Camo Tabby

Lots of fun this weekend. The kids had some pretty good days of expressing themselves. We watched movies, we danced, we sang, we argued, we bossed, we hugged and kissed.
We visited both sets of grandparents.

Matthew has devised a wonderful laundry schedule for us all, with the kids in charge of their own hampers and putting their clean clothes away when given back.
Today we discovered Tabby was not putting away her clothes, but piling the dirty clothes on top of them in the hamper. So, not knowing which was which we had to launder most of her wardrobe. As a consequence, she had to wear her brother's clothes out today. She told me before we left, "I am supposed to be cute!"
In the bathroom at Moe's I told her before washing her hands to "roll up your sleeves", and she immediately protested, "they're not MY sleeves! I'll roll up Jacob's sleeves!" Oh, it was a funny day. I think she will keep her clothes more organized now. :-)

Sweet Dreams

Slowing Down

So GLAD the weekend is here!

I took back the no-bark system and bought Aggie her 3rd harness (she's chewed up two)and a new litter box for the cats. It's the little things that make me feel well accomplished.
Matthew had Friday off from work and met me near the mall after work with the kiddos. We had a fun dinner at Dairy Queen, with Tabby mentioning that the next day she wanted to get the pool out. Ha! It's a fun world she lives in. :-)

Today, Saturday, we are spending watching movies, drawing, and goofing off. Much needed.

Space Shuttle

Today we remember the crew of the Space Shuttle Challenger.
I was only 5 at the time, but I do remember seeing the images on the news played over and over of the explosion/breakup.
We had one of those hideous console table TV sets, I just remember sitting and watching it. So sad.

Dancin'.... yeahhhh

There seems to be a lot of dancing going around in the house lately. The kiddos are in a way better mood overall than last week. Their favorite movie is Despicable Me, and they know the dance moves and songs, and darn near most of the words. They amaze me!
Jacob was ASP kid of the month! Tabby got it last year so she couldn't complain too much. He was given a bag full of goodies and treats and we let him take it to his room and eat all the snacks at his discretion. He was very generous and shared with Tabby. They are exceptionally good at including one another in things like that.
Poor Jacob though, with his oh-so literal mind was given a pack of starburst candy with a prize promotion on the packaging. He read it "find the golden starburst, win up to 10,000 dollars" and his mind fixated on it.
He came into the living room all wide-eyed and told us about it, claiming Tabby had won because she found it! Except she just had a regular old yellow lemon one. Once we explained that he would not win, that he had not gotten the winning starburst, he went back into his room. He came out another time saying the same thing, holding the package asking if the 'gold on the package' would match 'the gold on the starburst'. He was worrying about it WAY too much. I told him to throw the package wrapper away, and he was so dismayed. He really wanted to hold onto the wrapper and read it. That's just the way his mind operates. If he finds it interesting he wants to keep it forever. Tags from clothes, toy packaging, etc.
In keeping with the dancing theme this week we were sitting in line to drop them off at school today, in the 6:50 a.m. dark, with one other car infront of us and had the interior lights on and the kids were standing up dancing and rocking the van. They make me laugh, and they made the car infront of us laugh too!

The Truth Hurts

Our Wednesday was pretty normal. I did a little grocery shopping and a little homework supervision.
In second grade they're still doing the 'color' conduct charts. Jacob's is in the back sleeve of his homework folder. The teacher trusts them to color their circle in on the calendar themselves. You see where I'm going with this, right?
So, everyday after school the kids immediately tell me "Purple!". With Tabby I was 100% she was towing the line and giving her all to please her teacher.
With Jacob we kept being impressed and proud that he was doing so well in class, a testament to his ADHD medicine and motivation to please his teacher.
So, yesterday I have a note scrawled along the top of the conduct calendar informing me that 'Jacob has been giving himself 'purple' when he has not been getting it. The colors he has gotten were not bad". She had handwritten over his calendar the correct colors which were not BAD, in fact 'blue' and 'green' are perfectly acceptable. But the little angel had decided (months ago) to just give himself the highest color code.. and then proceeded to seek out praise by mentioning it when I picked him up everyday.
I'm torn on this one, because I know that it is good that he is motivated to earn our praise, even if it is bad to cheat and manipulate to get it. Sigh.

