My Family's Home and Property Damaged

Well, last night my family had a little excitement and not the good kind of excitement. They live in central Kansas (so far away from me!). Here is the story from my point of view and perhaps others or more will come later.

I had heard reports that there could be severe tornado outbreaks on Saturday of this past weekend, April 14. I had emailed my parents (mostly jokingly) a few days ago and said they should just take a roadtrip (with Grandma of course) and come see us and just avoid the area completely. They declined. :)

So I was watching the weather in Kansas (online . . . usually Weather Channel). Noah woke up around 10:30 pm and I checked the radar then. I noticed a very strong line headed right towards my hometown but I was praying it would veer off and not hit my parents. I saw the tornado warning online so around 10:50 pm I texted my dad and asked him if they'd been missed by the latest storm.

His response was "Got us". Well, I at least knew he was alive but beyond that I had no idea. Thankfully my mom called a few minutes later.

Her report was not good. They were all safe, thankfully, but all the farm buildings, except their house had been destroyed and my grandma's house (a 1/2 mile away) had been severely damaged as well. I couldn't believe it.

I turned to Facebook for the rest of my news and a family friend that lives up the road kept me updated most of the rest of the night as to what else was happening with my family.

That is still all I know for now. I was able to talk to my Grandma today. She told me a few more details of her experience and didn't really seem shaken by the fact she no longer had a house. Perhaps that will come. I also talked to my mom and she just said they had a lot of volunteers and progress had been made at cleaning up.

I'm still in shock. I really wish I was there to help but that is not really possible. So I'm praying and waiting to hear of anything I can do to help!

Easter 2012

My baby seems to be feeling slightly better today so I'm going to get some Easter pictures posted. He didn't have a fever when he woke and all morning. He is still biting (ouch!) but hopefully the pain won't bring him down as much as it has been.

Anyway, we had a wonderful Easter!! I, once again, had our whole family match on Easter Sunday. I figure that as long as my husband is willing to participate, I should do it while I can because I know my kids are going to grow out of it. The theme this year was white and navy. My outfit was the trickiest and I think I looked a little weird with my tunic top (which Andrew said looked like a nightgown) my capri tights, my white shoes that were missing a sparkly butterfly on one shoe, and my "old lady" belt (also an Andrew quote). Oh well, I matched and it wasn't too bad I don't think.

Here are some pictures we took on Andrew's Grandma's front porch. The first few were good, the kids weren't tired yet, but unfortunately we had a sunburst in the camera lens. We take these via remote on Andrew's camera so there wasn't anyone behind the camera, actually! Pretty good, right?!

I love this first one! Elsie makes me smile and Abigail shivering is cute!!

Distracted Elsie.

Abigail wasn't listening at this point and I stopped to correct her which led to some pouting. She eventually warmed up again.

With Andrew's parents and sister. Abigail was hiding!!

The very crowded kitchen lunch buffet! It was all delicious!

Easter Egg Hunt!

Abigail really got into it this year, which was fun!

She loved opening up the eggs to find candy and money. She got to keep the money! Ha! :)

More Easter Egg Hunting.

We didn't last much beyond the hunt. Our little ones were ready for a nap quite a while before this so we headed home for everyone to rest. Fun and simple day! I didn't get any picture of the Easter baskets this year but we did give the girls a few things including coloring books, little purses, and some other small toys. They loved it!

Poor baby boy

I've meant to post about Easter and I still will but my energies are focused on my poor boy. For a few days now he has been cranky, not sleeping well, clingy. Then last night he felt hot. His temp was still "normal" but he did end up throwing up once.

He spent several hours up at night. Today . . . more cranky baby except when hopped up on motrin. Tonight a 99 to 100 degree temp. Not high but first time he has had a fever. Won't take a paci and his nap drooling could put a grown man to shame.

I think it is teeth. Well I know he is getting them, molars that is. I can see some little points through and red irritated gums where they are not through yet. But I am not sure all these symptoms are just teeth. If they are then wow! He may have a bug but doesn't really have other symptoms (cough/cold). Only time will tell.

Off to snuggle my sweet babe!

Good Friday

Happy Good Friday and what a good Friday it is! We've had a wonderful, relaxed, and very productive week!! We just mainly relaxed around here but we tried to do a lot of learning activities. It has really paid off with Elsie. We've been concerned about her speech for some time but with all the extra time we've spent with her this week she is making great progress. The picture below is of some red cups that Noah started playing with in the kitchen. Elsie caught on and then I got the grand idea to use them to help her learn to count. She can now say "one, two, three (free), four, and five (fi)". Pretty cute!



