Clean slate

Is there anything better than spring cleaning?  I love it!!  I don't love the energy that it requires but I feel amazing.  Such a productive day.  Great for the house and great for the mind.  I have been in a slump for a week seems like.  Last week was so rough and it just carried over until about mid week of this week. 

I moved the furniture in Victoria's room for a change of scenery in her room for her.  She loved it and told me, "Mommy you made my day!"  I am proud to report that Victoria's card stayed on green all week this week at school and she only had one mark on her behavior chart.  Go Victoria!  She has earned a bit of a new wardrobe complete with light up Sketchers.

Our bedroom closet is cleaned top to bottom and we took about 10 garbage bags of clothes to Goodwill.  I then of course entered the store and left with a bag of clothes.  :)  Then it was off to Meijers to get some flowers for the house.  Mom got me a planter for Mother's day.  I have wanted one to hang off of the side of my porch since I got it.  So nice to see the hints of color surrounding my yard. 

After all of that cleaning some Strawberry shortcake sounded like a great way to celebrate.  We all sat at the table and I noticed one of our bunnies outside just hopping around.  We have many around our neighborhood.  I got Anthony's attention and he got all excited "Bunny Bop Bop Bop (Hop Hop Hop"  The he got REALLY excited and said "AAAH   AHHH at'sa bee bee?"  We all looked a bit puzzled at each other and then we all leaned up to look out the window again.  Sure enough there were two baby bunnies that Anthony had spotted.  They had to be the cutest darn things that I have ever seen.  About the size of a baked potato.  We spent the rest of our dessert breaking our necks trying to see the bunnies while shoving shortcake in our face.  I would have to say that it was one of the best days that I have had in a while.  My mind was certainly due.  Thanks for the help Honey and thanks for FINALLY buying me some flowers!  I was thinking the kind in the vase but will take the kind that goes in the ground.

If it don't heat up get it out of the kitchen!

For quite some time now I have been feeding a family of 5-6 with one good burner.  One of my big burners broke and the other two little ones just don't seem to heat up.  I have had to take turns cooking things and then heating them up in the microwave, such a pain.  James came home today to help my sanity and we headed over to a repair shop to looking into getting new elements.  The man that we spoke to said that it probably wasn't our elements but something with the switches or internally that was the problem. We decided to head to Best Buy and see what was available cheap to just replace it.  Did you know that Best Buy doesn't carry a good old regular stove anymore? Thought I could still be low key and just get one like the one that I had, but oh well.  I am excited though I will have a new cooktop stove next week.  I am now trying to figure out if I need new pots/pans.  The lady told me that my pans needed to be flat/smooth bottom pans so that they heat up evenly.  Any advice on this?  Can't wait to cook my veggies/meat at the same time.  Wow it is going to save so much time!  Hooray!!

So how are those supervised visits going?

I'm sure you are all wondering...  So I will give you a taste of what we are dealing with after visits.  The visits are weekly for an hour at a Counseling Center (that I am not to impressed with so far) and 2 hours in our home on the weekends.  Victoria is a nervous wreck after the visits 90% of the time.  She regresses in her behavior and has near full blown panic attacks.  Night terrors happen weekly.  Victoria comes home from the visits at the counselors office with amazing stories that Tina tells while there of her ex-husband "forcing Victoria's brother and sister to move to FL".  We heard of Tina getting pulled over by the cops so that they could look in her purse and see if she has drugs.  She said she didn't have drugs but they "took all of her money" out of her purse and "ripped her wedding ring off of her finger"  This did wonders on the 3 years of work I have put into "Cops are not bad people.  They help keep us safe not just come and take people away to jail"  Thanks Tina!  She apparently talks openly about court cases and her situation in front of Victoria.  The visits here at the house such as the one today is mainly Victoria trying to play with Tina while she texted/downloaded music/played on her phone.  Victoria had to say her name multiple times on many occasions to get her attention to what they were playing together.  She was so wrapped up in her phone.  I am ready to drop kick her out of my front door but I will bite my tongue and be a good little girl.  As a sweet friend of mine always tells me I won't be able be of help to anyone if I am in jail too.  :)

Hilarious morning

I know we need it but "Rain Rain Go AWAY!"  Friday is the only day that I didn't have some kind of appointment this week.  I decided to celebrate with some drive thru breakfast.  I asked A&A what they wanted after dropping Victoria off at the bus stop.  Anthony said "Cancakes" and Addison said "Shicken!"  I thought after explaining that noplace has chicken for breakfast that we had settled on a McDonalds Big breakfast.  I pulled into McDonalds and Anthony screamed "NOOO BURHUR KING".  I was feeling generous and took our car to Burger King.  Two orders of Cini Minis it is.  Anthony flirted with his girlfriend that always works drive thru and we were off.   While driving around Addison started singing "I waaaaaannna go-a Mommy house and eat the chicken AND the nuggets"  and it never stopped the whole way home.  I called Mom and was letting Addison sing to MawMaw.  Anthony was just riding along enjoying the musical entertainment not making a peep.  I pulled into the driveway and turn around to see that Anthony had thrown up.  I was shocked.  I didn't hear anything and he didn't say a word to let me know.  He was wearing his favorite PJ's (Superman of course) and there he sat.  I have had to be careful getting picking him up.  He fell off of his table a couple of days ago and jared his neck/shoulder pretty good.  So I unbuckled him and had him sit in my arms facing out, making kind of a swing out of my arms.  Keep in mind it is still raining outside and I have a puke covered Superman in my arms trying to make it to the door as fast as I can.  To top it all off Anthony turns looks down over his shoulder and starts yelling "Get away 'herm'!  Get away 'herm'!"  You know those killer worms will attack when you are most vulnerable...