Just Pics From Today

2 Down

Jacob has been so excited that his second lower tooth was coming loose. He was always wanting us to look at it. But when it came time to eat, he just wasn't eating his food. It hurt him and he was scared to eat anything he couldn't bite off using his 'side' teeth. So, finally last night after chowing on pancakes at IHOP he relented and let Matthew pull it. It was so ready to come out I think the experience was a little icky for both of them, but, being boys they 'took care of it'. He looks super cute with no bottom front teeth, and I will post pics later today.
He is a huge night-sweater. He can literally go to sleep in the pullups only and still wake up in a Jacob-sized wet spot on his sheets and pillow. ick.I steamed his mattress and Matthew washed his sheets and pillows, so he got to sleep in Tabby's room last night.
Not having the best results from the primary sleeping medicine, I chose last night to try the secondary. I took one primary and one secondary at the same time. I slept so good I don't think I woke up once. In fact, I'm sure of it because of what we found this morning...
Our dear, sweet, lovable, and quite crazy dog has been giving us a fit over being in her crate. We blame Christmas break for ruining her routine. We bought a pretty pricey no-bark system that didn't work, and I just refuse to put a shock collar on a dog for barking. So, we've been letting her 'bark it out' at night before we can go to sleep.
Last night we heard a loud crash, but we both commented how she must have knocked down the empty garbage can that was on top of her crate.
This morning I'm woke up by Aggie jumping on the bed and laying her huge self against me. Matthew said he woke up and opened the door to go change over the laundry and there she was, laying on the couch. The sound we heard was the entire back wall of her jumbo metal crate falling off. and that was right as we were going to sleep! She spent all night out. And no messes, just a devoured cat food bowl and a pencil and McDonald's toy chewed on from Jacob's room.
Matthew fixed her crate this morning and she protested, again. She is over a year old now and I think she is trying to show us how big she is.. and 'how fair is it that the cats get to roam around all day and night?' LOL
;/

High Hopes, and Failings

This weekend was salvageable. We were a little worried about how much family time we would have since I was working Saturday and Matthew was working on Sunday.
I ended up forgetting my medicine, and having forgotten it the previous day also, decided to leave work and run home for it.
Once I arrived home, the kids were up and excited to see me. I decided to give up the overtime and grab everyone up, throw them in the van, and set off to Atlanta. We went to IKEA, and in true family tradition, drove around for an hour trying to find a place to eat we could agree on.
On the drive home we stopped into Cracker Barrel for dinner. While there we had episode #456 of Jacob not waiting to get to the toilet for his #2. It was awful, traumatic, and I should have expected it.
He was doing so well there for a few weeks we had taken him off the pull-ups and had bought all new undies for him. But unfortunately just when we had the hopes it was behind us...
So, now he is back on the pull-ups. Come to find out it wasn't his first accident in the last few days, which is a whole other rant. Anyway, it was just a big disappointment. So, according to our book, we had him get his soiled undies and handwash them. I think he disliked that enough.
So, on Sunday we travelled up the mountain and took Matthew some lunch at work. It was nice.
We went to the Mexican place for dinner. It was nice and deserted, and they had a big flatscreen on the wall with a movie on it. At the end of our dinner the movie we were semi-watching went off and this movie came on.
Woah. The deserted restaurant meant we could hear the TV from across the room, and the captioning meant we could read along. Turned out this movie had about 20+ "F" words in the first ten minutes. Ick.
We were eager to get our check and get out the door!
Normal Sunday evening with Jacob having a meltdown and going to sleep crying. His behavior was consistently bad this weekend, but we also were sensitive to the fact that his anti-depressant is probably in full force by now.
He was crying so bad tonight, it was really heartbreaking. I went in to hug him and talk to him and he said how he was going to change his behavior and I was pleased with him taking the initiative to say that without any prompting. That was a big deal. Just having him say that was a breakthrough.
So, we all went to bed. Even me, who never goes to sleep when everyone else does. Twenty minutes later I was back up with a backache and decided to get up and walk around.
Jacob had his light on and was playing in his floor. Literally 20 minutes after him promising to try harder to behave better. ugh. Par for the course, I'm afraid. When I opened the door he just looked at me, surprised. No remorse, no trying to reason with me, no anything... so apparently the breakthrough we had managed to backfire somehow. It is so frustrating!