Abigail continues to struggle with some sensory things. She will not sit at the table if there are crumbs (even if she created the crumbs) so I'm busy wiping off the table all day long. She also will not touch her food with her hands unless it is supposed to be finger food, like hamburgers, and then even reluctantly. I bought some finger paints recently and we went to town on that one day.

She got crazy with it. So crazy that she even ended up painting her body. I was pretty thrilled that she was so into it so I didn't mind! I did end up giving her and Elsie a bath after that. I tried to help Elsie finger paint but the paint went directly into her mouth constantly so she ended up coloring and doing stickers which she seemed fine with that activity.




Abigail has also been dressing herself recently. A big breakthrough this week when she voluntarily chose to wear these jeans. Granted they have an adjustable waist and are pretty soft material and are capris. Still, I thought she did great, looked cute and too grown up!



Just in the nick of time, Andrew figured out a good solution to keep Noah from climbing the stairs all day long. I was afraid of putting something heavy there, like a step stool, or even a basket. I didn't want him pulling on that and pulling it onto himself but we've been putting the girls' little Dora couch on the stairs and he doesn't bother it. If one of the girls moves it, he is lickety-split up the stairs! This came just in time because I signed up to take a big family in our area a meal this week and it has taken some planning and organization and prep work but I finished it tonight.

I feel like we've gotten so much accomplished this week and have been able to stick to a very nice routine. I love the Easter season and particularly the day itself, of course. Not only do I like spring but I love to celebrate the reason for the holiday, that Jesus came and died for our sins and came back to life! I've been explaining this to Abigail, which is difficult for a four year old to understand, I think, but at least she is hearing it!

Happy Easter!

I'm here

I'm here. I really am. My trip went great. Noah was a dream baby on that trip.

Life just got busy once I got back. My husband had a Home and Garden Show for his new business last weekend (which meant me alone with all kids, all day). I spent every waking moment last week chasing a baby up the stairs because he loves to crawl up them. I also tried to deep clean a lot of the house, which I did accomplish. . . except with kids the play in a room for 5 minutes and it looks trashed, except . . . well, maybe clean underneath all the toys. Ugh!

During the next two weeks I've undertaken some cooking projects for a large family nearby so I also may not blog much. I love to cook and bake and this is a good reason to do it. I just have to plan ahead and make sure I don't leave everything for the last minute, which is thankfully a strength of mine. :)

So, perhaps I'll get a chance to post from my phone now and then and hopefully I'll find time to do a recap of my trip to Kansas. It was FUN!!! :)

Travel

Noah and I flew to Kansas a few days ago to visit my parents, brother, and grandma. We are having a grand time!! Of course we miss Daddy, Abigail, and Elsie!!

Date with Elsie

The weekend before last I got the opportunity to take Elsie out on a little date, just Elsie and Mommy. We went shopping together at JcPenneys, where she was very good even though I was trying on clothes, and then we went to Panera for dinner.

She was a delight. We were able to "talk" and sing together without interruption. I think she had a good time too. These pictures are good examples of just how wiggly she can be!

Addiction!

Hi, my name is Jaime and I'm addicted to . . .

Zulily!

If you haven't heard of it yet, check out my link below:

http://www.zulily.com/invite/jschechter203

Part of the problem is my inability to find appropriate clothes for Abigail in the stores where I normally would have bought cheap, everyday clothes for her like Target, etc. She is already a size 6 or 7 and most of those clothes look too "teenage" for her . . . being only 4 years old. So I feel justified in purchasing things from Zulily because they are age appropriate, on sale, and just sooooo cute!

Help me!!

Precious Pics and New Business

Doesn't it seem like the days just fly by? My kids keep getting bigger and bigger (and cuter and cuter!).

See?

Darlings!

Not much excitement around here (except see previous posts about crazy babies). Just lots of cooking, cleaning, laundry, diapers, hugs and snuggles with my babies.

The only news to report at this time - and part of the reason for my busy life and limited blogging - is that my husband is starting a new venture and business with his dad. I have many emotions surrounding this new thing in my life.

(I am so proud of my husband. I am in awe of his brain. How did he come up with something like this? He must be a genius! I am tired and worn from the long hours he spends working on the project and away from us. I am excited to see where he might take his company and I know he is doing it for our family, which I appreciate greatly!)

So . . .without any more rambling on my part, check out

www.gridreplacement.com

The name of the company is actually Schechter Energy.

