Miracles

Today I am grateful for Miracles.

I am grateful for the big ones and the small ones.
Each day is a miracle.
Every day that my kids wake up is a miracle.
Every time I drop them off for school and they have a good day, it is a miracle.
Every time Isabella smiles at me and says, "Mommy gimme a kiss," it is a miracle.
Every day in the summer when my air conditioner would kick on, it was a miracle.
Each time a baby is born into our family or another's, it is a miracle.
The little girl that I am carrying inside me is a miracle.
Each child under my care and protection is a miracle.
Every pay check we receive, is a miracle.
The fact that Doug and I both have jobs, is a miracle.

Yes. Today, I am grateful for miracles.

PS Say an extra prayer tonight for a mother who lost her 17 month old son to a tragic household accident, and be sure to give each of your little miracles an extra kiss and squeeze today.

In my shoes...or yours

It is interesting all the different shoes we wear. Actually, to be honest, I only have like 4 pairs of shoes... did I say that out loud? I wish I were into shoes. Heck, I wish I were into fashion. I wish I knew what to where. When. And how.

I look at my most fashionable friends (who tolerate my very SAD wardrobe) and think, I wonder where they got that cute shirt or how they knew to put that sweater with that shirt with those pants and shoes, and all those accessories are SO fun... alas, I am SO not clued into fashion. And its mostly unfortunate for my family :).

Although I do think that I can put together a somewhat cute outfit with my kids. But I think they are going to be doomed to the 4 shoe thing as well. But then maybe they will, despite all odds, develop a fashion sense. Isabella already has to have a pink shirt, pink pants, pink underpants (she calls them), and pink shoes... oh dear. I know what your thinking. "That's a lot of pink." And your right. It is. Especially when it's polka dots, striped, plaid, and solid :).

Back to the shoes. We all have a pair of shoes that fit us only the way a shoe can. Like my running shoe for example. It fits me like a glove. It pronates with me. It supinates with me. It runs heel toe or toe heel with me. One time I tried running in someone else's shoe. You see, I forgot my shoes at home. And these ones looked like ones that I could like and get used to. But, they hurt my feet. I had blisters, shin splints, and sore feet all day. We did not mesh. At. All.

Shoes are kinda like the trials we have in our lives. Sometimes we might look at someone else's shoe and say, wow that is a cute shoe! I wish I could have that shoe instead of mine. And then we put it on and our feet get all curly, our legs hurt, our back hurts, and our feet hurt. Not such a good idea in the end. So we go back to our own shoes. The ones we know. The ones we love/the ones that we hate. And we continue to wear them day after day. Even if we think we'd like to wear someone else's shoes, we really only just want to wear our own.

Today I am grateful for my own shoes.

Baby #5

Let's talk baby number 5 and why I haven't blogged for so long...

I looked back and I have been less than pretty sparse over the last 7 months. And I can attribute it only to hormones and being SUPER MISERABLE. Not as miserable as most but miserable enough as some.

There have been a lot of days in the last 7 months that I would like to erase. Being down in the dumps like Ellaphamumps (one of my fave books to read to the kids) is no fun. I get it. A little. But I get it. Some days its hard to get out of bed and do stuff, so lately I have been trying to fill my days with stuff to keep me busy. I have also tried to simplify. Can I say that in the same sentence? Being busy and simplifying?

We repainted our house (I should get some pics up, but I don't amount to much compared to pinterest), been canning stuff like crazy, peaches, apples, applesauce, pears, chicken, butter... you name it. I been trying it. Keeps my mind in a good place :)

Also, I have pregnancy induced carpal tunnel and it is the WORST. THING. EVER. I have had it before, but never like I have it this pregnancy. I can't sleep, type, sit, stand, lay down, sleep on my right, or my left, or my back, or braid the girls hair, or chop veggies, cook dinner, put a pony in my hair, blow dry my hair (I can now proudly say I go without washing my hair for up to 5 days, because I literally CAN'T do it without shooting pains fingertips to shoulders). It's positively awful. I know. WAAAAAA!!!! but it's my blog, I can WAAAAAAA all I want :).

