A bit of this and that...

My husband just walked by.

"You're blogging; you must be stressed."

Needless to say, I rolled my eyes.

But truth be told, I am a bit stressed. Our financies are short, like always. Cheyeanne and Jaime both puked during the night, so I have two sick ones today. Logan has a 9:30 dentist appointment and we are being forced to go the circus tonight. I don't know what donor thought it was a great idea for our kids to attend a circus that is 45 minutes away and starts at 7:30 on a school night, but I'm only going because I have too. The small stuff in our town is usually fine to take the kiddos to; in Greenville, I'm always scared that I'm going lose one of them. But we have to go - our director and this donor will be there. This is the one downside to a foster group home - one must keep the donors happy!

But on a happy note, we went in for a check-up at the OB yesterday! Baby is doing fine and has a heartbeat of 150 (down from 160 last month, in which I was assured by my MIL that I was going to have a girl). We have an ultrasound/sonogram next week, and no, we are probably NOT going to find out what it is. And I only gained 5 lbs! Yeah! I tell you though, that's the worst part of the whole appointment - it's like a weight-in except you know you've gained weight. Oh, and I booked two Premier Designs shows yesterday for February, so that's a plus! :-)

But this is what I looked like about 3 weeks before we found out we were expecting (sorry for the poor picture quality):

And this is what I look like at just shy of 19 weeks:

School Bus Mania

Okay, so it's been nearly a week since I posted - so sorry! Our weekend off went pretty well; the exception being that I don't sleep well at my MIL's. Usually it's because the sun hits our room first and I up at dawn, but this weekend it was the bed. Apparently our nephew has taken to wetting the guest bed (he's 6 months - how does this happen? Ever heard of a changing pad?), so my MIL put one of the plastic covers on the matress. For his couple times a year visit from Tennessee. Oh, and as my sister-in-law suggested, to help protect the mattress for menstrual stains. ?!?!?! I married into a crazy family. But needless to say, the mattress cover when on and on top of that, satin sheets.

Can we say it feels like sleeping on a trash bag?

Needless to say, sleep did not come easy, nor was it restful. But we got to watch The Bourne trilogy, and that was awesome!

But I digress - and here's my post for the day!

Normally, Jonathan and I have a great system for getting the kiddos up and out the door on time for school every morning. They clean their rooms before they go to bed and lay their clothes out, so when wakeup comes, they just need to get dressed, make their beds, and take their dirty clothes to the laundry room. Breakfast is on the table when they get there; afterwards they brush their teeth, get their backpacks and jackets off of their labeled hook, and off they go!

Except for this morning, of course.

We were taking our house and next door's teenage girls to school today (their houseparents were going to the airport); that's fine - between us and them, they can fit in one 15 passenger van. Three of our kids take the school bus; the others went with Jonathan in the van off to school. So I'm unloading the dishwasher while my three 4-5 year-olds are waiting by the front door to watch for the bus. But I look up out the kitchen window and what do I see? The bus! The bus! It's waiting for me! (Okay, that was hokey, but hey, I'm a mommy of seven!)

At that very moment, Jayda announces that she has to poop. So I tell her she better hurry! I walk Logan out to the bus, but Jaime is sobbing because at that moment she realized she has lost her jacket. I tell her she's got 30 seconds, or she isn't bring one. Well, she was still crying as she boarded the bus, 'cause hey - they are about to leave and I am not driving 30 minutes to take them to school for her not finding her jacket in 60 degree weather. At this time Jayda gets halfway across the yard before starting to wail that she left her backpack in the bathroom! So I yell at her to go back for it. I'm sure I was a sight to Mr. Martin, the bus driving, a pregnant woman in her blue flowered PJ pants, multi-colored kimono-styled bathrobe, beach sandals, and black lambskin jacket yelling three kids onto the bus.

Some days go like this...

I need a cup of coffee.

But no caffeine for me.

:-(

Shopping!

Every other week, Jonathan and I get enough for a small nation. Or a UN convoy. Or maybe just our house. :-) Anyway, it's a lot of food! Normally we go on Monday mornings, while the toddlers are at Mom's Morning Out up at the church, but this week, due to MLK Day, we went yesterday and took the two girls with us.



Can you say they were the talk of the store?

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On another note, my younger sister is done with her latest video, a promo done for a pregnancy crisis center in their area. Check it out at http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=e82eb8d1b6f88112ee80&page=1&viewtype=&category=mr

Roommate Dilemmas

So one more day left before all but M & C go back to school (the reason I post more about them, as I spend 8 hours more a day with them than the other kiddos). Yeah! This has not been the most fun five days we've ever had, all cooped up together in the house, but we've made it. I'm looking forward to our weekend off coming up on Friday. As some of you know, we technically get two weekends off a month (we have the 2nd and 4th weekends), but we have chosen to only take the 4th weekend for the past eight months. With a house this young, we have found that leaving for three days every other weekend with our relief staff letting them get away with murder has been hard on us, so we've chosen to stay. Now it more like Daddy Jonathan & Mommy Debbie get a mini-vacation once a month. However, as I'm getting more pregnant, I think we'll start taking our full time off. I'm losing my mind some days (Jonathan had to gently tell me the other day I'd put all my clothes on inside out and had two different pairs of socks on) and the addition of J, another toddler who is 3 1/2, has made it harder.

