JANUARY
Carli's first day of Tuesday/Thursday preschool is tomorrow...I hope I survive. ~ 20 minutes of peace now that the girls are napping and before a conference call...I need a Sonic Dr Pepper. ~ On the way to school this morning we watched a Mickey Mouse Christmas movie and sang Jingle Bells. Carli is a little slow at getting in the Christmas spirit!! ~ After listing to the big dogs outside bark for over two hours, I finally threw on a coat and went and put the culprit in the kennel which was interesting at one in the morning since Susie was none to happy and weighs a good 150 lbs. I wasn't laying down two minutes when two motorcycles stop out on the street and proceed to reeve their engines forever before speeding off...I haven't seen 1 am in a long time...on a bright note the girls don't seem to be bothered! ~ Quote of the day: "Logan is my favorite boy, no, his is my favorite spider boy!" - Carli Lynn ~ Our new windows came in today...but they were all wrong! :( Looks like we wait another month so they can send them back, make them right and try again! ~ Where was angry birds when I was pulling all nighters with a new born?! ~ Carli - "Momma, is Kayla coming to play today? I think she misses us. " Me - "No Baby, not today - she will come tomorrow. " Carli - "Oh! So Sassy will be here today? I know she really misses me!" **And then Ava proceeded to go around yelling for both Kayla and Sassy for a good 30 minutes while Carli yelled at her that no one was coming today! At least I know they love their babysitters! ~ Carli just asked me where her mother was...I told her I was her mother! She said no, you are my Momma. My mother is at work. So I asked what her mothers name was...her name is Bill. ~ Alright take three...supposedly our new windows will be here on Friday and installed on Monday...maybe the third time is the charm! ~ Was just told by a stranger that my three year old was very well mannered! Score one for these parents! ~ Today is pretty amazingly awesome!
FEBRUARY
Day 1 of no Dr Pepper was a success...no headache today - woohoo! But I am exhausted, apparently I was living on caffeine and the lack thereof has me whipped! ~ Watching spiderman circa 1981 with Logan...wow, graphics sure have come a long ways! ~ Date night! ~ My kids talk a whole lot...an awful whole lot. ~ Carli to Logan - I don't like pink any more. My favorite color is orange. Logan to Carli - Now what will you wear? Good question. ~ Carli's mother, Daisy Bill, is working. Carli's momma, me, wills pend the day in bed. Not sure whether to be appreciative of the fact that Carli thinks I deserve a day of rest or alarmed that she thinks I don't do anything but sleep! ~ I think I shall invest in a Magic Eraser, as crayons do not wipe off my walls nearly as easily as washable markers. However, crayons also do not mark up fabric furniture as badly as markers...its a toss up as to which I despise the most at the moment... ~ Carli - "I love you with the love of the Queen Momma." Me - "Carli, who is the Queen?" Carli - "Riley's Daddy." ~ This morning Ava found her favorite bouncy ball. It became her security ball. She held it all day. All thru church, ate lunch with it, took a nap, back to church, dinner and finally fell asleep tightly grasping her bouncy ball. I just uncurled her fingers from it to put it on the dresser so it won't get lost during the night. Very cute, but I am thinking a security blanket would have been easier to keep track of! ~ So far this month...new throttle body on the car, new tires and oil change for the truck and now a new disposal, and eventually a new sink cabinet (b/c of some nice mold ) for the kitchen. The new cabinet will simply have to wait...the repair budge is in the red!! ~ My nephew Logan volunteered to say our dinner prayer tonight and it was so sweet! He did a really good job and was a highlight to a very challenging day! ~ Date night wouldn't be complete without a trip to Lowes. :) ~ Carli's Prayer: "Dear God, Thank you for Jesus. Thank you for God. Thank you for prayers. Thank you for us. In Jesus name, Amen."
