Hospital Pictures

I have had my doubts as to whether I should post these pictures.  Each time I look at them, I can't help but smile.  My girls missed me.  They were a bit scared by their Mommy's stay in the hospital.  They can up to see me one evening.  We would learn later, they were well past visiting hours.  Oops.  They climbed in bed with me and we began the picture session.  Fun Girl even gave me a pedicure.  Such a bright spot to be able to look down at my toes.  I am so blessed to have these 2 for my daughters. 

Mueller State Park 2013

Day 2 of our vacation. 

We joined my sister and her daughters and grand-daughter and loaded up for Mueller State Park.

We didn't expect the elevation to have the effect it did on me. 

I ended up with a horrible "concussion" headaches. 

That is what I call them. 
Never have I had headaches like these till the accident.  They bring me to tears.

We stopped at a grocery store, bought some Ziploc baggies, so I could make ice packs.

I stayed with my grand-niece and her momma.

We had a great visit just the 3 of us, I settled in and relaxed. 

I listened to the trees and the wind.

I may even have dozed off a bit.

When we came home, Fun Girl had captured the best pictures and she shared them with me.

Makes my heart soar to see these cousins bond and enjoy their time together like they do.

 

Easter 2013 ~

We did Easter a bit different this year. 

Hubby and I talked to the Easter Bunny and asked for something a bit different~

Baskets! 

 

Normally, there is a chocolate bunny and jelly beans on the table for each kiddo..

 

The Easter Bunny always comes while we are at church.

 

Starting when we had just one wee one,

Easter Bunny would always leave spring/summer fun behind

instead of candy.

Sidewalk chalk

Bubbles

Water balloons

Pool toys

 

He decided to fill baskets/buckets for the kids.

He respected my desire for just a "little" candy.

 

Each bucket had favorite snacks...

Cheez-its,
Pringles,
personal favorite sweets
Oreos,

the required Chocolate Bunny,
a couple of the kiddos received sidewalk chalk tattoos,

and they all received
Water Balloons!


 

Now I know only 4 children are pictured. 

 And if you are a very observant aunt, this might bother you...

Hockey Player was not left out.

He was working at the church nursery this Sunday while we were at home getting ready

for the big day with Hubby's family. 

We picked him up and joined the family celebration and protected his bucket till we could

present it to him.

 

Fun Girl ~ Puzzle Master

On one of our weekly adventures, Fun Girl decides to take on the challenge.

 Now the picture below is the finished product.

But the instructions are just above the puzzle.

Scramble Squares

 

The Challenge:

 

So she didn't finish the puzzle in 5 minutes.
It took her 45 minutes with breaks here and there to quell the frustration building.

I joined her the last 5 minutes or so.

She had an awesome understanding of the puzzle and what needed to be accomplished to finish it off.

In that last 5 minutes, she did it! 

I have tried this puzzle and never did reach the level of understanding she had to accomplish her goal.

Awesome ~ ness !!!

 



 



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Cooking Lessons and Trades

I have been out of commission for almost 2 months now.  Though to be honest I have not done a whole lot of cooking for over a year now.  Thanks to hubby's job and the shifts he works....well I tend to teach school and work on any number of things around here (at least till the car accident) and someone else takes on the job of food prep.  One of the tasks that would normally fall on me, but can be delegated else where.  I had to let go of somethings, and well I was comfortable with this one.  I prayed for husband that could cook.  I got one!  I also got a husband that has the patience of saint in the kitchen and he doesn't get flustered by kids and he teaches them well.  Lately, my older two are proficient in the kitchen and I teach by giving them verbal instructions or an older shows a younger. 

This particular day we needed a chicken cooked.  Fun Girl just grosses out over whole chickens.  I do remember being a teenager girl and freaking out about them as well.  Except, my dad wanted me to chop it up and fry it.  That went over like a ton of bricks much to my Dad's frustration.  My kids have it easy.  Just rinse the bird out, make sure nothing is inside, put it in the cookware.

