An EIGHT!!

Can we just go back to Monday morning at 8am and start this week all over again?? This week has really stunk it up!

Alli Claire and I just got back from the pediatricians office where she was diagnosed with a very severe ear infection. He said on a scale of 1 to 10, she was an 8 and a pretty bad one at that. He said her eardrum may rupture today and gave me the fun stuff to look for if it does. Oh joy!! She woke up last night around midnight and pretty much didn't go back to sleep until now. She whimpered and whined, tossed and turned and was pretty much miserable all night. At some point in the night we asked her what hurt and she pointed to her right ear. Isn't it great when they get to the age where they can tell you what's wrong? At 7:15am we were off to the doctors office to be worked in... After 2 hours, we walked out the door with a shot and a prescription in hand. The weird thing about the whole thing is she showed no symptoms until this morning. No cough, no runny nose, no fever, no restless nights, no lack of an appetite, no nothing. And for the infection to have gotten this bad, it had to have started several days ago. Her doctor said it probably started on her birthday... that was 3 days ago! Chalk it up to another one of AC's unusual episodes... and that's exactly what her doctor said. He said she's never walked the normal road of illnesses, even from birth.

So we're home today getting lots of Motrin and rest.

OOPS! is an understatement

It's 3:08am and I can't sleep. Would you like to know why? Well, I'm going to tell you anyway...
Almost 6 hours ago, I backed into our Maxima with our Tahoe as we were leaving Ed and Sallie's house after celebrating Alli Claire and Ed's birthdays. You see, when I parked, I parked heading out of the neighborhood. I'm not one of these "backer inner" people (by the way, if you are one of these people, you get on my nerves tremendously... it takes way to long for you to park while others have to sit and wait and it saves you all of 14.3 seconds to back up to get out of a parking space). So back to my story. So, I'm not one of those people and I'm also a creature of habit. 99% of the time, I put my car in Reverse before I put it in Drive. It was 9:15pm and I was tired. There was lots of birthday planning involved this day and two parties to coordinate. My mind needed a rest from all of the festivities. My brain was on auto-pilot by this time. My routine kicked in and put the truck in Reverse. I know it rolls back a little if I'm parked on an incline (which I was) but it was rolling back a good bit what is the first thing you do? Give it gas of course and that's when I heard and felt the CRASH! And yes, in case you're wondering, the girls were in the car with me... I'll save you from the phrase that Martin uttered as I exited my vehicle, but it wasn't nice or pretty. I felt horrible, nauseated and stupid. The Tahoe has a steel bumper on the back so it came out of the mix pretty well. The Maxima did not. It has a buckled hood, cracked headlight and a crushed front bumper. It's shocking what 5 miles per hour or less will do to a vehicle! And to top it off, (have I mentioned we have a smart-mouthed 8 year old??) Graisi got out of the truck and said.... "Well, that wasn't a very good thing to do!" Our reaction also wasn't very nice to her observative statement. She quickly got back into the truck. We got home, I put the girls to bed and Martin got home. I wasn't sure if I should hide, pretend I was asleep or discuss the situation head-on. I decided to avoid it all together and went through our nightly ritual of watching television in bed and eventually nodding off to sleep. Not a word was said and now I'm up at 3:29am... I'm tired, sleepy and still nauseated at the cost of what it's going to take to make the needed repairs. But, I think the worst part of the whole thing is knowing Martin is upset with me.

I think God is using this to teach me a lesson. Earlier at dinner, as we were preparing to sit down to eat, Graisi spilled a whole cup of lemonade in the floor. I gave her a pretty hard time about it and told her to pay closer attention to what she was doing. I guess the same could be said for me, huh?? It's amazing how God uses little lessons to teach us big ones. I just wish I could have learned mine in a less costly way.... maybe a broken arm or leg would have sufficed don't cha think??

Happy 2nd Birthday Alli Claire!

Happy Birthday Baby Alli Claire!! Mommy and Daddy love you so much and look forward to many years of loving you and being your parents.

I spent the last night of your first year rocking and singing you to sleep. I rocked you well after you were asleep because I knew when you woke up you would no longer be my 1 year old baby. I am a little sad today knowing how fast you're growing and how I can't catch the time in a bottle and keep it forever. Although I'm sad, I'm still very excited to watch you grow and become the wonderful person God has made you to be. I love that your favorite song is "Jesus Loves Me"!! And that I get to sing it to you over and over and over again. I pray you never forget the words. I am so blessed to be able to call you my daughter.

I love you Ladybug!!
Mommy

Elmo's in the house!

Happy 2nd Birthday Alli Claire!!

