A trip to Statesville

I'm wired. We came home from Statesville tonight & I stopped and got a coffee to stay awake for the drive home. Now, I'm wide eyed & it's midnight! We had an fun weekend. Corby's sister Amanda had her baby on April 5. His name is Preston Aaron. He is a doll!!! The boys kept calling him "her" and "she"... I guess they are used to that with Kensley. All Corby's brothers & sisters were in town this weekend for Easter. The boys were so excited because they got to play with their cousins all day today. Here's a picture of all the boy cousins. I hate that it was 20 below zero this weekend... man was is cold outside... but they could have cared less. All of them had cold red noses, cheeks & ears, but that didn't stop them in the least. They also got to dye easter eggs. They had fun drawing on them with crayons & seeing what appeared after they dropped it in the dye. They were exhausted when we got on the road. It wasn't 10 min in the car & they were zonked out. Kensley is sick... AGAIN!!! It's getting ridiculous. I don't even think we'll make it to church tomorrow. Her first Easter.. not that she knows the difference... and she probably will not be at church & none of us can wear our new Easter outfits.

Kensley is 6 months old today

Wow! Time has flown by. My baby girl is 6 months today. She's not had the greatest of days either. Her RSV is flaring back up again & she sounds like she's coughing up a lung. She just hasn't felt well today & has either been crying, sleeping or attached to me most of the day. I'm exhausted. We did manage to get in a few good pictures this afternoon. She just so stinkin' cute! She is sitting up for a few seconds at least...depending on how excited she gets. Everything goes in her mouth... I mean everything. She's definitely cutting teeth, but her gums don't seem swollen at all. I'll be anxious to see when one pops through. I finally found a hair bow that stays in her hair. They are called No Slippie Clippie... I love them! I would love to get one in every color, but they are 4 bucks each. I'm going to try & figure out how to make them myself. I'm crafty, surely I can do it.

So the van... aka...Mom-mobile has been in the shop this week & I'm probably going to have to take it back.. again! It's dying I must say. It's interesting that kids & cars have been at the dr. every month (or more) since Christmas. It all started with the rolling Honda ... then the van has been in the shop 3 times since we got the car back. We've definitely got used to only having 1 car & I've become a pro at putting... excuse me... cramming 3 car seats into the back of the Honda. The air went out last, so I took it yesterday to have that fixed. Apparently it has a leak because it's hissing at me again. When it rains, it pours. I'm on the scope for a new vehicle but Corby is not convinced yet.

Kensley eats food!

My baby will be 6 months old tomorrow!!! She's growing up way too fast. Corby made the comment tonight that she will be a 1/2 year old. I didn't like hearing that. I gave her cereal last night for the first time. She LOVED it! I couldn't get it in her mouth fast enough. She kept grabbing my arm & pulling it toward her and cried when I took the spoon out of her mouth. She had some again today & liked it again. For the next month or so, I'll be anxious to see what she eats & doesn't.

On another note... did you see American Idol tonight? OMG... if Sanjaya makes it through after that horrible performance, I think I might boycott the show. It's ridiculous. Randy said it all, "I can't even comment on the singing anymore." Does he think he is really good? Ugh!

Daddy's home

Corby came home today. Yay!!! We were all very excited to see him. He even brought us all presents (except for Kensley... she'll never know the difference). He brought the boys a t-shirt with San Diego on it. That just makes me think... Carter asked me all week long if Daddy was going to see Diego. He thinks Corby was going to see the cartoon "Go Diego"... Dora's cousin, I think. Cute! Anyway, Corby brought me a t-shirt & hat. They are pink & I was so excited because I love pink & I've been wanting a pink hat for a while. He bought a medium. Bless him. You know good & well that my sisters are not going to fit into a size medium. He realized after he pulled it out & looked at it what he had done. He didn't mean to, but it was the thought that counts. I'll wear it around the house. We are going to call it my hoochie mama shirt, because it fits VERY snug. Hee, hee!

Chandler had an exciting weekend at church. Yesterday he had a Hot Wheels race... ya know, the little cars. He is in AWANA's and they have this Grand Prix race every year. The smaller kids brought their favorite cars to race. The older kids built a car. I think it was some kind of kit, not sure. But they had judging and races for that division as well. Anyway, Chandler's car didn't win... not one single race. He was very disappointed. He thought he was getting a trophy. It's big for him, but just something else to collect dust in my book.

We have an awesome children's ministry at our church. They have worship for elementary kids called KIDS Church. They have about 80+ kids every Sunday. This morning they led worship for 2 of our services and tonight they performed an Easter program. It was really good. They mostly sang songs & had some skits in between. I love to watch the kids though. It's hilarious because some really get into it & do all the motions & other just have this blank stare on their face like they don't have a clue what's going on. Chandler kind of looks like the blank stare in this picture. You can't see him real good, but he's behind the kid in the navy.

