In which I simply fall apart at the barest hint of an emergency

I was tired when I started today.  I’m exhausted now.  I was sitting on the couch about 9:30, thinking of all the things I needed to do and trying to figure out how to not do them, instead.  :)  Natalie came up to me, chewing, and asked for water.  She had a bad taste in her mouth.  After some screaming (on my part) and some crying (on her part) I figured out she’d eaten a thyroid pill and a prenatal vitamin from a little baggie in my bathroom.  I begin to cry kind of hysterically as I run into the kitchen and rip everything off my fridge, looking for that little magnet that has the number for poison control.  I can’t find it.  I can’t even think where else to look for the number.  I call my mom, who can’t understand me, but who eventually figures it out and has me call 911 to ask them.  I do, then I call poison control, all the while taking deep breaths so I can be understood.  The lady at poison control tries to figure out how many Natalie could have eaten, even though I’m pretty sure she only ate one of each.  I know there weren’t a ton in the baggie, but I honestly can’t remember.  I had forgotten about the baggie from my trips back in January.  She talks; I listen.  She is not worried; I am calming down.  She asks me if I’m okay.  It’s crazy how upset I’ve gotten.  I get off the phone feeling better, and by then my mother has arrived and taken the children to the living room to rock.  James of course was yelling “eat, eat!” while banging on his high chair while I’m on the phone.  Gran has rescued him.  Natalie will be fine, she didn’t eat enough to hurt herself.  The iron in the prenatal will probably upset her tummy, so she had a pretty big snack just now.  She needed to snuggle with me for a while, mostly because of all the screaming I did at her.  Poor thing.  But wow, that tiny crisis wore me out!  And I know I have missed out on Mother of the Year again this year.

Because it’s Fun

I posted this picture last night.  I had intended to comment on the popple I’m holding, but I forgot. :)

It happens to be one of those things we managed to hold on to.  It has held up well for being about 26 years old.

Feeling Nostalgic

I haven’t taken any great pictures today, so I thought I’d grab a few old ones from my folder of scans to blog this evening.  They are likely in the order in which they were scanned into the computer, which reflects on the order in which I pulled them out of the blogs, which in no way, shape, or form reflects on their chronological order.  Which is the basis of my frustration when I am in a scanning frenzy.

The little one is me.  The boy is my older half-brother.

He’s the same age as Matt.  Don’t freak out.

Me and my mommy:

I guess parents have to have a sense of humor about things so they named this rocking horse “Lucky” knowing full well I pronounced my L’s with a Y.

I love this one – my momma and her girls.

This is my Granny, my dad’s mom.  And behind her are the same big ol’ bookcases I have in my house.

Kathryn and I were singing “Away in a Manger.”

The next two appear to be from Kathryn’s first birthday:

Kathryn’s in the car; I’m standing up.

I really should get the girls into dance so they too can have pictures of themselves in big pink tutus.  :)

I’m not sure why for the next one, but it’s cute.  And I recognize the wallpaper in my parent’s bathroom.

Preschool graduation!!

2nd grade I think.  We sang “Mr. Sandman.”

Me and my momma on Easter one year.

Halloween!  My mother made this Rainbow Brite costume.  Oh I wish we still had it.  :)

Well, that was fun for me.  :)

And, like I’ve said before: Even though they’re crazy disorganized, I’m sooooooo thankful to have all of these wonderful pictures of my growing up.

Playing Today

James’ little personality sure is budding lately.  He asks to do things and is showing preference for things.  It’s very cute… mostly.  :)

This morning he wanted to dress up.  This is pretty much our only gender “neutral” (NOT pink or purple!) dress up outfit:

He was very happy to be a tiger! 

Natalie is doing “This Little Piggy” for James.

“All the way home!”

Have I mentioned I LOVE my new camera?

I LOVE not having to use a flash.  LOVE.  LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE.  In fact, I don’t think I’ve used it yet.  It is OFF.  :)

No-flash photos make me happy.

And now, back to the cute boy…

Very serious in his play:

I had to document this moment when we actually had all the “people” from the bus!

He loves his bus…even when there are only one or two or three people on board.  :)

My sweet Natalie.  She loves to wear this Ariel dress at Miss Lisa’s house.

The Vandengirls got some new gadgets on their fort – fun!

This girl sure can pump her legs on the swing!

Awwwww!!!

Sliding is hard without pants.  Sorry Joanna.  :)

Thanks for letting us come over to play today – we had fun!

“Milkshake”

One of our favorite things lately for breakfast or a snack is a “milkshake.”

It’s fast, easy, healthy, and the children LOVE it.