So let me get to my topic of the day - roommates! Ah, the dilemma every houseparent goes through - which children work better together than others, which ones will stay up until 11 pm talking, or who might or might not play inappropriately with each other, based on their past history. We've gone through our share and are very blessed right now to have all the boys in separate rooms. The girls, however, have been a headache as we've tried the right combination since J came in. She's 3 1/2, but as big as a five or six year-old. C (2 1/2) doesn't like her much - she's too big and when she gets upset, petite C gets plowed over or her hair pulled, etc. So we separated M & C and put her into the nursery after Baby N was adopted. She's done fairly well there, though the adjustment to her toddler bed has caused a few late nights. J (5) was in a room of her own, and we put the two 3 year-olds in a room together. However, J & J go to the same school and I hate waking M up almost an hour earlier than usual, so we decided to put them in the same room together.

Can we say big mistake?

We said we'd give it a week, but I'm moving them after five days back to our original arrangement. J has reverted to a toddler again, encouraging J to some not so great behavior (such as spitting in their hands and wiping it everywhere), but the worst is that all the sudden J has stopped peeing in the toilet. Her bed, the carpet, etc; anywhere but the bathroom. ARGH!!!!! So we are moving them - I just can't take it anymore. We've done everything we can think of - nothing has worked. M is just going to have to take a good nap after lunch for getting up an hour earlier, but I can't handle J and J together anymore.

I know it will be different with our own kids (the lack of emotional/behavioral issues due to neglect, abuse, drugs, alcohol, etc), but I told Jonathan yesterday that I don't know if I'll make our future children share rooms. But then, I shared a room with my sister until I was 11 and turned out okay. So I suppose we'll see!

Rain, Rain, Rain....

I've always hated this part of South Carolina winters - the unbearable days of cold wet drizzle that leaves everyone chilled to the bone and depressed because of the sunless days. We are on day three.

On day one, Thursday, it had snowed about 1/2" and the whole city shut down. It then started to rain. Rain washed away the pretty snow and all seven of the kiddos were shut inside. But we managed - we watch Chronicles of Narnia, did some crafts, I baked, and the kids enjoyed playing in their rooms and did pretty well keeping it dull roar. Now, however, we are all going crazy. They had Friday already off of school (this district has more teacher in-service days than any I know - this is why we get out in June, I suppose), and Monday is a holiday. But this rain is making us all crazy. We're all snippy and tempers are short. Today, when the rain slowed to a drizzle, I let the boys out to go ride their bikes for 20 minutes or so - they bundled up and loved it. So I'm probably a bad mommy for that, but these kids are used to playing outside for a least two to three hours a day and need some sort of excursion.

So pray for us - two more days to go. At least with summer, we go to the swim center and they play outside, but this rain needs to stop soon. So tonight is an early dinner of pizza (take-out, of course - I have no energy to cook right now), chores, baths, movie and bed. Hopefully we'll make it! But the forecast is not good for us right now - an inch of snow tonight, then down in the 20's which will freeze everything solid. I have a feeling we won't go to church tomorrow...

*sigh*

We'll make it!

An Ode to my Husband

So many times we hear the expression: "Behind every great man is a great woman". Well, in my case, behind my busy mommy mask is a fantastic husband.

Take last night for instance. I was having one of those days yesterday - you know, the exhausted/have no energy/killer headache type days? Well at about five o'clock yesterday, Jonathan tells me to go lay down. So I did. And this man went (after taking D'ante to the dentist for two extractions, washing and vacuuming the van and our car, and cleaning up two potty-training accidents) and put supper on the table, instructed them in the chores, got all seven into baths and PJ's, and put them to bed.

Then (yes, there is more to come) he makes me supper - hearty tomato soup (with basil sprinkled on top), a slice of my homemade bread with butter and honey, and a glass of milk. Then I got my back rubbed and cuddle time... *sigh* I haven't slept all night in weeks until last night. It was wonderful. :-)

Many, many kudos to him!

Okay, back to procrastinating laundry and the start of dinner and finishing Premier hostess packets...

The Saga of the Toddler's Bed

Becky asked me how Cheyeanne was adjusting to her new bed. My reply is better, though she has started throwing little tantrums at bedtime.

However... (got to love the pauses)

...last night was different. She went to bed without so much of a fuss, and Jonathan & I continued to put everyone else into bed, too, and then watch a DVD in our room. About an hour later, we hear a full-blown scream from down the hall.

"Was that Cheyeanne?"

When we heard the words "fall down" in her next scream, we jumped out of bed and rushed into her room as she wailed and screamed thinking she had rolled out of bed and landed on the floor. Yet as we flipped on the light, we saw the situation for what it was - Cheyeanne tucked safely in her bed, screaming and pointing at the floor.

"POOH FALL DOWN! POOH FALL DOWN!"

Needless to say, we both laughed and handed our sweet little one her pooh bear back, wiped her tears, kissed her forehead, and tucked her back in. I'm hoping this ends the saga of her new big girl bed adventures!

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Question for other moms out there - how many pairs of clothes, on average, do your kiddos go through in a day? Or is just elves hiding in our outlets that multiply our laundry? I'm not kidding - I do clothes every day, and Logan had four pair of jeans in his pile today! Wear on earth did that come from?

Two year-olds say (and do!) the darndest things...

One would logically think that become a "big boy" or in house, a "big girl" would be an exciting adventure to look forward to, right?

Obviously not.

For instance, since Baby Noah is no longer in the nursery and we have a room free, we decided that Cheyeanne (2 1/2) and Mikalyn (who turns 3 this month) should be separated (they stay up waaay to late talking and are up before I am). So Jonathan and I have spent the past couple of days getting her room ready and making it not so babyish but more suited for a little girl. This included turning one of the cribs into a toddler bed, so now it looks more like she has a little daybed suited just for her. However, when we excitedly introduced her to her new room a look of horror passed over her face.

"You broke my bed!" she sobbed.

And sobbed. And sobbed. She could not be consoled for anything, and cried herself to sleep in her new big girl bed. Potty training has been easier than this switch!