Well the commotion in the kitchen was absolutely crazy.  Fun Girl is offering to clean the kitchen.  (She despises this chore, only slightly less than laundry!)  Will Hockey Player please prep the chicken??  He doesn't know how.  Fun Girl offers to tell him what to do, standing over his shoulder she gives instructions.  Little Princess runs for my phone to take pictures.  There were like 20 plus pictures on my phone when all was done and over. 

 

Dinner was perfect!

Sibling Sweetness Melts My Heart

One particular day, I entered my living room on two different occassions.  I found THE MAN with his sister(s). 
1065.   School for her + WebKinz for him

1066.  Itouch game together.

Out of the running for Mother of the Year!

Super Bowl Sunday, I lost any chance of winning the title. 
I went from being aghast and shocked and laughing out of pure shock to grieved and shedding a few tears. 
Again with the whole head injury thing.   I am beyond being able to make decisions. I defer all decisions to hubby. 

Fun Girl asked to have friends over for Super Bowl.  I didn't grasp all the details till the day before and day of...10+ girls invited!  It was all on Fun Girl to do what needed to be done.  The guys went to my in-laws.  Well, all except Hockey Player.  I took him to hang with the 7/8th graders from church.  Little Princess stayed with us at the house and had her own friends over.

Somewhere along the way, I understood the game ended at 9.  Hubby would be home and pick up Hockey Player and all would be good.  I can't keep up with departure times and such to get Fun Girl to work on time much less navigate all the stuff that gets thrown at me during the day.  I have turned into a one thing a day kind of gal.  Get to thinking about too many things, my head hurts, I get tired, I get really tired. 

So back to the party.  My job besides chaperone, is to work on my clutter mess while every one is doing their thing.  I do my job well.  I reduce my mountain by about half.  A beautiful aesthetic improvement to the room.  Hubby comes home. Do you notice?? Do you notice???  Compliments. Winding down.  Chidlren sent to bed.  I am thinking I might just go to bed and how sleepy I am starting to get.  Then the hubby asks me, "Where's Hockey Player?" 

I don't know.  Hubby looks at me really hard. 

Talking about an hour and a half after Hockey Player's party ended.  The kid didn't even call me.  Hubby looked like he was going to blow out of frustration.  He needed sleep.  He needed to go to work.  Called the parents hosting....I made record time to the house.  Stuttered and stammered and slurred through my apologies...

Why didn't HOckey Player call?  Well, one of his friends had just left 30 minutes prior.  He knew we would come.  Just figured we had to wait till all the kids had left our house.  The parents...well they knew what Super Bowl night can be like with a bunch of kids that can't drive.  Figured we were up to our eyeballs in the chauffeur business.    Nope, just brain damaged and forgot one.  I am so glad I had not climbed under the covers yet.  The only thing that could make this story worse. 

Hockey Player totally unphased.  He didn't even remember this was the second time Dad and I had miscommunicated and left him waiting.  He really is too quiet of a kid... he needs to become more of a pest and NOISY...  I feel like pond scum.  I love that boy way to much to forget him.  I am glad I didn't wake to a phone call wondering if all was okay and if we wanted our son back ?!?

Shopping with Grandmama!

Counting the joy still....
I love this photo from January.... Mom's eyes are smiling.  She has her Pepsi.  And she is in a store all at the same time.  Anyone who knows her, knows she hates to shop or go to the mall.  So standing in the mall with this beautiful smile and look of joy is the only indication of her memory slipping! 

1061.

 

1062.  Discovering the trick to shopping with Dad's Bud. Provide him with 3 way mirrors and he is entertained !  LOVE IT! 

 



1063.  Playing dress up and modeling for Grandmama..a  fun favorite!  Beautiful!

Another Fun Girl Quoteable!

Because Fun Girl would not expect me to do it, I am posting this!

Under the influence of end of day fatigue and post-concussion syndrome

and the inability to argue and defend myself.