He is very busy at this point because he is unveiling his product at the Dayton Home and Garden Show in two weeks. He has been very busy working on the product, brochures, business cards, banners, and so on, for that show.

We're hoping for some interested customers!!

Fork Dream

Here is a recount of my very odd dream last night . . .

I was eating a potluck dinner (lunch) at my childhood church. I turned around suddenly and accidentally stabbed my husband with my fork in his gut. It punctured him. After an examination in the kitchen he decided to go ahead and participate in a triathlon.

I was there watching him race and was so worried about him because of the injury. We watched and watched and he never came around the bend of the race. Finally my sister showed up and said "Andrew wants to know if it still counts as a completion if he drives the rest of the way". (ha!)

That was it.

There are so many way to interpret that dream so I think I'll leave it alone. I'm just glad I was worried about my husband in the dream. :)

Babies are Crazy!

This past weekend we had some excitement (not the good kind) in our house. It was Friday night and Andrew was preparing himself to keep all three kids while I headed off to a Glow in the Dark Zumba party (yes, it would have been as fun as it sounds). I went upstairs to change and to get away from the screaming and questions for a while - just keeping it honest here.

I hear Andrew call for me "Jaime get down here, quick. I need your little fingers." I don't think I have ever heard his voice that panicked. My mind instantly thought, "Noah is choking on something". Sure enough, he was choking on something. By the time I got my fingers in his mouth it was gone. There was drool hanging from his mouth to the floor - tinged the blood. Not a pretty sight. Andrew held him up and I said "well, he is breathing". We never were able to see what it was he was choking on.

We watched him for a while and he seemed okay. Perhaps a bit uncomfortable from the experience. I asked Andrew if he thought I should still go to my party and he said "just go if you're going to go". Okay then, I'll go.

Drove there, signed in and got a text from Andrew, "I wouldn't mind it if you came home now. Noah likes his crying." My husband is so low key that for the regular person that sort of a text would mean, "EMERGENCY, GET HOME NOW. I'M GOING CRAZY." Or maybe that's just me.

So I headed home. Noah had been crying a lot when I got there but I was able to calm him down and get him to sleep.

He woke an hour later very fussy and uncomfortable. His breathing was fine but I was concerned he had swallowed something and it was stuck. So I made the decision to take him to the ER. I say "I" in this instance because Andrew would probably never take a kid to a medical professional to check them out "just in case". He was okay with me going, though. :)

X-ray's showed nothing and many people listened to his breathing in the ER and he was fine. We came home and he slept okay that night but was a little restless.

Several days passed and I kept checking diapers in order to try to solve the mystery of what he may have swallowed. Yesterday, I found this . . .

It is a smallish stem from a rose, complete with thorns! See?! Why would anyone put that in their mouth and then swallow!? No wonder he seemed to be in pain!!

I did end up calling the doctor because I was concerned his insides would be all torn up. He said that if he wasn't bleeding or showing any other signs of great distress then he was probably okay. Hmm!

It is really an understatement to say that my life has changed. It really changed when Noah started crawling but now I realize just how much he can and will get into. This is not all. I have pulled a bandaid (yuck), rock, piece of tin foil, and Kleenex from his mouth in the last week.

I don't suppose I can accurately describe how much this stresses me out. I usually vacuum every day. Not necessarily every room every day but in the general area where we live and eat, I do. One day, I completely cleared the living room of everything except giant huge toys, set Noah down, walked out to get something and I turned around only to find him chewing on a pen!! I do believe Elsie had given it to him. With other kids, even if I get a room completely clean and babyproofed, it can be destroyed in minutes!

Abigail is good at helping but she is the one that has a lot of the "little" things that need to be kept safe, such as jewelry, etc. Whew! I feel unable to leave him for more than a moment or two. Makes me craaaazy!!

I am so torn everyday because my baaaaby is growing up so fast and I want it to slow down. He is such a darling but yet I am not in love with this stage. Even when I am pretty stern with him and tell him "no" he will still stick things in his mouth while I watch. He is cruising the furniture easily so he will probably be walking soon (sniff sniff) and then this stage will be over.

So . . . that's the most recent adventure in our house.

If I'm not blogging much it is because I'm cleaning the floors!!!!!

Abigail 'isms"

I am down with a pretty bad cold at the moment. We've been sick for months it seems and I don't think Noah's lack of sleeping is helping me much. Last night I was also awakened by a little darling girl named Abigail. She came up at midnight saying she was having a hard time sleeping. I was so congested and had just been up with Noah (for his ever 2 hour awakenings) so I just said, "Please go back to bed". She got a hug and did what I asked.

