Um, waitress!

This morning Victoria and I were sitting in the living room after eating breakfast. Addison was in her high chair, facing away from us, in the kitchen eating and we could only see the tip top of her head over the back of her high chair. About 10 minutes into her breakfast we saw two bites of waffle flying through the air from the left side of her high chair, followed by her cup of milk on the right. For a moment there was what seemed to be a food fight only from Addison's chair. Victoria raised up her eyebrows, looked up and me and said in her best Addison voice, "Check please!" ....priceless!

Happy Memorial Day!

No big plans today to report. James is off running errands and I am at home with the babies hanging out. I finally got to load Mom's pics from Spring Mill and a couple other ones from my own. So I had to share some of them.


While Victoria was with Tina one Sunday the babies took over her "big girl" bed. I had to put in a movie for them to watch so that they would sit down. Once the movie came on I didn't hear a peep out of them for a good half hour.


Yes I know this is horrible to take a picture while my daughter is in complete throwing a fit mode but you should have seen Mommy's face, after a quick trip to the bathroom, finding peas from the living room to the bedroom.


Anthony decided to see if he could beat Addison's distance that she got on her peas and chucked his off of his tray too. The peas stretched all the way across our laundry area to our living room carpet. I guess next time Mommy is just going to have to hold it until they are finished eating.


Addison's new favorite thing is to run through the beads in the Herp Aquarium at the zoo. She would fly through them giggling so loud. It is quite cute.


This picture cracks me up of Dad. This was taken the night that they watched the babies while James and I went to the wedding.


Tyler giving Anthony some pointers on how to give "Hey Baby" look to the girls.


Addison "smelling" the flowers at Spring Mill. She would blow on them instead.


Apparently they taste really good too. Can you see me squatted down ready to take another photo of her the scrambling across the flower garden when I see the flower going into her mouth. It was quite comical.



Here is the babies first photo under the arch in the flower garden at Spring Mill. I believe that we have a photo of everyone in the family under this arch. It is a tradition.

It does not get any better!

Today was a huge day in the babies life. They had their first Krispy Kreme doughnuts straight from the Krispy Kreme on Bardstown Rd. They now have "mini doughnuts" that are just the right size for the kids. I had to get the hats also!



Addison had sprinkles all over!

Anthony was a little apprehensive at first, as always, but after the first bite he was hooked.

OH CRAP!!

Here are some of my "oh crap" moments from the past few days......

-I knew the second that I woke up Sunday morning that something was out in my neck. I am now on day 5 of my stiff neck. It has been very interesting leaning over the tub washing kids up especially with my following two moments.

-Yesterday I awoke to Addison screaming bloody murder. I stumbled down the hallway (pre-coffee) and noticed a look from Anthony as if to say "Uh mom, you don't want to come down here.". Addison had taken her FULL diaper off and was finger painting in it. She had it covering her hands and feet, spread from one end of the bed to the other and all down the curtains on her side of the window.

-Later that same day during nap time Anthony decided he wanted to finger paint too. Bed #2 to clean up and child to hose down.

-I got my days mixed up and was suppose to meet a dear friend at the park to walk and have missed out on another opportunity to meet her new son.

-Addison was walking through the living room with her sippy cup. Halfway through the living room she dropped it and looked down at it and my little Addison Marie said "OH CRAP!" Really? Really? This soon???

Spring Mill

I can remember many days in my childhood spent at Spring Mill. I loved going there. We would have a picnic and swim the whole day. Today my parents invited the babies and myself to go. I jumped on the opportunity. Dad drove my car, Mom rode in the passenger seat, the babies in the middle row and myself wadded up in the back seat only allowed to enter the car from the back hatch. Surprisingly enough it was comfortable. I sat back there with my stiff neck that I woke up with this morning straining to hear my Mom and Dad talk to me from the front seat. I felt like I was 5again.

We arrived and the babies took off, Addison across the parking lot ready to go and Anthony to G'pa to be held for the remainder of the day. G'pa is such a sucker for his grandson. We stopped and ate at a snack bar and tried with all of our might to get two screaming toddlers to eat the hamburger that we got them. The screaming continued for Anthony every time that G'pa "tried" to put him down.

We headed over to the flower garden to get our annual picture under the stone archway. Addison entered the flower garden oohing and ahhing at the flowers. We told her to smell them and she blew on every flower that she saw thinking she was taking in the aroma. At one point she stuck a whole rosebud in her mouth, I guess they looked delicious too. We teased and said that she saw them eating flowers on Willy Wonka and thinks that these should be edible too.

