So in November Chris started to welding school, the boys had their Veterans Day program, Thanksgiving turned into a new and completely unexpected blow up. And I watched my baby turn into a toddler. Sawyer took his first steps three weeks ago and has slowly been taking a few here and there. Thanksgiving day he took about 10 in a row twice.

When we go to the bus in the morning I am usually hollering down the hall at least once, "C'mon GUYS lets go."
This afternoon I said we were going to the bus and Saw took off crawling down the boys hall, ever little bit he would stand and throw his arms up and look all around him and holler, " DIES" "DIES" he went all the way back into Tanners room. LMAO I am sure he was looking for the "guys".

I am ready for Christmas and need to get wrapping in the next day or two to finish up.
Steff

We live in the country....way out in the country, with 4 dogs, somewhat big dogs.  It is less than surprising that now and then strange things wind up on my deck.  Last year it seemed to be bones on a regular basis and very large bones at that.  The bones don't bother me so much anymore, but the skins, well that is another story.  I cannot stand seeing the skins drug up from who knows where of an animal I may or may not be able to identify.  It was no great surprise to wake yesterday morning to find a deer hide laying on the deck.  I grabbed a shovel and tossed it over the side of the deck.  Several times over the last twenty four hours the dogs have drug it back up and I have tossed it back off.  This afternoon apparently tired of this game the dogs had drug it to a spot near the side of the driveway and were gnawing on it contentedly.   Tanner came in a bit ago to tell me he thought it was a dog of ours that had run away three years ago.  No, I told him it is a deer hide.  He went back out and came back in telling me that he was sure our dogs had killed this deer so daddy wouldnt have to go hunting.  Giggling to myself I explained that no, the dogs had not killed it there was a bullet hole in the hide.  
He looked at me and looked back outside and said, " I am going to go tell those dogs to take that back where it came from.  It's not theirs. "

I am sorry, I find this hysterical if not annoying.  Tanner is my child that I have to stop 837 times a day from pocketing this item or that that he sees and wants, be it keys that look neat or flashlights we have taken away before.  He is the one who moved his brothers homework night before last so I had to hunt it for three hours yesterday morning.  It is not even that he wants something he picks up, he just has to touch everything he sees. 

At least now at this point, I do know that he has heard me and understands what I am saying.  How do I get him to implement it for himself though and not just for the dogs.
Steff

So since the boys were pretty little we have tried each holiday season to make some kind of gift for the grandmas.  I use the collective, because they have 5.  Chris' mom, step-mom, and grandma, and my mom and grandma, and most of the time we also make one for my aunt.  As they started school we added little goodies to make for the teachers and admin staff. 

Now some call this crafty and creative and even a bit crazy making all these things with little boys... I will let you in on a little secret.  Its actually lazy.  They are soooo easy to make, and if the boys are making these sweet lil treats and bath salts and soaps then they arent off in another room creating the newest model pits from hell. 

It is a super easy way to keep them occupied for at least a couple of hours at a time and if I work it right it takes care of 12-20 Christmas gifts in one night.  It is a bonus if I allow them to help wrap because then that occupies them another night. 

Steff

 

Everyone told me while I was pregnant last year  that the boys would get tired of the new baby.  That they wouldn't want to share with him all the time.  That they wouldn't want to wait on us to do things with the baby.  Somehow, my kids didn't get that memo.  I love that they love Sawyer.  I love how sweet they are too him, that they beg to sing and read and play, with him and for him.  What I hate are the fights.  HE wants to look at me first, no he likes my voice better, no i singed longer, mom cant he sleep with my bed?  My all time favorite(NOT) of these fights is the who gets to sit next to him at a restaraunt.  I do not get the excitement.  I am so tired of telling everyone to sit in their own darn chair and eat their own food and please do not feed the baby Nachos and french fries.  
So he still is their favorite thing to play with after last Christmas.  I am glad of all that came into our lives this time last year, Sawyer is still shiny and new in their eyes.  
So too is the world in Sawyers eyes, he will be 1 in six weeks.  Where have the days gone? It seems so hard to believe that time has gone so fast and yet I have to admit I have enjoyed every second of my time with Sawyer this year.  Watching him go through each new phase and figure out where each trait comes from. 
The sweet giggles as he laughs himself silly over nothing.  The grins as he takes a step or two by himself.  The sheer joy he takes in grabbing that sprite can while everyone in the room is trying to reach him before he pours it on his head....
 Steff

Now this is easy to do because well I live in a house of boys and I am a girl.  But for once the glitch has nothing to do with my female-ness and only involves me as a recorder....a bystander reporting the story if you will. 

