are staying busy here.

My old couch is FINALLY gone.

I got rid of three large car loads of STUFF.

The old slide is gone.

Today we cut down all the trees in our front and side yard.

Rented a stump grinder and ground 14 stumps.

Built a small retaining wall to allow us to level out the bottom part of the yard.

Dug out a trench and laid 18 bricks to start our flowerboxes.

Tomorrow we are renting a roto-tiller to till up the yard in front of the porch.

It will allow us to dig out and level the yard easier.

We also are getting 5 yards of dirt to fill our flower boxes and level the yard.

We also are getting 200 bricks to finish the flower boxes.

Not so sure that ALL will be finished tomorrow but we'll get as much as we can done.

We are going to put gravel walks in front of the flower boxes but that's another project for another day.

For now the yard is cleared out and the kids can play in it.

We even took the babies out to play in the front yard for the first time.

Off to do laundry now!!

Spring Cleaning

Stuff, stuff and more stuff.

I have lots of it going out the door!

My Mom and I have been reorganizing, rearranging and clearing out.

My goal has been to go room by room through the house.

It has a place or it doesn't stay has been my motto.

I think I'm doing a good job with it.

I've sent several loads to the thrift store.

I've donated a bunch of stuff to a charity garage sale and

now I have even more stuff to go.

And just to think that I've ONLY done two rooms and a closet.

Let's see......how many more to go.......too many!!

My feet hurt!

New laptop

I got a laptop.

And then I got another laptop.

Two in one day.

The first one kept freezing and garbling.

Not good when it's only been out of the box for 5 minutes.

Decided to get a different brand when I went back.

Now I can get work done someplace besides the dark confines of the library!

Medication

Took Jaleel and Makkiah to their doctors appts today.

Jaleel will be starting in medication for ADHD so that he can function better at school.

We had to get his hearing, vision and learning ability tested before the ped would consider meds.

He sees fine, hears fine and has average to abov average intelligence. So all that looks good.

Now he just needs to be able to sit down long enough to listen and learn.

The pharmacy was out of the medication so I won't be able to pick it up until next week but at least we have a light at the end of the tunnel.

Makkiah is going to get his hearing tested since he already got his vision tested and he also had a consult put in for a child psychiatrist to evaluate him.

He's been having a hard time at school as well but his is more aggression. The ped says that he is more vulnerable due to his chronic medical problems and medication.

He needs to be able to function at school and the other kids need to be able to be safe at school.

I hate to add more medication to the ones that he already takes but that may be the only solution.

Life is so fun at our house sometimes!

They're here

Amah, Poppa, and Lorenzo arrived today. I picked up Angie and Makkiah early from school so that we could go get them from the airport.

Mom called just as I was getting into the van at the school so we headed toward the airport.

Circled through once and they weren't there yet.

One the second circle through I saw Poppa come out of the door.

They saw me and and were running inside to catch me.

Got all their stuff loaded up and headed home.

They had a good flight and we all are glad that they are here.

New title

Children's Ministry Director

I met with two pastors from the church this morning and I will be overseeing Children's Ministry. It will be restructured and improved so that we have the best Children's Ministry we can have.

The pastor even scheduled a training that I will be co-teaching with him (he is going to read over the material I give him and approve it and maybe make a few points!) and I have less than two weeks to put it together. This should be fun and interesting!!!

So I'm off to get some work done.

Suspended.....

Got a call from Headstart.

My 5 year old needed to be picked up and brought home for hitting the other kids in his class:-(

If there's one thing in school that I really dislike, it's bullies and my child is setting out to be the Headstart bully...ugh.

He can't return to school until I have a meeting with the teacher, director and facilitator lady, which I can't do until Thursday morning before I head to the airport.

So he's home with me and will be having NO fun while he's suspended.

Got him situtated in a chair to sit his school time away and I got another call.

This time from Destini's teacher to say that she was involved in two situations on the playground.

The first one she was being bullied by some boys who wanted her attention (don't they know that she's not old enough for that mess!).

The second one her and her new friend were pushing the boys (different ones) off the monkey bars and kicking them in the crotch...did I mention that I dislike bullies...double UGH.

So I arranged for her to sit out of recess for the rest of the week and let them know that should not be allowed to sit out of recess with her cohort in crime.

She also will not be having fun while she's grounded and I let her know that if she has another incident like this she won't be on the payground for the rest of the year.

The other kids deserve to play peacefully on the playground WITHOUT her bullying them.

Hopefully they both learn their lesson and this mess stops.

New Furniture

My new furniture arrived! It came today and I'm so excited to have real living room furniture. I had a sectional from IKEA before but in our large living room it looked lost. We decided that with some of our tax money we were going to buy some nice furniture AND the extended stain warranty with it.

My living room was dark and dreary and smelly when we bought the house. It had a single light bulb that hung from the center of the room (I used to say I felt like I should be in a gambling ring or the mafia with it! LOL) and wall heater that didn't work. The wiring wasn't done right and if you unscrewed the lightbulb to change it EVERYTHING on that circuit lost electricity (It just happened that half of our house was on that circuit!) It also had the old ugly stained glass windows that were screwed shut because they didn't lock, a solid wooden door that wouldn't open when it was cold or rained and industrial type carpet with melted iron spots on it.

Since we moved in to our money pit we've taken down all the plaster from the walls and the heater, rewired the room, hung drywall and textured, painted, put in a new window that locks AND we can see through, put in a new door that opens whenever we need it to, installed a fan with light, replaced the carpet, hung curtains, put stuff on the walls and finally got furniture for it. The only thing that we have left to do in this room is the trim around the windows and the new door.

It really does look different!

Makkiah's Birthday picture

I'm finally getting these pics uploaded to Flickr. For some reason my camera didn't want to flash so only a few came out but here's a good one.

Spring cleaning

I'm on a roll. Cleaned out the guest bedroom - Getting ready for the next family visit from Ahma and Poppa over at Sea-Ami!! - and got the pictures hung up. They've been sitting in there for months but I finally got motivated enough to hang the stuff up.

