just an update

i feel like it's been SO long since i've blogged. life has been so busy for us but in a really good way. the kids are really enjoying school and so am i!! i have made their lives, my life for the last 9 years and that is especially true this year. i love knowing what's going on at school and with their friends, and with their teachers. next year this will be key as my youngest, lucy, is heading off to full day, everyday kindergarten. it will be an adjustment but it's the next season and we need to just go with it....i say as i wipe tears from my eyes....
we are super excited for school to end soon and to head to the beach. the weather is getting hot and it just doesn't feel right playing in grass...we need to be in the sand!! i can't wait to see my kids get all brown with little white rear ends...i know it's not healthy but it sure is cute!
i'm sure when we get to the beach i will have tons more to blog about...but for now it's the same old thing. school, play, homework, activities, and sleep!

happy birthday tucker!!

i am so excited to celebrate tucker's 6th birthday!!!! it has snowed every year on his birthday since the day he was born...isn't that funny?? today we are blessed (i think) with a two hour delay. we can take our time to get to school and enjoy our morning together.

from the day tucker was born, he was a breath of fresh air. he was calm, happy, a good sleeper, and oh so easy to please. i remember when he was three weeks old and he had to have his emergency surgery. i remember praying over his little tiny body (already over 11 pounds) and being in awe at how much i was already so in love with this little guy. he had stolen my heart!! i remember the doctors told me i couldn't feed him until after his surgery. so from 1 in the afternoon until 9 at night tucker learned to suck on his pacifier for the first time and never complained once. i'll never forget that...

since then he has grown into one of the nicest kids i know. he has such a heart for his family, his friends, and God. he amazes me with his patience and his kind spirit. he lets people be who they are and gets a kick out of different personalities. he really has taught me a lot about acceptance.

tucker loves to talk about the bible and God and heaven. he can always get me to cry when he asks if i get excited to see my grandmas up in heaven someday. this kid knows what's important!!

happy birthday my sweet tucker! i love you more than you'll ever know....

my heart can break now....

so yesterday at school the girl sitting next to lucy puked at her desk. first of all...ew....second of all...ew. well, apparently lucy was pretty upset about it. not because it was gross but because her friend was sick. she went and talked to her teacher about it and had tears in her eyes out of concern for her friend. then when i spoke to her later i found out why she was so upset. my dear sweet lucy was so upset that her friend was going to have a tough night of throwing up. i guess she just assumed that everyone has to deal with what she does...and to her it was very sad to think of her poor friend going through that too.....doesn't that just break your heart?????

confessions

i hate my fish. everytime one dies i run out and get a new one as if it is something my kids will die without. i hate cleaning the tank and i put it off until we can't tell if the fish is even in the bowl. i love pets, and i don't mind cleaning cages but for some reason that fish is pointless to me. it doesn't do anything, we can't hold it or cuddle with it, and we can't love on it. so stupid...

lucy was pounding on the bowl today wondering if the fish was alive. i was hoping it wasn't but sure enough...eventually it moved. ugh....after this one goes (and i hope that's soon) we are done with fish in this house.

therapy

i do believe i am confusing my kids to no end. when asked, i tell them i don't believe in santa...after all, i want them to know that the real story of christmas is the one i've been promoting this whole time and that i didn't lie to them about it. however, i still play into the santa thing with them. i have the elf on the shelf that comes to check on them everyday and reports back to santa at night. i move it to a new spot every night after they are in bed just so they know he did his duties and their requests were passed on to the big man. i have to say, it really is fun watching joe change his location. he comes back giggling about where he hid it....i love it.

anyway...i tell them there is no santa and yet i am doing things to make them think there IS a santa....they will no doubt need some therapy someday...

perspective

if you want some good perspective on life....check out a blog i've been following. this is a family that attends our church and only recently did i meet them when i got to bring them dinner one night. they seem pretty stinking amazing.....

www.allthemarletts.blogspot.com

enjoy!

NYC

we had the BEST time on our trip to NYC!!! the kids had off school on friday so joe took off too and we drove to NJ and took a train into the city. our first stop was to rockefeller plaza to see the rockettes!! the kids loved the show and so did i...this pic is them getting ready for the 3-D part of the show....and joe in the background...clearly he was excited too.