9 volts of embarrassment

What is this? A $7.99 9 volt bought last night to accompany the No-Bark System.
Upon getting back to the car Matthew laughs hysterically and we go across the parking lot to Lowe's where I bought 8 9v batteries for $11.
Took the overpriced one back.
I didn't know a 9v is a 9v.. and I'm guessing that's what this particular company is banking on.
It's alright though, I was using a giftcard I was given BY SAME COMPANY because I tested their outdoor bark unit... funny!
Total embarrassment!
=/

Surveys on the Brain

Had the opportunity to touch base with the surveying company. It has been two weeks (tomorrow) since we had the hoopla go down and the cops called out.
So this is what I know.
Our neighborhood was originally deeded in the 1910's. Then they widened the road that makes a 'T' on ours in the 1950's.
So, some properties were marked from the 1950's and didn't take into account the widened road, and were wrong.

Basically, the neighbors fell into that category and their markers are wrong. Funnily enough, the surveyor asked if they had added on to their house. About 2 years ago a tree fell on top of their house and they did add on during the reconstruction, and ended up angling themselves even closer to us!

He also said the woman got entirely hateful with him when she called to dispute, and he told her they should have shown his guys their markers when they were there the first time!

Ugh. we will have it resolved in a few days.

For the Love of Other Drugs

I tried my new nighttime prescription last night. I waited to get tired, and when I did feel like I could lay down without hurting enough to keep me awake.. the dog began whining and barking. It was unusual.
Normally Aggie and I maintain an evening routine where everyone else goes to bed and we lay on the couch and watch TV, blog, or play Scrabble on the Ipod. She is my buddy, laying next to me, relaxing, and passing gas, haha.
So last night was normal. Everyone went to bed, I stayed up with the dog waiting on the pills to hit me. When it was time to put her in her crate she went willingly.
I'm not sure what happened from that point. I was in bed 20 minuted fighting off sleep because she kept yelping. Finally I got up, put her harness on her and let her out on the chain in the front yard. She came back asking to get in, and I went to bed again. Didn't help the situation.
She continued to whimper and whine/bark for another 20 minutes. By that time it was WAY past the time where I could take the secondary sleep prescription, so I did my best to go to sleep when she finally stopped.
I cannot wait until we get that fence. I am too afraid to take her out on my own right now, and she just doesn't get wore out from chasing her squeak toy in the house.

My Way

After this morning's madness of getting back into the routine of school I was happy to go to work, believe it or not.
Unfortunately I had a 7 hour meeting and forgot to call my Mom and congratulate her on her 38th wedding anniversary. Ugh.
After getting off work I had Matthew and the kids meet me at my favorite spot, Firehouse Subs. I only get to eat there maybe twice a year, but I do love it!

Tooth Fairy teaches humility

Yesterday was a trip! I was at work when my sister calls to ask me where the fire extinguisher was... she had put the pizza in the oven on a plastic cutting board instead of a silicone baking sheet. Hilarity ensued.
My visit with the neuropsychiatrist went well. I have 2 new prescriptions as well as upping my dosage on another. I am optimistic that we will find something that works to allow me to relieve the tension I carry around and prevents me from sleeping at night.
So, while with their aunt Stefanie, Jacob lost his FIRST TOOTH while eating a McDonald's hamburger! A very BIG DEAL.
He has known for a few days that it would be coming out, and had made numerous statements that the Tooth Fairy would bring him anywhere from $40-$60 bucks. Yeah, that's Jacob.. with his super-high expectations. We kept telling him how the Tooth Fairy doesn't give that much, but I'm sure he discounted us altogether.
So, when I put $2 in his pillowcase I wasn't being extravagant, nor was I giving a few quarters, which i imagine would be a fair payment for a tooth.
He wakes up this morning and complains that the Tooth Fairy did NOT take his tooth. I told him they wanted us to keep it, because it was important, but to check his pillowcase.
He exclaimed, " I only got $2!"
Sigh.
He was super upset, so guess what.. he had to give his Dad the money and he ended up with ... $0. It upsets me because this is the child who lights up over finding a penny in the house, or getting a quarter for the gumball machine. Suddenly an ingrate. ;-[

MLK Day.. at work

Ah, the sweet smell of overtime.