Gluttony...it's a sin... but it tastes so good

I'm just going to have to admit that I over eat sometimes. Food is just really good to me. I'm a nursing Mom, so I want to eat all of the time. Mostly, stuff that's not good for me. My Mom came up for the weekend since Corby is out of town. We went out to eat tonight at Applebees. What I had was so good ...AND I had dessert (one of the Blondie brownies..mmmmm). That almost never happens. Last weekend, I went out to eat twice (also, never happens) at 2 of my favorite restaurants and pigged out then. I need to commit now to go on a diet for the whole month of April because of what I have ate the past 2 weekends. I am salivating just thinking about all that yummy food. Okay, enough about food, I'm still full from supper.

So, I've been cleaning out my closets trying to switch out winter stuff to spring & summer. Our closets are too little to hold more than one season, so I always have to pack up our stuff. As I have been pulling out clothes a few at a time, I'm realizing that I really don't have much to wear. Last spring & summer I was pregnant & my clothes never saw the light of day for over a year now. As most Mom's do, we spend all our money on our kids. I want to make sure that my kid looks cute in their GAP shirts & shorts and cute little Carter's dresses. But me, nah... I don't need anything. As I have struggled to find something decent to wear that is actually still somewhat in style this season, I realize that I need some clothes. So I went shopping tonight & was pleasantly surprised to find that I have shrunk a size. Yay! That's always a plus for a girl to see. Now, the challenge will be for me to stay that size. I am determined. I'm done having kids, so no more excuses.

Hello... anyone in there?

I recently read an email about a Mom who was going to bed. It's going around, I've received it a couple times so you might have read it. The wife annouces to the husband that she's going to bed & in the process she stops to do many tasks & like an hour later, she finally ends up in bed. Then the husband announces he's going to bed & he does... straight there. Oh my gosh! That is so me & Corby. But I'm not that way just at night, I'm that way all day long. I'll be doing laundry and find something in a pocket that reminds me I need to go get something out of the bedroom. So while I'm in the bedroom getting whatever "it" is, I see a load of laundry that needs to be folded and put away. So I proceed to fold & put away laundry. On the way to the closet to put something up, I step on a toy. So I take the toy to the boys room. While I'm there I pick up a few more toys to put away and I realized that I need to change their sheets. So I take them off the boys bed & go back to the laundry room where I see the laundry that I started putting in the machine. Then Kensley starts crying & it's time for her to eat, so I stop the laundry again and go feed her. By that time, I've probably talked to someone on the phone & they've reminded me of something I need to do. That's just one small scenario. I'm confused just writing all of that!!!! This is my life... everyday, 24/7. I never complete the task I set out to do. There is always something else that sparks in my memory & I get distracted by that, so I go do it so I won't "forget", despite the fact that I'll probably "forget" what it was that I was doing in the first place. Where did my brain go? I honestly think I birthed a little bit of it out of me with each kid.

Corby left for San Diego this morning. He's there for a First Tee conference (YMCA golf program) until Sunday. I feel sorry for him. He's used to going to bed or at least crashing on the couch around 9 or 10. He called me at 8:45 tonight & it was only 5:45 there. He hadn't even ate supper. He was so sleepy & they were getting ready to go to a banquet that started in an hour. He'll never make it. Probably about the time he gets used to the time difference, he'll be coming home. At least when he gets home, maybe he'll be able to stay awake longer. :-)

Recipe

My Mom told me about this recipe for broccoli & it's great! Even Carter eats it... that's saying a lot. He calls it "cook...Ed" broccoli. Anyway, here it is:
Baked Broccoli
Place raw broccoli crowns cut into bite size pieces into a baking dish. Drizzle with Extra Virgin Olive Oil & sprinkle with kosher salt. Bake at 350 for 20 min.

Delish... as Rachel Ray calls it.

I went shopping yesterday with all 3 kids by myself to Gastonia. I thought, "okay, it's a quick trip just to exchange a few things... no big deal". I really don't understand why boys feel the need to play tag in the clothes racks of stores. I know they are just kids, but com'on! I know I said at least 10 times... get out of the racks & stay by me. Now, honestly, I was just trying to get my stuff exchanged & get out of the store. I didn't follow through while I was trying to discipline in the middle of searching for shorts... and I knew they really were not listening. But after knocking off several clothes into the floor & squeals that rang throughout the store, I'd had enough. I turned to them & pulled them both by the arm & got my serious face on. I threatened to drop everything & go straight to the van to get the paddle if they didn't straighten up. It worked long enough for me to get through check out. When I got in the van & headed home, I reminded myself to never take a "quick trip" to G-town again... at least not with all 3 kids.