On my toes

This little guy keeps me laughing most of the time. That is a good thing since he gets into a lot of trouble these days.

There is never a dull moment around here!

Would you please say some prayers for Grace's speech therapist, Mrs. Cunningham? She recently had surgery for breast cancer and she found out yesterday that she will need to have chemo.

The best freebie of the season!

Are you ready for this? !!

Heather at Freebies 4 Mom is giving away 50 FREE photo cards through SeeHere by Fuji. All you have to do is enter the code freebies4mom-1109 at checkout. Isn't this fantastic? I just got my christmas cards for FREE!!! I do recommend that you download the software to make it go faster. I think it is Java/Active X. Something that is trusted so don't worry.

Guess what? There is more. Before you do your photo cards, sign up on the main screen and get 100 free prints(plus shipping). The code for that at checkout is "prints".

Have you visited Freebies 4 Mom yet? I LOVE her site. While you are there, check out her post on a free Kodak gift card. I got mine!

I need a time out

Today has been an adventurous day. This morning started off fine. I put up our tree a few days ago because I thought I could just take some pictures of the kids in front of the tree for our Christmas cards instead of spending the money to have some done by a professional. So, I got them all dressed up this morning. Not an easy task by the way. Noah wasn't in the mood so I figured I would get some of Grace instead. Have I mentioned that we have been having trouble with Noah unlocking the front door? He picks this exact moment to do it again. But, this time he got out. Did I mention that I was still in my gown? My, too short, raggedy gown? I tried to call him in but he just giggled and took off. His pants down around his ankles at this point. I hesitate for a moment and call his name again. Now I can't even see him. So I run out in all my glory. I clinched my gown closed but the boobs were still falling out. This is pretty comical now that it is over. Oh, but he decided he was going to play chase around the truck. Did I mention that I was without undies too? Yeah. Can you imagine what my neighbors think.

I bet they think we are hippies. Once Grace was playing in the backyard and i took Noah upstairs to wash the mud off of him. When I came back down, Grace had white roses in her hand and she was naked. I don't have white roses in the backyard.

Today I thought we would look on the regular tv channels to see what was on. We usually only have on the christian kids channel, pbs, or Qubo if the tv is on. I really like to watch some of the shows that pbs has on the weekends. Cooking shows or crafty shows. Not that I ever get to watch them. Today we ventured to the other stations. When I saw Grease was on, I got all excited and I figured we would watch that. Well, a minute later they start singing "We're gonna score tonight". Whoa! Not something I needed Grace singing while going down the road with Grandma ya know? It was Grease 2. How is it that all the things I watched as a kid are totally inappropriate now that I see them? Even Wizard of Oz scared me half to death now that I think about it.

Thankfully, the preacher Tony Evans was on the next channel. Noah, he totally cracks me up. He quickly pulled a chair up to the tv and sat down to watch Tony Evans. He must have gotten that from his dad. He was pentecostal and I was a southern baptist. Can you imagine? What a combo. I bet you would have paid money to see the look on my face the first time I went to his church and his mom fell down backward in the isle and continued to lay there the entire time.


Speaking of my husbands family. Please bare with me, I really need to vent since I have been holding all of this in. What would you do if your SIL added your husbands ex-fiance to her facebook? After my SIL called him at work and asked who it was and he told her not even to do that because it would just cause problems. But she did it anyways. Let's just say that I un-friended her. I honestly feel like I am always reaching out to them just to get slapped in the face and it is exhausting to say the least. Now that I have kids who are old enough to actually remember someone and miss them, I feel so differently. They don't call, they don't have anything to do with my kids unless we go halfway across the country to see them. It makes me so very sad for my kids. All you want to do is protect your children. But from their own family?

Pumpkin Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

I modified this recipe just a bit to make it healthier. I added about a 1/2 cup of flax seed and used half whole wheat flour. I also used chocolate chips instead of raisins. Just because I don't like raisins. These cookies were seriously delicious. Boy, were they moist. This is now my favorite oatmeal cookie recipe. I don't think that we have ever eaten a batch of cookies in 2 days before.

Note: Child laborers were paid generously.

In the mood for more pumpkin yummies? Check out this recipe!

Halloween

Tink and Woody

I think the last time I had carved a pumpkin, I was just a child.

The kids didn't want to help but I really enjoyed it. I think next year I will do several.

I only got a few pictures because they were ready to run after the waiting.

After only a couple of houses they had it down. Even little Noah knew what to do. They even thanked every person.

It was a good day. Grace is still asking to go trick or treating and talking about Halloween. Trying to get a 3 year old to grasp that it is only 1 day a year is pointless. So, we started making room for the Christmas tree today. That certainly got her mind off of Halloween.

What are you waiting for?

This year Noah's Christmas present is totally free! I am buying with amazon gift card that I got through Swagbucks. I have only been doing it for a couple of months too. How cool is that?!! All I did to earn points was to use Swagbucks instead of Google on the searching that I normally do. I don't think that I have gotten free money easier than that. All you have to do is click here to sign up.

I guess I took a little blogging break. Not a lot going on. At least not anything worthy of writing about. You don't really want to read about me cleaning and wiping butts do you? Didn't think so.

Grace started speech therapy today. We are getting therapy for free through the school district. And that nasty doctor's visit a while back? I fought it and got the billed wiped out! So, the plan is for her to go once a week for 30 minutes. Not much, but it is better than nothing.

