My Baby is 4!!

On Saturday, Dec. 27th our baby girl turned 4 years old! Oh, how I remember that first night 4 years ago when they brought her to me from the nursery every 2-3 hours to nurse. And how I wanted to say, "NOOOO, please send her back...I need to rest!!" It was a trying time, but one we made it through. Today this same little girl received 4 immunization shots and did not even WHIMPER. I lie not! Talk about totally shocked. I had been dreading this for days and weeks since the appointment was made back around Dec. 3rd when I last took Jase for his wailing and shot-getting. It's just not something I look forward to. I only had to have blood drawn once or twice in both of my pregnancies and one shot in the hip (other than the obvious epidurals with both) when they gave me the epidural and my blood pressure dropped. I want to thank our church family for praying for us this morning with the appointment! I certainly felt your prayers and I know it was only by the grace of God that such a dramatic little girl who WAILS and screams when she falls on the kitchen floor was able to sit calm and still during 4 shots without blinking an eye. It was truly AMAZING. A miracle! I'm inspired by my own daughter to be a bigger, braver mommy.

Here are some pics above of Emma Grace's birthday "lunch" with her friend Madeline Rambo at Chuck E. Cheese on Saturday. May the Lord continue to bless her as she grows to love the One who created her.

A Mommy Moment & 3 Good Recipes

Yesterday morning around 7:45am when I went in to "get" Emma Grace up (she calls me until I come snuggle in the bed with her and then she gets up), she was telling me that her doll "Laura" (the one she sleeps with) was sick last night and threw up for two hours! Oh the drama from this almost 4 year old! I asked her was she going to be a doctor when she grows up and she said no. So I asked her if maybe she was going to be nurse to help sick children and she said no. Then I said, "Well, what do you want to be?" She said, "I want to be a MOMMY!" I asked her why and she said, "Because I love YOU and you take care of your children!" I was in awe and complete shock.

Since Jason and I had a discussion about my example and daily witness to the children being at home with them all the time, it has really set in what he said about "If being a mommy is not fun for you then what makes you think your children will see that and want to be a mommy or daddy when they grow up?" Surely it's a noble calling and honestly the highest calling any woman can take on, but I had never thought about leaving a legacy where my daughter (especially) would want, crave, seek to stay at home with her children and seek out a husband who would want her to do the same. Or that my son would one day see that as a thing to value and want his future wife to be a stay-at-home mom. I know it's far down the road, but the seeds are being sown now and the foundation is being layed (or is that laid, Becky?).

Anyway, I pray that each day I will remember, write it on the forefront of my head, just how important my witness and attitude are for these children. :)

And now, I have 3 recipes that I have used lately and would recommend to anyone and everyone, so I'll post them below for all who would like to print or copy them. They are all borrowed from friends...none are my own creation!

Pine Bark:
1 to 2 secions of 1 box of saltine crackers
2 sticks of butter
1 cup brown sugar
1-12oz. package of semi-sweet chocolate morsels

Line a 12X16 cookie sheet (the kind with a lip around it) with aluminum foil.

Cover with one layer of crackers, placed side by side. Melt butter and brown sugar together in a pot and bring to a boil. Boil for 3 minutes then spread mixture over the crackers. Bake at 400 degrees for 5 minutes (the crackers will look real bubbly). Remove from oven and spread the chocolate chips over the top. Spread the chocolate as it melts. Refrigerate until hard; break apart and store in refrigerator in an airtight container.



Buffalo Chicken Dip:
1-8oz. cream cheese
1/2 cup ranch or blue cheese salad dressing
1/2 cup Jack's Buffalo wing sauce

Microwave until smooth. Stir in: 1/2 cup shredded (sharp, colby, mozzerella) and
1 can chunk chicken (drained)

Put in baking dish and bake @ 350 for about 20 min. or until bubbly. Serve with tortilla chips.


Crock Pot Pizza
This is so yummy and so easy!! This recipe makes A LOT, so be prepared to have leftovers (or maybe invite some friends over)!

Ingredients:
12 ounces egg noodles, cooked according to package directions and drained
1 1/2 pounds ground beef
1/4 cup chopped onions
2 (14 oz) jars pizza sauce OR 1 large jar spaghetti sauce
3.5 ounces turkey or beef pepperoni
3 cups (12 oz) shredded cheddar cheese
3 cups (12 oz) shredded mozzarella cheese

In a large skillet, cook ground beef and onion until done. Drain. Stir in pizza sauce and pepperoni. Grease crock pot. Spread 1/2 of meat sauce on the bottom. Cover with a layer of noodles, then a layer of cheeses. Repeat layers twice. Cover and cook on low heat for 3-4 hours or until heated through and cheeses are melted. Serve with a tossed salad and bread.

Christmas Pics

Come out of la-la land back to reality!

Every now and then looking at other people's families on Facebook (yes, sigh, Jason..) and thinking, "Wow, I could have a couple more kids and be o.k. just like they are!" is good for me. The Lord can even use Facebook! Our Christmas decorations are up, cards are coming along, shopping (the little we can do this year) is nearly done, the kids are healthy, life is GOOD. Add to that a couple of weeks of Jase and Emma Grace BOTH sleeping soundly through the night from say 8:30 or 9pm until 7am or 8am and I was (I say WAS) seriously thinking that in a couple of years we might be able to THINK about having another child. Yeah, dream land that was!!!!

Last night blew that concept out the window...matter of fact, I videotaped in the dark my husband with all his deep breathing in between the 10 or more times I had to get up with either Emma Grace or Jase. I got NO SLEEP! I mean probably less than 3 hours...seriously. Who can live on sleep like that?! I was seriously beginning to think this was a joke they all were playing on me! Emma Grace even called 2 times and had to go to the bathroom once and was "thirsty" another time. Give me a break!