Also cleaned out several closets and have people coming to get that stuff that I no longer feel needs to sit around and collect dust. If someone else can use it, then please do. I don't even think of doing garage sales anymore. Whoever can get here first to pick it up can have it!

My old couch will be headed out the door today to make room for the new furniture that will arrive tomorrow. It's actually starting to look like a living room!

I think my next project will be the library and the book shelves. I'm getting rid of all the VHS movies since we don't have a VCR. All they do is sit and collect dust so might as well pass them on to someone who will use them and enjoy them.

My house is starting to look like a home instead of a storage area or a construction zone! YEAH!!!

Progress

After having the house for two years and having the living room complete meaning drywall and paint on it) for at least 6 months I finally got my curtains hung up.

My Mom had hung up a red sheet in the window to serve as curtains and some of my kids were actually sad to see me take it down but I did.

So I finally have matching curtains on the windows - well almost - I still need to get one more set of sheers to go with the one set of curtains up but I'm getting there.

I also put up some new shelves AND some pictureso n the wall.

I guess getting new furniture get you in the mood to actually do something to the room.

Honestly, I could have lived with the red sheet in the window forever and it really wouldn't have bothered me. At least not to much!

Safely in God's Arms

TINY BABY

TINY BABY IN MY HEART
I ACHE TO HOLD YOU NEAR
BEFORE I EVEN KNEW YOU
I FELT YOUR PRESENCE HERE

INSIDE MY WOMB I KEPT YOU
EVER PEACEFUL FROM THE STORM
I KNEW THAT YOU WERE ALWAYS SAFE
AND I KNEW THAT YOU WERE WARM

I NEVER THOUGHT I'D LOSE YOU
BEFORE I SAW YOUR FACE
BUT I KNOW THAT YOU ARE HAPPY
AND LIVING IN A BETTER PLACE

GOD MUST HAVE SPARED MY BABY
FROM SOME UNKNOWN TRAGEDY
I KNOW HE'D NEVER BE UNKIND
OR BRING HURT AND PAIN TO ME

THE DAYS AHEAD WILL TRY ME
AS I COME TO TERMS WITH GRIEF
BUT THROUGH IT ALL THERE'S COMFORT
AND GOD IS MY RELIEF

HE'LL HOLD ME IN HIS ARMS A WHILE
AND SHELTER ME WITH CARE
TIME WILL TAKE AWAY THE PAIN
BUT THE LOVE WILL STILL BE THERE

ANON

Yesterday we found out that our tiny baby went to be held safely in the arms of Jesus.

Company

We have been blessed this month with family coming to visit.

Usually the only people that brave coming to see us is my Mom and her family.

This month we had Valerie, Donald, Brent and Aaron who came for a few days.

Rod's brother flew in last night from Florida.

He's staying until Sunday.

Him and Rod are catching up and Rod is finding out what's going on back home.

Not sure yet what all we are going to do while he's here, but we'll figure it out!

Hope everyone enjoys their week.

Change of Orders

Rod is going to the Mobile Bay instead of over to Bahrain for 12-18 months.

We found out today that he will be going sometime around April 15th.

He will leave his current command on March 31 and then be on leave until he checks into his new duty station.

The ship left on Friday for a 5 month deployment so he will be flying over to meet the ship wherever it is.

Not sure exactly which day he will be flying out but I'm sure that it will come to soon.

Still beats a year or a year and a half gone.

He should be home in August!

Boot Camp Graduation

Today Aaron graduated and is officially a United States Marine.

I was in the Navy, I have brother in the Air Force and two in the Marines. Now I only have one to go. Wonder which service he will choose.

Took the youngest four kids to the ceremony and they did pretty good.

I took a contrast picture with my two "little" brothers - at one time I was taller than both of them!

I was wondering if Taniyah came up to Aaron's kneecap. She does but not by much.

The picture is Aaron 22, Taniyah 14 months and Brent 27.

Wednesday post

Rod went to his follow-up appt and just called me.

His right eye is worse than when they started yesterday.

Somehow the flap that they lay back down has wrinkles in it.

They are redoing the procedure and putting in a contact.

He will go back tomorrow to see if it worked.

If not then they will have to scrape off some of the epithelial cells.

Similar to a PRK which he didn't want done because it is VERY painful.

Like they give you narcotics painful.

Poor guy.

Eye surgery

Rod had Lasik eye surgery today.

He had a hard time seeing after it was done.

He seems to be doing better now although he says that his right eye is really blurry.

Something doesn't seem right.

He HATES the eye drops as he says that they really burn.

Not so much in the left eye but more in the right.

Hopefully everything is alright.

Five, Eight or Ten?!

Seven

I know I'm number seven,
but the fact you can't deny
is that God, Almighty Giver,
is the author of my life.

My soul is no less special
and my spirit no less great
than those that came before me,
be they one, or six, or eight!

So many eyes are blinded
by the whispers of this world--
to them, there is no miracle
in a human life unfurled.

A baby's just a plaything,
a burden, or a chore,
and we must proceed with caution
to prevent to many more!

Only a fool would trust the Lord
to give as He desires
and live a life of trust in Him-
whatever that requires.

A new car may be exciting;
a new house may be a prize,
but my new life is better
than anything that money buys.

So all the world may roll their eyes
when seven now they see--
But I can't wait until I meet
the fools who welcome me.

by: Jennifer Wilson

As you may have guessed by the poem we are expecting again!! The title of the post is as it is because this is our fifth birth child, our eighth permanent resident unless we are blessed to be able to adopt our two foster girls, then this will be number 10!

I was going to change the poem to reflect the number of this baby but I haven't had the time although I think that the poem rightly portrays people's ideas of large families adding ONE MORE!!

We are excited to be adding another baby to our family to love and enjoy although I have to wonder at God's timing on this one. I know that God's timing is always perfect BUT Rod is supposed to be in Bahrain when this baby is due to arrive Sept 12th. I hope that this is not one of those - husband goes off to war and baby is the last remaining piece because the husband dies. Can you tell I'm a little emotional?

I know that my hubby will return home to a beautiful new (well not exactly new but new to him!) baby and all will be well. Have to keep those thoughts out of my head.