My dad is for his age a bit unconventional.  When Ford brought out the Retro Thunderbirds in 02 he was one of the first in the US to get one.  He preordered it nearly two years in advance.  Then he joined some groups online and got together with some other Tbird people and the rest is history.  Anyways, every so often they all get together and drive their Thunderbirds all over the country and do other cool things. 
On a recent trip to Canada, they visited a Toy Factory of  some sort or another.  He bought the boys souveniers at this toy factory and tried to explain this to the boys when he got home. 

The conversation went something like this--

Tan--WOW Pop you made thems for us
Pop-  no no i bought them in the store
Keif-  at the north pole?
Pop-- no in Canada at the toy factory
Tan-- you made them
Pop--i bought them
Tan- from santas elves?
Pop- at the toy factory

So here we go a couple of months later, and I am having a discussion about Christmas and that they are not likely to get near as many toys as in previous years because daddy isnt working right now and  just trying to be pretty honest for their age level. 

Their response??
Thats alright mom.  Pop already made all our toys at the toy factory with santa.  Yeah he got to pretend hes an elf. 
me--ummmm no I think you have part of the story wrong.  he visited a toy factory in CANADA, not with SANTA .  And he bought you the trucks he didnt make them.  And santa is having to help a lot of people this year with just everyday things so there will be less toys. 
Them-- no mom didnt you see pops beard? he worked with Santa and he maked us those big legos we telled Santa we want.

Now I could finish the entire conversation, but my fingers would fall off from the amount of typing required because it is one of those conversations that just goes in circles(which you can kind of already tell). 

Other people have to worry about their children no longer believing....I tend to think at the rate i am going with Santa Pop my kids are going to believe forever and I am blessed for it. (as are they)

Steff

Well I finally broke down and agreed to carve pumpkins tonight.  The results are better than I expected but still.  Who ever came up with such a goofy, stinky, nasty, mess???

I suspect, having watched my kids that it was probably a boy. 
Keifer carved his all by himself. 
Steff

I watched the news this morning and caught this story:  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091013/ap_on_re_us/us_zero_tolerance_boy

Now here's my take.  The problem I have is that the parents and the child all seem to not see a problem with this. 
The mom even said on the program that he eats with it all the time at home whats the big deal.  The big deal is while her child, or my child might know how to handle such a tool there are inevitably kids who do not and as we all know with 5, 6, and 7 year old boys accidents happen.  We cannot plan for them and we do not have the ability to foresee the future.  I do think the punishment is overboard, but agree the child should be suspended somewhere in the 3-5 day range. 

I think so many times anymore that kids are being taught if they go to mommy and daddy they will fix everything and they dont learn to take responsibility for themselves.  This child knew it was wrong to take the knife to school.  They keep calling it a camping tool but its a 2 1/2 to 3 inch pocket knife with various tools on it including a fork and a spoon.  He took it off the counter when his mom wasnt looking and kept it hidden in his pocket until the teacher saw it.  Now I have a 6 year old and I know he can do things I dont approve of, but he knows better than to touch a pocket knife even if its just laying in the house somewhere and he certainly knows better than to take it to school.

So what say you?  I agree the rules should be tempered by age and intent, but also agree that the implement should not under any circumstances have been brought to school.  And should be punished as such. 