Furthermore, I was beginning to think Jase had to be sick with something as he never wakes up every 20-30 minutes crying. I have no clue what was going on. This morning he's had a bottle at 7am--drank the entire thing fine. He's a little congested, but not so much he can't drink a bottle. He doesn't feel feverish. I did finally give the boy some tylenol at 3:30am after I'd had all I could stand and I was thinking maybe some teeth coming in were paining him (and ME!). So about 4am I think he really was in a deep sleep. That would be when Jason started up the engine on his breathing/snoring! Then after warming the bottle at 5am (heard him again) at about 5:30 I think I fell asleep only to be woken up by Jason's alarm at 6am!!

I tell you, the Lord has a funny way of showing us who is in charge. Get comfortable and then let Him show you how comfortable he wants you. So the moral of the story is, Lord, you must not want us to have more kids right now...and I must say that is FINE by me! Please pray for patience for me today; I don't do well on little sleep...and I hear little Jase talking right now in his bed, so that extra morning nap is gone. Guess I'm up for the day!! Lord, give me strength for TODAY and bright hope for TOMORROW. Help me to see if Jase really is sick. Amen.

P.S. Here are some pics from our photos at Portrait Innovations on Friday.

One word---COLD!!!!!

Words cannot express how COLD it is in my house today!!! The guage in the hallway is reading 65/66 right now!!! I just went ahead and turned the blooming thing off as all I felt was COLD air coming out! What is it with heat pumps?!? Do the things work? Evidently not ours too good! Well, I suppose I'll turn it back on in just a few minutes to see if any warmer air comes out. We normally keep it set on 69 day or night, but the thing just can't keep up and I promise it's blowing out COLD air. But our socks are on, our slippers are on, we have sweatshirts and t-shirts and layers and layers of clothes and I'm seriously freezing. My nose is dripping and my feet are like ice. My hands make Jase shiver when I have to touch him or heaven forbid change his poor diaper and touch his hiney!

Did I mention we want to have new windows and doors put in this place? They simply aren't doing their job! The wind is gusty today and I know the high is like 45, so we're bound to be freezing in here when the cold air leaks in. I've had a space heater blowing in Emma Grace's room for the entire morning since she woke up and her clock/temperature guage is reading 66 still!! Tell me all the temperature guages in the house are broken, right?! NOT!! O.K. I'm off to call the Superior Gas man so he can come look at these gas logs and the pilot to see why it won't light. We've got to do something, and FAST!

Poinsettias put me in the mood for Christmas! Today we went to Bruce's Greenhouse in Blythwood...they have the most beautiful poinsettias! We were able to get the kids in their Christmas outfits and take some wonderful photos! Jase is now 6 months old and growing like a weed. He's on the brink of turning over and even maintains his balance just enough to begin sitting up (ironically in the baby bathtub you put in the sink..think I might try the one that suctions to the real bathtub in a week or so). Emma Grace is really getting excited about going to get our live tree on Friday and decorating the house for Christmas! Then comes her BIRTHDAY "just two days after Jesus' birthday!" I love it when she says that! She has such a sweet personality. I am a bit afraid that this staying home thing has made her very clingy to her mommy. I am hoping that she will want to get out and do more with other people. Tomorrow she is supposed to go to Ms. Jennifer's and play with Zoe and Emily and maybe even bake cookies, so that should be fun! Just hope she remembers her manners. We've been really working on that and trying to praise her a lot when we see it. She reminds us that we don't say "Oh, gosh!" we say "Oh goodness".

Well, here are some photos of our wee ones surrounded by a sea of poinsettias; go to Bruce's if you've never been there and get some great photos and pick up a poinsettia or two!

Bestest Mommy

Emma Grace told me yesterday that I am the "Bestest Mommy in the WORLD"! Can I just tell you how wonderful that made me feel? She hugged my neck and gave me a kiss...all that and she wasn't fishing for any kind of reward!! :) She's been my closest buddy here lately. I mean, she's sitting on my lap as I type not knowing that it's about her! Well, it's time for this bestest mommy to get these bestest children some breakfast before time runs out and it'll be time for lunch!

I'm back in business!

Quickly---it's getting late and my hubby is already sacked out on the couch! I'll just say that my computer is back today and I'm typing on it right now! :) Prai-ses!!! PRAISES! I hope to do a better job at blogging now that I have daylight hours to work. So many things I've missed these past few weeks. Don't think I can recall them all. OH, do want to remember how Emma Grace asked me (and Jason and Papa Jeep) tonight if we were Christians and if you told her yes, then she gave you a smiley face recipe sticker my mom gave her. Sweet child of mine! She also prayed for baby Brooke and for the 2 teenage boys' families here in Winnsboro who died in the car accident. She wanted to know did the two boys go to heaven....told her I wasn't sure if they loved Jesus or not, but that we hope so.

Here are some pics from this past Sunday as we headed out to church and two of our final pumpkin! Also, Jason and EG went out to put the deer camera in the woods and he took EG up in a deer stand. He hopes to get a two seater stand so he can take her deer hunting sometime!

Fun Zone and the Park

One day last week we went with friends (Ms. Jennifer, Zoe, Emily, Madeline, Alex, and Ms. Julie) to the Park at the Old Armory here in Winnsboro and today we went to the Fun Zone in Irmo for the Puppet Playhouse (pictures attached) with Ms. Julie, Madeline, and Alex. It's been great to get out of the house! Can I say that loud enough...to GET OUT OF THE HOUSE!