So if you are reading this and have anything negative to say then just mosy on your way! Otherwise rejoice with us in the blessing that God has given us. If you are hesitant about rejoicing then let it sink in, pray about it and then rejoice!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAKKIAH!

Makkiah turns five years old today. We will be celebrating his birthday next week though since he seems to have a touch of the flu. No fun eating birthday cake when it just comes back up:-( Will post pictures of the birthday boy when we have his party. And I'll even attempt to write a longer post!

Support Group Meeting

I hosted my final support group meeting tonight. The college decided that since we haven't had 5 people show up in the last 5 months it was time to call it quits. Doesn't bother me as I have plenty of hours of training. It's to expensive to pay a trainer to come out for 1 or 2 people to show up.

So the decision was made.

And guess how many people decided to show up tonight?

NINE!!

Oh well.

Vocal Cord Spasm

Makkiah has been having these "episodes". He will look as if he is choking, drool, face turns red. Then he starts coughing and coughs up clear foamy mucous. Not a good thing to have happen and certainly NOT a good thing for a mother to have to watch.

I called his pulmonary specialist who says that it sounds like Vocal Cord Spasms. This is the only thing online that I could find on Vocal Cord Dysfunction and is not what I wanted to read about what my child might have. I'm choosing to think better thoughts - hmm - what better thoughts could I think about all of this? I need some help here!

They asked at school what they should do for him if it happens at school - all I could say was - "If he's having a hard time OR he stops breathing call 911!" They weren't to thrilled about that one and neither was I but honestly I don't know what to tell them. I'm at a loss.

Pulmonologist told me call him back next week and let him know how Makkiah's doing. If it gets more frequent or he has longer episode that's more scary than the ones he's had take him straight to the ER. OK so what do I do in the meantime?!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

Parties, Candy and Cards oh my!

One thing about homeschooling I never had to worry about doing 20-30 cards for each class times 5 kids!

Can you guess how I spent last night?

Writing classmates names on fruit roll up and gummi hearts!

Got everyone sent off with the appropriate number of pencils and candy for their classmates, I hope and now get to sit back and enjoy the leftovers!!

Dolphin Encounter

Makkiah was invited by his pediatric pulmonolgist to go out and see the Navy dolphins. Unfortunately the doctor didn't make it as he was on-call at the PICU up at the hospital. We missed seeing him.

Another doctor came and took 3 families down to the docks to see the dolphins.

First they brought one of the dolphins up out of the water onto this large mat that they use to transport them out into the open water for training. Makkiah was the only one of the three kids brave enough to go into the boat and feed the dolphin. He even touched the dolphins tongue!

Then they put the dolphin back into the water so he didn't dry out.

Then they showed the kids how to get the dolphins to do tricks. Makkiah had them spinning in circles, giving high 5, "talking", waving (this entailed getting wet!), jumping, touching his hand with their nose, and playing frisbee. To play frisbee Makkiah would throw the frisbee out into the water and the dolphin would bring it back to him! After each trick Makkiah would throw the dolphin some fish or squid. Sometimes the dolphins would say NO by shaking thier heads when you told them to do a trick!! So much like my children although I must say that the dolphins did listen so much better than my kids most of the time.

Makkiah even got to "pet" the dolphins bellies and see how they train them to do thier exams. It was definetly a fun experience and I'm glad he got to go do it.

I'm putting pictures in my Flickr account and will out a few video clips on Taniyah's page.

Sleep

The new topic of the week is sleep. I don't know about all the other large families but bedtime at our house goes something like this.

I lay on the couch eating bon-bons and get a massage from my hubby. I tell the kids to get ready for bed and they all go brush their teeth, take a shower, put on pj's and all are in bed by their 8pm bedtime.

Oh wait...that's just my dream bedtime. I guess you all want to know reality bedtime!!

All the kids brush teeth after dinner and do chores. This involves checking and rechecking until it's done right. Then showers for whoevers day it is to shower that day. Everyone gets pajamas on while I change babies and put thier jammies on. I also help Angie and Makkiah get into jammies.

At 8pm it's bedtime for all the littles -12 and under- and medication time for Makkiah who usually comes to remind me that he needs his evening meds.

Ellie gets put in bed, Angie to bed, Makkiah to bed, and Brayana,Destini, and Jaleel all comes give hugs and kisses before bed. Then Angie and Makkiah get put back in bed because they forgot that they didn't give hugs and kisses.

After the first 6 are in bed I sit down to nurse Taniyah and then put her to bed, usually by 8:30. In the meantime I've sent or taken Angie back to bed a handful of times and told her to stay there.

At 9 pm Tyreque and Ladaria go to bed and HOPEFULLY Angie and Makkiah are in bed and asleep by this time.

Everybody in my house sleeps all night and I have to make the rounds in the morning to wake everyone up. Thankfully ALL of my kids are sleepers once they stay in their bed for longer than 2.5 seconds to fall asleep!

Nothing exciting at bedtime here.

I'm usually in bed by 10 or 11 or I've fallen asleep on the couch trying to get in a whole, complete, uniterrupted tv program. I usually don't make it though!!

Organization

Chris and Carmen's question of the week on how we run a large family is on organization.

For some reason people seem to think that because you have a lot of kids that you must be very organized. That folks is just not true.

In theory moms of large families may have the desire to be organized but being the mom of a large family in reality means that you have more people who most likely do NOT have the desire to be organized!

My world functions better with organization- I'm happier, calmer and much easier to get along with when things are clean and organized.

You would think that this would somehow give the other members in my immediate (meaning those who live IN my home) the desire to keep things neat and organized BUT it seems to have the opposite effect on them.

In keeping with the theme of Chris and Carmen I will show you what I have done that works for our family and not all the things that I have tried that didn't catch on very well.

Not to say that what I have done that works was not accomplished without much screaming and gnashing of teeth. But hey, whatever works, right?!

My kitchen is fairly organized because I designed it and had all the cabinets installed where I wanted them. Thanks to my Mom's tips it came out better than can be expected. Now if I could just get everyone to stop using it to store their crap it would be great!

