7 years

Josh and I celebrated our 7th anniversary yesterday. Seven years we've been married. It's crazy. In some ways it feels like we've been married for 7 decades. In other ways I can't believe it's been seven whole years.

We went to the eastern part of our state for the weekend and we had a really good time. We had several good, long, hard conversations. Conversations about his job, about the kids, about our budget/finances. Although those things aren't necessarily fun to talk about, it's so good to be on the same page and have some peace and quiet so we can actually talk and hear what the other person has to say. As opposed to trying to figure out these things with our 3 hooligans running around. Much better to go away, get some rest, and then tackle them.

The first night we were in bed by 8:30. And we were so giddy about it. ;-) Sleep is a very precious commodity and the thought that we could sleep, uninterrupted, all night long... well, yeah. Giddy. That's what we were. I woke up the next morning at 6a.m. and got up. I opened the blinds and watched the sunrise. It was so pretty! Purple and pink, over the white blanket of snow that covered everything. I don't have a camera, so I didn't get any pictures, but it was really beautiful and peaceful.

I read my book and drank my coffee until Romeo wandered out of the bedroom around 7ish. It was so nice to wake up to calm and peace. Our bodies and minds could slowly awaken without having to deal with cranky kids, breakfast, etc... So what do you do when you're both up early and have the whole day ahead of you? Well, if you're us you play Phase 10. =) So at 7:30a.m. we started a rousing game of Phase 10 and it was super fun. =)

Around lunch time we decided to head out to eat at Red Robin (since that's where he proposed to me...) but then we took a detour and decided to see if any good movies were playing. We paid $15 to watch a matinee show. What is the world coming to?? Fifteen bucks!!?? And Josh's SMALL slurpee was $5.75. Sheesh. Who can afford that!?! Anyway, we ended up watching Just Go With It with Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston. I loved it. I am NOT a fan of most Adam Sandler movies, but this one was good and funny without being crude. Well, mostly not crude. It *is* Adam Sandler, after all. ;-)

We were 20 minutes early for the show so we sat and watched all the previews that they do. Do you know they had a preview for a Mr. Peanut commercial!? I kid you not. Mr. Peanut had his own preview, and they introduced Alejandro... the Almond in Tight Pants. He's like a matador. And the creators were shown saying, "Basically with his character we started with the tight pants and went from there." Seriously. An animated almond.

Also. Jeggings. Unless you are built like Twiggy, you probably shouldn't wear them. And especially if you're short and wide, jeggings are not a good idea. I always wonder when I see people in really unflattering outfits if they just don't look in the mirror? I mean, can't they see that if they would just buy a bigger size or different style that it would flatter their body so much more? I don't know. I'm stumped.

***Side Note*** The other day Liz and I were out shopping and this lady walks in wearing a shirt and... tights. Seriously, it was like she forgot to put her skirt on. And it wasn't even a long tunic type shirt. Her tights were wedged in her bum and it was just so awkward and flustering. For me. I don't know how she felt. She may or may not have been a little inebriated. **End Side Note***

Anyway, back to our Anniversary Getaway... We caught a music video on CMT for "Brown Chicken, Brown Cow"... It was disturbing. A little bit funny, but mostly disturbing. It seems like people might have too much time on their hands if this is what they are creating.

I finished two books over the weekend and Josh finished his magazine. :-D We laughed really hard about that. ;-) It *was* a business magazine with long articles, but still. We laughed.

The second night I did NOT sleep well. I fell asleep fine, but then woke up approximately 78 times so I was tired in the morning. We sipped our coffee and Josh decided he wanted to sit in the hot tub. He tried to convince me it was a good idea for me to join him, but going outside in like 27 degree weather in my bikini did not sound like fun. So I stayed in and cleaned up and packed and left him to his crazy ideas of fun. ;-)

***2nd Side Note*** The water was TERRIBLE. Nearly undrinkable, for realsies. It tasted so bad; like it was full of water softeners. And when it came out of the spigot it was white. Like milk. That can't be a good sign, right? It even made the coffee taste weird so we had to use even more copious amounts of creamer than normal. So we're talking a LOT of creamer. ***End 2nd Side Note***

We headed home around 10:30 on Sunday, with enough time to settle in and relax before Monday hit us.

Our babysitter was great; a super amazing young lady. She left us a note of their weekend, play by play style. So sweet. And she said our kids were some of her favorite to watch; I know she was telling the truth because she said there are some kids that she has had to say she can't watch because they are so difficult. So the fact that she liked our kids, and even THANKED us for asking her to watch them was so nice and makes me feel good about asking her again in the future.