I also was able to go to aerobics tonight, which I have not done in over 4 years since becoming pregnant with Emma Grace. I briefly went to Curves for about a year while trying to get pregnant the second time, but that's when I miscarried and dropped out of exercising all together. So it felt great tonight to get my body MOVING, although I'll pay dearly for it in the morning and for the next few days!

I'm also trying to decide if I should order the Sonlight curriculum for K4/5 and start now before Emma Grace is officially 4 and continue throughout next year and up past her 5th birthday. It's just a big decision for something that costs $400+. Really that's not a lot of money considering how much people pay for private/Christian school tuition and/or daycare!! Well, it's time to head out and get the kids in bed so I can have a few peaceful moments tonight while Jason is at Men's Monday night Bible Study.

Long overdue

Yes, my new Gateway notebook computer took a turn for the worst and so I’m typing away on Jason’s laptop he brings home from work. I have to mail the laptop to Gateway to let them work on what they call the "motherboard" or the brains of the computer. I find that there have been so many things I should have blogged in the last month or so, but at 9:30pm when dinner is put away, meetings are over at church, and kids are bathed and in bed, I just don’t have enough time or the energy to write. So this one will be sort of long….bear with me!

First, Emma Grace has ears!! I mean, she’s listening ALL THE TIME. Don’t be fooled because she doesn’t look at you or appear to be listening. She may not even be in the same room. Rest assured, however, you will hear things you say repeated by an almost 4 year old at some point in the future!

Example #1 (this may be graphic for some of you): “Mommy, Jase has nuts in his hiney.” Do what? What is she talking about? Now I’ve seen carrots come out in the same form as they went in, but we’ve never fed him nuts!! So I pry a little more only to recall that she’s describing his boy parts, specifically his “sac”, which his daddy and I had a conversation about in the nursery a few days (maybe a week) ago when I asked Daddy to please be sure and wipe all the stinky off Jase's nuts. MY FAULT! Completely my fault. Guess I just never thought of it until having a boy and now that the messes are much larger with oatmeal and carrots on the menu! Then, it gets better, except that this time she uses the appropriate terminology….she says, “Why do you have to clean his penis?” She heard that while I was bathing Jase the other night. Well, thank the good Lord that I didn’t say something else for that body part! She was actually helping to scrub Jase in the baby bath that night, but I had no clue with the “nuts” conversation she was even around or taking it in.

Example #2: “Mommy, you shouldn’t talk at the table while you’re eating. Oh, I forgot, you’re finished eating….but I don’t tell you what to do because you’re my mommy and you’re older than me. You tell me what to do.” So I say, “Yes, Emma Grace I am your mommy. You’ve been listening to your daddy, huh?” Then she says, “Yeah, I get truth from Daddy!” I laughed so hard I nearly cried. I had to call Jason at work and tell him. Who said she wasn’t listening at the lunch/dinner table?!

Example #3: “Mommy, this card from Mimi has a jack-o-lantern on it. We don’t celebrate Halloween.” I affirmed her (we’ve had this discussion before about why we celebrate the Harvest, etc.) and then I said, “We’re Christians and we believe Jesus Christ died for our sins. That’s why we put 3 crosses on our pumpkin.” She starts singing, “And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love. Yes, they’ll know we are Christians by our looooove.” We had just sung that song at church either last Sunday or the one before. I had no clue she was listening to the words of the song!

Teachable moments!!! And these are the best days of our lives!!! This is why the Lord has lead me to stay home with our children!! May He always give me the words to say (and the actions to go with it) to glorify Him alone! I’m sure I’ll think of other things I have forgotten to blog, but this serves as a good starting point.

The SC State Fair

Yes, we finally took the kiddos to the SC State Fair! It was so much fun!! We will never, I mean NEVER, go back when it's night time knowing how great it was to go during the day when there are very few people there! No lines, no waiting, tables available everywhere to sit down, no teens running around, no nasty cracks hanging out, there seemed to be no one blowing smoke in our faces, etc. Generally, it was just a really fun time watching Emma Grace have the time of her life riding roller coasters I never thought she'd try (it was the dragon one for kids although still very curvy and fairly fast for a 3 year old!) and the tallest ferris wheel at the fair. She loved every minute of it and, had we been made of money, I'm sure she would have ridden a few hundred more. :) As it was, we spent $20 on 22 ride tickets (some require the accompanying parent to use 2 or 3 tickets also). We did the bad thing (good for our pocketbook) and took our uncrustable lunches inside in the diaper bag (that's how small they are!) and ate pretzels, oatmeal cream pies, and a bottle of water, all which we brought in the diaper bag. We asked for one of the vendor stands to give us ice in the cup I usually use to warm Jase's bottle so I could pour my hot caffeine free Pepsi over it.

It all worked out wonderfully and cost us a fraction of what most people spend! We did end up buying an elephant ear---I mean, who can go to the fair and NOT buy an elephant ear? Jason also couldn't resist a cup of fries which he added vinegar to (YUCK). So all in all we spent about 3 hours riding rides and seeing the livestock and $48 for the admission, rides, and a little food. Not great, but not bad considering elephant ears cost $6 alone! I guess the cheapest person of all was Jase! He was free all the way around, but I'm sure he enjoyed the lights, roosters cock-a-doodling, cows mooing, and tasted the elephant ear in the 6:30am bottle. OH, and I MUST mention that he was so WHOOPED after a long day and little napping that he slept the ENTIRE NIGHT from 9pm until 6:30 am without a single whimper or whine. :) Or maybe I was just so whooped that I didn't hear a single whimper or whine!! Ha!!!! Let's see if he can do it again tonight (with a little help from Mr. Oatmeal around 7:30!).

A milestone!

