When will the tears end?

Thursday morning as I was getting the kids ready for the day my phone started ringing like crazy. It turns out my sister in law went into labor at 4am Tuesday morning. She was 32 weeks along. I got the call from my brother that my Niece Shana was born at 7:25am. He said that she wasn't doing well but they were hoping for the best. At 8:30am I got the call that my brother and sister in law were being taken upstairs to have Shana baptized and given her last rites and then she would be taken off the respirator. At 10:06am my Niece was taken by the angels into Heaven.

Tim and Dawn are living every parent's worst nightmare. The death of your child. What do you say to them?? I'm sorry just seems so inadequate. I have no words of comfort to give. I don't know what to say to make them feel better. I guess that nothing anyone says can heal their hearts only time will do that.

My 4 year old nephew got on the phone with his Mom, Dawn, and started crying asking if Shana was OK and when can she come home. He doesn't understand what is going on. This must make it extra hard for them.

As horrible as it has been the worst is yet to come. They have met with the people from the funeral home that suggested having her laid out Sunday evening so people can pay their respects. And then he suggested that Monday we have a private burial with just immediate family. They were told that the funeral will be very hard and they should not have a lot of people there. Just the thought of going this weekend is killing me. I don't want to see that impossibly small casket. Just as Tim and Dawn aren't ready to bury their daughter.

I dread this weekend like you can't believe however I will be there for them in any way that I can.

Your turn!

Here is a picture of Madison at her first dentist appointment. She was very excited for this. She did a really great job of it too! She did everything that Kara asked her to do and got a clean bill for her teeth! No cavities!! Kara also said that one of her bottom teeth is loose and not to be surprised if she loses it soon! I'm not ready for my BABY too lose a tooth! After we left the dentist she said to me "I'm surprised that didn't hurt at all!!"



Here are the RULES:

1. Go to your Picture Folder on your computer or wherever you store your pictures.
2. Go to the 6th Folder and then pick the 6th Picture.
3. Post it on your bloggy and tell the story that goes with the picture.
4. Tag 5 other glorious peoples to do the same thing and leave a comment on their bloggy tellin’ them ’bout it

1) Courtney
2) Supahmommy
3) Erin
4) Bama
5) Sarah

My daughter is a pack rat!

Madison has a lot of crap treasures. She likes to keep every card she gets (and Grandma sends one for every holiday on the calendar), junky stuff we get from birthday parties (no offense Moms!). I lifted up her pillow the other day and she had a bunch of Kleenexes, hair clips, necklaces and even a fake rose we got at Disney on ice. She is the exact opposite of me in that regard. I throw EVERYTHING away! Just ask my husband, it drives him crazy! I once threw away the title to my car, really I did!

So Madison has 2 dressers and the one basically is a crap treasure holder. I decided to clean out the treasure holder today. She must have 50 blankets stuffed in that dresser. So I decided to send 3/4 of them to my brother who is expecting a little girl. Madison said that was OK. Then she wanted to know why I was also sending them her bibs, ummm because you are 4! I put her tap/ballet shoes in the pile to go and that didn't go over to well. She wants to keep them even though she can't wear them because they are 2 sizes too small!! As I was cleaning up the drawer and neatening (word?) up her doll stuff I pulled out a plastic Halloween coin. Here is our conversation:

Madison: What's that?
Me: Nothing, it's garbage
Madison: No it's not I need that!
Me: What is it?
Madison: I don't know but I need it. (And lovingly puts it back in the drawer).
Me: OK (Madison turns around and I lovingly put it under the pile of garbage!).

I cleaned just the one dresser and ended up filling an entire laundry basket with stuff to give away or garbage.

I just got Madison up from rest time and she had broken her headband. I told her to bring it downstairs to put in the garbage but she wants to keep it! Now how are you gonna wear a headband that is in 3 pieces!?!

There is too much crap treasures in this house!!!

Awww fuuuccckkkk!

Courtney and Lisha suggested Jillian Michaels exercise video to tone up! Ladies it is awesome! They said if I was doing it right I would say "awww fuuucckk". One of the first things they have you do it jumping jacks. Now, I have had 2 kids my bladder doesn't function quite as good as it used to! So there I am doing jumping jacks and seriously hoping that all the bouncing doesn't make me pee my pants! I do my jumping jacks then we do the jump rope and now I am thinking "thank god it's over" and she says now do jumping jacks again!! I stop and what do you think I said "fuuuccckkkkk!!!" Then I'm laughing hysterically thinking of what you guys said! It was quite the sight to see!

The push ups were a bit difficult. I had carpal tunnel surgery on my hand in October so it hurt to put pressure on it but I powered through! I LOVED this video! I have turbo jam which are basically dance moves with kicks and punches. I have NO coordination so it didn't really feel like I was getting a work out because I couldn't get the moves right. But this.... I finished an hour ago and my legs are still seriously quivering! This is nice because it is basic old school moves that don't require coordination and I KNOW I got a good workout! I may not be able to get out of bed in the morning and or sit on the potty without it hurting!!

I made it through the grueling 20 minutes and I will be back for another ass whooping tomorrow!

Jillian and I have a love-hate relationship now. She loves to kick my butt and I hate her for it!!! But if this doesn't get me toned up nothing will!

