The Weekend from Hell

The title really says it all. A nice kid free, couple time weekend turned into a terrifying near death experience. At one point I stopped and thought " When am I going to wake up!" only to realize I wasn't asleep.

We did however survive. We've got the bruises and wounds to prove it wasn't any fun though. It's all to long to try and type and frankly I'm really tired of even thinking about it. The short, really short version is this.

We rented a canoe with a great group of people my hubby works with. We ended up in freezing water clinging to a tree screaming for help. Really uncertain if we would both make it out alive. Just typing that last sentence brings that lump back in my throat. After a long time we were pulled out of the water and ecstatic only to realize that we had to hike about 3 miles bare foot thru the woods to try and contact somebody, anybody.  A leg wound, several bruises, a black eye and 4 feet FULL of thorns later we made it to a house to use the phone. You can only imagine the shock of the poor man who answered the door. I'm not really sure I would have answered the door to us. Personally.

But like I said. We made it out alive.

I did think to make a few pictures. Here for your viewing pleasure a couple of our battle wounds.

Way back when....

 

Whew. I've actually gotten quite a lot accomplished today. This house was a mess. Not a bad mess, just a mess. I got it all cleaned up. Got my load of laundry for the day in the washer. I love having it caught up. I need to wash linens tomorrow.

Our big date weekend is almost here. I'm excited. The kids are staying with Grandma and Grandpa the WHOLE weekend. So we will have Friday night, all day Saturday and all night Saturday ALONE. We haven't had any alone time in a long time. I'm so so so excited! We are going on that canoe trip Saturday. It's going to be so much fun. I love my babies but I also love some alone time with my hubby. 

Here's a picture of the twins from a long time ago. They where around 2 1/2 here. I came across it and just had to share it.

They use to push each other in that shopping cart. They where so much fun to watch. I'd love to have them that small again.

Addison can officially ride her bike. She wanted the training wheels taken off a while ago. She can surf right up and down the drive way now.

Here's a picture of Nicholas from a long time ago also. I love love this picture and can remember this exact moment like it was yesterday. We had taken him to the Louisville Zoo and when we walked in to see this he kept pointing and saying "kitty kitty". It was too cute.

 

An interesting little fact. Exactly 2 years after this picture was taken I was giving birth to twins! Look at all that hair.  Nick had the prettiest blonde curls!

Till next time,

Bridget

Coupons and SAHMS

 

Today was a great day. We ran to town. Got taco bell and took it to the park. The kids ran and had a blast. Was a tad chilly though. I ran into walgreens and my fav cashier was working. I got all my .24 Edge shaving gels and my other 2 free deodorants. I'm up to 30 in Register Rewards. Money Money. This was an awesome week at Walgreens. 11 shaving gels @ $2.00 = $22.00 and 4 deodorants @ $5.99 each = $24.00. My grand total spent $1.50!

I also ran by Food Lion. Great couple of days there as well. Yesterday my total was $50.xx. I paid $9.07. Today I spent $37 saved $31. So for $46 I got 6 Kraft salad dsg, 6 A1 steak marinades , 6 Smuckers ice cream toppings, express salad kit, 12 packages of hot dogs, 7 boxes of pasta, 2 cans of mushrooms, 6 danion yogurt 4 packs, 3 bags of shredded cheese, a tub of cottage cheese, 2 tomatoes, Jug of orange juice  and a $5 watermelon.  Comes out to be .85 an item. I loves me some coupons. Have I said that before?

Wonder hubby is off tomorrow as well. I love his off days. For some reason I just feel more relaxed when he's here. When I'm flying solo I worry. Why I don't know. Not like I've not done it a million times with my babies. I've pretty much been a sahm their whole lives. Worked part time here and there nothing much.

I've noticed on a lot of blogs here lately the debate of working moms v/s SAHMS. I'd like to say right up front I'm not out to hurt feeling , just stating my opinions.

  I really feel like I am where the Lord wants me. That doesn't mean it's easy and always fun. Ha. Far from it. But out of everything I've tried to do on my own this has by far been the most rewarding. I'm not gonna lie. There are days I wanna pull my self bald and beat my head on a wall. Days when the house is destroyed and the kids are wild and all I want to do is just close my eyes. But the great thing , is that each day is a fresh start. Everyday we can reset attitudes and start all over.

Of course as I'm writing this. My 3 little angles are sound asleep in their beds. If they where up bouncing off the walls this whole post might have a much different mood to it.

So lets here it moms. Do you work? Are you a SAHM? What's the pros and cons?

I found the prize egg!