MARCH
Carli to Ava: You know what I love you with Ava? I love you with the love of the Lord! ~ Rocking a sleeping newborn after a full nights sleep...is that even possible? Only if the newborn isn't mine!! ~ Please send up a prayer for my Grandma. She was admitted into the hospital last night for pneumonia. ~ Got to see my Grandma tonight! :) ~ This day just got longer. ~ Not that anyone is awake right now...but if you are and are free tomorrow can you watch my kids? Sitting in the ER with Keith and not sure what they plan to do. ~ Keith was having chest pains, racing heart and arm pains, so we came to the ER. He has a leaky heart valve. We found out about it six months ago. All the test came back okay and they gave him meds to bring everything down. They said it was typical episode and the only way to get everything back in check was to come to the hospital and check everything out before they gave him meds to reset everything. Scary night but I think we get to go home soon. ~ Thank you all so much for your sweet comments, prayers and offers to help. Keith is doing good, actually he says he feels normal. We are all tired but that we can handle for sure! We are very thankful for our wonderful family who is so willing to help in the middle of the night and have called to check on us throughout the day. Please keep praying for my Grandma as she is still in the hospital in Nac with pneumonia. Thank you! ~ What we heard from Ava's bed when she was suppose to be napping, "Sorry Momma, I forgive you! Sorry!" Over and over and over... ~ Got to meet sweet baby Sawyer and visit with some good friends too! It had been too long!! ~ Here's to hoping that the side of the bed the girls woke up on this morning won't be the same as the one they wake up from after naps...yest it is 12:30 and we are already doing naps. It's been that kind of morning. ~ Just heard from the back seat - I sure love Unc Tone! ~ Grandma is back in the hospital. :( Please send up prayers for her. ~ Carli is sound asleep and Ava is talking up a storm...not the norm and very frustrating trying to get a 22 mth old to hush!! ~ Made an unplanned visit to Alto today and got to see my Grandma for a few minutes...loved her hugs and getting to actually talk to her...hated seeing her in a nursing home and looking so not like my Grandma.
APRIL
Awesome wkd getting to see a forever friend while spending the whole wkd with my mom AND getting to sleep past 6 am two days in a row. Mom even took me shopping and I actually bought something, miracles do exist! So many thanks to my wonderful hubby and inlaws for watching the girls and to my dad for letting me 'steal' mom! ~ Carli is "talking" on her cell phone. Her side of the conversation consists of "yes ma'am," "welcome," and "I love you!" Love it! ~ I dropped my phone and busted the screen. When I picked Carli up from school she saw the screen and exclaimed, "Oh no Momma! Your phone has a booboo! I will kiss it and make it all better." She did kiss it and then proclaimed, "It didn't help, you will need to get Daddy to fix it I guess." If only kisses fixed everything! ~ My car is parked in the garage for the first time in five years...and if you've seen our garage, you know what a feat that was! AND...I could even open the doors to get of the car and did not have to resort to climbing through the back...yep, miracles seem to happen every day around here! :) ~ Ava woke us up at 3 am crying. She had a 101.5 fever. Took till 5:30 for the ibuprofen to kick in so she could sleep...we are off to the doc this morning! I am betting ear infection. ~ My child just peed on my couch...and her reason, "The potty was way to far away and crocodiles would eat her up." Obviously she didn't factor in my reaction, the crocodiles don't seem so bad now! ~ As if to make sure I knew she was feeling better, Ava has decided to boycott her nap along with her sister...they are too kind to me. ~ Work day for me...Daddy/Daughter play day for Keith and the girls. I hope he survives! :) ~ Me: "Carli, maybe one day when you can say 'yes ma'am' and do what I ask you to do then you can watch TV." Carli: "yes ma'am...momma, now can I watch TV?" **Heaven help me.