!

then from there we headed right over to the american girl museum to get julie's hair done. apparently you need to get your doll's hair done more than we do because we got a lot of comments about how messy julie was....well...excuse me for having children that like to play with their toys!!

while we were at the doll museum the boys went to the lego store...shopped...and still had time to get back to us before we were done in the salon!

then we all ventured over to "top of the rock" and it was awesome! it was joe's idea and i have to give him full credit for it because it was so great! we could see everything from up there. the kids were the most excited about one certain thing though. one of their favorite books is The Great Gray Bridge and the Little Red Lighthouse. it's about the george washington bridge that was built over this little red lighthouse....so from the top of the rock we saw the bridge and then screamed with excitement when we saw the lighthouse too!


from there we went to eat our one and only meal at TGI fridays and then walked many blocks back to the train to go back to NJ. we were all tired but really excited to see Carlos Bakery a.k.a The Cake Boss from TLC. there was about a ten minute wait outside the store and it was packed inside. daisy and i were the lucky ones to wait and go in seeing as nobody else really cared at all. daisy and i had a great time though. we were such tourists and we got so giddy with excitement. once our order was in we high fived and just had so much fun together. daisy even got to take a picture with buddy's sister, madelyne. we ordered a crumb cake (we heard in the line how amazing it was) some italian cookies (none with jelly) and a cake that we always see on the tv show. the cookies were okay but the crumb cake and the cake really were worth every minute of waiting and the whole trip in. they were SO good!



as soon as we got home lucy wanted to try out her new apron. so even though we had had enough sweets, she and joe made some s'mores bars....which i ended up eating half of...ugh...


we ended up having a great family weekend together!!!

halloween

we had such a fun halloween this year! josh and summer (and murray) were visiting. of course we had our usual company too...kathyann and her family! we had a blast. it was very low-key and seemed quicker this year..love that! here are some pix...i was a disco person (too bad the pix don't show my awesome shoes!), daisy was a gypsy, tucker was a cowboy, and lucy was a ladybug. my niece, karalyn, was an indian and nathan was a police officer...oh yeah...and katelyn (who i'm holding) was a lion but not for very long. we even got murray to dress up as a shark. fun!

time with lucy

i am having so much fun during my afternoons alone with lucy! sometimes we nap, sometimes we shop, get errands done...whatever. it doesn't matter...we always have fun! she is a different kid when she is one on one and i am so grateful for this time with her! i will also be happy next year when they are all full day but i will live in the now....

yesterday we went outside because it was gorgeous out! i had plenty to do inside but i wanted to watch her play on the swings for awhile. i brought my people magazine out and sat to read but was freezing so i joined her in the sun...the lighting was perfect for some pix....here are some of them....is she photogenic (sp?) or what??? maybe i'm just partial.....

facebook

so it's my first full day without facebook and i feel a little sad and yet relieved that i don't know everyone's happenings for the day up to the minute detail of their lives. suddenly i have more time in the morning. the kids are watching their one tv show for the morning and soon i can pack lunches and get them ready. what cracks me up the most is everyone acting like this is such a big deal. i got so many phone calls and emails and texts wondering if i was okay!!! wow...facebook is such a part of our society now i guess that something MUST be wrong with me for me to want to cancel my account. FUNNY!!!!

hopefully next year when the kids are full day i'll get back into the world of facebook but for now, i need to focus on more important things....my life is too crazy this year to add one more thing to it.

i will update my blog as much as i can with pictures and just mundane things that happen around our house. like today lucy and i are heading to the pumpkin patch for her field trip. it should be a fun morning and then this afternoon i am heading to NJ to visit cassandra for the day!!! i can't wait to see her and i'm sure we'll have a fun dinner out together....not to mention the shopping beforehand.

even the littlest things...