Sunday I caught up on much needed rest. Matthew took us out to lunch to Texas Roadhouse, then to a little shopping for sunglasses.
Although I love getting out with my family, I was happy to be back home. I was just exhausted.
My parents and nephew came up and spent some really good quality time with the kiddos and I watched the Golden Globes.
We let Jacob sleep on Tabitha's bunk bed thinking my nephew and sister would be staying overnight, but they ended up going home for the night.
Everyone seemed to like my butter-pecan-applesauce-molasses cake. I'm grateful, because most things I try do pretty badly.
Saturday night when I was playing in Jacob's room we found a juicebox hidden under his bed. Last night I found an apple.
It is times like this I have to remind myself that he has only had one real session with the new Dr. and I can't expect overnight (pun intended) results. It is just beyond my comprehension that as smart as he is, he doesn't change the behaviors that he gets into trouble from.
Which is why I am still picking up the book and getting reassurances that it: 1.) Could be A LOT worse, and 2.) Isn't the end of the world.
I also had thought the 'nighttime' pills were going to keep him asleep, only to find out the second night he took them he woke my sister up numerous times asking for food. My guess is he had attempted to steal food from the kitchen but thought twice to wake her up since she was on the couch sleeping near the kitchen doorway.
Then when I asked him Saturday how he had slept, he said he slept the entire night. Ugh.
It used to be the 'no response and no remorse' attitude from him that made me angry, now I sort of get that.. but now I'm having a hard time with the 'I know you'll find out but still do it' mentality.
We feel like we are having to deal with the same rules getting broken each day.
And then there's Tabitha, the charmer. She see's his negative attention and immediately turns on her 'baby talk' and 'I love you's and 'didn't I do good's. So, while her behavior is obviously manipulative of the situation and completely irritating.. the only real thing we can correct is the baby-talking. If she is talking and I say, 'stop the baby talk' then she will go back to sounding like a 6 year old. It is really wild.
So, with both kids on the bunkbed, I put the baby gate up right outside the closed door, hoping to stop Jacob getting up and roaming the house for food and electronics to play around with. He did have to ask one time around 2 a.m. to go to the bathroom, and I lifted him over the gate and back over afterwards. Silly, right? But I am confident that he was so surprised by the gate being there that he didn't venture climbing over it to go on his midnight scavenger hunt.

So, today is MLK day, my sister has my kiddos, and I have a 3:00 with my own psychiatriast. Having first visit nervousness, but I feel like I need help with my own things going on, in addition to being able to be a better parent to RAD kids.

Snow, leaving fast!

Saturday at WORK?!

Thank goodness for some things; answered prayers, and overtime offered when you've missed the entire regular workweek!
So, I gladly got myself up and ready and for once in the week got to leave the house by myself! I met my coworker (the one who was cussed out by my next door neighbors) at Waffle House, and we got caught up on the drama of my fence-saga.
Work was good, I had time to clean out my desk and purge files and get rid of things in order to start 2011 off right.
I brought tacos home for dinner tonight and the kids were thrilled. They had a great time with their Dad today, getting to go outside and make a mini snowman and throw snowballs.
I was happy today when I was cleaning out my desk and found the post-it my coworker had left on my computer monitor last March. It was the message to call the person at DFCS who then told me we were 'go' for adoption. I kept it because I had jotted down a few things on it while I was talking to her.. and I loved finding it today. It was a good day to remember something so huge that happened to our family.