** ~ Surgery on my shattered phone screen has commenced...I have left the room so that Keith's steady sure hand will not be hindered by my sighs and gasps... ~ If you texted me last night I didn't get it...I know I missed four msgs...but have no idea from whom. The screen on my phone is fixed in the sense that it is in one piece but now the touch part of the screen doesn't work...so I can't access anything. Got the trusty iPhone for today! ~ The neighbor's wonderful cat (the same one that dug up half my yard last year) has decided to use my flower bed as his litter box and dug up at least four plats and killed two others. Am not a happy camper. ~ Alright neighborhood cat...let me know how you like the crushed red pepper flakes and mothballs in my flowerbeds...I hope you hate them. I hope you hate them so much, you go back to your own yard to tend to your business. And if you don't, Chuy's dream of me voluntarily letting him case and capture a cat may just have to come true. ~ At lunch with my Grandma today. She looked good! And was the same Grandma that I sure was missing! I think she is getting so close to getting out of the nursing home! :) ~ Caillou on PBS which somehow Carli found on Netflix is mildly annoying. ~ My heart is aching for Erin and Marshall today as they lay their sweet baby down to rest. Please send up a prayer for this amazing couple as they deal with the loss of their precious child. ~ Carli + Scissors + pom-poms...imagine what the playroom looks like. ~ My pinky no longer has a cuticle thanks to a full buggy, car keys and the combined weight of my children on the back of the said full buggy. Who knew a cuticle could bleed so much...we added band aids to our buggy. ~ After being asked more than once to help clean the play room, Carli had to go to bed without getting to watcher "show" like she usually does...I think her world came to an end. I hope it made enough of an impact to let her know Momma ain't playing when she asks her to do something! Sometimes it's hard being the mean one... ~ I washed my face tonight...I may have washed it twice. After I brushed my teeth I couldn't remember if I had washed my face...so I washed it again just to be sure. I hope this is a sign of the end of a hard day and not a sign of getting old... ~ Dear Naptime - despite the way my children treat you, you are a loved and much appreciated part of our family. Please do come back soon...like in less than five minutes before I pull all my hair out (on a positive note though, if I pull all my hair out I could cancel the hair appt I have tomorrow and save some money, just lose my sanity.) ~ I have curly hair...I rarely fix it straight. So when I go to a stylist and ask for a cut and style and specifically say I do not wear my hair straight, why do you spend over an hour straightening my hair? I would prefer you fix my hair curly as I normally wear it... ~ A delicious pink pizza with sprinkles is what we are having for supper according to Carli. We finally figured out she meant a poptart. When I told her it was called a poptart she informed me it didn't have popcorn in it! ~ Keith won the patience battle with Carli tonight. Me? I was wandering how my sweet mannered 3 year old transformed herself into a hormonal, inconsolable teenager where anything I said was obviously with the intent of ruining her life...I think I shall take a sleeping pill and pray this is all a bad dream!!
MAY
Whomever prayed that God bless me with patience. I am grateful for your kind thoughts to remember me in prayer, just wish you had prayed for my sanity. :p ~ It was nice to sleep past 6 am this morning and not get up til 6:45, but working out at 8:45 at night was a bit more humid and a lot hotter than it would have been had I dragged myself out of bed this morning! ~ Carli instructing Grandma in drawing a spider, "First you draw a circle. Oh! That's a good one! NOw you draw legs. Those are funny spider legs, Grandma! Oh no! Where will you put the spider face? There ya go. That looks good Grandma. Just like a sun!" Ha! ~ Tea party pictures were a HUGE success...even if Ava didn't want to smile until we were almost done. :) Thanks Jennifer! ~ Keith said Hayden sure does seem to like me. Carli responded that Hayden likes everybody, Daddy! Ha! ~ Met some some awesome ppl for an amazing dinner (mmm, Little Mexico) to end a pretty stinkin' good but long day! :) ~ Dear "Mean" parent self...one day, I promise this will pay off...just remember that. *sigh* ~ Anyone in Tyler taken their kids to gymnastics? If so, where and would you recommend them? Debating about taking Ava this summer... ~ Random comment of the day: "Anthony and coffee. That's a scary thought." Comment made when we were talking about Ava preferring cold sausage and I told Keith Anthony use to drink Pawpaws cold coffee when he was little. ~ Happy 2nd birthday to my Ava-Bo! May your smile keep getting brighter, your eyes keep twinkling with mischief and the terrible twos conveniently forget to stop by and stay this year! Love you! ~ And so the terrible twos begin...just found Ava's diaper...it was missing Ava. ~ Called Grandma to get specific directions on how to cook a pot of our fresh green beans from the garden (since Carli and Ava have always eaten her fresh green beans). Who