Laundry is fairly simple. Once you are twelve you do your own laundry and have your own laundry basket and your own laundry day. For everyone else there are two hampers in the hallway to put your clothes in and I wash them all. Fold them on the kitchen table thus forcing them to be put away before we sit down to dinner. Once you are six you put your own clothes away. Before that I do it and once you approach that age I start teaching you how to do it.

Clothes storage. We don't have any dressers in our house. They take up to much room and aren't as sturdy as they used to be. So all of our kids have storage things from IKEA and they are all in the same place. One whole wall and half of another house these. Bins are cheap to replace if they need to be and it's easy to put clothes away and out of rooms this way. Church clothes are hung up in your closet in your room.

Each child has a storage thing that holds 3 bins next to their bed which holds toys or whatever miscellaneous things they want to put in them. At least that is the idea. The only exception to this is the baby girls' room which has a bookshelf with blankets and toys in baskets. I can get them out to let them play in their room but mainly use them to store toys that rotate out from the coffee table.

In the kids bathroom we have two shelves with hooks underneath the bottom one. Each person has a different color towel that hangs on the hook. Each person also has a hygiene baskets that holds their toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, airbrush, shampoo, soap, face wash, razors, shaving cream, lotion and shower scrubby. These baskets are stored on the two shelves - bigger kids with things like razors on the top shelf and younger kids on the bottom shelf.

In the hallway we have another bin holder (these are all from IKEA) that holds a small bin for each child. This is for them to put homework that needs to be finished and their AWANA books. The idea is that they can easily find these items when they need them, again, this is JUST the idea!

Our coffee table is another storage area. The baskets on the bottom hold baby toys. This allows them easy access to their toys and maybe, just maybe I can teach them to be more organized than the others. OK I can hope though, right?! The top middle basket holds diapers, butt cream and wipes. The baskets on each side hold mail, magazines and whatever miscellaneous things get put in there. We also have end table with baskets that hold books that are being read, puzzle books and again whatever miscellaneous things are thrown in there.

Finally a picture

My Mom has been asking me for a picture of Taniyah with her birthday present that she sent. Since I'm sitting down in between loads of laundry I decided that I could upload some new pictures onto Flickr.

So the long awaited picture!


There are others on Flickr also!

Morning Routine

Chris (The Big Yellow House) and Carmen (Mom to the Screaming Masses) did their morning routines on Wednesday. Well I finally made it over there to read their question of the week and decided -even though I am almost a week late - to join in. Tomorrow I will try to get over there to read the new question of the week about raising a large family.
I used to homeschool like Chris but after 5 years decided it was time to send them off to school so my morning routine is more along the lines of Carmen.

5am-5:30am Alarm #1 goes off. I stumble to the bathroom while hubby goes to retrieve alarm #1 from her bed. I turn off alarm #1 with nursing while hubby gets in the shower.

6am - Alarm #2 goes off and I hit snooze, deciding if I really want to get up and shower or lay and sleep for another 9 minutes.

6:09 - I get up trying not to disturb alarm #1 and head to the shower. Grab a mini candy bar and try to get the light to stay "on" in the "off" position (remember we live in a fixer upper house and it's something we haven't fixed yet). Hop in the shower.

6:30 Out of the shower and dressed. Hubby is usually still sitting on the toilet with his towel wrapped around him, contemplating the task of getting dressed.

6:35 Start making rounds to get everyone out of bed - my high schooler SHOULD be up and gone by this point. I don't get him up as I'm to lazy to get up any earlier. I just tell him good bye before he goes to bed at night!!

6:40 Get Ellie from her crib and deposit her into her high chair with cheerios. Get Taniyah (AKA alarm #1) from my bed and deposit her in to her high chair with cheerios. Hope that they don't protest to loudly.

6:45 Heat up a cup of coffee and go back through rooms to pull blankets off of any stragglers who still lurk in their beds.

6:48-7ish Get Angie and Makkiah dressed for preschool. This entails taking one of them into the livingroom and dressing them quickly before the other one seems them "naked". Hope that the other one doesn't come into the livingroom as we then have a major meltdown that somebody saw them "naked" - even if they are half dressed. Then inventing something for the dressed one to go look for while I dress the other one, who jumps behind me anytime they hear anyone near the livingroom to make sure that no one seems them "naked".

7-7:15 Brush Brayana, Destini, and Angie's hair. For anyone who has tenderheaded, drama "princess" girls you know how this dance goes. Brush hair while the current princess is screaming and hopping around. You must be quick on your feet and very skilled to complete this task with not one but three of these beautiful princess girls.

7:15-7:20 Give Makkiah his medication. Refill cheerios on baby trays or give them shredded mini wheats for a change of pace and a little peace and quiet.

7:20-7:25 Make the rounds a third time to remove any stragglers from their beds, in front of the TV or computer to make sure they are 1)Dressed in appropriate clothes that weren't worn yesterday 2)they have brushed their teeth and hair 3)they have washed their faces and put on deodorant 4)they have socks on their feet and 5)that they have any of the miscellaneous 5 million papers that get sent home on any of the assorted days that need to be sign, filled out or completed and returned to school that day or they will "be in so much trouble and their teacher won't like them and life will be miserable".

7:25-7:30 Sign, fill out, and complete any of the miscellaneous 5 million papers that get sent home on any of the assorted days that need to signed, filled out or completed and returned to school that day or they will "be in so much trouble and their teacher won't like them and life will be miserable". Question again why they didn't give me the papers when they got them only to be given the answer of "you didn't ask!"

7:30-7:40 Round up Angie and Makkiah so that I can play the "I-know-I-should-let-you-brush-my-teeth-but-I-don't-really-want-to-do-that" game and wash their faces.

7:40-7:42 Brush my teeth while Angie and Makkiah look at me in amazement that "you brush your teeth too Mom!"

7:43 Make sure that the babies in their high chairs have sufficient cheerios to hold them over for the next 10 minutes

7:44 Tell Brayana, Destini and Jaleel that it is indeed time to get shoes on to go to the bus stop and end Destini's never ending question of "Is it time to go yet?" I swear she would have us standing at the bus stop at 5am if she could just to make sure that she wasn't late for the bus - which for the record she never has been late for!