RAD book

I cannot tell you how valuable this book has been in shaping our new parenting approach to not only Jacob, but Tabitha as well. Everytime I re-read a section I have more understanding. It is a great tool for us RAD-kid parents.
nancythomasparenting.com

Imported old blog

so now all my blogs are merged to this one, fancy shmancy!

Friday

Day 5 of our workweek / schoolweek spent inside. In each other's company we are trying our best to not get on each other's nerves. The rules are still there, but we are in a lighter mood. :-P
For lunch I made peanut butter, grape jelly, and honeynut cheerios sandwiches. What a hit!
We watched Despicable Me and now they are both doing separate things. Tabby is enjoying Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Jacob is in his room 'practicing' Sorry Sliders.
We all four sat on the living room floor and played Sorry Sliders last night. It is a really fun game, and Jacob is the family cheater. Haha. Each family needs one super competitive, out-for-blood type of gamer.. and he is ours.
Today he began his new dosage of his ADHD medicine as well as the antidepressant. He took two pills at once and exclaimed at how awesome he was! Pretty impressive I must say, since he is kind of tiny. Poor Matthew is 31 and can't manage a tylenol. :-}
what I'm really ready to see about is the sleepy-time medicine. When they moved in with us he was on this prescription, one a night. Now the Dr. is asking we give him 1/2 at 'after school' time, then 1 & 1/2 30 minutes before bedtime. If I can get him well rested his nighttime misbehavior will go away. Cross your fingers!

This afternoon

A New Hope

Went to the new doctors for Jacob today. The first appointment was for the medical doctor. We discussed his issues and she prescribed an anti-depressant, a sleep aid, and beefed up his adhd meds. Tomorrow we will begin the new medicine routine.
I was so proud of Jacob. He spoke up and answered all of the doctors questions, even the tough ones, and only had to look over to me twice. He told her how he was having problems with stealing and sneaking, and not sleeping, and going to the potty on himself.They had a good discussion and I only had to answer a few questions about his medicine from the last 2 years.
Then we met Matthew for dinner at Arby's then onto the health center again for his psychiatrist appointment. It was short, he talked to Jacob about rules. They also had a good discussion with only minimal input from me about the past week. Jacob really seemed to respond.
I am having hope that this might be the right choice for us. Although the health center is kind of scary. We were sitting in the waiting room and one man came in all wobbly legged and said he couldn't find his jacket. There were about five people in the waiting room and one lady pointed to a jacket on an empty chair and he walked over to it and declared that "he wasn't sure if it was his or not". yeah. community health clinics can be harrowing.
;-]

Thursday

Made lunch, gave the kids bubble baths which was a BIG DEAL for them..and just getting ready to tackle the floors :+]

.. and day 4

Thursday and Friday were called yesterday afternoon, so day 4 home again. At this rate it will definitely be Tuesday before I see my coworkers. At this point, it's almost depressing.
Don't get me wrong, all the quality time with the kids is awesome, but there is just a melancholy that comes from the same old routine. Last night the kids actually went to bed at separate bedtimes, which was fun. Jacob got tired out around 10 and then Tabby and I stayed up watching Storage Wars. I held her in my arms and combed her hair with my fingers and just stared down at the most precious girl I know. I love those tender moments. Unfortunately I have more of those tender moments when I only have one child with me, since they are so competitive with attention and affection.
This afternoon we have Jacob's appointments with his new psychiatrist and his new M.D. I am so ready to get going on a therapy treatment plan. I feel like we've been through the ringer. :-]
I'm hoping since the courthouse is finally open today that the surveyors will get what they need to get done and be able to finalize their lines. The legal letter that needs to be sent is really important. I just don't want to have anymore verbal communications with them.

Dinner helper

Fettuccine and white sauce, chicken, rolls.. and a cute little chef. Yummy!