knows how they'll turn out with a little bit of this, a dash of that and cook just about that long! Oh how I love that lady! ~ Ava loves me so much she broke into hysterical sobs anytime I left her bedroom last night. After battling her till 4:45 I gave up and moved Carli to my bed and got two hrs sleep in her princess sheets. Oh I live for nap time today! ~ Many thanks to Bobo the monkey, Twee Tweet (Tweety Bird), Minnie Mouse and Mr. Big Black Bear along with the assistance of a new lamp and fan for helping Ava to sleep ALL night long. Between that and her Daddy putting her to bed, we did not hear, "Where Mommy go?!' all night long! Hope that we did find the final solution to our all nighter Wednesday night...more light, more stuffed animals and Daddy putting her to bed! :) ~ Uncontrollable giggles coming from the girls bathroom...hope they didn't flood the bathroom. They went to wash their hands 5 minutes ago. Even if the did, I got to eat my lunch without any disruptions. The pros outweigh the cons... ~ Chaos at the Hays' house today! Five dogs being groomed, yard getting new sod and trailers and ppl everywhere! I called and asked the guy who was going to come restain the playset to come tomorrow...there is only so much can handle! I may have invaded my neighbors driveway...I wander what their parking fee is... ~ My husband randomly bought me an air conditioner for our room tonight...I'm so excited to sleep in a 65 degree room again! :) ~ I guess if Ava is going to keep me up for a couple hrs in the middle of the night, I can call it a blessing that I hear Carli laughing in her sleep. A welcomed relief from all the crying Ava just had me endure. :) ~ How do you teach a 3.5 year old to blow her nose?! ~ This new phase of Ava waking up at midnight and staying awake for 2-3 hrs is not cool. :( ~ 6:30 on a Saturday is so much better than being awake from 12 to 3 am! Thanks Ava (and Keith)! ~ Carli just put her toes in timeout for taking her shoes off when I specifically told her to leave her shoes on. She said she would busted their butt but toes don't have one...now she's asking me why toes don't have butts. Oh my.
JUNE
Carli randomly says...I sure love my Grandpa. I told her I loved him too. Then she turned to Ava and said, Grandpa is in heaven with God, Jesus and Santa Clause. Maybe we can see him at Christmas. Still go some explaining to do I guess. :) ~ Number one sign we need a vacation...we got the car packed, kids loaded and ready to leave only to realize we aren't suppose to be there til new wkd. *sigh* At least we figured that out before we drove six hrs! ~ Plan B: mow the yard and grocery shopping. ~ Carli - That's not the beach Momma, that's the ocean! ~ Carli and Logan act more like siblings than cousins sometimes. They pick and pick and pick at each to her but if I get on to them they defend each other. And here I gave up Dr. Pepper this wk...what was I thinking?! :) ~ Every morning I see Logan, I ask him what he had for breakfast. Almost every morning, he tells me he had cookies. I ask him where mine are and he tells me he ate them all! I tell him he better start sharing with me and quit rubbing in that he ate all the cookies...this morning he brought me some cookies and made sure I ate them. Gotta love that kid! ~ Finished mowing the backyard at 10 pm...will be the last time we go three weeks between mowing. Had to mow it twice and then rake the cut grass so my dogs and children would not track it all in my house. I am tired. But at least I worked off the Dr. Pepper I had today! :) ~ Potty training has commenced... ~ Lessons learned today: Ava is not potty trained and thinks the whole process is a game in which she holds it as long as she can before flooding her shoes. Carli thinks she needs M&Ms any and every time Ava pottys...even on the floor. My girls are awesome helpers and troopers to spend the day with me in Alto surprising my Mom with a clean laundry room and Grammy maybe short more than a few packages of M&Ms. :) ~ Our normal week just got busted....Ava has a stomach bug. :( Dry heaves and very pitiful...no school or gymnastics for us tomorrow and I guess potty training will have to take a bit of a break tomorrow. Wish us luck...washing sheets for the fourth time in three days. I think I prefer it if they had just been peed on this time. ~ Survived a very long night...going on not a lot of sleep but I am getting lots of cuddle time with Ava and that pretty much makes the dirty sheets, towels, diapers, pitiful whining and lack of sleep okay. ~ Tonight when Carli's Bible school teacher asked her what her last name was, Carli promptly responded, "Carli Princess." ~ AC not working but at least that means I didn't have to cook dinner!