We had a great halloween. My husband had to work so my parents came over to help me. We walked the neighborhood with a neighbor and had so much fun. It was nice to meet people around us. Grace was tinkerbell and Noah was woody. I only took a couple of pictures because they were fighting to get out the door.

I have a question for all of you. How do you deal with taking your kids in public bathrooms? Do the germs freak you out? Especially with the swine flu going around? I think that I have freaked Grace out. I have tried to cover the toilet seat, tried holding her over the toilet, and now she has started refusing to go and wets herself. Yeah, I've done a good job. :(

Update

I wanted to let ya'll know that the doctors have told the family that the baby boy is going to recover physically. I am sure that they made a point to say physically because there will surely be emotional trauma from this. Also, the mother and daughter are fine physically and are no longer in the hospital. PRAISE GOD!
My mom said the baby is absolutely beautiful. Thankfully, the extended family is one centered around God. Please continue to pray for this family. They still have a long difficult road ahead of them.

This man, I don't even like calling him that, turns out he harmed his child from his first marriage but the charges were dropped. Nice system we have. His current wife didn't even know.

Urgent Prayer Request

The daughter of my mom's sunday school teacher and her 2 children were badly injured by the daughter's husband. She was able to escape(he was holding them hostage) and get the kids to the hospital just a few blocks away. Here is the link to this story. The one that was injured the worst and is in critical condition was just a week old little boy. His lungs were punctured and they have him on a ventilator and they also put in 2 chest tubes. The other child a 2 year old girl and Jennifer(the mom)were injured as well. They had bruises all over them. He was suspended from his teaching job a day before because he was sleeping with a student. This man has been a very controlling husband with a bad temper. He had already alienated family members of Jennifer's.
My mom is going up to the hospital tomorrow to sit with them. Once I get any more information, I will let you know. Please, Please pray for this family and pass this on.

Thank you

When they are quiet...

This always means trouble. At least it does in my house. Today was no exception. As I walked up the stairs I could smell it and Noah informed me. "Poo" And no, he didn't mean "Pooh". One dirty diaper taken off and smeared all over Grace's room. Children have a way of making you clean something that needed to be done anyways don't they? I have been meaning to get the the good ol' bissell out of the garage all week to clean the living room carpet.

This led me to search for a chemical free cleaner that I could use in the machine today. Vinegar! That stuff is good for cleaning everything. I even used it on my kitchen floors.

-------------------------------------------------------


Over the weekend we got our first taste of cooler weather. It was fantastic. But, now we are back to summer weather. Oh well, it was good while it lasted.

Gotta go, another "poo" is calling my name. Ah, the joys of motherhood.

Am I numb?

Yesterday, both kids fell and got pretty bad bumps on their head. Noah's was worse than any other one they had gotten before but he seemed ok so I just decided to keep a close eye on him for the next 24 hours. Well, my husband comes home and I kept asking him to feel the bump on Noah's head and he finally did. He freaked out. Maybe I have just become numb to these kind of things? I mean if he was my first child I would have either rushed him to the ER or called his doc right away. Maybe I am just a little more experienced?:) Yes, that sounds better.

Of course, right before the picture was taken above, Grace fell head first into the wall and hit the exact same spot on her head again. Leaving a bigger lump by the time she went to bed. I feel more gray hairs coming on.

Sharing

Clothes

love

Sissy's shirt

I am a little tired this week. The kids are all out of whack with their sleeping schedule. They haven't been falling asleep until after 11. That, and I have been trying to get this house in order. So, lots of decluttering and cleaning going on. This makes for one wore out mommy!(Ha Ha, I just typed whore instead of wore. Glad I fixed that one.)

*Updated

No more cleaning. Both kids have gotten bad head injuries today. Grace came out of the kitchen screaming while I was vacuuming with a large purple lump on her forehead. Then later, Noah took a fall either off the kitchen counter or the chair and landed on the back of his head. He has a big lump but he didn't lose consciousness. He did fall asleep in my arms shortly after so I am keeping a close eye on him. *Sigh*

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

Why is baking so therapeutic? It is for me at least. I made these muffins a couple of days ago and not only are they are yummy, but are low fat and healthy. This is the first time I have ever made anything with pumpkin and evidently I like it. Here is the recipe:

4 eggs
1/2 cup oil

1 cup unsweetened applesauce

1 (16 ounce) can pumpkin
1 1/2 cups sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1/1/2 cups unbleached flour
2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
12 ounces semisweet mini chocolate chips

1/4 cup-1/2 cup flax seed

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Mix together first 6 ingredients. In another bowl, mix together dry ingredients. Blend both together. Stir in flax seed and chocolate chips. Grease muffin pan or use liners, fill those babies up to the top. Bake 16-20 minutes. Mine were done in 17. Makes 24 muffins.

I eat a lot of black beans

No really. I do. Actually, I love all beans. Don't ask Grace because she would just say they were yucky. She is truly my husband's daughter. But anyways, I really need to stop buying so many. I just counted 8 cans in the pantry. Well, 7 now that I just had one for lunch. I kid you not, every time I walk by them in the store, I say "did I buy any black beans last time? I don't remember." Then I proceed to put at least 2 cans in the buggy. I need an intervention.