Then she also came up at 4:45 am. She woke me up and said to me . . .

"Mama, I was just laying there in my bed and I heard my underwear fall off."

Ha!

So I followed her down to her room and sure enough, she was not wearing underwear.

I helped her get some on and put her back to bed and didn't hear from her until 8 am.

I asked her about it again this morning and she said that her underwear fell off because she had been getting ready to take a bath and they had gotten a little wet. I felt the "old" underwear (which I found in her bed) last night and they weren't wet and neither was the bed.

I told her she must have been dreaming!

Funny girl!

Dearest Beautiful Bouncing Baby Boy

Dearest Sweetest Darling Nine-month-old Boy,

You are my joy, my sweetness, my kissable one. I love seeing you all hours of the day and night. But, if you would, ever so kindly, perhaps learn to sleep a little more at night?! I love looking at your wee little bonnie face as you sleep in my arms during the midnight hours, however, I'd much prefer to only see you once or twice, maybe, instead of your usual four times and last night I saw it six times.










You see, you have these adorable other little people in your life called your sisters. They need my attention too. They need my patience and a gentle yet firm mother and to be quite honest, my boy, a lot of those wonderful qualities don't come naturally to me. Which means, when I'm lacking sleep, which I am so often doing, I find myself running short, particularly with your darling lovely sisters. It is not their fault, you see. They sleep at night (usually).

So if you would help me out on this, pretty please. Perhaps it is my fault for still insisting that I rock you to sleep and nurse you to sleep when you wake a night but you're my last little darling baby and I savor those times. Help me savor them more by sleeping better! Your daddy thinks that I need to let you cry and at some point, he's going to get his way if I keep complaining about sleep!! :)

I love you more than words can say. You will never be far from my thoughts and prayers each day even as you grow older. Know that my love for you will never change. Know that you'll always be welcome home with open arms. Know that Jesus Christ loves you more than I do (unimaginable, I know!). You are a loved and spoiled on little boy who brings us immense joy! I mean look at that picture! Makes me want to go wake you from your nap and kiss you because I know that someday that won't be as "cool" to do.

Sleepily yours,

Your Mama

Splashing Frenzy!

My little boy is a splashing maniac! See???!!!

We're all on the mend from our colds around here. Noah and Elsie still have slight coughs and runny noses but I can tell they are starting to feel better. I know that my kids will get sick. That is inevitable but I just want a break now! A few weeks . . .please!!! The kids all started some immunity boosting drops from our doctor tonight so I hope they help (and that I didn't waste my money!).

Enjoy the video and my darling little happy bundle of baby love!!

Happy 4th Birthday Abigail

Dear Sweet Princess,

It's your 4th birthday (well the day after, actually)! How did you get so old, girly? You are such a precious joy to me.

You love to help! You love to help cook and clean. You love to especially help take care of the "babies". You frequently ask me to "watch my Noey for a while" so you can do something else. Ha ha! You love to take care of Elsie too (most of the time). Tonight when you were opening your presents she wanted your new purse. Instead of screaming at her and ripping it away, you found another little purse she could have and distracted her with that purse and said "Here you go sweetie". You are so loving!

You are a girly girl! You love to dress up. You have recently discovered princesses and dancing! Your favorite thing is dresses that sparkle and balloon out when you twirl! You are very smart too. You have jumped right into your dance class and can keep up well with the other girls even though you started at the midway point.

You love geography and maps. You love to figure out where people live and talk about visiting them.You love playing outside, although it's rather cold for that right now.

You're still not the best sleeper. You will still wake us up often needing something or not being able to sleep but you're getting better. You eat what I cook but you still don't like to feed yourself and often ask for "help". We're working on that!

You are so tall. You are wearing a size 6 or size 7 clothes!

Abigail, I want you to know how much I love you and how much Jesus loves you. Never forget the ultimate sacrifice that He made for you by dying for your sins on the cross. My prayer for you is that you live a purposeful life, one that is in fulfillment of the purpose God created you for. He created you and He created you such a special little being! I can't wait to help you grow along the way and discover the many wonderful gifts He has blessed you with.

Love,
Your Momma

Sick of sick!

I am so sick of sickness. Elsie caught a cold two weeks ago and shared it with the rest of us. She seemed better this weekend but now her nose is running more, has a nasty cough and fever. Noah is coughing again too. Ugh!