last week in bible study i struggled to come up with a prayer request. i really wanted to come up with one because i didn't want to be prideful and say my life was perfect...it is far from that...well...not too far...i do love my life...but i wanted to find something that i am struggling with and share it with friends. so finally i came up with something. i find that i am getting grumpy with the driving to and from school all of the time. it's an easy drive but the fact that i have to drive it three times a day is wearing on me. so i shared that with my friends and went on my merry way to go pick up lucy (drive #2 of my day). i really want to have a joyful heart in all that i do and it was bugging me that i was getting so discouraged and complaining so much about that drive. i mean...it's my JOB! i want to be home with my kids...i want them to be at a christian school...what is my problem?????
later that week i found myself sitting in the end of the day car line having a few extra minutes to spare. i looked around and realized i forgot my book...but...i did have my bible and my workbook that had not made their way out of my car yet. i picked them up and managed to get three questions done and what do you know? i was suddenly in a better mood already! i did the same thing the next few days. my homework was fun to do and put me in a great spirit when those kids came running to the car.
it didn't hit me until about a day ago that this is exactly what i had asked for prayer about. suddenly i had chills when i realized that God is not too big for my little requests. He wanted me to be in the right spirit and He wanted me to be in His word....so of course...it's a win win! i am just always amazed at the way He works in my life and it certainly is a better place when i am open to what He has to teach me.

we survived

we did great during the first week of school!! the schedule with driving to and from three times a day is exhausting for me but i keep telling myself...it's just a year. next year they will all be full time and i'll probably long for these days having at least one of them home with me again. i got to have some alone time with lucy and some alone time with tucker this week. it was great. all three of them LOVE their new school. and i had to laugh when driving home tucker started singing "swing low sweet chariot." what a funny song for a little kid to sing. but he was belting it out in the back seat and loving the fact that he got to go to a chapel at school!
my sis and her family are here right now sleeping. i am sad that they are leaving today. we've had such a fun weekend and i know the kiddos have enjoyed seeing their cousins!!!
tomorrow we are back to the grind again....and i think the one lesson i have learned is to delegate some driving responsibilities to my hubby on the afternoons he is home.

i'm a nervous wreck!

here i am trying to calm the nerves of my soon to be third grader and i can't help but think...holy crap! they are in a new school...i don't know how to do the drop off or pick up or the dress code or the lunch rules. i don't know any of it!!!! (i know i will learn quickly but still) i'm also torn up about tucker being gone ALL DAY LONG! i can't believe this child is in kindergarten already. it is killing me. this afternoon i started crying into joe's shoulder to which he responded, "you and i are very different. i am excited for them to be gone!" the nerve!!!! then when i was putting tucker to bed tonight we were praying and i started to cry again! it seems like just yesterday i was bringing him home from the hospital...now i sound painfully old. thank goodness tomorrow i get to keep lucy home with me while the older two go off to full day school. ugh....i think we are both due to get a pedicure tomorrow...that will definitely make me feel better about all of this!

on a side note i am super excited for my sis, brother in law, and kiddos to come and invade our house this weekend. it will make for a really fun time and i'm sure we will all laugh a lot. i love seeing my kids get to play with their cousins!!! it's the best! can't wait to see you mandy!!!!!! i'm sure our husbands are dreading us being together....let the eye rolling begin!

amazingness to say the least

i love when suddenly you can see the whole big picture with God's hand blessing every part of your life for the last two years and you had know idea how it was happening. i mean, who am i to even question God's plan? but it's pretty cool when you see it laid out for you.

everyone knows our struggle with lucy...two years of testing and vomiting and headaches and no test showing a reason why. finally we got a diagnosis of the chiari malformation but we still weren't convinced it was causing her trouble. we weren't convinced we were making the right decision with the surgery and that she would be free from her symptoms. we trusted in the surgeon that said it needed to be taken care of and that it was a big one. soon after the surgery lucy started with her symptoms again. i didn't want to believe it but sure enough she was vomiting again. as if that wasn't frustrating enough, her doctors didn't seem to care to see her.

daisy and i had to take a trip to the dr the other night for her swimmers ear that was really bothering her. we were the last appointment of the night and we were an easy one. the doc could've come in checked her ears and left to go home to his family but instead he sat down to talk to me. he asked a couple of questions about lucy and came up with what i think is the exact diagnosis for her. something so simple...abdominal migraines. holy crap!!!!!!! seriously???? something that easy....

i am amazed that we had never seen this dr before the other night. i am amazed that we never got this simple diagnosis...and i truly believe that God wanted us to find lucy's chiari before we knew what was really wrong with her. she had to have that surgery...she had to be fixed before we could settle her symptoms of the migraines. that just amazes me more than i can say!!!! i just don't know how people can not believe in God when you clearly see His hand at work!