Saturday was Alli Claire's 2nd birthday party and we had fun. We had lots of family (Mallory included) join us for the celebration. It was Elmo inspired (if you haven't guessed already) with yummy snacks and a delicious cake (from Edgar's of course). She got so much really neat stuff and has enjoyed playing with all of it... I think Graisi has too :o)

And then there were two.... shoes that is

Yesterday was WWIII with Graisi and her room. She was supposed to go over to Mallory's house if she got her room cleaned up before the night was over. I mean how hard is that right? Apparently really hard for an 8 year old. After she finally got her room cleaned, I asked her to take a look at her closet to make sure it was straight before we left. She sighed as she opened the door. This was the second time in two weeks that I've found clean clothes shoved in the bottom of her dirty, shoe infested closet floor. Needless to say, she didn't go to Mallory's and this started the meltdown. I wasn't going to ask her to straighten up the shoes, but only to make sure the total closet was in some kind of order. So now, since she wasn't going to Mallory's she could straighten her shoes. Then came the second meltdown. I told her that if she didn't want to clean up her shoes, I would remove the shoes and she wouldn't have to worry about them anymore. I did leave her with 1 pair of tennis shoes and 1 pair of flip flops. I told her that the state of Alabama required me to at least give her 1 pair and because I'd given her 2, she should be thankful. Here are a few of the conversations we had:

Graisi: It feels like you don't love me. I'll just leave tonight.
Me: (the light bulb went off) Really? Where is your suitcase? I would hate for you to have to stay somewhere where you don't feel loved. You'll only need one change of clothes and your shoes. They'll give you some when you get there.
Graisi: Huh? What? I'm not going anywhere. Where are we going?
Me: I'm taking you somewhere where they'll love you. There is a group home off of County Rd 52. You won't have to worry about keeping your room clean because you won't have very much to take care of. And you won't have to worry about your shoes, because you'll only have a pair or two there also. So you'll be just fine. (I proceeded to take the suitcase down the stairs)
Graisi: NO! I DON'T TO GO ANYWHERE. YOU CAN'T MAKE ME. I want to live in a house with a family who feeds me good food and gives me a room to sleep in. I want to live with you and Daddy!
Me: REALLY? Because that's not what you said a few minutes ago. Would you like for me to repeat it?

Graisi: Mommy, I know you took my shoes away because you were mad. I know you really want me to have them and want to give them back to me. I PROMISE to take better care of them and not complain about having to take care of them. I will take really good care of them from now on. If I don't, then you can spank me until the tissue on my bottom turns black and blue. (She actually said this!) Can I have them back?
Me: Well, the state kinda frowns on that type of behavior, so that's not possible. And no, you cannot have your shoes back.
Graisi: You didn't leave me with any Sunday shoes and I have to look cute and match on Sundays. What am I supposed to wear?
Me: Well, this decision should be easy for you. You either have tennis shoes or flip flops. Pick one.
Graisi: But Mama!
Me: Graisi, the state requires me to give you one pair of shoes. They didn't say your shoes have to match your clothes. Shoes are a necessity. Matching is a luxury. Deal with it.

Classified Ad: Free to a good home
Would you like to adopt an 8 year old girl? She's very pretty. She doesn't do a lot around the house and doesn't clean her room, but would enhance and round out your family portraits. She makes good grades and "they" says she's gifted. (House keeping isn't one of her gifts.) She's toilet trained and doesn't eat too much. She doesn't make much noise if the television is on. In fact, leave the television on and you'd never know she was in the house. She comes with all of her vaccinations and a free bed. We'll deliver. Please call 555-9876 for more information. Once adopted, she cannot be returned to her original owners. Adopted "as is".

I'm just kidding! Silly, I couldn't let her go for free. I would require a little $ in exchange for her previous 8 years of room and board...

20 years ago...

I'm posting a little late, but you know what they say....

We went home last weekend for Martin's 20 year class reunion. We didn't get very much sleep and it wasn't because we stayed out all night partying. There was a sleeper sofa and a 2yr old little cover monster involved in this one. However, we did have a really good time at the reunion. I must say 1988 was a good year. Friday involved getting to know each other again and catching up on each others families and jobs. I did discover on this night that one of my classmates from 1994 is in prison in Montgomery for drug distribution... I was a little taken aback. I mean, what do you say after that?? So I did what anyone else would do... I smiled and said I needed to go find Martin :o) We were home by 10:30pm. This is when we discovered we were old, married parents.