Time for the treadmill to come out again

diet started in earnest today. Last year I lost nearly 40 pounds and now I've gained most of it back from being lax with the food. So, today I am starting a no junkfood diet. Minimal soda (diet) and more water.
Nothing like being in loungewear / pajamas for three days straight to make you feel lumpy and fat.
Matthew went in to work at 5, but was home at 2, so we are happy for that. He is wanting to go to the mall, and I don't blame him. Even though he's gotten to go to work, I feel like I need to walk! I was on the recumbent bike several times today, but it isn't walking. Small houses do feel claustrophobic after a few days, and it looks like I wont get to go back to work until Tuesday since Monday is a holiday.
So, Matthew's promised to pull down the treadmill we had standing up to make room for the Christmas tree. Since I've been staying up until 1 or 2 in the morning I can imagine myself walking late tonight and tomorrow... have to have something to do for myself. Building forts with the kiddos, reading books, fixing meals, playing outside, letting the dog in and out.. I need some me time :-) !

More shots from day 3 of snow!

Snowed in day 3

Glad I got out yesterday when I did. Although not entirely safe on the back roads, the main roads were clearly travel-able. Today however, everything is frozen. I feel bad for Matthew who had to leave the house at nearly 4 a.m. for work! Insane.
The news says black ice everywhere, even our yard has a quarter inch of ice like concrete sealing in the snow. Jacob tried to go out and play and nearly fell down the entire length of our yard.
So, here we are; no school, no work for me.. and thankful the kids still have medicine. :-]

We made it.. sort of.

Well, the snow is still here, making the side roads out horrible, but I needed to get to the Dr. today.
So, I bundled up the kids and packed Tabby's DVD player and Jacob's copy of Pinocchio, some books, and headed out.
I would not have made it down the driveway had it not been for Matthew leaving at the same time and helping out. He taught me the van has the ability to switch to a manual transmission for the lower gears.. and boy, did I need them.
Ice scares me, hard-packed snow scares me... a diminishing paycheck scares me.
The kids needed to go back to school a week and a half ago. Even with their medicine they are craving the routine, although not craving their peers so much. Tabby did bump into a fellow 1st grader at the store and gave him a hug.. but I think that after almost 4 weeks of being out of school she would have latched on to anything related to school. They ask why they aren't going to school. To them, we live only a few short roads away.. they don't understand about school closures.
Today at the Dr. they were really great, although shy. It was odd to me to have them there, since not even Matthew has ever accompanied me to this Dr. and I've seen him for over a year.
My shoulder feels better, and my back. All of this business with the snow, taking care of the kids and missing work.. it takes a toll.
I phoned the surveyor this morning to let him know I would be out until a certain time and to warn him the neighbors have strung a line on their assumed property line. I didn't want him thinking we had done it. He informed us they would probably not be out today, since they are going to go do more research at the county courthouse before confirming their lines. Wow, what a mess this has turned out to be.
When we came home from Bi-Lo and the Dr. I was able to steer into the driveway and up into my normal space carefully but easily. The kiddos and I had ravioli for lunch and I made hamburger helper for dinner. Short quick meals requiring minimal effort, but I was exhausted for some reason. being cooped up like this is wearing. I did some laundry and other chores, but still found myself taking a nap with the kids.
Jacob had a bad day, and coming off a previous bad day makes it worse. He had acted up in Bi-Lo and had nearly fell into oncoming lane traffic int he parking lot by goofing off, so when we arrived home I asked him to lay down in his bed while I made lunch.
When I went to go let him out, he had the spray bottle of carpet cleaner and had soaked his wall, mini trampoline, and the carpet was saturated. Mistakenly, I had left it in there yesterday after doing a spot cleaning and had intended to do another round but had forgotten... imagine that.
So, once again my immature 7 1/2 year old proves to me I have to be better at thinking a few steps ahead. The room was a cloud of cleaning chemical smell, so I made him stay beside me for the next 4 hours or so. He was not happy with it, but I wasn't sure what else to do. The air was so thick in his room I almost fainted, it is a wonder he didn't really hurt himself.
He was doing better for a week, but now I feel like we are back on this down slope. There is nothing more infuriating than trying to tell someone that something they did was very dangerous and having them stare off into space and ignore you. Ah, I have so much to learn. Tomorrow I'm finishing the book Matthew and I have been studying on Reactive Attachment Disorder.
Thursday is Jacob's second appointment with his new psychiatrist. This will be his first full-fledged session. I am really putting a lot of hope in finding some sort of meeting ground that will resolve his behaviors and still satisfy our ability to parent and keep him safe.
Tomorrow we will have yet another day of no getting out. Hopefully the kids will want to go make more snow angels. :-)