I guess it's not as big a deal as turning from laying on back to tummy position, but Jase turned from his tummy over to his back on Tuesday, 10-7-08! I forgot to record it that day and didn't want us to miss recording his first milestone. There will be so many more to come!! First tooth, first sitting up, first crawling, first step, first word, first, first, first!!! I could go on and on all the way up to having his first child! :) He's growing so fast right before our eyes. He also started oatmeal yesterday! Seemed to have liked it better than rice cereal, so I think we might have a winner. I also have only pumped 3X yesterday and will only pump 3X today. I guess you could say I'm weaning myself. Seeing the 80 some bags of frozen milk in the freezer that has to be used by the 6 month date, I just am losing that loving feeling I have for the pump. HA! No shocker to anyone, eh? I think by 6 mos. old (which will be right before Thanksgiving on 11/20/08) Jase will be starting more baby foods and hopefully be down to just 3 bottles a day. I feel that I'll be ready to give up the pumping completely at that time and just use frozen milk even if I have to use the 2 cans of formula I got free in the mail to supplement an ounce or two to the frozen milk and to make the "liquid gold" last longer. Yeah, sounds like a plan...thanks for letting me work this out on the computer and in my thoughts!



Jason and I are headed out for a long awaited date night tonight! Thanks, Mimi, for volunteering to keep the kids and put them to bed while we're gone! We haven't had date night for over 5 months and we really, really need time to be alone! Still hoping for a weekend in the mountains in Nov. or Dec. if it all works out, but we'll suffice for a few hours (6 to be exact--shorter than most people are at work in one day) by ourselves. :) We're going to see the movie "Fireproof" and also go out to dinner probably at Wild Wings. Hope I can keep my eyes open to finish watching the movie---oh the life of a mother!

Teeth, electric poles, and a good night's sleep

Well, today I must go get my teeth cleaned for my 6 month visit--except it's been way past 6 months since I've had to call twice and reschedule my appointment due to various reasons like going to the beach and then my MIL had to schedule an appointment for her arms breaking out. So today I had poppyseed chicken casserole (leftover from last night) and I have to go floss and dig out all those little black seeds before I go. I plan to take EG with me to watch/take notes so when she goes in 2009, she won't be all weirded out. I know how I was petrified of the dentist. Her teeth are exceptional, so I don't expect there to be any reason for her to be scared of the dentist like I was at her age!!

And I had to have the kids in for naps by 12:30 today so we can be up at out of here by 2:30 or 2:45 headed to the dentist, so down they go and....well, here comes Fairfield Electric at 12:40 to put up the new power poles leading to Johnny Boulware's land he bought from Uncle Marion!! Never fails. They don't seem to be making too much racket, so let's hope both of the kids stay asleep until at least 2 or 2:30. :) Which leads me to the reason I'm up and not napping....Bibbi kept Jase last night from about 8:15pm until about 9:15am this morning. And I got a GOOD NIGHT'S SLEEP!! So praise be to God and thanks go to Bibbi for volunteering. She knows when she volunteers that I am most likely going to take her up on the offer....so I guess that's why she doesn't volunteer but about once a month or every two months. :) My entire outlook and attitude are different when I have 8 hours of sleep versus the 4 1/2 I got the night before and several weeks leading up to that. It just changes how I deal with the children and I'm able to not "snap" at them and get easily aggravated.

Well, my mom comes this weekend until Monday, so let's hope that she is able to help as well. She doesn't get to see our children that often, so it's a special time when she's up. :) And I don't mind giving up the bottle feeding and diaper changing once or twice a day either (still get the joy of pumping 4X a day!). Isn't that what grandparents delight in? That they can soak it all up for 2-3 days, be part of the insanity, help mold their grandchildren's hearts to know Him, and then go home to their sane life?

Donation to Locks of Love

So I went and did it! I got 10 1/2 inches cut off my hair to donate to Locks of Love! Even I was a little surprised at how short it is (she cut another 1-2 inches off after the ponytail went), but I figure it will grow back. I think Jason was the most surprised, but he seems to like it a lot and think I look much more modern! :) I'm finding it is harder to fix and requires a lot more time and attention. No more ponytails at this point. :( So here are a couple of the before and after pictures.

Garden City Vacation

Yes, I think I've recovered from a week at Garden City Beach. Thanks goes to Bette Pope for allowing us to stay at her beach house! GRACIAS from a one wage earner family! We had a good time! Jase wasn't too hip on the windy/sand being blown in the face, so I spent most of my time inside either on facebook, reading, bathing children, making meals, pumping milk, and just generally doing the things I do at home. O.K. I don't want to sound complainish! I just need some time away from the normal routine with my husband alone...and Lord willing we will get to go away for a weekend in Nov. BY OURSELVES to Michelle's parents' mountain house at Lake Lure. Can you truly relax when you have children of this age? I don't think so. Bottles 6X a day including nights, meals for EG 3X a day, baths for both, help me with this, can I watch that, naptime for Jase 3-4X a day, naptime for EG once a day, whoooo....I'm getting tired thinking of all I do in one day. No kidding.

Facebook at least lets me connect with someone on the outside to know that A.) I'm not the only one out there doing this B.) There are people who have other things they are doing on a daily basis and I like reading what they are up to as if I can live vicariously through these people. :>) Like someone posted photos of their trip to Europe! Fun! Or the biggest stinky video (thanks Cory)! At least made me laugh! Or the fact that there are those upset by the losses in football. Or the obsession with the bailout plan (personally I thought the bailout plan might have been this weekend when I bail out of Winnsboro to the Women's Retreat in Asheville!). Just a fun way to get out of my house without actually leaving 145 Cammack Road.