that all being said, i feel like the weight of the world has been lifted from my shoulders. i didn't realize how stressed i was about lu's health and the pain she was feeling every month. poor kid...all she needed was some tylenol and a dark room to sleep in...and maybe some meds but we are researching that now to come up with something to help her.

i love my kids and i love that God has entrusted them to me to take care of. it sure is humbling!

finally a weekend with "nothing" to do!

we had a great weekend! nothing was on our calendar so we just did things around the house, had some neighbors over for dinner, and visited some family! it was great!!! just what we needed before school starts next week. i am even excited looking at my calendar for this week as there is only one day that has something on it! i love it! i can seriously enjoy my kids for a whole week before they go back to school.
today i am making some phone calls to different doctors to see what we can do about lucy. she's had two more episodes of vomiting since her surgery. it's frustrating because we did the surgery hoping this would go away...but i can't think that way and i have to remember that she absolutely needed to have the surgery anyway. the doctors we are working with now don't seem too interested in seeing her again and i don't want to push her to do more testing at all...but to see her so miserable makes me think something is definitely wrong with her. i really don't know....
i was a little sad that i couldn't participate in ellen's run this year. it's a yearly fundraiser for breast cancer research that my whole family takes part in. i shouldn't say that i couldn't go...i just chose not to. like i said earlier...we had nothing to do this weekend and we really needed a weekend with no traveling. so i supported my fam and they had a very emotional and fun and exciting day yesterday. i'm so proud of all of them...they worked hard and raised money for a worthy cause!!!!
i'm really excited that joe has decided to lose 20 lbs with me! that will make it much easier for me too. he hit a weight that apparently upset him...he looks great to me but it's exciting to think he wants to be healthier...so no more sitting on the couch at night watching him snack! now we can both be eating fruit and veggies together! i love it!!!!!!!

back to reality

in some ways it's so good to be back home. it's nice to sleep in my bed and not wake up with back pain, it's nice to have vegetables at every meal, and it's nice...well...i'm having trouble coming up with a third thing about being home...oh yeah...it's AWESOME to be back with joe full time again! we are such a great team and have so much fun together that i really do miss him when he is away. not to mention i miss the extra set of hands when it comes to bath and bedtime with the kids.
i do hate coming back to the craziness of life though. boy did i love sitting on the beach and not having a care in the world. here we are now with the phone ringing off of the hook, neighborhood kids ringing the doorbell every hour, and chores that need my attention. i miss being with my kids already. daisy leaves for overnight camp on sunday...her first time...and i am going to miss her so much. if it wasn't the family's camp, and if my sister in law didn't live down there, daisy would not be going...but who am i to hold her back...she wants to go so she should go and have a great time! i just hate letting her go....
we went shopping yesterday for tucker's back to school stuff. WHAT???? when did this kid get old enough to go to kindergarten???? and what was i thinking to find a school that could keep him full day????? i know in my heart that God led us to this special school so tucker could have a full day and not be rushed through his learning but it is coming at me too fast. it will just be me and lucy in the afternoons for this year and then she goes full day next year. wow...suddenly my world is changing and i am certainly not ready for it. i always talked about this but now that it is a reality it's very daunting. i just got established as a "stay at home mom" and now what? back to work?
lucy went for her recheck at the hospital yesterday and she got the approval to go ahead with no restrictions. let's just pray that she doesn't have anymore vomitting episodes and that we are past this problem all together.
i'm off to the gym now at this crazy early hour but it's the only time i can do it and not take time away from the kiddos. thankfully my neighbor is going with me and i adore spending time with her so it makes it easy to get out of bed.

almost over

i can't believe our vacation is almost over. we leave in two days and it feels like we've only been here for two minutes. we haven't done any of our usual adventures like the aquarium or the children's museum or the game farm. we've just been content getting to the beach, the bay or the pool and of course hanging with family! some of our family i haven't even seen yet!!!! how does a whole month go so quickly???

i love my time in east hampton, not because of the location but because it is time with my family. my kids get to play with their cousins as much as they want, and i get to see my siblings, parents, cousins and friends in a non-rushed atmosphere. it's such a luxury that i have and i hope i get to do it ever year. we're on year eight now so i think it will probably stick. i even tried to talk daisy into living up here someday so joe and i can get a summer house and spend the whole summer up here. ha! we shall see how that goes...daisy seemed into the idea. :)

i am excited to get back home though. i miss my bed, my coffee, my friends and my YMCA. but once i'm back there i will miss my fam again.....oh well...there's always next year!

nothing new to report

first and foremost...lucy is doing amazingly well! she doesn't even complain about her head hurting and she is less and less nervous about her scar now. she plays normally and can keep up with all of the other kids. what a blessing!!!