Steff

So before school started this summer Nana promised the monsters a "prize" if they did good in school when I got their first report card.  The prize promised to Tan is about a 50$ lego set and K's was more than that.  Now the problem is, I don't want them to get such big prizes for Pre K and first grade because where do we go from there?  I think 10 dollars each from their Nana is sufficient and I am willing to continue what my dads policy was with us.  $5 per A  $4 for B $3 for Cs and NOTHING for D's or F's.
Now this would be fine because for first grade they get 3 grades plus citizenship type ratings.
He does deserve something special, he has the best grades in his class and is making a 94 in Math and a 98 in Reading and a 98 in writing. 
He has worked very hard at home on his papers.  I want to reward him because he has earned it, but I don't want him to think its always a given, does that make sense?

What do you all do? how do you decide whats enough and what is too much?

And how to fix it now without making Nana out to be the bad guy.  I am afraid I will have to let her follow through. 
Tanner has asked weekly since school began if he got his "port card" yet and when  they knew I got them last night they immediately wanted to call Nana and tell her so she could buy their toys and bring them to them.  When I said she couldnt then Tanner said well we could just run over there cause her has the stores and she could take us to pick them out. 
ummmmmmm.....Not likely I am driving over there.  I can concievably put the inevitable off a bit, but not sure I can do it permanently.
Steff

Tanner has been home from school sick this week.....and in doing my part to provide constant entertainment for the cranky sleepless child, I have been going through toys to get rid of and rearranging furniture.  In doing this, I emptied a cabinet of my games which included at least 14 versions of Trivial Pursuit.  Tanner has taken a particular liking to the All American Version.  He keeps looking at it and asking to play it and telling me its about the Americas Flag.  I tried to tell him he was too young.  That he has to learn how to read first.  So he pulls out a card and it has the word "a" in the middle.   See I can read that mom.  That says A.  Great....no Tanner I mean you have to read big words and it asks you big questions.  Like what he asked me. 

So I told him....Like who wrote the Declaration of Independence.

You could hear his eyes rolling as he put his hands on his lil hips and said," Thats easy mom, its the America Team."

Curious I asked what he meant.  He said well the America team fought the guys in red shirts and when they won they wrote the decoration."

How can I argue with that 5 year old grasp on Americas independence?

Steff

When you see me out and I am struggling to get in somewhere and I tell my little boys they need to hold the door for Mama and other ladies because its the right thing to do,  Please don't tell them its okay not to. 
When they let it  slam in my face and I get onto them, Please Don't tell me they are just kids.  See we are trying to train them up with the respect and manners that seem to be lacking often in society today and we do expect them to do these things.  They in turn need to pay attention to what they are doing.  It is my job to teach them right and wrong and manners and courtesy.  I am not telling you how to raise yours or that I expect it from you, but I do expect it from mine even if I have to make them come back and do it over.  It is the doing it over that is more likely to make it stick in their mind. 
When you see my kids and they are throwing a tantrum for candy and I say no, please don;t hand it to them and say just this once.  It is my decision whether they get candy, not yours.  I allow it on occasion, but they get plenty of it when they are out of my reach, rewards at school and church, rewards from doctors and even from daddy.  It is not something I feel the need to let them have on a daily basis. 

When I tell my kids no about ANYTHING and they throw a fit and I swat their bottom, Please dont feel the need to tell me to go easy on them they are little kids...I am well aware what they are, but I want them to grow up to be strong, confident, loving, caring, respectful, courageous, thankful, generous, well rounded men.  Part of that means learning each of those skills at home from their daddy and I.  It means they need to gracefully accept my no just as well as they accept my yes.  It means they need to learn that they don';t get every last thing they want every time they want it.  It works very well with one child who is learning and understanding delayed gratification and that he can save his own money.  The other ....well not so much, but he keeps throwing fits, and he keeps not getting what he wants.  Eventually the lesson will sink in. 