So I guess I need to get on with the vacation update before I bore everyone....well, we went out on the beach (Jason and EG every day mainly to look for seashells), we ate out much too often, we walked down to the marina, we rode rides at Broadway at the Beach, I went to the outlets for 2 hours by myself on the rainy/windy day, didn't get to go putt-putting, didn't get to take EG to a movie, didn't get to go crabbing with EG, didn't get to eat out without children (except the Chick-fil-A I ate in the van on the way to outlets), didn't get to go see Kelli or Nancy Yongue, no water parks were still open, didn't get to go bike riding....O.K. I'd better stop there b/c I'm realizing that I babysat for an entire week so my daughter and husband could enjoy the beach/sand. Sound jealous? Yes, perhaps. What would my mom say? "This too shall pass." Kids will grow up and we'll be able to do more things, FUN things, with our children. Oh, how I so look forward to that....can I remind those of you reading that I feel we are ready to move out of baby stage and not ever have another baby (maybe adopt one 2-3 years old). Lord knows I'm not built for inactivity...maybe I'm ADHD, but I want to be doing something constructive with my kids....O.K. some of you are repeating in your heads "but this is the best work you could be doing taking care of your little one." And I know this in my head which is why I did it without fussing too much at the beach house and which is why I diligently do it every day. But I so look forward to the fun times riding bikes in the moutains with the 4 of us and camping out the 4 of us, and not worrying about nap times or if we can eat at 8pm. Soon enough...slow down, Karen.

I'll hush now....thanks for letting me work this all out in my head and on the blog (that's why it's called a blog, right?) and thanks to Kira and Luke who feel our pain and are willing to come help take care of our children so we can go to the moutains and focus on our marriage by ourselves. The Lord sends little blessings in life...and I plan to enjoy one of those blessings this weekend at Ridgecrest. Lord, give us rest, a good time fellowshipping with other ladies, and Your Word from Sue Jakes.

The Saga Continues

The attack of the mice is still on. Yesterday (Tuesday) I found several...SEVERAL droppings in our bedroom, my closet, Jason's closet, the living room, and all over Emma Grace's room that proved the mice were still very much alive and in our house. They (I assume there may be more than one) even chewed 3 balls off of the butterfly decorative pillow in EG's room that was on the floor. I tell you, this scares the mess out of me. I hate rodents. They gross me out. And furthermore, I wonder why in the heck they chose our house and the bedroom of all places for their escapades. There is not a stinch of food in these places; I suppose all the droppings I saw come from the D-CON I put out, which means they are having a hay-day munching away to their demise. Hopefully they will keel over outside of our house so the stink doesn't happen next week while we're on vacation!! I cannot for the life of me see how they can prance all over a 3 year old's bedroom in the middle of the night and she doesn't hear it. Jason reminded me that with the "wind tunnel" I have going in her room so she won't hear Jase crying (a floor fan and a humidifier) probably is the reason for that. :)

So I think I hear a moving noise in EG's closet yesterday morning about 10am. I proceed to get the biggest, heaviest golf club I can find and go rummaging in her closet taking everything out one at a time so I can whammy that sucker. We get to the end of the items and there is truly no mouse. I'm disappointed yet a little relieved that I didn't have to battle the mouse...it would not have been fun. The sit and spin went off one time and it alone made me yell! Emma Grace would not move off of the couch until I assured her that there was no mouse in her room. The cube trap is in my closet next to the d-con and has been since the night before with just a small piece of cheese smeared with peanut butter.

I tell you all of that background to say that this morning at 2:20am I hear Jase stirring, so I go potty as I usually do before the 30-40 min. long saga and I don't turn on the bathroom light (never do...somehow I function at night without a single light on), but I think I hear something in the bathroom with me. Shudder, shudder...I quickly head back to bed to wait for the real fussing indicating it's time to warm the bottle. At 3am I hear vigilant scratching; something's stuck and can't get out!!!! Could it be? YES, got another one in the cube!!!! I still think this one is the same mouse Jason dropped off at the pond and came back for round two! A picture is attached, so you see for yourself if you think they're "related".

This morning, Jason did put the mouse into a ziplock bag and bang the bag against the concrete.....DEAD as a doornail! Then he took it to work with him and put it in the dumpster in Columbia. No possible way for him to return this time. I hate to say it, but after I had put the trap out on the front porch this morning I really thought I heard more funny noises.....so the saga continues....I will persevere until all traces of mice are GONE.

This is NOT FUNNY

This is TRULY not funny...there are mouse droppings beside the D-Con I put in my closet just last night!! So now there is another intruder. Horror of all horrors....not one mouse, but two or three or an entire family!!! I cannot believe it! How in the world are they entering my house??? I will persist until I have killed the entire mouse population. No more Mrs. Nice Woman...no more dropping them off at the pond. NOPE. This is WAR!! Heads will roll. More later once I have captured them all.