"You're a good Mom"

That is what Madison said to me on Thursday! My heart just melted into a pile of goo! I asked her why she thought I was a good Mom. She said that it was because I had gotten out the paint and paintbrushes and she was able to go to town with them! She had paint all over her hands. She literally painted her hands with the paintbrush! She also painted pictures for all the Grandparents. She was having so much fun and she kept saying over and over what a good Mom I was. It is so nice to hear that sometimes! Especially since I am the one that always has to be the mean one that says no to things!




And on to a totally different subject. Anyone have any suggestions on toning up? You know the arms, legs, BELLY! I walk on the treadmill daily which is great for keeping my weight even but it doesn't do much for toning up which is what I would really like to do. Any suggestions would be great!

Ithaca is gorges!

For Christmas I got Ryan 2 tickets to go see Josh blue (from Last Comic Standing). So yesterday we dropped the kids off to my Mom and headed to Ithaca. Ryan suggested stopping at the outlets in Waterloo since we were going right by there. He needed new work boots and I wanted to stop at the Children's Place. They were having an awesome sale!! I got Cooper 9 shirts, 3 pairs of pants, 3 pairs of jammies, a hat and a tie. And Madison got 3 pairs of jammies, 4 dresses and 6 shirts all for $115!!! Ryan couldn't wait to get out of there, I had him loaded down with all the clothes!

We got into Ithaca and went to the hotel. After we checked in we headed to the restaurant in the hotel for some lunch. We were so hungry we ordered 3 different appetizers! After that I was STUFFED. We went back to the room and relaxed for a bit. After that we went to visit a friend that works at Ithaca College. He gave us a tour of the campus and it is really pretty up there.

After that we went back to the hotel to relax. We then headed out to dinner and went to the show. The show was hilarious!! Eric James and Josh Blue were both hysterical! I was laughing so hard that I was crying! We had a really great time.

I was hoping for a great night of sleep and looking forward to sleeping in. Well that didn't happen. The mattress was like a ROCK! I am used to our very comfy sleep number mattress and the mattress there definitely was not! I think I woke up about once an hour. And in addition to the rock hard mattress we were right next to the vending machines. So every time someone got ice it woke me up (why do you need ice at 3am anyways?!). Then I was awake for good at 7am. So much for a good night sleep and sleeping in! My back was killing me!!!

But all in all we really had a great time! It was nice to spend the day/night with just Ryan. As for the title of this, I just couldn't resist! On the way to Ithaca Ryan was laughing about their slogan and it was also a butt of one of the jokes last night so I just had to name it that!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hello terrible twos, goodbye sanity!!

Ugh! Cooper was just terrible this afternoon! He did not want to listen. They were in the tub and he kept standing up. So the millionth time I told him to sit down or he would get hurt, can you see where this is going, he fell forward and hit his mouth on the tub. Cut the inside of his lip on his teeth. Blood everywhere, him crying. So I get him out of the tub to hug him and the stinker pees all over me!! And I do mean all over me.

*The rest of the afternoon was spent with him hitting Madison. He just kept bugging her and hitting her with his flash light. I have started putting Cooper in time out. He is almost 19 months old so it doesn't really work that well. I make him stand in the corner and I stand behind him to keep him there. But he will turn and look at me with that little devil grin! Or he will do something and then run over and put himself in the corner. So he sees it as more a game right now. And then I had Madison telling me every two seconds what Cooper was doing wrong. Which was lovely. So now we have terrible twos and tattle taling.

*Both kids have had colds and typically NEVER fight or hit each other. They play very nicely together and are always hugging each other. Cooper is also getting his 2 year molars so maybe that contributed to his pita status today!

Ahh... Sweet relief!

As you may remember right before Christmas the roof fell in on Ryan's shop. Thankfully it was fully insured. Being that we don't have credit cards or car payments we are able to save a good amount of money each month. So we went ahead and rebuilt the shop without waiting for the insurance check. We basically used every penny we had to rebuild. And it looks awesome! But now we have no money!
(Here is the old shop with the roof missing)

(Here is the new shop, mostly finished.)

Since it was such a big check the mortgage company decided that they would keep the check and we could get 3 draws on it. (Basically 1/3 of the check at a time). They kept telling us that the check was on the way. It took about a month and a half to get the first draw of the check. In the meantime I am stressing big time over it! Every day I'm checking the mailbox for the damn check. I'm not spending any money at all. And people I LOVE to shop!!! I went to the dentist for a cleaning last week and they told me that I was grinding my teeth in my sleep and I must be stressed about something! I'm stressed about the check all right. Well when I got home from the dentist there was a $7,000 check waiting for me!!!! Woo hoo =)

So the next day I hit up Target for some much needed stuff. I needed a new humidifier and the kids both got rain boots and various other things. I left $150 poorer than when I walked in but boy was it nice to spend some money!! I was able to order up a bunch of scrapbooking stuff and Ryan and I went shopping tonight and I got myself some new things for the summer and picked up a bunch of stuff for the kids for summer as well.

Have I mentioned I LOVE to shop!?! I could go shopping everyday! Now we are just waiting for the remaining 2/3 of the check. We may do our addition this summer with the rest of the insurance money. We want to put a master bedroom and bathroom over the garage and turn one of the bedrooms into an office/craft room!

Maybe I will stop grinding my teeth now.....