I finally got all my laundry sorted and started. I'm 2 loads in only 1345 more to go. Sigh. I did however find the floor. I felt like I found the prize egg. Super Wife! The joys of a sahm. I do enjoy it. Maybe not the laundry but the being with my kids everyday. I've got a roast in the oven. It smells so good. Making me really hungry.

Waiting on my love to get home from work. I'm looking so forward to this weekend. We might get the back patio started. Gonna be a pain in the arse to do, but will be grand to have done. I gotta remember to take before and after pictures. I always forget to do that and it drives me crazy. I love to see b & a pictures of projects others do.

Till next time,

Bridget

Finding the floor

My goal today is to locate my laundry room floor. I for some odd reason woke up in a very motivated mood. While I'm washing up all these damn clothes, I might as well pack away most of the winter stuff.

It is raining yet AGAIN today. It's driving me crazy. I want sunshine!

Here's my list of crap things to get done today:

1. Sort Laundry

2. Wash as much as possible

3. Pack away winter

4. Mop the downstairs

5. Clean out both fridges

Well I think that's plenty for one day. Did I mention it is pouring down rain. This makes day 50. Ok maybe day 6 but damn it it feels longer.

Till next time,

Bridget

Wild Wild Wednesday

Yay! It's hump day! Why that's a good thing I don't know. I've got my fingers crossed for sun tomorrow. It has been raining fo' ever. Driving me crazy. The kids are itchin' to go to the park and I'm itchin' to take them to the park. They love to run and scream and stalk other kids. Tumble ended as of last Wednesday. Until when I have no clue. I'm guessing until August. I just assumed they would go year round, It is after all 1 day a week for 1 hour. So now our Wednesdays are free. I'm kinda glad. You would think they would have asked today why we didn't go. But no.

I had a doctors appt. today so my mother in law came to sit with the kids. After my appointment I ran some errands. Went to Arby's and got some good grub. Went into Walgreens to use my last two contour coupons but to no surprise they still haven't restocked the shelves. I did grab two of the register reward deals. Paid .93 got back $6.50. Can't beat that! But ya know you can't save any money by using coupons.  

This swine flu business is getting kinda scary. I checked the CDC web site again this morning and it's unreal how fast the numbers are climbing. It's now in 41 states. 642 cases and 2 deaths. I'm still trying not to panic. Panic is never a good thing. I'm sure I will though.

Till next time,

Bridget

Busy Busy Busy!

Howdy! We've been so busy around here I haven't been able to blog. So I'm gonna just plop it all out here.

We LOVE Fall around here. I love the leaves changing and falling off. We love pumpkin festivals and Halloween parties. Our first Fall activity this year was making Carmel Apples :) Yummy!!
Here's Addie unwrapping all the carmel's .

Here's Daddy melting them for us.

The apples all ready to be dipped!

The kids all took turns dipping their apples.

The finished product!

We popped some pop corn and with the left over carmel made Carmel Corn! It was soooo yummy!

We watched a family movie and enjoyed our apples. I forgot to make a picture of the kids enjoying them!

School is moving right along as planned. We finally found a schedule that fits us PERFECT! Just enough to keep us moving but not so strict we feel like we are behind all the time. Nicholas is working on graphing data. He took a survey and is going to make the graph tomorrow. The twins are moving right along in their reading. It's a slow but steady process. I found a wonderful template and printable's for making a phonic flip chart for beginner readers. It can make over 150 cvc words. Here's a couple pics of it.

We find ourselves more and more at the kitchen table doing school. For some reason it just feels right and everything runs smooth. So I finally set up a small schooling center in the dining room. The shelf came from wal-mart and I think we gave $9.00 for it.

The top shelf as book we are using, our small marker boards and my planner.

The second shelf holds the kids "book boxes". Each one has everything that child needs for class that day in it. Each morning I take all 3 to the table and pull and replace books from it during the day. Makes cleaning up at the end of the day a snap. The 3rd shelf has art supplies. The bottom is a mixture of things. Extra erasers, markers, glue and teaching aids. The blue and red box sitting on the floor is a complete never used Hooked on Phonics set I picked up at a yard sale for $20.00!!!!

We got a WONDERFUL surprise. My fil was rewarded a gift from work for 30yrs service. He had several things to chose from and decided to get the kids a world globe for school. It arrived yesterday and we fell in LOVE! It wasn't at all what we expected. Can you believe we got this FREE!! We had been wanting one for a while. A table top one of course. And we get this GIVEN to us! God is GREAT! He always provides. Thanks Ricky for a wonderful gift!

See Ayden in the back ground. That's right where the globe is going to live.