The Intruder

Yes, that’s right! We had an intruder that rudely disrupted our lives for 2 nights now and one day as I was home all day Friday with 2 little ones fearful of what he might do. This is no 2- legged intruder, however. I have come to know that he is one talented and annoying little MOUSE! I thought perhaps it was a rat instead of a mouse, but have come to realize he was just a field mouse. I’ll just say that this mouse has led to us having 3 ½ hours of sleep Thursday night and about 5 hours of sleep last night. He was discovered about 1:15am on Thursday night as he was gnawing away at the door in Jason’s closet. At first Jason didn’t even believe what I was telling him. He kept on for a while insisting that I was hallucinating. I must tell the whole story for you all to appreciate how talented I say this mouse is.
Upon my insistence after crying, breathing hysterically, and generally very fearful, Jason turns the light on and we go on the hunt that would scare the bejebeerze out of me. We listen quietly….suspect his closet is where the noise is coming from…open the closet door….mouse jumps from the right side clear over to the left side!! Jason never saw it….I DID!! Keeps saying, “Are you sure you saw a mouse? I don’t believe you.” We’re both hot…why is it 76 in the house when we keep it on 71 at night? Is it just my nerves?? No, Jason is hot too. Something is not right with the AC….Jason goes to check it….clicks it on/off/on/off until it starts shooting out cooler air. It did this one night last week too. While he’s in the hall checking out the AC, this suspecting mouse decides it’s time to peek around the corner from inside the closet and see if he can sneak out. I scream, jump up to sit on the sink and raise my feet…..mouse runs to hide inside closet once again. Jason runs back in the bedroom and once again thinks I may be delusional. I insist there is a mouse in his closet!! We shut the door to the closet (there is carpet in part of our bathroom and his closet making it impossible for this mouse to sneak out under the door! Praise the Lord for this!! Saved us) and debate what to do. So I insist Jason needs to get out his clothes for Friday and KEEP THE DOOR SHUT so he doesn’t escape in the morning when he goes to get a shower. He does as I ask and we head back to bed to sleep. About 15 min. later, the mouse begins to gnaw at the door in an effort to break out. This is LOUD and I ask Jason, “So tell me you don’t hear THAT!?” He agrees and we think, well now what are we going to do? It’s 2:00 in the morning and no way to kill the mouse.

I find a mouse trap under the kitchen sink from when we used to rent at Juanita’s and we set it with an oh so small smidgen of cheese. We wait….we wait…nothing but MORE GNAWING on the door. We open the door and see that the cheese is gone and the trap is still set. LITTLE BOOGER! So now we think what to do…try again! This time with a little bigger piece of cheese. Well, he absconds with it as well without setting off the trap and begins to gnaw once again…this time it’s only 3am! At 3:20 we set the trap once more over by the place he’s gnawing so he HAS to step on the lever to get to the door he loves so much. Wait 15 more min. and hear more gnawing. Open door to find he’s moved the trap out of the way without setting it off. So now we set it one last time as we smear the cheese on the lever so he has to push harder to get the cheese licked off the lever. This does not work!! More gnawing…Jason heads to the couch at 3:40 and I hear the baby and begin warming the breast milk so he won’t wake Emma Grace up. I feed baby and pump more milk…now it’s 4:20am. Mouse is still upset and gnawing away, so I head to couch. Can’t sleep out there and Jase is still tossing and turning at 5:00am. Jason’s alarm goes off at 6:00am and get gets up to get a shower. Jason leaves for work at 6:45 and I hear the baby again at nearly 7am. There is no sleep for the weary!! Baby is up for good; why he’s had a wonderful night’s sleep! BAHH!!!

So I head to the closet to see what our little booger mouse has made of the closet….I find he has somehow managed to set off the snapping trap with a Clemson flip-flop and now made off once again with the smeared cheese. How smart is this rodent? There are also bits of the carpet now pulled up. I load up the children and head to Wal-mart to get a cube trap. We return speedily, set the cracker with peanut butter in the end of the cube and wait an hour and a half. I check the cube and he has managed to pull the cracker half-way out of the trap door without himself getting trapped inside. What in the world?!? How big IS this thing? He didn’t appear all that big when he jumped out at me. I reassemble the cracker and position the cube near the gnawed part of the door and hope he’ll go inside further to get a smaller piece. By Friday evening when Jason came home from work and my dad drove up from Charleston, he still was wreaking havoc on the closet. BEDTIME>>>>no mouse gotten yet. I cannot LIVE ONE MORE NIGHT like we had the previous night. We take our chances and hope that with both the snap trap and the cube he’ll be caught somehow. 2am comes and the little mouse begins his usual gnawing to try to escape just as he had the night before.

Jason goes to couch…I do too but cannot get comfortable and baby needs passy at 2am, 2:30am, and now both dad in the pool table room asleep and hubby beside me on other side of sectional are SNORING. Help Lord!!! I head to baby’s room to sleep on the twin bed in the nursery. Baby’s making too much noise and then needs feeding at 3:30am. I feed him, pump milk again, and head back in our bedroom at 4:20 to hopefully get some rest without any gnawing sounds. At 5am when I am nearly asleep I start to hear the noise again. No, Lord, you KNOW I need some rest. I think of things I can put up against the door so he cannot gnaw anymore. At 5:40 I get up and check out what kind of disarray the closet and clothes are in….I swing open the door and still hear the scratching…..COULD IT BE?!!!! The mouse is in the cube up on the dresser inside the closet and HE CAN’T GET OUT!!! PTL!!!! Wonder how long he was in that cube scratching? I take the cube outside on the front porch and notify Jason that the INTRUDER HAS been CAUGHT!!! CELEBRATE GOOD TIMES<>

We both head back into the bedroom for a couple more hours of sleep….oh wait…we have a 3 month old who wakes up bright eyed and bushy tailed at 6:30am begging to be fed AGAIN. I get up so upset that Jason has had good sleep since 2am and I am about to fall over from sleepiness and kill our son. He must have sensed my anger and came in at 6:45 to help finish feeding the baby and let me get some rest. I slept until 9am!!!!! Thank you, Jason, for taking the baby and Emma Grace once she was up at 7:30am. What a blessing my husband gave me Sat. morning and what a blessing God gave us in catching the mouse. Yes, it was a mouse, not a rat. Although all signs would have pointed to one much bigger and smarter. Guess he just got too hungry and couldn’t resist that peanut butter cracker anymore. Hope we never have another intruder of that description!!! Maybe soon I will catch up on the sleep I so desperately need.

Sleep, where are you?