Been gone on a trip

Unfortunately not the kind that you are thinking.  I had a tooth pulled on Monday.  I HATE the dentist's office so I asked mom for one of her Xanax to help get me to walk through the door.  I didn't think it was doing much until I asked for some gas too once in the chair.  "Um, Mrs. Craig we can't do that if you are expecting"  I wanted to jump up and leave.  How dare they!  I know that I have put on weight but I'm not pregnant!  I corrected her politely and then she showed me the papers that I filled out in the waiting room.  On "Have you had a cough or sneeze recently?"  I marked yes and explained that I was having problems with my allergies.  Everything after that question I marked YES to thinking that I was marking no.  I am pregnant, have arthritis, tuberculosis, emphysema, had a stroke, heart attack, and have regular seizures.  Who knew?  Apparently my life is a little more complicated that I let on. I have quite a few medical conditions.  I explained myself and they gave me my gas and into la-la land I drifted....

Mom picked up my floating eyeballs and we headed to get my pain meds and antibiotics.  Mom pulled up to the drive thru and the laughter began.  I started explaining to mom about my paperwork mishap and we started laughing.  The lady at the window was trying to get mom's attention to ask a question and we were unable to quit laughing.  My mother then proceeds to tell her, over the loud speaker mind you, "Sorry she had gas this morning!!".  I then attempted to crawl under my passenger seat.  "MOTHER!  SHHH!"  She then realized that she told all of Salem, at least all of the people in the Rite Aid, that her daughter had gas this morning and how that could be interpreted.  We then erupted into laughter even louder. 

Some heavy pain pills and antibiotics later I was outside playing on the lawn mower giving the kids a ride.  I was taking my pills 4 times a day like the bottle said and started to get nauseous, and dizzy.  Couldn't understand what it was.  I then spent the night scratching my neck and chest and trying to get the room to quit spinning.  Tuesday I talked myself into going to Bible study and left feeling even worse.  I called mom in a panic and she came down to rescue me by taking care of A&A.  We called the pharmacy and found out that 4 times a day was EVERY 6 HOURS, not every 3.  I was taking it on a 12 hour day and it made perfect sense to me.  I was overdosing on pain meds and having a reaction to it.  Go figure!  So now I am back to the land of the living.  I have shelved my pain meds and now just taking Ibuprofen.  Still feel like I got smacked in the side of the face with a hammer but I am coherent and able to care for my children again.  I don't recommend this as a way to mentally check out of life.  I feel much better now and have a full day ahead.  Speaking of I better get off of here and finish my to-do list.

Thunder Over Louisvi-ZZZZZZZZZZZ

Such amazing weather for Thunder over Louisville.  Mom and Dad spotted the perfect spot off of the Grant Line Rd exit.  For those of you in New Albany you are aware of the HUGE dirt mound behind McDonald's where they put in the new shopping center (now only housing a liquor store).  That is where we were.  We got there in 4 minutes and packed all three kids up the hill (steeper than it looks) and the double stroller in case the kids needed to be strapped in.  We each had a blanket and plenty of snacks for our firework show.  We got set up right next to the only other family up on  "Mt.  Grant Line" and had about an hour to kill before the show started.  Not easy to keep A&A entertained and trying to keep them from taking off and rolling down the hill to I65.  9:30 came and went and no fireworks. None of us up on the hill had a radio with us so James called Makenzie who was down in the crowd to see what was going on.  15 minute delay....okaaay....NOW how do we entertain the kids, we are out of snacks.  Addison was getting quite fussy and squirmy in Grandma's lap, still no fireworks.  Then the countdown started on our phone when we figured it was about time for them to start.  10......9.....8.....7..........6.........5.......4........3.......2..............1.  The sky lights up with color.  Anthony is yelling and pointing as hard and he can.  We turn to Addison who is collapsed on Grandma's arm sawing logs.  She is OUT!  We tried to wake her, even gave her to Daddy to walk around and try to stir, nothing!  There she was in a huge hill of dirt on I 65 semis and traffic flying by, snoring.  The fireworks were beautiful!  Anthony had a ball and it was a great way to celebrate Grandpa's birthday.  We teased him standing on the hill in the wind with his throw blanket wrapped around his shoulders.  We have now called him "Paw Paw Man" in the Superman tradition.   I don't think that I will forget this Thunder any time soon.  :)