I am however, grateful for the VERY active peanut that is miraculously growing inside me, even though she kicks me ALL day and gets the hiccups regularly.

Bella Boo Bop

The other day we were all sitting around the table and Isabella started blowing into the air. I said,
"Isabella, What are you doing?"
She says, "Blowing down the house." And she continued to blow into the air.
Then Mikenna started blowing into the air and at the same time, Macey (our dog) started barking outside the back door.
Doug said, "Oh no, even Macey is scared that the house is going to blow down."
Isabella curled up her face, started scrambling out of her high chair, and said, "I no want our house to blow down, I want mommy."
It was so adorable and HILARIOUS and terrifying all at the same time :).

***Warning***
This story may not be suitable for everyone.

The other day I walked into the girls' bathroom and notice an unflushed toilet, which is not an uncommon occurrence in our house... we are still working on flushing toilets after we potty... all of us :)
So I noticed that there was some #2 in the potty and said, "Isabella, Did you go poo in the potty?" Isabella, "Yes, I went like this (and she scrunches up her face and starts to grunt) and pushed really hard, and it came out."

Totally straight faced. I seriously almost died!

Just like her dad.

I will have you know that these pictures were taken at 830PM. They look like they are NEVER going to go to bed... but they are SO. DARN. CUTE.
I am pretty grateful for the little girl who healed a little piece of my very broken heart and who brings a smile to our faces every moment she is awake.

One more think

I know that I should be grateful today because it's November and by golly we should be grateful in November because it's Thanksgiving.

But I am just fit to be tied. We had a meeting with "the team" at Savannah's school and I was seriously less than impressed. It seems as though it gets harder and harder the older that Savannah gets to find people who will love her and be good to her.

I have turned into "Mama Bear" and she is not a fun person to mess with. Trust me. You all know. When the Mama Bear comes out you better watch out.

So after all these meetings of spending time with the principal, the psychologist, the teacher, the parent advocate, and Doug and I, I am still left to wonder if any of it will make a difference or sink in. It is all just so frustrating.

As I sat there, the teacher tried to tell me that since she had a friend with a child who had Prader Willi, she had SO much experience on the matter and that I had none. I just live, breathe, eat, and sleep daily PWS... but it's all in my head. I am sorry. WHAT?!?!?!?! And that we really need to find a way to get Savannah's behaviors under control (we have had like 100 good days and 5 bad days.... but when the bad days come, they are REALLY bad, not going to lie). We need to find a way at school to handle them... so STOP suspending her!!!

The suggestion came up that she be put in a time out padded room that is more like a closet than a room. I am SORRY?!?!?!?!? At first I thought that was a good idea, and the more I thought about it the more ludicrous I thought it was. If it comes to that... I am just not sure what I will do.

So I guess today I am grateful for the parent advocate that went to the meeting today with us.

Savannah Banana

Oh my little Savannah is a stinker pot. She gives me so much grief and trouble and sometimes I just want to sell her (as she says). But I would never do it! I read on a friend's blog that

"God doesn't give strong parents special needs children, He gives weak parents special needs children to help make them strong."

It isn't too far from the truth. My mother in law once told me, "ya know? I think that everyone needs to have a special needs child so that they can truly understand the mother and the child and be nice to them." I totally agree. There are some things I wouldn't wish on others... but I sure wish there was a little more understanding in all this from others.

Savannah was at school on Wednesday and got a piece of candy from Mikenna before school (not sure how this even happened without my knowlege... turkies!!!) and then proceeded to eat it out on the playground, which apparently is unacceptable. So the aide chased after my Savannah (who is like 3 feet tall, but quick as a whip) and was unsuccessful in the catching of her... so her teacher thought that she would take a gander at it and finally caught up with her.

Seriously? If you can run a 20 minute mile you can CATCH SAVANNAH! She got pretty far before she was finally tracked down, and she was quite upset as you might imagine. Someone was TAKING AWAY HER FOOD!!! Um. That's a no brainer. LET IT GO!! (unless you are me and you know how to reason with her).