Saturday involved Martin going to play golf with several guys in the class and me at home with the girls. Mamaw left us for a while to go to a family reunion. (I'd rather have a colonoscopy than go to one of thosethings!) She'd mentioned how she'd like for me to mop her floors, so guess what I got to do? But the bathroom floor needed a little more attention than the mop, so my OCD kicked in and I scrubbed the floor with a little brush and around the corners with a toothbrush. It wasn't fun, but the floors were clean when I got finished :o) Anywho, we got cleaned up and headed to the big shindig down at the local country club. I got to see several people that I hadn't seen in years. I wasn't sure if this was Martin's reunion or mine. You wouldn't think I would know the class that was 6 years older, but you'd be surprised. The older crowd was always more appealing to me. I'm sure many of you are utterly shocked. We watched a few of the guys dance who had less rhythem than Elaine Bennis. But they enjoyed dancing none the less. I'm not sure if it had anything to do with the alcohol, but it was the best entertainment we'd seen in a while.

Sunday was finished off with a trip to the local military park where we got a personal black powder demonstration. It was very interesting. Alli Claire even seemed to enjoy it and didn't make a fuss when the rifel fired. Then came a tour through the park and in and out of the car to read the historical landmarkers located every 100 yards or so. After a stop at Arbys for lunch, we were on the road home. It was sooo good to sleep in my bed after two nights on the sleeper sofa and the cover monster!

The door is off the henges

Today was one of those afternoons where I, as a parent, wanted to crawl into the back of my closet and hide from my children.

As soon as I picked Alli Claire up from school she started whining. Yes, we have one of those children that Martin and I complained about before we had Tornado. So, she's whined and complained and cried about EVERYTHING. NOTHING was right with the world today. First she wanted something and then she didn't and then she did again. It was this way with everything she touched, saw or thought about. I tried to tune her out by cleaning the kitchen and listening to the radio. I thought I heard the next door neighbor's little boy outside playing and squealing in the pool. After a few of these "squeals", I opened the door to make sure it was him. As soon as I opened it, there was no sound coming from outdoors and my heart sank. I rushed upstairs just in time to hear Graisi crying and begging (with her door closed) for someone to help her. She had stepped on a straight pin in the carpet (yes, it was my fault) and didn't want to pull it out. As soon as I got to her, she moved and the pin came out on it's own. If I've told her once, I've told her 100 times NOT to close her door. I couldn't hear her crying and needing me. So, I ensured this wouldn't happen again and removed her door from it's hinges. The door is currently in the attic... :o) When she realized how dangerous it was to close her door, she was ok with not having a door. I guess it only takes once, huh?

We were supposed to go eat BBQ tonight, but I called Martin on his way home and told him to go by and get himself something to eat because there was NO way I was getting the heathens, oops, children out in public in the mood they'd put me in. After I'd explained that I'd put AC in time-out indefinitely and I'd taken Graisi's door off the hinges, all he could say was, "Oh.... okaaay." So I had a frozen Lean Cuisine, Graisi had grits and AC had a hotdog while Martin had a loaded, smoked sausage baked potato. It just didn't seem fair I declare!

Well, Martin does have his 20 year high school class reunion this weekend. So I guess, maybe that makes up for it :o)

2nd Annual Six Flags Adventure

Believe it or not, but I don't think any pictures were taken on this trip. I'm not sure how this happened, but I guess we were just having too much fun.

We drove over to Georgia last Wednesday night and spent the night with Martin's sister, Janet and her husband Paul. It's only 2 1/2 hours there, but it seems like an eternity with two kids in the car and raining. Needless say, we were up and ready to go the next morning. Janet, Bev and I managed to stick the two big girls and Hurricane Caroline with the guys and the three of us got Tornado Alli (Claire). Lucky for us, she slept most of the way to Atlanta :o) We got our season passes and off we went. Graisi rode just about everything we did except for Goliath. Let me just say, "He's awesome!" And there's no way I'd put her on it at her age. Maybe give her another couple of years and she'll be ready. Hurricane and Tornado got "into" it at lunch. Apparently, Alli Claire's name was on a chair that Caroline couldn't see. So Caroline hip-checked Alli Claire out of the chair. Caroline got in trouble and Alli Claire ended up with the chair afterall. Y'all, they were funny! Just alike!! Anywho, our day was cut short by the massive rain that hit around 4pm. As I walked briskly to the car I went blind. The sweat and sunscreen streaming hot rods of pain into my eyes required me to take my glasses off and try to keep up with Martin's shadow in front of me. I changed clothes in the front seat of the truck and didn't think twice about it (here again, my lack of modesty kicked in). I was wet and didn't care what it took to get dry. Most of us got at least one dry garment on, but Alli Claire rode home in her diaper. She was such a trooper.