Thanks,
Steff

     As little girls we are brought up on the fairy tales of Cinderella and Snow White and all the rest where the handsome prince sweeps in with a white horse and carries the maiden off from the drudgery of her life to his castle to take care of her forever.
While it makes a fantastic story for a little girl, as big girls we learn that the men around us are pretty human just like us.  They work hard, they play hard, some are dorks and some are geniuses.  They put their pants on one leg at a time and if we are lucky they are responsible and honorable and love us with all their hearts. 
And so we search, for the one to make us laugh, and love and hold us when we cry and tease us when we are goofy and put up with our neuroses as we put up with theirs.  We kiss a few(hundred) frogs along the way and somewhere along the lines we learn what is important to us.  When we are lucky enough to find  that one....who fits, just melts into our lives as if its meant to be, as if we are designed to find each other, we start to pray that he is smart enough to realize he is that one and that our lives can mesh so well forever and as one. 
Seven years ago we said, "I do"  and when it was all over you said "finally" 
I never dreamed when I met you that I would fall so completely in love with you, or that I could love you so much more today than I did then. 
I have watched you through our life together, working hard to take care of us, as you held each of our beautiful sons for the first time, as you have built things and cleaned up our property, rebuilding tractors and clearing rocks and crap from the land.
I miss you every single day that you aren't here, and I truly cherish every day that we are together.  I love watching you with the boys, your patience as they help you build, your frustration when they are kids and the depth of love when you hold them and talk to them and just be in the moment with them. 
I appreciate that you put up with my lack of house keeping skills and that you make me laugh, at myself, with myself....and often at you.  You rock my world and you make my life complete.  Glad we made it through the first seven years, heres to the next seven being even better. 
I love you C with all my heart.
Always,
S.

   To this day I have not figured out how on earth my sister and I carried the wonder twins seperately.  Lucy and Tanner may be "only" cousins but they have a bond thicker than any I have ever seen except with twins.  They seem to look at each other and totally get what the other is thinking.  This is rarely a good thing for me. 

In the last 4 days they have together:

Eaten their weight in jello and taco chips
Flooded the bathroom and shower
Knocked Chris' satellite out of service
wet on my bed in a peeing contest
swam at least 10 miles and slid at least 8769 times
sat on the roof of my van
burned out one of theh lights on my van
fought 800 times
hugged 8000 times
and last but not least cried at least 30 times each.

Thursday was a good day until....while trying to get dinner ready we told them they had to take showers.  I put tanner in first and lucy was being aggravated by Chris so happy to be away from "her Tann-er " for a few minutes.  He got done and I put her in....he got his jammies on and then i got back to cooking so wasnt paying close attention but at the same time we are in a 26 foot travel trailer he cant be that far away.  All of a sudden we hear a screech and when we get to the bathroom(10 feet) there is water POURING over the side of the shower andabout 2-3 inches standing on the floor.  Great....I get her out of the shower, wrapped in a towel and out of the bathroom.  She is bawling, Tan is giggling, and C and I are just trying to figure out what happened and how to fix it.

we sop with towels what we can but I know the best option is a shop vac or similar...after a few minutes I left to go see if our neighbors had one and left him with the kids, He did get lucy dressed and then told them to go ride their bikes. 
My  friend doesnt have a shop vac but has a steam vac handy so I borrow it an come home.  we commence the cleaning and also fixing dinner cause now its wayyyy later than we planned.

I get things set and have their food on plates ready to go so open the door to call them to dinner .  I can totally hear them playing and talking but dont see them where they should be.  I start to step back to grab my shoes and go find them and a movement catches the corner of my eye....good lord they are sitting on the ski rack on the roof of my van.....Lets just leave it at its a good thing I was speechless cause any words I would have come out with wouldnt have been fit for print.

Chris hearing my exclamation of shock and seeing my face came across the lving room and was out the door in a flash....quick enough to see them sstep on my mirror.  He paddled them both about 4 swats each(well deserved I must say) and we both told them they are never to clim on a car like that again.  I leave him to deal with them and come back inside to work on the bathroom some more and bend over to dry a particular spot between the toilet and the shower and manage to hit myself square on my left eye with the corner of the towel cabinet.

Great now not only to I feel like I have been run over and beat up I can look like it too!!!
Oh and the reason for the shower back up...i dug toilet papaer out of the drain with a fork....so lovely.....NOT!!
well gotta go today is moving day!!
Steff

Ok so I havent really posted in forever so will just start with a few recent little funnies.