7:45 Walk Brayana, Destini and Jaleel to the bus and stand around with a bunch of little kids whose parents aren't there so they think they can act stupid.

7:53 The bus comes and I can go home, releasing my children into the safety of the bus driver. (For the record, I still walk them to the bus since we have a large homeless population at the park near our house and I just don't like the idea of my kids being out there with no adult. Seems I'm the only one who feels that way but "oh well")

7:55-8:05 Walk home and get the two babies along with Angie and Makkiah loaded into the small van with the help of my 14 year old. Make sure that Angie and Makkiah have their backpacks with extra clothes for preschool.

8:05-8:13 Drive Angie and Makkiah to preschool and wait outside the door for preschool to open

8:15-8:20 Herd Angie and Makkiah into preschool and sign them into their respective classes while 14 year old sits in the *warm* van with the babies.

8:25 Drop 14 year old off in parking lot down the hill from her school because I'm mean and hate getting into the whole dropping off/picking up traffic hysteria that comes along with driving a child to school.

8:30 Get home and unload the babies from the van and lug them into the house

8:40 Feed the babies real food for breakfast and eat some breakfast myself.

9:00 Start one of many loads of laundry that I will do throughout the day, change/bathe/and dress babies, and try to check my e-mail while they play in the living room.

Since I only have the two babies at home from 8:15 to 11:45am I try to get as much as I can done. Unfortunately I don't get as much done as I would like because I still have two babies in the house who need supervision.

Hallway!!

We finally have a hallway all the way down the hall!

One of our bedrooms (Ellie and Taniyah's) you had to walk through to get to the back of the house - kitchen, master bedroom and laundry area. We had a long pole and shower curtain up to make a "room" for the two babies but if you walked down the hall while they were sleeping, well you didn't have a sleeping baby anymore.

So, on Saturday night Rod & I went and picked up our order from IKEA. We now have a "wall" of linen closets. They go from floor to ceiling and open into the hallway. If you walk down the hallway they look like closet space and it provides a great barrier between the hallway and the bedroom. And since they are white they don't make the hall look to dark or dreary.

I will post a pic when I get some taken. I need to go put all the shelves in so I can utilize my new space:-)

Teething Pain

Tanoyah is getting her 4 molars in.

ALL at the same time.

And in true Taniyah fashion they are taking FOREVER!

I swear they only go a cm a week!!!

Just shoot me now!!

Oh that's right I'm not the one in pain.

Just sleep deprived!

That spinning thing!

Rod, Ladaria, Tyreque and I are sitting and watching American Idol. Watching all the people who think that they can sing but really can't is always great entertainment.

So Tyreque turns around and I'm not sure where it came from but he says that he's always wanted to go on one of those things that you hold onto and they spin around when someone pushes them.

Rod and I laugh. A merry-go-round!! One of those playground staples when we were YOUNGER!! Never even thought that my children have been deprived by not having them around anymore.

We reminisced about jumping on and off of them, holding the middle bar and putting our feet out while it spun around and the infamous puddle around the outside that you inevitably landed in no matter how hard you tried jumping over it.

So now I feel old!!

ACTION

Brayana, Destini and Jaleel are now on the Aim for Faith Junoirs Team. Last night was the first practice for the new younger team and they really seemed to enjoy it. They wanted to practice when they got home and they all got up early this morning so they could practice before school! We'll see how long this last!
So far they have two presentations that they will be doing. As they practice more they will be able to do more things but first things first.
I've been busy here at home. Sorting clothes that were given to us and washing them before they either find a home with my children or I pass them on to someone else. Sorting through curriculum to list on E-bay and working on Children's Ministry stuff. Rod and I are also taking a class on Tuesday nights at the church. It's an evangalism class which also includes homework. I should be doing mine but instead I'm updating this so some people will stop complaining:-) I try to get as much done as I can while I just have the two babies in the morning but the time seems to pass way to quickly!
Hope that everyone is having a good week and I will try to update again soon.

The start of a weekend

Rod and I went to a leadership conference at our church last night and this morning. It was really good and I learned some things.
THen we went to Big Lots. We are looking for some shelves to put in Brayana and Ladaria's room so that they have places up higher to put things they don't want the babies to have. I think I found what I want at Walmart but thought I'd check out Big Lots first.
I also told Ladaria that I would braid her hair this weekend so I have top find a couple of hours to do that. I braided Brayana's 2 weeks ago and it's time to redo it. It's so nice to not have to fight with her everyo morning about brushing her hair. Makes my life easier.
I will try to get some new pics on here and will install the CDROM so that I can put the vacation pics on here.
Checking things off my list!!

I'm still here

I'm sure you all thought that I fell off the face of the earth. Nope didn't happen. I've just been busy - doing what I'm not sure but I'm sure that I have accomplished something in the last two weeks. If nothing more than cathcing up on laundry and making sure everyone has been fed!!

Yesterday Makkiah had a pulmonary appt. Just when we think things are looking up that kid throws us a curveball.

He's had croup episodes three times since Thanksgiving. These episodes have gone on for days at a time. Needless to say he is back on all his meds - Flovent, Atrovent, Nasonex, Singular (up to 5mg tabs), Zyrtec, and Prelone (5 days at a time and thank God this is his fifth day). He was also started on Prevacid for his reflux. Up unti lJune he was on Prilosec which was a total pain in the butt because it has to be compounded and refrigerated. Therefore it can't be mailed but has to be picked up from the pharmacy. That entails at least a 45 minute wait, sometimes almost two hour wait, for a medication that just needs to be taken out of the fridge and handed to me!! It was SO frustrating!!!!!!!

The prevacid we open up and dump the little, teeny, tiny balls onto yogurt, pudding, etc and then he has to swallow it. No chewing allowed.

The things about his steroids (prelone) is that it causes him SEVERE mood swings. Usually it makes him very aggressive. This time it seems to be making him cry at the drop of a hat. I swear he is worse than a girl going through PMS!!! But there is nothing that he can do about it and he needs it to breath SO we push on.

