Time

Time
What a precious gift it is. We are given 24 hours each day - yet it seems I struggle with always wanting MORE.

More time to spend with my husband.

How I wish we had more time for date nights and weekends away together. More time to talk, to laugh and just be with each other without the worries of work and the interruptions of children! ;)

More time with my children

I greatly value all the time I get to spend with my children, but it just seems that the older they get the more I noticed that this time is turning into rushed time. Rushing to get going in the morning, rushing to get to appointments or school. Rushing to get diner done or catch up on the cleaning and laundry. Rushing to get baths done before heading out the door to work. How I wish I had more "laid-back" time to just play and spend with them without always hurrying.

The sweet time we spend now with the ones we love will make memories that will last a lifetime. Time is a precious gift from God - and my goal is to try my best to use it better. To not waste it, to not be so rushed . . . to savor every precious moment.

"Every morning you are handed 24 golden hours. They are one of the few things in this world that you get free of charge. If you had all the money in the world, you couldn't buy an extra hour. What will you do with this priceless treasure?"
Author Unknown

Got Laundry?

I doubt an explanation of the above pictures is necessary, I'll just let them speak for them-self's . Why do I allow this to happen? I so hate having the laundry in the basement, its just too easy to dump the dirty cloths down there, shut the door and "forget" about them. My old house had a main floor laundry and I never let my laundry pile up like this. I keep telling myself that its because now there are five of us and back then it was only three. Which I'm sure is partially the truth, because we do go through a god awful amount of cloths, but this is ridiculous!! I did actually have all the laundry caught up a week ago, so I have no idea how we have this much laundry in just one short week??!! So I guess everyone can guess what I will be doing the rest of my afternoon and well into the evening....

(Also just wanted to say thanks to everyone for all the prayers & positive thoughts for my Dad. It was a long day for him yesterday, but we were actually up there this morning to see him and he is doing great. He had a couple physical therapist come in this morning and he got out of bed and walked to the window, which is really good. I brought the kids up there so he was glad to see them for a little while. Luckily he didn't have a roommate in his room because it did get a little wild in there with all three of the kids. LOL! )

Surgery tomorrow!!

Well tomorrow is the day my family has been both dreading & looking forward too for months now. My dad is having his first of two surgeries to replace his hips. He is having the left done tomorrow and if all goes well the plan is to do the right in 6-8 weeks. I pray he has as easy surgery and recovery as possible and after this is all done that he gets his life back without all the pain he has been in.

Scared

I had a very scary realization today concerning Parker. For a couple of months now I have had some concern that he is not really talking at all, maybe just a few words here & there. I mentioned this to his doctor at his 18 month check-up and he said that we wont get worried until his 2nd birthday. I agreed and said I would give it until then. Well I have been working with him, trying to get him to repeat words with no success. He just points at things. Well today after his nap I heard him in there jabbering to himself so I went in to get him up. I opened the door and he was laying in his crib wide awake, but facing the wall. At that point I realized that he did not hear me come in. I said his name quietly, no response. I said it louder, no response. I did this at least six times, each time louder and each time with more & more tears in my eyes. How could he not hear me? I was just a few feet from his crib. I finally said his name loudly and he jerks his head up all excited to see me. I am trying not to jump to conclusions, but I don't think he has been hearing us. I am so worried. The level that I had to use to get him to hear me was totally shocking. He doesn't have a history of ear infections or anything. I am going to call the Dr on monday, but I am totally letting my mommy paranoia get the best of me. Thinking what if this is permanent. Will it get worse? I just keep telling myself not to get worried yet and wait until we are told anything for sure, but that is so hard to do.

PJ Day

Around our house we have days that me & the kids have named "pajama day". Today is one of them days. We usually have at least one of these days a week . These are the days that I have to work and none of us really does too much, just lounge around in our PJ's all day. We watch movies, read books, color. On these days the only reason we even leave the house is to take Kendall to the bus stop about a mile away if she has school and we even do that in our PJ's (except Kendall of course gets dressed for school) I hope that we never have car trouble on one of these days because I would look like a homeless lady walking down the street in my pyjamas carrying two kids also in there pajamas. There are a lot of good things about working the night shift and having small children. One being that either Brian or I are able to be home with them most of the time and it just works well for our family. One of the only cons is that on the days that I have to work I wake up with the kids in the morning, have them all day, pretty much pass Brian at the door when he gets home from work with a quick kiss goodbye, work all night from 7pm to 7:30 am and finally get home the next morning at 8 am and collapse into a coma. I have been doing this now for 6 years now & honestly I can say I have gotten use to it, but it is definitely not any easier. One of these days, I will get on a normal shift, but until then we will just continue having our PJ days that we have all gotten use to.

My little guy

Here is a picture of my little guy. The poor thing has been exposed to everything & anything girly since birth. It first started with a few pink blankets when all his were dirty shortly after he was born. Then it was the pink and purple bottles. Having had two girls first, I had so much pink, it was everywhere. He didn't know any different so what did it hurt right? Now fast forward to now. I still really don't think anything of washing his hair with the "Princess Strawberry" shampoo, or giving him the pink Cinderella sippy cup. But now he actually prefers the pink sippy cup to his truck ones, he loves to wear his sisters play cloths and jewelry, and he has been known to carry around the play purses. (He does fill them with his match box cars though =) ) What have I done? Although, haven't they been saying it's now the "in" thing for guys to be mertosexuals.... right?

Check out my Slide Show!

What is this??

Ok so...this is I guess my first blog ever, and for those who know me know I am not much of a writer, but more a talker. I decided to start this blog today of all days because I am in need of an outlet for feelings I am having that even I can't put into words to talk about. I have been feeling like someone has pushed the fast forward button and my life is just flying by before my eyes. I look at my kids and wonder what in the heck happened, I mean didn't I just give birth to them yesterday? How can I be six years into this parenting thing? I look at my husband and wonder how could we be about to to celebrate 9 years of marriage, wasn't it just last week we were saying our vows to each other? Now he knows me inside and out, the good & the bad (& the evil =) ) The other day I looked at my "baby" brother as he helped me carry my babies out to the van in a snow storm and thought wasn't it just last year that I carried you on my hip? How could you be a man? Over the past year I have seen a series of events that have really made me put life into prospective. One of these things is seeing my dad go from the active man I remember, to one whose face is filled with pain with every step he takes. Whose pain has changed his expression and taken the color from his face. Whose pain makes it almost impossible for him to even get out of bed. I find myself saying, what happened? Wasn't it just last year you were taking us kids on dune buggy rides or for walks all over the woods or in the swamps catching turtles? I have realized that life really does fly by and that certain things, both good and bad, happen whether we are ready for them too or not.