Friday morning we started the adventure all over again. We finally got Maggie on the big roller coasters and she and Graisi got to enjoy the experience together. I was so proud of her because it took a lot of courage for her to get on them. I think she was proud of herself as well. Around 2pm, we went to Skull Island to hang out and let the kids play in the water and slides. Janet and Bev volunteered to watch them so me and the guys took off to ride a few more coasters before heading home. When we got back to the water area, it was closing because another storm was rolling in.... Go figure! Needless to say, we made it back to the vehicles before the rain started this time. The kids got back to the house and played for the rest of the night. Except Caroline hit Alli Claire in the nose with a piece of very thin foam. But you'd have thought she hit her with a tennis racket. Caroline got in trouble and Alli Claire got laughed at. Oh, the drama!

Saturday morning, we got the 3 laned Slip N Slide out and the girls played for a while until they started arguing and then it was time to pack it up and head home. It was good to go home and sleep in our bed, but it was also a little sad, because we have such a good time with Janet, Paul and the girls. Thank you guys for being such great hosts and for letting us take over your living room for three days :o) I can't wait until next year!!

Much a do about nothing

Not much happened last week until Thursday....

Kerri picked Graisi up at the Y and took she and Mallory swimming for the afternoon. Then Mallory stayed with us all weekend! The girls had such a good time putting on talk shows, fashion shows, singing shows, putting make-up on Alli Claire... you name it, they did it.

We went Thursday night to see the new American Girl movie. It was soooo good and exceeded all of my expectations. I would pay to see it again! Kit was from the 1930's and lived during the Great Depression. The girls really got the see the struggles and hard times that families faced then. Afterward, we went to Chik-fil-A. I was getting their orders and confirmed Mallory's 4 piece meal and Graisi's 6 piece meal. Graisi said, "Mom, I'll just have the 4 piece so we can save money." Now how sweet was that!!??

Friday afternoon, Martin took them to see Wall-E. I had NO interest, but the girls seemed to like it just as much as Kit. I'm not sure how?? Then it was off to Paula and Andy's for good food and downtown fireworks. The hamburgers and broccoli salad were to die for!! It is so good to be able to get together and strengthen friendships over food and conversation. I love these types of afternoons. Thank you Andy and Paula for a wonderful evening!! We really enjoyed it as always! Alli Claire had never saw fireworks, especially not the big ones. She sat in mine and Martin's lap pretty much the whole time going, "Wow" and "WO" and "Bang". Her little face was precious. Afterwards, she put on a show back at the house with her Ashy Ashy routine where she jumps up, puts her legs straight out and lands smack dab on her bottom. (I told y'all it was funny and painful at the same time!) We were all ready for bedtime when we got home.

Saturday, we didn't get out of our pj's until around 3pm. I cleaned most of the morning and had the house in order, but you couldn't tell by yesterday afternoon. It's amazing how fast little people can mess a house up! It truly is. We had barbecue for supper from our favorite local restaurant, but Martin was a little disappointed because they didn't have his usual LARGE stuffed baked potato. So he pouted for a little while.... but got over it eventually. He said he would be going tomorrow night to get one regardless! Don't get between a man and his food!

Have I mentioned he's growing a beard?? I've been trying to get him to do it for several years, but he never would until now. I LOVE it and it's red! Now there's no doubt where Alli Claire gets her red hair from in case anyone wondered :o) Pictures to follow.

Yesterday, was church and home for a grilled salmon lunch complete with rice, green beans, corn on the cob and biscuits! Don't even ask... Martin fixed it all and it was delicious! Thanks Honey!! Mallory went home around 6pm and the house was still and quiet. I couldn't' believe one extra child makes that much difference, but it does. Graisi claimed to have NOTHING to do and Alli Claire continued to be her whiny self. No change there. It was a very busy weekend but at the same time, so much fun!

Thursday and Friday of this week we'll spend at Six Flags!!! I'm so excited :o) I'm sure I'll have stories when we get back!

Ashy Ashy

I got another call from school yesterday that Alli Claire had fallen and scraped her her face again. Her teacher said the injuries happened in the same place as last week, but I didn't think they could actually be in the exact spot. But sure enough... she's got two scrapes in the EXACT same places. One on the left side of her forehead and one over the left side of her eyebrow. Who'da thunk? If you could see her legs and knees right now, you'd think we abused this child. She is sooo rough!

She now has a habit of playing "Ashy Ashy". That's Alli Claire verbiage for Ring Around the Roses. Except she has to have her Aqua Doodle mat in order to walk around it and I have to sing the song. At the very end where "we all fall down", she jumps up with her legs straight out and lands smack dab on her bottom. It's the most painful looking thing you've ever seen. We cringe every time we see it but it's still funny! She just cracks us up all the time....