The boys and I were going into town and for the first time they noticed all the float places along Highway 10.  They were telling me about how many boats and rafts and could I take them, and such.  After a little of this I told them that when they get to be teenagers the float places are close and they will know the river well so thy could get a job at the float places so they could see all the pretty girls go floating.  Keifer began one of his usual excited whoops and said something about it being coool.  Tanner thought for a minute and then said, "thats ok I don't need to do that, when I grow up, I am going to be Lucy's WIFE."  (she is my neice).  We rapidly had a little discussion  about husbands and wives and not marrying our cousins. 
He said he doesnt want to be a husband because he doesnt want to have to leave the house all the time like daddy does. 

He recently informed Chris that he didnt need to go to school anymore if Chris will just teach him to drive because then he will  be able to be a cop and when he is done being a cop, he is going to be a cowboy and hunt penguins to sell to the zoo.

Keifer is spending some alone time at Nana's house.  I called after he had been there for a couple of days and asked to talk to him.  After a few minutes mom finally got him to come to the phone and the conversation went something like this:
me--hey buddy we miss you are you having fun
him--mom why are you calling? you disturbed me.
and then he hung up.

The next day I again called and asked mom to ask him if he could talk to me or if it would disturb him....I swear to you I could hear the childs eyes rolling at me.  "No nan, I cant talk right now I would get disturbed.

I told him sunday afternoon that he has 9 more days with Nana before I get there.  Oh mama, he says thats awesome.  Is that a lot of days still?

Hope everyone is having a great summer and will post more soon.

Steff

sorry guys there wont be mu
ch posting through mid july...
we have very limited phone and net access in kansas
steff

So Chris has been home a month.  He has fixed the lawnmower, the tractor(twice) and generally gotten to do everything he wants to do and a couple of things I have made him do like pick up furniture in Oklahoma City and go visit my grandma for mothers day. 

We also spent three days in Branson and went to SIlver Dollar City two days, played miniature golf, went to a big show (Clay Coopers Country Music Express)
The kids had a ball.  They don't quite understand the concept of golf, so that was really trying for daddy.  I think sometimes that because he was raised by his grandparents he doesnt always understand the small stuff.  So I was trying to tell him that cheating at mini golf is something that five year olds do.  He expects them to act full grown all the time and I don't know how else to tell them they are acting pretty normal for 5-6 year old boys. 

Silver Dollar City was a BLAST  we let them eat cotton candy for breakfast and the first day we got there early enough in the morning we didnt have to wait for anything.  They got to ride in the kiddy section to their hearts content.  But the one ride they really wanted was closed...They wanted to ride on the BIG pirate ship. We rode the spinning t cups, and flying elephants and pirate ships, the mini roller coaster, and then took a break for cotton candy and to walk around for a while.  We found the tree house splash pad area and they had a ball shooting with the water cannons and running in the maze.  Then Chris and Keifer went on the lost mine ride.  They got WET...this was of course Tanners cue to HAVE to go and C insisted I take him.  Yanno its just BAD to do those things when your husband is a crack shot and can feed quarters into a water cannon thing to shoot at you as you ride.  But ride we did.  And I stayed mostly dry until we reached the spot with the water cannons and C shot us...yep, he soaked us head to toe....

while we were waiting for C and K to ride Tan and I checked out a couple of shops.  He found a penguin magnet.  Now that boy is crazy about his penguins and it was the only one.  I was willing to pay the 3.99 it was marked, but then we got up there to pay and the lady says.... 28 cents.  YEAHHHH I love bargains and souvenier bargains are even better. 
Tanner was totally into the starfish and shells and wanted to buy me one for my "bootiful rock" collection he has started for me.  I convinced him that mommy didn't need one but that we would look at them next time for me. 
He is so giving and sensitive and I love that about him.  And he has this smile that just goes on for miles.  It lights up his whole face and carries over to his entire body.  Its gorgeous.  He has gotten in the habit recently that if he likes something it is "totally amazwing" 