In a pint-sized regular-mouth mason jar I put:

• 1 cup of milk
• 2T peanut butter
• 1 frozen banana (frozen in halves so it’ll fit)
• today I added a few spinach leaves and it didn’t affect the taste – yay!

Then I attach that to the blade on my blender (I do believe most blenders are like this.) and pulse it until it’s all blended up – milkshake consistency.  One batch makes enough for the three kiddos to share as a snack or part of their breakfast. 

For mine, I like to add about 1/2 tablespoon each of sucanat and cocoa powder.  Yum.

I saw this on Pinterest a while back (of course!) and the original recipe called for a tablespoon of sugar I think (some kind of sweetener), but you really don’t need it.  I freeze the bananas when they’re very ripe, and they’re plenty sweet.

I will likely update this post with pictures (‘cause I love to play with my camera!) but I wanted it up now even though I don’t feel like making a milkshake this very minute.  :)

A Baby Shower for Kimberly!

This afternoon I got to help host a shower for my friend Kimberly, who is having her third boy.  Wahoo!!

I never thought I would be the type to host a baby shower, but with an awesome group of ladies, it’s so much fun!  I really had it easy on this one too.  I pretty much just showed up with a bunch of jars.  :)

Baby Eli’s nursery is all Texan, so we ran with that theme!

Candice made the awesome paper decorations using her silhouette.  (I did help a little with that by going over to house and helping cut and paste and giving opinions.)

Theresa had the great idea of using simple daisies as decorations.  I can’t remember whose idea it was to use the canning jars, but I sure was happy to use my stash!!

Isn’t this diaper cake awesome?!!  Theresa found the hat and boots at Hobby Lobby – the hat is a bank!  The middle tier of diapers are those jeans ones by Huggies.  TOO CUTE!

Sign in table:

Food table:

Little Texas crackers for the Jalepeno popper dip that Lisa made.  Yum!

Shaun made these amazing BBQ pork sliders.  I may have had three.  :)

Jasmin made homemade coleslaw and this yummy pea salad.

Texas sheet cake.  SO GOOD.

I love jars.

You can learn all kinds of interesting things helping to host a baby shower.  Like that lemons float in water but limes sink.  Who’da thunk, right?

I love watching people open presents.  :)

Doesn’t Kimberly look so precious?!!

I don’t think everybody signed in – it was a great group!

I did a terrible job of taking pictures of the guests.  Mostly I caught people blinking, scratching, or with their mouths open.

Oh well!

It was such a fun party and such a great reason to get together.  Congratulations Kimberly!

I’ll update this post when I get the group shot from Shaun.  My lens doesn’t zoom out enough for a group picture in the house.

I am just so stinkin’ thankful for digital photography.

And never more so than when I’m sitting at my computer lately, trying to make some sense of the boxes of loose pictures from my childhood.

I will say one thing: I am thankful the pictures were taken, even if they were in no way, shape, or form labeled or organized.

:)

These are Natalie’s feet.  They have nothing to do with my scanning fun, but they’re cute.  And freshly painted.

And she was so excited about them!

Yesterday I made myself a chart of sorts to help me identify pictures as I scanned them.

This way I don’t have to keep recalling what year it was when I finished the fifth grade or which Christmases we would have spent living at my grandmother’s house.

And now I realize I wrote 1986 on the last  line.

Whatever.  It’s basically right.

My mother came over for a bit this afternoon to help me identify some of the pictures.

We use many clues to uncover the mystery of when the pictures were taken.

This one is a treasure:

I’m at my dad’s, I’ve got my old flute, some current reading material, and best of all – the previous year’s school yearbook!  Yes!  So I know it was the summer of 1995.

This one looks like spring with the clothes (and baby chick!).  I know it’s my Grandma’s house, and my mother can tell that I have my expander in my mouth (from the orthodontist) because she says it changed the shape of my face pretty drastically right at first.

So we’ve gathered it’s probably the spring of 1991.  I have a hard time telling the difference between 3rd and 4th grade.

Overall, I’m getting pretty good at just looking at my hairstyle and judging the year.  Makes me thankful for that great late 80’s/early 90’s hair.  :)

I need to gather some more information:

• When I got my braces ON.
• The birthdays of my niece and nephew.
• The dates my father moved houses.

That information will help me.

As I go through the pictures, I pick some favorites to keep (and eventually display in some way) and throw the rest into a box.  When I’m feel particularly courageous, I’m going to THROW THE BOX AWAY.  Probably after I’ve backed up the scans on disc and the external hard drive.  :)

It feels really really really good to do this.

If you come over, you will know this insane project is why my house is a total pit.  :)