Anyway, it was a lovely weekend and I'm so thankful we got to go away and reconnect and relax.

Our 7 years of marriage haven't been complete bliss. I don't think anyone's marriage is all happiness and sunshine and roses. We've had a particularly rough go of it with my health problems; basically the first 3 years of our marriage I was pregnant non-stop. And then I got PPD and went extra crazy. And now things are at a place where I'm getting healthy and it's sort of like we're getting to know each other all over again. Hi, my name is Ruth Anne and I was crazy for a couple years there, but I appreciate all your love, care, longsuffering and compassion for me. Want to get to know me? Again? ;-)

I am very thankful for Josh, for the man he was when I married him and for the man he has become. He has stood by my side through my worst moments and hasn't held them against me. He loves me more today than the day we were married, and I can say the same about him. He is a wonderful father and a spectacular husband.

I'm looking forward to the next 7 (hopefully more healthy and less crazy) years, and beyond. =)

Tea Parties

No, I'm not talking the political kind. ;-)

So the other night I was home alone with the kids when I suddenly got a severe migraine. I thought my head was going to explode like a bottle of champagne that's been shook up. It hurt SO bad, and came out of the blue. Anyway, while I was in misery on the couch Kate came up and asked if she could make a tea party. She interpreted my "UNGH" as a "yes, my dear, go right ahead with that project..."

The boys seemed to love it.

Kate took great pains with the centerpiece.  Watch out, Martha Stewart!

 

We've got a "Woodland Cup" complete with a pencil, cuz it's made out of wood ya know? A purse that hold multiple lip gloss flavors, a brush and....

A mug with a spoon and floating rubberbands. So cutting edge! So fierce! So creative!

And no centerpiece is complete without a gratuitous picture of the younger brother proudly displayed:

However, you know you're in a recession when High Tea consists of:

 

One pepperoni and a glass of water.  Eeeek!  Not exactly a full meal, is it?

Not to worry, we remedied that with a full on feast.  Cereal, toast and juice.  Oh yeah, baby. We're living the high life, now!

Even the dog was upgraded from her normal bed to more plush bedding.

 

And if you're wondering where you can get that stunning heart table cloth, it can be found in the children's linen section at Ikea; it's a duna cover. :-D 

All in all, it was a smashing success and the kids were so happy that I had answered "UNGH".

Now, he may not LOOK so thrilled, but he is.  Trust me.

And although this kid looks a bit dazed and confused, there were no children harmed in the making of this tea party. Also, that really was water in the cup and not Vodka.

 

The best part, though? They cleaned up after themselves. :-D

Clean Sweep and Forgetful Tooth Fairies

WOW.

On Friday I kicked my own booty. :-D I got the Spring Cleaning Bug and went to town.

I thoroughly cleaned both bathrooms, including sweeping and mopping. I changed the sheets and duna covers on the boy's beds, cleaned and vacuumed all 3 bedrooms, did multiple loads of laundry, swept and mopped the kitchen floor, organized the toys and vacuumed the whole living room, moving all the furniture.

And then I crashed. ;-) I went to bed and slept until 6:45 in the morning, and guess what!? My boys were still asleep.

Cue the Hallelujah chorus. :-D I feel so much better after a good night's sleep and with my house in order. Of course, now that it's a day later there are messes again and it's not so bright and shiny and sparkly. But that's ok. We do live here, after all.

In other news, the Tooth Fairy sorta sucks at her job. She remembered to bring money (a $2 bill, which, according to Kate is "dumb"--she'd rather have 4 quarters???) (and we usually only give .50 cents, but just happened to have an extra $2 bill at home and we thought she'd think it was cool.) (We learned our lesson.) ANYWAY... So the tooth fairy totally gave the money... but forgot to take the tooth.

And then she forgot the next night. And the next. Until finally Kate asked Josh to make a note for the Fairy reminding her to PLEASE TAKE THE TOOTH.


Apparently that was all she needed, because the tooth hasn't been seen since. ;-)

No Rest For The Weary

Oh. My. Word.

I think my boys have made a pact, a vendetta of sorts, and I'm the victim. Their goal is to push me closer and closer to insanity. And they are succeeding.

According to Wikipedia, the definition of sleep deprivation is as follows:

Sleep deprivation is the condition of not having enough sleep; it can be either chronic or acute. A chronic sleep-restricted state can cause fatigue, daytime sleepiness, clumsiness and weight loss or weight gain.^[1] It adversely affects the brain and cognitive function.^[2] Few studies have compared the effects of acute total sleep deprivation and chronic partial sleep restriction.^[2] Complete absence of sleep over long periods is impossible for humans to achieve (unless they suffer from fatal familial insomnia); brief microsleeps cannot be avoided.^[3] Long-term total sleep deprivation has caused death in lab animals.^[4]

I fear that I may die from lack of sleep. Or at least be thrown in the loony bin. The sad thing is that the loony bin sounds pretty appealing right now! I mean, it would be uninterrupted sleep!!!!!!! And people would probably bring me food and medicine. And I could read in peace.