Snow Tabby

Well, I went to get the kiddos bundled up for the snow.. only to find Jacob had hidden more soiled undies... I say "hide" loosely, since they were right there in his underwear drawer. So, for the first trip out into the snow for fun, he had to watch from his window. I will be getting into this later, but the Reactive Attachment Disorder is really bearing down on our family right now. I feel confused about being a parent, trying to figure out what Jacob needs to be functional. But, we will get into that later.
Matthew called and is going to try and make it home now. I think he will make it through town fine, but may have to park at the middle school and walk up the road. I wish he wasn't coming, actually.. I would not dare get out in this.
So, Tabitha went out in the snow and had tons of fun, even if by herself with just me. She made snow angels all over, tried to pack snowballs.. but this snow is just too fresh. She enjoyed running around in it and knocking it off the magnolia tree. Here are some pictures:

Snowed in, and loving it!

I'm sure to have some fun photos to post soon, when the kiddos decide to wake up and find new and creative ways to pummel each other with snowballs.
Right now I am up by myself, well, and the animals. I finally went to sleep around 2 a.m. then probably had an hour or so of trying to fall asleep. It was fine, I didn't spaz out or get scared, I was more concerned with the power possibly going out. Now that would have freaked me out, although I think I could have kept my composure if the kids were awake.
So, I slept 5 hours and woke up to much more snow.
Matthew will be on the mountain shovelling snow for the foreseeable future.
I am glad we have power and Internet.
I think today will definitely be a board game kind of day :-)

That darned tooth

While we were at Lowe's today with Matthew's parents, I happened to see Jacob's teeth at a strange angle and noticed his new tooth coming in! In fact, after reviewing the photos, the other one is erupting too. This is great, a big deal, tooth fairies and monetery rewards and all that. Except I hate all things having to do with teeth. Ok, so I own a Dental Anthropology textbook, admittedly, but it's one thing to read about them.. and another to have to deal with them in a mouth.
Probably because I have not the best teeth in the world. I have a great bite and alignment, but weak teeth. My sister, however, got genetically impermeable teeth that may be completely out of alignment, but have yet to get even a cavity. Sigh.
Then there is the issue with the kids and their teeth grinding. It sends shivers down my spine and makes me cringe. The entire vacation in October I slept with earplugs inserted in my ears so that I would not have to listen to their (mainly Tabitha) grinding of their teeth. I liken it to a sound one might make when chewing on gravel. Loud, horrible, and unnatural. I am getting freaked out just recalling it. And also this week I had the pleasure of a root canal and a subsequent appointment with the oral surgeon for an extraction. yippee.
So, when we got home I looked at this tooth, with motherly care, and tried to rock it, wiggle it, etc. Thankfully it wasn't budging.... because I need a few days or weeks of mental preparations. I may be more traumatised that the kiddos.

A few weeks late...

It had been over a year since I stopped blogging on our old blog. Having the addition of kids in our lives just took all of my energy and free time to type on the computer. Imagine that.
Well, I am determined to start one up again, because I enjoy it.
Last year was enormously great. We adopted Jacob and Tabitha and strengthened our family.
Currently we are eagerly awaiting the tax refund that will bring (among other things I intend to blog) a much needed fence to keep the crazies out of our yard. Yeah, the neighbors are scary.
So, today is Sunday, the 9th. The intended last day of the kiddos 3 week Christmas break, but now we are all getting at least one snow day. It just started a half hour ago and already over an inch on our little porch. Wow.
Unfortunately, Matthew got called in to work overnight.. so he might get stuck up there for a few days.
I am praying the power doesn't go out because I am a big chicken, and get nervous at nighttime anyway.
It is after midnight and I am on my way to try and get some rest, if possible. Will type again tomorrow.