VBS is going on at my parent's church this week. i am in charge of leading the music and teaching the kids all of the "moves". it's been really fun and i think everyone helping out has a great team spirit. we are all getting into and laughing a lot. it's really fun to see the kids having such a great time but even more fun seeing the adults enjoy themselves too! saturday night after the week at church is over my parents are hosting a staff party at their house. but..joe comes tonight to stay for the weekend so i am hoping that we can go out saturday night to celebrate our ninth anniversary (which is on the 21st) to our favorite restaurant! i will leave the kids at my parent's party and head out on a date with joe. i am drooling right now thinking of the garlic knots and pasta that we will get...and an added bonus of being able to sit and talk to each other...we can take as long as we want!

right now i am watching my nephews for my sis...they are so cute and super easy so i am blogging while they play really well with my kiddos. maybe i have to start a project in her house...i've learned that i have a hard time sitting still too long. i always like to have a project to tackle. i'm getting excited now just thinking about it....

so stinking hot!!

this weather is just crazy but boy am i glad i don't have to be cooped up inside because of the heat. i can run to the bay or beach or pool and that works just fine. i'm hoping this weekend will be a bit better because joe is coming out tonight. but the biggest surprise of all is that his DAD is coming out too!!!! i never thought anyone from his family would make it out this way again after our wedding. they are so busy with their own stuff that i didn't even think it interested them to come out. so i am really excited that joe's dad is coming (hopefully they are on their way right now) and they are bringing a sailboat with them on a trailer!!! this should be a super fun weekend. it's always extra fun when joe is here on a weekend because the kids are excited to see him and so am i.
today at the beach it was gorgeous! it was one of those days that you wish you could bottle up and remember forever. the kids were happy, the water was warm, and it was just perfect. thank you God that even in this heat we can remember how amazing you are!!! creation is an awesome thing.
i'm having fun with the kids this week but i find myself getting frustrated with how spoiled they act sometimes. i hate getting eyes rolled at me because i packed the wrong sandwich, or when i buckle a seat belt the wrong way. i try to be patient so i can help them learn patience but boy is it hard sometimes.
i'm hoping that next week i can meet up with some high school friends to catch up with them and their kiddos! i'll post some pix soon as i have so many good ones that it's hard to choose.
update on lucy: she is doing great!!! yesterday and today she hasn't even mentioned her head hurting. that is huge!!!!! she has been happier and just been able to keep up with everyone else. we are trying to get her to swim by herself in the pool and she is enjoying that extra special attention. i did call the dr today because she has been complaining about leg pain around bedtime. they didn't seem too concerned so i am going with that and not thinking about it again. it's hard not to think that something might go wrong because her recovery has been too perfect. that's where i fail in my faith for sure....

how spoiled was i???

how spoiled was i that i got to grow up so close to the beach? i love the beach and it kills me when the kids complain that we are going there again!!! the nerve of me to make them go to that horrible place! just kidding...they are troopers. i think they just don't like the hassle of getting ready but to me it's totally worth it. i even love being sunburned!!
today we took a day to hang out inside and rest. we needed it! we've been going going going for about two weeks now so we watched movies and napped. then after dinner we headed to the beach for a bonfire. tucker went in the water a little and then when it got cold we headed home. now the kiddos are watching a movie cuddled up in tucker's bed together. i love the summer. i love not having a routine and i love for them not to have to worry about bedtimes.
tomorrow we are having a family picnic which i'm excited about! i love getting together with the family...that's what's most important right?
lucy is doing well...she complains a little here and there but i can't remember when i gave her tylenol last. she could probably stand to have it at least once a day but she hates taking it now (power struggle) so i just let her go without.
joe got home safely today and we sure will miss him until he comes back on friday! we hate when he leaves but we do still have fun! i'm off to rest for awhile while the kids watch their movie...gotta get it while i can.