He'll be trialing the prevacid for a month and if we see no decrease in the croup symptoms then it's back for another bronch with the peds pulm and peds ENT. Everybody cross your fingers and pray that it works. The brocnhs don't bother me but if he doesn't have to get it done it's so much nicer for all of us but mainly for Makkiah.

Hope everyone is having fun and enjoying winter. Personally I'm ready for summer!

A Lazy Sorta Day!

We've had one of those lay around and be lazy sorta days.

I figured that we were allowed at least one during Christmas Break.

I made some phone calls that needed to be made,

attempted to upload all the vacation pics to Flickr,

played the Game Cube,

and that was about it.

Sometimes I suppose it's good to sit back and relax.

Doesn't happen very often around here.

Always things that need to be done after the lazy day.

I figure I might as well get it all done to begin with.

Shots and teeth

What in God's green earth was I thinking?

We just home from vacation last night.

I have a week's worth of laundry to do for 11 people.

My house is a disaster after unloading the van last night.

My Mom bought us a PS2 for Christmas which was waiting for us when we arrived home.

The kids wanted to play the PS2 over unpacking.

Who wouldn't?!

I guess I had momentary lapse of judgement when I scheduled Taniyah's well baby appt for 8 am.

Where she recieved 4 shots.

The four shots that are MOST likely to cause fever and irritability.

She gets fever and irritability with the shots that are LEAST likely to cause them.

If that wasn't bad enough I ALSO scheduled Angie to get her teeth pulled.

Not 1 tooth

Not 2 teeth

BUT 4 teeth!!

4 teeth that are so infected that the local anestethic didn't want to numb her up.

And of course her dental is to cheap to pay for anything else.

Next time I decide to do something like this would somebody please kick me!!

I Spy

We had a LONG drive through the desert and we were staying out in the desert so this is what we saw a lot of.

My children decided that the perfect game to play on the trip was "I Spy".

Now is it just me or does anybody else see a problem between this picture and "I Spy"? This is what it looked like on both sides of the road and then the road stretched out for miles.

So what did they come up with to "Spy"?

Brush, grass, dead grass, power lines, sand, rocks, the road, the lines on the road, the reflectors on the road. You get the idea!! Needless to say it wasn't hard to get through the list!

Back From Vacation

We got back from vacation today. We had a great time in Arizona but it was definetly good to be home.

One week in a two bedroom cabin with 9 kids is enough to test anybodies sanity!!

I have blog entries to add to the blog from vacation as well as more pictures but I have to replace my CD-rom drive in my computer. I burned everything from Rod's laptop. It would have been the perfect plan if the CD part of my computer hadn't decided to go caput on me.

Tomorrow I will have to buy a new one so that I can upload those photos and entries.

I uploaded a few photos to FLickr though.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas.

Happy 10th Anniversary

10 years ago today Rod and I were married. We were married at the kitchen table of a minister that we found in the paper. I was 6 weeks pregnant with our daughter Brayana and we decided that we should welcome this baby into the world with a mother and father who were married. We were married but not necessarily committed to each other. It was to be more a marriage of convience than anything else.

Neither one of our parents knew that we were married. My Mom found out on Dec 23rd when we went to visit her in Oregon. She saw my ring and asked what it was!! She didn't even know that Rod was there!!! I asked if she wanted to meet her son-in-law. She said she could she was in her pajamas. He said the same thing!!

Rod's parents didn't find out until after the new year. He was going home for New Years and his Mom told him not to come home if he was married. He went home and just didn't tell her that he was married!! After he got back she called and wanted to know when he was going to "make things right" by getting married. He told her that he already was.

That first year was rough. We were so young and certainly NOT ready to be married, let alone old enough to be expecting a first baby. We were not in love with each other but felt that we needed to "put up with each other" for the benifit of our child. We spoke often of divorce that first year and often went out on dates with other people.

As my belly started to grow things started to change. I started thinking differently about this person that I called my husband. I had obviously liked him prior to getting married but I don't think that we were truely "in love" with each other. It's sad to think back to that first year. To think about all of the things that we missed.

I have to say that God knew what he was doing. He took something Rod and I could have easily messed up and he started to work on our conscience. When I was pregnant with Brayana Rod met a guy who was cleaning windows at a store that he was going into. They exchanged numbers. Ron and Glo were a great couple who, even if they didn't realize it, became mentors to Rod and I. They invited us to come to their church. As we started going to church things between us started to change. I started seeing Rod as the husband that God wanted me to have, not just the person who shared my apartment and bed with. I started falling in love with him. He on the other hand was not so easily convinced!

Rod was young and didn't want to become held down. He still wanted to become single and felt that I was trying to trap him. He bought divorce papers from the local office supply store but he couldn't file them as 1) we were broke and 2)we had a child which made him unable to do the papers himself. Once again God was in control!

I know that God was working in Rod's heart as I prayed for him and for us. We became closer and were falling in love with each other. I still remember the first time that Rod said "I love you" and felt that he really meant it! I cried as I believed that the words that he said were true.

At 5 years Rod and I reflected on the fact that we had made it to 5 years. Nobody that knew us then believed that we would make it that far. Rod and I didn't even believe it ourselves. But we had made it and we had worked hard on getting to that point.

7 years and thankfully neither of us experienced the seven year itch. I think we got it out of our system at the beginning!!

Now here we are at 10 years!! We have come so far and looking back it's hard to believe that we have made it to where we are. So much in our lives have changed. God has blessed us with 7 wonderful children plus the privelege of caring for the numerous foster children that have come through our home. I can't imagine spending my life with anybody else. I miss him when he's at work. Our life is full and we are full of love for each other. God is certainly faithful. He has placed many people into our lives as examples and mentors -Dennis and Julie, John and Liz, Betty and Roger, John and Cindy, Joe and Linda,my Mom and Keith, Rod's parents. I thank each of you for being the couple that God has made you to be and for being an example to me.

I thank God for the husband that God gave to me and for many, many more years together!!