Such an amazing moment

I got one of the most wonderful gifts today that I could of asked for.  Richard McCarty (Johnathan's adopted father) and I have been keeping connected on Facebook.  I learned that Rich (Johnathan) got the part of Dewey in GREASE in the school play.  I was so excited and asked him to post pics.  Well, he did one step further and through the wonders of computers and good old Facebook he posted a video of Johnathan singing Magic Changes in the school play.  I got to watch my first born sing and perform!  Oh my goodness the tears were flowing and I was a proud as a peacock!  To hear his voice, listen to him sing and even to get a glimpse into his mannerisms was almost too much to bear.  He is so handsome and such a natural on stage.  Quite the ham.  I don't know where he gets that from.  I don't think that there is a way that I could describe what that felt like to be able to see the choice I made and how it turned out.  I am unbelievably blessed!

Has it been a week already?

My how time flies with a busy schedule!  We continue to roll with the punches.  James' dad found out that his Cancer is back. Stage 4 in his liver, stomach, and lymph nodes.  They are unable to do surgery this time and are going to go at it with Chemo.  The man is a fighter and it is a miracle that God healed him the last time.  God can do it a second time too.  All prayers are appreciated at this time.

We got Anthony to an ENT today for an exam.  What I have thought all along is the problem.  Anthony's adenoids and tonsils are HUGE!  The doc looked in his mouth for about 3 seconds and said "WOW those are huge" (insert The Office joke here :))  The doc also said that his tonsils are overlapping. No wonder my little man has breathing problems.  Poor guy!  The doc said that the sleep apnea, coughing with heavy exercise, Croup, speech delay, and all will probably go away when we get this taken care of. I feel weird saying it but I am ready to get in there and get this done.  I have a feeling that I will have a brand new son after it is over.  He will love all of the attention, and the ice cream!  Maybe he will share with me.  :)

Happy Easter Yall!

What an amazing weekend!  All of the kids were at the house and I didn't get too claustrophobic with 7 people in a 3 bedroom home.  Everyone got along, great meals, great together time, and celebrating Easter!  Makenzie's hair turned out well and so did the first supervised visitation in our home with Tina and Victoria even.  I did miss eating dinner with my parents and Sister's family at Cracker Barrel but felt it best to be home during the visit.  I did make an amazing meal though of ham, homemade mac and cheese, taters, green beans, rolls, and deviled eggs.  We all crowded around the table and chowed down!  This morning I made the most amazing thing that I have to share.  I found this recipe in a Bisquick cookbook that I have for Cinnamon Raisin Biscuits with a vanilla glaze.  SO YUMMY!

2 1/2 cup of Bisquick mix
1/2 cup raisins
2/3 cup of milk
2 T of sugar
1 t of ground cinnamon

-Heat oven to 450 stir all ingredients until forms soft dough. 
-Place dough on lightly dusted surface and knead 10 times.  Cut into biscuits and place two inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes

While they are baking mix 2/3 cup of powdered sugar, 1 T of warm water, and 1/4 t of vanilla to make the glaze. When the biscuits come out of the oven drizzle glaze over them and watch everyone in your household appear over your shoulder with their hands out.  These were a big hit!  Enjoy!

Salon Craig's newest stylist

I will probably be yelled at for this post but I HAVE to share.  After a wonderful dinner of Bearno Pizza on our new table with the whole family (Me, James, Victoria, Brooklyn, Makenzie, Anthony and Addison) James tells me that he is going to color Mak's hair tonight.  She asked him to help her with it.  It is 9:30 and the whole crew minus A&A are outside in the driveway watching James color Makenzie's hair from the swing outside.  One kitchen chair Makenzie in it, and James behind her in the swing with plastic gloves on applying level 3 hair color to her.  For those of you that are not hairdressers level 3 is almost black.  James is taking his sweet time applying and we are all observing and giving our opinions of what he should do and how he should do it.  James is losing patience and the porch light (on a timer) keeps going off and our driveway erupts into laughter.  I end up jumping in, as I knew I would have to, and finished it up.  She is outside processing now.  Let's keep our fingers crossed that her driveway hair turns out.  I really tried to get a picture but the dirty look that James gave me when I mentioned capturing the moment would have probably cracked my lense.  PRICELESS!

Braggin rights

I have to talk about my kid and her report card for a minute.  WOOHOO Go Victoria!!  Victoria was having trouble with 14 of her sight word last grading period, and this grading period she nailed them!  She was having trouble identifying the color word Brown...not anymore, yet another check mark.  Still breezing through number recognition along with the letters.  Her writing grade went up yet again, so did her Sits in chair properly, raising her hand to speak, following directions, attention span, and completing and returning homework.  I couldn't be prouder. She is now at Mamaw and Papaws house playing outside on her swing set and driving her jeep.  She is even getting a little monetary surprise today when Daddy goes to the bank.  What a great way to end a very stressful week, and start a beautiful weekend that reminds us of how unbelieveably loved we are.  Take some time today to remember and thank Him for his sacrifice.