Exhausted I headed home after dropping off a worn out Grandpa and Grandma and got home in enough time to meet Tina to return Victoria. This was the second time that she was alone with Tina and things seem to be going well. Victoria comes home happy and not as confused as I thought she would be with Tina back in her life. She has been eager to spend some one on one time with me when she has gotten home from visits with her. Tonight we sat at the table and colored. We both have new pictures to display on our bedroom doors. All in all it was a good day.

If she were to choose my allergies...

I had a long day today that started out with doing wedding hair then straight to church for service then volunteering so I put a pork roast in the crock pot. Love my crock pot. Tonight after meeting Tyler, my nephew's, girlfriend for the first time at church (mind you in my Miss Sissy attire) Victoria and I headed home. I called my Mom and Dad to ask if they along with Tyler and his girlfriend wanted to come over and have dinner. They were already on their way to Moe's. I told them not a problem and to have a nice dinner. Victoria overheard the conversation from the back seat of the car. She asked me if they were coming over for dinner. I explained to her the situation and she started to sink into the seat.

"I want to go to Moe's and sit at a table and hang out and have a date with you and Tyler!" she said pushing her head up in between the front seats of the car to make sure that I could hear her. I told her that I already had dinner ready at home.

"What did you fix?" she asked with excitement.

"Pot roast" I replied knowing what the response would be.

"I HATE pot roast!" I then explained to her that we needed to be thankful for pot roast. Just like when she takes her Jesus money to church that helps a lot of little kids don't have food or a bed or a Mommy or Daddy so we have to be thankful for what we have. "But I just wanna.."

"Victoria that is enough. I know that you are not a big fan of pot roast but that is what we are having tonight. You are just going to have to tough it out" I thought I had finished the conversation.

"Well, is Tyler's girlfriend allergic to pot roast????" I had to stop the car. I was laughing so hard because she was half asking out of genuine curiosity and trying to figure out is there was some way that she could acquire those allergies.

Step one......DONE!

I am so glad to say that my sister made it through her surgery and that the first step of this process if finished. Thank you so much for the prayers and support that you have shown her. My whole family really appreciates it. She decided to stay with the needle lumpectomy. She was in surgery because they took a little more than they had originally planned. From what I understand She is to go back to the doctor next week to read her pathology report and get the results of what they found. She said that she is suppose to start radiation in two weeks.

My niece Ariel is scheduled for surgery on the 23rd. Ariel voiced her opinion that she wanted to stay at Kosair and the same surgeon because she was comfortable there and knew the doctors and nurses. Her surgeon is going to have someone from the spine center to assist him while in surgery. That helps ease our mind just to know that an extra set of eyes and hands are going to be in the room.

Going to take it easy today. Not feeling so good this morning. I was suppose to go meet my friend Jill at the park and meet her new little boy. I don't believe that the rain is going to let that happen, plus if something is brewing in my system I want to make sure that I don't get anyone sick.

Mother's Day weekend

What a great weekend. We started off with NO KIDS! I know that a mom shouldn't start out her celebratory weekend as a mom without kids but for this mom it was bliss! Grandma and Grandpa picked up the twins and James and I dropped off Victoria and Brooklyn at Mamaw and Papaw's house before we headed off to a wedding. James friend "Little Joe" got married to his girlfriend of 7 years FINALLY! ;). It was a nice small wedding in the middle of the day. I got to listen to stories of the "good old days" back when James worked Security with all of his old friends. After the wedding we visited with old dear friends of ours Nevel and Anita and had dinner at BW3's so that we could see Travis. We had a ball and for the first time in a long time I just got to genuinely relax. After dinner we stopped by The Lighthouse where James and I met and I have to say.....what a dump!!! That place hasn't changed a bit! I am glad for the experience of working there because it is how I met my amazing husband but other than that....again WHAT A DUMP!! I did sing a little while there and had some people ask me if I missed running Karoke there. My response was a firm NO followed by laughter.

Sunday morning after picking up Victoria and receiving my Mother's Day balloons we headed off to my parents to get the smallest rugrats. Grandma said that she really enjoyed them and that they were great but I did see that she was exhausted. Dad and I took off to go and visit my Mamaw's grave site and talk about parenting and cry over loss. It was a real special time with Dad and I am glad that I went with him.

When we got home Victoria and I caught up on some of our TV watching and I turned off the TV and told her to get her favorite stuffed animal and a blanket. She looked at me with wide eyes and asked "Am I going to sleep in YOUR bed???" I just smiled and before I knew it I had a 5 year old leaping into bed with me so that we could finish watching the Sound of Music. We enjoyed snuggling and even took a picture of ourselves. It was a great weekend and I feel very refreshed.

more bad news.....