Off to vacation

We will be leaving on Monday to go camping. We will be renting a two bedroom cabin on the lake and will there for a week. That's were we will be spending Christmas. We figured that since Rod won't be here next year at Christmas we would spend it together as a family. This is also only one of two times that the kids are all out of school at the same time before he leaves in July. I will have lots of pictures to share I hope when I get back. I hope that everyone has a very Merry CHRISTmas this year.

Off to School

All my kids actually went to school today. YAY!

Monday I sent everyone to school. I had to go pick Makkiah up at 10:30 because he was coughing and they weren't comfortable with him staying there. We took Angie's paperwork for school and dropped it off at the dentist. Then we went back and got Angie.

Went to meet someone interested in the condo and Ladaria's school called. She was in the office sick so I had to go get her.

Yesterday Ladaria stayed home sick again although she was doing better by the evening and didn't want me to take her to acute care.

Angie had a dentist appt. She has to get 4 teeth pulled and 4 others need fillings. I didn't take Makkiah to school as I wouldn't be close to pick him up if I needed to.

Today Ladaria wanted to stay home from school again but I was mean and made her go. Since she was fine last night, eating, playing, and watching tv I made an executive decision to send her to school. Haven't gotten a call yet so she must have started feeling better- at least I hope. I think everyone who has a cold feels worse in the morning.

I'm going to work on my Christmas letter. I might actually get one sent out this year. You can always hope!!

Sick of Being Sick

I'm sick of being sick.

I've had this cold, or maybe it's colds for over two weeks now.

I'm tired of coughing.

I'm tired of blowing my nose.

I'm tired of blowing my kids noses.

I'm tired of wiping snot from noses,

faces,

hands,

shirts, (including mine)

and anywhere else that a baby has decided to wipe thier snot.

I'm tired of listening to my kids cough,

sneeze,

and blow their noses.

I'm tired of my kids thinking that because they are sick it's the end of the world.

Well I think she's tired of being sick also,

or maybe she's just tired!

Next in line

We were awakened this morning by a loud bark at the door. I don't I've ever seen Rod hit the door from a dead sleep that fast in my life.

He thought it was Makkiah. It was Jaleel. He sounded croupy and was having a hard time breathing in. Rod took him out to the porch swing and made him some lemon tea. We also gave him some of Makkiah's on hand steroids. Probably not the acceptable thing to do but we needed to get the swelling in his throat down. The combonation seemed to help and he was breathing easier in no time at all.

Sent him back off to bed and fell back asleep.

Next at the door was Ladaria.

She had a headache and had coughed so hard that she threw up twice. She was hungry and wanted to know what she should do. Gave her some Tylenol and had her eat something. Back to bed she went.

Next up was Ellie who decided at 5am that she also was hungry. Last night she was playing her little - I'm not going to open my mouth and eat game. She didn't eat much dinner. Guess it caught up with her. She very willingly ate this morning.

Jaleel is better this morning and sounds normal, Ladaria is still sleeping and Ellie is fed and happy. Hopefully this cold will get out of our house soon.

Makkiah in the ER

Well our Thanksgiving didn't go completely as planned.

Wed afternoon Makkiah started sounding a little croupy. Started giving him his Atrovent and he took a nap. Woke up around 3:30 in the afternoon coughing hard and sounding bad. Continued giving him his Atrovent.

Spent the rest of Wed watching him but deciding that for the time being he was doing ok. Around 8 pm he fell asleep in the chair so I put him in my bed. Played around on here for WAY to long trying to give it a new look.

Around midnight I decided that I should probably go to bed. Makkiah was sound worse so I gave him moer Atrovent, which I repeat 3 times at 10 minute intervals. Rod and I debated as to taking him to the ER or not. He thought we could wait it out some more. I thought he was getting worse even with the medication. I also know that once he hits a certain point it's downhill fast from there.

We decided that we should take him in as he was sounding worse, his respirations had gone from 25 to 36 in less than 1 hour and I didn't want to be home with him when he nose dived.

Loaded him up in the car and off to the ER we headed at around 2am. Got to the ER at 2:30am and got checked in. They put us in a chair in the hallway waiting for a bed to clear out. Got taken to a bed at 2:55 and the doctor came in. Asked his history and such - I told her that once he starts making the "whistling" sound he goes downhill fast. He was making the sound. She walked out and he started having a hard time breathing. He was hunched over, puffing out of his mouth.

The quickly got an IV in to give him Decadron-which is the "gold standard" for him. The also gave him a nebulizer with racemic epinephrine. Once it took effect he was better.

At 6am the peds came down and looked at him. They then gave Dr. W a call and he said that if we were comfortable taking him home then we could as long as he was doing better. They gave us the clear at 7am to go home. When we came in his croup score was 6, then it went to 2, and down to 1. Anything or 3 is considered moderate croup and needs to be treated.

Came home and cooked Thanksgiving dinner. Only two people showed up. After dinner I crashed. I was so tired and couldn't keep my eyes open anymore. I've had a cold which doesn't help and then I had a fever. Took some Tylenol and off to sleep I went.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

I just wanted to get on here and wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving. We have much to be thankful for- our house, our kids, family and friends plus all the little things. We plan on having a big feast for Thansgiving - deeo fried turkey, ham, deviled eggs, sweet potatoes, fruit salad, green bean casserole, veggies, corn, lumpia, and lots of pie. We have invited over friends since all of our family is so far away but we will be thinking of all of you today. We hope that wherever you are you are enjoying the day. We miss you all!!

New Look

I decided to try a new look. It took me a long time to figure out how to do this but it doesn't look quite so generic anymore. Let me know what you think.

And the other Half!

Here is the other half to Jaleel's Family Tree. At least the part of the three that is above him!!

Mom DianeDad Clyde

Me

Rod's Parents

Jaleel had a Family Tree Project for his class. We made a big poster with pics of all the kids on purple paper, Rod and his parents on blue paper, and me and my parents on red paper. We then took a family picture and put it on red, blue, and purple paper- each trimmed a little smaller so that you could see each layer. The idea was Rod's parents were on blue and had him, my parents were on red and had me. Rod and I were right next to each other on our respective colors. Then red and blue got together and made purple! He titled it "My Rainbow Family" and glued all different colors of construction paper as the background. When we get the poster back we will take a picture of it and I will put it on here. It turned out really well and he got a good grade on it. All the kids in class as well as his teacher loved his poster. I thought for fun I would post pictures of Rod and his parents along with him and then on another post put my parents and me.