Today was also Ayden's doctors appointment with the Neuro doctor. We got bitter sweet news. First he is NOT having seizures! Praise the LORD! He has what's called Touretts Syndrome. Which explains a lot of Ayden! :) The throat clearing and weird eye movements are vocal and motor tics. When both are present it's TS. His strange little OCD like tendencies and frequent melt downs we found out ties into this syndrome also. He's still such a special little man who has kept us moving!

Well that's all for now. I'm off to watch a movie with the family!

Ready for the up coming week...

I sat down today and got my lesson plans done for this upcoming week. We won't be having any class on Thursday. Ayden has to be in Nashville to see the Pediatric Neurologist at 10am. So the whole day will be filled with that. I do still lack printing out my health , social studies and science worksheets for next week. But I'll prolly wait until I need them to print them. Decreases the chance of them becoming a coloring sheet or paper airplane.

I got the house all pick up today. Seems like over the last few days all this stuff came out of nowhere. But today we found it all a home and the house is back in shape. Clutter drives me crazy. I LOVE to throw stuff away! Unfortunately I have a husband who doesn't . Our house is small (which I love) and we have to use every inch creatively. I love the challenge of it! I adore small and cozy which is wonderful since we can't afford grand and luxurious! :)

This weeks memory verse is John 14:15. I'm surprised at how fast the kids memorized the memory verses. A lot faster than this old brain. Well seeing's how it is 2:30 am I suppose I should lay down.

The kids and I (David has to work) are going to get up in the morning and go to church. We really love the church we attend. Granted we don't get there as much as I'd love and for that there is no excuse other than pure laziness. At church or at home I'm still LOVING MY LORD!

rain rain go away.... well not really..we really needed you...

Was a gloomy rainy day here today. We had a hard time getting motivated. We did manage to get all our schooling finished. We did all normal subjects today with the addition of Gun Safety. Well really what you should do if you find a gun. Not safety in how to use a gun. The kids expressed understanding of the dangers of a gun in the hands of kids their ages.

David got "call" from work today. So he got to hang here with us. He didn't even get called in! Was wonderful to get to keep him here.

I pray that tomorrow I get up in a much more motivated mood. Normal cleaning got done. I even managed to hoe out the pile of dirty dishes out of the fridge. Its not clean now it's just not crammed full.

We've been working on tying shoes around here. I'm getting to fat old to keep bending over to tie shoes around here! So I forget how many days we've been on tie drill but tonight Addison came running yelling " I can tie. I can tie. I can't believe I can tie!" She has been working the hardest. This of course motivated the boys. They once again was in shock that they had allowed their sister to out do them..hehe. So off they went shoe in hand. Well Nick learnt to tie his shoes tonight also. So that's 2 down 1 to go....whooo hooo!

Now if I could just teach them to . Mop. Wash, dry and put away laundry. Clean the John. Heck even just pick up toys without me having to tell them to do it. Hey a girl can dream can't she?

Just incase anyone has forgotten just how darn cute my brats angels are here's another picture:

The verdict is in...and I don't like it much...

I woke up this morning to the phone ringing. When I answered and heard the voice on the other end I knew it wasn't good news. Last week my youngest baby boy had to have an EEG done. He has been having these "episodes". He appears to step outta of the real world for a moment. This happens SEVERAL times a day. His eyes do this weird little jig. So back to this morning. The doctor called to give me the results which told me he was having seizures. She only calls when results are bad. The office girl always calls to give good news. So now he is going to have more test done to determine what kind of seizure and how to treat it. So my mind hasn't been in place this morning. But school must go on.....

The kids are doing their lessons. I had a moment I could grab to blog. We played catch up all day yesterday. We couldn't do any class work for 3 days last week. But we did get all caught up yesterday. I haven't said in a long time just how much I LOVE home schooling. I'm so thankful God led me to do this. I always wanted to but felt like I couldn't. But with my Lords help he has walked me through it! PRAISE HIM!!!

Well back to teaching... :)

Long week...glad it's over....

It's been such a long week. I'm really to tired to even go into details about it. I'm just glad it's almost over so we can start over fresh.

Finally all caught up

Seems like my urge to rearrange the living room this morning has put me behind all day long. I finally got all caught up. Dish washer loaded, clothes in dryer folded, daily load put in the washer. Feels so good to get all caught up. Now I just gotta go cook my wonderful hubby and kids a nice yummy supper and kick back and relax!