You see, the last few weeks have been a doozy. My boys are not sleeping. It's not all their fault. Christian is sick. He has a cough. So this is a sample of what happens at night:

*cough cough cough* (pause for 5 seconds) *cough cough cough) (pause for 5 seconds) *COUGH COUGH COUGH WRETCH AND DRY HEAVE* (begin crying) And this goes on All. Night. Long. Since Josh is gone Christian inevitably comes into bed with me shortly after I get in bed, so I listen to him coughing all night. And I just don't know what to do about it because I give him both his inhalers and cough medicine. But it doesn't stop the coughing. It's driving me insane.

Then, we have Owen. Owen who has perhaps been having nightmares. Because I'll tuck him into bed, pray with him, and 30 seconds later he's coming out of his room crying that he had a bad dream. Except, he clearly hasn't even fallen asleep yet. So then HE joins me in the bed. And let me tell you, a queen size bed is not big enough for me and 2 restless, coughing sleeping boys who are all elbows, knees and fingers poking and smacking and pushing me.

Then, at 5:30a.m. it's like an internal alarm goes off (no matter that I've been up since 3a.m. and don't fall back asleep. No matter that the boys have had maybe 7 hours of interrupted sleep.) and the boys are raring to go, bouncing on the bed, screaming and laughing. And it's sheer torture.

Sleep is beckoning to me, calling me. I feel like I'm in quicksand, sinking into the depths of slumber and then every 2 minutes the boys are jarring me awake. My brain feels like it's in a pinball game. My head is going to downright explode. The clutches of nausea have a firm grip on my throat. I'm fighting off sleep while at the same time all I want to do is succumb to it and sleep for 12 years straight.

SHEER TORTURE. So I start my day by wading through the quicksand of sleep, my brain is all cobwebby, my head is pounding, I can't even think straight, my stomach is threatening upheaval and I'm supposed to be getting my kids breakfast, dressed, Kate off to school, keep the house in some kind of order, keep the laundry moving, etc...

Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

I think I'd rather take the loony bin. :-D

Things I've Seen and Heard This Week

:: A motorcycle with two occupants coming out of Costco parking lot. The girl on back was clutching a cheesecake to her chest.

:: A car with the vanity license plate "I NAIL U"... Carpenter? Lawyer? Something worse?

:: A sign advertising you can declare bankruptcy for $275. Um, if I'm declaring bankruptcy I probably don't have money. So it's just ridiculous to CHARGE for me to file the papers letting people know I don't have money.

:: A mailbox shaped like a John Deere tractor.

:: A princess in a Cozy Coupe Car accidentally running over Batman and then proceeding to follow him around saying "Sorry" every 3 seconds. Except Batman doesn't notice Princess trying to apologize and carries on with his saving the world duties. And Princess gets very frustrated and then Teacher Chad has to come over and break up the fight between Princess and Batman.

:: A couple of young girls exclaiming how cool God is for "decorating" (read: creating) the world.

:: The maniacal laughter of two very, very tired boys who are so tired they've turned into giggling blobs of nonsense.

:: A 3 year old beat a 4 year old and 5 year old at the game Memory.

:: The screams and cries and total meltdown of frustration that a 3 year old can beat a 4 year old and 5 year old at the game Memory.

:: The sheer joy and satisfaction radiating from Christian's face that he managed to make his bed all by himself.

:: All my laundry go from huge piles around the hamper to washed, folded and neatly put away in the drawers.

:: My sister explaining that from now on she is pronouncing the word "pianist" like pee-an-ist because a DJ on a classical station says it that way and it sounds SO much better than the alternative.

:: The dust slowly losing the war in my house. HUZZAH! (Confused? See HERE.)

:: A lady cramming books and toddler totes into the skinny book return slots because she didn't want to take all the kids into the library. (This may or may not have been me.)

:: My boys running around the house wildly exclaiming in joy that "WILD CRAPS" is coming on. In reality, it's a new show on OPB called Wild Kratts.

:: Various combinations and complete overuse of the words/actions: poop, fart, poopy head, butthead, burp, poopy diaper stinky head, etc...

:: The sweet, sweet, glorious sight of my children sleeping peacefully in their beds.