My girls and my friend put this on my head!

They found it in the back of the store at Kirklands.

Then Fun Girl texted out the picture with the following quote,

"The devil wears discount Prada"

 



Awesome-ness! Fun Girl Quoteables!

I love my Fun Girl! 
I am not looking forward to graduation in a year.
I am not looking forward to the day when she spreads her wings and leaves the nest.
I like her company. 
She brings a smile to my face.

I love this plate of food! 

Swimming makes her sooooo hungry. 

She is like her momma and likes her sweets.

So she sat down at this potluck dinner and announced...
"this will be 2 swim practices!" 

Love it! 

Love that she is willing to count the swim practices....

cause I should and don't.  

 

 

oh yeah...that is yumminess at its best. 

Alternatives to stubborness!

Monday was my first day back in the saddle.  Suprisingly, I met the morning without any dread.  I asked hubby for last week off from normal duties.  Often times I do that and then push through and do stuff anyways.  Last week, that wasn't happening God and my body pretty much made me rest.  I didn't get much done other than what was on the calendar appointment wise.  There are big decisions coming, but first the discussing needs to happen and the prayer.  For now, I just put one foot in front of the other...after my prayer filled shower.  I don't know why it is, but my prayer closet is the shower.  The only time these days I pretty much can't be disturbed.  Alone in the warm shower, I am able to be quiet and seek the Lord about my day, my thoughts are sorted and I have direction.  And Lord Help Us, if my shower gets delayed!  Today, was one of those days, but it worked.  It worked for the best because I had a chance to meet the disagreeables and argumentatives first and I knew what the battle was before me for the day...and because I wasn't going to argue, I assigned a chore or two and headed to the shower before I became grumpy. 

The battle:  Whether learning how to make a map was important?  Whether maps were important at all?  Why should I have to do it again, when I already did it and I did the best I could the first time?
AIY!  Somewhere in there I heard a voice speak about technology and SIRI and GPS and I honestly don't know if it was the sarcastic inner me talking or it was one of the kids.   But AIY!   First I addressed redoing the assignment issue....We do our best and sometimes we learn our error and retry because we know our best is now not the best we can do, because we can easily redo and fix our mistake.  In otherwords practice and practice may not make perfect, but it makes better and leading to our best.  SO NOT THE ANSWER someone wanted! 

And to the shower I go.... and since the morning was almost gone, I exit the shower with a plan and instructions for all children to be ready to go in 10 minutes.  Yep, I am so able to pull that off these days. 

My plan: The children will navigate me to Big Sis's job where we will drop her off.  Then they will navigate me to McDonald's and then to the Zoo.  Fun Girl freaks!  Convinced we will be late.  And the extra 15 minutes of drive time I have allotted will not be enough.  Silly girl.  The did great and we arrived with minutes to spare. 

THE MAN begged for a turn, and so it was granted.  He had to direct me to the nearest McDonald's.  He is 7.  Not one sibling had an ounce of faith that he could do it.  But I had listened to him in the car and he was amazing.  He has an awesome sense of direction.  To everyone's delight we arrived in good time and there was food to quiet the natives.  Not the best of food, but food nonetheless...I was doing this on zero prep time, but on totally on God's clock!

The next task...navigate me to the zoo!  THE MAN jumps on this one and quickly starts telling me which way to turn.  None of the others dared to try.  He was awesome, directing me the whole way with affirmation from Hockey Player! 

At the Zoo:  Child 4 picks an animal to visit..Child 5 navigates the way using the map.  Then Child 3 picks an animal and Child 4 navigates the way but including a bathroom stop along the way.  Child 2 and 3 the next and so forth.  We had to modify the plan along the way as I started to fatigue near the end.  The point, to learn to read a map and appreciate a legend and compass rose.

 

Success!
As the momma was getting droopy she saw the lying lions and wanted to join them.

 

Shortly after getting home and trying to work on seat work
these cubs were down for the count!

and this one found a sunny spot.