Well she was pretty upset as you might imagine a starving ethiopian child might be if you took their last scrap of bread from them and she threw her teacher's glasses on the ground and scratched them pretty good.

#1. Don't take food from Savannah.

#2 Don't take food from Savannah.

#3. Don't get at eye level to Savannah if you have glasses (this is a lesson that should have been previously learned but was apparently was not)

So she spent 1.5 hours in the principals office convincing him NOT to call her mother because "She is pregnant and sick" and "she has to work tonight as a nurse, so she is sleeping." Well isn't she a bright little thing. Well in all the "chaos" of the kids coming in and out of his office, he didn't have time to call me... um... what about the 2 secretaries in the office or the PERSONAL secretary he HAS!!!??? They were too busy to call me? Seriously? Are you stinking kidding me?

Very irritating. He called me about 2 hours after school was out and told me that he was suspending Savannah.

SERIOUSLY?!?!?!?!?

SERIOUSLY?!?!?!?

It wasn't even her fault!! It actually was a breakdown at home that was MY fault and exacerbated by the teacher when she just couldn't let it go.

I by no means think that my little princess is a little princess 24/7, but there are certain things things that you just need to let go.

It was a little frustrating because I worked Thursday night and that was day she was suspended! So I had to blow threw my list of people to ask to watch her for 3 hours while I took a nap (which is no easy task, but one that if you have the opportunity to take YOU SHOULD!!!) Thanks to a saint of a friend, I was able to fill the position, promising promise after promise :) to repay the debt, and really its a debt, because when you are in a pickle, you will do just about anything for the person who gets you out of the pickle jar.

**post this post: On Monday we went back to school and the little stink pot got suspended AGAIN!!! Wow she is really working this system, all she has to do is act naughty and then she gets to come home, fun right?

Nope. Today she was Cinderella for a day :) scrubbing floors, folding laundry, doing dishes, picking up dog poop, dusting, and anything else that we could think of that wasn't fun... hopefully she is learning that it isn't any funner to be at home than it is at school... Maybe the school should learn to LISTEN TO ME!!!

So today I am thankful for this little squirt (and the friend who saved my bacon):

My Hubby - He's the Best

I can't even tell you how great my husband is. I wish I could. It would take many lunas (that's moon in spanish)

I went to Time Out for Women a bit ago and he stayed home with the kids. Which he does on a fairly regular basis when I work or am off doing many of the other things that we get to do/or don't do as mommies.

Anywho, it was the ward Daddy Daughter hike, which he was in charge of and so he got the girls all dressed in their hats, shoes, 3 layers of clothes, and coats so that they would be warm. Oh and he packed lunches, water bottles and extra items to make sure they were comfortable.

It was a 3 mile hike and Isabella refused to walk for any of it, in her defense, it was VERY cold (well at least for our warm AZ bones), so Doug packed her in the backpack (for kids) that he brought, both ways, up and down. It was a little rocky for Savannah so he ended up packing her down as well. He put her in the backpack and carried Isabella on the front. What a saint. He is very tired and sore :).

That is just one of the many things they did that weekend, other fun things consisted of making popcorn and having a partay with the girls, usually involves a movie and staying up late :), going to grandmas, taking Macey (our dog) for walk, and playing at the park. My girls adore their dad... and so do I. We are just missing one handsome little would be 4 year old Daxton to fill in the gap. Someday... just not today.

I know. My husband pretty much rocks. Oh and the house was CLEAN when I got home :) Bonus points.

Looking a little bit tired :)

It's NOVEMBER!!

I spose since it is the month of November that I should start thinking of all the things that I am grateful for.

A few years ago.... April 2007 to be exact, I had a thought. It went something like this: "What things in the future do I have to look forward to?" I thought to myself, that "I like things just the way they are now and I wouldn't change anything at this point, only to live in the moment and appreciate what I have."

Little did I know that my world was about to change dramatically. My only son was about to be taken away from me.

I am grateful for the now. I am grateful that I get to be here right now, to do all the hard things, the easy things, the fun things, the mundane things. But I am here and we are all mostly healthy, happy, and living the best that we can.