My Kiddos, Part One: Kate Elizabeth

I've been pretty brain dead lately, so I've come up with a series to help me keep posting regularly that doesn't require me to come up with witty sayings or have a fun life to draw from for writing material. :-D

I'm gonna write about my kids. Shocking, I know. But it's gonna be fun, so you should stick around.

First, we start with a boy and girl who fell in love and got married.  They honeymooned in Hawaii.

Three months later, the girl was pregnant, with a little girl of her own.

Kate Elizabeth is my oldest child, a girl (obviously) and half tomboy half drama queen.

She was born on St. Patrick's Day! All the doctors and nurses (weird, I just spelled it nerses. Somebody help me.) said I should name her Erin or Ireland or something else Irish. But we'd had her name picked out for 20+ weeks, and Kate Elizabeth she was.

I was overdue, except I didn't know it because every time I went in the nurses told me a different due date.  So I never was quite certain when this child was supposed to be born.  I don't remember being uncomfortable at the end, just very sick.  I went out with two of my friends for Thai food to celebrate a birthday, and later that night contractions started.  I knew what they were right away.  They were low, cramping, sharp pains.  I timed them for a long while, took a bath and tried to get some rest.  In the morning, as the contractions continued, Josh and I decided to go walk around Target to see if they would get closer together.  But just walking outside to the car had me doubled over in pain so we decided to just head to the hospital.

When we got there I was checked in and found to be at 3cm.  I don't remember how effaced I was.  They admitted me and I started walking the halls.  During the contractions I would do deep knee bends/squats, in hopes of helping the baby descend.  It was excruciating, but I wanted to get my baby out!  I labored all day and by that evening I was exhausted.  I no longer walked the halls and did squats. I just laid in bed and tried to get through the contractions without crying.  My friend and sister were there with me, (and so was Josh, duh) but I just zoned out.  Around 11pm the doc came to check me and I was STILL only 3cm. :-O  I couldn't believe it.  I think I must have been effacing, but the doctor had a horrible bedside manner and basically just ripped his gloves off, curtly told me I was 3cm and left the room.

Up to this point I'd wanted to give birth without an epidural, but hearing that after 22 hours I was still only 3 was just too much.  I was tired, very tired.  So I got an epidural.  Not long after I felt tremendous pressure and the nurse came to check me and I was 8!  She said she thought that might happen; that I was too tense and stressed so my body wasn't working very efficiently.  Anyway, after just a bit longer it was time to push!

I required an episiotomy and without going into too much detail, let's just say it was quite substantial.  I will never forget hearing the scissors cut and cut and cut. Bleh. ::shudder::  In any case, after pushing for I don't know how long (I really can't remember) Miss Kate was born!!

She was a wee lass at only 6 pounds 15 ounces.  And it was love at first sight.

 

 (Look! Josh has hair!!)

She was so sweet and precious, the love of our life.  I was very sick with her when I was pregnant, had morning sickness the whole 9 months, only gained 12 pounds and had to quit working.  But she was worth it.  =)

I remember when she would wake up at night to nurse being SO EXCITED just to see her tiny face again.  

 

I had so much fun with her, dressing her up in all the cute baby girl clothes.  It took a while for us (as in, me and her) to realize she had her days and nights mixed up, but once we figured it out we were great.

 

When Kate was just 3 months old, I found out I was pregnant again.  I had a miscarriage, and then my body wanted to show off so I got pregnant AGAIN.  So quickly after the miscarriage that the doctor was convinced I just had leftover hormones.  Until she saw my HCG numbers.  Yup, I was pregnant.  Kate and Christian are only 14 months apart.

 

Look how young we are! Except, we aren't THAT young. I was 26 and Josh was 25. And I was about 6 months pregnant.

  

 

 

This beautiful girl with Kate is her cousin, Alexandria. 

 

 
 

Look how healthy she is, chowing down on that bag of carrots! :-P

 

Her first bike! Look at the sheer excitement on her face.

 

And this is about 20 seconds later.  Bikes can be dangerous. And scary.  Good thing she was wearing her helmet!

 

 

She lost her very first tooth! And the tooth fairy did remember to come.  For the record.

 

 

 

That's our beautiful Kate.  She's spunky, sassy, 5 going on 16 and we love her.  I just pray I get wisdom and grace to know how to raise her without crushing her spirit, but at the same time instilling SOME respect in the girl. ;-)

Part 2 to come soon... Christian Michael

 

Apparently, I let the pictures do the talking.  When I have more of a brain I'll elaborate on the kids' personalities and who they are as individuals.  For now, just enjoy the cute factor. :-D