Not a whole lot of good news to report today. My sister called to give us the scoop from her pre-op appointment and Ariel's doc appointment today. My sister has been trying to get an appointment with the doc for Ariel because her spine is still curved and actually looking worse than it did prior to surgery. She was told that they didn't' want to expose her to any more X-rays and to call back later. She got some advice from a co-worker to email a pic of Ariel's spine to the doc and what do you know had an appointment within a week of the email.

Ok the bad news. When Ariel had her surgery they put 3 screws into her spine. Within one week of the surgery one of the screws came out and was in danger of puncturing organs and they had to open her up again. The surgeon, while in there, checked the other screws to make sure that everything looked the way that it should. They closed her back up and sent her on her way with a back brace and a follow up appointment for 8 weeks from the date of surgery. The X-ray showed today that the other two screws that "looked great" are now out and her scoliosis is now in worse shape than it was prior to surgery. Ariel will have to have another surgery. The screws are not in any danger of puncturing any organs or doing anymore damage and my sister was urged to get a second opinion. They referred her to the first surgeon that she spoke with and didn't care for. They also gave her an option of someone in Cincinnati or Indianapolis.

My sister is facing all of this with a surgery of her own scheduled for the 13th of this month with 6 weeks of radiation to follow. She is contemplating having a full mastectomy due to the 0% chance that she would have to deal with this again. If she is to have Ariel's surgery in Cincinnati or Indianapolis then what about her radiation? She is facing some major decisions in life and really needs some prayer power. Only God can give her the answers, strength, and wisdom that she is needing to make these decisions.

Plus my father-in-law had a PET scan done a few days ago and they found a spot that they are wanting to check out. They are thinking that the Cancer is back again. I don't have a lot of details at this point on where, just that they are wanting to do some further tests.

The one good thing is that I haven't had a cigarette in 3 days. I am ready to pull my hair out and my children are running for cover. I can't make any promises with all of this going on but it is a start. I need to quit talking about it, I want one BAD!!

A nightmare of a hearing test

What a morning! Grandma came by to hang out with Victoria and Addison so that I could take Anthony to the Family Hearing specialists in New Albany. He was referred by First Steps just to make sure that he doesn't have any hearing problems that have caused his speech delay.

He spent the fifteen minutes that I spent filling out paperwork flirting with every girl that walked in front of the glass faced office. Such the charmer! The first part of the test was to hold him in my lap while the technician placed a device in his ear to test each ear individually. During this test we were suppose to be still and quiet. Obviously she hadn't met......Boogie Bear!! He was all over the place. Wanting to know what was in his ear. Wanting to know what mom was doing behind him trying to hold his arms down. Why mom was trapping his best kicking foot in between her legs so that he didn't kick the nice pregnant lady that was doing the test. What a mess! We were both sweating by the time we were done with ear #1. Now to move onto ear #2! I thought that part was never going to be over.

Now onto the sound booth. They placed us in this small (about 5X5 room that was about 20 degrees hotter than the room that we just left sweating) sound booth with a chair, mirror, two speakers, one in each corner that had a large black cube on top of them. I was to sit and hold Anthony on my lap have him sit "calmly" as the girl spoke to him on a microphone outside.

The first time that she said his name her voice only went to the right speaker. Anthony immediately turned to look to the speaker that was about a foot and a half from his face. He was doing really well so far, even sitting still. It didn't hurt that there was that mirror right in front of him so that he could see that handsome boy siting on Mommy's lap. Then it happened. When Anthony looked to the right towards the speaker the technician (I am assuming in an attempt to reward him) turned on a light on the inside of the black cube directly on top of the speaker. Inside of this cube was a stuffed animal that we had no clue was there until she turned on this light. Very similar to this but with a drum. I am not kidding.

Anthony's bottom lip dropped, the eyebrows went up, and the tears flowed, almost straight out from the corner of his eyes like in the Charlie Brown cartoons. He wigged out! This innocent stuffed animal looked like some sort of fun house beast that at any minute was going to bust out of his black protective box to eat him alive. She turned off the light and of course the bear disappeared. She said his name again but this time it was in the left speaker. He turned to look and again she turned on the light in that cube, this time to the left. Now he was surrounded!!! He was screaming so hard that no sound was coming out of his mouth. This dumb lady kept turning on these stupid lights in an attempt to cheer him up. She apparently didn't know that it was this "surprise" that was setting him off. Left, then right, both of them, then back to the left again like she was lighting up a disco. Anthony was trapped in a 5X5 nightmare! I finally got her to hear me when I told her for the 3rd time "I would cut it out with the lights. That is what is freaking him out." She gave up and told us to come back in two months. His reading wasn't good and she couldn't tell if it was because of him freaking out or not. All of that for nothing. I am sweating. He is sweating, and we have no answers. Great, can't wait for our next appointment!