Might be heading to the doctor tomorrow - Abigail's birthday!

I am so ready for summer!

Failure?

Oi! I'm trying not to feel like a failure. Let me back up a little bit. After Abigail was born, I waited approximately 11 months and then got frustrated with my weight and joined Weight Watchers. I lost about 10 pounds in that first month and then discovered I was pregnant (surprise!). I was bummed but I knew that I could do it again.

Fast forward a year or so. Elsie is born and I gave myself two months. After the two month mark, I joined again. This time I lost 35 pounds! I felt great and much more comfortable in my own skin. It took me probably five or six months to lose that weight.

I think you know how the story goes . . . yep that's right . . . surprise, pregnant again! I was at my lowest weight starting a pregnancy and felt great. After Noah was 4 weeks old, I joined Weight Watchers again.

I was able to lose 20 pounds, give or take, from my initial signing up but the rest of it just will not budge. I haven't really lost any since October and since I'm thrifty (ha!) I can't stand spending the money on a program that isn't really working.

I canceled my membership tonight. It feels weird and scary and freeing! I'm still planning on weighing in once a week to keep myself in check. If I start gaining, I'll probably sign up again. If I can maintain then I will probably just wait until my life isn't so hectic and then concentrate on it again later. I know that's the reason why. I'm literally so focused on wiping noses, and behinds, and laundry, and cooking, that it leaves very little time for tracking food. Thankfully I have found that attending exercise classes is a great way to burn off some of my daily frustration and have really enjoyed those so I'm sure I'll keep that up.

Hope I can maintain (or even lose!) and then when the time is right I can get focused and back on track!!

Survival!

We've been passing around colds in our family. It seems that any little thing like this put me right back into survival mode!

I did manage to make a batch of banana bread loaves this morning but that's the first cooking that I've done all week.

I have got to find something to make for dinner tonight!

Someday they'll all be gone and I'll be able to enjoy being sick alone. (Really, enjoy it, folks with no little kids. Being able to lay down on the couch and sleep?! Amazing). For now I'm plugging along.

Love Note Books

I don't remember where I got this idea. Whether I came up with it or I happened to glace at a blog or website and think of it is a mystery. I had the idea to create each one of my children a 'love notes' book.

I have been wanting to order these books for some time and since I had a little Christmas money to play around with I went ahead and ordered these.

I have written lots of notes to my kids on my blog and will continue to do so but they are scattered throughout other random rumblings and ramblings that my kids may not want to read through some day. Each book has a picture of me and each child and each one says Dear (Insert Name) Love, Mommy. I hope to fill them with notes to my precious kiddos on special occasions, like birthdays, church events, firsts, and so on, but I also hope to find the time to just sit down and jot notes to them on regular everyday kind of days to encourage them when they get older.

One day (one sad sad day) when my children leave home or get married - whenever I deem appropriate - I will give them this book to take with them so they will always have a physical reminder of my love with them.

After I had ordered the books, I saw a similar idea from a dad here: http://wearethatfamily.com/2012/01/the-letter-box/ if anyone is interested in that wonderful idea as well.

So . . . I'm going to get busy writing my letters!

P.S. I created and ordered these books from Snapfish.com but found many interesting websites that offered a wide variety of books. I wanted something hardcover but customizable. I'm very happy with them!!

Stepping Back

I received wonderful and wise advice from a fellow mom around the time I was due to have Noah. This mom had three kids of similar ages as mine.

Her primary advice was . . . no guilt . . . no pressure. Just take it easy and do what you have to do.

As moms, there is so much pressure to do this, put your child in this, be this way or that way when really only the parents know what is best for their own kids. I truly do believe this.

In some ways I have fallen off this bandwagon of "don't push yourself, enjoy this time" advice that I received 8 months ago . . . at least in my mind.

I feel like I should be more involved in this or that, etc. Giving more, being more, doing more. I remembered my sweet friend's advice a week or so ago and I'm back. Back to saying "no" if it really doesn't benefit my family or if it pushes the boundaries of what is safe and fun for all of us. After all, they're only going to be this young and needy once. My mission and my calling is single-minded and focused right now and that is to serve my family.

I love to life purposefully. I don't want to just agree to do activities and make plans because it isn't bad. Instead I'd rather only plan to do things that lift us up and encourage us to live our lives more fully for Christ!

What sort of things do you feel pressured to do to "keep up" with those around you? Or what have you said "no" to lately that has freed you up to just be still and enjoy life and the relationships around you?