OH, sleep, where art thou?! Well, some of you who live nearby or have talked to me on the phone in the last 3 days know that Jase has some sort of cold and is snorting some. It affects his sleeping (coughing to try to get it out as it drains down his throat) and thus affects MY sleeping! He HATES for me to suction out his nose, and I remember all too well having to do the same thing for EG except that right along with the cold came ear infection after ear infection with her. How I am praying that his ears are made differently and that we won't have to undergo those dr. appts. and eventual tubes placed in the ears like we did EG nearly 3 years ago. We're at home instead of daycare now, so hopefully we can skip out on some of the germs that circulate. :) Please pray for us to get some LONG hours of sleep. Jase did shock us all and sleep until 6am this morning, so we are so thankful. I just have to get my body used to the fact that his sleeping is so erratic (2am one day and 6am the next) and not start freaking out at 3am heating up the bottle when I hear any sort of noise on the monitor.

Interesting!

I know it seems like I always have something new and exciting to post about Emma Grace and not much is mentioned about Jase. Well, to update everyone on our little man, Jase is doing so well. He's almost too good of a baby!! I hardly even know he's in the house; such a content, sweet little one. Jason's mom reminds me that is how Jason was as a baby! Jase is just cooing and talking up a storm as if to say, "Hey you guys, I'm here and it's my turn to talk!" He laughs out loud when tickled or we wave his hands quickly, and he smiles at EVERYTHING. I can walk in his room in the morning to see if he's awake and he's just smiling away at the teddy bear mobile hanging on his crib! What a cutie pie with that one dimple! (He got that from me!)

I do think he is intrigued by the TV, which I'm not proud to say is on at our house more than I care to tell you. I just don't give a bottle to a baby 6X a day in the sheer quiet and not fall asleep! And it keeps Emma Grace occupied for the few minutes I'm busy with the baby. At least we're watching the Sprout channel and the Noggin channel. Can't be that bad, can it? I mean, today we learned that a cheetah is the fastest animal there is and a snail the slowest. And we saw how the Wonder Pets did a little problem solving to help save a tree in a run down lot. I'm learning to listen to music or something else, but it's just easier to flick on the boob tube for 20 minutes and hear what the news says about the election, the 3 Hurricanes, etc. It's my only contact with the outside world as we don't get The State Newspaper except on weekends and I'm definitely not up for the 11 o'clock news!! But I am aware of its impact on at least our son and I do NOT want him to end up ADD like some of society's kids who are hooked on TV from birth. Usually Jase ends up watching EG as she plays babies or paints on her easel while the TV is just background noise. O.K., yes, it appears I am making excuses. Shame on me. I'll try to do better...honestly...we do read books sometimes with EG right beside me as I give Jase a bottle. But not 6X a day. OH well.

I do want to tell you that EG was doing her letters/numbers/tracing animals activity book that uses a dry erase marker today and she said, "Mom, do we have bears?" I asked her does she mean in South Carolina or at our house, or in general are there real bears? She said in SC. I told her that bears like to live where it's not so hot, so they generally live in colder places and in the mountains. I reminded her of when we went to Gatlinburg to visit my grandmother and she and Kemp (her only cousin) went over and sat on the fake black bear's back and we took pictures of them. I reminded her that was in the mountains and that, yes, there are bears in the mountains of TN. She next wanted to know if these bears lived out in the woods. I assured her they did (I think she was getting a little scared---she'll never want to go visit my grandmother Onspaugh again!). Then she just replied,
"Huhh....in-ter-es-ting!"

A new word "outsideable"

Today is finish cleaning the house day. Somehow it only gets done in stages when you have a 3 month old and an almost 4 year old to tend to, so I dusted on Tuesday and vacuumed today. Now I have bathrooms to tend to...woman's work is never done...even when she's at home all day. I wanted to add something from a few nights back that Jason told me I should have recorded on my blog.

Emma Grace and Jason were going out to sit on the front porch and rock in the rocking chairs one evening to watch the rain and she wanted to take her plastic play stroller with her baby. We have always stressed that her "princess shoes" are for inside play only and so are certain other toys just for outside (i.e. bubbles). So she made sure to tell him that the stroller with her "Bruiser Bear" riding in it were "outsideable". Well, how fitting...a new term that seems to fit quite nicely. Able to be outside. Yes, I think she may very well work for Miriam Webster one day!

Can we say "formula"?

Is it just me, or is my milk production slowing down? For those of you who do not know, Jase did not latch on to my satisfaction and comfort, and he was on a bilibed at home for his jaundiceness (is that a word?) caused by his ABO blood type incompatibility (not the same as mine for those of us not in the medical field) the first week or week and half of his life. Needless to say, I had nursed EG for 14 months and thought it would be a piece of cake. I guess I just became too easily frustrated this time and decided to use this here pump I have borrowed from Leanne again. So I have been just bursting at the seams most of the time, especially from my right side. (O.K. any men out there, you can go ahead and say TMI and log off now). Well, the right side was the one that caused so much problem the first 4 weeks as I had mastitis in it twice already in June and beginnings of it again in July. Just this week red, tender spots came out on the left side when he has slept past 3:30am twice this week (you'd think I'd be happy about that, but my breasts do not thank me). Now the left side is the one only squeezing (literally I sit and SQUEEZE it) out an ounce or two or maybe, just maybe 3 oz. if I drink plenty of water after a good mexican meal! I think I've skirted past having it a 3rd time just by using a hot pad and some tylenol for pain and chills. Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

But now the issue is, "Do I have enough milk to keep up with Jase?" I have about 86 bags in the freezer, but at 6 oz. a bottle and 6 or 7 bottles a day, that won't last long, should I go cold turkey. So I am thinking I'll just keep doing what I'm doing and as Elisabeth Elliott says, "Do the next thing." That is until my milk is nearly gone and then I'll start mixing what's in the freezer with a bit of formula until it begins to be all formula. I have 4 cans of formula that came in the mail back when I was pregnant, and they have a shelf life until Jan 2010. I know that won't last too long either, so you all can pray that the formula will hopefully not be an issue. With my not working this year, formula has not been written in the budget, so formula will be a total trust issue (isn't all of life a trust issue--don't know why I wrote that). It's been amazing, though, how even diapers have been pretty well taken care of by sweet ones in our church family and we have not had to buy even one pack of diapers so far. God is SO GOOD!