Mom Bernice

Dad Harold

Rod

Busy and sick and teething baby!!

I've been so busy. Constantly on the run AND we have a cold going around. Of course I have the cold along with the kids. I've been loading up on vitamin C and zinc. Taniyah has been teething for who knows how many days and has been miserable. Up all night and screaming all day. She screams and I can't talk since I seem to have lost my voice - we make a great pair!! I'm really NOT ignoring anyone just haven't slowed down to less than 4th gear in week it seems. A million things on my list of things that need done, cross one off and add five more things! I promise to write more soon but I am going to attempt to get some sleep tonight!

OH!!! BUTTON!

We have an ongoing joke about getting Taniyah to say BUTTON.

This comes from Poppa's mom saying that he said button at 6 months as he grabbed her button.

Now I know that we have sorely missed the target date for this great accomplishment by several months, but, alas we still try.

Anyway one morning as we were laying in bed Rod was trying to get Taniyah to say Dada and I, of course was trying to get her to say Mama. This went on for several minutes. She actually says dadadada and mamamama.

I decided to seize the opportunity to see if she would say button.

She would say "bu"

and everytime I would say "ton"

she would give us this face

almost like it was a bad word or something.

We laughed so hard and it was so cute!

Our painted house!

I finally found the cable that connects my camera straight to the computer so that I could download the pictures.
I know that I could just have easily walked back outside to take pictures of the painted house on my memory stick, but, well, hhhmm, that just didn't happen!! I guess I figured that since I already had them then I just needed to find the cable, SO I did it.

A before picture- again - just for comparison sake.
The Dungeon

And the much awaited after picture- although the door is still not painted - I must say that it is a dramatic improvement.

The unDungeon

This is minus the porch swing and porch furniture that we have since added.

Happy 8th Birthday Jaleel!

Today Jaleel turned 8. He really wanted to have a party ON his birthday so we made that happen. I called a couple of friends from church who came over and he also had a few friends from the neighborhood over.
He had a hearing appointment at 3pm which made for an interesting day. I didn't have anything but we still made the party happen.
When Rod got home I ran to the store to get a cake, ice cream and gifts. He ordered pizza!
We had a table full of kids, a Monsters Inc cake, ice cream and gifts.All was good in his world.
Still hard to believe that he is 8 though - time passes so quickly!!

Bathtub reglazed

My MOm had the bathtub reglazed about 2 years ago. It's much cheaper to do than replacing the whole bathtub but it does have it's drawbacks.

Not long after our tenants moved in we had a plumbing dilemma. The outcome was new plumbing in the shower, not fixtures, and a new shower surround. One of the drawbacks of reglazing - if you remove the old surround chances are that you will chip the glazing and it will have to be redone. If you chip the glazing and your tenants don't say anything to you about it chances are that it will look REALLY bad (like somebody poured paint into your tub) when you finally get back into the unit after evicting the tenants.

Needless to say I have learned that the above is true. And I have also learned that once you reglaze it's impossible to get even close to all of the glazing off. It on'y comes off where it wants to come off!

So I had the bathrub reglazed. Thankfully it's not something that I can do myself!! It's a stinky job and as much as I love my Mom it's one of those jobs that I would not do:-) While cleaning out the bathtub the night before I made an executive decision to remove the shower doors and the tracks prior to having the glazing done. I figured that it would look better if the inside of the tub was the same color as the outside.

Well the glazing is done and I think it looks much better without the shower doors. Hope my Mom wasn't to attached to the look;-) Makes the bathroom appear bigger which will be a plus if we decide to sell. I think it also gives it a newer look. Now all I have to do is out some caulk in the two screw holes in the wall and touch up some paint.

New appliances at the condo

Got the new fridge and stove at the condo. If you remember from an earlier post the tenants left their food in the other one even though they had no electricity. No electric for two months with things growing in the fridge - YUCK.

Mom and I decided that a new stove would be a good thing also. I think that the one in there must have been the original. I ordered new ones from Sears and had them delivered. I also paid the $20 to have the old ones hauled off. WHEW! One more thing to check off my list.

The new appliances arrived. I must say that they look really nice. We also changed out the light in the kitchen. The old one had a broken cover and you can't buy JUST the cover. They want you to buy the whole thing. So Rod and I replaced the old one. New cover and nice wooden end caps makes it look nicer.

Still haven't found a renter. Maybe the new pics that I took will help.

Halloween

All the kids came home yesterday and got all dressed up for Halloween. Rod was going to try to get off work early. His co-worker is having "family issues" and needed to leave early so Rod ended up not getting home until 6pm.

Our plans were to take the kids to Hallopalooza with some friends. The frineds called to let us know that 3 of them had fevers - 2 of them being Mom and Dad - so they wouldn't be going.

By the time Rod got home it was dark and their was traffic. We made an executive decision to forgo Hallopalooza and go trick or treating on our street. By the time we got there we wouldn't have much time to do anything and we couldn't possibly get by with doing nothing. Especially since all the kids 9 and under were dressed in their costume garb.

We did a practice run at the front door. Jaleel, Destini, and Brayana got it. Makkiah thought it was cool that I put candy in his bag and Angie sat down on the porch poised to eat the candy that had dropped into hers. I let them all know that we wouldn't be stopping to eat each piece of candy on the way.

Tyreque went to a friends birthday party and Ladaria stayed to pass out candy to any trick or treaters that might venture down our driveway (we did have one!).

It took us about 2 hours to make it to the end of the street and back. The kids had fun and couldn't wait to get home and see what they had gotten. To bad it was a school night and they had to get ready for bed. Maybe today I will let them have some of their loot!

Here's a picture of Taniyah who obviously wasn't impressed with the whole idea of costumes and candy. The rest of the kids are on Flickr.