Lazy Day

The kids and I have been sooooo lazy today. Yesterday was so busy it left us drained today. I haven't blogged in awhile. I forget about this blog for some reason...lol So far this week we have gotten the kids rooms all organized and cleaned. Ayden and I both had a doc appt yesterday. Oct. 1st I have to have a cat scan of my lungs and a pft breathing test (no clue what that involves). Oct. 2nd Ayden has to have a EEG done to try and determine if he is having seizures. The boys spent the night last night with my hubbies parents. They enjoyed that but Ayden wanted to come straight home this morning when he got up...he missed his mommy lol. Addison and I enjoyed some girl time. Gotta get to cleaning :)

Beautiful Day!

It is soooo pretty outside today. There is a wonderful breeze. I picked up the yard and got it all mowed. I love a freshly mowed yard. We've had lunch now its time for some reading lessons :) I still need to make out next weeks menu and grocery list. Tomorrow is grocery day. I gotta get all the bills together also. I also need to make my packing list for our Florida trip.

Today was a productive day. Addison Grace read 15 words all by herself! Ayden is getting much better with his sounds and Nick's reading comprehension is getting sooo much better. God has blessed us in so many ways. He provides for us in ways we couldn't have imagined. There was a time in my life when I wouldn't have dreamed of even attempting to home school our children. I'm so thankful for all the parts of the kids daily lives I'm not missing out on! We also got our Book It materials today. It was a nice surprise. I had actually forgotten I had signed us up to participate. It starts in Oct and the kids can each earn a personal pan 1 topping pizza for 6 months. Now I just have to decide on the reading goals.

We visited with Davids parents for a little. We got to enjoy a yummy watermelon while there. In just 9 days we will be heading to Florida with my in laws. We are excited. A whole week in the sand and sun! There are still so many things I need to do first. We will still do some school work while on vacation. The twins will do their daily reading lesson and Nick will do some reading and a math worksheet. I am hoping there will be some educational places to visit near where we are staying.

Yesterday the kids and I ran to town to return some movies and pick up a prescription for David from Walgreen's. I love a good sale so we browsed the clearance isle. We got some wonderful great buys. I had been in there last week and seen some post it pads with sight words, days of the week, months of the year and other things printed on them. I instantly knew what I could use them for. The price how ever changed my mind lol. They were almost 4.00 each. We found them on sale last night for .87 each! We also got some wooden pens (super cute) for .10 each and I got a notebook for .74. So last night I stayed up and covered the front of the extra fridge in the dining room with the post it words. I covered them all in shipping tape so that as the twins learn to read each word we can check it off with a dry erase marker. This way they can quiz each other also.

Nice Sunny Day!

Today was such a beautiful day. The temp was perfect. We didn't get to go to the water park. Nicholas stepped on a board Thursday night that had 3 nails in it. All 3 went into his foot and 2 of them got stuck. It took us many tears, prayers and 45 mins to get those babies out. So we decided to delay the trip.

We had such a wonderful supper tonight. My hubby is such a good cook! God blessed me in so many ways when he allowed me to spend my life with that man. I'm so thankful for it! :) After supper we sat and watched a movie. I enjoy curling up on the couch with him. He always makes me feel so safe.

I'm going to head to bed since it is 1am and do some reading in my Bible and another book. Get up bright and early in the morning and head to the house of the LORD! I always come home feeling so positive and full of energy. I'm so glad we've got back on track and living for the Lord! There is no better feeling!

God Bless

Another wonderful day!

Today's been a wonderful day. I've been blessed in so many ways. I get so wrapped up in life sometimes that I forget to stop and give to thanks to the Lord.

SCRTC showed up at 7:30 am this morning to hook up the internet modem and take away the cable box YAY!! Well they took away the cable box but didn't hook up the internet modem. So the kids and I went to town and picked up the modem. We also stopped by the book store and I purchased a Daily Devotional Bible for Women. We then stopped for lunch at a Chinese restaurant, was really yummy :) Now I'm off to pick up the house and go over a few lessons with the kids. Tomorrow we are going on our first field trip of the school year. We are enjoying the day at a water park. I'm excited I love water just as much as the kids do :)

No T.V. ?

We've been talking a lot here lately about making cable a thing of the past in our household. It's sad what kids are exposed to on the t.v. When I was a child ( which wasn't long ago :) ) cartoons where a safe bet. Not anymore! It's easy to say " Well as a parent it's your job to monitor what your children are seeing on t.v. " Which to a certain extent is true. I can monitor all day long which programs my children are watching ( and I do ). But what I can't monitor so easy are the commercials they are watching. So as unbelievable as it may be to some and most this day and age. The tv is going bye bye.

We're back!

Been along time since I posted on here. But one of my goals is to blog a lot more on here. We are starting back to school the first of August. We are looking forward to a new school year. We've been getting the class room back in order. More to come later.