I also want to add a sweet conversation that happened last night and continued today with Emma Grace. I was brushing her teeth last night and also letting her do it (that's the big thing now--I can do it!) and I don't remember what sparked the conversation, but it made her say, "Momma, you broke my heart." It was the saddest thing. I actually thought it was funny at the time and laughed but then today she said it again when I told her I needed the recliner to pump and she asked me to sit on the floor and I told her mommy's back hurt and I really needed to sit in the chair beside the pump and not on the floor. Not wanting to move, I told her she could move now to the couch, the floor, or her blue chair or.....receive a spanking as I move her myself. Needless to say she moved and I did not have to spank, but she reminded me that I wasn't nice and that I broke her heart. So I really wanted to know who had said those words before for her to keep repeating them and she said, "Bibbi says that when she's sad." Bibbi is my mother-in-love (Jason's mom who happens to live next door with Papa Jeep, his dad). Well, then I asked her if I needed to glue her heart back together and she said, "No, because Jesus lives in our heart and he takes care of our hearts." Well, by golly, she has been listening! Then she went on to say that Jesus is everywhere even though we can't see Him. So I of course called Bibbi and told her that this sweet granddaughter of hers is listening to every word she says. I also should have reminded her that she hears when she says in passing something about "Ripping their head off" or something about doing something to your head (my memory is bad--I can't even remember when the last bottle was---that's why I write it all down on the dry erase board!). Well, I think that's all for now.

I want to go to heaven

Having visited the funeral home last night for Mrs. Maude Timms' visitation services, Emma Grace had lots of questions about how she died, where did she go, and if we can go to heaven when we "get old". Of course I reassured her that for those who love Jesus and trust in Him, we can all go to heaven one day and see Jesus and have a new body. She wanted to know was Mrs. Maude walking around in heaven and I told her probably not...probably would be floating like the angels. She thought that was cool!

So we as parents have the daunting task of giving our children accurate information about the serious issues of life. No fluff, no ridiculous stories...just that's the way it is. Now, I didn't get into the other side of "if you don't go to heaven where do you go", but I'm sure that will one day be the topic of discussion. I don't think she saw Mrs. Maude's body laying there in the open casket, but had that occurred, I guess we would have gone down that route too, in 3 year old terms. After that, Emma Grace wanted to read her entire Little Golden Bible Storybook last night. I tried to convince her to read just one or two stories out of it, but she wasn't going to settle for that, so we did travel rather quickly through Creation, Noah, Moses, Jericho, miracles of Jesus, Last Supper, death, and resurrection. Whew!

Wal-Mart Digital Photo Center:Photo:Owned

Wal-Mart Digital Photo Center:Photo:Owned

Emma Grace-isms

I just have to post some of Emma Grace's terms she's using lately---yesterday she said for no apparent reason "To tell you the truth...". She said this while I was checking email and I don't think anything came after that statement. And she also said, "Momma, you can call me your baby; I'm still your baby." Before, she had reminded me that Jase was the baby and she is the "big girl" and now she is saying she'll always be my baby. I think we've read the book Love You Forever enough now that she knows the words "I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, As long as I'm living, my baby you'll be." Well, Jase calls to be fed, so let me log off. Maybe more later today...

Not My Will

So it takes a person, at least this person, a LONG while to realize that it's not my will that decides if my children will take a nap or not and if they will abide by MY schedule and plans. As I type, Jase has spit out his passy one too many times after just being in his bed for 10 minutes asleep and so is swinging in the swing but not batting an eye. Last night Emma Grace decided that 12:19am was a good time to go potty and then not shortly after at 1:00am, Jase decides that he is hungry. Do what? Hungry after a bottle at just 9:30pm? He has never in his 3 months of being alive (he'll turn 3 mos. tomorrow) wanted to eat at night just 3-3 1/2 hours after going to bed. I was utterly appalled. I went into his room determined that he would take a passy and be happy with it. Well, again, the Lord determines a man's steps and last night it was my turn to learn the hard lesson that children and life in general cannot be squeezed into my little mold of expectations. I guess I have always known this great spiritual truth, but I certainly do not live like it.

After a formula bottle of 4 ounces being sucked down and then 1 more breastmilk ounce at 1:00am, at around 3:30 I heard Emma Grace calling once again to be "covered up" and then Jase chimed in right after that, but seemed to have gone back to sleep after apparently his 100th round of spit up. Something in his little tummy just is not sitting right with him lately. Could it be the formula he is gets for the last bottle of the night so I don't have to pump milk 6 times a day (5 is bad enough)? I don't know, but it's got me baffled and apparently learning that it's the Lord's will which my life will follow. I must learn to be content and joyful in just obeying that place which the Lord has placed me. I pray that I will learn this lesson quickly and be able to truly be joyful as the title of this blog suggests. May the Lord give me the strength and endurance to do the things which He has called me to do.

A Way to Remember

As I begin to blog about my daily adventures as a stay-at-home mom, I want to first say that I hope to be able to look back in days and years to come and see how God has worked in my own heart and life as well as that of my family. Life is full of changes, and there seem to be many going on in my life right now. This will be a praise journal, a thinking journal, and a way to record the daily or weekly events of the Pope Family so when I'm old and gray I can remember vividly how much fun life was with 2 little rugrats. :)