Coming off the lost mine ride it was totally amazing and when I asked what he liked best he said, " I didnt know I would get soaking wet mom!"  He cracked me up completely and then in a few minutes asked me when we could go again.  We met back up with C and K and Sawyer and went around to eat lunch.  We ate barbecue and more cotton candy and then went on to ride more rides.  The boys wanted to see if the big pirate ship was fixed while we were there.  It was and so we rode, the boys and I.  Now that was always one of my favorite rides.  I love the feeling of flying high and falling back to the ground.  But what was frightening to me was that the bar does not close tightly and the kids could quite easily FALL OUT under it.  This didn't become completely apparent until we were nearing the highest point on the ride.  I spent the last half of the ride completely freaked out.  We got off the ride with both of them looking as shell shocked as I felt and they promptly began begging to ride it again.  I agreed, but its a bizarre thing allowing that freedom and at the same time wanting to hold on with my every ounce of strength.  But we rode, my boys and I, it was awesome and bittersweet and scary as hell, but I can't wait till our next trip back to do it again.
Steff

Oh joy the thing about full disclosure is that it cuts both ways.  I have to be just as honest about this as I was about starting the shred...I have lost 1 pound....I havent gotten to do the shred since Friday Morning because I cannot get into that room because of the furniture moving issues.
We have a sectional in 2 halves sitting in front of the TV that is in the playroom.  While its is mostly for  nice reason, my mom gave us her "old" furniture and my friend that is taking the sectional couldnt get it over the weekend because she was having a slumber party for a bunch of ten year old boys.
But I have gotten a good bit of exercise moving furniture around the house and emptying all the junk we have accumulated over the last 5 years.  We have rearranged moved about 60 % of the house around at this point and I still have a sofa and a bunch of boxes of stuff to get rid of.

The boys school has an awards ceremony tomorrow so we are really looking forward to that. 

Steff

In the interest of full disclosure and maybe a little of holding my own feet to the fire to make myself continue with this because I really want to and need to I am going to lay it all on the line. 

I am 38 years old.  I have three sons, born in June of 03, March of 04 and December of 08. 
As of Sunday Morning I weighed 213 pounds and am at the largest I have ever been in my life with the exceptions of pregnancy.  Now this is particularly disgusting to me because in Jan and Feb I maintained an after birth weight of 203-205 for a good 8 weeks.  So what the heck happened inMARCH????

I don't have any idea, but the sad fact was it happend and I was starting to feel really miserable.  I ordered the Flirty Girl Fitness kit, and I really do enjoy it, but its hard for me to pick up dance moves and I did it for about 10 days solid and then something happened and fell off the wagon.  I tried to get back into it, and I can do two of the workouts straight thru pretty easily now, but I knew I needed something more.  So when I saw last week a bunch of Mommy bloggers were doing the 30 Day Shred and challenging others to do it too and swearing by their awesome results I thought what the heck? Its a twenty minute workout it surely cant kill me.  So I pickd it up on sale last Saturday at Target. 

Really excited by what everyone else was saying about it, I got started Sunday.  I did day 1, level 1.  It was hard and I dont think I was able to do but like 4 push ups the first time.  I got thru it and thought it wasnt too bad.  Sunday night I began to feel muscles I don't remember ever having before, but I persevered and did it again Monday....I think Igot 7 push ups done Monday.  Lets face it I am going from nearly nothing exercise wise so this can be a big deal for me.  I again made it through the entire workout without quitting and though I was feeling every muscle in my body, I was also feeling pretty proud of myself because it was hard and I still did it. 
I got up yesterday and I was really pushing myself a bit harder and I did 12 push ups within the time and again finished the entire workout.  I am guessing there will be more for me to get through, but I am improving every day it seems I can do just a little bit more.  I want to continue and I want to see what kind of results I will get through it. 

So my new plan is to post mini updates as part of my regular posts and will post full updates on Tuesdays, complete with weights and measurements and continue holding my feet to the fire so to speak.  I got through day 4 today and I am not dead yet.  I am not trying to lose all this weight instantly, but I do intend to reach my goal this time even if it hurts to get there, because my kids deserve a mom who is in shape and energetic, and lets face it a mom who is here, and not getting sick and if I continued on the sedentary path I was on I was at risk for all kinds of diseases in the not so distant future. 

Steff

Ok...so since a bunch of the mommy blogger I follow are doing this workout and exclaiming about the difference they felt in such a short time I decided I would join in the fun....so day 1 i survived not easily, but i was not fallng apart either....until about 10 hours later and then I started feeling muscles I dont remember owning before Sunday.  But I pressed on and did day 2 level one yesterday morning complete with C runing in a couple of times to make fun of me...jack a**....i still finished it but it was a little harder as i knew which muscles were there now.  I am assuming this morning will likely be the hardest, but I can survive it is only 20 minutes....but let me just say that last 30 seconds of jumping jacks...OMG OMG....
I will probably do my Booty Beat dvd first just cause its WAAYYYY more fun LOL.  It may kill me but I totally plan to be able to wear a cute bathing suit this summer and not freak out over the thought of being seen.  That is a hard promise to both make to myself and follow through on at 38 with just having had a 3rd babe, but I am going to do it....for them as much as for me, they deserve that happy active mama I know is in there hiding under all these extra layers of crap fat.

So I persevere and am off to do my workout beforeany of my stinky boy audiences can wake to cheer me on  torment me as I work.

Steff

Before we had kids, there was nothing Chris and I liked more than to get in the truck and drive.  Get out in the country and just wind down some old back road and see where it takes us.  Last night, we took the kids to the pizza place that is similar to Chuck E Cheese.  It was their reward for behaving pretty good all day long while we drug them from here to kingdom come and back taking care of stuff.  Both of the boys won plenty of tickets, but Chris won at least 1000 tickets and won me a Razorback Basketball...my hero....
Then we let the boys pick and both had about 200 tickets....Keif picked 20 little bitty army men. Lovely something else to step on and throw away.  Tanner was a bit more discerning, he picked a rubber snake, a bitty plane, and the rest in army men.  They "fought" at least halfway home with Sawyers seat being a bit of the fighting range since he was in the middle.  We got back to Siloam and Keifer was asleep.  Chris mentioned that the crazy a** GPS that I got him for Christmas gives strange directions.  He said it keeps telling me to go home a strange way.  So we decided to try it.  After turnng of the highway it doesnt look too bad its blacktop, mostly smooth but definitely a country road.  Chris told Tanner he could "drive" and let T get in his lap.  About 2 miles in the blacktop runs out but we decide to continue on and keep following the directions.  As we are going thru the woods, Tanner tells Chris that the vampires and coyotes, and bears live in these woods and that the alligator ate all the witches.  We are giggling (all three of us) almost continuously.  Between Tanner's comments about what lives in the woods and Chris's about the GPS, I am near tears laughing hysterically.  We get about six miles back further in and we come to the river.  It is a low water bridge that is completely covered.  We can tell ther is no way we are going to cross it.  Chris puts it in 4 wheel and we back out of there to go around.  We backtrack about 4 miles an he takes another side road, all the while he and Tanner are still commenting about my crazy GPS and Tanner is just mad now.  Tells me I shouldnt have bought daddy this crazy GPS cause it tells him to go through the woods and drive on the river.  The thing is even though I can repeat his words I cannot describe his facial expressions and they are what makes this totally hysterical.  Long story short this little detour that says it will save us ten miles, wound up taking us on a 30 mile circle before we finally get back to the roads we know.  The moral of this story though is that sometimes to have some fun you have to get off the beaten path and take a few detours.  We had a blast. 
So take a little extra time today and enjoy a detour or two.
Steff

OK so Chris has been gone since November 1 except the two weeks he was here for Christmas and Sawyer's birth....which means we haven't had sex since HALLOWEEN....I am dying people.  So he gets home last night and the kids are all asleep so we get to have a lil fun but because it has been so long...well you get the idea.  So guess what arrived this morning....it is a cruel freaking joke people...

He is semi impressed with the house(good thing if he had started in on it I might have had to kill him....LOLOLOL
This is a bigger deal than I can really explain but the kicker in the whole thing is this is probably the first time in 5 years I have gotten this much done, and I did 90% of it  by myself.  I had a friend come help move furniture, but many of the other things I would normally have help with I have done by myself and in less than a week. 

I feel better now than I have felt in the last several years.  I guess we have finally gotten my meds back right since having kids threw off my dosage and we have been experimenting ever since.

How awesome it is to get out of bed and not feel like all I want is to go back.
Steff